[Marxism] Sinn Fein

[Philip Ferguson <philip.ferguson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John, you are right that mere facts have no impact on Donal.

For a long time he argued that the IRA would never disarm and every time
they took a step along those lines, he would come up with some
'tactical' justification for it, while insisting they would never fully
disarm.  Oh, and denouncing critics as 'ultraleft' and 'sectarian'

Now they have, he simply moves his own goalposts.  And steps up the
rhetoric about 'ultraleftism'.

I haven't followed the list much lately, but I wouldn't be surprised if
he argues that the IRA is not going to disband.

And then when they do disband, he will simply adapt to that, find some
new 'tactical' rationalisation and ratchet up[ the abuse of 'ultralefts'
again.

You are, of course, dead right, that SF helped administer a sectarian
system in the north and that their highest ambition right now is to be
part of a new 6-county administration, working with the Brits and Ian
Paisley.  Their other main ambition is, as you note, being junior
partner to Fianna Fail.  Being in government both sides of the
imperialist border, and helping maintain (and police) that border,
ensuring stability and the best conditions for capital accumulation,
gives the lie to any paper, nostalgic commitment to any kind of
'socialism'.

In fact, I recall in my final years as a member in the early 90s, that
the section in AP/RN dealing with what we stood for actually dropped the
democratic socialist republic and replaced it with the aim of
reunification.

What I don't get, however, John, about you and your own group is why you
don't make a more serious effort to take the initiative in a regroupment
of anti-imperialist socialists.  Your attitude, for instance, to the
IRSP seems unhelpful.  Trying to find the things you disagree with them
on rather than the wide area of agreement you surely have seems
counter-productive.  

The divisions on the already sadly small anti-imperialist socialist left
simply leave the field wide open for Sinn Fein's bourgeois
pseudo-nationalism on the right and the SWP and SP's 'gas and water'
pseudo-socialism on the left.

This situation leads to absurd stuff like Bernadette ending up endorsing
the SEA 'gas and water' election campaign which managed to avoid even
mentioning the British occupation, the border, the nature of the
northern police force, etc.

Surely there is an urgent need to at least try to convene an open
gathering of anti-imperialist leftists to discuss the road forward.

I agree with you that the two key issues are the British occupation of
the north and its continued expression through the GFA (and Provo
involvement therein) and the partnership issue in the south.

But being right about that is negated by the unhelpful attitude SD seems
to have taken to others on the anti-imperialist/republican left. 

Phil 

 

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