BY NAOMI CRAINE
Shouldn't the Militant take a stand criticizing the Irish Republican Army (IRA) for the February 9 bombing at Canary Wharf in London? Wasn't that act a setback for the fight for Irish self-determination? That's what a couple of readers suggested in last week's "Letters" column. Our answer is unequivocally no.
Roy Inglee, from Wilmington, Delaware, wrote a letter that gave many useful facts explaining why British prime minister John Major's government is entirely to blame for the breakdown of peace talks. At the same time, he commented, "I personally think that the resumption of armed actions is going to set back the mass struggle in Northern Ireland."
In his letter, Gary Cohen of Arlington, Massachusetts, said that while a February 26 Militant editorial "correctly targets British imperialism as the prime obstacle to the aspirations of the Irish people," the Militant should have offered a "critique of the tactic of individual terrorism as a means to enhance the struggle against national oppression.... Perhaps a review of Trotsky's `Against Individual Terrorism' would be helpful."
The Irish freedom struggle is the biggest powder keg confronting the rulers of the United Kingdom, whose decline as an imperialist power is continuing under the depression conditions facing world capitalism today. Faced with unbreakable resistance by the Irish toilers to national oppression and discrimination, London - which has dominated Ireland for centuries and directly occupied the northern part of the country for the last 25 years - has been forced since the summer of 1994 to seek a new arrangement in its oldest colony.
Following an Aug. 31, 1994, cease-fire by the IRA and moves toward talks between London and Dublin, workers, farmers, and youth from the Catholic population in the north of Ireland stepped into the political space opened up. They pressed demands for a complete withdrawal of the British occupation forces, the lifting of all repressive legislation and release of political prisoners, and affirmative-action measures to redress the caste-like discrimination they face in all aspects of social and political life.
A `shot across the bow'
The policy of the Tory government in Britain, with the
loyal support of the Labour Party , has been to stall as much
as possible. While refusing to free hundreds of republican
political prisoners, London released and then promoted Lee
Clegg, the only British soldier ever jailed for killing an
Irish civilian. While martial law conditions eased in the
north, more than 16,000 British troops remained there - that is
more than one for every 100 residents. With the passage of
time, this dragging of the British crown's feet, if unanswered,
would indeed have marked a setback.
On February 9, the IRA responded with what the Militant described as a "shot across the bow" and "a rude reminder" to Major that there had been a cease-fire, not a surrender. Irish republicans accurately assessed that the British government was stalling out of weakness, not strength. In the following weeks, not only was London unable to whip up anti-Irish hysteria, but Westminister dropped its demand that the IRA "decommission" its weapons before all-party talks, and set a June 10 date for negotiations that could include Sinn Fein.
Like the independence struggle of the Quebecois in Canada and the Palestinians continued resistance to the Zionist state in Israel, the struggle for a free and united Ireland is in the interests of the working class. It strikes a blow against the imperialist rulers and opens the door to working-class unity, in face of national and religious divisions generated and perpetuated by the British rulers. It's when the Irish stop fighting that the working class - both in Ireland and in Britain - will be in trouble.
The capitalist press and politicians are trying to whip up an "antiterrorist" campaign against Palestinian fighters in the Middle East, the IRA, and other national liberation struggles. We refuse to join the chorus. We do suggest readers pick up Marxism and Terrorism, as the new edition of the pamphlet by Leon Trotsky that Cohen refers to is titled. Among other things, the selections in the pamphlet, published by Pathfinder Press, give a wonderful example of the tone communists need to take when the big-business media and most forces on the "left" are screaming about "terrorism."
The article "For Grynszpan: Against the Fascist Pogrom Gangs and Stalinist Scoundrels" takes up the case of Herschel Grynszpan, a young rebel who assassinated a Nazi official in the German Embassy in Paris in November 1938.
"A single isolated hero cannot replace the masses," Trotsky wrote. "But we understand only too clearly the inevitability of such convulsive acts of despair and vengeance.... We are bound, naturally, by ties of open moral solidarity to Grynszpan and not to his `democratic jailers.' "
Trotsky continued, "People come cheap who are capable only of fulminating against injustice and bestiality. But those who, like Grynszpan, are able to act as well as conceive, sacrificing their own lives if need be, are the precious leaven of mankind." He urged other young fighters to join the revolutionary communist movement as a "different and more effective outlet" for their energies.
Malcolm X responded similarly in May 1964 to lurid stories in New York's big-business press about a band of Black youth called the "Blood Brothers," allegedly organized to maim and kill whites. Malcolm said he first heard about the group while he was traveling in Nigeria. "It didn't make me sad at all," he said. "And I don't see why anybody should be sad or regretful in any way, shape or form." He explained how "the police in Harlem, their presence is like occupation forces.... [The police commissioner] is creating a situation that can lead to nothing but bloodshed." Under these conditions, Malcolm said, "you will find that there is a growing tendency among us, among our people, to do whatever is necessary to bring this to a halt.... I'm not here to apologize for the existence of any blood brothers."
Socialist workers need to explain to working people in the United Kingdom, the United States, and elsewhere how it is in their interests to support the fight for a free, united Ireland - not react by "offering a critique" to the tactics of Irish nationalists around Canary Wharf. We need to join the protests demanding freedom for Irish prisoners, calling for all- party talks, and demanding the removal of all British troops from Ireland. Taking an unconditional stand on the side of those fighting against national oppression, for national liberation, is a prerequisite to advancing the Irish freedom struggle and the interrelated task of winning workers and young rebels to building a communist movement.