Women

use of trendy jargon.

Itiscertainly true that sections: of the women's movement have divorced themselves from the struggle against imperialist domination. But what TeresaKkelly!s article ignoresis the develop— ments which have taken place in the women!s movement mainly through the debate initiatedby women member s of People's Democracy aslongas7 yearsago.

AUT ONOMOU SMOVEMENT The women!s movement isnota homogenous mass of either "trendies'' or revolutionaries. Itis a movement united to fight wo-men!s oppression and itisthe only guarantee that women!s needs will not be by passed or forgotten about in any new social— ist society. For thisreason, it has animportance initself and women revolutionaries must defend itsright to exist auto— nomously.

The women's movement doesnot existina vacuumeither. Women who begin to examine their opp— ression asa sex very often begin to question all of the other values so often taken for granted. In particular, the protest of the Armagh women prisoners forced every feminist to question where she stood on their fight and their suffering.

All three work shops on Armagh The strength of the H-Block/Armagh struggle has shown itself in many ways. Among other things, ithasforced the 'hurlers onthe ditch! out onto the pitch where all can see their skills. Unfortunately, it isnot alwaysapleasant spectacle. After years of sitting on the fence, many of themare out of condition and tend to get in the way of play. When theref isn't looking they will even attempt to knock their own team-mates off the ball.

A case in point is the League for a Workers! Republic, whichin arecent issue of its journal, Workers! Republic, commitsa number of off—the—bal! fouls againstPD. Theclumsiness of these flying tackles isno surprisetous. The LWRhasnot much experience in playing for the anti-imperialist team.

Their recordisone of hostility to, andabstentionfrom, the anti-imperialist struggle. At one time, they specialised in branding the Provosas"nation= alist provacateurs!! who should be disarmed andrun out of the labour movement. At the height of the Loyalist pogroms against the Catholic minority, they proclaimed that "their sympathyis entirely with the Protestant worker s!! and called for unconditional support for the Protestants!right to self—determination.

Not surprisingly, they became a moribund sect and practically disappeared, When they reemerged in the mid-!70!s they hadn't learnt much, They retaineda vitriolic hostility tothe anti-imperialist movement des— cribingitasa''petty—bourgeois current indecay"', They pre~. ferred to grovel in the shadow of Corish and Cluskey rather than The oppression of women takes many forms andavery obvious one in the run up to general elect— ions in the 26 Countiesis the tiny number of women in the Dail. Atpresent, there are 7 out of 144 and most of this 7 were elec— ted on someone else!sname. Because of this, the women!s movement is facing pressure to support women candidatesas such, inorder to improve women!s numerical positionin the 26 County Dail.

But the fundamental problem for women liesin the structure of Irish society andnot one of the women candidates currently presenting themselves for election are capable of putting for warda platform that can deal consistently with the oppression of women's lives. Toask women to vote for other women purely on the basis of sex,side-steps the issue of whether and how these women will represent those who vote for them.

In some cases, men may be more consistent fighters for women!s rights than women deputies, where their programme is one which concerns itself with the issues facing all oppressed pro-imperialist politicians. unconditional release.

to actively participate in the campaigns against imperialist repression. For them, the salt of the Irish working class were those who had illusions inthe Labour Party.

In short, the L_WR and other sectarian groups like them are based on the most politically backward sections of the working class. Flowing logically fromthis, they have areformist concept of class struggle which focuses not on the needto smash state power but on winning "bread and butter !! reforms. Accordingly, they are unable tounderstand the full importance of the National Struggle, whichisessentially a struggle people in Ireland.

Even a woman who standsona radical platform for women's rights cannot be supported on that basisalone, The partition of Irelandled, among other things, to aunique form of social oppression in which even the most basic demands for reform became a threat to the stability and Southy two confessional states formed in which the cen— tral role of the Catholic Church in the South was only matched by the integration of the Protestant Churches in the North withLoyalist politics.

In the South, the 1920's, when sawa barrage ofrepressive legislation on divorce, censor-— ship, mixed dances and contra— ception. Thisculminatedin the enshrinement of the family as the basicunit oflrish society, and nised Church of the State in the 1937 Constitution. Itisnoco-— incidence that this legislation appeared inthis context and that latterday attempts atreform have been totally piecemeal in character. The "Irish solution to the Irish problem!''isaphrase Even if the formulations of the LWR were sometimes a little crude, we were in general correct to oppose the orientation of the Peoples Democracy and to counterpose to it an orientation to the workers' movement and the organisation of imprisonment in the Free State Labour Party.

Above we reproduce a paragraph from the magazine under discussion. While obviously disagreeing with the analysis we are extremely concerned toread of the "imprisonment"! of. WR members in the Irish Labour Party. Inour usual non-sectarian, unselfish manner we are willing tolaunch an immediate campaign calling for these comrades We await details of whothese peopleare. In the meantime we reproduce an artists impression of the kind of individual militants should be on the look-out for.

to destroy the Northern and Southern states, Thisis well illustratedin their attitude toFiannaFail andthe SDLP.

Wing to subordinate the H-Block/ of FiannaFail andthe SDLP.

Thereisnota grain of truthin object toisPD!sfight to place the exposure of the comprador parties at the centre of the political status struggle. Fianna BritishImperialismhas. Butit can maintainits position only by assumed, of the two artificial states, North Tests.

partition was being consolidated, the Catholic Church as the recog— But our growth and Thel WR chargesPD with wantArmagh campaign to the interests eyes.

thisallegation. What they really Fail, at the moment, isthe single most stable prop of Partition that of more political relevance than many people in their amusement It is therefore mistaken to see Irish women's problems as being the result of shortsightedness or laziness on the part of indiv— idual Dail Deputies. The opp— ression of women is a fundamen— tal rock upon which partitioned Irelandisbuilt. Thisexplains why women politiciansin the main, members of the conventional political parties whoes— pouse the cause of women, but look no deeper than that, inevit-— ably compromise women!sinterGemma Hussey and NualaFennell, now members of Fine Gael, were two of the main figures behind the "Why not a Woman? "! campaign in the 1974 election. Fine Gael!'s Gemma Hussey!s performance as Senator hasbeen less than exem— plary and while she hasraised issues suchascriminal conver— sation and sexismin advertising, it has been purely in the context of "government bashing! for the sake of it and without any real attempts to organise women to fight for their ownrights.

Similarly, FiannaFail's Eileen Lemass, whohas voiced her own creating theillusionthatitis actively pursuing the goal of national unity. Itis imperative that this contradiction shouldbe sharpened. Britishimperialism will concede the demands of the prisoners only ifitis faced with the prospect of itsFiannaFail prop crumbling andthe Southern state disintegrating beforeits TheL WR itself admits that ''the unity of FiannaFailisamajor necessity to maintain the stab-— ility of Free State institutions". Surely if they were interested in bringing down the Southern state they would advocate direc— ting fire against this fragile unity. bill anditsrestrictionson single people and who opposed the lack of provision for marital rapein the newrape bill votedin favour of both pieces of legislation.

For women members of bourgeois parties, areal andclear choice is posed: either they accept the inevitable subordination of their interests asan oppressed sex to the class interests of the party or they break from the party in favour of independent political struggle in the interests of women. Most take the first option and this vin— dicates the strongly held view of socialists that classinterests Women in Peop!|es Democracy have attempted to do this and have been in the forefront of the fight to make the women!s move— ment see the link between the denial of their democraticrights as women and the denial of the democratic rights of alllrish people. One isnot subordinated to the other -itisclearly wrong to argue that "we will have national liberation first, then we will think about women!s rights'' as some members of Sinn Fein attempted to doat the Women!s Conference in Belfas. on International Women!s Day. Our slogan must be ''wherever women are oppressed we must support them today", ROSE OIMAHONY But their "bread andbutter"! politics prevents them from drawing suchaconclusion. Rather than anoutright challenge toFiannaF ail and the Southern State, they demand that the H-BI ock/Ar magh campaign have an orientation towards "putting the removal of pro— imperialist agents fromthe labour movement at the heart of the battle", Tothe naive, this might soundvery left-wing and | socialist butitisin fact acomplete diversion -—itletsthosein command of the Southern state off the hook and aims fire only at their lieutenants, Even then they use blank ammo, spending their time issuing emp— ty callsfor "General Strike! which was useless in the practical situation which confronted the cam-= paign. They inflate their own modest and confused efforts out of all proportion and attempt to masquerade abroad asleaders of the H-Block/Armagh campaign. They don!t quite state thisin their journal, whichisfor Irish consumption, as they would be laughed off the field-— even then some of their more obscure for— mulations leave a bemused smile on the lips of many activists.

This and all the other windy rhetoric emanating from the WR is illustrative of their unique continuation of a guilty conscience about their past anti-republican economism and their total inab— ility tounder stand political reality.

They have been hurling on the ditch for so long we suggest that the only sensible coursenowis to take a break and spend some time on the substitutes! bench where they might learn some— thing from the other players on the field.

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC PAGE 7

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