Sinn Féin will not save us
By Red-wing
The previous article that was published on Aontacht on Friday titled “Where have all the republicans gone?” attempts to give an analysis of the republican movement (or lack thereof) within the Free State electoral apparatus, mainly in Leinster House. In this piece I will attempt to critique the positions held in the original article, from a revolutionary republican perspective.
The motivation for this is mainly due to how I believe the original article, though well intentioned, does not do justice to republicanism as a whole and is somewhat naïve therein. There are some good points, which I will reflect on too, but I feel I must tackle the points I disagree with. Please read the original text before this one in order to fully understand the contents being discussed.
The text begins by outlining the ‘why’ and ‘how’ the FFFG alliance has been able to stay in power since 2016. The author puts this down to the “complacency and apathy of the electorate”. This is true. There are no viable, motivating republican alternatives to the status quo in Dublin politics. No party, be it Sinn Fein, PBP or any other, have stated for a very long time that a United Ireland is a political goal of their organisation. They may whisper it at a demo or over a beer, and according to them that’s due to a vague political strategy of the party, but this is cowardice above anything else, a common symptom of having to work alongside liberals and class traitors on the daily, they will drag you to their positions the more time you frequent them.
The reason for this is simple : the idea of a United Ireland is a taboo in Leinster House. Speak it and you will be accused of upsetting the “peace process”, the abstract idea that because bombs aren’t being planted and pogroms are no longer being waged against catholic communities (tho against other minorities it is very much an issue) that everyone in the north is happy with the way things are. This is wholly untrue, the discrimination against Republicans, their families, their communities is still a very real condition of living there. Crown forces routinely partake in acts of intimidation in these areas, everything from dawn raids by dozens of state agents on a family home due to suspected links to a given group, to catholics on the daily being stopped and searched six times as often as those from the other side. The disparity is obvious, loyalists and protestants are not put under nearly the same pressures. Their “paramilitary” flags hang proudly outside homes while a republican activist will be detained under the terrorism act for putting up a sticker or harassed while going for a pint in the local. Not to mention comrades are routinely followed overseas or outside places of work in attempts to be recruited as infiltrators.
I was very disappointed that none of this was acknowledged in the article I am writing this response to. The title of that text, “Where have all the republicans gone?” is rage-bait-esque in the sense that they are everywhere except in Free State electoral politics, in that sense the republican struggle is very much alive. This is not an accident, it is by design. Sinn Fein have betrayed republicanism, they did so nearly thirty years ago when they capitulated the armed struggle, and have done so at every opportunity since, denouncing republican heroes and slandering their names, while clinging on to those of long-dead martyrs who have no say in the matter. They own the ‘brand name’ of Bobby Sands, but the man turns in his grave at their antics, as many people who knew him know.
The idea in the referenced article that Sinn Fein can and should go back to its original goal of bringing a United Ireland into the world is a naïveté nobody engaged with contemporary republican organising clings to. If the Shinners were serious about that even as an afterthought it would have been signalled to us particularly since their time running Stormont. Instead, the North has gotten austerity à la IMF and Sinn Fein photoshoots with the PSNI. The discrimination of nationalists and republican comrades mentioned above has continued under their watch, because to them if you don’t accept your lot you’re labelled as a ‘dissident’. This has mainly been owned by many groups and comrades, a way to proudly state you are against Sinn Fein’s capitulations. The way I feel however is that what is labelled as dissidency is only the continuation of the struggle, a 32 County Republic. Sinn Fein simply do not want to accept that mantle, as in doing so they would be giving up their cushy government seats which they betrayed so much to get. They chose their path decades ago, it is much too late to walk it back now.
Another thing I feel I must mention is the idea, in the text I am referencing, that a United Ireland will somehow bring forth a “national renewal”. As I have stated above however, and as is already well established, Sinn Fein will not give us anything of the sorts. Austerity, neo-liberalism, business as usual, status-quo politics is all that we can expect from Sinn Fein in power, be it in one, united parliament or two separated by partition. If the day comes when Ireland becomes a single political entity that will not stop socialist republicanism from continuing towards its goal of a Socialist 32 County Republic as was proclaimed in 1916. Capitalism is our enemy just as much as British imperialism if we are to talk about working class hardships, a United Ireland under British supervision will not change this.
A United Ireland that is achieved through the mandate of the Good Friday Agreement will not be won from Westminster, it will be begrudgingly permitted by it, through a border poll controlled and set by England. One should not assume that such conditions will do justice to the will of the island, in that it will almost definitely exclude voters in the south from participating. On top of that, there is a very strong sentiment coming out of Sinn Fein that in order to convince London of allowing such a thing to happen, a condition which will be accepted by SF is that if a United Ireland were to win the vote, even against the attempt to suppress our wants under the conditions of a border poll, then that new state will the join the British Commonwealth, bringing Ireland back under the flag of Britain’s contemporary imperial brand. Does any of this signal to us that Sinn Fein are willing to take a serious republican stance?
We have had a preview of Sinn Fein in power in the north of Ireland and that nobody is impressed should have been explored more, I believe, in the text I am talking about here. Between their pseudo-republicanism in one hand and being happy to kiss the ring of our colonisers in the other, and then the economic hardships they have imposed on the working class while voting through wage increases for the politicians, they are showing us their true colors.
They have not attempted to solve, either, social issues such as the rate at which women have been murdered in the north, the highest in Europe proportional to population. Rent hikes are still on the up, with some sources quoting the average to be 1000 pounds a month across the 6 counties. They have had time to show they will try to solve such issues, and have done nothing. Tokenship politics of having the Irish language on more street signs in order to play into peoples’ nationalism is the most they have done for communities so far on a republican issue.
In the first election where the author states Sinn Fein ran as the de-facto leaders of the opposition in 2020 they could have won outright. They had the support and the votes, if they had run a few more candidates they may well have ended up in power in Dublin. This led many to believe that the next time, with more candidates, they would be a shoe-in, but 5 years is a century in politics. They came into power since then in the North and have lost much credibility due to how they run themselves there as I have said enough about above. This should not be ignored as a reason as to why their support has stagnated in the working class, people will judge you on actions once you are in a position of power, not just what you say to us in speeches or while door knocking.
On top of this however, they have, as the original article states, never used that platform in the south to say they will push for reunification, even a border poll. Gerry Adams in all his wisdom said in the 2000’s that a United Ireland would happen by 2016. Mary Lou stated when she came to the head of the manure pile in the 2010’s that it’s a decade away. And now the line is that it will happen within a few decades. Their self-appointed deadlines keep being pushed back. Why is this?
Sinn Fein like to run on the idea of being the republican movement, but the reality is they use it to gain votes and power, they do not believe in it and have not believed in it arguably since the Hunger Strikes nearly 50 years ago. There are still genuine republicans within the party, but they are hoodwinked into being there through heritage, loyalty to the party and tradition rather than concrete politics. Anyone who wants a new republican movement to be born accepts that this must change first.
We cannot be led by a political organisation who does not believe in, never mind fight for, the idea that republicanism should be at the forefront of everything we stand for. To try and convince each other, as “Where have all the republicans gone?” tries to, that the simple solution is to ask Sinn Fein to pretty please come back into the fold is a folly we neither have the political time to entertain, nor should be open to on the basis of how we have seen SF act in step with Leinster House norms and Westminster demands.
Anyone who is serious about rebuilding a meaningful republican movement has plenty of options on the table. Join Lasair Dhearg, 1916 Societies, the IRSP or any number of other republican organisations serious about a United Ireland that will benefit the people. Help those organisaitons bridge the abyss Sinn Fein have left willingly in their wake. Campaign for a United Ireland based off of the 1916 Proclamation, not off of the Good Friday Agreement. A republican front built upon the working class, socialist ideals of Connolly and Costello is needed to challange the status quo, not the empty promises of a party willing to betray their people for the wages of the Butcher’s Apron.
We must look further than Sinn Fein for a republican movement, and not entrap ourselves into thinking SF are the be all and end all of our struggle. Yes, they are the largest party on the island, the largest of the opposition in Dublin and the party holding the most power in Belfast, but that does not mean that they are our saviors, it means they are willing to concede their republican values to appease those they were originally created to stand against : British Imperials and those among our people who do their bidding. They have become the allies of those they claim to fight on our behalf.
On this subject, I often fall back on this quote by Connolly, something all republicans must take to heart.
If you remove the English Army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organization of the Socialist Republic your efforts will be in vain. England will still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs.
-James Connolly
Sinn Fein have become one of those institutions Connolly warned us about, and they cannot be brought back from that once given a taste of power.
Sinn Fein will not save us, we must save ourselves.