Left unity - Irish unity

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC PAGE 9

LEFT UNITY / IRISH UNITY

MAKING THE CONNECTION

One feature of the 1989 General Election in the South was increased electoral support for the Labour Party and for the Workers Party, which campaigned on a program of ‘Left Unity’. The National Question did not feature prominently in the election, but since then it has begun to surface as one of the major problems for the Fianna Fail/Propressive Democrat Coalition.

Sections of the Labour Party see a more radical position on the National Question as an issue which would help transform their old image as partners in a Blueshirt Coalition. Last May Emmet Stagg took a small but welcome step in this direction by supporting the British ‘Time to Go’ movement. This led to an hysterical attack from the Workers Party - accusing Stagg of ‘supporting Fascism’ - hardly a hopeful sign for their concept of left unity! In fact there are all sorts of overlapping debates taking place in the Labour and the anti-imperialist movements on Irish unity, Left unity and the idea of a ‘broad front’. In the discussion article below JOHN MEEHAN examines the opportunities offered by these debates. An Reabhioid welcomes contributions and responses on this issue.

The parliamentary left in the 26 counties has an appalling record on the National Question. In the name of “working class unity’ it denounces militant Republicanism, and has given practical as well as ideological support to the British policy of maintaining the partition of Ireland. In 1970 Conor Cruise O’Brien was able to exploit general anti-republican senument in the Labour party to facilitate coalition with the most pro-British of the bourgeois parties, Fine Gael. The result was continuous electoral and organisational decline for Labour. The decision in 1987 to abandon coalition halted the slide, and now there Is a revival beginning. The more far-sighted strategists among the Labour left know that revival won't develop very much unless a break is made with 20 years of being Fine Gael’s fifth wheel. The major sections of the working class support Fianna Fail, and the fundamental reason is the nationalist image of DeValera’s party.

Most people of the left have failed repeatedly to grasp this fact. Emmet Stagg is not one of them. He is right to say that unless the Labour Movement begins to set an agenda for Insh Unity; “the political leadership of Irish working men and women will remain with conservatives who are hostile to the broader goals of the Labour movement” Stagg goes on from this point to indicate a programme linking Irish Unity to broader social and economic questions. While I agree with the concept, the content is both bitter and sweet. Questions also arise on who participates in the debate, the shape of a movement adopting such a programme (does Emmet Stagg see it going beyond the Labour party’), and how (or whether) the Labour movement could endorse such a programme in all 32 counties. Finally it has to be established on what basis a programme uniting all strands of a socialist and republican left could be agreed, leaving to one side issues where disagreements continue. If a debate involving the labour left can proceed with that objective in mind, it could be a big help to the working class and the Irish left.

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Already a debate exists in both the anti-imperialisi movement and on the left about building alliances: one is on ‘Left Unity’, the other concerns a “Broad Front’.

They cross over common ground, and should be seen as sides of the same coin. During the 26-county general election there was a general ‘left unity’ vote that covered Labour, the Workers’ Party, the Greens and others such as Tony Gregory. Irish unity was not part of that agenda, but it has to be if the left is to make any headway. Butif itdevelops the Worker's party and Jim Kemmy’s Democratic Socialist party (DSP) immediately drop out of the ‘left unity’ equation. That would be their own choice, but personally I believe thata fairly significant part of the WP/DSP electorate would desert them in such a situation. In Limerick it is known that many people in working class areas gave their number 1's to Kemmy in the General election and Fr. Paddy Ryan in the EEC election.

At present there is some ambiguity among sections of the anti-imperialist movement on whether “Broad Front” includes ‘Left unity’ or whether it means only ‘National (Irish) unity. This ambiguity should be eliminated. That can be done by identifying the minimum necessary basis fora united structure. The first is clearly Irish Unity and British Withdrawal.

Emmet Stagg advocates a version of this which, in my opinion, is ultimately flawed. However there is no reason why that debate should not continue within a united structure, He contrasts a ‘simplistic’ Troops Out position with a positive endorsement of the British “Time to Go’ campaign. He then clouds the issue of British withdrawal by drawing a line between a British ‘declaration of interest in Irish unity’ and a subsequent “final stage’ where there isan ‘intention to withdraw’. The stated purpose of this laborious process is the gaining of ‘consent’ from Unionists. You might as well go chasing pots of gold at the end of a rainbow! While the strategy proposed would certainly signal to Unionists the imminent prospect of an end to partition, itis hard to see how it might win their consent. There is no guaranteg that it would. Say, five years after the “declaration of interest’ there was still no sign of consent what would be done? [f there was a move on to a ‘declaration of intent’ the consent principle would be abandoned anyway. If the policy stayed at the ‘declaration of interest’ stage we would still be at square one: partition would stay in place.

Consent of Unionists to Insh unity is certainly desirable, but it is not a ‘democratic principle’ as Emmet Stage declares. It is a guarantee to maintain partition until they change their minds. If you say partition is undemocratic, as I do, then the notion of consent is also undemocratic. Advocating both British withdrawal and consent is in fact ultimately contradictory.

All of this is certainly insufficient to offer as an.alternative to the IRA’s armed campaign. This would be true even in a Stagg scenario where British troops were withdrawn to barracks, prisoners released and ‘special’ legislation abolished. It is utterly absurd to appeal to Sinn Fein to ‘repudiate the armed struggle’ in advance of any of this. People outside Sinn Fein (including Peoples Democracy) have every right to draw attention to a flawed militarist strategy. However it is both pointless (and politically sectarian) to say that ‘ a national coalition for Irish unity’ is only possibleif Sinn Fein repudiates the armed struggle. Sinn Fein, to its credit, dropped its insistence that other political groups had to support the armed struggle before uniting in action was dropped when the H-Block/Armagh campaign was formed in 1979. Why not agree to disagree on this issue and simply keep support for British Withdrawal as a plank for a united movement/ left unity coalition? This is how the FADA August march in Dublin was built, and it got a tremendous response.

More positive is his proposal to link secular reform in the 26 counties to a programme of Irish unity. This analysis is an effective and damning critique of Fianna Fail and accurately links Unionist and 26 county sectarianism together. The central element here is Separation of Church and State. Here again there would be large elements of such a programme where there would be agreement (for example on divorce and contraception) and some where there would be differences (on a women’s right to choose abortion for example). It would have to involve opposition to the SPUC antichoice amendment in the 26 county constitution and defence of the right to information on abortion.

There is no room for a strategic alliance with people who do not support a secularisation of Ireland, even if some of them might be opposed to extradition or section 31. Stagg is right to pitch debate in the context of a failure of what he calls ‘conservative nationalism’. This is a superior approach to some elements in and around Sinn Fein who tall of ‘progressive elements’ in Fianna Fail,

and make amazing claims about people like Jackie Fahey, the FF TD from Waterford who resigned from the parliamentary party after the coalition with the Progressive Democrats was formed. Fahey failed totally to oppose the passage of extradition legislation through the Dail, yet is described as “anti-extradition’ in An Phoblacht/Republican News. This humiliating and pointless gazing into the entrails of Fianna Fail must stop. We are about building a political atemative, an opposition to Fianna Fail.

A crucial element to this is opposition to FF’s austerity policy, a strategy they share with Fine Gael and the fastsinking Progressive Democrats. A reason for the gencral risé in a protest/left votein the June election was an increasing perception that there were no fundamental differences between the three big mling class parties. This was bolstered by declarations from Labour and the WP that they would not go into coalition with these parties. It follows, though Emmet Stagg has not said so publicly, that this also must be part of a Left Unity/Irish Unity coalition. Stagg has held this position within the Irish Labour party, in amusing contrast to the position of the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI), as outlined by Eoin O Murchu at aFADA meeting in August. He criticised the tactics of the Socialist Republic Page 11 FADA's August ‘Troops Out" Demo in Dublin showed the potential for a broad unity parliamentary left, which supposedly ‘drove’ FF into the hands ot the ultra-right progressive democrats!

Alongside opposition to austerity, the left has to place itself inside the debate raised by Raymond Crotty on the crippling effects of the debt burden carried by the 26-county state. Once it is accepted, an austerity policy is inevitably the result no matter who is in Government. What also follows is areactionary hunt among the poorest sections of the community forextra revenue; a good example is the row over the rod licence. This was so heated in Galway that Labour leftest Michael D Higgins, who supported the campaign against this tax, nearly doubled his vote. The same applies to the water tax, the health cuts and the crisis in Woluntary Health Insurance (VHI), the witchunt against social welfare recipients working in the ‘black economy’, and so on.

In conclusion it must be said that the debate now opening up on Irish Unity and Left unity is a very healthy phenomenon. It is vital for anti-imperialists because it implies building a real mass force in the 26 Counties, where we are still very weak. The debate cannot stay open-ended indefinitely. The various coalitions and fronts are starting to take shape. It is time for everyone to put real proposals on the table.

We must make the connection - Irish unity - Left unity - British Withdrawal.

JOHN MEEHAN.