The commentators analysing the last and final stage of the Irish peace process speak of a process on a knife edee. They neglect to explain that the anly serious challenge is from the for right - from the host caconary ccies outones But this opposition obscures the reactionary nature of the forces who have crafted the deal under the cloak of secret The SDLP the Dublin government, US imperialism and he British ruling class - all these enemies of the Irish working class are presented as their protectors. Sinn Fein, the erst while opponents of imperialist rule, are co-opted as junior partners to delend the pacilication project The right wing opposition also clouds the complete capitulation of Sinn Fein.
the surrender of weapons, is the central aspect of the final agreement.
The slogans on the walls in the nationalist ghettos state Sinn Fein's initial position 3U4ORO This, in the rightward drift of the process, became The agreement involves the handover weapons almost immediately after the execu tive is formed and the total disarming of the IRA within a few months.
Marxists have always Ine mill tarist policy of the RepubliCans was Dance once the agreement to surrender «HaS class. It was the measure that the Republicans themselves chose to demonstrate that they had not capitulated.
heir surrender is now all the more profound. It legit- serious imises emerged. monopoly on arms and indicates that the violence was away the responsibility oppressed. At a practical level it disarms the nationalist working class despite the fact that the history of the North of Ireland is of resistance and reaction punctuated by pogrom.
Opponents ment are accused of clinging to the past. In reality they are The Republican armed camended in a welter of blood-letting loyalism, supported by British ble today simply because of the complete capitulation of task. Republicanism. of class struggle will also see difficulty pogrom and full-scale sectarian terror.
however the decommissioning fades into insignificance when comparca with tae are potcal concessions made by the Kepublican Icadership. They have conceded: nisc, • partition, • the return of Stormont, • the unionist veto The one line that they swore they would • the removal of sections the Party asserting a right to selfUr ecla Sound determination, structures every level in the six county • and the continuation of British rule in Ireland. are assigned a progressive pete with the bourgeois parties to win influence. The Party are t's an indication of the political weakness of republicanism that in the face of such com. nomic issues. opposition has process has who have broken have mostly devoted TOSHOT their energies to rebuilding cading the militarist strategies that failed so comprehensively and made the peace process port. so popular.
The immediate There is a small layer who have organised against the betrayal of their programme have denounced the sell-out, but they operate in a climate atic smear by Sinn Fein sup- tion of his base. demobilisation and demoralisation of the republican base makes toc bullaing of ICSIs tance a slow arduous fidence in Sinn Fein Most of the Irish left had the illusion that republican would be socialist republicanism been Republican surrender. The result has been a marked shift to the right by socialist forces. offer The Socialist Pagly in Ire.
patronage land, who refused to recog- Unionist let alone oppose, imperialism in Ireland, has a socialist party confined to Sinn Fein see toorking within the agreement as the way forward the occupied area of the six now there is some doubt. By Star sac most macay Progressive is, of course, pokespeople for the umph. So now for Marxists the Workers issues become not how the prevent the immediate space vacated by the Socialist umph of imperialism and Party, with a new policy that capitalism, but the tasks for the working class following occupied zone on purely eco- such a triumph.
Sinn Fein, i neir policy on ine peace moved the way forward as being to the bosses' the peace to the invention by them, figure conception of history, the McCann of a "workers' peace deal involves concessions to process" which they do sup. republicanism that open the issue and desectarianising of the whether the right wing resis. northern state leading eventanec wal succcca in aaltog the closure of the deal. Trim- Of course, if the Good Frile was able to take the lead- day agreement contains genership of unionism but was unavailable to do a deal should support them and try because of the vicious reac- build organisation to go beyond The complex series of state- them. There is however ments are meant to orcak ur the elements of surrender -VICW Sinn Fein surrenders and the IRA issue a statement of con- T he US chair TONI Mitchell and General De Chastlain make it clear that ism stands as guarantor of with the idea that the troubles were essentially a commakes it clear that this is the imperialist forces acted as of power and and that the The agreement shares out bourgeoisie must privilege between fall into line. It's a tribute to communities. The cross-borthe volatility and reactionary der clements, that were supposed to be stepping stones to a unico ireland, arc so action sincl longer even the subject debate. As a result: There is no end to the anti-democratic PTA laws are simplified, modernised the legal code. • The RUC is modernised without issuc endemic sectarianism or its even being discussed. The right to assemble and restricted for the population British tri.
while formulae are found to justify sectarian bigots being forced tri• A civil society is constructed which codifies - the main change being that upported b SUITIC reserved for nationalists. Britain remains in Ireagreement. For of the North of Ireland, with following a stagest direct control of the budget and the state forces. now able to hide behind a Stormont assembly. should be impossi. ble to imagine the class in its own interests working-class without also opposing the Good Friday agreement and the state it is establishing mism. The being rushed through two different agreement being told to the communities. understanding the Irish struggle Mandelson openly admits its Krash secretsale as a battle against weakness, and admits further Stormste Essentially Шушу. Console gains while beginning openly admit that it has not produced a solution. Even Sinn Fein's the twO Doherty's attempts sure US supporters chough to cause a storm assures David Trimble that Trimble's supporurs may yer demand even more concessions Sinn Fein will not "doublecross him. lt takes very ht le imagination for even the most loyal republican supPoTicE to work out wid being double-crossed. The local community paper, the which and has led the way in the rush to the right, suggestion for its readers in a recent editorial. think the squads to concentrate on supporting arch bigot Trimble and tightly Not thinking is an N essential condiCOIRICA getting process work and keep it working. In the medium of the ter the cconomics peace process have been as suspect as its politics today are described as a "Gibraltar solution* - British, US and European money is used to buy off any potential oppomassively swollen voluntary sec- and community sector. For multi-national investment has been promised but has not emerged. In the meantime in the forstate where a strategy of multi-national It is investment by savage controls on workers' pay and conditions has led to the "Celtic Tiger" workers today being asked to lace the act that they will not share in the that in fact PULARY the prosperity depends on continued suppression of WORKCESS living standards and conditions and a savage programme of de-reg ulation and privatisation. The resurgence class with happen casily. The union different bureaucracy will fight tooth and nail to continue in their role of police for the bourBut when it does happen, ahead. "not thinking" will not be an The issue for Marxists as always is the consciousness or tue working class - and that can only develop if miliPat stand as irreconcilable opponents of the imperialist setHe tlement.
"Of course, if the Good Friday agreement contains genuine reforms then socialists should support them and try to build working-class organisation to go beyond them. There is however no evidence to support such a view."