after Enniskillen could say 'his is not a disciplinary problem crime of necupying Ireland I have met more terrorists who ended up ar Buckingham Palace having rew with the which has suddenly appeared. In is an ancient historical when hundreds of Argentinians were killed on the Bel SOCALST OUTLOOK no.5: January/February 198B *fishing expeditions with the gathering of evidence beginning after extradition' political solution centred on withdrawal. age and cultural movements. Among those raider were Matt Larkin (gencral scerctary of the National Associa- tion of Tenants Orgamations): Jne Costelio (Prisoners Rights Organisation): Anne Conway (Pcople's Demo- dent): Jack Bennet (assistant editor of the Etching Press): journalists, broadesters and even members of the Labour Parts The Tris Council for Civil Liberties reported (rary): Gerry Shanahan (Dublin Trades Council presi THAT THI RAIDs weren't simpiy a reaction Ni recent events is shown by a broader pendof devclopments in the on Kinn Fein members and alleged sympathisers, includ- ing feminist and journalist Nell McCattery. And in an south. Attempts are being made to extend the media ban unprecedented, Iegal development, a Cork Sinn Fein member has reccived a live vear sentence for possessing an being inundated with complaints. 26
has been staggering: 50,000 houses have been raided, directly affecting eight per cent of the southern population. Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness — the scale of anti-republican repression
offensive can be in birde doubr. Ir began before Enniskil- there Has been on lundamental challenge to the tinionist with gays, lesbians anil coloured (sic) sections into a oF this Tan the accord is the motor-torce of the current len. What the bomb did was to allow i rue month what might otherwise have taken six Minister of soue, John Stanley, thus described the 26-couney raids as what the Anglo-Trish agreement was designed to produce. The effect of Enniskillen was to show the accord as it always was. but with the velvet glove taken off. A cursory cxamination of is tacievements" demonstrate this — even before Enniskillen. Not single gair of any substance has been made by the nationalist communits: There has beetran escalation nf violence (in terms of deaths and injuries) and journal coull be devoted to a critique of that sentener: A whole issue *the accord is the motor-force of the current offensive sure-tire vote-losing forumla: queen than 1 have had hot dinners? The cstablishment is extremely uncasy at the growing political contidence of Needless to say the attempt to mum back the clock has reaction to a large explosion caused by ander-cover parties, the Democratic Socialist Party, the Workers Party the Irish commandy in this country and the fact that even None of itus was true ten vears ago. To rhe 1970s the British agents or an IRA mistake could be guaranteed in be used in ensure silence, mumbling apologics and effective acquiescence to British policy. What the state frars now is nol just Livingstone and Benn, but the lact that their views have a resonance and ure merely a reflection of a its allies on the Telt. Three supposedly socialise: Irish and the Labour Party all renowned lor their commitment to the border have written to Neil Kinnock Incensed to sec some trade unions are now backing a Britsh withdrawal. developing public political debate.
The aim of the accord was never to challenge loyalism, hardly even to trim its fringes. It was never even based on linkage? — the exchange of reforms in the north for security co-opcration in the south. As the extradition debacle proves, in was about one sule making all the comressons: lying constitutional nationalists to uncon- can News put it, Dublin is now quoted by British cm- dinional backing for paruponion with aue ol rolling back bassies all over the worll as Tondon's ally in any the growing strength of militant nationalist, As Repshi repressive measure it decides to tale. baser on linkage and Northern Trend spokesperson, Kevin MrNamara. policy of scrapping the PTA, strip-scarching and Diplock imperialists arc still being given warm welcomes and The Labour leadership has firmly re-asserted that bipartisanship on Treland is still on the agenda, Kinnock went to Ireland to help ensure the sate passage of the extradition bill. How they can square this with Labour's courts — all of which potential extradites are likely to For Kinnock, it is no problem, he never believed in those face, anor dragued to Belfast or London — is not deai. that despite his attacks on Livingsome. standing ovations by British socialists"
rial". Such a viewpoint dovetails so neatly into the kind of SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 5 January/February 1988 THIS DRIVE Is occuring at a more sophisticated ideolo- gical level than ever before: Openly reactinary aml pro-British polines will hardly succee in undermining land, much of which is also socialist. Thus devolution' ithe stated sintal the accond and the onls political hopc of aged for a left wing audience by trendy journalists who This is referred ip as a third way" between unionism and nacionalsm and a "regionalis perspective"- Relations with the south would be maximised, not just through the assembly, but trade union, cultural and cconomic links. direction that the soft left and new realiens in the British Labour Party are moving on Ireland that it is difficult to The potential dangers for the anti-imperialist move- movement can be driven back, silenced, divided and walking a tightrope by aligning constitutional nationalism so firmly with partition and repression. All the indicators still show the continued porential resurgence of the kind of mass political movement that emerged during the hunger In Britain too, there is no reason for the pro-withdrawal current to respond by retreating; apologising or being overly delensive. Ir is time to step up solidarity and detend the political legitimacy of Trish self determination as the oniy socialist alternative to the repressive agenda of the support for Irish sclf-determination in Britain and fre- dress it up as la radical reconstruction of ile Northern 'Unity? is redefined as being popular and mur territo rent and Sinn Fein are many. History shows thar the isolated. But it's also true thar the accont's supporters are stabilising partition and British rule) is now being repark see the difference. Ireland state" • accord strikes. policies anyway. Asthe Trish Paid put it, it has long been somebody committed to the preservation of the United consent policy espoused by successive Irish governments. to soleline any popular opposition to he Brilish presence sphere of politics — proventing even the most basic even bring themseives In effectively oppose employment -Unity by consent now reveals itsclf'as an ideology that is challenge Labour collaborationism than any of Tabour's paper commitments to civil liberties. Seamus Mallon of the SDLe, in a racist and homophobic Trine article, has clear that Neil Kinnock is a unionist: By thar I mean Kingdom. He conveyed that mos unmubiguously back in All this shows that there is a world of difference berween British withdrawal and the kind of tity by the Labour Party and the SDIP. The latter has been osed Once accepled, that veuris then extended into evey reforms. Thus the trade union bureaucracies of Britain and Treland (with some honourable esceptions) cannot discrimination despite a swelling international campaign. used to underpin attacks on Trish sovereignty, mass raids in the south and the attempted disenfranchisement and criminalisation of a large section of the northern popula- The Campaign group have followed this up by barking Two or three MPs spcaking out has done more to bemoaned this lack of consensus behind the Labour leadership: the Labour Party policy of unity by consent phy — and not as a third-rate issue to be lumped together despite intense pressure — Ken Livingsione and his allies treats the concept of unity as a legitimale, viable philoso- But it has been a tremendous step forward that — have publicly stuck to the principle of British withdrawal. the 1970s when opposing devolution lor hixnative Wales'. and the border by tving it to the umust vero. withdrawal and opposing the accord tion. 28
clashes — the largest in the region since 1975/6 - the Soviet-cquipped, and Cuban backed, Angolan The Namibian:NCCT have taken place in south castern Angola between Pretoria's refusal to decolonise Namibia, a huge between South Africa and Angola. Despite huge Since 1 September, fierce conventional military Atrican army, the SADE: Central to the war is mineral-rich bur sparsely populated colony in Western-equipped, mercenary backed. South independence, writes LESLIE GOULD, the British involvement blocking Namibia's governmen forces, FAPLA. and the Labour leadership has failed to act.