44 ’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 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 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. When the the war, tumult and repression which the battle turns the tide/For the Raytheon 9, members of Derry Anti- was raging across the world at time. colours of a civil war are louder than War Coalition, myself among them, As Johnnie had recalled in reverie commands/When you’re white boots occupied and ‘decommissioned’ in his last days of life, rampaging marching in a yellow land.’ the arms company’s Derry plant in down Rossville Street behind the On 27 October, three weeks after August 2006 in a (successful) effort same flag as was floating over the Duke Street march, half a dozen to disrupt production of military demonstrations in Chicago, London, of us flew to London, where I spoke equipment being used in Israel’s Paris, Sydney, had been a heady at a huge Hyde Park rally calling for assault on Lebanon, the main experience which all involved US withdrawal from Vietnam, and nationalist parties, the SDLP and had wanted to linger. There had, was greeted by chants of ‘London, Sinn Féin, self-proclaimed opponents perhaps, been an element of willed Paris, Derry, Berlin, We shall fight of the arms trade and Israeli optimism in our high expectations. and we shall win.’ aggression, refused to support the Maybe, occasionally, we were dizzied In August, we’d expressed our action - because of the likelihood by the vastness of what seemed internationalism in more whimsical it would alienate US business possible. But there was, too, reason style, sending a telegram of and political interests which might to believe. solidarity from ‘the people of Derry’ otherwise take a positive approach January 1968 saw uprisings in every to ‘the people of Czechoslovakia’ to Derry’s economic needs and city in Vietnam and the seizure by c/o the General Post Office, Prague. nationalist concerns generally. the Viet Cong of part of the US The Prague Government had Opposition to imperialism and war embassy in Saigon. US soldiers earlier in the year split apart over profiteering, like solidarity with the battled for weeks to retake the how to handle rising demands for victims of racism in the 1960s, ancient capital, Hue. Outside Hue, democracy. In the space created is subjected to the needs of ’our a US general uttered the immortal by the split, students, intellectuals community’ vis-à-vis ‘the other side’. words: ‘We had to destroy the city in and workers all over Prague and in Not that ‘our community’ benefited order to free it.’ other cities had begun meeting to one bit in either instance – although The fact that an army of poor discuss socialist ideas for the first there are, sometimes, of course, peasants could take on and push time in a generation. Meanwhile, political and personal benefits for back the forces of the greatest Polish students, emboldened by those who flip-flop into the arms of power on earth had a shattering events across the border, occupied the US ruling class. effect on the self-confidence of the universities and fought police who arrived to eject them. The In May, Paris erupted. Students built Richard Daly, who had sent in the 47 August invasion of Czechoslovakia barricades in the streets around cops to club the demonstrators into by the Soviet army snuffed out the the Sorbonne and drove the police submission, was a strong supporter spreading flickers of freedom; our from the vicinity. Factories and of civil rights in the North and, later, telegram, if noticed at all, will have offices emptied as workers, against a valued ally of Irish nationalism. seemed comically irrelevant. But it the urging of trade union leaders, In October, student and others conveyed the sense that we had of struck in solidarity, and for their own were massacred in droves by involvement in everything. class demands . The 10 million- paramilitary police when they Both of the monolithic systems, strong stoppage which followed was marched for democracy during the whose domination of the world had the biggest strike ever in Europe. Olympic Games in Mexico City. A for so long seemed set in stone, The notion of the struggle across square near the university was left were at last and at least being the world as historic, seismic, the carpeted with corpses. The death challenged. Any radical worth his defining clash of our time, wasn’t toll was in hundreds. British news or her salt, including in Derry, was entirely fantastical. desks ordered journalists in the city thrilled and energised. The feeling of The following month, students to confine themselves to reporting being part of it fuelled our resolve. in Yugoslavia laid siege to the the Games; the violence didn’t fall Martin Luther King was parliament building in Belgrade within their sports remit. Instead, assassinated in Memphis in April. chanting ‘Down with the Red outrage was focused on Tommy What followed across the US was bourgeoisie’ precipitating the Smith and John Carlos, first and characterised in the media as biggest political crisis so far in the third in 200 metres, when they ‘riots’. A better word would have cobbled-together Titoist country. showed their backing for civil rights been ‘uprising’. Thousands of young It was in August that the Soviet on the podium. Both received their people stormed out from African- Union’s Red bourgeoisie ordered medals shoeless and in black socks American and other neighbourhoods armoured columns across the to symbolise black poverty. Smith to tear down symbols of the system border to crush Czechoslovakian wore a black scarf to represent and engage in hand-to-hand combat democracy and seize the country’s black pride. Carlos had his tracksuit with the uniformed representatives leaders – and that our solidarity was top unzipped to show solidarity of oppressive authority. Many moved conveyed from Post Office Street. ‘with all blue-collar workers in the away from the moderate politics In the same month, thousands US’ and wore beads which, he said, of Dr King and turned towards the of Chicago cops attacked ‘were for all those lynched or killed Panthers and other uncompromising demonstrators against the Vietnam that no-one said a prayer for, that groups. A few weeks later, at a War outside the Democratic Party were hung and tarred, for those sit-down protest on the lower deck convention in Chicago – Norman thrown off the side of boats in the of Craigavon Bridge, Roddy Carlin Mailer’s blood-and-guts accounts middle of passage’. Australian struck up a chorus of the song remains one of the great pieces of silver medallist Peter Norman most associated with King, We Shall American journalism. The anti-war joined the pair in pinning the badge Overcome. By the end of Roddy’s voice of the grassroots majority was of the Olympic Project for Human rendition, the crowd of a couple of drowned out by a roar of pro-war Rights (the group the protesting hundred (it’s a very easy song to patriotism. Convention delegates US Athletes were associated with) learn) was singly lustily along. with an anti-war mandate took the to his lapel once he’d realised the A week after King’s murder, view – the same view as taken by purpose of their action. British there was a spasm of street Barack Obama and then by Hillary sports journalists were able, after demonstrations in West Germany Clinton who opposed the more all, to report on political repression. following an assassination attempt egregious US attacks on democracy Both US athletes were banned from on student leader Rudi Dutschke. and law overseas, then voted the sport. In the back room of the The right-wing Springer media repeatedly for appropriations to fund Bogside Inn, we cheered and raised empire had for months been running theslaughter – that once the die was our fists in salute to the television a hate campaign against him. cast, no attitude was patriotically footage. Prolonged serious violence marked permissible other than to ‘support Each upsurge of struggle sent out a attempts to storm Springer offices in our boys’. flurry of sparks which helped ignite West Berlin and other centres. Irish-American Chicago Mayor struggle elsewhere. Everywhere,

IRISH MARXIST REVIEW 48 some who had become involved of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syhria while the night of Barack Obama’s election in protest politics on account of avoiding contact with the US anti-war - by Emory Douglas, Minister of grievances particular to their own movement represents not a subtle Culture in the Black Panther Party in community or group saw that they strategy – ‘They are not using us, we 1968 and one of the producers of were not alone, either in the nature are using them’ – but a betrayal of the film we had projected onto Free of their oppression or in the fight for the anti-war movement worldwide: Derry Wall: its overthrow. it comes close to going over to the ‘It’s a wonderful night, full of hope, The last-resort analysis of reformed other side. and we have to hold on to the hope, radicals and other respectable sorts The point is made more sharply so we can push for the things he has it that this internationalist spirit, by consideration of campaigns (Obama) promised would come which might have struck even level- against the widening inequalities when he fails to deliver, as he will. headed people as reasonable at between the rich and the rest of Real change, if it comes, will come the time, has been exposed in the us across the world. The crisis of from below, just like here, just like interim as sheer light-mindedness, capitalism which shuddered the anywhere.’ charming in its way, reflecting an era world in 2008 and brought the lines His associate Billy X, historian and of innocence, but of no relevance of class division into sharp relief is archivist of the Panther Party, added: even in rhetorical terms to modern not amenable to solution in any one ‘Wall Street will still be there. The material reality. There are few country – not even the economic Israeli lobby will still be there. The propositions farther than this from superpower, America. The same chiefs of staff and the CIA, the the truth. banks, the same bail-outs, the same industrialists, oil barons, the owners interlinked issues. of the media, all of them still there, Internationalism is more Likewise with the fight against the people with money and their nrelevant today than ever – not racism and homophobia, for mouthpieces who hate and fear the because anti-capitalists wish it so abortion rights, for the defeat of working class all over the world. All but because capitalism itself, the oppressive US surrogate regimes, in Obama has won is the presidency.’ never-ending source of our political solidarity with all those yearning for ‘All the folk who organised for him ills, has never been more integrated freedom from Russia, China, the EU down in the streets have to stay on a global scale. For socialists, the etc., in defence of civil rights, jobs, together, stay strong, if they are basis of internationalism has never wages, working conditions, in every to see this through, because the lain in fellow-feeling with struggles struggle for liberty and justice, we job’s not done, far from done. If he which coincide with or parallel our are weakened when we shape our seriously tried to make the changes own - although that sentiment would strategy to keep powerful interests that are needed, they’d kill him. Kill be a start – but in understanding onside. him without even thinking about it. that, because those who run the This is particularly true in Northern Maybe they will anyway. We have to world in the interests of the rich Ireland, where neither the US nor go forward together. If we are ever to are organised across countries and any major power has a compelling win, we must all rise up together.’ continents, so must opponents of strategic interest and so can feel Billy’s favourite song wasn’t a blues capitalism be organised if we are to free to give or withhold backing from but another by Ochs, about another confront them in appropriate array, this or that faction, without anxiety US invasion we’d marched against in a formation which makes victory about repercussions. in the 60s: ‘The fishermen sweat, possible at least. We must see You put your own struggle above they’re pausing at their nets, the and understand those who struggle all else, seek support from any day’s a-burning/As the warships elsewhere along the same lines as powerful interest willing to back your sway and thunder in the bay, loud ourselves not only as campaigners particular cause, you find yourself the morning/But the boy on the we sympathise with but also, and soon on the wrong side of the shore is throwing pebbles no more, more importantly, as part of the barricade. he runs a-warning/ That the marines same movement pitched against the It’s a point made with sharpness have landed on the shores of Santo same force. and humour at a packed meeting Domingo.’ In this perspective, obviously, marking the 40th anniversary of the If we hold on to the memory, draw the idea of hobnobbing with the civil rights movement in Sandino’s out the lessons, the best is still to main architects of the invasions pub in Derry on November 4th 2008 - come.