Stand by the Republic

Since the end of the 1990's socialism seems to be getting more than its fair share of bad press, internationally, among the Irish Communities in GB and at home.

This seems to be a direct result of not only the collapse of the so-called socialist states in the Eastern Block but also a very carefully managed manipulation of the "free press" by imperialist states.

Socialism seems to have become a bad word with the so-called Labour party issuing edicts forbidding their MP's to use the "S" word. It would appear to us that the Brits have pulled it off again.

The greatest feat of the imperialist propaganda machine up to now has been the retarding of the Presbyterian faith in Ireland - Mc Corley/McCraken to Big Ian in less than two hundred years - that took some doing. However this pales into insignificance when compared to the demonization of the Socialist ideals by the press corps of the western alliance.

What these hacks fail to point out is the difference between a Stalinist state and a Socialist state. Socialists who pointed to the Stalinists states of the old Warsaw pact and described them as Socialist states were few and far between. Having said this, we are left with only one conclusion. It is better to demonise the message rather than to proportion blame on the counter-revolutionary actions of the West that allowed those who captured the Ideals of Marx and Engles and adapted them to the siege economics that the Soviet Empire was built on.

The reality is that the message is still sound.

From each according to their ability; to each according to their needs.

Noble sentiments.

If it is wrong to be a Socialist and strive for a society in which no one starves to death in a cardboard box then we in the IRSP will cheerfully be wrong.

If it is wrong to strive for a society where there is full employment, where the means of the production of the states wealth is firmly in the hands of the people of that state then we are wrong again.

But if it is right to strive for all these and a nation free from the oppression of Britain, free from the ravages of market/greed of the market-led economies then that is where you will find the women and men of the IRSP and the Volunteers of the INLA.

They stand by the ideals of a 32-county Socialist Republic. Do You?

Having enticed them to bite the apple, Mo White leads her 7 faceless dwarfs in a verse of Clementine before heading for a slap up tea of penny rolls and hairy bacon!

The first-ever rooftop protest in Liverpool continues, evoking - for the city's Irish - the unavoidable image of the GPO in Dublin 1916, with the tricolour of the Irish Republic in the foreground as revolutionary music floats around the city from the rooftop of the Liverpool Irish Centre.

Two years ago the democratically elected co-operative that manage the LIC were forced into a "pact with the devil", the brewing giant Scots Courage. Whilst many, including the brewery, expected the Centre to collapse under the collectives' leadership within a few months, it did not. Rather the determination of both the collective and the staff team gave the centre a new lease of life and it flourished for two years.

However the deal made with the brewery who indirectly sponsor Glasgow Rangers FC called for interest on a loan made to the centre to be paid back at rates that exceeded 1000% over ten years. Also included was a clause that tied the LIC to buy only SC produce at the most exorbitant prices. It seems the brewery's rational for this was the expectation that the collective would fail and go into liquidation so that they could then step in and further their money spinning "Irish Theme Pub" projects.

Commenting on the trend towards brewery monopolies one of the protesters told SBTR "They aren't just supplying alcohol, they are very powerful with an abundance of assets".

On June 18th this year SC reneged on their promises to save jobs and care for the historic building that houses the LIC. Choosing instead to send in the receivers Grant Thornton, whose employees are believed to have been responsible for a fire that damaged the LIC. Undeterred by SC's bailiffs and thugish tactics, members of the collective and staff team took to the roof. And supported by not only the local Irish community, the centre was soon bedecked with banners proclaiming solidarity from the community and displaying Irish and Socialist slogans. One of the protesters interviewed on TV proclaimed defiantly "I am not coming down until the doors are once more open to the Liverpool Irish community".

A member of the IRSP in Liverpool told SBTR -

"The Liverpool Irish centre has steadfastly refused to capitulate to the ethics of capitalist economics. The people of Liverpool recognise their community centre, not as a pub or a commercial establishment, but as a true community centre. The Liverpool Irish Centre has been home not only to the bar but also to a myriad of cultural and social activities such as, Irish language classes, Irish Dancing, Comhaltas for young musicians, History groups, and an Irish Shop and Café. In addition to this the Centre has provided a livelihood for over thirty workers. There are many stories to tell about the Centre and how it has served the Irish community in Liverpool and how it has guided newcomers to these shores forced to leave home to find work in a strange land by British economic policy in our own. The LIC has launched many political and cultural institutions like The Great Hunger Committee, a recording studio for young Liverpool bands, Afro-Celtic music and even raves. The Centre has become a multicultural community facility, promoting local cultures and all the while maintaining its own Irish identity, thus serving the whole of Liverpool's working class. The collective management of the LIC has ensured that the centre has been a venue for free political debate on Britain's war in the Occupied Six Counties. For this members of the collective and the staff team have been hounded and harassed by police. We in the IRSP in both Liverpool and Manchester will fight with these brave workers for the restoration of the LIC to its collective leadership now".

SUPPORT THE LIVERPOOL IRISH CENTRE

Messages of support and Donations to:

The LIC Co-operative,
CO, PO Box 110
Liverpool
L69 8D9

Of all the groups we deal with the IRSP in GB believe that one of the most important is "The Republican Forum". TRF are, we believe, one of the most courageous groups active in Britain today.

Our rationale for this belief is based on the premise held by TRF. English Republicanism, while commendable in itself as an ideal when seen in a historical context in post-Diana England, is about as popular a belief as popery on the Shankill Road.

The IRSP GB will offer all possible support to TRF and will continue to play an active role within it. Here, the Chairperson of TRF gives a brief history of the movement and its hopes for the future. The IRSP GB hope that TRF will make use of SBTR in the future and have plans to offer the group a permanent space in the publication.

TRF is a united front organisation of communists, socialists and militant republicans comprising representatives of the Republican Worker Tendency, the Revolutionary Democratic Group, the Colin Roach Centre/Resistance, the South London Republican forum (an autonomous local group), Republican Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Socialist Party. While working in the English context (at present it is mostly London based), TRF has fraternal links with groups in Wales and Scotland such as Cymru Goch, the Red Republicans in the Scottish Socialist alliance as well as with militant Republicans on both sides of the partition line in Ireland. Next year, as part of its contribution to the celebration of the bi-centenary of the 1798 Irish uprising TRF intends to hold a major meeting in London with speakers from English, Welsh, Irish and Scottish militant republican organisations on the platform.

Given that the Irish struggle, a struggle often ignored by the British Left when revolutionary violence becomes reality rather than the subject of abstract debate, remains the main challenge to the UK state, inevitably much of TRF's work has been around this. To date TRF has held three big meetings in opposition to the very British and very phoney peace process in the occupied Six Counties. Kevin McQuillan of the IRSP addressed two of these.

TRF has also been campaigning for the release of Cumman Na mBan member Josephine Hayden, who, despite her ill health, is held in disgusting conditions in Limerick Prison. TRF is non-sectarian and campaigns for the release of all Republican POWs regardless of their political affiliation.

Now that it can forge ahead, TRF is hammering out its united front platform.Given that members come out of different traditions, have vastly different experiences and often use the same words and phrases to mean very different things, this is no easy task. To reach a common definition and understanding of such basic concepts as united front, militant republican and socialism and to synthesise this into an agreed policy platform requires a great deal of patience, tolerance, intellectual effort and strict adherence to democratic procedure. At present much of the debate centres on the concepts of rational democracy and class and the relationship between class and national struggles. The process is difficult and demanding, but once it is completed TRF will be able to present its platform to the English working class, the largest and potentially the most powerful of the working classes in the countries which make up the UK; a class which lives and struggles in the very heart of the beast.

TRF is proud to have taken as the name of its newsletter "The Red Republican" - the original "Red Republican" being published by The Chartist George Harney in the 1850s. Part of TRF's work is recapturing the history of militant republican struggle in England, which, since the defeat of the Levellers in the Civil War, has been constantly hidden from the eyes and minds of the working class. To this end, TRF has organised meetings on the Chartists and William Morris. Recently, the South London Republican Forum has published a pamphlet on Harney. The TRF now aims to expand "The Red Republican" into a full-scale magazine, a focal point and resource for the struggles ahead.

To subscribe to "The Red Republican" (£2 for four issues) or obtain a copy of the pamphlet on Harney (£1.50) write c/o 83, Snowerby Close, Eltham, London, SE9 6EZ. Make cheques payable to T. Liddle

On Monday 06/10/1997 the Camden Irish Centre became the scene of a farce played out on the streets.

The North London Irish venue had been booked by an individual member of the IRSP GB for a public meeting to discuss the validity of the ongoing so-called peace process. A few minutes before the meeting was due to commence the CIC was closed by members of SO13, the metropolitan police's Anti-Irish Squad. Scotland Yard has stated that a warning was sent via the Samaritans alleging that a Loyalist bomb had been planted at the centre. That in itself is no surprise.

For generations these thugs claming allegiance to the British state have used any and all excuses to attack the body politic of all segments of the Republican platform. However it must be stated that on this occasion they had a little inside information courtesy of the British Left. The week before the meeting was to be held Anti Fascist Action issued a press statement, giving not only the location of the meeting but also those who where to attend and speak. We would remind all groups that those who oppose the forcible occupation of Ireland are at risk not only from the forces of the State but also from those international and home grown right wing groups who AFA were set up to combat. We have enough to do looking after the security of our members without having to consider those who, on the face of things are on the same side as us.

There is no doubt in the minds of the IRSP GB who forced the abandonment of the meeting and it was not AFA. However the meeting was abandoned as a result of publicity, not of the RSM's making and an important chance for the Irish community in Britain to express their thoughts on the "PP" was lost. Not for long. The membership of the IRSP GB has pledged that the meeting will take place before the end of October with as many of the original speakers there as possible. We believe that in its present state the Pacification Process is dead in the water, if it was ever alive in the first place. The Nationalist and Republican people of Ireland fought a war of great ferocity and endured daily terror at the hands of Loyalist gunmen, the sectarian thugs of the paramilitary RUC and RIR/UDR. How can anyone now be so cruel as to hold out the prospect of a United Ireland when it is so patently not on the cards.

The meeting at the CIC was to give everyone there a chance to have his or her say. That right was taken away from them. We in the IRSP pledge ourselves to ensuring that that right will not be denied.

Gone are the days when faceless men in smoke-filled back rooms decide the fate of the people of the Occupied Six Counties. Or, by those who tell the people who fought and suffered the consequences of the war "sit back we have your best interests at heart". "Get a grip a reality will ye". You can not politicise a people only to then tell them "we will do it all for you". The people know what they want and it's not a revamped Stormont. Beware the risen people. It is they and no one else who will bring freedom.

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 side lined marginalised and some have faded altogether. The more than notable exception to this has been the Republican Socialist Movement comprising of the Irish Republican Socialist Party and the Irish National Liberation Army. From the Movement's inception in 1974 the RSM 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 Great Britain 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.

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.