Ireland: Lurgan ‑ more tensions, but still no answers

Following a wide scale and carefully orchestrated police operation aimed at disrupting ‘dissident republican’ activity and two nights of rioting in Lurgan, it would appear that the north of Ireland’s social peace has not been in such a fragile state since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement eleven years ago.

Following a wide scale and carefully orchestrated police operation aimed at disrupting ‘dissident republican’ activity and two nights of rioting in Lurgan, it would appear that the north of Ireland’s social peace has not been in such a fragile state since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement eleven years ago. These were the sort of scenes that the British state and the leaders of Sinn Féin and the Unionist parties all told us were a thing of the past.

It is evident that following the onset of the capitalist crisis, this is no longer the case. The longevity of the Good Friday Agreement was based on a relative prosperity which is rapidly turning into its opposite as the dole queues grow and a generation of youth is pushed from the school gates onto the scrapheap. The class contradictions are growing and where there is no clear mass socialist alternative presented all the old ideas will tend to reassert themselves.

The events in Lurgan followed on from the conviction of three men for attempting to launch a mortar attack on a police patrol in 2007. The response of the state in setting up road blocks and other repressive measures will in the long run only turn yet another generation of Irish youth from nationalist areas against them.

Sinn Féin impotency

These incidents follow on from attacks by the Continuity and Real IRA in March which left two soldiers and one police officer killed as well as disturbances surrounding the orange marches in Belfast this summer. The response of Sinn Féin to this situation also confirms their impotency of organisation in providing a serious answer to working class youth. They have been tasked with bringing an end to disturbances and maintaining order on ‘their side’ of the sectarian divide. It is clear that over the last few months this has become a more and more difficult task.

Johnny McGibbon, a local Sinn Féin councillor simply remarked that, “The majority of young republicans are not interested in this type of activity and have stayed away.” Such disruption, however, is clearly an embarrassment for the organisation in its own backyard. It is true that most Irish youth aren’t interested in a return to the days of the ‘armed struggle’ or actions such as those seen in Lurgan over the last few weeks. However, it is also evident that Sinn Féin is eroding its own social base. South Armagh was historically in effect under the control of the provisional IRA, and a place where the British army was only able to move troops via helicopter. These actions demonstrate the rising discontent with the leaders of the Republican movement.

Class contradictions

As we explained at the time of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, none of the underlying problems in the North were resolved. The Good Friday Agreement represents a blind alley, none of the fundamental class contradictions or national contradictions in the North have been solved. Under these conditions and particularly under conditions of a deep capitalist crisis the “Chuckle Brothers” can’t solve any of the problems in the six counties. This is the fundamental reason behind the political crisis affecting all of the parties in the North, regardless of which side of the divide they are on.

Entrenched divisions

Above all the actions of the last few months have demonstrated the utter uselessness of the tactics being employed by the Continuity/Real IRA. It is clear, after 40 plus years that the tactic of individual terrorism, the replacement of the conscious mass action of the working class by a small band of armed insurgents, cannot succeed. Not one blade of grass was liberated in all those years. The actions over the weekend may have been of a more spontaneous character, reflecting the frustration and anger of a section of young republicans, which has also been seen in other areas of the north this summer.

The recent so called ‘dissident’ activity only reflects the actions of the 70s and 80s on a much smaller scale. Given that the ‘armed struggle’ only resulted in the set up we now face in the north it is clear that such actions will only lead another generation of potentially revolutionary youth down a blind alley. Actions such as the car jacking of a woman’s lorry or pushing burnt out vans onto railway lines serve no purpose in furthering the cause of a united Ireland and only further entrench sectarian divisions.

Connolly and Larkin

Irish Republicanism contains some healthy elements that reject the Good Friday Agreement and pose the solution of a socialist united Ireland as lying in a united class struggle of protestant and catholic workers. In relatively recent history youth and workers in the North began to lay down the basis for this in the form of the civil rights struggle and incidents such as Free Derry. These traditions stretch at least as far back as the Dockers’ Strike in 1907 when under the leadership of James Connolly and Jim Larkin the protestant and catholic workers of Belfast stood together against the bosses and won. It is clear that such a response is needed now more than ever. It is only by building the forces of Marxism in Ireland that this can become a reality.