FOR were joined by miners and singing socialist songs from across the globe and by Mick Foley's There'll Be Missiles Over The White Cliffs Of Dover and other none-too-respectful versions of old tavourites See you there next year. the Agreement's disappointed. electoral drive against Sinn Fein.
lost, boldly claimed, unionist propagandists ever dared.
or even a message from party Haughey. The ting at those Since, according to Hume, in the Six Counties and Irish unity The British are planning to hold on place. form the next Dublin Government. THE FIRST Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) conference since the signing of the Hillsborough Agreement was as low key as elusive 'achievements'.
Many SDLP members are worried that, one year on, the Agreement has delivered next to nothing of the reforms hinted at by their leadership and Dublin officials last year. And if the SDLP delegates who assembled in • Newcastle were hoping to revive the enthusiasm which carried their party through the January by-elections, they must have been Hume and Mallon in their addresses summed up the thrust of the SDLP leadership at present: to renew their party's flagging support for the Agreement and to call on the help of Dublin to try and maintain their vote increase of last January by an In his speech, Hume blamed all of Ireland's ills on the IRA: all the dead, the wounded, 39,000 jobs Diplock stripsearches. Even the presence of British troops are all "direct consequences of their own campaign', he going further than British or He also attacked Fianna Fail, who this year, for the first time, did not send any prominent observer leader Charles 'begrudgers' said Hume, do nothing but criticise and "talk tough about the need to stand up to the British'. Beyond this obvious reference to Fianna Fail, Hume was also getSDLP members who are getting fidgety about the Agreement's failure to deliver.
Hume's "stages theory' was trotted out again.
the British 'have declared themselves neutral' in the conflict, it is up to nationalists to convince unionists to go into a united Ireland. Hume's three stages — 'equality of treatment, building prosperity, stability and peace Indicrous as the premise on which they are based.
to the Sir Counties; all they are interested in is stabilising the The Agreement was described repeatedly as the only way forward, the only thing nationalists have achieved since 1920. The unionists no longer have a veto, Hume also claimed, amidst perfunctory calls on unionist leaders to 'talk'. Hume called for a 'common approach' from 'all constitutional par ties' to make the Agreement progress, another obvious reference to Fianna Fail, whose critical attitude to the Agreement is particularly worrying for the SDLP given that Fianna Fail will probabl To try and fight off the Sinn Fein challenge, the SDLP concentrates on two tactics: repeated verbal attacks and attempts to don the mantle of champions of the oppressed nationalists. Malion led the way in the latter by focussing on the Stalker affair documents were passed on the Diplock There were calls to dis. band the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDK) to ban Association (UDA) t0 strengthen the Fair Employment Agency, which propsed amalgamate with other bodies and calls to end You would have thought the SDLP had been actively campaigning for all these demands. The SDLP does not campaign, it does not call on people to organise and campaign, it does not even want people to campaion: it merelv hopes Dublin will convince London that such reforms would increase the SDLP vote at the expense of Sinn Fein.
An Phoblacht/Republican