File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1998/marxism-international.9803, message 43


Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 08:16:38 +0000
From: James Heartfield <James-AT-heartfield.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Reply to Heartfield, challenge to ShaneRe: M-I: on nation building


In message <3.0.5.32.19980303143106.00b09cb0-AT-pop.qut.edu.au>, Gary
MacLennan <g.maclennan-AT-qut.edu.au> writes
>This is hopeless.  At one level the epoch of anti-imperialist struggles is
>over and at another it is "in abeyance."  It can't be both.
Forgive me for being inexact. My only point is that the epoch of anti-
imperialist struggles is not dependent just on the state of imperialism,
but also on the subjective state of those movements. 

On the historical point Gary is right to reject the argument that the
Unionists are a mojority in NI, on the grounds that the border was
imposed artificially to meet that condition. The border denied the
Ireland as a whole its sovereignty.

But where Gary gets it wrong is to say that the whole of the Irish
population is anti-imperialist. That's just silly. If you mean that the
whole of the Irish population has an interest in fighting imperialism,
you should add the British population also has such an interest. If you
mean that the Irish population is consciously galvanised against
imperialism, or even generally anti-imperialist in its outlook, then you
are wrong.

Everywhere you go in Africa, the missionaries are Irish. Irish aid
workers are running projects with bigger budgets than the governments of
those countries. Mary Robinson's move to the UN is no incidental.
Ireland has carved out a role for itself as second fiddle in the
imperialist orchestra. National aspirations in Ireland have been
redirected into a pride in Ireland's international standing.

Indeed, republicanism as a whole is effectively finished, because its
main representatives, Sinn Fein have moderated their demand for
independence in favour of 'parity of esteem' and dumped the slogan 'no
British solution' in favour of a demand that Britain act as honest
broker between the nationalist and unionist populations of NI.

The Irish war is over.

Fraternally
-- 
James Heartfield


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