The Red and the Green

Somehow, I’ve gotten away with being a member of Sinn Fein for 7 years without having read Gerry Adams’ seminal work, The Politics of Irish Freedom. Written in 1986 when the War for National Liberation was at its height; the seismic events of 1981 were very much still fresh in people’s minds, the Hillsborough Treaty had just been signed between Thatcher and Garrett FitzGerald the year previous, and Sinn Féin were engaged in intense debate regarding the party’s long standing policy with regards to Leinster House. Shortly after publication of, the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis voted by majority to end abstentionism and, if elected, to take seats in the 26 county parliament.

That decision, motivated by the expression of popular support for Irish Republican prisoners which saw the election of Bobby Sands as MP for Fermanagh South-Tyrone, Kieran Doherty as TD for Cavan-Monaghan and Paddy Agnew as TD for Louth, paved the way for the participation of the Republican Movement in electoral politics. Testament to that participation is that Sinn Fein is now the largest party in Leinster House, having won 37 seats in the February 2020 election and Irish Republicanism is enjoying its highest level of popular support since the historic 1918 election.

I suppose a hidden, and indeed minor given the context, advantage of being in lockdown is that I’ve gotten the chance to sit down and work my way through the many unopened, half-read, discount- purchased books that have built up over the years. The Politics of Irish Freedom was one of those, and having finished the book in two days last week, I thought it appropriate to pull out four of the most important political messages that I took from it, and to use them as the basis for this article. 

Perfidious Albion 

The British government, through its 800+ year long unjust occupation of Ireland is the sole cause of conflict on this island. It is the single biggest obstacle to a just, lasting and stable peace.  Wolfe Tone, the founder of modern Irish Republicanism that from its inception sought to unite ‘Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter’ described the British Government as “the never failing source of all our political evils”. That the British Government today exercises authority over the 6 Counties and maintains a stranglehold on the 26 County State is a result of centuries of violence, coercion, terrorism and sectarianism; the latter being artificially created and carefully used to foster division amongst our people. Bobby Sands summed up the conflict in Ireland as being “between the oppressed Irish people and an alien, oppressive, unwanted regime that refuses to withdraw from our land.” One thing is clear; that no matter how many years have passed, nor how many try and whitewash Britain’s crimes in Ireland to serve their own vested political interests, the British Government has no right in Ireland.

Partition

James Connolly, upon founding the Irish Socialist Republican Party in 1896 wrote that;

“The subjection of one nation to another, as of Ireland to the authority of the British Crown, is a barrier to the free political and economic development of the subjected nation, and can only serve the interests of the exploiting classes of both nations.”

Indeed, whilst the partition of Ireland brought about by the Government of Ireland Act 1920 granted nominal political autonomy to the Irish Free State, it was carefully and strategically calculated to cut off the industrial head of the island, to inhibit the country’s economic growth, and to force a neo-colonial dependence on Britain still.

At the time of partition, the 6 Counties made up 29% of the population, 40% of the taxable income of the island, and included the industrial powerhouse of Belfast which was responsible for one-third of Ireland’s trade. The loss of all three combined to ensure that it would be impossible to build a viable economy, and guaranteed that Britain would maintain a stranglehold on the economy of the ‘Free’ State. 

Partition was to vindicate the prophetic words of James Connolly, who wrote a quarter of a century before the events that;

“If you remove the English army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic your efforts would be in vain. England would still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs.”

Socialism & National Liberation 

“The cause of Labour is the cause of Ireland.
The cause of Ireland is the cause of Labour.”

The single most important contribution that Connolly made in analysing the conflict in Ireland was the fusion of the social and the national, the red and the green, socialism and national liberation. 

‘Real national independence’ is an absolute, and non-negotiable prerequisite for socialism in Ireland. Real national independence requires the expulsion of imperialism in all its forms; political, economic, military, social and cultural. Real national independence is not nominal political independence in the 26 Counties, nor settling for devolved government in the 6 Counties. Indeed, Sinn Féin National Chairperson Declan Kearney upon restoration of devolved government earlier this year argued that participation in the Northern power-sharing executive gave republicans a ‘beach head’ to progress the debate on Irish Unity, and afforded us the opportunity to use Stormont as an engine for moving constitutional change.

I always hold the immense sacrifices of those comrades that came before us, who fought for national independence under much more difficult circumstances than we enjoy now. I’m also minded of a quote from a comrade who is no longer with us who, when asked something to the effect of, ‘what is our bottom line?’ The answer was, “we don’t have one, there is nowhere that we aren’t prepared to go.” It is that level of dedication to achieving national independence that will this phase of our struggle through

We should be vigilant of those who claim to uphold Connolly, but pick and choose when to apply his teachings, and wilfully abandon his most important contribution in terms of the unbreakable link between socialism and national independence important when political expediency dictates. Whether you disagree with us politically or not, the inescapable fact of the matter is that Sinn Féin is the best placed vehicle for achieving national independence, thus setting the stage for the building of socialism.

Those who profit politically from selling a view that socialism can exist in the 6 county state are disingenuous at best, and unscrupulous charlatans at worst. 

You cannot have socialism under British Imperialism - the two are very much mutually exclusive and antagonistic. So long as Britain exercises power over the 6 Counties and controls the purse strings by way of a block grant to the devolved government, they will never allow the existence of a better way of life - let alone fund it. For the British Government, ideologically committed to neoliberalism, that would represent the threat of a good example - the reason why the U.S. Government has spent 60 years trying to overthrow the Cuban Revolution.

For me one of, if not the single most important passage Adams writes is;

“In Ireland until partition is got rid of and a United Ireland established, being genuinely left-wing is to be an out-and-out republican. This was the key lesson of James Connolly for socialists in Ireland. That is why he was led, as a socialist, to join Pearse and the other radical republicans and democrats in a fight to establish an Irish Republic. If that fight had been successful, Connolly and the socialists would then have been in the best position to advocate the economic and social changes which constitute socialism. They would have proved themselves by their leadership of the independence struggle. That is why it is a political mistake to counterpose republicanism and socialism in Ireland as if they were opposites or antagonistic. 

The true socialist will be an active supporter of the republican character of the national independence movement. She or he will realise that unless this character is maintained and unless the most radical social forces are in the leadership of the independence struggle then inevitably it must fail or compromise.”

That is, the litmus test for socialists in Ireland today is their commitment to advancing the struggle for real national independence as the necessary prerequisite for building socialism. It is not enough to label yourself a republican or a socialist, you must become actively involved in that struggle -  Ná hAbair é Déan é.

There are some in Ireland today who are happy to take a back seat role, are comforted by perceived ideological purism, and are content to only offer criticisms based on those. That’s something they will have to deal with themselves, and we can’t afford, nor should we allow them to distract from the struggle we are undertaking to achieve national independence as the prerequisite for establishing socialism. They should either become actively engaged in the struggle for real national independence, or get out of the way. 

Looking Forward 

Irish Republicanism is inherently anti-sectarian. Indeed we operate as;

 “oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien Government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.”

Ours is an ideology of the oppressed and dispossessed seeking justice and equality. Inevitably, those who have profited from denying us rights, have sought and will continue to seek to oppose us at every turn, as equality will mean expropriating the privileges that they hold at our expense. 

We must recognise the tools of the oppressor when they are at play; particularly with regards to sectarianism which continues to cynically divide our people. Sectarianism exists because the British Government put it here in order to divide and rule our people and our land. You only kill a weed by pulling it out at its roots. 

As Adams argues, the transformation of society will not be achieved by “establishment figures or sectarian party politicians, by Church leaders, or by British warlords.” We can only build that new society by uniting the oppressed and working classes, who have the most to gain from that transformation - perhaps by demonstrating that we are capable, as Connolly did when he entered the GPO. One thought that is always to the fore of my mind as we are engaged in the struggle for real national independence is that;

“There is that much to be done that no select or small portion of people can do, only the greater mass of the Irish nation will ensure the achievement of the Socialist Republic, and that can only be done by hard work and sacrifice.” - Bobby Sands MP

le Aodhán Hamill