Provisional Pot-pourri

An analysis of the politics of the Provisional Sinn Fein. By Brian Trench

Every now and then at the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis the mortar which binds together the diverse and disparate poliitical fragments of the Provisional reepublican movement became visible. The hall erupted in wild cheering when a delegate suggested that a British indusstrialist might be picked out and given 24 hours to leave; if he didn't do so, he should be strung from the nearest ESB pole. The same applause was given the delegate who said that freedom would only be achieved by the gun. And for everybody who described the republiican prisoners as the "freedom fighters", the "finest of our men" or proclaimed that victory in the fight against British imperialism was imminent there was a similarly enthusiastic reception.

The provisionals are unique in Wesstern Europe in holding such a wide spectrum of political viewpoints in one organisation. It is loyalty to the IRA which allows them to do that. That loyalty overshadows all the arguments about tactics and strategy. The unseen presence of "another branch of the republican movement" sets very definnite boundaries to what may be decided with any real effect.

This is not to say that the Ard Fheis delegates merely constitute a rubber stamp - and one on the platform was at pains to assure them that they did not °or that the debate which does take place is completely irrelevant. Many of the discussions held in private came to connclusions which the movement's leadership will take as binding decisions. The differences emerging in other debates @for instance, in the debate on "open discussions with Loyalist people", which was proposed by Daithi 0 Conaill on behalf of the Ard Comhairle - can also give the leadership a useful indicaation of what can be tried with success, and what not.

The Ard Comhairle representatives who open and close the debates generallly address the delegates in strongly moralising tones, urging them to exammine their consciences. to realise that "where there's a will, there's a way", to see in others' efforts a cause of shame, and so on. Their relationship with the active membership often appears very patronising - "go off an enjoy yourrselves and be back in good time in the morning". Ruairi 0 Bradaigh's presiidential address contained several stateements of policy which anticipated disscussions scheduled to take place later on the day he delivered it; it is safe to assume that it was committed to paper even before the previous day's debate on election strategy had been held.

Rarely do contradictory viewpoints confront each other directly in front of the Ard Fheis delegates. The young Bellfast delegates who argued against the Ard Comhairle's proposal on meetings with loyalists had their case deflected by the intervention of Gerry Adams, of similar age and experience but not a Vice-President, thanks to Daithi 0 o Conaill's sideways move to become a joint General Secretary. There was only a hint of a very large divergence in the exchange between 0 Conaill, on the one hand, and Tom Hartley and Danny Morrison, of Republican News, on the other. That led to the only divided vote of the public sessions - "but that's what the Ard Fheis is all about", reemarked chairman Niall Fagan as he reecorded the vote in favour as "not unaniimous". In fact, the votes against motions had sometimes not even been called before they were declared by other session chairmen to have been adopted unanimously. That had as much to do with ignorance of procedure and the absence in most resolutions of any specific commitments for the orrganisation and its leadership, as it had with any attempt to steam-roller busiiness through.

Standing orders of the conference are treated in a cavalier manner, with resolutions and amendments being movved and adopted which had never been tabled. Without any discussion it was agreed that Sin Fein was asking the American trade unions to organise a boycott of British goods and that a deleegation from the Ard Fheis would hand in a telegram at the British Embassy demanding prisoner of war status for republican prisoners, an end to torrture and the repatriation of republican prisoners in British gaols. Nobody stoppped to ask if these two proposals necessarily represented the best way to pursue their aims. "Get up and do something" was the most frequently reepeated ending to a speech. So, when Jimmy Drumm paid tribute to the weekend H Block protestors as "the faithful but few who set out every Saturday from Blessington Street" he was applauded and there was no quesstion but that these regular protests were the right way to carryon the cammpaign - if only more could be shamed into joining them.

However, some small but significant changes of emphasis have been seen at the last couple of Ard Fheiseanna and in publications and speeches in between these annual morale-boosters. The energy put into last year's discussion about possible participation in the direct elections to the European Parliaament showed that the Provisionals had learned that the organisation could not be built solely on a Brits Out campaign. For the long struggle ahead - and it was only a comparatively recent recognition that victory was not just around the corner - the political organisation needded more strings to its bow. The preeoccupation with the EEC, now to be expressed through a boycott campaign whose effect can never be assessed properly, is easily contained within the nationalist perspective. The decision on boycott rather than participation was confirmed at the Ard Fheis; it had, in fact, been taken earlier, as the innvolvement with the French anti-EEC committee shows. The balance of Ard Fheis motions for different approaches to the EEC elections just gives some picture of the diversity of views among the membership.

This year, the heaviest emphasis outtside of the national struggle and the closely connected matters of prisoners and repression was on the local elecctions and on Sinn Fein involvement in local "community issues". But while Ruairi a Bradaigh in his presidential address saw this as a means to advance Provisional policy about de centralised decision-making, individual delegates gave the discussion another twist. Opening the debate, Dundalk councillor and Ard Comhairel member, Fra Browne, had said: "If you're involved in local community groups, people will listen to you on H Block." And Joe O'Neill of Bundoran, and P. J. Kearrney of Sligo, both took up the message, protesting strongly but not very effecctively at the drift of delegates out of the hall when that session began. The Proovisionals are finding it more and more difficult to get an audience on the national struggle; many of them know that they need more than they have had to offer in the past if they are to mainntain or regain that audience. And it was not only delegates from the 26 Counties who were saying this; Belfast and Derry delegates stressed the value of their advice centres in keeping close contact with "the people".

The community issues thrown up in the discussion ranged from conditions at St. Ita's Mental Hospital in Portrane, landlordism in Donegal and the deegrading nature of the work in temmporary employment schemes, to Loughan House and the successful prootests at the siting of the Beecham's pharamaceutical plant. a Bradaigh's speech referred to the local radio conntroversy, to nuclear power and to Wood Quay. But there was no coherence to all of this.

There was a standing ovation for the delegate from the Basque organisation, EIA, who said that they had learned that the struggle for independence could only be won "under the leadership of the working class, unifying the ecoonomic struggle and the fight for inndependence." But the Provisionals still resist any analysis of Irish society and of their struggle in terms of class. Aindreas a Ceallachain, outgoing Ard Comhairle member, had also been applauded some weeks before the Ard Fheis when he told a Sinn Fein seminar that "all this talk 0 f class only divides people." Sinn Fein must be the only party in Western Europe which claims to be soccialistand which does not see this claim as being necessarily linked to involvement in the organised working class moveement. And Ruairi a Bradaigh is the only leader of a political party in the 26 Counties who could get through a oneehour address to an annual conference without mentioning unemployment.

There is no denying, however, that the Provisionals have, at the very least, made a verbal shift to the left which is reflected in exaggerated form in their newspapers. Young Belfast actiivists, as well as some young Dubliners, have made a much more emphatic move. Much of their radicalism gets abbsorbed in the daily grind of the organiisation, but some does rub off on the leaders. And a few of the leaders most resistant to a Socialist analysis have opted out recently. The widening poliitical contacts with independence moveements and socialist organisations elseewhere has probably had a greater effect, however. The fraternal delegates at the Ard Fheis represented an eclectic mix a bit like the political pot-pourri within the Provisionals themselves: there were purely nationalist Bretons and Welsh language campaigners, socialists from the Basque country and from the Portuuguese United Workers' Organisation (OUT), as well as the legendary Trotskyyist revolutionary, Pablo. Few of the delegates can have had an idea of the historical resonance of his name. Risteard Behal, head of the Foreign Affairs Bureau, proudly presented a summary of Pablo's 50 year career in revolutionary politics - indeed he did it twice - his record of imprisonment and deportation, and of assistance to independence movements, and the crowd loved it. The differences between Pablo and other Trotskyists which have made of the word, "Pabloite", a term of abuse, for some were quite happily ignored. The delegates who attended from abroad, as well as the organiisations which sent telegrams - inncluding ZAPU, whose leader Foreign Affairs Minister Michael O'Kennedy, met recenty - were used to their full morale-boosting effect. But the Proovisionals can't go on meeting these politically more sophisticated organiisations without being affected by them.

The Provisionals' new-found interrnationalism is straining a little inside the strait-jacket of their view of "the strugggling peoples of Europe". They have now broadened that slightly into an anti-EEC and anti-Nato commitment; the notion of international working class solidarity is still some distance away. Gradually, they should get their  mouths around the words, even if it will be much longer before they get their orrganisation to put the concept into pracctice. They may never quite get to it.

At home, they continue to see themmselves as the chosen leadership and can not stick to any commitment to coooperate with other radical and republiican organisations on limited common aims. A motion from South Dublin Comhairle Ceanntair which was not reached at the Ard Fheis seemed to be addressing itself to the Provisionals' closest friends, the IRSP, when it urged no co-operation with "opportunist and pseudo-republican organisaions." Perrhaps they and the leaders fear conntamination and defection would result from such co-operation. They need have no such fear. As long as the conditions exist which gave rise to the Provisional IRA and its campaign continues in some form, the political mosaic of Sinn Fein can be held together.e