McCann speaks on Republicanism

by Goretti Horgan - SWP Sat Mar 26, 2005 17:08 gorettih at aol dot com

Socialists have no truck with the hypocrisy of Bush, Blair and Ahern when they lecture Sinn Fein and the IRA about criminality and violence. Even if the IRA was responsible for everything it has been accused of in recent weeks, it would still be a minor offender compared to the real criminals who are responsible for the slaughter of tens of thousands of Iraqis.

For decades, the SWP has publicly opposed IRA ‘punishment squads’. But Blair and Bush have sanctioned the kidnapping of people charged with no offence that are taken secretly and in chains across the world to be tortured. Hundreds are caged in Guantanamo Bay without even knowing why they are there. No evidence at all could be found against the men recently released from Guantanamo and Belmarsh.

The SWP has campaigned for truth and justice alongside the Bloody Sunday families and other families of those murdered by state violence and collusion. We stand also alongside the McCartney, McGinley and Robinson families as they seek truth and justice from the IRA.

While refusing to join in ritual condemnations of violence by hypocritical politicians, socialists believe that mass action rather than paramilitary organisations offers the way forward. Secret armies, of their nature, operate behind the backs and out of sight of the people in whose name they act. They proclaim that they, the secret army, will deliver freedom. They belittle the role of the mass of the people in their own liberation. They put themselves above the people, while claiming the people’s allegiance.

This characteristic of paramilitary organisations is one of the keys to understanding the developments which led to the McCartney, McGinley and Robinson killings and the role of the IRA in the aftermath.

We challenge the right of the establishment parties to set themselves on a moral pedestal above Sinn Fein and the IRA. The wealthy and powerful can always ‘legalise’ their own fund raising operations because they write the laws and appoint the judges. They can call for support for the police because they know that the police support them in turn.

We share the concern of many in working class areas, Protestant as well as Catholic, that the grief of the McCartney and other families is being used to legitimise the police and fool working class people into supporting the laws and priorities of the ruling class. All police forces are anti-working class. Even if all of Patten’s reforms were implemented to the letter, the PSNI will still operate to protect property and privilege above all else.

Ever since 1998, the republican movement has been adapting to the system while still maintaining the IRA. Its leadership was on the point of recommending that republicans sit on police boards. They wanted to join with Ian Paisley in government in the North and, in future, with Fianna Fail in the South. But before being let into the corridors of power, the political establishment suddenly increased the price of the entry ticket. This is what lies behind the current campaign against Sinn Fein.

Ahern, Blair and Bush say –‘end your struggle and then you can join the system’- to encourage the working class to accept privatisation, poverty wages, water charges etc. We say-‘break with paramilitarism in order to help build the campaign of resistance to what Ahern, Blair and Bush represent’. Working class unity can be forged from mass resistance to their imperialist and neo-liberal agenda. The united Ireland we want can only come through their overthrow – not through joining them in government.


EAMONN McCANN WILL ALSO BE SPEAKING ON REPUBLICANISM AT THE CROSSROADS IN DERRY'S TOWER HOTEL ON THURSDAY 31st MARCH 8.00pm. All Welcome