neilhere
26th April 2009, 14:40
Republicans and the ‘credit crunch’
A republican analysis of the ‘recession’, community chaos and the urgent need to embrace socialism.
Recent colossal job losses in the north including a massive four day 2% wipe out of the manufacturing sector, have in a very brutal fashion demonstrated to the population how for more than a decade they had been duped into believing that the post Good Friday era would be one of endless financial opportunity and prosperity.
Before now, examples of Industrial development; job creation, increased ‘home ownership’, road infrastructure, the availability and embracing of credit, high spending and economic mobility north and south were endlessly flaunted by the Pro-Good Friday politicians as proof that their way was working.
The roots of the illusion
Of course what we were seeing was politically motivated investment; business development grants, tax relief and subsidies, these were the elements which really provided for the changing Belfast skyline.
The apartments, office blocks, call centres, and an army of cranes had nothing to do with a naturally growing, healthy indigenous economy, it was the result of a political settlement which saw the population of the six county state being groomed into to what they were always intended to be, a pool of cheap labour and a bulwark against the rising Irish revolutionary forces which emerged at the turn of the 20th century.
This was the goal of the Good Friday Agreement.
In this false environment those who saw the flaws and held on to revolutionary ideologies; the ways of Connolly, the principled republicans and socialists were relegated to the position of the lunatic or begrudger, as the lifestyles of one time rebellious figures were changed beyond recognition. Now constitutional republicans became landlords, speculators and property developers and in turn were lauded by once radical newspapers (such as the Andersonstown news) at business award dinners attended by PSNI chief constables and DUP stalwarts.
Together and with the backing of international business, these elements tried and almost succeeded in creating a new universal ethic here, one which is today wreaking havoc within working class streets and households.
Thatcher’s Belfast / Derry / Newry etc. In republican districts a conservative ethic was being promoted by politicians across the board, by community leaders and journalists, themselves with a stake in the new economy and who were bound by the demands of Unionist pre-conditions.
Community solidarity, of the type which had seen working class districts stand by each other in the face of cutbacks, poverty, anti-social behaviour and state aggression was discredited by party workers and community leaders who floated initiatives such as business centred health care, a gradual acceptance of water charges and reliance on the PSNI/RUC. Community cohesion was further corroded by an encouraged culture of home ‘ownership’ a condition which by accident or design has tamed a once radical community, tying many key individuals to a slavish combination of low wages and ever demanding high mortgages.
This social taming measure had been a central plank of Margaret Thatcher’s socio-economic vision for Britain during her time in government and explained the mass sell off of council housing during her time.
Even at an early stage, some journalists with conviction and sensing that the economic ‘boom’ here was not altogether natural and spontaneous rightly dubbed what was happening as ‘the feel good factor’, an essential and designed element in the process of securing the ‘peace process’ here.
They were right, the post GFA ‘feel good factor’ had its roots in the old ‘normalisation’ packages initiated by both Labour and Tory governments, responsible for the establishing here of companies such as De Lorian and Ford and indeed the notorious subsidisation of the Belfast ship building industry. It was a process vehemently and viciously opposed by the IRA particularly in the 1970s who viewed it as an attempt to create an economic illusion designed to divert people’s minds from the need to end partition.
Roll on the 1990s and with the undeniable jettisoning of socialism by Sinn Fein, ‘number 10’s’ carrot and stick approach to ending Irish resistance was allowed a clear run, nationalisms reward for co-operation with the British state came in the form of incentives to investment along with the strategic funding of an array of paid community posts pre-allocated to local republicans of influence, tying them into the taming and controlling influence of the mortgage culture, a culture which it was now in their personal interests to maintain.
State financial incentives to northern nationalism came in sharp contrast to an increasingly vicious anti-republican shoot to kill policy and ongoing collusion with a never ending loyalist murder campaign. This carrot and stick approach led gradually, directly, and perhaps understandably to the PIRA ceasefires of 1994/97.
Following the Signing of the GFA financial incentive programmes went into hyper mode inviting a scramble by international business’ to get here and avail of now famous tax relief packages, grants and subsidies, and buoyed by promises of the type made quite recently by Deputy minister Martin McGuiness on US business trips, such as ‘the north is open for business’, code for we offer the lowest paid work force in the “United Kingdom”.
The chickens come home to roost Few would have criticised the northern working class for embracing the sparse benefits of this new system, for many young families it provided (albeit for a short period) the impression that they could prosper and be rewarded for their efforts, in a secure job and a peaceful environment.
Indeed it was difficult to even question the apparent economic successes here without sounding like a mad rebel clutching at straws, that was at least until recent times, when it seems that the artificial ‘feel good factor’ has at last served its purpose.
Almost simultaneously to the announcement of PIRA decommissioning came news of the Stormont assembly’s intention to introduce water charges. They said it was an economic necessity coming just as Gerry Adams’ criticised Westminster’s failure to make available a ‘peace deficit’ here. Lobbying for a ‘peace deficit’ effectively asked that Britains former security budget for the north be ploughed instead into stormonts budget, it didn’t happen.
Days later arrived a shocking news story of mass job losses at the Seagate factory in County Derry, breaking symptoms of what was soon to be rolled out as the now infamous ‘credit crunch’ or economic global downturn.
As more and more job losses were inflicted upon the six county workforce it became evident to critics of Good Friday that the mass subsidies, incentives and rescue packages (characteristic of pre 2005 British economic policy) would no longer be forthcoming.
It appears that Britain having secured PIRA decommissioning saw how the potential threat posed by mass disaffection here was nullified. There was no further need to tame the risen Irish northern working class, it was safe to withdraw subsidies and let whatever happens happen, and so they did, it is that simple. The only significant British government investment here since has come in the form of MOD contracts to Thales air defence, hardly demonstrating a lack of strategic interest in Ireland.
And today, whole districts in the north, protestant and catholic alike are blighted by serious social problems, problems indirectly related to the conflict here and made worse by both the recent false economy and its resulting anti social ethic.
There exists now, chronic levels of negative equity and heartbreaking cases of working families who had placed their faith in a false economy and who had signed up to mortgages which could not be backed up by their employers. Thousands now face the real threat of loosing their homes as firms are either driven out by the global downturn or (as in the case of Visteon/Ford) simply decide to move onto to a cheaper workforce in the sudden absence of British subsidies and using the recession as a smokescreen.
Meanwhile the social fabric of once solid working class republican areas has been severely compromised by years of insular thinking brought around by the ‘own your own home’ culture, a culture which not only questions the universal right of every family to own a home unconditionally but arguably contributes to anti-community behaviour as the ‘look after your own patch’ mindset takes over what had been a ‘look out for your neighbour’ mindset in the past.
The complete futility of modern republican embracement of the ‘Northern Ireland’ state and its capitalist economy can be seen in Sinn Fein’s inability to protect the recently unemployed in even the sparsest form. Gerry Adams’ albeit well meaning lobbying for decent redundancy packages on behalf of recently shafted Visteon/Ford workers, will if successful hardly be a victory for the workers, it will be no more than a band-aid over a shrapnel wound.
Attacks on the benefit system And as for the growing dole queues? DHSS Staff cannot keep up with the influx of claimants. Amazingly, following the St. Andrews agreement, politicians here were offered the opportunity to devolve social welfare powers, they declined. Had they done so they would have been able to offset the effect of Westminster’s recent anti -working class welfare measures, such as the lowering of the age of a child at which point a single mother must return to work, or the replacement of incapacity benefit with the American style ESA system.
As it stands the recently unemployed will at the point of claiming benefits take on the role of the ‘undeserving poor’, scrutinised by a department who will hold them responsible for their situation.
And ever the opportunists the British army, Navy and Airforce are all making the best of peoples desperation with an all out recruitment drive taking place across the board in the North’s job markets as a brief visit will demonstrate.
Putting Socialism back on the agenda Just where the revolutionary vision of Connolly and Larkin, indeed the mere patriotic vision of Pearse and Plunket fit into this scenario is a question which Sinn Fein supporters can now only counter by screaming empty accusations of criminality at ‘dissident’ republicans.
And what of those republicans? Ourselves in the RNU, our comrades in the 32csm, IRSM, RSF etc, indeed the principled republicans who choose to remain within the provisional structures for whatever reason, can we say we are ready to embrace the new political landscape? A landscape which now incorporates Good Friday related mass unemployment and a return to poverty levels known only by previous generations? Unfortunately at the minute it would seem we are not.
The fact is that while Sinn Fein have been coerced into abandoning Socialism (and there is no other lasting answer to this economic crises but the implementation of socialism), anti-GFA republicans have largely been pre-occupied with strands of the 98 treaty which compromise Irish sovereignty, that is sovereignty of the parliamentary kind. Aside from a handful of us who hold Trade Union membership, have taken part as individuals in community/trade disputes or pay homage to Connolly - Irelands first Marxist martyr - what have we done to firmly Commit ourselves to a socialist path, the path of Connolly, and contribute to its future?
We should all at this point ask ourselves the serious question, are we really committed to that path? If some are not then there is no reason to expect that the lure of the economic incentives mentioned above which compromised the provisionals could not take their toll on them in future decades. If that was to be the case then they would be as well backing the Sinn Fein electoral strategy now, indeed that is effectively what SF spokespeople like Gerry Kelly are calling for us to do when he misleads the public by asking us to ‘debate’ with him.
Some anti-GFA republicans believe they can be committed to securing 32 county sovereignty while being neutral on the economic question, or even be unashamed advocates of capitalism, this position is a non starter as the essence of sovereignty (the control of our own destinies in our own territory) is not a power which could be guaranteed even by a free 32 county Irish parliament.
Neutral ‘republicanism’? In the capitalist system big business wields just as much power and curbs as many freedoms (if not more) than either the British, Stormont or the Free State parliament, in Irelands case businesses generally control parliaments and those who sit in them. How exactly would we be a free people if the economic cycle of boom and bust, the using then dumping of Irish workers (as is happening today) simply continued for ever under an all Ireland republic?
What an insult that would be to generations of our patriot dead; to those who died at the end of a squires rope, who starved to death at the roadside or were forced to emigrate by the same capitalist system which threatens to evict thousands today, which promised workers everything then squeezed them dry before moving off to find cheaper labour elsewhere.
Capitalisms difficulty … Irelands opportunity Today, capitalism’s difficulty could prove to be Ireland’s opportunity, depending on how republicans respond.
James Connolly forever secured a place for the revolutionary left within the Irish separatist tradition; today however we should go one stage further and state openly that we can not secure an all Ireland republic other than by making socialism a genuine central element of our principles.
Because it may well be that by offering our people a decent economic alternative to that which is currently throwing townfulls of them into crises, we credibly make the case for a united Ireland worth fighting for. We cannot in good conscience ask the people of this island (especially in the midst of this, or any future crises) to believe that they will notice any difference in their quality of life simply by replacing what is left of British parliamentary sovereignty with a fraction more of Irish parliamentary sovereignty plus the multiple sovereignties of competing foreign and native industries, out as ever to exploit us, dump us and sell us the products which we make ourselves.
To be relevant to the people today, to the unemployed and all the social victims of this ‘economic downturn’, we the republican dissenters must make it understood that the term ‘Republican’ as well as standing for separatism, stands just as seriously for Irish socialism and never any less. More importantly we must begin to lead the way in developing the arguments and mechanisms wherein socialism can mean more than a brief dream for fickle students.
We are the most capable Socialists The established Marxist groups in Ireland today generally look down on Republicans believing that they lack intellect. As a rule they put Irish separatism at the bottom of their agenda claiming instead to be ‘internationalists’, even though their international comrades believe their priorities should sit in the reverse order.
Yet despite the Irish ‘lefts’ dislike of us, there is little doubt who would do the fighting in an actual barricade situation here. The climax of the late 60s student marches from Belfast to Derry saw the same left wing students who objected to the carrying of tricolours turn to old republicans and ask them if they had guns to protect them from the RUC. Why? Where was the socialist armoury? In 2006 as anti-GFA republicans fought hand to hand battles with the PSNI on the lawns of Stormont, Trotskyite students unanimously looked the other way, clearly unsuited to physical conflict with the state. Why should Socialism be left to such people? Given that in Ireland, conflict with the state will be a reality even at the earliest stage of a revolutionary programme.
The truth was and is that the seperatist working class republican tradition here is that most versed in struggle; and in the coming class centred battles with the rich and privileged none would better equipped to rise to the occasion than us.
And far better that we be the designers of the socialist alternative in Ireland than serial placard carriers who allow themselves to be herded into police designated protest zones.
Now really is the time for revolutionary republicanism to seize its opportunity in Ireland and drive home the potential of arguments we have been voicing for over a decade.
We have been proved right in the face of chaos and now with energy, courage and imagination we can organise and strike for the only freedom worth crossing the road for…the workers’ republic.
Ciaran Cunningham RNU, Bheal Feirste.
A republican analysis of the ‘recession’, community chaos and the urgent need to embrace socialism.
Recent colossal job losses in the north including a massive four day 2% wipe out of the manufacturing sector, have in a very brutal fashion demonstrated to the population how for more than a decade they had been duped into believing that the post Good Friday era would be one of endless financial opportunity and prosperity.
Before now, examples of Industrial development; job creation, increased ‘home ownership’, road infrastructure, the availability and embracing of credit, high spending and economic mobility north and south were endlessly flaunted by the Pro-Good Friday politicians as proof that their way was working.
The roots of the illusion
Of course what we were seeing was politically motivated investment; business development grants, tax relief and subsidies, these were the elements which really provided for the changing Belfast skyline.
The apartments, office blocks, call centres, and an army of cranes had nothing to do with a naturally growing, healthy indigenous economy, it was the result of a political settlement which saw the population of the six county state being groomed into to what they were always intended to be, a pool of cheap labour and a bulwark against the rising Irish revolutionary forces which emerged at the turn of the 20th century.
This was the goal of the Good Friday Agreement.
In this false environment those who saw the flaws and held on to revolutionary ideologies; the ways of Connolly, the principled republicans and socialists were relegated to the position of the lunatic or begrudger, as the lifestyles of one time rebellious figures were changed beyond recognition. Now constitutional republicans became landlords, speculators and property developers and in turn were lauded by once radical newspapers (such as the Andersonstown news) at business award dinners attended by PSNI chief constables and DUP stalwarts.
Together and with the backing of international business, these elements tried and almost succeeded in creating a new universal ethic here, one which is today wreaking havoc within working class streets and households.
Thatcher’s Belfast / Derry / Newry etc. In republican districts a conservative ethic was being promoted by politicians across the board, by community leaders and journalists, themselves with a stake in the new economy and who were bound by the demands of Unionist pre-conditions.
Community solidarity, of the type which had seen working class districts stand by each other in the face of cutbacks, poverty, anti-social behaviour and state aggression was discredited by party workers and community leaders who floated initiatives such as business centred health care, a gradual acceptance of water charges and reliance on the PSNI/RUC. Community cohesion was further corroded by an encouraged culture of home ‘ownership’ a condition which by accident or design has tamed a once radical community, tying many key individuals to a slavish combination of low wages and ever demanding high mortgages.
This social taming measure had been a central plank of Margaret Thatcher’s socio-economic vision for Britain during her time in government and explained the mass sell off of council housing during her time.
Even at an early stage, some journalists with conviction and sensing that the economic ‘boom’ here was not altogether natural and spontaneous rightly dubbed what was happening as ‘the feel good factor’, an essential and designed element in the process of securing the ‘peace process’ here.
They were right, the post GFA ‘feel good factor’ had its roots in the old ‘normalisation’ packages initiated by both Labour and Tory governments, responsible for the establishing here of companies such as De Lorian and Ford and indeed the notorious subsidisation of the Belfast ship building industry. It was a process vehemently and viciously opposed by the IRA particularly in the 1970s who viewed it as an attempt to create an economic illusion designed to divert people’s minds from the need to end partition.
Roll on the 1990s and with the undeniable jettisoning of socialism by Sinn Fein, ‘number 10’s’ carrot and stick approach to ending Irish resistance was allowed a clear run, nationalisms reward for co-operation with the British state came in the form of incentives to investment along with the strategic funding of an array of paid community posts pre-allocated to local republicans of influence, tying them into the taming and controlling influence of the mortgage culture, a culture which it was now in their personal interests to maintain.
State financial incentives to northern nationalism came in sharp contrast to an increasingly vicious anti-republican shoot to kill policy and ongoing collusion with a never ending loyalist murder campaign. This carrot and stick approach led gradually, directly, and perhaps understandably to the PIRA ceasefires of 1994/97.
Following the Signing of the GFA financial incentive programmes went into hyper mode inviting a scramble by international business’ to get here and avail of now famous tax relief packages, grants and subsidies, and buoyed by promises of the type made quite recently by Deputy minister Martin McGuiness on US business trips, such as ‘the north is open for business’, code for we offer the lowest paid work force in the “United Kingdom”.
The chickens come home to roost Few would have criticised the northern working class for embracing the sparse benefits of this new system, for many young families it provided (albeit for a short period) the impression that they could prosper and be rewarded for their efforts, in a secure job and a peaceful environment.
Indeed it was difficult to even question the apparent economic successes here without sounding like a mad rebel clutching at straws, that was at least until recent times, when it seems that the artificial ‘feel good factor’ has at last served its purpose.
Almost simultaneously to the announcement of PIRA decommissioning came news of the Stormont assembly’s intention to introduce water charges. They said it was an economic necessity coming just as Gerry Adams’ criticised Westminster’s failure to make available a ‘peace deficit’ here. Lobbying for a ‘peace deficit’ effectively asked that Britains former security budget for the north be ploughed instead into stormonts budget, it didn’t happen.
Days later arrived a shocking news story of mass job losses at the Seagate factory in County Derry, breaking symptoms of what was soon to be rolled out as the now infamous ‘credit crunch’ or economic global downturn.
As more and more job losses were inflicted upon the six county workforce it became evident to critics of Good Friday that the mass subsidies, incentives and rescue packages (characteristic of pre 2005 British economic policy) would no longer be forthcoming.
It appears that Britain having secured PIRA decommissioning saw how the potential threat posed by mass disaffection here was nullified. There was no further need to tame the risen Irish northern working class, it was safe to withdraw subsidies and let whatever happens happen, and so they did, it is that simple. The only significant British government investment here since has come in the form of MOD contracts to Thales air defence, hardly demonstrating a lack of strategic interest in Ireland.
And today, whole districts in the north, protestant and catholic alike are blighted by serious social problems, problems indirectly related to the conflict here and made worse by both the recent false economy and its resulting anti social ethic.
There exists now, chronic levels of negative equity and heartbreaking cases of working families who had placed their faith in a false economy and who had signed up to mortgages which could not be backed up by their employers. Thousands now face the real threat of loosing their homes as firms are either driven out by the global downturn or (as in the case of Visteon/Ford) simply decide to move onto to a cheaper workforce in the sudden absence of British subsidies and using the recession as a smokescreen.
Meanwhile the social fabric of once solid working class republican areas has been severely compromised by years of insular thinking brought around by the ‘own your own home’ culture, a culture which not only questions the universal right of every family to own a home unconditionally but arguably contributes to anti-community behaviour as the ‘look after your own patch’ mindset takes over what had been a ‘look out for your neighbour’ mindset in the past.
The complete futility of modern republican embracement of the ‘Northern Ireland’ state and its capitalist economy can be seen in Sinn Fein’s inability to protect the recently unemployed in even the sparsest form. Gerry Adams’ albeit well meaning lobbying for decent redundancy packages on behalf of recently shafted Visteon/Ford workers, will if successful hardly be a victory for the workers, it will be no more than a band-aid over a shrapnel wound.
Attacks on the benefit system And as for the growing dole queues? DHSS Staff cannot keep up with the influx of claimants. Amazingly, following the St. Andrews agreement, politicians here were offered the opportunity to devolve social welfare powers, they declined. Had they done so they would have been able to offset the effect of Westminster’s recent anti -working class welfare measures, such as the lowering of the age of a child at which point a single mother must return to work, or the replacement of incapacity benefit with the American style ESA system.
As it stands the recently unemployed will at the point of claiming benefits take on the role of the ‘undeserving poor’, scrutinised by a department who will hold them responsible for their situation.
And ever the opportunists the British army, Navy and Airforce are all making the best of peoples desperation with an all out recruitment drive taking place across the board in the North’s job markets as a brief visit will demonstrate.
Putting Socialism back on the agenda Just where the revolutionary vision of Connolly and Larkin, indeed the mere patriotic vision of Pearse and Plunket fit into this scenario is a question which Sinn Fein supporters can now only counter by screaming empty accusations of criminality at ‘dissident’ republicans.
And what of those republicans? Ourselves in the RNU, our comrades in the 32csm, IRSM, RSF etc, indeed the principled republicans who choose to remain within the provisional structures for whatever reason, can we say we are ready to embrace the new political landscape? A landscape which now incorporates Good Friday related mass unemployment and a return to poverty levels known only by previous generations? Unfortunately at the minute it would seem we are not.
The fact is that while Sinn Fein have been coerced into abandoning Socialism (and there is no other lasting answer to this economic crises but the implementation of socialism), anti-GFA republicans have largely been pre-occupied with strands of the 98 treaty which compromise Irish sovereignty, that is sovereignty of the parliamentary kind. Aside from a handful of us who hold Trade Union membership, have taken part as individuals in community/trade disputes or pay homage to Connolly - Irelands first Marxist martyr - what have we done to firmly Commit ourselves to a socialist path, the path of Connolly, and contribute to its future?
We should all at this point ask ourselves the serious question, are we really committed to that path? If some are not then there is no reason to expect that the lure of the economic incentives mentioned above which compromised the provisionals could not take their toll on them in future decades. If that was to be the case then they would be as well backing the Sinn Fein electoral strategy now, indeed that is effectively what SF spokespeople like Gerry Kelly are calling for us to do when he misleads the public by asking us to ‘debate’ with him.
Some anti-GFA republicans believe they can be committed to securing 32 county sovereignty while being neutral on the economic question, or even be unashamed advocates of capitalism, this position is a non starter as the essence of sovereignty (the control of our own destinies in our own territory) is not a power which could be guaranteed even by a free 32 county Irish parliament.
Neutral ‘republicanism’? In the capitalist system big business wields just as much power and curbs as many freedoms (if not more) than either the British, Stormont or the Free State parliament, in Irelands case businesses generally control parliaments and those who sit in them. How exactly would we be a free people if the economic cycle of boom and bust, the using then dumping of Irish workers (as is happening today) simply continued for ever under an all Ireland republic?
What an insult that would be to generations of our patriot dead; to those who died at the end of a squires rope, who starved to death at the roadside or were forced to emigrate by the same capitalist system which threatens to evict thousands today, which promised workers everything then squeezed them dry before moving off to find cheaper labour elsewhere.
Capitalisms difficulty … Irelands opportunity Today, capitalism’s difficulty could prove to be Ireland’s opportunity, depending on how republicans respond.
James Connolly forever secured a place for the revolutionary left within the Irish separatist tradition; today however we should go one stage further and state openly that we can not secure an all Ireland republic other than by making socialism a genuine central element of our principles.
Because it may well be that by offering our people a decent economic alternative to that which is currently throwing townfulls of them into crises, we credibly make the case for a united Ireland worth fighting for. We cannot in good conscience ask the people of this island (especially in the midst of this, or any future crises) to believe that they will notice any difference in their quality of life simply by replacing what is left of British parliamentary sovereignty with a fraction more of Irish parliamentary sovereignty plus the multiple sovereignties of competing foreign and native industries, out as ever to exploit us, dump us and sell us the products which we make ourselves.
To be relevant to the people today, to the unemployed and all the social victims of this ‘economic downturn’, we the republican dissenters must make it understood that the term ‘Republican’ as well as standing for separatism, stands just as seriously for Irish socialism and never any less. More importantly we must begin to lead the way in developing the arguments and mechanisms wherein socialism can mean more than a brief dream for fickle students.
We are the most capable Socialists The established Marxist groups in Ireland today generally look down on Republicans believing that they lack intellect. As a rule they put Irish separatism at the bottom of their agenda claiming instead to be ‘internationalists’, even though their international comrades believe their priorities should sit in the reverse order.
Yet despite the Irish ‘lefts’ dislike of us, there is little doubt who would do the fighting in an actual barricade situation here. The climax of the late 60s student marches from Belfast to Derry saw the same left wing students who objected to the carrying of tricolours turn to old republicans and ask them if they had guns to protect them from the RUC. Why? Where was the socialist armoury? In 2006 as anti-GFA republicans fought hand to hand battles with the PSNI on the lawns of Stormont, Trotskyite students unanimously looked the other way, clearly unsuited to physical conflict with the state. Why should Socialism be left to such people? Given that in Ireland, conflict with the state will be a reality even at the earliest stage of a revolutionary programme.
The truth was and is that the seperatist working class republican tradition here is that most versed in struggle; and in the coming class centred battles with the rich and privileged none would better equipped to rise to the occasion than us.
And far better that we be the designers of the socialist alternative in Ireland than serial placard carriers who allow themselves to be herded into police designated protest zones.
Now really is the time for revolutionary republicanism to seize its opportunity in Ireland and drive home the potential of arguments we have been voicing for over a decade.
We have been proved right in the face of chaos and now with energy, courage and imagination we can organise and strike for the only freedom worth crossing the road for…the workers’ republic.
Ciaran Cunningham RNU, Bheal Feirste.