Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! no. 10 May/June 1981
Every severe crisis of a social system brings forward something new. It pushes to the fore those forces which represent the future and shows ever more clearly the bankruptcy of those forces which desperately try to hold onto the past. The present crisis of British imperialism is no exception.
Bobby Sands was an irreconcilable enemy of British imperialism. By the age of 18 he had already joined the revolutionary forces of the IRA to drive Britain out of Ireland. The whole might of the British state could not break his revolutionary spirit. That is why he was slowly and barbarically tortured to death in a British concentration camp. Bobby Sands has become a symbol, a shining light to those fighting oppression throughout the world. Apologists for imperialism from every quarter, from the Pope to the European Human Rights Commission to the millionaire Irish Prime Minister Haughey tried to persuade him to give up his struggle and to betray his revolutionary cause. They failed. He knew they were hand-in-glove with British imperialism, only concerned to prevent the revolutionary anger that, with his death, would burst onto the streets of Ireland. The murder of Bobby Sands has shown once again that you cannot reason with imperialism. The massive peaceful protests during the hunger strikes, the widespread international support were of no avail. Peaceful protest will not move British imperialism. ‘Democracy’ in the Six-Counties is only evoked by British Governments when it strengthens British imperialist rule. Bobby Sands’ election victory did not alter the British Government’s position at all. The long struggle of the Irish people for freedom has demonstrated once again that imperialism only moves when it is confronted by revolutionary force. As Owen Carron, election agent of Bobby Sands said, at his funeral:
‘We must take what they will not give … There is no way in which freedom can be obtained, and when obtained maintained, except by armed men’.
Bobby Sands, IRA freedom fighter has set the standard for revolutionaries. The revolutionary youth of Derry and Belfast are following his lead. These are the forces of the future.
Massive protests took place throughout the world on the death of Bobby Sands. 8,000 marched in Paris and in Toulouse a Dunlop warehouse was bombed. 5,000 marched in Milan and the British Chamber of Commerce was bombed. Thousands marched in Portugal with placards stating ‘We are all members of the IRA’. In Oporto a British owned club was fire-bombed. A thousand people demonstrated in Greece. 300 people battled with police in Spain. In Switzerland a British car showroom was bombed. In the USA thousands have demonstrated in New York and San Francisco. In Iran the street next to the British Embassy in Tehran has been named after the revolutionary Bobby Sands.
But in Britain the source of this barbaric murder there has been nothing worthy of the name protest. The British Labour movement has again demonstrated its complete moral and political bankruptcy. It was entirely in character for the Labour Party to send Concannon to inform Bobby Sands a few days before his death that the Labour Party, which created the H-Blocks, supported and applauded his murder. For in 1916 this same imperialist Labour Party was directly party to the murder of the great revolutionary socialist James Connolly.
Another equally despicable creature Arthur Henderson MP not only was part of the Coalition Government that crushed the Easter Rising but he also led other Labour MPs in Parliament in their applause at the news of James Connolly’s death. The Labour Party is, and always has been on the side of British imperialism in its attempts to crush the oppressed. Foot and Thatcher will always unite against the revolutionary struggle of a risen people fighting British imperialism.
And what of those so-called Labour lefts! Those gutless wretches have done nothing but sign a miserable Common’s motion regretting Bobby Sands’ death. They were even put to shame by an ordinary Labour MP Patrick Duffy who in spite of the Commons hounds baying for his blood expressed simple human outrage at Thatcher’s barbaric act. Those Labour lefts only regretted the death of Bobby Sands because they were terrified at the revolutionary violence that would inevitably follow it. They have never supported political status for Irish political prisoners and they never will. They took every opportunity to condemn the revolutionary violence of the IRA when interviewed by the Press. Their difference with Thatcher only lies in the method they propose for defeating the Irish people’s revolutionary struggle for freedom. They want it done with-out so much obvious brutal force. These Labour MPs belong to the forces of the past.
The task of building a campaign in support of the hunger strikers should have been carried out by those claiming to be further to the left than the Labour Party. But they, the CP, SWP/IMG under the umbrella of the Troops Out Movement, and the WRP and other assorted middle-class socialists refused point blank to build a campaign for political status. If the Labour lefts are the backside of the imperialist Labour Party these middle class socialists search through their droppings to find nuggets of gold. Every committee where they dominated was subservient to their alliance with the Labour lefts. Every proposal put was judged by its acceptability to the Labour lefts. The Irish peoples’ struggle, the agony of the hunger strikers was not even considered. The highpoint of their totally bankrupt campaign was the abject response of a vigil of only 300 people on the night of Bobby Sands’ death. This while thousands marched in the Capitals of other countries.
These middle class socialists sank even lower. Where real militant working class campaigns were being built in support of political status they openly sabotaged them. In Scotland they even allied with Labour and Loyalist reactionaries in getting demonstrations in support of political status banned. They are the forces of the past.
That the Government was forced to ban all demonstrations in Strathclyde for three months was proof of the growing strength of the campaign for political status there. This campaign was led by an alliance of the Revolutionary Communist Group and young Republican workers, particularly those in the Flute bands. Alone of the British left organisations, the RCG has campaigned everywhere against collaboration with the Labour lefts and for unconditional support for Irish political prisoners. But we failed to dent the reactionary alliance of the British middle class socialists with the imperialist Labour Party. The revolutionary forces in Britain are as yet too weak. Faced with the unopposed Government bans on demonstrations and marches and the sabotage of the British left, only revolutionary communists and other committed supporters of the Irish people’s struggle were prepared to risk isolation, attack and arrest. This work must go on and through it new revolutionary forces will emerge and new allies will be found.
These allies do not lie in the privileged and corrupt forces of the past —the official Labour movement, TUC and Labour Party, Labour lefts and their middle class socialist friends. The new forces lie within the most oppressed and poorest sections of the working class. It is no coincidence that as the revolutionary youth of Derry and Belfast fought pitched battles on the streets against British imperialist forces, so the black people of Brixton in alliance with a small number of whites drove the police out of their area.
British imperialism has nothing but oppression and poverty to offer them. They have no illusions in the institutions of British imperialist democracy. They, like the Irish have been forced to take the revolutionary and insurrectionist road. Only such forces are capable of the dedication and sacrifice which is necessary in the struggle against British imperialism here at home. Only such forces will risk the arrest, imprisonment and immense hardship which comes through participation in this fight. Only from such ranks will there be those who will follow the courageous lead set by Bobby Sands.
These are the real allies of the Irish people. From their ranks a new revolutionary anti-imperialist movement will be built. These are the forces of revolution.
