- Britains new attempt policy against Republican activists.
Also, in the long term, the Assembly represents a solution to the Northern problem which involves no real concesto stabilise partition sions to any section of the nationalist
This obviously has repercussions within that population.
I think that the reason that this hasn't been reflected in street demonstrations is
The continuous struggle of British imperialism to impose its domination in Ireland
Lacks of Long Cesh prison in the North of read are tremen ne las met equally continuous and determined resistance and support throughout the world, and impulsed the largest mass movement in Ireland itself since the War of Independence.
But, since the relative defeat suffered in that struggle British imperialism has been able to introduce a new plan - setting up an Assembly in the North to try and co-opt a section of the nationalist population into running the affairs of the Six
Counties, and to reassert the dominance of the pro-British Loyalist Protestant population (see IV No 13, 20 September 1982).
At the time of the recent conference of People's Democracy (PD - Irish section of the Fourth International) in Dublin, Penny Duggan spoke to John McAnulty, PD member elected to Belfast City Council on May 1981, about the present situation, and the perspectives of PD today.
Within the general orientation outlined by comrade McAnulty the organisation will continue its activity in the campaign against the anti-abortion amendment to the Constitution (see IV No 25, 7 March 1983), build solidarity with workers struggles against austerity, take steps to consolidate its system of press and propaganda around the monthly newspaper Socialist Republic, pamphlets, and regular public meetings, while maintaining and extending its active role in the trade unions and anti-imperialist struggle, which will focus on opposition to the Assembly and the proposed Council of Ireland.
The Assembly elections were the last major political event in the
Six Counties. What was the impact of these elections, particularly in the context of the decline of the mass movement following the defeat of the H Block hun-
Well, you've got to put the elections in the context of British strategy over the last fifteen years. This strategy has been reasonably consistent - to restabilise the partition of Ireland, and thus ensure British imperialism's control over the Irish working class. The failure of the hunger strike presented them with an opportunity to move forward.
establishment of the Assembly marked the way in which they attempted to continue this strategy.
The collapse of the mass movement, the absence of mass struggle in the streets, meant that in a physical sense they were able to do that rather easily.
But in a political sense the hunger strike had rather deeprooted repercussions.
The most immediate, most significant and long term of those, was the rallying of support around the
Sinn Fein candidates in the elections.
This has had two effects, rather it has had three effects.
The first is blocking the advances toward the establishment of a new Stormont in the North. Secondly, it has a long term effect in the sense that it destroys the whole ideological basis of
British intervention in Ireland → that the
Republican movement is a small group of terrorists. The elections established plainly the mass support for Republicanism, for an end to British rule in Ireland, and the international dimension of the Irish situation - exposing it as a colonial struggle which must be resolved.
Thirdly, the effects of the hunger strike went well beyond the traditional Republican milieu. So, one of the outcomes of the elections was that it was made totally impossible for the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLPbourgeois nationalist party) to take their seats and participate in this farce. even the most pro-imperialist sections of the Southern bourgeoisie had to realise participation in the re-establishment of this sort of Assembly was impossible.
There's one other thing that has become clear since the elections. question of the autonomy of the Loyalist section of the that the Assembly is part of British strategy, and not initiated by any struggle by the Loyalists. It is also quite clear that the Loyalist bourgeoisie no longer has the coherence and the strength to transform this Assembly into the old reactionary and authoritarian strong-state Stormont.
Q. But since the Assembly elections we haven't seen the mass movement on the streets in the North at all. So what do you think this means they feel about the Assembly? Do they see it as a threat, an attempt to re-establish Stormont? Or does it seem meaningless, dominated by twofold. First of all, it's not possible to simply be against the Assembly without having an alternative. So, the question of programme is raised as an immediate issue whole of the working class.
question of leadership is raised. And really the only alternative to the Assembly, alternative to the continued partition of Ireland, is a workers republic.
Which is maybe expressed in a transitional way through demands for a constituent assembly, etc. But that isn't an immediate issue, and it's one that the traditional organisations, both working-class, haven't yet come to terms
The second factor is related to the first. The recession, the austerity offensive, is really beginning to hit. People find themselves swamped by the immediate demands of day-to-day existence, and the Republican leadership haven't really been able to draw the connection between that crisis and the political crisis of imperialist rule.
In that sense also people are looking for an answer. It is the convergence of those things that constitutes the crisis both for the imperialists, and to a certain extent for the anti-imperialist movement.
Can they provide the leadership neces-
On the question of programme.
Under the impact of the mass struggle, and the influence of PD and Bernadette, we've seen at least a section of the Republican movement develop politically, on questions such as the need for unity of the anti-imperialist movement, using the by elections, Can you tell us what you think about that, and how significant it is?
A. Well, I think in an historical sense it is very significant. Traditionally the Republican movement has been a petty bourgeois nationalist movement. mains so, but it is a movement that is coming under increasing pressure from its largely working-class membership.
In the short term the question is not how far the Republican movement has moved from traditional positions, from the old position of the dominance of military struggle to the question of mass action, class actions, et. It is how do the Republicans measure up to the demands of the class struggle today? the answer to that is the Republican
movement has not been able to meet that challenge so far. So, we have not seen in their turn to electoral politics an immediate translation of that into a mass struggle policy, but rather a tendency toward pure electoralism. Using elections in somewhat the same way that the bourgeoisie uses them.
I'm hopeful of further development in Republicanism, but I think that revolutionary Marxists must be clear about the mechanism of how that will happen. The mechanism is the pressure from the working class on the Republican leadership, and not necessarily a conscious understanding by the Republican leadership of the tasks posed by the Irish revolution.
Obviously the process of the Irish revolution cannot be separated from what is going on in British politics.
One of the most important features of British politics today is the development of a left current within the Labour Party. One of the leading spokespersons of that left, Ken Livingstone, the Greater London Council, has taken a very strong stand on his support for the struggle of the Irish people. came to Belfast to meet leaders of Sinn
What was the reaction of the nationalist population to his visit? Was it welcomed, seen as positive? Do you think this is going to be an important element in the development of the interconnec tion between the British and Irish revolutions - such a link between the nationalist movement and the Labour left in Britain?
A. I think that Livingstone's visit was admirable, especially given the hysterical reaction of the British media, which was echoed by the traditional Labour bureaucracy.
I think it had two consequences. The first, here in Ireland, is that the Republicans realised that there really is a solidarity in the British working class that can be reached. This will help to turn traditional Republicans away from a bombing campaign in Britain, which achieves nothing, which can have positive effects, and help develop the political struggle in Ireland, and aid the turn toward the working
Secondly, if Ken Livingstone had as an individual that would have been admirable enough. But the truth is he represents a significant movement within the British Labour Party. It's a movement that is starting to draw lines in the class struggle in Britain itself, and beginning to realise that the Irish question has a real and central signif-
Everyday British presence on the streets (DR) icance.
I think that Livingstone's situation is that he is realising that not in a defensive way — that the left need to protect themselves from the right - but in a relatively offensive way. He realises the need to develop not just an alternprogramme for British alternative political programme which is an anti-imperialist
I'd just like to add that I recently attended a conference on plastic bullets thought was I think that during the hunger strike the British left found themselves in rather an invidious po-
In the past they'd taken rather abstract positions, rather than addressing themselves to the immediate needs of the Irish struggle, which is really the motorforce for building solidarity. think that the lessons of this are starting to sink home.
What I found in Manchester was a current that had based itself centrally in the debate in the Labour Party, and has significant trade-union how far that movement develops depends to a certain extent on the development of the British class struggle.
It also depends to some extent on ourselves and the development of the Irish movement, because obviously no British movement can hope to succeed unless Irish workers are making clear what their demands are.
Q. As a local councillor you must be very aware of the day-to-day effects of the economic crisis on the nationalist population in the Six Counties. What possibilities do you see for struggle either on questions like jobs, or on more social questions like housing, social security benefits, etc? What relationship will this have to the national struggle will it give it an impetus, or will the two struggles run parallel?
A. Well, I think that the question has different implications in the North and South. What we find in Ireland today is that there is a fightback against the austerity offensive. The chief characteristic of this fightback is that it is fragmented and sectoralist, especially in the North. The reason for that is that every struggle in Ireland for democratic rights, for the rights of workers against austerity, etc., runs up against the question of partition and of imperialist domination of the country's economy. I think that the solution to that is more immediate in the South. Take for example the recent struggle of the workers in the Ranks flour mills in the South. Although the bureaucracy concentrated the struggle around the immediate situation of the workers the redundancies arose directly from imperialist intervention, the dumping of flour on the Irish market.
In the North the questions come up against a sectarian barrier which is rather harder to break down. I think that that barrier can be broken down. But that depends to a very large extent on the ability of Southern workers to formulate a programme and build a united movement which can offer an immediate alternative to Protestant workers in the North.
Now, I think that in the short term what we're trying to do in the North is to build an anti-imperialist current. It may seem rather more attractive right away to issue a call for 'workers unity' in a very general sense, but in fact that doesn't answer the programmatic questions. We have to address those workers in struggle who have a real political consciousness of what the demands of the struggle are.
Q. You said earlier that the H Block hunger strike had really internationalised the Irish struggle and that wide support had been gained internationally. What do you think this illustrates about the importance of the Irish revolution at an international level, and, coming out of that, what do you think are the tasks for the Irish solidarity movement internationally?
A. = Well, if I can answer that in reverse order. For the solidarity movement what I think comes to the forefront now is the realisation that the hunger strike represented a struggle between the Irish people and British imperialism.
So, it's now necessary for those activists concerned, with the Irish ques-
13
The car workers strikes tion to move to the root of the problem:
and demand
British withdrawal from
I think that recent develop-
Ireland.
ments such as the controversy over the
St Patrick's Day March in New York in France - show that tide of awareness within the proletariat worldwide.
Other developsuch as the EEC decision to rements a blow against port on the North,