13.07.1995

Republican road

Allan Armstrong for the Republican Worker Tendency replies to Steve Riley’s review (Weekly Worker 91) of its pamphlet, The Downing Street Declaration - ‘New Unionism’ and the ‘Communities of Resistance’

STEVE RILEY’S review states that the pamphlet “reflects much of what the British revolutionary left is currently saying about the Six Counties”. Really - can he provide any evidence for this?

The majority of the ‘Brit’ left view the ‘peace process’ as a concern mainly affecting Ireland. Furthermore, most are united in the belief that the national question there is in the process of being settled. In contrast to this, the main thesis of the RWT pamphlet is that the Downing Street declaration has to be seen as part of a ruling class response to the challenge of national movements in the United Kingdom. By far the most dangerous challenge has been provided by the republican movement in the ‘Six Counties’. The main base of the republican movement lies in the largely working class ‘communities of resistance’. This working class base, and not just the republican leadership, is the real target of the British government’s strategy.

Furthermore, with the decline of the British Empire, followed by the international slide of the British economy, the British ruling class are facing the break-up of their United Kingdom, not only in the ‘Six Counties’, but also in Scotland and Wales. The revolutionary challenge represented by the ‘communities of resistance’ in the ‘Six Counties’ must be removed, the better to cope with the wider threat. The UK state has only ever united a British ruling class. It has disunited the working classes of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Similarly, the role of the British Labour Party and TUC has been to disorganise our class in these four nations. Despite Steve’s assertion, nobody in the “British revolutionary left” has been saying these things.

Steve then gives the impression that the RWT views the “Downing Street declaration [as a] master stroke of cunning unionist strategy”. Well at this stage, we don’t know, since the ‘communities of resistance’ remain undefeated. The job of lowering the aspirations of these politically conscious communities has been largely allotted to Sinn Fein. There can be little doubt that there is and will be much questioning within these communities of Sinn Fein’s new role.

Instead Steve sees the Downing Street declaration as “more like a vacuous stop-gap from a programmeless government perched on the edge of oblivion”. Here he simply confuses the beleaguered Major and his Tories with the ruling class. For, despite each consecutive political disaster the Tories have faced, there is one thing the majority of the media spokespersons, pundits, Tony Blair and Paddy Ashdown are agreed upon. They are prepared to concede the statesmanlike qualities of Major over the Downing Street declaration, the ‘peace process’ and now, the Framework Document.

Labour, if elected, fully intends to adopt the same overall strategy with regard to ‘Northern Ireland’. Blair knows Major’s strategy there is supported by the ruling class, and is not just a desperate last-ditch whim of Major. However, Blair is offering some further refinements. Instead of devolution for ‘Northern Ireland’ only, he offers ‘devolution all round’, including Scotland and Wales, thus appearing to give the wider union a more consistent constitutional basis. ‘New Unionism’ represents the highest point of current ruling class thinking, developed over more than two decades of experience in dealing with national movements and, in particular, the nationalist parties within the UK. It is quite capable of further development. Some possibilities are outlined in the pamphlet.

The hollowness of Steve’s analysis is also shown in the following ridiculous statement. The RWT “fails to oppose nationalist tendencies within the workers’ movement almost as a point of principle”. Well a good deal of the pamphlet criticises Sinn Fein and the SDLP. Many of our leaflets and articles have criticised nationalist parties, particularly in Scotland. If there is a blindness to nationalism, perhaps it lies in Steve’s own eye. He cannot see his own British nationalism. Our members in Scotland oppose both British and Scottish nationalism. We see ourselves as Scottish internationalists. Once again Steve relies on pure assertion, stating the RWT “lines up ... as apologists for sectionalism and separatism within the workers’ movement”.

One characteristic of British nationalism, given its origins in British imperialism, is its arrogance. If they say you are petty nationalists, that must be the case. No evidence is required! The RWT has always argued for the necessity of working class unity from below, involving English, Scottish and Welsh workers. Of course our internationalism stops neither at the English Channel nor the Irish Sea, and we call for wider united working class action as needed.

Steve goes on to declare that, “It is not a republican united front for the break-up of the UK which the working class needs, but a mass Communist Party for the overthrow of the bourgeois ruling class.” As if a mass Communist Party can simply be declared or conjured into existence! The job of building (as opposed to merely declaring) a Communist Party cannot be separated from united front work in the present circumstances. Indeed this work will help to distil out a new communist programme from the many partial and competing programmes presently found in our politically divided movement. It is on the basis of this new programme that a new Communist Party can be built to meet the needs of the new millennium.

Now Steve makes another criticism of our pamphlet which seems like a genuine question: “Although in its introduction and conclusion it mentions a ‘republican road to communism’, it does nothing to develop this programmatic pronouncement.” This we have done elsewhere in our political programme. We think it would be inappropriate as communists living in England and Scotland to make an immediate programme for Irish workers. However, we would more than welcome discussion on our and others’ programmes, as well as the chance to work with communists from other countries in contributing towards an international programme. In the meantime the RWT political programme rejects all ‘British roads to socialism’ and outlines the ‘republican road to communism’, which Steve demands of us.