Éamonn Ó Cleirigh of Lasair Dhearg provides an opinion piece on EU withdrawal
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Since the inception of the European Union and Ireland’s membership of same, Socialist Republicans have always been in opposition to the Neo-colonial super institution.
Several years ago I actively campaigned, along with many other Socialist Republicans from across the country, for a Leave vote in the referendum. We didn’t do so because we agreed with the analysis of the Right, the Tories, Unionists etc. but because the Republican Left always had its own analysis and reasoning to stand in opposition to the EU.
In the immediate aftermath of the referenda the scaremongering from constitutional Nationalists began and the Socialist Republican critique was suppressed, demonised and in many respects it just disappeared, allowing the constitutional Nationalists to run with their narrative for the most part. This has resulted in the felon setting of those who have took the republican left position in support of EU withdrawal and occasionally the erection of posters with buzzwords of little substance such as ‘NO BORDER – NO BREXIT’, ‘PROTECT THE GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT’, AND ‘BREXIT HARD BORDER – BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE TORIES, DUP, UUP, PBP’.
The Manifesto of Lasair Dhearg states that ‘imperialism in Ireland is an impediment to the creation of a 32 County Democratic Workers Republic, where all of the nations’ resources are applied for the betterment of all its people. That economic and fiscal imperialism must cease as part of the creation of a new Republic. That the right of the Irish people to defend itself from economic or geographic exploitation is a fundamental right.’ This includes the Neo-Liberal European Union which holds an economic grip on Ireland and its resources. Our position that these levers of power should remain in the hands of the Irish working class, our economic sovereignty is paramount.
I campaigned for a Leave vote in the referenda because I believe that a better world is possible and we, the Irish working class, deserve better. The EU is an increasingly militarised institution that puts the interest of big business over that of its people.
Within the EU superstate and due to British colonialism we are without our national self determination and sovereignty, the fundamental right to decide upon our own futures. This is not anti Europe but anti EU, the EU project has failed the working masses with forced fiscal policies, poverty and austerity. The greatest achievement of the EU project has been the opening of borders and the integration of European peoples but we don’t need the EU for this. Fortress Europe only has open immigration for its own people while it allows migrants to drown in the Mediterranean Sea trying to seek refuge in Europe, a free Ireland should welcome with open arms all of the worlds peoples.
The scaremongering of the constitutional Nationalists does nothing but spread discontent within the wider republican base and their lies only serve as a distraction to fuel the fire. Those who would point out the strange bedfellows of anti imperialists on the Brexit front should look at their own right wing associates within ‘progressive Europe’.
No Brexit doesn’t mean no border. The ongoing British occupation and partition created the border, not the EU, and with or without a hard border the core issue remains, the partition of our country and British occupation.
Withdrawal from the EU won’t solve Irelands ills and a Tory Brexit will not do the working class any favors either but it is important to understand why the Republican Left is in opposition to the EU, which is for polar opposite reasons of that of the Right and other Brexit campaigners.
What kind of Europe do you want, a Peoples Europe or Big Businesses Europe?
Poblacht na nOibrithe abú.
