Issue 186, Saoirse : Irish Freedom (October, 2002)

              uimh 183 deireadh fomhair — october 2002 http://saoirse.rr.nu 1 70p stg usa 30 pa 98u ard fheis 2002 dublin october 19-20 2pm saturday vote no to nice first for further deta tct ard-c parnell street diu no to haw ho to nato the people of the 26 counties had shouted stop to the ever-tightening eu grip in june 2001 when they voted down the nice treaty by 54 to 46 - - yet this decisive rejection has been ignored by the establishment politicians said ruairi £) bridaigh president of republican sinn fein at a press conference in dublin on september 24 to launch the organisation's campaign for a no vote in the mice referendum on october 19 next republican sinn called on the people to i this rejection of el '] militari sation centralisation and domination by the larger • the centralisation of power through the abolition of the veto power of member states in 30 different areas removes a vital protection for irish interests • nice involves domina tion by the larger states germany france britain and italy by a decisive shift away from equality among the member-states the four large states will have their voting power trebled while the remainder will have theirs doubled • nice is another step undermining neutrality and inwards the creation of a nuclear-armed superstate new european empire it con solidates progress towards and crear i uropean army rapid reaction i which can operate 2,500 miles lid the borders of the • republican sinn fein does not oppose new mem bers joining the eu five can do so immediately others can join individually as happened down the years but we oppose building a union dom inated and militarised by the large states before the new members are admitted it is time to teach those politicians a lesson 6 bradaigh said and to show them that the building of a european superstate at the expense of smaller nations is not the way to go in the long term • republican sinn fiin president ruairi () bradaigh centre with ard chomhairle members dan donahue and des dalton at the launch of the vote no campaign in dublin on september 24 the republican movement's view of the europe of the future has always been a europe of peoples and not of the exist ing states many of which are multi-national in character james connolly advocat ed a free federation of free peoples for europe and it was in keeping with this con cept that the movement had approached the european ideal down the decades deeper eu integration is the catchphrase of germany britain france and italy and it is past time to halt this process denmark had secured a protocol when it rejected maastricht releasing it from eu military commitments britain was absolved from the social chapter of m and with several other su was not part of the euro c mon currency far from asserting independence following people's rejection of nice 26-county state had merely a non-binding de . ruttonal amend pro ide i'^r a referendum before neutrality was finally abanii ¦ oh ei tat i1 the western european union a pillar of the n member-1 of the partt i peace without the guaranteed referendum the rapid reaction force i s war-planes at shannon airport and other moves ply indicated that neutrali ty was be illy sliced away this is not what the peo ple of ireland want it is time to say no once more and bring the arrogance of the establishment to a halt republican sinn fein is distributing tens of thousands of leaflets and displaying posters as part of its ongoing no to nice campaign britain to move goalposts again as forecast by this newspaper august 2002 david trimble has moved to the right in order to survive a challenge to his leadership at the latest ulster unionist council meeting on september 21 last the joint motion he with his main internal opponent jeflfrej doi at the uuc meeting threatens to withdraw i 1 i mil from the stormoni executive after january 1 x next if the mials military wing i disband trimble's capitulation to the no camp in the iip his survival for now as leader but it has exposed oik the total dishonesty of the si agreement arrangements the unionists have tipped the gain by now insisting on the total disarmament and indment the provisional within the three tth period i next uuc meeting in january 2003 i hie and the dublin and i ondon administm ill playing for lime ensuring that the agreement staggeo on tor another three nd that the i : up will not he destroyed in the stormoni elections due in may 2003 this is the 11th crisis meeting o the ('[<( thai david trimble has faced since the siormont agreement wi igned in april 1998 as also predicted by saoirse the idea of the british postponing those ¦ for 12 months until may 2004 to give a chance to the uup to regroup in the face of their unionist rivals in the dup prof paul bew former of people's demoera .•• ltd mn formed into a senior advi sor to david trimble put forward the suggestion at the end of september this illustrates the h tarn poini n that tl ultimate responsibility f r six counties rests wilh the westminster liament england can move the goal posts at will to maintain her colonial rule in ireland the ian to save an agreeme ; failed will no i • the rations of either loy or national during september also the provisional their intention to join the r.uc/psn1 policing i and republican sinn that by doing so they llld be putting in the last piece of the jigsaw ol a tructured british ruli ireland meanwhile the publica tion o a vi crei history of the ira i ilist ed mo exposed a lo went on in the repuh movement and the sell-out of republi principles orchestrated by gerry ad house raids by provisional police in the last number of weeks a number of homes of supporters of republican sinn fein in north and west belfast have been entered and searched in all cases the houses in question were unoccupied at the time of the raids nothing was taken but floorboards had been iis belongings gone through fyewitnesses told saoirse that those who carried out the raids included known pro in one other case a number of provisional threatened a member of republican sinn fein the threat to the repul sinn fein mem5 rovisionals will not allow republican sinn fein to walk over them and it was the ii ' republican sinn fein the also stated that republican sinn \ ein vsas not big enough to walk over t person tor republican sinn f£in in belli the ils have shown clearly once again how willing they are to do england's dirty work for her the n brits tb.e provisionals or anyone else is thai republican sinn fein will not be driven off our streets and we will work as we have always done to fight injustice from wherever it comes the provisionals sellout is total unlike them rep sinn fein will carry on the struggle the republican voice will be heard he added • see also controlling the streets on pa