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Many
years ago, the day after Gerry Adams was first elected
as West Belfast's MP, I spoke at a conference organised
by the T. U. C. Trades Council section in the north
of England. I was so overjoyed that he had been elected
I mentioned it in my speech along with an ANC/Spear
of the Nation attack on a South African SASOL oil
refinery, which had also taken place the previous
day. As you can imagine it did not exactly go down
well with the T.U.C. bureaucrats sitting on the platform,
however many in the audience were sympathetic. That
I did so shows how clearly back then these struggles,
along with others such as the Palestinians, were linked.
All three being against the injustices left behind
by British imperialism and any victories such as the
attack on SASOL and Adams election inspired anti imperialists
the world over.…
Afterwards
I was asked by a trade union sister how will we know
when the struggle in the north of Ireland, is not
only over, but had been worth all the sacrifices.
I replied somewhat light heartedly, "when come
election night I watch the TV results programme and
all the political talking heads are as boring as those
that now appear on similar occasions on TV in the
South of Ireland and in London." In other words
when the situation was one of total normality, which
I believed could only come about with a United Ireland.
Never did I imagine that this stage would have been
reached with the border still firmly intact and those
boring talking head politicians would include the
very man whose election I had been applauding all
those years ago, along with those who he clearly regards
these day's as the cream of the leadership of Sinn
Fein.
But
this is what has happened; I witnessed it myself on
the evening of the recent Stormont Assembly elections
whilst watching some of the results come in on Ulster
TV. It seems from once being a vibrant, radical party,
which had a clear idea of the type of society it wished
to see in Ireland, a party consisting of passionate,
self-sacrificing, angry people, the overwhelming majority
of whom came from the working classes in town and
country, Sinn Fein has been transformed into the SDLP
mark two. Its candidates now speak like the old SDLP
and worse bore like the old SDLP. Sinn Fein's younger
activists and those chosen to be electoral candidates
increasingly come from lower-middle or middle class
backgrounds like the SDLP. Having had University educations
like their counterparts in the SDLP, when at one time
it was a proud boast of SF that there was not a degree
amongst its leadership. Apart from, that is, revolutionary
studies, awarded by the University of Long Kesh.
They
dress in suits and ties like the old SDLP, although
admittedly somewhat smarter. And these days, they
are increasingly appealing politically to the same
middle class electorate as the SDLP. Arrogantly confident
that they can ignore the immediate needs and demands
of their core working class support, in the belief
that the nationalist working class have no other party
to turn to; in this they are aping New Labour in the
rest of the United Kingdom and the Clinton Democrats
in the USA.
How
long can it be before the SDLP and Sinn Fein merge
- these days there is little difference between the
two parties' policies? What differences still exist,
like that over policing and taking up Westminster
seats, looks like being overcome in the near future.
How long will the Adams leadership be able to resist
the pull of approximately half a million plus pounds
a year, the amount a handful of Sinn Fein MPs would
pull into the party's coffers if they sign up to sit
in the Westminster Parliament? When Adams first started
negotiating with the SDLP's John Hume to take Sinn
Fein into what is now called the Pan-Irish Nationalist
Front, few of even his closest supporters could have
envisaged that this would entail ditching Sinn Fein’s
core radical, socialist and Republican values.
Instead
of Sinn Fein having radicalised politics in the north
of Ireland, the Adams leadership has trimmed its political
beliefs down to the bone and adapted, if not stolen
the majority of the SDLP’s policies, even down
to increasingly calling their party Nationalist. Imitated
SDLP strategy and aimed at its constituency, this
being so I suppose it is only fair for them to take
on board those SDLP politicians they have forced into
redundancy. If Sinn Fein continues to go politically
to the right, they may need an intake of experienced
politicians to replace those SF members who have either
been driven out or who cannot stomach it any more.
What
is wrong with this, many would say. After all are
not politicians in politics for political power? The
answer is yes and the one thing you cannot deny the
Adams leadership is that they have taken their party
forward electorally, gaining the largest number of
Nationalist seats in the recent election in the North.
But this is a well trod road that has been mapped
out long ago by Irish Republicans such as those who
ended up in Fianna Fáil and on a smaller scale,
The Workers Party. The thing that in the past made
SF and its activists different, and gave them the
support of radicals the world over was they were not
solely in politics for Power. They were activists
who wished to gain power for one reason, to transform
their country and the lives of the working people
who live within it. Yet today's SF manifesto is as
bland as bland can be, it does not even advocate a
woman's right to choose, let alone advocate any form
of a just socialist society. It is the worst kind
of reactionary Liberalism and an acceptance of the
status quo,
In
a recent discussion with a Sinn Fein activist, he
said to me the trouble with the left is that they
are not prepared to carry out the onerous tasks that
it is necessary to do if one is to succeed in politics.
On inquiring what these onerous tasks were, he mentioned
the courage Sinn Fein's two ministers had shown in
the north, whilst in office at Education and Health
in introducing Public Private Finance initiatives,
knowing full well that this in the long term would
be detrimental to the people of the north. It had
to be done, he went on, because there was simply not
enough money in the coffers to do otherwise. With
courage like this, I thought to my self, Ireland would
have had a united socialist democratic Republic years
ago.
This
to me sums up Sinn Fein's position today, for the
Adams leadership 'Office' is all, because from Office
springs power along with its trappings. But is this
an illusion? Is it not time those left within Sinn
Fein who are still inspired by the idealism of republican
socialism asked themselves what benefits have their
core supporters gained from ‘Power' and organise
themselves accordingly as a Republican socialist faction
within the Party.…For if the aforementioned period
of office is to be the example from which to draw
a judgement on SF's record whilst in office, it appears
wanting. Little more seems to have come to SF core
constituency than a promise of a further period of
Office for Sinn Fein. Plus a season ticket for its
leadership to sit on a regular basis in the anti chambers
of the Irish, British and US ruling classes. None
of which bring much direct benefit to those who were
originally and still are today SF foremost supporters.
Thus
today, Sinn Fein finds itself within the same political
circle that former Republicans did in the past, as
I said above within such parties as Fianna Fáil,
who trod a similar road themselves. Like them Sinn
Fein's membership now truly has their very own groundhog
day. They work hard electorally to gain power, when
they get it they do little with it that would benefit
the mass of working people, because to do so would
be against the ruling elite's interest and encourage
their wrath. Having behaved themselves whilst in office
SF are thus given another shot in power and so it
goes on. Is this really what Republican's and their
supporters struggled so hard for with so much sacrifice
and heartache? Is all it amounts to - going to be
the sight of this or that SF politico on the TV or
radio, or when they drive by in their government limo,
are those who have not been selected to become part
of Sinn Fein's new political elite going to say to
one another, "I used to know that man, he surely
has done well for himself, shame, he used to be someone."
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