Most of the British left and the Irish solidarity movement has given a guarded welcome to the 'peace process' in Ireland. But this is not the unanimous view, either in Britain or Ireland. Socialist Outlook's Liam Mac Uaid here interviews JOE CARTER, a member of the Irish Committee for a Marxist Programme (ICMP), Irish supporters of the Fourth International. • Why is there a peace process now? • REPUBLICAN strategy has reached an impasse. Sinn Fein's electoral growth has been halted.
The military campaign is increasingly under pressure, demonstrating its more and more demoralising character.
The republican leadership in the pat opened discussions with John Hume, leader of the bourgeois nationalist SDLP, in fruitless talks to break the impasse. The new process came to light when details emerged of talks between Hume and Adams aimed at 'strengthening the nationalist agenda.
For Sinn Fein the way forward is unity with the SDLP and the Southern bourgeois parties. A result of their dead end is that they are now prepared to make concessions to the bourgeoisie. The peace process so far is the collapse of the republican programme of national self-determination and British withdrawal into a compromise with the representatives of Ireland's capitalist class. • Are there any differences inside the republican movement on the process? • UNDOUBTEDLY. There are big differences between the leadership, which fully supports the strategy, and the bulk of the membership.
The members are kept in the dark about the real content of the Hume/Adams agreement and the recent contact between the republican movement and the British government.
They are told by the SDLP that there is no difference between the Downing Street declaration and the Hume/Adams agreement and correctly recognise that the declaration does not signal the end of partition or represent any real concession from Britain.
No organised opposition is visible because it is the failure of the past republican approach which has led to the current situation. There is no solid basis inside the republican movement for a political or strategic alternative.
This is further reinforced by the leadership's constant calls for 'unity' which has always been held up as of paramount importance given the past history of disastrous republican splits. • Are the British serious about peace? If not, what do they want? • NO. They see an opportunity to end the past 25 years of struggle through incorporating the republican movement into a new negotiating process, in which all the cards are stacked against the republicans and against demands for democracy and justice.
A settlement is secondary to ending the armed struggle. This would make the possibility of a power sharing administration more likely. The SDLP and sections of Sinn Fein could be co-opted.
The armed struggle is the largest problem faced by the NOIRSE (Top) Bombing continues as Adams (above) seeks terms British and ending it would ease the way for the solution of other difficulties such as persuading Dublin to drop Articles Two and Three of the Irish constitution which lay claim to the whole territory of Ireland; and bring lan Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party into the process.
It is fundamentally wrong to believe, as do many on the left and republicans that Britain does not want to stay in Ireland. • How have the comrades of the ICMP been intervening into the discussion? •The republicans held a se-