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The Plough Vol.
4- No 10
Sunday April 1st 2007
E-mail newsletter of the
Irish Republican Socialist Party
1) Editorial
2) Province of permanent instability ‘normalises’
3) Phantom Peace
4) Letters
a. In defence of RSF
b. Editorial response
6) What’s On?
Editorial
This edition carries a piece written before last Monday’ agreement
between Paisley and Adams by Liam O’Ruaric. He correctly predicted
more humiliations for the Adams republicans and so it has come to
pass. Pressure is being mounted for the Army Council of the PIRA to
be dissolved. Who knows what other hoops Adams may be forced to jump
through in the pursuit of political power under British
jurisdiction. It should be noted that Adams sees little difference
between the policies of the DUP and Sinn Fein (Provisional) In a
recent interview he said
"I don't think there need necessarily be a battle-a-day between us
and the
DUP on social and economic issues."
Quite! What a stunning victory for the British!!
We also continue the correspondence between the Plough and a reader.
This correspondence raises important issues about debate within and
between republicans. We hope others join in this debate for it is
always good to talk.
Province of permanent instability ‘normalises’
On March 7, electors in the Six Counties went to the polls to elect
108 members of the legislative assembly (MLAs).1 The elections are
unusual in the sense that voters are asked to elect representatives
to a devolved institution whose future existence is conditional upon
the approval of Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party - something
far from guaranteed at the present moment.
The London and Dublin governments are attempting to resurrect the
Stormont assembly and construct a power-sharing executive “to
underpin the gains that have already been made and to provide the
basis for long-term stability”2 and therefore normalise British rule
in Ireland. Both prime ministers are working hard to achieve a
breakthrough - Blair because he will be retiring this year and wants
to go down in history as the one who ‘brought peace to Ireland’
rather than war on Iraq; Ahern because he has a tight election to
fight before the summer.
The business community is also arguing that Northern Ireland needs
its own stable government to help its companies and people compete
on the world stage. Frank Bryan, chairman of the Ulster branch of
the Institute of Directors declared:
“Northern Ireland is now presented with an opportunity to turn a
talking shop at Stormont into real government - and if our political
leaders are looking for the key to a better future, let me offer
this simple analysis: it’s the economy, stupid. As Northern Ireland
competes to win vital new investment and open up new world markets,
stable political institutions are a prerequisite.”3
The results were a triumph for the DUP and a spectacular defeat for
the Ulster Unionist Party. The DUP now has 36 MLAs - a gain of six
seats since the 2003 elections. In contrast, the UUP only succeeded
in getting 18 MLAs - a loss of nine.
In its election literature, the DUP boasted that it had been
successful in getting: “unionists setting the political agenda”; a
“DUP veto over all major decisions”, including “cross-border
relations”; and what it called “republicans jumping first” and their
“support for the police, the courts and the rule of British law”. It
promised “a unionist-dominated executive” and unionist first
minister and that is would “keep republicans under pressure”. It
also pledged genuine devolution, “which will mean that the party
will be able to stop legislation such as the Irish Language Act”.
According to Henry McDonald, writing in The Observer the huge
increase in the DUP vote leaves unionism stronger:
“For more than a decade, one of the consistent ironies of the Irish
peace process has been unionism’s inability to comprehend its own
strengths ... Both the Good Friday agreement of 1998 and latterly
the St Andrews accord are grounded in the consent principle. That
is, that there can be no change to Northern Ireland’s constitutional
status without the say of the majority: ie, the unionists.
“Republicans used to call this the ‘unionist veto’, denouncing it as
an undemocratic maintenance of partition by a ‘national minority’ on
the island. Now, the very people who once were so vocal in opposing
the principle of consent, Sinn Féin, embrace it. This is a historic
360-degree turn by the republican movement, which no amount of
verbal gymnastics or over-emphasis on relatively weak cross-border
bodies can contradict.
“The fall-out from last week’s assembly elections also leaves
unionism stronger. Unionists now control a majority of the
ministries should the DUP choose to enter into a power-sharing
coalition with nationalists, including Sinn Féin. They will hold six
portfolios, compared to the four held by nationalists. By taking up
Peter Hain’s offer to restore devolution, Paisley will also
preserve, among other things, academic selection. Unionism’s middle
classes are particularly fond of Northern Ireland’s renowned grammar
schools; the DUP is tantalisingly close to saving them and claiming
the glory for doing so.”4
With its increased share of the vote, then, the DUP is likely to
impose even more humiliating terms on the Provisionals.
On the nationalist side, Provisional Sinn Féin increased its share
of the vote, with 28 MLAs returned - a gain of four seats compared
to 2003. Its rival, the Social Democratic and Labour Party,
continued its decline, losing two seats and returning 16 MLAs.
If, however, the increase in DUP votes leaves unionism stronger, the
same cannot be said for republicanism:
“The more effective that Sinn Féin is as an electoral force, the
more impotent it becomes as an ideological one. Every deal it
strikes with Tony Blair legitimises the British presence in Northern
Ireland. Every concession it secures that advances the economic and
social standing of ordinary Roman catholics in Ulster weakens the
argument that it is only through Irish unification that those
material interests can be realised. With every step that Ulster
takes towards becoming a ‘normal society’, what Sinn Féin officially
regards as an ‘interim settlement’ becomes more deeply entrenched.
“This is the outlook for Republicanism. A larger and larger number
of nationalists in both the north and the south will vote for Sinn
Féin - but more because they regard it as the best vehicle for
representing them in a divided Ireland than out of support for a
united one. Nor will it make much difference if catholics finally
outbreed protestants in Ulster. Even at the height of the troubles a
substantial percentage of nationalists preferred the status quo to
the upheaval of unification.”5
Or, as Anthony McIntyre puts it,
“To claim that there are more republicans in Ireland today than ever
before because of the electoral strength behind Sinn Féin is on a
ludicrous par with the claim that there are more socialists in
Britain because of the Labour Party vote. Labour is as socialist as
Sinn Féin is republican.”6
Nowhere is that better illustrated than by the fact that if is there
is a power-sharing deal, Sinn Féin will go down in history as the
party that put Paisley in power!
The big losers in the election are the traditional republicans. For
the first time, six candidates stood for Republican Sinn Féin, who
gathered an average of 1% of first-preference votes in the
constituencies contested. Oppositional votes went mainly to
Labourite ventures that ignored the national question. The People
Before Profit candidate in West Belfast polled over 700 votes
compared to RSF’s 437. In Derry, Eamonn McCann received over 2,000
votes, compared to 1,789 that went to Independent Republican
Socialist candidate Peggy O Hara. The fact that oppositional
politics are now reduced to what Connolly called ‘gas and water
socialism’ is in itself an indication of how successfully normalised
the north has become.
What was striking about the election campaign was that, contrary to
the claims of international media that it was ‘historic’, it “has
been one of the most low-key in living memory”.7 Late in February,
The Irish News noted:
“The election campaign which should now be reaching a climax has
actually become one of the most low-key in recent memory ... no
single new issue has emerged over recent weeks which has the
potential to capture the imagination of the wider public.”8 Only 63%
of the electorate bothered to vote - a turnout lower than 1998 and
2003. The BBC Northern Ireland political editor claimed that an
election campaign had never been “so dull”.9
Also, significantly,
“the border question - for so long the only issue that mattered -
has for the first time disappeared from the electoral agenda”:10
“Politics now seem to be about how much additional expenditure party
leaders can jointly secure from the treasury ... A new politics
based on butter, not guns, in Ulster is a massive improvement.”11
These two facts prove how successful the British state policy of
normalisation has been:
“The result is a kind of hyper-normality, in which there can be no
real policy disagreements because everyone is going to end up on the
same side, governing together. It means Northern Ireland is about to
jump from civil war to soggy consensuality, without ever passing
through democratic, adversarial politics.”12
That is because all parties elected to the Stormont assembly adhere
to the same neo-liberal agenda:
“Sinn Féin’s original aim of a 32-county socialist republic now
appears closer to a six-county capitalist monarchy. Those who
included the ‘Labour’ in the SDLP’s title have long since gone ...
The DUP’s christian influence might have led it to oppose society’s
more obvious inequalities. But poverty could never quite stir the
faithful to the same degree of indignation as homosexuality. The UUP
has always been unashamedly capitalist. It opposed the introduction
of the welfare state into the north”.13
Even worse, from a UK point of view, by arguing for an all-Ireland
tax rate of 17.5%,
“Sinn Féin is standing slightly to the right of the Conservative
Party and the Confederation of British Industry in wanting the
north’s rate for this tax slashed.”14
The DUP and the Provisional movement are now supposed to reach an
agreement, following which a devolved power-sharing government will
be restored on March 26. The British government has told them that
their choice is devolution or dissolution by that date. Which means
that the DUP is caught between two imperatives:
“Political deadlines have been missed, rather than met, in Northern
Ireland. And, in the past, republicans frequently failed to step up
to the mark. This time, things are different. The IRA has disarmed
and Sinn Féin, in the words of Martin McGuiness, has declared
‘wholehearted support for the PSNI’. The party desperately wants to
enter government. But the DUP appears determined to impose a period
of political quarantine. Nothing but ritual and humiliation can be
served by such an approach.”15
On the one hand, ritual humiliation of nationalists has been central
to DUP agenda. But on the other, as Dean Godson, the shrewdest
analyst of unionist politics noted, Paisley’s agenda has always been
about his own personal power which might motivate him to secure a
deal with the Provisionals by March 26.16
The concluding words go to Ed Moloney, whose analysis written six
months ago is more relevant than ever:
“As I write this, the peace process, its beginning dated by the
first ceasefire of 1994, has lasted nearly three times longer than
World War I, almost twice as long as World War II, and virtually as
long as American involvement in Vietnam. Not only is the peace
process in Northern Ireland one of the longest in human history, but
the political stability it promised is as far off as ever, and in
its stead extremism has triumphed.
“Moderate unionist trust in the process has evaporated, and
protestants have flocked to support a party whose founder and
everlasting leader combines the worst elements of religious and
political extremism - one who built his career on bigotry, division,
fear and conflict and many of whose apparatchiks behave like
mindless, loyal bullies.
“The majority of nationalists now support a party that is morally
bankrupt, whose leaders lie outrageously and who stand accused of
the most heinous deeds - from disappearing a widowed mother to
contriving the deaths of hunger-striking comrades - to advance their
own political ambitions. Each has grown fat on the back of community
division spawned by a peace process that seems never to end, spurred
on by two governments whose leaders behave as if they care less for
the sort of society they are helping to create, and much more about
their own place in the history books.
“Fundamental to the political prosperity of Sinn Féin and the DUP
has been the failure of the peace process to produce political
stability. The pattern has been repeated endlessly, to the benefit
of both.”17
Liam O’Ruaric (originally printed in the Weekly Worker http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/664/ireland.htm)
Notes
1. For detailed election results check: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/vote2007/nielection/html/main.stm
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/vote2007/nielection/html/main.stm> .
2. David McKittrick The Independent March 7.
3. Nigel Tilson Belfast Telegraph February 9.
4. Henry McDonald The Observer March 11.
5. Tim Hames The Times August 1 2005.
6. Anthony McIntyre The Blanket http://lark.phoblacht.net/AM280107.html
<http://lark.phoblacht.net/AM280107.html> .
7. Editorial The Irish News March 6.
8. Editorial The Irish News February 26.
9. Mark Devenport, BBC, March3, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6414717.stm
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6414717.stm> .
10 David Sharrock The Times March 5.
11. Editorial The Times March 5.
12. Jonathan Freedland The Guardian March 7.
13. Patrick Murphy The Irish News December 23 2006.
14. Marc Coleman The Irish Times March 6.
15. Editorial The Irish Times March 10.
16. Dean Godson The Times March 13.
17. Ed Moloney The peace process and journalism in Britain and
Ireland: lives entwined Vol 2, London 2006, pp77-78.
Phantom Peace
Historical events are getting easier to come by in Northern Irish
Politics. The last few days have seen an embarrassing climb-down by
the British Government effortlessly evaporating the deadline "set in
stone" when a troubled Paisley won the tête-à-tête with Peter Hain.
The Stormont limbo has been extended again to May to placate DUP
hard line "delayniks" who want to see a quarantine period for the
new "improved" PSF. No doubt concessions have been given to the
increasingly accommodating Adams leadership, which may in the future
prove to be useful tools for the DUP to delay and scupper Devolution
if PSF don't jump through the required hoops.
Such is the nature of the "hamster wheel" peace process in the North
of Ireland: continuous limping in ambiguity and uncertainty. A
strategy designed by British Labour Government to pacify and
normalise a deep-seated social and political conflict. It is also a
scenario that has served the two majority nationalist blocs in the
Northern Statelet. As long as there is uncertainty in the political
future in the North, the two extreme poles found votes gravitating
toward them.
Hence we see the Vice and Versa of Stormont politics sitting
together in a headline-grabbing pose. The hackneyed buzzwords of
"peace" and "historic" are spiralling in the media. Brian Feeney
rather fancily compares the latest developments to Francis Fukuyamas
"End of History" concept. Just as Fukuyama is being increasingly
discredited for his naive assumptions, it seems likely that Feeney
will be discredited in his new-found role as PSF cheerleader.
Everyone else claims Feeney is simply "Ya-booing” about "basic
principles". (1)
Fukuyama failed to foresee the socio political upheaval in Latin
America, where self-determination rights are again being expressed
by peoples of many countries who were historically subject to US
parasitic policies. Likewise, Feeney fails to see how pruning the
leaves of the Northern Irish tree will do little to heal it rotten
roots. Peace is a wonderfully emotive word but Peace is inalienable
from Justice. In Ireland, the issues of self determination are left
un-reconciled in many levels of society on both sides of the border
and many people will not find peace in today’s post Adams Paisley
tea party; not today and not in the foreseeable future.
In the unsustainable statelet of the North that suffers from a £14
Billion infrastructure deficit and "boasts" a £5 billion annual
budget gap, where is the peace for the 530,000 people who are
currently "economically inactive " or unemployed in real terms. (2)
Where is the peace for youth, so alienated from a society that
offers no employment stability and social security that they
self-destruct in crime, alcohol and suicide? Where is the peace for
the young couples that can't compete with the property speculators
for access to a decent home? Where is our peace?
Our latest historic event will prove to be another adrenalin shot
for a process that suits all involved parties to avoid a definitive
end. For PSF, a conclusion will expose them for the centrist
Capitalist party that can offer nothing to cure the social ills in a
Society becoming more class defined as a result of the finance boom.
For the DUP, it will expose the ridiculousness and unmanageability
of the failed statelet the so cherish.
(1) Brian Feeney "North needs a new political vocabulary" Irish
News, Wednesday March 28th 2007
(2) John Murray Brown "Finance issues will face N Ireland" Financial
Times March 26th 2007
(Tomas Gorman)
=====================================================================l
Letters
HI,
In your response to my letter I don't know how many times you used
the term 'elitist'. I found this somewhat ironic, because the whole
tone of your reply came across as very elitist, both towards myself
and rsf. As I said you come across very elitist in your attitude
whilst vainly trying to couch your own elitism in either explicit or
quiet condemnation. I find your use of misleading innuendo annoying
at best. Making statements like, 'let's have a bit of honesty here"
is an obvious attempt to try and make out I favour hiding the truth
whilst you are the straight shooter. Shame on you. In my letter to
you I merely stated, "I don't believe your negative comments towards
RSF candidates is very helpful in regards to seeing a united Ireland
free of British imperialist rule." and you then turn that into an
obvious attack on my character. I would suggest from your response
to my letter that it is you that is the underhanded one here not I.
Further, you misrepresent the facts in claiming sf and rsf were on
even terms as far as the media was concerned. You know better than
this and if you don't then there is no helping you. Also, it is
obvious to even the most unscholarly student the reasons sf did as
well as they did. Could it have been that most Catholics (I won’t
call them republicans because sf is anything but republican) seen sf
as the only legitimate alternative to an otherwise worse fate.
Initially, rsf had not even considered fielding candidates but at
the last minute they did so to allow an alternative for some that
couldn't with good conscience vote sf.
As far as you asking me to clarify rsf's position as to being linked
to any military group. I again, say shame on you. First of all, I
would have no idea one way or the other, and secondly, if I did, I
certainly wouldn't be ignorant enough to clarify that position. What
do you take me for a fool or a tout? You, know full well that
throughout the troubles even until this day certain parties were
always trying to link sf with the provos. This link was always
denied. Oddly, enough isn't it that these accusations generally came
from Ian Paisley's camp? Makes one wonder where your loyalties lay
doesn't it?
Concerning your statement that using the term English "…downplays
the role British regiments played in the suppression of republicans
including those made up of Scots and Welsh soldiers." This statement
makes little sense as how could the term English downplay the role
British regiments played in the suppression of republicans? First of
all none were Scots or Welsh soldiers. For some, that may well have
been their nationalities, but these regiments were all British
regiments. All of these soldiers’ duties were carried out under the
union jack and the crown.
Further, regarding the following statement made by you, "Those who
elevate armed struggle to a strategic level regardless of objective
conditions just do not understand revolutionary politics no matter
how many posters of Che they have on the wall. One cannot separate
either Che or Mao from their politics. Both were committed
communists and both also engaged in building socialism as well as
having engaged in armed struggle. Armed struggle with out politics
is the road to defeat demoralization and destruction."
First, before Che was killed in Bolivia in October 67, he did in
fact, elevate armed struggle to a strategic level regardless of
objective conditions. He did this and he did understand
revolutionary politics. Loosely quoting Che, "I don't care if I die
as long as someone picks up my gun and shoots when I die".
From reading your posts I have to wonder if you are at all familiar
with rsf’s eire nua or saol nua. If you are familiar then you are
less than honest when you try to parlay to your readers that rsf
does not endorse the principles and policies of James Connelly and
hence socialism. Ruairi O’Bradaigh and rsf stands on the very
principals and dogma of socialism and republicanism.
Below is a partial extraction of Saol Nua dogma
We need a new system of economies which would put human beings and
human development before the interests of finance and maximisation
of profits. Major changes are now needed in order to promote the
true long-term interests of people and social justice. We need to
create a new vision of the Ireland we want, lay our plans
accordingly and give our people a sense of direction and purpose.
It is apposite to recall here the prophetic words of the Irish
patriot, James Connolly: "If you remove the English army tomorrow
and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle unless you set about the
organisation of the Socialist Republic your efforts would be in
vain.
"England would still rule you through her capitalists, through her
landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of
commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this
country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of
our martyrs.
"England would still rule you to your ruin, even while your lips
offered hypocritical homage at the shrine of that Freedom whose
cause you had betrayed."
James Connolly and Patrick Pearse died but the system they sought to
change continues in existence to this very day. This system has
forced 2,000,000 Irish people to emigrate since 1916.
Here in this document Sinn Féin Poblachtach seeks to outline the
principal elements of its Social and Economic Programme. We are of a
firm belief that a continuation of the present system, whether on
the basis of the partition arrangement or in some form of united
Ireland, within or without the EU, cannot bring about the human,
social and economic development which would promote freedom,
equality, justice and the happiness of each community and each
individual person in it.
Centuries of colonialism and decades of high emigration and
unemployment have produced a psychology of defeatism in Ireland. To
accept these problems as inevitable is to lower our standards of
national achievement. The politicians who advocate closer
integration into the EU see this body as a mere mechanism of escape
from their own ineptitude and failures.
Something new, based on a set of human values and on policies
designed to promote these values, is needed. These values and
policies are outlined below, and indicate the road to a new society
in Ireland - Saol Nua.
Saol Nua dogma end
"Anyone that trembles with indignation at any injustice, that person
I call comrade"- Che
By the way, my walls aren't covered with flags of Che but I believe
I had a better understanding of the man than you do.
And you can keep your olive branch as it is covered with thorns.
Sincerely,
Joe McDaid
PS: While you seemed to take great pleasure in condemning rsf I
have yet to see rsf condemning irsp in any of their forums.
Also I like to add that I don't speak for rsf as I am not even a
member. I replied to your earlier letter simply because it seemed
unfair to me.
Editorial response
Joe thanks for your response. I have no desire to let this contact
degenerate into a personal slanging match so if my response came
across as elitism or personally insulting to you may I apologise
immediately.
Let me try to answer your points and hopefully at the end we can at
least agree to disagree.
Elitism
“In your response to my letter I don't know how many times you used
the term 'elitist'.”
Twice, Joe, I used the word twice, and the reason I use it
particularly in relation to RSF but also in the past with regard to
the PRM was because of experience s of our own movement at the
hands of the PRM. Our prisoners were demonised by the PIRA in jail
and treated as criminals by other republicans even after the hunger
strikes of ‘ 81 One of the reasons I believe they had this attitude
was because the leadership of the provisionals particularly in the
seventies considered themselves the legitimate Government of Ireland
having been passed on the power from the last surviving members of
the second Dail. For that I believe is the reason why RSF will have
little or nothing to do with other republicans (see their
resolutions below).They and nobody else or the “true republicans” I
call that attitude “elitist” Personally I deny any organisation the
right to say I am not a republican. That is the clear implication of
their stance.
.
That this Ard-Fheis reaffirms its commitment to the long-standing
policy of Sinn Féin as set out in the statement issued on September
1, 2006. We reject alliances or any cooperation with groups or
organisation who claim to represent or give leadership to Irish
Republican opinion in Ireland or abroad other than the true Irish
Republican Movement.
Go n-athdhearbhaíonn an Ard-Fheis seo cuspóir seasmhach Shinn Féin a
foilsíodh í ráiteas Mhéan Fómhair 1, 2006. Diúltaíonn muid aon
comhaontas le grúpaí nó eagraíochta a cuireann i gcéill ceannas a
thabhairt do tuairim Poblachtach in Éireann nó thar lear ach amháin
do fíor Ghluaiseacht na Poblachta.
Ard Chomhairle
Cumann Cill Chuillinn, Co Chill Dhara
17. In light of recent press speculation in relation to the setting
up of broad fronts that this Ard-Fheis reiterates the Republican
Sinn Féin stand outlined in a statement by An tUachtaráin Ruairí Ó
Brádaigh on September 1 last.
Mar gheall ar an spéacláireacht le déanaí sa mheán cumarsáide maidir
le comhaontas a bhunú le heagraíochta eile, go n-athdhearbhaíonn an
Ard-Fheis seo an ráiteas atá curtha amach ag an tUachtaráin Ruairí Ó
Brádaigh ar an t-aonú lá de Mhéan Fómhair seo caite.
Ard Chomhairle
Cumann Cill Chuillinn, Co Chill Dhara
18. That this Ard Fheis repudiates any attempt to involve Sinn Féin
Poblachtach in any broad front.
Go gcáineann an Ard-Fheis seo aon iarracht chun Sinn Féin
Poblachtach a bheith páirteach le comhaontas leatan le eagraíochtaí
eile.
Cumann Wolfe Tone, Tamhlacht, Baile Ótha Cliath
Cumann Seosamh Mac Domhaill, Baile Ótha Cliath
Media coverage
“Further, you misrepresent the facts in claiming sf and rsf were on
even terms as far as the media was concerned. “
I did not misrepresent the facts Joe. Read again what I wrote
”They were also controlled by the same elements when provisional
Sinn Fein first entered the electoral field.”
It should be clear from that I’m talking about the early 80’s when
PSF first entered the electoral field. Of course in the recent
elections PSF were well courted by the media precisely because they
accept the neo-liberal agenda. Anti-Good Friday Agreement candidates
were always at a disadvantage,
Prisoners
“As far as you asking me to clarify rsf's position as to being
linked to any military group”.
Joe, you know as well as I do, that was a rhetoric question and my
intention was to draw out the failure of RSF to support all
political prisoners. Everybody with any sense knows the real
situation. Again this goes back to our own movement’s experiences in
jails north and south with other republicans. They, RSF only
support those prisoners connected to the Continuity IRA. See the
resolution below passed at their last Ard-Feis.
“That this Ard-Fheis congratulates the RPAG on the sterling work
they are carrying out on behalf of the Continuity POWs and pledge
them whatever help necessary to aid them in the struggle for
political status.”
Go dtugann an Ard-Fheis seo bualadh bos don RPAG maidir leis an
obair dian atá déanta acu ar son na cimí Leanúnach agus geallann
muid dóibh aon cabhair is mian leo ar son troid stádas polaitiúil a
bhaint amach.
The point you make about regiments does not make sense to me. I
repeat my point that to use “English” instead of “British “ is to
downplay Imperialism and pander to a narrow nationalism that plays
on anti-English feeling. This is not something that a organisation
claiming to be internationalist,
“Republican Sinn Féin is internationalist. We have a sense that we
all have a common identity as human beings, as members of the great
family of peoples.”
I feel should be doing.
Armed struggle
“before Che was killed in Bolivia in October 67, he did in fact,
elevate armed struggle to a strategic level regardless of objective
conditions.”
That was Che’s mistake. His guerrilla warfare theories proved
inadequate to deal with the realities of South American life. That
is not to dismiss Che. I have his portrait on my own wall and his
writings about the relationship between man and socialism are
brilliant. But on the topic of armed struggle I prefer to take my
line from James Connolly. He wrote,
“Ireland occupies a position among the nations of the earth unique
in a great variety of its aspects but in no one particular is this
singularity more marked than in the possession of what is known as a
“physical force party”-a party that is to say whose members are
united upon no one point and agree upon no single principle except
the use of physical force as the sole means of settling the dispute
between the people of this country and the governing power of Great
Britain”
Connolly went to point out that the “hillside men” had elevated into
a principle “what revolutionists in other countries had looked upon
as a weapon”.
He then pointed out
“We neither exalt it into a principle nor repudiate it as something
not to be thought of “
If all republicans took this stance then the possibilities of
renewing the radicalism of republicanism would be greatly improved
Ruairi O’Bradaigh
“If you are familiar then you are less than honest when you try to
parlay to your readers that rsf does not endorse the principles and
policies of James Connelly and hence socialism. Ruairi O’Bradaigh
and rsf stands on the very principals and dogma of socialism and
republicanism.”
You claim that RSF and Ruairi O’Bradaigh are socialist and followers
of James Connolly.You may well be right. I that simply point out
many years ago O’Bradaigh denied that the republican movement was
socialist.
“Going into 1966 with MacGiolla defending a free enterprise economy
and suggesting the co-operative movement as an alternative “to
either, capitalism or communism”,it was understandable that Ruairi
O’Bradaigh could state emphatically during the Westminster election
campaign that the Republican Movement was not socialist.” [1] An
Phoblacht, May 1966. Organ of the Irish Revolutionary Forces -
better known at the time, as the “An Phoblacht Group”.
Finally on the issue of criticism may I say that there is a clear
distinction between political criticism and what you call “negative
comments”. I have no time for negativity for its own sake. Political
criticism is intended to draw out the differences and allow people
to make a decision on the basis of the arguments. Too many
republicans and for that matter socialists have covered themselves
with the mantle of “true this” or “real that” and put forward no
policy no politics no positions as if they are so pure they don’t
have.
We in the IRSP are not above criticism. But neither is anybody else
and given the state of the republican traditions and the poor
showing of the left maybe it is time we had a serious critique
amonst all on the republican left without tip toeing around so
called sensitivities.
Fraternally John Martin
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