It has been twenty five years since the hunger strikes of 1981
resulted in the tragic deaths of Republican prisoners fighting
for elementary democratic and human rights. It is our duty on this
anniversary to look back to those events, to learn from them, to draw
out all the necessary lessons from then, and all that has happened
since, in order to advance the struggle for which they gave their
lives, the struggle for Ireland's freedom and for socialism.
During
the early days of the civil rights movement in the North of Ireland
republicans had gained “special category” status through a long hunger
strike in 1971 by republican prisoners in Crumlin Road Jail."Special
category status," allowed them to be treated as prisoners of war,
providing them with the ‘privileges’ of POWs such as those specified in
the Geneva Convention. But in the mid-seventies the British Labour
government having failed to face down a loyalist lockout in 1974 was
determined to face down Irish Republicanism and, under Roy Mason, the
Northern Ireland Secretary of State, special category prisoner status
was abolished for all offences committed after 1st March 1976.
Henceforth all prisoners were regarded as criminals by the state.
The
prisoners, convicted by non-jury courts, presided over by judges
appointed by the Unionist establishment, after interrogations and
torture from RUC Special Branch – who were collaborating with loyalist
murder gangs – were transferred to the H-blocks of the renamed Maze
prison.
Women republican prisoners, who suffered the same
conveyor belt justice, were held in Armagh jail. Although there were
two republican groups, (the IRA (Provisional) and the INLA)i
and the prisoners were divided into different H blocks, they were
united, as prisoners, as blanket men and women, and as republicans, in
opposition to British criminalisation. By 1978 over 300 republican
prisoners were refusing to wear prison clothing or do prison work.
Prison guards tried to halt the protest by beating the Blanket Men when
they went to shower or use the toilets.
In March 1978, the
prisoners responded by refusing to leave their cells, no longer washing
and using buckets as toilets. The guards then stopped bringing buckets
to the cells, the prisoners replied with the "Dirty Protest". This lead
to excrement smeared to the walls of the cells and prisoners wearing
only a blanket languishing in bare, freezing cells in winter.
Slowly,
very slowly, street protests in support of the prisoners began to
gather adherents. Relatives Action Committees were formed in
nationalist areas to support the prisoners leading eventually to the
establishment of National H-Block Armagh Committee, which made steady
progress in gaining support for the prisoners. That committee was
composed of republican activists, trade unionists, socialists and human
rights activists. It had the active support of the IRSPii
and other radical bodies. Six members of that Committee were shot –
five dead at the hands of loyalist and British intelligence agents. The
demands of the prisoners were not extraordinary. They were reasonable
and were fixed around five points:
1 The right to wear their own clothes.
2 The right to abstain from penal labour.
3 The right to free association.
4 The right to recreational and educational facilities in conjunction with the prison authorities.
5 The restoration of remission (lost because of the Dirty Protest).
Eventually
the patience of the prisoners ended in October 1980. Seven went on
hunger strike including INLA prisoner John Nixon. The strike began on
October 27th and ended after 53 days when apparent concessions were
made including civilian type clothes being worn by the inmates.
But
the so-called concessions were a sham and, feeling betrayed, the
prisoners began the second hunger strike.On Sunday 1 March 1981 Bobby
Sands, then leader of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) in
the Maze Prison refused to take food. Over the next weeks and months
other prisoners joined the hunger strike in a staged fashion. Thatcher,
the British Prime Minister, decided that no concessions must be made to
the prisoners. With cold, calculated cruelty, she and her clique
decided to allow them to die. Even despite Bobby Sands being elected to
Westminster in the Fermanagh/South Tyrone by-election, the Thatcher
administration remained obdurate. Margaret Thatcher stated: "We are not
prepared to consider special category status for certain groups of
people serving sentences for crime. Crime is crime is crime, it is not
political." The only change it made was to publish proposals to change
the Representation of the People Act making it impossible for prisoners
to stand as candidates for election to parliament!
The hunger
strike continued to grow, and on May 5, Sands became the first of the
prisoners to die, after 66 days on hunger strike. He was 26 years old.
On Thursday 7 May 1981 an estimated 100,000 people attended the funeral
of Bobby Sands in Belfast. Far from intimidating Republicans the death
provoked a wave of revulsion and fury. In many nationalist areas riots
became a regular occurrence.Nine other deaths followed, including that
of three members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), Michael
Devine, Patsy O Hara and Kevin Lynch, in the hunger strikes. Michael
Devine had been a former member of the Young Socialists in Derry City
where both he and Patsy had been politically active on working class
issues.
Events were laying the base for a mass movement of protest. Unfortunately, the Provoiii
leadership had no use for the mass movement, except as an auxiliary to
the “armed struggle”. Their leadership regarded themselves as the
legitimate Government of Ireland and they saw little need to form
alliances with lesser beings. They still had the illusion that the
British army could be forced to pull out by bombing and shooting.
The
mass movement around the hunger strikes showed enormous promise, but
once again the opportunity was thrown away. Caught between appealing
only to the nationalist population or to the wider masses of people
throughout the island, including the wide working class movement, the
leaderships of the H-block campaign proved incapable of involving wider
sections. Sinn Fein seeing the political opportunities, seized control
of the H-block struggle outside, and while posing as radical leftists,
marginalised the genuine republican left and working class radicalsiv. Thus began their long march from republicanism to nationalism.
The
left itself was confused about the hunger strike and little effort was
made to influence the rapidly growing ranks of nationalist youth
towards socialist thought. Action was the way forward or so the
nationalist youth thought. Of course that action was perceived only in
terms of armed struggle.
Little or no thought was given to
reaching out to working class radicals from the protestant working
classes, nor how to win allies within the broad trade union movement.
Indeed some republicans became anti-trade union because the paid
leadership of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in the North was
closely allied with the British establishment. Instead of working to
win over natural allies in the working class movement many republicans
retreated into working within “our communities” which was a euphemism
for solely working within catholic communities. Given the serious
divisions that had already existed between the PULv and the NRCvi, the community approach itself became a self-fulfilling prophecy, which became institutionalised in the Good Friday Agreement.
The
Republican Socialist Movement itself could not resist the emotions of
the time and the INLA upped its armed struggle whilst the then
leadership of the IRSP veered between left nationalism and
republicanism. While recruits flooded into both Party and Army little
was done to politically educate the new wave of cadres. This was to
have almost fatal consequences for the whole movement in later years.
But
as recruits flooded into republican organisations the hunger strike
itself was slowly grinding to a halt. Sickened by the growing number of
deaths and with no sign of concessions the families of those remaining
on hunger strike began to intervene to take their sons off the hunger
strike once they neared the point of death. The INLA, following the
death of Mickey Devine, announced on September 4th that it was no
longer putting volunteers forward for the Hunger strike. Eventually on
Saturday October 3rd at 3.15 in the afternoon those remaining on hunger
strike ended their fast. 10 republican hunger strikers had died and 62
others were killed during that turbulent period. A hunger strike is a
desperate measure, which should only be undertaken when there is no
other alternative. The death of cadres in the prisons is a very high
price to pay. Was too high a price paid? There is no doubt that the
prisoners having endured the blanket and dirty protest for so long felt
that they had no alternative. Even today 25 years afterwards the
consequences of that hunger strike are still being felt and that
question still has not been satisfactorily answered.
What
seemed at the time a major defeat for the prisoners soon became seen as
a victory when following the ending of the strike the British
introduced a new regime in the prison that effectively gave into the
prisoners’ demands. On 6 October 1981 James Prior, then Secretary of
State for Northern Ireland, announced a series of measures, which went
a long way to meeting many aspects of the prisoners' five demands.
This
year, 2006, has seen a multitude of commemorations, celebrations and
fundraising banquets all around Ireland to “honour” the hunger
strikers. To sell commemorative plates, blankets and arrange dinners
all around the theme of the hunger strikes show just how cynical the
current leadership of Provisional Sinn Fein is. In a massive attempt to
rewrite history most of the events staged managed by Provisional Sinn
Fein tried to justify their present political stance. They claimed that
the hunger strikers would have endorsed the peace process strategy of
Sinn Feinvii.
They tried to airbrush out the INLA
participation in the hunger strike. They used commemorations to
highlight their election candidates. But some truths are hard to hide.
During the hunger strike the Provos were in direct contact with a
Foreign Office contact known as the “mountain climber”viii.
He outlined to them in July, before the 5th hunger striker died,
essentially the same concessions that Jim Prior outlined in October.
Why did the Provo leadership not accept these terms then? The
leadership of the INLA were never informed there was such an offer and
neither were the INLA prisoners or hunger strikers. The strong
suspicion remains that for electoral reasons the Provo leadership
outside the jail wanted the hunger strike to continue.With the ending
of the hunger strike Sinn Fein’s electoral rise continued until today
they have replaced the SDLP as the largest nationalist party in the
North. Their leaders now strut the world stage as ‘peacemakers’. But
the actual reality on the ground points out the total failure of their
strategy.
It is well to remind ourselves of exactly what the Sinn
Fein peace process strategy has produced. Northern Ireland is now more
deeply divided than it was during the conflict. Since the acceptance of
the Good Friday Agreement walls dividing working class communities have
gone up, not down. Sectarian attacks occur on a daily basis mostly
directed against Catholics. Sectarian hatred has risen among both
catholic and protestant youth. Politics is now polarised around the
so-called “two communities”.Gerry Adams wants Ian Paisley as First
Minister. MI5 are taking control of political policing. Sinn Fein have
accepted a partitioned settlement and accepted the sectarian nature of
the northern state. Sinn Fein, in a power sharing executive, introduced
privatisation into both the health and education state sectors. Crime
rates have soared in working class areas as has the suicide rate, drug
taking, alcohol abuse and poverty. Most ironic of all, the gains won by
the dead hunger strikers were negotiated away during the Good Friday
Agreement talks. Contrast all that with what the prisoners,
particularly the ten dead hunger strikers, were in opposition to 25
years ago:
1) Criminalisation;
2) a reformed local assembly at Stormont;
3) the unionist veto (so called consent principle);
4) a British police force enforcing the law of the British state in any part of Ireland;
5) British claims to sovereignty in Ireland.
They
were also strongly in favour of a Socialist Republic on the island of
Ireland. The contrast could hardly be greater. What lessons can
Republicans and socialists take from the experiences of the hunger
strike? Clearly the hunger strike is a weapon that should rarely, if
ever, be used for, when carried to its ultimate conclusion, valued and
valuable comrades are lost to the struggle. Ireland has too many
maytrys.
It is now clear in retrospect that many who threw
themselves into the struggle had no real grounding in revolutionary
politics or brought a Marxist understanding of how society works into
politics. They then became influenced by whatever became the latest
fad. One day it’s the gun, then it’s the ballot box, then it’s the
media and now it’s spin. Those who once claimed they would lead us to
the “Republic” now are preparing to administer British rule in Ireland.
Former anti-imperialists now pay homage to Bush and his administration.
Republicans who once claimed to be non-sectarian now play the sectarian
card. Over the past generations many republicans simply ignored the
existence of the protestant working class writing them off simply as a
reactionary bloc. Yet today in a few parts of the North young
people in “kick the pope”ix bands are being exposed to
the ideas of James Connolly and other Irish republicans. Comrades from
the IRSP have spoken to groups of young protestant workers as wellx.
In times of high emotion, such as during the hunger strike,
nationalism can exert a powerful attraction. Republicanism in all its
forms failed to resist that attraction and so lost its way during and
after the hunger strikes.
Irish republicanism has always had an internationalist tendency
and today that internationalism is best expressed through a firm
commitment and grounding in Marxist ideas. There is no easy road to
Socialism in Ireland. But with the growing interest in Marxist ideas
worldwide more and more young people in Ireland are being attracted to
the revolutionary ideas of James Connolly and other internationalist
Marxists. The turning of those young people into a hardened
revolutionary cadre is the task of today’s comrades. That is the only
path that radical republicanism can take. It is a case of back to James
Connolly and forward to socialism.
Notes
i IRA is the Irish Republican Army (provisional) or PIRA – INLA refers to the Irish National Liberation Army
ii IRSP Irish Republican Socialist Party – political wing of INLA in 1981
iii Provo- Popular nickname for PIRA
iv
After the hunger strikes were over PIRA prisoners in the Maze began a
campaign of undermine and absorb against INLA prisoners and refused to
recognise them as political prisoners
v PUL- Unionist Loyalist Protestant
vi NRC-Nationalist Republican Catholic.
vii Speech by Martin McGuiness in Derry 2006
viii Blanketmen by Richard O’Rawe, Published by New Island 2005
ix 'Kick the pope' bands are anti-catholic bands composed of young working class protestants.
x
Too much should not be read into these meetings but the fact that they
have taken place shows the possibilities that could exist.
See also
Socialism and the long struggle for Irish freedom…
Preface to Alan Woods' Ireland: Republicanism and Revolution…
Back to Connolly – Forward to Workers' Unity…
Report of speaking tour of the Basque Country…
The Ta Power Document: An Essay on the History of The Irish Republican Socialist Movement…
