Fourthwrite ..........................Issue No. 12

Big Show down again

With the institutions at Stormont having collapsed once again, we asked a number of republicans and socialists to comment on the current situation. 

Fourthwrite editor Tommy McKearney contributes the first piece below.

The much-vaunted 'institutions' at Stormont have been suspended once again. For the fourth time since opening the Assembly, the British Government has removed all authority from the hands of locally elected representatives and opted for direct rule from London. Politicians and media have talked about the absence of mutual trust among the parties and the need to bring about the conditions necessary to have the Executive restored. Few, however, have questioned the value of an administration that can be so easily set-up and taken down. What kind of a parliament is it that has so little autonomy, so little authority and so few powers of self-preservation?

The fact is that the Stormont Assembly has no real, organic power. It is a theatre more that a seat of government. It is a stage on which local dramas are played out more harmlessly than was the case in the past. After all, within a few days of local ministers evacuating their offices, Tony Blair sent two junior members of the House of Commons ‘to look after the shop’ and the administrative affairs of Northern Ireland continued much as before.

In reality, Britain still sets the agenda in the North. London has decided the amount and form of local government that we shall have and is now working to mould the type of society that will operate the system bestowed upon us. In spite of all the talk about having the people of the North decide their own future, Britain decided long ago what it wanted for the North and is determined to bring it about.

To get its way in the short to medium term, Britain will require a much more emasculated Sinn Fein party, shorn of its armed wing and prepared to grant the 6-County state its ultimate mark of recognition by agreeing to endorse HMG’s policing of the area by nominating Sinn Fein members to sit on the policing authority.

To get the ‘mix’ right Britain will also demand a somewhat more enlightened brand of unionism and will also undoubtedly insist on some sacrificing of the cruder elements of Special Branch and its protégés in the UDA. (Thus perhaps can be explained the recent running series of bad luck that has of late befallen Sinn Fein and its old nemesis, Special Branch,)

For a party that was cruising in Summer, the reverses of Autumn has left Sinn Fein struggling to regain its composure and more to the point - has left it willing to contemplate the type of fundamental adjustments that will render it relatively innocuous. By a strange and remarkable coincidence, the remnant of RUC Special Branch is also shipping water below the water line. Expose follows expose and few now doubt that its days are numbered (in its old style anyhow). The simultaneous and publicly reviewed misfortunes of Sinn Fein and the Special Branch are nevertheless a remarkable piece of good fortune for the British Government.

Gerry Adams has recently stated that he can envisage a future for his party without the IRA . In truth, the party that Mr. Adams fashioned has no future with the IRA and recent events have underlined this fact. Sinn Fein cannot regain its Stormont positions until the Provisional IRA disbands or changes format. Simultaneously, the party is hampered in the South by its association with the ‘Army’. Something must give way and it won’t be the parliamentary party. Sooner or later the armed-men will be told that they are standing in the way of progress and the Sinn Fein leadership will cynically divests itself of the encumbrance that the Provisionals have become.

Meanwhile, British television companies and newspapers with their ongoing revelations about the Omagh bombing and loyalist death squads, will be forcing the PSNI to rid itself of the embarrassment that the old Special Branch now is to a force now playing Gaelic football in Dublin and that is also attempting to entice the Sinn Fein party into giving public credibility to its status as the one and only agent of law enforcement in the region. Just as with the Provos, the Special Branch obstacle will be removed by the men in grey suits.

Almost as if by magic, the bones of a new deal will then emerge. Separated from the Provos, Sinn Fein will be accepted back into the Executive and in a show of gratitude if not actual relief will nominate a few people to sit on a Police Authority that has finally disbanded the ‘Branch.

With such a well behaved and by then properly ‘house trained’ Sinn Fein party back in Stormont, the UUP will be able to put on its accommodating face once more. The public will be assured that middle unionism is the moderate party of the McGimpsey boys and Reg Empy rather than the nasty thing that Jeffery Donaldson belongs to.

The institutions may well return but there are more important needs that will not be found in a London governed Northern Ireland. The Harland and Wolff shipyard was closed at about the same time as the Assembly and it will not reopen. The reason is that Britain is happy to allow the locals ruminate over irrelevancies but will not grant it the real power necessary to create the very different type of economy that would ensure full employment for example. Full employment, a different health or education service or any influence over foreign policy are matters that the natives cannot and will not be trusted with. Conceding this type of influence to a devolved assembly might very well endanger the free-market, imperialist basis on which the UK rests. It would, in the eyes of the British ruling class, set a dangerous example to the other regions. Moreover, it could also give people in the South of Ireland ideas about a better life and from the business point of view this might possibly endanger the profitable stability of the whole island.

For those who value the free-market, pro-imperialist nature of contemporary British (and Irish) society, restoration of the ‘institutions’ is to be welcomed. For those of us who prize the notion of a better and more just society, the struggle to organise for a better alternative must continue for a period yet.

Another failed British initative... Tony McPhillips

The collapse of the Stormont institutions for the forth time, must be for republicans, just as welcome as was its first collapse in 1972. Yet another failed British initiative in their never-ending efforts to maintain their colonial rule in this part of Ireland. It is also now important for republicans to reflect on what we viewed at Stormont from a socio-economic perspective. It is somewhat amusing to see those who told us that "Stormont politics work", with egg now on their face but we have also got an insight into how non-socialist some of the participants really were when given, albeit, minimal-power.

Step forward the "socialist republicans" of the Provisionals and take a bow the social democrats of the SDLP. It is these two enthusiastic poodles who have most to answer for in terms of their so called socialist credentials, when one views their policy decisions whilst sitting at their imaginary "cabinet table". There are two major areas, where both parties have been found completely at odds with any form of socialist ideals.

We have, where I live, a serious crisis in the health services. Dungannon hospital is all but closed and the Erne and the Tyrone County are in limbo, unable to plan into the future because those who accepted the mantle of "power" from their masters have been unable or unwilling to take the decisions necessary to ensure the delivery of a proper health care service for the public. One may ask why? Simply put, they allowed political expediency to influence decisions, rather than look to the overall welfare of the public. Is this evidence of socialism? Certainly not.

I should also mention here the deplorable position of the people of my neighbouring county of Monaghan who are also watching the loss of their hospital services. The loss of Monaghan hospital is as relevant to the people of my home area as would be the potential loss of the Erne in Enniskillen. It is very interesting to note that the Provo public representatives in County Monaghan have very commendably led a strong and vociferous campaign to get the Free state Minister of Health Micheal Martin to intervene and bring to an end the disgraceful attempts to downgrade Monaghan Hospital.

The same can not be said of the Provo representatives in Fermanagh or Tyrone where the strong and vociferous campaign (which they failed to lead) would have being to the embarrassment of the Stormont Minister for Health, Miss Bairbre de Brun! I wonder what party she belongs to? Political expediency do I hear you say!

There are many other issues on which the "socialist" participants in the Stormont regime have been found sadly bereft of basic socialist principles. I will touch on just one more issue. This is the issue of PFI. I hear you say what is this, it doesn't interest me, and that is exactly the attitude the proponents of it would like the public to have. The use of PFI for any public services by way of capital or revenue costs is an absolutely unacceptable manner of delivery. The involvement of the private sector in the delivery of schools or hospitals in particular, is in the long term financial interests of this sector and to the detriment of us the public. After all; He who pays the piper calls the tune. Should we the public wish to access the financial details on existing PFI's in order to fully appraise these nice little earners for big business, we cannot. The regime that was at Stormont (just like its master at Westminster) refused to release any details. Big business finds its friends in many strange places, and the socialist conscience (if there are any) within the Provos or SDLP lies dormant appearing very comfortable with this state of affairs. It seems to be a case of, To hell with any thought of a 32 county socialist republic and on with our Blairite vision of devolved administrations in the regions. Not my thoughts but possibly the thoughts of those that once claimed socialist credentials.

Oh well, time for faithful republicans to get back to the job in hand, ending British colonial rule once and for all,and at the same time turfing out those who fooled many of the people with their false protestations of both republican and socialist credentials.

When dreams and reality collide...by Joe Craig

Opponents of the Good Friday Agreement are often criticised for having ‘no alternative.’ When coming from Sinn Fein supporters this means no alternative to the strategy of Gerry Adams and co. This charge makes one big assumption – that Gerry and friends have a strategy. The fourth suspension of the Executive makes it clear that they don’t.

Of course they will claim that they have a peace process strategy which has been pursued for a number of years. But who seriously believes this strategy involves insertion of a unionist veto in the 26 county constitution, the resurrection of a sectarian Stormont regime, a repackaged RUC and an IRA that must destroy its weapons and is called upon to disband altogether? Not to mention a Sinn Fein minister of Education who is powerless to prevent Catholic children going to school without the most viscous and violent intimidation. If some Republicans want to claim all this as results of their strategy let them do so. If its not part of their strategy then we can only conclude that the best thing we can say about it is that it has failed to prevent all this happening.

The fourth suspension makes it clear who is in charge – the British. When Sinn Fein say they are committed to their strategy, they mean they have no alternative to the British offensive. They have no plan B and plan A was in shreds long ago.

However despite the British being in charge, despite Sinn Fein unwillingness and inability to break from the process, despite the support of the SDLP and unionists – even the DUP made sure they were on the inside, the thing isn’t working. Everyone supports the GFA but still it doesn’t work. This tells us something. It tells us that the analysis of those like ourselves who have said that the northern state is irreformable is confirmed. No matter what the nice ideas and good intentions of the main political actors, the reality of the sectarian state is stronger than all their claims.

The GFA didn’t really offer to get rid of sectarianism, just give equality of sectarian privilege. This is the real meaning of ‘equality of the two traditions.’ What unionist threats and the British response makes abundantly clear is that this is not on offer. Equality of sectarian privilege does not make sense. In a sectarian game, any game, someone has to win and someone has to lose.

No one really believes the unionists feel intimidated by the IRA collecting documents. The majority of unionists don’t want power-sharing any more and a recent opinion poll records 57% don’t even want it with the SDLP. The demand for IRA disbandment, even if met, will not be the last. It will not bring stability to the GFA process no more than IRA decommissioning did.

So let’s sum up what we have learn. We aren’t called upon to offer an alternative to Sinn Fein’s strategy but an alternative to British strategy. What people think about the GFA, its overwhelming support among nationalists, is less important than the reality of what the GFA is. When people’s ideas and reality collide reality proves much stronger. The instability of the GFA will continue and people will more and more have to face the fact that the reality of the GFA is the opposite of its promise.

They will then either sink into complete demoralisation or start to resist – just as the parents at Holy Cross decided to oppose loyalist bigotry and take steps to campaign against it and the British who facilitated it. Our task is to state our alternative, in education and propaganda, in order to build the organisation that will assist those who decide to resist. Education and propaganda require ideas. For Socialist Democracy these ideas are those of anti-sectarianism, mass struggle and working class politics. That is our alternative.

Donegal socialist Cathal McGovern asks where now for Republicans?

The collapse of Stormont is neither here nor there for Republicans. Participation by republicans in a talking shop of little practical relevance or real power must be questioned. The regime at Stormont had neither control over the issuance of note or coin nor any remit to control security, the two central functions of any government. Even if successful, the entire apparatus did not amount to real or substantial self-autonomy of consequence.

In many respects the participation of Sinn Fein in some form of Anglo-Irish initiative was inevitable. For years now Irish republicans have offered a muddled political analysis and this has plagued the advance of Irish republicans for decades, and does so north and/or south.

We have to ask the exact purpose of Irish republicanism. Is it just an ideology, which seeks to govern the country within the confines of a unitary state? And if so, does it then set out to replace partitionist institutions only to eventually participate in the very institutions it sought to replace? Unfortunately, this has proven to be our collective republican history since the Civil War.

How therefore, could any Stormont arrangement lead to Irish unity when a majority of Leinster House members would oppose such a development? In many respects the matter is a question of economics. For Irish unity to work, the present Irish economy would have to be restructured. No ‘Free State' government has ever proven itself up to the task of such a reorganisation. However, are republicans capable of governing any more effectively? Clearly we are not. Republicans spend too much time questioning methods of struggle but precious little examining its practical purpose.

The way forward need not divide republicans. Let those who wish to participate in partitionist institutions do so - it might serve to educate and provide a means to expose these institutions as corrupt and self-serving. Let those opposed to participation develop ideas on the subject of unitary government in league with those who opt to participate in what exists by way of government at present

What the British and those people in Leinster House opt to do should be regarded for what always has been and will remain, namely developments of no real or substantial consequence. Worthy of comment granted, but by no means detailed examination to the point where we neglect our own interests.

If the Anglo-Irish establishment seeks to re-establish Stormont, or a joint-authority, along lines which have been tried unsuccessfully since 1972, republicans must not delude themselves or be foolish enough to view such developments as making progress toward a united socialist Ireland.

The establishment is comfortable and will remain comfortable with partition, governed through the medium of a sectarian-infested devolved government at Stormont. Yet, these are not our problems. We have work of our own to do so we must relegate the past to where it belongs and continue to work in favour of a collective cross-party effort and bestow our analysis with a practical relevance.

Maybe just maybe

We asked Gerry Ruddy of the IRSP to comment on the collapse of the institutions. Unfortunately, he was over committed and offered to do an article for another issue. He did however send us a brief but valuable letter which we feel merits serious reflection

Comrades,

I remember taking part in a march on the Falls Road in 1966 celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Easter Rising. It was a time of hope, of expectation, of optimism. Socialism was on the agenda and republicans had taken a left turn. 36 years later I wonder what happened to all those dreams and to all those people?

Today the world has changed drastically from that distant time and place. Maybe all of us have since become disillusioned? Disillusioned with republicanism and disillusioned with socialism. Maybe, maybe not. To be disillusioned is to cast off illusions.

And there is no doubt that the Left of whatever variety, needs to shed its illusions and take into account the reality of the actual existing conditions people live under today. I sense a mood of thoughtfulness today within the broad republican /socialist left that was previously absent.

Maybe just maybe the time is ripe for a coming together in a republican or socialist or labour forum to analysis the mistakes of the past and begin to be relevant to the hopes and aspirations of the working classes in Ireland. It’s good to talk.