Interview with Bernadette Devlin McAliskey
"We need analysis and new thinking"
Gerry Foley from the US paper Socialist Action interviewed Bernadette Devlin McAliskey just before the Stormont agreement was signed. Below we print an extract.
SA: What do you think the possibilities are for starting up new mass protest movements?
BDM: The conditions are very adverse to building mass movements at the moment. There are still very deep illusions among the Sinn Fein rank and file.…Unless the Republicans start to see things differently, it will be difficult to get anything going without them.
SA: What do you think about the proposed referendum?
BDM: The best possibility for building a mass movement at the moment is probably the question of dropping Articles 2 and 3 from the Irish constitution. Even in Fianna Fail [traditionally the more nationalist of the two main bourgeois parties] people are worried that the referendum in the South could lead to undermining the constitution. But they are more aroused by constitutionalist issues than Republican ones.
SA: What about polls that show that 51 per cent of Sinn Fein voters will accept a settlement involving the continuation of partition?
BDM: I think they mean what they say. A lot of Sinn Fein’s new vote comes from people who simply did not see any reason for voting before. They had not taken an interest in day-to-day nationalist politics and still less in the war. But the prospect of a political settlement attracted them.
They voted for Sinn Fein for peace, and because it has a more dynamic and professional delivery than the SDLP, but not because of any Republican convictions. Pressure from them could lead Sinn Fein further than it wants to go. I think that the present illusions about the peace process will have to dissipate before any new movement is possible.
SA: So, what do you think can be done now?
BDM: Two things. We have to look for opportunities to mobilise people on specific issues, even limited ones. We also try to engage in political discussion, encourage people to examine the basic realities of the relationship between Ireland and England. We need analysis and new thinking.
It has been a problem in the Irish movement for some time that there has been little study of history or political discussion. That has to be overcome.
The deeper the understanding that people have of the basic issues, the less likely they are to be misled. That is the first step that has to be taken before we can start to move forward again.