Elections held in Ireland: Sinn Fein alters stance

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14 SOCIALIST ACTION MARCH 1987 Anglo-Irish treaty, Sinn Fein condemned the Dail as a "collaborationist" parliament.

Since Ireland was cut in two, in Sinn Fein's view, neither the Dail in Dublin nor the government set up in Belfast could represent all the Irish people. For that reason, they said, Sinn Fein members would not take their seats in either body when elected.

It is highly doubtful that Sinn Fein will abandon its abstentionist stance in the North, although it has taken seats on county and municipal councils there for years. Gerry Adams of Belfast, the president of Sinn Fein, is an elected member of Parliament in London, but he has not taken his seat. Sitting in a legislature that has no real mandate to govern the Irish people would be a betrayal.

Breaking out of isolation But this policy has led Sinn Fein to isolation in the southern 26 counties, where the Irish majority looks on the Dail as their government. In arguing for ending the policy of abstentionism in the South, Gerry Adams said it was "the only feasible way to break out of our isolation, to make political gains...to develop and our struggle."

At the November 1986 Sinn Fein congress the motion to permit candidates to take seats in the Dail passed by 249 delegates to 161, with 38 abstentions. This was over the required two-thirds needed.

In voting for the new policy, the majority affirmed that Sinn Fein will not abandon the armed struggle in the North. An Army Council of the IRA, the first in 17 years, approved the non-abstentionist policy in advance, illustrating the inter -dependence of the two.

"The IRA freedom fighter and the Sinn Fein freedom fighter are one and the same," said Martin McGuiness, who the British accuse of being the secret "IRA chief of staff."

But some die-hard abstentionists were not convinced. Crying, "never, that is what I tell you, never!" former Sinn Fein President Rory O'Brady walked out of the congress with a small minority of 30 delegates to found what he called Republican Sinn Fein.

Two other organizations, the Irish Republican Socialist Party and Peoples International) decided not to oppose Sinn Fein candidates in the election. This is an illustration of unity where it counts.

It remains to be seen, however, how far the Republican movement will progress toward the development of a revolutionary program and involvement in the mass struggle of the working class.

As the famed leader of Irish revolutionary socialism, James Connolly, put it in 1916, "You could raise the Green Flag tomorrow above Dublin Castle, but unless you set about the organizing of a socialist republic, your efforts would all be in vain."

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tinians-and the occupation of Kuwait.

There are 2 million Palestinians living in occupied Palestine. The Zionist state can not exist without subjugating or expelling them.

The leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has shown itself unable to develop a strategy for the mobili -zation in Palestine of the Palestinian and Jewish masses against the Zionist state.

Neither the "moderate" leadership of Yasir Arafat, the "progressive" leadership of the Popular and Democratic Fronts, nor the "dissident" Fateh rebels have formulated a strategy for the Palestinian people independent of the rotten capitalist regimes of the region.

The PLO leaders at one moment curry