textfiles/politics/SPUNK/sp000394.txt

	Workers Solidarity No. 42
	  Irish Anarchist Paper

              Net addition


               Yes to peace and to an Ireland
              that is neither Orange nor Green

DESPITE ALL THE talk of peace the war continues. The 
media has as usual focused on the acts of the 
republicans, particularly around the Heathrow attack in 
March. However as the following extracts show the 
British state is also continuing its war effort and 
continuing to defend its usual mixture of lies and 
torture while doing so. They are all taken from An 
Phoblacht/Republican News (Sinn Fein paper) in the 
closing weeks of March, mostly stories the media did 
not consider to be worth covering.

"Yet again, an RIR soldier has walked free from a 
Diplock court even though he admitted supplying the 
names and addresses of republicans to loyalist gangs. 
David Murdock was one of three people who appeared 
before Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday, 15 March. The 
court was told that Murdock supplied information to 28-
year-old loyalist Brian Appleton from Windsor Avenue, 
yet Appleton was not convicted of any offence arising 
from this."

"The RUC has kept up its policy of harassment 
against nationalists in the County Tyrone town of 
Cookstown, with a series of dawn raids carried out on 
Monday last, 21 March, on the Greenvale Estate. The RUC 
rampaged through 12 houses using sledgehammers to gain 
entry to several houses at 5.45am. They arrested one 
man who was released the following day without any 
charges being preferred."

"A ruling by the Court of Appeal in Belfast on 
Monday, 7 March, has sanctioned physical abuse of women 
prisoners in Six-County jails. It stated that the 
practices and procedures involved in the forced strip-
searching of women prisoners is legal and so entitles 
the prison's governor "to order a prisoner to be strip-
searched whenever he sees fit."

"The inquest into the killings of six people in RUC 
shoot-to-kill operations in Armagh in 1982 have been 
adjourned yet again, for two months.... This latest 
adjournment was requested by the crown lawyers to allow 
the British government time to prepare a Public 
Interest Immune Certificate (PIIC)." The PIIC will 
prevent the questioning of those who carried out the 
shooting.

WHAT'S NEW?

Not an especially exciting collection, in fact pretty 
typical of the ongoing war of the British state, but 
one you just don't hear about in the mainstream press. 
Indeed in the aftermath of the Heathrow attack the 
mainstream centred on Gerry Adams threat of more IRA 
spectaculars to come. Except of course Adams it 
transpired had said no such thing. His words had been 
changed through the application of what it politely 
know now-a-days as spin. As usual however the original 
(false) remarks got front page headlines, the 
correction received no coverage or a couple of cm's on 
inside pages. 

The point of all this is that despite the formal 
lifting of Section 31 its business as usual for the 
media. The stories we are fed continue to be selective 
and designed to create a false impression from events, 
in this case that republicans are not serious about 
peace while the British government are. To a certain 
extent a reaction of 'so what else is new' is 
legitimate to all this. But the important point that 
all this black propaganda on one side, and endless 
calls for clarification on the other is hiding the real 
nature of the peace talks. 

WHAT'S GOING ON?

The peace talks represent the ditching of Sinn Fein's 
left gloss and a return to good old nationalist 
politics, pure and simple. They started with the Hume - 
Adams dialogue, a still secret document but one which 
clearly set out to demonstrate that the northern 
nationalists could be trusted (by both Dublin and 
London) to 'behave' in the event of British withdrawal. 
Once Sinn Fein might have talked of nationalising 
foreign sections of the economy, now according to their 
recent pamphlet on The economics of Irish unification 
they expect that the British government will continue 
to pump around 1 billion pounds a year into Northern 
Ireland.

Gerry Adams gave a special St. Patrick's day address 
as part of the process of spelling this out. In it he 
said
"Irish history has been scarred and mutilated by the 
support which the British government gives to unionism 
and the consequent inability of unionists to come to a 
democratic accommodation with the rest of the Irish 
people. The British government's role as persuaders is 
key. That is obvious." AP/RN March 24, 1994

What all this means is transparent. In the past 
Tories have feared that British withdrawal would lead 
to a "Cuba off the British Coast", that a Sinn Fein 
victory would lead to widespread nationalisation and 
social upheaval. But Sinn Fein is no longer talking at 
all of that kind of victory. To expect Britain to give 
1 billion a year after withdrawal clearly sees 
withdrawal not in the context of a defeat for 
imperialism but as a different way for imperialism to 
manage Ireland. The unionists are the problem, Britain 
as a persuader we are told is the potential solution.
Adams Ard Fheis speech was laced with such a 
perspective, rather than appealing to Protestant 
workers he said "It is also time that the Protestant 
people heard the voice of reason and sanity from their 
leaders. They need a De Klerk to lead them and us into 
the next century."

The left in Sinn Fein would once have talked of the 
spirit of James Connolly, I'm sure nobody needs the 
difference between Connolly and De Klerk spelt out for 
them.

Adams Ard Fheis speech was quite clear about what 
Sinn Fein are offering and how they are looking to the 
ruling class of Britain and Ireland rather than the 
workers as the way forward. "Our party paper, Towards a 
Lasting Peace in Ireland, clearly places the onus on 
the two governments to secure change. It especially 
calls on the British government to "join the 
persuaders" and on the Dublin government to persuade 
the British that partition is a failure..."

He also clearly put forward the idea of Hume-Adams 
as a pan-nationalist alliance saying "credit must given 
also to Albert Reynolds...the first Taoiseach to have 
taken the steps he has taken to address the core issues 
of a negotiated settlement" and again "we need 
particularly to consider how we can appeal to the 
national sentiment that is strong particularly at the 
grassroots of Fianna Fail..."

SELL OUT, SENSE OR INEVITABLE?

Now is all this a sell out? Well no, despite the twists 
and turns of republican politics from the "Year of 
Victory" militarism of the 1970's, to the community 
politics "ballot box and armalite" of the 1980's this 
is what has always been the core of nationalist 
politics. It is no more a sell out than Fianna Fail's 
attacks on healthcare or Thatcher's attacks on the 
trade unions. 

The purpose of Irish republicanism is and was to see 
Ireland as Robert Emmet put it "take its place among 
the nations of the world". A place which includes those 
key features of all the other nation states, 
alienation, cops and the rule of a minority. Not just 
in Ireland but everywhere in this century it has been a 
fault of the left to accept the populist rhetoric of 
nationalist movements, from Nicaragua to Cuba as 
socialist.

Sinn Fein wants the same sort of settlement that the 
ANC and PLO have 'won'. Where the post boxes get a lick 
of green paint, and the harp replaces the crown on the 
caps of the police. Where the existing state (and 
yesterdays enemies) control what were their puppets (be 
it loyalist death squads or Inkatha) in return for a 
guarantee of stability from the 'anti-imperialists'. We 
recognise these things as a step forward, the ending of 
legal apartheid or the sectarian state in the North 
would not be trivial things and just as we would fight 
against their introduction, we support their ending. 
But they offer only crumbs to the working class.

Unification under capitalism throws up a huge number 
of problems for the ruling class. First amongst these 
is Protestant privilege. The northern Protestant 
workers may have the second worst living standards in 
comparison with any group in Britain but they are ahead 
of the worst group, northern Catholic workers. What's 
more, in an economy where they too have a high 
percentage of unemployment about 30,000 Protestants are 
dependant on the 'security forces' for a job. If all 
that is on offer is unity under capitalism then given 
the past record of loyalism it could be foolish to 
expect them not to fight.

A REPUBLICAN SURRENDER?

On the other hand any settlement that did not rectify 
the imbalances would offer nothing to Catholic workers. 
War weariness might cause it to be accepted but in the 
longer term resistance to injustice would be sure to 
reappear and without any left alternative would 
probably repeat the events of the end of the 60's and 
start of the 70's. Sections of the far-left have 
supported just such a republican 'surrender' in the 
impression that this would give them room to grow. In 
the south however many people consider the border 
irrelevant to their day to day lives. Here too the far 
left has failed to break out of isolation, suggesting 
there's more than the border in the way in the north.

So what are the two possibilities? With the end of 
the cold war and the collapse of the northern economy 
Britain's long term interests in staying have declined. 
A significant section of the ruling class would seem to 
want out if they could leave stability behind. Let us 
not get too excited by this however, another section 
wants to stay under any circumstances. The debate may 
be leaning towards the first section at the moment but 
the wind could easily change. The question is are they 
willing to pay the price of stability?

That price comprises maintaining the current living 
standards of Protestant workers, including finding 
20,000 or so new jobs for those currently working in 
security. (Lets assume they keep 10,000 to police this 
'new' Ireland. It means offering a substantial enough 
bribe to the local ruling class to pull them (and the 
unionist parties) behind such a solution. It also means 
pulling up the standard of living of Catholics to a 
level where the deal appears to offer something and 
creating a mechanism to achieve equality of opportunity 
and access over a period of time. It would appear from 
their calls for a Protestant De Klerk, Britain to 
'convince' the unionists and continued investment from 
Britain that this is what Sinn Fein hopes for.

The bill would be billions of pounds, the problem 
being that capitalism in recession would have severe 
difficulties finding this money. Is the British and 
Southern Irish ruling class prepared to pay such a 
price? It would seem unlikely with the exception of the 
bombings of the City of London (and they are important 
exceptions) the ruling class has managed to isolate the 
problem to the 6 counties and keep costs down. Thatcher 
once boasted that there had been more British troops 
killed in driving accidents in West Germany than in 
northern Ireland. The British ruling class is not going 
to support withdrawal unless it can be guaranteed un-
interrupted exploitation and that it would be cheaper 
to leave then to stay.

GAZA MARK II

The second option would be of the type worked out by 
Israel and the PLO. Token improvements could be made 
that would redistribute poverty, the local ruling class 
bought off and any opposition destroyed by massive 
repression from the relevant side. Perhaps Britain 
would withdraw politically but possibly retain troops 
on the ground in a peace 'enforcement' capacity, 
through the EC or UN. Perhaps they would be U.S. 
troops. The new regime could then try and create a new 
stability through force.

Is this a possibility? Its one fraught with 
difficulties for the ruling class. Britain's policy of 
Ulsterisation introduced under Labour and stepped up 
under Thatcher meant replacing British troops with 
local police and UDR (RIR) where possible, and arming 
loyalist death squads to do the dirty work. But these 
official and unofficial forces retain some loyalty to 
the community from which they come, the Protestant 
working class. Britain has been testing this loyalty in 
recent years with its partial (very) clampdown on the 
UDA. In turn the republicans would have similar 
problems in getting its forces to police its side of 
such a deal. Such an option would be far from straight 
forward for the ruling class (and needless to say 
disastrous for us).

Whatever the possibilities and some of them are very 
unattractive all Sinn Fein is promising at best is a 
stability which will include mass unemployment, low 
wages and all the other features that make Ireland an 
attractive investment for imperialism, otherwise how 
can they expect #1 billion annually from Britain. That 
is why we have always said that only socialism can rid 
Ireland north and south of poverty and reaction. That's 
what we will continue to fight for, peace deal or 
otherwise; the class war goes on.

Andrew Flood

This is the fourth part of the latest issue of Workers Solidarity, 
produced by the Irish anarchist group, the Workers Solidarity 
Movement.  We are changing the format for this posting to 
two parts consisting of short articles and then posting longer
 related articles separately.  They should arrive on this 
list/newsgroup over the next few days.  Some lists/
newsgroups will only get postings relevant to them.  To
get other parts reply to this address with a request or
watch out for them on alt.society.anarchy between the
13th and 24th of June.


The parts and their contents are.

Workers Solidarity 42 (Editorial and shorts) 1/6    
   For starters
   That's Capitalism
   Stake your claim to cash
   PLC students demand grants
   Telethon - A hypocritical sham
   If the cops don't like you
   French show how to fight... and win!
   Bosnia, Rwanda and UN intervention.

Workers Solidarity 42 (More shorts) 2/6

   Significant minority say NO to union leaders
   Don't vote...it only encourages them
   Letter
   Prepare to Sink the service charges
   Find Out More

WS 42 Gay Pride 3/6         

   Loud and Proud
   The reasons Emmet Stagg should resign

WS 42  Ireland, Sinn Fein and the peace talks. 4/6

   Yes to peace

WS 42 Year of the Family 5/6

   Parents, puritans and poverty
   Gas masks and pantyhose

WS 42 Evolution and revolution 6/6
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Workers Solidarity Movement can be contacted at 
     PO Box 1528, Dublin 8, Ireland

or by anonymous e-mail to an64739@anon.penet.fi

Some of our material is available via the Spunk press electronic archive

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