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Anyone
steeped in the history of Irish Republicanism and
taking a Republican perspective would have learnt
well the phrase 'never trust the Brits'. It was with
that firmly in mind that I approached the Good Friday
Agreement. I voted against the Good Friday Agreement.
I recognised that it was a compromise believed necessary
by those who negotiated it from a republican perspective.
I have no problems with compromise. I believe however
that the GFA was the wrong compromise.
Many
others voted against the GFA and did so not from a
position of wishing for the maintenance of armed struggle
but because they felt that the GFA was fundamentally
flawed. When the results of the referendum on the
GFA were
announced, however, it was clear that the wishes of
the Irish people should be respected.
While
sceptical about the GFA the Republican Socialist Movement
took the view that it would do nothing to try to bring
down that agreement. The view was that the GFA would
collapse of its own internal contradictions. The suspension
four times in five years of the Assembly and the power
sharing executive and now the postponing of elections
because Blair did not want to see Ian Paisley as First
Minister would seem to indicate that our original
analysis was spot on. The democratic wishes of the
Irish people were not, and are not, respected.
There
has been a growing disillusionment not only within
the broad republican and nationalist population but
also within the broad mass of people in the six counties
not just with the GFA but also more ominously with
politics itself. This sadly contrasts with the beginning
of the peace process where apart from the saving of
lives there had been the rebirth of politics. People
had been raising issues that impinge on their lives,
such as death drivers, teenage drinking and drugs,
bad land-lords, the impact that DOE planning has on
people, the inadequate housing supply, the absence
of an effective policing service, the chaotic transport
system and so on. But there was also in the growing
politicisation awareness that a grass roots approach
to conflict resolution was necessary. Small steps
can create confidence and trust and can lead on to
major steps. Politics is about dealing with life in
the working class areas where it matters. It is at
local level politics need to have an impact. Community
workers, activists and trade unionists within unionist
and nationalist areas were playing a more active part
in their communities.
Before
the GFA the working class had born the brunt of sectarian
attacks while the state passively looked on and did
not intervene. Indeed in many instances the agencies
of the state instigated and perpetuated sectarianism.
Many workers were murdered because of inflammatory
speeches made by sectarian politicians who lived aloof
from the consequences of their speeches. The hope
existed that the GFA would bring an end both to the
violence and the bitter sectarianism that seems endemic
in Northern society. Yet with all the main armed groups
on ceasefire there has been more rather than less
sectarianism on the streets. The crisis politics of
the peace process has consistently plunged working
class communities into high expectation then depression
and then despair at the possibility of a return to
armed conflict.
Radical
change had been promised by the signing of the Good
Friday Agreement. The old division over the constitutional
issue was said to be over-taken by events. Much was
promised. Little was in reality delivered. The institutions
set up as a result of the GFA have proved ineffectual.
In resigning from the the Northern Ireland Human Rights
Commission, Inez McCormack, delivered a damming indictment
of the Commission:
(it)
cannot deliver on its remit under the Good Friday
Agreement. Even within its limited powers and resources,
it lacks direction on the strategies, policies and
practices needed to carve out a positive role for
itself in protecting and promoting human rights.
Its internal processes have either broken down,
or have not even been formed. It is clearly not
independent of government, with an extended and
enhanced role, as outlined in the agreement
Issues
such as the human rights agenda, equality and justice
should never have been part of the bargaining process
that led up to the GFA. By so doing the universal
rights of all citizens were diminished by political
bartering. Britain has only reluctantly agreed to
the so-called equality agenda so long as it is tied
into the agreement. Human rights transcend shoddy
political deals and the issue of human rights should
have been kept separate from the talks on political
institutions.
Loyalist
violence continued despite some concessions gained
from the GFA. The war is to all intents over, whatever
terminology is used. The IRA decommissioned. Republicans
have apologised for the suffering they caused. Articles
two and three have been removed from the Irish constitution,
and Republicans participated in a Stormont assembly
as well as running Stormont departments. But some
loyalist politicians claimed that republicans were
the only people who have gained from the Agreement
and suddenly discovered much poverty in loyalist working
class area. They sought to blame only nationalists
for all the post-GFA ills. This naturally justified
(in their own eyes) the unleashing of sectarian violence
from factions within loyalist paramilitaries. There
has been a constant barrage of sectarian attacks on
the Catholic population in an attempt to make republicans
break cease-fires and so destroy the agreement.
Yet
the areas affected most by this violence are poverty
stricken and poverty does not ask the religion or
politics of its victims. As the Noble index of worst
poverty affected areas shows not one section of the
Catholic/Protestant working class communities can
claim to be suffering more deprivation than another.
The
four main parties in the dissolved Stormont Executive
(UUP, DUP, SDLP, SF) have all lobbied Westminster
to lower corporate tax from 30% to as little as 10%,
and accepted the private financing of public utilities.
The privatising of public services means putting profit
before people. The built-in veto within the assembly
at Stormont solidified the existing sectarian power
blocs and gives reactionary politicians the power
to prevent, within the remit of the assembly, any
radical measures to deal with the economic and social
problems that exist in the six counties. Martin McGuinness
could not break the power of the Grammar schools that
have discriminated against working class children
and Bairbre de Brun had an impossible task to reform
the decrepit health service.
The
electorate and the political parties are pressured
into identifying with the two sectarian blocs. Political
parties had to identify themselves as unionist, nationalist
or other. The antics of the Women's Coalition and
the Alliance Party in re-designating themselves as
Unionists only discredited the political process.
The two tribes approach (for in essence that is what
the GFA is) goes against a core value of Republicanism,
the uniting of catholic, protestant and dissenter.
Under the political correct designations stemming
from the GFA I am classified as a nationalist/catholic
(which I most certainly am not) and my two daughters
are designated as protestant/ unionists (which they
most certainly are not).
The
cross border institutions much heralded as an all
Ireland dimension are in reality existing practices
of co-operation tarted up as some wonderful exotic
all Ireland creature. Even then Trimble was able to
stop their work for a time when he refused to nominate
Sinn Fein ministers.
Political
prisoners were released on licence. Political status
has disappeared. Republicans should not recognise
the right of anyone to criminalize Republican prisoners.
We may disagree with the tactics of some republicans
and we do, but we recognise that their motivation
is political and they should be recognised as such.
There
is not the political will to tackle the fundamental
wrongs of the northern state. The British government
has failed to seriously tackle the thorny questions
of the northern judiciary and the RUC. Even the Patten
Report, a document most republicans did not accept,
has been neutered. In the GFA there was an obligation
on all parties to work for decommissioning by all
paramilitary groups. Yet none of the political parties
with the exception of Sinn Fein used 'Any influence
to achieve decommissioning of all paramilitary arms
within two years'. (Page 20 GFA}
In
other words the whole question of decommissioning
or disarmament has been a farce, a gesture, a token
to the Unionist backwoodsmen and a way of trying to
humiliate republicans. On security the British Army
hope to reduce their troop levels to that of 1969.
The Whiterock and Henry Taggart forts have been removed,
only to be replaced, by the massive technologically
sophisticated police station at New Barnsley complete
with heli-pad. Two interrogation centres were closed
at Castlereagh and Armagh with much fanfare but few
mentioned the building of a new interrogation centre
in Antrim.
If
republicans instead of taking up their allocation
of seats in the Executive had refused them and gone
into opposition they could have avoided the whole
issue of decommissioning, led the opposition to the
dismantling of the public sector, mobilised opposition
to the reactionary economic policy of the Programme
of Government and been in a position of articulating
the demands of their wide constituency.
Instead,
they were compromised, by participating in running
the Northern Ireland Government, while the Northern
Ireland state was still essentially sectarian and
irreformable. Constitutional tinkering with the northern
state has not and will not eradicate its fundamentally
sectarian nature. Britain has shown by the arbitrary
actions of its local overlord in postponing elections
that it retains full sovereignty over the North. Can
we not now, with ample justification say, the whole
point of the exercise was to disarm, discredit and
demoralise republicans?
Should
we all now step back from the whole process and reflect
on what has been achieved and what has been lost.
The
above article was first printed in 'Models of Governance:
The Good Friday Agreement and beyond' Some Personal
Reflections published by Coiste Na Iarchimi and available
from 10 Beechmount Avenue, Belfast BT12 7NA; E-mail:
info@Coiste.com
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