Is radical republicanism making a comeback?

Posted by Jim on July 22, 2017

By Fionnuala Perry

When Saoradh stepped onto the political stage for the first time on the
24th of September last year, few party members were dissuaded by
the political and media reaction, which appeared in most instances to
come from a script in keeping with the new dispensation.

At the time of the Saoradh launch, one journalist penned that the choice
of venue, which was the Canal Court in Newry, appeared to say, ‘We won’t
be restricting ourselves to the margins anymore.’

Other political narratives were based on the notion, albeit varied, that
‘dissidents’ had abandoned the cold and now sought the warmth and
democratic feel good factor that can only be found in constitutional
politics.

Spontaneous attributes is a psychological term. A term which usually
describes those who have difficulty accessing a situation; basically
they lack the cognitive skills that prevent them making random summaries
and despite evidence to the contrary, they ‘jump in’.

The idea that the voice of Republican dissent could move from the
margins and bring with it an ideology capable of challenging ‘the only
show in town’ narrative; appeared so implausible, that those initial
reactions couldn’t help but score quite low on any cognitive scale for
failing to grasp the very basics of Saoradh’s core message.

Saoradh and the ideals central to its formation had been in the
formalising process for quite some time.

Consultation both within and outside the confines of those prisons which
housed Republican prisoners had provided a remit for dialogue; this
dialogue would subsequently take place between various independents and
those from other Republican groupings.

Individuals with like-minded ideals would provide a platform on which
Republicanism could step away from the confines of sackcloth and
perpetual apologies that are seemingly being weaved into the overall
political tapestry.

Central to the party’s formation was the knowledge that British misrule
and its offshoots in the North of Ireland have not been nullified or
even diluted. The contentious hand that pulls the strings in relation to
clandestine policing, secret deals on Orange marches, the ever growing
monopoly on privatisation and legacy issues, hasn’t withered; it has in
fact been strengthened.

The theory that Republicanism taking centre stage in a ‘lavish’ hotel
might be interpreted as political dissent on the move is a very
perceptive one.

However, the reality of radical Republican politics re-emerging within
the confines of the Northern Irish statelet and advancing without
serious levels of state resistance is highly questionable.

‘Northern Ireland’s’ response to radical politics and those of dissent
has always come in the form of emergency legislation. This legislation
had been described by International agencies as ‘exceptional’,
‘draconian’ and ‘alien.’

The territory known as ‘Northern Ireland’ was the subject of emergency
powers even before the state came into existence in 1921.

The ‘Defence of the Realm’ Act authorised the UK government to issue
regulations to secure public safety.

These regulations supplemented ordinary criminal law with exceptional
wartime powers. These regulations granted massive stop and seizure
appendages to the police and armed forces, and they had the capability
to alter the criminal trial process by authorising internment without
trial and trial by court martial.

While the ‘Defence of the Realm’ Act ended, allegedly after the First
World War, the Emergency Powers visited on the North did not.

A series of legislative re-enactments including the capital offence
‘Treachery Act’ 1940 would pave the road to exceptional policing powers
that remain in existence to this very day.

Normalisation, which is the new black, now appears to present Sinn Fein
and other facets of constitutional Nationalism with a political
quagmire.

Sinn Fein’s response to Saoradh’s launch didn’t differ entirely from
that of the SDLP. The former claimed its party welcome genuine political
debate amongst Republicans, whilst the latter claimed Saoradh had taken
the first step on a well-trodden path and should partake of debate
within the existing ‘democratic’ framework.

The theory that Sinn Fein welcomes genuine political debate amongst
Republicans remains dubious and seriously debatable given that facts
point to the contrary.

Recent remarks by the Sinn Fein leadership highlight that the party now
use the same British terminology of criminality that the Gardiner Report
used in relation to Republicans.

The process of criminalisation was and is to go hand and hand with the
policies of Ulsterisation and Normalisation.

The success of Ulsterisation and Normalisation depend on the wider
society being conditioned into the acceptance of criminalisation. In
order to do this, Nationalist agitation must be viewed through a devious
lens and dealt with as such.

Those former political insurgents that have now signed up as fully
fledged guardians of the ‘New Strategy’, have in many cases become so
absorbed into the state’s apparatus, that it remains practically
impossible to separate them from the bona fide state militia.

Evidence shows, that rather than putting manners on the police, many of
the former Provos have been complicit in aiding and abetting the
multifaceted state forces in subduing anyone at odds with new political
dispensation.

The system of democracy which the SDLP encouraged Saoradh to embrace now
appears to have come loose from its political bedrock.

The Detail website recorded that our ‘democratic’ institutions have cost #74
million in the last five years.

In return for that, an apathetic and detached electorate (except when it
comes to a sectarian headcount) have witnessed the Red Sky scandal; the
unsolved NAMA; 2 million into the coffers of Charter NI; endless
enquires into MLA’s expenses; #70,000 for Sinn Fein’s consultancy
services; #60 million for Casement Park, another venture dogged with
controversy; and last but not least the one that eventually brought the
house down, the RHI.

Recently an article in the New Statesman proclaimed, ‘Northern Ireland’s
Peace Process wasn’t too big to fall.’

The article which was written in relation to latest Stormont scandal,
the RHI, cites that while the ongoing political fallout will bring on
new elections, something a lot deeper might be looming on the political
landscape.

The something ‘deeper’ the author predicts might come from the changing
of the guard in Sinn Fein.

At the root, it is argued, is an old age political truism. ‘As with each
political generation, there is a temptation to revisit the certainties
of the past by those who see themselves as remaining true to the faith
their predecessors drifted away from.’

The old age truism is offered as an explanation to describe what has
taken place within the ranks of Labour under Jeremy Corbyn; this
scenario which has seen the old radical principles of Labour overshadow
the ‘New Labour’ advocated by Blair, is a pattern that the paper argues
could be replicated within the ranks of the Sinn Fein movement.

The departure of Adams after 34 years at the helm of Sinn Fein may be
perceived by some within the party as an opportunity to drop all former
baggage and seize the opportunity for a fully constitutional party.

Mary Lou McDonald, who is believed to be the President’s favoured
successor, has apparently the potential to ‘cauterize’ the more
troubling aspects of the party’s past.

However, would such a cauterising process rest easily with the party
doubters who will allegedly look back at armed struggle with a degree of
certainty?

While this does pose a serious question for mainstream Republicans, the
article goes on to claim that whilst the constitutional option starts to
fray around its haggard edges; it gives credence to the belief that all
this political uncertainty opens the doors for the militant and radical
group such as Saoradh.

There is little dispute that the constitutional process did bring a
quasi-peace and a changing to the overall political landscape.

However, if you were poor and on the margins of society pre the Belfast
Agreement, then in all likelihood that’s where you remain; because in
spite of all the prosperity rhetoric of ‘peace dividends’ (provided the
British exchequer didn’t have to squander money on security), neoliberal
ethics appear to be turned on their head with all monies trickling up
into the coffers of the rich instead of down.

For those engaging in the ‘democratic’ process, the recognition that the
North of Ireland remains one of the most unequal societies was a step
too far.

Rather than depart from the bastion of colonial rule in protest, the two
main parties dressed the post-conflict economic disaster as a ‘Fresh
Start’ and posted a joint statement hailing it to be ‘a sea of change.’

Bankrupt politics in an equally bankrupt artificial state looks set to
continue, the architects of the conflict transformation model in London
and Washington want a return on their deal.

These days, however, it is groups such as Saoradh that emulate the kind
of Marxist anti-imperialist slogans that Sinn Fein abandoned a
generation ago. Saoradh’s stance mirrors the same anti-imperialist
stance that we are witnessing spreading across Europe.

The ‘democratic’ system which is a relatively modern construct is now
perceived to be in deep crisis in established representative
democracies; the trust in political elites is crumbling.

Participation in elections is shrinking, and political parties are
losing their members. In the old fashioned ‘well developed’ democracies
in Europe millions have taken to the streets to protest against
anti-austerity.

More and more people are realising that their elected representatives do
not represent them.

Rather, governments that are made up of the right and sometimes left are
more likely to bow to the dictates of big banks, the financial
institutions, the multinationals and other powerful lobbies.

Closer to home we have seen Tory cuts repackaged under a ‘Fresh Start’
Agreement. The Fresh Start Agreement did not provide the catalyst for
austerity, but rather, provided another piece designed to complete the
neoliberal jigsaw.

In the wake of the so-called ‘economic crisis’, the British prosperity
that was to come with ‘Peace’ promise has been put on hold. The stark
inequalities that fuelled the ‘Troubles’ are as pronounced as ever; the
very same districts that bore the brunt of the war since 1969 remain at
the bottom in poverty, employment, and serious social deprivation
statistics.

Public funding is cut to the bone, hospitals and schools face mass cuts
and mass closures, low paid public sector workers whose wages make up a
large portion of the incomes in working class communities across the
North are threatened with redundancies by the thousands.

All this is being carried out by an Assembly at Stormont that seemingly
can’t agree on issues in relation to culture and identity but which is
‘ecumenical enough in its worship of the free market.’

Just this week, it has been claimed that the main parties in the stalled
Executive, ‘don’t have a Plan B, the smaller parties have not been
allowed to put forward a Plan A, and the British and Irish governments
seem happy to have no plan at all; therefore, it wouldn’t be entirely
wrong to assume they are making it up as it goes along.’

The ‘Only Show in Town’ now seems seriously devoid of anything other
than the same old script being delivered by the same hapless cast.

With the ‘New Phase’ now seemingly being phased out, is the stage now
set for the politics that once informed an entire movement in the North
to re-emerge?

The dynamics that propel anti-imperialism, anti-globalisation and
post-conflict structured austerity are visibly on the move. What will
this move mean, could it be translated that the radical Republican
politics of dissent that underpin Saoradh are now back in vogue?

* Fionnuala Perry is Vice Chairperson of Saoradh and a former Republican
PoW based in West Belfast.