People's Democracy Daonlathas an Phobail | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1968 |
| Dissolved | 1996 |
| Ideology | Socialism Trotskyism Irish nationalism Irish republicanism Factions: Anarchism (1968–1974)[1] |
| International affiliation | Fourth International (post-reunification) |
| Colours | Green and red |
People's Democracy (PD;Irish:Daonlathas an Phobail)[2] was a political organisation that arose from theNorthern Ireland civil rights movement. It held that civil rights could be achieved only by the establishment of asocialist republic for all ofIreland. It demanded more radical reforms of thegovernment of Northern Ireland than theNorthern Ireland Civil Rights Association.
It was founded on 9 October 1968 at a meeting held in theQueen's University Belfast debating hall. A catalyst for its foundation had been the attack on aNorthern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) march inDerry on 5 October by theRoyal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).[3]
The group consisted mainly of students who were involved with the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association or left wing groups such as the Labour Clubs and Young Socialist Alliance.
At the meeting the group decided on five aims:
It was initially led by a committee of ten members which consisted of Queen's University students Malcolm Miles, Fergus Woods, Anne McBurnley, Ian Godall,Bernadette Devlin, Joe Martin, Eddie McCamely, Michael O'Kane and Patricia Drinan, as well asKevin Boyle, a law lecturer at QUB. Other prominent members includedEilis McDermott,Cyril Toman,Eamon McCann andMichael Farrell.[4]
The name of the group was selected by accident, according to Bernadette Devlin.
The next evening our leaflet and poster were approved by a mass meeting of the students, and taken off to be printed. John D. Murphy, our printer, got the material late at night and only then noticed that our organisation had no name. To comply with the law, he had to put up the name of the organisation responsible at the bottom of the leaflet, and, the story goes, he read through it, decided it was all about people's rights and christened us People's Democracy.[5]
After marches in Belfast, in imitation ofMartin Luther King Jr.'s March 1965Selma to Montgomery marches, about 40 People's Democracy members held a four-day march betweenBelfast and Derry starting on 1 January 1969. The march was repeatedly attacked byloyalists along its route, including an incident atBurntollet bridge on 4 January where the marchers were attacked by about 200unionists, including off-dutyspecial constables, armed with iron bars, bottles and stones, while the RUC stood by and watched.[6]
PD became increasingly radicalised as a result of these events. They also attacked thecensorship laws in the Republic — earning a rebuke fromRuairi Quinn and Basil Miller, then leaders of Students for Democratic Action, a revolutionary socialist student organisation, for lettingBritish imperialism off the hook. In later years, members of the PD either quit politics altogether or became independent left-wing activists (such as Devlin and Farrell).
In 1971, PD became a founder of theSocialist Labour Alliance.
In the mid-1970s, the experience of the Ulster Workers' Council strike led to PD predicting a loyalist takeover in Northern Ireland, but it later came round to the view that this perspective was incorrect, giving loyalism a degree of autonomy from imperialism which it did not possess.[7] The minority which clung to the old perspective left to form the Left Revolutionary Group, becoming theRed Republican Party in 1976, which was moribund by 1978.[8]
During the 1970s, PD evolved towardsTrotskyist positions and, by merging with theDublin-basedMovement for a Socialist Republic, was recognised by thereunified Fourth International as its Irish section.
PD was especially active around the issues ofinternment and prisoners' rights. Following the formation of the National H-Block/Armagh Committee in 1979 to build support for the Republican prisoners then on the "blanket protest" in support of political status and the subsequent death ofBobby Sands and nine of his comrades during theH-Block hunger strikes, a number of members of the organisation, led by Vincent Doherty - then a member of the Political Committee and a former party general election candidate - argued that PD should join Sinn Féin, which had moved openly to the left in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In1981, two members of People's Democracy were elected toBelfast City Council. John McAnulty and Fergus O'Hare were elected in a joint campaign with theIRSP.Fergus O'Hare won the council seat ofGerry Fitt, a sitting Westminster MP. O'Hare had been a founding member of the National H-Block/Armagh Committee and had previously been chairperson of the Political Hostages Release Committee which spearheaded the campaign against internment in the early 1970s. He subsequently went on to found the first Irish-language secondary school in Northern IrelandMeánscoil Feirste.
When Sinn Féin ended its boycott of elections and gained mass support among the republican community, PD entered a political crisis. From 1982 on, a number of activists left them and joined Sinn Féin. At a PD national conference in 1986, a group includingAnne Speed proposed the dissolution of the group and that the members all join SF as individuals. This position was defeated by 19 votes to five. A few weeks later the minority of five resigned from PD followed by their supporters and joinedSinn Féin. The remaining members who continued to oppose this view maintained PD as a small propaganda group.
| Election | First Preference Vote | % | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | 23,645 | 4.2% | 0 / 52 |
| 1982 | 442 | 0.07% | 0 / 78 |
| Election | First Preference Vote | % | ± | Seats | ± |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | 4,734 | 0.71% | N/A | 2 / 526 | N/A |
| 1985 | 131 | 0.02% |  0.69 | 0 / 565 | 2 |
| Election | First Preference Vote | % | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 370[a] | 0.02% | 0 / 166 |
| Election | First Preference Vote | % | ± | Seats | ± |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | 589 | 0.04% | New | 1 / 883 | New |
| 1991 | 905 | 0.06% |  0.02 | 1 / 883 |  |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
