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Saoradh… September 26, 2016

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
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One has to wonder has this been a long time coming, the announcement yesterday of a new party – Saoradh, launched by dissident Republicans.

A range of high profile dissidents from both sides of the Border gathered at a hotel in Newry on Saturday to outline their vision for Saoradh, the Irish word for liberation.
The radical new party, which is opposed to the power-sharing government in the North, will stage demonstrations in support of republican prisoners. Its constitution says it might, at some point, contest elections.
However, if candidates are put forward at future elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Dáil or Westminster it would be on an abstentionist basis, meaning seats would not be taken if they were successful.

A message of support from NIRA prisoners and one also has to wonder how this impacts on parties already in the field with a similar programme, such as RSF. And what of SF – now, as it notes itself in response, with MLA’s TDs, Senators and MEPs as well as many many councillors. Though that alone points up the reality that the scale of the task ahead of them is daunting, doesn’t it?

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1. Paddy Healy - September 26, 2016

There are several republican political organizations critical of Sinn Féin active at the moment . They all appear to be undertaking new activities and are being re-invigorated by the vacancy created by the movement of Sinn Féin to the right. Between the Fiscal Treaty in the south and British cuts in the north and the fire-sale of huge Irish assets to international capitalists, the lack of any vestige of Irish sovereignty is obvious.
We have Republican Sinn Féin, 32-County Sovereignty Movement, Eirigi, Republican Network for Unity and now Saoradh. Doubtlessly somebody will point out others.
Of course WUAG has always been a Labour movement based republican organisation.
Left critics of Sinn Féin were elected to Stormont in their West Belfast and Derry heartlands in the Assembly elections.
We should all jointly mount an all-Ireland campaign against austerity
MORE http://wp.me/pKzXa-tz
2019 is the centenary of the First All-Ireland Dáil
Could we have recovered our sovereignty by then?

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Paddy Healy - September 26, 2016

An all-Ireland solution toThe national question is again an obvious key task of the Irish Socialis revolution -as it always has been. Connolly understood this

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JC - September 26, 2016

Does that mean that WUAG is willing to share platforms and form coalitions with the various dissident groups you name?

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Paddy Healy - September 28, 2016

the history of WUAG is that it is prepared to co-operate with genuine republicans inside or outside Sinn Fein in attempting to re-establish All Ireland sovereignty. There were a number of industrial stoppages and mas demonstrations in Clonmel and other Tipperary towns in support of the hunger strikers

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2. Joe - September 26, 2016

“We should all jointly mount …”

What’s with this ‘we’, paleface?

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Paddy Healy - September 28, 2016

We means all those individuals and groups who are opposed to austerity north and south

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3. benmadigan - September 26, 2016

do eirigi, the 1916 societies and the IRSP support/adhere to Saoradh? if not, why not? They appear to have similar, or at least an overlap in, aims.

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4. Bartholomew - September 26, 2016

‘Saoradh, the Irish word for liberation.’

Easily confused with ‘saoire’, the Irish word for holiday which sounds exactly the same. That might get them a few votes if they go for election.

Mind you, ‘Éirigí’ was what my mother used to say when she came in to open the curtains and wake us on a schoolday morning when we were kids.

I suppose in a system that has ‘Fianna Fáil’, ‘Fine Gael’ and ‘Sinn Féin’, all three of which mean exactly the same thing (‘The people of Ireland’), nomenclature is bound to be idiosyncratic.

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Paddy Healy - September 28, 2016

“Eirigi” of course means “arise” or “rise up”. Any current or former member of Eirigí with whom I have worked has been a serious and honest person. There is a new popular surge against British cuts in the north which are being implemented by SF-DUP.
It is inevitable that this will throw up several political organisations which will have differences on policy, strategy and tactics in the early stages but also important levels of agreement.
It is in the interest of those implementing the cuts to mock these developments. But the very emergence of these organisations, together with the election results in West Belfast and Derry, means that Sinn Féin is in serious political trouble.

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Paddy Healy - September 28, 2016

Anybody who does not believe that Sinn Féin is in serious political trouble should listen to recent views of Bernadette Devlin McAliskey
Bernadette Devlin McAliskey ” In the North “Sinn Féin are losing the trust and the support of the people who once voted for them, the Catholic working class”
In an Interview with Ronan Burtenshaw in USA left-wing Journal “Jacobin Magazine”
Full Interview http://wp.me/pKzXa-tz

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5. Joe - September 26, 2016

The Soldiers of Destiny, the Sept of the Gael and We Ourselves all mean ‘the People of Ireland’? I don’t think so.

Saoradh pronounced exactly the same as saoire? Nearly but not quite in Tír Chonaill or Conamara dialects, not even close in Munster.

My guess is they chose Saoradh cos of the close pronunciation links with Saor Eire. They’re going for the massive constituency of Saor Eire supporters out there who have had nobody to support for so long.

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Bartholomew - September 27, 2016

Joe, that’s exactly what they mean. Fáil means Ireland, not destiny. And who does Sept of the Gael and We Ourselves refer to except the people of Ireland? These are the labels of a consensus idea of politics, where the worst thing you can say about an issue is that it is ‘divisive’ (as someone pointed out in the thread on Stephen Collins and political cliché).

Point taken about Munster, but I defy you to tell the difference between saoradh and saoire as pronounced by anyone from Connaught or Donegal, as you say.

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6. Enzo - September 27, 2016

Have to say, I’ve never had the WUAG down as Dissos!

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Paddy Healy - September 28, 2016

Sinn Féin describes anybody who disagrees with them politically on any serious matter as “dissos”. This is an attempt to link all critics to military activity in order to avoid serious political discussion. Accusing them of acting for MI5 is another stratagem to avoid discussion.

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7. Jim Monaghan - September 27, 2016

Still wedded to support of a suicidal strategy which causes deaths and leads to the prison or the grave. Support for a strategy without any political analysis about whether there is any mass support or that it fits in with the objective situation. No evidence of a genuine rethink. Yes, there is alienation caused by SF being slowly being absorbed like FF before, but this is not an alternative. There a time and a place for armed struggle, this is not it. With these groups the masses are consigned to be at most cheerleaders to the anointed militarist elite.
There is still a need for a Connolly based Socialist Republicanism. The nature of imperialist oppression shows that. But it has to be based on mass struggle and answerable to the masses in some shape or form.

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CL - September 27, 2016

” A Corbyn-led Labour is now far closer to the values of Connolly than the current Irish Labour Party.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/roger-cole-why-jeremy-corbyn-will-be-the-uk-s-next-prime-minister-1.2805701

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Paddy Healy - September 28, 2016

You are right Jim
Physical “force on principle” and in all circumstances is counter-productive
What is required now is not physical force but a mass agitational campaign against austerity north and south. I have been advocating this for some time

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Paddy Healy - September 29, 2016

Lest there be any misunderstanding…..Yes, the use of physical force in current circumstances is counter-productive.What is required is a 32-county mass agitation against austerity and directed against the quisling regimes at Stormont and Leinster House
Read here: http://wp.me/pKzXa-tz
But of course revolutionaries should also retain a military capacity until final victory. Indeed Connolly advised the Citizen Army to hold on to their guns even if a 32-county republic were established!
The folly of winding down military capacity was demonstrated when nationalist areas were left defenceless against British forces and the catholic ex-servicemen(nationalist-ex-British Army) had to fill the breach
Imperialism and its subsidiary quisling regimes never have any reservation about using extreme military measures however savage. The actions of the Free State in the civil war and of the British in the 6-counties for over a century are examples.

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8. Jim Monaghan - September 29, 2016

An excellent critique here. https://ansionnachfionn.com/2016/09/28/saoradh-the-revolutionary-irish-republican-party/
Wish I could write that well.

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9. roddy - September 29, 2016

Quite a few bully boys in this new travesty of a party.

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