Twenty five years later the British state is singing the same song but this time with different backing singers - the republican movement. Pleading for the British to be the persuaders in a process of "reconciliation" and avowing that the unionists cannot be forced into a united Ireland, they have declared their goals as "peace" and "inclusive dialogue" involvingallrepresentativesofIrishnationalism.
With such an analysis and programme the struggle against imperialism waged by the Republican Movement is clearly heading for defeat.
That after 25 years the leadership of the struggle for most of that period can see a progressive role for imperialism shows that a new leadership is needed. One that understands the essential lessons of the last quarter century of struggle.
Part of the problem The first is that there is no progressive role for imperialism in resolving Ireland's national question. It i is part of the problem, not the solution. he compromising strategy of the republican movement was born of the belief that Britain does not want to be in Ireland in the first place. Thus in the 1970s victory was promised each year.
In the 1980s it was thought that a long war of attrition in which the British would simply weary of Ireland would lead to a British withdrawal.
Now the exhaustion of the struggle has reduced the republican leadership to pinning its hopes on a united "nationalist family" pressing the British to leave, if not now, then sometime, maybe.
This view of Britain's interests is not uncommon. In fact it is universal. Everyone from the unionists to the Dublin government, SDLP, Sinn Fein and even sections of the revolutionary left in Ireland such as the Socialist Workers Movement (sister organisation of the British SWP) accept Britain's statement that it has "no selfish, strategic or economic interest in Northern Ireland".
Since it is patently obvious that Britain does not continue to occupy part of Ireland for its love of "the democratic wishes of the greater number" of the people of Northern Ireland to remain British it is difficult to understand why it is not clearly understood that Britain is lying in this as in everything else.
The unionists are confirmed in their fear of a sell-out which in turn helps reinforce ine arguments of the Dublin government and SDLP that Britain is a neutral referee in the conflict which could work to the advantage of nationalists if only the IRA would stop its military campaign.
What has to be explained however, especially by those on the left who accept that imperialism exists, is why Britain is still in Ireland.
Why has it fought so hard for 25 years, now subsidising the Northern economy to the tune of £4 billion a year, fighting a dirty war which has continually damaged its reputation internationally and proved a running сотА Troops in Ireland: 25 years of repression domestically if in reality it wants to leave?
If any observer doubts Britain's commitment to staying they should look at the massive rebuilding of British Army and RUC security installations all over the six counties.
Defeat in the North of Ireland would not just be a momentous defeat for the British state, but a defeat of part of the British state. It would be a defeat of that state and its reactionary forces with exemplary powers. The British working class which would be much strengthened by such a blow against its enemies.
It would destroy the colonial and semi-colonial structure in Ireland which safeguards capitalism in that country.
The potential for uniting the working class of Ireland and mobilising it as an independent political force in the country would be immensely increased. Defeat in the North of Ireland would not just be a momentous defeat for the British state, but a defeat of part of the British state.
In this sense the battle to defeat the democratic struggle in the North is not a side issue but a central part of the struggle against the state which is the key defence of capitalism in these islands. This is its importance, indicating the scale of the struggle that will be required to defeat the British occupation.
This leads to the second key lesson to be drawn. For what is demonstrated is not just the scale of the struggle but also the nature of the struggle which must be waged to defeat imperialism. It must be one not just confined to the north, but one which includes the whole of Ireland and draws support from the working class of Britain. No such struggle will take place in Britain under a programme which is purely democratic.
This has been confirmed by the last 25 years. The Irish struggle has failed to inspire a mass solidarity movement in Britain: while this failure is in part testimony to chauvinist impulses in the British working class and more generally to the continued strength of British imperialism, the struggle in Ireland has not acted to break British workers from political sympathy with the policies of their own imperialism.
The method and aims, not just dimensions, of the struggle have not and under a republican, nationalist leadership, could not assist British socialists in breaking British workers from support from their own ruling class.
This of course is not to absolve the Labourist misleadersofBritain'sworkers from responsibility for this situation. It is to explain how the struggle in Ireland has notassisted inweakening the hold of these Teners.
In the south of Ireland the high points of the struggle in the north have this.
Even in the north republican electoral support is confined to only one third of the nationalist vote. It has proved incapable of rallying all the oppressed around its banner and now seeks to rally them around a "nationalist family" which includes a Catholic middle class in the north which is reconciled to a quite comfortable place in what is left of the empire and a Dublin capitalist class which is decaying in the stench of its own corruption and subordination to the whims of multinationals and handouts from Europe.
A challenge to the northern state must, by its nature, challenge the southern state and only revolutionary socialism can offer such a challenge. Creating a force to present this challenge is absolutely necessary for victory in Ireland's democratic struggle for self determination. Rather, Ireland's socialist revolution is the only context in which self determination will be achieved.
Hope
If our first lesson indicated the scale of the task and the second the nature of it, the third gives us hope that it can be achieved. British rule in the north will remain unstable even should the republican movement end its armed activity and accept the politics, if not the letter, of the Downing Street declaration. The greatest victory of 25 years of struggle - the downfall of the Stormont parliament - is very far from being reversed.
The British have found it necessary to build up the Catholic middle class in the north and draft in Dublin to support a partition solution. It did not need these props 25 years ago and the need for them makes it harder to continue its reliance on unionism which recognises only its own sectarianism as the basis for a solution.
Creating a stable compound out of these ingredients while many Nationalist workers remain unreconciled to british rule is not a recipe for stability. There is little chance of a return to the calm of the early 1960s.
In the 26 counties the working class, despite massive emigration and unemployment, is not totally demoralised and retains the capacity for struggle.
The recent European elections, with increased votes for the Greens and the reduction of the Fianna Fail vote to 20 per ceni in ine capiial, demonsirate ine fragility of the existing political framework.
Even in Britain, despite 15 years of Tory rule the institutions of the British state have not gained respect but suffer from widespread cynicism. In Britain to the working class retains a capacity to reverse the tide of Tory victories.
A chapter is closing in the struggle of the working class and oppressed in these islands. The task of Trish and British socialists is to ensure that the new one is written by revolutionary socialism.
Loyalist bigots fight united Ireland SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 67, August 1994, Page 13 CLAMONG