"Bottom line? There is no bottom line!"
John North
"Bottom line? There is no bottom line!" those were the words of one unhappy republican dissident after witnessing the historic attempt of the republican leadership to conciliate the British and unionists with what amounted to final surrender and the subsequent response of their opponents. 4 The latest twist in the tale< of the Good Friday Agreement came on May 6 with a statement from the British and Irish governments. This promised to reinstate the elements of the Good Friday agreement, restore the Stormont executive, implement the Patten report on policing and reduce the military occupation of areas like South Armagh as long as the IRA was perceived not to offer any threat.
In step with the government announcement, and coming immediately afterwards, was an IRA statement indicating that as a confidence building measure the contents of arms dumps would be open to inspection. There really is no doubt that this rr "r t~ the surrender of the ~. No sane guerrilla fighter would consider iting an arms dump that had been inspected in this fashion. Even the movement of the inspectors would be so high profile as to clearly identify the position of the dumps.
The complexity of the arreement is meant to satisfy a militarist rank and file who continue to miss the point that it is the politics of the surrender and humiliation of republicanism that is important to imperialism and not what happens to a few weapons.
Even more significant were the concessions on which the republicans based their surrender. The idea that the Stormont executive represented any sort of stepping stone to a united Ireland is long gone. British demilitarisation is not a concession — they would automatically reduce troop levels in the event of their victory.
The Patten report is so far from reform that the republican leadership had never been able to endorse it. It amounts to a plan of modernisation, a promise to recruit more Catholics and a change of name.
This statement is also significant because it so clearly refutes all the protests of republicans following the collapsing of the executive by the British. The British remain in charge, the agreement is dependant on republican surrender and the unionist veto remains also.
The republicans, having said firmly once again that this was their bottom line, watched slackjawed as the unionists exercised their veto and the bottom line fell through the floor. As SDLP deputy premier Seamus Mallon bitterly commented, for two years the problem had been decommissioning but half an hour after it was solved two new problems arose.
These problems were unionist demands that the RUC retain its name and that the Union Jack remain as a badge of sectarian dominance. The British give way at once, reserving for the British Secretary of State decisions on the RUC name and on the British flag.
Comfort letter
They also issued a "comfort letter" to unionist leader Trimble indicating that they would cancel the deal at any sign of resistance from Republicans.
Behind the IRA statement is the fanciful belief that they’re equal partners with Irish capitalism and that they are both in alliance with the British to bring unionism to heel. This is a total misreading of British strategy and of the interests of Irish capital.
Any objective assessment would make clear that for the British stability in Ireland equals partition and continued sectarian privilege for unionism. Irish capital has very few demands beyond stability and in any case has no intention of coming into conflict with the British.
Now the republican leadership has no choice. The agreement has to work, because it’s only by claiming victory that the extent of their defeat can be disguised. Yet again they have united with nationalists, this time to rescue Trimble and the moderate unionists, with whom they say they can do business, from the far right.
Yet again this bears no correspondence to reality. It was Trimble and the socalled moderates who have led all the assaults on the Good Friday agreement.
Another unstated assumption of republican strategy is that this will all end if the executive is relaunched. Yet the events of the past weeks make it clear that the British will remain in charge. The main objective of British strategy will be to preserve their unionist base around Trimble.
Trimble’s main strategy will be to demonstrate that he can secure the lions’ share of sectarian privilege and preserve partition indefinitely.
Just to underline reality the PUP, the supposed voice of "Protestant socialism" (in reality the voice of the UVF) was discovered to be listed as the owners of offices stocked with an arsenal of weapons.
This did not rate as an issue because the British and their allies are not interested — after all, they armed the UVF in the first place!
Two RUC men were jailed for a sectarian beating that they tried to cover up by framing their victim. The police complaints body decided that no action would be taken against RUC members who threatened human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson shortly before her murder.
The key figure in the whole debacle is the 25% of republican supporters who declared their opposition to the deal in an opinion poll. The task of socialists is to break those workers from Sinn Fein and win them to a socialist opposition.