There
now seems little doubt that the Sinn Fein leadership
will accept responsible for the actions of the
British Constabulary within the north east of
Ireland. Whether before doing so they call a special
Ard Fheis, as they are duty bound to, remains
open to question. They may well claim this is
too important a decision to be left to party members
alone and that only the electorate can decide
such a momentous change, of course, which would
be yet another neat Adamsite device for ducking
responsibility and disenfranchising the SF membership,
whilst covering himself with a paper thin veneer
of democratic accountability.
Indeed
the behavior of the Viceroy Peter Hain, when he
announced the UK government would be enacting
legislation at Westminster in the coming weeks
that will enable him to bring direct rule to an
end, all but confirms that Mr Adams and his leadership
clique within SF have accepted the demands on
policing made of them by the British government
and the DUP. Whilst the media and the SF membership
still give credence to the much hyped SF special
Ard Fheis, those directly involved in the negotiations
seem to have moved beyond it when making their
plans.
Despite
(when out of the earshot of the leadership) the
majority of the party's rank and file being opposed
to accepting the writ of the PSNI in the north
(not least because they are well aware that to
do so amounts to recognizing the right of the
northern Statelet to exist, and by conceding this
right they would be decommissioning at the feet
of the British State yet another if not the final
piece of the crown jewels of Irish Republicanism)
they show little real sign of rejecting the will
of Mr Adams on this vital matter. They have become
so used to acquiescing to his demands after he
has put them through yet another periodic bout
of self flagellation, that they have all but forgotten
why they became Irish Republicans in the first
place.
For
if they accept responsibility for the very organization
within the six counties which holds the line for
the British State against the sharp end of political
opposition, then it is difficult to understand
how the Provos can continue to argue that they
oppose the northern State-let in its entirety.
It
is harsh to write this of the Provisional Republican
Movement, whose membership down the years has
withstood and fought back against the most vicious
of onslaughts from the British State. But it is
undeniable that under the Machiavellian leadership
of Gerry Adams, it has now moved from a Republican
position to that of the Redmondites, in that SF's
first duty is now the defense of that part of
the British State that still occupies a part of
Irish soil.
What is so startling about the journey Gerry Adams
has taken the PRM on to Redmondism, is that he
did not even pause at the Nationalist Halt, where
many previous generations of republican leaderships
found such a comfortable and profitable stop-over,
thus making it their final political destination.
Mr Adams' excursion was a non-stopper, straight
into the arms of Imperialist Grand Central.
That
the British State has historically been extremely
astute at co-opting radicals and socialists into
its system is a historical fact. However, to date
they have not had the same success with Irish
Republicans as they have had with home-grown socialists
or bourgeois nationalists within the colonies.
Even the Free Staters demanded certain guarantees
of independent action from the British before
signing up. Dev, for all his faults, never allowed
the British State to take control of any elements
of the State he controlled on Irish soil. The
Adamsites appear to be willing to sign up to take
responsibility for the occupier's police force,
and for little more than a photo opportunity within
Downing St, dinner at the White House and a promise
of a pot of gold which few within SF's core constituency,
beyond political activists and businessmen and
women, will see a penny of. The very thought takes
your breath away and breaks your heart.
Just
as the Redmondites at the beginning of WW1 told
their supporters in the Irish Volunteers, 'we
must prove to the English we are worthy of independence',
by being at the fore of those defending the British
Empire in the trenches of northern France and
the deserts of Arabia, so too will the Adamsites,
when they declare they recognize their master's
armed wing on the streets of the north, the PSNI.
When Máirtín Ó Muilleoir
all but begged for advertising from this quarter
when Daily Ireland was still in business,
the Adamsites were signalling up they will encourage
northern nationalist to join this force and thus
become quislings. For all their huffing and puffing
about MI5 and the securocrats, SF will have no
more control over the Secret State than a plumber
in Basingstoke or British Labour Party member
in Blackpool.
What
they have signed up to is a third rate form of
municipal government with an illusion of governmental
power. Even the most dim-witted reformist understands
these days the aformentioned is in the hands of
greedy and reactionary advocates of free market
economics, which is rigorously enforced from the
Center. Thus the Shiners will not even have the
power to replicate the work done in the past by
the likes of the Northern Ireland Labour Party
and the municipal socialists like Ken Livingstone,
George Lansbury and Herbert Morrison across the
Irish Sea.
Accepting
responsibility for the PSNI is a circle that Irish
Republicans cannot square, not if they wish to
remain followers of Pearse, Connolly and Mellows.
When one takes responsibility for the police service
of those who occupy your land by force of arms,
you become a quisling. It really is as simple
as that. To use sophistry as the SF leadership
is beginning to do is sickening, with their talk
about accepting the writ of the PSNI being on
a par with administering the north's public parks.
If
the Shinners wish to act like Redmondites and
help the British defend their god awful Statelet,
that is for them. If they wish to pose at being
republicans when they are amongst their own, whilst
doffing their caps to the British when in their
presence, again it is up to them. But when they
do so, they should not be surprised when others
see them as quislings, and act accordingly by
crossing the road when they see them coming.
