[Marxism] A Few Thoughts On The Six Counties

[gary.maclennan at gmail.com]

Jscot wrote:

But move out to the outskirts, to West, East, North and South Belfast, and
you'd think you were in an entirely different city. Despite the peace
process,
these areas remain citadels of sectarianism and militant commitment to a
cause,  with neither community either able or willing to compromise. Each
community is decidedly off limits to members of the other, and the  pride
which each
takes in their martyrs and the war is immediately evident  in the elaborate
wall murals which abound.

My comment:

Ah the curse of liberalism which when confronted with the legacy of
imperialism consciously or unconsciously seeks to see faults on both sides.
I don't really want to start a shindig about this, but let me say yet once
again to a British *comrade* that the two communities in Northern Ireland do
NOT mirror each other.  To say that they do or to allow oneself to
unconsciously fall into that way of thinking is to reduplicate British
propaganda.

For a start the Republican tradition is explicitly non-sectarian.  It was
after all started by Presbyterians.  On the other hand the Orange Order is
explicitly sectarian.

So one has not to ask the Catholic community to abandon sectarianism.  For
years Catholics have said they want closer contact with the Protestant
community. The latter community, by contrast,  is sectarian in essence
largely through its commitment to the Orange Order and British Imperialism.

Now one always need to examine content and not fall into slogans.  Both
communities have murals commemorating their "heroes".  Now let me say it
very clearly, the loyalist murals by and large commenorate the activities
and the personalities who manned the death squads for the British
imperialists.

Jesse James became a hero, as Lou has shown today, to those who wanted the
return of slavery.  Just so in the Orange enclaves the walls are decorated
with the images of those who did the dirty work of British Imperialism.

Moving over to the Republican areas the murals commemorate those who fought
long and heroically against one of the most bloody and ruthless of
imperialisms - the British.  My heart leaps up when I see that the people
still remember the sacrifice of so many.  My heart is sick with disgust when
I see the Loyalist murals celebrating the achievements of the assassins.

There is no neutrality here.  No pious weeping about the primitive
ungrateful locals who need to be kept apart by the wonderful British Army.

Now my own recent visit has convinced me that the Catholic community has
mostly accepted the deal struck by Sinn Fein with the British.  By and large
they have abandoned revolutionary politics. In other words they have
compromised.

BTW Phil Ferguson has written long and eloquently about the betrayals that
have produced this state of affairs and by and large I accept his analysis.

I also have a strong impression that the Protestant/Loyalist community is in
a much deeper crisis than the Catholic/Republican community.  Witness the
nonsense they are talking now about the Scots dialect being their native
language.  The Catholic community now has access to grants that were long
denied them.  By home town now has a new civic centre and a theater and new
walks etc. Something that would have been impossible under the Orange State.

Having said all that, what is needed of course is unity of the working class
in a struggle for a socialist state.  But that as our good moderator keeps
pointing out is the kind of sloganeering which has no real political
content.  It sounds great but is meaningless drivel on the ground.

So to finish of this post I would argue that we should celebrate all signs
that republicanism still has some hold on the Catholic Community.  We should
also unequivocally deplore all signs that Orangeism is alive and well in the
Protestant community.

regards

Gary