Ireland: More loyalist than the loyalists A couple of years ago Socialist Organiser broke from the traditional the words of James Connolly, defined the 'orange working class' as conditions of servitude are more slavish than their own' consequential analysis of the protestant working class as a labour aristocracy was increasingly questioned by Socialist Organiser and its ideological leader, Sean Matgamna. GEOFFREY BELL writes. A loyalist band prepares to march in Portadown the 'right' of the British parliament to rule them. Moreover, historically speak- ing, the protestants in Ireland as a whole generally defined themselves as have 'Irish' or some variant of that — 'Anglo- Irish', 'Scots-Irish', 'Northern Irish' or 'Ulstermen' (sic). Even today the major- ity of northern Irish protestants reject the view that the British parliament has the right to tell them what to do. They also toy with advocating an independent Ulster (the UDA) or Ulster as a British dominion in the way Canada is (Ulster Clubs). • The notion that contemporary Sinn Fein republicanism is different from that of Wolfe Tone is an historical illiteracy. Sad to say, but in fact the examples of anti-protestant sectarianism in Wolfe Tone's 1798 rising were much more commonplace than in the present IRA's campaign, although in both cases such sectarianism was no part of the politics of the vast majority of those involved. • To define Sinn Fein as 'Irish catholic nationalism' is a slander. Irish national- ism has often had a rather right wing and catholic side to it, but Sinn Fein in word and deed has resolutely opposed it. If there are present day catholic Irish nationalists they are most likely to be
marxist view of Ireland on the issue of the protestants, a view which, in "slaves in spirit because they have been reared up among a people whose
. This, and the found in the SDLP in the north or Fianna Fail in the south. • The attempt to justify the presence of British troops in the north of Ireland by raising the spectre of the protestant backlash is rather old hat these days. Let us remember that the troops went onto the streets in 1969 because the loyalist security forces had been defeated. And today the political unity which would be necessary for the loyalists to be a real threat to catholics in the event of British withdrawal is completely missing. The failure of the loyalists to defeat the Anglo-Irish agreement is just one example of the limited capability of the 'protestant backlash'
In seeking to minimise British responsibility for the situation in Ireland, in suggesting that, for the good of the Irish, British troops must stay, in painting the "loyalists' more 'British' than they paint themselves, Socialist Organiser ends up calling for the extension of both loyalist 'rights' and the British presence.
The advocacy is for protestant self-rule — in other words, a statelet drawn up purely on a sectarian headcount. This statelet would apparently be part of a federal Ireland. But then comes the biggest howler. There have to be 'ties of some confederal sort between that united Ireland and Britain'
In other words, Brits into the south of Ireland. Wave the union jack and pass the ammunition • • All quotes in the text are from, 'Ireland: the lies the left tells itself' by Sean Matgamna, in: Workers' Liberty no. 9, January 1988 • Geoffrey Bell is the author of The Protestants of Ulster and Troublesome Business: the Labour Party and the Irish Question, both published by Pluto Press.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 6 March/April 1988
Karl Word MARX AND ENGELS never left a syste- ment. matic account of their 'materialist view of history'. Scattered throughout their writings however, are dozens of partial explanations. Above all, Marx and Engels used historical materialism as the basis of their analysis of society, indeed it is the bedrock of their theory. How does