Paisley says no, but
what of the Left?
Declan O'Neill
For a few
days the impossible seemed likely, as yet another “historic
breakthrough” was promised. The DUP and Sinn Fein in coalition, Ian
Paisley as First Minister, Martin McGuinness as his deputy, republicans
in control of security and policing powers at a Stormont Assembly – the
politics of Northern Ireland are unrecognisable from a decade ago. True
some things don’t change; Ian Paisley has yet to say even “hello” to any
of his Sinn Fein colleagues to be, and he is still demanding that the
IRA surrender. As he put it in his own inimitable way:
“There's
nothing wrong with asking a terrorist to surrender his weapon. And
there's nothing wrong with asking a person who has been guilty of
organising mass murder through the country, and trying to commit
genocide of the whole Protestant population of the Border, to say 'Give
it up'."
The IRA has
stated publicly that it is prepared to give up all its weapons, but
Paisley wants more. His goal was, and remains, the public humiliation
of the republican movement. This the IRA could not accept. The most
likely outcome still remains some form of power sharing with an “Irish
dimension”, probably after the next Westminster election when the DUP
has reinforced its hold over the unionist vote.. There is no appetite
in republican circles for a return to “armed struggle”, and no public
support for it either, and even the most die-hard unionist accepts that
a return to “majority rule” is a non-starter.
How should
the Left react to these developments? Few will mourn the end of armed
conflict – it was never likely to lead to what was once the republican
movement’s avowed goal, a “32 county socialist republic”- and most would
support any initiative which would signify a weakening of
sectarianism. But does the Good Friday agreement, either in the mark
2or 3 version, help or hinder the building of a socialist alternative?
As usual
socialists are divided. It may be a long time since argument on the far
left focused on whether support for the IRA should be “unconditional” or
“unconditional and critical”. A few may continue to demand “Troops Out
Now” – in Ireland that is , not Iraq, - and some have joined with
dissident republicans to denounce Sinn Fein’s “betrayal” of the struggle
for an all Ireland republic. But today, with honourable exceptions, the
predominant sound is silence. Respect, for example, will go into the
next election with no policy on Ireland. Only one motion at its recent
conference mentioned Ireland, in one on democracy was the line “ for a
united Ireland”. As with so many other motions at conference there was
no debate and the motion was remitted. Coverage of the current talks
in the left press has been minimal at best.
Yet Ireland
does matter, not just because socialists as internationalists should
support struggles against repression wherever they occur. Socialists in
England have a particular responsibility to oppose the policies and
actions of successive British governments which have proved so
disastrous for the people of Ireland. It is also important that we
learn from the lessons of history – the state certainly does.
Techniques developed in dealing with the “Paddies” were put to good
effect in crushing the miners. How often do we hear bourgeois
journalists spout the nonsense that the British army is the best in the
world at dealing with “civil unrest” because of the “professional
manner” it dealt with the situation in the six counties? As if Bloody
Sunday, the numerous deaths of innocent civilians at the hands of
British soldiers, the well-documented cases of military collusion with
loyalist murder gangs, and the torture of prisoners and internees
never happened.
What of the
current negotiations? The reality is that they offer little to the
working class in Northern Ireland. As a recent report study by Save the
Children and Queen's University Belfast illustrated, there are currently
32,000 children across Northern Ireland living in severe poverty - 8% of
all youngsters. A summary of the report, published in the Guardian,
states that these are children living in "unacceptable circumstances",
deprived of many of life's necessities. It says: "One in five do not
have fresh fruit or vegetables, and one in seven do not have three meals
a day. These children do not have enough clothing or a warm, safe and
healthy environment." Forty per cent of these children live in
households where the gas, electricity or telephones have been cut off.
Other studies suggest child poverty is even more widespread and
entrenched. For example, research for the Office of the First Minister
and Deputy First Minister found that 38% of children across the region
are living in low income households. The Poverty and Social Exclusion
Survey for Northern Ireland found that 37.4% of children in low income
households lack three or more basic necessities, such as adequate
clothing - compared with 28% in Britain.
A DUP/Sinn
Fein coalition will do nothing to eradicate this poverty. In fact what
the Good Friday agreement is about is managing sectarianism not
challenging it. Eamonn McCann puts the position succinctly. “the
whole purpose of the Agreement is to corral the working class into two
separate camps, to pledge that neither side will be worse off than the
other”. Of course there are no easy solutions, but McCann is surely
right to argue that only class politics can supply the answers needed.
With others he has helped form the
Socialist
Environmental Alliance (SEA), a coalition of socialists,
environmentalists, trade unionists, women's rights campaigners,
anti-capitalist and anti-war activists. The SEA has made a beginning in
offering a real alternative to working people in Northern Ireland. They
and other socialists, on both sides of the border, deserve our
continuing support in their struggle against Green and Orange Tories.
December 2004