McGuinness spoke at events in five cities during a December 2–6 whirlwind tour of Australia. The visit flowed from the successful tour of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams in early 1999, when a two-year visa ban on Adams imposed by the Australian government was lifted. The tour was sponsored by three state branches of Australian Aid for Ireland, the Casement Group in Melbourne, and Friends of Sinn Fein.

McGuinness is one of the 18 Sinn Fein members in the recently reestablished Northern Ireland Assembly, and one of the two who hold ministerial posts. He has the education portfolio, while Bairbre de Brún has responsibility for health.

McGuinness noted he came "of my own free will, unlike the Irish transportees of 200 years ago. It shows how far we have come in challenging the historic injustice in our country that I come here as an Irish minister, the first Sinn Fein minister ever to visit Australia."

The Sinn Fein leader spoke to supporters of the Irish freedom struggle in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Canberra.

He also met with state and federal education ministers, state premiers, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, opposition Labor Party foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton, former prime minister Paul Keating, and others.

In a tour highlight, he addressed the National Press Club in Canberra December 4. The speech and questions from the media were broadcast nationally and into Asia by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on December 6, giving millions the opportunity to hear an uncensored presentation of the politics of the Irish freedom struggle.

"The British have not lived up to commitments made on May 5–6, in negotiations between [British prime minister] Tony Blair and Gerry Adams and me," McGuinness noted in Sydney. Key issues, he said, include policing and the demilitarization of the British military presence.

"They are more intent on saving David Trimble than in implementing the terms of the Good Friday agreement. Saving David Trimble is not a price we are prepared to pay," McGuinness said.

Trimble is the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and first minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly. The 1998 Good Friday agreement established the assembly under a limited self-government plan agreed to by London.  
 
Criticizes policing bill
McGuinness particularly criticized the policing bill to "reform" the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). The RUC is hated among nationalists as one of the armed enforcers of British rule. The bill was introduced by Peter Mandelson, the British secretary of state for Northern Ireland, and became law at the end of November. It "emasculated" the more than 170 recommendations by the Patten Commission for changes to policing in the British-controlled six counties of northern Ireland, McGuinness explained.

"We cannot stand up and recommend that nationalists join or support this new police force," he said.

Responding to arguments that British demilitarization isn't possible because of armed actions by forces opposed to the Good Friday agreement on both sides, McGuinness explained, "What's the best way to defend the Good Friday agreement? With thousands of British soldiers or with the power of the people? The power of the people is much stronger than the British army."

The task, he said, is "to face down the rejectionists, be they Unionists or republicans. Blair must make it clear to the rejectionists, especially Ian Paisley, that they're not going to succeed." Paisley is the leader of the rightist pro-British Ulster Democratic Party.

McGuinness applauded the political contributions made by recently imprisoned Irish republicans. Virtually all were released from prison by the end of September. "They play an incredible role," he remarked. "The level of political acumen they have gathered to themselves during their incarceration will further enhance our work and the peace process."

Likewise, he saluted the "people at the coalface for the last 30 years. Sometimes people give us too much credit. The credit for courage goes to ordinary people.

"We're their voices," he added.

McGuinness also took up the pretext used by supporters of continued British rule that "decommissioning" of Irish Republican Army (IRA) weapons is the stumbling block to the implementation of the provisions of the Good Friday agreement. "In 30 years of struggle in the north they couldn't defeat the IRA.

"Events in the next couple of weeks will be crucial," McGuinness explained. "We sometimes dwell too much on the Unionists and David Trimble. Key in all this is the British government. If they don't have the will to face down the rejectionists within Unionism and the British establishment, then [the political process is] in big trouble.

"What are we going to do? Keep our nerve. The tide of history is in our favor."

Doug Cooper is a member of Australian Aid for Ireland and the Maritime Union of Australia.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home