Ard Fheis (conference] in Dublin.
discussion.
Michael Pablo, a former ender oine national, stood on the platform ane old ine are enesi *T have followed your struggle for many years. I think the struggle is near to victory. You a very real and complete Victory.
Pablo was giving greetings to the Ard Fheis as a veleran anti-imperialist and on behalf of my wileand mysell His presence in Dublin, well as, more importantly.
read out SWAPO, showed the progress Sinn Fein has made in the last few years in its attempts to links which have been one of the causes of the general lettward shift inits politics.
Nevertheless, the leaders of Sinn Fein are aWdIC predictions of imminent victory need to be treated with caution. As newly elected vice-president Gerry Adams told SOCIAlIST Challenge:
the present situanon is onc of almost stalemate. Since 1975 OVer Clas been intensifying its efforts to so leine kebuolcan movemene from the base of its support.
*The last 18 months nave shown that they have failed, the Republican movement and Sinn Fein have survived and remain ON 21/22 OCTOBER Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Provisional Republican Movement, held its annual GEOFF BELL reports on the two days of debate and which nave denied imperialism its victory.
But as the Sinn Fein leaders mense ves realise. are not enough. As Gerry Adams put it in a speech to the Ard Fheis: *We have the situation where the IRA has proved it can resist the British war machine. We in Sinn Fein need to prove we can provide a political alternative.
"The successful
Station of our socialist policies and the withdrawal of the Brits the will prove have alternative.
It was understandable that na conterence which on lasted two days the exact nature of these socialist policies did not clearly emerge.
Indeed. in a crowded agenda only half an hour was allotted to described Wildl was that community involvement and social issues, and in the debate itself the emphasis emerged was on self-governing communities EVOLVE But there were indications that Sinn Fein is attempting to evove a more celaned overal political programme.
The decision of the Ard Pheis to appoint a spokesperson on trade union allas example, as was one of the KRILISO gunsane implemen- VEER THERE IS PRESS THERE IS RESISTANCE that general amnesty political prisoners.
There was confusion in the Ard neis as to what exactly this which motion meant. Proposing it on behalf of the executive. Daithie Conaill simply argued the need to keep 'an cpen mind and open door"
It was an argument which did impress delegates. With a good deal of reality, Danny Morrison from Republican News pointed out: *If you sit downat a table with Loyalists and start by saying Was strongly LOYCTICH, contentious stated nie be confident of a very real and complete victory.
for all They delegate, emigration, •Loyalism division P W SNIFISHY sion.
But large gaps in what exactly Sinn Fein stands for in certain and economic fields remain to be tilled Mos noticeable was the lack of any resolutions on women's oppres WaS surprising in that the South of experiencing and significant growth of activity on such issues as rape and contraception. The recent 6,000 strone anti-rape demonstration.
in Dublin is the most grapn example.
However, al least a high proportion of those attending the Ard Fheis were women.
But the real test of Sinn Fein i in the coming months is how effectively it can present a fully fledged socialist alternative in the run-up to the Southern local The old suspicion that the party is very much subservient despite the executive's obvious determination to present sint real political alternative.
revolutionaries Ireland today accept that the relationship between the armed struggle, the mass protests, and ine nammerg out or delanca socialist policies is a relationship which is difficult to work out and to get right.
Canno be solved by meaningless cliches or slogans, and at least the latest Ard Fheis of Sinn Fein did not pretend that it could.
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