What a tangled web

By AM Tuesday, August 7, 2012

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Guest writer Sean Doyle reflecting back on Martin McGuinness meeting the British queen. The author is a socialist republican in the Wicklow branch of the Independent Workers Union and a member of Clann Eirigi.

Personally I believe Martin McGuinness shaking hands with the queen of England and head of the British crown forces in our occupied 6 counties is hard to comprehend. Equally difficult is the realisation that their post-Good Friday new constituents of a new emerging rich middle-class nationalists, taking into account Sinn Fein’s astute political machine, consider it a vote friendly and populist gesture.

Which makes you consider the pace of their transformation to an establishment party must leave a lot of people unrepresented and creates a void. Options: status quo of predatory greed and exploitation of the most vulnerable and the preservation of the heart and cause of generational misery, the holy grail of capitalism the free market; or build from the bottom up.  A no brainer.

I am prepared to run the risk of negative comments e.g., locked in a time warp bitterness blinding judgement, refusal to credit Peace Process and warmongering. My opinion on royalty is rational and logical. I believe it is a leech a drain on the taxpayer of much needed resources that would be better spent improving the living conditions of ordinary people e.g. by reversing the new Welfare Reform Bill which is a devastating blow to those living on or below British governments own guidelines on poverty and may in fact be in violation of the International Convention On Human Rights.

I also contend royalty is the epitome and essence of class distinction. To recognise royalty you accept the status of nobility and gentry; also commoners and peasantry completely at variance and abhorrent to my views on equality. So let’s address the following:

I believe the nature and composition of The Good Friday Agreement has almost become a taboo subject. Due to the entwining of the peace process and the social process which I contend was deliberately designed this way to dissuade people from challenging the social process and stifling criticism for fear of being labelled anti peace or dissident.

This stranglehold and black and white polarization by the architects of a new executive in the Good Friday Agreement must be broken. What is embodied in its framework is national coercion and social subservience. It must be challenged!

Once again in our history the national question and the class struggle have been forsaken by collaborative capitalist’s intent on preserving an unjust and unequal society.

James Connolly’s analysis and solution was profound. 'The freedom of the working class must be the work of the working class.' We live in a society where everything has a price even peace is the price of denied justice. We must not succumb!

Even if it garnishes the attention of the PSNI and possibly the brutal prison regime which I am assured still has the support of the new administration which agreed to the power remaining in Westminster on prisons, policing, taxation and foreign affairs etc. Yet another serious omission in the Good Friday Agreement.

As one who voted NO in the referendum to abolish articles 2 and 3 from the 1937 Constitution that defined the national territory of Ireland as incorporating all 32 counties and their territorial waters. I cannot accept any less no more than I can accept our people to be burdened with the gambling debts of banks, bondholders and speculators as a Socialist Republican striding for the twin objectives national freedom and social justice which has been disconnected due mainly to foreign occupation and partition.

James Connolly said; 'Any nation who enslaves another it itself cannot be free.' I believe we cannot have a free country without a free people. Out of the ashes of human sacrifice and hunger strike martyrs we have a duty to pursue the vision that sustained them a 32 county socialist republic.

What has been achieved so far for peace is an end to the Orange state recognition of British rule over our 6 counties. The establishment of a sectarian state enshrined in The Good Friday Agreement. Stating that each decision must have a minimum of 40% supports of those who register as unionists and 60% nationalist or vice versa. Those who declined to register as neither their votes will not count when it comes to deciding if cross community consent has been obtained. From a Socialist Republican perspective we would not count.

I often remarked had the republican leadership been committed to a socialist alternative in advance and initiated an educational programme to this effect they would have been ready to engage in this campaign when they decided they could no longer sustain their military operations.

Throughout the 32 counties opportunities to pursue such a policy were ripe with corruption scandals in planning, the Galway tent and subsequently the whole banking crisis etc. I read the book The Lost Revolution and spoke to one of the authors Brian Hanley. I suggested there was plenty of material out there for Lost Revolution Part 2.

I believe it is time to speak out and reach out to others who share our goals. Together we will dust ourselves off and build for future generations a society of equals of justice and equality and fair distribution of wealth and resources.

We must engage with like minded people throughout all Ireland identify the real enemies that divide us and keep us subordinate by means of religion or privilege of class foreign or native.

Build trust through honesty and complete declaration of intent while working on class issues of the day and sharing our vision of tomorrow when a handshake will signify comradeship and not recognition of Westminster dictatorship.