One-sided comment on IRSP

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WHILE ANY discussion of the politics of the Irish Republican Socialist Party is well overdue in the pages of Socialist Organiser, 1 feel that the brief and onesided footnote by John O'Mahoney has not contributed much to developing discussion or links with Irish socialists.

The first point that must be drawn from comrade O'Mahoney's comments is his hazing over of the distinction between the nationalist and republican movements in Ireland.

Historically, nationalism in Irish politics has based itself on the hierarchy of the Catholic church and the (pale) Green Bourgeoisie.

Republicanism • 1S a revolutionary movement of the workers and small farmers with a history of armed revolt against imperialism whose members and organisations have linked up with and actually built the labour movements in both Britain and Ireland.

To judge the IRSP as "just nationalists" (and militarists to. boot) shows an Anglo-centricity few Social1st Organiser supporters would expect from comrade O'Mahoney.

Gut The IRSP was formed as a basic gut reaction against Stalinism and spent its first year in a struggle for survival against the Otticial IRA. Since then most of its leadership has been assassinated by the UDA/British Army, and the organisation has been forced to take up arms to defend itself and the community it is based in.

As far as the charges of "recklessness" are concerned INLA has never engaged in sectarian killings (even in reprisal). • Any socialist prepared to condemn the attempted assassination of Paisley (or the successful assassination of Airey Neave) as sectarian while H Block campaigners and Republicans are being gunned down should examine their priorities.

While I agree with many of Comrade O'Mahoney's points about the confusion of the IRSP on the links between the national struggle and socialism, l Teel that an organisation in the forefront of the anti-imperialist struggle in Ireland deserves a more serious examination than what has been written so far. MICK WOODS Kilburn