Post by Papa C. on Feb 29, 2008 22:22:14 GMT
Problems of infiltration
It is standard practice for the security forces that defend imperialist interests to infiltrate revolutionary organisations as well as many non-revolutionary organisations. Even Church based organisations have been infiltrated This infiltration usually has a number of key aims; to gather intelligence on what is going on; to pinpoint the key people in the organisation: to spot those with weak spots who can be either blackmailed to work for the security forces or else used to destroy the organisation itself . Their key aims are to infiltrate, undermine, absorb, manipulate, damage and destroy.
Police agents tend to be the ones who advocate extreme and or violent tactics regardless of actual existing conditions. They also promote any kind of faction fight which might weaken or split an organization. When there is an internal split and there are two clearly opposing sides they advocate purges, expulsions and witch hunts
Needless to say such activities actually leads to a demoralisation of the membership Any witch hunt against suspected police agents only demoralizes the members of an organization who start to suspect everyone of being a possible agent. That is why there is a steady but slow drip feed of who worked as informers in Sinn Fein and the IRA(P) The aim is to cause confusion, create the belief that the security forces knew everything and are invincible. It also has the added bonus of causing committed revolutionaries to even question their own past activities.
Recently an iconic republican and socialist freedom fighter, Brendan, the Dark, Hughes sadly died. In an article in the Sunday Tribune, Suzanne Breen quoting from his writings conveyed that sense of demoralisation, defeat and disillusionment that not only Brendan but hundreds more republican fighters have felt at the right wing turn of Sinn Fein and the spate of informer revelations,
The last of the writings he gave me conveyed his inner torment:
"I go to bed in pain, I wake in the middle of the night in pain, I get up in pain. What the f**k was it all about?" (Sunday tribune Feb 24th 2008)
Irish Republicans have always been infiltrated. During the sixties the gardai in the South of Ireland had a highly place agent in the Army Council of the IRA. Republicans and Socialists have to accept that it goes with the territory. In the last ten years the Republican Socialist Movement has uncovered at least three police agents some with a clear agenda to provoke sectarian stife including the burning of Orange Halls.
Also acting on distorted bits of information gleaned by these informers the British and Irish intelligence services have been disseminating black propaganda against the RSM for years.
Just a few examples should suffice.
➢ Stories were circulated almost weekly in cartoon rags like the Sunday World that the INLA was involved in drug dealing. Evidence ? None. For the record the INLA is opposed to drug dealing and no serving INLA member has been convicted of drug offences.
➢ A security force document dated January 1998 PS01-stated that
“PIRA would have sanctioned the murder of Billy Wright in the Maze Prison,” .
"... it had at the same time gained a hold over INLA whom they could use to carry out PIRA-driven operations whilst they were publicly able to maintain their own ceasefire.”
“the recent murder of Billy Wright by the INLA must have been cleared by PIRA and they would not come down on the perpetrators.”(14th Jan 1998)
This information which of course was completely false was then leaked to M15 stooges in the media both to belittle the efforts of the INLA and also as a stick to put pressure on the Sinn Fein leadership then in delicate talks with the British and Irish Governments.
➢ A series of articles also appeared in the cartoon press slandering a leading member of the RSM falsely alleging among other things that ; he was Chief of Staff of the INLA, ; he was fighting for control of the INLA against others; he was feuding with the local IRA(P) ;was drug dealing and doing deals with loyalists in the LVF.
➢ Recently both North and South in response to the steady growth of the IRSP in membership, influence and activity the intelligence services have formulated a clear strategy to destroy the IRSP by affirming clearly that membership of the IRSP also entails membership of the INLA. Already nine comrades have been charged in the South with membership of the INLA before Special Courts where they can be convicted on the word of a senior Garda officer. Party meetings have been raided by the Free State Special branch and party activists repeatedly stopped and harassed carrying out political activity. British Intelligence documents have been worded to give the same impression and also falsely claim that the leadership of the IRSP are also the army council of the INLA.
Irish Republicans have been well used to such activities. Obviously it is best to be wary of those who advocates dangerous tactics that could damage members, supporters or the movement. Those within an organisation who are extremely factional and divisive also need to be treated with suspicion. Those who also take on the mantle of a Joe Stalin and want to launch purges against party members may also be working to a different agenda. A person who combines all three of the above activities may not necessarily be an agent but their activities can demoralise and disillusion other comrades.
The best response is to oppose their arguments, patiently explaining the correct tactics and oppose all efforts to splinter the party. If they are sincere and not infiltrators, their response to such efforts should indicate their revolutionary committment..
But always remember that since revolutionaries by definition can not reject all violence, nor all illegal methods, someone who is advocating violent or even illegal tactics is not necessarily an infiltrator.
The Republican tradition of clandestine military struggle always open it to police infiltration. The same is true for every struggle in which an organization of the left opts for a military strategy, justified or not by circumstances.
The key defence against infiltration for a revolutionary organization is having a set of strategy and tactics appropriate for the conditions, an internal political life that is as democratic as the conditions allow and which learns from the previous experience of the revolutionary movement.
Current circumstances in Ireland, North and South allow for political education, internal democratic discussion, and open political activity. The IRSP have an opportunity to reach out to the mass of working people in Ireland with a clear revolutionary anti-capitalist message. Only with mass political work can we lessen the influence of those who would be provocateurs agents and informers.
With acknowledgement to Anthony Boynton <northbogota@yahoo.com>in<marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu>Thu, 14 Feb 2008
Subject: [Marxism] Infiltration and remedies
It is standard practice for the security forces that defend imperialist interests to infiltrate revolutionary organisations as well as many non-revolutionary organisations. Even Church based organisations have been infiltrated This infiltration usually has a number of key aims; to gather intelligence on what is going on; to pinpoint the key people in the organisation: to spot those with weak spots who can be either blackmailed to work for the security forces or else used to destroy the organisation itself . Their key aims are to infiltrate, undermine, absorb, manipulate, damage and destroy.
Police agents tend to be the ones who advocate extreme and or violent tactics regardless of actual existing conditions. They also promote any kind of faction fight which might weaken or split an organization. When there is an internal split and there are two clearly opposing sides they advocate purges, expulsions and witch hunts
Needless to say such activities actually leads to a demoralisation of the membership Any witch hunt against suspected police agents only demoralizes the members of an organization who start to suspect everyone of being a possible agent. That is why there is a steady but slow drip feed of who worked as informers in Sinn Fein and the IRA(P) The aim is to cause confusion, create the belief that the security forces knew everything and are invincible. It also has the added bonus of causing committed revolutionaries to even question their own past activities.
Recently an iconic republican and socialist freedom fighter, Brendan, the Dark, Hughes sadly died. In an article in the Sunday Tribune, Suzanne Breen quoting from his writings conveyed that sense of demoralisation, defeat and disillusionment that not only Brendan but hundreds more republican fighters have felt at the right wing turn of Sinn Fein and the spate of informer revelations,
The last of the writings he gave me conveyed his inner torment:
"I go to bed in pain, I wake in the middle of the night in pain, I get up in pain. What the f**k was it all about?" (Sunday tribune Feb 24th 2008)
Irish Republicans have always been infiltrated. During the sixties the gardai in the South of Ireland had a highly place agent in the Army Council of the IRA. Republicans and Socialists have to accept that it goes with the territory. In the last ten years the Republican Socialist Movement has uncovered at least three police agents some with a clear agenda to provoke sectarian stife including the burning of Orange Halls.
Also acting on distorted bits of information gleaned by these informers the British and Irish intelligence services have been disseminating black propaganda against the RSM for years.
Just a few examples should suffice.
➢ Stories were circulated almost weekly in cartoon rags like the Sunday World that the INLA was involved in drug dealing. Evidence ? None. For the record the INLA is opposed to drug dealing and no serving INLA member has been convicted of drug offences.
➢ A security force document dated January 1998 PS01-stated that
“PIRA would have sanctioned the murder of Billy Wright in the Maze Prison,” .
"... it had at the same time gained a hold over INLA whom they could use to carry out PIRA-driven operations whilst they were publicly able to maintain their own ceasefire.”
“the recent murder of Billy Wright by the INLA must have been cleared by PIRA and they would not come down on the perpetrators.”(14th Jan 1998)
This information which of course was completely false was then leaked to M15 stooges in the media both to belittle the efforts of the INLA and also as a stick to put pressure on the Sinn Fein leadership then in delicate talks with the British and Irish Governments.
➢ A series of articles also appeared in the cartoon press slandering a leading member of the RSM falsely alleging among other things that ; he was Chief of Staff of the INLA, ; he was fighting for control of the INLA against others; he was feuding with the local IRA(P) ;was drug dealing and doing deals with loyalists in the LVF.
➢ Recently both North and South in response to the steady growth of the IRSP in membership, influence and activity the intelligence services have formulated a clear strategy to destroy the IRSP by affirming clearly that membership of the IRSP also entails membership of the INLA. Already nine comrades have been charged in the South with membership of the INLA before Special Courts where they can be convicted on the word of a senior Garda officer. Party meetings have been raided by the Free State Special branch and party activists repeatedly stopped and harassed carrying out political activity. British Intelligence documents have been worded to give the same impression and also falsely claim that the leadership of the IRSP are also the army council of the INLA.
Irish Republicans have been well used to such activities. Obviously it is best to be wary of those who advocates dangerous tactics that could damage members, supporters or the movement. Those within an organisation who are extremely factional and divisive also need to be treated with suspicion. Those who also take on the mantle of a Joe Stalin and want to launch purges against party members may also be working to a different agenda. A person who combines all three of the above activities may not necessarily be an agent but their activities can demoralise and disillusion other comrades.
The best response is to oppose their arguments, patiently explaining the correct tactics and oppose all efforts to splinter the party. If they are sincere and not infiltrators, their response to such efforts should indicate their revolutionary committment..
But always remember that since revolutionaries by definition can not reject all violence, nor all illegal methods, someone who is advocating violent or even illegal tactics is not necessarily an infiltrator.
The Republican tradition of clandestine military struggle always open it to police infiltration. The same is true for every struggle in which an organization of the left opts for a military strategy, justified or not by circumstances.
The key defence against infiltration for a revolutionary organization is having a set of strategy and tactics appropriate for the conditions, an internal political life that is as democratic as the conditions allow and which learns from the previous experience of the revolutionary movement.
Current circumstances in Ireland, North and South allow for political education, internal democratic discussion, and open political activity. The IRSP have an opportunity to reach out to the mass of working people in Ireland with a clear revolutionary anti-capitalist message. Only with mass political work can we lessen the influence of those who would be provocateurs agents and informers.
With acknowledgement to Anthony Boynton <northbogota@yahoo.com>in<marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu>Thu, 14 Feb 2008
Subject: [Marxism] Infiltration and remedies
