Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 07:58:10 +0100
From: Jim <jim-AT-cag1.demon.co.uk>
Subject: M-I: CAG statement: Ireland - Where next?


Ireland: Where Next?

The so-called peace process has reached what the British government
considers to be a conclusion. A new six-county assembly, some trivial
cross-border bodies, and the enshrinement of the unionist veto. To top
it off, the Irish constitution may be amended following a referendum,
leading to the abandonment of the constitutional claim to sovereignty
over the whole of Ireland's 32 counties. For all the predictable bombast
from Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party about the deal being
unacceptable to unionists, it is hard to disagree with the Official
Unionist leader Trimble when he claimed that the union has been
strengthened and reaffirmed.

As we go to press, Sinn Fein has not yet signed up to the deal. It has
expressed serious reservations, and has taken the document away to be
discussed. We will not speculate here on the precise Sinn Fein response
in advance of their public statement. Instead, we will focus on the key
strategic issues facing revolutionaries who recognise and support the
just struggle of the Irish people for their right to self-determination.

There is disagreement about whether the British would ever contemplate a
voluntary withdrawal from Ireland. Some argue that they would be
prepared to go so long as the end result was a united capitalist Ireland
within the EC. They may be right. Others stress the possible longer-term
implications of severing the union on the unity of Britain itself. But
whether the immediate aim in the peace talks was to isolate and
therefore neutralise the Republican movement or instead to emasculate
them by integrating them into constitutional politics, it is clear that
the key aim of the British in the so-called peace process has been to
effectively  remove revolutionary Republicanism from the political
agenda in Ireland.

Will the present accord achieve that? Clearly, a united Ireland is in no
sense on the horizon. Post-agreement, the Republican movement - whether
Sinn Fein sign up to the document or not - will have to determine how
they will pursue the struggle for the reunification of their country.
Broadly speaking, there are three options facing them. Firstly, they
could accept something short of a united Ireland as the best that can be
achieved. In that case, the Sinn Fein  leadership will have been engaged
- willingly or not - in the renegotiation of the union. Secondly, they
could continue to struggle for a united Ireland, but by peaceful means -
i.e.   within the framework of the changed constitution. In that case,
the Republican movement will have to be transformed into something
little more than a more radical version of the SDLP. The third option is
for the Republican movement to reaffirm its revolutionary commitment,
and to continue to struggle - in whatever form is appropriate - for the
revolutionary reunification of Ireland.

We do not pretend to have inside information about discussions within
Sinn Fein or indeed the IRA's leadership. We do not pretend to know who,
in reality, are the hardliners, and who the appeasers. We do not pretend
to know what will go on at the forthcoming Sinn Fein Ard Fheis
(congress). We prefer to leave that kind of posturing to others. What we
do know is that the Republican movement and its leaders have a long
track record of many years of bitter struggle against British
imperialism. We do know that the sacrifices and the endurance of the
Republican movement would put the left in Britain to shame. And we know
that so long as the root causes of the conflict in Ireland have not be
dealt with, so long as Ireland remains divided and under British
colonial domination, there will be those who will rise up and resist,
whatever the price they have to pay.

There has been much play within the media on the notion that this is an
historic moment. It is, in a way, though not for the reasons that Blair,
Major, Ahern and Trimble would have us believe. It is historic because
it brings the oppressed people of Ireland and their political leaders to
a cross-roads. There is a grave danger of a once proud revolutionary
movement being co-opted into a tame constitutional nationalism which
will not threaten even the most timid British capitalist. If that
happens, it will be a tragedy. A tragedy for the Republican movement, to
be sure. A tragedy also for the Irish working class. But more than that,
it will also be a tragedy for the British working class too, which will
lose a key, though largely unrecognised, ally in its struggle for its
own emancipation.

This has not yet happened. It may not yet happen. But even if it does,
that will not be the end of the process. Make no mistake, if the British
and Irish bourgeoisie's succeed in co-opting a major section of the
Republican leadership, it would be a massive blow to the revolutionary
movement. But resistance will not stop just because of that. There are
other organisations, though the record of the INLA and IRSP on the one
hand and the Continuity IRA and Republican Sinn Fein on the other do not
lend confidence that a solution will come from this quarter. More
importantly there is opposition within the mainstream of the Republican
movement to any such eventuality. We will have to wait to see exactly
how the land lies, though it is clear that the 32 County Sovereignty
Committee represents a significant trend within the Republican movement
as a whole. 

Of course, the best solution would be for the Republican movement to
explore the revolutionary road ahead as a united body. But wherever the
resistance comes from, and however it finds its political leadership,
the fire of revolution will continue to burn in Ireland.

Quite how it will burn is another matter. The INLA and the Continuity
IRA see matters in terms of going back to the 1970s and 1980s. From the
little that has been publicly said by the 32 County Sovereignty
Committee, they see things this way, too. The problem with this is that
the conditions under which the struggle will have to be waged will be
very much worse than they were then. From what is being said by Trimble
and others about Sinn Fein having to give further proof of their
commitment to "democratic politics", it seems clear that any party
talking about the bullet and the ballot box will be banned from
participating in the new assembly. If so, it may be that the old
controversy on abstentionism and not taking up seats will lose much of
its resonance. Whatever form it takes, revolutionary Republicanism is
likely to be more isolated and more embattled than before.

For the past 30 years, the occupied six counties of north-east Ireland
have been in a revolutionary situation. The oppressed refused to be
ruled in the old way. The oppressors were not able to rule in the old
way. Despite this, no Communist movement worthy of the name was ever
built there. The anti-revisionist movement in Ireland failed to rise to
the challenge. Those from within the Communist movement who did, had to
leave the movement and join in the only really revolutionary movement
there was: the Republican movement. The failure of a Communist movement
to take root and to throw itself fully into the struggle for national
liberation is one of the fundamental causes of the delay in Ireland's
liberation. The absence of a strong, genuine Communist movement in
Britain is another factor, of course, a point which the Communist Action
Group has emphasised on a number of occasions.

Rolando Alejandro of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines
has said that in their struggle against imperialism, the Filipino people
have three key weapons: working class leadership, the armed struggle,
and the united front. The Irish people have been deprived of all three.
Despite this, their heroism has been exemplary, and those who did try to
face up to the challenges, the revolutionary Republicans, put those who
claimed the mantle of Marxism-Leninism in their country to shame.

Like every other people, Ireland needs a Communist Party. And it needs
one now more than ever. The Irish working class will one day succeed in
building a party worthy of this name, of that we are completely sure,
just as we are sure that, with or without such a party, the spirit of
resistance will live on within the oppressed and exploited masses of
that beleaguered country.

As for British Communists, our tasks remain the same. No country that
oppresses another can ever be free. If we are to win our own
emancipation, then we must champion the cause of Irish freedom. As Marx
and Lenin recognised so well, a blow struck against British imperialism
in Ireland would provide the greatest impetus to the development of a
revolutionary working class movement in this country. After all,
proletarian internationalism is not a luxury: it is a burning necessity
for the working class. And proletarian internationalism above all means
supporting the struggles against your "own" imperialism - and in
Britain, that means above all supporting the struggle for Irish national
liberation.

Communist Action Group
BM Box 4473 
London WC1N 3XX
England

e-mail: cag-AT-cag1.demon.co.uk


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