‘The Coming War: Sinn Fein & The European Union’ by Donal Lavery

What I’m writing here I have to tell you is not to imply panic but rather caution; I write as a patriot first; a citizen second and as a voter third. Someone who simply wishes to plant seeds and see them blossom into ideas burning in the minds of other men and women who care about this country. I write as an Irishman primarily, and as a European. I do not doubt that people have real concerns about the impact they fear Brexit may have, the EU has done some good things to the benefit of this country and its people. But past all the gloom over the cost of leaving the EU, has anyone seriously weighed up the cost of remaining within it? What it means for the ordinary man and woman?

Now there is merit in an Irish Republican movement hoping that European integration will bring about the harmony of two states on the island they inhabit. For both traditions belong to the European family, after all. There’s nothing wrong with cooperating with other countries on the continent on matters of grave importance. But let’s be clear on the terminology; “Integration” as it is used by pro-EU ideologues actually means the surrendering of democracy and national sovereignty over to people we don’t elect and cannot remove, in the hope that this will bring about long-term “prosperity” (for who exactly?). Being against the EU has nothing to do with not being European; we were European before the EEC came into existence; I speak more European languages than the fanatics so in love with it. And being in favour of nation-state democracy does not make you a racist or hater of immigrants. Those are facts readily muddied by liberal elites that parasite off of the Brussel’s bureaucracy and the life’s blood of working people.

I mentioned before that back in 2015, the Greek people voted on their feet as opposed to living on their knees. They elected a left wing government committed to ending the country’s woes regarding imposed austerity policies by the Troika of lenders. Mr Tsipras promised his people a fresh start and a radical change towards a more Keynesian fiscal medicine with a debt haircut. In the end, he politically assassinated his own government and lost his Finance Minister by giving in to the threats and intimidation of Brussels and the Bundestag. The country which invented democracy was turned into nothing more than an autocratic German colony following a deliberate bank-run, presided over by the IMF and ECB. Totally incapable of rising to the challenge of standing up for the best interests of the Greek people. Syriza has no distinction now between it and the monetarist parties in Greece. It is decorating its own funeral parlour.

Now I do not doubt that the Irish economy is in a healthier place than that of Greece. Ireland was richer in terms of real incomes before and after the bailout than the peripheral nations of Southern Europe. But make no mistake about it, the single European currency is the operation of the Deutschmark by another name in Eurozone member states. A German government will always decide the size of deficit and rate of interest which applies to the monetary and economic policies of all those who use it.  Under the fiscal Treaties, if you then choose to leave the single currency you must subsequently leave the EU. This is an inevitability on the road ahead for an Irish Republic for the reason I’m going to elaborate on.

The ownership of Ireland for the people of Ireland is more than a lofty statement. It is an integral part of the motivation guiding the republican conscience; one of the burning desires of men and women who faced down the brunt of Black & Tan murder or Loyalist death-squads. What does that mean and how do we obtain it then? In the contemporary sense, it has to stand for at least a ‘mixed economy’, that is, the right balance between public and private ownership as opposed to the open free market regime we currently endure. It means state intervention, regulation, deficit-spending and public ownership of the main utilities. A Nordic-style social democracy with a strong welfare state. Not some Eastern European basket-case, but a dynamic economic model which creates wealth in order to redistribute it among the Irish people. An Ireland where your postcode doesn’t determine your life chances. Constitutional guarantees on human rights, including industrial democracy, as set out in the 1916 Proclamation. But how do we get there?

In my head and in my heart, I would rather be governed by Enda Kenny or even Gerry Carroll as opposed to the predatory Brussels class, because at least we could hire and fire them at will over their failures. Whether it’s the pensioner on the New Lodge Road or the student in slum Dublin housing, these people don’t have money or power – their fundamental defence is the vote itself. It equalises and permits them the opportunity to back policies, reject policies, change men who adopt policies. We did not overthrow the divine right of kings only to replace it with the tyranny of unelected eurocrats who care nothing for our people. Democracy isn’t perfect and people make mistakes, but they have the right to make mistakes and learn therein. The ownership of Ireland rests on the sacred and solemn principle that is One Man, One Woman, One Vote. By electing people who actually stand up for your interests against all hostilities you have the sovereign power to shape the nation in which you live in a real ballot-box revolution.

Now what I’m getting at is that in an eventual reunified Ireland or even with the prospect of a republican government in the Free State, there is clearly going to be an economic disagreement between a future Irish government and the Brussel’s banking elites. They aren’t going to allow the Irish state to print all the money they require to fund their manifesto when that would devalue the savings of German tax-payers. So something has got to give. In the 1970’s, republicans opposed membership of the EEC, dubbing it a banker’s club willing to usurp Irish sovereignty in place of British colonialism. The Treaty of Rome which created it has at its core the fundamental guarantee to the establishment class that you cannot be anything but a capitalist market economy. It is an inherently undemocratic and sinister organisation with a solid Thatcherite agenda. These two differing visions for the future cannot possibly be reconciled; you can’t be for the banker’s interests and also be for the worker’s interests. That’s a paradox too far. If you choose the former over the latter, then your core support will evaporate before your very eyes.

So when the time comes, and it will, the people of this island, including every single part of it, are going to have to engage in an informed debate about what sort of country they want to live and grow up in. We are going to have to ascertain the type of society we want for our children. And we inevitably must make a decision on the most fundamental of all questions, the one which our fore-fathers gave their life’s blood for during Easter week – Who should govern Ireland? The people in the shadows, who you don’t elect and can’t remove? Or men and women who rise to the challenges facing their nation with the determination to see this country prosper once again? I trust the Irish people; they’ll see you right!