In recent months, there has been a wave of state repression sweeping over progressive forces in Ireland. In the past several weeks, this crackdown escalated with the arrest of a number of socialists under flimsy “terrorism” charges.
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For years, organizations such as the IRSM, the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, and Republican Sinn Féin have fought British rule over Northern Ireland through both peaceful and military means. British authorities hoped to end their resistance through the passage of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. That agreement, however, served only to solidify foreign rule and rearrange command of the hated police force in the North.
Since the passage of the treaty, the Provisional Sinn Féin organization has changed its position: Where once the Provisional Sinn Féin stood for militant opposition to British control, they now assist the foreign police and even mount witch-hunts to demonize the more progressive resistance groups—known collectively as “dissident Republicans.”
While the Provisional Sinn Féin is a multi-class formation, in the final analysis it represents the interests of bourgeois and petty bourgeois forces. With grinding poverty affecting many in the six counties, the war-weary Provisional Sinn Féin has sought a rapprochement with imperialism in an attempt to improve the tactical position of the Republican movement.
With the support of both the Irish government and its former enemy, the Provisional Sinn Féin, the British imperialist state has launched an assault on every dissident group in the country. In March of this year, four members of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement were jailed for alleged involvement in a banned terrorist group. Now known as the “Derry Four,” these Republicans are a rallying point for those who oppose the British concept of “internment by remand”—the practice of keeping those targeted by the state in prison for extended periods of time while awaiting trial.
In February, five more members of the Republican Socialist Movement were arrested for membership in a banned “terrorist” organization. As recently as July, three members of Republican Sinn Féin—a breakaway group from the more famous Provisional Sinn Féin led by Gerry Adams—were picked up in raids and kept in a police barracks. In all these cases, the police have had little evidence, save for links to activist organizations. In British and Irish law, however, simple affiliation with a progressive group is enough to be convicted of “terrorism.”
Most outrageous, though, is the recent trend of attacks on popular expression in Republican areas of Northern Ireland. Over the summer, a number of bonfires and public gatherings were held to oppose the practice of internment and to demand an end to British policing. These gatherings were often held in opposition to the tradition of British Loyalists holding bonfires to burn Irish flags and threaten Catholic citizens.
Despite the obvious community nature of the meetings, Provisional Sinn Féin party members colluded with police to douse the fires and force the protesters out of public squares. The Provisional Sinn Féin has also circulated petitions demanding so-called “dissidents” give up politics.
While the Provisionals may defend their accommodation with imperialism as a tactical maneuver, actions like these cast doubt on the purity of their motives. There is no doubt Sinn Féin still speaks for a substantial number of those wanting liberation for the six counties, but the actions of their leadership against other activists only hurts the Irish national liberation struggle.
The British imperialist offensive, however, has turned a sizable part of the Irish population against the capitalist appeasement policies of the Provisional Sinn Féin. The question that remains is how to reconcile genuine Republicans in the Provisional Sinn Féin with the so-called dissident Republicans. The cowardly state offensive can be made into a strength, if it is used to channel support for unity around the only road to true and lasting Irish national liberation—the struggle for socialism.
