BY TIM RIGBY AND PETE CLIFFORD
MONAGHAN, Republic of Ireland -"Change there will be. Negotiations there will be. And Sinn Fein will be there," Martin McGuinness told the more than 700 delegates and observers at the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis (conference) held here on April 21. Sinn Fein is the nationalist party that is in the forefront of the struggle to end British rule in the north of Ireland.

Three days prior to the Ard Fheis, two bomb explosions and a series of warnings disrupted road and rail transport in much of northern England. In the days after the Ard Fheis, similar warnings hit London. British prime minister John Major condemned the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which claimed responsibility for the disruption. Labour Party leader Anthony Blair proclaimed the main parties would "not be diverted from their election campaigns," which have all tried to avoid the question of Ireland.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams refused to join this chorus, instead blaming Major for breaking the opportunity of the last few years to "bring this all to an end." Adams was referring to London's refusal to call all-party talks on the future of Ireland involving Sinn Fein.

The Ard Fheis was timed to take advantage of the electoral opportunities that Sinn Fein faces. The UK general election is to be held on May 1. Local council elections are scheduled for May 23 in northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland general election, yet to be called, is expected in June or July. Caoimhghin O'Caolain, a Sinn Fein local councilor in Monaghan, just south of the border with the British-occupied six counties of northern Ireland, is one of two Sinn Fein candidates for the Irish Dail (parliament), with a chance of electoral success.

Sinn Fein candidates stand in elections
In the six counties of northern Ireland, three of Sinn Fein's candidates - Gerry Adams in West Belfast, Martin McGuinness in Mid-Ulster, and Pat Doherty in West Tyrone - have a chance of topping the poll. These elections, Sinn Fein leader McGuinness said, "present us with an opportunity to take our message and analysis of the political situation to the electorate." He stated that "a strong mandate for Sinn Fein will reverberate throughout the corridors of power in Dublin, London, and Washington, as well as in European capitals."

McGuinness announced that if elected, Sinn Fein members of the next UK parliament would "travel regularly to London to increase the pressure on the new British government to engage in genuinely inclusive and substantive negotiations." Sinn Fein is not going to break with its policy of abstaining from taking seats in the Westminster parliament, which it argues has no authority to govern the north of Ireland. The party does plan to open an office in London, itself a new departure. Many Sinn Fein leaders have in the past been banned from the British capital.

These reporters were able to accompany a Sinn Fein campaigning team in the New Lodge area of North Belfast for the afternoon of Saturday, April 19. Accompanying Gerard Kelly, the Sinn Fein candidate for the North Belfast constituency, between 20 and 30 campaigners swept down the streets - leafleting, knocking on doors, arranging callbacks for undecided voters, and joining Kelly on doorstep discussions. Campaign organizer Martina McIllkenny said that day several other teams of a similar size were out around the area. She said they expect to have campaign teams up to 100 people nearing election day.

A key component of the Sinn Fein electoral campaign is the political fight with the reformist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) to become the dominant voice of the nationalist community. In the elections to the Northern Ireland Forum last May, Sinn Fein gained its highest electoral results, winning 16 percent of the total vote and 40 percent of the pro-nationalist vote. Many backed Sinn Fein for the first time, frustrated that despite 18 months of an IRA cease-fire London had continued to exclude Sinn Fein from talks.

While Sinn Fein activists are determined to see a rise in the Sinn Fein vote for Kelly, they predicted the refusal of the SDLP to make an electoral pact with Sinn Fein, allowing the single Unionist (pro-British) candidate to win the seat.

The sharpest divisions, though, are amongst the Unionists. The London-based Economist magazine reports they are "bitterly at odds about whether to negotiate with nationalists of any party." McGuinness explained to the Ard Fheis that the Unionists fear negotiation "because they know to agree to negotiate is to admit the need for change, and to admit the need for change is to end the status quo."

The Unionist crisis is fueled by turbulence inside the Orange Order over this year's marches. The Orange Order is a rightist group that stages provocative marches through Catholic neighborhoods aimed at terrorizing the nationalist population. Last year, after a July 12 assault by these rightists at Drumcree - followed by a police and army attack on nationalist residents - organizations opposed to the marches mushroomed across the six counties and gained the moral high ground in their fight to reroute the parades.

This year, Orange Order leaders have retreated from several marches planned through Catholic areas prior to the election and held talks with residents groups. Although David Trimble, head of the Ulster Unionist Party, and Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party have proclaimed that the Drumcree march will take place this year, both accuse each other of betraying Unionism and have been unable to maintain their electoral bloc for the May 30 local elections. Despite this crisis of Unionism, Sinn Fein president Adams stressed, "Bypassing the Unionists is not an option for us. Our option is dialogue."

The election in the six counties of northern Ireland is being fought out against a background of arson attacks on Catholic schools and churches, retaliatory burning of Orange Order meeting halls, and violence against the homes of Catholic families. Some 48 churches, 71 schools, and 44 meeting halls have been torched in the past 16 months, along with many houses.

Series of attacks on Catholics
The overwhelming majority of these attacks have been directed against Catholics. A system of relative privileges for Protestants and second-class status for Catholics has been a pillar of maintaining British rule in northern Ireland.

Militant reporters visited Limestone Road in North Belfast where on the weekend of April 12-13 - with 17 police and army personnel carriers full of riot squads looking on - a loyalist gang of 200 drove eight Catholic families out of their homes. This attack followed days of feuding on the streets between members of two rightist organizations, the Ulster Defence Association, and the Ulster Volunteer Force, in a fight for local supremacy.

At the Ard Fheis, Martin McGuinness stressed how retaliatory attacks are "the antithesis of republicanism." The next day the Irish Times reported a claim by David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, that the attacks on Protestant churches and businesses were the work of dissidents from his party trying to stir up an anti- Catholic backlash.

Apprehension about the marching season and Drumcree this year runs deep. In the Lower Ormeau Road in Belfast, residents leader Gerard Rice explained that in the nearby Sandy Row, a loyalist area, huge bonfires which are traditionally lit on July 12 to burn effigies of the Pope are already being prepared. The Belfast Telegraph reports that ferry bookings out of northern Ireland are already 40 percent up for the July 12 week, as many plan to take a holiday to avoid the marches.

But the apprehension is more than matched by nationalist determination. Rice reported that nationalist residents groups would soon embark on their first speaking tour of North America.

The loyalist attacks have been mirrored by an increase in British Army assaults on Catholics. Phyllis Doherty, from the predominantly Catholic Ardoyne neighborhood, explained how her area had seen several army raids in the days following the loyalist attacks on Limestone Road. The April 19 Observer newspaper reported the recent shooting in Mid- Ulster of two young men by "army agents dressed in plainclothes and baseball caps."

In south Armagh, five young men were arrested April 10 by heavily armed plain-clothed British soldiers. Three of the detainees were severely beaten. The lawyer for Martin McGinn, one of those arrested, listed the injuries inflicted by the soldiers. "His eyes, his nose, his right ear, which required stitches, his head, which needed staples, his right shoulder, right arm, lower back, and knees were affected." At the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis, a special announcement was made appealing to participants to join with the families of those assaulted to protest this attack.

Tim Rigby is the Communist League candidate for Manchester Central. Pete Clifford is a member of the Rail and Maritime Trade union.  
 
 
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