IRSP Ard Comhairle Interview Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit irsp@netwizards.net Fri Nov 14 05:49:57 1997 Interview with the Ard Comhairle IRSP Over the years one of the main triumphs of the Provisional Republican Movement has been their ability to portray themselves as the only Republicans fighting the war against the occupation of Ireland by the Brits. This has never been the case of course but so successful has been this tactic that other groups have been sidelined marginalised and some have faded altogether. The more than notable exception to this has been the Socialist Republican Movement comprising the Irish Republican socialist Party and the Irish National Liberation Army. From The Movements inception in 1974 the SRM has struggled for the establishment of a 32 county Socialist Republic in Ireland. However so successful has been Provo propaganda only a few people in GB know who we are and what we represent. STAND BY THE REPUBLIC has obtained a rare interview with a senior member of the IRSP's governing body in which they out line their policy to the on going pacification process and other issues that face socialists in the post Soviet era. [SBTR] What does the IRSP stand for? Simply put we stand for the establishment of Socialism in Ireland: Socialism of the kind that liberates, not enslaves. There is no doubt that the experience of the 20th century has to a large extent discredited the ideal of socialism because of the distortions, dictatorships and exploitations of the working classes in the former "Communist Bloc" and today even now in China. We need to reinvigorate Socialism in Ireland. It has to become - once again - a means of liberating people from economic, political, religious, cultural and social oppression. We in the IRSP hope to, in the long term, win over to Socialism the vast majority of the working class in Ireland, regardless of their own perceived Nationality. In the short term we aim to build an alliance of the oppressed within Irish society. Despite the growing wealth of Irish Capitalism there are many marginalised still in society, whether they are northern nationalist working-class, the rural poor, the urban unemployed and many other groups in society. That is our natural constituency and it is up to our party to win those groups to our vision of socialism, based on the realities of their lives. Does this mean you have forsaken the national question? Absolutely not. The IRSP stands by the struggle for a Republic. On that we are inflexible. But our struggle for the Republic is a means to an end. We have no starry-eyed mysticism of what a Republic can do. It is but a step towards Socialism. For us the resolving of the national question means also the beginning of the break up of sectarian blocs, the freeing of our entire economic potential ant the removal of the dead weight of history from our people. We need to reach out to a future brimming with hope peace jobs and prosperity. We believe a Socialist Republic will provide this. How do you evaluate the current state of the peace process? Well is it a peace process? We think, on the basis of the evidence so far that it is more of a pacification process. Although Republicans have made sweeping gestures and created the conditions for political progress there is no doubt that on the ground the people have yet to see change. The RUC still exist as a sectarian police force and continue to act out their sectarian bias. Front line nationalist working class districts are subjected to almost nightly attacks. We have evidence that loyalist politicians involved in the talks process have armed those loyalists attacking nationalist areas. Random murder attempts by some form of loyalist groupings are taking place on an occasional basis. The British Army patrolling, surveillance and raids harass working-class areas, incite children to riot, and act as they have always done as an army of occupation. If these things do not change then we believe that no matter what deal is hammered out in the talks at Stormont it is doomed to failure. Would you enter those talks if invited? No! We will not commit ourselves to any preconditions prior to talks to any one. All the Parties to those talks signed up to "The Mitchell Principals. That we could not and will not do. What kind of revolutionary organisation would we be if we signed away our right to resist imperialism? Does that mean you are advocating the continuation of the armed struggle? Let me be as clear as I can. Armed Struggle in Ireland flows out of the British claim of jurisdiction. For many republicans it is the only way to force a British withdrawal. For our part armed struggle is a legitimate form of revolutionary struggle. While we support the right of Republicans to wage armed resistance against British and Loyalist oppression we have, over the past three years taken a consistent line of advising the INLA to hold fire until the peace process runs its course. The armed resistance has weighed heavily on working class areas and there is no doubt that there was war weariness among many people. Furthermore the absence of violence has allowed for a reconsideration of politics. We welcome this. Socialists do not lightly advocate revolutionary violence. We consider that the policy adopted by the INLA in relation to armed action to be the correct one. As we understand it they have committed themselves to a no first strike policy, but reserved the right to defence and retaliation against state and Loyalist forces if they continue in the same old way. Given the history of the Occupied Six Counties such a policy is wise and prudent. No Republican can possibly allow a situation to develop whereby Nationalist areas are ever again at the mercy of reactionary forces. Was not the recent failed grenade attacks against RUC stations a breaking of the no first strike policy by the INLA? As we understand it was in direct response to RUC raids, surveillance and harassment in nationalist working class areas and therefore seems to fall in with the defence and retaliation strategy. It is, we understand not a prelude to a re-launch of offensive actions. What are your Party's immediate priorities? In short, to rebuild the socialist alternative in Ireland. We, as a socialist movement must reach out to society and build an alliance of the oppressed and discontented. We want to see the building of a Republican forum that allows the Republican and socialist voices to be heard in our society and to be able to reach out and bring new forces into an awareness of the essential reality that not only has partition failed the Irish people but that capitalism itself will not deliver the kind of life that the Irish people are entitled to. North American Coordinator Irish Republican Socialist Committees 2057 15th Street, Suite B San Francisco, CA 94114 irsp@netwiz.net http://irsm.pair.com/irsm/irscna/ ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-11.15.97-03:48:15-23928