Socialist Republic: no. 6, August 1976

SOCIALIST

REPUBLIC

PAPER OF THE MOVEMENT FOR A SOCIALIST REPUBLIC August 1976 No.6 0p.

Unemployment & Repression

COMMUNISM

AND THE USSR.

The recent Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the 25th, was given widespread coverage in the western news media, Their attention was naturally focussed on the speech of Enrico Berlinguer, the Italin Communist Party leader who, when speaking at the 25th Congress, asserted the “inalienable right of equality... and autonomy of each party”.

Berlinguer was however not alone in his stance. The leader of the French C.P, George Marchais accused the Soviet leadership of “unjust and unjustifiable” acts of repression against Soviet citizens. The growing autonomy of the Italian and French Communist Parties, the two largest in the capitalist world, and the increasing distance being placed between many C.P.s and the Soviet leadership overshadowed the crisis of internal perspectives that was a marked feature of the 25th Congress, Economic Stagnation Indeed the 25th Congress marks a new stage in the crisis of Stalinism, both in the Soviet Union and On sn international scale. In the Soviet Union the economy experiences one crisis after another.

The ninth five year plan which ended in 1975 was @ partial failure, For the first time it planned to give Sector B (consumer goods) priority over Sector A (capital goods). While the Sector A target was reached, 46% increase, the target for Sector 6 49% increase, was not reached, instead the result was 12% short ie. 37%, In the agriculture sector the result fell short by 9% and asa result the objective for agriculture in the tenth five year plan (1976—1980) has been tailored to go litthe beyond the objective of the plan before it, The extreme centralisation that the Soviet bureaucracy has imposed on the economy inhibits the growth of the consumer goods sector, For Sector B to grow implies a loosening of the bureaucratic control over production, However the Minimum decentralisation of decision-making can produce forces at a local level which form a challenge to the bur@aueracy, On the other hand the growth of the consumer goods sector is important to the livelihood of the working class, The latest five year plan has reverted to the old formula of subordinating consumer to capital goods production. At the level of wages the new Hlan has even lower targets set than the ninth five yaar plan, The permanent crisis of Soviet agriculture will greatly affect the food industry and consequently the living standards of the working class e.g. meat production will remain it its 1975 level all the wey through to 1980, ‘hat is, about 15 million tons, In other words the tual stagnation of both the economy and nore $0, the living standards of the working class vill be the main content of the new five year Van announced by the 25th Party Congress.

nternational Stalinism in Crisis Jn an international level the Perspective is even Heaker for Stalinism, With the risa of tha uropean working class and the growth of the atonal communist parties, the pressure on these ge reformist parties leads to a growing strangement trom Moscow, After the cold war nese parties sat themselves the task of breaking ‘weir igalation by seeking alliances with social democracy and tha trade-union bureaucracy, For the past twenty years the C.P.s in Europe hae followed this course, This period has hada profound affect on the composition of the Party memberships. Now many are in a position of taking part in coalition governments, This new situation is putting grave strains on their relationship with the USSR. If they are to be acceptable to the European bourgecisia they must show that their allegiances lie with their nation states and not with a foreign power i.e.

the Soviet Union, Also in terms of winning broad electoral support the present state of affairs with regard to democracy and civil liberties in the Soviet Union is vary damaging: On this issue they also fear losing many of their working class militants to the growing anti-Stalinist jeft in Europe, Thus those parties with a real mass base, the French, Italian and Spanish Communist Parties have become more and more outspoken in their criticism of tha Soviet Union, Even the British C.P., which wile insignificant electorally, has a strong position in the combative sections of the Trade Union movement, has found that it is being squeezed between left-social democracy on the one hand and the predominantly Trotskyist left on the other, Thus it has recently attempted to distance itself from the more obnoxious aspects of the Soviet regime, Articles have appeared in the “Morning Star” anda motion was passed at thelr last Congress criticising political repression in tha USSA. In the January issue of Marxism Today", the party's theoretical organ, John Gollan, general secretary of the party for 19 years, not only criticised the lack of democracy in the USSR but siso attacked the whole basis by which the Soviet Party runs the country, Gollan upbraided the Soviet leadership for infrequent Congresses, and pointed out that decisions taken by the Soviet leadership were accompanied by “little or no public explanation” let alone discussion, The Communist Party of Ireland does not hava the strength to chance any such daring criticisms but tensions exist here too as was shown by the “Irish Marxist Society” split (the significance of this was analysed in the last issue of Socialist Republic). Old Men in Moscow What was significant about the 25th Congress was it's total inability to deal with either the internal or external problems of the Stalinist leadership.

The Soviet Party leadership now rivals the Catholic Church as an ageing gerontocracy. The average age of the Politoboro is now 66 years, but the average age of the “inner” group is 71, with the old stalwarts Pelsh and Susiov, 78 and 75 years old respectively, The ageing of the Soviet leadership is not only sumbolic of the ossification of the party hierarchy but also of the obvious predicamants raised by succession prob lems.

Such |s the fear of the repercussions of even Personnel mobility that such changes pose themselves as minor crises in themselves, especially ete time of the build-up of social and national tensions within the Soviet Union, Such is the dissension in the world Stalinist movement that Soviet leadership has almost given up its attempts to convene a conference of national communist parties, It now fears the advent of left governments with C.P. participation, unstable by their very nature, subject to-all kinds of pressure and liable to be outflanked on the left, The Soviet leadership prefers to maintain the Present status quo in Europe without any critical convulsions just as it did in the 1930s, This will in the future be a very severe source of conflict as Santiago Carrillo leader of the Spanish C.P. put it: “We must not nourish excessive illusions, either about the United States, .. or about the way in which the USSR will react to the formation of a bloc of socialist countries — or ones in the process of becoming such — not dependent on the USSR itself, and which have Political structures different from those of the peoples democracies... We cannot ignore the fact that in Moscow this will be viewed with concern”. The political project of the CP's is thus.

in conflict with the foreign policy of the USSR, Opening of a new period? Within the USSR perhaps the central problem is the inability of the bureaucracy to provide an incentive for the working class to produca. The complete lack of any control or democracy by the workers within industry and agriculture is the chief reason for this. To really remedy this the bureaucracy would have to commit suicide |.@, to abolish itself. Instead it tries ta make economies by leaning on the warking class.

For exampia in the new five year plan Productivity is expected to increase by 30-34% but wages by only 16—17% — over 5% down on the last plan.

But they daren’t lean too hard, because although the Soviet working class is both atomised and apathetic the events of Poland in 1970 and Czechosiovakia in 1968 are never far from the minds of the Soviet leadership, While Brezhnev absolved the party from all responsibility for the currant economic failures by placing the blame on the “managers” who had allegedly misapplied the correct line of the party the next five years might give the Soviet working class the chance to voice its own, perhaps less subtia, criticisms. It is however improbable that such eriticisms will be voiced from the platform of the | Party Congress, Of the 4,900 delegates present at the 25th party Congress a maximum of 60 were workers in factories or collective farms — an astonishing figure by any reckoning. While tha 25th Congress was not ¢ landmark in the history of Stalinism, like the 20th Congress in 1956, it does Indicate that the years of stability, of social and economic peace may be coming toa chose,

| | political siaius ipeaking in the British House of Commons on March 25th this year, Merlyn Rees declared hat one of the main reasons for the British Government's decision to end political status nthe North was to make it easier for the RUC to operate throughout the 6 Counties. Given he central importance that Imperialism therefore gives to this latest attack on the Republican esistance, one could have expected that the defence of political status would be raised as a ey issue amongst the anti-unionist population by the various anti-imperialist organisations.

jut such expectations have certainly not been fulfilled since the ending of political status in March.

‘he Communist Party of Ireland (CPI) has said mot a word on the issue, their silence being matched only by he Social and Democratic Labour Party (SO LP) and the Official Republican Movement, The Provisional Sinn Fein have taken up the question, but a review of their response shows it to be mited to press statements, articles in. An Phobjacht and Republican News and ineffective protests limited > members of their Cummain. The Provisional IRA have of course taken action against prison officials, ut the futility of this action clearly asserted itself when the only consequence was to subject Provisional risoners to even further hardship behind the wires.

Of course, it can be argued that the time is not yet ripe for a campaign in opposition to the removal of olitical status. The measure does not affect the prisoners that are present held, only those sentenced for ffences committed after March 1st this year, and so it won't start operating until July or August. But uch a view ignores the fact that Imperialism has approached the question in this way precisely to facilitate ne sowing of confusion amongst the Nationalist minority and place obstalces in the way of uniting Opposition, Instead of falling into line with Britain's scheme, anti-imperialist organisations should have from the eginning prepared the basis for a mass campaign capable of frustrating these plans, Another argument that has been put forward and finds favour particularly with Official Republicans, i that Republicans should not demand spacial treatment over and above that dished out to other risoners, After all, everyone in the North's jails is a prisoner of the capitalist system in the North’s jails Despite the apperent principled character of this position, it completely fails to take account of the rave threat posed to the anti-imperialist struggle posed by the removal of political status.

Not only does this measure, by introducing individual cells for political prisoners as against the compound f Long Kesh and Magilligan, make it much easier for the authorities to isolate and demoralise the iilitants of the anti-imperialist organisations; much, more importantly, it aims to isolate the anti-imperialist ovement asa whole from the anti-unionist population, Imperialism is fully aware of the political character of the struggle being waged in the North, 15,000 ritish troops aren't in the North to fight Belfast's Al Capone or Derry's Ronald Biggs, The UDR and the (UC are not equipped with armoured cars and SLA rifles to catch the likes of Billy the Kid, The Special on-jury Courts, the admission of evidence obtained by torture don't exist to stop the Raginald Maudlings nd John Stonehouses of the 6 Counties from escaping the wrath of ‘Justice’, All of these exist for one urpose alone — to force the nationalist minority back onto its knees, The ending of political statys is imed not at the members of the republican organisations alone but at the entire population of the ationalist ghettoes, in the prisons be effective,

JOHN MAGEE

Dublin Explosion as talked of making wide u (cont. from p.10) 4 se of conspiracy charges.

The Irish Times has talked in terms of the banning of organisations both republi can and socialist. In our view actions su ch as this assassination m ust be met with irreconcil able opposition within the ) because it denies the ole of conscious democra ‘ic mass action. ‘)because each act of indi ‘idual terror merely provi les an excuse for intensif ‘ing state repression. oth these conclusions ha fe been amply borne out si ce the explosion last mon ch. New laws are being dr ifted to impose heavier se itences on those who organ se against the state and the Coalition government h anti-imperialist camp. The re is no substitute for th e mass mobilisation of the working class as any resis tance to the government?s measures will show. We a are reminded of Trotsky?s words on this subject; petition launched In belfast Irish prisoner after army beating It goes hand in hand with the British Government's policy of “restoring the primacy of the police” and using the UDA in street confrontations. Imperialism knows that if it can convince the anti-unionist population that the Republican prisoners are ‘gangsters and thugs’ then it will be well on the way to stabilising the situation and establishing the AUC and UDA in contro! of the catholic ghettoes.

The general character of this attack ensures that it will only be defeated by the mobilisation of the mass of the anti-unionist working class in defence of the political prisoners. Only in this context will action For this reason the Movement for a Socialist Rapydlic (MSA) gives its full support to the petition demanding the retention of political status which has bean launched by Peoples Democracy {PD}.

The petition is being taken into the ghettoes, signatures collected, and discussions organised to decide on action around the issue. In this way it is hoped to lay the basis for a campaign which will draw in much wider forces and begin to mobilise the mass opposition which Is so desperately needed.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION WRITE TO PLOUGH BOOK SERVICE, 2 Mary Street, Dublin 2, or PLOUGH BOOK SERVICE, 72 Castle Street, Belfast, "But the smoke from the ex plosion clears away,the pa nic disappears,the success or of the murdered ministe er makes his appearance, 1i fe again settles into the old rut,the wheel of capit alist exploitation turns as before; only police re pression grows more savage and brazen. And as a resul t,in place of the kindled hopes and artificially ar oused excitement come disi Illusion and apathy." National Committee,

MSR.

men & gays RUC attack

GAYS

Northern Ireland is a haven for religious and moral fanatics. The ‘born-again Christians’ who populate the Loyalist parties are not only entrenched against any move towards the unification of this country — they are also utterly opposed to children having a swing in the park on Sundays and to workers having a swim in the council baths or gaing to the cinema. And in most parts of this statelet they have the power to ram such reactionary nonsense down the throats of the whole population.

More importantly, the views of these fanatics also reign supreme on matters of social legislation.

This column has already reported on the plight in which [rish women find themselves, On these matters, however, at least some moavementis underway to gain improvements.

But one oppressed section af society in the North remains in total isolation — the estimated 72,000 homosexuals and lesbians, who make up approximately 5 per cent of the North's population, The overwhelming majority of people in both the Loyalist and anti-Unionist communities regard homosexuality as a case for psychiatric and penal treatment, It is regarded not merely as offensive but as a sickness and an unnatural vice, Aversion therapy, self-denial, and even prayer are prescribed; and if that fails, then there is always prison — because, of course, homosexuality is a cnme in the North. The 1967 Sexual Offences Act in Britain, which legalised homosexual relations between consenting adults (over 21) in private, does not apply in the North of Ireland, As a result, the Royal Ulster Constabulary have total freedom to carry outa campaign of harassment against Northern Lrish gays One such campaign is in full swing at the moment. Diaries, letters, address books, gay liberation literature, and correspondence between the Secretary of State and the Northern Lreland Gay Rights Association (NIGRA) over reforms which NIGRA is seeking — all these have been seized by the police. Seven men have been subjected to lengthy interrogation by the RUC: this was conducted ina very hostile fashion, and by all accounts went into the most degrading detail about their sexual behaviour and acquaintances, All seven were also threatened with exposure to family and employers — but as none have made any secret of their homosexuality, these threats backfired in the face of the police. However, the names and addresses of people who are intensely afraid of exposure have been taken by the RUC in a series of raids since 20 January.

The intimidation of gays, and the removal of files and membership lists, is dearly designed to disorganise and stifle the young gay liberation movement in the North; and it has to an extent succeeded, There are few in the Six Counties to whom the gay movement can turn for solidarity and support. That is why revolutionary socialists must be outspoken in defence of the right of gays to define their own sexual orientation and organise in defence of this right.

Socialists and gays in Britain can also help by sending telegrams letters of protest against the RUC"s harassment to Merlyn Rees, and telegrams letters of solidarity to the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association, c/o Students Union, Queens University, Rel fast BT,

EQUAL RIGHT:

FOr i

HOMOSEXUAL :

contraception The setting up of a National Campaign for legal contraception (the Contraception Action Programme or C.A.P.) is a significant step forward in the struggle for the abailability of contraception for those wishing to use it.

The campaign is being sponsored by the following organisations: the Family Planning Services, the Irish Family Planning Association, Irishwomen United, Labour Women's National Council, North Dublin Social Workers Association, Womens Aid, the Womens Political Association and the Womens Liberation movement. It calls for the provision of legal contraception through the health services as well as sex education in schools and contraceptive advice and counselling in all maternity and child welfare clinics. This is the first time a genuinely broad campaign against this aspect of the governments oppression of womens civil rights has been launched. We rotaily support the initiative of Irishwomen United in calling together these organisations on this issue, and call on all socialist and progressive people to throw their weight into making this campaign a real success.

unemployment

WHO'S LOSING THE JOBS?

Close examination of figures on unemployment, back wo the unacceptable fact that working women have been harder hit than men during the present recession. in the ad year period 1974—76, there was an increase of 81% of registered unemployed women, 4s against an increase of 65% for men, Linemployment assistance applications current for women increased by 125% for women, as against 70% for men, These figures exclude ALL unemployed female school-leavers, and all married wamen seeking for the first time, but unable to get work, There are many thousands of women not counted.

AnCoO is continuing to train women for the stereotype fobs in the failing industries, Le. women in the clothing industry lost 1,677 jobs and women in the distributive trades fost 1,299 jobs. Jobs for wornen are not only being lost but a womans right to work, married or not, & under attack.

FREE STATE

REPRESSION

ce its establishment as a formally ependent state in 1920 through the stminster Government of Ireland Act ‘Free State has consistently resorted “special” or “exceptional” legislation order to deal with the various social, ;nomic and political problems facing it.

at it has had to do this is a reflection the way it was designed to perform two tually irreconcilable tasks — to preserve tition and at the same time provide table framework for its bourgeoisie to ild itself a secure economic base. To ectively perform the second task would an the preventing of British perialism from plundering the country t this can only be done if the partition tlement is destroyed. The Free State en is incapable of being anything other an a pathetic reactionary off-shoot of itish imperialism and this is why it s suffered from unstable stability for e whole of its existence, Using this as ir framework we can analyse what lies hind the growing crisis of the Free State, amine why it is now being forced to unch a new attack on civil liberties and what extent this is a reaction to ents in the Six Counties, see how various rees can be mobilised against this tack and establish how far the Free ate will have to go before reaching its eaking point. ie Republican Threat it is true to say that repression in the ee Sivte tec nieny axpects (dacrimnination ainst women, clerical domination, high ligration and unemployment etc), we must derstand that it has always been the sublican movement which has presented the 3st immediate threat to the Free State even ough it has mostly never even mentioned t alone understood) or fought against the pader aspects of Free State repression.

:publicanism has always been the strongest litical ideology among the southern working iss at the level of a general political sympathy tt republicans have never had a dear-cut rspective of using that sympathy to organise ass movement against the State. The ée State has taken advantage of this in the past cht years to selectively use repression against oublicans. Nevertheless it has failed to defeat # current republican campaign while at the me time it has found itself being forced to use pression in an increasingly wider scale against her social groups, and some of its initiatives ve been very badly defeated or stalled (e.g.

p attempted deferral of equal pay). All of this yws from the combined effect of the lernational recession and the structural crisis vernment is being forced to adopt an intensified ategy of repression. The Government Offensive ‘There is no lack of evidence to back this analysis up, This new phase began with the hijacking of Frank Stages funeral, Members of a registered political party, the Irish Republican Socialist Party have produced detailed evidence that they were systematically tortured and beaten up by Special Branch officers in various Garda stations.

The organisation dealing with these cases, the Association for Legal Justice, has begun 3 systematic inquiry into Garda brutality and has revealed that the IRSP case is just the tip of an iceberg. Also of course there is the banning of the 1916 commemoration to be added to this list. Allied to these attacks the government has launched a crude propaganda offensive: women are being blamed for causing the economic crisis; the Union of Students’ in Ireland are being accused of trying to build a “Sino-Hibernian”™ {!)

. Marxist” society; and many warnings have been given that “traditional” civil liberties will have to be abandoned to “defend democracy” (!)

The Northern Background We must realise however that these moves are not solely a reaction to the crisis of the Free State.

A marked feature of the recent government moves has been the amount of opposition they have encountered and the creation of a situation where splits and visions must inevitably occur within all the major bourgeois parties. Judged solely in terms of what is happening in the south the héjacking of Frank Stage’s funeral and the banning of the 1916 commemoration could be seen as hysterical and stupid moves which have brought extra forces into opposition to the government. When we examine what is happening in the North however the reasons become very clear. The ‘Sunday Times’, the *[rish Times, and numerous other irrefutable sources have produced evidence that the conflict in the Six Counties is being deliberately “Ulsterised” or more accurately “Loyalist”. “Republican News” has.

reported that army recruiting is being intensified.

Not only that but once Loyalists are recruited into Irish regiments in the Six Counties they are trained in Britain, transferred to another regiment and then sent back to the North. Thus even the reduction in the role of, and numbers in, the Army, hides the true significance of what is taking place.

This should also clarify that the different Loyalist factions are not disagreeing with each other over whether to defy or give in to non-existent British government pressure for “oower-sharing™ ot the continuance of direct rule. In reality they are so confident of being able to take power ina relatively short space of time that they feel able to argue over who will get the spoils.

It would be very dangerous to pose this asa victory for the Republican Movement on the grounds that Britain is pulling out. What it shows is that Britain believes its loyalist lackeys can control the situation without overt military assistance, just as they did before 1968. That is not to say that there are no dangers involved fro Britain in pursuing this strategy o1 that the situation in the Free State is controllable in the short term. In some ways it is not and that is why it is necessary to try and build a civil rights campaign in the south capable of undertaking mass mobilizations and preventing the government from successfully carrying out its attack on civil liberties. resist government offensive A Programme for Action Already a number of people such as John Mulcahy (editor of Hibernia) have been involved in discussions around building such a campaign. We strongly support the moves he and others have made to establish a permanent civil rights campaign and believe it could successfully adopt the following demands: * Abolition of repressive legislation (eg.

Offences Against the State Act, Criminal Law (Jurisdiction) Bill etc.)

* Opposition to discrimination against women — for the right to contraception, divorce, equal pay efc. Support the right to work — oppose victimisation and blacklisting Obviously issues such as that should be open to the broadest possible discussion but what is particularly important is that there must bea willingness to take up every case that comes to the campaign's notice irrespective of what political allegiances any victim or victims of state repression may have. It is only through adopting such a position that the campaign could credibly claim to oppose all state repression and not just act either asa sort of social welfare agency or a front for particular organisations. Also it is necessary that there should be open membership to anyone agreeing with the campaign, that it not be simply a group of public personalities making representations to the government. This is not to say that defiance of the government by people like Michae!] Mullen and David Thornley should be ignored — instead it should be stressed that the actions they have taken against the government are very welcome and support should be offered to them as long as they continue to take such stands. Finally, with regard to the Republican movement, it must be stressed that this is the only possible perspective for successfully opposing the Free State at the present time. Even if we get to the stage when if, as appears likely, the Criminal Law (Jurisdiction) Bill becomes law, Gardai simply hand people over to the RUC armed resistance alone will not stop them. Every possible legal means must be used to highlight cases of government brutality, just as the IRSP has done, Indeed one of the reasons the government has behaved so provocatively in the past while it may have been its desire to provoke a rash reaction from those it is attempting to destroy.

We cannot allow Cooney, O'Brien and Cosgrave to get away with these kinds of manoeuvres and they must be effectively opposed. The time for talk and futile action is rapidly fading away — the government will not delay much longer.

DEFEAT GOVERNMENT

REPRESSION!

BUILD A MASS CIVIL LIBERTIES

CAMPAIGN!

JAMES GALLAGHER 5

UNEMPLOYMENT &

THE LINK WITH

BRITAIN

At the May Day rally organised by the ICTU (Northern Committee) in Belfast last month, there was a lot of back-slapping among the trade union leadership over the “success” of the “Better Life For All’ campaign, which was launched last January. Only a few days earlier the worst unemployment figures for 36 years were published.

What was the response of the trade union leadership? No programme of working class action was put forward. Faced with lengthening dole queues, spiralling food prices, wholesale cuts in social services, the only proposal put by these workers’ ‘leaders’ was to invite the British Prime Minister, Callaghan, to come over to the North to discuss the situation!

Inemployment in the North is nothing new.

‘hroughout the history of this statelet nemployment has been a way of life for housands of workers, particularly Catholic vorkers. While during the so-called “boom’ eriod after the war unemployment in iritain was around 1.5%, in the North it was ever below 6%; and in the nationalist hettoes the figures were around the 25% nark. In the large catholic housing estate of tallymurphy, the situation has long been hat 50% of male workers have been on he bureau, iritish government policy of edundancies and cutbacks jut even against such a background, the resent situation can only be described as lesperate. The official figure of 9.7% inemploymed masks the terrible reality.

Thousands of unemployed workers are not ncluded in the official statistics, such as narried women who haven't got the full juota of insurance stamps, can't collect yenefit and therefore see no point in joining ‘he humiliating queves outside the labour xchanges. Each week brings more depressing news of factory closures, redundancies and short-time working. The British Labour Government, despite its promises of “fair” rule and its fighting delcarations against unemployment, is itself directly adding to the misery of Northern workers. British povernment action has been directly responsible for the closure of International Engineering Ltd. with a loss of 2,200 jobs; Standard Telephones and Cables, with a projected loss of 2,300 jobs; Rolls Royce, Dundonald (800 jobs), Regna International.

in addition the £45 million cutback in public expenditure in the North already threatens 2,000 jobs in the British defence establishments as well as placing 10,000 jobs in the Belfast shipyards in jeopardy, It also means the widespread slashing of the social services. Major hospitals such as the Royal Victoria in Belfast have declared that there will be no vacancies for student nurses for at least another two years. According to a spokesman for the Confederation of Health Service Employ cess (COHSE} the situation is nothing short of chornic in some hospitals, He spoke of “patients falling out of bed because there are not enough nurses in the wards." Health, Social Services, Housing, Education: All Hit At the Laganvalley Hospital in Lisburn there are only three nurses in the geriatric ward to look after 46 patients, Albert Smyth, COHSE Branch Secretary at the hospital, has warned that “The way things are going, there will be no staff for the new geriatric unit which is to open in April 1977, And in addition there is talk of closing casualty af night because of lack of staff."

lt is not just in the hospitals, though, that jobs are being lost and services getting worse, Throughout the health service-in the North the cutbacks are wrecking havoc, The Area Health and Social Services are talking in terms of a large reduction in the number of doctors in general practice, the phasing out of house-calls to patients and the complete disappearance of many rural practices, The Home-Help service, an essential life-line for many old and handicapped people, is being severely pruned, the number of houses having already been chopped by a third are facing a further similar cut. The building of new health centres, necessary to end the anarchic provision of health care, has been halted; and despite the acute shortage of social workers there isa ban on appointing permanent staff to fill vacancies. Particularly hard hit by these cutbacks will be women and children, There are no state-run nurseries in the North and now no plans to open any, And in those areas which need playgroups the most, there are waiting-lists up to three years old. The aime picture emerges in the housing and education sectors, The number of houses built last year was down by more than 1,(0 compared with 1974, Hundreds of qualified teachers are already unemployed, with no prospect of ajob. And a 17% cut in the number of teacher-training places in the 6 Counties along with a 50% cut in the number of grants for Northern students wishing to take their training in Britain means the dole queue for hundreds of students, and overcrowded, understaffed schools. Results of dependence While the economic crisis hits the nationalist working dass particularly hard, adding to the misery of 50 years of organised discrimination, lovalist workers have hardly been spared. The dosure of the defence establishments, the run-down of the shipyards and the loss of thousands of jobs at Rolls Royce, STC and other plants primarily means that loyalists have for the first time suffered the full force of the economic instability which has gone along with the existence of this artificial statelet, dependent and therefore subservient to British Imperialism. The scale of these attacks is such that loyalist workers are unable to resolve their problems amply by offloading them onto the nationalist minority, And that means they have looked for other explanations!

The most popular is that the economic ills are a result of a devious British plan to withdraw from the 6 Counties, This nonsense is peddled by such diverse characters as Sandy Scott and the B & [CO right across the board to Ian Paisley and Gerry Fitt. But nonsense it is! Par from the closures and redundancies resulting from deliberate British scheming, they are the inevitable outcome of the present economic crisis which afflicts the entire capitalist system.

Northern Ireland is marginal to and utterly dependent upon the Imperialist economy, Public expenditure in the North amounts to some £1,300 million a year, representing at least 60% of the total domestic product, 85% of industry in the North is under foreign control, mainly British and American, Only one-seventh of the manufacturing sector is locally owned, In this situation the North has virtually no capacty to resist these development, E Most of the trade union leaders are fully aware of this dJemma, But their anewer is to call for the strengthening of the British link, for more foreign investment, And just like Stan Orme, the former British Minister of State, in the North, most of these so-called ‘leaders’ are not shy at pointing out how desperate Northern workers are for jobs and thus how “reliable” they are as a workforce, how they are quite prepared to accept lower wages. In other words, the trade union leadership just heaps added burdens on to the backs of the working dass “Better Life for All’... or ‘Some’....

or “NONE”! This approach is present throughout the ‘Better Life for Al” campaign. The goodwill of the British Government is offered as a panacea for all the ills which confront the working class, loyalist and republican alike, So the trade union leadership has even refused to withdraw its representatives from the Economic Council, Housing Executive and other state bodies in protest at the British Government's anti-working class policies, The stance taken by the ICTU can only guarantee the 100,000 unemployment level which is being predicted by 1980, It is an absolute betrayal of the workers interests, and places responsibility for the economic crisis not on the capitalist system but on those who oppose the British link. Thus the practical consequences of the LCTU's ‘Better Life For All’ campaign, far from countering sectarianism, actually legitimises the loyalist view that ‘disloyal’ workers have no right to jobs while loyalists are unemployed. Of course, the trade unions try to avoid this reality by talking of the unity of the working dasa, Now everyone in the North is in favour of uniting the working class — with the exception of imperialism, its local capitalist allies, and the loyalist section of the working class! That the latter stand in the camp of reaction is a hard fact that the trade unions, the Communist Party of Ireland and increasingly the Official Republicans, all brush under the carpet. Yet until the left asa whole recognises that since partition the majority of the Protestant workers have played an active role in maintaining this undemoctatic and sectarian state then the trade unions will remain ineffective, will remain incapable of organising independent working class action, Revolutionary Perspective Every time the Communist Party and the Official Republicans present Britain as a force that can end sectarianism in the North they put back the day when working class unity in the North will be a reality, There is only one situation in which the possibility of the Protestant workers putting class before sectarian interests can be realised and that is when British Imperialism is | kicked out of Ireland, Then the Protestant workers will be free to choose another road: the road of building the workers republic in a united Ireland. None of this means that revolutionaries abstain on the economic struggles that are taking place in the North at the present time. But while putting forward a programme of independent working class action against unemployment, in opposition to the cutbacks in the social service, we situgte these demands within the context of fighting for the right of the Irish people as a whole to self-determination, The demand for the immediate withdrawal of the British Army, the defence of political prisoners, and the struggle to prevent any loyalist restoration, far from being ‘diversions from the ‘class’ issues of jobs and houses, are the meat of the fight for working class unity, the fight for socialism in Ireland.

JOHN MAGEE

the meaning of the hy— election results The results of the Dublin South-West and Donegal North-East by-elections are important not just because they show that Fianna Fail has been unable to present itself as a credible alternative to a Fine-Gael-Labour Coalition which is becoming more and more urrable to deal with the crisis racking the Free State, but also because they show that many people are so disillusioned that they do not consider that any party offers a solution to their problems. An Irish Press (June 12) editorial was almost alone among bourgeois commentators in making this point: “ too many people... consider politics to be a vacuum insofar as being a means of redressing their difficulties is concerned. Nature abhors a vacuum as we have seen in the North, The bell did not just toll for one party here, it tolled for all of them — and for us". A comparison of the campaigns run by the major parties in both constituencies bears this point out, Fianna Fall ran their campaign on the issues of unemployment and rising prices in Dublin and Donegal. Though these issues were undoubtedly important in Dublin 5.W. Fianna Fail offered no practical means of solving these problams and did not campaign at all on related issues such as the denial of contraceptives or the lack of creche facilities, for fear of exposing divisions in the party.

They totally ignored the National Question which had disastrous results in Donegal for, as one Balyneyite put it, prices aren't such an issue there because people can do their shopping in the Six Counties, Donegal rejects ‘*Blueshirtism” Fine Gael on the other hand rana Blueshirt style “law and order” campaign in Donegal ina frantic chase after Protestant votes, while sticking to youth clubs and football pitches in Dublin 5,\W, — a deprived working class area not known for its respect for the Gardai, Between 1969 and 1973 the Fine Gael vote in Donegal NE. dropped from 41.9% to 33.4% — reflecting their loss of the Protestant vote. They undoubtedly won most of it back this time but their vote still dropped to 31.8%. Jn fact then their loss was worse than the figures initially indicate which means that their campaign significanth alienated many of their farmer supporters, Given the situation in border areas {increasing $.45/ Loyalist incursions and kidnappings, discontent among local peaple and Gardai at the level of collaboration) this, and the victory of Neil Blaney's candidate, is hardly }surprising, Significance of votes This win will certainty strengthen the Haughay wing of Fianna Fail and if Jack Lynch does not get the message Blaney will probably carry out his threat of running candidates in other border areas in the next General Election, He may get more support along these lines if Kevin Boland goes ahead with his apparent intention of winding up Aontacht Eireann. This build up of the Haughey ites is extremely dangerous because although they call themselves ‘republicans’ their policy of ‘a British intent to withdraw’ could provide an ideal cover for a Loyalist takeover, especially the “independent Ulster’ variety favoured by Paddy Deviin of the SDLP. The same criticism applies to the Provisionals, who of course boycotted the elections.

Labour Party Decline Brendan Halligan, the general secretary of the Labour Party, scraped to a win in Dublin S3.W. on the sixth and final count, more because of the weakness of Fianna Fail than his oven strength, In the process the Labour vote dropped from 35.7% in 1973 to 27.5% this time, Relations between John O Connell {after the result was announced he suggested that Halligan ought to move to another constituency in the next general election) and the Labour Party leadership will remain bad because the government will be driven to greater use of rapression while 0 Connell will keep his critical stance as long as he wishes to retain his enormous following in the constituency, The result is ominous for Labour T.D.'s (particularly Dublin ones) who retain their loyalty to the coalition and will encourage those aiready expelled from the parliamentary party (Senator Michael Mullen and David Thornley T.D.)

to make more criticisms, Indeed on the day the election results were announced the national executive of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union rejected the proposed new wage agreement and Mullen denounced the government, The MSR and the Elections Members of the Movement for a Socialist Republic (MSA) participated in the campaign of Ite Ni Chionnaith, candidate of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), and issued a leaflet calling fora No. 1 vote for the IASP, anda No. 2? vote for the Official Sinn Fein candidate, Tomas Mac Giolla, under the slogan “Against Repression — Vote Republican! !" This was because the [RSP has taken a consistent stand against government repression while the Officials have more often than not condemned the victims of repression and in this campaign completely ignored the national question only running a ‘More Jobs’ campaign |ike that of Fianna Fail, Neither they nor the IRSP put forward demands which could help mobilise workers against the government attacks and failed to take up issues which could highlight these attacks (e.g. the prosecution of over 70 people for participation in the Provisional Sinn Fein 1916 Commemoration), In many cases the [RSP put forward the same abstract damands as Official Sinn Fain (e.g.

Nationalise the mines) thus making the same basic error — putting forward governmental demands when the forces to implement such demands do not yet exist, At this level the only difference between the |R'SP and Official Sinn Fein was that the IR-'SP declared itself against British imperialism — an equally abstract slogan which, since it was the main theme of the Maois candidate, created more confusion, Given mich confused policies coming from the republican/lest candidates it is not surprising thar there was alow poll because of abstention by Labour supporters, and that these candidates obtained insignificant support, The task for the future iz not fo ignore elections, but, particularly im the IRSP's case, to apply the correct tactis. when participating in them, Jt remains to be seen whether this will be done.

DUBLIN MSR

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NATIONAL WAGE AGREEMENT

COLLAPSE OF NATIONAL WAGE AGREEMENT:

UNIONS MUST CHALLENGE GOVERNMENT

The collapse of the National Wage Agreement was inevitable. On the one hand it did not suit the interests of the employers, the Federated Union of Employers thought that the terms of the agreement were too favourable to the workers and the Confederation of Irish Industry went further and demanded a complete wage freeze instead of a national agreement. On the other hand the con-trick of the June 1975 “mini-budget” in which workers dropped phase two and three of the 4th NNA in return for so-called price cuts has made them much less agreeable to making concessions in “the national interest’’.

WHAT NEXT

The question now is: what will happen next. It is extremely unlikely that the employers will offer much more than they already have. So even if the Employer-Labour Conference resumes it is unlikely to yield an acceptable settlement. Im the past of course the Unions have rejected draft agreements and have sent the leaders back to get more. Returning with a few extra crumbs which they portrayed as major gains, these leaders have eventually been push-through wage agreements. But this is unlikely to happen in this particular instance, Not only is the rank and file against the current agreement but also a sizable section of the middle and upper jayers trade union officials and representatives who see their negotiating powers being whittled away. If there are no genuine gains produced by a new sitting of the Employer-Labour Conference this group will have a powerful voice in getting the whole thing rejected.

One avenue open to the Employers and government is to allow a “free for all” and to use harsh budgetary measures to soak up the gains made by the workers. This however could only be a stopgap measure, The real problem is not just woge increases but also falling profits. The budget is an inefficient and costly way of redistributing wealth from wages to profits. The only effective way of carrying out this restriction is in reality through a wage freeze.

Up “til now the Government and some sectors of the amployers have vassilated on the question of 8 wage freeze, Given the resistance of the workers any wage freeze will have to be statutory, The Labour Ministers have been hesitant about this. However Cruisers statements at the end of June show thet a new formula has been worked out which satisfies Labour — a wage freeze coupled with State intervention, Increasingly the strategy for the salvation of Irish capitalism is becoming centralised around the demand for a wage freeze and state intervention, But this is not a very strong slogan. The Government hes already overstretched itself in terms of public expenditure and is burcened with an enormous Problem of deficit and borrowing. So there can be no hope of any significant state involvement in economics, Even the half-hearted “planning.’ of the ‘60's is out of reach.

A TRADE UNION PLAN

The weakness is the Achilles heel of Irish capitalism against which the blows of the Unions should be aimed. Coupled with a major offensive on the wages front the Unions must formulate and push forward their own Economic & Social Plan. This plan must be detailed and comprehensive, (a) eliminating private control of the key sectors of the economy so that real planning can be introduced, and (b) devolving control to the shop floor so that bureaueratic impediments to efficient management can be removed, Such a plan would be a significant part of the workers reply to the employers and Government's strategy. Above all it would cut the ground from under the feet of the Labour Ministers, depriving them of any arguments for a wage freeze. This in turn would provide the basis for a Union offensive against the Labour Party leadership for the control of the Labour Party. Already this year, at the {T & GWU's Annual Conference, there has been a strong call for greater control by the Unions over the LP. This call must be amplified and followed up at all levels.

Finally, it should be noted that a “free for all" is more in the interests of the employers than the workers, (A “free for all should not be confused with “free collective bargaining”. A “Free for all” is only one form, and a particularly weak and effective one at that, of collective bargaining). What trade unionists should demand is that Congress takes up the claims being made by the building workers: busmen, bank officials, etc., and fight for them for all workers, The centralised strength ot the working class 6s an important asset which must be used with vigour.

Next issue of Socialist Republic will be in September-articles include; Socialist Republic costs 10p from this month. We regret this increase in pricw but hope it will allow regular production of the paper each month.

LEFT WING MILITARISM IN IRELAND

U.SS.R.- capitalist or workers state The Womens Movement in the North.

statements unemployment british ‘diplomat The death of the British ambassador in Dublin last month has not surprisingly been seized on by politicjans,the press and churchmen to launch yet another offensive against the forc es involved in the struggle for national self-deter mination. The sycophantic rantings of these people have been designed to obscure the fact that Ewart Biggs,far from being “a friend of th e Irish people" was a vete ran in the service of Impe rialism and the foremost representative of that cla ss which today forcibly oc cupies the 6 north eastern counties of this island. Irish workers therefore have no reason to weeep over the death of this ma n who having at one time been attached to NATO was by no means squirmish abou t violence provided it wa s being dished out by the capitalist class of which he was a member.Ewart Big gs job in Ireland was not to play the role of the harbringer of peace but to further suffocate the legi timate aspirations of the Irish people for self-determination. The Movement for a Soc jalist Republic(Irish Sect jon of the Fourth Interna tional) rejects absolutely the moral indignation of those who remain silent in the face of numerous atroc ities committed by British Imperialism and its native collaborators in allparts of Ireland.

AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT! FOR THE RIGHT TO WORK!

For the past year unemployment has been hovering between the 15 to 20,000 mark.

In addition to those who are officially registered there are tens of thousands of school leavers who are without jobs. Even if there is an economic upturn by the end of the year the Government still predicts that there will be no real improvement in the employment situation for at least.a year and a half to two years, Even if we accept Government assurances, it is clear that the unemployment problem is along term one. But already severe hardship is being caused. The short duration of pay related benefits combined with the effects of inflation are making it increasingly difficult for the unemployed worker to make ends meet.

Prompt action is needed. But the Government, dependent as it is on foreign speculative investment, is incapable of formulating clear and decisive policies of its own, The Coalition just stumbles along from one blunder to the next. There is no point in hoping that a deal to save or increase jobs can be worked out with a Government which is not even its own master, The Trade Union movement will simply be shirking its responsibility to its own members and to the unemployed if it does not formulate firm policies of its own and if it does not wage a fight to force the Government to accept these policies,

A NATIONAL PLAN

Even as things stand there is plenty of scope to expand production and increase employment. For example, there is a severe housing shortage yet the building and construction industry is one of the hardest hit industries; many of our agricultural products are exported in unprocessed form in order to make huge profits for the big farmers, whereas a national agricultural processing industry could provide many new jobs; the pupil/teacher ratio in our primary and secondary schools is one.of the worst in Europe, yet there is a 60% unemployment rate among those qualified to teach. And so on, If the economy was really geared to the needs of the people, and not towards the needs of profit, there would be very little unemployment indeed.

The Trade Unions must use thelr skills and resources to formulate an Economic Plan which bases itself on social needs, in order to get the economy going again. Such a plan could include such items as a crash housing programme, a scheme of public works, development of our agricultural and natural resources. (t would also include a thorough investigation (carried out by workers at plant level where necessary) of the private enterprise system with a view to workers taking over contro! of those enterprises which are run inefficiently or which impede overall economic growth, (An example of how certain branches of the private sector become major obstacles to economic growth is the fact that over 16% of our yearly national income is used by the Government to pay back loans received from the banks. If the banks were nationalised this money, in addition to the other resources of the banks, could be used to create jobs.

The existence of such a plan in the hands of the Unions would not only expose the lies and ineptness of the present Government, it would also alert people to the hypocrisy of Fianna Fail, It would also put pressure on the Labour Party and all other socialist groups to come together and fight for genuine working class policies.

AN ACTION PROGRAMME

But the thousands of unemployed who are already suffering severe hardship cannot afford to wait for such a plan to be presented and fought for, The Unions must adopt an Action Programme for immediate improvements, The European Trade Union Confederation (which represents 31 million workers in 19 countries, including Ireland) at a special conference on the 24th and 275th April last, has shown the way in this respect. By demanding the introduction of a 35 hour week with five weeks holidays for all workers, the ETUC has in effect demanded that all work be shared without loss of pay. The ETUC has also called for the banning of overtime; the lowering of the retirement age and an extension of the period of formal education. Irish trade unionists should see to it that the ICTU takes up these demands and launches a well publicised and determined fight for them, In addition, trade unionists must demand the right to scrutinise company records so that they can veto the investment and production decisions of management, in order to safeguard their jobs, In each individual case rank and file trade unionists must demand backing from their unions to secure such rights as well as calling the ICTU to force the Government to introduce legislation which would give workers these rights in law.

NATIONAL COMMITTEE MSR.

COCUCCUOTUNTUUOUNOOADUOTOCEOTUEOECTECU CU COCU ECAC AE EE EEE TEA OCDE UPUU SEERA We reject abso-utely th eh Pi erases e hypocrisy of these peopl uve lees th e who on the one hand issu ony ee esate he Movee floods of statements con ht; chaghggeh em, 8 emning the violence of an shat ee Selb eihee ce | sineni 4 nae statevanivaitiaahich 44 pecific political reasons its entirety,its laws,police and army is nothing less than an elaborate ( cont. on p.3)

INTERNATIONAL NOTES

ANGOLA

By the time this edition of Socialist Republic is published, the trial of “Colonel” Callan and his merry mercenaries will be over: their fates (immediate and for several, at least, ultimate) generally known. Whatever it may se, the way it will have been reached will nave justified itself, For the “EVENING HERALD’ however, Angola has “been too cold-blooded about the affair”. The mercenaries “should have een shot when captured, What is taking place .. Might... create the sort of legend and nyth about bounty hunters that we could 10 without.” This is contradicted by the facts. Mercenaries have wen going to Africa, and even been killed there ince colonization, although they wore then the uniform of the occupying powers, With ndependence, particularly that of the Congo, hey remained, officially to protect the whites rom the warring armies: unofficially to bend the tick for such pro-imperialists as Moise Tshome, in imperialist countries, the mercenary was sortrayed as defending, somehow, an objective white racial superiority that spineless netropolitan governments had been over-hasty m renouncing. Even the breed's defeat in Angola could have been explained away by eference to Russian arms Revolutionary Justice By puttings its captives on trial, the Angolian government is acting to demystify the situation.

Despite being held only months after the end of a civil war, the trial appears to be one of scrupulous fairness as the white legal observers have had to admit, From it there is revealed what was never published before: the psychology of the average mercenary. With Georgiouw-Callan in the dock appear twelve other figures of equal squalidity, All are individuals who have tried to make up for their failures in life, not by working to change the system or, even, by robbing those who profit by it, but by acting as that system's agents in despoiling what they imagined to be inferior races, Callan himself, given pre-trial charisma by interviews with his ex-mistresses, is now denounced by his old British Army comrades, The myth of the mercenary as defender of civilisation will now be less easily reasserted.

There are two other points of particular relevance fo Jreland, Firstly, Angolon justice & dearly superior to what can be expected from the judicial system in either part of Ireland, There is no evidence that the accused have suffered anything like the irregularities that occurred in the niral of Noel and Marie Murray.

Secondly, and, perhaps, more generally important, it is no accident that Callan-Greorgiou himself learnt his trade in the British Army in Northern Ireland nor that the far more sinister recruiter of mercenaries, John Banks, appears to have played the role of agent-provocateur, if not worse, over the recent arrests of Sinn Fein leaders in Luton, A mercenary is one who kills for money, He can still be a mercenary in the service of the State governing his nation, Mercenaries are needed by capitaliem: the freelances are merely logical developments of the answer to the need,

MIDDLE

EAST

against fascism in lebanon The resemblance between the basic situation in Lebanon and that in Northern ireland is immediately obvious. The former state was created because the Arab revolutionaries were too weak to achieve an Arab nation-state after the first World War just as partition was established because of a similar failure by the Irish, Lebanon is divided between two communities that are self-defined by religion — Christians and Muslims. The first is relatively privileged and identifies with imperialism; the other — despite incompetent leadership and sabotage by Arab capitalism opposes it objectively. Furthermore, the Lebanese situation resembles the Irish Republican interpretation of the Irish national problem far more closely than that interpretation reflects the facts it claims to explain, Although the Lebanon is a semi (or neo) colony rather than a colony such as Northern Ireland, the division there inbetween Christians and Muslims ig more directly the result of imperialist intervention than that of the six counties where the situation was maintained by the needs of the local manufacturers — a class less developed in Beirut than in Belfast, The Muslims have been abla to do what the six county Catholic can only hope to do: cutbreed their oppressors.

In addition, the Christians ore spearheaded today by @ mass party far more openly Fascist than any of the major Loyalist political groups: the Phalange of Hitler's old fan, Pierre Gernayel.

Nations and self-determination But two inter-connected facts that are not paralleled in Ireland affect the struggle in the Lebanon, Firstly it is just one aspect of the overall struggle for Arab national self-determination, for which the major problem is posed by the colon state of Israel.

Further to this, the existence of thet state, the struggle by the treacherous King Hussein of Jordan has made Lebanon the chiet base for the Palestinian Qquerrillas, This fact has occasioned the present struggle of the Lebanese Musiems, and raised it to a new bevel, The Muslims had attempted before 1975 to modify, if not overthrow, the Christian political hegemony (which included a guaranteed majority of parliamentary seats), In 1958, the Christian President's attempt to prolong illegally his term of office provoked a rising that could be suppressed only by the US marines. The presence of the nationalist Palestinians in the state afer 1970 was @ threat to the security of the Christian bourgeoisie which tried to crush them several times and armed, eventually, Gemayel's Phalange the better to do so, {t failed, the Muslim community supported the Palestinians and renewed its demand to reduce Christian political privileges. The Lebanese Anmy split on communal lines. American imperialism, weakened as an after effect of Vietnam, cannot intervene directly. The new colonial regime in Syria came to the aid of its overlord: like all the Arab governments, it fears the revolutionary effects of a victory for the Palestinians and their allies, However, the struggle has not been ended finally. The anttim- Perialist forces, which includes the Lebansse section of the Fourth International, remain unbeaten, | |

RISE AND

__ 38 1¢ Republican Congress has proved a litical force more potent in death than in e. This is partly because of the heroic end ‘many of its members in the Spanish vil War. More effective have been the gends put about by the Stalinites of the P.1. who have portrayed it as a classic cample of their ideal strategy, the Popular Front”, ruined only by the antics f the “Ultra Left”. In fact the Congress represented merely 2 most conscious attempt before the 160s to overcome the political weakness f Republicanism without actually reaking with it. Fianna Fail had been an tempt to do this simply by adopting opulist constitutional politics. In 1931, 1¢ IRA started the Socialist Republican ont, Saor Eire (another evocative name).

was smashed by the Cumann na nGael avernment with little effective opposition ‘om its own supporters. The Republican ‘ongress was neither subverted nor crushe¢ y its opponents, yet its most positive chievernent was to send Irish men to ght against Franco's reactionaries in Spain.

's failure requires more detailed xamination than it has been given in talinite accounts. 1 Ireland, what became, in 1933, the second ommunist Party was never as much influenced y the ultra-left policies of the Comintern’s Third Period” strategy as were its opposite umbers in other lands. Sean Murray, who became ie Secretary of the revived party advised in te drafting of the Saor Eire programme.

owever, he and his comrades did little to help uild it beyond this and tended to act as if they ww themselves a3 rivals, as distinct from, en short term, allies of, the much larger IRA.

his policy caused a large section of the latter psuccumb to two complimentary pressures.

any therein had close contact with the embership of Fianna Fail, whose leaders had wweht alongside them in the Irish Civil War; with ie latter party in government after 1932, they ndéed to hope for a victorious conclusion to i@ national struggle with only a minimum of ‘essure from themselves. At the same time, the itholic hierarchy, of which the majority stiked the new government, maintained an iti<Communist witch hunt which the [RAS was equipped politically to withstand. Its sociated weekly paper, An Phoblacht began to ove away from the Socialism of its previous

IRISH SECTION OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL

ne Re years and the editor, Frank Ryan, was removed.

Many left wingers began to leave the army.

Meanwhile, opposition to Fianna Fail’s very limited anti imperialist measures began to take on an openly fascist form. From Augusut, 1933, Cumann na nGael was amalgamated with other parties, becoming Fine Gael, under the Fascist leader, Eoin O'Duffy. In April 1934, Ryan and other left-wing members and ex-members of the IRA, issued a manifesta in Athlone, It called for a Republican Congress to review the political anti-imperialist struggle that the IRA itself was unable to continue, [t left open the question of what that Congress would meet to do; would it call for a new, Republican Socialist, political party or for a“United Front” against Fascism, as the C.P.1.

urged in giving the manifesto critical support?

This ambulance was to prove its undoing.

This Stalinite line had a certain objective justification. Not only did the C.P.L have a vested interest in stopping a “Socialist Republican” rival to it, but such a rival would probably have been merely an extra source of confusion to the Irish workers’ consciousness. However, the circumstances were not ripe for the Stalinites’ alternative: a “United Front” of Republicans and Socialists, for the achievernent of state power.

Such fronts are only possible as between such mass working class parties as did exist in Ireland af the 1930s. any more than they do, there, today.

(Now, however, the C.P.L has overcome its own problems, if not those of the working class, by building a “United Front™ that includes the “Socialist Republican” Official Sinn Fein). Even to lay the foundations for such a front would require co-operation from the Labour Parties (who had, until recently, been shunned by the C.P.L.

as “Social Fascist’) and from the 1.R_A. (which expelled those of the signatories of the Athlone manifesta that were still within it).

The Republican Congress was, then, under conflicting pressures from the facts of a situation that did not justify a “United Front" and from the C.P.1. which had a clear perspective of such a body, By the end of September 1934, when its founding conference was held in Rathmines, these pressures had intensified No further Republican grouping affiliated to the Congress. The Fascist threat was weakened, as the majority of Fine Gael’s leadership found that it wasn't helping them electorally and expelled O'Duffy and his followers, On the other hand the C.P.L entered the Congress and intensified the pressure against the original majority that wanted to make it into a party. Between the two blocs was a group headed by Roddy and Norah Connolly who were in the Irish Labour Party and were thus against creating another one, but who supported such a perspective as against the Stalinite emphasis on the slogan of the Republic ,tather than the Workers’ Republic, whick NAME PSST ESSE ER PTET TESTES PAT ESSE RRR Pert Send to: The Secretary, M.S.R. 38 Clanawley Road, Dublin 5.

REPUBLICAN

Se threatened any possibility of Labour affiliation.

At Rathmines the Stalinite line prevailed.

It was an empty victory, Those who advocated a Socialist Republican Party left the Congress altogether, The Connollys remained therein but failed to win the Labour Parties to affiliate to the front. For two years the Republican Congress existed as a somewhat expensive periphery of the C.P.L (including its own paper).

In 1935, it tried to expand (in line with contemporary “Popular Front” illusions) by organising joint meetings with members of the rank and file of Fianna Fail, but this was stopped by that party's leadership. ; The Spanish Civil War provided a decent way to end the farce. By going to Spain to fight Fascism, Congress members negatived the international effect of O'Duffy's recruitment on the other side and did so courageously.

In political terms, however, their heroism saved their front’s face and helped confuse its actual Read Information journal of Fourth International Contributors include, Ernest Mandel, Livio Maitan, Alain Krivine Available from SR seller and 38, Clanawley Road, Dublin.

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