Forum Betrayal!

imperialist military and economic alliances. The Coalition even proposes to amend the Constitution to allow British citizens resident in the 26 counties to vote in elections for the Dail: needless to say there are no plans to enfranchise the one and a _ half million Irish citizens in the 6 counties. The extradition of Dominic McGlinchey overturned a fundamental democratic principle of the Southern constitution -this emphasises their subservience to imperialist dictats.

The options of ‘Joint Sovereignty’ and ‘Federation’ are within this framework. -They* are not stepping stones to uhity but a transmission belt to overturning the limited gains of the national revolution which established formal independence for the 26 counties. As such they mark a criminal retreat from_the historical goal of national unity and ndependence What is also clear is that this abandonment of Ireland's fight for freedom will not evoke any concesions from the loyalists!There is no reason why the unionists should give up any of their traditional positions or become more willing to allow their relative privileges to be eroded. Instead these proposals will ordinated and the extent to which the neutral South can be integrated into the imperialist military alliance NATO.

Britain’s interests were spelt out by Tory MP Michael Mates in an interview with the Sunday Independent: ‘How could we possibly share sovereignty with a country that is not a member of our defence pact?’ he asked. Mates is the present chairperson of the Westminster Anglo-Irish parliamentary group and was prominent in supporting Prior's Assembly initiative when it was under fire within the Tory party.

In the same interview “Mates made it clear that the British Government didn’t feel under any pressure to seek a compromise with the nationalist majority im Ireland. The British would not curb the loyalist ascendency nor would they make any provision for the national rights of the nationalist people in the 6 counties, instead Mates contemptuously advised the Forum to accept that a ‘United Ireland is not on the cards’ and in that way ‘cut the ground from under the unionists feet’.

The tragedy of the Forum is that so many of its participants were prepared to accept this advice. Yet the lesson-of the last 15 years, never mind going back into history, is that every hesitation, every offer of compromise made by nationalist Ireland to the loyalists has been understood as weakness and encouraged the loyalist politicians and people to dig their heels in and demand total victory for themselves. And why not, when in every case the British Government has been prepared to back the loyalist position with all the force at the command of the British state.

There is nothing in the Forum which changes that reality. Yet again, Irish politicians have been too cowardly to seize the chance of pressing the right of the Irish people to determine their own intervention of the British empire. In _ this failure the Coalition, Fianna Fail and the SDLP have betrayed not just the interests of the minority in the 6 counties but of the Irish people as a whole.

There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the Forum’s report will be rejected not just by the British and the loyalists but also by the nationalist people of the North.They will continue to resist British rule and loyalist supremacy and to endure brutal repression of this resistance, a brutality that is only possible through the cowardice of constitutional nationalism. Precisely because the Forum has failed to unambivalently press the demand for national unity and self-determination, for a United Ireland, it represents not a step on the road to peace, but another guarantee of continuing violence which in time threatens to engulf the whole island.

The politicians will not be able to shrug off their responsibility for this development for they ail know well what “futrre WinOHE ENE Mitre’ ee nie needed Haughey has declared that ‘Northern lreland is a failed entity’ John Hume has explained how the loyalist veto blocks all progress. They know that the key to a solution is British withdrawal. They have refused to take this road and so the job must be done by others.

The European elections in June will to an extent allow the Irish people, North and South, an opportunity to give their verdict on the final report of the Forum. No-one who genuinely seeks a United Ireland’ who wants to set peace and justice established will be wasting their vote on the Forum parties.