The Lessons

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE UNTIL AUGUST '69 EVENTS MOVED AT BREAKNECK SPEED. SMALL BEGINNINGS A MASS RESISTANCE TO UNIONISM GREW, DEVELOPED AND GAINED CONFIDENCE.

THEY BROUGHT THE GUN BACK INTO IRISH POLITICS IN AN ATTEMPT TO SMASH THE THEY FAILED, BUT THE ATTEMPT MARKED A DEEP SEA-CHANGE IN THE FORM AND DIRECTION OF THE STRUGGLE AND RAISED QUESTIONS WHICH HAVE DOGGED THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST MOVEMENT UNTIL THE PRESENT DAY.

vINAL THROW BY THE UNIONISTS.

KESISTANCE .

Unionists : It's worth remembering today the leading role that the unionist party played in the pogroms, It was they who ordered the RUC assault on the Bogside and they who mobilised the sectarian thugs of the B Specials. It was local unionists and orange associations who organised and armed the sectarian mobs, It was the RUC, now trying to establish itself in ghettos, which led the mobs with a wall of armoured cars and heavy machine guns, The pogroms were meant to utterly crush the morale of the minority in the North, They failed miserably. The whole minority population rose up to defend themselves, in the South and the direct entry of British troops on to the scene left the Irish question wide open for the first time in 50 years, The pogroms also showed clearly that the North could not be reformed and opened the way to the final fall of Stormont, The British The pogrom weapon was not new to the unionists -it was the fundamental method by which the state had been founded and maintained. And time after time the British had turned a blind eye to their activities.but this time tt didn't work, The confidence and experfence of mass organisation led the Northern minority to react with anger rather than with terror. Ei'ven more importantly a larger and more aggressive working ciase {n the 26 counties in sympathy with the civil rights struggle made it very likely that to continue the pogroms would be to risk the whole existance of the Northern state and destawAS MET AND OVERCOME AND BECAME A VICTORY IN THE STRUGGLE. The ferment in slowly and ‘hesitatingly to state, the majority, welcomed the British troops, They had been largely defenceless in the face of the orange attacks and felt that the British were protecting them, They were exhilerated by the 'no-go' areas and the absence of the RUC, And the support increased when Wilson announced inquiries into discrimination, the abolition of the B Specials and the reform of the RUC, sent in ‘in aid of civil power! - in other words to save Sto-~ rmont from collapse. Even the reforms were designed to incrof Stormont, But this wasn't clear to the mass of Catholic workers and warnings by. PD THE VICOUS POGROMS OF AUGUST '69 MARKED A bilise British control of Ireland as a whole, The British moved ely ignored, halt-the orange mobs and oversee the internal workings of the Many Catholics, probably . din fact the troops had been ease the stability and credibility FROM EVERY CHALLANGE and the Wepublicans were largThis state of affairs couldn't last very long. The British found that any reform was fiercely resented by the loyalists and they were soon locked in conflict with Orange mobs in the streets, A series of skirmishes convinced the British that any majer confrontation ; with their untontst allies would © endanger their main powerbase in Ireland. Generally they began to bow to loyalist pressure, At the same time they ffound that Catholic trust in them had definite limits and would not stretch to the return of the RUC, The result was a an increasing number of punitive raids on the ghettos, A new Tory government added speed to this process and it reached its culmination in July —* 1970 with the 'Battle of the Falls', This massive attack on a ghetto area marked a new stage, The mass movement was now directly in con-