Michael Farrell speaks outside Portlaoise Jail on Saturday. I July, to a demonstration which had earlier been involved in scuffles with gardai (Irish police) and Irish Army troops outside the Curragh army prison. The demonstration of members and supporters of People's Democracy and the Revolutionary Marxist Group (Irish supporters of the Fourth International) was protesting against the continuing detention of Republicans needs of the moment. The authority of the IRA has stemmed from a mandate given by the Irish people in the past. The basis on which the two previous campaigns were fought was that the surviving Deputies of the Second Dail, who had voted against the Treaty, transferred their mandate to the Army Council of the IRA, and the actions of the IRA were thus based on that authority. This complex argument was a re-furbishing of a much older Fenian doctrine; the head of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (the conspiratorial inner core of the Fenian movement) had always been regarded as the president of the Provisional government of the Irish Republic.
While this doctrine may not be cited in this literal way today, the method involved still has deep influence. The Republicans think that they can take action in the name of the people, and expect the people to support them, while not being linked to the people in a way which enables them to keep in touch with their desires and anxieties, and to persuade the people that the IRA is fighting for their interests. In the present situation it can lead to a dangerous elitism, which will serve only to separate the Provisionals from the people. The effect of this would be to create the kind of demoralisation which will feed the SDLP. The IRA has constantly to get a fresh mandate from the people, by convincing them, through political leadership, that their programme, strategy and tactics are correct, and can lead to victory. Again we stress, only local structures of direct democracy can achieve this.
THE WIDER STRUGGLE Whether or not the struggle breaks out anew in the immediate period it is necessary to make a broader assessment of the prospects for the briah revolution, It is now clear that the key ches in ireland in the unresolved national struggle, the contradictions created by the abortion of the national/democratic revolution between 1916 and 1922. These contradictions transformed a peaceful civil rights struggle into a raging war which has blasted out of existence the repressive Stormont parliament, only a short time after its fiftieth anniversary. This war has cut large areas of the Six Counties off from the operations of the forces of the British and Six County states, and has claimed the lives of over a hundred British soldiers. It has nearly brought down the Government in the Twenty Six Counties, in a crisis caused by the gun-running operations of cabinet ministers. No other political or social issues within Ireland have shaken the foundations of capitalism and neo-colonialism as has the crisis in the North. However it is also clear that the minority in the North cannot overthrow capitalism North and South and smash the imperialist grip if they fight alone. The very intensity of the crisis in the North poses the problem of how the Northern minority can rapidly link up with fresh forces who will enable them to win.
The key problem is how to generalise the struggle throughout the thirty two counties of Ireland. How on the one hand to mobilise the mass of the workers and small farmers in the Twenty Six Counties in solidarity with the Northern minority, and on the other to organise and centralise their struggles on their own problems to assist the defeat of British imperialism in the North, which is inse parable from the smashing of the collaborationist Fianna Fail regime in Dublin.
FAILURE IN THE SOUTH The glaring failure of the Republicans to begin to organise this was evidenced by the response to the Derry massacre. In effect the British Embassy was thrown to the mob, and the tide of anger receded, permitting Lynch to stabilise his rule, and to prepare to go on to the offensive against the Republicans. Because the masses in the South had not been educated into an understanding of the reality in the North, their anger was directed at limited targets: internment, Bloody Sunday, political prisoners. Once British imperialism switched its strategy, illusions that the minority were to get justice became widespread. This enabled Lynch to collaborate more openly, and to start the job of curtailing IRA activities in the South. Lynch has two motivations, he wants to assist British imperialism, but he is also very conscious of the need to smash the potential threat to his own regime which the IRA represents. In the absence of a mass movement in the South, to support the struggle in the North, the struggles of the Republicans become ineffective, or even counter-productive. Thus the riot in Mount joy Jail in Dublin, initiated by the Provisionals, in which the entire internal structure of the prison was destroyed, not only did not spark off wide scale resistance to Fianna Fail repression, but was used by Lynch to re-open the Curragh army prison for Republicans and made it clear that he could start up the special courts with impunity. The entire political activity of the Republicans in the South has militated against the kind of support needed. The Officials have only fought on the issues which affected the workers and small farmers in the South. They have tried to invoke moral support for the North, but have not shown the direct relevance of the struggle in the North for the South. The campaign on the EEC referendum is the most important example. This was fought within the terms of reference laid down by Fianna Fail, the campaign tried to convince people that there would be a drastic increase in food prices, and that there would be serious rural de-population. Unfortunately the bourgeoisie was able to demonstrate that much of the propaganda about food prices was exaggerated, and while it is true that the countryside will be severely affected by entry, in the short term there will be both increased outlets and higher prices for agricultural exports. Had the campaign concentrated on spelling out the fact that a "yes" vote was a vote for special courts and con centration camps, it might not have succeeded in defeating the Fianna Fail/Fine Gael alliance, but it would have helped to coalesce opposition when the foreseeable repression came following the referendum, and would have made Lynch much more circumspect in moving towards repression.
The Provisionals have in the main kept a low profile in the South, they have had the idea that not attacking the Dublin government would preserve their training and supply bases in the South. That concept has been very severly shattered, In the EEC campaign the Provos did not distinguish themselves from the kind of campaign carried on by the Officials, TURN THE TIDE It is not too late to turn the tide. A campaign to defend Free Derry from the UDA threat to cut off gas, electricity water etc, could not only by the Lynch government in the South. other material was seized for Free Derry Lynch would either have to take action, and meet with widespread wrath, or show the Special Courts up as a farce.
The structures of solidarity created by such a campaign, if maintained, could form the bones around which the flesh of a mass movement would form in the event of some new crisis such as the Derry massacre.
IN THE LONG TERM But Irish revolutionaries, and those who support their struggle in the international revolutionary movement, have to face up to the possibility that even if the present peace leads to a new outbreak of struggle, the forces set off in the North would not be capable of creating the prerequisities for an all-Ireland revolution. A new war would wind the spring of the contradictions in the North up again but unless that spring can move the cogs and wheels of an all-Ireland struggle it will simply uncoil back to the present situation.
What would happen in this case would be that the Six County state would be stabilised, by virtue of the exhaustion of the forces opposed to its existence. There can be little doubt that there would be changes, the catholics would get an instalment on their rights, and the middle class political organisations would take the centre of the political stage. This would not mean the defeat of the Irish revolution, but a postponement. Two important changes would take place:1. A new, more politically aware revolutionary leadership would emerge as the lessons of the last three years were absorbed by the new forces who have been brought into the struggle. This new vanguard might or might not develop within the form of the Republican movement, but it would have to understand the key importance of the theory of permanent revolution, of the nature of dual power, and the uneven development of revolutionary conciousness. It will abo take as its own the heroic tradition of Irish Republicanism, transforming it with Marxist theory. 2. A more heterogeneous crisis would develop throughout Ireland, as the hollow nature of a "reformed" six counties became clear, and as the effects of EEC entry began to show themselves North and South Given the development of a new leadership it would be possible to mobilise a more generalised struggle throughout the 32 counties.
The preparations for such an eventuality must be made now, this means a more intensive study and analysis of Irish history and the struggles in that country. This is the responnecessary form of solidarity.
IN BRITAIN There is a short term need in Britain to maintain the solidarity movement. Every action taken now, every contribution to the building of the movement made now will weigh ten times more when the need arises for mass actions. That is why the recent actions carried out by the Anti-internment League are important. The demonstration in Slough, which was met with the united hostility of the National Front, and the upper class yobboes of Eton College, and the series of meetings in defence of Free Derry were very positive achievements. Although great masses cannot be mobilised at this moment, small actions can keep the forces together, and can prevent organisational dissolution. It will be found that there will be a thirst for knowledge and information, as the situation becomes more complex. Patient explanation and propaganda work in small meetings can pay big dividends in the future. Of course this argues the need for a higher level of awareness within the AIL. "STAB-IN-THE-BACK" LYNCH But on another issue it is possible to make a positive contribution. As the internees in the North are released Lynch is left holding the baby. He was so reluctant to open the Curragh that he left it too late. A vigorous campaign against the special courts and for release of political prisoners in the South could force him to back track. Once having retreated it would be more difficult for him to start them up again in the event of a renewed struggle. Pickets on Irish Tourist and Aer Lingus offices would be particularly unpleasant for Fianna Fail, given the problems they are having with the fall in tourist revenues. Such activities ought to be organised on a wide scale, they will not only have a positive effect on the struggle in Ireland, but will help to build the solidaritv movement here. This is in line with the requests of the Republicans leaders in Ireland.
The struggle in Ireland is not over. The present peace is the calmness at the centre of a hurricane New storms will lash out over Ireland, storms which can sweep away the oppression and exploitation imposed upon Ireland for eight hundred years by foreign domination and native collaboration. Once more we re-assert the cold plain fact, in the words of Padraig Peace, that "Ireland unfree shall never be at Bob Purdie