Revolutionary politicsby Lynda WalkerIn 1987 the Communist Party of Ireland wrote an open letter to the Provisional IRA, appealing for an immediate ceasefire. Part of the letter said that “from the sum total of our experience, and our knowledge based on Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory, we came to the conclusion that armed struggle which does not have popular support amongst the majority of our oppressed people cannot defeat imperialism and oppression.” This critical analysis (in the form of a letter) developed into a debate with people in the labour movement and republican prisoners in Long Kesh (prison and concentration camp) through the party’s press, Unity and the Irish Socialist. It culminated in the publication of a CPI pamphlet, Armed Struggle: The Communist Party’s Open Letter to the Provisional IRA and the Complete and Unedited Contributions to the Debate that Appeared in the Party’s Press “Irish Socialist” and “Unity.” Why is this relevant today? Because the anniversaries of the Gibraltar Three in March and the anniversary of the deaths of the hunger-strikers, the first of whom was Bobby Sands, on 5 May 1981, sparked off renewed support for the military campaign of the IRA. In particular, the Morning Star carried an article by John Wight (5 May 2008), who described the IRA as “a legitimate national liberation movement,” with little or no analysis of what that means, or what it meant to those on the left who did not support the military actions and who consider themselves part of the national liberation movement. He wrote with obvious admiration for the men (women are not included) who “spent every waking day engaged in armed struggle against the British state.” Was this the same armed struggle that bombed the Abercorn Restaurant and Oxford Street bus station and, as Lance Noakes (communist and former Short’s worker) wrote, was “engaged in bombing and shooting Protestant workers”? (Armed Struggle, page 22.) John Wight says: “The tenacious and committed struggle for national liberation being waged in the six counties against British rule was a key front to this class war” against Thatcher’s Britain. The stark reality is that it did not bring Thatcher’s government down. In Ireland, the class war for communists and others in the trade union, labour and republican movement involved the very difficult struggle for civil rights, working in the trade union movement for the unity of Protestant and Catholic sections of the working class, trying to win the nationalists from the military campaign, and opposition to the violence of loyalist paramilitaries and the British army—a very fine balancing act. Maybe this is seen as reformist in comparison with the “armed struggle”; but there is nothing reformist about working on the ground to win workers for unity, and we were not in a position where the “national liberation” of Ireland was imminent. The CPI supported the demands of the hunger-strikers, but it was made clear to our comrades, Betty Sinclair and others, that the fight for political status and support for the military campaign went hand in hand. The mass support and the election of Bobby Sands to Parliament for Fermanagh and South Tyrone was in itself a lesson for Sinn Féin and the IRA. However, it was by no means a unifying factor. Living in the same estate as Bobby Sands, I can speak with some sincerity when I say that the hunger strike split families, communities, nationalists, republicans, and the left. Gerry Adams wrote in his autobiography (1997, page 290):
Hundreds of messages were sent from all over the world when Bobby died; I even received one from the Soviet Union. Many who did not support the military campaign of the IRA went to the funerals of these young people, being able to differentiate between the brutality of the British government and opposition to the IRA campaign. In the international context, it is easier to show solidarity from afar, but the fight against imperialism is many-sided. Bobby and his comrades paid the ultimate price, and even now there are those who think that Sinn Féin has sold them down the river with their involvement with the Northern Ireland Assembly. However, we would do well to remember Bobby’s words (quoted by Gerry Adams, page 287):
■ Lynda Walker teaches in a college of further education in Belfast. She is a civil rights, women’s rights and trade union activist and national chairperson of the Communist Party of Ireland. |
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