Derry '68: the International Perspective
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44 Derry ’68: The International Perspective. Eamonn McCann This article is an extract from the new Introduction to Eamonn McCann’s classic book War and an Irish Town, due to be republished shortly by Haymarket Books. One of the loudest cheers I The cheer, I think, had as much to man. The vote (the motion was lost) nheard in the Bogside during the do with the liberating daring of the revealed, hardly surprisingly, that civil rights era came in response to language as with the sentiment of the split on the issue replicated the the cry: ‘The whole black nation has the slogan. But the reaction did differences between ‘moderates’ to be put together as a black army, signal the extent to which the young and ‘militants’ on strategy in the and we’re gonna walk on this nation, Bogsiders felt a connection, even North itself. Where we stood on we’re gonna walk on this racist a sense of fellow-feeling with the global matters reflected the stance power structure and we’re gonna Panthers, then under murderous we took locally, and vice versa. say to the whole damn government assault by the Feds and local police The fact that there was an – “Stick ‘em up, motherfucker, we’ve forces across the US. international dimension to the come for what’s ours…”’ I recall, too, an AGM of the Northern North’s civil rights movement has The declaration was the last item in Ireland Civil Rights Association virtually been written out of history. the 10-point programme of the Black (NICRA) in St Mary’s Hall in Belfast In part, this reflects the chronic Panther Party (BPP), enunciated which descended into fractious insularity of Irish historiography. But in rich, booming R&B tones on rowdiness when Michael Farrell that cannot be the whole reason. the soundtrack of a film projected proposed that we send a message The North is scarcely mentioned in against the gable which was later to of solidarity to the BPP. ‘Wrecker’ accounts of 1968 generally. Tariq become Free Derry Wall in the small was the least of the insults hurled Ali, in his regular regurgitations of hours of a riotous night. at the mild-mannered Magherafelt his ’68 experience, makes glancing reference to Belfast and Bernadette provided the template for Irish, North explained from Boston that Devlin, but clearly sees the struggle especially Northern Irish, politics. I had associated the cause of civil 45 in the North as having been a We had a glimpse – no more – of rights with ‘niggers’ and that this distracting sideshow. Commentators possibilities beyond the old limits would prove damaging to solidarity with a more acerbic view of the of thought. My great friend Johnnie activity in the US. What US civil 1968 events likewise consign White, commander of the pre-split rights activists, who had risked their Northern Ireland to the margins of IRA in Derry in the late 60’s and a lives and saw lives lost in voter what matters. socialist fighter all his life, including registration drives in the badlands To insist on the relevance of within republican organisations, of Alabama and thus helped inspire global events, then, is to venture managed a smile through his pain in the movement in the North, would onto ground which has been little the last conversation we ever had: have made of this perspective isn’t disturbed by the stomp of the ‘Back then, McCann, that was the hard to imagine: Up against the wall, standard-issue chroniclers who best.’ And so it was. motherfuckers. assume that Northern Ireland can Northern Ireland in that interlude The argument of the left was that be understood entirely and cannot fitted naturally enough into a thrilling our natural allies in the US ought be understood other than in terms narrative unfolding across the world. surely to be those who, like us, of Orange versus Green. Fifty years If the revolutionary perspective were fighting against oppressive on, this applies particularly to the soon faded in the North, giving power. The contrary argument of players and commentators who way again to the old conflict which Irish-American solidarity groups and marched lock-stepped towards the advocates of communal politics civil rights moderates at home was segregation settlement of April felt comfortable with, well, so did that it made no sense to alienate 1998 - the ‘Belfast’ or ‘Good Friday the conventional pattern of social powerful interests in the US who Agreement’: in the text referred to democracy versus conservatism might be persuaded to back a only as the ‘Multi-Party Agreement’ reassert itself across western campaign for justice in the North - hymning Harry Chapin’s 1972 hit: Europe, Republican and Democratic despite their denial of justice to ‘Flowers are red, young man/Green Parties in the United States the lower orders at home. To raise leaves are green/There’s no need to resumed ritual contestation of issues of injustice in the US would see flowers any other way/Than the the narrow ground between them. be, as one prominent Bogsider at way they have always been seen.’ Stalinism re-emerged in Poland, the time, ‘to split our support’. The Those who support a settlement Hungary, Czechoslovakia, etc. knock-on effect was significantly which allocates every citizen of the Business as usual, up to a point. to strengthen the argument that North to the Orange camp or the The American connection is the one demands which went beyond a Green camp, and which requires that was most vibrant and remains rebalancing of community advantage sectarian politics to continue to most relevant. I recall bringing were to be discouraged; if possible, dominate, will tend naturally to back to New York the golden key rooted out. present all that has gone before in to the city which Bernadette Devlin Orange/Green terms. had received from Mayor John This is not a matter of mere The belief or hope of the left at Lindsay and, on my first night in n historical interest. The same that the time had been that we town, presenting it to Panther consideration has more recently led could paint the future any colour we leader Robert Bay at a ceremony nationalists who are anti-racist and chose, that we weren’t fated merely in Harlem which attracted a little in support of gay rights at home to continue our history but could media coverage. My friend the to march shoulder-to-shoulder with conquer it. We didn’t, of course. novelist Jimmy Breslin told me bigots on Paddy’s Day parades in But it is a matter of record and still immediately afterwards that that the US, some who railed when it needs saying that, in Derry at least, had been ‘stoopid, stoopid, stoopid. suited them against US bombing the activists who triggered the civil You shoulda done that on your last in the Middle East then to sing rights campaign didn’t, in the main, night, not the foist!’ Absolutely right. dumb and stand grinning alongside see themselves as Orange or Green, By next morning, all thirteen of the the boss of the bombers when the but a hue which, we believed, would, speaking engagements arranged for occasion arose. We need the White in time, and maybe not very much me had been cancelled by their Irish- House to press the British to put of it, obliterate the colour-coding American sponsors. One crusader pressure on the unionists to make of religious division which long had for equality and civil rights in the concessions to nationalism, runs IRISH MARXIST REVIEW 46 the same decrepit logic as we’d To this extent, the flip-floppers the US ruling class – and gave encountered in the ‘60s. can be said to have prospered. In a huge boost to the morale of Thus, a few years ago, the late contrast, the socialist adventurism anti-imperialists everywhere. Martin McGuinness could travel with of the late ‘60s is commonly said to Lyndon Johnston, who had been then DUP leader Peter Robinson to have ended in personal and political regarded as a shoo-in for the speak at the Fortune 500 gathering disappointment and eventually to Democratic nomination for the of top US capitalists and hold have been revealed as no more 1968 presidential election, became discussions about peace in the than a flurry of sanguine naivety. suddenly unelectable: in February, North with Paula Dobrianski, George But that’s not the only way to anti-war outsider Gene McCarthy W Bush’s envoy to the Northern understand the period. The ideas swept the New Hampshire primary. peace process and fanatical pro-war of internationalism and revolt from Johnston addressed the nation: ‘I neo-con. Martin was doing no more below which animated young people will not seek, nor shall I accept, the than following through the logic of around the globe 50 years ago are nomination to stand as president of the early civil rights moderates and more relevant in the globalised the United States.’ The Vietnamese the strategy of nationalists for more present than they were in the heady had destroyed the reputation of than a hundred years. days of gas and barricades in the the US military and finished the Similarly, there are those who Bogside. It’s the current sharp career of a man who had so recently style themselves anti-imperialists relevance of the global context seemed to bestride the world. Phil but who won’t say boo to an arms which makes it imperative to see Ochs sang it best: ‘Train them well, company which fuels imperialist war the Northern Ireland events of the the men who will be fighting by your for profit lest they make enemies late ‘60s against the background of side/And never turn your back if of corporate America.