British military's role in lreland. And in doing so

: - and deep understanding of Marxism, because he abstraction of all mindless Leftists — work and their declared committment to link the neds; so that when the Great War broke out, While the Catholic minority in the North } : Connolly like Lenin, took a revolutionary stand _ the Provisional I.R.A. was carrying out an national struggle and the class struggle, struggle against the Northern State and Br their emergence is undoubtedly a healthy }yndman’s and the Kautsky’s lined up behind _ imperialism, the Officials, despite their jar ad this evaluation we will point out a number to express itself, at a political level, as standpoint, i - their a a revolutionary organisation. through the ses revolution to its concen Northern state was incapable of granting t Ireland. However these militants should realise, struggle was irrelevant and divisive; instead that it was precisely because Connolly had a real they turned all their attention to that fashi rejection of the Officials reformist path, class over and above their immediate economic The Gpperiten wns pee revolutionary movement. Given their seeing the objective interests of the working Ste _ ; * . . . . . ; t n F sciee traditional form) has not been able to carr militants in Derry there was an awareness the republican movements tends to take up the democratic demands of the civil rights mo auestion of socialism, shift empirically to the The complexities of the Irish political situa Left. This was the case in the thirties and again in the sixties when the I.R.A. tried to develop a socialist program. The shallow Marxism of the Irish Left was of little help to them; under its guidance the Republican Movement acquired a dogmatic conception of the relationship between the national revolution and the socialist revolution. The “stages” theory of revolution which they developed was incapable of dealing with the situation which arose following the repression of the civil rights movement in the post-August *69 period — as a result the movement split.

Having failed to carry through the civil rights demands of the oppressed Catholic minority into an all out assault on the Northern state, the “Left-wing” of the Republican Movement, the Officials, turned to economism, the national became more and more counter-revolutior practice. It was against this background th complexities which have their basis in the social and economic development of Irelan make it necessary for revolutionaries to ha very clear conception of their tasks. The fa the Officials to develop a revolutionary pre or a revolutionary practice was not due to innate reformism amongs its individual lea It was because the method they used to de the problems raised in the course of the sti was not a revolutionary method, In partict must point out a number of basic question the Officials couldn’t cope with, and whic! now face the I.R.S.P. 1. The relationship between the unfinishe national revolution and the socialist revolu This is the basic question and a misunderst of the character of this relationship leads t the other misconceptions. In the epoch of imperialism the capitalist class is unable tc out the tasks of the national revolution; o

interests before class interests and has always been fl & w working class can successfully do so. Furthermore f€ the consciousness of the Irish working class is determined by the unfinished national revolution. Class struggle in this country takes the form of a national anti-imperialist struggle. But the national revolution cannot be completed within | the framework of capitalism. If socialists do not take the lead in this struggle they condemn it, t Revolutionaries must struggle on the one hand, against currents which advocate that the working class should fight on its own and on the other hand, against currents which subvert the interests of the working class to those of any other class. he The working class (and its revolutionary organisations should be foremost in this, must St. support all progressive struggles and take the leadership of all anti-imperialist strata.

ae 3. The nature of the southern state and the southern bourgeois The Southern state is a neo-colony, completely dominated by international capital (imperialism). The southern capitalist class is not a national bourgeoisie but a comprador one i.e. it is almost totally subordinate to imperialism and it itself involved in the exploitation of the most underdeveloped countries. There can be no possibility of any alliance between the southern ruling class and the anti-imperialist forces, on the contrary the position of the southern ruling class is very unstable because any anti-imperialist upsurge threatens its very existence.

4. The nature of the Northern state, the protestant working class and Loyalism. Imperialism created and fostered a caste system in the North whereby the descendants of the settlers (the Protestants) were privileged and separated from the native population (the stundpoint from which they do it, and the political effects .of their strategy. In terms of the defence of Catholic communities, in terms of defence of the class, in the event of a fascist takeover or a loyalist takeover which would attempt to impose its will and to impose anti-working class positions on us, then we would have to fight. The fact that the organisation, which was a fascist organisation imposing its will on us, was unfortunately composed of loyalist workers wouldn't make our resistance sectarian. We would have to fight them - you can’t just say ‘they're working class people, we won't fight them*.

RKEKEKAEKKAAAAKKAKKAKAALAKRAARRS Will you be seeking united fronts with other anti-imperialist organisations?

KEAEKKEAEARAKKAKALAEAKAAKAARRRS We will. The kind of front we're talking about would be one where organisations in the anti-imperialist struggle, agreeing with the basic demands we have put forward —which we feel most of them would— would commit themselves as organisations to a broad front on those demands.

This would not mean ourselves or any other organisation having to submerge their own identity or their own struggle or their own independent action.

ERAKKKKAKHKKAAKKAKKA KEKE EAH HR RR Do you foresee the possibilities of joint action with the Provisional Sinn Fein?

SHEER KAATEKAKAEKAAAKAKKAASRE If they are prepared to agree to the demands —which they ought to be since they have for some time put forward such demands themselves— we would certainly be prepared to work with them. I don’t see what principled objection they could have to working with us. But we haven’t discussed with them yet.

HRERESRAEEKEERSEKERASEASSHERESRESR Do you think it’s possible to involve the Protestant working cl4ss in the fight for a 32-county socialist republic?

SEERA KEEREKAEARAERRRARRERAEESE We've got to face facts with regard to the Protestant working class. and lead all other types of class struggle to the material conditions for the caste system inevitable defeat. disappear i.e. only when the Northern state has f been completely smashed, and if necessary the t 2. The relationship between the working class Loyalist para-military organisations as well, can and other (potential or actual) anti-imperialist any major sector of the protestant working class IAN MC LEAN ad forces. come over to the side of the progressive forces.

| a aration. represent us as people who are Same cause.

Catholics). This caste system was in fact strengthened by the lob-sided industrialisation ones which face all revolutionary organisations — of the North and was institutionalised by the and which the I.R.S.P. will have to come to terms foundation of the Northern state in 1922. The with in the immediate future. Until they do it protestant working class has always put caste is impossible for us to define issues of political dominated, in the final analysis, by the reactionary ideology of Loyalism. Only when There is no purpose in attempting to fool the Protestant workers into being nationalists. The only approach you can make to them is on the principled basis of a socialist republic. They have got to understand, and can only understand when the facts are properly put to them, that the only way they can make progress on class issues is through the national struggle.

But you make no real progress to bridging the sectarian division until you have at least a declaration by Britain to pull out. Because as long as Britain maintains her presence and insists that she is staying here what she is really saying to © the Protestant working class is ‘so long as you refuse to open your mind to any question of your class position, or the nature of the British role here, so long will you be protected by us.’ Once Britain says she in Britain.

is going then that complete, artificial loyalty to Britain will go with it.

This doesn’t mean that the Protestants will become socialist Republicans overnight, but ai least you have the potential for arguing the real issues with Protestant workers.

I can’t see how you would get any sizeable group of Protestant workers to envisage working for a socialist republic until you get that declSESEESSSKSS SESS ASS AEKEEESE Do you think it’s possible to win over the British working class to support of the Irish national struggle’ KEKKEAAKKKAKAKARREARKAKKEAE KK I think there is every possibility, although it has been made more difficult by the Birmingham bombings, which have made it easier for the mass media and the Government to represent us as an alien struggle which has nothing to do with the class struggle in Britain, and to against the interests of the British people, rather than fighting the This makes things more difficult, but not impossible. With the growing economic crisis, the ground is very fertile for increasing solidarity.

The questions which we have raised above are agreement or disagreement with them. Either way we are confidant that they will assist in the F defence of the oppressed minority in the north and in mobilising the working class on political and economic questions. In this we will be willing to work alongside them.

The ‘Troops Out’ movement has been moving in the right direction. When people, through the ‘Troops Out’ movement, were demanding the withdrawal of British troops they were doing so on a solid class basis, understanding the nature of imperialism. Whereas people who demand the withdrawal of troops because of the bombing campaign do it out of racial prejudice —their attitude is ‘well let them kill each other’.

I think the “Troops Out’ movement has done tremendous work in view of the difficulties facing them, and I think that that is the way forward —the British worker has got to understand the nature of the British Government’s role and the British military’s role in Ireland. And in doing so, understand even more the nature of the class struggle As the class struggle heightens in Britain I think that you are going to find British soldiers, with their background and training in the north of Ireland, being used against British workers. They are already setting the ground with legislation, using the Irish situation as a starting point. For example, in Northern-Ireland we have legislation which effectively prevents rent strikes, because they can simply take the money out of your family allowance. It’s a very simple step to put that, when necessary, onto the British statute book. We can see this from the ‘anti-terrorist’

legislation which has now been adopted in Britain. z RREESERERE SEES ARES EER AEEERES What is your view of the relationship between the struggle in the north and the situation in the south? HERRERA AREER AK EEE ERE ES There does not exist in Ireland at the moment an organisation whicl organises the working class on a — class basis to fight the anti-imperialist struggle. One of the results of this has been the almost total neglect of fighting the struggle in the south of Ireland.

The working class in the south of Lreland by and large believe themselves to be afree and independent nation, which of course they are (REE TT RR eR ENR rs A SR EE not. They are totally unaware of their own dependence on the British Government, of the complete control the British economy has over’ their everyday lives. And there doesn’t exist-an organisation which will relate their immediate class problems —their immediate problems of unemployment, their immediate housing problems, the quesfion, of the mines— to the national At the moment people see them as two isolated issues. No- organisation has ever attempted to bring the point home to workers in the south of Ireland that they are one and the same problem —that their prob lems in the south are directly related to the naked presence of British imperialism in the north.

EREREEERH REET HERR EREKEREREE So you will be seeking to mobilise people in the south in support of the struggle in the north, and combining this with work on the. social and economic problems?

RHKRKEERERARAARAEEARAKERAERSERKSASS Yes, I think the failure in the past to mobilise any great strength of support in the south for the struggle in the north is proof of the fact that nobody has ever related it to thé problems of the people in the south. They essentially do not see~it as their proble=. and they have so many immediatz problems that if you simply take it on a purely national issue of creating an independent Ireland, driving the British out of the north of Ireland, and creating a 32-county state, then people in the south really don’t want to know.

All they do know is that facing a position of such great unemployment at the moment, the last thing they want is another million and a half mouths to feed. They don’t see it in terms of changing the whole structure of the south. And unless their immediate problems are related, and they can see the relationship between the problem in the north and the south, then they’ll never be interested.

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