- The Starry Plough.

"The Electronic Starry Plough: The Irish Republican Socialist Movement Online" Dr. Michael Dartnell - mdartne@uwindsor.ca, Department of Political Science, University of Windsor

The Starry Plough [The term refers to the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear or Plough of the heavens. - MD] is the emblem of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement (IRSM). The Starry Plough was used by the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) in 1914 and became its official emblem. The early version, on a background of green bordered by a gilt fringe, flew above the Imperial Hotel in Dublin during the 1916 rising. The IRSM adopted a modified version, with white stars on a blue background, to point to its links with Ireland's struggling class warrior predecessors, militant Irish socialism and, in particular, ICA leader John Connolly. The Starry Plough is seen as a symbol of working class militancy, flag of rebellion, class war and social revolution. The electronic Starry Plough in the title of this paper links this IRSM symbol to its hypermediated environment on the Web.

All social and political movements base their appeal for support and messages to the public in identitarian terms. Movements use symbols to define the lines of debate and establish boundaries. Boundaries can be moral, as in the case of charivari, which was used in Medieval Europe to shame, taunt and intimidate. Boundaries may also have more abstract purposes and "enclose elements which may, for certain purposes and in certain respects, be considered to be more like each other than they are different" (Cohen: 14). In politics, boundaries have been largely territorial since the seventeenth century. The ways in which these political boundaries have been expressed includes flags, parades and national symbols. This symbolic expression of politics is also reproduced among non-state actors in politics. The IRSM is an example of one such group, which has now introduced its symbolism into an electronic environment.

The context of IRSM information is peculiarly complex given that it straddles two distinct sovereign states, the UK and the Irish Republic. Much of the IRSM focus concerns Northern Ireland and the thirty-year civil conflict known as "The Troubles". This conflict is based in the division between Northern Ireland's 1.69 million inhabitants, who are almost evenly split between Catholics (38.4%) and Protestants (50.6%) [Based on the 1991 census. Projections as to the Catholic-Protestant population are controversial in Northern Ireland. Current birth rates would appear to suggest a Catholic majority for the first time around 2010. - MD]. The conflict has been exacerbated by economic decline over the past century, although the regional economy has recently experienced significant growth [Manufacturing output is up, and GDP grew by 11.6% in 1990-95. Unemployment is 11.2%, but an improvement from highs of 17% in the 1980s. Once a shipbuilding and linen producing giant, in the 1970s Northern Ireland was a net importer of most goods and exported little. An expanded welfare state and massive growth in security forces due to the Troubles were the region's main economic stand-bys. Figures from "Northern Ireland Economic Overview", Oct. 1997, Northern Ireland Office, . Accessed on July 25, 2000. - MD]. Civil conflict and economic decline produced a distinct set of social conditions: at the end of the 1980s, about 40% of the workforce was employed in the public sector, with many working in security-related areas such as policing and prisons. This gave Northern Ireland a form of dual economy in which people employed in the public sector had relatively comfortable lives while those unemployed or lowly-paid or in part-time employment did not (Henry Patterson, "Northern Ireland Economy", in Aughey and Morrow: 127).

The dual economy was also based in identity-based inequalities. In 1991, Catholic males were over two times more likely to be unemployed than their Protestant peers. Inequalities are also present in terms of occupations. In 1991, 29% of Catholic males were white-collar workers as opposed to 39% of Protestant males. For the last 30 years, Protestant males have been over-represented in security related occupations and services, management and administration and skilled engineering while Catholic males are over-represented in lower skilled and paid manufacturing and construction jobs. The historically disadvantaged Catholic community has made gains in the past 30 years, but its overall socio-economic position is still inferior to most Protestants. A Catholic middle class has moved beyond serving its own community to positions of authority in the public sector, but still has far to go to achieve proportionate representation in occupations and equal Protestants in the economy (Ruane and Todd: 170).

In political terms, the Northern Ireland "statelet" has undergone many mutations. Territorially, it incorporates six of the nine counties from historical province of Ulster. Because it does not incorporate the entire province, the IRSM views it as a political misnomer to call the statelet "Ulster" (as do Protestant loyalists and unionists) and instead refer to the region as Northern Ireland. The political system was founded on principles of representative democracy and individual rights and liberties that are evident in free and contested elections based in universal suffrage. However, the practical functioning of liberal democracy has not been so clear cut [Political parties include: Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), Sinn Féin (SF), Alliance Party (AP), Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP), Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), Worker's Party (WP), Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), UK Unionist Party (UKUP), and Ulster Democratic Party (UDP). - MD]. Political structures has been subject to constant change and protest. From 1921 (the date of partition and creation of the Free State in the south) to 1972, Northern Ireland was governed by a regional parliament at Stormont, a form of Home Rule that, ironically, unionists opposed when they were part of a single Ireland. The Stormont assembly legislated for local affairs and left foreign affairs, trade and taxation, and defence to Britain. Stormont was abolished by the British Parliament in 1972, after years of civil unrest and political violence and the British government took control of Northern Ireland from Westminster in an arrangement called "Direct Rule". From 1974 until the Good Friday Agreement was implemented in 1998, the Westminster Parliament had to approve all laws for Northern Ireland and placed local government departments under control of the Secretary of State.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the British government attempted to devise a settlement to re-instate local regional government, but these failed due to unionist intransigence and nationalist boycott. The GFA of April 10, 1998 is the most recent attempt at establishing a constitutional mechanism in the form of community safeguards and a 108-seat assembly proportionately elected by single-transferable-vote. The new assembly has legislative and executive authority over agriculture, economic development, education, the environment, finance and personnel, and health and social services. The Assembly has also set up a number of statutory committees to assist during the transitional period. A nomination process of candidates for the executive is designed to provide equal representation for nationalist-republican and unionist-loyalist parties.

Electoral manipulation has historically been the greatest obstacle to a properly functioning liberal democracy in Northern Ireland. Given long-standing divisions between the Catholic minority and Protestant majority, voting patterns tend to reflect ethnic identity and the electoral system is an important structure through which different identities are expressed. Protestants mostly vote for Unionist parties that seek to maintain the Union with the UK and secure the Protestant identity from assimilation in a united, Catholic Ireland. The evolution of the electoral-party system is thus vitally important for understanding The Troubles. After partition and creation of the Free State in 1921, the Northern Ireland electoral system was based in a proportional representation (PR) system of single transferable vote (STV). By the mid-1920s, PR facilitated emergence of political parties that threatened the ruling Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). The UUP government "realized that PR had allowed the electorate a measure of choice incommensurate with Unionist Party ambitions" (Arthur, in Aughey and Morrow: 18) and replaced PR with the British plurality or "first-past-the-post" system.

The electoral threat was not only from nationalist and republican organizations, but also marginal Protestant parties that wanted to break ties with Britain and form an Independent Northern Irish State and labour and socialist parties. The change from PR to plurality voting drastically impaired electoral competition: Unionists represented 66% of the population, but controlled 85% of all local authorities by the late 1920s (O'Leary and McGarry: 18). Plurality voting was maintained until PR was re-introduced was 1973. Predictably, abolition of the plurality system led to increasing fragmentation of the Unionist vote and increased electoral power for the SDLP and Sinn Féin. However, PR was only applied to local election since Direct Rule meant that real political power was held by the Westminster parliament whose elections were still held under the plurality system. Given the high Catholic birth rate, fear spread in the unionist community that its power would be diminished nationally as well as locally. Manipulation by re-drawing constituency boundaries became common. The highly polarised nature of Northern Ireland was further accentuated by slicing electoral boundaries through communities, creating Catholic minorities where they were the demographic majority.

Another barrier to democratic rights and freedoms is the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). The PTA was implemented in 1974 in response to the Troubles as a temporary measure in authorities' "fight against terrorism". One section of the PTA allows the authorities to detain suspected terrorists for up to seven days without charge. Critics of the PTA argue this section breaches the European Convention on Human Rights and infringes on citizens' basic civil rights in a liberal democratic state. The PTA also prevents suspected terrorists from entering other parts of the Union (i.e., Scotland, England and Wales), which limits individual freedom of movement.

Threats to freedom of speech also exist in Northern Ireland. Although many papers either implicitly or explicitly express sectarian sentiments, "there are those who suggest that sections of the media have served the interests of the British state by acting as channels for the dissemination of government propaganda" (Bairner, in Aughey and Morrow: 19). The state has nonetheless placed real limits on freedom of speech. Between 1969 and 1993, about 100 television programmes on the Troubles were banned. In 1988, the British government imposed a ban on all programmes that contained interviews with individuals who were either directly or indirectly linked to illegal paramilitary organizations. The ban was not revoked until 1994. In addition, the media has also been affected by self-censorship due to the threat of legal sanctions and restrictions on media production (See Rolston and Miller). The parallel context in which the IRSM is active, the Republic of Ireland, presents dramatically different conditions from the North. Ireland has experienced extremely strong economic growth over the past ten years. The growth rate in recent years has been about 8% and unemployment has declined from 18% in 1987 to 8% in 1998 (Astonishing Success: Economic Growth and the Labour Market in Ireland). In 1999, the GDP increased by an estimated 9.5% and incomes started to increase for all groups despite inflationary pressures ("Quarterly Economic Commentary"). The Republic is a parliamentary democracy that has a proportional electoral system. Recent political issues in the Republic have centered on managing the consequences of growth: for e.g., income inequalities, corruption and new social values. The overall picture is a dramatic transformation of an impoverished, highly religious society on the margins of Western Europe into a dynamic social, economic and cultural formation. Given these developments, the IRSM focus in the Republic is social, not national.

The IRSM incorporates several related organizations: the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP); Irish National Liberation Army (INLA); the British wing of the IRSP; and, the Irish Republican Socialist Committee North American (IRSCNA). The IRSM Website (See ) is divided into sections on the organization's history and principles, group statements and communiqués, the IRSM "Honour Roll", the IRSP; IRSCNA; IRSP London, contact information and links. The site is divided up between different kinds of documents. There are approximately 267 texts in all, ranging from less than a page to 10 pages in length. The shortest and most numerous texts are political communiqués and the longest are historical pamphlets. Except for communiqués, which are all dated, all documents are undated and anonymous.

The first group of documents on the site are generally analytical. The analyses pertains largely to the domestic situation in Northern Ireland and especially the Troubles. The IRSM explains the Troubles and proposes ways to resolve the conflict. Its analysis includes theoretical texts on Ireland and the struggle for Irish national liberation as well as historical documents written by Irish republican socialists like James Connolly. The theoretical texts also examine capitalism and economic development from a Marxist-Leninist perspective. Secondly, the site outlines IRSM positions and policies and contrasts them to other nationalist groups. Thirdly, the site contains a number of statements or communiqués that refer to a wide variety of topics. The statements clearly spell out IRSM actions and how they respond to domestic and international current events. Lastly, several sections on the site commemorate members and support political prisoners. These sections list IRSM members killed in action (the group uses the term "assassinated"), and a "prisoner of war" section lists IRSM members who are in prison for subversive activities.

The Website addresses a number of conflicts. Above all, it focuses on the conflict over British sovereignty in Northern Ireland, which is called a struggle for national liberation. Secondly, the site focuses on the IRSM struggle against capitalism and its goal of creating a workers' republic in Ireland. Lastly, the site addresses the conflict between the IRSP-INLA and other Republican movements, particularly Sinn Féin (SF) and the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) as well as the Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA). Both the IRSP and INLA distinguish their republican socialism from the republican nationalism of SF-PIRA. The IRSM aims to secure national liberation of Northern Ireland and establishment of a workers' state on the island ("What is National Liberation?". Accessed on July 25, 2000.). The movement defines its struggle for national liberation so as to distinguish it from mainstream nationalism. The IRSM sees the latter as a form of chauvinism produced by advanced capitalist states such as Britain, which has an imperial ethos and foreign policy. The IRSM argues that, in contrast, national liberation is a struggle to liberate national territory by expelling an external, imperial power. In this way, the IRSM identifies its struggle with those in the Third World, especially Cuba, Vietnam, Angola, and Algeria.

Secondly, the IRSM defines itself as a socialist organization that is committed to armed struggle. This distinguishes it from republican organizations that have abandoned class struggle and define themselves as mainly nationalist, specifically SF-PIRA. The IRSM alleges that the latter's position conforms to the material interests of the Catholic petty-bourgeoisie. But the IRSM also distinguishes itself from 'reformist' socialism like the Official IRA (now the Workers' Party) out of which it developed (IRSM, "Why the IRSP?". Accessed on July 25, 2000.). The IRSM says it belongs to the history of 'green' Marxism in Ireland. Green Marxism is based in the writings and activities of James Connolly (The IRSM's "Connollyite Marxism" as well as the legacy of "Green Marxism" in Ireland are found in "What is Irish Republican Socialism?" and "James Connolly and Irish Freedom". Accessed on July 25, 2000.), an Irish socialist leader executed for his role in the 1916 Easter Uprising. Connolly located the "prime mover" of the "Irish Question" in British imperialist policies, maintaining that the cause of the conflict were exogenous. According to this argument, British imperialism seized Irish Catholic land in the North and settled Scottish colonists on the best acreage. British imperialist policy then divided the Protestant and Catholic working classes, following its "divide and conquer" colonial policy. Connolly thought the only way to solve Irish problems was to get rid of the British presence in a national liberation war and establish socialism. The latter two processes were inextricably linked for him. IRSM Green Marxism follows Connolly's theory, arguing that the Troubles are a consequence of British Imperialism ("Irish Republican Socialist Movement-20 years of Struggle", July 25, 2000.). The IRSM argues that the British used partition to divide the Irish working class between Catholic Republicanism and Protestant Loyalism. In Northern Ireland, the Unionist parties then manipulated legitimate Protestant working class concerns over civil and religious liberties in a united Ireland and tied its material interests to British imperialism. The Catholic working class, for its part, was duped by conservative republicans into believing its interests are identical to the Catholic middle class (The IRSM position on the "false consciousness" of the Northern Irish working-class is found in "Loyalism ", and "The Broad Front". Accessed on July 25, 2000.).

Given the above analysis, the IRSM views the regimes in Northern Ireland and the Republic as illegitimate. The IRSM sees the North as an imperialist statelet set up by a foreign occupation force and, as such, unreformable. The IRSM sees the only solution in reunification with the South and joint transformation into a socialist workers' state. The Irish Republic is seen as an illegitimate "bourgeois class-state" that gave up armed struggle against British imperialism. It moreover aided in persecuting militant republicanism (particularly socialists) and "watered down" its claim to sovereignty over the six counties of Northern Ireland. The Irish Republic is also viewed as a state beholden to the "medieval" interests of the Catholic Church, which further de-legitimizes it in IRSM eyes (IRSM analysis of the relationship between the Troubles, British Imperialism and capitalism is found in "Capitalism". Accessed on July 25, 2000.).

As a revolutionary party with Marxist-Leninist principles, the IRSM believes in a dialectical unity of revolutionary theory and revolutionary practice. For the IRSM, revolution means overthrow of the social, political and economic system in all of Ireland and its replacement with an entirely new order based on people's needs and welfare as well as national independence (IRSM, "The Road to Revolution", Accessed on July 25, 2000.). It sees revolution as a two-phase process that involves: 1) an end to partition and seizure of the state; and, 2) set up of a "dictatorship of the proletariat" and construction of socialism under IRSM leadership. This entails abolition of parliamentary democracy and the party system and their replacement by a system of representation by means of a single revolutionary party (Ibid.). The IRSP revolutionary programme distinguishes between principles as the basis upon which a revolutionary programme is built and policies, which are determined by given historical situations and thus more flexible. Policies are considered a matter of strategy and tactics while principles are seen as goals.

Policies are divided into two groups: 1) power policies; and, 2) reconstruction policies. Power policies are geared towards the first revolutionary phase: the seizure of state power. Reconstruction policies are designed for the second phase: building socialism. The IRSM commitment to armed struggle is understood as a power policy (i.e., not a matter of revolutionary principle) that can be renounced if this is for the movement's good: that is, if it furthers the organization's revolutionary principles. (Ibid.) As a political party, the IRSP has formulated a series of positions:

• Britain must renounce claims to sovereignty over Northern Ireland or any part of Ireland;
  
• dissolution of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve (RUC Reserve) and withdrawal of British troops from Ireland;
  
• release of all political prisoners and grant of amnesty;
  
• British compensation for those who suffered from imperialist violence and exploitation;
  
• opposition to imperialist control over Ireland's resources and wealth;
  
• rejection of partition and view of both states as illegitimate;
  
• convening an All-Ireland Constitutional Conference to develop a democratic and secular constitution;
  
• armed struggle as an inherent right of the Irish people to achieve self-determination and national liberation ("The Broad Front".).

The IRSP does not only concentrate on revolution, but also on issues concerning daily life in Northern Ireland. The IRSP articulates a point-of-view on a series of issues. The party argues that Britain set up a sectarian state in Northern Ireland and deliberately fostered working class sectarianism and a women's movement that is divided between support for national liberation and pro-imperialist positions ("Women in Ireland". Accessed on July 25, 2000.). It charges that the dominant role of the Church in Irish society strengthens patriarchy by perpetuating patriarchal social values such as those that oppose abortion, divorce, birth control and the entry of women into the workforce (Ibid.). It argues that the power of the Catholic Church over society must be limited. The group notes that while birth control is legal in Ireland, those who use it are stigmatized and doctors with Catholic values often refuse to provide contraceptives. Women need their husbands' consent to be sterilized, which implies that they belong to men. The IRSP supports easy and unconditional access to birth control. Given that abortion is for the most part illegal in the North and the Republic, the IRSP supports pro-choice movements and legalized abortion. The IRSP also supports the right to divorce, pay equity, free childcare, the fight against healthcare cutbacks, tougher sentences for rapists, an end to strip-searching, and an end to discrimination against lesbians.

The IRSM has released about 129 statements on domestic issues (See and .). These statements cover issues such as: Loyalist violence; the peace process; UK troops and the British government; the RUC; prisoners-of-war; the Derry Monument to hunger strikers; domestic calls of solidarity; unionism and parading; and, miscellaneous political statements. Most statements are miscellaneous. They range from commentary on policing policy in Northern Ireland, condemnations of political positions by either British or Irish governments to pay equity and parking. "Revolutionary statements" released for May Day reaffirm the necessity of building socialism and fighting for workers rights. Statements on loyalist violence are frequent. Most either denounce violence or comment on its increase. The peace process is also a frequently addressed. The IRSM campaigned against the GFA and was very critical of the treaty. The organization called the GFA a failure, declared electoral support for SF, and called for no compromises on arms decommissioning. Yet, the INLA has provisionally renounced armed struggle. The IRSM repeatedly condemns British security forces and the RUC for violence and corruption. Finally, some statements on the Website focus on the actions of unionists, parades, solidarity with the Irish Lesbian and Gay organization, and anniversaries of the armed struggle. Many IRSM communiqués respond to foreign events, which are divided into memorials and/or commemorations (African Liberation Day, Kurdish New Year and International Women's Day.), calls for solidarity (Solidarity for Kurdish Struggles and liberation in South Africa.) and condemnations (Actions condemned include: arrest of anti-NATO protesters in Italy, imprisonment of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the war in Kosovo, Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan's "abduction" and death sentence, arrest of Puerto Rican activists, Third World debt, the Pope's comments on Pinochet, sanction against Libyan sanctions, US extradition of IRSP POWs, and British acts of international terrorism. The organization also calls for dissolution of NATO.). INLA communiqués largely concern the armed struggle. While most commemorate volunteers who died for the cause, others take responsibility for attacks on military targets, deny responsibility for assassination of particular loyalists and concern cease-fires. The final component of the Website are links that cover a wide range of movements and organizations. They are divided into four categories: republican socialists (Scottish Republicans (The Scottish Republican Socialist Party), Cyrmu Goch-Welsh Socialists and the Scottish Republican Forum.); solidarity links (Links are provided to the following Websites: Free Eireann, Irish Republican Writer's Group, Scottish Republican Socialist Party, Scottish Socialist Alliance, 1913 Commemoration Committee, Militant Labour Home Page-Ireland, South African Communist Party, EZLN-Zapatistas, Celtic League, Committee on he Administration of Justice, FARC Home Page, Partido Democratico Popular Revolucionario y del Ejercito Popular Revolucionario (PDPR-EPR Mexico), Kurdistan Information Centre, Y Faner Goch (Cymru Goch's Periodical), Dublin Abortion Rights Alliance, Troops Out! Movement, Friends of Irish Freedom, Revolutionary People's Liberation Party Front (DHKP/C), Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK), Euskal Herria Journal (Basque), MRTA Solidarity Page, Romani Page, Sami People Page, and Widerstand Information and Analysis (German anti-fascist, anti-racist, socialist group).); other pages of interest (including: Radical History on the Web, Irish History on the Web, Larkspirit Online Bookshop, Ireland's Patriots, Venceremos Page, The Marxism/Leninism Project, List of Marxist Websites, Irish Struggles, The Irish Citizen Army: Labour clenches its fist, Ireland and British Imperialism, The Marx/Engels archive, Mark's Solidarity Page (Irish-Mexican), and Spunk Press Home Page.); and links to documents (such as: "Teach na Failte", "Seven Stars", "Communist Manifesto", "Articles by Jenny Marx on the Irish Question", and "If an Agent Knocks: Federal Investigators and your rights".).

The Electronic Starry Plough is a case in point in the shift from territorial politics to a system of multiple and overlapping interests, meanings and authorities. However, it is unlikely that politics will be radically transformed to serve individual input or create community by the Internet alone. At first, radio and television were also thought to herald new individualism and new communities. Their eventual impact, a greatly enhanced role for interest groups, was not foreseen when the technologies were first introduced. To have impact through the Internet, a group must either attract a broad public or mobilize a particular constituency. Irish republicanism has a long history of successfully doing just this, largely due to the de-territorializing impact of events such as nineteenth-century famine, which eventually produced an affluent and sympathetic Irish American relay to the republican movement. The Internet's capacity to integrate groups outside the mainstream provides opportunities for such groups to spread their message. Manuel Castells concurs when he states electronic politics will have "profound consequences on the characteristics, organization, and goals of political processes, political actors, and political institutions (Castells: 476.).

Electronic activists such as the IRSM now benefit from a fragmented public, eroding national boundaries, increased cynicism about governments, and awareness of trans-national issues such as the environment and human rights. However, these conditions might be not signal long-term social transformation. Internet access is rapidly growing, but inaccessible to most of the world 's population. The issue is what its impact will be within the privileged areas of the globe. Electronic activism also requires time, energy, and mental effort to sort, filter, interpret, and utilize information and so it is not clear "whether, on balance, communications have served to empower citizens or states" (Bell, in Building a New Global Order: Emerging trends in International Security: 172). In effect, global communications mean that we have to rethink how we understand information and question our view of it as a resource rather than as something created (See especially Schiller: 27-43).

Electronic activism changes the conditions of sovereignty. Few insurgents and radical groups want to abolish states. Indeed the IRSM amply illustrates a group that wants to transform a state rather than reject state-based politics. States will certainly retain their capacities to wage war and make peace as well as remain the central goal of many political movements and critical international actors. Electronic activism might then unsettle specific governments and substantiate a new global bipolarity between universal instrumentalism and specific identities (Castells: 3) or just as easily be subsumed by other, as yet unanticipated, organizing principles. The IRSM shows how information and communication are central to political conflict: the will to deliver a message. However, this shifting narrative depends on a social context, without which it might disappear without physical trace.

"Women in Ireland".

This article was researched and written with the generous support of the United States Institute of Peace

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mdartne@uwindsor.ca.

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