If you’re reading this, what are the chances of you...Being in Sinn Féin

BY DECLAN KEARNEY
National Chairperson, Sinn Féin

THE chances are if you’re reading this you are not a member of Sinn Féin.
You probably have at least a passing interest in republican politics; you may even have played a previous active role in the republican struggle, depending on your age.
If so, read on.
The savage nature of this recession is seriously hurting Irish families and our communities. Things are going to get worse.
The political economies of the North and South are now the dominant factors in Irish politics and society.
There is a flux in Irish politics. For now, at least, Fianna Fáil’s hegemony has expired in the 26 Counties, and the Ulster Unionist Party’s influence is increasingly receding in the Six Counties.
The political context has completely changed. The ‘bread and butter’ needs of citizens have primacy. And, the political establishment has not got the vision or strategy to combat this recession. The economic and social divide in Ireland is widening and a political vacuum is opening up. Such conditions can breed hopelessness and political apathy.
In these circumstances there’s an even greater need to popularise republicanism and a vision of a new economic and political order.
That is the vision to which Sinn Féin strategy aspires. But for it to be successful our political project must grow in relevance and develop stronger roots across rural and urban communities.
For all these reasons, this is a defining political period. And more because they coexist with other big, urgent strategic tasks - to increase Sinn Féin’s political strength in the North, and systematically address our under-development in the South.
For sure, the challenges facing modern republicans are enormous, but they are not insurmountable.
The struggle to date has brought Sinn Féin thus far - but not far enough.
Now the big enduring battles for hearts and minds really begin across the island - to actively engage with our natural support base, the new Irish, unionist communities, to mainstream our political message in the South; to convince ‘middle Ireland’ that Sinn Féin is ‘the only show in town’.
This can be an era in which to win support for big ideas about transforming society, economic and social justice and national democracy.
But there is a prerequisite.
None of our ideas or aspirations are worth a pingin rua without the organisational, critical mass to take forward Sinn Féin’s politics.
That was why the party changed our constitution in March 2010 to make it easier to join Sinn Féin.
Our plan was to create flexibility with which to vastly increase the party’s membership base and remove real or perceived impediments to attracting new members. The objective, simply put, was to make Sinn Féin membership more inclusive, more participative, and on terms suiting the new member.
Máire Comerford dedicated her book ‘The First Dáil’ to those who gave what they had to give, when they had it to give.
Máire’s remarks were wise for her time but they also travel well today.
The GAA fosters a participative ethos among its membership on the basis of what they can give - even if that is only to identify with the aims of the Association by taking out a subscription and membership card.
The probability is that many of you reading this are GAA members but not all of you choose the same responsibilities or workloads within the local club. And so it needs to be with membership of Sinn Féin; whereby new applicants decide the commitment they can make at the point of admission.
This party is steeped in Ireland’s finest national and democratic traditions. Membership of Sinn Féin in the first case should be to simply identify with republican objectives.
Also, membership of the party is no longer bound to involvement with a local cumann. Anyone, anywhere in Ireland, over 16 years old, can join Sinn Féin. And, that is what we want to happen.
Sinn Féin is an activist party but your choice of activism can take many forms - from selling this newspaper through to assisting in many different ways during elections, day-to-day campaigns and local as well as national issues and much else.
Party membership should validate your political aspirations and what you do.
In this way, Sinn Féin’s membership base can expand and become better organised across the country.
Membership and organisation are the keys to mainstreaming republican ideas, encouraging new types of activism and increased relevance and visibility.
And that will only be achieved when we become bigger and more diverse as a party. Yes, new people and new ideas, and loads of them, ensuring Sinn Féin becomes more ‘fit for purpose’.
2011 is the 30th anniversary of the 1981 Hunger Strike. It will be an iconic year of commemoration and celebration. But it also needs to be a catalyst for the expansion of the party’s membership.
It will also commence a five-year countdown to 2016. The most fitting commemoration modern-day republicans can make to mark the centenary of the Rising is to ensure Sinn Féin commands a mass countrywide membership.
Additionally, the work undertaken by young republicans in recent months will soon culminate with the launch of our first-ever National Youth Strategy, ‘Sinn Féin - Republican Youth’. Because we also want a party that is bursting at the seams with the passion, creativity and energy of young Irish people.
In the coming period, Sinn Féin will mount a massive, national recruitment surge to proactively invite nationally-minded and socially progressive people to join us.
The message needs to be communicated in every county that we welcome and encourage new member applications. But don’t wait to be asked!
Sinn Féin’s goal is to create a popular membership base inspired with the historical mission of national independence but connected deeply into the modern-day pulse of the nation.
Sinn Féin has shaped our history. Now it must help to shape the future. And you have a stake and a part to play in that.
Bí linn. Join Sinn Féin.