Partition

The Fine Gael government claim that they want to separate the economic impact of Brexit from the ‘constitutional question’. We reject this argument. The border between the North and South of Ireland is not akin to that between Italy and Switzerland, for example. The Irish border was imposed on the majority of the Irish people by a counter-revolution, instigated by the British Empire. It was designed to produce a ‘carnival of reaction’ and to blunt the impact of the Irish revolution. Its effect was to imprison Northern nationalists in an oppressive state and to allow the Unionist elite to suppress the class instinct of Protestant workers by pointing to an ‘internal enemy’. Partition also helped to produce a mirror image state in the South where the Catholic Church and its charity network became a replacement for social rights.

Like James Connolly we reject any move to produce a hard border – not just because of the massive inconvenience it would cause, but because it would strengthen a reactionary settlement of Ireland’s national question – at the very time when that issue is re-emerging.

Specifically this means that the left should:

  • Insist on the retention of a common travel area between North and South.
  • Reject any attempt to establish customs posts or immigration checks.
  • Reject moves to weaken the economic linkages between North and South.

This position puts us into outright opposition to the Democratic Unionist Party. Far from representing the interests of the ‘Unionist community’ the right-wing DUP see Brexit as an opportunity to strengthen the link between the North and the UK including the border.

The Southern establishment oppose a hard border – but mainly because of its effect on capitalist development on the island.

They are a weak power and will not take decisive measures to stop such a border developing.

We therefore call for

  • The use of an Irish veto to stop any moves to a hard border.
  • That the Irish people – North and South – be given a vote on the outcome of any negotiation between the EU and Britain. This is a matter of basic democratic principle, particularly given the fact that the majority in both the north and Scotland voted against Brexit. The Irish government should give a clear commitment that it will use its veto to implement the decision of such referenda.
  • The Irish government should declare now that no Irish Garda, immigration or customs official will co-operate in imposing a border.
  • That should the British government carry on regardless, a campaign of civil disobedience and people power be erected to remove such posts.