TPQ: Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum

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The Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum ✏ A chara, In this period, the Irish people, and in particular Irish republicans, will mark two significant historical dates.

Firstly, the end of the War to defend the Republic (Civil War) in May 1923, which marked the defeat of republican forces and the consolidation of partition. The other significant event will be the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) on the 10th April 1998. Both were critical turning points for republicanism in Ireland.

To mark these important political events, the Peadar O'Donnell Socialist Republican Forum (PODSRF) is planning a conference from 1-00pm - 5-00pm on the 20th May in the Teachers Club, Parnell Sq., Dublin. The theme of the conference will be The lesson from history and the future for Irish republicanism in the 21st Century. The conference will examine both the aforementioned events.

The first part will deal with the impact of the defeat of republican forces and the abandonment of the goals enshrined in the 1916 Proclamation and the 1919 Democratic Programme. There will an introduction and remarks by historian Dr Brian Hanley.

The 2nd part of the conference will take the format of a panel discussion on the impact and legacy of the Good Friday Agreement on republicanism and to discuss where we go from here. Have key republican principles of national independence, sovereignty, democracy and citizenship been abandoned as a result of the out workings of the GFA?

Opening remarks by historian and political activist, Fergal Mac Bhloscaidh. The understanding of the GFA by some of this generation of republicans is a mixture of the “great betrayal” or “sellout” by key leading figures in the republican movement. Others may see it as not having delivered what had been promised. How do we understand the significant weakening of republicanism as radical force and what can and needs to be done to re-energise and re-invigorate the struggle to secure the fundamental principles of republicanism, i.e., securing national unity, independence, sovereignty and democracy, both political and economic.

For both parts of the discussion, we have invited a speaker to give their perspective on the impacts of the defeat for republicanism in 1923 as well as an overview of 25 years of the GFA. We would like to invite you to attend our conference. Prior to the conference, we would like to invite you to join us at the Garden of Remembrance for a wreath laying ceremony to honour all those republicans who fought and died in the War to Defend the Republic. You are invited to join us at both events.

In solidarity Tommy Mc Kearney, Frankie Quinn, Barry Murray, Eugene Mc Cartan.

The Lesson From History And The Future For Irish Republicanism In The 21st Century

By AM Saturday, April 8, 2023

The Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum ✏ has released the following statement concerning protests at asylum seeker accommodation.

Protesting against asylum seekers and their places of accommodation is wrong.

Asylum seekers and refugees are not responsible for creating and maintaining the grossly unfair, iniquitous system existing in Ireland today.

So no-one should allow others to use their justifiable anger at the state of our country; the collapsing public health services, money grabbing landlordism, no available public housing, poor wages, no job security.

Migrants and asylum seekers have not caused this mess or made peoples’ lives harder or deprived children of anything.

We need to channel our anger at those responsible. The blame lies with the Irish elites, the landlords both corporate and local, the employers who pay slave wages and those who govern over this state of affairs.

If people focus their anger on migrants and asylum seekers then they are letting the powers that be of the hook.

People are right to be angry but must make sure to hit the right target i.e. the 1% who run and control our lives. Kick up not down.

The solution is to change the system that’s at fault, not to blame those who are not.

Tommy McKearney … Joint-Chair Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum

Target The 1%, Not Immigrants And Refugees

By AM Sunday, January 22, 2023

Peadar O'Donnell Socialist Republican Forum ✒ calls for solidarity with Cuba.

Solidarity was always an essential cornerstone of Irish Republicanism from Wolfe Tone, New Irelander's, Fenians, the Revolutionaries of 1916 right up to the present day. The Irish people sought support and solidarity from across the world for their struggle for national freedom but also gave solidarity to those engaged in similar struggles.

Today is no different, across the planet hundreds of millions of people are attempting to find a different forward in economic and social development. This desire of the people to find ways out of poverty, hunger and brutal exploitation has and is bringing them into conflict particularly in Latin America with the United States of America.

Now is the time for all those who believe in the right of the Irish people to self-determination to come forward and stand with the Cuban people. To oppose the six decade long illegal blockade of Cuba by the USA and its allies.

Cuba has taken an alternative path of economic and social development that many of the peoples of Latin America admire and look towards. Millions have benefited for Cuban medical assistance and medical training. All Cuba has and is asking for is that this illegal blockade be lifted and that it be allowed to decide its own future and to trade with whomever its likes. To decide its own economic and social development. Similar goals and aspirations of the Irish people over many centuries.

The PODSRF has called upon like minded people to join us in a day of action and solidarity with the Cuban people and to call for an end to this illegal blockade that has and is causing so much hurt to the Cuban people. We are asking people to take a small or large action this Saturday 24th July in their village, town or city across Ireland #UNBLOCK CUBA.

Show solidarity in order to receive solidarity.

Is mise
Tommy Mc Kearney
Chairperson

Peadar O'Donnell Socialist Republican Forum

Unblock Cuba

By AM Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Tommy McKearney ✒ Over recent years a discernible pattern has been emerging in many of those countries that the BBC likes to describe as “parliamentary democracies.”

Long-established precedents are being flouted by elected power-brokers in the leading capitalist states.

While those who govern on behalf of capitalism have never been reluctant to subvert common law or to ruthlessly employ force illegally, there was for decades a degree of regulation. More like honour among thieves than anything ethical, it served as a modus vivendi that maintained a working consensus within capitalist ruling classes, both nationally and internationally.

Over the past decade, though, this convention has been breaking down. The most spectacular example was evident in the United States during the presidency of Donald Trump. The list of his norm-breaking is lengthy: reneging on a multilateral treaty with Iran, withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, blatant malpractice leading to impeachment, and the astonishing refusal to accept election results.

Not to be outdone, the British have also broken with established protocols. The Internal Market Bill gives ministers the ability to bypass international law, while Boris Johnson contemptuously overturned long-standing precedent by ignoring a damning report accusing his home secretary of bullying a civil servant.

Among other notable nonconformists there is the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, negating legal norms, and the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, speaking warmly of the old military dictatorship.

While maybe not on the same scale, the phenomenon has not passed Ireland by. Take the judicial system for a start. There was a time some decades ago when republicans didn’t recognise the authority of judges sitting in Dublin; yet never could anyone have imagined that forty years later a Supreme Court judge would tell the chief justice that he didn’t recognise his authority either. Few other incidents better illustrate the essential nature of the 26-County state. With government in endless disarray, this pillar of the establishment rudely displays the ruling class’s sense of entitlement and indeed contempt for the general public.

Not that the Woulfe is alone in holding this view. Exposed as having improperly shared confidential and restricted Government documents with one of his pals, the state’s taoiseach-in-waiting, Leo Varadkar, spun the Dáil a yarn, and walked away scot-free. In spite of committing an offence that would have had a junior civil servant summarily dismissed, the leader of Fine Gael disingenuously claimed he was acting in the national interest. As a result, he retained the full confidence of his coalition partners, Fianna Fáil and the Green Tories.

Nor does it stop at that in this, the “best wee country in the world to do business in.”

There is the jaw-dropping hubris of the “wham-bam, charge them what we can” company entrusted with building the long-awaited children’s hospital in Dublin. This project is supposedly under review by the minister for public expenditure, Michael McGrath. In spite of McGrath’s undoubtedly scrupulous supervision, the project remains a vehicle for the redistribution of taxpayers’ wealth upwards to the super-rich.

These are only some of the more egregious and outrageous recent examples of the arrogance and the incestuous nature of Ireland’s ruling class. Not only are we witness to the machinations of a deeply flawed system but we are also watching as the so-called guardians of constitutional probity break their own rules. In reality, a system that has been shaped to serve the interests of the Irish bourgeoisie is struggling to retain its hegemony and indeed legitimacy after a difficult decade of austerity, exacerbated recently by fall-out from the covid-19 pandemic.

Of course anything the Southern establishment can do the DUP in Stormont can do even worse. With the covid pandemic surging out of control and Northern hospitals struggling to cope, Arlene Foster and her group of MLAs took contempt for democracy and decency to a new level. Faced with a call for a circuit-breaking lockdown from every other party in the Assembly, the misnamed Democratic Unionists employed the “petition of concern” to block the demand. Notwithstanding that Foster and her cronies were forced into a humiliating U-turn a few days later, the fact that the right wing of unionism would and could prevent the enactment of a crucial measure designed to protect the basic health and well-being of the local population raises further questions about the very viability of the Six-County state.

Allowing for local peculiarities, there is ample evidence of a global pattern forming, a pattern indicating a distinct phase in existing capitalism and something pointing to a developing crisis. Fearful of the influence of the emerging economic powerhouse, China, yet unwilling to forgo superprofits by domestic investment in infrastructural and social wage projects, the political wing of capitalism is growing dangerously reckless.

Working-class communities everywhere have suffered as a result of the decade-long period of austerity following the economic crash of 2008. Understandably, many people in these communities are becoming frustrated. In the midst of this angst, and taking advantage of the absence of a strong socialist alternative movement, right-wing demagoguery has flourished. As in the past, it does so with the connivance of big capital.

All of which raises the question of how Ireland’s left and progressives should respond to what is likely to become an ever more serious problem.

Clearly there is some advantage in publicising the transgressions of the ruling class, if only as a means of informing the wider public. There is a limit, however, to what can be achieved by trying to challenge the bourgeoisie in their own chosen theatres of operation. A more potent strategy is required, and one that lays the theoretical foundation for a strong left-wing alternative.

There is need for a programme that promises to bring about fundamental systemic change—a programme that defines sovereign democracy as one where decisions are made by the people, in the people’s interest; a programme unambiguous about bringing an end to partition; a programme that places the means of production, distribution and exchange in the hands of the people; a programme that understands neutrality to mean ending US military involvement in Shannon Airport and No to NATO in Ireland, north and south.

Last year in Liberty Hall the Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum presented the basis for such a programme to a large gathering from around the country. The document, entitled “A Democratic Programme for a New Century,” was well received and broadly endorsed.

The Forum does not insist that its proposals are the definitive, last word on this matter. Seeing it instead as a valuable discussion document, the Forum plans to begin a series of open discussions on this theme early next year.

Make a note in your diary, and watch this space for details of time and venue.

Tommy McKearney is a left wing and trade union activist.

He is author of The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament.

Follow on Twitter @Tommymckearney

A Programme For The 21st Century

By AM Thursday, January 7, 2021

Tommy McKearney highlights the position of the Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum in response to Covid-19.

The Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum, like many groups and individuals, has watched Covid-19 take a heavy toll on the lives of working people around the country. The emergence and global spread of this virus has brought home to many people the volatile nature of the world we live in, and exposed the fragile nature of health services in Ireland. It has also opened up conversations about how we should deal with it and how to learn for future viruses and also a future Ireland should we have.

Decades of underfunding, privatisation and commercialisation of health services have weakened and undermined the public health services that people need and have access to. The creation of a two-tier health system in the two parts of Ireland has contributed to further inequality within society.

Covid-19 has also exposed outmoded thinking about how we should deal with major social and political questions, including the provision of health services to our people, from Derry to Kerry. As many leading medical experts have pointed out, it makes no sense, and is dangerous to public health, to have two separate strategies for fighting Covid-19 and two poorly funded health services where one is so badly needed.

We believe that an all-Ireland, universally accessible, free public health system would be in the best interests of the citizens. It would go a long way to ending inequality in health care. We must maximise the use of medical expertise throughout the whole country. We need to remove the profit motive out of health services, from hospitals to care homes for the elderly.

Outmoded thinking in relation to creating a single health service for all our people will endanger the present and future generations. We need to plan for the future, not to be locked in the past.

Covid-19 is not the first virus, nor will it be the last, that will have an impact on our people. The continuing destruction of the global environment is opening up new pathways for such diseases to become more regular challenges, both globally and nationally, to people’s health and the provision of health care.

Working people paid for the last crisis in lost jobs, savage cuts in wages and services, homelessness, and precarious work. During the present health crisis working people have again borne an unequal burden, with many lives lost.

Working people should not pay for this new and emerging economic crisis. We have had enough.