Democratic Palestine : 7 (ص 20)
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- Democratic Palestine : 7 (ص 20)
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pation. The latest variation has been the use of paid perjurers
as «crown witnesses» against republicans in the special jury-
less Diplock courts. Several hundreds of people have fallen
victim to this practice so far.
Militarily the British hope to reduce the intensity of
revolutionary force to a level which is «acceptable», that is, to
a level which cannot prevent the development of a political cli-
mate in which the SDLP and the unionists can successfully col-
laborate in a manner which alienates as few nationalists as
possible.
The theory is good but the practice is somewhat different
and underestimates the will of the Irish people to be free. The
size of the Sinn Fein vote in the six counties and the active sup-
port of the people, that have sustained fifteen years of IRA
armed resistance, testify to that. Nationalists are already alien-
ated and will not lie down.
In the face of the British imperialist policy, can you
comment on the political development and prob-
lems faced by the Republican Movement?
In the early years of this phase of the struggle for libera-
tion, some thought that it would be short in duration. Events
such as the British negotiated truces with the IRA in 1972 and
1975 tended to support this view. Indeed it was not for some
years after this that it was fully realised that the struggle was
going to be of a protracted nature.
Moreover, it took some time to realise that political work
and military activity in isolation -sometimes even in contradic-
tion- from each other could not bring about a British withdrawal
and the establishment of a unitary Irish state. On top of this is
the problem of the vastly differing conditions, created by parti-
tion, between the occupied six counties and the Free State. In
the six counties British imperialism is evident every day in the
presence of British forces patrolling our streets. In the Free
State, while the majority of the population aspire to a united lIre-
land, successive governments, which the majority of people
also view as legitimate, see such a state as a threat to their own
power, privilege and wealth. So while the Dublin government
pays lip sevice to Irish unity, in practice they set about the sup-
pression of republicanism.
These are but some of the major problems which republi-
cans have had to encounter in formulating policy and a
strategy for national liberation. The first hurdle to be crossed
was breaking out of the political isolation into which both the
London and Dublin governments were trying to push us. This
we have been fairly successful in countering in the six counties
but as is evident in our vote in the Free State, at the European
elections in June, we face a major political task there. It is there
we have been concentrating a great deal of effort in building
our organisation, reviewing and updating policies to make
them more relevant to passive supporters of Irish unity whose
more immediate concern -in the absence of obvious symbols
of British imperialism- is daily economic survival: the working
class and small farmers, the socially and economically dep-
rived.
Militarily, the IRA has no illusions about their capabilities.
In several interviews over the years they have acknowledged
that they can never aspire to a military defeat of the British
army. Rather, they say they have set themselves the task of
making Britain’s occupation as costly as possible in terms of
both finance and British soldiers’ lives in an attempt to bring
about a set of circumstances where social and political forces,
not least of which is the British population itself, will force a
British withdrawal.
20
In brief, it is Sinn Fein’s task to organise and mobilise the
lrish people in active political opposition to British imperialism
and all its effects on the Irish people. It is the IRA’s task to per-
suade the British people and their government that it is time to
leave.
What has been the policy of the Free State towards
the Republican Movement?
Since the inception of the state, successive Free State
governments have been consistently opposed to the Republi-
can Movement. Throughout its 63 year history they have lent
themselves to the suppression of republicanism in their effort
to collaborate with the British.
In the counterrevolution of 1922-23, they arbitrarily exe-
cuted 77 republican prisoners in direct reprisal for IRA actions.
Republicans have been interned without charge or trial in the
20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. This is despite the fact that for decades
now the IRA has strictly forbidden military action by its mem-
bers in the Free State. In the last decade it has imprisoned hun-
dreds of republicans through its special non-jury courts. Under
Section 31 of its Broadcasting Act, it is illegal to broadcast an
interview with a member of Sinn Fein or the IRA on television
or radio. Other acts of collaboration include the arrest and trial
of republicans for military activities conducted in the occupied
six counties or Britain. Several republicans who escaped from
Belfast Gaol in 1981 are now serving long prison sentences in
a Free State gaol for daring to escape from a British prison.
Gerry Tuite who escaped from Brixton Prison in London, is
serving a long sentence for bombing operations carried out in
London, while one of the 19 republicans who escaped from
Long Kesh's H-Blocks last year was arrested some months
ago and awaits a similar fate. More recently they have begun
to extradite republicans into the hands of the British to face trial
on allegations of involvement in military activities against the
British forces in the six counties. For some time now the Free
State government has been spending more money per head of
population on protecting the British-imposed border than the
British government itself does.
In 1921, the British Lord Birkenhead predicted that the
creation of the Free State would «protect British interests in Ire-
land with an economy of English lives». He appears to have
been right. The British government talks imperialist and acts
imperialist. Free State governments talk nationalist but act
imperialist. And the reasons are simple. The two major parties
in the Free State -Fianna Fail and Fine Gael- are conservative,
aligning themselves, for instance, in the European parliament
with Gaullists and Christian Democrats, respectively. Govern-
ment of the state has alternated between these two conserva-
tive parties with Fine Gael sometimes forced into coalition with
the smaller ineffective Labour Party which is social democratic
in outlook and an affiliate of the Socialist International. Politics
in the Free State have not evolved into left and right as is the
case with the rest of western Europe. Nor can they while the
country remains partitional. The conservatives’ interests are
best maintained in a partitioned Ireland.
Currently the Free State government is involved in discus-
sion with the British government aimed at bringing.about a set-
tlement within the partition set-up, which they hope will cater
for Irish nationalists in the occupied zone by providing some
symbolic form.of national identity in an ongoing bid to dilute the
relevance of republicanism.
The Free State government's invitation to Ronald Reagan
to visit Ireland earlier this year speaks volumes of its domestic
and international outlook. - هو جزء من
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