“ASRS STOLE Sedat Nec ct aR eg eC Te…”

ASRS STOLE Sedat Nec ct aR eg eC Te ee, Se Te Ne Se oe SSeS Se ec ee ee Condemnations of the Media Violence is the favourite hobby horse of the press, T.V. and radio these days. All the time we hear or see the news headlines :— ‘Violence’. Whenever there is popular action on the streets against some particularly brutal act by the British in the North the story is introduced as:— ‘violence’. And each time there is a death the moderates of the SDLP, the 26 Co. Coalition and the like, are screaming about ‘Violence’. The church too is very fond of using the term, especially Cardinal Conway and Bishops Daly and Philbin. But there is one thing in common about the condemnations all of these people make — they are aimed against the violence which comes from one side — from the anti-Unionist Catholic minority in the North of Ireland.

What has the Catholic working class in that part of Ireland got that it merits so much attention from all the “important” people.in the country? Or what is there about all those who are constantly criticising the anti-Unionists that they feel they must keep up the criticisms?

Pro-Imperialist —v— Anti-Ilmperialist There is one simple answer. The Catholic working class of the North been and are being oppressed by British Imperialism — firstly through the divide-and-rule tactics of Partition and then through the physical repression of the British Army.

They have fought back and as a result undergo the barrage of attack and criticism from the allies of Britain who want the political system in Ireland to remain as it is.

Civil Rights and Non-Violence As far back as 1968 on the very first Civil Rights marches the popular cry was “no violence’. People felt that if they offered no violence to the riot-clad RUC there would be no violence used against them. They felt that they could achieve their demands by virtue of the sheer pressure of people on the streets. How wrong they were, for march after march was beaten off the streets, rerouted or banned. The Civil Rights marchers had come up against something they had not understood — all the violence of the State which they could never hope to take on. They had set out to try to reform but discovered that what they were faced with was not Stormont Government Ministers being forced to listen and negotiate but police and B-Specials in helmets and visors, with CS guns, steel shields, batons and pick-shafts. They had come up against the protectors of the ‘democratic’ state and were going to get no further.

The’protectors of the democracy’ however were not content with standing there and looking tough. They literally batoned a demonstration off the streets in Derry on October 5th 1968, and they did likewise all over the North in the months that followed.

Still the cry from the ‘moderates’ was ‘no violence’. The cry had become considerably weakened by 1969 though and the tolerance of the Six-County State such as it was, had been stretched to its full limit.

No Reform The State had been set up on discrimination and it needed discrimination in order to continue to exist. There could be no granting of reforms, for even if the more liberal Unionists wanted to hand out a few jobs here and there to Catholics, or even to grant the demand of ‘one man one vote’, the system they had operated for fifty years had suited and bought off those whom it favoured so well, that they would stand for no change. Massive progroms were launched against the Catholic ghettoes particularly in Belfast and Derry. Streets of houses were burned out and thousands forced to flee their homes in Belfast, while in Derry the RUC, the police force of the Loyalist State, made a prolonged and vicious assault on the Bogside. Yes, it was a field day for non-violence all over the North — for the Northern Ireland State that was.

of Ireland represent a people who have “Middle class —v— Working class But even then, at that stage in the struggle, the ‘respectable’ catholics were condemning ‘violence’. And why? Simply because the demands for civil rights were not of pressing urgency to the middle class catholics who had their shops, their teaching jobs, their surgeries and what not. They did not have the pressing urgency to demand jobs, votes, or houses and so they were almost the first to condemn those who did so militantly, the working class who had been treated like dirt for fifty years.

Today when we hear those same people condemn the violence of the IRA while keeping their silence on the British Army and sectarian killings, it is worthwhile to look back to the origins of the IRA.

Development of IRA In the aftermath of 1969’s progroms RUC gassing and murders, the Catholic working class of Belfast had a choice facing them. To trust the British Army to protect them or to rely on themselves and prepare to defend their areas again if necessary. They chose to defend themselves, for all this time it was clear that the Stormont State was going to stay, and with it all the apparatus of discrimination and repression of the Catholic community. On top of that, gun licences were freely available to the Protestant community so they were arming legally. In short, the British were prepared to tolerate an armed’Loyal’ working class but not prepared to tolerate an armed ‘disloyal’ or nationalist one. Arms raids were launched on the Catholic ghettoes by the British Army and in the violent reaction that followed developed as the revolutionary violence of the people. have systematically gone from the need for the |RA was shown.

In response to the violence of the Northern Ireland state the IRA Media — voice of the Imperialists The manouverings of the pro-|mperialist politicians and Press North and South have been interesting. They positions of attack on the |RA — when the British propagandists were strong, to almost support when the British had discredited themselves in some way — hence the criticism of the British after Bloody Sunday and the massive propaganda campaign against the |RA when a Catholic Unionist judge was killed. The Media, the church Hierarchy, the Catholic middle-class and the 26 Co. parliamentarians support the imperialists. They openly back them as long as

hey are winning but they carefully all in behind the people when the RA are on the crest of a wave and vait for the next opportunity to attack.

'6-Co. Politicians lake the 26 Co. Coalition Government ind Opposition. The Labour Party tlaim allegiance to James Connolly, fet condemn the IRA violence in the North. But James Connolly’s last act was to throw himself wholeheartedly into the 1916 rising, a violent act of war if ever there was one.

Fianna Fail likewise condemn the violence of the IRA yet each year honour those who fought in the IRA in the war of Independent and in the Civil War.

Similarly Fine Gael operate a constitution which would not be in existence were it not for the violence of the IRA in the twenties. Yes, the whole twenty-six county to the violence of the IRA. forced out. and political control.

for Britain At the moment the North is state is based on violence of the IRA.

But its economy is based on the Capitalist system and so the government supports British imperialism. Consequently they support the violence of Britain in the North and condemn that of the |RA.

All over the world the story is the same. Each time there has been any movement for reform there have always heen the ‘moderates’ to step out and appeal for ‘“‘non-violence’’. But non-violent reform movements have never got anywhere and despite condemnation from the media only the so-called ‘violent’ ones have.

Eritish never admit being forced There are many examples here in Ireland in recent years. In 1968 the Stormont government batoned a civil rights march off the streets. The be gone.

marchers were demanding ‘One Man, One Vote’, ‘Houses for All’, ‘An End to the Special Powers Act’ and an end to discrimination in housing allocation. Three years later many of the demand had theoretically been met and the British government was saying ‘It would have happened anyway’, — we had their record of the previous 50 years on which to judge the honesty of that statement. Similarly the popular demand following the introduction of Internment was to ‘Smash Stormont’.

anyway’ !!

It took a year’s hard fighting and many lives before the British gave in on that one, yet still they would not admit they were bowing to pressure, In short, when a country is dominated physically and economically by an Imperialist power such as Britain, the Imperialist country is not there for nothing. It is there for what it can plunder and in the case of Britain the plunder is the cheap Jabour of the North’s workforce and the financial control over almost 75% of all industry there. Britain will never leave Ireland willingly, she must be For the Middle classes — Catholic and Protestant — in Ireland there is no pressing urgency for British withdrawal — for their interests are best served by British control. For the working class it is a different matter. Under imperialist domination they can only be little better than slaves. They can only be free if their country is free and for Ireland that means liberation from British economic Loyalists — first line of defence occupied by British troops. It also has a garrison of URC and UDR, the local armed forces which are loyal to the link with Britain. On top of that it has the various loyalist military and para-military groups such as the UVF, UDA, Protestant Defence Force, Orange Volunteers etc. All are loyal to the link with Britain and all are opposed to uniting the country and to power-sharing or reforms. All are opposed to the IRA. They are Britain's first line of defence in the North, the force which Britain has created to be the local protectors of her interests.

At the moment the sectarian assassinations demonstrate the action of Britain’s first line of defence. It is reacting against the threat to the existence of the Protestant Ascendancy state where the bulk of the skilled workforce is Protestant and the unskilled and unemployed is Catholic.

That sectarian state has been under threat since the days of the first Civil Rights marches. It is clear now that there can be no justice for Northern anti-Unionists.in any form of 6 Co. State, the Northern State must be abolished and that can only be done by a military struggle against Britain. With Britain defeated a large measure of the security Loyalists derive from the present of British troops would British troops have been in many countries in recent years. In all of them they claimed to be fighting ‘Terrorism’, and in all of them they operated a propaganda war in which they condemned the violence of the native peoples they were Oppressing. Britain’s political allies did likewise. Now a few short years later the media does not reflect on how Britain, once so “‘correct’’, was driven out of Aden, Kenya, Cyprus, the Middle East etc. etc. Of course Britain would say that she ‘was going Political blackmail Finally the question of sectarian assassinations is the thing which these days is getting all the attention of the © ‘violence’ condemners on the Media and in the government propaganda departments. For the way the question is posed by the Loyalists is that unless the IRA call off their campaign then the assassinations will continue. That of course is political blackmail. the IRA violence only started after all peaceful attempts toends _ discrimination against the Catholic minority had proven fruitless. Now we are being told that if the anti-Unionists don’t stop the war, if they don't stop demanding an end to the essence of discrimination — the 6 Co. state — they will be shot and there will be Civil War. There’s a charming choice — it’s ‘croppies lie down’ all over again.

Britain started the conflict The anti-Unionist working class of the North did not start the conflict in the 6 Cos. It was started by Britain. The choice facing the anti-Unionists is to give up now and forget the objects of the last five years or to continue on the struggle and face whatever Britain throws up in our path.

For most there is no question of returning to the stagnant sectarian slave politics of 1968 and before. The struggle for National Liberation is five years on the road and is now meeting the reactionaries head on. There is no question of the revolutionary violence of the anti-Unionist community not being supported — it must be backed fully by the working class all over Ireland and in Britain.