I
have, all my adult life like most British socialists,
supported the right of Irish Republicans to take
up arms. This position I believe has two origins.
The right to oppose oppression, to physically
confront the forces of oppression is a principle
elevated to special status when it is our own
state that is guilty. It is invariably the case,
however, that oppression of any form contains
within it a class dimension. There were areas
of South Belfast barely affected during the conflict
whilst the endurance of the Provisional's campaign
can, I believe, be attributed to the essentially
working class nature of the movement. There has,
inevitably, therefore been some natural common
ground between socialists and republicans and
it is in this context that I comment on the rapidly
changing political landscape of the North.
As
an outsider it is not for me to take a view on
the policing issue, I have not been subject to
a sectarian police force, I don't live in the
community affected. The issue has, however, served
to concentrate my mind on the political direction
of SF. As a socialist I believe that the political
method and the goal to which it is put cannot
be divorced; if you don't have the right method
you aren't going to the right place. Again, it
is not for me to say that the armed struggle should
or should not continue. Moreover, it seems to
me that the restoration of a functioning civil
society with some access to justice and without
overt, state endorsed discrimination is a very
considerable achievement. And, contrary to some
on the left, I do not believe this was on offer
in the mid seventies; Wilson might have agreed
but the DUP did not and neither, crucially, did
the British Army who refused to move against the
UWC barricades. No, it had to be fought for.
Legitimately,
I can comment on how SF got to this point and
what, consequently we might expect from them in
the future. Without mincing words the current
Provisional leadership have lied to, deceived,
bullied and undermined the PIRA in a long, calculated,
machiavellian campaign to turn that organisation
on its head. Every move that Adams made against
the O'Bradaigh/O'Connaill leadership could also
over the last fifteen years and on the same justification
have been made against his own position. That
is wasn't is an indicator of the danger posed
by the disdain for politics prevalent inside the
PIRA, a stance championed previously by Adams.
No doubt the Adams supporters justify this Stalinist
subterfuge on the grounds that this is where they
want to be and without Adams hoodwinking the PIRA
the violence would still be going on. It might.
No-body knows. But by pre-judging the issue and
putting more trust in the Catholic Church, the
SDLP, Fianna Fail and the British Government than
in honest debate with PIRA volunteers, the leadership
has poisoned SF politics forever. When activists
are told to speak about "republican labour"
rather than socialism it is not the middle class
of this island who are being deceived. Neither
has the path trod by the leadership been one of
least suffering. It was not necessary for explicit
collaboration between the SF leadership and the
British to achieve the orgy of death in Tyrone
during the eighties. The British organised the
death squads, some their own, some local. At Army
Council level, the PIRA were prevented from mounting
any effective opposition to this threat. The countless
volunteers, SF activists and their family members
who died were sacrificed in the common pursuit
of a peace process by those parties determined
not to allow any potential threat from the independently
minded inhabitants of Tyrone. The open-season
for Tyrone republicans was the Bombay Street for
the present SF leadership. To add insult to injury
the same leadership, in their quest for non-violence
later sanctioned the use of the "human bomb",
a tactic as guaranteed to undermine support for
the PIRA as it was to cause the death of civilians.
Gerry
Adams is the Tony Blair of the republican movement.
Like Blair, he has entered an organisation, plotted
to take control and ditched core principals. No
matter what the merits of the changes themselves
the Stalinist methods and the contempt for democracy
render SF incapable of further progress as a progressive
party. Over the last few years I have believed
that SF would soon become indistinguishable from
the SDLP once the Northern Ireland Assembly had
taken root; willing victims of the DUP's strategy
of extracting indefinite concessions until SF
is weakened beyond effective opposition. I now
believe the picture is far worse. Within perhaps
two parliaments SF will be indistinguishable from
Fianna Fail. Let us hope that Gerry Adams is never
elected Taoiseach; it might result in Ireland
becoming, for the first time in its history, an
imperialist power.
