IS and Ireland (1969)

"IS and Ireland" (1969). Chapter 3: The Troops. (Part 1; and pdf to download)

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Author: 
Rachel Lever, Sean Matgamna

The situation in Northern Ireland came to a head in August. The reaction to these events was a decisive test for revolutionaries - who spend their entire existence preparing themselves precisely for situations of a breakdown of the system. IS's reaction was to do an about-face, abandoning its previous opposition to British government intervention - thus adding a final astonishing political twist to an already chequered record over the preceding 10 months of involvement on Ireland.

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"IS and Ireland" (1969). Chapter 3: The Troops. (Part 2)

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Author: 
Rachel Lever, Sean Matgamna

Part 1 of this chapter | Part 3 of this chapter

EDUCATION AND ACTION.

To say that agitation and propaganda are both essentially educational is not to say that they don't lead to action. It is to say that education and action must be integrated, must interact, that the most important and chief reason for anything to be said and done is that it educates the masses any rE!ises their consciousness, preferably in action. The distinction between agitation and propaganda being a matter of scale, the immediate effect often varies in scale.

"IS and Ireland" (1969). Chapter 3: The Troops. (Part 3)

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Author: 
Sean Matgamna, Rachel Lever, and Joe Wright

Part 2 of this chapter | Part 1 of this chapter

FREEZING THE SITUATION

Alongside the talk of British imperialism being a lesser enemy, came the talk of the troops freezing the situation - inevitably suggesting passivity, almost paralysis, on the part of Britain and further minimising the dangers from the troops. The main effect was to eliminate any real perspective, to foreshorten the political sights to the immediate tactic relating to the "short run" - i.e. acceptance of the troops.