The Labour Left and Ireland

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"THAT the sitting be suspended until 2.55pm in order to place on Livingstone typefies not the worst but the best of the Labour Party record the deep outrage felt by the Council at the cowardly and unpro- left on Ireland, including in his talks with Sinn Fein - the best of a convoked bombing outside Harrods, as part of the continuing attack upon fused, eclectic Left, whose best features are often, as with Livingstone London and Londoners by the Provisional IRA; the Council's condemn- on issues like Ireland and gay rights, composed of left-liberal attitudes ation of the Provisional IRA and their political apologists; the Council's rather than any consistent or coherent working-class socialist politics. praise for the police and emergency services for their rescue work; and But diplomatic relations between sections of the British labour to urge all Londoners to co-operate with the Metropolitan Police in movement and the nationalist populists of Sinn Fein (recognising them as the sovereinn nnier for radical politics in their own area are no adequate basis to bring the British labour movement into the scales as a This is the resolution passed by the Greater force fighting for a just solution to Ireland's British problem. cil on December 20, three days after the If they react like this to the Harrods bombing, then who on earth did Ken Livingstone and the GLC Left think they were talking to in the first place? Did they really believe that the IRA - whose militarism is Now it is not really very remarkable that the council of a city sub- rooted in a long tradition - was ceasing to be, itself? Or did they think jected to indiscriminate small-scale bombing attacks should pass such a London would be spared? Or that Gerry Adams could guarantee to control a Republican movement that seems to be going through a crisis True, the Tory smugness is a bit excessive, the sentiments ("cowardly") are thoughtless, conventional and hollow. The level of political In fact the circumstances of the bombs - coming so soon after the ignorance, 13 years into the IRA's war, is startling in women and men complete triumph at November's Sinn Fein conference of the more charged with running an area whose population is twice that of the politically-oriented wing who have been conducting the dialogue with whole of Ireland. And they have had time to consider the matter: the Labour Left - suggests that they were deliberately aimed by London has suffered many IRA bomb attacks in the last 11 years. dissident Republicans to stop the 'politicking' of Gerry Adams and What is very remarkable is that this resolution was passed 'on the nod' ', with the support of Labour's left-wing leader of the GLC, Ken The wife of one of the policemen killed told the press that she found the bombing unforgiveable, but insisted on emphasising that "The politics of the last atrocity" is a phrase used in Ireland to there were two sides to the question of Ireland's future. The GLC describe the way Northern Ireland politics ebb and flow according to Labour Group should have had the same ability to disentangle the which side - British Army. IRA, Protestant paramilitaries - did the last basic, underlying questions from the immediate horror. exceptionally horrible deed. It will be shameful if this syndrome is now The struggle of the Northern Ireland Catholics is a just struggle. But going to dominate British left wing attempts to tackle the Irish Socialist Organiser has argued that our approach to Ireland and to that struggle cannot and should not be limited to politically mimicking Sinn It is all the more unfortunate because the evidence, as we have seen, suggests that the London bombs were not just business as usual for the Our approach to Ireland cannot rest - as Ken Livingstone's seems IRA, but were meant to scare off the British Left and disrupt the diato have done - on the fantasy that the IRA has ceased or is ceasing to loque. Writers in Socialist Organiser have argued that the changes in be an armed force fighting the British state and likely to strike at Sinn Fein are so far very limited. The Establishment on both sides of targets in Britain. Or on the demand that it should. Socialist Organiser condemns the Harrods bombing, and all other Carol Ann Kelly in her coffin - one of seven children killed so far by the Irish Sea is nevertheless scared by the idea of a new, political, Sinn attacks directed against or reckless of the effects on civilians, in Britain If they considered - and, for now, rejected - the idea of barnina or in Ireland. But for the GLC to say these attacks are 'unprovoked' is Sinn Fein, it was not because of IRA bombs, in either London or the height of hypocrisy and the worst of double standards. Belfast. What's new? It was because Sinn Fein is a political threat to the If British TV did a thorough 'expose' and hatchet job on Gerry EDTOR AL Adams MP just before Christmas, it was not because they were shocked Britain partitioned Ireland, creating the artificial and unviable Six by his past or present links with the IRA, but because of what row County state. Britain sustains that state on the basis of beating down distinguishes him from the more exclusively militarist sections of the the Catholics. Mass terrorisation of the Catholic population, internment without trial, imprisonment by no-jury special courts, a reign of terror The Labour Left should not peddle Socialist Action style fantasies in the Catholic areas conducted by the locally-recruited regiment of the about where Sinn Fein and the IRA now are in the political spectrum. British Army, the UDR, which is riddled with Protestant sectarianism - It should make its own, independent, and, we believe, critical, assessthose, comrades of the Labour GLC contingent, are the provocations. ment. But to maintain and develop the contact and dialogue is one of That does not justify indiscriminate slaughter of civilians. It helps ion was to make Irish Republicanism more acceptable in Britain - not the most vital tasks faced by the Left in Britain right now. to explain it. The GLC's blimpish nonsense can only obscure the by arguing through the fundamental issues, but by painting it in rose The Six County Catholics were right to revolt against their condiUntil then, most Tory councillors would have included Ken Living- tion of being second class citizens in the Orange sectarian state of This apparently only-too-enthusiastic support was always liable to Northern Ireland. They have a right to refuse to settle for anything tion condemns. And they would not have been entirely wrong dike a large part of Labour's Left, Ken Livingstone has approached 'the Irish question' not as a working-class socialist or a Marxist with a distinct viewpoint. He 'went Sinn Fein', uncritically championing and publicis- stone in the ranks of the IRA's 'political apologists', whom the resolu- supporting them if you find out that they are not" argument: "Support Sinn Fein because they are socialist" , is: "Stop flip over into panicky condemnation. For the hidden corollary of the Livingstone tried to buy off his British critics with the argument short of British withdrawal and the ending of Partition. Despite the political differences British socialists may have with the populist nationalists who lead Sinn Fein and the IRA and our condemnation of Harrods and similar bombings, we have a responsibility to help the that Sinn Fein's talks with the leader of the GLC were the alternative to Northern Ireland Catholics and those who lead them to find a way out Labour Left in Britain. Unfortunately there is some truth in this: there He declared that Sinn Fein was the Irish political equivalent of the the IRA bombing London again. Now London has been bombed again. And Livingstone and the Tories pass a joint resolution which seems to Northern Ireland, Protestant and Catholic alike. of the bloody impasse into which Britain has boxed the people of is a parallel between the militarist elitism of the Republicans and the council-chamber elitism of much of the Left. But Livingstone's intent- has been saying about Ireland and the - British - cause of many of its take back and deny the most important message in what Livingstone they are entitled to the solidarity of every honest socialist in the British On the basic question of self-determination and British withdrawal helping to bring the criminals to justice"

Harrods.

resolution.

Livingstone, and of Labour's GLC majority. Fein. explanation.

ing Sinn Fein's brand of Irish nationalism.

London CounIRA bombed Partitioned plastic bullets colours. problems. of direction?

others.

Last atrocity problem' head on.

Fein.

nationalist but manageable SDLP. labour movement.

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