28.05.2008

Socialist politics and the road to decommissioning

Brian Keenan's death last week means the loss of an important ally for Gerry Adams. But Keenan was far more than an Irish nationalist, writes Anne McShane

Speaking after his death, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams eulogised Keenan for his energy and his unswerving commitment to republicanism: “Brian Keenan’s strong endorsement of the Sinn Féin peace strategy was crucial in securing the support of the IRA leadership for the series of historic initiatives which sustained the peace process through its most difficult times”(www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/29159).

It is plain that Keenan’s support for the “peace strategy” was vital in gaining the support of rank and file IRA members. He was a founding member of the provisional IRA and one of the first to take up arms in 1968. He remained a leading member since that time, and was one of the key strategists of the armed struggle. He was branded the single greatest threat to the British state by Tony Blair’s former head of staff, Jonathan Powell. He was particularly notorious for the bombing campaigns in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s.

Among many IRA members Keenan was a hero. Not just because of his role in the armed struggle, but for his commitment to working class politics and his opposition to constitutional nationalism. He was seen as somebody of principle, who believed in fighting for a socialist republic, not just a united Ireland.

Keenan became involved in politics at 17 when he moved from Derry to work in Luton and got active in trade unionism. He said he began to analyse politics through a “class prism” from then on. In a series of interviews with An Phoblacht this year, he said of himself as a young activist: “To me the enemy was capitalism and the system of exploitation” (March 27).

He returned to Northern Ireland in 1963, where he experienced first hand, like many others, the brutality of the RUC and the sectarian statelet. It made him angry and determined to defend the catholic working class community. For him the reason to “get involved in violent confrontation with the state was not the IRA, not republican politics, not republican ideology. The trigger was the civil rights movement.” He says: “I was against nationalism and I was critical of republicans in the movement in the late 1960s-early 70s who limited their politics to nationalism.”

But he did join and became a leading figure in rebuilding the IRA in 1968, travelling around the country in search of arms. Shortly after, he was forced to go on the run and did not return home to his wife and family for another 25 years, 17 of which were spent in prison in Britain.

It was during his time in prison that Keenan began to really rethink his political ideas. Although a loyal member, he was also very critical of the militarism of the IRA and the lack of debate and ideas: “There was a lot of elitism in the army. A lot of senior people were suspicious of politics. They thought it would corrupt the struggle - but the struggle was all about politics.” He began to see the need for a Communist Party and a struggle for socialism based on Marxism. He read voraciously over those years and for a time was in regular correspondence with Jack Conrad of the CPGB. We will put the whole of that prison correspondence up on our website and print excerpts in a coming issue of the Weekly Worker.

When Brian Keenan was released from prison in 1995, he was not at all enthusiastic about the new political turn of Adams and Martin McGuinness. He said even recently of the peace process: “I would prefer we were somewhere else, but we are not and that is it as far as I am concerned. Revolutionaries have to be pragmatic - wish lists are for Christmas” (An Phoblacht April 10).

But despite his obvious misgivings he was to play a leading role in cementing the success of the Good Friday agreement. He took on the role of decommissioning the IRA’s arms and negotiated the handover to general de Chastelain. It is no wonder that Gerry Adams expresses his gratitude. Here was the man who had built up the arsenal of the IRA now handing over its weapons. His work done, Keenan then retired from the leadership because of serious ill-health.

Sinn Féin wants us to remember Brian Keenan as the former IRA fighter who loyally backed the turn to bourgeois respectability. It wants to enlist his memory in support of its efforts to replace Fianna Fáil as an all-Ireland party of constitutional nationalism. It is ironic and sad that it is this very same nationalism of which Keenan was so deeply critical.

As he said in his final interview, “To me the national question was always a class question.” He had always been, and was still, against limiting the struggle to one for a united Ireland. He wanted socialism, for the working class to take the lead. What a pity his ‘pragmatism’ led him into the Adams camp.