JUST PUBLISHED by Brandon Press is a book by Gerry Adams, The Politics of Irish Freedom. Socialist Action urges all its readers to buy this book which is the clearest exposițion there is of Ireland's struggle for independence the role Republicanism. As a trailer, we reprinting here the book's central theoretical chapter entitled 'Republicanism and Socialism'. We will be carrying a review in our next issue.
The cause of Labour is the cause of The cause of Ireland is the cause of Labour James Connolly WANT to talk about socialism in the Irish context you cannot divorce the socialist aspiration from the aspiration national dependence. This is the big lesson of the Connolly experience. norser le bring about a socialist society you must have real national independence. To use Connolly's phrase, this requires the reconquest of Ireland by the Irish people, which means the expulsion of imperialism in all its forms, political, economic, military, social and cultural. It means the establishment of a real Irish republic and the organisation of the economy so that all its resources are under Irish control and organised to bring maximum benefit to our people in a 32 county state in which Irish culture and national identity are strong and confident.
Real national independence is the prerequisite socialism. understanding of socialism is that it is a definite form of society in which the main means of production, distribution and exchange are socially owned and controlled and in which production is based on human need rather than private profit. Socialism is based on the most thorough-going democratisation of the economme system, side by side with the thorough-going democracy in politics and public affairs. Socialism includes stage advance republicanism. British colony sha as exists in the a You cannot have socialism counties or in a neo-colony such as exists in the 26 counties. You must have your own national government with the power to institute the political and economic changes which constitute socialism. Furthermore there cannot be a credible movement for socialism in Ireland while the British connection divides workers in the 6 counties and while partition prevents a unity of working class interests.
One does not become a socialist merely by calling oneself that. After all, Hitler's fascist movement called itself National Socialists, the Nazis. such politicians as Neil Kinnock, Roy Mason, Harold Wilson, Fidel Castro, Yasser Arafat and Mikhail Gorbachev call themselves socialists. Nearer home John Hume, Tomás Mac Giolla, Dick Spring and Michael O'Riordan call themselves socialists also. socialism is what socialism does. means different things to different people and nothing to most people and is second only to republicanism as the most abused political description in Irish politics The acid test of commitment to socialism in Ireland (and Britain as well) is to be found in one's attitude to the issue of Irish national determination. The correct socialist attitude to Ireland must be an interna tionalist one. You cannot be a socialist without being a separatist. You cannot be a socialist if you condone, support ignore the colonial stranglehold which the British government maintains over this part of our country.
There cannot be such a thing as "Ulster Socialism'. Those who profess to be Northern Ireland Socialists' are involved in mere parochialism of the gasworks and waterworks municipal variety. Neither does become socialist by abandoning nationalism and republicanism and replacing them 'leftist' Sioganising like Workers' Party or by becoming antinational like the Irish Labour Party.
There are other international' socialists who support the legitimate TELLS people America, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere to engage in struggles tor naMy tional freedom. They are hypocrites if they do not assert the same rights for the Irish people.
The Irish nationalist movement played a leading role in the development of the world-wide struggle to overthrow colonialism and throughout its history republicanism has been strongly influenced. by movements in other countries. ideas of the American dependence and the French Revolution were those which inspired the United Irishmen. Irish emigrants eading role in the American War of In dependence and in the struggle against Portugese and Spanish colonialism in Central and South America. In India Africa the Irish tradition was one of the strongest influences in the movements. Even in Britain the Chartist movement and the whole development of British trade unionism owed much to leadership from Irish radicals.
In more recent times internationalism has been an important element in republicanism. Certain self-proclaimed socialists who are implacably opposed to the struggle for independence in their own country proToday fess a kind of internationalism which engages in long-distance support revolutionary movements, provided of course that their struggles are in other countries. John Hume, for example, is a sponsor of the anti-apartheid movement. as was Garrett FitzGerald until Clearly recently. The anti-apartheid movement, supports the right of the African Naaims by means of armed struggle. John Hume and Garret FitzGerald'S views on known, as are those of Neil Kinnock who applauded and embraced Oliver Tambo, President of the British Labour Party Conterence when self- Tambo spelt out the need for an intensification of the armed struggle and the probability of civilian casualties.
Irish republicans, hand, have a natural, instinctive and deep affinity with the ANC and with the black majority who are oppressed in South Africa. solidarity slogans or vividly painted murals on gable walls throughout the nationalist ghettoes of the 6 counties is but one example of this identification with liberation struggles throughout the world. The indignation of ordinary nationalists the six Reagan's attempts to bully or undermine the government of Nicaragua, The and their obvious sorrow at the forced eviction of the PLO from Beirut, provide ample evidence of the strength of their anti-imperialist tionalist instincts.
Central All socialists
and class in Ireland.
only tionalism progressive The War of In- gling people elsewhere am a socialist played a republican.
sides of the one coin. tional dimension revolutionary reasons, been the anti-colonial Licite sistently been philosophy.
Republicans struggled liberals and Irish end to foreign interference affairs.
(ANC) to pursue its are well socialist state.
the other The appearance of who counties promising republicans.
In all of socialism internamust be interna- some, tionalists and anti-imperialists in a defunct meaningful way. Long distance revolutionaries' will not help to free the oppressed peoples of the world if they cannot help to free their own people A only ceracepion et interesa.
conception internaworth struggling for. So socialists must struggle for freedom and political power in the country in a republican. which they live and give a lead to strug For all these reasons and because I I continue to be a Republicanism philosphy in which the national and the radical social dimensions are the two term is While the nahas, for historical most dominant republicans tendency within the republican move- However, Irish republicanism has radical have persistently, against great odds and often alone, imperialism. The republican movement has many inadequacies but it remains the major, many would say the only, anti-imperialist force in Ireland today. Despite the best efforts of the Fianna Fáil, SDLP and homes. Fine Gael leaderships to distort its meaning republicanısm is a concep easily understood by the majority of people to mean national independence, unity, sovereignty and an You cannot be a socialist and not be a republican. Socialists will want an independent republic because it is a good thing in itself as an advance from today's situation and because it is an essential step towards socialism. This will only be achieved, however, if the struggle is led by the most radical social groups and in particular by the working identity.
wilhout whom it cannot suc ceed in developing the conditions for the establishment of a democratic and Such a struggle for national independence needs to encompass all the social elements in the nation which are oppressed or held back by imperialism. Independence struggles whch are led by the conservative or middle classes, as in irelana in lyzi, lena to compromisc with imperialism because their leading sections benefit from such a compromise. That is why those on the left in regard themselves as socialists and as representing the working class should be the most uncomthis the question of socialist republicanism or republican one for radicals in Ireland today. The term 'republican socialism' has been used by for example the now almost IRSP (Irish Republican Socialist Party; but strictly speaking it is a misnomer. If you say you are a republican socialist you are implying that there is such a thing as a 'nonsocialism is used in the classical sense of the term defined here.
One cannot be a socialist and not be Connolly, as usual, indicated what the correct term was wher he called the party he founded in 1896 the Irish Socialist Republican Party. I follows that if a republican wishes to use the term 'socialist' in defining his ol her political position today, the propel 'socialist republican "socialist republicanism', in order to distinguish oneself from non-socialist This is perfectly valid the . republican struggle should not at this stage of its develop ment style itself 'socialist-republican' This would imply that there is no place in it for non-socialists.
Irish republicanism is not and never has been a static concept; it is a living and developing ideology. The first declaration of its principal elements is contained in the 1916 Proclamation, which has pride of place in many Irish Later, with the emergence of the Young Ireland movement Fintan Lalor gave Irish republicanism a new base. He wrote: "The entire ownership of Ireland moral and material un to the sun and down to the centre, is vested in the right of the people of Ireland. They and none but they are the land-owners and law makers of this island, that all laws are null and void not made by them and all titles to land are invalid not conferred by them.' The Young Irelanders also reawakened a sense ot national con sciousness and awareness of national The next influence was the Irish Republican Brotherhood, or the Fenian movement, whose rise accompanied a great national revival and the foundation of national sporting and cultural organisations such as the GAA and Conradh na Gaelige. This nationalism was not chauvinist — it was not the nationalism of imperialism - but was progressive nationalism expressing a belief in culture and identity as well as in political independence.
Although there was a progressive social element in the writings of all the generations that have intluenced Irish republicanism, and although in their own time these were radical revolutionary movements, James Connolly's writings on the social and economic aspects of the struggle for Irish independence were to have the most literature but on the thoughts of othe leaders.
All of these elements were crystallis ed in the Proclamation of the Republi in 1916 and developed further in th Democratic Programme of the Firs Dáil. These documents have neithe been implemented nor updated to mer modern conditions, yet they are as reit vant today as they were when their basi principals were conceived.
All of the movements and leader that shaped the republican philosoph were also internationalist in outloo and considered and engaged in physic force as a means of advancing : th struggle. If we compare the politic positions those politicians an political parties that pretend to b republican with all the elements of Iris republicanism we discover how shodd and superficial their pretence actuall In Ireland until partition is got r of and a united Ireland established, b ing genuinely left-wing is to be an ou and-out republican. This was the k lesson of James Connolly for socialis in Ireland. That is why he was led, as socialist, to join Pearse and the othe radical republicans and democrats in fight to establish an Irish Republic If that fight had been successfu Connolly and the socialists would the have been in the best position to a vocate the economic and social chang which constitute socialism. They woul have proved themselves by their leade ship of the independence struggle. Thi why it is a political mistake counterpose republicanism socialism in Ireland as if they were of posites or antagonistic.
The true socialist will be an acti supporter of the republican charact of the national independence mon ment. She or he will realise that unle this character is maintained and unle the most radical social forces are in tr leadership of the independence strugg then inevitably it must fail or con promise. This classical view of the ma ter contrasts with the ultra-left vie which counterposes republicanism ar socialism and which breaks up the un ty of the national independence mor ment by putting forward demands which have no possibility being achieved until real independen is won; the result is that one gets neith independence nor socialism To ignore these lessons of histor to repeat the mistakes of the past. Wh is needed in Ireland, especially in the counties, is the development of an an imperialist movement. Such a mos ment cannot be built around the sloga of socialism until socialism comes the historical agenda, until a distine Irish form of socialism is developes meet our needs and conditions and u til a majority class in Ireland, the wol ing class, actually understands that th is in their interests and is what th want If such a mass anti-imperiali movement, with pea sections of Irish society, developed, and this is the urgent task all socialists, nationalists republicans, it would fuse together fected by imperialism and would sho people the connection between the localised and special grievances and t imperialistic domination society.
The programme for such a mos ment would appeal to all those capab of taking a national stand and wou require a multi-sided campaign of n tional regeneration a new Ireland movement to offset, especial in the 26 counties, the neo-colom ethos mentali which exists there And such a gramme would, by its very nature, be the left of what passes for 'socialism Ireland today.
Connolly held that the nation revolution was the pre-requisite of d socialist revolution. All of us who pr fess republicans sociali would do well to study his writings Desmond Greaves has written. Coa ly held that the political and econ the two stages democratic reorganisation of each involving economic which it is the function of pr change to promote. We who attery follow in his tradition must recol that truth.
THE Anti-Apartheid Movement AGM meets on 11/12 January. It comes at a time when the attention of the world is fixed on the struggle in South Africa and Namibia. REDMOND O NEILL looks at the choices facing the AAM WHEN THE Movement AGM meets its chief task will be to map out a programme action against theid, and British support for it, in 1987. For this it will be necessary to extend even further the mobilisations which the Apartheid Movement (AAM) was able to lead in 1985 and 1986. The demonstrations of 1985 and 1986, inspired by the rising struggle in South Africa helped transform the AAM into a mass movement.
In 1987 the AAM can be extended still further by the massive support for it, and for action against apartheid, in the trade unions and labour movement and by developalliances with the black Socialist Action 9 Jan 1987 tions.
tional and local members.
local groups students. In CICSLEE trade union action Anti-Apartheid South African products.
aparworkers Ford's huge ponents AntiSporting these actions.
Dorall steps
through its campaign, Railway already coal.
Inspired
comIn place of the system where members of local groups are not national members of AAM the document proposes an integrated system for naA further step being considered by local groups to organise youth and organise youth Birmingham and Mansections of the AAM have been set up. In London students have coordinated across the colleges.
In the last year there has been more starting with Portsmouth health workers boycott of Miners in South Yorkshire are organising againsi coal imports from South Africa and car Dagenham plant have called for a boycott of any comSouth Africa. AAM groups have played a key role in supUnions nationally have taken imSUCE as the NUR 'Rail Against Apartheid' in aiding its equivalent in the South African Harbour Workers Unions. The NUM has taken steps to secure agreement through the International Miners Organisation for an international embargo of South African
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