By John Agnew
AFTER AN initial period of confusion when British troops arrived in force in the Six Counties, it is now clear to most on the British left that, despite the present ‘truce’, there is open if undeclared war in Northern Ireland. That was is between the Republican working class and British imperialism. Those who are genuinely confused, or those seeking to confuse, should have this made absolutely clear to them. Ireland is no more complex an issue than most other imperialist confrontations, in fact it is a classic example of the old imperialist tactic of divide and rule. That there is a large pro-imperialist bloc in Ireland should therefore surprise no socialist who has any knowledge of imperialism’s history of exploitation around the world. In all these situations, the correct reaction of socialists living in the imperialist country was to support the anti-imperialist forces struggling against their own army and government.
Why then do so many on the British left fail to make, or even understand, this elementary point of socialist internationalism? Why is it that arguments about ‘terrorism’, ‘divisions in the working class’, the ‘non-socialist nature of Republicanism’, drown out the elementary socialist message of solidarity with those fighting against British imperialism? The answer to all these questions is to be found not in Ireland, but in Britain.
Britain is the oldest and most experienced imperialist power in the world. Despite its present decline as a whole power, the effects of Britain’s past dominance have left a heavy ideological imprint on the British working class. Ideas about the ‘national interest’ and ‘our boys’ in Ireland are but notifications of previously more confident ideas about ‘King and Country’ and the ‘white man’s burden’. Even though the material crumbs of privilege which British workers used to pick up from Britain’s plundering of the world hardly exists anymore, the past and present imperialist ideology blinds and hampers most British workers, including many fine militants, from seeing that struggles like that in Ireland are in their own objective interest.
When and if the Republicans plant bombs in Britain (a misguided and backward tactic), it should be recognised that this in itself, while strengthening and reinforcing British chauvinism, does not create it. This has been created by history.
What then are the positive arguments for supporting the struggle in Ireland?
The first and most important reason is that this struggle can only assist the fight for socialism in Ireland. This is because any fight against British imperialism, even though it is thoroughly nationalist, is in reality a struggle against capitalism. The fact is that capitalism in Ireland is either British-owned or dependent on British capitalist domination. Moreover, a real struggle against imperialism must primarily mobilise the Irish working class as well as other oppressed people like fishermen and small farmers. Who else has any real interest in fighting. A movement to smash the Northern Ireland sectarian state will destroy the basic institution which creates and perpetuates that sectarianism. Once that state can no longer guarantee sectarian privileges for Protestant workers, then Irish working class unity can be seen as a concrete alternative to whole layers of them.
Whilst we believe that Republicanism is unable to lead the Irish working class right through to these objectives, we also recognise that so far it has been the only real force to push developments in this direction. Therefore, any socialist party in Ireland cannot dismiss the national struggle and its leading movements. They must show in practice that the socialist way is the best way to solve the problems of the border, sectarianism and British domination.
But it is no good us preaching to Irish workers about the best way to achieve socialism and defeat British imperialism. We talk primarily to British workers and thus we pitch our arguments accordingly. We have a duty to shout loud and clear that the Irish people have a right to self-determination and that we support anyone who struggles to that end, be they nationalist, revolutionary socialist, or anarchist.
We would prefer it if they were revolutionary socialist, we would prefer it if their tactics did not include retrogressive bombings in this country. But our primary duty is to explain to British workers that the British state is not their state, but the sole property of the bosses and that a defeat for the British ruling class in Ireland would be a victory not only for the Irish struggle but also the British working class.
It is interesting to note that the left have been slow to take up these positions on Ireland while the National Front has been making links with the UVF and in this country making extensive anti-Irish propaganda amongst the working class. Likewise, the Monday Club and the Conservative party as a whole not only sympathise with right-wing Unionism, but also use Ireland as an excuse to demand that the government bring in measures such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
The British Withdrawal from Northern Ireland Campaign, a pacifist group, are the latest to suffer from the catch-all conspiracy laws. Their crime was to inform British soldiers of their legal rights under British law concerning conscientious objection and avenues out of the British Army. Enoch Powell uses the Irish issue in an attempt to bring reactionary ideas into the forefront of British politics.
The right wing has made the most out of the Irish national liberation struggle; the British left can no longer dither on the sidelines. A refusal to solidarise with the Irish struggle is not only a stab in the back for the Irish anti-imperialist movement, it is also a refusal to combat one of the most poisonous tendencies in the British working class—British chauvinism and anti-Irish racism, a tendency which will, if not combatted, contribute to the destruction of the working class movement in this country.
To prevent the possibility of such a defeat, we must mobilise active support inside the British labour movement for the building of the Troops Out Movement on its limited yet principled platform of ‘Troops Out Now’, and ‘Self-determination for the Irish People’ is central to this aim.
To this end we must mobilise for TOM’s December really, and the one following on 1 February to commemorate Bloody Sunday. Wherever possible, we must strive to promote mass labour movement delegations to Ireland; TOM is organising these over the coming year.
