butchersapron said:
Is this you admitting that you're not an irish republican then?
I am a Republican and an Irish Nationalist and member of RSF.
Sean Sabhat of Garryowen is a distant relative, RSF are social and economic distributists. Who believe in a localised distibutist economy as imagined by Cannon Heyes and others. WE are neither communists nor capitalists.
COMMUNITIES
"Our vision of a new type of society in Ireland clearly differs from the whole thrust of EU policy which subjects us to the collective interests of the major West European power centres. Despite some recent successes by Green parties in various countries and some EU legislation on the environment, conventional transnational capitalism, more and more centralised, and consuming vast resources, constitutes the basis of the EU and its policies.
It is difficult to avoid the decision that ultimately, in order to develop Ireland in accordance with our Basic Values, it will be necessary to seek a new arrangement, apart from full membership, with the EU. Furthermore, we do not agree with the rigging of the conditions of trade against the developing countries, which is based on domination and creates dependency.
We consider that each generation of the human race, in its turn, is the custodian of the Earth. The human family has a duty to protect, conserve and nurture the earth and to live in a fashion which will provide for further generations. Sinn Féin Poblachtach will welcome any international initiative to construct a new, sustainable and caring world economy which would recognise the rights of all nations and peoples. We feel that Ireland, as a nation which has experienced colonialism within Europe could make a special contribution to this work.
Our democratic socialist viewpoint makes us call into question the role of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other global institutions. Seven rich, high-consumption, high-pollution countries, the USA, France, Britain, Italy, Japan, Germany, Canada and Russia, under the umbrella of G8, have far too much influence over world development and trade. The economics they practice condemn millions of people to poverty and even threaten the extinction of life on the planet. The word 'economics' comes from the Greek and originally meant 'managing the household'. It is time the household of all humankind was managed in an equitable manner, based on democracy and sustainable, non-damaging development.
In the democratic society which we seek to establish the structures of both political and economic life will be of critical importance. The proposed political structures are outlined in ÉIRE NUA, and are based on the principle of subsidiarity. The nation is a community of communities and each local community will have its measure of autonomy and people will be informed and involved in decisions. This will bring out the commitment which is the prerequisite of progress.
We do not seek to abolish private property, but we do reiterate the declaration in the Democratic Programme of the first Dáil Éireann in 1919 that 'all right to private property must be subordinated to the public right and welfare'.
Conventional economics is based on materialistic values, centralisation and economies of scale, and ignores the social and environmental costs involved in both capitalist-style and soviet-style development. A quotation from one of the most influential economists of the twentieth century, Maynard Keynes, is revealing:
'For at least another hundred years we must pretend to ourselves and to everyone that fair is foul and foul is fair, for foul is useful and fair is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still. For only they can lead us out of the tunnel of economic necessity into daylight."