CPIR Statement: There is no Peace in Ireland

national | anti-capitalism | press release

Sunday November 04, 2012 17:49

by CPIR - Páirtí Cummanach na Poblachta

Statement of the Communist Party of the Irish Republic on the conjurer's trick of a "peace process" in Ireland.

There is no Peace in Ireland

Politicians talk as if the killing of a prison officer in Armagh has shattered some mythical peace.

Of course when Hilary Clinton talks of peace she talk abouts the kind of peace that US foreign policy has brought to Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and now Syria.

When Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness talk of peace they talk about the peace to continue administering the sectarian division of Ireland in the North. The peace that allows them to sit in Stormont and oversee cuts imposed by Westminster and in which internment and the brutalisation of prisoners continues unabated.

When Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore talk of peace they talk about the peace which allows them to sit in Leinster House and oversee cuts imposed by the IMF and the EU. Peace and quiet to allow them to hand over Ireland's wealth to banks, and to impose cuts against education, health and the most vulnerable in society.

Of course, when the British government talk about peace, everyone in Ireland knows to start worrying!

The people of Ireland know that there is no peace. Tell the hundreds of thousands of unemployed left without any means of providing for their families that there is peace. Tell those who face Social Welfare cuts by Stormont or Leinster House that there is peace. Tell those living in communities devastated by drugs that there is peace. Tell those interned by the British Secretary of State or on the word of a Garda Superintendent or those brutalised in Maghaberry Gaol that there is peace. Tell Colin Duffy who after three acquittals and so many years of his life in jail, has again been violently torn from his family and placed in a British cell. This kind of relentless peace, we could all do without!

The politicians try to play on a fear of going back to the "dark old days". But there are few who can remember when the days were darker for Ireland's working class.

They remain as divided as ever by sectarian partition. The gap between the rich and the poor continues to get wider and wider. Emigration and unemployment are rampant. The only way that these days are going to get any darker is if the rich are allowed to continue to plunder the poor.

They claim that there has been an end to the war. But there has only been an end on one side. The rich continue their war of plunder. The sectarian division of our country remains. And they call it a peace process.

People are right to reject such a process. Many of those who have rejected it have been interned or otherwise imprisoned. They have, despite the odds, fought the efforts to criminalise them. Like prisoners before them, they fought long and hard to be treated as political prisoners, they continue to fight against routine and brutal strip searching.

The real criminals sit in Stormont, Leinster House and Westminster plotting the next tranche of wealth to give to the banks, the next wave of job losses and wage cuts, the next series of privatisations, from waste collection to the very water that we drink. The wealth of Ireland is being stolen and given to vested interests to make a profit. And they call those who resist this criminals?

The peace we want is social justice, where everyone has access to the means to make a living, to feed our families, to heat our homes, to decent healthcare, education and the other basic human needs. The peace we want is a real democratic system which allows people to meaningfully participate in decision-making that effects them, not in a system where a highly paid political elite take all decisions and claim to represent people through an election every five years.

The peace that we want is an end to sectarian partition and for Ireland to be given the opportunity to finally break free from foreign economic and political domination and become an independent nation rather than the colonised, divided and undeveloped economy that it remains today.

Of course, when people set out to attain the peace that we want, the peace that the people deserve, the politicians call it war. But really it is politicians who have shattered the peace, it is they who are dragging the working class of Ireland to days which are darker than anyone can remember. And lest we forget, when capitalism was faced with such dark days before and ran out of markets to plunder, they dragged the whole world into a global war.

Communist Party of the Irish Republic
4th November 2012

Ends

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Comments (5 of 5)

Criticism of RNU

by BrianClarke - AllVoices

Tue Nov 06, 2012 18:26

A Chara,

Point taken and I will duly try to correct it but they do a lot of censorship.

brion

Something Rotten in BBC

Feel Free to use anything published from the CPIR

by An Draighneán Donn

Tue Nov 06, 2012 14:22

A Bhriain, a chara, please regard anything published by the CPIR as being in the public domain. We are not fans of intellectual property rights. The only thing I will say is that the RNU clearly put a lot of work into their paper, and I think it is a valuable addition to the debate on where we are, and what is going so terribly wrong. I think you were too harsh in comparing the RNU's work with the opportunism of Eamonn Gilmore. Personally, I don't see any point in trying to have a debate with the likes of the SWP, SP, PSF or Labour. They are too steeped in the opportunist mentality for anything good to every come out of them. But, there are groups on the Left, particularly the Republican Left, such as the RNU, RSF, 32CSM, WSM, etc. that should be always spoken to as comrades and friends. If we feel that their analysis can be improved, we need to say it in a very positive fashion - as an invitation, rather than as a challenge. I'm sure you will agree with me a chara.

Quoted Reply of An Draighneán Donn,

Tue Nov 06, 2012 13:22

A Chara An Draighneán Donn,

I quoted your reply in answering an RNU statement above on the Indymedia page. Ifyou have any problem with that please let me know and I can remove it.

I don't wish to be divisive or personal but I am simply trying to get a little more clarity. I find your analysis woolly to say the least and your dismissal of the emotional route, at the conclusion of your article as simplistic. The emotional path can be a far more perceptive path to the actual problem and solution than any amount of cerebral masturbation. In fact I would say that the lack of passion, as demonstrated by the working class in Greece and Spain, is blatantly absent from the current Irish disaster. The British counter revolutionary activities of MI5, seem to be just as as successful in Ireland, as they were with the British left, bogged down in polemic division and personal egos, since the miners strike.

The language of the heart, is often far more reliable than the dubious value of human intelligence.Emotions are also far more indicative of commitment and often a more reliable path to the actual activity of a successful revolution. Too much analysis often creates paralysis and division. A bit of passion to challenge the control freaks and manipulators of the left, would do no harm in Ireland at all. We only have to look at the state of the Provisionals, to see where the manipulators, woolly reformists and mental masturbators have taken them.

In the CPIR statement further down the Indymedia page, I received a reply by An Draighneán Donn, to a query I had, which I believe is very relevant to your statement and which I would like to quote, "Yes, a chara, too many people have become mesmerized by the vain hope of uniting the Irish working class - while the occupation still exists. These people have not bothered to read James Connolly, it seems. As he says, the work of uniting the working class can only begin, once the occupation has ended, and the working class themselves are in power. Because, even in a 32 county bourgeois free state, the native comprador class would still be able to use their money and power to create divisions in the working class. We don't need ALL the working class on our side to make a successful Revolution, we just need enough.

With all due respect your statement, looks very like some of Eamon Gilmores ramblings when he was in the Workers Part and now the same Eamon, with this type of reformist bullscutter, has reformed himself into a full blown, critical part, of one of the most right wing governments in Europe, with a nice retirement package and bonuses that will make him a multi-millionaire. I regret to have to write that your statement comes across simply as, "Eamon's old careerist wine in a new RNU bottle. I hope you can offer something a bit more scientific or passionate, if you want the Irish people of no property, to put their lives on the line for the revolution path you are describing.

Mise le meas

Brian Clarke

Gilmore's Criminal Private Healthcare Buddy

Putting the cart before the horse

Mon Nov 05, 2012 12:48

Yes, a chara, too many people have become mesmerized by the vain hope of uniting the Irish working class - while the occupation still exists. These people have not bothered to read James Connolly, it seems. As he says, the work of uniting the working class can only begin, once the occupation has ended, and the working class themselves are in power. Because, even in a 32 county bourgeois free state, the native comprador class would still be able to use their money and power to create divisions in the working class. We don't need ALL the working class on our side to make a successful Revolution, we just need enough.

No Peace

Mon Nov 05, 2012 09:06

Yes your analysis seems correct to me, with regard to the problem. It starts to get difficult though when we look at the specifics of a solution, with so many divisions amongst the people of no property. Many generations of Marxists, have worked to unite the working class but as was the case in Bombay street and similar events, this unity disappeared overnight with the passions aroused by cultivated sectarianism. It continues to be far too easy for the ruling class to divide and conquer Irish people, resulting in a lot of real revolutionary spirit emigrating. There appears to be no other route to evolving, than fist ridding the island of its neo-colonial structures.

MI5 'Out of Control'

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CPIR Statement: There is no Peace in Ireland

Comments (5 of 5)