Letters: IRA bombers (1993)

Letters to the Editors from the July 1993 issue of the Socialist Standard

IRA bombers

Dear Editors,

I feel that your article in June’s Socialist Standard on the IRA’s bombing campaign completely misses the point.

Firstly, you are wrong to imply the specific problems of Irish Catholics in Ulster are caused by capitalism: capitalism exists all over the world but Catholics do not suffer the systematic discrimination they suffer in this sectarian state protected by British troops.

Secondly, it is wrong to say the IRA is fighting specifically for a united Ireland. Their most important objective is equality and an end to discrimination against Catholics, this then becomes a demand for an end to British rule as it is Britain that props up the system. In fact the Eire Government is no friend of Sinn Fein and has supported Republicanism only as far as Irish public opinion has forced it to. It is unlikely the IRA has a utopian view of a united Ireland.

Finally, you describe the IRA as terrorists, which is misleading. It is the British State that does by far the most terrorising: some 30,000 troops and 50,000 police and paramilitaries on the street, and Loyalist assassination gangs are all used to intimidate republicans. Surely as an “anti-British” party, as all British socialist parties must be, you should be concentrating on the brutality of the British state in crushing legitimate demands for equality rather than the understandable reaction to it by Irish Catholics.

J. Davey

Nottingham

Reply:

This is the first time we've heard anybody claim that the IRA is not fighting specifically for a united Ireland, but you’re right about the British Army being the biggest terrorist group in Ulster. As to the problems facing Catholics, discrimination over voting, council houses and public sector jobs has now largely gone; what remains—unemployment, bad housing, poverty—is also suffered by Protestants and is clearly caused by capitalism— Editors.

Sexual politics

Dear Editors,

Re Carl Pinel’s article “The Roots of Gay Oppression” (May Socialist Standard), being Gay can often be an isolating experience which often supercedes any political ideology, creating a climate where any political activity by Lesbians and Gay men is often concerning the fight against our own oppression. This is usually our most immediate and primary concern simply because it is the most immediate and constant threat to our everyday lives, even from those we would otherwise regard as comrades.

Where it is true that it is the solidarity of the working class that will bring about the downfall of capitalism, it would be wrong to condemn the work of any minority-biased pressure group, as homophobia, as well as racism and sexism, is a working-class disease too!

Stephen Webb 

Salford

Reply:

As part of our campaign to spread socialist understanding we oppose racism, sexism, nationalism, homophobia and other prejudices that divide the working class—Editors.

Between the Lines—Female Equality

Dear Editors,

I write regarding a piece in the June Socialist Standard “Between the Lines—Female Equality". This dealt with a "40 Minutes” TV programme about female recruits to the Australian Army being treated as “a lump of shit” and sneered that this is the sort of thing that women want in the way of equality.

I think this treatment of a very small minority of women who may wish to take up occupations more usually taken by men was a trivilisation of the legitimate aims of many women to be treated on equal terms with men, albeit within the confines of an unequal society, in terms of the home, and their wages, conditions and advancement in their work.

To dismiss women's equality in this way is both misleading and offensive to women within the Socialist Party and those who may come into contact with us.

Phyllis Hart

Surrey

Reply:

Obviously, we’re not against women getting equal treatment with men under capitalism, but how can we who condemn men for joining the armed forces (and have encouraged our own members to be conscientious objectors) regard women becoming trained killers as a desirable example of equality?— Editors