No worries comrade we have a lot of the same views but some of them are defiantly different. How do you feel about the Broad Front and where do you see it going today?
I'm in favor of broad fronts, but i worry about the ultimate aims of those organizations involved in the front. The broad front can basically only involve other republican movements, other socialist movements and the republican socialists. If you are a republican socialist your ultimate aim is the same as the other socialist organizations, a workers republic based on Marxist principles, but the tactics used to achieve this aim are different. The other republican organizations have similar tactical ideas as the left republicans but their ultimate aims are different. The 32csm and RSF are both struggling for something which resembles the Eire nua program, which is a regressive step for society not a progressive one. Its basically a step back to the days of Dev's Ireland.
So i suppose you have to balance out these differences and decide which organizations it is better for a working class movement to align with.
My own opinion is that eventually the centre/right republicans will be fighting against us. This fact didn't pass by Connolly when he told the vols of the ICA to hold onto their guns after the rising because there will be those who will be unwilling to carry the revolution all the way through to a workers republic. He was referring to the centre/right republicans he had aligned with in the rising.Remember the 32csm and RSF all trace their roots back to traditional republicanism and Sinn Fein.
I suppose the broad front in 1916 resembles the situation today in that the only section of the left willing to strike for national liberation was the republican socialists. Labor had abandoned the national struggle to Sinn Fein. Connolly didn't want to completely nullify labors voice in a post revolutionary Ireland so he aligned with the centre/right republicans so the left could play an important part in the progress of Ireland.
Republican socialists today face a similar situation. The reformist left still wont accept the importance of the national issue and wont deal with the RSM so the only option open for a broad front is with the centre/right republicans.
However, i don't feel that their is a need for any sort of broad front today so i don't see the point in it at all. "Dissident" republicans are on good terms as it is, they picket and protest together so there is no real need to push for this to happen.
There is no great need to push forward with a stronger republican message because the republican message is not relevant to the workers anymore. Republicanism without the socialism just isnt an option.
A discussion forum would be a great idea. It would enable the left republicans to try and popularize the need for a workers republic. But this broad front which is called "a forum for unity" seems to me like it is trying to achieve some sort of middle ground between republicans so that they can attack the SF/DUP regime with a greater force.
I have one problem with this idea. Republicanism without the socialism is nothing to the people of Ireland today. Centre/Right traditional republicanism just isn't relevant. They base their existence on the un-democratic nature of the partition of Ireland. Granted, we all agree on that point. But it just isn't relevant to the people of this country anymore and unless republicanism represents something relevant to the people it is a non-starter right from the beginning.
Therefore, this "middle ground" republican drive forward will not be relevant unless it is a republican socialist drive forward.If it is this working class brand of republicanism which is the message then the "middle ground of unity" fails to be just that.
There is no third way to the workers republic. Republican socialists should be trying to vindicate their position and analysis and the only active broad front they should be involved in should be with people who have as their aim a workers republic. And this active broad front would only occur at the cusp of revolution.
Its not that i have a problem with the republican left aligning with the centre republicans in striking for national liberation. My problem with it is doing it at a time when the republican left is too small to make any dent against the centre/right policy if a revolution did occur.
If a united republican initiative was successfull in attacking the SF/DUP regime the numbers shifting over to this "middle ground" broad front who are ex-SF and centre/right would swallow up those who represented the socialist position very quickly. And if it was carried through all the way to national liberation the traditionalists would be stronger than the left. Republican socialists should concentrate on growing first i think.
Any broad front with and type of centre/right organisation must be done when the revolutionary organisation is in the majority. Maybe this was what happened after the 1916 rising? The left was just too small to make their presence felt during the war of independence, which was a spin off from the broad front actions of 1916 where the centre republicans held a massive sway.
An open and honest attitude should be encouraged between the centre/right republicans and the republican socialists but seen as the national issue has been put to bed for a long time this involvement with them should be on the basis of getting the socialist position across to them with the hope of appealing to their progressive nature.
It is only the republican socialist analysis which can create a relevance of the national issue to the people. That analysis watered down even a fraction would have terrible consequences in its ability to achieve the support of the people. The traditional republican position (national liberation) does stand alone as a righteous cause but without the socialist analysis of it it will never be relevant to the people. This is why I'm not in favor of going into a broad front with traditional republicans who seem hell bent on going to the people with only the republican position as a tool to gain mass support.
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