August ’°69

flict with the forces of imperThe | South Since the Lemass period the Southern Govt. had pursued a policy of full-scale collaboration with foreign cap{tal culminating in the Anglo-Irish free trade area, It could not afford to clash with its British overlords by opposition to their policy in the North. Also they were as frightened as the unionists of the civil rights upsurge and wanted it stopped before it spread South, Lynch couldn't afford to admit his dependence on the British, In the absence of real independence he went in for bluster and sham republicanism, His response to the August pogroms was to announee 'that he would not stand idly by' and to send the Irish army to the border, This enraged the unionists without doing anything to defend the minority but ft gave 'Honest Jack' the republican image he needed, Partly as a result of rivalry in the cabinet, partly to keep the Northern struggle off their own backs, the Dublin Govt. provided some money for arms, But when the British blew the whistle Lynch cracked down and sacked his main rivals. By the time of the Falls curfew 1¢ was firmly in control and was able to back British policy, putting the Southern Govt, in he background as the 'second tuarantor', The Resistance Despite the violence of the iogroms the Northern minority iad not been defeated, In fact was the British and unfonists tho were thrown off balance, ‘he fact that Lynch was able , defuse mass support in the South was the first major setack for the movement and the eginning of an isolation that ‘as to prove critical.

Tn nant this was due to different circumstances North | and South, The economic boom that brought crisis to the North had a much less dramatic effect in the South, The national question had receded into the background and in a whole © series of struggles workers had won real gains in their standard of living which made them more willing to accept the status quo,: But NICRA, had never really attempted to link up with these struggles in the South and the mass movement's main weakness lay in its lack of a 32 county perspective, There were other weaknesses as well, NICRA had set out to be a pressure group like the NCCL in Britain, but the pressure of events had forced a rather ramshackle united front structure, For much of its period of leadership it had a good democratic structure, This is very important for the development of a movement, It is by a process of action and debate that the movement advances, The mass of the people gain confidence and begin to establish their independence and throw off the traditional leadership of the bourgesisie ans and the Communist party -had no stomach for forcing the discipline of the mass movement on the nationalists and the’future SDLP. Right-wingers like John Hume were able to set up a completely undemocratic structure - the Derry Citizens Action committee - and claim for it the authority of the Civil irish Troops med to helping tmperialism Unfortunately the Republicpresent day.

Sut of Lebanon!

Fi Despite protests to the Israeli government, the 26 County government shows no desire to withdraw. Accusto«= -attack all the efforts to achieve Rights movement,Also they consistently opposed any broadening of the demands for fear this might frighten away the Nationalists. They tried to freeze the movement into a pattern of reform and the result was that ft eventually split into fragments, Armed Struggle In any struggle where the working class is in the leadership the question of force first poses itself as one of the defence of the movement, The response usually leads to a fair degree of democratic control over the use of force at various points in the struggle.

In NICRA the question was posed the first time that the RUC drew their batons, but it was not seriously discussed for fear that it frighten the beurgeois leadership, The reformists felt that the state would defend them - some argued that to defend yourself was sectarian, No-one was experienced enough to forsee just how savage the state would be when it struck, After August '69 the minority wanted above all to defend it self, Because NICRA had failed to deal with this quest~ion it was ignored and local defence committees were set up. Thus a fundamental di visfon occurred in the strugglea division between political action and the use of force. This division was to bedevil the movement up until the national independence in IréNand, the 26 counties government now collaborates actively jand without hesitation with \Israel in attacking the Palestinfan movement for national jindependence.

Therefore it is the duty of all anti-impertalists to demand the withdrawal of Irish troops from the Lebanon and to support the liberation struggle of the P.L.O.

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