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After
my comrades and I having played the leading role in
initiating and bringing about the North’s largest
anti war march on Feb 15th in Belfast city centre,
where tens of thousands had marched through Belfast’s
streets, it brought me to increasingly think about
‘war’ as a whole. My particular part in
building such a march and engaging with the many diverse
organisations that had played a part gave me access
to many organisations mindsets on a whole layer of
issues and more especially on that of Imperialism.
(Building an Anti War Movement Part 1 and Moving
to Action Part 2 can be found on the Blanket)
This particular march was against the war on, and
the subsequent American and British occupation of
Iraq. It was a march and a movement understood and
termed by most of the leading mainstream press here
in the North as being Anti Imperialist. Yet as a child
I had been on and witnessed many Anti Imperialist
marches against the occupation of Ireland. For oneself
now I have developed a firm understanding on the nature
of Imperialism and the history of those Imperial powers
both at home and internationally and have on occasions
witnessed the brutality of its war at close hand.
At this time I do not wish to go into great detail
of that as a child I had witnessed or known in relation
to this, and may not for several years if ever find
that I shall pen such intense experiences. Yet for
now I shall give but a taste of Childhood, West Belfast
and the wars.
I
had moved to Sevastopol Street in 1974 -75 with my
mother and stepfather and lived between there and
40 Glenalina Road where my Grandparents lived. Our
house had been ‘kept’ for us as was the
tradition in many such cases at that time and handed
on to those next in line. I had learnt that a person
who had lived in my childhood home previous to myself,
that of 6 Sevastopol Street was a man now famous in
the annals of Republican history, his name was Seamus
Twomey. He had gone on to become a renowned IRA leader
and its chief of staff. He was involved in the now
infamous escape from Mountjoy prison where he was
airlifted out by helicopter. Such was the nature
of the times and our street then that many houses
for me would hold a figure or an event of notoriety
in relation to the war within those times. I had and
have much family that comes from the ‘West’
(of Belfast) with my great grandmother Carlin for
example also coming from Sevastopol Street. She was
a staunch Republican in her day as had been many of
my ancestors and relatives and was also a fluent Irish
speaker. Like many such families the war impacted
on much of us directly and we responded in various
ways to it especially as being and living within the
heart of the beast.
The
war for me had seen me witness death, mutilation and
much more. It had me seeing Brits, volunteers, innocent
men, women and children in death. Some laying in pools
of blood, others with arms and/or legs hanging or
blown of, more with their insides being displayed
openly to the world while others in coffins and other
coffins again simply not being opened as the persons
would have been unrecognisable. War for me from the
age of seven became an understanding that it was a
war imposed on a people by a brutal state, of a people
who endured but who would endure such no longer and
for many felt the only alternative was to strike back
physically, seeking in many cases only equality and
justice.
The
seventies where called the ‘dark days’,
so let us then go back to those dark days. It was
the mid seventies.
‘What
is it son,’ my mum had asked with a worried face.
‘A
man has been shot,’ I replied.
I
had just started school at this time and later on
in life my mum was to tell me it was the first time
she had remembered me stating I had seen such attacks
or death. It had stuck in her mind not so much as
because of the shooting (as I had told her as a child
of such attacks and death witnessed until I chose
not to say anymore as it increased her worries for
the kids) but because the man who had survived was
to be murdered several years later had also became
a renowned figure. He was an INLA man and his name
was Ronnie Bunting, Ronnie Bunting was the son of
Major Ronald Bunting, a one-time aide to Ian Paisley.
He was a once Belfast commander and a senior chief
on staff of the INLA (Irish National Liberation Army)
while having also been a founder member of the IRSP
(Irish Republican Socialist Party). Bunting was to
be the only Protestant to be interned without trail
in 1972. He was eventually killed after several attempts
on his life along with Noel Lyttle in 1980.
Such
shootings and events were common but such was the
times and the people within the community, that solidarity
and support was to the fore. Yet I remember the times
of the feuds and I had always thought to myself even
as the child how such were doing the Brits dirty work
for them, that is, when they were not employing loyalists
or others to do that work for and with them.
Many
stories are and have been handed down through the
years of the war, most of them word of mouth where
persons reflect on or remember times gone by. Yet
everyone has a story to tell and for me it was always
one of the promises I had made to myself in life.
I vowed to tell a story of a childhood within the
context of such wars, simply because I believed that
it needed to be told. Yet I have found especially
more so now as I have seen in my latter years how
revisionism, historical and otherwise is a tool that
some use for their own ends. Therefore I shall write
several more accounts in this series before again
coming back in the years ahead to finish the story,
my story, as I wish to do more detailed works and
writings on a number of other various issues in the
time ahead.
I
have always thought that it is great when one has
the chance to hear at first hand personal accounts
of various instances, but I find it more interesting
when they are accounts that those of my generation
rarely come across and are not regurgitated through
many accounts. I had enjoyed hearing from one who
may be very close to ones self how he boarded a burning
bus and drove it away from houses that it was moving
forward to. Of another who had accidentally possibly
saved Jim Bryson, a renowned IRA volunteer from the
Murph. The person in question may have set a van alight
and with its flames and the light it shone, the volunteer
in question was able to suddenly see Brits coming
towards him sneaking through the fields in a possible
ambush. Or of having heard of a similar situation
in relation to Tommy Toland, another IRA volunteer,
although both killed eventually but by differing forces.
Yet again hearing of the supposed ‘fair digs’,
(fair fights one to one and unarmed) where the Paras
or residents would challenge each other and on so
many occasions when the Para whom had challenged or
was challenged if they were getting beat then their
other Para mates would all jump on the one person.
So many personal stories and so much history within
a small community yet so much more remains still untold.
Many
such accounts are told yet for me an understanding
of not only the war as in the war against the state
but also the war amongst those different organisations
all looking for on many occasions similar changes,
had and has taken my interest. Therefore I came to
understand while living on the Falls that there were
various wars ongoing, with the Brits, with loyalists,
with other organisations and with even each other
at times. So with the feuds and the hatred that ran
amongst such organisations and indeed amongst and
still among once comrades I had drawn a lot of lessons
from this. With that then and my seven years or so
as a left activist in Belfast I will touch on a topic
with the help of learning the lessons of the past
both in knowledge and experience. The issue is of
what I consider a taboo issue but it needs to be raised,
debated and discussed if we are to move forward, as
I have in my own small way attempted to break it down,
it is simply that of:
The
political wars within the Left - a personal question,
and a practical answer.
When
I first became an activist my politics was limited
to my own experiences and of the papers and the books
I had read which were all quite localised. Much
of the initial meetings I had went to, to be honest,
were over my head but I was hungry to learn and had
many questions. It was two comrades who borne the
brunt of my questions, Mark and Colm, and it was their
patience over time that had given me a base on many
subjects. With that I went and read up on many other
subjects as my thirst for knowledge was expanding
into science, philosophy, the arts and much more.
Within politics I read much on international issues
with finding also a thirst for local politics and
economics along with the interest of studying tactics
and strategies of various wars and campaigns. With
this underway I became engaged in activity and this
was to be where I got my eyes opened for the first
time to the political sectarianism and protectionism
of many of the Left, Socialist, and Republican groups
and organisations. Many of those whom were the most
forward in this political sectarianism had been around
politics twenty or thirty years and held ‘their
own’ organisations. So let's then go back several
years to when I became political active.
I
had been around the SWP only for a very short time
when a strike had happened in a mixed workplace in
Belfast and I went along to show solidarity. On arrival
I was met by ‘the leader’ of a Socialist
Party in Belfast and he, knowing that I was ‘new’
and was around the SWP, a different organisation,
started to talk to me immediately about the SWP and
not about the strike. I found this bizarre, as his
priority was to tell me everything that he thought
was the matter with the SWP and talk not once about
what we were all there for which I had naively presumed
was to give solidarity to the strikers. This took
an even more bizarre twist when out of his bag he
produced a copy of the SWP's paper from the sixties
or the seventies and with his eyes wide open started
talking about what they had said thirty odd years
ago. I honestly thought at the time that the guy was
not all there. When the man was moved to having saliva
actually coming out of his mouth due to the force
of his points, and because I was only casually listening
to him, I eventually said ‘listen mate, I wasn’t
even fucking born then’. With this he eventually
moved on to another person with the same pressing
issue and I thought as to why would some one wish
to attempt to cause division while we were here to
show solidarity? Nevertheless this situation was my
first real engagement with others on the left, I had
therefore been baptised into the real world of left
politics in Belfast and was later to find that it
would be and is replicated elsewhere.
I
was also to find out that various Republicans were
at that time also just the same. On many occasions
while offering solidarity I was told ‘why don’t
you go and have your own march or meeting’, while
on other occasions being on the receiving end of harsher
and more abrupt language. My crime again was as a
perceived ‘naive new young activist’ was
to attempt to offer solidarity while being in a differing
organisation. Over the first few years as a small
but growing organisation in Belfast we were kicked
out of venues due to words stated by other leaders
of other organisations; our posters were taken down
by other organisations, and at times it had come to
my attention that it had moved to more sinister and
more dangerous situations for our members by words
to others by such persons. Yet despite this we were
not to be deterred from our work by such political
sectarianism. Yet for me I came to realise that like
society as a whole, things needed to be changed and
I came to an understanding as to how to move this
situation forward.
Having
now reached the real world of the then left politics
in Belfast I was amazed how other organisations seen
the main problem as being with other left organisations
rather than the state and the system. Yet I was to
learn this was to be the case in many cases around
the world leading at times to disastrous outcomes
as we had witnessed on too many occasions throughout
history. I had decided for my part to not let oneself
sink into the political sectarian cesspit I was witnessing
within other organisations around me. So it was then
with a new and relatively young Belfast leadership
that we collectively embarked to seek change, always
learning from the past while moving forward, as opposed
to looking to the past and seeking to remain there.
We
had started off modestly and learning from some of
our mistakes within relatively successful but modest
initiatives as we went along. This included
the five day occupation of Queens University against
tuition fees, the Campaign Against Selection (CAS)
against the 11plus which had brought eight National
Trade Union banners onto Belfast centre streets, and
the mobilising of several hundred young anti capitalist
activists for direct action around Belfast city centre.
This as well as our initiatives and mobilisations
around the various wars, amongst other issues. We
of course made mistakes both tactically and in some
parts strategically, but learnt quickly. While those
other organisations sniped from the sides or wrote
purist polemics on what we may have done wrong and
how they would have did it so right we kept our heads
above the cesspit. We would let our actions and our
political clarity and vision speak for us while we
continually looked and moved forward.
I
had written on the Blanket an article around
sixteen months ago entitled Belfast Political Sectarianism
and the Left. In this I had went into some of my experiences
and understanding in relation to this. Yet I had also
wrote my first conference document for the SWP outlining
the need for united fronts and also the working with
others in already established campaigns. My understanding
had developed to seeking to work with others on the
left and with progressive forces within society through
firstly initiating campaigns, and then as importantly
to work with others within already established campaigns.
We were to reach out in a fraternal way seeking to
work in solidarity for a commonality of purpose and
in doing so building up relationships while breaking
down perceptions amongst the genuine and progressive
forces on the left in Belfast. This would be done
by being hard working, by being open and fraternal
activists on the ground, while having sharpness and
clarity in our spoken and written words. The first
example of this enabled us to quickly mobilise over
one hundred activists from various organisations in
which we where working with others, to travel to Dublin
for a demonstration.
Yet
we needed to move further forward and my most recent
conference document went into detail on how I believed
that that could be done. Although I did have reservations
as to how fast we could move forward on such, nevertheless
when we progressed forward with the knowledge and
experience we had acquired, despite many of us though
only a short time in politics, that knowledge was
still invaluable. Eventually we were to create a space
from where a new form of working together, engagement,
open discussion between various organisations and
mobilising on common cause would take place. It would
be where the left and progressive forces were taking
unified and mass actions on common beliefs, and a
new working relationship between most of such organisations
could and would begin.
It
had started back at the time when Daniel McColgan,
a postal worker, was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries.
Our comrades with others pressed for action within
the unions including that of the CWU (postal workers
union) and within wider society. With the then postal
worker walkouts and a ground swell coming from below,
the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) was moved
into calling for action. With that we worked relentlessly
to build the march. In W/Belfast for example we went
into shops, colleges, workplaces and community centres
and argued for walkouts. We met trade unionists and
addressed groups of workers who wanted to know more.
Our poster ‘Shut Down Northern Ireland’
went up in shop windows, community centres, bars,
work places, colleges etc the length and breath of
the West. This was being replicated by comrades in
other communities, trade unions, workplaces colleges
etc. The press then carried half page pictures of
Socialist Worker posters on the day of the stoppages,
including on the front pages of the North’s largest
papers, while comrades also spoke from platforms on
the day. Our work having being recognised not only
within aspects of the media, communities and workplaces
that day, it was also eventually acknowledged by the
ICTU. We knew that such a demo eventually, thirty
thousand strong, in Belfast was a vitally important
issue and we had thrown everything into it with others
to make it come around. We had seen people in their
tens of thousands rally on a common issue and we had
played a not unimportant role in it. This was reflected
afterwards where the SWP hosted a meeting after the
rally and despite hiring out the bottom floor of Robinson’s
club we still had to unfortunately turn away over
one hundred persons who had wanted to listen to what
we were saying, but no overspill rooms could be found.
It was a lesson though we were to take into the following
year and the Anti War Movement, that of a unity for
a common purpose and of building for mass mobilisation.
So
then towards the end of last year we prepared
to mobilise against a possible coming war in Iraq
but at the same time the firefighter strike loomed,
again we, and myself on a personal level, were to
witness and to feel the increasing brunt of party
political sectarianism directed toward us and increasingly
myself. With the strike taking of we established the
W/Belfast firefighter Support group (on Blanket
site) which seen a few months later us establishing
the W/Belfast Anti War group (The Blanket). Both were
to eventually mobilise marches from working class
areas on those issues. It was on the firefighter
support march that a Shankill Rd trade unionist and
I went around together attempting to build support
and which because of its eventual make up was termed
‘historic’ by the local media. The ‘Falls
and Shankill’ march seen a number of activists
helping with the groundwork such as leafleting etc
including leading members of Sinn Fein. I had though
witnessed on this issue such political sectarianism
and abstraction by no less than four differing organisations
in four different ways with which I will deal with
as it had helped me to a firmer understanding on such
matters and how to then deal with it.
The
first political sectarianism was from one left organisation
that actually just did not want to see it happening
and so they played no role in it. They made this quite
clear in no uncertain terms at the time and if they
had got their way they would have actively seeked
to see it fail rather than work, but they did not
get their way. The second was from another organisation
which was more bizarre. It began when the SWP’s
more artistic comrades had made the lead banner in
which I had led off with, it read 'Falls and
Shankill in support of our fire service'. I still
have it at home. So while a member of the CP, myself
and the Shankill Trade Unionist, and an independent
socialist lead off with the banner, the independent
Socialist had to leave urgently. With that a ‘socialist
leader’ made a dash to hold the banner then instructed
his party’s organisers to take pictures of him
holding it the last little while. I was to discover
later that while he printed a picture of the march
and himself in their paper, I was taken out of it.
In fact 'airbrushed', in his terms, for his own sectarian
interest, out of its history.
It
mattered not to me why his group had done this yet
I state it as I had got yet another glimpse into such
a sectarian mindset which then helped me to understand
how then to eventually begin to deal with it. Thirdly
there were those who initially welcomed the initiative
yet played no role in attempting to build for it,
but came out and criticised it afterwards in a personalised
way. Fourthly I repost a left analysis of the march
and my reply, as it is important to see how abstract
this understanding really was and more importantly
as to why it really was. It came from a once Belfast
councillor now within a small grouplet of like minded
thinkers. The march had around one hundred and sixty
on it and was patrolled by police either side openly
carrying machine guns. It was not the biggest of marches
but the fact that we were able to bring it about was
a start. As I have always said one always seeks to
move forward however small those initial steps are.
His
Report, 'Hidden Agenda Mars Fire Brigade Support March'
A
march in support of local fire service workers lost
much of its force because of its small size. Approximately
130 marchers, of who about 50 were members of the
Fire Brigades Union, marched along Belfast’s
Springfield Road.
The small size of the demonstration was linked to
the isolated location, on a notorious sectarian
interface miles from the city centre. This in turn
appeared to be linked to a growing climate of economism
on the Belfast left – a belief that the glaring
political divisions in the working class would disappear
with a few calls for higher wages or better public
services and that the task of the left was to avoid
politics rather than confront the imperialist hand
behind sectarian tensions.
This
at least was the report given by Davy Carlin, a
leading member of the Socialist Workers Party, following
a secret meeting some weeks ago involving a number
of loyalist paramilitaries. A new unity was about
to be forged involving both Loyalists and Republicans,
both eager to work together on ‘bread and butter
issues’. The march, organised behind a largely
anonymous community group front, appeared to be
one fruit of the meeting.
The
assumptions of the SWP and the even more economist
Socialist Party are simply twaddle. There is widespread
public sympathy for the Fire Brigade workers but
this falls far short of political action. At the
political level their attempts to draw an equal
sign between loyalists and republicans fly in the
face of history. The republicans have a history
of sympathy with labour, which, however, puts the
cause of labour firmly in second place behind their
own interests. The loyalists are far right organisations
dedicated to sectarian killing and the sectarian
division of the working class. A few of the more
cynical claim to be socialist – but only as
long as they get to define what socialist means.
So it proved on the march. The loyalists never appeared,
their time absorbed by yet another violent loyalist
feud. A small contingent of republican ‘lefts’
turned up, but the bulk of the march, outside of
FBU members and a small layer of the trade union
bureaucracy, were the economist left themselves.
There
is yet another hidden story. The SWP and SP have
had a role in the past in providing a critique of
the trade union leaderships. That role appears to
have evaporated. When Jim Barbour of the FBU declared
that the union would win no-one asked why they kept
calling off strikes. When Peter Bunting of ICTU
spoke no-one asked why, if ICTU supported the demonstration,
they had not endorsed it, led it and organised to
bring thousands of trade unionists along. Even less
was anyone willing to mention his role in delivering
Southern workers into the hands of social partnership
or fulsome capitulation to loyalism in the Holy
Cross dispute.
Clap-happy
sentimentality and wishful thinking are no substitute
for political analysis. The latter can at least
educate a cadre of workers in the hard political
fight required against both the government and employers
and their own leadership. The other leads political
militants into dreamtime, striking poses miles away
from the working-class solidarity they want to arouse.
My
Reply –
As
my name Davy Carlin was referred to I feel I should
at least reply to the posting.
The
author firstly refers to the location of the march
as an isolated location in West Belfast. Firstly
a community activist from the Shankill Rd and the
West Belfast Fire-fighters support group, in conjunction
with support from the Belfast Trades Council and
the FBU agreed to march this route.
As the author has not attended any support group
meetings just to let him know that the central FBU
support group split up into various groups to take
independent initiatives north, south, east, west
etc. It is therefore not strange that the West Belfast
group organised a march in west Belfast to the west
Belfast fire station.
His second point of it being organised by a largely
anonymous community group front shows just how detached
the author really is from it all.
Apart from the group being supported by the above
it has appeared regularly in the local press and
its previous initiatives included a collection in
West Belfast accompanied by over a dozen rank and
file fire-fighters in full uniform from the local
station {and yes with a big red fire engine outside}
local rank and file trade unionists from other unions,
well known and respected local non party aligned
community and trade union activists as well as others.
The 'group' collected almost one thousand pounds
in less than two hours and received massive vocal
local support.
If
the author had of missed this maybe he might have
seen similar actions by working class ‘Protestants’
on the Shankill and other cross community collections
done recently.
As to who attended I know personally of several
protestant working class community and trade union
activists who attended along with many rank and
file trade unionists from Nipsa, Unison, FBU, CWU
etc from around Belfast.
He then talks of a secret meeting with loyalists.
I presume he is talking about the forum that initially
brought together around thirty of the leading left
republican, socialists, and left wing community
activists along with well respected and known trade
union and working class activists and parties from
around Belfast? Is this the same secret meeting
that was reported even in the mainstream media,
or indeed the same meeting that the author by some
was asked if he wanted to attend?
The
author calls the Belfast SWP economist. hmmm?
I
will let the Belfast SWP comrades know who, with
others have in the past been on, and with some having
had got their skulls smashed on, the Galvaghy, Ormeau
or Springfield roads know this. Or those who helped
initiate the recent Belfast anti war – anti
imperialist marches or those in unions who have
actively initiated, built and supported anti sectarian
rallies or those who showed active support recently
at the interface areas etc etc etc. The author then
points that no one spoke out when Jim Barbour or
Bunting was speaking. Two points here.
Firstly
if the author could have pulled him self away from
running up and down the march in a frenzy taking
bucket loads of pictures he may have had time like
SWP comrades to engage with rank and file fire-fighters
or even take the lead and raise his concerns fir
himself. For Belfast SWP comrades and myself we
are raising the arguments for mass mobilisations
and action but we do it while providing, building
and marching in solidarity with their cause rather
than solely ranting from a distance and dishing
out abstract polemics. We will talk and urge and
push forward ideas on how to win but we will also
at the same time walk and stand side by side them
while actively building solidarity and support for
their cause.
If
the author wants to raise points with scores of
rank and file fire-fighters or their leadership
including Andy Gilchrist come along tonight to the
solidarity function for them arranged by those sinister
‘hidden groups' I am sure they won't bite if
you actually talk to them.
So
such a person gives polemics from the sides having
played absolutely no role what so ever in its building.
There fore his understanding was abstract due to being
detached from the real and practical work and activists
now take what such person states or says with an extra
big pinch of salt despite his ‘thirty years experience’.
I have seen such polemics in many instances yet I
no longer reply to such. Why? Well quite simply I
had learned other lessons from that march. Firstly
we had moved and were continually moving to more open
engagement with large sections of the trade union
movement and community organisations. We were also
hard working and active on the ground while reaching
out for a working arrangement with others. With that
our ideas then did not seem abstract as we were relating
them to practical activity while involving and working
with others. Those who sit on the side line spouting
polemics based on theory without any practice, I have
therefore seen become even more irrelevant through
their own doing. Secondly there are still those
who harbour real political sectarian mindsets yet
I have found and more so increasingly that when one
has build a representative campaign on whatever issue
that most of those persons either attempt to hide
such mindsets under the carpet or don’t speak
at all. This not because they may or may not want
to but because they have to, as those representative
progressive forces will see them for what they are.
Yet
in the begining I had found such persons and organisations
would approach those we were attempting to engage
with or work with and fill them in with their understanding
towards us. Some did this as having been known as
having many years experience in comparison to us relatively
new activists. One even felt the need due to our growing
work and influence in some quarters to write a mini
book, in effect attacking the history of the
SWP. This was pressed into many hands of those
we were attempting to work with. But through our constant
work, our ideas, and the way our young leadership
and cadre fraternally operated we had moved from a
stage from some raising concerns to now letting us
know each time such sectarianism was and is raised
against us. This has been reflected in the many organisations
who we now work and engage with and I have now seen
that such sectarianism had in fact not worked against
us but had in fact eventually now worked against those
that directed it. Despite the perception held or the
stories such groups told, the people who dealt with
us were well aware that they were not talking about
us, as they knew of our real workings and knew our
Belfast cadre. So it was eventually to be seen in
the context as to the real reason as to why it was
written. Therefore methinks a not well thought out
tactic, but that’s what political sectarianism
I believe does to one.
Apart
from the more overt types of sectarianism there is
of course the subtle types. Yet as I stated before
when one initiates or becomes involved in a representative
campaign there is little breathing space for such
sectarianism. At times though abstraction or
what I term as ‘political inevitability’
that is when one actually knows some one is going
to or will eventually say something, as one knows
their mindset . Therefore one can plan ones own,
or predict others actions or re –actions, when
it comes to the fore. Or it can be when in a
certain period or given a certain situation that one
knows that a mindset will attempt to pigeon hole something
into a perceived required formula. A recent situation
of this seen a representative meeting to finalise
details against the war in Iraq. A debate ensured
between myself, an ICTU spokesperson and one other.
Firstly
though we need to set this in the context that two
separate schools organisation had been involved in
school walkouts in March of 2003. The first school
walkouts the media stated that several hundred came
out from around the North while the second one saw
(the Schools Against War [SAW] feeder marches, the
march upon and action against the U.S consul, the
same press stating that 1200 -1400 took part in Belfast
alone) I had suggested at most that on the first walkouts
it was two or so thousand which was stretching it
to the limit but this was to be eventually the consensus
of most of the anti war activists (one to two or so
thousand). Yet this person’s organisation had
at first stated a few thousand (fair enough) then
this rose a while later to ‘several thousand’
then a while later to ‘ten thousand’. As
the debate continued I waited patiently for the coming
of ‘political inevitability’. With hands
in the air he almost shouted ‘We (alone) brought
15,000 school students out on to the streets! (This
in relation to the first school walkouts as they had
played little part in the second). Some smiled and
looked towards me, others looked at the ceiling, more
including his colleagues looked at their shoes, yet
many had been prepared for such. We all in the room
as anti war activists knew who had been involved and
how many came out, so with his frantic outburst I
needed not to speak anymore, I knew that my argument
had been won, although the debate still continued.
His veiled threats to ones self, yet again had lead
him to be calmed down by his colleagues after the
meeting. For me though such outbursts or threats from
certain persons over time on many occasions has fussed
me not, as it had meant, quite simply, that the debate
had been won. Therefore political sectarianism and
abstraction some may use as they think it gives them
strength, but I have over time found many of its weakness.
Yet
such abstraction from the reality I have heard on
a number of occasions, although a brilliant 30,000
came out against the slaughter of Daniel McColgan
in Belfast in which we played a not unimportant role
some claimed 100,ooo ! This has been reflected elsewhere
on many occasions and issues. I have found over the
years how such sectarianism and abstraction alienates
people, that was why I seen it as a priority to break
down both it and the many perceptions held against
socialists.
Finally
I had found that those persons who play no role
in initiating, building and working for solidarity
who then come along and state, this is how it should
be done or that there was not enough people etc find
little hearing. For me an activist will put in the
work on the ground as well as carrying and having
interventions in debates and discussions. Our comrades
in Belfast bar none put up posters, hand out leaflets,
put in all the donkey work, we hold no elitism or
elitist ideas within our ranks. I have found though
that even within broad campaigns that such groups
and organisations will not do such work on the ground
as they want only to talk the talk. Fortunately we
have found that there are many progressive organisations
and individuals that not only talk the talk but like
us believe in the walk. Such a person who gives polemics
from the sides having played absolutely no role what
so ever in its building is one I personally have no
time for.
So within a few short weeks of the Falls and Shankill
march the war on Iraq was to begin and with that we
knew we had to mobilise and mobilise big. For a detailed
account of the anti war rallies, actions, student
and work walk outs, the feeder marches from around
Belfast, the direct action etc, it can be found on
the Blanket. (Building an anti war movement part
one and two). Yet it was our collective understanding
in the North that we needed to push out on this issue.
Although as per the anti war articles there were concerns
and worries we nevertheless reached out for engagement
and for working relationships on this matter as our
priority was unity and mass mobilisation.
With
the movement we had brought together we knew if successful
it may possibly begin to open up a new space for such
larger workings together. So we seen the tens of thousands
that had marched and as importantly seen all those
left and progressive organisations that took part
in the historic marches and actions. We had reached
out to the left, to communities, to individual trade
unions, and now to the trade union movement as a whole,
in the call of unity for an issue of common belief.
So with this we had opened up the possibility for
a space for both raising working class politics and
secondly to take yet another step forward in our
seeking to work will many others on issues of commonality.
It had been but a few years since I remember walking
into a cold drafty room and introducing oneself to
the five other activists that sat in that Belfast
room. As we sat discussing how we were to relate,
how we were to build, and how to look to seek change
it seemed abstract to one self at that time. Yet with
our growing cadre since then, with our vision and
clarity of ideas combined with our graft on the ground
- we had stood above the sewer of sectarianism, we
had stood strong, and in doing so, had reached out.
It
has now seen in the last few months many new initiatives.
One being worked on by Eamon McCann and others is
seeking to form an electoral alliance and left unity
to bring working class issues to the fore in such
elections. A recent meeting brought together nine
left political parties and organisations along with
trade unionists, community and anti poverty activists
amongst others to aim to stand in all eighteen constituencies
in the North. Such a project in that context has never
been done. Although it has its difficulties it came
about after Feb 15th demo and what ever the outcome
further aspects of unity will have again been forged.
The establishment also of an Anti Racist Network bringing
again together trade unionists, many of the main ethnic
minority support organisations, NGO’s, political
parties, asylum practitioners and various others.
This to stand collectively against the growing racial
attacks and again many whom had participated in the
anti war activity are involved. We have also seen
recently the formation of the N.Ireland coalition
against the water charges which as I had raised (the
Blanket, Anti War Movement, moving to action –
at the summing up) that it should be again the trade
unions working in combination with the communities,
with us already having held successful trade union
and community meetings. This has seen yet further
cooperation of the left and progressive forces. We
have also seen the Belfast anti war movement again
marching and looking to reach out to yet more activists.
We will see the working together to mobilise for the
ESF and for George Bush's coming visit to London.
It was but a short few months ago when thousands of
us had marched against his arrival in Belfast. This
and much more issues of engagement and seeking working
partnerships on issues of commonality are coming to
the fore
I
believe that through that strategic build up and ever
moving forward through the initiation of, and
working within campaigns, alliances and movements,
we have in fact now helped create a space in many
avenues for unified campaigns on working class and
progressive issues. The positive engagements and the
now working relationships developed and developing
is a positive step forward and with that we have moved
some that had once held party political sectarianism
towards us, towards engagement. The door is opening
and I believe the left and progressive forces should
and will look to take further positive steps forward
in the times ahead. As for those individuals that
still hold political sectarianism well they have two
choices, either to engage and work with ever growing
numbers of others and attempt to effect genuine change,
or continue to sink deeper into that shrinking cesspit
of sectarianism. For those few that remain in such
a mindset it now makes little difference to, and will
have little effect on, those who see a world that
needs changing and have set out to play there part
in doing that. Therefore for me that war against the
political sectarianism is all but over and I can now
look forward without distraction to the real war,
the continual war for political and economic freedom.
So
for me there had been many wars and I have detailed
many of them but once again lets go back briefly
to my childhood and the war with the Brits.
I
stood behind a van in Sevastopol street in the late
seventies and seen a man who I can no longer remember
hand a gun to a woman whom I came to realise was a
volunteer. To me I had thought it was strange at the
time as I thought soldiers were only men but was to
come to realise the huge role that women played within
the war. Yet the experience of war was not only for
me concentrated in the seventies and early eighties
but had still witnessed much later on, I go back just
a dozen or so years, it was still though the lower
Falls and I had banged into a childhood friend who
invited me round to see his family whom I had not
seen in years.
While
in the house we heard a huge explosion and rushed
outside. We made our way around to Clonard Street
where I had used to walk up to, to reach the grounds
of Clonard Monastery where we had had our school meals.
A soldier had been blown up I think the device may
have been hidden behind a piece of sheeting. His colleagues
were running about in panic with one I remember vividly
as being huge and black, very black. I wondered briefly
what type of reception he got with his colleagues
considering my experience from the Brits. Maybe though
he may have been lucky and found those few like I
had who had on occasion told their colleagues to wise
up when they were calling me racist names in my childhood,
or the other few who tried to change the conversation
away from me. I actually remember these few occasions
of humanity more so than I can remember the many occasions
of Brit racial abuse.
The
huge Brit then stopped a car that was driving up Clonard
street. He questioned the driver then dragged him
out of the car and punched him in the face, the drivers
crime was not to get out of the car quickly enough.
The Brits eyes were wild and the sweat ran down his
face, he was only yards from me. Then he lifted up
his gun – bang - he had shot a dog beside
me.
I
seen panic, fear and hate in that Brits eyes that
day and smelt his sweat as he was that close, yet
I had thought I had moved away from witnessing mangled
bodies or fear, confusion and war. Not so, as I was
still witnessing such events although on a far lesser
scale in my late teens and my early twenties. At that
time many faces even then came onto the scene from
childhood such as those at Milltown cemetery when
Michael stone attacked it with grenade and gun or
those charged in relation to the attacks on those
army corporals in Andersonstown, who were eventually
then taken to waste ground and shot dead by the IRA.
War
for me had been witnessed on many fronts yet for oneself
it is not only a question of remembering or trying
to explain, but to use that experience to seek such
change, so such need not arise again.
I
will return again in the time ahead to childhood and
to the west of Belfast.
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