Haughey bia to stem struggle

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No rest Haughey and his capitalist The southern Irish prime minister, Haughey, has good reason to feel aggrieved that ten year old allegations of gun running and financing the IRA have been resurrected.

The revived 'scandal' comes after he proved himself a worthy and in many ways more effective tool for British imperialism, than his predecessor, Lynch.

His talks with Mrs. Thatcher were a model of double talk, double think and devious obscurity.

It is not possible to say that Haughey has 'sold out' bourgeois nationalist ideals, because that would be to imply that it was legitimate to hold illusions in his performance.

He was elected partly on a revival of green nationalism and frustration at the lack of an end to the war in the north.

But he has spent the past year shrugging off his past connections with the Officials and lining up with the traditional southern bourgeois cry for an "Irish dimension' to British government policy.

Orange leaders

Haughey is aware that the British government is not in a position to offer even verbal concessions along this line. British policy is founded firmly on what will placate the largest proportion of Orange leaders in the North, and that excludes any assurances-of whatever nature-to the south.

The Daily Telegraph of all papers said:

"Mr. Haughey (whatever his past) is proving to be a man of parts. In some ways he may prove easier than his predec. essors to do business with, and his political efficiency makes his co-operation valuable.

"Again he has emphasised that he did not want to dictate to the people of the North and that Irish unity could only properly be achieved with their unfeigned consent."

Haughey is now caught in a nutcracker. He has already alienated nationalists in the south who looked to bourgeois governments to achieve something through negotiation.

Yet as the current revival of accusations of helping the IRA shows (now augmented by similar attacks from his opposition in the South) he will not be allowed to rest as a bona fide opponent of the IRA.

Yet such attacks may not be entirely straightforward. The more Haughey's 'nationalism' is promoted, the more damaging is his intervention to the struggle against British imperialism.

By kindling illusions ina negotiated settlement Haughey has fostered the illusion that the struggle is between one bourgeois government in the south of Ireland and another in Britain.

While we call for the immediate self-determination of the future of Ireland by all the Irish people, we also call for an Irish workers republic-which requires a struggle against government by the Irish working class.

The Provisional IRA, who carry the brunt of the anti-imperialist struggle in the north continue to fight a brave campaign against British rule' and British army repression.

But the evolution of nationalism in the south is the best illustration of how it can offer no perspective for freeing the Irish working class from the rule of all bourgeois forces.

Haughey

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Rasnott Heffer