Post by dangeresque on Oct 24, 2007 20:32:34 GMT
The Plough
(Web site www.theplough.netfirms.com/)
Vol. 4- No 23
Wednesday 24th October 2007
E-mail newsletter of the
Irish Republican Socialist Party
1) Editorial
2) The five "engines" for Socialism: meetings in support of the Venezuelan
Revolution in Ireland
3) New EU Treaty
4) Letters
5) Media
a. Policing-physically and spiritually
6) Joe Hill
7) What’s On?
Editorial
Tasks of the day?
Recent revelations that police intelligence files have gone missing so that
the Police Ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan could not access them should surprise no
one. Have not the RUC and now the PSNI always done that? Despite their
acceptance by the bourgeois parties on the nationalist side the SDLP and
Sinn Fein (p) there is still widespread distrust within the broad mass of
nationalist people given the appalling record of the police since the
setting up of the Northern statelet in 1920.
Also the sickening chorus of comments about the funding, not of the UDA but
the Conflict Transformation Initiative, and the widespread reaction of the
gleeful middle classes to the proposed withdrawal of funds shows up the
hypocrisy of the politicians. Of course it may be technically against
equality laws to direct funds specifically towards protestant working class
districts but that never stopped the British government from directing
funding towards working class catholic districts in a clear bid to buy these
areas into the peace process. There never was reluctance by the British to
bribe blackmail, or if all else fails assassinate those who pose a threat to
British imperial interests.
Deprivation in working class areas transcends religion. Is it not ironic to
hear protestant /unionist British politicians suddenly discovering
protestant areas of deprivation. These same politicians ignored the
conditions in working class areas for decades. Unionists controlled the
north for 50 years and backed by the British discriminated against the
nationalist population, ignored the social and economic conditions of the
working class and then beat the big drum and waved the Union Jack to get the
mass of protestant workers to back unionism when the need arose.
But it is not enough for republicans and socialists to simply sit back and
make valid critiques of the current processes. Nor to simply raise
“trouble” related issues such as policing or victims or the activities of
M15. It is only by combining the class and the national questions and all
the matters relating there to that we become relevant.
Too many think that they alone have the only correct road map to their
republic or their socialist republic. For example for differing reasons both
Republican Sinn Fein and the Socialist Workers Party will have little to do
with the IRSP. Both Parties tend to have an absolutist view of the world
even tho’ there are many good republicans and socialists within their ranks.
(We have reprinted Socialism, The Highest Stage of Democracy and
Republicanism from Critical Montages which poses some pertinent questions
for those of us on the left)
Theory without practice simply leads to stagnation. Those who simply repeat
the slogans of yesteryear without actually taking into account present day
conditions will only repeat the mistakes of the past. Despite anonymous
criticisms on the Internet The Plough makes no apology for its criticism of
those republicans who think they can re-create Provo mark 2. The absence of
republicanism from the every day struggles of working class people is a
reflection not on the workers but on republicanism itself. We have said it
before and we repeat it now until republicanism takes the lead in the every
day struggles of the working class (and that is why the IRSP exist) it will
remain elitist impotent and irrelevant.
But while we have our long-term goal the issue arises what are our
short-term goals. What are the current tasks of the day? The Plough would
argue that apart from the usual party building programme our wider strategic
goal should be
1) The building up in the north an alliance of all radical forces to
oppose the policies of the current power sharing administration which is
dedicated to imposing a wide range of neo conservative policies including
the privitisation of public resources; and
2) The re-energising of radical republicanism by a clear consistent
programme of policies and actions that re-establishes places Irish
Republicanism as an internationalist radical outlook and which puts
imperialism and bourgeois nationalism on the defensive.
To achieve these goals will require a huge collective effort.
JM
_
Socialism, The Highest Stage of Democracy and Republicanism
There is a tendency, found among secular leftists as well as liberals, to
take a conspiracist view of the emergence of "Political Islam": the empire,
its comprador ruling classes, or both implanted it among the innocent masses
who were previously "just Muslims," just like that. That is a simplistic
view. Islam as a mass political movement cannot be implanted from outside,
just as socialism as a mass political movement cannot be implanted from
outside. The ruling classes, foreign or domestic, can only help develop and
deform what already exists among the masses, just as socialists can only
help develop, reform, and revolutionize what already exists among them.
A conspiracist view of "Political Islam" slights empirical examinations of
political and economic, social and cultural, conditions of working people
who consent to it and make it their own. This neglect does not help secular
leftists at all in any approach they may take toward any variety of Islam,
in giving critical support to it, as the Lebanese Communists have been doing
for Hizballah for instance, or in combating voluntarist and adventurist
terrorist sects of Al Qaeda varieties as they must be, or in dealing with
anything else (like the AKP, the Muslim Brotherhood, etc.) in any way.
Secular leftists must come to terms with a fact: varieties of Islam are an
essential part of the culture of the national-popular masses of many
nations, especially those who are the most crucial to the Great Game of the
21st century (an energy hunt in the context of the declining dollar
hegemony), just as varieties of Christianity are in Latin America. And
within the same religious worldviews of the masses there exist seeds of both
liberation and reaction. When organic intellectuals on the Left, secular or
religious, who are "conscious of being linked organically to a
national-popular mass" fail to arise and create a national-popular ideology
that does justice to the seeds of liberation in the religious consciousness
of the masses, the ruling classes takes advantage of the seeds of reaction
in the very same consciousness.
Secular leftists must learn to discard the illusion that religious working
masses must be first secularized, and then and only then they will be
receptive to the radical idea of revolution. Those who are tempted by this
illusion need only look at Japan: the working class of Japan are perhaps the
most secularized in the world, and yet they are also among the least
revolutionary, as they have been for a long time.
History shows that authentic social revolution may come about through a
secular ideology (France), a religious ideology (Iran), or a creative
combination of both (Venezuela). Experiences of authentic social
revolutions, whether they are religious or secular, Jacobin or Bolivarian,
are more important in schooling masses in democracy and republicanism than
authoritarian secularism imposed from above by enlightened despots (whether
they are nationalists or socialists) or secularization molecularly effected
by consumerist capitalism (the former tends to first pacify the masses and
then eventually invite reaction when enlightened despotism degenerates into
mere despotism, and the latter depoliticizes people and makes them passive
more than any other ideology, religious or secular). And it is democracy and
republicanism that we should aim for -- after all, what is socialism but the
highest stage of democracy and republicanism?
Reprinted from "Critical Montages" -
The five "engines" for Socialism: meetings in support of the Venezuelan
Revolution in Ireland
Hands off Venezuela, in co-operation with the Venezuela Support Group and
the James Connolly Debating society in Belfast, organised two meetings in
support of the Venezuelan Revolution in Dublin (8th October) and Belfast
(10th October). The idea was also to continue with the campaign Hands off
Venezuela – Ireland, already constituted after a first round of meetings
held last April in two Irish Universities.
More than 35 people attended the meeting in Dublin (including activists from
SIPTU and other unions, from the Connolly Youth Movement, éirígí, the Labour
Youth, the CPI and others). The meeting in Belfast was hosted by the James
Connolly Debating Society and had an enthusiastic audience of about 60
people from many different backgrounds.
The meetings intended to explain "the five engines for socialism"; the
programme that the Venezuelan government will try to implement in the next
future. 63 per cent of the population of Venezuela voted for that programme
in the election held last December.
Carlos Fiorillo, member of the Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)
and Hands off Venezuela – Ireland, presented for the first time in English
translation some sections of three speeches about the "5 engines" that
President Hugo Chavez made between the 8 th and the 17th of January 2007.
Carlos said:
"The 5 Engines is the name of the procedure that is taking place in
Venezuela in order to make the transition from a capitalist state to a new
socialist state on behalf of the Venezuelan people, and to nationalize the
resources for the well-being of the whole country; as president Chavez
promised when he won the last presidential elections on December 2006."
The first engine, Carlos went on, is the enabling law. With that law the
Venezuelan government will be able to nationalize all that was privatized;
the second engine is a constitutional change to allow the people of
Venezuela to go towards socialism. President Hugo Chavez, according to
Carlos, said that, "Venezuelans [in the election last December] voted for
socialism … [Socialism] is what people want … [Socialism] is what the
country needs… Venezuela is free, we are not colony of anybody."
The third engine is national education on socialist values and solidarity,
and access to education for all at all levels: "study is the debate of ideas
in a permanent way." The fourth engine is a new "geometry" of power, based
on popular power, in order to eliminate the differences between classes and
the obscene privileges of the bureaucrats and the ruling class. The fifth
engine, Carlos concluded, was the "explosion" of popular, revolutionary,
socialist and democratic power through the creation of communal councils and
federations of communal councils.
Jorge Martin, international secretary of Hands Off Venezuela Campaign,
analysed the current situation in Venezuela. The political process unfolding
in Venezuela, he said, has a socialist character and is fully democratic. It
is not the first time that Hugo Chavez wins an election, but this time he
got 63 per cent of the votes, he said.
The problem, Jorge argued, is that the imperialist powers don't agree with
the nationalisation of the basic means of production in order to satisfied
the needs of the people of Venezuela; it goes against their profits. This is
so even when any nationalisation and expropriation has been carried out
according to law and with payment of compensation.
So, Jorge continued, the imperialists will try anything they can to get rid
of Chavez and put back into power the old corrupt oligarchy. They already
tried with the US-backed military coup and the bosses lock out in 2002. This
shows the hypocrisy of the US and European governments when they accuse
Chavez of being undemocratic.
In the meeting in Belfast some people in the audience asked what people
could do in Ireland to support the people of Venezuela and to stop the
imperialist intervention. In Dublin, some also expressed the need to
actively support the Bolivarian movement. Jorge Martin made clear, first,
that the broadest possible movement in solidarity with Venezuela should be
organised in Ireland. He made an appeal to all those who agree with three
basic principles, full support for the Bolivarian revolution, against
imperialist intervention and counteracting the lies of the media, should
join Hands Off Venezuela.
The first thing to do, he said, was to tell the youth and the workers in our
communities what is really happening in Venezuela. That is the only way to
counteract the lies spread in the mass media, owned by a few large
corporations, about the Venezuelan government.
This could be done by organising talks and projecting documentaries in
colleges and in meetings with trade unionists, by passing resolutions in
trade union congresses, by getting youth organisations and trade unions to
link up with our solidarity groups, etc. He underlined several times the
importance of getting the support of the working class in our communities
through their trade unions.
Jorge Martin suggested raising funds and getting trade unions to sponsor
delegations trips of Irish workers and students to Venezuela in order to
witness what is really happening in Venezuela, and reporting back in their
communities, trade unions, and study places.
We would like to thank all those who made these meeting possible.
P. Bowman (Dublin)
Contact Hands Off Venezuela Ireland
hov.ireland@yahoo.com <mailto:hov.ireland@yahoo.com> ) or visit our yahoo
group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hands_off_Venezuela_Ireland
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hands_off_Venezuela_Ireland> ).
NEW EU TREATY
THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD SET UP THE REFERENDUM COMMISSION SOON, WITH TIME AND
RESOURCES TO INFORM CITIZENS ABOUT THIS NEW EU TREATY
The Government should set up the statutory Referendum Commission well in
advance of the necessary Irish referendum on the Renamed EU Constitutional
Treaty, which will be agreed in principle in Portugal today, so that
citizens can be properly informed before they vote on it.
The eyes of Europe - maybe even of the world - will be on Ireland when we
hold our referendum on this Treaty, for we are likely to be the only one
of 27 EU Member States to have a vote on it. The good functioning of the
Referendum Commission is vital to Ireland being seen to have a fair and
democratic referendum process.
The five-person Referendum Commission is the body provided for in the 1998
Referendum Act with the function of informing citizens what a referendum is
about and encouraging maximum turnout of voters.
Calling the Referendum Commission into being should be done months before
Ireland's referendum, and not just a few weeks before as previously, so
that the Commission members will have enough time, first of all to inform
themselves, and then the Irish voting public, on the implications of this
important and complex constitutional Treaty, for this could well be the last
referendum that Ireland will have on the EU.
Former Chief Justice T.A. Finlay, who chaired the Referendum Commission for
the two Nice Treaty referendums, was critical of the time the Government
gave it to do its job in his reports on those referendums. He was
implicitly critical also of referendums on complex EU treaties being held
simulataneously with other referendums on quite different matters.
The Referendum Commission is more likely to give the objective and impartial
facts about this Treaty than the partisan bodies on either side, such as the
political parties, the European Movement, the National Platform etc. -
important and essential though their role in the referendum is.
The Referendum Commission consists of the Clerks of the Dail and Seanad, the
Ombudsman, the Comptroller and Auditor General, and a senior judge who is
nominated by the Government as Chairman.
Although the Government amended the Referendum Act to remove from the
Referendum Commission the function of informing citizens of the main
Yes-side and No-side arguments on particular referendum propositions in
order to help get the Nice Treaty ratified, the Commission still retains its
functions of telling citizens what particular referendums are about and
encouraging maximum voter turnout. But it needs adequate time and resources
to carry out these important democratic tasks. It was given €3.5 million for
this purpose in the 2002 Nice Two referendum, although it could have done
with extra time even then. The setting up of the Referendum Commission does
not need to wait until the referendum date is decided on. The importance
of the upcoming referendum is shown by the following facts about the
proposed new EU Treaty: -
What the Renamed EU Constitutional Treaty would do:
1. Giving the EU a Federal State Constitution: The treaty would establish a
legally new European Union, quite different from what we call the EU at
present, with the constitutional form of a supranational Federal State that
would be separate from and superior to its Member States, just as the USA is
separate from and superior to California, Texas etc. It would do this in
three key legal steps: (a) establishing a new European Union with its own
legal personality and distinct corporate existence for the first time; (b)
abolishing the distinction between the supranational and intergovernmental
"pillars" of the two existing European Treaties, so that all powers of
government can be exercised by the new Union, either actually or
potentially, through a uniform constitutional structure; and (c) making us
all real citizens of this new Union for the first time, rather than just
notional or honorary EU "citizens" as at present, for one can only be a
citizen of a State.
2. Abolishing the national veto in 68 new areas or matters: the new Treaty
would introduce qualified majority voting(QMV) on the EU Council of
Ministers for 68 areas or matters for the first time - 48 of these referring
to new areas of EU law-making and 20 to a shift from unanimity to
majority-voting for existing EU legal bases. That would remove the national
veto for these 68 areas or matters. This figure of 68 compares with 46
areas or matters moved to QMV by the 2002 Treaty of Nice, 24 by the 1998
Treaty of Amsterdam, 30 by the 1992 Maastricht Treaty on European Union, 12
by the 1987 Single European Act and 38 by the original 1957 Treaty of Rome
and its associated Treaties. Each of these shifts of power from the
national to the supranational level entails a shift from the Legislative arm
of government to the Executive arm and from elected national Parliaments and
citizens to Government Ministers and senior civil servants. They hollow out
our democracy further.
3. Giving more voting power to the Big States: The new Treaty would
introduce a new voting system on the Council of Ministers, making population
size a key criterion, which would particularly advantage big States like
Germany and reduce the influence of smaller ones like Ireland.
continues...
(Web site www.theplough.netfirms.com/)
Vol. 4- No 23
Wednesday 24th October 2007
E-mail newsletter of the
Irish Republican Socialist Party
1) Editorial
2) The five "engines" for Socialism: meetings in support of the Venezuelan
Revolution in Ireland
3) New EU Treaty
4) Letters
5) Media
a. Policing-physically and spiritually
6) Joe Hill
7) What’s On?
Editorial
Tasks of the day?
Recent revelations that police intelligence files have gone missing so that
the Police Ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan could not access them should surprise no
one. Have not the RUC and now the PSNI always done that? Despite their
acceptance by the bourgeois parties on the nationalist side the SDLP and
Sinn Fein (p) there is still widespread distrust within the broad mass of
nationalist people given the appalling record of the police since the
setting up of the Northern statelet in 1920.
Also the sickening chorus of comments about the funding, not of the UDA but
the Conflict Transformation Initiative, and the widespread reaction of the
gleeful middle classes to the proposed withdrawal of funds shows up the
hypocrisy of the politicians. Of course it may be technically against
equality laws to direct funds specifically towards protestant working class
districts but that never stopped the British government from directing
funding towards working class catholic districts in a clear bid to buy these
areas into the peace process. There never was reluctance by the British to
bribe blackmail, or if all else fails assassinate those who pose a threat to
British imperial interests.
Deprivation in working class areas transcends religion. Is it not ironic to
hear protestant /unionist British politicians suddenly discovering
protestant areas of deprivation. These same politicians ignored the
conditions in working class areas for decades. Unionists controlled the
north for 50 years and backed by the British discriminated against the
nationalist population, ignored the social and economic conditions of the
working class and then beat the big drum and waved the Union Jack to get the
mass of protestant workers to back unionism when the need arose.
But it is not enough for republicans and socialists to simply sit back and
make valid critiques of the current processes. Nor to simply raise
“trouble” related issues such as policing or victims or the activities of
M15. It is only by combining the class and the national questions and all
the matters relating there to that we become relevant.
Too many think that they alone have the only correct road map to their
republic or their socialist republic. For example for differing reasons both
Republican Sinn Fein and the Socialist Workers Party will have little to do
with the IRSP. Both Parties tend to have an absolutist view of the world
even tho’ there are many good republicans and socialists within their ranks.
(We have reprinted Socialism, The Highest Stage of Democracy and
Republicanism from Critical Montages which poses some pertinent questions
for those of us on the left)
Theory without practice simply leads to stagnation. Those who simply repeat
the slogans of yesteryear without actually taking into account present day
conditions will only repeat the mistakes of the past. Despite anonymous
criticisms on the Internet The Plough makes no apology for its criticism of
those republicans who think they can re-create Provo mark 2. The absence of
republicanism from the every day struggles of working class people is a
reflection not on the workers but on republicanism itself. We have said it
before and we repeat it now until republicanism takes the lead in the every
day struggles of the working class (and that is why the IRSP exist) it will
remain elitist impotent and irrelevant.
But while we have our long-term goal the issue arises what are our
short-term goals. What are the current tasks of the day? The Plough would
argue that apart from the usual party building programme our wider strategic
goal should be
1) The building up in the north an alliance of all radical forces to
oppose the policies of the current power sharing administration which is
dedicated to imposing a wide range of neo conservative policies including
the privitisation of public resources; and
2) The re-energising of radical republicanism by a clear consistent
programme of policies and actions that re-establishes places Irish
Republicanism as an internationalist radical outlook and which puts
imperialism and bourgeois nationalism on the defensive.
To achieve these goals will require a huge collective effort.
JM
_
Socialism, The Highest Stage of Democracy and Republicanism
There is a tendency, found among secular leftists as well as liberals, to
take a conspiracist view of the emergence of "Political Islam": the empire,
its comprador ruling classes, or both implanted it among the innocent masses
who were previously "just Muslims," just like that. That is a simplistic
view. Islam as a mass political movement cannot be implanted from outside,
just as socialism as a mass political movement cannot be implanted from
outside. The ruling classes, foreign or domestic, can only help develop and
deform what already exists among the masses, just as socialists can only
help develop, reform, and revolutionize what already exists among them.
A conspiracist view of "Political Islam" slights empirical examinations of
political and economic, social and cultural, conditions of working people
who consent to it and make it their own. This neglect does not help secular
leftists at all in any approach they may take toward any variety of Islam,
in giving critical support to it, as the Lebanese Communists have been doing
for Hizballah for instance, or in combating voluntarist and adventurist
terrorist sects of Al Qaeda varieties as they must be, or in dealing with
anything else (like the AKP, the Muslim Brotherhood, etc.) in any way.
Secular leftists must come to terms with a fact: varieties of Islam are an
essential part of the culture of the national-popular masses of many
nations, especially those who are the most crucial to the Great Game of the
21st century (an energy hunt in the context of the declining dollar
hegemony), just as varieties of Christianity are in Latin America. And
within the same religious worldviews of the masses there exist seeds of both
liberation and reaction. When organic intellectuals on the Left, secular or
religious, who are "conscious of being linked organically to a
national-popular mass" fail to arise and create a national-popular ideology
that does justice to the seeds of liberation in the religious consciousness
of the masses, the ruling classes takes advantage of the seeds of reaction
in the very same consciousness.
Secular leftists must learn to discard the illusion that religious working
masses must be first secularized, and then and only then they will be
receptive to the radical idea of revolution. Those who are tempted by this
illusion need only look at Japan: the working class of Japan are perhaps the
most secularized in the world, and yet they are also among the least
revolutionary, as they have been for a long time.
History shows that authentic social revolution may come about through a
secular ideology (France), a religious ideology (Iran), or a creative
combination of both (Venezuela). Experiences of authentic social
revolutions, whether they are religious or secular, Jacobin or Bolivarian,
are more important in schooling masses in democracy and republicanism than
authoritarian secularism imposed from above by enlightened despots (whether
they are nationalists or socialists) or secularization molecularly effected
by consumerist capitalism (the former tends to first pacify the masses and
then eventually invite reaction when enlightened despotism degenerates into
mere despotism, and the latter depoliticizes people and makes them passive
more than any other ideology, religious or secular). And it is democracy and
republicanism that we should aim for -- after all, what is socialism but the
highest stage of democracy and republicanism?
Reprinted from "Critical Montages" -
The five "engines" for Socialism: meetings in support of the Venezuelan
Revolution in Ireland
Hands off Venezuela, in co-operation with the Venezuela Support Group and
the James Connolly Debating society in Belfast, organised two meetings in
support of the Venezuelan Revolution in Dublin (8th October) and Belfast
(10th October). The idea was also to continue with the campaign Hands off
Venezuela – Ireland, already constituted after a first round of meetings
held last April in two Irish Universities.
More than 35 people attended the meeting in Dublin (including activists from
SIPTU and other unions, from the Connolly Youth Movement, éirígí, the Labour
Youth, the CPI and others). The meeting in Belfast was hosted by the James
Connolly Debating Society and had an enthusiastic audience of about 60
people from many different backgrounds.
The meetings intended to explain "the five engines for socialism"; the
programme that the Venezuelan government will try to implement in the next
future. 63 per cent of the population of Venezuela voted for that programme
in the election held last December.
Carlos Fiorillo, member of the Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)
and Hands off Venezuela – Ireland, presented for the first time in English
translation some sections of three speeches about the "5 engines" that
President Hugo Chavez made between the 8 th and the 17th of January 2007.
Carlos said:
"The 5 Engines is the name of the procedure that is taking place in
Venezuela in order to make the transition from a capitalist state to a new
socialist state on behalf of the Venezuelan people, and to nationalize the
resources for the well-being of the whole country; as president Chavez
promised when he won the last presidential elections on December 2006."
The first engine, Carlos went on, is the enabling law. With that law the
Venezuelan government will be able to nationalize all that was privatized;
the second engine is a constitutional change to allow the people of
Venezuela to go towards socialism. President Hugo Chavez, according to
Carlos, said that, "Venezuelans [in the election last December] voted for
socialism … [Socialism] is what people want … [Socialism] is what the
country needs… Venezuela is free, we are not colony of anybody."
The third engine is national education on socialist values and solidarity,
and access to education for all at all levels: "study is the debate of ideas
in a permanent way." The fourth engine is a new "geometry" of power, based
on popular power, in order to eliminate the differences between classes and
the obscene privileges of the bureaucrats and the ruling class. The fifth
engine, Carlos concluded, was the "explosion" of popular, revolutionary,
socialist and democratic power through the creation of communal councils and
federations of communal councils.
Jorge Martin, international secretary of Hands Off Venezuela Campaign,
analysed the current situation in Venezuela. The political process unfolding
in Venezuela, he said, has a socialist character and is fully democratic. It
is not the first time that Hugo Chavez wins an election, but this time he
got 63 per cent of the votes, he said.
The problem, Jorge argued, is that the imperialist powers don't agree with
the nationalisation of the basic means of production in order to satisfied
the needs of the people of Venezuela; it goes against their profits. This is
so even when any nationalisation and expropriation has been carried out
according to law and with payment of compensation.
So, Jorge continued, the imperialists will try anything they can to get rid
of Chavez and put back into power the old corrupt oligarchy. They already
tried with the US-backed military coup and the bosses lock out in 2002. This
shows the hypocrisy of the US and European governments when they accuse
Chavez of being undemocratic.
In the meeting in Belfast some people in the audience asked what people
could do in Ireland to support the people of Venezuela and to stop the
imperialist intervention. In Dublin, some also expressed the need to
actively support the Bolivarian movement. Jorge Martin made clear, first,
that the broadest possible movement in solidarity with Venezuela should be
organised in Ireland. He made an appeal to all those who agree with three
basic principles, full support for the Bolivarian revolution, against
imperialist intervention and counteracting the lies of the media, should
join Hands Off Venezuela.
The first thing to do, he said, was to tell the youth and the workers in our
communities what is really happening in Venezuela. That is the only way to
counteract the lies spread in the mass media, owned by a few large
corporations, about the Venezuelan government.
This could be done by organising talks and projecting documentaries in
colleges and in meetings with trade unionists, by passing resolutions in
trade union congresses, by getting youth organisations and trade unions to
link up with our solidarity groups, etc. He underlined several times the
importance of getting the support of the working class in our communities
through their trade unions.
Jorge Martin suggested raising funds and getting trade unions to sponsor
delegations trips of Irish workers and students to Venezuela in order to
witness what is really happening in Venezuela, and reporting back in their
communities, trade unions, and study places.
We would like to thank all those who made these meeting possible.
P. Bowman (Dublin)
Contact Hands Off Venezuela Ireland
hov.ireland@yahoo.com <mailto:hov.ireland@yahoo.com> ) or visit our yahoo
group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hands_off_Venezuela_Ireland
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hands_off_Venezuela_Ireland> ).
NEW EU TREATY
THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD SET UP THE REFERENDUM COMMISSION SOON, WITH TIME AND
RESOURCES TO INFORM CITIZENS ABOUT THIS NEW EU TREATY
The Government should set up the statutory Referendum Commission well in
advance of the necessary Irish referendum on the Renamed EU Constitutional
Treaty, which will be agreed in principle in Portugal today, so that
citizens can be properly informed before they vote on it.
The eyes of Europe - maybe even of the world - will be on Ireland when we
hold our referendum on this Treaty, for we are likely to be the only one
of 27 EU Member States to have a vote on it. The good functioning of the
Referendum Commission is vital to Ireland being seen to have a fair and
democratic referendum process.
The five-person Referendum Commission is the body provided for in the 1998
Referendum Act with the function of informing citizens what a referendum is
about and encouraging maximum turnout of voters.
Calling the Referendum Commission into being should be done months before
Ireland's referendum, and not just a few weeks before as previously, so
that the Commission members will have enough time, first of all to inform
themselves, and then the Irish voting public, on the implications of this
important and complex constitutional Treaty, for this could well be the last
referendum that Ireland will have on the EU.
Former Chief Justice T.A. Finlay, who chaired the Referendum Commission for
the two Nice Treaty referendums, was critical of the time the Government
gave it to do its job in his reports on those referendums. He was
implicitly critical also of referendums on complex EU treaties being held
simulataneously with other referendums on quite different matters.
The Referendum Commission is more likely to give the objective and impartial
facts about this Treaty than the partisan bodies on either side, such as the
political parties, the European Movement, the National Platform etc. -
important and essential though their role in the referendum is.
The Referendum Commission consists of the Clerks of the Dail and Seanad, the
Ombudsman, the Comptroller and Auditor General, and a senior judge who is
nominated by the Government as Chairman.
Although the Government amended the Referendum Act to remove from the
Referendum Commission the function of informing citizens of the main
Yes-side and No-side arguments on particular referendum propositions in
order to help get the Nice Treaty ratified, the Commission still retains its
functions of telling citizens what particular referendums are about and
encouraging maximum voter turnout. But it needs adequate time and resources
to carry out these important democratic tasks. It was given €3.5 million for
this purpose in the 2002 Nice Two referendum, although it could have done
with extra time even then. The setting up of the Referendum Commission does
not need to wait until the referendum date is decided on. The importance
of the upcoming referendum is shown by the following facts about the
proposed new EU Treaty: -
What the Renamed EU Constitutional Treaty would do:
1. Giving the EU a Federal State Constitution: The treaty would establish a
legally new European Union, quite different from what we call the EU at
present, with the constitutional form of a supranational Federal State that
would be separate from and superior to its Member States, just as the USA is
separate from and superior to California, Texas etc. It would do this in
three key legal steps: (a) establishing a new European Union with its own
legal personality and distinct corporate existence for the first time; (b)
abolishing the distinction between the supranational and intergovernmental
"pillars" of the two existing European Treaties, so that all powers of
government can be exercised by the new Union, either actually or
potentially, through a uniform constitutional structure; and (c) making us
all real citizens of this new Union for the first time, rather than just
notional or honorary EU "citizens" as at present, for one can only be a
citizen of a State.
2. Abolishing the national veto in 68 new areas or matters: the new Treaty
would introduce qualified majority voting(QMV) on the EU Council of
Ministers for 68 areas or matters for the first time - 48 of these referring
to new areas of EU law-making and 20 to a shift from unanimity to
majority-voting for existing EU legal bases. That would remove the national
veto for these 68 areas or matters. This figure of 68 compares with 46
areas or matters moved to QMV by the 2002 Treaty of Nice, 24 by the 1998
Treaty of Amsterdam, 30 by the 1992 Maastricht Treaty on European Union, 12
by the 1987 Single European Act and 38 by the original 1957 Treaty of Rome
and its associated Treaties. Each of these shifts of power from the
national to the supranational level entails a shift from the Legislative arm
of government to the Executive arm and from elected national Parliaments and
citizens to Government Ministers and senior civil servants. They hollow out
our democracy further.
3. Giving more voting power to the Big States: The new Treaty would
introduce a new voting system on the Council of Ministers, making population
size a key criterion, which would particularly advantage big States like
Germany and reduce the influence of smaller ones like Ireland.
continues...