Through Irish eyes
Can unionist right block the final peace deal?
John North
From Socialist Democracy, Irish Section of the Fourth International
The commentators analysing the last and final stage of the Irish peace process speak of a process on a knife edge. They neglect to explain that the only serious challenge is from the far right – from the most reactionary elements of unionism.
But this opposition obscures the reactionary nature of the forces who have crafted the deal under the cloak of secret diplomacy.
The SDLP, the Dublin government, US imperialism and the 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 defend the pacification project.
The right wing opposition also clouds the complete capitulation of Sinn Fein. The one line that they swore they would never cross – the surrender of weapons, is the central aspect of the final agreement. he nationalist ghettos state Sinn Fein’s initial position. "Not a bomb – not a bullet". This, in the rightward drift of the process, became No first decommissioning. The agreement involves the handover of weapons almost immediately after the executive is formed and the total disarming of the IRA within a few months.
Marxists have always understood that the militarist policy of the Republicans was bankrupt. However the agreement to surrender weapons represents a massive setback for the working class. It was the measure that the Republicans themselves chose to demonstrate that they had not capitulated.
Their surrender is now all the more profound. It legitimises the imperialist monopoly on arms and indicates that the violence was the responsibility of the 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 of the agreement are accused of clinging to the past. In reality they are more conscious of the future. The Republican armed campaign ended in a welter of blood-letting by loyalism, supported by the British forces. Pogrom is implausible today simply because of the complete capitulation of Republicanism. The return of class struggle will also see the return of the threat of pogrom and full-scale sectarian terror.
However the issue of decommissioning fades into insignificance when compared with the direct political concessions made by the Republican leadership. They have conceded:
partition,
the return of Stormont,
the unionist veto
the removal of sections of the Irish constitution asserting a right to self-determination,
sectarian structures at every level in the six county area
and the continuation of British rule in Ireland.
British and US imperialism are assigned a progressive role and Republicans compete with the bourgeois parties to win influence.
It’s an indication of the political weakness of republicanism that in the face of such comprehensive betrayal no serious opposition has emerged.
Those who have broken away have mostly devoted their energies to rebuilding the militarist strategies that failed so comprehensively – and made the peace process so popular.
There is a small layer who have organised against the betrayal of their programme and individual militants who have denounced the sell-out, but they operate in a climate of implied threat and systematic smear by Sinn Fein supporters. In any case the demobilisation and demoralisation of the republican base makes the building of resistance a slow and arduous task.
Most of the Irish left had the illusion that republican difficulty would be socialist opportunity. But the retreat of republicanism has been linked to the decline of mass resistance. The result has been a marked shift to the right by socialist forces.
The Socialist Party in Ireland, who refused to recognise, let alone oppose, imperialism in Ireland, has relaunched a project to build a socialist party confined to the occupied area of the six counties and to include in it the Progressive Unionist Party – spokespeople for the UVF death squads.
The Socialist Workers Party are moving into the space vacated by the Socialist Party, with a new policy that socialism can be built in the occupied zone on purely economic issues.
Their policy on the peace process has moved from opposition to the bosses’ peace to the invention by leading figure Eamon McCann of a "workers’ peace process" which they do support.
The immediate issue is whether the right wing resistance will succeed in halting the closure of the deal. Trimble was able to take the leadership of unionism but was unavailable to do a deal because of the vicious reaction of his base.
The complex series of statements are meant to break up the elements of surrender – Sinn Fein surrenders and the IRA issue a statement of confidence in Sinn Fein – while statements from US chair Mitchell and General De Chastlain make it clear that the entire edifice of imperialism stands as guarantor of Republican surrender.
Meanwhile the British state makes it clear that this is the final offer of power and patronage and that the Unionist bourgeoisie must fall into line. It’s a tribute to the volatility and reactionary nature of unionism that even now there is some doubt. By far the most likely outcome is, of course, British triumph.
So now for Marxists the issues become not how to prevent the immediate triumph of imperialism and capitalism, but the tasks for the working class following such a triumph.
Sinn Fein, supported by the majority of the left, see the way forward as being within the agreement. For them, following a stagest conception of history, the deal involves concessions to republicanism that open the way towards democratisation and desectarianising of the northern state leading eventually to a united Ireland.
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.
The agreement negates the understanding of the Irish struggle as a battle against imperialism and replaces it with the idea that the troubles were essentially a communal conflict where the imperialist forces acted as referee.
The agreement shares out privilege between the two communities. The cross-border elements, that were supposed to be stepping stones to a united Ireland, are so derisory that they are no longer even the subject of debate.
As a result:
There is no end to repression – the anti-democratic PTA laws are simplified, modernised and become permanent parts of the legal code.
The RUC is modernised without the issue of its endemic sectarianism or its links to the death squads even being discussed.
The right to assemble and march is tightly restricted for the population as a whole, while complex formulae are found to justify sectarian bigots being forced through nationalist areas.
A civil society is constructed which codifies sectarian privilege at every level – the main change being that some sectarian privilege is reserved for nationalists.
Britain remains in Ireland and in complete control of the North of Ireland, with direct control of the budget and the state forces. It is now able to hide behind a Stormont assembly.
For socialists it should be impossible to imagine the self-organisation of the working class in its own interests without also opposing the Good Friday agreement and the state it is establishing.
There are grounds for optimism. The agreement is being rushed through with two different sets of lies being told to the different communities.
British secretary of state Mandelson openly admits its weakness, and admits that further storms lie ahead. Essentially imperialism is trying to consolidate its gains while beginning to openly admit that it has not produced a solution.
Even Sinn Fein’s Pat Doherty’s attempts to reassure US supporters are enough to cause a storm. He assures David Trimble that Sinn Fein will not "double-cross" him. It takes very little imagination for even the most loyal republican supporter to work out who is being double-crossed. The local community paper, the Andersonstown News, which has led the way in the rush to the right, has an amusing suggestion for its readers in a recent editorial.
It urges its readers not to think about the consequences for republicans but to concentrate on supporting the arch bigot Trimble and the Good Friday agreement!
Not thinking is an essential condition for getting the process to work and keep it working. In the medium term the economics of the peace process have been as suspect as its politics.
The economics today are described as a "Gibraltar solution" – British, US and European money is used to buy off any potential opponents and employ them in a massively swollen voluntary and community sector. For years a peace dividend of multi-national investment has been promised but has not emerged.
In the meantime in the formally independent southern state where a strategy of attracting multi-national investment by savage controls on workers’ pay and conditions has led to the "Celtic Tiger" economy, workers are today being asked to face the fact that they will not share in the new prosperity – that in fact the prosperity depends on continued suppression of working-class living standards and conditions and a savage programme of de-regulation and privatisation.
The resurgence of class struggle in the south will not happen easily. The union bureaucracy will fight tooth and nail to continue in their role of police for the bourgeoisie.
But when it does happen, "not thinking" will not be an option for Northern workers.
The issue for Marxists as always is the consciousness of the working class – and that can only develop if militants now are prepared to stand as irreconcilable opponents of the imperialist settlement.