The following is an edited version of the speech delivered by the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, to the party's ardfheis in Dublin on Saturday:
I speak to you today at the last ardfheis of Sinn Fein in the twentieth century - a century whose opening witnessed the origins of our party. A century, which as it draws to a close, has seen Irish republicans advance our goal of an independent and free Ireland.
Emancipation and empowerment are the key themes of Sinn Fein. We envisage not only the political independence of our country, but also the social and economic liberation of all citizens within it. This means freedom from foreign domination, freedom from ignorance and fear, and freedom from poverty and inequality.
It has been a difficult year for us but in these tasks there is no room for despondency or complacency. That is why the oldest political party on this island is also the youngest - in its spirit and very membership. Idealism is not dead in Ireland while Sinn Fein lives. People require a vision of where we are going and what we can be, and Sinn Fein is not afraid to proffer it. Our endeavour must be to spell out the policies and detail the tactics that will lead to a new Ireland in the new millennium. Republicans can also look back on the last year with some degree of satisfaction. We have built our political strength on both sides of the border. This increased electoral support has been matched by an unprecedented development of the party's organisational capability. But we have still a long way to go. We need to build, to organise, to recruit and to develop our skills.
Last year's ardfheiseanna saw us making huge changes to our constitution and taking enormously difficult but important decisions in respect of the Good Friday agreement. We also celebrated the election of Caoimhghin O Caolain as a TD. This followed the election of two MPs and our strongest electoral mandate for decades in the North. Since then our party has scaled new heights with the election of 18 Assembly members on an increased vote. But we could have done better. Our strategists and party managers have pin-pointed new areas of growth, and in the time ahead we need to focus on these, and with confidence develop and build upon them.
Next month fresh opportunities will arise to confirm and increase that growth. Local elections will take place in the 26 counties.
Sinn Fein's election campaign is up and running. We believe the local government elections will signal the emergence of Sinn Fein as a major radical force in Irish politics. I am confident that the republican project will be supported wherever we have developed our potential.
Elections to the European Parliament also will take place across the 32 counties. In many ways these elections are the important contest. Not only can we make real gains but they provide a clear opportunity to amplify the republican position on the economy, on neutrality, on European policy, and on many related issues.
It is of crucial importance that we build a 32-county-wide struggle. Our country is facing two huge political problems - the north, and the whole question of the political and economic direction of the southern state, particularly our role in Europe. It is hard for a small country to face two major problems at once. It is even harder for a national independence struggle to deal with such a conjuncture.
One of these two problems, the north, has absorbed the energy, thinking and resources of the best elements of the Irish people, leaving the other problem virtually untackled. The key strategic challenge facing Irish republicanism at this time - in the context of the re-conquest of Ireland - is to advance our work in the north, while at the same time establishing a capability to mount a real challenge to the central political and economic line of the southern political establishment in the coming period so that we can build support for the alternative: Irish unity and independence.
Here in the 26 counties, a cosy, conservative consensus has emerged among the main parties in Leinster House. For example, on neutrality Fianna Fail has reneged on its own commitment through a U-turn on membership of the NATO-inspired and cynically named Partnership for Peace. Fianna Fail is not the only party seeking to foist Partnership for Peace on the people of this state. That has been Fine Gael policy for a long time. And the Labour party only recently cobbled together a face-saving position in support of a referendum. Sinn Fein believes that there is no role for the European Union in military and defence matters. These should be left up to the individual states. International peacekeeping should be under the auspices of the United Nations. We are totally opposed to membership of the so-called Partnership for Peace.
This party is for positive neutrality in action. We have a world view, as well as a distinctly Irish view. We make common cause with oppressed people throughout the world against economically and militarily powerful states.
- the poorer nations of the world representing the majority of humanity who are crippled by a foreign debt which keeps them permanently impoverished. The Irish government should be pro-actively supporting the campaign which is demanding that this debt be scrapped. This is our place in international affairs. Promoting the peaceful resolutions of conflicts, for disarmament, protection of the environment and the fair distribution of the worlds resources. We cannot do this if we acquiesce in the creation of a European Super-state with a military arm.
Sinn Fein is a party which can be trusted to give expression to the spreading disquiet among Irish people at the perils of Partnership for Peace, and the threats it may pose to the lives and safety of Irish men and women. There must be a referendum on the subject if the government is really intent on membership. But in the meantime we have to raise this debate in the European election in particular and public consciousness generally.
We believe that the NATO bombing of Serbia should end. Slobodan Milosevic is a gross violator of human rights and all right-thinking people will repudiate his actions. But other such violators have been supported and armed by the NATO allies, including the Indonesian regime, which is still committing genocide in East Timor, and Turkey which ruthlessly suppresses the Kurds. There should be a determined effort for a peaceful negotiated settlement under the auspices of the United Nations. I urge the government to call for an emergency meeting of the neutral member-states of the European Union to bring forward a peaceful alternative to this war.
Essentially, the issue of neutrality is about our self-respect and self-confidence as a people. It is about how we see ourselves. It is about our world view. How sad and tragic it is, as we strive to take all British and Irish guns out of Irish politics we are being asked to keep the nuclear bomb in European politics and to break international law by backing a war when we should be actively working to bring all war to a speedy end. By the same token it is amazing how tonnes of bombs dropped in the Balkans are morally and politically acceptable while the silent guns of the IRA, we are told, are a threat to peace.
Finally, on this issue all of us have been moved by the plight of the refugees. Their stories of ethnic cleansing, of rape, murder and brutality, can be replicated across the world. There are millions of refugees from many parts of this planet and the developed world needs to do more to help them. The Irish government needs to do more. And in so doing the Irish people must extend a genuine cead mile failte. We Irish who have suffered so much from racism, we who have sought refuge world wide from political, economic and social upheaval in our own country have to exorcise any trace of racism from within us. Our message from this ardfheis to those who proclaim a narrow sense of Irishness is a clear one. We want none of it. We say no to racism, and we say no to bigotry.
Many people on this island, particularly young people, are cynical about politics. Who can blame them? The failure of politics led to the partition of this island and to almost 30 years of war. Even now a peace process is being resisted by those who are against the primacy of politics and who cling even yet to the old agenda. Here in this state people feel betrayed as scandal follows scandal. Stories of the ill-treatment of those in the care of the state, particularly young children and the mentally ill, have led many, and especially the young, to question the morality of all of this. Scandals of child abuse have infected some of the main institutions, and the extent of the cover-ups have shocked many citizens.
It is against this background that people have caught the smell of the stench of corruption - the culture of brown envelopes - which surrounds the bigger parties. This corruption may not always entail violation of the law, but it is still morally reprehensible. By putting money in the pocket of a politician, you put that politician in your pocket. So out there among the people, side by side with their cynicism there is a necessity and a desire for a wind of change which will sweep away sleaze and cronyism and restore respect in politics. More generally, people who want this change are seeking a party which is not comprised of place-seekers, gombeenism and those in search of illicit monetary gain. Sinn Fein is that party. Our credentials are clear and our principles are intact.
Decades of emigration displaced many Irish people. Now the Celtic Tiger is bringing some of them home. But the Celtic Tiger is partitionist. It has a hard heart. Even the relatively well off, particularly young people with decent incomes can no longer afford houses. The Celtic Tiger does not cherish all the children of the nation equally and the plight of the less well off, the people on the poverty line, and the conditions of the disadvantaged remain unchanged. Drug abuse, housing shortages, crowded classrooms and hospital queues are not the mark of a just and equitable society. Meagre handouts are not enough. Citizens have the right to equality, to real jobs, to decent homes, access to education at all levels and to a proper health service. Citizens have the right to a real future as equals for themselves and for their children.
We believe that local communities must have as much say as possible in how they are governed, the needs that are defined and met, the facilities that are provided, the sustenance of family integrity. The scourge of drugs is a particular evil that must constantly be confronted and eliminated.
The most important political development in the past 14 months, and probably in recent modern Irish history, was the Good Friday agreement and its endorsement in referendum by all of the people of this island. All of the citizens of this island, whether in the north of Antrim or in west Cork, in Connemara or Dublin, or whatever part of Ireland you live in, have a stake in the agreement. Clearly, the vast majority of people who voted Yes did so because they wanted to see a transformation of the situation in the north. Sinn Fein decided in a historic ardfheis to advocate a Yes vote in the referendums. This decision caused difficulties for many of us and it was taken after weeks of intense debate which saw republicans accept that the Good Friday document is not an end in itself, but is a transition towards a full national democracy in Ireland. For Irish republicans the struggle for full independence and sovereignty is not over. The struggle continues. Let it be clearly understood that Sinn Fein is neither weary in our stance nor limited in our horizon.
We made substantial concessions in committing ourselves to the agreement. We did so in the context of our overall objectives, and our commitment to the peace process, and because we believed that this would advance the peace process and move us towards those objectives. It is worth noting that the concessions made by us have been largely ignored by those who repeat the propaganda line that republicans have given nothing. We committed ourselves to implementing the agreement and we have participated in the process on that basis and in good faith. This party has honoured all our commitments. The unionist political leadership and the British government have not. The Good Friday agreement is now in its second year. The executive, the all-Ireland ministerial council, and the other all-Ireland bodies should now be functioning with full power. Instead only one institution, the Assembly, is in partial shadow formation. This is the one institution most desired by unionists and least desired by nationalists and republicans.
Other aspects of the agreement are in abeyance also. The most obvious of these is the right to freedom from sectarian harassment and the right to freely choose one's place of residence. This is most sharply felt by the people of Garvaghy Road. Portadown is the Alabama of these islands and the killing of Rosemary Nelson is the most savage and recent evidence of that. In the wider context, hundreds of people have been forced to flee their homes because of intimidation and violence.
I welcome David Trimble's talks for all of the elected representatives for Upper Bann. The negative response of some Orange leaders and of the DUP is not unexpected and Sinn Fein is participating positively and in support of the residents. The Irish government also has a responsibility to defend the people of the Garvaghy Road. Since last July the people there have experienced over 10 months of living under siege. Racism and sectarianism have been the daily diet of the men, women and children who have had to endure over 160 loyalist marches in and around that district. The situation for these people has got worse since the Good Friday agreement. Sinn Fein pledges our support to the people of Garvaghy Road. Their plight is proof of how far we have to go before there is justice. I also want to commend all those families, individuals and groups, who have campaigned on justice issues. In keeping with human rights organisations across the world, we have pressed for a number of independent and internationally based investigations and inquiries. The recent killing of Rosemary Nelson, the Robert Hamill case, and the release of Lee Clegg all demonstrate the corrupt nature of the British judicial system in the north and the unacceptability of the RUC.
There is also the Pat Finucane case and the role of Brian Nelson and other British intelligence agents. People here in Dublin have suffered also as a result of collusion. Sinn Fein supports the demands of the relatives of victims of the Dublin-Monaghan bombings for a tribunal of inquiry, and I call upon the Irish government to set this up.
We have pressed the British government and the Irish government on all these issues at every opportunity and we will continue to do so.
The British government is also obliged under the agreement to publish an overall strategy on demilitarisation. This should tackle among other things the dismantling of hilltop forts in south Armagh, Derry and Belfast (Divis Tower, New Lodge flats and RVH property at Broadway); the standing down of the RIR; the ending of British army patrolling; the withdrawal of plastic bullets; action on the 140,000 licensed weapons; keeping the RUC out of sensitive areas; the closure of the interrogation centres at Castlereagh, Gough and the Strand Road. This was promised last November. We are still waiting. While the Patten Commission was set up in June 1998 there has been no change on the ground in the behaviour and attitude of the RUC. In the 11 months since its establishment more and more evidence has emerged exposing the RUC's brutality and sectarianism and reinforcing its unacceptability. For nationalists policing is a touchstone issue. A new police service must be established. The RUC must go. It is also important to point out that there have been no changes to the emergency legislation. All such laws in place before the signing of the agreement are still in place. In fact, more draconian laws have been introduced since then in both states on this island. There has been no real progress on the critical issue of the equality agenda.
Nothing concrete has yet happened on the Irish language front.
The agreement is now over one year old. It is clearly in crisis. Indeed, the hopes and relative confidence of many people in the north come mostly from the continuation of the cease-fires and not from any confidence in the political process, even though there has been some obvious and welcome progress there. There has been a promise of change, not yet realised, but clearly foreshadowed in the Good Friday agreement.
But progress in the search for peace has been thwarted by those who have seen the peace process as a party political contest or war by other means. They ignore - and indeed some may even be involved in or encouraging - the constant campaign of bomb attacks against Catholic homes and property, including over 120 individual attacks on Catholic families and at least six deaths since we last met here in the RDS.
These elements, including securo-crats, sections of unionism north and south, and parts of the British establishment, refuse to recognise the significance of the IRA's role in creating and maintaining the conditions in which peace can be established.
I know that there is a lot of justifiable anger and frustration, among republicans especially, and nationalists generally, at the refusal of the British government and the unionists to implement all aspects of the Good Friday agreement.
Our history and more importantly our own experiences teach us that thus far this century unionism has exerted a veto and it has been this veto and British policy towards Ireland which are at the core of conflict and injustice in our country. I have been challenged and confronted by this justifiable anger many times since the last ardfheis but particularly since the negotiations at Hillsborough. I know our party well enough to know that these doubts will not necessarily be voiced at an ardfheis but in private meetings and in one to one conversations, activists have made it very clear where they stand and how they view the British and Irish governments' handling of the situation and the approach of sections of the SDLP and the unionists. Notwithstanding this, we have a job of work to do and we should not be mesmerised by the tactical manoeuvrings of the moment. We need to have a longer-term view - a strategic view - of where we are going so that we can apply ourselves to getting there.
Recently, I said that I was prepared to stretch our constituency. Some republicans understandably asked me what that meant. It means us being far-sighted. It means us working out if and how we can move and it means most importantly doing all of this in the context and the terms of the Good Friday agreement. And it means the governments and the other participants doing likewise. The current negotiations cannot go on indefinitely. In Downing Street this week we urged the British government and the Irish government to set a deadline and to bring these negotiations to a conclusion. We also urged them to reconvene last Thursday's talks as quickly as possible. For our part we will be meeting with the UUP on Monday morning. We remain in regular contact with the other parties but these conversations cannot go on forever. The governments have to act.
At the beginning of this latest round of talks we put a number of ideas, set firmly within the terms of the Good Friday agreement, which we felt could break the present deadlock. Maybe they will not have this effect. Maybe this British government, despite a good start when it came into power, is not up to the historic task facing it at this time because the only way forward is through Mr Blair asserting the primacy of the peace process, of the Good Friday agreement, and focusing on righting the wrongs that have endured for too long as a direct consequence of British involvement in our affairs. Let me tell you what we have been telling the British government and the Irish government. First of all, we have been telling the British government that we want them to leave our country. We have also told both governments that the implementation of the Good Friday agreement is the bedrock of this phase of the peace process. There can be no re-negotiation of the agreement; no rewriting of the agreement by any of the parties to it and no further parking of its implementation. The various provisions of the agreement are quite clear. The multiple breaches of the agreement are well known and have threatened the entire process. This must stop. Let me also try to give some assurances. I want to make it absolutely clear to the people of this island and to our many friends and allies in the US, in South Africa and elsewhere in the world, that Sinn Fein is totally committed to the peace process. As I said in my opening remarks we are on the threshold of a new millennium - a new century. This compels us to develop new politics, new ways of dealing with old problems, new ways of understanding each other.
Is it too much to hope for, to expect, to work towards, to ensure that the century we are leaving behind is the last century the people of this island will be in violent conflict with each other?
In recent years Sinn Fein has prioritised our work with unionist people. We have learned much about their perceptions of us as republicans and their views of the nationalist people. We have learned much about the state of mind that unionists are in.
It is true to say, and we recognise this, that they are living in a siege mentality. They believe they are under attack from many quarters, from republicans and nationalists and they cannot trust either the British or Irish governments.
They fear for their way of life, for their religious liberty, for their identity. Protestants and unionists have been in Ireland for four centuries yet they feel their belonging here to be precarious.
That might seem hard for republicans to understand, given the experience nationalists in the six counties have had under unionist domination since partition. But if we are to be reconciled with our unionist neighbours then we must accept how they see themselves and work to change the circumstances in which they make these judgements.
At present, they trust only themselves. As a consequence, many of them are, euphemistically speaking, circling the wagons, retreating into a lager world of their own creation which reinforces their fears and suspicions.
We are constantly looking for ways of building bridges between us and it is my belief that the majority of unionists want this process to work. We believe the Good Friday agreement is the foundation upon which new relationships between unionists, nationalists and republicans can be forged. It provides for new institutions, the Assembly, the Executive, the all-Ireland council wherein we can all work together for the good of all the people of this island. The sooner these are established, the quicker we can begin the process of national reconciliation.
It is, of course, a source of deep frustration that unionist political leaders have yet to respect the democratic mandate of Sinn Fein and the rights of our electorate and are not prepared to embrace the provisions of the Good Friday agreement.
However, let me repeat what I have said many times to unionists from this podium. Republicans have no wish to discriminate against you or to dominate you, or to marginalise you, or to drive you from this island, or to make you second-class citizens in the land of your birth.
We want to go forward in agreement with you so that we can all live in peace, justice and harmony together. This means recognising each other's integrity as well as listening to each other.
But at the heart of this process of national reconciliation there needs to be an acceptance that there is going to be change. The old agenda has failed. It cannot work any longer. The Ireland of the 21st century must celebrate our diversity and all our people must go forward as equals. There can and there will be no more second-class citizens.
This is a major job for all of us. But it will be particularly so for the two people chosen by the ardchomhairle to be our ministers in the new institutions. If and when they are established this will be an entirely new area of struggle for us. But I believe that our nominees will do a tremendous job. They will need our full support. Please acknowledge Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brun, whom we will be nominating as Sinn Fein ministers.
Finally, let me reassure republican activists. Sinn Fein's position is very clear. We understand our obligations under the Good Friday agreement and I have spelt these out privately and publicly. We have also made it clear both privately and publicly, that Sinn Fein cannot deliver the demand for IRA weapons no matter how this is presented. Sinn Fein's clear intention is to manage this phase of the process so that we emerge with real progress in the search for peace. Let me remind you all once again that the democratic and republican position will only be advanced by clear strategic thinking and by intelligent, disciplined and forward-thinking activists. We are about shaping the future. That is our collective task.
The core of republicanism, both semantically and ideologically, is the public, that is, the people. The people must be sovereign. That means government of the people by the people. But what ultimately is the point of republicanism unless it signifies not only political democracy, but the maximal welfare of the maximum number? We want an economic democracy, as well as a political democracy. A genuine republic must entail, not alone a novel political dispensation, but a new social and economic order. It must be based on enabled collective self-help.
As I said to start with, this century opened with the seeds of Sinn Fein being sown. It closes with our organisation firmly growing throughout Ireland. The next century will commence with a further expansion of Sinn Fein. There is business to be completed, the final establishment of a united, democratic, and progressive Republic of Ireland, and Sinn Fein is the party to complete it.
We want to shape the future. And we shall.
How sad and tragic it is, as we strive to take all British and Irish guns out of Irish politics we are being asked to keep the nuclear bomb in European politics and to break international law by backing a war when we should be actively working to bring all war to a speedy end. By the same token it is amazing how tonnes of bombs dropped in the Balkans are morally and politically acceptable while the silent guns of the IRA, we are told, are a threat to peace