The leaders of Sinn Fein--the political party in the forefront of the fight for a united and democratic republic of Ireland-- condemned the move, and accused the British government of siding once again with Ulster Unionist Party leader (UUP) David Trimble and other forces that fight for the maintenance of British rule in the north of Ireland. These "unionist" parties have repeatedly called for the expulsion of Sinn Fein from the assembly.

This is the fourth time London has suspended the assembly since it was established in 1998, following an agreement among Sinn Fein, the unionist parties, and the British and Irish governments.

In a joint statement issued the day of the closure, Dublin and London tried to lay the blame for the suspension on Sinn Fein for resisting demands to force the disbandment of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). "The time has come for people to clearly choose one track or the other," the message read.

Allegations of IRA "spying" prompted the October 4 raids. While television camera crews stood at the ready, cops marched into Sinn Fein’s legislative offices in Belfast and seized a number of documents. British authorities later charged four party activists with gathering intelligence from London’s Northern Ireland Office "for possible use by terrorists," reported the Washington Post. Those arrested included Denis Donaldson, Sinn Fein’s chief of administration.

Police claimed that the raids had helped crack a two-year-old spy ring whose members had compiled lists of addresses of prison officers, along with "sensitive political material." Paul Bew, a professor of politics at Queen’s University in Belfast, said that the prison officers’ names could only have been "for targeting."

"I’m trying to draw a line in the sand and warn everybody...that this was not going to be tolerated in the future," declared John Reid, the British secretary of state for Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein Health Minister Bairbre de Brun described the cop raid as "absolutely outrageous.... It is clearly part of a political picture of intervention by the police service of Northern Ireland."

De Brun was one of the 70 people who rallied outside the Andersontown police station in West Belfast the next day to condemn the raids. Sinn Fein organized demonstrations outside six police stations across Northern Ireland.

Assembly member Gerry Kelly noted that Trimble had outlined a "wrecker’s charter" a month earlier. The unionist leader wanted "to collapse the political institutions and point the finger of blame at republicans," he said.

"Dovetailing with this anti-Agreement strategy," said Kelly, "is the campaign being waged by the securocrats"--the republican term for the British police, army, and secret services--which has "sought to demonize republicans" by smearing them as "terrorists."

Writing in the October 9 Guardian, columnist Roy Greenslade pointed out that pro-British forces have been largely responsible for a spate of killings in the last several years. A year ago, a journalist, Marty O’Hagan, was shot dead by loyalist gunmen," he wrote. "In 1999, solicitor Rosemary Nelson was murdered by a car bomb." In these and other cases, he noted, "no one has been arrested."

Earlier this year loyalist paramilitaries gunned down Gerard Lawlor, 19, and Daniel McColgan, a 20-year-old Catholic mailman.

"The police can’t catch murderers--even when they know their identities," commented Greenslade, "but they are terrific at hunting down alleged spies." Meanwhile, "all manner of provocative acts against the nationalist population, particularly in Belfast, have failed to achieve the obvious aim of luring the IRA to retaliate and so breach its [1997] cease-fire."

Differences among the pro-British forces have become sharper. A recent armed feud between two of the main paramilitary forces has led to two deaths. Trimble himself is under pressure from forces within the UUP to outright reject the assembly and the Good Friday Agreement that set it up. Ian Paisley, the rightist leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, walked out of the body immediately following the cop raids.

Speaking at the British Labour Party’s annual conference in early October, Sinn Fein vice president Pat Doherty said that unionist politicians "will not countenance the concept of equality with nationalists because to do so would undermine the raison d’etre of their philosophy...based on exclusion and supremacy." The democratic rights of the majority, he said, "must not be thwarted or denied by those who have set their face firmly against....equality."

The big-business media is also trying to whip up anti-IRA sentiment in its coverage of the trial of three Irish men detained in Colombia charged with holding false documents and training forces that are waging a guerrilla struggle against the government there.

Commenting on the October 4 start of the trial, Caitríona Ruane of the Free the Colombian Three campaign, which calls for the release of the men, noted that "in recent months key elements of the prosecution case have been withdrawn and discredited including controversial forensic reports and paid informers."

Despite these pressures, Sinn Fein continues its fight across Ireland. Last week party president Gerry Adams addressed 1,000 students in Galway where he spoke against the European Union’s Nice Treaty, which in mid-October will be presented for approval by the Irish government in a referendum.

Adams highlighted the development of a European armed force to explain his opposition to the treaty, and called on the Irish government to remain "neutral" in the conflicts between the major European powers.

Paul Davies is a meat packer in London.  
 
 
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