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The Scottish debate

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The discussion on adopting a position on Ireland within first the Scottish Socialist Alliance and then the Scottish Socialist Party has been an ongoing and evolving one. When we first launched the Scottish Socialist Alliance we were surprised at the degree of programmatic agreement, especially as most of it originated with the programme.

The exception to this was the question of Ireland. When we launched the Scottish Socialist Alliance in 1996, we could have railroaded our position through the Scottish Socialist Alliance conference by force of numbers. We chose not to. Instead we proposed that the Scottish Socialist Alliance should position on Ireland at its founding conference and that should take the chance to hold a full discussion.

This meant that Scottish Socialist Alliance had no policy from the February 1996 founding conference until the special one-day conference on Ireland eventually took place in November 1997. We fought the 1997 general election without a policy on Ireland, so contentious is this issue within the Left in Scotland

At the one day conference, there were a number of motions submitted including a motion from Scottish Militant Labour. We then negotiated a statement with some other groups who were closer to our analysis, and while putting up and moving our own analysis we remitted our resolution in favour of the statement. At the time this was discussed with Peter Hadden in Northern Ireland.

Since then Alan McCombes and Allan Green visited Belfast and discussed with different groups including the Socialist Party. A full page article with Peter Hadden was carried in the Scottish Socialist Party paper the Socialist Voice. This was followed by a debate at the Socialism 2000 event attended by 500, where Peter Hadden was invited to speak on behalf of the Socialist Party in Ireland. Incidentally Joe Higgins was also invited to speak at the international Rally.

In the three years since the launch of the Scottish Socialist Alliance we have come a long way in terms of the understanding within the Scottish Socialist Party of the position in Ireland. Sections of what is now the Scottish Socialist Party have moved much closer to our position through patient discussion and argument. This current position is an advance on the position initially adopted at the one day conference on Ireland two years ago.

The statement incorporates all of our main analysis. The statement is a class analysis and a socialist programme on the very complex national question in Ireland, the Peace Process, repression, policing the development of class politics and a united socialist alternative.

That programme can of course evolve and develop over time, as we continue the ongoing discussion within the Scottish Socialist Party. These issues form part of an ongoing discussion within the Scottish Socialist Party. We do not accept that the statement makes unprincipled concessions to left republicanism/reformism.

It stands up as a far better and clearer statement of a working class socialist position on Ireland than the manifesto drawn up by the Labour Coalition [in Northern Ireland] in which we formed a majority and fought elections in 1996. This manifesto did not deal at all with the national question, for example. Nor did it even mention the word socialism anywhere in the text.

One headline calls for "a return to traditional Labour values". Its list of demands a call for "the European Convention of Human Rights to be enacted into law in Northern Ireland". Another demand calls for "adequate resources for the Fair Employment and Equal Opportunity Commissions." That is not to criticise the compromise programme of the Labour Coalition, which of course was a politically much broader formation than the Scottish Socialist Party.

However it is blatantly inconsistent to support and campaign around such a weak manifesto which puts mild demands on the state, then attack the Scottish Socialist Party's much more far reaching programme as "making concessions to reformism". The comparisons from the faction between our recent handling of Scottish Socialist Party policy on Ireland and that of the Scottish Socialist Alliance over two years ago are limp, belated and entirely false.

After almost two years without a policy on Ireland because of the difficulties of achieving we did finally agree on a policy position which was much weaker and more vague than the new policy of the Scottish Socialist Party. Yet it was praised by Peter Hadden and the leadership of the Irish section. The fact we could negotiate and win a much more advanced policy through the Scottish Socialist Party (see attachment) without the same delays in itself demonstrates the success of the approach adopted by the International Socialist Movement majority on this vexed issue over several years.

Two approaches (at least) are always available: the easier road of remaining 'pure' on every formulation but isolated from any real audience; or the rockier road to a far-reaching socialist, class-based programme that brings bigger forces along with us. The Scottish Socialist Party policy on the national question guarantees the rights of all minorities in Ireland; promotes class and socialist politics; calls for a socialist Ireland.

The comrades seem to want to have their cake and eat it. They insist that the Scottish Socialist Party is a broad, heterogeneous party with diverse currents (which is a gross exaggeration as we have explained). Yet simultaneously they insist that we railroad through a policy on Ireland with every nuance straightened out to the satisfaction of the Irish leadership.

It is disappointing that the comrades in Ireland refuse to acknowledge the level of achievement in conquering such a policy on Ireland through the Scottish Socialist Party. Neither the Scottish Socialist Alliance [Scottish Socialist Alliance], nor especially the Labour Coalition developed a policy which remotely matches the policy now agreed by the Scottish Socialist Party.

The comrades fail or refuse to grasp that the discussion at Scottish Socialist Party conference - including the case put by speakers from the International Socialist Movement majority that swung the conference behind the statement 'For a Socialist Ireland'- was a milestone event in an ongoing, unfinished process of clarification on this issue in the ranks of the Scottish Socialist Party. Of course the Scottish Socialist Party policy on Ireland may be open to slightly different nuances of interpretation by different people on some issues. But those who round on us are blinded to the dialectic of winning a powerful statement of class-based socialist analysis and programme - skilfully worded and negotiated to bring people from different traditions with us - whilst sharpening up the clarity of thought in the Scottish Socialist Party with the help of the verbal explanations behind the policy document .

It is frankly childish and churlish of the faction and their international supporters to repeatedly condemn the policy document on the basis of the bullet points at the end of it.

Firstly these points are lifted directly from the 1997 Scottish Socialist Alliance policy, which was praised not condemned by the Irish leadership. Secondly they focus on demands on the British government on repression, surely a legitimate part of any programme for socialists operating in the imperialist country?

Thirdly, they form a minor part of the overall policy statement. It is ludicrous and dishonest to pretend that these seven demands against repression are all the Scottish Socialist Party will campaign around.

What about the rest of the policy document? What about, for example, its pledge to "develop solidarity links with all those in Ireland campaigning in the interests of working-class people in all communities, North and South"?

Or the Scottish Socialist Party offer of "solidarity to any moves towards communities, trade unionists, women's and youth organisations coming together at ground level to seek cooperation on a way forward". Surely that skilfully advocates the class unity in action that has been the touchstone of Committee for a Workers’ International policy for 30 years?

And do the comrades not recognise the essence of the call from the Scottish Socialist Party to "actively encourage the development of cross-community class politics and any steps towards new working class initiatives helping to mount a united socialist challenge"?

This is a far more concrete expression of the age-old Committee for a Workers’ International call for 'workers' unity and socialism', but posed in a fashion that does not appear to dictate action from across Irish Sea, and also takes account of the polarisation between the communities in recent years.

The demand for 'a united socialist challenge' may not fit the identikit slogans that the International leadership seem to insist upon, but surely it is an invaluable campaigning weapon for the Committee for a Workers’ International in N Ireland, who could exploit the growing authority of the Scottish Socialist Party to be at the heart of such initiatives?

It is not a question of surrendering on principles, but of the presentation of ideas in a fashion that chimes with the consciousness of the best of the working class that we seek to influence and lead. The opposite choice is to remain a permanent sect, albeit 'pure'.

We would appreciate a genuine discussion in that context on how we present our analysis of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) - not just in Scotland/Britain but in Ireland itself.

We could have adopted an entirely one-sided critique of this capitalist agreement - with justification. That after all is the position of the most militarist republicans, and the thinly disguised approach of the Republican Communist Network, many of whom in reality are opposed to the ceasefires, as Richie Venton brought out during the Scottish Socialist Party conference debate.

But to merely restrict our position on the Good Friday Agreement to a negative expose of its aims would fly in the face of the profound desires - and yes illusions - for it to succeed that exists in both working class communities in Northern Ireland. And such yearnings and illusions are even more prevalent in Scotland, where distance lends enchantment to the Peace Process.

Why did the Irish Socialist Party call for a YES vote in the referendum if not to 'adapt' to the real consciousness of workers whilst seeking to dispel their illusions?. Certainly what is of no use to the situation for the forces of Marxism and socialism is for the Scottish Socialist Party’s position on the Good Friday Agreement to be distorted.

In fact the Scottish Socialist Party statement says: "We do not believe the Good Friday Agreement provides any lasting resolution of the conflicting, contradictory demands on the national question, policing, parades and other issues" and goes on to recognise serious shortcomings and dangers in the agreement", including how it was reached without any direct input by working class organisations; its institutionalised sectarianism and its failure to resolve the contradictory demands on the national question.

It is sophistry and distortion to say the document refers to "the positive features of the GFA", when in fact it refers to the positive features "arising from the GFA" (our emphasis). In other words it does not seek to reinforce illusions in an Agreement cobbled together by bourgeois politicians, but seeks to exploit the openings at least temporarily emerging from it, in particular to put politicians on the spot and create openings for class and socialist politics. The International Socialist Movement faction, in ‘Review of Scottish Socialist Party Conference’, state that "Our position on the North is one of the most attractive for people looking for answers to the sectarian nightmare of politics in Ireland" and condemns the International Socialist Movement majority for "adapting our Marxist programme to the broad Scottish Socialist Party i.e. a non-revolutionary party".

This is a crass over-simplification. If life was so simple why do the faction not win a clear political majority in Dundee Scottish Socialist Party on Ireland? It is true that the consistent thread of our analysis has stood up to the test of time over 30 years. It is also true that a very advanced minority find it overpoweringly convincing. But for other layers, including many who joined Militant and SML since the early 1970s, Ireland has often been the most difficult stumbling block.

A potent cocktail of romantic republicanism and downright sectarianism especially in the West of Scotland has meant that Ireland has always been a complex and difficult issue for us - even when we were recruiting to Militant / Scottish Militant Labour. Surely the experience of the Northern Ireland CWI comrades themselves testify to the fact that we can be a thousand times correct in our general explanations, but still be forced to remain a small, relatively isolated group, swimming against the stream of bigger political currents?

The whole purpose of Marxism is to weld correct generalisations to living movements and real consciousness in a way that helps to alter the balance of forces in society.

Hence the 'adaptation' of slogans like 'a socialist united Ireland' to 'a socialist Ireland' (which remains a real source of debate in the Scottish Socialist Party). Hence the Labour Coalition phase in Northern Ireland, surely an attempt to inch forward consciousness by agreeing a programme that looks like that of the most primitive early social democracy by comparison with the far-reaching socialist demands of the Scottish Socialist Party document on Ireland.

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