British political organisations have long treated their adjuncts in the north of Ireland in much the same way that Tesco and Marks and Spencers do. There are posters in the supermarket advertising £3 off a bottle of wine in London. The same wine will be discounted by the same amount in Belfast. A meeting on Islamophobia in London will be simultaneous with one in Derry. It turns out that one of Respect’s closely guarded secrets was an operation called “Respect the Unity Coalition Northern Ireland”. The picture is its accounts to the Electoral Commission.
“Northern Ireland” is the name given to the place by pro-unionists, pro-imperialists and the well-intentioned who don’t know any better. The six counties lack many things but it does have political organisations in an abundance uncommon for such a small population. You do have to wonder what chauvinistic, colonial impulse was behind the decision to create this thing even on paper. Even the utterly imperial British Labour Party refuses to organise there.
This says something about how much the British left’s understanding of Irish politics has atrophied and now we have “anti-imperialists” who want to hold open the option of organising in a colony. It’s irrelevant that there are 459 reasons that this project would never have worked. The notion should have been drowned in the bathtub where it was dreamed up.
Thanks to Dave Osler for getting me cross about this.
Respect in the north of Ireland.
British political organisations have long treated their adjuncts in the north of Ireland in much the same way that Tesco and Marks and Spencers do. There are posters in the supermarket advertising £3 off a bottle of wine in London. The same wine will be discounted by the same amount in Belfast. A meeting on…
9 responses to “Respect in the north of Ireland.”
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But, but … Liam
Surely this could only have been decided through the democratic structures of the Respect organisation, following the widest-ranging possible debate among the grassroots membership?
So you must have known about it all along. You tease, you.
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I think you may be getting carried away Liam. Unfortunately British State laws do apply in the six counties.
My understanding is that Respect has registered with the electoral commission in Northern Ireland and Scotland, in order to prevent anyone else claiming the “Respect” name organising there.
Since there is no activity reported in the legal return, this seems to be a true state of affairs.
This may be a legal technicality but the regulation of political parties is now an intensely legal affairs – witness the problem of the Socialist Party (ex-Militant), who are unable to stand in elections in England and Wales because the miniscule Socialist Party of Great Britain which hardly ever stands in elections got there first with its registration. If Respect did not register in this way, there would be nothing to stop another bunch of loons registering the Respect name and operating under it in the six counties.
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Sorry I should have said the SP are unable to stand under their official name. They stand as Socialist Alternative instead.
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Hi comrade Liam!!
I am going on the TOM delegation next month, and
am still on me lonesome, politically. ah wellNOTE ON SPEW
Mil/SP Militant/Socialist Party; historically, to old people like me, they were known by the name of their paper, but had a big turn around and became the Socialist Party. The scottish part of the party split off and i don’t know what became of them!
DDR deutsche demokratische Republic, known as east Germany
SED sozialistische Einheitspartei – the name of the ruling stalinist party in the DDR
SPD sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands – the ‘equivalent in germany of the british Labour Party
Socialist Alternative is the name of the cwi section in Germany – cwi cttee for workers’ international’s “england and wales” section is the Mil/SP.
they are ‘loons’ who helped build the WASG “election alternative” (for work:- Arbeit and social justice:- soziale Gerechtigkeit is the rest of it)
which recently fused with the formerly ruling – at the time of the DDR, SED which renamed itself the PDS party of democratic socialism.
in Berlin, the PDS have been a minority in the coalition ruling the area with the SPD, which has carried out large-scale attacks upon the rights and conditions of the working class of berlin. The PDS even proposed a 10% wage cut for council workers. I think they say that they are lessening the attacks by being part of the coalition…..
anyway, as the fusion of the largely eastern-based PDS approached, the mainly western WASG was split between berlin and the rest of the country (by and large). the berlin comrades split off anyway, shortly before the eve of the fusion conferences. in the last berlin elections, they lost the few deputies they have…. but the fusion gets them back into the Reichstag (parliament) tho for the “german millies” they ….well, i dunno really cos me sub ran out and i didn’t have any euros!LikeLike
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Prinkipo are you related to the Strabane Exiles or the Cushendall Exiles? They’re both lovely families.
I’d like to hear one reason why anyone would think that there are enough loons in the north to make it worthwhile wasting the time to register Respect. There are not many obvious ones.
Why would anyone with the slightest understanding of what Sinn Fein are doing want to take part in a TOM delegation in 2007?
At least the Provies are getting salaries and careers out of capitulating. Their TOM fellow travellers are showing a deep ignorance of what is happening in Irish society and will be offered the equivalent of a traditional tribal dance laid on for the revolutionary tourists.
Ask for your money back Steve and go to Bulgaria or somewhere instead for your holidays.I don’t like the acronym “SPEW”. It sounds like something thought of in a pub that was amusing at the time but it is just sectarian when it’s repeated.
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John MacAnulty wondered why i was going too, he says that they’ll probably take us on a tour of Stormont…!
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I think leftists in britain have to start with a balance-sheet of what took place/is still taking place. part of the problem has been the weakness of leftists in TOM. the tension that always existed between the core demands of troops out now and self-determination for the irish people as a whole, and the pro-SF line of the majority/leadership wasn’t capitalised on, i think.
perhaps something new might have been built – maybe around ’94/5 with the political collapse of TOM into the accomodation of the SF leadership to the occupation….. or perhaps this can be dated (the collapse of SF) earlier
so yeah, partly it’s that i don’t have anywhere in particular to go but i think belfast with TOM/SF will be better than bulgaria (or amsterdam, which is my favourite i am so unsophisticated!)LikeLike
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I ahve no idea what SteveR’s point is regarding Germany.
It is however largely inaccurate to characterise the PDS – die Linkspartei as a rebadging of the SED.
The SED largely split horizontally, with those parts of the SED most associated with the DDR state going in other directions, the PDS is a much smaller party than the SED was, and was very sucessfully morphed into a left social democratic party under the leadership of Gregor Gysi.
The German CWI section did play an undemocratic and destructuve role throughout the unity negotiations, and good riddance to them.
What is interesting though is that the SWP’s sister section have enthusiastically backed the formation of the new party, dissolved themselves as a formal current and in Die Linke have joined the left social democratic platform (SL) rather than the r-r-r-revolutionary platform, and are now organising a network arond the publictaion Marx21.
It would be a good idea if the IST became a transmission belt fro ideas from belrin to London perhaps.
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I have no idea what point was being made about Germany either, but beyond that, as usual, my agreement with Andy quickly disappears. To my mind an “undemocratic and destructive” role would be one which involved lining up with the reformist bureaucrats who controlled the WASG to witchhunt left activists. Which is pretty much what Linksruck did, before dissolving itself.
Andy objects to the views of Socialist Alternative (SAV) because they argued that unity on the terms of the most right wing elements would be counterproductive and the WASG could and should fight for something better than a rebadged PDS – still carrying out cuts, still in right wing regional government and still privatising things. That says more about Andy’s politics than it does about those of the SAV.
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Liam redux 
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