Conghaileach
12th May 2003, 21:52
From The Starry Plough (http://www.irsm.org/irsp/starryplough)
Republicans and the Protestant Working Class: A Discussion Document
Recently a former combatant from within the ranks of loyalism wrote:
Clearly our first and primary concern is for the those unfortunate people
from both traditional communities who have suffered injury, trauma and loss
of property as a result of interface violence. It is unacceptable that
eight years into a so-called peace process and four years into devolved
government people are still suffering as a result of violence within and
across interface communities.
It has been said by a number of political activists that the Belfast
Agreement is panning out as a middle class agreement which has nothing to
offer the working and workless classes in both traditional communities.
That is only partially true. If the unionist and nationalist middle classes
can unite to carve up the social and economic benefits of devolved
government for their own people, surely those of us from both traditions
who feel marginalised and excluded from those benefits ought to be coming
together in a bond of working class solidarity. But we don't. We put tribal
prejudices above our common social and economic interests and continue to
beat the crap out of each other. That is our fault, not the fault of the
middle classes who are manipulating the implementation of the Agreement for
their own ends.
Alienation within marginalised communities is being cynically manipulated
and exploited by those who play the "Orange" and "Green" cards as a means
of maintaining the divisions that are necessary for a continuation of
tribal voting patterns and party political domination. Party domination
requires maximising votes, which in turn requires developing and expanding
the electoral base, which in turn requires either expanding or holding on
to territory. Is it any wonder then that territory lies at the heart of
most interface violence?
Whatever potential the Belfast Agreement might have had to facilitate
political accommodation and conflict transformation has been undermined by
an implementation process that is becoming more and more corrupt as the
weeks go by. It is a process that is rooted in manipulation, half-truths
and outright lies. Meanwhile at grass roots level inter-community relations
have gone into a downward spiral with more and more ordinary people drawing
back into their respective tribal camps.
The constitutional struggle (that lay at the heart of the armed conflict)
has been replaced by a struggle for political dominance at both Assembly
and local government level, and that this foments as much hatred, prejudice
and hurt as the armed conflict did. There will be no recognition of the
fact that this struggle for political dominance requires territorial gains
and creates interface tension and conflict. There will be no
acknowledgement that community relations and conflict transformation
initiatives have been deliberately starved of adequate resources.
We make no apology for the lengthy quotes. They come from a loyalist who
originally supported the Good Friday Agreement. He now shares a view of the
GFA that echoes what the IRSP/INLA said when the Agreement was first made.
This movement said among other things that the GFA institutionalised
sectarianism and would only benefit the middle classes.
Such a convergence of views is not coincidental. The IRSP always said that
that the class issues could not be divorced from the national issues. Class
struggle has a way of breaking through even in the most unlikely places.
There is a ferment of ideas and debates taking place among some elements of
loyalism that raises serious questions for socialists within the Republican
tradition. Just what is our position on the protestant working class?
Are they planters or 'colons'? Are they really deluded Irishmen and women
who one day will recognise their inherent Irish-ness? Are they irreformable
sectarian and incapable of accepting equality? Are they a different race, a
different nation, a different breed?
To ask such questions is to fall into a trap of restricted thinking -
restricted because it accept the limits that Imperialism set out
originally. By searching for the differences we confirm the differences
between Catholics and Protestants, between unionists and nationalists. And
we forget from whence Republicanism first came from.
When Wolfe Tone and his comrades in the United Irishmen developed the
ideology of Irish Republicanism it was an internationalist political
ideology. Inspired by both the Revolt of the American Colonies from British
rule and the French Revolution the early founders of Irish Republicanism
were internationalist in outlook. They saw themselves as citizens of the
world and wished to see liberty, equality and fraternity established on a
world-wide basis. In wanting to see Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter
unite under the common name of Irishmen Tone did not elevate being Irish
over any other nationality.
Unfortunately the defeat of the United Irishmen created a vacuum and in
stepped a new vision of Irish nationalism inspired by middle class
conservatives like Daniel O'Connell and Thomas Davis who recreated the
image of Irish-ness a million miles away from the Republicanism of Tone.
Later generations merged a narrow nationalism into a republicanism which
today is best espoused by Provisional Sinn Fein. Undoubtedly that
nationalism had an impact on some republicans. The founder of Sinn Fein
Arthur Griffith and Patrick Pearse were just two people more in tune with
the vision of Thomas Davis rather than Wolfe Tone.
Tensions have always existed within Republicans between those on the right
more influenced by nationalism and those on the left more influenced by
internationalism and socialism. Left Republicans in struggling for a
Republic are affirming the right of self-determination for the Irish people
without making any concessions to a narrow inward looking nationalism. It
is those on the left of republicanism who have anything relevant to say to
the protestant working class in the North.
The consequence of the fusion of nationalism into republicanism was that
Protestants who considered themselves British had no affinity or feel for
Irish nationalism. They saw no benefit for themselves in associating with a
narrow nationalism that at times had elements of racism in it. This in
turn, in the eyes of some Unionists justified their own racism, and
confirmed their faith in all the worst traits of the British Empire.
Republicans need to break with nationalism. The claim by PSF spokespersons
that they are the largest nationalist party is an indication how that Party
has moved away from Republicanism. The IRSP are proud of our republicanism,
our socialism and our internationalism. We believe that there will
inevitably be a break from the sectarianism that Imperialism has fostered
in Ireland and that workers will unite on class issues. Those class issues
are already breaking through as evidenced by the quotes that began this
article.
The assembly established as part of the "peace process", represents not an
attempt to solve the problems facing working class people of all
backgrounds, but a scheme to share power between representatives of the
main sectarian parties. It can never seriously address the problems of
working class people, not the day-to-day vital problems of health, housing
and education, nor the wider questions of the border and the national question
The IRSP have consistently explained from the beginning of the "peace
process", the Good Friday Agreement, and the institutions of devolution
associated with it, could never begin to solve the problems facing working
class people no matter what their background. It promised peace to the
communities of Catholic and Protestant workers, but was unable to deliver.
It was a lie. There has been no peace. Sectarian attacks, beatings and
killings have continued. The divide between Catholics and Protestants has
never been wider. This gap was created and nurtured by British imperialism
in order to divide and rule, to protect their system in Ireland from the
threat of united working class action. It is an unnatural growth. In
carving Ireland through partition British imperialism unleashed a carnival
of reaction just as James Connolly had predicted.
Those who created this mess are utterly incapable of solving it. Instead of
peace what they have built are lots of "peace-lines" - brick walls, iron
fences and barbed wire to divide communities still further. The British and
Irish governments and the sectarian parties all represent the past, they
have nothing progressive to say about the future.
Temporary agreements between sectarian politicians to share ministerial
responsibilities at Stormont cannot begin to solve the underlying cause of
this crisis. In reality whilst remaining within the straitjacket of the
capitalist system, sectarian politicians and government officials from
Ireland and Britain have been trying to create a better environment for big
business to make money in, a better environment in which to exploit
Catholic and Protestant workers alike. Because of the limits imposed by the
profit system, the Assembly cannot build houses, hospitals and schools,
create jobs or eradicate poverty pay. These social conditions, which are an
inevitable fact of life in capitalist society, serve to fuel sectarian
division, fear and hate. Economic recession fueled by the Iraqi war will
only serve to magnify these problems.
No agreement can ever meet the aspirations of the nationalist community for
a united Ireland, nor assuage the fears of Protestants, stirred up by the
sectarian parties. Such agreements assume the continuation of a sectarian
divide; in fact they rest upon that division. Yet in reality the national
and social questions are inextricably bound together. Capitalism can no
more offer decent housing or health care to the people of Ireland than it
can in Britain or anywhere else. None of these problems can be resolved on
the basis of capitalism.
Stormont never had the potential within it to solve anything fundamental.
Many people's hopes have been dashed by the failures of the Assembly, and
by its suspension. Such a body could never begin to solve their problems.
New elections and a new period of 'power sharing' at Stormont will
inevitably raise these illusions once more.
How is a genuine and lasting peace to be achieved? The only way to get
peace is by dealing with the real problems facing the people in their
everyday lives. This is the only way to tackle the social roots of
sectarianism. There was nothing in the Good Friday Agreement that could
achieve that, in fact there was nothing progressive in it at all, and the
IRSP did not support it, although it got a majority in the referendum. We
were in a minority, but we were right.
For most ordinary workers however the burning questions have not been about
decommissioning or policing boards but the continuation of sectarian
violence, the state of housing, the war in Iraq and the continued
destruction of jobs. The industry of the north, which played a key role
(along with major political considerations) in British imperialism's
decision to carve up Ireland in the past, has been decimated. Harland and
Wolff, the Belfast Company synonymous with shipbuilding has officially
become a small business.
Neither the British government, nor the Irish government and certainly not
any of the sectarian politicians have any solution to this crisis. All they
can offer is occasional false dawns followed by impasse and new crises. The
Irish bourgeois have no interest in uniting with the North, which they see
as poverty stricken and politically explosive.
The Unionists meanwhile will never accept any real step towards uniting
with the South on the basis of the current system, as their opposition to
the current agreement demonstrates. So British imperialism is stuck with
the North, whether it likes it or not.
The irony is that Britain would now like to withdraw. They would like to
get rid of the £4 billion a year subsidy. Their problem is that the result
would be a bloodbath, the Catholics of West Belfast and Derry would face a
massacre and the violence would not be confined to Ireland.
Sectarianism, fostered by British imperialism as part of its divide and
rule tactic, has become an uncontrollable monster. The failure of Stormont
is proof once again that they cannot solve the crisis they have created.
They will now try to put this ramshackle agreement back together again.
Even if they do cobble together new temporary agreements between sectarian
parties, this will offer no solution to the problems of the working class.
Sinn Fein, the SDLP, the UUP and the rest may disagree about the future of
Ireland, but they do not disagree over the continuation of capitalism,
their economic programmes have little between them. All for example support
privatisation in the guise of the PFI. Yet trade unionists in threatened
workplaces, in the fire service, teachers, nurses, public and private
sector workers in general, are not represented at Stormont.
Class-consciousness has been thrown back and the majority of working class
people do not yet clearly see the need to break from sectarian parties.
The re-unification of Ireland is the unsolved task of the national
democratic revolution, which ought to have been solved eighty years ago.
But the bourgeoisie can never solve it. They were the ones who created the
division. Only the coming to power of the working class, as James Connolly
explained a century ago, can solve this problem. The IRSP are for the
unification of Ireland but Ireland will never be united until the working
class takes power north and south of the border.
The united struggle of the Irish working class alone can offer a future to
Ireland. United in struggle the working class of Ireland can sweep away the
filth and poison of sectarianism once and for all. All the problems facing
Irish workers are interconnected. None of them, social or political, can be
solved by the market. Only an Ireland united by the struggle for socialism
alongside their British and European brothers and sisters can begin to
tackle all these questions. None can be solved in isolation. The current
peace process created illusions for many that finally the problems of
Ireland could be solved. Those hopes have been dashed time and again, and
the same will be the case in the event of a new period of Stormont 'rule'.
The consequence will be new splits and divisions amongst Republican and
Unionist groups. Without the intervention of the working class there will
be a new descent into chaos and violence. That can be stopped by the spread
of socialist ideas within both Catholic and Protestant working class and
will speed the day of working class unity. The IRSP will play its part.
Will others?
Republicans and the Protestant Working Class: A Discussion Document
Recently a former combatant from within the ranks of loyalism wrote:
Clearly our first and primary concern is for the those unfortunate people
from both traditional communities who have suffered injury, trauma and loss
of property as a result of interface violence. It is unacceptable that
eight years into a so-called peace process and four years into devolved
government people are still suffering as a result of violence within and
across interface communities.
It has been said by a number of political activists that the Belfast
Agreement is panning out as a middle class agreement which has nothing to
offer the working and workless classes in both traditional communities.
That is only partially true. If the unionist and nationalist middle classes
can unite to carve up the social and economic benefits of devolved
government for their own people, surely those of us from both traditions
who feel marginalised and excluded from those benefits ought to be coming
together in a bond of working class solidarity. But we don't. We put tribal
prejudices above our common social and economic interests and continue to
beat the crap out of each other. That is our fault, not the fault of the
middle classes who are manipulating the implementation of the Agreement for
their own ends.
Alienation within marginalised communities is being cynically manipulated
and exploited by those who play the "Orange" and "Green" cards as a means
of maintaining the divisions that are necessary for a continuation of
tribal voting patterns and party political domination. Party domination
requires maximising votes, which in turn requires developing and expanding
the electoral base, which in turn requires either expanding or holding on
to territory. Is it any wonder then that territory lies at the heart of
most interface violence?
Whatever potential the Belfast Agreement might have had to facilitate
political accommodation and conflict transformation has been undermined by
an implementation process that is becoming more and more corrupt as the
weeks go by. It is a process that is rooted in manipulation, half-truths
and outright lies. Meanwhile at grass roots level inter-community relations
have gone into a downward spiral with more and more ordinary people drawing
back into their respective tribal camps.
The constitutional struggle (that lay at the heart of the armed conflict)
has been replaced by a struggle for political dominance at both Assembly
and local government level, and that this foments as much hatred, prejudice
and hurt as the armed conflict did. There will be no recognition of the
fact that this struggle for political dominance requires territorial gains
and creates interface tension and conflict. There will be no
acknowledgement that community relations and conflict transformation
initiatives have been deliberately starved of adequate resources.
We make no apology for the lengthy quotes. They come from a loyalist who
originally supported the Good Friday Agreement. He now shares a view of the
GFA that echoes what the IRSP/INLA said when the Agreement was first made.
This movement said among other things that the GFA institutionalised
sectarianism and would only benefit the middle classes.
Such a convergence of views is not coincidental. The IRSP always said that
that the class issues could not be divorced from the national issues. Class
struggle has a way of breaking through even in the most unlikely places.
There is a ferment of ideas and debates taking place among some elements of
loyalism that raises serious questions for socialists within the Republican
tradition. Just what is our position on the protestant working class?
Are they planters or 'colons'? Are they really deluded Irishmen and women
who one day will recognise their inherent Irish-ness? Are they irreformable
sectarian and incapable of accepting equality? Are they a different race, a
different nation, a different breed?
To ask such questions is to fall into a trap of restricted thinking -
restricted because it accept the limits that Imperialism set out
originally. By searching for the differences we confirm the differences
between Catholics and Protestants, between unionists and nationalists. And
we forget from whence Republicanism first came from.
When Wolfe Tone and his comrades in the United Irishmen developed the
ideology of Irish Republicanism it was an internationalist political
ideology. Inspired by both the Revolt of the American Colonies from British
rule and the French Revolution the early founders of Irish Republicanism
were internationalist in outlook. They saw themselves as citizens of the
world and wished to see liberty, equality and fraternity established on a
world-wide basis. In wanting to see Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter
unite under the common name of Irishmen Tone did not elevate being Irish
over any other nationality.
Unfortunately the defeat of the United Irishmen created a vacuum and in
stepped a new vision of Irish nationalism inspired by middle class
conservatives like Daniel O'Connell and Thomas Davis who recreated the
image of Irish-ness a million miles away from the Republicanism of Tone.
Later generations merged a narrow nationalism into a republicanism which
today is best espoused by Provisional Sinn Fein. Undoubtedly that
nationalism had an impact on some republicans. The founder of Sinn Fein
Arthur Griffith and Patrick Pearse were just two people more in tune with
the vision of Thomas Davis rather than Wolfe Tone.
Tensions have always existed within Republicans between those on the right
more influenced by nationalism and those on the left more influenced by
internationalism and socialism. Left Republicans in struggling for a
Republic are affirming the right of self-determination for the Irish people
without making any concessions to a narrow inward looking nationalism. It
is those on the left of republicanism who have anything relevant to say to
the protestant working class in the North.
The consequence of the fusion of nationalism into republicanism was that
Protestants who considered themselves British had no affinity or feel for
Irish nationalism. They saw no benefit for themselves in associating with a
narrow nationalism that at times had elements of racism in it. This in
turn, in the eyes of some Unionists justified their own racism, and
confirmed their faith in all the worst traits of the British Empire.
Republicans need to break with nationalism. The claim by PSF spokespersons
that they are the largest nationalist party is an indication how that Party
has moved away from Republicanism. The IRSP are proud of our republicanism,
our socialism and our internationalism. We believe that there will
inevitably be a break from the sectarianism that Imperialism has fostered
in Ireland and that workers will unite on class issues. Those class issues
are already breaking through as evidenced by the quotes that began this
article.
The assembly established as part of the "peace process", represents not an
attempt to solve the problems facing working class people of all
backgrounds, but a scheme to share power between representatives of the
main sectarian parties. It can never seriously address the problems of
working class people, not the day-to-day vital problems of health, housing
and education, nor the wider questions of the border and the national question
The IRSP have consistently explained from the beginning of the "peace
process", the Good Friday Agreement, and the institutions of devolution
associated with it, could never begin to solve the problems facing working
class people no matter what their background. It promised peace to the
communities of Catholic and Protestant workers, but was unable to deliver.
It was a lie. There has been no peace. Sectarian attacks, beatings and
killings have continued. The divide between Catholics and Protestants has
never been wider. This gap was created and nurtured by British imperialism
in order to divide and rule, to protect their system in Ireland from the
threat of united working class action. It is an unnatural growth. In
carving Ireland through partition British imperialism unleashed a carnival
of reaction just as James Connolly had predicted.
Those who created this mess are utterly incapable of solving it. Instead of
peace what they have built are lots of "peace-lines" - brick walls, iron
fences and barbed wire to divide communities still further. The British and
Irish governments and the sectarian parties all represent the past, they
have nothing progressive to say about the future.
Temporary agreements between sectarian politicians to share ministerial
responsibilities at Stormont cannot begin to solve the underlying cause of
this crisis. In reality whilst remaining within the straitjacket of the
capitalist system, sectarian politicians and government officials from
Ireland and Britain have been trying to create a better environment for big
business to make money in, a better environment in which to exploit
Catholic and Protestant workers alike. Because of the limits imposed by the
profit system, the Assembly cannot build houses, hospitals and schools,
create jobs or eradicate poverty pay. These social conditions, which are an
inevitable fact of life in capitalist society, serve to fuel sectarian
division, fear and hate. Economic recession fueled by the Iraqi war will
only serve to magnify these problems.
No agreement can ever meet the aspirations of the nationalist community for
a united Ireland, nor assuage the fears of Protestants, stirred up by the
sectarian parties. Such agreements assume the continuation of a sectarian
divide; in fact they rest upon that division. Yet in reality the national
and social questions are inextricably bound together. Capitalism can no
more offer decent housing or health care to the people of Ireland than it
can in Britain or anywhere else. None of these problems can be resolved on
the basis of capitalism.
Stormont never had the potential within it to solve anything fundamental.
Many people's hopes have been dashed by the failures of the Assembly, and
by its suspension. Such a body could never begin to solve their problems.
New elections and a new period of 'power sharing' at Stormont will
inevitably raise these illusions once more.
How is a genuine and lasting peace to be achieved? The only way to get
peace is by dealing with the real problems facing the people in their
everyday lives. This is the only way to tackle the social roots of
sectarianism. There was nothing in the Good Friday Agreement that could
achieve that, in fact there was nothing progressive in it at all, and the
IRSP did not support it, although it got a majority in the referendum. We
were in a minority, but we were right.
For most ordinary workers however the burning questions have not been about
decommissioning or policing boards but the continuation of sectarian
violence, the state of housing, the war in Iraq and the continued
destruction of jobs. The industry of the north, which played a key role
(along with major political considerations) in British imperialism's
decision to carve up Ireland in the past, has been decimated. Harland and
Wolff, the Belfast Company synonymous with shipbuilding has officially
become a small business.
Neither the British government, nor the Irish government and certainly not
any of the sectarian politicians have any solution to this crisis. All they
can offer is occasional false dawns followed by impasse and new crises. The
Irish bourgeois have no interest in uniting with the North, which they see
as poverty stricken and politically explosive.
The Unionists meanwhile will never accept any real step towards uniting
with the South on the basis of the current system, as their opposition to
the current agreement demonstrates. So British imperialism is stuck with
the North, whether it likes it or not.
The irony is that Britain would now like to withdraw. They would like to
get rid of the £4 billion a year subsidy. Their problem is that the result
would be a bloodbath, the Catholics of West Belfast and Derry would face a
massacre and the violence would not be confined to Ireland.
Sectarianism, fostered by British imperialism as part of its divide and
rule tactic, has become an uncontrollable monster. The failure of Stormont
is proof once again that they cannot solve the crisis they have created.
They will now try to put this ramshackle agreement back together again.
Even if they do cobble together new temporary agreements between sectarian
parties, this will offer no solution to the problems of the working class.
Sinn Fein, the SDLP, the UUP and the rest may disagree about the future of
Ireland, but they do not disagree over the continuation of capitalism,
their economic programmes have little between them. All for example support
privatisation in the guise of the PFI. Yet trade unionists in threatened
workplaces, in the fire service, teachers, nurses, public and private
sector workers in general, are not represented at Stormont.
Class-consciousness has been thrown back and the majority of working class
people do not yet clearly see the need to break from sectarian parties.
The re-unification of Ireland is the unsolved task of the national
democratic revolution, which ought to have been solved eighty years ago.
But the bourgeoisie can never solve it. They were the ones who created the
division. Only the coming to power of the working class, as James Connolly
explained a century ago, can solve this problem. The IRSP are for the
unification of Ireland but Ireland will never be united until the working
class takes power north and south of the border.
The united struggle of the Irish working class alone can offer a future to
Ireland. United in struggle the working class of Ireland can sweep away the
filth and poison of sectarianism once and for all. All the problems facing
Irish workers are interconnected. None of them, social or political, can be
solved by the market. Only an Ireland united by the struggle for socialism
alongside their British and European brothers and sisters can begin to
tackle all these questions. None can be solved in isolation. The current
peace process created illusions for many that finally the problems of
Ireland could be solved. Those hopes have been dashed time and again, and
the same will be the case in the event of a new period of Stormont 'rule'.
The consequence will be new splits and divisions amongst Republican and
Unionist groups. Without the intervention of the working class there will
be a new descent into chaos and violence. That can be stopped by the spread
of socialist ideas within both Catholic and Protestant working class and
will speed the day of working class unity. The IRSP will play its part.
Will others?