McLaughlin, national chairperson of Sinn Fein, the all-Ireland party leading the political fight to reunify the partitioned country, visited Australia from February 24 to March 1 to win support for the freedom struggle. The trip followed similar visits in 1999 by once-banned Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and in 2000 by Martin McGuinness.

The Sinn Fein delegation, which visited Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth, as well as Sydney, also included Sinn Fein's coordinator in Australia Dodie McGuinness and press secretary Dominic Doherty. The three were accompanied by John Little, the Perth-based organizer of Friends of Sinn Fein.

"There is an international fraternity of struggle," McLaughlin told the 110 people at the Sydney dinner, which was sponsored by the New South Wales branch of Australian Aid for Ireland (AAI). "We want to associate Sinn Fein with other struggles for liberation," he said, after being welcomed to Sydney by longtime Aboriginal activist Ray Jackson.  
 
'A culture of arrival'
Aborigines and Irish not only had common experiences at the hands of the British colonizers of Australia and Ireland and an intertwined history going back 200 years here, McLaughlin explained. Both peoples "never relinquished their identity, never stopped identifying with other causes, other struggles," he said. "The culture of victimhood, defeat, denial, and struggle is changing. It is now a culture of arrival," he noted, pointing to the growing confidence among millions of Irish people that "we will see a united Ireland in our lifetime."

Acknowledging the presence of two East Timorese community leaders in the audience, McLaughlin noted that "many other liberation struggles draw confidence and inspiration" from the Irish freedom struggle. "None of our struggles will be over till all of our struggles are over," he explained.

McLaughlin went on to describe the current political situation in British-occupied Northern Ireland. The 1994 cease-fire by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was a "decision and an offer made out of strength." Now one of the main pro-British paramilitary organizations, the Ulster Defence Association, has called off its cease-fire, McLaughlin explained. "There have been more than 300 unprovoked attacks [on nationalists and Catholics] in the last 12 months alone," he said, including the "disgraceful blockade of young Catholic schoolchildren" trying to attend Holy Cross Girls Primary School near the north Belfast area of Ardoyne.

These events show the "absolute intention of British military intelligence and those they control" to provoke the IRA into calling off its cease-fire, he said, noting this attempt has so far failed to yield the hoped-for results.

Instead of trying to subvert negotiations, the British government should "prepare for disengagement" from the six counties of Northern Ireland, the Sinn Fein leader said.

Sinn Fein wants "unity in Ireland through consent." Unionists--those in the north who favor the partition of the country and continued political union with the United Kingdom--need to "think about their future," McLaughlin said. "They can be 20 percent of a united Irish political system, or remain less than 2 percent" as they are in the United Kingdom.

McLaughlin returned to the question of the place of Unionists in a future united Ireland in a brief question-and-answer session. "We won't put Unionists in the same dark corner they put nationalists in for 50 years under one-party rule," he explained as part of answering a question on what can be done about the upsurge in paramilitary attacks against nationalists and Catholics by a section of those who support partition.  
 
Demands on London
The upsurge in murderous attacks "won't be resolved in the short term," McLaughlin noted, putting the onus on the failure of successive governments in London to move from a policy of stalling and equivocation. Once that happens "loyalist paramilitaries will lose their reason for being," he said.

McLaughlin also slammed the government of Anthony Blair for failing to implement the recommendations of a report commissioned by London on the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) police force. The RUC is one of the main military props of continued British rule in the northern six counties, with a record of violence, abuse, and torture towards nationalists and Catholics. "The report didn't go anywhere near far enough for us," McLaughlin stated, "but we had an unequivocal promise from Blair that he would implement its recommendations. He hasn't done it."

"We now have a new promise by Blair to amend the regulations" that changed the RUC's name to the Police Service of Northern Ireland. "We will not be fooled," McLaughlin said. "Simply giving the RUC a new name and a new uniform does not constitute a 'new beginning' on policing."

In response to a question on the spate of racist and anti-immigrant thug attacks taking place in Ireland, McLaughlin explained that Sinn Fein is "part of the anti-racism movement" and "speaks out on every platform" against "this latent racism." He noted that while Ireland itself had "until recently been a monoculture,...societies around the world had opened their arms to Irish immigrants.... We owe that debt to the world," he said, and it should be repaid through solidarity with immigrants and refugees.

McLaughlin also took up the case of Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley, and James Monaghan, three Irish republicans imprisoned in August 2001 in Bogota, known as the Colombia 3.

Despite there being "no evidence" the three had been involved in anything illegal, they were "set up by the American government working with a corrupt government" in Colombia. Thanks to the testimony of an informer, they "were charged last week," he said. "There is every possibility of a miscarriage of justice. We need to bend our backs to secure justice for these men."

During the visit, the Sinn Fein leader spoke at public events in Melbourne, met with the state Labor premiers of Victoria and New South Wales, other members of state parliaments, former prime minister Paul Keating, the lord mayor of Brisbane, and Irish-born businesspeople. The visit received national television coverage on at least two channels.

In Perth, McLaughlin spoke to a public political meeting sponsored by the AAI Western Australia branch attended by 65 people. An extended discussion period followed his remarks. "What we do is about political ideas. This was an opportunity for members and the public to engage with republican ideas," AAI (WA) president Simon Adams told the Militant.

"There was an incredible mix of people: from Irish immigrants to longtime republicans, from university students to rank-and-file Maritime Union members and others who sympathize with the struggle or simply wanted to find out more. People came prepared to ask questions and Mitchel gave them answers," Adams said.

The growing confidence evident among nationalists and republicans is due in part to leaders like McLaughlin, Adams noted. "This leadership has been steeled in more than 30 years of struggle," he explained. "Meetings like this inspire and reinspire people."

Doug Cooper is a member of the Maritime Union of Australia.  
 
 
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