éirígí Ard-Fheis 2011

Motions

An Teanga

Motion No 1
This Ard Fhéis

1. Recognises that cultural imperialism in Ireland cannot be ended until the Irish Language becomes the spoken vernacular of the people of Ireland.
2. Mandates the incoming Ciorcal Náisiúnta in conjunction with Roinn na Gaeilge and the wider membership to develop a comprehensive written éirígí strategy for the promotion of An Teanga both internally and externally. This strategy shall be completed within six months of this Ard Fhéis.

British Occupation

Motion No 2
This Ard Fhéis

1. Reasserts that the national territory of Ireland extents to the entire island of Ireland, its waterways, airspace, islands and seas.
2. Reaffirms the right of the people of Ireland to live free from external interference and aggression.
3. Recommits éirígí to steadfast opposition to the ongoing British occupation of the Six Counties.

Motion No 3
This Ard Fhéis

1. Unreservedly condemns the firing of lethal plastic bullets by the British police in the Six Counties on a number of occasions over the course of the last eighteen months.
2. Calls for the immediate banning of plastic bullet use in Ireland.

Motion No 4
This Ard Fhéis

1. Continues to stand in solidarity with all victims of British state violence in Ireland as they attempt to establish the truth behind the deaths of their loved ones.

Motion No 5
This Ard Fhéis

1. Notes with deep concern the ongoing use of draconian legislation in both the Six and Twenty Six Counties.
2. Calls for the abolition of repressive legislation which facilitates widespread ‘stop & search’, prolonged detention without trial, retention of personal data, including forensic samples, and other human rights abuses.

Natural Resources

Motion No 6
This Ard Fhéis

1. Recognises the critically important role that Ireland’s oil and gas reserves can play in the development of a sustainable socialist economy, where the wealth generated from those natural resources would be used for the benefit of all of the people of Ireland.
2. Commends the people of Erris for their unflinching opposition to Shell and its partner companies which are attempting to exploit the Corrib Gas Field for the benefit of their shareholders alone.
3. Applauds the activists of the Shell to Sea campaign who have consistently highlighted and challenged the criminal giveaway of Ireland’s oil and gas reserves.

International

Motion No 7
This Ard Fhéis

1. Recognises that Ireland’s struggle for national, economic, political and social freedom cannot be separated from the wider struggle for international socialism.
2. Agrees that the realisation of a global political dispensation based upon the principles of human solidarity and co-operation, wherein collective and individual rights are secured and defended, can only be achieved through the overthrow of the global system of imperialism and capitalism.
3. This Ard Fhéis extends fraternal revolutionary greetings to all of those individuals and organisations that struggle for national, economic, political and social freedom across the globe.
4. Recognises and applauds the valuable work that the Irish Latin American Solidarity Centre (LASC) does with regard to the quest for justice in Latin America.
5. Mandates the incoming Ciorcal Náisiúnta to develop further links with relevant progressive individuals and organisations across the globe.
6. Mandates the incoming Ciorcal Náisiúnta to organise at least one major public conference on the theme of international struggle during the course of 2011.

Motion No 8
This Ard Fhéis

1. Reiterates éirígí’s support for the Basque people in their struggle for freedom and self-determination.
2. Condemns the recent arrests of Basque political activists and the continuing repression by the Spanish government of the Basque pro-independence movement.

Motion No 9
This Ard Fhéis

1. Stands in solidarity with the Bolivian people as they continue to wrest control of their country from the hands of the economic and political elite who have collectively misruled that country for centuries.

Motion No 10
This Ard Fhéis

1. Commends those in Colombia who continue to struggle for justice and freedom in the face of appalling human rights abuses by the right-wing Colombian government.

Motion No 11
This Ard Fhéis

1. Pays tribute to the Cuban people and the ongoing Cuban revolution, which remains a beacon of hope and justice to those who struggle against tyranny across the world.
2. Calls for the unconditional and immediate release of the ‘Cuban Five’ political prisoners, who are being unjustly detained by the United States authorities.

Motion No 12
This Ard Fhéis

1. Reiterates éirígí’s support for the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom and self-determination
2. Deems Israel to be a pariah state, and condemns its treatment of the Palestinian people and its denial of Palestinian national and social rights for being crimes against humanity.
3. Extends fraternal greetings and solidarity to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as it struggles for the creation of an independent, secular and socialist Palestinian state,
4. Calls for the immediate release of Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and all Palestinian political prisoners that are illegitimately imprisoned by Israeli forces.

Motion No 13
This Ard Fhéis

1. Extends fraternal greetings to PSUV (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela) and the people of Venezuela and commends all of those who are involved in the struggle to transform that country.

Policy Development

Motion No 14
This Ard Fhéis

1. Formally recognises that the adoption of the ‘From Socialism Alone Can the Salvation of Ireland Come’ policy paper earlier this year represents a major advance in the development of éirígí’s ideological foundation, upon which future policy development will be based.
2. Mandates the incoming Ciorcal Náisiúnta to ensure that the necessary resources are made available for the development of at least two significant policy documents by 2012.

Political Prisoners

Motion No 15
This Ard Fhéis

1. Reiterates its call for the immediate and unconditional release of all republican political prisoners held in prisons in Ireland and abroad
2. Calls for an end to the brutal strip searching of republican prisoners in Maghaberry Prison and, pending their release, demands the granting of political status

Religious Sectarianism and Racism

Motion No 16
This Ard Fhéis

1. Reaffirms its commitment to the core republican value of equality, believing that all human beings are born equal regardless of religion, nationality or ethnic origin.
2. Commits éirígí to challenging sectarianism and racism in all of its forms and from whatever quarter it emanates from.
3. Understands that religion continues to be used as a tool to divide the Irish working class, most particularly in the occupied Six Counties.
4. Believes that the interests of all working class people on the island of Ireland would be best served through the creation of an all-Ireland Democratic Socialist Republic which would treat all of its citizens as equal, regardless of religion, nationality or ethnic origins.
5. Commits éirígí, as a socialist republican party, to working towards unity of the working class regardless of religious background. To the Protestant community across Ireland, in particular, éirígí extends the hand of genuine comradeship, believing that a democratic, socialist, revolutionary movement encompassing those of all religions and of none has the potential to achieve a new social and economic order which will ultimately benefit all of society.

Socio-Economic

Motion No 17
This Ard Fhéis

1. Believes the bankrupting of the Twenty-Six County state to have been an entirely predictable consequence of the implementation of a wide range of neo liberal economic policies, by successive Dublin governments, over the course of the last two decades.
2. Asserts that any economic recovery plan based upon those same failed neo-liberal policies will only bring greater suffering and human misery whilst simultaneously increasing wealth inequality within Irish society.
3. Condemns the Dublin government for the last three cutback budgets, which have knowingly and cynically targeted working class communities, the poor, the sick and other vulnerable sectors of society.
4. Condemns the Dublin government for bailing out the private banks and the creation of NAMA, two initiatives which have resulted in economic and social disaster for the people of Ireland.
5. Understands that the recent intervention of the International Monetary Fund and European Union in the Twenty Six Counties will result in the acceleration of the neo-liberal agenda and further suffering for the people of Ireland.
6. Commits éirígí to a campaign of vigorous and sustained opposition to the interference of the International Monetary Fund and the European Union in Irish affairs.

Motion No 18
This Ard Fhéis

1. Recognises that economic stability is simply not possible while banks, insurance companies and other financial institution remain in private hands.
2. Asserts that public ownership and control of all banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions is a prerequisite for a stable and democratic economy

Motion No 19
This Ard Fhéis

1. Notes that the primary purpose of the Stormont Assembly and Executive is to administer and implement British government policy in the Six Counties.
2. Notes that the Stormont Executive has, though their Programme for Government 2008-2011, previously agreed to and implemented cut-backs in public sector services of over £1.6 billion.
3. Notes that, in March this year, the Stormont Executive agreed to and implemented further cuts in public services amounting to over £350 million.
4. Notes the Stormont Executive’s willingness to massage unemployment statistics to hide the fact that over 100,000 people are currently seeking employment in the Six Counties.
5. Notes that, in contrast, the inherent colonial and anti-working class nature of the Stormont Executive was demonstrated by its ability to secure additional funding of £1 billion for policing, prisons and courts.
6. Views the current posturing of political parties within the Stormont Executive in relation to further impending cutbacks in public sector expenditure to be hypocritical in the extreme.

Motion No 20
This Ard Fhéis

1. Notes with deep disappointment the failure of the collective leadership of the organised labour movement to provide effective leadership and opposition to the neo-liberal agendas of both the Dublin government and the Stormont executive.
2. Encourages the general membership of the trade union movement to reclaim their movement from a leadership that has abjectly failed to defend their interests.
3. Supports calls for a general strike as a means of fighting back against the austerity measures being imposed on the working class across Ireland.
4. Commits éirígí to joining with trades unionists, community and voluntary organisations and other progressive groupings in building grass-roots opposition to the cut backs being imposed by the Dublin government and Stormont Executive that are targeting the less well off and most vulnerable in our society.
5. Commits éirígí to opposing cut-backs in education, health, social welfare, housing and other public services which will hit working class communities across Ireland the hardest.

Motion No 21
This Ard Fhéis

1. Commends our partner organisations within the 1% Network for their activism in highlighting and challenging wealth inequality within Ireland.

Gender Equality

Motion No 22
This Ard Fhéis

1. Notes with disappointment the relatively small number of women who are members of éirígí.
2. Mandates the incoming Ciorcal Náisiúnta to establish a committee to examine and identify practical steps that can be taken to encourage more women to join the party and become active in the wider socialist republican struggle.

Abortion/Termination

Motion No 23
That this Ard Fhéis:

1. Mandates the incoming Ciorcal Náisiúnta to initiate a party-wide discussion on abortion/termination and related issues within one month of this Ard Fhéis, with a view to reporting back the outcome of same to the membership within three months of this Ard Fhéis.

Elections

Motion No 24
That this Ard Fhéis:

1. Mandates the incoming Ciorcal Náisiúnta to enter éirígí candidates in the 2011 Six County local elections.