Keywords: Ireland, IRA, Imperialism, Unionist, Loyalist

a Workers Solidarity Movement position paper

THE NATIONAL QUESTION

1. The national question is important to us because:
a) we oppose the oppression which imperialism and 
northern loyalism brings on the catholic  population,
b) we recognise that this question splits the northern 
working class,
c) we recognise that this question can and has been used 
in the south to bind southern workers to their  bosses.

2. The partition of Ireland in 1922 was carried out in the 
interests both of British imperialism which maintained 
military bases as a result and of the northern bosses as it  
provided a weapon to divide the working class. At the 
time the economic interests of northern and southern 
bosses were opposed. The north was well developed with 
export orientated industry (linen and shipbuilding) and 
needed access to English markets. The south was 
underdeveloped and for industry to develop southern 
capitalism would have to be protected from cheaper 
English imports, partition therefore favoured both sets of 
bosses.

3.  The north was created in such a way to ensure a 
permanent unionist rule by tying protestant workers to 
their bosses in return for marginal privileges in a 6 
county rather than a 9 county "Ulster". These privileges 
were maintained by northern bosses (e.g. Brookborough's 
famous statement about employing 'good protestant lads') 
and meant protestant workers can be mobilized against 
catholic workers demanding a fair share under Northern 
capitalism or unity with the republic . Examples of this in 
action can be seen in the Loyalist and police attacks on 
the nationalist ghettos in 1969 in response to a peaceful 
civil rights movement demanding basic democratic rights, 
in the 1974 unionist strike against power sharing and 
more recently in the mass demonstration of protestants 
against the Anglo-Irish agreement when it first came into 
being. The end result of this is there is no way of 
fundamentally reforming the 6 counties, the state is 
sectarian by its very nature.
   
4. Economically the southern state is no longer a colony 
of Britain but rather the Irish bourgeoisie have become 
junior partners in capitalism under the control of British 
and American imperialism. The north is still a British 
colony but also becoming increasingly dominated by 
multi-nationals.
  
5. The majority of the British ruling class are not 
ideologically opposed to withdrawal and/or the creation 
of a united Ireland.  however, they remain for a variety of 
reasons including the fear of a politically unstable off the 
British coast, the weakening of the visible powers of the 
British state, and the absence of a strong & efficient 
local ruling class capable of either solving or containing 
the problems created by partition and sectarianism.

6. British troops were not sent into the North in 1969 in 
order to keep the peace but rather to provide a breathing 
space for the northern security forces and to stabilize in 
the interests of the British ruling class what could have 
became a revolutionary situation. This essentially is their 
role to-day, therefore we call for "Troops out now". In 
addition they were used also to break the back of any 
mass peaceful reform movement through actions like 
Bloody Sunday in 1972.

7. The UDR and the RUC are a sectarian security force 
created to protect protestant privilege and we call for 
their immediate disbandment.  

8. Loyalism is a reactionary ideology in all its forms 
including those that try to appear socialist. It serves only 
to maintain sectarianism and protestant privilege and 
protect the interests of the British and northern ruling 
classes.

9. Republicanism is a petty-bourgeoisie ideology and not 
a socialist one. Even those brands which claim to be 
socialist preach a theory in which workers must 
submerge their own interests and fight alongside their 
catholic bosses until a united Ireland is achieved. 
Nevertheless it has considerable working class support in 
the north, but because of its stages theory where labour 
must wait it has little attraction for protestant workers 
and has  no strategy for approaching protestant workers.
 
10. The current tactic of armed struggle as carried out by 
the republicans is incapable of achieving a solution as it 
is incapable of delivering a military victory and defeating 
the British army. In addition the British ruling class cares 
little for the deaths of individual soldiers in its army.

11. In addition we belive the armed struggle is also 
faulted as it relays on the actions of a few with the 
masses left in either a totally passive role, or one 
limited to providing intelligence and shelter to the few. 
However it has served to maintain the gains made in the 
late 60's and early 70's and to protect the nationalist 
community from some loyalist and state terrorism.

12. We hold the British state responsible for the 
continuation of the war in the North, permanent peace can 
only come after British withdrawal and this  means we do 
not call for a cease-fire by the IRA.

13. The IRA is not responsible for the creation of or the 
continuation of sectarianism. Rather it was re-created in 
1969 as a response to the sectarian attacks by the 
security forces and loyalist paramilitaries on what had 
been a peaceful civil rights movement.

14. We condemn all sectarian actions (i.e. those carried 
out because of religion) including any that may be carried 
out by republicans. We combat sectarianism not by 
appeals to the state forces for protection but by calling 
for workers to act through strikes, demonstrations etc 
against such outrages.

15. We defend the right of the IRA and other republican 
groups to carry out an armed struggle against the British 
state because we recognise that their struggle is a 
response to the the problem, not its' cause. We defend 
republican activists against persecution by the British or 
Irish states. We oppose all legislation introduced by 
either the Irish or British states aimed at criminalising 
or isolating republicans. We oppose all legislation aimed 
at making the states war machine more effective.
  
16. The current strategy of Sinn Fein revolves around an 
attempt to build various broad fronts around different 
issues, in an attempt to gain respectability by pulling in 
Fianna Fail members and church figures.  This involves 
putting socialism off the agenda in order to maintain this 
unity. We are totally opposed to these rotten tactics 
which attempt to forge unity between workers and bosses 
and should refuse to take part on this basis. 
 
17. We should however take part in  demonstrations 
organised by such fronts as a separate group and in cases 
where these fronts gain some real support enter them in 
order to put forward our perspective and demand working 
class interests and methods be made central to 
campaigns. This will force those elements hostile to 
working class interests to break away.

18. When the potential exists we should argue for 
northern workers to refuse to handle any work for the 
security forces. We are opposed to any military campaign 
aimed at workers who do handle security force work.
 
19. On occasions where the potential exists (e.g. the 1981 
hunger strikes) we should argue for the creation of a 
mass movement playing an active role through 
demonstrations, strikes etc and against any attempt to 
turn such a movement into one of passive support either 
for the military campaign or for the electoral one. 
 
20. As anarchists we work for unity both between 
catholic and protestant workers and between British and 
Irish workers. The potential for unity has been 
demonstrated on a number of occasions in the history of 
the north including the 1907 Dockers strike and the 
outdoor relief strike of 1932 when the Falls and Shankill 
rioted in support of each other. More recently the 1980's 
actions in defence of the N.H.S.  and strikes against 
sectarian intimidation in D.S.S. offices. Smaller examples 
of such unity are constantly thrown up in workplace 
struggles in the north.

21. We recognise that although protestant workers have  
marginal advantages over catholic workers these are far 
outweighed by the disadvantages faced by the division of 
the working class which means northern workers, both 
catholic and protestant are worse off in terms of housing, 
unemployment and wages then any comparable sized area 
in England. These are the fruits of partition. 

22. It is therefore in the interests of protestant workers 
to break with their protestant bosses and loyalism and 
fight alongside catholic workers both in day to day 
industrial struggles and for a 32 county workers republic.

23. In the past the national question has been used before 
by northern bosses to split common struggles of catholic 
and protestant workers. It is therefore not possible to 
maintain the unity won in economic struggle without 
breaking the protestant workers commitment to loyalism 
and committing them to the fight for a united anarchist 
Ireland. 

24. Our strategy should be geared toward involving 
ourselves in the struggles of Northern workers and in the 
course of these struggles breaking the loyalties tying the 
workers to the bosses of either religion and so enlisting 
them in the fight for a united anarchist Ireland.

25. In order for this approach to succeed we must never 
hide our opposition to repression and our anti-
imperialism, we must attempt to link these with the on-
going struggle.

26. The struggle to achieve workers unity in the North 
can not be separated from the struggle to build an 
anarchist workers movement in the south. Such a 
movement in the south attacking both capitalism and the 
dominance of religious law will be a great spur to 
winning over protestant workers in the North. The 
southern state is still politically dominated by the 
catholic church as demonstrated by the 1983 and 1986 
amendment campaigns. The smashing of this domination 
by southern workers will  play a major role in uniting 
northern workers.
 
27. We should aid British anarchist groups in developing a 
clear perspective on the national question committed to 
breaking British workers from any support for a continued 
British presence in Ireland. 

January 1991.
 
This is a position paper of the
Workers Solidarity Movement
which can be contacted at

WSM
PO Box 1528
Dublin 8
Ireland

Note: These documents come up for revision every 6 months,
write to WSM to get an up to date copy.  This was still valid
August '93.

Further reading
Ireland and British Imperialism   (WSM #1.50)
Northern Ireland: The Orange state



