A reply to the Socialist Party on opposing sectarianism

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday July 15, 2002 15:09 by John McAnulty - Socialist Democracy socialistdemocracyie at lycos dot co dot uk

A furher contribution to the debate over how socialists should oppose sectarianism.

A reply to the Socialist Party on opposing sectarianism

I welcome the attempt by members and supporters of the Socialist party to defend their formula of opposing ALL sectarianism. One of the extremely serious problems on the Irish left is the unwillingness of most of the organisations to discuss any political ideas.

Unfortunately the formula itself was devised as a barrier to rational discussion. The immediate response to criticism by Socialist Party members, as in this thread, is to flood the air with insults and put their opponent beyond the pale. If someone disagrees, why - they must be the sectarians!

It is very important to the Socialist party that this debate not be followed through because the opposing view that we put forward is not simply an idiosyncratic opinion held by some strange cross-breed of socialist bigots. The idea that sectarianism is caused by capitalism and imperialism and that the mechanism for maintaining sectarianism is frequently far right organisations linked to the state forces is in fact the classical historic position of the Marxist movement. It is quite clear from the postings that in fact our initial critique was correct and that the ALL sectarianism formula is designed to negate the Marxist position without ever having to justify or explain the break. Any sectarian or racial attack on a section of the working class will inevitably produce some sectarian or racial attitudes within the target population. Marxists have to fight against this, but they do that by explaining the cause of the sectarian divisions, not by shrugging their shoulders and equating aggressor and victim.

Again the posts make it clear that the real function of the formula is to appease Loyalist sectarianism. ALL, it turns out, does not mean ALL, because some of the most vicious of the sectarian gangs, source of endless crimes against both Catholic and Protestant workers – the PUP/UVF are actually socialists! (It is worth noting that the SP are totally dishonest on this question and always officially deny that they hold this position).

I have no idea how successful the SP will be in building its organisation with its current policies. I can say, with absolute certainty, that individuals and organisations that believe that the UVF is socialist have no part to play in the overthrow of capitalism in Ireland.

for earlier debate see - http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=7384&start=160