BY TIM RIGBY AND DEBBIE DELANGE
MANCHESTER, England - Dozens of people turned out to hear
Paul Butler, a Sinn Fein member of Belfast City Council,
speak here January 21. Sinn Fein is the leading party in the
fight for a united Ireland free of British domination.
Butler reaffirmed Sinn Fein's commitment to the April 10, 1998, agreement signed by the British and Irish government as well as the major parties in Northern Ireland. The pro- British Unionist and Conservative parties are trying to frustrate progress in implementing the agreement. They hope to block Sinn Fein from seats it is entitled to on the Executive of the Northern Ireland Assembly and stop any more republican prisoners held by British and Irish authorities from being released. For Sinn Fein, the agreement is a stepping stone towards institutions that operate in the whole of Ireland, Butler continued. Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble, slated to be the first minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly, "has problems with his constituency," the Sinn Fein leader said. "They have to understand the years of Unionist domination are over. The people of Ireland voted overwhelmingly for the agreement, and no party has the right to frustrate the wish of the Irish people."
Butler also spoke of the expansion of Sinn Fein which, he said, is on the road to becoming the major nationalist party in the north, and of the activities of the recently formed Sinn Fein Youth. These include "white line protests" demanding the release of political prisoners, where up to 100 people stand along the line in the middle of the road holding placards. Youth interest, he concluded, is a measure of the success of Sinn Fein's struggle.
Asked what people in Britain could do in solidarity, Butler suggested the most important activity was to put pressure on the government to implement the agreement.
The next day Butler was interviewed on GMR, a local radio station, reflecting a new level of interest in the question of Britain's rule of Northern Ireland. Until a few years ago, the nationalist party was banned from the airwaves by the British government.
An upcoming issue of the Militant will feature firsthand coverage of the January 29-31 events in Derry, Northern Ireland, marking the 27th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," when British troops killed 14 Irish civil rights protesters in 1972.