There are remarks in Bob Purdie's article which are not instantly clear. He says that the SLL "ignore the fact that British workers are not yet prepared to force the withdrawal of imperialism." But no organisation which purports to be Trotskyist can begin and end with present consciousness. Consciousness may be changed by objective processes and, wait for it, sub"Protestant workers as yet, far from being ready to unite with their Catholic brothers are being more and more hegemonised by Paisley & Co. For the Catholic workers to submit to the level of these workers is to ask them to surrender and go back to their old situation." Truly it would be absurd to expect Catholic workers to become Paisleyite in the interests of class solidarity.
*They [should press ahead with the struggle, topple the Stormont regime, and make it impossible for imperialism to keep a grip on the Six Counties [then] the mass of the Twenty-Six County working class will come with them, despite the attempts of Lynch to smash opposition. " In other words the Irish Catholics are to subjugate the Irish Protestants, and thus complete what might be the first stage in one of Stalin's scenarios for national independence. In the second stage the Irish Protestants and the Irish Cathoacs open the way to the Irish workers, who are to "culminate" the struggle by taking power into their own hands.
What the quality of your support for the Provisional IRA?If you merge with them too closely you ought to take care, for not all these Irish terrorists are illiterate ruffians. Some of them will read your paper and know what to expect of you. "Leaders with greater revolutionary understanding than the present TRA leadership will have to emerge," but some of the people who lead or back the IRA may have a very sound conception of what a revolutionary struggle may entail.
And, given this support, what is the quality of its heroism? (Ireland is the acid test for British socialists.") Certainly the IRA are (bemselves heroic. Does one go to Belfast to oin them? Or does one stay in England and ry to bomb military targets? In the latter case Fleet Street will represent these as attacks on civilian objectives, especially when some of them And you yourself say that terrorism i no good where the masses are against it (as most of them are against it in the Six Counties). It may require more spunk to sell copies of the Red Mole which boost the Provisionals than to sell Workers Press which-in headline termsmerely denounces British imperialism; but to call this superior courage is to presuppose that your line is correct. If it is incorrect, your sellets are merely foolhardy.
To get back to fundamentals; it is true that a Labour government can behave just as imperinlistically as a Tory government. What I would ake you to prove is that it must do so under any conditions, especially the conditions the SLL have in mind when they call for a general Bureaucracies do not adhere to principles but they do respond to pressures and it is possible if rare for the pressure from below to exceed the pressures from above. You say that one should "be against any British government having anything to do with Ireland, as a matter of principle." What on earth does this mean? Are the SLL "being for" some government having something to do with Ireland? Perhaps you mean that the only good thing a British government can do for Ireland is to get out of it, and that only the Irish can get them out. Or perhaps you mean that popular opposition in Britain will affect a Tory government exactly as it will affect a Labour government which might replace it, and that as a matter of principle" one ought not to expect anything from capitalist governments. It then becomes even less clear what an English trade unionist can do to oppose British imperialism in Ireland, apart of course from being against it. Yours fraternally, George Brennan I welcome the opportunity, in replying to cde. Brennan, to clarify some of the points I tried to make in my previous article. Cde. Brennan's letter rests on some misunderstandings and some important political disagreements; the misunderstandings arise from his attempt to interpret my articie trom a standpount which takes his political disagreements for granted, but I will clear two of them up before going on to discuss the political questions.
COURAGE?
Cde Brennan disputes that the greater "courage" involved in selling a paper which supports the IRA is proof of political superiority. I could not agree more. Nowhere in my article did I accuse the SLL of physical cowardice, or boast about the bully boys selling the Mole. The real issue is that the difference in coverage between the Workers Press and the Red Mole is part of the different political approach of the two papers, and ne oramations wno produce mem. / ne kea mor seeks to clarify the facts of the situation in Ireland, giving background material unobtainable from the bourgeois press, within the framework of a political analysis which seeks to combat the bourgeois propaganda offensive at its sharpest point; for this reason it combats the impressionism on the left about the "terror" of the Provos., and seeks to balance the picture by defending the legitimate attacks of the Provos and the Officials against the British Army. The Workers Press not only fails to give any real reportage in depth, but from a "left" standpoint supplements the bourgeois press by attacking the Provisionals: this can only add to the confusion which the bourgeois press seeks to sow.
DIFFERENTIATION The point about being "against a British government having anything to do with Ireland" was put forward as a necessary strategy for Irish revolutionaries This is quite clear from the text: cde Brennan has simply not read it properly, or more likely he has not grasped that I was making a differentiation between the tasks o unsi and brus revolunonanes PERMANENT REVOLUTION If we compare my proposals and the SL.L's, the difference is clear. The SLL proposes a series of steps which are counterposed to the preseht struggle; I propose the extension of the present struggle and its intensification as a preliminary to its qualitative change into a conscious struggle for a united socialist Ireland. Of course the SLL could be right, and I could be wrong, but ede Brennan does not prove this simply by labelling my strategy the "first stage in one of Stalin's scenarios for national independence".
Cde Brennan here reflects a common distortion of the theory of Permanent Revolution. Instead of seeing the integration of the national and working class struggles in an oppressed nation, with the workers struggle growing out of the struggle against imperialism, ne counterposes the working class to me national struggle. The Stalinist theory sees the two revolutions as separate, and insists on suppressing the proletarian content of the struggle until the national struggle has been won. By simply inverting the Stalinist formulation, cde Brennan, the SLL and a host of other facile "Marxists" 'arrive at the same end, i.e. impotence before the reality of the struggle. If seeing the process of Permanent Revolution as having a beginning, a middle and an end is a "stages" theory, then I plead guilty, but I insist on having Trotsky in the dock along wit me CORRECT STRATEGY My strategy is correct because it is based on an analysis of the processes at work within Ireland, it sees the most Important contradiction in Irish politics as the unresolved national question. It saw the Civil Rights struggle as the way in which the national question would be brought back onto the stage of Irish politics, it sees the sharpening struggle against the British Army and the resistance to Stormont as the way in which the stability of the Northern Irish state is being challenged, and the smashing of this state as the way in which all of the contradictions within Irish society will be brought to crisis point. Thus the strategy for revolutionaries is to sharpen that struggle, and to combine te with the orner strands of the struggie against capitalism, and imperialism in Ireland. This would mean that the struggle of the minority in the North against their repression would combine with the struggle of the Irish people as a whole for national reunincanon, and wrecoom trom domination by British imperialism: this would combine with the struggle of the Irish working class for the expropriation of trish and foreign capitalism; and the struggles of the poor farmers, the Gaelic-speaking communities, the youth, women, etc. The whole combined struggle constituting the Irish socialist revolution would be consummated by the winning of state power in all 32 Counties by the workers and their allies. This can be prevented by many factors: disparate consciousness amongst me alterent sections involved, causing an uneven development of the struggles: the physical defeat of one or more sections; or the diverting of one or more sections by political misleadership. This is why a correct revolutionary leadership is so necessary; but it will not be created outside the struggle outlined above, it can only win the leadership of the masses through involvement in the struggle.
UNREALISTIC The SL.L first of all misrepresents the struggle which is taking place ("neither terror nor civil disobedience"), and then puts forward a strategy which would mean the withdrawal of the masses from every aspect of the struggles in which they are now involved, and the substituting of a totally unrealistic strategy which cannot be achieved in the way which the SLL proposes "... the mobilisation of the British and Irish workers in a common struggle to set up the socialist dietatorship of the British and Irish workers." The SLL does not stop to ask why there is not at this time a "common struggle of Irish and British workers", it does not take into account the different political situations in Ireland and Britain and the fact that Ireland suffers from national oppression imposed by British imperialism. This is why the SLL's advice to the Irish workers to concentrate on changing the British government is reformist, it proposes taking the masses out of the struggle in the North, and does not connect with any of their immediate experiences or needs. If such a demand did gain support, it would lead away from the development of a revolutionary situation. INCOMPLETE STRATEGY?
Of course my strategy is incomplete; it does not project any concrete way in which the struggles of the British workers and the Protestant workers in the North of Ireland can be combined with the present struggle. This is no accident, in the immediate future there is little likelihood of either of these two sets of workers supporting the mainspring of the struggle, i.e. the national question. Now 1 am not complacent about this. I think that it would be a great step forward for the Irish, the British and the world revolution if they could be linked to that struggle. But there are very deep historical factors which stand in the way, namely the insularity of the British working class towards the struggles of oppressed nationalities, in particular towards the Irish struggle, and the mystification of the Protestant working class in the North by Orangeism, which means that at present they seek to solve their problems in terms of that mystification, i.e. support for Paisley and Craig. I think that it is both correct and necessary for the rest of the Irish people to make any concessions necessary to draw ten Frotestant renow Irishmen into the struggle. This is why they should oppose Catholic sectarianism. But their concessions should not include the slightest let-up in the struggle against Stormont and British imperialism, or any demobilisation of the Catholic minority; that would simply give the initiative to imperialism and would set back the struggle for years. That is what I meant by the submission of the Catholics to the political level of the Protestant workers, i.e. waiting for the Protestants to break with their reactionary ideas would simply put the ball at the feet of Heath and Faulkner. Similarly for them to wait for the British workers to catch up would strengthen the counterrevolution.
But I also believe that the carrying through of the present struggle, along the lines I have indicated, is the best way to break the British, and Six County, Protestant workers from their present position. The creation of a tremendous political economic and social crisis within Ireland, and Britain, will make the integration of these workers with imperialism impossible, and create the possibility of their being open to revolutionary leadership, which would bring them into the struggle. There are a lot of "ifs" in this, but I insist that it is the only way in which revolutionaries can approach the question; the way of cde Brennan and the SLL is objectively reformist. NOT ESSENTIAL However, it is also necessary to understand that the Involvement of these secuons Of the working class in the struggle is not essential to the achievement of a united Irish Workers Republic. The Irish working class and small farmers are a large enough proportion of the population to achieve victory even if the Six County Protestant workers fight on the side of imperialism. In this case they would need to ensure that the Protestant workers did not threaten the maintenance of their state, so that the "subjugation" of the Protestants is a theoretical possibility. But this is a question of revolutionary, not abstract morality; that subjugation would be an extension of the kind of measures it is now necessary to take if workers scab or cross picket Hes.
BRITISH REVOLUTIONARIES Now, how do Irish and British revolutionaries set about achieving a conscious revolutionary leadership tor the trisn people, rurs or an by airerennanng ten separate tasks. British revolutionaries have to prove to the people engaged in the struggle that they are serious in their opposition to imperialist oppression of Ireland; THE SPARTACUS LEAGUE revolutionary youth organisation in solidarity with Fourth International.
I am interested in getting more information about the Spartacus League.
NAME ADDRESS Send to: The Spartacus League, 182 Pentonville Road, London N.1. this means an attempt to give real aid to the Irish struggle. We can dismiss unserious arguments about bombs; our tasks are the mobilisation of support for the struggle, through demonstrations, pickets, etc. geared to a long-term struggle to explain the facts about Ireland to the British workers. If we make the main thrust of that support the demand for the resignation of the Tories, and the election of a Labour government we will fail to do this. We have to win the British workers to support for the right of the Irish to national independence. The previous Labour government was as determined as the Tories to maintain partition, indeed it was more subtle and successful than the Tories in undermining the national struggle. "But," says cde Brennan, "what if there is a general strike to force the Tories out and get a Labour government; after all, the bureaucracy can be pressurised." This starts from the wrong end; if the workers are to pressurise the Labour government into granting self-determination for Ireland (concretely, withdrawal of troops, ending of support for Stormont, and the ending of financial control over the Irish economy), they must first of all support these demands themselves. You cannot convince them of this by making the thrust of your demand the election of a Labour government. (In any case if we could get the British working class to carry out a general strike, we should give them more ambitious aims than another Labour government).
IRISH REVOLUTIONARIES Irish revolutionaries must seek to get through to the masses by participating in their struggles, and seeking to clarify the issues involved for the present vanguard and the masses. Their relationships to the existing movements and leaderships are tactical problems, which only they can solve, and will be determined by the relationship of forces and the course of the struggle. But they cannot determine their strategy on the basis of the problems involved in working with the IRA; cde Brennan does himself no credit with his warnings about "merging too closely" with the Provisionals Whatever the problems involved, revolutionaries have to try to get to the masses.
THE S.L.L. & OURSELVES So the differences between the SLL and ourselves, cde Brennan, can be summed up very simply. We try to seriously analyse the struggle, and counter the bourgeois propaganda. The SLL fails to do this. We map out a strategy which connects up with the existing struggle, the SLL denounces the existing struggle. We seek to win the British workers to the side of the Irish struggle, the SLL seeks to use the pressure of the Irish struggle to win a change of government in Britain. These are the differences between reform and revolution. -Bob Purdie IRISH SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN CEILIDH -come and meetFRANK "BUTCH" ROCHE just released from 14 months imprisonment after giving the House of Commons a taste of its own C.S. Gas.
Music and entertainments
Roebuck pub, Tottenham Court Road, W.1 SATURDAY 30th OCT. - 7.30 p.m. 20p.