07.03.1996

Devastating hypocrisy

The IRA demonised

Far from killing off the Irish ‘peace’ process, as some bourgeois commentators stupidly declared, the ending of the IRA ceasefire has given it a new lease of life.

Most pundits have now come round to that view. For example, The Independent on Sunday writes: “Not since Hiroshima has a single bomb achieved the dramatic political effect of the IRA’s strike against the London Docklands” (editorial March 3).

All parties want to reach a negotiated settlement and believe that to be a realistic possibility. This is in line with the negative resolution of revolutionary situations in similar ‘hot spots’ throughout the world. But during the 18 months of the ceasefire the need of all the major players to keep on board their own supporters means that negotiations have been long and drawn out.

The theatrics will continue of course. They are evident at the beginning of the current Belfast ‘proximity’ talks, where most unionists have stayed away in protest at the Irish government presence. Sinn Fein has been excluded on the grounds that the IRA has not yet resumed its ceasefire. However, less public preliminary negotiations can be expected to gather pace, as the unionists meet ministers in London and Sinn Fein meets ‘senior government officials’.

The parties’ posturing over whether there should be elections and what form the voting will take before the June all-party talks has an air of unreality: a mechanism which allows all paramilitary groupings to be represented will have to be devised in any case.

The timing of the official resumption of the ceasefire appears to be a tactical question for the IRA, but the British have made it clear they will not just sit about and wait. The threat to unleash once again the loyalist terror gangs is intended to hurry the IRA along. Dissenting UVF members are apparently considering “taking action”, while a shadowy new organisation has warned it may target Sinn Fein members. Such language has been used in the past as a cover for attacks on any catholic: such intimidatory methods are seen by the government as a way of ‘encouraging’ republican compliance.

Similarly, the ending by the Labour Party of its opposition to the Prevention of Terrorism Act will apply further pressure. Labour’s home affairs spokesperson Jack Straw is trying to persuade about 30 ‘rebel’ MPs to toe the party line and abstain on renewal of the repressive legislation later this month. He argues that the government has not used it much recently and will probably abolish it soon anyway, so it is not worth voting against it!

Such bourgeois hypocrisy is most pronounced on the question of violence itself, epitomised by the Independent editorial mentioned above. The Hiroshima nuclear devastation, resulting in the death of tens of thousands of ‘innocent civilians’, was of course an example of a ‘good bomb’ - it strengthened the hand of British imperialism. The Docklands bomb was the most evil act imaginable because it had the opposite effect.

Jim Blackstock