The following document was submitted to a Labour Party Commission in January 1986. I have no indication that it had any effect. It was associated with, or stimulated by, a report produced for the Labour Party International Affairs Committee, which follows it.

Introduction and Background

In the UK, the 'British' label represents an attempt to absorb the historic Scottish, Welsh and Irish nations under English hegemony, as the core-group of an imperial power. The strategy has been to try to evolve a unified 'British' ruling-class, via the public-school and Oxbridge system, while as far as possible keeping the working-class divided; concentration of mobile capital near its wealthiest markets has encouraged division of the working-class, with migrant labour from the fringe regions seen as a threat by the host community.

This pattern, typical of 19th century England, is now repeating itself on a European scale, with a core-bourgeoisie, reinforced by mobile fringe-bourgeoisie and supporting intelligentsia, master-minding the development of a neo-imperial global superpower, with its eye on Africa as the main neo-colonial source of wealth.

The fringe communities, of which Ireland is one, need to unite to resist their use as a source of mobile labour; they have the emerging African nations as potential allies; the possibility exists of imposing a new world-class socialist economic order, where capital is made to locate to serve people, rather than people uprooted to service centralised capital. This need, while objective, is not yet perceived; fringe-elites look to their own personal fulfilment by strengthening their links with the core commanding heights. Where large centralist States have persisted from the old imperial era, capital thrives by using their structures to expedite the centralisation process.

The ultimate multinational centralising bureaucracy is located in Brussels. Relative to the old imperial States however the Brussels central bureaucracy is relatively weak. It seeks to strengthen itself (a) by upgrading the role of the Strasbourg assembly relative to the member-State parliaments (b) by cultivating the various regional lobbies which are emerging in the undergrowth of the old imperial States. There may therefore be a 'window of opportunity' for the peoples on the fringe to strengthen their position by exploiting this conflict of interests between the neo-imperial centralist bureaucracy in Brussels and the old imperial centralist States.

The Irish National Question Stated

The answer, on the whole, would seem to be in the negative; one can perhaps qualify this by adding 'yet'. The upper bourgeoisie (which in the European nation-building process was in the lead) has historically in the Irish case identified totally with Britain and the Empire, while the smaller bourgeoisie, which led the national revolution, lacked the resources and the intellectual background to stimulate actively an independent national intelligentsia; those of the latter who emerged did so in spite of an environment which was, and remains, largely hostile. Unsure of its own national role, the Irish lower-bourgeoisie felt insecure in relation to its own working-class, which it treated with contempt and hostility. No wonder that the Irish working-class is anti-national; it identifies the national revolution as something to do with an elite role for petty bosses. It has not yet dawned on the Irish working-class that it role, as heralded by Connolly, is to wrest the leadership of the national revolution from the petty bosses, and do the job properly, with competence, panache, imagination.

One can try to catalogue the various measures of the incompleteness of the Irish national-democratic revolution. One aspect, for example, is the persistence of imperial centralist bureaucracy as the form of State organisation; the imperial State machine was taken over in 1921 and unreformed has imposed an anti-democratic system on the whole country which has actively impeded the development of socialist policies. The split between Dublin and the rest of the country has been reinforced: the Dublin working-class sees a State machine staffed by 'culchie' civil servants; elsewhere the State is seen as a remote alien presence in Dublin. The use of Irish as an entry-key to a mandarinate has reinforced the idea that national identity is 'not for the likes of us', while attempts by a minority of nationally-conscious working-class parents to get all-Irish schools for their children have had obstacles put in their way by the mandarins.

Another aspect of the problem is the denominational control of the education system; the non-denominational technical sector under the VECs, on which all modern industrial technology depends for its skilled manpower, has been kept down as a social B-stream. There is no educational process available in which an all-round, literate, technically competent and culturally aware Irish person can be formed, in such a way as to understand and critically assess the several class, religious and ethnic strands from which the Irish nation is in process of being made.

Such stunted elements of Irish culture as have survived this destructive process have been hijacked by a sector of the Roman Catholic Church (ie the teaching orders), while mainstream Roman Catholicism is itself determinedly Euro-provincial in its culture and philosophy. To find evidence of creative patronage of Irish music or art by the Churches one has to look hard. Yet no national school can exist without the patronage of a Bishop, and this is apparently a Department of Education decision, dating from the era of British rule, which no post-1921 Government has ever challenged.

How therefore can those Protestants who aspire to identify with the Irish nation (and there are some, and always have been) equip themselves to help build it, if they are consigned to an educational ghetto, dominated by post-imperial nostalgia? Why prove Carson right by putting barriers in their way? Denominational control of the educational system is a relic of British rule, put there deliberately to prevent the development of integrated nationally and socially conscious intelligentsia and working-class.

A further aspect of the problem is the trivialisation of local politics by the centralisation of all real power; the reduction of the role of elected representatives to that of messenger-boys for constituents (clientelism); the apathy of the electorate arising from the inability to get any significant changes made in a ramshackle and visibly crumbling system.

If people cannot exert political pressure to the extent of curing urban blight, curbing speculation in land, controlling pollution in our rivers and lakes, what hope have they of achieving the greater legislative reforms involved in ending capitalism and bringing capital under democratic control to serve the people?

The above problems are of key importance because they are more basic than the traditional Labour pre-occupations of housing, social legislation etc. No way can an effective political Labour movement develop without effective political structures in a sovereign democratic nation-state.

Outline Approach to a Solution

Within the Republic, the initiative is potentially with the Minister for the Environment, in the context of the process of reform of local government. While there is a Labour Minister, what appears to be lacking are procedures for bypassing the departmental bureaucracy and ensuring that the Minister is advised knowledgeably by those who have been researching local government systems in Ireland and abroad.

A classic monograph by Tom Barrington 'More Local Government' published by the Institute of Public Administration over a decade ago has been totally ignored. There is plenty of accessible experience of continental municipalities via the twinning process; this is largely ignored because our local government people regard visits abroad as a 'perk' or a 'junket'; no-one in local government ever goes in depth into what their twin town does, how it works, and writes a report. I have met competent specialists involved in running municipal development agencies abroad who find that they have no counterparts in their Irish twin town, so they lose interest in the twinning process.

The essence of the Barrington model is to establish 2 levels of local government, the Community and the Region, by-passing the old medieval county, except for large counties of Region status (eg Cork or Kerry). (There is nothing of course to prevent counties from retaining a nominal existence for GAA purposes.)

At community level should be available a serviced centre of local democracy, supplying health, educational and social welfare needs, monitored by an elected Community Council, with an executive mayor. School management boards, at primary and second level, could be serviced effectively by such a system, both administratively and with elected representatives.

The need for such a structure is demonstrated by the existence of ad-hoc community councils, without proper status or electoral procedures, often loaded so as to keep out radical voices. It is within the power of the Minister to give status to local democracy at community level, bringing the Republic into line with most European democracies.

At the regional level the target is to have the executive arms of all State services and development agencies integrated into a cohesive Regional Government, with an elected Regional Council to monitor its performance and provide a means of democratic control. Such a Regional Government should have powers of taxation; political issues at regional level and at national level would relate to allocation of resources in a more manageable and transparent framework than the present annual Budget Debate.

The regional principle is already established with the IDA and the Health Boards. Steps are currently being taken to provide at one regional contact-point all State support services for enterprise and industry (IDA, AnCO, IIRS, CTT etc) via the 'one-stop shop'; in some cases this is on the Regional College campus. Candidates for Regional Capital status turn out usually to be 'one-stop shop' centres and to have one or more 3rd-level Colleges. While there are several questions of boundary and centre to be tidied up, the overall picture is reasonably clear: something like 11 major regions, most composed of several existing counties, and each embodying a multitude of structured local communities.

My own preferred set of Regional Capitals is: Dublin, Dundalk, Athlone, Sligo, Galway, Limerick, Tralee, Cork, Waterford, Kilkenny; I return to the question of Donegal in the context of the AIA below.

The opportunities for a radical Labour Party in such a devolved structure are considerable. Firstly the initial step into local government at the community level would be easier, involving less finance. Local government would be more accessible than at present for a party whose main asset is voluntary effort rather than finance. Note that it is at present easier for radical voices to emerge in politics at local council level in places like Bray or Sligo than it is in Dublin.

An approach to the ending of clientelism is for the radical politician to encourage groups having common problems to band together and organise themselves as a lobby (eg form a Housing Association from those on the housing list); the role of the politician is to make the introductions for the spokesman and let them get on with it, rather than to handle cases individually. This approach, which would liberate politicians from clientelism to develop their capacity for genuine policy work, would be more feasible at community/region levels than at county/national levels as at present.

Now consider the above model in an all-Ireland context, such as may emerge by creative use of the opportunities presented by the AIA. (If the AIA is to succeed it must have this creative potential; if this turns out to be impossible the agreement will be proved fraudulent. This must be demonstrated by honest trials.)

The immediate pilot-project that springs to mind is the reintegration of Derry with its Donegal hinterland, with the establishment of a Derry/Donegal Region, having some sort of intergovernmental development agency in lieu of Regional Government within a federal State. The latter could eventually follow in a future update of the AIA, in which the positive results of the work of the cross-border Development Agency would be recognised by actual transfer of sovereignty with consent. Other possible cross-border intergovernmental agencies might bring in Monaghan with Dungannon and Armagh, and Newry with Dundalk.

Substantial EEC funding should be available for cross-border 'Integrated Development Plans' along these lines, given the goodwill engendered in the EEC for the AIA. It would be disastrous if the AIA were to remain restricted to issues of 'law and order'; its positive potential as a lever for getting funding into regional development must be taken up.

There remains the core-region around Belfast, where there is a majority of Protestant Irish people with unionist illusions who support British hegemonism. Protestant business sense would prevail if they saw the opportunity of participating in a vibrant developing Irish regional system which was only slightly under Dublin rule, and certainly a long way from rule by Rome.

The key to unlock the latent Irish identity of the Northern Protestants is a demonstrably effective democratic regional government system which is able to deliver houses and jobs without religious discrimination. If this can be done in Derry/Donegal, Dungannon/Monaghan and Dundalk/Newry, then perhaps Belfast could be persuaded to participate willingly in the new Irish federal system, while retaining for a stated period the option to vote themselves back into the UK if they found the environment hostile.

Consider now the European dimension of this devolved approach. It is visible the policy of Brussels/Strasbourg to encourage it, as it is felt that the old centralist imperial States (Britain, France, Germany) are themselves the main obstacle to European integration. If their power could be undermined by the development of dynamic regional politics throughout Europe, there is a chance that a genuine European federal unity might begin to develop, without the smaller nations being dominated by their neighbouring giants.

The present process leading towards 'European Political Union' is unmoderated by any diminution of the power of the old imperial States. It must therefore be resisted; no step should be taken to give up our independent status in defence and foreign affairs, for as long as any Political Union would be dominated by the triumvirate of majors committed to nuclear weapons and the Atlantic Alliance.

In the meantime let us do what we can to encourage the development of the independence of the small fringe nations (Denmark, Greece, Portugal), and protonational regions (Wales, Scotland, Brittany, the Basques, Sicily) by cultural, trade and policy-generating links.

An embryonic forum exists for doing this: the Conference of Maritime and Peripheral Regions (CPMR). This meets regularly, but has negligible resources; Irish participation has up to now been lightweight (regional tourism development officers etc). It has, for example, arranged a young workers exchange programme in fisheries.

An Irish Government committed to effective regional government as suggested above could help increase the status and influence of the CPMR by sending heavyweights and committing some of its foreign affairs and export development budget in this direction.

Cross-links between developing regions, for trade, technology transfer, cultural exchanges etc are one of the preferred UN development agency processes for the 3rd world, as means of helping developing countries gain their independence of their old imperial masters.

The same argument holds for the European fringe. Let us pioneer the process, as our contribution to the democratisation of Europe, and the achievement of social control over all capital movements, eliminating the gulf between 'core' and 'fringe'.

Immediately Practicable Policies

Within the lifetime of the present Government it should be possible to begin the process of planning the devolution of Government to regional and community level, using the Tom Barrington monograph as a basic text, supplemented by as much experience as can be picked up from continental contacts via the twinning process. The latter should be de-junketised, and made a matter for serious study, with competent people, fluent in the language, commissioned to spend time interacting at the working level, so as to produce practical and constructive reports as a basis for action.

This process could be initiated immediately by Labour councillors eg in the Cork-Rennes twinning to commission a study of the Rennes municipal high-technology enterprise centre and its relationship to the university campus. There are comparable opportunities for the Cork municipality to stimulate the job-generation process, taking advantage of the geographical proximity of UCC, the Regional College, the IIRS regional laboratory, the AnCO centre and the site of the old Munster Institute. An EEC-funded conference took place on this theme in November 1984 in UCC, but there is no evidence that the Cork municipality has learned from the experience. This is an example where I happen to have picked up some recent experience; there must be many other opportunities in this direction.

An additional lever of use in developing a regional devolution lobby is the concept of an 'integrated regional development plan' as a magnet for EEC funding. Attempts to date to develop such plans have been blocked by negative centralist attitudes in the bureaucracy, primarily in the Dept of Finance, which perceives the 50% funding by the Irish state as an actual additional drain on resources. In fact the 50% Irish funding can be made up of existing salaried human resources, doing what they normally do, suitably reorganised and redeployed, the EEC funding being used to recruit additional people around the integration process. Thus with proper preparation of the proposal there need be no net cost to the exchequer, the EEC funding being used to generate additional jobs which can, if the integrated planning is effective, become wealth-generating and self sustaining.

Labour ministers could gain some electoral credit by initiating several such integrated regional schemes for EEC funding; there are important opportunities for this in border areas, as steps in the development of the positive opportunities of the AIA.

On matters relating to European Political Union (the Dooge Report etc) it is crucial to resist integration into any political system involving a military alliance with the old imperial powers. Political integration into a European Federation would be acceptable only on the basis of a non-nuclear defence policy, neutral as between the USA and the USSR, with the old imperial States dismantled. This is clearly a long-term goal, only achievable by protracted struggle, with the fringe nations, proto-nations and regions playing a key role. In the short run, it is therefore necessary to begin actively cultivating links to this end, making constructive use of the Conference of PMR to initiate proposals leading to the strengthening of peripheral regional autonomy. Development of these links is within the scope of the present Minister for the Environment; backup from Foreign Affairs would be desirable but not at this stage essential.

In the lead up to the election, it will not be sufficient to stick to economic and social issues, and it will be crucial to present a policy with a national dimension which is distinct from Fine Gael, and more consistently anti-imperialist than anything produced by Fianna Fail.

Key ingredients for such a policy are (a) positive developments arising in the context of the AIA (eg integrated cross-border regional development programmes with EEC support in prospect) (b) principled opposition to the EPU process, distancing ourselves decisively from the Fine Gael and Dooge Report position (c) and integrated development plan for the Dublin Region with a 'hard line' on alleged rights of landowners to speculative gain (this could be approached via land taxation policy thus avoiding the possibility of a constitutional issue; this issue should of course eventually be faced squarely).

In the post-election situation, any coalition arrangement, or political support arrangement for a minority Government, must be based on negotiation around key policy issues, without prior bias towards or against either major Party. It should never be assumed that Fianna Fail is the primary party to be kept out; Fine Gael is no less a candidate for this status. Coalition should only be considered on the basis of common acceptance of key policies, with key ministerial positions under Labour control for implementing them. Without the latter, conditional support rather than coalition should be the tactic. Key ministries for the policies outlined above are the Environment and Foreign Affairs. Not only should Labour have the Ministries, but the right to nominate who is in them. We must never again allow a Labour Ministry to be sterilised by a Taoiseach's ability to nominate an inappropriate person to it.

We should note finally that the only Party ever actively to cultivate the Celtic Fringe nations was Fianna Fail; this was on the personal initiative of de Valera when in opposition. There is a parallel in the visit of de Gaulle to Quebec. The visits of de Valera never reflected themselves significantly however into any commercial or foreign policy initiatives; they had however significant cultural impact. We should be able to do better, given our Socialist International tradition.

As a result of de Valera's visit to Mann in 1949, some cultural support went to the Manx language, and a Manx autonomist movement developed. This movement is currently a political thorn in the side of British military utilisation of Mann, and it has been monitoring Irish Sea nuclear submarine incidents.

Scottish, Welsh, Manx and Breton autonomists have hitherto been looking to Fianna Fail for inspiration; they have been consistently disappointed. Most have by now written off Ireland as a model worth studying, except for negative lessons.

The independence of small fringe nations is a peoples' movement, potentially a movement of the Left, with a strong co-operative component. This is in accordance with Connolly's thinking; Irish Labour must re-discover Connolly, identify with the fringe-national anti-imperialist position, and cultivate links with all fringe-autonomist movements, filling the vacuum left by the decline of Fianna Fail as an anti-imperialist force. Fringe-nations like Ireland have more in common with the emerging African nations than with the developed core of Europe. This dimension must be developed, both via the Socialist International, and by influence on foreign policy if in government, or in a position to influence government.

The key global issue is the conflict between the Arms Race and 3rd-world development; we as a nation should be playing a key role in the via the UN, influencing world opinion, in close co-ordination with the other European neutral States.

At about this time there was a Report from the Northern Ireland Sub-Committee of the Labour Party International Affairs Committee, by the present writer Roy H W Johnston, dated 22/01/86. I suspect that the foregoing was related to it, perhaps being written as a personal contribution to supplement the 22/01/86 Report, which was as follows:

Two distinct levels of action are suggested:

     1. specific initiatives to exploit the creative potential of     the  Anglo-Irish Agreement in areas other than 'law and order'  which     are  accessible   to Labour Ministers in the present  Government;

       2. longer-term activity via the Socialist International, the EEC and     the UN.

There is some interaction between these levels in the field of Regional Policy.

1. Immediate Initiatives under the AIA

These are in principle possible in the areas of Energy, Health, Environment and Labour. In each case, the mechanism suggested is the use of ministerial authority to set up working groups of specialists, drawn from the Republic and Northern Ireland, to work to defined terms of reference and to report within a stated period. The following terms of reference are suggested:

1.1 Energy: to examine the potential in the Irish economy, viewed as a whole, for the more efficient use of energy, with particular reference, not only to the unification of the electricity grid, but also to the development of the use of Kinsale gas and Crumlin lignite in import substitution and generation of employment.

1.2 Health: to examine the potential for improved service to the people at reduced cost in the context of the re-definition of the hinterlands of the major regional hospitals without regard to the Border; to assess the feasibility of a unified approach to health insurance and funding of the health services, drawing on the positive experiences of both Irish and UK systems.

1.3 Environment: to examine how best the EEC concept of the 'integrated regional development plan' might be implemented in one or more cross-border regions (eg Derry/Donegal), covering not only physical infrastructure but also intellectual infrastructure (eg 3rd-level education, enterprise support services etc). To examine specifically in the context of the Republic the obstacles to this process (some of which appear to reside in the totally centralist government approach to EEC regional funding) which have prevented the implementation of any integrated regional plan to date. To explore the potential for a common approach to regional planning in the north-western periphery of the EEC.

1.4 Labour: noting the prospective existence of of a Congress Committee on worker-coops, with inputs from both Northern Ireland and the Republic, to examine how the development of worker-coops can be facilitated by an improved common legislative framework in Northern Ireland and the Republic.

2. Longer-term actions via international networks and agencies.

Our channels of influence here are (a) via the Socialist International and the Confederation (b) via the Dept of Foreign Affairs.

(NB it is important that the latter channel be enhanced by the establishment of an Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs to whose briefing we could contribute. Such a Committee would correspond to normal practice in other countries. It could perhaps be constituted by enhancing the role of the present Development Cooperation Committee, once the close links between disarmament and development are recognised as the key foreign policy issue.)

The following are broad statements of the problem in the EEC and UN contexts; defining terms of reference and setting up working groups to outline approaches to solutions are the task of these international bodies. It is not possible to attempt this here. We should however press our Dept of Foreign Affairs to take appropriate initiatives in this direction.

The way in which the problem is resolved internationally has bearing on the future political status of Northern Ireland.

2.1 Within EEC States there are several examples of peoples wishing to assert identity with quasi-national or national autonomy; in some cases 2 States are involved.

Within a single State there are: Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Corsica, the Algarve etc (Brittany has the problem that a centrally-imposed 'regional' structure has in fact partitioned it!).

     Involving   2   States (actually or potentially)   there  is     Alsace (German-speaking),  Euskady (the Basques, partitioned between     France and Spain) and,  of course,  Northern Ireland. In most cases     there is a historic and/or continuing tradition of bloodshed.

A process of European political union, if it is to be democratically acceptable, must provide democratic machinery for the peaceful fulfilment of autonomist aspirations, and must involve the weakening and eventual dismantling of the old centralist imperial States.

2.2 Elsewhere in the world much bloodshed is due to the drawing of State boundaries without regard to the aspirations of ethnic peoples. The most acute problem is Palestine/Israel; the next is perhaps the Kurds (who are partitioned between 3 States; a mountain people, they could become the Switzerland of the Middle East if permitted peacefully to develop their own national State). There are many anomalies arising from the imperial partitioning of Africa.

Unfortunately the European norm is not the nation-state, so much as the centralist imperial State, with as many peripheral groups included as can be held down by force. This norm has imposed itself on global politics, via the imperial process.

It is time that this approach was questioned in global politics, and political procedures initiated within the UN such as to enable ethnically united peoples to achieve autonomy or independent Statehood without bloodshed.

    (This  paper  was  produced for the Irish  Labour Party  International     Affairs Committee. No action of any kind was taken. RJ 29/5/87)

Some navigational notes:

Copyright Dr Roy Johnston 1999