File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/marxism-international.9708, message 22


Date: Sun, 3 Aug 1997 15:00:09 +1000
From: Rob Schaap <rws-AT-comserver.canberra.edu.au>
Subject: M-I: Northern Ireland and the Left


G'day Gary,

I know this ain't the right time to talk to you about Ireland, but I gotta
do it while we have the thread.  My understanding (and I admit at once this
has been the product of nought but a socialist inclination applied to
mainstream media information) is pretty much that of the Irish Workers'
Party.  I append their blurb below and ask for your arguments against them,
if you have the time.  I ask because they certainly do see a significant
sectarian presence in the republican ranks (is this merely left
in-fighting?).

Me, I wouldn't know.  I just reckon the East End and Manchester bombs were
indiscriminate and murderous (many left-republicans work in the Manchester
CBD, for a start [Adam Rose?] - 'tis after all as much a city of dislocated
Irish proletarians as it is anything else - Manchester United [my greatest
love] was, for instance, formed by Irish railway workers) - not sectarian,
particularly, just a fucking disgrace.  And be assured, my sentiments are
generally republican, and certainly no less so in the case of Ireland.

Anyway, here 'tis:
___________________
The Workers' Party has a proud history of struggle against oppression
in Ireland stretching back to long before the days of the Easter Rising
in Ireland. Indeed, the early history of the WP is the history of
republicanism in Ireland. Most would agree that the founding father
of Irish Republicanism was Wolfe Tone.

Theodore Wolfe Tone was born in Dublin in 1763. He was found dead
in his cell, with his throat cut, when under sentence of death, dying
on 19th November 1798. To see how much some of the present day
"republicans" have betrayed his ideals, one has only to consider Wolfe
Tone's trial speech made on Dublin 10th November 1798:-

"The great object of my life has been the independence
of my country. Looking upon the connexion with
England to have been her bane I have endeavoured by
every means in my power to break that connexion ... to
create a people in Ireland...by uniting the Catholics and
the Dissenters. For a fair and open war I was prepared;
if that has degenerated into a system of assassination,
massacre, and plunder I do most sincerely lament it."

How far from this ideal has the so-called "armed struggle" in the
present day six counties degenerated! Does sectarian murder unite
Catholic and Dissenter? Does assassination, massacre, and plunder
further the cause of true Republicanism? How dare the provos style
themselves 'republicans'? The Workers' Party condemns the provos
for this bastardisation of the republican ideal.

Arthur Griffith, a Dublin journalist, founded the Sinn Féin Party in
1905. Following the Easter Rising of 1916, Sinn Féin became
recognised as the popular front resistance movement in Ireland, and
formed the first D=E1il and Government in 1919.

When Michael Collins returned from London in December 1921
having signed the Treaty granting independence to the 26 counties,
but leaving 6 of the 9 Ulster counties under British rule, Civil War
broke out in Ireland between the "Free State" supported by Collins,
and the Republicans led by de Valera.

In simple terms, this division is the only real difference between the 2
main political parties in present day Ireland. Fine Gael claim
descendancy from the Free State, whereas Fianna F=E1il, which formed
in 1927, pretends to the republican tradition. Both nowadays are
right-wing parties, with little to separate their economic policies;
although it can be argued that Fianna F=E1il rely far more on "ad
hoccery" than on political principles to cobble together their policies,
in a way not dissimilar to the Argentinian Peronistas.

During the thirties, forties and fifties, there was an uneasy peace in
Ireland, with the exception of various sporadic "border campaigns"
undertaken by the then clandestine Irish Republican Army. By the
sixties, continuing blatant discriminatory treatment of the minority
community in the six counties was creating a pressure cooker waiting
to blow, in the North.

At the same time, leading republican activists, such as Cathal
Goulding, were preaching the ideals of Marx and James Connolly, and
socialism within the Party.

The explosion of civil disorder eventually came in 1968, and a
Campaign of Civil Rights, led by Sinn Féin, began in Northern
Ireland. At the same time Sinn Féin was active in housing issues, and
agitation based on land and waterway ownership.

Such socialist preaching, and a call for a non-violent approach to
Northern politics, caused great alarm amongst other political parties
in Ireland, particularly within Fianna F=E1il, then led by Jack Lynch.
Within Fianna F=E1il, a secret fund-raising organisation called Taca
made clandestine links with dissident Sinn Féin members with a view
to supplying arms for war in the six counties. (This is a matter of
D=E1il record, when former Minister, Neil Blaney admitted as much).
These dissidents split from us, as Sinn Féin, to style themselves
"Provisional Sinn Féin", with an attendant military wing which was
the Provisional IRA. (See also the bottom frame of our homepage).
Thus it can rightly be said that the provos are the spawn of Fianna
=46=E1il.

Those of us (the majority at that time in the early seventies) who
remained loyal to Sinn Féin, were quickly dubbed as "Official" Sinn
=46éin by the media. In a keynote speech in County Tyrone in May
1972, the then party president, Tom=E1s Mac Giolla declared complete
opposition to violence in the six counties, and prophetically pointed
out the tragic consequences of such violence.

The party then changed its name to Sinn Féin The Workers' Party, in
1977, to distance itself from the provos and their murderous methods,
and also to emphasise our socialist principles. Later this name became
simply The Workers' Party in 1982. By then the party had a coherent
democratic socialist ideology based on the revolutionary philosophies
of Tone, Marx, and Connolly.

In the eighties the party made significant progress, winning 7 D=E1il
seats and a seat in the European Parliament. However the party
suffered a serious set-back when 6 of the 7 TD's, who resented party
control, broke away for reasons of careerism, amidst the general
panic that affected so many socialist organisations, in the wake of the
collapse of the East European socialist countries. Tom=E1s Mac Giolla
remained true to his principles and stayed with the Workers' Party.
(See also under "Organisation").

The defectors left the party with massive debts, which compelled us to
sell our Party Headquarters. Although the "glamour and the glory"
had departed from us, our membership strength remained high, and
the past few years of rebuilding has seen the emergence of a party
more determined than ever to see through our obligations to secure a
real republic here in Ireland. Two hundred years after Wolfe Tone
that objective remains!
________________________

All the best,
Rob.





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