The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.32           September 22, 1997 
 
 
Sinn Fein Leaders Speak In U.S.  
NEW YORK - "Disunity, division, domination, and partition in Ireland has failed. The only solution is to unite the people of Ireland, and end British government rule," said Sinn Fein's chief negotiator Martin McGuinness, speaking to a rally of 2,000 here September 5. Also on the platform were Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, and Sinn Fein member of the Irish parliament Caoimhghin O'Caolain. The three were on a U.S. speaking tour that also took them to Chicago and San Francisco.

The tour came just days before Sinn Fein, the leading political party fighting for a united Ireland and the end of British rule in the north, meets for talks with the British government on September 9. Announced August 29, the talks are the first time that republicans will meet with the British government in formal negotiations since London imposed the division of Ireland in 1921.

The New York rally drew people from a dozen states, including three carloads from Pittsburgh. They included youth who had come to hear Sinn Fein representatives speak for the first time.

"I've read what Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams had to say and now I am here to hear what they say," commented Mark Braddock, 24. Mary Shoemaker, 23, said she agrees with the call for British troops to get out of Ireland and "came here to show my support."

The fight to free political prisoners in Ireland and defend Irish activists who face deportation from the United States was a prominent feature of the meeting. Sandy Boyer spoke on behalf of Róisín McAliskey, who is fighting extradition from Britain to Germany on allegations that she was involved in an IRA bombing there. Boyer announced a September 25 meeting at Hunter College around this fight.

Erin Riley and Pauline Kirby spoke on behalf of the H- Block Four political prisoners, three of whom still face deportation from San Francisco. Interviewed after the event, Rosaleen Doherty, from NORAID's prisoners of war department, said "Political prisoners are an integral part of the peace process. There is still a lot of work to be done."

Registering one victory on this front, the Clinton administration announced September 9 it was suspending deportation proceedings against six Irish activists, five of them in New York and Matt Morrison in St. Louis.

Several Democratic and Republican party politicians spoke on the platform both at the public rally and at a $500- a-plate fund-raising dinner the night before, attended by 500 people.

The Irish leaders encouraged those in the audience to become more involved in the struggle and to reach out to others. "Because we're going into negotiations doesn't mean the struggle is over," said Sinn Fein president Adams. "This struggle wasn't about us going into negotiations. This struggle has always been about justice, about freedom, and an end to foreign involvement and interference in the north of Ireland. And negotiations are a phase of this struggle."

*****

BY JIM ALTENBERG

SAN FRANCISCO - "The British couldn't keep us out of the talks because of the people of the Falls Road, of Coalisland, of Belfast, of Derry, and also because of the power and influence of people in the United States. That's how we got into the talks," said Martin McGuinness. He spoke to over 600 people gathered at the Russian Center here September 6.

"Sinn Fein is a party moving forward," he said, noting that he and Gerry Adams were recently elected to the UK parliament from Belfast and mid-Ulster. Significant electoral victories were scored by the party elsewhere in the north and south of Ireland.

Sinn Fein, McGuinness said, will be entering the upcoming talks with confidence. "Sinn Fein's not afraid of the British government, not afraid of the Unionists. The Unionists are afraid to come to the talks. If they don't come, the nationalists will just have to negotiate with the British government. I hope they will come. I want the Unionists to face the reality that the northern state has been a failure."

Earlier in the day, McGuinness met with Pól Brennan, Terence Kirby, and Kevin Barry Artt, three Irish political prisoners now being held in the Bay Area for deportation back to Northern Ireland. The prisoners had been part of a larger group who escaped from the notorious H-Blocks of Long Kesh prison in 1983. Along with Jimmy Smyth, they became known as the H-Block Four. Smyth was deported in 1996.

The Sinn Fein leader had also held meetings with the party's leadership in Irish prisons. The Long Kesh prisoners' leaders support Sinn Fein's course, McGuinness explained. He expressed his hope that London would recognize that release of political prisoners would be an important means to build public confidence in the negotiations. Meanwhile, he said, "everyone should move to assist the prisoners in their hour of need."

*****
BY MAGGIE PERRIER

CHICAGO - Some 400 people heard Sinn Fein leader Caoimhghin O'Caolain speak here September 6 on the struggle for a united Ireland. O'Caolain was elected to a seat in the Irish parliament June 6.

The Chicago leg of the Friends of Sinn Fein sponsored tour was held at International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Hall. It began with a welcome by Margaret Blackshere, head of the Irish American Labor Coalition and a representative for the Illinois State AFL-CIO.

During his speech O'Caolain said, "Sinn Fein enters the negotiations as an Irish Republican party," and "the route to the negotiations should be through restoring the right of national self-determination to the people of Ireland."

After his presentation, the Sinn Fein representative took questions from the audience. One person asked if the process in South Africa showed the way forward for Northern Ireland. O'Caolain answered that members of the negotiating team had visited South Africa just five weeks earlier as a guest of President Nelson Mandela in order to learn from their experiences. The group included David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.

Another person asked what Sinn Fein is doing about "the total apathy" of people in the Irish Republic toward supporting the fight for an end to British rule in the six counties of Northern Ireland. O'Caolain pointed to censorship laws against Sinn Fein that existed in Ireland from 1922 to 1994. He said that his recent electoral victory shows that "when people hear the truth, many thousands are prepared to embrace the fight."

He pointed out that he had run for office as a Sinn Fein candidate in the past, but it was only after the lifting of Section 31 in 1994, a censorship law that forbade the media from transmitting interviews with Sinn Fein candidates, that he was able to win.

Another participant asked what kind of guarantees the negotiating team could give to those fighting against British rule. O'Caolain said "We must recognize that the British government never has, and never will, give anything willingly" but "will only move through the efforts of the Irish struggle."

He said the negotiations "guarantee nothing" and that "we must all redouble our efforts to vocalize, activize and get out and do the work."  
 
 
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