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The Restoration of National Sovereignty is not a Right-Wing Aspiration 32CSM Responds to Fourthwrite article   Andy Martin, Assistant Secretary, 32 County Sovereignty Movement   I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, to counter the allegations that we are in someway a right-wing organisation. In a recent edition of the Fourthwrite magazine Gerry Ruddy of the IRSP claims that the RIRA-32CSM are essentially right wing. Firstly, the 32CSM have no organisational links to the RIRA so it is a mistake to label their politics in the same breath. While the 32CSM respect the right of Irish people to bear arms in defence of Irish sovereignty, it is wrong to assume that the RIRA have any input into our movement and vice versa. Secondly, the 32CSM exist primarily to defend Irish sovereignty, that is the right of the Irish people as a unit to determine their own future. We recognise that the Good Friday Agreement is a step away from sovereignty built as it is on continued partition and the unionist veto. The restoration of Irish sovereignty would require the ending of imperialist rule in Ireland, surely there are few rightwing anti-imperialist movements in existence. Our movement is not only opposed to British interference in Irish affairs but also U.S. interference. We realise that the GFA is the preferred solution of the British, American and 26 counties' administrations and consequently these administrations are hostile to the demand for national sovereignty. We are equally hostile to their administrations because their interest in Ireland is an interest in markets as opposed to what is beneficial to the Irish people as a whole. There is a belief in some quarters that the 32CSM somehow consider themselves to be the Real Sinn Féin, nothing could be further from the truth. It is true that a 32 County Sovereignty Committee was formed within Sinn Féin prior to the signing of the Belfast Agreement. This committee found its members being harassed and expelled for refusing to compromise on the sovereignty issue. Those who were expelled or resigned went on to form the 32 County Sovereignty Movement together with former members of Republican Sinn Féin, IRSP, SWP, ex-prisoners, ex-volunteers and others. The movement does not claim to be a government in waiting nor does it claim to be the legitimate heirs of anything. We believe that the last legitimate government in Ireland was voted for by the people in 1918, this does not mean that it is still the legitimate government, it simply recognises the fact that any future legitimacy must come from the Irish people expressing their wishes as a single unit without any external interference. The 32CSM is not a political party, there is no party line that its members have to follow. Debate is welcomed within the movement, as it is our belief that a lack of debate has weakened the republican movement in the past. We also welcome debate with all shades of republicanism and socialism. We are not elitist and will work with anyone who is progressive and who understands the republican and anti-imperialist argument. Indeed our original constitution stated that the first aim of the movement was to "seek to achieve broad unity amongst the republican family on the single issue of Irish sovereignty". The constitution was amended slightly at the 2002 AGM moving from the single-issue position to the point where the movement would "promote the revolutionary ideals of republicanism and to this end involve itself in resisting all forms of colonialism and imperialism". When speaking of sovereignty we should bear in mind the words of Padraig Pearse: "The nation's sovereignty extends not only to all men and women of the nation, but to all its material possessions; the nation's soil and all its resources, all the wealth and the wealth producing processes within the nation". Anyone who agrees with the above already agrees with the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, anyone who doesn't should re-examine what they do believe. Page updated 15 Jan 2008 Ireland's OWN Logo by Eamann Website Design and Celtic Background by Míchealín Daugherty Copyright © 2008 Ireland's OWN All Rights Reserved.