[Marxism] Six Counties

[Octob1917@xxxxxxx]

The latest round of talks aimed at salvaging the beleagured peace process in
the Six Counties of Ireland have once again failed.

Surely now it is clear that, rather than peace, the British establishment and
Unionist ascendancy which rules the Province is interested only in the
wholesale defeat and surrender of the Republican movement.

Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein have made a major political blunder by trusting the
British. They should have studied history a little bit more keenly; if they
did they would have seen example after example of British duplicity when
dealing and treating with their colonial subjects.

Some within Republicanism feel that the failure of the GFA (Good Friday
Agreement) gives them the advantage, serving to highlight, they maintain, the
intractability of the Unionist establishment and their unwillingness to ever 
share
power with nationalists. I disagree. By successfully focusing on the issue of
the IRA and decommissioning, the Brit/Unionist alliance, utilising to the full
the US war on terror, have shifted the weight of reponsibility for the
failure of the process onto the shoulders of Sinn Fein.

People on the ground must be asking themselves how it has come to this: their
cause and their struggle denegrated and delegitimised so easily after 30
years of sacrifice to end a colonial occupation which has seen millions of
Irishmen and women killed, tortured and forced out of their country over a 
period of
900 years.

Then there is the role of the US, who came to the process as 'honest brokers'
but, as ever, have sided with the forces of reaction throughout.

When has the rights of an oppressed people ever been advanced by men in suits
sitting down to dictate a peace and the terms of that peace with the
representatives of that people. Only the strong can compromise and only equals 
can
reach agreement.

The only thing which the leaders of any revolutionary movement should be
willing to discuss with their enemies and occupiers is how they would like to
leave their country and by which route.


Joe
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