dunes day there out one. Having Scottish regiments with a reputation for being aft on Orangism have been moved into Ireland for the first time. The belief of some Northern Irish in British neutrality suffered ame heavy blows in August as a resalt of the BBC coverage of the events in the North. As the imperialism that has structured the situation in bullets begin to fly, some practical lessons in neutrality will be on their way. The only incertain factor in the calculations of British the Irish Catholics themselves. They have realised what forty, years of political passivity have brought them. They will not be in a mood to easily forget or go back on the events of last ummer. British imperialism is out to teach the them a lesson, however, It must be the task of revolationaries to help ensure that is the Imperialists that learn the lesson instead. CRITICAL SUPPORT Some comrades wanted to give critical support It was said that British troops would help to prevent a pogrom in Belfast. They would give resolutionaries and republicans a chance to arma. the people. There was even some common ground between imperialism and the Left. It waw in the interests of imperialism that the fascist structure of the North be dismantled nd something more akin to social democratic Britain be established there. Hence since we revolutionaries would prefer to operate in a social democracy rather than in a fascist state, ergo we have common interests with imperialism. The comparison could be draws with a United Front agsinst Nazism in Germany. What this vision of the world misc out is the possibility of independent action by the working class.
DIVIDE AND RULE We should remember that it is British Northern Ireland which makes pogroms posuble. It quite consciously practises "divide and rule" and will continue to do so as it has perialism will be the strength of resistance of done in numerous other parts of its Empire. To put one's trust in British troops to prevent a pogrom then is to exchange the threat of pogrom today for the greater likelihood of one tomorrow. Only one force can protect the Northern Catholics, and that is their own self-organisation. Revolutionaries must support every movement which encourages that self-organisation. They must oppose every development which impedes the growth of political consciousness on the part of the revolutionaries in Britain are concerned, it's our function to demand that Ireland should have self-deten ation. We must have no confidence whatsoever in the agents of imperialium to help the Irish people, We must demand that sill British troogs Immediately leave Ireland. 1922 VICTORY The 1922 Free State was a far cry from a Worken" Republic. However, limited victory that it was, it still represents a victory against imperialism. The Southern Irish bourgeoisie remembered the pressure of the workers and the small farmers at its back, It did not want to be pushed too far so if sold out for a limited victory. In 1932 if began the struggle for capitalism in one country, and, of course, has filled in this attempt. It is now jettisoning what residual claims it has to being the representative of Irish independence. It is moving towurds an accommodation with Britain within a federal Ireland or perhaps the Common Market. It is becoming a totally independent client bourgeoinie. British imperialism has not of coune been impervious to these developments in the South. A federal Ireland would indeed imply a restructuring of the North, It is not the task of revolutionaries, however, to tail imperialism and to dovetail their politics to fit in with its requirements. Many mistakes have and Southedy egually bed an an attempt to cen made by an casy adjust theory to the consciousness of the Northern worker, The tasks of revolutionaries must be to defend what is left of the guins of the Civil Wur.
PERMANENT REVOLUTION The fate of the rish revolutions depends on how succesfully the Irish working class can tourg thetto set out the mited at snuthen bourgeoisie to s independence. It is to the tbeory of Permanent Revolution that we must look for an understanding of the deyelopments in Ireland over the last 50 years. The bourgeoisie could not accomplish a total national liberation at the time of the Civil War. It is now capitulating farther. The only force that can successfully achieve a real and lasting national independence for Treland is the working class. Liberation for the North cannot he seen except in the context of a general republican movement throughout the country. The dual oppression suffered by the Northern Catholics put them in the vanguard of that movement. The fate of the Irish revolution in the immediate future will depend on the ability of Trish revolutionary groupings to capture the leadership of the republican movement and to indivisibly weld together that movement with the struggle in the North OUR TASKS The task for revolutionaries in Britain is to oppose British imperialism, to demand that the troops be withdrawn and to demand self-determination for Ireland. As revolutionaries in an imperialist oppressor country we should at all times remember that we can offer solidarity to the Irish but that we as dealing with un oppressed nation which has to find its own Only by the most principled internationalism in we be of assistance to our Irish comrade he record of some sections of the English lef demonstrates.