Socialist Republic, November 1977

This joins other editions of Socialist Republic in the Archive. There are a range of issues covered, Organise Solidarity With Turf Lodge, Support the Coalisland ‘Troops Out’ Conference and argues: Build Broadly, Actively, Democratically…

One piece notes the ‘First 32 Counties Women’s Conference’.

Over 130 women, from both sides of the border attended the first ever Irish Women’s Liberation Conference on the 1st and 2nd of Oct. Held in Belfast the conference attracted widely differing groups of feminists from Belfast, Derry, Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Galway. Workshops were varied and included discussion of Health; Sexuality; Women in the South; The Revolutionary potential of Lesbianism; Feminism Socialism and Republicanism, among others.

There’s a long piece on Seamus Costello where the article starts:

The Movement for a Socialist Republic and People’s Democracy have already, in common with the Republican movement and most of the organised left in Ireland today, unreservedly condemned Seamus Costello’s assassination. Both groups sent delegations to one of the largest funerals seen in the South in recent years. If there were any doubts about Costello’s widespread popularity or his commitment to the Iris working class they were dispelled by the size and composition of the attendance at the funeral. The proceedings were chaired by Nora Connolly O’Brien and Bernadette MacAliskey gave a short speech I his memory. A large of number of people from Costello’s native Bray marched behind his coffin forcing the three local TDs and most fothis fellow councillors from Bray Urban District Council nd Wicklow County Council to join the rest of the mourners. Also in attendencance were the Gneral Secretaries of two of the largest unions in the country Michael Mullen of the ITGWU and Matt Merigan of the ATGWU, along with many other well known trade unoin activists. Finally mention must be made of the fact that some members of Costello’s old party, Sinn Féin – the Workers’ Party, especially those from Bray, put aside petty sectarian considerations to demonstrate their opposition to this act of gangsterism.

Notable too is the point made in the following:

While Costello had found a correct understanding of the interconnection between economic and national demands he had not discovered how to make a practical organisational transition from Republicanism to Marxism. He knew that such a transition was necessary but he was unduly apprehensive that the IRSP would become identified as another ‘far left sect and thereby lose its credibility with the other strata within the Republican movement. As a result he consciously kept the politics of the IRSP vague. The net result of this was negative for the IRSP. On the one hand the party was simply too weak to act as a significant pole of attraction for Republican dissidents; on the other hand its political diffuseness prevented him from formulating a clear cut perspective for action which could have built the party into a strong and significant organisation.

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