The policy of the Republican movement is decided by two contradictory factors. Above all else the Provisional IRA is a genuine product, and a genuine expression, of the spontaneous aspirations of the Catholic minority in the ghettos. reason that the Provos are the most important and most respected force is because - unlike every other org anisation - they provided a means by which the minority could organise to fight for their demands.
However, the Provos are still trapped in all the prejudices of traditional Republicanism. the struggle as essentially a military fight against the British Army. They extol the heroic role of the individual or the small group above the need for mass involvement.
APRON STRINGS They are also confused about the class nature of the fight against imperialism. Hence they do not see the need to link up the struggles against beth the Loyalists and the Southern Irish capitalist class, although both the Loyalists and the Southern Irish capitalists are inseparably tied to the apron strings of imperialism.
Caught on the one hand by the enormous pressure of the oppressed, essentially working class Catholic masses, and tied down by their traditional ideology, the Provos swing back and forth. This irresolvable tension has been responsible for the oscillations, ambiguities and mistakes of the last two years. It reveals itself in the Provos' attitude to the present truce and Peter Arnlis shows it in his letter.
The Provo leaders claimed the ceasetire and the subsequent truce as a major victory for their strategy. Hailing it as a defeat for the British Army, they said that it laid the basis for negotiations with the British. Arnlis claims the truce was just one more step in the pattern of measures contingent to victory.
This wild overestimation is the result of the Provos' confusion about the nature of the Lovalists to imperialism The Provos mistakenly saw the following the successful general strike in May last year as a step forward for the anti-imperialist forces. Unfortunately, the reverse was LIUC. ensive and in danger of becoming seriously demoralised. The Provo bombing campaign was becoming less and less relevant to their needs.
began to grow and the Social Democratic and Labour Party began to They define recover lost ground. The Provo leaders instinctively recognised this new reality, which is why they made such a vigorous fight to preserve the truce after the ceasefire had initially broken down. The improvement of morale amongst the minority since then has shown that the Provos were right on this issue.
But the belief that it is possible to get a victory by negotiation and by compromising with socialism.' British imperialism ha. inevitably contlicted with the needs of the mass struggle.
way the Provos have dealt with the question of political prisoners and internees since the truce. The overwhelming burden of Provo policy has been to rely on their negotiated 'deal' with Rees. But that deal was an effort by Rees to hold the internees in pawn to the good behaviour of the minority. pressure was initially frowned upon in an effort to keep up the Provo end of the deal.
This attempt to keep their side tactical upset for British imperialism.
The minority was on the def1od.
As a result the 'peace' movement We can see this if we look at the Committee.
and die.
Thus mass Hard at work organising mass self-defence in the Catholic ghettos in 1969 is of crucial importance in this perThe overwhelming logic of events, especially given the victory of the Loyalists in the Convention, is towards the re-creation of the ascendancy. The question of mass attacks on the minority even civil war - is on the cards. The minority as a whole has to be prepared for However, this question of mass self-defence is by no means equivalent to the 'search for Volunteers, as Arnlis would have it. Of course, it is ludicrous to demand that every single person is armed. But what is of crucial importance is the need to have mass control over self-defence vigilantes. This is not totally ruled out. The Provos in the early stages did involve themselves in structures like the Derry Citizens Defence Unfortunately, as soon as the Provos began to get mass support, they discarded such structures and allowed them to wither Self-defence must be part of a strategy for mass action. But the self-defence activities of the Provos substitute for such mass action. Thus Arnlis says of the IRA's armed activity that 'its polarising effects must be seen as favourable. It uvIdes and commits society into two camps - those for the IRA and | until all internees were released.
It was these developments which led to the 'no go' areas. Comrade Arnlis trains his fire in the wrong direction. We never equated the "no go areas with barricades. What threw the British into so much consternation was that the minority opted out of the legality of the system and deve loped for themselves an independent embryonic power counterposed to that of imperialism embodied in Stormont. Without doubt, the Provos were the acknowledged leaders of this. But it was the mass institutions which grew up not the Provos which were the alternative authority SOCIALISM For, this reason we would totally disagree with Arnlis's assertation that the leaders are the only people capable of creating a 32 county socialist republic. In fact only the masses through the construction of alternative mass organisations of pow er can actually bring about socialism It is only through the construction of such an alternative economic and social system that profits will be really hit. Blowing up some economic targets may well have some tactical value in the fight against British imperialism, but it is complete confusion to think that this really strikes at the root of the economic system.
To learn from this whole experience is, then, the task of the hour for revolutionaries in Ireland. The reconstruction of the "no go'areas in the sense we outlined is vital. This means a policy which can involve the mass of the people once again and create or ganisations which embody their power and their legality Some big strides forward have been made since the beginning of the truce. As we have said many times before, to go back now to the bombing cam paign or any armed struggle course not based on developing the mass
bennism' ICU TCCAIY → Juc 1710
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.....only the masses through the con- struction of alternative mass organisat- ions of power can actually bring about