Lett' tace o NF propagar 1 Dear S.0 Weak assertions in IRSP polemic

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Socialist Organiser Alliance SOCIALIST Organiser fights to act as a real campaigning paper which can organise money. Socialist Organiser Alliance groups asked to. undertake to sell a minimum of 6 papers per week and contribute at least £1.50 THE IRSP's objections to John O'Mahony (SO 81) appear to depend on two extremely weak assertions.

The first is that Socialist Organiser can be identified with Sinn Fein the Workers Party (now the Workers Party). Half of their article concentrated on attacking the economism of SFWP and Militant and asserting that SO were guilty of the same errors.

The clear priority in SO's entire work on Ireland in the trade unions and the Labour Party has always been to support the anti-imperialist struggle, to call for troops out and self-determination for the Irish people and to fight imperialism within the British labour movement. As regards the Provisionals and the INLA our position is one of critical support.

Some people do feel that O'Mahony's recent articles have been more critical than supportive but I feel, especially after reading the IRSP article, that we cannot underestimate the value of constructive, anti-imperialist criticism.

The type of ideas put forward by Militant on Ireland are constantly under attack from Socialist Organiser and its sympathisers, chiefly through the Labour Committee on Ireland. The IRSP only waste an opportunity to take up real political differences when they attack us for SEE WELL OF COURSE, THAT WAS ALL PRE-BOMB SCIENCE YOU MNOW!

11 м ALDRIN is a pesticide -but it doesn't just kill insects. It is a persistent organochlorine pesticide, flesh of animals and humans eating and drinking in regions where it is used.

Among its suspected effects on humans, according to the US Center for Disease Control, are "cancer, damage to the foetus [and] nervous disorders" • In Britain, the government phased out its use in 1969.

So if British American use Aldrin to keep the pests down. But they don't -they grow it in Kenya. Or rather 8500 farmers

We invite readers to send us their letters, up to a usual maximum length of 400 words.

Send to Socialist Organiser, Gc/o 28. Middle Lane. London N8. being pro-imperialist.

The justification fOI labelling SO pro-imperialist is that we don't support Irish nationalism. It is the IRSP and not SO who identify nationalism and anti-imperialism as entirely synonymous. Thus they can conclude that since Haughey is a nationalist of sorts, he is also an anti-imperialist.

"Imperialism is the main enemy in Ireland" • say the IRSP, and extensive criticism of Irish capitalism is "a diversion from attacking imperialism" ' This is the justification for supporting Fianna Fail. But the comrades admit later in their article that Fianna Fail is based "primarily on Irish F71768A grow ii and give it to BAT in return for credit, seeds, and supplies. And these supplies include.. Aldrin!

Warning

True; there is a warning leaflet in English and Swahili - so if you speak either language (and there are 15 other languages spoken in Kenya) and can read them, you can follow the instructions - or can you? The recommended precautions include:

'Avoid contaminating rivers and streams. Always wash with soap and water after use. [In case of poisoning] - consult a doctor immediately Unfortunately, in the remote areas where tobacco capitalism and thereby ultimately on imperialism"

It seems clear to me, even from their own analysis, that the anti-imperialist movement must also attack Irish capitalism, the main defender of imperialism in the For all his rhetoric Charles Haughey is a supporter tirst of Irish capitalism, ine protit system, workers' disunity and imperialism.

His negotiations for a solution to the national question included an attempt to improve the capacity of western capitalism to defend itself in the North Atlantic by putting NATO bases on Irish soil.

To see that as an anti-imperialist victory is extremely dangerous, for that solution would make Ireland a much better prospect for international capitalism than it is even today.

The second assertion in the article is that Fianna Fail is the party in Ireland which must closely approximate to the Labour Party in Britain. John O Mahony has dealt with the obvious fallacy in this claim, the difference in the class basis and origins of the respective parties. The party which most closely approximates to the Labour Party in Ireland is the Irish Labour The point has also been made that Fianna Fail are « Of THE coverage of fascism in Socialist Organiser is usually confined to the reporting of violence against blacks and the labour movement, and it is rare to find articles that give an analysis of fascist politics. support for imperialism.

But in addition Fianna Fail have to be seen as the most socially reactionary party in Southern Irish politics. With no fascist party they really are on the far right of Irish politics.

Their defence of the privileged position of the Catholic Church in the constitution and the state is not matched by any other When Fine Gael threaten to liberalise the laws on family planning, divorce, etc., Fianna Fail consistently pose as the defenders of the faith. They are clearly the party of Catholic supremacy and make no contribution to workers' unity.

Workers' unity The problem is that the IRSP don't see workers' unity as an issue to be tackled at all during the anti-imperialist struggle in Ireland. Because of the hamfisted way in which it is taken up by Militant, the IRSP reject the whole concept.

We say yes to workers' unity, but only on the basis of anti-imperialism. Thus the IRSP conclude their article by claiming that there are only two choices for Irish workers, the workers' unity first' option adopted by SFWP and Militant or the 'nationalism first' option Yes ANL propaganda is also weak and inadequate, focusing as it does on Nazi war crimes and the murky past of Tyndall and Webster.

What is usually missed out is that the fascists and the NF in particular do have adopted by the IRSP.

Nationalism first means

that all groups and individuals who are nationalist and all the things which bind together Irish nationalists, including Catholicism, have to be accepted as part of the anti-impeiralist struggle and fought on a class basis only after independence.

The point of most of SO's propaganda is that the fight against imperialism and the fight for workers unity must be combined if either is to be successful. The problem with Militant is that they ignore the immediate importance of the anti-imperialist struggle, the problem with the IRSP is that they ignore the class nature of imperialist oppression.

Irish capitalism can never be an ally of the Irish working class in the fight against imperialism.

These are not abstract Marxist criticisms, as the IRSP would have it. In tact they go some way to explain the political and practical failures of the IRA and INLA in the North, such as the failure to direct and lead the mass mobilisations which arose against the refusal to grant political status. That was political inadequacy translated into practical error.

We "British reformists' are trying to recruit real class allies in the fight against imperialism. That is our first task. We will always support the IRSP and all those fighting imperialism in Ireland however they do it and however much we disagree with their politics.

We have a right however, to openly discuss how we think any anti-imperialist struggle should be carried through.

Patrick Murphy, Stockport workers in the struggle for new leadership. To do so we need consistent support and have been established in most big towns. Why not join with us? Supporters are per month (20p for unwaged). If there is no group in your area why not help us to build one? ... an hsilet ana?

To 'Get Organised', write at 28 Middle Lane, London N8.

Name Address policies that attract working class support.

The NF is changing. Our 'views on fascism and how to combat it need to be kept in line with the developments taking place.

Since the last split in their ranks and the departure of John Tyndall they have emerged with a leit face, a working class oreintation with revitalised plans for work in the trade unions.

Although their ideology has something for everyone, they see themselves as the revolutionary party of the white working class out to smash capitalism and its "communist twin"

Incidentally, the Soviet Union and its satellites are categorised as "State Capitalist" manipulated by Western banks.

Left wing economic plans have always played a part in the programme of fascism the reason being they could never hope to gain power without the support of sections of the working class.

Three million plus unemployed has produced a favourable climate for the emergence of a radical NF, particularly when there is no militant fightback against the government from the unions and the Labour Party which makes fascist infiltration of the labour movement less diffiçult.

The economic plans of the NF outlined in a recent article in Nationalism Today their theoretical journal, are strikingly similar to those peddled by supporters of the Alternative Economic Strategy. "Industrial ownership must be handed to the workers and managers themselves, with workers cooperatives and decentralised small businesses piaying a vital role.

«The financial system must be totally reconstructed to end unemployment and give the working class the purchasing power to buy the products of their own Today's NF sees itself not so much in the tradition of Hitler, whom they describe as a reactionary, but of Gregor Strasser, with his distaste of Hitler's dealings with German big business.

Obviously fighting racism and fascism can never be separated but fascist ideology and its appeal to workers and youth needs to be looked at closely. A campaign also needs to be waged against the left advocates of 'Britain First' in the Labour Party and unions.

Robert Mansell, London WHAT DO you do if you are given the choice of either telling a pack of barefaced lies, to order, as decided by the leaders of what you regard as an unpleasant and destructive quasi-political/quasireligious sect, or of being hauled into court, bled of your financial resources, and throatened with hankruptcy?

It depends on who 'yo are - and on what y think is important.

For a socialist new paper to tell les is to tu itself into a malignant for in the labour movemer an active force poisoni the wells of informati that the labour moveme depends on.

Therefore, for a sociali newspaper, the choice nothing less than this: be or not to be.

That's why Socialist Or aniser decided to go court when the rich WI presented us with such choice.

In January 1981 we to a fraction of the truth abo the WRP, in the course an article dealing with t fight against rent and ra rises. (The WRP we supporting the rate rise policy of Ted Knight).

The response was series of libel writs from prominent and rich WI member, Ms V Redgrave.

SO lacks resources al reserves. Neverthele we will not gainsay what said and know to be tru So we need money - ai we need it pretty despr ately. There are oth pressing causes, but t libel case fund is somethi without which SO cann defend its right to be wh it claims to be - an hone socialist newspape committed to telling truth to the labour mov ment.

Please send donations the Labour Moveme Press Defence Fund, c 214 Sickert Court, Londe N1 2SY.

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so it lingers in the environ- ment, accumulating in the

Tobacco grew their tobacco in Britain, they couldn't

THE ica COST OF TRUTH