Saor Éire

The Broad Front

The original date of publication is unknown, but the author of this historical IRSP document is Seamus Costello, founder of the IRSP and the INLA, and the ideas remain a guiding principle of today's IRSP.

BROAD FRONT

As a socialist party, our ultimate political objective is the creation of a unified 32 County Democratic Socialist Republic within which the Irish working class will control the wealth and the resources of the Nation. This objective can only be achieved through the efforts of a unified and politically conscious Irish working class. The fact that a unified and politically conscious Irish working class does not exist is a direct consequence of the creation of two partitioned states in Ireland, and of continuing imperialist interference in both parts of the country. The problems arising from this lack of working class unity are painfully obvious.

The working class people of the South have been skillfully divided by the allies of British imperialism since the establishment of the 26 County state. For 50 years the Southern working class have been conned into supporting political parties who held out the illusion of radical solutions to both the National question and the class struggle, while in reality they used the working class as a power base for thelr continued betrayal of both struggles.

In the North the Protestant working class were led to believe that the only way in which they could preserve the supremacy which they held over their Catholic counterparts in jobs and housing was through supporting corrupt Unionist politicians and through them the union with Britian. Their genuine and well-founded fears regarding the preservation of their religious and civil liberties in the context of a united and clerical dominated Ireland were also exploited by the same corrupt politicians. At the same time the Catholic working class were conned into believing that their salvation lay in supporting green tory politicians who, while hypocritically advocating the re-unification of Ireland as a guarantee of their ultimate salvation, completely submerged themselves in corrupt Unionist politics in exchange for favours for the class they really represented, the Northern Catholic middle class.

As history has shown, the working class, North and South, Protestant and Catholic, have been the victims of the so-called solutions to the "Irish Question" imposed by Britain and her subservient native parliaments. It is still Britain's objective to find and impose a political solution which will guarantee the continued protection of Britain's economic and strategic interests in both parts of Ireland. Britain is also acting as the local protector of the interests of the other imperial powers in Ireland. Some of the E.E.C. countries as well as America and Canada have powerful vested interest in supporting a British imposed "solution" in Ireland. Britian also has to consider the possible effects on internal British politics of the emergence of a united and independent state in Ireland. In our view, if an independent Ireland is to be viable in economic terms, and if it is to provide a reasonable standard of living for the majority of our people, it can only be done through a radical change in the ownership of wealth and resources. In these circumstances Britain and the E.E.C. countries would have every reason to worry about the effects on working slass opinion in their own countries. Finally of course Britain's strategic interests must also be protected through the imposition of a "solution" which will ensure that Ireland continues its present policy of pro-imperialist "neuerallty".

Every British imposed solution including the original partition of the country, the Northern Ireland Assembly...the Convention...Direct Rule and the abortive Atkin's Conferenoe have been designed to protect these economic and strategic interests. The present policy of the Ulsterization of the conflict is also clearly designed to perpetuate the division of the country, and the sectarian division of the Northern working class.

The native capitalist class, acting through the political parties which represent their interests in both parts of Ireland have played a fundamental role in supporting British imperialist interests ln Ireland. They have done so because they have now accommodated themselves to the role of overseers for British and other imperialist economic interests. They have clearly thrown their weight behind the various solutions put forward by British imperialism over the past lO years, with the exception of the Atkin's conference, which was not given any eredibillty by the Haughey-led Fianna Fail party. They will continue to do so in order to ensure that the one solution which would end their role as the native agents of foreign imperial interests does not emerge.

As a party we therefore recognise the absolute necessity of securing a constitutional solution to the present crisis which will allow the Irish working class the freedom to pursue their interests as a class in the context of the development of normal class politics. In our view the first step in securing a constitutional solution which meets this requirement must be for Britian to concede the right of the Irish people to exercise total sovereignty over their own affairs.

This objective can only be achieved through the creation of a unified struggle on the part of an anti-imperialist Front composed of delegates from affiliated organisations who support the agreed politiacal programme of the Front. The primary objective of the Front would be to mobilise the maximum degree of support for its declared objective throughout Ireland. The Front should clearly be seen as the leadership of a mass movement against all forms of imperialist control and interference in Ireland. The Front should have sufficient support and assistance from time staff.

We propose the following political demands as the basis on which an Irish anti-imperialist Front should organise:

1. That Britain must renounce all claims to sovereignty over any part of Ireland or its coastal waters.

2. That Britain must immediately disband and disarm the U.D.R.,R.U.C. and R.U.C. Reserve and withdraw all troops from Ireland.

3. That the British and Z6 Country governments must immediately release all political prisoners and grant a general amnesty for all offences arising from the current conflict.

4. That Britian must agree to compenstate all who have suffered as a result of imperialist violence and exploitation in Ireland.

5. Recognising that no country can be free and independent while it permits imperialist domination of its economic life, the Irish anti-imperialist front will oppose all forms of imperialist control over our wealth and resources.

6. That the Irish anti-imperialist Front rejects federal solution and the continued existence of two separate states in the 6 and 26 counties as a denial of the right of the Irish people to sovereignty and recognises the only alternative as being the creation of a 32 Country democratic Republic with a secular constitution.

7. That the Irish anti-imperialist Front demands the convening of an all-Ireland Constitutional Conference representative of all shades of political opinion in Ireland for the purpose of discussing a democratic and secular constitution which would become effective immediately following a total British military and political withdrawal from Ireland.

8. That the armed struggle be viewed by the Broad Front as the inherent right of the Irish people to gain self-determination and national liberation. This being so, the Broad Front cannot carry out any activity which will in any hinder or detract from this right.

We feel that these demands would secure the active support of all genuine anti-imperialists in Ireland and that they should form the basis for an agreed programme of action by the Irish anti-imperialist Front.