ON JANUARY 30 1972, British paratroops shot dead 13 un armed civilians in Derry: one person died later from his wounds.
The Civil Rights Movement which over the previous 4 years had mobilised thousands against dischiminaton in joos and noosing and which had been inspired by the mass protests against racial disin the United States, was literally shot off the streets. Bloody Sunday showed the deter mination of the British ruling class to defend the Orange State literally to the death.
Already under growing pressure for interning hundreds of national. ists without trial the previous August, the British were forced to abolish the hated Unionist Government at Stormont in March 1972 and begin direct rule from Westminster.
Three lessons The mainly nationalist and Catholic protesters drew three main conclusions from Bloody Sunday massacre. First, the Six County State could not be reformed and therefore had to be destroyed. Second. because the British stood behind the unionists, the real struggle was to drive toe bruso out or de land. Thirdly, a large section of nationalists, particularly the youth, ioined the IRA, believing that only military force could force British In 1997 nationalists and socialists in Ireland are still faced by the same stark choice as in Derry 25 years ago. The unionists made it clear at Drumcree and the Lower Ormeau Road in the summer of 96 that they will not concede an inchthere will be no reforms of the Orange State.
The British ruling class led by hind them, demanding a surrender by the IRA surrender and threatening to unleash a sectarian bloodbath spearheaded by the loyalist death squads.
Those on the left in Britain, including willtant labour and the Alliance for Workers Liberty who, as recently as last summer, were en• gaging the Progressive Unionist Party in fraternal debates, should consiact that the rcactionary all• ance which demands IRA surrender extends from the loyalists, through the Unionist parties, to the British state itself.
Civil war
In the civil war in Ireland which ML and AWL claim to foresce, the lovalists will form the shock troops of British efforts to smash republicanism and socialism in Ireland. And why not. The British have armed and trained them in the RUC and the RIR and have used them in the secret war to kill Republicans from General Frank Kitson's Low Intensity Operations in the midMilitant Labour and the Alliance for workers kaoerty in prac tice accept the British propaganda line on Ireland: essentially seeing the British as a benign force keeping two warring factions apart.
The ending of the IRA cease-fire was to them a provocation and IRA actons over the past twenty five years are seen as being mainly reThey sponsibie for Scctarianism. completely leave out the diligent efforts of the British over the past century and more to whip up sectarianism and the structure of the Orange State itself which was built Mistake No doubt they also believe Bloody Sunday to have been a tragic mistake which simply stirred up naBloody Sunday was not a mistake: it was a clear warning to nationalists that behind the bigots of Terenda in scoTTO the Unionist Party and the Orange Order stood the might of the British State.
The British are not neutral peacekcepers without selfish stratepic or economic interests in Ireland. Anyone who believes that the British spend £3 billion a year to keep the peace in Ireland or to uphold the rights of protestants in the-Six North Eastern Counties betrays a naive and trusting nature not suited While we in Socialin Outlook side with the oppressed against the op. pressor in every case and do not put an equals sign between IRA violence and that of the British or its agents in Ircland, we do not believe that armed struggle will force the British out of Ireland.
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The talks, even supposing the Republicans were allowed in, will not cad to British withdrawal and self determination; in fact, as Militant Labour have themselves pointed out, what is on offer at those talks is a deal which makes fewer concessions to the nationalists that the Sunningdale Agreement of 1974. In other words, it is a worse deal than was on offer more than 20 years ago.
Desperation
The British position since the IRA cease-fire of August 1994 comes not from strength however but from desperation. Major has been pulled and pushed by the conficting forces inside the Tory Party and the ruling class as a whole. There is no doubt that at several INTRODUCTORY subscription to our expanded monthly paper - 12 issues for just €7.50 (Britain and Europe) (normal price £10) Rest of the World: Introductory offer £15.00 (normal price £20) Please send me 12 issues of SOCIALIST OUTLOOK. I enclose a SEND TO: Socialist Outlook, PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU i - involved in 1 This is o Vid: "..o.!. an important section of their own class in the interests of tac class as a whole.
Major is incapable of doing that in Ireland without dividing the Tory Party from top to bottom. He also has the problem of being a minority government heavily dependUnionists votes at Westminster.
Opportunities
As the political crisis of the British State deepens it will present opportunities for socialists to divide and isolate its components, central to which is the Conservative and Unionist Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Socialists in Britain have a duty to confront the activities of their own state in Ireland if only because as Marx said: a nation which opWe must protest against the appalling treatment of Republican prisoners in English jails, the most recent example being that of Roisin McAliskey. The prisoners are eflectively British political hostages.
The message is clear: peace in Ireland and socialism in Britain can only come about through British On the 25th anniversary of Bloody Sunday we must re-dedicate ourselves to that objective.
Converging on Amsterdam June 1997.
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