Intercontintental Press
1 April 1985
Pgs 169-171

"We are a revolutionary socialist party and our objective is to create a revolutionary socialist state in Ireland. Part of the struggle for a socialist state entails resolving the national liberation struggle and ending British imperialist intervention, whether military intervention, political intervention or control of aspects of the economy."

That is how Seamus Costello defined the goals of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) shortly after it was formed in December 1974 by people who had broken with "Official" Sinn Fein.

Costello, the party's founder, added that ending British imperialist intervention in Ireland is "an essential prerequisite for the development of the class struggle between left and right in this country. The class forces in Ireland have never developed properly in the last 50 years basically because of the imperialist intervention and because of the fact that the national struggle remains incompleted."

In the decade since its formation, the Irish Republican Socialist Party has had to travel a rocky road.

A number of its leaders have been murdered, including Costello himself, who was gunned down in 1977. Others have been jailed in the British-occupied six counties of Northern Ireland and in the formally independent 26 counties of the South.

"In view of the forces arrayed against the IRSP," remarked Ray Collins during an interview with Intercontinental Press in early March, "it was no small feat that we survived at all."

Collins, a member of the IRSP ard-comhairle (national executive committee) until September 1984, is touring the United States. He is raising funds to finance a record of songs written by political prisoners and other activists. The record, he hopes, will raise money for the support of the prisoners and their families.

Dating back to the Easter 1916 uprising in Dublin against British rule, "there have been two trends within the Republican movement," Collins states.

One tendency was represented by the Irish Volunteers, led by Padraig Pearse, a poet and promoter of a revival of the Irish language and culture.

The other trend, says Collins, was embodied in the Irish Citizen Army headed by James Connolly, a Marxist and trade union leader.

Pearse and Connolly were both executed by the British after the Easter Rising was crushed.

"The division between these two main trends," says Collins, "has continued through to the present day. In Belfast, my home, there has always been the question of whether you are more Pearse or more Connolly."

He adds that the IRSP and the Irish National Liberation Army "trace our roots back to Connolly and the Irish Citizen Army, which arose out of the trade union movement to protect the workers and fight for their emancipation."

Collins argues that that historic divide was also reflected in the 1969 split in the leading Republican organization, Sinn Fein, and in the military group associated with it, the Irish Republican Army.

At the time of the split, the "Official" Sinn Fein and the "Official" IRA were trying to develop an orientation toward a mass political struggle for Irish freedom linked to socialism.

The "Provisional" Sinn Fein and the "Provisional" IRA placed greater emphasis on military struggle, virtually to the exclusion of other forms of political struggle.

Many of those now in the IRSP sided with the "Officials" in the 1969 split.

Within a few years, however, the leadership of the "Officials" abandoned the struggle for Irish reunification, viewing it as an obstacle to uniting Protestant and Catholic workers in Northern Ireland.

A united Ireland, the leaders of the "Officials " insisted, could only come after Catholic and Protestant workers had come together around their class interests and after both Northern Ireland and the South had been democratized.

In 1972, the "Official" IRA declared a truce in its armed struggle against British rule in Northern Ireland.

IRSP's roots in 'Officials'

Collins, who was a member of the "Officials" at the time, recalls that "many people left the 'Officials' in 1972 and 1973 during the ceasefire. From my own experience in Belfast I know that within that year a lot of people who had been very active in the 'Official' movement were so fed up and demoralized that they left politics altogether."

When the IRSP was founded in 1974, the bulk of the founding members came from the "Officials." But, says Collins, "Seamus Costello later concluded that he had lost a great deal of ground by remaining in the 'Officials' until 1974, trying to change things from within. By then, a great many people had simply left politics and never joined the IRSP when it was launched."

As soon as the IRSP was set up, Collins recalls, "the 'Officials' launched a physical onslaught against us. That made it almost impossible to organize politically, to sell papers, to hand out leaflets. Everyone had to go into hiding." Several leading members were murdered.

"This was a baptism of fire. Things were very difficult for our young movement. We were also targeted by the Loyalist [pro-British] murder gangs."

In addition, in 1976, IRSP members fell victim to a frame-up by the government of the 26 counties of the South, which accused the IRSP of organizing the robbery of more than £200,000 pounds from a mail train.

In all, 40 IRSP members and supporters were arrested, and police wrecked IRSP offices and stole files.

After several trials in juryless courts, three members of the IRSP were sentenced to from 9 to 12 years in prison. A successful appeal led to the release of two of the three after 17 months in jail; The third, Nicky Kelly, who had fled to the United States during the trial, returned to Ireland after the appeal, but was jailed from 1980 to 1984.

More recently, the IRSP has been hard hit by the so-called "supergrass" (informer) trials in Northern Ireland, which began in 1983.

In these trials, hundreds of opponents of British rule have been arrested and tried before juryless courts, solely on the testimony of paid perjurors.

"The trials took a lot of our leadership off the streets," Collins notes. "At the height of the trials, the entire Belfast executive committee with the exception of myself and one other person were under arrest."

Trying to rebuild

At its ard-fheis (convention ‹ pronounced ard-esh) two years ago, says Collins, the IRSP began taking steps to overcome its problems. A new leadership "sat down to criticize and analyze our shortcomings. As a result, the party is getting stronger."

In addition, "a number of prisoners have been released, and they are very active in rebuilding the organization," he states.

"One of the things we saw was that we needed to make clear why we exist as a separate organization and what we stand for," Collins explains. "To that end we are trying to bring out a series of pamphlets explaining our views on different questions."

Among the pamphlets in the works are one on the relationship between the Loyalist assassination squads and the Ulster Defence Regiment and Royal Ulster Constabulary, another on the functioning of multinational corporations in Ireland, one on the attempts to erode Ireland's neutrality and integrate it into NATO, and a pamphlet on the problems of women.

"We are trying to get together the money to publish these studies," Collins states. "This is an area where we've really fallen down. But efforts are being made to turn it around."

"The IRSP is also putting more emphasis on education of our members, particularly new members, and is somewhat more selective in who joins the party," Collins says.

"Often we have fallen into the assumption that just because someone has joined the party they are socialists and know what that means for us as a specifically socialist organization in the present situation."

Since the IRSP was founded, fundamental changes have taken place in the Republican movement.

"Official" Sinn Fein has continued its flight from the national liberation struggle and has gone through two name changes reflecting that evolution‹first becoming "Sinn Fein-The Workers Party," and then simply the Workers Party.

"Provisional" Sinn Fein has also gone through an important evolution under a new leadership whose stated goal is the establishment of a "democratic, socialist Ireland."

Since the 1981 hunger strike in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein has rapidly grown in size and influence. Its move to the left and rapid growth have forced all socialist republican organizations to reconsider their own role in the freedom struggle.

In Collins' view "there is definitely a place for the IRSP and the Irish National Liberation Army," even though "Sinn Fein has changed drastically, largely through the work of Gerry Adams and Danny Morrison, and has moved to the left."

But he feels that "there are many contradictions within Sinn Fein" because "some of the old leaders, who were quite reactionary, are still around." These contradictions, he states, can be seen "particularly on questions concerning women, such as abortion."

In recent years, says Collins, "Sinn Fein has viewed the working class in a new light, seeing that it can play a role in the revolution."

"Where we differ" with Sinn Fein, he asserts, "is that we view the working class as the central and most integral part of the struggle."

In a nutshell, says Collins, "the IRSP sees itself as a republican and Marxist organization."

"Sinn Fein seems to be looking for a halfway house between capitalism and socialism, which cannot exist. They want an Ireland that is socialist with a small 's.'"

Broad front

Since it was founded, the IRSP has called for establishing a broad front of anti-imperialist organizations and individuals around a specific set of demands aimed at removing the British presence from Ireland and disbanding the Ulster Defence Regiment and the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

In Collins' view, "single-issue campaigns around specific forms of British repression are important, but they do not deal with overall imperialist or capitalist domination and do not hit at all aspects of it."

As a result, he feels, the British have been able to hold the initiative. "Whenever opposition to one form of repression ‹ such as internment or plastic bullets or supergrass trials ‹ has become too strong, the British have shifted to another form.

"After the hunger strike, the H-Block/Armagh committees that had sprung up throughout Ireland were disbanded. Later when the British came up with the supergrass trials, we had to start over again in building a defense movement.

"The British are always one stage ahead of us. They are unified, with a clear and identifiable policy. But no single anti-imperialist organization, no matter how strong, can provide the same unity on our side."

He adds: "We believe all anti-imperialist individuals and groups should be represented in and have a voice in a broad front, whatever their other differences. Those differences are not so strong as to prevent unity at this stage."

The IRSP feels that "support for armed struggle should not be a prerequisite for participation in the anti-imperialist broad front," according to Collins. "Organizations that do not support armed struggle need only recognize the right to armed resistance."

According to Collins, attempts by the new leadership of the IRSP to organize joint activities against repression with Sinn Fein have been unsuccessful. "They are reticent to share platforms with the IRSP," he states, "although they will share them with other groups."

There is "great mistrust of politics and political parties ‹ including left parties ‹ among young people in Ireland," which has the most youthful population in Europe, Collins observes.

"With a unified broad front, you would have a greater chance of attracting these young people, who are the key to the revolution in both North and South."

Given the high level of unemployment and the disillusionment with politics, Collins states, "if the left cannot provide an alternative, young people in that situation turn to drugs or alcohol or move to the right." He adds that "heroin addiction in the Dublin area has already reached epidemic proportions among young people."

The Irish economy, Collins points out, is in a crisis. "The Irish working class is losing its skills as the old industries ‹ shipbuilding, engineering, and textiles ‹ have become moribund, while most of the new industry involves unskilled final assembly work."

In many of the new installations, he adds, "you find American or West German technicians supervising an unskilled Irish work force."

Multinational corporations

The root of the problem, Collins feels, is the fact that the Irish economy is dominated by multinational capitalist investors. "There is no real Irish capitalist economy that can fight against multinational control," he argues. "When the British partitioned Ireland, they did not allow a rival, independent economy to grow up on their doorstep. The Irish economy was totally tied into the British economy, with the currency based on the British pound."

In recent years, investments by U.S., Japanese, and West German companies have overtaken British investments in the South.

Much of the multinational investment is based on companies that take advantage of land grants and tax holidays to set up low-skilled or unskilled operations. Once the special incentives run out, the companies close up shop.

Because of the decline of old industries and the character of the new investments, Collins worries that "the Irish working class as a whole is seeing its skills destroyed, and this loss of skills poses a major problem for the future of Irish industrialization and for a socialist Ireland."

Educating the Irish working class about the role of multinational corporations is a key goal of the IRSP, Collins explains. The party hopes to soon publish a pamphlet based on two years of research on multinationals in Ireland, particularly U.S. companies.

Strip searches

One issue on which broad unity already exists in the republican movement is the fight against the strip searching of women political prisoners in Armagh jail in Northern Ireland.

Since strip searching began in November 1982, more than 2,000 strip searches have been conducted against the women prisoners, most of whom were in jail awaiting trial.

"There is no security reason for this practice," Collins points out. "It is totally barbaric and intended simply to demoralize and humiliate the prisoners."

"When you go to court for a routine appearance," Collins explains, "you are strip searched as you are leaving the prison. Then you go straight from the prison to the prison van, where you are kept in a little cubicle to prevent contact with the other prisoners, and from the van to the court. At no time are you out of the custody or sight of the guards. Then when you are returned to prison from court, you are again strip searched."

The searches have been conducted against pregnant women and women who are menstruating. "In one case a woman was strip searched as she was being returned to her cell after suffering a miscarriage," Collins recalls.

"The role women in prison have played in the movement has not always been recognized," according to Collins. "And on the outside women have also played a big role in the organizations without getting the attention they should.