23 September 2007

John McAnulty 
 

Why have Fianna Fail announced (Monday 17th September) that they are to organise in the North?  This is the party that, through the Good Friday/St Andrews mechanism, fought tooth and nail to set partition in stone, ensured that Sinn Fein gave full support to the Northern state and that the arch bigot Paisley and the DUP become the leading party in the colonial administration.  Which is it? Partition forever or a United Ireland?

The history of Fianna Fail should be enough of an answer. This party, partitionist from its inception, partitionist throughout the troubles, scourge of republicanism and of the working class, architect of a settlement that has revived the sectarian colonial state, is taking another step to cement and stabilise reaction, not to fight it. There is not even a hit of irony in the announcement that the Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, will lead the committee discussing the move North.

The Irish capitalist class are convinced that they have buried democratic opinion in Ireland for once and all.  Fianna Fail is organising now in the firm belief that the decision will not lead to a revival of republican sentiment and that they will be able to operate north of the border without challenging the institutions they have worked for so long to build.

Of course this is not the whole story. Even as Fianna Fail marches forward, full of confidence, the original party of Irish capital North of the border, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, it slipping towards terminal decline. In part the Fianna Fail advance is to step into the breach that the SDLP is opening, in an attempt to stymie Sinn Fein and support a traditional nationalist party.

There are many problems with this scenario.  Why is the SDLP in decline at the time of greatest triumph for its policies?  If the St. Andrews settlement is so stable why is one of the outcomes the collapse of the nationalist party?

There is also a question. Why should the Southern capitalists care if the SDLP fade away and Sinn Fein continues its ascent? After all, Sinn Fein are by now a catholic party committed to operating in government coalition with the DUP and administering the British colony.

There appear to be a number of answers to this.  One is the potential instability of Sinn Fein.  It is a party that very much reflects its old militarist structure.  Standard answers to issues are worked out by the leadership and parroted by the lower ranks.  There is little of the political expertise that standard bourgeois parties have.  In addition Sinn Fein are the signatories of the St. Andrews deal and bound by a whole series of secret clauses to support the DUP majority.  The Sinn Fein mechanism for defence is to pretend that they are not in government – for example by protesting a deal about the use of land left from the Andersonstown barracks closure in Belfast while they negotiated the deal in the first place.  This is not a strategy that can last for long – even their own members are aware of the silence from the party while their DUP partners are involved in a scandal around land speculation and privatisation of facilities for the Giants Causeway. More recently the British tearing up the Patton report and retaining the protestant militia of the RUC full-time reserve, was met by fixed smiles from Sinn Fein representatives.

Secondly another by-product of the settlement has been an increasing sense of ‘free state’ 26 county nationalism in the south, and this makes it less likely that Fianna Fail will absorb Sinn Fein.  It is therefore logical to attack them in their northern stronghold as part of the task of seeing off any further Sinn Fein growth in the south.

The Fianna Fail government are launching a new round of privatisations and attacks on workers rights. They can’t afford to have Sinn Fein posturing as a left party, no matter how bogus such posturings are.

Yet southern capitalism is entering into unknown territory.  They declare that they will not stand for Westminster seats, but their allies in the SDLP declare confidently that they will find themselves doing so.  The SDLP are right. The logic of bourgeois politics is seats and influence, so if the plan to organise the North is successful we will see Fianna Fail MLAs and Westminster MPs administering a British colony and its sectarian structures. In the past they have patronised loyalist thugs, now they will find themselves face to face with Loyalism and its uncompromising demands for supremacy.

The SDLP in decline because of the unashamedly sectarian nature of the Northern settlement.  There is only room for one Catholic party in a settlement based on sectarian rights and, once Sinn Fein embraced the SDLP policy, it became the leading contender. Given Sinn Fein’s political weakness it may be possible to reverse the trend, but it is more likely to produce instability.

In any case unionism is itself evolving.  A significant layer in the Free Presbyterian church is edging Paisley out and a new fundamentalist political grouping is emerging under the leadership of Jim Allister, but at the same time the DUP is launching a unity offensive against the Unionist Party and leading figures are responding positively.  Why not? At heart unionism is simply a sectarian conspiracy best united and sharing out the spoils.

The new statelet is looking more and more like the old. A monolithic Protestant majority with a ginger group demanding that it be more reactionary facing a capitulationist nationalist minority, with the British working behind the scenes to lean on anyone who looks like upsetting the applecart.

This is the scenario that Fianna Fail are entering.  They may well hope that the national question is dead and buried.