30.07.2008

Prisoner B26380's dilemma

Brian Keenan died on May 21 2008. For many he was a revolutionary hero. Some compare him to James Connolly, Vo Nguyen Giap, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, and Joe Slovo. Not just because of his role in the Irish Republican Army's armed struggle, but his lifelong commitment to the working class. Jack Conrad writes an appreciation

Speaking shortly after his death, a grateful Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, paid a glowing tribute to Brian Keenan, his energy and unswerving loyalty to the republican movement. After all, Keenan had been vital to him in securing acceptance within the IRA for the peace process (see www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/29159).

But comrade Keenan considered himself a Marxist, a communist and an internationalist. So an equivocal or conditional ally of Adams. Never an unalloyed enthusiast for the peace process, let alone a constitutional nationalist.

Keenan discovered communism through the ‘official’ CPGB. To begin with at least, his communism was therefore an anti-Stalin Stalinism. Basically, he accepted what passed for the Soviet state’s global strategy: ie, a grand alliance between the so-called socialist countries, the workers’ movement in the west and the forces of national liberation.

As a young man Keenan lived and worked in Luton and then Northampton. This was during the early 1960s. He became an active trade unionist and met industrial cadre from the ‘official’ CPGB’s South East Midlands district. Of lasting importance was the fact that he was introduced to the writings of C Desmond Greaves, author of the influential The life and times of James Connolly (1961).

Throughout the rest of Keenan’s life Connolly served as something of a role model. Without the struggle for national freedom, socialism was impossible. Without socialism, national freedom was worthless. In other words, for Connolly - and Keenan - the two struggles had to be combined.

In a farewell interview with An Phoblacht in April 2008 a dying Keenan told how it was the civil rights movement in 1968 that served as his political apprenticeship. Keenan’s reason for getting “involved in violent confrontation with the state was not the IRA, not republican politics, not republican ideology. The trigger was the civil rights movement” (www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/27259).

A wide spectrum of opinion co-existed within its ranks: communist trade unionists, social democratic nationalists, republicans, liberal protestants, radical students, etc. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association demanded ‘one person, one vote’ and ‘equal housing allocation’. For a year or so it enjoyed leaping success.

That said, in the name of preserving ‘tremendous diversity’, Nicra studiously avoided confronting the national question in Ireland and therefore quickly met its political limits and sank into irrelevance.

By 1969 Northern Ireland was gripped by what can only be described as a revolutionary situation. Catholic areas in Belfast and Derry came under sustained attack from unionist mobs and ‘B specials’ (a sectarian police force). The battle for Bogside erupted. ‘Ethnic cleansing’ occurred on a large scale. Hundreds of catholic families were driven from their homes.

The struggle entered a new, violent stage. Barricades ringed catholic-Irish areas and ad hoc self-administration followed. The Dublin government vaguely muttered about military intervention. A panicked Harold Wilson rushed in the British army to rescue the crisis-ridden Unionist regime. However, not least with the help of £100,000 secretly channelled in from Fianna Fáil bigwigs in the south, the IRA re-emerged as a serious force. The long war in Northern Ireland had begun.

Perhaps surprisingly, given his political background, Keenan sided with the Provisionals, not the Officials, when the republican movement split in December 1969. (Official Sinn Féin, later the Workers Party, was heavily influenced by ‘official communism’.) Being on the ground, Keenan saw in no uncertain terms that the ‘stickies’ had treacherously deserted the beleaguered catholic masses in the Six Counties.

Inevitably, though, Keenan found himself ideologically far removed from the Seán Mac Stíofáin leadership of the Provisionals: i.e. the traditional physical-force nationalists. He emphatically stated: “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” (www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/27259).

Initially Keenan found himself regarded rather coolly. Rumour amongst the Provisionals was that he was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party. Mistrust soon became its opposite, however. Keenan earned a reputation as a brave fighter and a strategic thinker. Living the life of the professional revolutionary, constantly on the move, single-mindedly working for the cause, he steadily rose up the ranks of the IRA to the highest levels.

He played a leading role in ensuring that IRA volunteers were equipped with modern weaponry. Armalites replaced Lee Enfields. Valuable contacts were made in Libya, Syria, US, Palestine, and eastern Europe by Keenan.

Along with Martin McGuinness, he was responsible for winning the IRA to reorganise into tightly knit cells (a plan originated by Gerry Adams, then languishing in Long Kesh). Keenan also oversaw the IRA campaign to take the war to Britain - i.e. bombings and assassinations. He became something approaching public enemy No1.

However, in 1979 the RUC arrested Keenan. Extradited to England, he was sentenced at the Old Bailey to 18 years. The IRA dispatched an active service unit, including Bobby Sands, to rescue him. It failed, sad to say.

From late 1987 to early 1989, prisoner B26380, Brian Keenan, and myself regularly exchanged letters. The correspondence began with Keenan. As the reader will appreciate, the Weekly Worker only has space to carry tiny selected excerpts. On our website, of course, there is no such constraint. There we are putting up the lot - around 40,000 words in all. Apart from correcting punctuation, spellings, etc. we present the letters unexpurgated. I have added explanations here and there, when I think they are needed. Where particular words are undecipherable because of Brian’s awful handwriting, this is indicated. The hope is that serious historians and partisans of communism and Irish republicanism will alike find the material useful.

During the 1984-85 Great Miners’ Strike our organisation began sending copies of The Leninist - predecessor of today’s Weekly Worker - to political prisoners in the jails of Britain and Ireland (north and south). Miners, of course, but Irish prisoners too. There were well over 400 of them, if I recall correctly. Various comrades meantime tried to maintain morale and develop links by writing supportive letters. Amongst those comrades was David Rhys (a cadre name - he now works as a successful financial journalist). Hence the addressee of Keenan’s first letter.

Brian wanted to get to grips with our ideas. His central concerns surface time and again. How is the struggle for communism to be taken forward? What role could Sinn Féin play? What is going on in the Soviet Union? How to safeguard what we both saw as the historic gains of the working class internationally?

Obviously Keenan was in part attracted by our intransigent opposition to British imperialism in Ireland. But also our critique of ‘official communism’ and the ongoing fight for genuine communist parties everywhere. Clearly his politics were in turmoil. Confused about Gorbymania and developments in the Soviet Union and visibly unhappy about the direction Adams was taking the republican movement.

Not that I look at my past record smugly. No matter how firm and optimistic my politics may appear in these letters to Brian, they were about to undergo another qualitative change. In essence, we in the Leninist wing of the CPGB thought that the Soviet Union, China, eastern Europe, etc, were deformed workers’ states. They had to be saved from capitalist restoration through a political revolution. Increasingly, we feared that, given the balance of global forces, capitalism would win and bring about a period of reaction.

Within a couple of years, I had changed my mind on bureaucratic socialism. The Soviet Union had, from the late 1920s, ceased to be any kind of a workers’ state; through a counterrevolution within the revolution it had morphed into an anti-working class, but highly unstable, exploitative social formation (my much delayed book on the USSR is still being worked upon).

When it came to Ireland, I desperately wanted Brian to write a ground-breaking book which would lay the theoretical and programmatic foundations for a communist wing of Sinn Féin. Inevitably that would, sooner or later, lead to a split - but also, I earnestly hoped, to a genuine Communist Party in Ireland (as can be seen by references in the letters, there were at the time organisations and prominent individuals that seemed to be moving in that direction).

It was not to be. Neither they nor Brian were up to it. History needed more time and another generation. Unfortunately, because Keenan doggedly insisted on seeing Sinn Féin as a vehicle, even the vanguard, for socialism in Ireland, he overvalued the unity of the republican movement. So much so that, paradoxically, after his release in 1993 he went on to become a key player in disarming the IRA. Politically, Keenan had reached a dead end.

Cleverly - some might say deviously - Adams appointed Keenan as the IRA’s main intermediary with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (headed by retired Canadian general John de Chastelain). He knew IRA militants trusted Keenan. Indeed Adams banked on that. Hence, almost in spite of himself, Keenan played a crucial role in ensuring the success of Sinn Féin’s transition from revolutionary nationalism to constitutional nationalism.

Nevertheless, looking back, I still admire Brian Keenan tremendously. I am proud that he called me a friend and comrade.

Selections from Keenan-Conrad correspondence

September 30 1987

Dear comrade Rhys

…. I would appreciate some personal contact with a comrade connected directly to the paper if that is at all possible. My intention, at this stage, would not, however, be to engage in overt debate in the columns of the paper. I’m sure you will appreciate that, as a political POW, I do not have ready access to all types of written material which would be of specific interest to me. In this respect, fraternal contact with someone like Jack Conrad would be most welcome ….

In the interim I wish every success to all comrades at The Leninist.

With fraternal greetings
Brian P Keenan

October 21 1987

Dear comrade Brian

Thank you for your recent letter, which we were very pleased to receive ….

You say that you do not normally correspond with non-republican movement journals. If this is a general practice I think it is a mistake. I’m not just referring to The Leninist, but the entire spectrum of opinion in Britain and for that matter internationally. I presume most groups send you their publications. The voice of Irish freedom fighters should ring out through these publications at least. It should be heard as widely as possible ….

In solidarity and friendship
Jack Conrad

October 26 1987

Dear comrade Jack

I was pleased to receive your letter of October 21 1987 ….

You make some precise observations on my reluctance to correspond with journals other than republican movement publications. In the main, that is a personal decision which I wish you to respect. You are, however, entitled to an explanation. I will be brief for now, but will expand or debate any point on your request. I have been in prison for eight and a half years. In that time I have received journals from almost all of the organisations in the left spectrum.

With the notable exception of The Leninist I was propositioned by each for ‘moral authority’ endorsement of their own particular brand of support for the ‘freedom fighters’. You may gather I reject the terms in parenthesis, anathema to me in fact: they smack of the chauvinism you rightly object to ….

Comrade, it is late at night, my eyes aren’t as good as before, my mind has gone a bit dull. Please forgive my atrocious writing and rambling thought - I do, however, get much pleasure in writing to you. I await with anticipation.

With respect

Yours
Brian Keenan

November 9 1987

Dear comrade Brian

…. On your not engaging in public debate, this is as you say your decision. And I will, of course, not pester you. We can always come back to this question in the future.

I just feel that republican prisoners have enormous moral authority, which should be used to maximum effect ….

…. I certainly accept that the republican movement has shifted to the left. But, no, I do not agree that AP/RW can be considered Ireland’s Iskra. Why? Simply because of the class nature of the republican movement. AP/RN is a good left nationalist mass paper, it has much to teach us in terms of mass impact and propaganda. …

Yours with communist greetings
Jack Conrad

November 19 1987

Dear comrade Jack

I received your welcome letter and also the back issues of the paper. Many thanks, I was delighted with them. Sorry about my writing: do your best ….

A small point: if you re-check my last letter you will see that I refer to AP/RN as an “embryonic” Iskra. I believe that, and anyway, I’m sure you will agree that because of Lenin’s pragmatism, in relation to his necessary association with Plekhanov in the initial production of Iskra, the first issues were not the brightest sparks ….

…. I’m all for glasnost and perestroika, but reform must begin deep within the CPSU. When Lenin asked that “the cloth be measured several times before it was cut” he didn’t mean that it shouldn’t be measured at all. Possibly glasnost could create conditions within the soviets where political revolution in the interests of the proletariat is a possibility. The manifestations of glasnost, however, outside the soviets, seems to me to be openness in compromise with imperialism.

…. I hope to hear from you soon. Comrade, I have just re-read this with the same difficulty you had. Sorry, I can’t seem to write properly when in full flow.

Fraternally yours
Brian

November 26 1987

Dear comrade Brian

Your letter, November 19, was very interesting (and you will be pleased to know that I am having less trouble with your handwriting - either because I’m getting used to it or because you are making an effort to write clearer for me - or most likely a combination of both). You have raised many points and made many comments, Let me first say that on the bulk of what you say I am in complete agreement. Most of my disagreements are minor, though there are, of course, some areas where we take very different positions - this is a good basis for us both to go forward.

…. On medium development. Your answer precisely confirms that Ireland is medium developed. There is finance capital - but because Ireland is a weak power it cannot expand imperialistically. Finance capital can only operate as a junior partner with imperialism in the exploitation of its own people. Your assertion that Ireland is an underdeveloped - ie, a backward capitalist country - just does not fit the facts ….

Fraternal greetings, your friend and comrade
Jack Conrad

December 9 1987

Dear comrade Jack

I’m pleased to know you find it easier to decode my writing. I was very pleased also with the literature. I have asked my comrades here to study What is to be done? with a view to discussing it with them later. Comrade, you must realise by now that on certain things I walk on a tightrope - and I don’t feel comfortable in defending the indefensible.

I have serious problems with certain aspects of republicanism and if we had personal contact, things could be sorted out. We do walk different roads, only because of my present circumstances. Some day we will walk together in a united party of these islands - that has to come ….

On the USSR, and your reference to the plurality of parties on the road to social democracy. I have great difficulty in believing that the democratic institutionalisation of “parties” can ever lead to communism. I know what you are saying, but consider this: the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in a way manifests centralised corruption (sic) - but would not a pluralist society decentralise corruption, with a consequently much more difficult solution?

…. Take care, comrade. Don’t get too inebriated over the holidays.

Your comrade and friend
Brian Keenan

December 29 1988

Dear comrade Brian

…. I’m glad that you were pleased with the lit - I know you and your comrades will make good use of it. It’s not for nothing that revolutionaries have dubbed prison their university. Organised, disciplined study is vital, though. As you know nothing can be achieved through browsing. That is why I would suggest that you set yourself specific tasks, a specific project, to be capped at the end of the day by a publication - as it were your prison PhD. What do you think about something along the lines of Marxism and the national question? ….

Yours in friendship and comradeship
Jack Conrad

January 16 1988

Dear comrade Jack

…. I do have a programme of study and certainly Marxism and the national question is of particular interest to me. My problems in that respect are that a lot of Marxist theory, including Marx himself, tend be Eurocentric. While Stalin contributed some limited exposition on Marxism and the national question, he was primarily concerned with the Russians, and may even have been guilty of Greater Russian nationalism.

…. Your argument on ‘plurality’ is very convincing. Must I, however, give up all hope on CPSU? Can the legacy of Stalin-Brezhnev not be eschewed? Recent Gorbachev moves against corruption - for example, in the Uzbek republic - are surely encouraging ….

…. Jack, I will keep you well informed of my progress vis-à-vis the republican movement. Please keep in touch with me if possible. I hope your holiday was good. I was ill for a few weeks! Oh well - only another six to do!

Take care, comrade
Brian

January [?] 1988

Dear Brian

Let me start by saying sorry for not being more prompt in replying to you. This is in part the old, old problem of time, but it is also that I feel that it is important to mull over your letters and give them the attention they deserve,

…. I also thought I would send you a photocopy of a recent Economist survey of the Twenty-six Counties. While not for one moment being a follower of its typical English subjective political line, I think the description of the south, “the poorest of the rich”, is spot on: ie, it is a medium developed capitalist country.

…. Do not place one iota of faith in G[orbachev]. He is an utter revisionist. The bourgeoisie love him for good reason. He is not fighting corruption in any real sense. Corruption is endemic amongst the bureaucratic parasites that leach off the socialist state. Including the G family. The entire stratum is guilty. None of them have clean hands. G’s fight against corruption is a sham, it is a sop, a political device against bureaucratic opponents. It is not a genuine anti-corruption drive …..

Best communist wishes, comrade Brian

The future is ours
Jack C

January 29 1988

Dear Jack

Delighted to hear from you! I got all the books - great! I already had that Economist survey, Jack - it is useful in many ways. I must now concur (almost) with the “medium development” formulation ….

Anyway, dear comrade, I have been, until now, undecided about my next moves. Harsh words have been said (by me). As you know, I told you about Iris Bheag - I was quite excited about its potential. The first edition was in September 1987, monthly. In No3 (November 1987) a member of the SF leadership wrote a fairly nasty letter against what he called the over-use of “jargon” (sic) in the first two editions. He then nominated the “jargon” as “Marxist-Esperanto” ….

Much respect
Brian

February 19 1988

My dear friend and comrade Brian

Glad to hear things are okay in the nick - in a way no news is good news. Also glad to see you’ve moved on medium development. Not because you have been won to my argument, but because this is the objective position Ireland occupies in the world pecking order ….

And this brings me to your developing polemic. I will not mince words, I will speak frankly, as comrades should. I would not be in so much of a rush as you appear to be in. So someone slags off “Marxist-Esperanto”? So what! What a prat!

…. You have standing. You are a proven fighter and republican partisan. You also have time - not much in a certain sense, but enough. When you are released the basic questions that confront the movement will still confront it and you will not be an old man ….

Best wishes

Comradely greetings
Jack Conrad

February 28 1988

Dear comrade Jack

I got all your mail - great - you are the best of comrades, not just for your literature but for your most valued advice. Firstly - my decision to attack the “Marxist Esperanto” prat would, in normal circumstances (in the scenario you envisaged) probably have been rash - however, I believed I had no choice. I’ll give you a brief history ….

Jack, you have my mind in turmoil - oh how I want so much to follow the programme you suggest. Do I have the mental capabilities? I don’t know! I have a very simple-minded will, it is my concentration powers which may let me down. Good information is also vital - I tend to exhaust every source available to me. Even bourgeois economic reports are difficult to accumulate and collate - normally when I do get one it is badly out of date. I have hopefully five years, Jack - I do intend to use them well ….

Much respect
Brian

Jack, my writing is in relapse again!

March 21 1988

Dear comrade Brian

Glad you got the lit okay - here’s some more, including Marx and Engels on India, as promised and an old (yes, I’m sorry, but still) copy of Stalin On the national question.

Even though Marx and Engels’ writings are early, I think you’ll agree that they show no ‘Eurocentrism’ - they show Marx and Engels always sought to approach questions in the concrete, not with a ready-made European or any other geographical or cultural doctrinaire formula.

Brian, on your polemic in Iris Bheag. Let me be quite frank: far be it for me to tell you what or what not to do, but, yes, I do think you have been rather hasty. You need to crystallise your ideas. Make them granite-hard - then strike. Your ideas are still in the process of becoming thorough, let alone really hard ….

Your friend and comrade
Jack Conrad

June 26 1988

Dear comrade Jack,

…. I am very upset at recent trends and Phil Flynn’s acceptance of a role in a Haughey committee is very worrying [a former leading member of the IRA, former vice-president of Sinn Féin and at the time a top trade union official].

Before I get on to our project, I’ll let you know what I have been doing. I believe I told you that I had written to a protestant union leader (a spirited communist) on the Six Counties. He has not replied!

…. Comrade - have I lost my way a bit? Or am I just a victim of my own isolation? It is difficult for me to take certain steps, Jack, because of my Óglaigh [IRA] roots - do you understand that?

Your friend and comrade
Brian

June 28 1988

Dear comrade Brian

…. Did you hear about John Mitchell’s problems with the IDATU [union’s] executive, by the way? They don’t seem to mind him solidarising with faraway Turkey or South Africa. But when it comes to the struggle at home, it is a different matter. Let’s hope that he can mobilise support against the executive. If he doesn’t, he’s in an impossible situation. Do you have any information on what happened? If you do, please fill me in ….

Write quickly - even if it is only a short note. It will be good to hear from you again.

Warm communist greetings

Your friend
Jack Conrad

July 18 1988

Dear comrade Brian

It was with great pleasure I received your letter (June 26). We’ve obviously got our wires crossed. So let’s get back into a regular correspondence, as we both suggested to each other.

Sorry to hear about your health problems. Recently so many I feel close to - including now yourself - have gone down with illnesses of one sort or another ….

It is excellent that you are in contact with him [John Mitchell]; he could prove more than just a useful ally in the future. By the way, have you any information on his troubles with IDATU’s executive (it would be of great interest if you did)?

…. Now on to your pamphlet. I think you are right and wrong in saying that you would have to come out and call for ‘a revolutionary CP’. You are certainly wrong though to suggest that you are in a Catch 22 situation. Let me explain myself.

Above all there is the question of form and content. (This is a theme that will run throughout this letter).

I’ve looked back at the plan I suggested for the pamphlet and as you will see it emphasises content, not form, and quite rightly.

The republican movement claims to stand on the tradition of Connolly. You can do the same, only with the ‘advantage of hindsight’: ie, Lenin and the Russian Revolution, etc. The content of your argument should be Marxist-Leninist, but there is nothing wrong at this stage in putting this over in an Irish (republican) form. Mao certainly put over his Marxist ideas in a Chinese form. Without going in for his simplifications, there is a lesson to be learnt here ….

I salute your courage and wish you well.

Your comrade and friend
Jack Conrad

July 21 1988

Dear comrade Jack,

I received your welcome letter …. My health problem, and my general well-being are much better now, Jack - my only problem is a certain lack of confidence. You must be patient - I am over-conscious of the tightrope I walk.

Give me some time - I need a lot more feedback from Ireland, in more ways than one. It isn’t too easy to get certain information. Anyway, comrade, be assured that I won’t lose heart - as I said before, I have four and a half years now to get my mind, etc, in order. I intend to do just that.

About Mitchell - he is going through the home office vetting procedures at present, to become a registered visitor to me. In his last letter to me he claimed to have survived an internal witch-hunt. I agree with you that if he is outflanked here then he will be in a hopeless position. He does offer, though, to have a cadre with him, so I think we can achieve something, whatever happens. You know, I presume, that some of his own executive attempted to [get] IDATU [to] withdraw organisation from the Six Counties. Anyway, I’ll keep you informed of any relevant developments there ….

Take care, comrade - keep in touch - I’ll do my best!

Your friend
Brian

August 5 1988

Dear comrade Brian,

…. Glad to hear your health has improved. Health problems are so draining, not only physically, but spiritually. And that brings me to the pamphlet. Brian, in my view, the best thing is to start work. Then you will find out exactly what material you need, what fresh reading you need to do, what adjustments need to be made ….

Anyway, I look forward to hearing from you soon, Brian.

All the best, your friend and comrade
Jack Conrad

August 20 1988

Dear comrade Jack

This will just be a short letter to let you know that I am still alive

…. Mitchell has forwarded an application to be an approved (sic) visitor to me. The home office takes time over these things. I hope it works out and I will keep you informed. While you are correct about IDATU calling for a halt in its Six Counties’ recruiting programme - John seems very confident that he can reverse that decision. I do know for sure that he still has very active people in the Six Counties. Maybe he is overestimating his friends within IDATU - if so then he will very quickly be marginalised, and that would be a disaster. I’m just not sure, Jack, how strong he is. I will be very careful for a time, in any case [in fact, the IDATU executive sacked Mitchell - the union is now called Mandate].

.... Jack, you said once that you wouldn’t give me longer than the prison time I had left to produce something tangible. Well, I think I might need all of that - I definitely suffer from a lack of confidence. Putting all my thoughts on paper will take some learning. Be patient - I intend to get there - but this is very new to me ….

I believe - as I have always believed - that Óglaigh Na hÉireann [IRA volunteers] will neither be dictated to, at present, nor diverted from their struggle by any vacillating talk about ‘contradictions’ ….

Take care, comrade. Write soon.

Much respect
Brian

September 6 1988

Dear comrade Brian

…. Now onto our project. You say you suffer from a lack of confidence …. The only way forward, Brian, is to do. You can wait for your confidence to build up, but such an approach will produce nothing. Ireland cries out for communism. But this will not happen without people, specifically without leaders who are able to act as theoreticians of the movement. It does not take geniuses to do this - though we would hardly turn such people away. It takes people of determination and talent - both of which you undoubtedly possess ….

Best communist greetings, comrade
Jack Conrad

September 28 1988

Dear comrade Jack,

…. On to the project. Believe me, Jack, I want very much to write. I want it to be good. I’m not ready yet. I do practise writing articles to our own publications, letters to activists, etc. I am learning all the time. And, yes, I have determination, and I know where I want to go. I also know how far and how fast I can go. I must find out very carefully - and precisely - who I can rely on - where I can direct my agitation. Stillbirth will be of no consequence whatsoever - regardless of how perfect the foetus is. Bear with me, Jack - I understand and welcome your pressure and encouragement, but at the end of the day I must carry the can if premature moves destroy potential ….

Take care, old comrade. Write soon - your letters are a breath of fresh air.