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Part of Both - Excluded from Neither

PART OF BOTH - EXCLUDED FROM NEITHER

STATEMENT FROM THE LABOUR PARTY (NORTHERN IRELAND LABOUR FORUM) - WORKING TOWARDS A POLICY PROPOSAL FOR THE LABOUR PARTY POSITION ON NORTHERN IRELAND

Introduction

The Labour Party is a democratic socialist Party with a membership of over 7,000 throughout both Irish jurisdictions. It was founded on the principles of economic and social freedom, justice and equality, and is committed to participatory democracy and to the community. Whilst at present the Labour Party only contests elections in the Republic of Ireland, the Northern Ireland Labour Forum is in all other aspects a branch of the Party and members participate fully in campaigning and debate. The NI Labour Forum is also seeking a formal structural relationship with the British Labour Party, in the spirit of the proposal below.

The proposal

We recognise the Belfast Agreement as a positive move towards resolving our long standing problems and creating a just society. We support the underlying principles of inter governmental co-operation, equality, human rights and North/South and East/West co-operation. We believe that there is now a need to move beyond the 'two communities' model that underlies the Belfast Agreement

We believe our two main communities here have much more in common than divides them and that our society also consists of an increasing number of people, including the growing ethnic minority and immigrant communities, who do not consider themselves as primarily members of either of the two main communities. We observe that the reality of many people's lives in Northern Ireland is that they have many ties with both Britain and the Irish Republic, whatever their community background.

We seek to move the focus of politics in away from the divisive issue of the status of Northern Ireland to issues of social and economic policy. We seek a society based on equality and high quality public services together with a strong, enterprising and innovative economy with optimum employment terms and conditions based on the European social model, and to resist the development of a low wage, neo-liberal economy - the "race to the bottom".

We propose that, rather than being locked into a perpetual and unwinnable struggle between unionist and nationalist and British and Irish identities and political aspirations, we recognise the reality that our society is not and never will be exclusively British or Irish and that we should concentrate on building a society and political structures that reflect that reality. Not British or Irish but both. The best of both worlds, excluded from neither. We believe it is unacceptable that Northern Ireland is governed by New Labour in consultation with Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats, when in NI we can vote for none of them. The model of joint stewardship that is being developed by default - and which will become a reality if the Assembly fails - must be made accountable locally.

We reject segregation. We will pursue positive action to promote integrated housing, education and shared public facilities. Equal but separate is not an option. We support the "Shared Future" vision at the heart of all policy.
We welcome the growing diversity of our society and will pursue policies which promote diversity and integration, and combat exclusion and racism.

The Border issue - a third referendum question

In accordance with our view that our society is not and never will be exclusively British or Irish, we take the view that Northern Ireland should be part of both the UK and Ireland and that political structures should be established accordingly. Such political structures should be such as to ensure that both the British and Irish governments are accountable to the citizens of Northern Ireland.

In any future referendum on the border issue, as envisaged by the Belfast Agreement, in addition to the highly divisive and mutually exclusive British or Irish options, we will actively seek to have a third 'part of both' option included.