New Communist Party of Britain | For a united Ireland and lasting peace

The New Communist Party calls for an immediate end to the partition of Ireland, the withdrawal of all civil, police or military units from any foreign state, and the achievement of full national self‑determination and sovereignty in a united Ireland.

We believe the Irish people have the right to use political or military means to achieve those goals, just as the British state realises its own interests in the same way.

We do not support devolution as an end in itself, but call for a complete end to British interference in Irish affairs, and any British state presence on Irish soil including civil, military, police or intelligence units. Ireland should cease to be a British 'sphere of influence'.

The NCP welcomes the advances made under the historic 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the establishment of the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly, and the overwhelming endorsement of the agreement in the all‑Ireland 1999 referendum.

The NCP believes Sinn Féin is the leading force in the struggle for Irish national self‑determination. It is a broad alliance of nationalist and patriotic class forces that more than any other organisation can legitimately claim to be continuing the struggles of the United Irishmen, the Young Irelanders, the Fenian Brotherhood, the Land League, the Irish Citizen Army, and the Irish Republican Army.

In the 1969‑1998 period, and previously, many patriots from Sinn Féin and its military wing gave their lives for the goal of Irish independence.

We believe that Sinn Féin was the driving force behind the peace process from the early 1990s onwards. We also believe the Good Friday Agreement was only made possible by the approach of the 1997‑2010 Labour government in Britain.

However the NCP does not believe this agreement is a final resolution of the struggle for Irish national self‑determination, but rather see it as a staging‑post in that struggle which seeks to reconcile the communities in the north of Ireland and pave the way for a fully independent, united Ireland.

The 1998 agreement contains major flaws, notably the continued dependence on annual block grants from Westminster, and the continued presence of British personnel in Ireland.

In addition the agreement depends on the goodwill of the British ruling class, which has failed to follow through with the full implementation of all the agreement's provisions and sabotaged or stalled the investigation of British crimes in the north of Ireland.

We believe Britain has a responsibility to make reparations to overcome the legacy of the conflict and the high levels of poverty and unemployment (far higher than anywhere else throughout the British Isles), whether the north of Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom or not.

The NCP continues to support the peace process, and sees its main strength in its ability to bring all the political parties in the north of Ireland together to present a common set of demands to the government in London on certain issues, in spite of the legacy of communal divisions and periodic political crises. This has led to gains such as stopping the introduction of water charges and cuts to benefits for the most vulnerable, and lower prescription charges and student fees than in England.

The NCP also supports the mass campaigns against the savage austerity measures being imposed in the Republic of Ireland, with the backing of Brussels and the IMF, to pay off the debts left by the 2008 banking crash.

The NCP will continue to work with the Wolfe Tone Society, the Connolly Association and the trade union and labour movements in Ireland and Britain, in support of the goal of a united and sovereign Ireland.