Lear from Sinn Fein

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Malaya: one of Britain's many colonial wars Al The attack on detente, and the acute worsening of the arms race persuade us of the need to develop a more specific approach to an alternative foreign policy as well as continuing work for ultimate non-alignment. The European Nuclear Disarmament Conventions, first in Brussels and then in Berlin, have helped to arouse a European-wide discussion on the implications of the blocdivision of Europe, as well as much closer communication between peace movements.

Here in Britain, the Labour Party policy is for the simultaneous dissolution of both NATO and the Warsaw Treaty Organisthey do not want. As the new missiles are placed in Western and Eastern Europe, it is quite clear that the main danger to this continent is that war could spread from one of these other zones of battle.

It is for this reason that we are proposing a weekend study conference on British Foreign policy, in an attempt to create workshops which can help to devise a realistic policy for greater independence.

This conference will be held at Nottingham university on Saturday, April 14 and Sunday, April 15 1984.

Among those participating picy will be Tony 1 Benn, Stuart Holland and Michael Meacher from the Labour Party, and leaders of the European peace movement as well as trade union disarmament campaigners.

The cost of participating in the Conference will be f5. Those who wish to reserve overnight accommodation in the University, with meals included, may do so at a further cost of £20.

Further details can be obtained from the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Bertrand Russell House, Gamble Street, Nottingham, NG7 4ET.

COATES JOHN O'Mahony's article on the Sinn Fein Ard Feis (SO 155) raises several points, but one theoretical howler in particular is symptomatic of his approach.

Equating Sinn Fein and the Labour Party in the context of attitudes to the Euro-parliament shows little regard for concrete anaiysis. There is no comparison between the nature of the two parties, the character of the struggles in which they are involved or their historical relationship to parliamentary politics in general or the European parliament in particular.

For the Labour Party, committed as it is to parliamentarism, representation on the EEC body is a logical conclusion. The contradiction comrade O'Mahony alludes to lies in the fact that the Labour Party is ambivalent about the EEC organisation as a whole on the basis of economic nationalism rather than of socialism. While condemning the EEC for eroding the autonomy of the British parliament, Labour's Euro-MPs claim to be fighting for a better deal and unity with European socialists by participation in the Europarliament.

Sinn Fein has an entirely different relationship to the British Parliament, the Dail and the EEC. Both Parliament and the Dail are seen to have, in British imperialism, oppression Is oppression and partition of Ireland. Io take seats in these bodies would be to condone their existence and right to rule.

Although Sinn Fein is opposed to Ireland's full membership of the EEC it is not seeking seats in order to negotiate a better economic deal or to reform the Euro-parliament in Ireland's favour. Sinn Fein's motive is to win support in Europe for the national liberation struggle and to increase political recognition for the republican movement as the representative of the nationalist people of Ireland.

That is why the abstentionist principle has been abandoned vis-a-vis Europe. It is not indicative of "confusion and self-contradiction" but of the maturing orientation of the Republican. Movement towards political It is the responsibility of socialists in this country to help IRA salute at a Volunteer's funeral 20* 4' xx Send letters to Socialist Organiser, 28 Middle Lane, London N8. No longer than 400 words please: longer letters are liable to be cut.