Somewhere on the other side of the world the sun goes down on a heroic peasant community with weatherbeaten faces and colourful ponchos. Somewhere on the southside of Dublin a sleeper rolls over, dreaming of the sun setting on the other side ...
Solidarity groups are usually seen as an outlet for people who want to be politically progressive without having to look at what happens at home, and whose motivation comes from sympathy (or worse, pity) than from having something to gain from the change they advocate. For many individuals, this is more or less the case. But for many others it is not the case.
Activists from different solidarity groups are currently involved in many different campaigns and projects in Ireland, some more politically focused than others, some more radical than others. From trade unions and community groups to environmental and civil liberty groups, individuals from solidarity groups are involved in determining the changes in Irish society too.
Is this as far as the link can go? Or can solidarity groups, acting as solidarity groups, make a contribution to Irish society? And do they already?
One example of such groups getting involved in Irish politics is the Table Campaign, a coalition of solidarity groups set up after the IRA ceasefire was ended. Although it failed to hold together all the different shades of opinion, it put Northern Ireland on the agenda of most of the solidarity groups in the 26 counties, probably for the first time in most cases.
The Table Campaign groups claimed the right to speak out on the conflict in the 6 counties because of their experience of conflict, conflict resolution and human rights issues abroad. By doing so, they put the situation in the North into an international context.
This may not have brought peace in our time (but then neither did Bill Clinton), but it is worth looking at in a wider context. Imagine what other issues could be, should be seen in an international context. Trade, obviously enough. Many people in Ireland seem to have very little idea of how this works in an Irish context, let alone internationally. How multinational corporations operate, for example; how they adapt their core tactics to fit different situations. Or the drug trade: how the economic and social situation of the peasants growing the opium resembles AND IS CONNECTED TO that of the people using heroin over here, and who is in the middle creaming off the profits.
A less controversial import is the common banana. Recently Fyffes, the Irish-based multinational, has been criticised by a coalition of NGOs and solidarity groups as resisting banana workers attempts to get a union recognised on the banana farms in Belize (Central America). A just cause, and one with direct links to Ireland, of course. So could these groups also get involved in the struggles for union rights in this country? Why not?
Sure, nobody has time to be involved in everything that's going on. But that's no argument against getting involved in one or two issues here as well as far away. If individual members of a group do already, why not do it as the group, if your solidarity work is relevant?
Because not everyone in the group would agree?
This brings us back to the charge that solidarity groups want just ... just not here. Nelson Mandela (or whoever) can have the freedom of the city but the travellers should get off the bypass? If this is the case, and no way can be found through (not around) it, the charge sticks. But if solidarity groups can get their acts together, whether to issue a statement, offer advice, help make links between struggles here and elsewhere (sharing information and/or multiplying the pressure points on a common enemy), then they could be come more involved in Irish social and political change. This would give them a stronger base from which to support struggles elsewhere. And the two together make for changing the whole damn world. Like the sister said, we don't want a bigger slice of the cake, we want the bakery!
Simon Jones