AFTER the events in Portadown, something quite remarkable happened.
Labour's spokesperson on Northern Ireland, Mo Mowlem, criticised the Northern Ireland Secretary, Patrick Mayhew, for contributing to an impasse which led to the subseauent 'rioting' What was unique about this was not what she saidthe media characterised her reproof as being restrained-but that she disagreed with Mayhew at all. As she herself put it after her slight indis"we are not breaking biparticretion. sanship. but will continue to state our views clearly".
Labour's frontbench has "stated its views' so clearly over the last two years that sections of the Irish community in Britain have questioned wetner they should continue to support the party at Former Northern Ireland spokesperson Kevin McNamara, hardly a raving lefty or Sinn Fein sympathiser, has spoken out several times against Labour moving closer and closer to the Unionists. Mowlem's remarks after Drumcree were nowhere near as critical of the government as those of the Irish Taioseach, John Bruton.
Since the 'peace process' began it has been hard to distinguish Labour's policy from that of the Tories'. As the 'New I ahour' manifesto savs. 'Labour will attach as great an importance to the peace process as the Tories have'.
After the Canary Wharf bomb the left pointed out that blame for the breakdown of the ceasefire rested with Major. Rlair and the Shadow Cabinet also shared some of the responsibility cause of their lack of criticism of the Labour's convoluted explanations for its bipartisanship are in themselves extraordi ary. We are told that if any party to the talks thought it was going to get a better deal from Labour it would drag ite teet intil otter the genero election.
The parties that Labour has in mind are the unionists and what it is really saying is that they will get a better deal under Labour! Blair and Mowlem are however not going to say this openly because it would undermine the peace process.
In the final analysis Labour's policy is no different from the Tories. A united Irelana by consent means inat tne unionist majority in the North of Ireland maintain a veto just as they do in the Tories' proposals.
Supposedly committed to unity, in reality Labour is moving further and further towards a position of maintainino the union Even on basic civil rights, where Labour has been critical for many years, Jack Straw this year dropped Labour's opposition to the renewal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act - an act it originally introduced.
There was however considerable opposition within the Labour Party to this latest manifestation of support for 'law and order' and what it involves - repression of the Irish community in Britain.
Socialists should use this discontent to point out the reactionary role Britain plays in Ireland and raise the demands for British withdrawal and self-determination by the people of Ireland as a whole.
Pete Firmin
WO Socialist Outlook 106 • August 1996.