Prior plan for Northern Ireland:
Irish revolutionaries speak
Following the end of the H-Block movement, the British authorities have come up with a formula for a new local assembly in Northern Ireland, which is to be elected on October 20.
This assembly is the second attempt of the British authorities to create a legislature that could claim to have democratic legitimacy for both the communities in the Northern Irish enclave the pro- imperialist settler population and the nationalist, Catholic community.
The previous attempt, the "powersharing" assembly set up in 1974 on the basis of the Sunningdale agreements, was abondoned in the face of the opposition of rightist Protestant leaders unwilling to make any concessions to the Catholic population, even ones of a tactical or nominal character.
Question. What is the meaning of the upcoming assembly elections and what is the attitude of People's Democra-
John McAnulty. Before the rise of the civil rights movement, Britain had a stable form through the partition of the country and the Stormont parliament they set up in Belfast. Stormont could take the responsibility for administering a system of colonial repression that was in jarring discord to the sort of bourgeois democracy that was maintained in the rest of the United Kingdom, of which we were supposed to be a part.
The major victory of the mass civil rights struggle was that it forced the British to suspend the Stormont parliament. That destabilized their system of rule. Ever since, they have been trying to find a formula for restabilizing the situation in the framework of maintaining partition.
In earlier phases, they were prepared to offer some concessions to the moderate, procapitalist Catholic forces in
These included mechanisms whereby the Catholic capitalist politicians could "share power" with the Protestant leaders and recognition of an "Irish dimension," that is, recognition of the interest of the Dublin government in the situation in the North.
Following the H-Block struggle and its failure to win all its demands, the British now have some leeway, seem to feel that they don't have to make any concessions to any major section of anti-Unionist (nationalist) opinion.
The Sunningdale assembly represented an attempt to restabilize the political situation in Northern Ireland following the breakup of the civil rights movement and the relative isolation of the Provi-
The period from 1974-5 to
1977, when the mass movement around the H-Blocks began to develop was one of sharp downturn in the struggle of the oppressed population.
The attempt to impose this new assembly also follows a new setback for the
What danger is there of a new downturn comparable to 1974-77 or a more prolonged restabilization of the imperialist system in Ireland? What tactic should revolutionists take toward the as-
These questions are discussed in the So, what the assembly concocted by Prior [British supremo for Northern Ireland| amounts to is an attempt to restore the old Stormont regime, with some modifications, probably with the British direct control of security. Therefore, what PD wants to do is build a broad unity against the new assembly. What we proposed initially was a total boycott of the elections. the republican organization, Sinn Fein, and the Social Democratic and Labour Party [SDLP-the main Catholic bourgeois party] have decided to contest the election, the chances now for a successful boycott campaign seem doubtful.
We will continue to fight for a boycott, but if that does not seem possible, we'll work for an anti-imperialist united front in the elections. We will also put pressure on all the candidates to make a categorical pledge that they will not attend the assembly if elected
The SDLP has announced that it will contest the elections but that if elected its candidates will not take their seats. What do you think of that?
The raison d'etre of the SDLP has been a strategy of negotiation with imperialism. In essence, they have argued that they could use the gains of the anti-imperialist movement to force concessions from imperialism.
The Prior Assembly, which offers nothing, puts an end to that sort of argument. After all the periods of negotiation in the past 14 years, the concessions that the SDLP have got from imperialism are exactly nil. Realization of this, realizafollowing interviews given to Gerry Foley in Belfast and Dublin in late August by
Bernadette Devlin McAliskey and leaders of the People's Democracy, Irish section of the Fourth International.
John McAnulty, a well-known Belfast PD leader, was elected to the Belfast
City Council in the spring. He will be a candidate, if PD contests the elections.
Brendan Kelly is a leading member of
People's Democracy working in Dublin.
The interview with McAnulty follows the decision by the SDLP, the Northern
Catholic bourgeois party, to contest the election. The interview with Bernadette
McAliskey and Brendan Kelly was taken before the SDLP decision.
tion that the British weren't prepared to offer even the sort of powersharing concessions they did in 1974, led to a miniature revolt within the SDLP.
I would say that the majority feeling within the party is that there should
But the prospect of that terrifies the SDLP leaders. They remember the period when the mass struggle forced them to boycott Stormont, their experience of that period is that the bourgeois forces were pushed to the sidelines and the revolutionary took the leadership of the struggle. They would do anything to avoid getting into that posi-
So, the SDLP's decision to stand but to boycott the assembly itself is a concession forced from the leadership, who are essentially prepared to cooperate in all aspects with the British plans. is confirmed by the position taken by SDLP leader John Hume immediately after the meeting that decided to boycott
He announced that the SDLP stood ready to negotiate changes in the assembly structure. the SDLP decision bears the mark of be-
The SDLP are asking the people to vote for them on an abstentionist basis, but within a few minutes of making that decision, John Hume, even before the election, has announced that he's willing to sell these votes to the British for whatever concessions they care to make. In fact, a close examination of the assembly proposals shows that there aren't any concessions that would change its nature.
Q. What about Sinn Fein? McAnulty. The biggest weakness of the Irish revolution is the weakness of the working-class forces within it. The strongest anti-imperialist organization, the republican movement, is not a socialist organization in the scientific sense. It is a movement of revolutionary demo-
So, during the hunger strike it was necessary to wage a hard fight against the abstract formalism that flows from the republicans' lack of working-class program.
As part of this, Fergus O'Hare and myself contested the local government elections for PD, opposing the SDLP and sosocialist pro-imperialists such as Fitt and Paddy Devlin. helped to convince the republicans to abandon their traditional position of boy. cotting all elections.
But since the republicans do not have a working-class program, they don't see any direct connection between the political struggle during elections and mass politics, the struggle to build a working-class alternative. dropping the boycott position, they have flipped over to the idea that it is good in general to participate in elections, to a kind of electoralism.
So, we will be arguing with the rethem of the dangers the assembly poses and we'll be arguing for an anti-imperialist united front, no matter what tactic is decided on. And we think that such a front should be aimed directly at breaking up the SDLP and exposing the Irish government. We think that the population in the North should make a direct appeal to the Irish working class, and the working people of the island as a
Aren't there also divisions in Sinn Fein on this question?
McAnulty. There are roughly three sections. The more mature elements of the republican left do see some connection between a mass struggle and electoral policy, so their attitude wouldn't be all that different from that of People's De-
Another section is ready to adopt an electoralist strategy. third group favors boycotting all elec-
The fact that there is a lively debate inside the republican movement means that there is room for such as PD to develop that debate, and to lead it onwards.
However, the crucial center for an anti-imperialist front does not lie in the republican movement itself, but in the broad layer of independent militants who made the mass struggle around the HBlocks a possibility.
What about the argume that if you run candidates, you wil ve split-
McAnulty. In the first place, our record is clear. Ever since the end of the H-Block campaign, we have been working for an anti-imperialist united front against the assembly. So, our position in favor of unity is indisputable.
If we end up contesting the elections, one of the main reasons we will be asking for a vote is to show that there is very wide support for our proposals for united mass struggle.
If there is an anti-imperialist united front, we won't run candidates of our own.
Finally, this election will be on the basis of proportional representation. We will be asking people who give us their votes to give their second preference votes to other anti-imperialist candidates.
Q. Why do you think the H-Block movement suffered a relative defeat, and in view of that defeat what do you think you can win in the fight against the Prior assembly?
McAnulty. In the first place, the H-Block movement started very late. PD began calling for a struggle around the
But a real united, broad based campaign didn't get underway until after the first hunger strike began in the fall of 1980. So, the republican movement did not accept our analy-
Many people thought that the prisoner fight was a detour. understand that the struggle was on the
We argued that it was on the defensive, and that the British had picked this particular ground to fight on and we had no choice but to fight on it. But a united fightback was left until very late, until the prisoners themselves had devel-
La sense of absolute desperation. Secondly, the imperialists and proimperialists, all the conservative forces, knew that if the H-Block movement won real victories that would have led to a major upsurge in the struggle. So, they were determined not to give in, no matter what. In this situation, we would have had to be able to mobilize all the forces of the Irish people to win.
Internally, the weakness of the antifront represented by the H-Block movement was its lack of a class base. It was impossible in the time available to get the anti-imperialist movement to make a thoroughgoing turn to the
And given the Irish bourgeoisie's fear of the movement, only massive working-class mobilizations could have brought the strength of the Irish bear against imperialism. Also, because of its lack of a class base and program, the traditional antileadership, the republicans, was not able to project a clear way for-
Q. So, what is the way forward? McAnulty. last 14 years of struggle is that there is no way the nationalist minority in the North can win against the combined forces of the pro-imperialist majority in this area and British imperialism. It is possible to win only if the nationalist population of the entire island is mobilized.
So, how do you accomplish We need the support of the masses. the masses aren't homogenous. It is the working class that suffers primarily from imperialist domination, which is maintained by partition. So, the problem of defeating British imperialism and building a mass movement of Irish workers is the same problem.
We have to be able to draw the links between the political and military repression of imperialism in the North and the sort of oppression in the south that flows from the Dublin government's collaboration with the British, and with the general economic oppression of the Irish workers.
I think that the elements of the sort of leadership needed do exist. There are people in Ireland who have led genuine mass movements, there are people who have led genuine workers struggles, there are people who have survived 14 years of the most intense military and political repression in Europe.
These elements have not yet co hered into a united political leadership that could break the hold of the old labor bureaucracy and the pro-capitalist politi-
But I think that this process was advanced considerably by the H-Block movement, and that another step forward can be made in the campaign against the
Q. Where does the anti-imperialist movement stand after the end of the H-Block campaign?
Bernadette Devlin McAliskey. There has been a debate among the anti-imperialist forces whether the end of the second H-Block hunger strike could be called a defeat.
I think that if you want to do anything, you have to start from reality, and the reality is that the hunger strike was defeated.
It was defeated inasmuch as ten men lost their lives and we were unable in the limited time available to win decisive support in the labor movement.
It became obvious that the only way we could have won was through a general strike. But we did not have anything like the forces needed even to call a
The defeat was far from a total one. But masses involved in the movement were thrown into demoralization. Moreover, after the hunger strike, the major organization involved, Sinn Fein, pulled back, withdrew into itself, and that undermined the unity that was achieved.
Now, however, I think that the activists have reached the stage where they are saying, all right, we have come through 12 demoralizing months, we've allowed the Brits to get to a position where they wild accelerate their offensive and launch the Prior initiative, and so we have to start rolling up our sleeves, and our immediate task is to figure out how to stop the Prior initiative. That's where we are now.
Brindan Kelly. On the positive side, we learned a lot of lessons from the H-Block campaign. We learned in a con-
crete way the need to have an involvement in the trade-union movement, to have an involvement in the social and economic struggles of the workers. Bernadette said that there was no time to build a base among the workers during the H-Block campaign; that's another way of saying that the work hadn't been done
It's true that in the coming period the focus will have to be the assembly elections. But the campaign against the assembly will have to be broader than one just against repression and the British pre-
We're in a better position to take into consideration the social and economic issues that flow from imperialist domination and repression.
At the moment there's a huge ecoin both parts of Ireland. Great numbers of people are facing unemimpoverishment. we have answers for these people, they will remain passive.
The contrast between the recent two general elections in the South bears that out. One was held during the hunger strike, the other after. In the first we were able to get a very credible vote, and yet a couple of months after the hunger strike, when they were faced mainly with social and economic questions, the very people who would come on the streets in support of the prisoners did not turn to us as the people who could solve their
They turned to others who had actually opposed the hunger strike
How do you propose to raise social and economic questions in the campaign against the assembly?
McAliskey. It's harder to raise such questions in the context of the North. In the South, it's much easier. The government and the opposition have definite economic programs that you can oppose.
the Prior initiative is an attempt to stabilize the North so that Thatcher's economic program can be car-
Part of it also is the British pressure against even someone like the present Irish premier, Charlie Haughey, who despite the fact that he has basically the same economic program as them does not take a servile enough line toward imperi-
They want a more reliable pro-imperialist in power in Dublin like Garret
In fact, what we are facing with the Prior initiative is not just something for the North but a comprehensive British plan for restabilizing British control of
What does this assembly represent exactly?
McAliskey. It is nothing more than the election of 78 persons to sit together and discuss whatever they choose to discuss or are permitted to discuss by the British government. This assembly will have no power whatsoever over any aspect of social, economic, or political life in Northern Ireland.
Should the assembly by 70% of its membership or by a sufficient degree of cross-community agreement deign to agree with any policy decided on by the British themselves, power will be given to the assembly to carry out that policy.
Q. That is, it has only one option, to agree?
McAliskey. Yes, that is all. It cannot oppose any British policy, even by unanimous vote.
Kelly. The British had to come up with some formula to counter the argument that they have no solution for the North, which they find embarrassing in-
Now they can say, "we're offering democracy, everybody can participate, and we get an assembly, what more to you want us to do?"
SHENDAN MANKS H3McAliskey. In the case of the Sunningdale assembly in 1974, at least the British offered an "Irish dimension," recognition of Irish national identity. Now they offer nothing like that. And the attempt of the Fianna Fail government in Dublin to get something like that has been vehemently rejected by the British
The Fianna Fail premier, Charlie Haughey, has gone on record as saying that the Prior plan is a disaster, that it is another attempt to make partitionist government in the North work when this experiment has proved a dismal failure. So, the British pushing this plan is a direct challenge to Haughey and the republican rump of Fianna Fail.
During the hunger strikes, two governments were Dublin-a Fianna Fail one and a Fine Gael-Labour coalition. Both of these governments failed to support the prisoners. That proved to the British government that the bourgeoisie in the South was politically quite weak. The British also realize that the Southern bourgeoisie are in a very tight economic situation. So, they feel fairly safe in moving ahead at this stage, because they know that they have
Southern bourgeoisie pretty well Q. One thing that even the bourgeois press and politicians acknowledged during the hunger strike was that the Catholic population in the North was totally alienated from the established institutions. Presumably the assembly is the assembly, „ answer to that. "Well, they voted for the and so they aren't alienated McAliskey. That is one of the reasons why I think that the best tactic is to refuse to lend any legitimacy, however, to against it, and end up running for it, it very difficult to explain your position politically to the masses.
What do you think that the pos sibilities are for a successful boycott camCHOND
MURTAGH
H BLOCK
Mothers of H-Block prisoners demonstrate (DR)
McAliskey. The picture is still very confused. The SDLP appears likely to be caught in its own trap and participate. The republicans are committed to contesting, if the SLP does, and the rest of the anti-imperialist organizations as well.
At the same time, a number of people, including myself, have been discussing the question with the rank and file, and we find no support among the ranks in the SDLP, Sinn Fein, or among the independents in the H-Block movement for contesting the election. The gut feeling of the rank and file is to reject the assembly even if the SLP stand, and if they do, to sink the SDLP, split the SDLP. I think that that is a more realistic prospect now than it was during the H-Block struggle, that the SDLP ranks and some leaders can be involved in an anti-imperialist cam-
Kelly. The fact is that the SDLP is split down the middle on the assembly. The problem is that the anti-imperialist movement has not tried to bring pressure to bear. Among other things, that reveals an electoralist attitude on the part of
It says that it wants to fight the SDLP in the elections. But we have a chance to fight them now, because the rank and file of the party hasn't made up
So, we've lost a whole period when we could have been convincing
McAliskey. This is another one of the problems that arises from the lack of a strong revolutionary party in Ireland. In the framework of such a party the activists could keep going in both ups and
They would be able to act and downs. not just react. Coming out of a period of demoralization, things begin to happen much more quickly than people left to themselves realize.
But I think that we still have time to build the kind of campaign we need.
Q. Another example of missed opportunities is the Southern general elections, especially the first. The H-Block movement needn't have ended in defeat if the republicans had been willing to support an anti-imperialist front that could have offered a general alternative, say with H-Block activists running in every
McAliskey. I think that that's true. But it is also one reason why we are in a better position today. The experience of the H-Block campaign moved Sinn Fein on the question of elections, away from the hidebound position that their organization doesn't touch elec-
They are also now into the area where they have to politically justify any position going against anti-imperialist unity. There is a very important discussion going on inside the republican movement today.
The problem seems to be that the republicans are still moving slower than events and when they change they can be equally wrong in the new circum-
Kelly. We have had some initial discussions with the republicans and found a certain agreement. The problem is that they don't seem to be conscious of the need to act quickly and decisively on
McAliskey. The present situation reminds me of 1977. The thrust is not coming from the leaderships of the anti-imperialist organizations but from the independent layers that support these orgatied to them. I would hope that we will move rapidly to an open conference on the whole question of how to stop Prior, as we did in 1977 on how to stop
Q. Is there time for that? McAliskey. Yes. This is a result of but we'd end up in a position that even if we couldn't stop the assembly we'd come out of the elections with a mass movement going forward.
Q. During the H-Block campaign you were one of the major pressures on Sinn Fein to contest elections. find it hard to argue with them now that they shouldn't participate in this election?
McAliskey. No, I don't find it hard to argue but they find it hard to understand it. Some of the young left leaders accuse me of somersaulting. always said to them that we should look at the question of elections from the standpoint of tactics, as a concrete ques-
Q. The last major test of the electoral tactic was in the 1982 Southern general elections. Dublin-North Central was the brightest spot in that campaign. You have continued working in this constituency. What connection does this work have with what you are trying to do in the North?
McAliskey. The fact that I am here and consistently fight this area is a challenge to the partitionist mentality, first of back, it took us four years of bitter strug gles to achieve it. And now the terms of debate have decisively shifted. The need for anti-imperialist unity is generally accepted.
This is very positive for us here in the South, because we need unity in order to be able to offer a national alternative, and it has to be national to be serious.
Out of every 100 pence in a pound, 56 pence are spent by the government. People look to the government, their standards of living are very much dependent on government policy. They look to who's going to form the government, so they're not that interested in independent
But no anti-imperialist group on its own is capable of offering a national alternative. And if we don't get together to offer one, the vacuum will be filled by other people, such as the collective of pro-imperialist so-called socialists, mainly the Workers Party, a rump of the old Of ficial republican movement, that got into Parliament in the last general election.
How much of an obstacle are the Workers Party and the other pro-imperialist "socialists? "
McAliskey. I don't think they're much of an obstacle. The fact that they got in is a measure of our disunity, essentially. They don't offer a solution. The minute they got into parliament, started bartering for tuppence-ha penny. They almost instantly disappointed the people who elected them thinking that
You see some interesting things if you look at the Workers Party
There were five seats they could have taken going into the elections. The two areas that they didn't do well in were precisely areas where the H-Block campaign had been very strong. In one area the H-Block campaign had been strong, but there was no anti-imperialist running against them.
The Workers Party success is not attributable to hard local work. They did that everywhere. But they were suc cessful only where there was no anti-imperialist opposition. Where they were opposed, their vote was reduced to a low
=2222 the H-Block movement. In 1977, we had to go laboriously through a list of contacts to try to see who was still prepared to make a fight after three or four years of demoralization.
Today, we know that people are sitting waiting at the other end of a phone who are ready to come to a meeting next Saturday.
Q. You still think that its possible to get a mass boycott campaign?
McAliskey. At this stage, I still think that we can win Sinn Fein over to that position. In the constituency in which I live, Fermanagh-South Tyrone, even with the SDLP standing we could still put fifteen or sixteen thousand spoiled ballots in the ballot boxes. That wouldn't be as effective as a total boycott 24
Secondly, this is the only place in the country where we have held together, however loosely, the broad forces that were involved in the H-Block movement.
Q. Your campaign did succeed in drawing together almost all the anti-imperialist currents and all those that favor independent working-class political action.
McAliskey. It seems to have had a certain exemplary effect. People from another Dublin constituency, Clondalkin, have approached us, saying that they want to do the same sort of thing we are.
Kelly. For the time being, the unity that existed in the H-Block campaign has dissolved. But if you look
The Workers Party gains do, on the other hand, reflect a kind of polarization that's going on in Irish politics. Their vote reflects a working-class vote that's looking for an alternative.
McAliskey. I think we are heading into a new upturn. That's why it's impor tant to get it right this time. That's why whatever tactic we decide on in the North, whether it is a united anti-imperialist slate or boycott, the impor tant thing is that we come out of this election with a mass movement that's going forward. If we do, then we are in a position of strength to go into the next Southern general elections. And given the weakness of the government's majority in parliament, they can come up quite soon.
Electoral fraud
in Mexico
The falsification of the electoral results in Mexico which was described in International Viewpoint No 12, August 2, has surpassed even the forecasts The Minister of the Interior recognised that the presidential candidate supported by the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores (PRT, Mexican section of the Fourth International), Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, had won 416,000 votes. This is clearly more than the 1.5% necessary to give the PRT the status of a legal party. But at the same time the Minister has said that the PRT list for the legislative elections only received 308,099 votes, that is 1.46%. Thus the PRT, for want of 0.04% of the votes, has been refused the eight deputies to which it is en-
This is a crude, clumsy, and cynical The government had begun to publish the results constituency by constituency in the first few days after the
These results indicated that there was only a small difference between the number of votes in the presidential election and in the legislative election. The gap of 25% finally decided on by the governmental machinery to keep the PRT below the 1.5% barrier had therefore to be concentrated in a reduced number of constituencies, which gives grotesque results in some districts, such as 1,000 votes for Rosario and only 8 for the PRT list in the legislative election!
A study by the Centre for Enquiry and Study of the Social Anthropology of Mexico (CIESAS) concluded that of the eight million new voters (youth) the PRT would have won 300,000, that is 3.7 per cent (Uno mas Uno, August 17). If the minister's figures are to be believed therefore, the PRT only won 8,000 votes
The principal left weekly in Mexico, Proceso, stressed that in the 171 constituencies where the PRT presented candidates, in addition to the national list of candidates for deputy, for individual election, the government attributed 279,072 votes to them. Thus, again if the minister's figures are to be believed, the PRT only obtained 30,000 votes in the 129 other constituencies.
Finally, during the first revisions of the results by the electoral commission for the principal district of the country, the Mexico valley, the government finally gave the PRT 85,000 votes, 13,400 more than they had originally announced. This difference is much higher than the amount the PRT officially lacks to get 7 or 8 deputies in the proportional shareout. However, despite this revision, the government refuses to give the PRT a ingle deputy.
It is clear that this is an arbitrary political decision taken by the governmental apparatus of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), and, more than likely, by its military machine. The reasons for excluding the PRT from Parliament are obvious: in a deep economic and social crisis the PRT will defend the interests of the workers and peasants, and the Central American revolution, in Parliament, without any concessions to some kind of national unity with the Mexican bourgeoisie.
The cynical and scandalous nature of this fraud has led all the opposition to support the PRT's demand for revision of the electoral result. The procedure is still going on in the electoral college. On July 22 a protest demonstration against this electoral fraud gathered more than 5,000 people in the centre of Mexico. It was organised by the PRT and the Partido Socialista Unificado do Mexico, (PSUM, the Mexican Communist Party).
New threats
against
Panamanian
Trotskyist
During last June and July the teachers in Panama embarked on a wave of strikes demanding salary adjustments and the establishment of the sliding scale of
At the beginning of the movement two demonstrations drew 50,000 60,000 people respectively. On July 13 a monster demonstration mobilised more than 200,000. During this strike wave, as during the successful strikes some years ago, our comrade Miguel Antonio Bernal, leader of the Revolutionary Socialist Movement (sympathising group of the Fourth International), was the official and legal advisor.
He was the object of a hysterical campaign by the bourgeois press. example El Matutino June 20 headlined the front page: 'Leftist leaders bring violence into the strike. The next day it again carried on its front page: tskyist leaders use the same methods as in the USSR'. On July 11 La Republica stated on its front page: "Miguel Bernal turns the movement towards day, again on the front page: 'Strikes and violence on an international scale: the Trotskyist agent Bernal leads in Panama'