WHEN THE BRITISH establishment wishes to change its system of alliances, it does so only reluctantly and only in the light of clear political evaluation. for change is long overdue, it waits and chooses its moment carefully.
The inability of Ulster loyalists to adapt to the pressure of the civil rights movement forced the British government to send in troops and rule the Six Counties directly When pure repression was a proven failure, manner of 'internal settlements' Labour and Conservative administrations. But having created and armed the Unionist monster, having approved its racist, supremacist ideology and guaranteed it a permanent majority through electoral gerrymander, they could not then wish it away.
As long as middle class catholics could be relied upon to limit the aspirations of Northern nationalists in exchange for minor offices, British could afford to scratch bewilderment and try to maintain an 'acceptable level of violence'. The hunger strike changed all that.
In the North, the SDLP was forced to give ground to radical nationalists and was dangered by electoral challenge from Sinn Fein. In the South, the British embassy burned and hunger strikers topped the poll in a number of areas. Free State premier Charles Haughey and Margaret Thatcher would begin to shape policy.
The British premier the opportunity to claim he was acting fering the British help in maintaining partition by repression The present accord is the result of a protracted bargaining session in which by political pressure the Free State has been torced to drop all pretence of its constitutional claim to sovereignty over the 32 Counties of Ireland. return for a 'consultative role' and the promise of cosmetic reform in the North, Dublin is to allow partition and the tarian Six County state, to be registered in an international agreement. tificate about unity by consent, Margaret That- Unlike cher at least is honest. She is a Unionist and a loyalist to the core but no longer believes that an alliance with the Unionists alone will stem the nationalist tide. The have no executive role.
United Kingdom remains undiminished. Any atike tte Forum Report it seilly beted Report fashion - Out! Out! Out!
The Dublin government can bask for a while in the glow of international acclaim, praise has come from Chancellor Kohl to President Mitterrand. over themselves to congratulate Thatcher. when the initial praise fades the accord will not lead to a solution.
Regardless of the mobilisation of loyalists by Unionist leaders which may or may not cast a shadow over the deal in the eyes of the world, it will not work because Garret FitzGerald and Mrs Thatcher do not represent the majority of Irish people. No bludgeoning of loyalists will break up the reactionary monolith which secures British interests. No amount of US dollars will succeed in creating jobs in an economy wrecked by partition. No wording of legal documents will conceal the fact that at the end of the tarianism of the Northern reformed away.
Northern against British imperialism for 16 years to settle for cosmetic measures which improve Britain's image at the UN. Only a struggle for a united Ireland which breaks the British link can find a democratic solution. Republicans do not pander to reactionary loyalism by claiming to respect its 'Unionist ethos' that the protestants of the North might expect more in the future than the drum-beating terror of 12 July or rallies outside the Belfast City Hall.
The instability of the 26 County state will not be ended the day that the Dublin government gives advice to Westminster on how to run the North.
We have no brief and it would not be welcomed to draw up plans or blue prints for a new Ireland. Our contribution (and it is the biggest we can make) to fight remove the British presence as soon as possible.
Even when the need Westminster. all photo: GM COOKSON were tried by the their heads in even enbegan a discussion which were offering the Free State economic and In legitimacy of the sec pseudo-nationalists who Dublin government is to Sovereignty of the in singularly In Britain Labour, Liberal and SP fall But day the secstate be nationalists have not struggled - instead they hold out a hope unconditionally to military Black self-organisation...
A LOCAL PETITION against the expulsion of two supporters of black sections in the Labour Party has brought wide support from Sparkbrook constituency of Birmingham.
The executive committee of that constituency are trying to get rid of two Councillor Amir Khan and Kevin Scally for 'bringing the party into disrepute'.
Khan is a city coun cillor for the Spark Hill ward and Scally is a former branch secretary and elecagent for the same ward Khan's 'crime' that he set up a black section in this constituency whose MP is Roy Hattersley, deputy leader of Labour Party and a virulent opponent of black sections, especially his personal interests are concerned.
At the inaugural meeting of the Sparkbrook black section, attended by Khan said that black peo.
Amir Khan ple had failed to get a real stake in the decision making processes of the party that this shoulo change.
Within a few days HatA PiECE First I worked for the East I think-perhaps it was the West - Anyway I was recruited while I was still at University - I believe it was Cambridge but it may have been Moscow- I can't be sure - Then 1 joined the foreign Office - FF THE ACTION - or the KGB, as it is more commonly known- and I defected and redefected and was caught and turned around and I betrayed my masters until I had a chance to betray my new masters, then I defected againObviously the concept of loyalty doesn't mean much to you.... What will you do now?,
a whole. THE NUM IS being attacked on all fronts explains general secretary PETER HEATHFIELD. The aim is to pave the way for the privatisation of Britain's coalfields - and at the heart of that is promoting Lynk's breakaway outfit. Defending the unity of the NUM is not only essential to protecting the job of every miner in Britain but to the future of the trade union movement as HES,SIR TE BAGS FULL, SIR THE CLOCKS GO BACK IN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE M VI"
Photo.
MANAGER
1926 of Mineworkers is being attacked on all fronts. coal at around f39 a tonne.
Overall, the theme is with our repeated warnings. Favourable treatment, temporarily, walls be potent pits deemed to potential big profit earners while the rest o he industry is run down ing another government) would then Lant place Or, Lord Stockton would perhaps Past bit of she nations of the nation's family silver would be sold off.
The key element achieving all this is the splitting of the workforce and that, essentially, is the heart of the current strug gle.
is a splits evideny lead is LOU evident across the Channel. In Belgium and France the splitting of the miners pavSocialist Action 29 November 1985 WHAT IS taking place now is virtually unparalleled in labour history. For daring to take a stand against the evil tide of unemployment, the National Union Every effort has been made to get our funds released, yet the courts still turn the knife. At our pay talks the Board will not even tell us the figure they have in mind. The Plan for Coal is ripped up by a new Coal Board document which spells out that two-thirds of pits are at risk if they can't produce Led the way for wholesale decimation of the coal industries of those two countries. The aim is to repeat that exercise here.
At present our biggest enemy in the fight against Spille allon is cle poison that being repeated ad nauseum. Inside this paper (The Miner) we provide the antidote to some of that noison. But that alone is not enough.
We need to start gettin positive messages all uss Crucially the splitters are not in a strong position. Outside Nottinghamshire they have just two per cent of the workers in their ranks. zoually important. as thi Lynk letter (below) demonstrates, they anything our secures m Notts itself, resorting .to the crudest tactics in trving The Miner special issue • This page wie compiled from ihe November issue of Ta Miner, the first in me montns due Io ine a backs forced on ire NUM as a result o sequestration and receivership. Copies it available from: The Editor, The Miner NUM, St James House Vicar Lane, Sheffield.
to stifle debate.
They fear greatly the NUM oxygen of publicity ideas, that precisely that area in which they must be moment the media is manufacture the idea that a bandwagon is in train. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The TUC and Labour have made it absolutely clear that a split, would disaster, ultimately causing massive hardship to all miners. The job in our is to educate every miner to the lessons of history show that progress - OI pay hours allowances etc - is only forged in unity.
We need to seize the in. itiative and go on the of fensive, explaining in the breakaway pockets that splits have never helped working people, but merethe way for those the people who the With clear-sighted vigorou arguments can rebuild the unity which is essential to de. fend every worker.