Vice report on Republican Network for Unity in Belfast

[jondwhite]

http://www.vice.com/en_se/read/rnu-marxist-leninist-nationalists

Quote:

Irish republicans flirting with Marxist ideology is nothing new; the argument that the British state has deliberately divided the Irish working class to keep them from uniting and overthrowing their bourgeois oppressors dates back decades. But it seemed slightly peculiar that such a group was emerging in 2013, when socialist national liberation struggles are at such a low ebb. It's been 40 years since disagreements over socialist ideals led to the splintering of the IRA, with the more militant Provisional IRA emerging out of the then-Marxist-leaning Official IRA.

I wondered if the RNU's sudden appearance on Belfast's streets this summer had anything to do with dissatisfaction with Sinn Féin. Is radical, far-left republicanism enjoying a resurgence in Ireland? Sinn Féin's courting of Fianna Fáil – both parties that are ostensibly "republican", but are widely regarded at this point as being more populist than anything else – hasn't gone down well in the south of Ireland, given that Fianna Fáil are the ones that led Ireland's "Celtic Tiger" economy from boom to bust.

I went to Belfast to meet with members of the RNU in a bid to find out if Communism is due a return to my home city.

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