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The Warden's Dilemma: Self-Sacrifice and Compromise in Asymmetric Interactions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2013

K. M. Fierke
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Abstract

Many of the violent conflicts of the post-Cold War period have involved peoples who have historically been victims of interstate politics. Compromise is highly problematic in contexts of this kind, given that sovereign powers tend to attach the label ‘terrorism’ to acts of resistance and the resistance tends to claim an experience of injustice. Given a situation where compromise is seen by actors on both sides to be impossible, how would anything other than a ‘rotten compromise’ be possible? The article develops a framework called the Warden's Dilemma which is then put to use in the empirical exploration of two historical cases: the hunger strikes in Northern Ireland in 1980–81 and the martyrdom of Polish Solidarity's priest, Jerzy Popieluszko, a few years later.

Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 47 , Special Issue 3: Politics as Compromise , 2012 , pp. 321 - 341
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2012.

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References

1 Margalit, Avishai, On Compromise and Rotten Compromise, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2010 Google Scholar.

2 Ibid.

3 Or, in the case of suicide terrorism, implies the act of an isolated individual, divorced from any community who dies an illegitimate and self-inflicted death (see Fierke, K. M., ‘Agents of Death: The Structural Logic of Suicide Terrorism and Martyrdom’, International Theory, 1: 1 (2009), pp. 155–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

4 See Jane Mansbridge (ed.), Beyond Self Interest, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1990; Overvold, Marc Carl, ‘Self-Interest and the Concept of Self-Sacrifice’, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 10: 1 (1990), pp. 105–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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6 Erving Goffman, Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates, New York, Penguin, 1961.

7 Margalit, Avishai, The Decent Society, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1998 Google Scholar.

8 O'Malley, Padraig, Biting at the Grave: The Irish Hunger Strikes and the Politics of Despair, Boston, MA, Beacon Press, 1990, pp. 22–3Google Scholar.

9 For a more indepth analysis of the cases, and several others, see K. M. Fierke, Political Self-Sacrifice: Agency, Body and Emotion in International Relations, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

10 See, for example, Mary Holland, ‘Dying Men who Stir the Boiling Pot’, New Statesman, 5 December 1980; Father Piaras O'Duill, ‘Hunger Strike: The Children of ’69’, issued by the National H-Block/Armagh Committee, 12 April 1981; Padraig Malone, Sinn Féin Limerick, ‘Speech Given in Toronto’, 20 March 1981, Box IM10, the Northern Ireland Archives, Linen Hall Library, Belfast (subsequent references to Northern Ireland Archives cite the box number only). In Republican discourse, the administration's emphasis on conformity with the rules was replaced by ‘conformity with the status of criminal’.

11 See Holland, ‘Dying Men’; Desmond McCartan, ‘Human Pleads but Talks Bid Fails’, 5 December 1980, Box ICR; Chris Ryder, ‘Provos Launch Propaganda War: Thatcher is Victor in Maze Confrontation’, 21 December 1980, Box ICR, Linen Hall; Northern Ireland Office (NIO), ‘Threatened Hunger Strike at HM Prison Maze’, 23 October 1980, Box 1CR; Martin Cowley, ‘NI Secretary Unmoved on Prison Issue’, 6 February 1981, Box 1CR; Christopher Thomas, ‘Maze Prisoners Issue Veiled Threat to Resume Hunger Strike after Deadlock over Reforms “Offer” ’, The Times, 3 January 1981. The European Commission of Human Rights also labelled the government's position ‘inflexible’.

12 McCartan, ‘Human Pleads but Talks Bid Fails’; NIO, ‘Threatened Hunger Strike at HM Prison Maze’.

13 Ed Moloney, ‘We Have Worn Down their Will’, McGill, September 1980, p. 27; Hunger Strike, ‘Showdown with Imperialism’, 3 November 1980, Box 1CR.

14 The torture claim was backed up by the European Commission on Human Rights. See also O'Duill, ‘Hunger Strike’; Malone, ‘Speech given in Toronto’. There are also references to ‘evidence of torture’, in Commonwealth of Massachusetts, ‘Resolutions Memorialising the President of the United States to Urge the Government of Great Britain to Recognise Bobby Sands as a Political Prisoner’, adopted by the House of Representatives on 22 April 1981.

15 David Beake, ‘Memo to Chris Ryder’, Sunday Times Newsroom, 3 December 1980, Box 1CR; John Whale, ‘Ethics of a Hunger Strike’, 7 December 1980; Gareth Parry, ‘The Dilemma of Doctor and Priest’, Guardian, 1 May 1981.

16 For reference to civil rights campaigns see Holland, ‘Dying Men’; regarding strength of political convictions and the selflessness and justness of their cause see, H-Block, ‘Blanket Men Start New Hunger Strike: The Only Road Open’, An Phoblacht/Republican News, 28 February 1981; Republican Prisoners, ‘Political Status Now!’, An Phoblacht/Republican News, 7 March 1981; for reference to the 800-year struggle see Malone, ‘Speech given in Toronto’.

17 Sean Delaney, ‘Blanket of Press Silence Shredded’, Ah Phoblacht/Republican News, 18 April 1981.

18 For references to Sands as a ‘martyr’ see Christopher Thomas and John Witherow, ‘Battalion Flown in for Belfast Funeral’, The Times, 7 May 1981, and Danny Morrison (ed.), Hunger Strike: Reflections on the 1981 Hunger Strike, London, Brandon, 2006, p. 17. For references made to the Thatcher administration as ‘criminal’ see ‘Political Status a Licence to Kill’, The Times, 6 May 1981.

19 Rep. Marie Howe, ‘Press Release’, House of Representatives, Massachusetts, 16 April 1981.

20 The position of the IRA had been that they would have no involvement in constitutional politics outside a 32-county sovereign and democratic Ireland.

21 Adam Michnik, Letters From Prison, Berkley, CA, University of California Press, 1985; Kuron, Jacek, ‘The Situation in the Country and the Programme of the Opposition – Some Notes’, Labour Focus on Eastern Europe, 3: 3 (1979), pp. 12–13 Google Scholar.

22 Cezar M. Ornatowski, ‘The Rhetoric of Pope John Paul II's Visits to Poland, 1979–2002’, in Joseph R. Blaney and Joseph P. Zompetti (eds), The Rhetoric of Pope John Paul II, Lexington Studies in Political Communication, Volume 11, New York, Lexington, 2009, pp. 103–50; 110.

23 Zacacki, Kenneth S., ‘Pope John Paul II and the Crusade Against Communism: A Case Study in Secular and Sacred Time’, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 4: 4 (2001), pp. 689–710 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, p. 690.

24 See PUWP Central Committee, Plenary Session, Current Digest of the Soviet Press, 33: 6 (1981), p. 11; and CPSU Letter to Polish Party, ‘Poland Has Reached a “Critical Point” ’, Current Digest of the Soviet Press, 33: 24 (15 July 1981), p. 1 Google Scholar.

25 Jerzy Popieluszko, Ofiara Spelniona. Msze Swiete za Ojczyzne odprawiane w kosciele sw. Stansilawa Kostki w Warszawie w latach 1982–1984 (Sacrifice Completed: The Masses for the Fatherland Celebrated in St Stanislaw Kostka's Church in Warsaw 1982–84), Warsaw, Wydawnictwo Siostr Loretanek, 2004; Jerzy Popieluszko, Wrociem skruszony na lono Kosciola (I Came Back to the Church in Repentance), Warsaw, 15 June 1982, pp. 591, 592, 593–94.

26 Jerzy Popieluszko, The Way of My Cross, trans. Father Michael J. Wrenn, Chicago, Regency Books, 1986.

27 See, for example, Mahkin, V., ‘Pope's “Hard-Line” Stance on Socialism Hit’, Current Digest of the Soviet Press, 34: 51 (1982), p. 13 Google Scholar.

28 According to Litka, documents and statements from the period leave the impression that the kidnapping of Popieluszko came as a shock to those in power (see Piotr Litka, Ksiadz Jerzy Popieluszko. Dni, ktore wstrzasnely Polska (Father Jerzy Popieluszko: The Days that Have Shaken Poland), Cracow, Wydawnictwo sw. Stanislawa, 2009, p. 79).

29 Hella Pick, ‘Pope Urges Forgiveness of Priests' Murderers’, Guardian, 1 November 1984.

30 See also Teofel Bogucki, ‘Msza Sw za Ojczyzne’ (‘Mass of the Fatherland’), 25 November 1984, Charter Institute Archives, Warsaw.

31 Hella Pick, ‘Father of a Furore’, Guardian, 29 November 1984; Hella Pick, ‘The Making of a Martyr’, Newsweek, 12 November 1984.

32 Polish Press Agency, ‘Z konferencji prasowej Jerzego Urbana, 1984’ (‘From J. Urban's Press Conference’), Pol 26 Popieluszko 607/4, Charta Institute Archives, Warsaw; Polish Press Agency, ‘Nie bedzie pobłazania dla anarchii i terroryzmu. Oświadczenia KC PZPR’ (‘Anarchy and Terrorism Will Not be Disregarded: Statements of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party’), 27/28 October 1984, Pol 26 Popieluszko 607/4, Charta Archives.

33 ‘Uczelniane Przedstawicielstwo Studentów – oświadczenie’ (‘Statement of Students at Warsaw University’), ‘Uchwała Uczelnianego Przedstawicielstwa Studentów Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego 31 X’ (‘Statement of the Warsaw University Student Union, 31 October 1984’), AOIV/26.7 1984, Charta Archives.

34 See Litka, Ksiadz Jerzy Popieluszko, p. 145.

35 The fact that the hunger strikers did, in the end, receive a Christian burial and became a central theme in the mythology of Republicanism suggests how this tension was resolved within the Catholic community of Northern Ireland.