Introductory overview

I have selected what seem to me to be the highlights of the final decade of the century: interaction with an increasingly influential Green Party, the final collapse of the USSR and discredit of the central-State model of socialist planning, episodes at the interface between science, technology and business, mostly related to the innovation process, the Maastricht referendum, the increasing importance of the Internet, the ongoing Northern problem and the roads leading eventually to the Good Friday Agreement, the ongoing role of science in society, the crisis in the Left and the perceived need for a 'left-green convergence'. Some related issues of specialist interest are touched on accessibly via the Appendices.

The Irish Green Party: Initial Contacts

I early got involved with aspects of policy development, after contacting Roger Garland, at that time their only TD. I attended local Green party events, and National Council meetings, where policy was discussed, though indecisively. I contributed my Regional Studies Association (1) paper to this process. This made some international comparisons, and leaned heavily on the earlier work by Tom Barrington.

I was additionally concerned that the party should make the best possible use of the Internet, in particular the GreenNet conferencing system, which I had been exploring. Here are some extracts from a letter I wrote to Roger Garland on February 23 1991, in response to an enquiry from him relating to some European Green initiative:

"....The process of achieving an all-European Green consensus on key issues involves 2 stages: (a) each national group working out its own assessment of the key issues and their prioritisation (b) all groups interactively by negotiation agreeing what are the key priority issues for action at EC or CSCE level; this will be a sub-set of the issues as seen by each group.

"For example a key issue in the UK is electoral reform and the abolition of the antiquated English system which blocks new parties emerging. A key issue in Ireland is the upgrading of local democracy and the establishment of an effective regional dimension, with the emergence of Limerick, Sligo etc as integrated government centres, with all functions except defence and foreign affairs. Neither of these however are key issues at the EC level, unless it becomes possible for the European parliament to legislate to over-ride national legislation in favour of a standard approach to local government and electoral democratic practice. The elevation of these issues to EC level is itself a key issue: do we value democracy imposed by the EC above sovereignty at the level of the national State? ...

"....A key issue at the EC level is the arms industry; this tends to be considered by the defence integrationists as the trojan horse for achieving a common defence policy. The Gulf war is going to provide all sorts of arguments; the one we should be leaning on is how to prevent the arms industry from becoming regarded as a prime export-earner. The EC should not be arming dictators, and then profiting when they have to be contained. They make profits from arming both sides. This will mop up all peace dividend from the end of the cold war, unless it is put down, and the resources diverted to civil utility.

"....I envisage a system in which every national Green centre has at least one computer-literate PC-owner who is registered with GreenNet. This person, whom I label the 'GN Window', should ideally be on the national executive and deputed to implement the networking function, reporting to a networking committee at national level. Alternatively, someone on a networking committee at national level should be deputed to liaise with the computer-literate PC owner who acts as the technical support service for the GN window.

"These 'GN windows', one per State, or one per nation where there are several nations within the State (eg the UK), should set up a private electronic conference, in which would be available for general circulation all policy documents judged to be of EC, CSCE or UN significance. There should be a second private electronic conference devoted to proposals for, and planning of, co-ordinated international actions aimed at focused EC, CSCE or UN events (eg the coming Luxembourg EC Summit). There should be a third conference, aimed at the media (ie a public conference) in which actions would be reported and agreed policy documents made available to the public....."

This was before the Web had captured the public imagination; the vehicle was a conferencing system called GreenNet, to which I had subscribed, and of which I was exploring the utility. It was a good system in its time, but lacked consistent uptake, and was superseded by the Web.

Socialism and Democracy: some Notes towards a Re-think

Roy Johnston October 1991

It is evident that the central political problem of the Left is how to bring about democratic control over the capital re-investment process, and how to mobilise people to this end, without generating a bureaucratic monster.

The following is a summary of some preliminary ideas on this topic which are currently the subject of an ongoing research program. I would welcome some preliminary feedback on these ideas, as an aid to the analysis of the problem, and the choice of direction of the research.

[A] Capital

2. How capital is invested for economic growth depends (a) on the interests of who owns the capital and (b) their level of knowhow. (The latter factor is increasingly important, as the technology of production becomes more and more sophisticated.) Because more people are concerned with the effects of capital investment than those who actually own it, the investment of capital becomes a social issue, and this is what socialism is all about.

3. There are two contrasting approaches: (a) the 'capitalist' approach, which says 'leave the investment decision to the owners of capital acting according to their perception of the market, and all will be well'. This is the classical 'Adam Smith invisible hand' concept. There is also (b) what up to now has passed for the 'socialist' approach, which says that social control over investment must be imposed by the central State.

3a. There is a need to re-examine the trends of socialist thinking which hitherto have been marginalised: the anarcho-syndicalists, Guild socialists, co-operativists etc, in the light of the collapse of central-Statism.

Connolly has been criticised for his failure to address the problem of the State, which was held to have been done successfully by Lenin. Perhaps in the year 2100 it will be apparent that the mainstream of Marxist thinking flowed via Connolly, and the principal application of Marx/Connolly thinking will be seen to have been in the context of the development economics of emerging democratic nation-States, in post-imperial situations. The attempt to apply Marx's thinking, top-down, in a centralist imperial system, will be seen to have been a disastrous aberration.

Marx's own practical political period, when he edited the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, was in the context of attempted emergence of a democratic Germany at the economic fringe of the first Industrial Revolution, then spreading from Britain and beginning to enter the continent via Belgium. Germany was emerging from the aftermath of the Napoleonic imperial period, and had not established a national-democratic State. Marx's primary political objective of the 1840s was to do just this.

4. Where the central State has been democratic, as in most western European countries, some limited democratic control over capital in certain key sectors has been achieved, in the national interest. The form of this control is similar to the private sector: a firm is set up, which has to operate according to commercial criteria, the principal shareholder being the State. Where such a State firm has an incentive to innovate, it is often successful. There are several examples of this model in Ireland.

5. Where the central State has been dominated by bureaucracy and in effect 'owned' by a 'party machine', the effect has been disastrous, leading to the crisis which we are currently observing in the USSR. We have had, in effect, one big monopoly capitalist, without competition, and no incentive to innovate in order to re-invest capital more effectively.

5a. The current privatisation crisis in Ireland suggests that there may be an analogous process at work, the full implications of which have yet to emerge. It would appear that although there is in the Irish State sector a substantial creative knowhow component, which has up to now been the secret of its success, this in recent times has been offset by the destructive type of 'knowhow' which empowers a political, or politically connected, 'nomenclatura' to enrich itself personally, at the expense of the peoples' property, without adding real value to the social product.

6. The key to successful re-investment of capital is the link with the innovation process, and it is necessary in the current crisis to find means of combining this with the introduction of democratic control by some means other than the central State.

7. Given that the basic economic unit is the firm, then the problem is to ensure that those who control the re-investment of the surplus it generates are

(a) socially responsible, and

(b) aware of the potential for innovation available in the current state of technology.

[B] The Firm

2. A socially responsible Board of Directors should therefore look after the interests of owners, workers, suppliers and consumers, to the extent that the firm survives, making the necessary innovations to adapt to changing technology and market conditions.

3. A mechanism for ensuring that the Board of Directors became and remained responsive to these social interests would be to open the capital fund to access by them, and to provide means of ensuring that their share was in proportion to the extent of their interest. Thus the Board would still represent the owners, but the owners would be composed primarily of the worker, supplier and consumer interests. Thus a supplier, to ensure the future of the outlet, might be prepared to accept some % less, the balance going into the capital fund in the suppliers name. A consumer, similarly, might be prepared to pay a % more, into the capital fund, to ensure ongoing supply. And a worker might be prepared to accept a small % of wages in the form of shares (equivalent to a pension fund deduction).

4. In a vibrant, free-competition situation, these options need not be taken up, as the market would see to it that there were always alternative sources and outlets. A perfect market enables the 'perfect democracy' of consumer/producer choice to exist. Such a situation however is theoretical; the market is always imperfect; there are local and sectoral monopolies etc; workers can't always easily move. In the real world of imperfect competition it would seem that some such mechanism for democratising the ownership might represent a possible approach to ensuring the long-term viability of a particular firm in a given situation. The so-called 'perfect democracy' of market choice under capitalism usually tends towards a monopoly of the 'most popular' choice, so that the 'democracy' of the market, while it works transiently, is in the long run negated. This was one of Marx's key points.

5. Under capitalism, it is already the case that a significant proportion of the available capital is concentrated in workers' pension funds. We are simply generalising this concept into a possible model for a 'privatisation' process which is also a 'socialisation' process, operating at the level of the firm, without heavy-handed interference from the central State.

6. Under the 'democratised ownership of capital' system the innovation process would be likely to to work without tending towards monopoly for the successful innovator. If, for example, a consumer discovered a better product elsewhere, there would be 2 options: (a) buy it, and abandon the interests of the original supplier, or (b) put pressure on the Board of Directors to produce the better product, licencing in the knowhow if necessary. The 'capitalist free market' would tend to take course (a) and allow the local firm to decline and ultimately collapse. The socially responsible course is (b). Those who are pressing for a 'market economy' as an alternative to central-State management should be aware of this option.

[C] The State, Democracy and the Nation

2. An important role for the State might be to legislate for the transition of an innovative small firm, founded privately by an individual (this is usually the best way to innovate), into a fully-structured firm with Board of Directors responsible to an appropriate social mix of shareholders. The stage in the evolution of the firm at which this takes place should be the stage at which under capitalism the firm 'goes public'(2).

3. Tax law could be used to ensure that large shareholdings did not accumulate under the control of individuals who might then exercise undemocratic power (this is the central problem of western capitalism; it is especially acute when such power is exercised without competence, environmental sensitivity or social responsibility).

4. Apart from the democracy of the firm via the spread of share-holdings, there is also the fundamental democracy of the district and the region, and of course the nation. It is a good principle that the person elected should be known personally to the elector and this means that the basic unit should be small. This is high of the agenda of the 'Green' component of European democratic radicalism, and needs to be taken on board by the 'Left' component.

5. In the region and the nation there is the question of ethnicity; there should be no discrimination against any ethnic group, and some form of proportional representation. Democracy must be inclusive and sensitive to minority interests; it is not good practice to structure things so that one group is always 'voted down'.

6. Typical multi-ethnic situations have urban groups of extern origin embedded in an aboriginal rural hinterland. The key to democratising this system is in the development of a common perception of economic interest. (This of course was the Connolly approach to the problem of multi-ethnicity in the North.) The foregoing model for democratising the firm may help to develop this common perception. To tear an urban centre apart from its hinterland is a recipe for disaster (eg Derry and Donegal), and we are seeing many such disasters in contemporary European history (eg the Serbs in Croatia), which mirror the problem in Northern Ireland with which we are familiar.

I am putting forward the above 'theses' in the hopes that they may generate some analytical and creative discussion among those of the democratic political community who are concerned with the problem of social vs private ownership.

Any critical comments which I take on board I will acknowledge and attribute to their source, in the event that these initial ideas ever develop to the extent that they become publishable in a more elaborate form.

I am not aware of any echoes which arose from these theses. Reviewing them now after over a decade, I consider that they remain a valid statement of the problem, and an indication of steps towards the solution. The lack of good publication outlets for innovative political and socio-economic ideas was a barrier, and this remains the case.

Operations Researchers, Engineers, Management

I attempted during my Presidency to make bridges into the Regional Studies domain, the common ground being the use of the computer in spatial planning, and into the Engineering domain, where the IEI at the time was toying with the idea of a Management Division(3). In the end the consensus was to try to keep the ORMSI going with John Cantwell in the chair(4).

The Society retains a tenuous existence, on the fringe of Cathal Brugha's work in the UCD Business School in Carysfort. International contacts are being kept up and people attend conferences. On the whole the OR paradigm seems to have run its course, and most of the innovative analytical approaches pioneered by OR in the 1960s have become routine. The sensitive management of innovation, taking into account both the human and the technological dimensions, remains a problem area, where activists tend to trade under the name of 'the socio-technical approach'.

The Need for a History of Science Centre

I produced some documentation in support of an approach to Prof Gerry Wrixon, then Chief Executive of Eolas, the science funding agency which had by this time taken the place of the National Board for Science and Technology.

I suggested terms of reference for such a new foundation. It should not be labelled 'history of science', but should have some name which conveyed its full scope, which would be to identify, chronicle and understand the processes at work whereby scientific discoveries take place, and scientific knowledge is transformed into technological knowhow of economic significance in the specific Irish nation-building process, and to relate this to other post-colonial situations.

The first step towards setting up such a foundation might be some quite modest funding, on a project basis, with a co-ordinator who understood the terms of reference, and acted as extern sponsor of a number of projects in various university departments. Some projects might involve postgraduate students, others marginal-time work by motivated individuals, such as exist in all branches of science and are interested in the history of their discipline. There is also a fund of expertise and goodwill among retired people with scientific knowledge and background, but who are currently in isolation.

Little came of this at the time, though I was able to promote the idea in a 1991 meeting with recently-elected President Mary Robinson, who took an interest in a commemorative event dedicated to Robert Boyle at his birthplace Lismore. I supplied her with some historical briefing material appropriate to the occasion.(5).

The Maastricht Treaty and Referendum

"...The perception of most people is that the financial discipline imposed by monetary union is a good thing and to be encouraged, in that it will make more difficult for irresponsible governments to indulge in uncontrolled spending sprees, as has happened in the past. The argument of the Left that government spending, if investment-oriented, is a 'good thing' has fallen victim of the track-records of the centralist States of the East, supported by the Greencore experience on the home ground. State/Party mafias sugaring themselves etc.

"...There is a new ball-game, which the Left will have to learn: the key politico-economic concept is to leave investment decisions with the firm, but democratise the composition of the Board of Directors, without direct intervention by the central State. This is a tall order, and until it has been demonstrated in pilot mode, the left does not have a leg to stand on in matters economic. Economism as a leftist weapon is a dead duck.

"...The nation-province argument is more complex than you appear to perceive. There is no such thing as a nation-state, pure, and without ethnic minorities. If there were such it would be either boring or an abomination. The old imperial States of Europe (Britain, France, Spain) are breaking up, with Scotland, Brittany, Catalonia emerging. The people concerned with these movements welcome the idea of a European Confederation, as a larger version of the Swiss model, as it weakens the power of their old imperial centralist oppressors. If we are to participate meaningfully in this politics, we should be seeking to weaken the old imperial centralist States, strengthen the emerging proto-nations, and oppose the development of too much power at the confederal centre. Talk of the Austro-Hungarian 'prison-house of nations' is facile.

"...The key issue, which should be in the front of the shop window, is neutrality. In the confederation, all armed force should be territorial, except a small central core on standby for UN type activities, with UN recognition as a regional peacekeeping force. This is the primary ground we should be fighting on, as it is in accord with our existing position as an emerging post-colonial nation, with a positive UN peacekeeping record. The WEU and NATO are anachronistic and should be dismantled, as has been the Warsaw Pact.

"...If Ireland were to give a lead in this politics, and were to combine it with a positive policy of active aid to the 3rd world, and indeed to East Europe, with transfer of relevant technological knowhow and associated educational and training services (such as we are doing already on a small scale), we could assume a leading role in the world as catalyst of the resolution of the north-south conflict, AND into the bargain generate work for our own people in supplying the necessary goods and services.

"...So you need to reverse the order: put neutrality up front, and develop its potential as a generator of economic activity at the interface between the first and third worlds."

The Maastricht referendum was carried, but less overwhelmingly than in the case of the previous Single European Act. This gave heart to the No campaigners, who hoped that the next referendum might be lost.

More on Green Networking in 1992

"...As you know I have been trying to develop the electronic networking system, with a view to helping to develop common Green policies throughout Europe where these are of EC relevance (eg the CAP and organic farming, the Maastricht business, neutrality and the accession of Austria and Sweden, third world trade etc.). 1 have not been succeeding, because the key Green parties of Europe and the Green co-ordination processes are not yet over the computeracy barrier.

"...Of the European Greens the only parties showing any sign of computeracy are the Germans, the British, the Swedes and the Finns. I see no sign of the French. The USA, Canada and Australia are well developed into networking; indeed the network is dominated by the latter 3, and European input is negligible.

"...There was last week a meeting in London of the Green MEPs with the UK Green Party. This was supported by Willy de Backer, who is charged with developing electronic networking by the EPGG. I have been in correspondence with Willy, and with the GreenNet people, on this question. Willy and the GN people had a meeting, with my briefing. I have not yet had feedback as to the outcome; perhaps Patricia (McKenna MEP) has. It may be at the level that the EPGG is doing its own thing 'top down' and wants to use its networking ability for political advantage, in which case we have to try and develop a 'bottom up' ballgame with people we meet via the co-ordination events....

"...Also, on Northern Ireland: the network is dominated by a chap in New Jersey acting for the Provisionals, with the result that the overall Irish input on this issue is totally unbalanced. Can you perhaps let me have any stuff you can lay your hands on relating eg to the question of the SF Ard Fheis in the Mansion House, as this issue has been raised in an anti-Green manner on the network. Or indeed anything on the Peace Train, or other actions relevant to the ongoing situation.

"...I have all of our basic Green policy documents uploaded into a reference knowledge-base, with an indexed structure, as a sort of demonstration model of what should be accessible from all Green Parties in Europe ..... This however is not yet properly developed; I had hoped that the EPGG people might be able to encourage this, so that we can see, for example, what is the French Green policy on nuclear energy, with a view to being critical of it. It would also be useful to see what is the German policy on agriculture, and how it relates to the CAP crisis.....

"... However there are other questions, like economics, the social wage, the crisis in the West, the meat crisis (Goodman, Halal etc) where I feel I have something to contribute. Like for example how much of the meat and general agricultural crisis is due to the seasonality problem? Unique in Europe we have a 15 to 1 seasonality ratio for milk.

"You can't have high added value products without continuity of supply. Meat similarly; they all calve in April and slaughter in October, like in medieval times. I did a report for Bord Bainne in 1972 on this theme, and developed a computer model of the industry and its supply base which enabled the 'added value' aspect to be quantified. It was shelved because all they could think of then was the milk price rise on EC accession; they didn't think it through.

"(Indeed, my father Joe Johnston in 1932 did a paper in the Stat Soc on precisely the same issue, exposing how we had lost the UK market to the Danes because we only condescended to supply butter in the summer. The key was then, and still is, to grow crops for winter feed.)

"This is a key strategic issue, and it is linked up with organic farming and the premium prices obtainable in the German market. It could be the salvation of the West, and Irish agriculture in general. We ought to be mobilising the organic growers and providing them with a political voice...

"...We should be focusing on the agriculture and unemployment crisis with the next election in mind, and have the key candidates identified. The positive angle on the first is 'go organic' and the second is 'social wage, legalise the black economy; abolish income tax and put all tax on energy and productive fixed assets'. This could be done be re-defining existing cash flows, with no-one being worse off. In the aftermath of the change however, a firm would have the right to hire someone from the unemployed by paying a marginal economic wage on top of the social wage, and to pay overtime to met a deadline without taxing it. Business would be transformed overnight.

"This needs to be developed into a package which could be sold politically to the masses of unemployed and to the Trade Unions and to small business; it should be perfectly feasible, but needs careful marketing, so as not to appear 'crank'...."

At this time I had not resolved the problem of how to get close to the somewhat anarchic Green centres of decision. The response was disappointing. I was somewhat in advance of the posse. So I turned to the Northern Ireland question, and responded to Andy Pollak's initiative:

The 'Northern Initiative 92'

I give as an appendix some notes on that background; I prefer to begin with the analysis of the situation and to outline a possible model for future development.

In the analysis I consciously adopt a European perspective, being painfully aware of how the failure of the Irish to develop successfully along democratic pluralist lines has weakened the supply of good models for the peaceful transition from colonial to post-colonial politics in a large number of situations in Europe, the most acute one currently being Yugoslavia.

So I begin by mapping out, in the abstract, two extreme 'malign scenarios' and one intermediate 'benign scenario' (if I may borrow Conor Cruise O'Brien's cliche).

Alternative European scenarios:

Malign A:

There is a strong central authority in Brussels; atrophy of the old States has taken place (these are mostly multi-national, the 'nation-State' being actually a rarity); there is complete mobility of people, goods and capital throughout the EC.

The leads to an 'ethnic melting-pot' situation, with some similarity to the USA, and a tendency towards decultured monoglot masses, concentrated in the main existing industrial areas, primarily Germany. It would differ from the USA in that the lingua franca of the business and scientific / technological upper crust would be English, while that of the masses would tend to be German.

Europe as a whole would develop on a macro scale along the lines exhibited within those existing States having strongly centralist structures (the most extreme being Britain and Ireland, the latter being a micro time-capsule of old 1920s imperial Britain): a dominating central core, with high property prices, attracting labour from a declining fringe; the labour when there being confined to ghettos, and facing a high threshold before being able to influence core politics (examples: West Belfast Catholics, London Irish, Berlin Turks, Paris Bretons...).

The ultimate malignity of this scenario is the way it lends itself to the manipulation of the urban labour market, using exploitation of the ethnic tensions of the ghettos, by a cohesive unified upper-crust. In the USA this model, classically described by Upton Sinclair, remains with us to this day, and is at the root of the recent Los Angeles riots.

This malign scenario is the one perceived by those who opposed the accession of Ireland to the EC in 1972 (the present writer included), and by their successors who are currently opposing the Maastricht treaty constitutional amendment. It has considerable force, and is inevitable unless the pure economic forces are somehow moderated and controlled by socially responsible forces under democratic control, as it is suggested might just be possible in the following 'benign' scenario.

Benign:

The central authority is minimal, and all power is devolved to cohesive regional governments (or perhaps cantons, in that we are to some extent leaning on the Swiss model, though not uncritically, as in the Swiss cases there is a democratic deficit in some areas such as, for example, votes for women), which are not necessarily coterminous with the present States.

A canton should not be smaller than a population sufficient to support a credible third-level education centre, capable of supplying a competent leadership for politics and business rooted in local resources, including innovative enterprise based on scientific knowhow; say about 200,000 population. This, for example, is of the order of the size of the independent state of Iceland.

Cantons should on the whole be as small as possible, but where big cohesive units exist, as a result of past imperial structures (eg London) then it would make sense to accept their integrity, and think of the canton of (say) Anglia as London and its immediate hinterland, up to boundaries defined by the hinterlands of whichever cities emerge as the political cores of neighbouring cantons (Bristol, Birmingham etc; it is not relevant here to go into political details in the English context).

(The analogy between the projected Anglia and existing Austria is worth exploring: post-imperial London, relieved of the pathological pressure on house prices due to its current centralist State role, would become a pleasant place to live, an attractive international focus for science and the arts.)

All power of government would exist at the canton level, except defence and foreign affairs; there would also need to be a system of justice such that any perceived injustice to any individual or group within a canton could be referred to the central High Court for resolution, with binding authority (ie a Bill of Rights).

The central authority would be the executive of a European parliament with two chambers, one directly elected, and the other with representatives of the cantons (we are here thinking of something like the US Senate).

Cantons would have the right to, and in some situations should be actively encouraged to, federate between themselves, for cultural purposes (eg if the cantons in England want to pay to maintain the monarchy as an ongoing soap-opera, they are welcome to do so), or for specialist economic purposes (eg the maintenance of safety in sea travel, or the management of a major river catchment).

No canton would have the right to legislate in such a way as to curtail ethnic, religious or linguistic minority rights (eg 'a Protestant Parliament for a Protestant people', 'recognise the special status of the Roman Catholic Church' etc).

Procedures would need to exist to detect and positively prevent administrative practices which discriminate against minority rights outside legislation (eg administratively dispersing Breton-speaking teachers throughout France lest Breton culture should be supported by a viable education system etc).

Models for the peaceful democratic secession of smaller from larger units exist in European history eg Norway from Sweden in 1904; this was the model to which the Irish Home Rule movement, in the lead-up to 1914, was to some extent looking.

Models for the maintenance of cultural rights by minority groups also exist: the Swedes in Finland and the Germans in Denmark have a healthy relationship with their mother-cultures while being symbiotic with their hosts, though perhaps with the political battles over the Maastricht treaty the German situation in Denmark may become more tense.

There was the makings of a benign process in pre-1914 Ireland, with the positive participation of leading Protestant intellectuals in the national cultural and language movements, and in the economic development movement via the co-operatives, and in innovative manufacturing development.

(It would be interesting to analyse the extent that northern Protestant manufacturers participated in the trade exhibitions organised in Dublin by Arthur Griffith's Sinn Fein; I recollect reading in the memoirs of the late Mrs Czira about the Ferguson aircraft being centre-stage in the Dublin mansion House; this was shortly after Bleriot flew the English Channel; was this typical?).

Malign B:

I can perhaps label this the Enid Blyton model; all the toys in toyland and all the goblins in goblinland. It is no accident that this particular author of childrens' books flourished in the British imperial heartland. It is the model on which the decline of the British Empire would seem to have been managed; it could almost be said to be calculated to maximise the mayhem in the aftermath, leaving the declining imperial power still the main source of influence. (I am not suggesting an intentional conspiracy; just a cultural bias, resulting from generations of ruling elite reared on the classics and the history of the Roman Empire.)

After being piloted in Ireland, it would seem to have been perfected in India and Palestine, and is emerging as the 'standard model' for the self-dismemberment of imperial systems which have ceased to be viable, having the advantage that while the fringe tribes weaken themselves by wars to establish local hegemonies, the imperial core group can pull back to its heartland remaining relatively strong.

How else is one to interpret the thinking of Mountbatten, in engineering the pull-out from India, splitting the Indian Army on the basis of religion, and giving weapons to both? Literally, over Ghandi's dead body.

It is the model currently being operated, in its crudest form, in Yugoslavia, primarily it would seem by the Serbs.

It would not take much effort to convert the benign model outlined above into Malign B: all the central imperial power has to do is propagate the idea that the 'kith and kin' of the central imperial power would be discriminated against by the emerging fringe cantons. Where such people are in local concentrations, this destructive politics can be focused.

In Ireland, the central act in the malign scenario, from which all evil has since flowed, was the arming by the British Tory conspiracy of the Ulster Volunteers, with guns imported from Germany, in 1914.

This was analysed by my father Joe Johnston in his 1913 book 'Civil war in Ulster'(8), from the Liberal Home Rule angle. It was also analysed by Connolly from the standpoint of the European Marxist social-democratic tradition, which he had consciously espoused and was in process of adapting to the emerging Irish national question.

In Bosnia (I am here depending on the reports of Maggie O'Kane, who appears to me to be totally credible), it would seem that there were mass demonstrations in the streets, in favour of peaceful transition to independence, involving Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Muslims; these were broken up by Serbian snipers, members of Arkan's gang, sent in from outside. We have the extreme malign B scenario, masterminded so as to gain as much land as possible for an 'ethnically pure' Greater Serbia.

In Croatia, where the rot first set in, it would appear that independence was declared without setting up a system to ensure that Serbs in Croatia did not feel threatened, giving Serbia the pretext for intervening, and establishing the current pathological pattern.

Nor was there any attempt made, in the dismemberment of Yugoslavia, to see what the natural boundaries of the units should be, in rational economic as well as cultural and ethnic terms. The speed with which the seceding states were recognised, without effective provision for internal structuring embodying justice for minority groups, almost suggests a 'Malign B' scenario. Was this conscious? Is the EC to blame? Or was it just insensitive and unaware?

The importance of finding alternatives to the Malign B scenario, in the light of Irish experience, cannot be overestimated. The Northern Initiative is therefore of key current European significance. Can a model be found which encourages a benign scenario to develop, in a multi-ethnic post-colonial situation?

The Northern Ireland Problem

This benign process, which was totally non-violent, and was beginning to achieve political results, was again disrupted, and set into Malign B mode, by the armed attack of the B-specials on the Falls Road in August 1969. (The smashing of the peaceful demonstrations of multi-ethnic Bosnians in Sarajevo by the Serbian racialist gangs is the current analogue).

The emergence of the Provisional IRA was a response to this, just as the emergence of Muslim armed groups in Sarajevo was a response to the perceived need of the Muslim people to defend themselves and prevent their houses from being burned. One would almost think Arkan and co had studied the experience of how the Malign B scenario was initiated in Northern Ireland, and profited by it.

We are now in the second generation after the second Malign B scenario has been imposed in Northern Ireland.

The core of the problem is that the perceptions of the ghettoised peoples are so overlaid with the detritus of imperial decline, in Malign B mode, that it has become impossible for them to envision the alternative benign scenario.

In the core of the perceptions in the ghettos are two remote enemies, on the one hand Dublin (with Rome lurking in the background) and on the other hand London and the dead hand of imperial Britain on Ireland, expressed in the very tangible form of (for example) the Paras in Coalisland.

No progress will be possible until both these perceived threats are removed.

Can this be done, with EC support, in a benign scenario of a new type? If so, the Malign A scenario for the EC can be avoided, and democracy will thrive in Europe, in a manner such as to enable its influence to be felt positively in economics as well as politics.

Some Basic Theoretical Concepts

Labour and capital, the classical protagonists in Marxist theory, themselves become transformed, in proportion as knowhow to do with the production, sourcing and marketing processes become of primary importance, rather than the ownership of capital.

Large chunks of individually-owned capital need to be re-invested with knowhow of they are to be reproductive. Individual owners may think they can handle it, but can they? We have the Maxwell and Goodman debacles as object-lessons. They can up to a certain size, above which they lose contact with reality, lacking the ability to process simultaneously the necessary amount of information. There is a fundamental cybernetic problem.

Large chunks of capital, managed with knowhow, in the Irish business culture tend to 'stick within the business they know': when they saturate the home market they tend to go to the largest anglophone market to hand, Britain or the USA, and to do what they know how to do. The first wave (Guinness, Jacob etc) went to Britain, the most recent wave (Smurfit, CRH etc) has gone primarily to the USA. Either way, they have reinforced the tradition of Ireland being a net exporter of capital, and fortified a business culture which is positively opposed to being entrepreneurial on the home ground.

The use of State funds to entice productive units of foreign firms to locate in Ireland is counter-productive, in that it is paid for by high taxation, which further depresses the environment for local entrepreneurship, and fortifies the tradition whereby the few successful local firms expand by investing abroad rather than by diversifying, and adding value with knowhow, on the home ground.

The increasing dependence of all productive processes on knowhow is however to the advantage of Ireland, which has a well-developed and competent 3rd-level education system. The skilled human resources produced by this system are currently being bought at a high price, appreciated and used productively by firms all over Europe and the USA which operate at the cutting edge of advanced technology.

If we can achieve a situation where capital and knowhow can be combined in the adding of value in Ireland, to locally-produced (eg food) or imported (eg metal) resources, then it will be possible to give employment to an expanding workforce at an increasing level of skill.

Steps Towards a Benign Scenario in Ireland

Starting with the Northwest, pre-Partition it was possible to get from Westport to Sligo and on to Omagh and Derry by rail; the system also interfaced with the light rail system in Donegal at Strabane and Derry. There was the makings of a viable economic hinterland in the Northwest, which extended down to the West. The possibilities presented by this were killed by partition; Derry was cut off from its natural hinterland; both Derry and its hinterland became declining peripheral areas of remote centralist capitals in Dublin, and in London via Belfast.

In the East, there was a rail complex linking Dundalk and Newry with the port of Greenore; Dundalk was linked directly by rail to Dungannon and Derry. We are talking of the 1921 situation, when rail transport, and connection to ports, was the key to economic development. The infrastructure was in place; given independence and a benign government close at hand, development of a vibrant economy was totally feasible. Partition killed all this, leaving Dundalk and Newry peripheralised.

Can these hinterlands be re-constituted, in the EC post 1992 situation, when there are supposed to be no physical borders any more?

Are there analogues in Europe, like on the French-Belgian border in the Ardennes, where the French side is highly peripheral as seen from Paris, but probably would benefit by association with the regeneration of the old Walloon industrial towns?

The town of Maastricht itself is said to be a model, with its hinterland in Belgium, Holland and Germany.

Let us think not of a central town and its hinterland, but a network of towns and their hinterlands, with some degree of specialisation between them. We should get away from the centralist model, even within the canton.

(In order to get a feel for what the natural flows would have been, it might be appropriate to refer to the records of the ill-fated Boundary Commission, in which my father, Ned Stephens and others catalogued where the farmers brought their produce, along the now-cratered roads of Tyrone, Fermanagh etc. On the other hand, this might not now be relevant; I just mention it as a possible historical by-way worth a look.)

A canton should be such as to support at least one viable 3rd-level education system, at least at the level of a Regional College of Technology.

The cantons would need to have devolved government, by agreement between London and Dublin, with the loss of 'sovereignty' from the centre being balanced equitably.

We are not talking about 'Dublin taking over Enniskillen' or 'London taking over Monaghan', but new political entities, formed as an EC project, with the blessing of London and Dublin, as steps in the direction of resolving the old and costly dispute.

Possible networks of towns at the cores of the regenerating cantons might be:

1. Derry, Strabane, Omagh, Donegal, Letterkenny.

2. Enniskillen, Ballyshannon, Sligo, Boyle, Carrick-on-Shannon.

3. Dundalk, Newry, Armagh, Dungannon, Monaghan, Cavan.

The first would in effect be the regeneration of the old Derry hinterland based on the Donegal light railway. It is already underpinned by EC-funded programmes in advanced communications (the STAR programme) which involves the RTC in Letterkenny and the Derry Technical College. It should be possible to develop a pilot political dimension, via the existing local government bodies, in the joint supervision of a network of College-related enterprise centres, and local business-funded College-based projects, in such a way as to give the initiative a positive image from the start, while the details of the cantonal political structure was worked out.

The second would be dominated by the touristic potential of the Shannon-Erne waterways link-up, fortified by the existing Yeats industry, and underpinned by the environment-oriented knowhow based in the Sligo Regional College.

There is also an industrial tradition in the region, which is supported by the quality control knowhow based in the Sligo College, which could be fortified by the linkage to Enniskillen, in which complementary technical college resources could be developed as part of the project, giving the canton a complete core of relevant developmental knowhow.

Leitrim is more likely to turn around and develop a viable economy as the hinterland of the nearby Sligo-Enniskillen axis, than as a remote fringe of a centralist State based in Dublin.

The land-based bitterness of inter-tribal strife in Fermanagh can only be assuaged in proportion as local-based industry develops and generates jobs, to which well-educated young people have equal access.

The third canton requires further study; the Regional College in Dundalk would need to be complemented by another, possibly in Armagh, or Dungannon; the region is quite diverse; there is the potential for a link-up between Lough Egish / Killshandra co-ops and the Armagh apple-growers, to go for the high added-value European food market.

As in the first two regions, the pilot-step would be to get a Development Council into existence, to monitor the linkages between the 3rd-level Colleges and the innovative enterprise process, and to grant-aid this process, so that it was seen to be productive of local jobs, while the devolved cantonal political structures were negotiated between the two governments concerned and the European Commission.

This leaves a core-canton around Belfast, or perhaps two inner cantons, the second being based on the Coleraine-Ballymena axis. Both would be viable. Or you could put Coleraine in with Derry and Ballymena in with Belfast.

The preferences of towns at the fringe of two developing cantonal areas would need to be respected, by an appropriate democratic process. Cookstown would probably prefer to be with Dungannon than with Derry.

Thus we would have instead of a 6-county entity, we would have a 5-canton entity involving 12 counties, of which 6 from the Republic.

The steps would be initially a Development Council, with composition drawn from existing local political bodies, and access to development funding from Brussels, and the ability to deal direct without reference to London or Dublin, charged with encouraging knowhow-based enterprise within the canton, and making links between existing enterprise and the sources of knowhow in the canton.

The Development Council should go on to become involved in the process of defining the future role of cantonal government, and should be helped to do so by being given the opportunity to study and evaluate systems of government at the regional or cantonal level as they work in other European countries.

Law and Order

What the British would get out of it would be the end of an ongoing nightmare, for which they would presumably be prepared to pay, by supporting the development funding via the EC.

What the IRA would get out of it would be the British Army out.

What the Catholics would get out of it would the ending of a situation where they were under any obligation to the IRA, and where they were effectively excluded from politics.

What the UDA and the Protestants would get out of it would be the ending of the threat of Rome rule via Dublin. (Would they feel a threat of Rome Rule from their neighbours via a local Catholic majority? The Bill of Rights aspect of cantonal law would have to take care of this, and this would have to be underpinned by European law.)

Implications for the EC and the Member States.

This system, if it works in Ireland, should be perfectly generalisable to all EC member States considering democratic reconstruction.

In the case of Britain, we have already touched on the Anglia concept; it is easy to envision a cantonal system where entities called England, Scotland, Wales might emerge as cantons or cantonal confederations.

In this case, the two cantons suggested for the north-east might decide to opt to confederate with the Scottish cantons, and if this were to happen, I doubt if there is anyone in Ireland who would object. The 3 other cantons might or might not want to confederate with Dublin, and such other cantons which emerge in the present Republic: Cork, Limerick or whatever. This is another day's work.

The EC problem is how to make the transition, constitutionally, to a situation where there is enough devolved power at the level of the cantons to avoid the Malign Type A scenario, and where the old centralist imperial States, while possibly retaining ritual or cultural roles, do not block the process.

The other problem is how to prevent malign influences (eg arms manufacturers? Islamic fundamentalists?) from actively provoking incidents such as to transform the proposed benign transition into the malign type B model, with the 'cantons' all armed and trying to be 'ethnically pure', a process which we are seeing happening in former Yugoslavia and in former USSR.

The key therefore is the cantonal constitution, with Bill of Rights, and if this can be piloted with European support in the context of Northern Ireland, then the future of Europe is safe.

I added an Appendix to this, giving outlines of my father's career and my own. This I don't need to do here.

Science, Technology and Irish Culture

The 1992 Maastricht Referendum Aftermath

"...Let me give you one or two post-mortem insights. The principal one is the impression that many informed political people who would have voted 'no' on questions of neutrality and sovereignty in the end voted 'yes' because that did not want to be in the same camp as the Hanafin gang and the ayatollahs. They voted for what they perceived as the European enlightenment against quasi- Muslim fundamentalism. This was reinforced by the appearance of fundamentalist youth rallies in the streets.

"...There were several good initiatives on the neutrality question, the best being from the Cork Quakers, which I had a hand in helping to promote and publicise. Jony Wigham ran a fringe event at the Yearly Meeting, at which a good few Nunan(10) books were sold, and there was serious discussion. I spoke to the Dublin Monthly Meeting on the eve of poll, and there was serious consideration given to it, and significant support for the 'no' position, but there were several there who had been supporters in '72 had reversed their position for the reason I indicated.

"...The Greens were campaigning actively, and they had the full political support of the European Green Co-ordination, which met in Dublin last weekend. This was somewhat to their surprise, as they had been inclined to write off the major European Green parties as being 'pro-European', and to vote to hobble the powers of the Co-ordination in its attempt to assume the role of a mandated body; this they are now on the road to becoming.

"...In the new ball-game which is emerging, the battle is going to be for local and regional democratic structures, which will enable the fringe to hold its own against the macro-economic forces leading to the reinforcement of the core. As I said before, the roles of central states and central superstate agencies are going to have to be curtailed, and we will have to find means of developing constructively the democratic forces at local and regional level, and weakening the centralist forces. The central state (of your so-called 'nation-state' model) is NOT a suitable vehicle for this democratic reconstruction, as it is mostly parasitic, especially in its Irish form (where it is a construct inherited from the period of imperial rule).

"...This parasitism it at its worst in the 3rd-world countries which have adopted the State structures of the imperial system; this is Crotty's 'undevelopment' scenario, of which the Irish are the pioneers.

"...The centralism of the traditional 'working-class movement', and the associated bureaucratisation, should be another indicator to you of the need for a new paradigm: the Trade Unions which were solidly 'no' in '72 came out solidly for 'yes', and what if any discussion was there within them?

"...The ultimate logic of the centralist 'nation-state', run by a centralist 'working-class party' is the use of the Russian colonists in the Baltic States to prevent the re-emergence of the latter, and, worse, the current 'ethnic cleansing' by Serbian gangs of Muslim villagers from Bosnian villages.

"...The democratic alternative scenario which I can see developing in the European reconstruction process is going to have to be 'bottom up', inclusive, and with democratic control exercised over economic decisions at the level of the community and the enterprise; we need to re-invent the co-operative movement.

"...The Irish Partition question is going to have to be challenged in this mode by the peoples living in the marginalised border areas, reclaiming the economic spaces weakened by Partition, and regenerating the natural hinterlands of the towns and urban networks. A theoretical basis for this can be found via Connolly in Marx, whose core-concept was the need for democratic control over the capital re-investment process. Connolly had the Ralahine model in mind for how this might work. Connolly never promoted State centralism; this was a construct which emerged in the USSR under Stalin. The whole political structure of the European Left has been poisoned by this pathology, and is on the whole beyond redemption, apart perhaps from some individuals."

The foregoing arguments, culled from private correspondence, deserved to be aired in a serious critical political journal at the time(10). They did achieve some airing in various Green documents circulated internally, but there was no access to the Left. The development of political ideas in Ireland has been seriously curtailed by the lack of such a journal. It remains so to this day.

Socio-Technical and Techno-Economic Issues

The software-house work has been mostly socio-technical in its orientation, but I kept alive an interest in techno-economic work, and in the 'science and society' question, in support of the need to lobby for reforms within the political system(11).

Left-Green-Republican Convergence

The 1994 cease-fire gave an opportunity to open up communication with Gerry Adams again, reminding him of the internal British Army view of their role in the North, which was, and probably remains, that the top brass delights in it as providing a live training-ground enabling their lads to be 'blooded': I remember it being stated that 'the war in the Falklands was won on the streets of Belfast' by a British military man on a TV programme(12).

The May 1994 Gralton seminar, which I had registered to attend but was prevented by illness, was a focus for this process. Speakers included Eamonn O Ciosain on the 1934 Republican Congress, Seosamh O Cuaig on developing a rural renewal movement, Tom Barrington on decentralisation and local government reform; Declan Bree and Martin McGuinness spoke on 'Realising the Republic'. It was a constructive attempt at re-capturing the earlier left-republican convergence which had begun in the 1930s with George Gilmore and the Republican Congress, and which Goulding and I had attempted to rebuild in the 1960s, and extending it in the direction suggested by the Barrington 'More Local Government' theses, essentially a Green dimension(13).

I had been in touch with Richard Douthwaite the previous weekend, in connection with his contesting the 1994 European election in 'Connaught-Ulster' for the Greens, and he was considering going to the Gralton event, combining the trip with lodging his papers in Cavan, but in the end he felt he had to support the local Afri famine march. I mention this because it underlines the potential for left-green convergence with the type of politics implied by the Gralton agenda(14). As regards the European dimension of the 'left-green convergence': European Socialism tends to be identified with Statist top-down centralism, in the minds of the Greens, and of those seeking democratic reform of Europe from the bottom up (eg the submerged nations, like Scotland, Wales, Brittany). The problems of the left-green convergence are:

(a) to get to Greens to appreciate the potentially positive and essential role of the State (eg in the enactment of property laws favouring democracy and the co-operative principle in business ownership, the right of workers to build up an equity stake etc), and

(b) to get the Left to understand the importance, not only of sustainable ecologically-benign development, but also of decentralised government (especially in Britain and France)(15).

The 1995 Divorce Referendum; Family Matters

"....Divorce referendum..... where there is all-party Dail unanimity in trying to reverse progressively a repressive constitutional provision that was imposed in the 30s by the undue influence of an undemocratic patriarchal multinational corporation, over the dead bodies of genuine Enlightenment republicans .....

"...There are plenty of resources on the 'No' side; in fact, most pulpits, and a virulent fundamentalist element, funded from abroad. Progressives should not be seen dead in this company. This for me is a crunch issue. I look forward to be able to invite you to my wedding in the Churchtown meeting-house, if we get a yes. If we get a no, Janice will have to pay full inheritance tax, as if a stranger, on my decease.

"...Also, if there is a No majority again, the Northern Protestants will again say ha ha I told you so, Rome Rules OK. We simply can't afford not to get a Yes. Catholics, of course, who don't believe in divorce, can abide by their own church rules as long as they wish. They should not impose their church rule on others. I think you should come out publicly, and help to undo the damage Coughlan is doing. I am of course writing to him, but he is in my opinion beyond redemption, isolating himself into a corner..."

The campaign developed, with an increasing input from Catholic fundamentalists, to whom Anthony Coughlan appeared increasingly to be in thrall. I took this up with him:

"....For the first time we have what was the makings of a political consensus in the Dail on the revision of a constitutional provision that was put in by de Valera under pressure from JC McQuaid, over the dead bodies of Dorothy MacArdle, George Gilmore, my father Joe Johnston (he wasn't then in the Senate because Dev dissolved it in the run-up to his constitution: I wonder why?) and all those who supported the concept of the secular republic in the Enlightenment tradition.

"The State is showing signs of standing up to the Church on a key issue on the 'liberal agenda', to bring us into line with the rest of European democracy, and removing rubbish that should never have been there in the first place. (Why is the 'liberal agenda' a dirty word with some so-called 'progressives'?)

"The last thing we want is for so-called progressives, who give out that they are concerned with valid issues like Maastricht, to be rocking the boat, and giving heart to the Catholic right, that would, if it could, have us back in the old days of censorship, banned family planning, and running the Left off the streets. These people are no more interested in democracy than le Pen...."

I wrote again, on 14/11/95, to Patricia; she had not up to then been responsive, but I gained the impression that in the context of the campaign she did subsequently try to decouple the 'funding of referenda' issue from her own position regarding this one, and she did distance herself from the Catholic Right and the 'No' campaigners:

"...There is absolutely no analogy with the Maastricht situation. We here have a fragile all-party consensus, where an actual progressive lead is being given, on a key church-state issue, against a well-funded international monopolistic corporation, the RC Church. In this context, it is totally ridiculous that you should be arguing for the Government to fund the Church.

"Especially when the 'no' gang is visibly well-funded (from where?) and well-organised (by whom?). Could it be that the Brits dirty tricks dept have a hand, in order to copper-fasten Partition, and torpedo the peace process, keeping their cosy live training ground, for to win their Falklands wars with? I wouldn't put it past them. Always ask 'cui bono?'...

"...Let the backbenchers of FF form a party of the Christian fundamentalist right if they want to, forming an opposition destroying the all-party consensus. If they do this, then they would have a case I suppose, but would they split FF on the issue? I doubt it. They will if they want to remain as the republican party have to accept that the separation of church from state is an essential part of the republican democratic process, firmly rooted in the American and French revolutions, to which we owe all of our political philosophy. Let them accept the lead of their front bench on this issue, and come into the 19th century from the 17th.

"....We will need every possible help if this referendum is to be passed. If it is not passed, we will sink into provincialism and be the laughing-stock of Europe. In fact Janice and I will have to think of emigrating, and writing off this benighted country as a backwater..... You have no idea of the pain this blasted referendum is causing to the many unfortunate people like us who were looking forward at last to regularising our situation. PLEASE take a PUBLIC STAND!!! "

She did, and the referendum was won, by a hair. We did in the end get married in the Churchtown meeting house, after I got my divorce. The latter was with the aid of template documentation supplied by Mags O'Brien, who had led the Divorce Action Group. The adapted documentation was agreed with Mairin my ex-wife; in court it took up some 5 minutes of the judge's time, and cost about £12 in a fee to a commissioner for oaths.

In the general family context, Nessa's post-illegitimate status, conferred by the Strasbourg case the previous decade, posed few problems; friends, neighbours and family all accepted Janice and myself without question as a de facto married couple. At Nessa's request we had earlier gone on a camping tour of Ireland, in the late 1980s, and in this context we had made contact with my father's home ground, meeting up initially with my cousin Alan and the Achesons, in Benburb and Killygarvan (between Dungannon and Cookstown). Alan subsequently went into an old peoples' home near Benburb, and we visited him there occasionally during the 1990s, using the occasion to look up other relatives. Alan died in August 2000, and was cremated in Belfast. We planted a tree fertilised by his ashes at Killygarvan, where he had worked, a year later; there was an extended family gathering on the occasion. We had to postpone it due to the foot and mouth disease. I had previously been able to use the occasion of his death to place something on record about Alan and his family background in the local press(16).

The Irish Green Party: Constitutional Reform

There was a perceptible constitutional problem, and it was increasingly being understood. A constitutional reform procedure was initiated, in which I was able to participate, and a new model emerged, which promised to be the makings of the necessary democratic vehicle for the development of radical conservationist policies, with full participation by a conscious principled membership(17).

The Constitution finally was adopted in 1997, after some tweaking. It has on the whole stood the test of time, though the question of the delegate representative character of National Convention still needs to be resolved. All members currently (2002) can go and have voting rights, and in practice about 25% of members go, which means that the Convention is dominated by the flavour of its location, an unhealthy situation. We will watch this space.

Reforming the Orange Order?

"...I had yesterday an encounter with Stephen King who is a member of the Unionist Party and adviser to John Taylor. He was at the Buswell's event, and yesterday read a paper to a conference in the Glencree Reconciliation Centre, organised by Servas (jointly between Britain and Ireland). Servas is a traveller-host network which is world-wide, with peace objectives, founded by an American ex-soldier after the last war. I listened to Stephen's paper, and formed the impression that there was a willingness there to consider all-Ireland institutions where obviously in the mutual interest, as in agriculture and tourism; also in cross-border regional development, where (as in Donegal and Derry) a natural hinterland has been carved up by Partition....

"...It seems to me that what we need .... is a constitutional settlement within the Union which will give enough autonomy to Northern Ireland to enable it to deal directly with Dublin on matters of common concern, without having to refer everything to London, and with a local/regional structure having the power to set up cross-border regional development agencies, with the right to refer to Brussels without reference to either London of Dublin. This should take care of the agriculture, fisheries, industrial development, tourism etc aspects of government with enough local and regional participation to ensure that no-one felt threatened. If investment pours in it can be a win-win situation; it is essential to get rid of the perception that a gain for Catholics is a loss for Protestants, and vice versa. There seemed to be the makings of an acceptance of this scenario in Stephen's paper.

"If such a constitutional settlement is to be acceptable to the hard-core Republicans, however, it would be necessary to include a proviso that it is politically legitimate and not 'subversive' to work politically within the system to persuade Protestants that it is in their interest to join in with the Republic, making it genuinely pluralist, and that if this were to be decided in a referendum, Britain would not stand in the way of the Irish re-unification process....

What I would like to know from you is: what acts on the part of the Dublin Government would reassure Protestants that in the event of such a process taking place, their faith would not be under threat? Would it, for example, be helpful if Protestants in the Republic were from time to time to parade publicly to celebrate their religion, and this were to be supported by prominent public figures of the Protestant faith (of whom there are many)?

"If such a parade were to take place in the Republic, it could celebrate the positive achievements of the Reformation, and also perhaps welcome the process going on the the Catholic Church whereby in the end some aspects of the Reformation are belatedly happening (Mass in the vernacular etc), in the spirit of lending a friendly helping hand, rather than dismissing the unreformed elements as superstition.

"The Orange Order could perhaps form the focus of such parades if it were to drop its self-definition in terms of opposition to 'Catholic superstition and idolatry', and define itself in terms of religious freedom, civil rights and the rule of law. It could not hope to form the focus of parades in the Republic (outside the few areas where it has persisted) on its current self-definition....

"...The other aspect of the Orange Order that needs somehow to be moderated is the drumming, the objective of which is to strike terror into the hearts of Catholics; in this there is no doubt that it is successful. You have to ask, however, is it necessary, and is it Christian? Could not drumming be made into a competitive event, in a defined location, and the musical aspect played up, and the martial aspect played down?...

"...What is the chance of any of these proposals this getting on the agenda of an Annual Convention?..."

Unfortunately nothing seems to have come of this approach; perhaps it got discussed internally and dismissed; the evidence seems to be that the Order is increasingly being abandoned by the liberal element, and left under the control of the type of ignorant Protestant-hegemonists who appear to be behind the annual Drumcree provocations.

I did however make a further effort to reach out to the Orange Order, via their web-site. I contacted them through this channel, and they put me in touch with Cecil Kilpatrick, who fulfils and educational role within the order. We corresponded for some time, and I went to see him, at his home near Hillsborough. Here are some extracts from my letters to him:

"....The contrivance of Northern Ireland, by shedding the more RC fringe of the more natural geographic unit Ulster, is historically well authenticated. Prior to Partition the industrialisation of the North-East was the key to the modernisation of Ireland as a whole. You only have to look at the railway map as it was then: the linking of Dundalk and Newry, both industrial towns, to Greenore as their export outlet; the linking of Sligo to Belfast via Collooney and Clones (in which enterprise the Gore-Booths of Sligo had a hand); the development of the Foxford woollen-mills (in Mayo) with expertise from Lurgan; the Donegal light railway system feeding Strabane and Derry. Protestant industry in the north-east was the engine for the modernising of the whole country. Harry Ferguson (of tractor fame) built Ireland's first aircraft, and exhibited it at the Sinn Fein Irish Manufactures exhibition in Dublin in 1912 or thereabouts. Home rule was an opportunity, and many Protestants supported it, including my father Joe Johnston. The Larne gun-running wrecked all that, and initiated the cycle of violence that is still with us. There would have been no 1916 if Carson and co had not initiated the arming process..."

"...The model for handling of cultural minorities in border areas is the Danish-German agreement about Schleswig-Holstein. The Anglo-Irish Agreement has some analogous features. It should however be possible for whatever political entity emerges in Northern Ireland for it to have the right to do business with the Republic to the mutual advantage, and to respect equally the cultural rights of Protestants and RCs. It is my conviction that the Republic will in the end emerge as the best guarantor of the Protestant cultural tradition, and this sooner or later this perception will break through into the Northern Protestant consciousness, as the role of the English monarchy declines in the overall context of a disintegrating Britain. Where I fault John Hume is his failure to state the case openly that Protestantism does not need unionism. He defers to what he calls the 'unionist tradition', giving it a perceived priority over Protestantism. He forgets that it was the Protestants of the 1790s who invented the Republic...".

"...I often wonder if Mountbatten, when he organised the pull-out from India, was consciously modelling the procedure on the Irish experience, when he ensured that both sides of a religious divide (which divide the British had actively encouraged) were armed? The writings of Salman Rushdie, who is an Indian Muslim, some of which I have read (eg Midnight's Children), evoke for me a view not dissimilar to that of the Southern Protestants.

"...I am not going to take up the specifics, but simply to suggest that maybe the Irish Studies people in Britain could be persuaded to organise a conference, in some suitably selected location (why not Maynooth?! they feed you well there!), on the 'ethnic cleansing' theme in the Irish context. Or, indeed, Loughgall, or somewhere near it where there is a conference centre. I have recently attended a conference on history of science in Ireland which was split between Armagh and Benburb, with the latter as the residence location. Such a conference could treat the visitors from abroad to field trips. If you are interested in taking this up, I can put you on to the contacts...".

"...I could not agree more that the abolition of Stormont was a disaster. All the ultra-left and the provisionals cheered, but there were some who disagreed, including myself; we said we did not want abolition, we wanted retention, introduce PR, and enact a Bill of Rights. I am glad you see the analogy with 1800, because this is exactly what we said. When I say 'we' I mean those of us who were trying to persuade the republicans to go political, and to support Civil Rights...".

Whither the Left

Notes and References

2. I made a submission along these lines, in some depth, in the context of the 1991 Industrial Policy Review Group which produced the document known as the Culliton Report. In this I focused on the positive effects of the 'social wage' or 'guaranteed minimum income', and the process of getting rid of the 'black economy' by legalising it and making it the norm. This could be done by moving the basis of taxation from labour earnings to productive assets (land, buildings, equipment).

3. I served for a time on the Council of the Electrical, Electronic and Computing Division of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland. The 'computing' aspect at that time was aspirational, but we tried to make it happen, running a few events. It did not in fact emerge successfully until a decade later. During this period however we came up with some concepts which were feasible at the time, but were not implemented due to human and organisational barriers, as had been the earlier experience with Mentec. One such was the IEI expertise register.

4. I have expanded on this in the 1990s socio-technical module, with some subsequent correspondence. Most of what I did during the 1990s in the techno-economic domain was outside the scope of the Society, and related to political lobbying in the 'sustainable development' of Green interest. I took an interest in the problem of the Dublin public transport infrastructure.

5. I used my May 1991 Books Ireland Review of the Academy More People and Places in Irish Science and Technology compendium as a starting-point for the Wrixon proposal, which along with one of the Mary Robinson letters is accessible in the 1990s Science and Society module of the hypertext.

6. The letter in full is given in sequence in the early 90s political module.

7. This letter in full is also given in sequence in the early 90s political module.

8. Echoes of JJ and the North: I had earlier made contact with the Albert Kahn Foundation in Paris, and remained in touch during the decade, sourcing material relating to my father during the war of independence and later during the 1920s, and donating a copy of the 1999 UCD Press edition of JJ's 1913 Civil War in Ulster. During his subsequent period of influence in the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society he had always kept the North on the agenda. John Bradley and Jonathan Wright presented a paper on May 13 1993 on 'Two Regional Economies in Ireland' (JSSISI Vol XXVI Part V p211), which I attended, contributing to the discussion. The opportunity also arose of reviewing the memoirs of James Douglas, with whom my father had worked during the 1917 Convention, and subsequently in the Seanad. It was edited by J Anthony Gaughan and published by UCD Press in 1998. The Irish Association, of which JJ was President from 1946 to 1954, continues in existence, and I again took up membership during the 1990s. I helped them develop a web-site archive. They continue to provide an all-Ireland platform for the now fortunately increasing numbers with an all-Ireland perspective.

9. I have reproduced the Blackwell Companion entries in the 1990s academic module of the hypertext, whence the Physics at the Fringe (Physics World, July 1992, Institute of Physics) and Biotechnology and Sustainability, published in 2001 by Farm and Food (ed Con O'Rourke), can also be accessed, along with other papers which are basically in academic mode.

10. Regrettably I don't have the exact reference to the Joe Nunan book; it was published in Cork in 1992 and was influential in the campaign. I had further critical interaction with Anthony Coughlan about this time, arising from his treatment of the Yugoslav crisis in the Irish Democrat. It would have been helpful to the development of ideas had these arguments been developed in a critical journal, rather than in private correspondence. The opportunity to develop such a critical journal existed, in the form of an annual commemorative Desmond Greaves weekend-school, with which I attempted occasionally to interact; some of the related material has been published by Daltun O Ceallaigh on an occasional basis. I refrain from chasing these hares now, but some of the arguments are on record hotlinked to the post-Maastricht analysis in the early 1990s political module of the hypertext.

11. Most of the work in the socio-technical domain with the software firm Irish Medical Systems is overviewed in Appendix 12. I have outlined some of it in the 1990s hypertext, in particular that related to attempting to understand the 'IT uptake' process as an aspect of innovation, and later the case-based reasoning approach to learning from prior experience. Some of the latter is included in the book by Bergmann et al, Industrial Applications of Case-based Reasoning, published by Springer Verlag in 1999. The 1990s techno-economic and the 1990s science and society activities complete their respective themes as overviewed respectively in Appendix 13 and Appendix 11.

12. I expand on this in the mid-90s political module of the hypertext, with my 12 February 1994 letter to Gerry Adams, and a reference to my April 6 1994 letter to the Irish Times, under the heading 'British Army's Role in the North', in which I drew attention to an item dated March 22nd by Colm Boland, in which Dr Philip Sabin, of King's College, London, is reported as reminding us that Northern Ireland "...provides a 'live training' opportunity for the British Army...".

13. More again in this in the Gralton section of the mid-1990s political module of the hypertext. See also my 'A Green Paradigm for Nationality' published in Caorthann, the Green theoretical journal, Issue 2, November 1994.

14.There is unfinished business here. In a follow-up letter to Declan Bree, the Sligo socialist councillor who had organised the Gralton event, I included my notes on the rail network which I had produced for Douthwaite. In my letter to Bree I also inveighed against the 'region' as defined artificially in terms of the strip of Border counties, counter-posing the need to develop regional structures taking the Regional Colleges as foci and re-developing the cross-border hinterlands. For more on Green regional policy see my letter dated 19/3/94 to Bronwen Maher, in the mid-1990s political module of the hypertext. See also the record of my attempts to develop a Green science policy, which I have included in the 'outreach' theme pioneered by JJ under the Barrington banner, as accessed from Appendix 7.

15. I had encountered Links Europa when with the Labour Party in the context of trying to get a left-Labour network going at a European level. Rosemary Ross their secretary and I kept sporadically in touch. She is contactable at 21 Connaught Rd, Harpenden, Herts AL5 4TW, UK.

16. The obituary appeared in the Dungannon Courier on 20/09/2000, with the title The Johnstons of Tomagh; it is in record in the hypertext in the 1990s family module. As regards the divorce referendum controversies, I have given my side of the correspondence in more detail (some of it was quite acerbic) in the mid-90s political module.

17. I have given an account of the intermediate steps in the development of the Green Party Constitution during the 1990s in the mid-1990s political module. In the further context of Green Party policy development I was motivated to attend the 1996 Amsterdam Conference of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists (INES) on Sustainable Development, and I was able to publicise this subsequently in Ireland, in the October 1996 issue of the Engineers Journal and elsewhere.

18. The 'orange order' letters are reproduced in full in the mid-1990s political module. I later got the chance to review Cecil Kilpatrick's book William of Orange, a Dedicated Life 1650-1702, published by the GOLI Education Committee, 1997, along with another group of books of Northern interest. There are further 'orange order' letters, relating to a projected Dublin event, in the end-1990s political module of the hypertext.

19. Updating the Manifesto: an Irish perspective, Roy Johnston; submitted to the 1998 Paris conference called to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the publication by Marx and Engels of the Communist Manifesto. I did not, for the reasons indicated above, get to deliver it, but it may exist in print somewhere in the voluminous proceedings of that conference. It may eventually even get published, perhaps with enhancement, if ever there gets to be published in Ireland a serious critical political journal, fit to take up the mantle of the Irish Statesman, the Bell, the Crane Bag etc. I look forward perhaps to helping to make this happen.

Some navigational notes:

Copyright Dr Roy Johnston 2002