BY PAUL DAVIES
MANCHESTER, England - More than 1,000 British soldiers
have been drafted into Portadown, Northern Ireland, in the
run up to the planned Orange Order march along the Garvaghy
Road in that town July 5. The Orange Order is a rightist
organization that holds sectarian and triumphalist marches
through Catholic communities in Northern Ireland. The
Garvaghy Road. is home to around 6,000 people, almost all of
whom are Catholic. Residents have mobilized annually for the
past few years to try to prevent the march from going
through their community.
The Parades Commission, established last year by the British government, ruled in late June that the Orange Order parade should be rerouted. However the Orange Order has vowed that it will go ahead with the march as it did in 1996 despite a ban by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). The cop force later relented, as tens of thousands of Orange men mobilized to drive their parade through the Catholic area.
After the Parades Commission announcement scores of new Irish Tricolors were hung from lampposts and rooftops along the Garvaghy Road. An elderly man there who was pleased with the decision explained how the residents had originally been "pushed into this area and now the [Orange Order] want to walk all over us."
Fostering anti-Catholic discrimination and caste-like privileges for the Protestant population has been a pillar of British rule in Northern Ireland. The yearly marches by the Orange Order and other pro-British groups - aimed at intimidating the nationalist community and reinforcing this divide - have become a flashpoint in the Irish nationalist struggle.
Residents organize to counter parade
Breandan MacCionnaith, representing the Garvaghy Road
residents' organization, explained, "People here are very
apprehensive .... But they are also resolute in their
determination that there is not going to be a march down
this road." Following the Parades Commission decision to
reroute the march MacCionnaith said, "We are not gloating in
any way, but this is an acid test for [British prime
minister] Tony Blair and the Good Friday Agreement. He must
use all his resources to make sure that this ban is
observed. We will continue with our protest on Saturday
because we do not trust [RUC chief] Ronnie Flanagan not to
push the march through on the day."
At its previous meetings the residents association has discussed mobilizing nationalists from other parts of Northern Ireland, and in recent weeks representatives from the association have traveled across the six counties to win support.
The Orange Order has begun planning scores of illegal marches July 5 in anticipation that their march along the Garvaghy Road would be rerouted. In a green light to the Orange Order, RUC chief Flanagan, speaking on U.S. television the previous week, said that he would overrule any decision by the Parades Commission to reroute the march if the Orange Order organized mass intimidation to press ahead, as they did in 1996. The nationalist newspaper An Phoblacht/Republican News reported that pro-British loyalists are believed to be organizing a rally to block access to Belfast International Airport.
Around 200 nationalist residents of the Springfield Road area of western Belfast were assaulted by the RUC June 27 as the police drove an Orange Order march through the Catholic community. They were protesting as RUC cops equipped in riot gear cleared the roads to enforce the Parades Commission order to allow the march, despite residents' objections. On the eve of every parade that goes through Springfield Road, the RUC swarm into the area and impose a virtual curfew on residents, who are then open to abuse and stoning from loyalists on the parade. A recent survey found that 98 percent of residents opposed the parade, but the Parades Commission described the area as "mixed." The Springfield Residents Action Group has organized a series of protest pickets in the days running up to the Orange Order march.
Sinn Fein gains in N. Ireland vote
The RUC actions on the Springfield Road came hours after
the final count in the first election to the Northern
Ireland Assembly, established by the recent agreement signed
by the British and Irish governments and political parties
in Northern Ireland. The election saw Sinn Fein, the party
that is leading the struggle to end British rule in Ireland,
win its highest share of first preference votes ever. It
will have 18 seats in the new 108-member assembly, making it
the fourth largest party. The reformist Social Democratic
and Labour Party won the highest share of first preference
votes for the first time ever.
Commenting on the results, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said, "The big story is that nationalists are resurgent and that both nationalist parties have increased their vote, as we have in previous elections. I think there's that sense of assertiveness and confidence within nationalists and we're a part of that."
Through the election Sinn Fein had campaigned for the disbanding of the RUC and for demilitarization. They pointed out that the British army still patrols the streets, that military fortifications continue to be built, and that approximately 130,000 licensed weapons remain in the hands of unionists.
However, under the system of election by proportional representation, the largest party in the assembly will be the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), which supports the continued "union" of Northern Ireland with the United Kingdom. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), led by the rightist Ian Paisley, which opposes the agreement that establishes the assembly, won 20 seats. The first results that were announced aroused fears in the big-business press that the DUP would win enough votes to control an effective veto in the assembly.
The election results reveal a further fragmenting of Unionist forces. In some constituencies up to seven different Unionist parties stood candidates. As the results came in, leading figures in the UUP began to turn on one another. The party's deputy leader, Jeffrey Donaldson, who opposes the agreement, launched an attack on the party's campaign manager, while party leader David Trimble was heckled in his own constituency.
Trimble made an unprecedented move following the election, publicly attacking the Conservative Party in Britain for voting against the Labour government's bill in Parliament that codified the release of Irish political prisoners. His attack underlines the extent to which his party has begun to break its traditional relationship with the Conservatives.
The Conservative decision to break the bipartisan consensus on Northern Ireland and vote against the government on the release of political prisoners reflects a growing fracturing in British ruling class forces about how to maintain their rule in Northern Ireland in the face of continuing nationalist resistance. The Conservative decision was denounced by Northern Ireland Secretary Marjorie Mowlam, who said she was disappointed "that the bipartisan approach may be in doubt." Conservative Party leader William Hague and half his shadow cabinet did not turn up in Parliament to participate in the vote on the bill.
`Decomissioning' demand is obstacle
Trimble has claimed that the UUP will not sit in
government with Sinn Fein until the Irish Republican Army
(IRA) hands in its weapons. Echoing this stance, the
Observer newspaper in an editorial demanded that Sinn Fein
leaders be blocked from taking their place in the assembly's
executive until they had said that "the war is over."
At a republican rally at Bodenstown, Sinn Fein president Adams spoke out against attempts to use the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons to block Sin Fein from exercising its rights. "Decommissioning is being used as it was before, as an obstacle," he said. "It is not a desire for security or an abhorrence of violence that motivates those who want to use decommissioning as a precondition, but a desire to bring the momentum towards justice and equality to a shuddering halt."
On the day of the election the British courts sentenced James McArdle, a farm laborer, to 25 years imprisonment for conspiracy following his arrest in connection with the IRA bombing of Canary Wharf, London, in 1996. The only evidence against McArdle was that he had driven a truck that was later used in the bombing.
On the morning of June 29, youths in the nationalist Kilwilkie estate of Lurgan fought with the RUC after being subjected to police harassment, including house-to-house searches in the area. Following a standoff, the RUC cops were forced to withdraw.
Paul Davies is a member of the Amalgamated Electrical and Engineering Union.