BY TONY HUNT
LONDON - "British policy toward Ireland at this time is to
uphold the Union. It is to uphold the partition of Ireland,"
said Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams September 29. "But to
uphold the Union means repression, denying civil and human
rights, and defending inequality and injustice." Adams was
speaking in Blackpool, England, at a "fringe" meeting organized
by the Tribune newspaper during the annual conference of the
governing British Labour Party.
Adams, whose party leads the struggle for a united Ireland and an end to the British occupation in the northern six counties of the island, was speaking amid a rear-guard action being mounted by pro-British Unionists to check the continuing progress of that struggle. David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and first minister of the new Northern Ireland Assembly, has tried to impose a precondition that the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which is on cease-fire after waging a military campaign to end British rule, begin surrendering or "decommissioning" weapons before a "shadow" executive of the new assembly is formed. Sinn Fein is entitled to two ministerial positions on this executive.
In June the nationalist party increased its share of the vote in elections for the new assembly established by the April 10 Belfast Agreement that called only for "decommissioning" of weapons within two years.
Addressing a September 14 meeting of the assembly, Trimble said, "There can be neither trust nor equality if one party to the agreement is not prepared to destroy their weapons of war." UUP assembly member Reginald Empey stated September 20 that the surrender of some weapons by the IRA, before the formation of the executive, was the "bottom line" for his party. Neither Trimble or Empey made any mention of the weaponry held by the militarized police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), by occupying British troops, or by pro-British right-wing death squads.
The Unionists have also sought to weaken any dynamic toward a united Ireland contained in provisions in the April 10 agreement for a North-South ministerial council, which would involve the Dublin government and other cross-border bodies.
The Unionist maneuvers were even too much for Seamus Mallon, the deputy first minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly and a leader of the reformist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), the largest nationalist party in Northern Ireland. "I have made it clear to Mr. Trimble and everyone else that there must be a shadow executive, that I will not break the agreement by agreeing to a contrived situation to cover up the fact that the shadow executive has not been formed," Mallon said September 24. Irish Prime Minister Bartholomew Ahern, one of the signatories of the Belfast agreement, stated the next day that decommissioning of weapons was not a precondition to the establishment of the new executive.
London is responsible
"Blair bids to broker deal" was the headline in the
Unionist Belfast Telegraph during the Labour Party conference,
as British prime minister Anthony Blair falsely posed as an
impartial go-between while holding meetings with Adams, Mallon,
and Trimble. In his remarks September 29, however, Adams placed
the responsibility for resolving the developing crisis firmly
on this leader of the imperialist government. "There is no such
thing as a neutral British government," he declared. "It is not
a referee."
Sinn Fein leaders have explained that it is not in their power to hand over IRA weapons. "We don't have weapons. We don't have control of them and we can't deliver them," said Sinn Fein councilor Francie Molloy at a fringe meeting in Blackpool. Molloy explained, "If you look at the history of Ireland there is no history of decommissioning and no history of surrender. Those who talk about token decommissioning are talking about token surrender. That is not in the nature of republicanism...."
Speaking in north Belfast, Gerard Kelly, a Sinn Fein Assembly member, said that nationalists in that area were opposed to the IRA handing in weapons. The residents of north Belfast have sustained around a quarter of all the deaths in the conflict since 1968 at the hands of British forces and "loyalist" death squads, that is those who want to remain "loyal" to the British crown.
In his September 29 speech Adams said that the Unionists' maneuvers were "not about guns or the decommissioning issue" but their "refusal to fully embrace the kind of changes which are required if a genuine peace settlement is to be built."
Divisions in Unionism
Divisions in Unionism also lie behind the recent moves by
Trimble. The Ulster Unionist leader, who supported the April 10
agreement, would have to "face down" members of the UUP who
were opposed to it, Adams told reporters September 29. At the
Tribune rally he explained that Unionist divisions "thus far"
were "tactical" between "those who won't countenance a new
dispensation based on equality and those who are prepared to do
a deal, but only on their terms.... For many Unionists their
sense of being more equal than the rest of us is what makes
them who they are."
These cracks have continued to widen. In a speech to the Ulster Young Unionist Council's conference October 3, UUP honorary secretary David Brewster attacked the Trimble leadership for accepting the April 10 agreement and said the "the early stages of the disintegration" of the UUP had begun.
The divisions have also been evident over right-wing loyalist mobilizations in Portadown, which continued after the Orange Order was humiliated in early July, when its annual march from the Drumcree church was banned. The yearly round of pro-British marches is aimed at terrorizing and intimidating majority Catholic communities in Northern Ireland and reinforcing the Protestant privileges that are a pillar of British rule. On September 23 Trimble, who is the local member of the Westminster Parliament and a member of the Orange Order, had to be escorted to his car by the RUC when he was confronted by 200 rightists outside a meeting. Marches aimed at intimidating local nationalists have been taking place almost every night. Catholic-owned businesses have been firebombed. But the rightists' support continues to drain away. Some 2,000 people marched in Portadown September 27, for example, not the 10,000 that organizers predicted. The march was followed by skirmishes with the RUC. Protestant Church leaders and local business people with shops in Portadown town center, who are losing money, demand an end to these mobilizations.
Meanwhile, the 67th political prisoner was released October 2 under the terms of the Belfast Agreement. Two hundred prisoners are expected to be freed by year's end. Also, British Army patrols in Belfast ended September 12, and 1,000 British troops were withdrawn two weeks later. Some 16,000 occupying troops remained deployed, however, as well as 13,000 armed members of the RUC. On September 29 RUC chief constable Ronald Flanagan announced the scrapping of a number of military installations in Belfast and along the border.