The vast majority of the people on this island, North and South yearn for peace, for an end to the sectarianism and violence that has blighted life, and the lives of so many, over the last thirty years. They desperately hope that the Agreement reached between the political parties in Northern Ireland and the British and Irish governments on Good Friday will bring that peace. For that reason I expect the Agreement to go through in the Referenda North and South on May 22nd.

Unfortunately, however, as a mechanism for solving permanently the deep seated problems of Northern Ireland, this Agreement will be found to be fatally flawed. Tragically, but inevitably, the terms drawn up are a reflection of the stunted politics that have dominated Northern Ireland for generations, the work of politicians and political parties, most of which are hopelessly sectarian-based or right wing or both.

The terms of this agreement do not amount in any sense to an attack on sectarian divisions and sectarian politics. Worse, this agreement institutionalises sectarianism in the structures proposed. It envisages the people of Northern Ireland to be permanently divided into sectarian camps and permanently labels the camps as Nationalist and Unionist. Hence the first act of members elected to a new Northern Ireland Assembly will be to declare whether they are Unionist, Nationalist or other. Only those designated as Unionist or Nationalist are to be taken into account in the complex voting procedures and in the composition of the executive.

It appears inconceivable to those who have framed this Agreement, that the ordinary people of Northern Ireland might want to elect individuals or parties which are not sectarian based but which represent working class people equally from Protestant and Catholic backgrounds, and who would have a vision utterly different to the narrow sectarian politics that have dominated Northern Ireland for decades with disastrous consequences.

The contradictions in the political life of Northern Ireland which this Agreement fails to overcome became evident while the ink was still drying on the signatures appended to it. The Ulster Unionist Party was saying that the Agreement copper-fastened the North as a part of Britain Sinn Fein was saying it was a transition to a united Ireland. Both sides are selling it to their supporters in these terms. What will happen when one party finds out that it was wrong, since both cannot be correct?

A dismal prospect for ordinary people in Northern Ireland is that the parties of Unionism and Nationalism will each attempt in the different structures that are set up to cling on to their present bases of support. This means that the sectarian card will continue to be played. The practical expression of this will be active opposition by powerful sections of both the unionist and nationalist political establishments so that each continues to have its voting fodder ring-fenced from the other. This can mean opposition to any constructive moves towards real integration of the communities.

In recent times we have heard some people speak of a so called demographic time bomb that is being primed in Northern Ireland, that is that Catholics, having a higher birth rate than Protestants, will in time become a majority and that this will result in a united Ireland on the basis of the current system. Those who push this line are on the one hand, guilty of shameless sectarianism, but are also blind to the lessons of the history of Northern Ireland itself. The hope that a 51% vote, should that ever come about, would lead to a smooth transition to a united Ireland would be demonstrated to be as futile as the loyalist insistence that a sizeable Catholic minority could have been coerced into accepting the bigoted Stormont regime brought down in 1972 or be permanently reconciled to direct rule from Britain.

The complex reality is that the Catholic people will never be reconciled with British rule while the Protestant people will never be pushed into a united capitalist Ireland. Any political parties which take their stand on one side or other of these contradictory standpoints, which is the case with all the major political parties in Northern Ireland, will always be repulsive to the other side. These are the forces that have presided over political life in Northern Ireland as the population was brought to the brink of open sectarian warfare in conflicts over parades.

Articles Two and Three

With regard to the debate on changing articles two and three of the Irish constitution I think it should be clearly stated that those articles as they stand in the present constitution are a fraud and amounted to a window dressing exercise by Mr De Valera and his government in 1937. In concrete terms, the suggestion that the state in the Irish Republic could exercise jurisdiction over Northern Ireland is a sham. With one million people, mainly of a Protestant background, adamantly opposed to such a proposal it always represented in their view an arrogant encroachment on their rights but moreover if there were ever any concrete moves to make this claim into more than words, they would result not in a united Ireland but in a catastrophic civil war, repartition and a sectarian nightmare reminiscent of Bosnia.

The words I would wish to see in place of Articles Two and Three would envisage a democratic and socialist alternative to a narrow nationalist claim on territory. They would enshrine an aspiration for ordinary working class people north and south to come together in a united approach to ridding this island of poverty, unemployment, homelessness, speculation, greed and sectarian division resulting in a socialist Ireland where sectarian politics could be consigned to the dustbin. That is far from what is proposed, but I do say that the proposed new articles two and three are more acceptable and more progressive than the old in that they recognise that a million Protestants cannot be coerced into a united Ireland against their will and that any progress towards unity should include consent, democracy and peaceful means only.

At the same time all citizens in Northern Ireland have the right to recognise themselves as part of the Irish nation and will enjoy the same rights as before, to be Irish citizens with an Irish passport if they wish. That is also very important.

In the referendum on May 22nd the people North and South are faced, unfortunately, with a dismal choice. To reject this agreement or allow it to pass while fully aware of its objectionable content. Rejection would mean that, because of the lack of any other alternative from the parties that currently dominate Northern Ireland, the reactionary sectarians who oppose it on both sides would be emboldened to openly bring their sectarian politics onto the stage backed up by their paramilitary wings. Bitter sectarian polarisation in the communities would be the background to paramilitary outrages and open warfare on issues such as parades. The other choice is to allow it to pass while not endorsing its content or philosophy. This may at least see the main political parties carry on their strategies within the framework agreed even though they will stumble from one political crisis to the next. It would allow the continuation of the peace process and could provide a space for working class politics to emerge which could challenge the grip of the sectarian based parties. This would obviously be a far more preferable scenario and it is the one I expect to see emerge, and, north and south I hope that is what does emerge.

The lasting solution to the problems in Northern Ireland is an economic social and political alternative that can mobilise ordinary working class people who have borne the brunt of suffering in the course of the troubles. Such an alternative based on democracy and socialism would unite the communities in the eradication of poverty, unemployment, homelessness, and the shameful neglect of marginalised communities. It would be a genuine coming together at the base of society rather than something cobbled together by politicians depending on sectarian division for their power base. This was always the approach of the great founders of the trade union, and socialist movement on this island, James Connolly and Jim Larkin who worked tirelessly for the unity in action of working class people Protestant and Catholic.

The Socialist Party in Ireland continues that tradition. The Socialist Party in Northern Ireland has played a very active role in opposing sectarianism especially in the ranks of the trade union movement and in the workplaces. Socialist Party members have been instrumental in mobilising thousands of workers and their families in work stoppages and in public demonstrations in opposition to sectarian killings and to the threats and intimidation of sectarian paramilitaries.

The Socialist Party North and South will continue with this work. Moreover we will strive to build a powerful political movement across the Northern Ireland divide which will embrace working people the unemployed and the youth, coming together in action and with a political programme of democratic socialism, overturning the system that has brought them unemployment , poverty and sectarian misery for generations. This will also embrace a unity of working class people North and South in constructing a new society based on the prosperity justice and freedom of opinion that genuine democratic socialism involves, where borders become meaningless. A socialist Ireland, a free and voluntary socialist federation of Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, reaching out also to the working class peoples across Europe, are the structures by which the major economic and political evils in our society under the present system, can be overcome and sectarian and racist divisions can be bridged in a new society.

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