Planning now needed to secure an equal and united Ireland
26 June 2024
Speaking on a panel at the Ireland’s Future conference in Belfast today, Labour Leader Ivana Bacik TD has urged all supporters of reunification to engage now in preparations for a referendum on unity.
Deputy Bacik will highlight the Labour Party’s position paper on a united Ireland and called on other political groupings to engage in similar deliberative processes.
Deputy Bacik said:
“As the prospect of a referendum on Irish unity continues to crystallise, we in Labour restate our commitment to a realrepublic across the island of Ireland.
That is one which values equality over semantics. Ending poverty and embracing pluralism should be the prize for republicans, not simply swapping the majoritarianism of the past for a new one.
“Particularly at this time, when we see xenophobic politics bedding into political systems at home and abroad, nativism must be given no place in the campaign for unity. Misty-eyed idealism cannot obscure the real challenges we face from paramilitary organisations and the far right.
“Those ideas must be roundly rejected. Political vacuums cannot be allowed to form for them to exploit.
“At our most recent Labour Party Conference in March, Labour members debated and adopted a position paper on achieving a united Ireland.
“While supporting unequivocally the Good Friday Agreement, we recognise that it must be updated and refreshed, to reflect the changed political landscape we have, a quarter of a century later.
“Preparations for unity referendums must be robust and inclusive. We in Labour believe that an all-island citizens’ assembly – or assemblies – must be constituted, and the old Green and White Paper tradition renewed.
“As part of that process, the Labour Party will advocate strongly for a united Ireland which is based on the principles of social democracy, feminism, tolerance and equality. Uniting this island without fundamentally challenging the ways in which our existing political systems leave people on the margins would be disastrous.
“It is widely acknowledged that we now stand on the precipice of opportunity when it comes to a united Ireland. To fail to plan for that referendum – and what comes after it – is to squander that great opportunity and to fail future generations and those which came before us.”
ENDS
Labour’s position paper on Uniting Ireland – https://labour.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Uniting-Ireland-Labour-Party-Position-Paper-2024-1.pdf