Editorial

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC PAGE 2

EDITORIAL

After 20 years the Prague Spring has begun again. The Berlin Wall has fallen, and with it the Stalinist belief that Socialism could be built in a prison camp. In its place we see a pluralism of ideas and of debate which was seen by the founders of the marxist movement as essential for the building of socialism and an unleashing of creative and human energies of immense significance, Irish revolutionaries often see their situation in isolation. The Irish struggle seems unique, and the connection wich struggles around the world unclear. nothing could be further from the truth. Twenty years ago the attempts to build a democratic socialism in Czechoslovakia during the ‘Prague Spring” was one of the major influences in the radicalisation of youth and the building of a mass resistance in the North. Today again history is on the march and revolutionary militants must run to catch up. In order to do this many militants must fight their own fears and misconceptions. The crimes of Stalinism have made communism a dirty word in many East European countnes. Among the opposition movements there are those who have called openly for the restoration of capitalism. We must say firmly that socialism cannot be established by force. Any decision taken democratically by the peoples of Eastern Europe should be respected. In any case these calls are based on illusion. It is quite clear that capitalism has no answer to the problems of the working class in these countries. In fact it is the interest on foreign loans which is driving countries like Poland to bankruptcy. The open dismay of George Bush and Margaret Thatcher shows that they realise that the real issue is the creation of democratic forms of worker’s power and that they fear the influence that this will have on the working class in the West.

One immediate consequence of the upheavals will be the explosion of the national question to the centre stage of European politics. We must ensure that the Irish question becomes part of that debate, and we must do so not simply by propaganda and diplomacy, but by direct contact with the new national liberation movements. To do this successfully we will need areal internationalist framework. We must have an alternative to bureaucTatic control and imperialist rule - a free and nonexploitative relationship between nations. Peoples Democracy would put forward its own concept “For A United Socialist States of Europe” in such a discussion.

That means that we must throw out another piece of Stalinist baggage - the ‘Stages’ theory that has been used to put socialism on the long finger and has influenced various sections of the Irish resistance. Its lastcry can be seen in futile attempts by the Republican leadership to find any section of Irish capitalism that will support a call for national liberation. We need to put socialism on the agenda now. There is no task more urgent than the creation of a revolutionary current within the Irish workers movement.

The really telling fact about the events of the past weeks is that 72% of East Germans oppose reunification with West Germany, while in Prague Alexander Dubchek has come to the fore as a hero of the resistance. In context these represent a mass support for socialism and worker's power. They show that workers in East Europe are rediscovering central elements of the marxist tradition buried with Stalin’s slaughter of the left opposition in Russia. As the Irish section of the Fourth International, Peoples Democracy is proud to stand in direct physical continuity with that tradition of revolution.