Democracy: The Last Stand.

Definition of DEMOCRACY

: a form of government in which people choose leaders by voting

: a country ruled by democracy

: an organization or situation in which everyone is treated equally and has equal rights



Full Definition of DEMOCRACY

1

a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majority

b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

2 : a political unit that has a democratic government

3 : the principles and policies of the Democratic party in the United States

4 : the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority

5 : the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges

Definition of REPUBLIC

: a country that is governed by elected representatives and by an elected leader (such as a president) rather than by a king or queen

Full Definition of REPUBLIC

1

a (1) : a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president (2) : a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government

b (1) : a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law

(2) : a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government

c : a usually specified republican government of a political unit <the French Fourth Republic>

2 : a body of persons freely engaged in a specified activity <the republic of letters>

3 : a constituent political and territorial unit of the former nations of Czechoslovakia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or Yugoslavia

"Democracy." “Republic” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 17 June 2015. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democracy>.

I felt it was important to remind ourselves what it is that the Irish Democratic Party is defending and why we believe that it needs defending in the first place.  Given the definition from Merriam-Webster above we can see that Democracy is the political system where the people hold the supreme power, are recognised as and are treated equally under the law and that no hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges may exist.  

In short:  The people are the client of the State. 

Republic only partially agrees with democracy in placing supreme power into the hands of a body of people who are entitled to vote; which is not quite the same thing.  A Republic can exist with a hierarchy of privileged citizens looking down on ordinary working civilians who enjoy less representation all supported by powerless serfs with no representation.  This distinction is important.  It means that the Irish Republic could easily and quite legally slip away from being a democratically robust Republic unless we constantly police our government and its connections.  

In short: The State can end up being the client of the people.

Let’s look critically at the Republic of Ireland, which constituted as a Republic and operates under democratic principles.  Nothing in our constitution guarantees inalienable equality of rights and duties upon all of its citizens. What we enjoy as our rights are more the result of tradition and ambient culture than constituted for by the founders of our nation.  

We simply do not have guaranteed equal rights in the Republic of Ireland. 

The guarantee of equality such as it is in Article 40.1 of the Constitution is undermined by its own text. This is the first of our constitutional fudges against democracy as planned all along by the founders of Ireland who didn’t fancy sacrificing their new found status at the top.

All citizens shall, as human persons, be held equal before the law.

This shall not be held to mean that the State shall not in its enactments have due regard to differences of capacity, physical and moral, and of social function.

Which reminds me of George Orwell’s Animal Farm:
“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”

The guarantee of equal status is in competition with an equal guarantee of individual freedoms. This tension between the two competing guarantees forms the loophole through which much of what is wrong with Irish political life has mouldered, festered and spored over the last forty years.  See a much more qualified legal opinion than my own here:

Why is article 40.1 of the Irish constitution considered to be of limited and restricted scope?  

It gets worse for the little guy the more one looks into Articles 40-44 (Fundamental Rights) and your mind will be blown by reading Article 45 (Directive Principles of Social Policy)

Our constitution provides legal fudge after legal fudge to ensure that people or a companies with the cash to employ clever barristers can and usually do ignore the fundamental rights and equalities of fellow citizens in favour of their individual rights.

Article 45 (Directive Principles of Social Policy) however couldn’t have been more fully ignored by the last two governments. It is abundantly clear that most of what has happened in Ireland since the bailout is simply anti-constitutional (which is legal) but not necessarily unconstitutional (which would be illegal). 

You read that right: our Fianna Fáil / Green Party government and our Fine Gael / Labour government have done the polar opposite to what is written in the Constitution without the slightest hint of complaint emanating from our legal profession, the opposition, our expensive civil service or even our so-quick-to-take-umbrage-over-other-people’s-failings, seething money pit, national broadcaster. 

Why is this?

Because of the preamble to Article 45 contains the following über-fudge:

The principles of social policy set forth in this Article are intended for the general guidance of the Oireachtas. The application of those principles in the making of laws shall be the care of the Oireachtas exclusively, and shall not be cognisable by any Court under any of the provisions of this Constitution.

So we have what is essentially a ‘wish list’ of principles which are not enforceable by the courts. When push comes to shove, Article 45 amounts to nothing more than empty words.  But just look at these empty words and gape in wonder at how they have been specifically betrayed.

1

The State shall strive to promote the welfare of the whole people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice and charity shall inform all the institutions of the national life.

2

The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing:–

i ) That the citizens (all of whom, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood) may through their occupations find the means of making reasonable provision for their domestic needs.

ii) That the ownership and control of the material resources of the community may be so distributed amongst private individuals and the various classes as best to subserve the common good.

iii) That, especially, the operation of free competition shall not be allowed so to develop as to result in the concentration of the ownership or control of essential commodities in a few individuals to the common detriment.

iv) That in what pertains to the control of credit the constant and predominant aim shall be the welfare of the people as a whole.

v) That there may be established on the land in economic security as many families as in the circumstances shall be practicable.

3

 1° The State shall favour and, where necessary, supplement private initiative in industry and commerce.

2° The State shall endeavour to secure that private enterprise shall be so conducted as to ensure reasonable efficiency in the production and distribution of goods and as to protect the public against unjust exploitation.

4

1° The State pledges itself to safeguard with especial care the economic interests of the weaker sections of the community, and, where necessary, to contribute to the support of the infirm, the widow, the orphan, and the aged.

2° The State shall endeavour to ensure that the strength and health of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children shall not be abused and that citizens shall not be forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their sex, age or strength.

Try to imagine the Ireland that would exist if these social policies were cognisable and enforceable in law. It looks much different, doesn’t it?  Imagine if even just Section 2 (iii) and 2 (iv) were enforceable by law. Just imagine what that would have meant to the 50,000 families threatened with eviction, the currently homeless, and the Clerys workers just this week.

As Johnny Rotten famously said on stage in San Francisco on the breakup of The Sex Pistols:

So the social contract underpinning our country, our democracy and our peace has been completely torn up and a new contract (that we never demanded nor did we ever get to read) has replaced it. 

In short: The people are no longer the client of the State. private investments and free markets have become the client of the State despite the fact that this is explicitly refuted in the constitution.  These attacks on the fabric of Ireland's society happened over the last eight years at the behest of parties and agendas who do not live in or pay taxes to Ireland.  So, why is our political class so accommodating?

You do not live under a democracy; you live under an undeclared emergency power regime.

Does that sound extreme?  Does that sound like leftie-rhetoric?  OK, let’s test my claim.

What we pay taxes into and provide labour for is a state which treats the people as its sole or principal client.  We concede this wealth and effort in exchange for an agreed standard of living which may fluctuate with income but places emphasis upon the best interests of the Irish people over all other considerations.  That’s what the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, was originally invoked in our Constitution’s preamble to watch over. This is how the people of Éire humbly acknowledged all their obligations to the Divine Lord Jesus Christ....etc. etc.

And seeking to promote the common good, with due observance of Prudence, Justice and Charity, so that the dignity and freedom of the individual may be assured, true social order attained, the unity of our country restored, and concord established with other nations,

Do hereby adopt, enact, and give to ourselves this Constitution.

So there it is....A constitution that promises much but, just like the governments and senates empowered by it, delivers not much at all.  The major thrust of our current Constitution is:

We, the Irish People, invoking God and Jesus, hereby award ourselves the right to do lots of good things for ourselves and our people if the mood happens to take us. If, however, we choose to line our own pockets and punish our people for demanding their rights well, that’s fine by us too. Nothing in this constitution should be able to stop us from being complete dicks, it just should seem like it is there to stop us.

You see, there is a provision within the constitution where the government reserves the right to throw out all the provisions, directives and safeguards within all of its articles and lay claim to Emergency Powers Article (28 The Government section 3.3)

Using these Emergency Powers, the government can short circuit the usual human rights and natural justice enshrined in the constitution and just get on with running the state the way they want it to be run. The only snag is these powers are only available to a Taoiseach in the event of an armed insurrection, a world war, or an invasion by a foreign power. Since none of these things have happened over the last eight years the governments of Fianna Fáil / Green Party and Fine Gael / Labour had no recourse to declaring a national emergency. 

No national emergency has been declared in the last twenty five years.

So, since neither government declared an emergency, they do not enjoy emergency powers. This arguably renders every single piece of legislation they voted on over the last eight years null and void.  Neither government acted in the interests of the Irish people and, in fact, have actively taken rights away from the Irish people. Only an emergency powers regime can action such a thing as to take away the guarantees to individual freedoms and equality enshrined in the constitution. Neither Fianna Fáil/Green Party nor Fine Gael/Labour Party declared an emergency and therefore they had no powers or mandate to act as they have over the last eight years.

This renders their mandate under the constitution.....Null and Void.
This also renders their cumulative Austerity agendas unconstitutional thus, Null and Void.

The Banking guarantee: Null and Void.
Irish Water and the Universal Services Charge: Null and Void.
The sale of Irish coastal resources to Royal Dutch Shell: Null and Void.
The Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Bill 2013: Null and Void.
The payments to the unsecured tertiary bond holders: Null and Void.
The sale of state assets to pay foreign interests: Null and Void
(Doubly if one considers Article 11 of the Constitution)

Everything that has happened over the last eight years was explicitly against the spirit and written matter of the Irish Constitution for no better reason than the banking sector and an overstretched “Buy to Let” sector would have suffered a skinning and they had close ties and ‘connections’ with TDs.  What that means is that TDs, Councillors, Senators and even Judges have been making things easier for those who bankrupted our country and made it harder for us to take our homes, our resources and our country back.

I hereby recommend that the Irish Democratic Party declares no confidence in the Government and prosecutes a constitutional challenge to the entire Austerity agenda from 2008 onward to today. This is Democracy’s last stand because all over Europe we are seeing the interests of the society being supplanted by the interests of money and the free market regime of Neo Liberalism.  

What is happening to Greece will very shortly happen to Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy and even France eventually.  We will all end up paying for a class of international client who has no interest in the society of Europe and the value of being in a European Union will disappear. 

The point to this article is to remind you and myself just what we're fighting for: Democracy.

We have the good fortune to have been born into a time and circumstance where we enjoy the protection of a constitution but now it is our turn to protect the constitution. Without our constitution having the power and the authority to stay the hand of a corrupt government, we will not have any authority in our own hands.  Governments will always be a little corrupt and selfish, it's the nature of politics.  However what is being played out against us is nothing short of a secretive and small group of insiders stealing the liberty, wealth, and the future of the Irish people just because they can.

Europe formed a common market and a political union to ensure peace and stability for its people after the most terrible conflict in human history.  That particular vision has now been lost among the claims and counterclaims of the IMF, the ECB and the European Commission. The European Commission should certainly carry the burden of the guilt as it was supposed to ensure that the mission of lasting peace and fair concord between European nations was upheld. Is this ideal really so very necessary?

How soon we forget.

We have inherited this living document which politicians love to claim to respect and honour but, as shown above, have no hesitation to ignore and even defy if it suits their benefactors. If they are going to use the constitution as a golden carrot to get us voting, let's use it as a stick to beat them with. 

I recommend that the Irish Democratic Party pushes for the a referendum on Article 45 of the Constitution whereby the provisions are cognisable in the courts and the Oireachtas can be challenged legally and members of the government sued for acting directly against the Principles of Social Policy.

Let's use this immense document which very few politicians appear to understand to take back our supremacy and sovereignty over our land, our laws, our inherited natural world, and our democracy.