BY MARCELLA FITZGERALD AND CELIA PUGH
LONDON - "Thirty years ago the people we represent were nobodies, the Unionists were confident, assertive, and in command. The generation of republicans that we come from have turned this around. Today we are confident, assertive, and in command, and we're not nobodies any more," Martin McGuinness, a leader of the Irish republican party Sinn Fein, told a packed meeting of 700 here.

The January 25 public meeting was called on one week's notice, taking advantage of the fact that Sinn Fein negotiators were in town for a three-day session of the all-party talks on the future of Ireland.

The day before about 2,000 people joined in a march and rally in London called under the banner, "No more Bloody Sundays, Peace through British Withdrawal." The demonstrators demanded an independent, international, public inquiry into the 1972 killing of 14 civil rights campaigners by British paratroopers in Derry, Northern Ireland. Joe McKinney, the brother of one of those killed, was in the leading contingent and spoke at the rally.

Among those on the march were young Irish workers, students, and activists in the campaigns for troops out of Ireland and for the rights of Irish political prisoners. People lined the march route and some waved from their windows. Several people in cars tooted their support, and one man gave flowers to a marcher in the front contingent, where 14 black flags were carried, one for every fighter killed in Derry.

About 20 supporters of the rightist National Front picketed with Union Jacks from a side street, opposing the march.

Over the previous week, four more Catholics were murdered by Unionist (pro-British) death squads in Northern Ireland, bringing the total to eight such killings in the last seven weeks.

Dodie McGuinness of Sinn Fein told the rally that the Loyalist death squads "intend to continue killing Catholics in order to intimidate nationalist people into lowering their expectations... The Unionist leaders in the talks must bear responsibility for the vacuum which their refusal to engage in genuine political dialogue has created." She drew warm applause when she said, "The issue at the heart of the conflict is British presence in Ireland."

Labour Party Member of Parliament John MacDonnell and Edel Kelly, who is married to political prisoner Patrick Kelly, also addressed the rally.

"Consecutive British governments have refused to address this issue of murder," McKinney told the crowd, speaking of the Bloody Sunday killings. "It seems this lack of accountability is enjoyed only by the state and its agents... The present Labour government has told us another anniversary will not pass without government acknowledgment. But we must ask what form will it take?" The relatives of those killed argue that they do not want an apology, but for the truth to be told.

Interviewed on TV the previous week, Col. Derek Wilford, who commanded the paratroopers in Derry, described the actions of his troops as "magnificent" in carrying out their orders and called for the politicians to be asked what those orders were. Edward Heath, who was the British prime minister in 1972, declared in the same program that there was no need for any apology or investigation and that he would have no evidence to give to any new inquiry. Despite press speculation, British prime minister Anthony Blair has made no statement on the mas- sacre as of this writing.

The growing support for a new inquiry was demonstrated by a wreath laying ceremony at Westminster Abbey, which was attended by the Dean of Westminster Canon Michael Middleton, Anthony Benn MP, and a national representative of the Federation of Irish Societies. In addition, interviews with McKinney were broadcast on a number of radio and TV channels throughout the weekend.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams opened the January 25 public meeting with a short talk followed by a two-hour question period with himself and Martin McGuinness. "What we are trying to do is a massive endeavor," Adams declared. "For hundreds of years people of our small island have been denied freedom, justice, and peace. We have had our country divided along political lines, some would say sectarian lines. We have had a British government insisting on sovereignty and jurisdiction - an immoral claim maintained by armed force, prison camps, and the paraphernalia of war. We are trying to reverse that, going with the tide of history to a united, free, and independent Ireland. Throughout the world we have seen that other countries have won their freedom and the British Empire has been reduced to a few pockets. If there is a British Empire anymore then we're it!"

Many questions focused on Sinn Fein involvement in the all- party peace talks and London's proposals to maintain partition. One questioner asked about Blair's assertion that the north of Ireland will remain part of the United Kingdom. The British prime minister "says there will not be a United Ireland in his lifetime. He's wrong," replied Adams. "We want fundamental political and constitutional change. We do not intend to remodel, recobble, or reinstitutionalize partition in Ireland," the Sinn Fein leader continued, saying that negotiations are "one area of struggle for us."

Replying to a criticism that Sinn Fein was putting faith in the British and Irish governments, Adams said, "The people you can have faith in are yourselves, your struggles over 30 years. Don't put faith in anyone else."

"We have tremendous confidence in the nationalist communities who have stood up and fought and continue to fight like in Portadown, where they faced up to the army, the Unionists, and the RUC [Royal Ulster Constabulary police force]," added McGuinness, referring to protests against rightist marches last year.

"We're not fooling the people back home that if you wake up in May there will be a united Ireland," remarked Adams, referring to the British deadline of May 1998 to complete the negotiations. "But this is part of an irreversible process to a united Ireland. There is no way that the Unionists can get up from the negotiating table strengthened."

Adams announced that Sinn Fein will open a diplomatic mission and an office in Britain for the first time. An Irish participant welcomed this, saying that in the past Irish residents in Britain have been afraid to speak up and have been harassed by the British state.

In response to a question about the current terror campaign of random killings McGuinness said, "The people doing the killing are pathetic bigots. There are others who inspired Billy Wright to be a vicious murderer, who inspire the death squads." Wright was the head of Loyalist Volunteer Force death squad, who was killed at the end of 1997. "We should not rule out that the hand behind this is the British establishment. In South Africa every day it's revealed that the military establishment resisted change."

On January 27 the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) withdrew from the talks after admitting that the Ulster Freedom Fighters, which they represent, were responsible for several of the recent murders of Catholics. This followed much hand- wringing by representatives of London and Dublin over whether the group should be expelled. British officials made it clear they would like to readmit the UDP to the talks sooner rather than later.

John Hume of the reformist Social Democratic and Labour Party said the issue was a distraction from the main question, which was getting down to detail on the "heads of agreement" document proposed by the British and Irish governments as the framework for the talks. Sinn Fein has rejected this scheme as a Unionist document.

Sinn Fein did not call for the UDP's expulsion from the talks, but Adams pointed to the hypocrisy of London's position. "If the IRA [Irish Republican Army] had conducted these killings, do you think the government would be in a dilemma over Sinn Fein's involvement in these talks?" he asked.

The fact that Ulster Unionist Party chief David Trimble refuses to engage in a serious process of negotiations is the real source of the crisis in the talks, Adams stated. This stance by the leader of the largest Unionist party "sends a potent signal that at its most extreme end leads to the killing of Catholics," he said.

Sinn Fein officials have publicly called on Trimble to meet with Adams.

Celia Pugh is a member of the Amalgamated Engineering Union.  
 
 
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