27.04.1995

New approach in Ireland

STEP BY painful step the British state regains control over the Six Counties. It is a slow process as the British government and the Provisionals edge closer together while facing apart. And, although both sides are playing the game, it is not an even match. Sinn Fein is eager to press ahead, but the British government is not in such a hurry. It wants more concessions. Who has the upper hand here? Well it certainly is not the forces of revolutionary republicanism.

What then of our comrades in the Irish National Liberation Army? In recent years operations of any kind by Inla have been very rare, and propaganda from Inla’s political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, non-existent. For all practical purposes the IRSP has ceased to be, and Inla has been reduced to individuals acting in name only.

Now however the trial of four volunteers in Dublin, arrested last month while transporting arms, has become the occasion for a definitive statement. The statement from the four, with all the authority of the IRSP leadership, said:

“A new non-violent approach [is] needed ... And in keeping with this ... the Irish National Liberation Army suspend[ed] its military operations in July 1994.”

If comrades mean that a new political approach is needed, then we could not agree more. But I do not think we are about to see a major political offensive by the IRSP. Rather, the remnants of the IRSP and Inla have been pushed in this direction by the revolutionary situation being wound down, and pushed into proclaiming it by the necessity of courtroom tactics.

The British state remains the foremost enemy of revolutionaries within the UK. Working class militants and revolutionaries within the UK - all those who remain loyal to the IRSP banner - must not lower their sights to constitutional struggle and meagre reforms.

The fight being conducted by the Communist Party of Great Britain to overthrow the British state is one for all revolutionaries within the borders it rules.

Mike Smith