The following is an abridged version of the front page editorial of the latest issue of Socialist Republic newspaper Democracy, Irish section of the Fourth International.
The vote for Sinn Fein in the North is the main spark of hope within a general election which otherwise marked a major victory for the British Tories' and a major defeat for the working class in both Britain and Ireland. It's clear from the opening of the new parliament and the British Queen's Speech outlining the government's programme that a new offensive is to begin now.
But the Tories and their Unionist allies have won a battle, not the war. The real struggle comes now. when thev trv to crush the resistance of the Irish people and their own minorities and working class opposition.
That struggle won't be fought in Westminister, and it won't centre around the way the vote went in an election now past. streets, in the factories and trade union structures. And it will depend on the combativity, awareness and level of organisation of ordinary working class militants.
If Sinn Fein recognise and respond to this central fact then the spark of hope that their victory represents can be converted into a new blaze of resistance against British rule in both parts of It's not enough to point to votes cast, to point to the next election, to offer an advice service or to pretend that military action by itself offers any Drospect of victory. that unites the mass of the people in a fight against Britain's military repression and economic oppression, against the Stormont Assembly, and for an anti-imperialist alternative to the Council for a will DITI organisation for the battles ahead ...
One gain of the struggle before the election was the new dialogue between Sinn Kein and sections of the British Labour Party Left. Gerry MP has already announced his intention of going to Britain to reopen those discussions.
We believe that the Sinn Fein abstention policy is wrong, but without moving on that Sinn Fein could learn from the experiences of Bernadette McAliskey as an MP. Gerry Adams should speak not only to the leaders but to the militants. By going on picket lines with British workers and joining build a real solidarity in action.
But at the end of the day solidarity from British workers depends on a real mass struggle here. The left in Sinn Fein are aware of this and in numerous public statements extending to Assembly elections have pledged to build such a movement against the fighting for this in the Westminster elections they settled for the principled icadershp.
Anti-imperialists have gained in the elections, but the imperialists have gained in a much more dramatic way. We gained a breathing space — let's use it to spell out 'principled leadership' as a political programme that will lead to a fight back against the Assembly, oppose the Council for a with an assembly, build anti-imperialist opposition to the right wing, 'pro-life' amendment to the constitution, and workers in all 32 counties in a fight against the economic austerity her puppets in Dublin!
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of Peoples It will be fought in the Only a programme of action our confidence and Adams
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