The decision of the Secretary Of
State to revoke Marian Price’s release from prison has been met with
widespread opposition from the Republican movement. The justification
given was that the threat that she poses has “significantly increased”
and that she had been encouraging support for an illegal organisation
based on her involvement in an Easter comm
The decision of the Secretary Of
State to revoke Marian Price’s release from prison has been met with
widespread opposition from the Republican movement. The justification
given was that the threat that she poses has “significantly increased”
and that she had been encouraging support for an illegal organisation
based on her involvement in an Easter comm
Marian PriceThe
specific reason, most likely, was the visit of the British Queen who
was due to visit Ireland shortly afterwards and the security clampdown
associated with it. Marian is a leading figure in the 32 County
Sovereignty Movement.
As for Marian herself, she was very active
in the initial civil rights movement. She participated on the Burntollet
march to Derry in 1969 and sees herself as a socialist. She is also
highly regarded among republicans and stood firmly against the Adams
faction. Perhaps that represents another reason for her arrest for
"holding up a piece of paper". So the issue of Marian’s return to jail
is also tied in to the ongoing struggle between Sinn Féin and the groups
that have split from it over the years since the change in direction of
the Adams/McGuinness leadership.
The case has been highlighted as
a return to the days of internment without trial during the troubles.
Marian Price herself suffered force feeding in prison in the 1970s after
going on hunger strike to demand repatriation to the North of Ireland
after she was jailed in Britain.
The reaction of the police, the
courts and the British Government to the student movement in Britain and
Ireland and the recent riots in Britain, demonstrate that the state is
prepared to use repressive methods against wide layers of the working
class and the youth.
Throughout the world every day there are
instances of workers’ representatives, trade unionist sand active
workers being assassinated, tortured, jailed and victimised for the work
they do on behalf of the class. In many cases the repressive forces
have been trained by the British establishment and source their arms
from Britain. So no one should doubt the extent that the ruling class
will go to in order to protect their rule
The workers’ movement
must oppose all state repression; any act of repression against an
individual is really an attack on the whole of the working class. Sooner
or later it will be the workers’ movement itself that comes under
attack. This was the experience of the British miners’ strike for
example. Under conditions of severe economic crisis and industrial
struggle it will be harder and harder for the ruling class to rule in
the old way, whether south of the border, in Britain or in the North
itself. It is likely that the working class will be faced with
confronting both the PSNI and the Gardai.
Marxists have
consistently opposed individual terrorism on the grounds that it doesn’t
work, because it does not involve the mass of workers in the struggle,
but also for the practical reason that it gives the state the excuse to
pile up repressive measures that can be used also against the working
class. The British state developed a whole string of powers and
repressive methods in the North throughout the 1970s and 1980s and it
wasn’t slow in using them as this article from 1978 illustrates:
“A
British Foreign Office Minister admitted in the House of Commons in
January that 38 cases of ‘alleged’ breaches of Human Rights by Britain
had been referred to the British Government for ‘observations’. These
included Irish prisoners in English prisons. In two of the cases it is
claimed by solicitors that [the methods] used were similar to those
practiced by the Greek Military Junta some years ago!
“In 1971
Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights was violated in the
most brutal manner, in two separate groups of incidents. These were –
Fourteen men between 12th August and 2nd October
1971 were hooded , deprived of food, drink, sleep and made to stand
against the wall over a period of six days, subjected to ‘white’ noise
and beaten: Between 300 and 400 men were given ‘inhuman treatment’ in
the Palace Barracks Hollywood between September 1971 and March 1972.” (Bill Webster, Militant Irish Monthly, March 1978)
point is that State repression is a class issue. The vast majority of
those interned, tortured and subjected to “in depth interrogation” were
young working class men. But, more broadly than that, the state used
many of their newly acquired powers against the Labour and trade union
movement, especially the Prevention of Terrorism Act which was regularly
used against Trade Union Activists in the North.
Following the
1998 Good Friday Agreement and the establishment of the peace process,
the direct British Military presence in the North was scaled down. But
in the background the state apparatus is very much intact and
functioning. The laws remain on the statute book and all of their
“special powers” remain in reserve to be wheeled out when they are
required. The British state is a highly experienced and heavily armed
body of men; 40 years of “armed struggle” far from weakening the hold of
the British State in the North have tended to strengthen it.
Above
all this illustrates the fact that it takes more to get rid of the
British State Apparatus than a campaign of individual terrorism. As
Frederick Engels himself pointed out:
"The time of surprise
attacks, of revolutions carried through by small conscious minorities at
the head of masses lacking consciousness is past. Where it is a
question of a complete transformation of the social organisation, the
masses themselves must also be in on it, must themselves already have
grasped what is at stake, what they are fighting for, body and soul. The
history of the last fifty years has taught us that. But in order that
the masses may understand what is to be done, long, persistent work is
required, and it is just this work that we are now pursuing, and with a
success which drives the enemy to despair." (F. Engels,
Introduction to Karl Marx’s The Class Struggles in France 1848 to 1850,
in K. Marx and F. Engels’ Collected Works, Vol. 27, p. 520.)
The
working class has enormous potential power. It represents potentially
the strongest force in society. The ruling class are very aware of this,
which is why they make strenuous efforts to manipulate the Labour
movement and especially its leaders. To win the mass of the working
class to a socialist programme requires a patient orientation to the
organised working class and the youth. Commenting on this Alan Woods
explained in his book Reformism and Revolution recently:
“What is important to grasp here is Engels’ insistence on the need for the revolutionary party to win the masses, as the prior condition to carrying out the revolutionary transformation of society.
This requires a more or less lengthy preparatory period of patient
propaganda, agitation and organisation, utilising all kinds of work,
including trade union and parliamentary work, in order to win over the
widest layers of the working class. This is a subject we shall return
to.”
Here is what James Connolly said on the issue:
“An
Irish Republic, the only purely political change in Ireland worth
crossing the street for, will never be realised except by a
revolutionary party that proceeds upon the premise that the capitalist
and the landlord classes in town and country in Ireland are criminal
accomplices with the British government, in the enslavement and
subjection of the nation. Such a revolutionary party must be socialist,
and from socialism alone can the salvation of Ireland come.” (James Connolly, The Harp, March 1909)
The
Bolsheviks suffered state repression throughout the whole of the period
leading up to the 1917 revolution. The state was able to infiltrate the
movement to a high level during large parts of that time. However, they
were able to overcome this obstacle by a political struggle, and a
clear orientation to the working class.
So a political struggle
needs to be waged to win the most advanced layers of the working class
and the youth to the ideas of Marxism and the need for a socialist
transformation of society. Ultimately only the working class can solve
the national question in Ireland through the creation of a Socialist
United Ireland linked in a voluntary federation to a Socialist Britain
and a Socialist United States of Europe.
But it is insufficient to
simply raise the red flag and expect workers and young people to flock
to the banner. It is impossible within the context of the North to
aspire to build a Marxist tendency without engaging with the political
issues of the day, but more fundamentally with the major political
issues, especially the national question and the question of the border
and the position of the protestant working class. Above all, however, is
the question of the role of the working class as the one force that can
lead a successful Socialist Revolution on the island of Ireland.
In
relation to the armed campaign of the Real IRA and other groupings,
Marxists are opposed to such methods as they have prospect whatsoever of
success and they are a diversion from the task of building an
opposition to the impositions of the Tories and of the Executive. Rather
than bringing closer the prospect of a United Ireland they simply serve
to actually strengthen the hand of British imperialism. Thousands of
workers face unemployment and tens of thousands will see the services
they depend on attacked over the next four years. And it is at the head
of the inevitable class struggle that is developing throughout the whole
of Ireland that Marxists must place themselves.
Ultimately there
is no way out of the cul de sac in the North, except through the
Socialist Revolution. Internment and state repression stands in the way
of that objective. That’s why we support the demand for the immediate
release of Marian Price.
