- Two pleas for unity in action
- Protestant autonomy: imperialist prop?
A plea for unity in action
A bother, upset and disappointment I have is to see the continuing 'spat' between the many 'left'/Marxist groups. All seem to concentrate not on a main enemy, capitalism, but on each other.
The analysis of the present situation seem pretty sound in the myriad of these groups but they are all obsessed with what was the Soviet Union. Do they all realise it's gone?
Marx and Engels were right in their time, and even more right, were they here today. Would have been just as right if the Soviet Union had never existed.
Of course they were wrong with their unjustified optimism about anticipated and impending change. Even understanding the benefit of hindsight, they should have known better.
The present situation requires a re-reading and an understanding of Marx and Engels. (It can be reinforced by Lenin, Luxemburg and Trotsky but stands soundly without any of these.)
The disparate nature of all these groups makes me angry. It surely makes the mainstream, even the few socialists remaining in the Labour Party, laugh like a drain. But, worse, it drives away and creates despair in the mass of people.
Gordon Jones, Wolverhampton
I went to the Stop the War Coalition meeting [21 June]. I think the meeting was very good. There were 500 to 600 people there from a wide range of backgrounds. It certainly didn't feel like it was dominated by the SWP!
Lindsay German was on the platform as usual and Alex Callinicos was also there. There was a group of SWP supporters who all cheered when Callinicos got up to speak, but they seemed a small group.
Callinicos gave the usual "we must build an alternative to Labour" speech but he didn't advertise Marxism 2003. What I thought was interesting was that at the workshop on Labour and the trade union movement, the guy who is the chair of the Stop the War Coalition said that he thought the Stop the War groups should make closer links with the local labour movement and help to revive it.
He suggested that local Stop the War groups could effectively take the role of trade councils, bring together different groups from within the labour movement and local community. This sounds a bit like the AWL’s idea for labour representation committees.
The idea of the Stop the War campaign standing candidates in elections was very heavily rejected by most people there. There is a very strong feeling of the need to keep an open campaign which brings in the activists from the labour movement, and makes allies with the trade union movement at all levels. Plenty of room here I would think for the politics of Workers' Liberty.
I have been disappointed to hear about the problems with the Socialist Alliance. Many people still look to the Alliance as a place where activists on the left get together and try to influence things. I’ve not been directly involved but, from the outside, many people will be sad to see the end of the Alliance. It would be good to try to keep things going at least until the next election!
In the disabled people's movement I have been able to persuade disabled people to try to form an alliance with the peace movement, to advertise our presence in the movement against the war, and to try to attract disabled activists to the disabled movement, as well as asking the peace movement to support the campaign for equality being carried out by disabled people. So it would be a pity if the peace movement started splitting up just at this point!
The Stop the War movement is probably the biggest social movement for many years and there is still plenty of room for the AWL to work within it and do some useful work.
It's not like the Vietnam war but this peace movement has brought into activity millions of people who up until recently had no interest at all in politics or political activity. Surely that has to be worth something?
Roy Webb, south London
Protestant autonomy: imperialist prop?
While I agree with all the principles laid down in your 'what we stand for' section, especially a free and united Ireland, I cannot understand the call for autonomy for the Protestants in the north-east. Surely this flies in the face of the work of Jim Larkin, who organised the 1907 dock strike where Orangemen and Catholics stood shoulder to shoulder on the picket lines, and James Connolly, who strove to unite Ireland on the basis of class and fought against division on the grounds of religion. In the 1916 Easter Uprising Protestants from all over Ireland, especially Belfast, fought alongside Catholics to free their native land.
Surely our call should be 'Irish workers unite and fight for peace and unity'.
The concept of an autonomous north-east surely plays into the hands of those that sowed the seeds of division in the first place. British interests were always served by dividing the nations they conquered into warring factions. While the populations fought each other, they were not posing a threat to the Empire.
The problems of Ireland go back to the Cromwell edict of one of the first ethnic cleansings that the world had seen. The edict tried to force the entire Irish nation into one county. The English and Scottish nobility then stole the land. The Irish people fought for hundreds of years to free their land from these invaders, against some of the worst crimes against humanity ever: the Black and Tans, internment without trial, the murder of all who opposed the British rule.
The pogroms that were carried out against the Catholic population in the north, and the injustice of the voting systems, were the prime reason for the present armed struggle. The Catholic population had no choice but to take arms to defend themselves - they were being butchered in their homes while British soldiers and the RUC stood idly by or co-operated with the attempt to drive the Catholics out of the province.
The IRA has been the prime defender of the Catholic community in the north but that does not mean they are a fundamentalist religious group. Their aim is and always will be a free and united Ireland.
As Marxists we support self-determination. What we should guard against while following that principle is supporting artificially created divisions set up to help British imperialism keep its hold over the province.
The peace movement was gaining ground in ireland until Bloody Sunday.That incident was one of the greatest recruitment opportunities for the IRA and it was not wasted. Our role in Ireland should be to oppose sectarian divides.We have a chance for peace again. The people want peace and can be united in the drive for peace.
Rick Grogan, Essex
