Irish Democrat August - September 1994

HEADLINES
HEADLINES
C O M M E N T
What about
the Ulster
Protestants?
Sean O' Casey on page 4 of this issue
writes of the IRA border campaign in
the 50s: "It is a rotten policy, and keeps
the Ulster Protestant hard-hearted, and
sends him deeper into his den."
His words 36 years later have a horrible ring
of truth. The Ulster Protestants, ( very many of
them) have become harder and more ruthless
after 22 years of direct rule from Britain, (no
democracy) and 25 years of Republican/British
warfare. The British all the while have used
them to avoid any real attempt at solving the
problem. And the Tories have continued to cynically
use the Loyalist MPs to bolster up their
own position.
Now, with the Downing Street Declaration,
the mat is beginning to be pulled from under
the Loyalist feet. This is already too much for
some. Although the unionist majority still has a
veto on any progress, a politically united
Ireland is now on the cards.
Conservative MP Nicholas Budgen, writing
in the Guardian (July 28), is on to the "disastrous
drift in policy on Northern Ireland," but
argues that the British should: "just say that we
want the union to survive and that we shall
govern Ulster in a manner designed to achieve
that end." Which means no more discussions
with the Dublin government or Sinn Fein, no
more peace process. If s a logical position: either
you go forward, or go back. But Mr Budgen is
using the rise of Loyalist violence as the stick to
argue a backwards direction.
The alternative position is to go forward and
make the demilitarisation of the situation an urgent
priority.
Not all Unionists want to go back to the old
regime; some are trying to visualise some new,
tolerant Northern Ireland. Ulster Unionist Party
councillor in West Belfast, Chris McGimpsey,
speaking at the Towards Peace in Ireland conference
in London said: "What we want is a continuance
of a thoroughgoing programme of
reform upon which we can build a truly liberal
and pluralistic society." He should be encouraged
to get that message through on the
Shankill.
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has appealed
to Unionist leaders to prepare their
people for change. Chris McGimpsey said the
UK was better place to live than the Republic of
Ireland because of its cultural diversity.
But Ireland is already a culturally diverse
country. So why shouldn't we fight to make it
more so, and break down intolerance in the
south, for example, in some circles, of the Northern
nationalists?
Let the last word go to Sean O' Casey, writing
in the same letter quoted above:
"Long ago I suggested that the Irish government
should invite the Orangemen to hold a
Twelfth Parade in Dublin to show that the Orangeman
was reckoned as Irish as anyone else."
HB
lnishOemocM
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Breaking down barriers
ACTIVITY
London reporter
The Labour movement
conference Towards
Peace in Ireland in July
was remarkable for bringing
together speakers from all
sides: SDLP leader John
Hume, Labour spokesperson
on Northern Ireland, Kevin
McNamara, Sinn Fein councillor
in Derry and Six Counties
chairman, Mitchel Mc-
Laughlin and Ulster Unionist
Party councillor in West Belfast,
Chris McGimpsey.
John Hume spoke about
breaking down barriers.
"As the walls fall all over
Europe, it has been necessry to
build 13 walls in the city of
Belfast to separate and protect
one section of the people from
another. And those walls are
an indictment of everybody involved
in what has become the
Irish problem.
"The challenge is: are we all
prepared to re-examine in
depth out past attitudes with
the dream of bringing down
those walls."
He compared the Unionist
mind-set to the Afrikaner
mind-set, "which says that the
only way to protect themselves
is to hold all the power in
their own hands and exclude
everyone who's not one of
them...
"What is required of the
unionist people today is that
they might take some example
from the white South Africans
and have the confidence to
stand on their own feet.."
And small conciliatory
noises could be heard.
Unionist Chris McGimpsey
did admit that "the demand
for civil rights was a wholly
legitimate reaction to an administration
which had become
out of touch." But he did
go on to say that "the peaceful
aims of reform were usurped
by those wielding a gun."
Mitchel McLoughlin paid
British Prime Minister John
Major a compliment, saying: "I
do recognise that John Major,
despite his very pressing
political problems, has
devoted an unprecedented
amount of his energy and attention
to the challenge of ending
the conflict in Ireland.
"I also feel it is correct to
acknowledge that under his
premiership the British
government position has
shifted."
Other speakers included
Clive Soley MP, former Northern
Ireland spokesperson,
Northern Ireland Select Committee,
Dr Brendan O'Leary of
From Civil Rights to Human Rights
DISCUSSION
Jonathan Hardy
Addressing the conflict
in Ireland through the
language of human
rights has increased considerably
in the last few years.
There are now several organisations
including the
Britain and Ireland Human
Rights Project and Britain
and Ireland Rights Watch,
set up specifically to
moniter and challenge
abuses. At the Towards
Peace in Ireland conference,
the value of a human rights
approach was discussed by
Michael Fairell of the Irish
Council for Civil Liberties
adn John Wadham, legal
director of Liberty.
Sixth Desmond Greaves
Weekend Summer School
Irish Labour History Museum, Beggars Bush, Dublin
Friday August 26
Dr Luke Gibbons • Refiguring National Identity:
How culture becomes politics in Ireland
Chair: Professor Brendan Bradshaw, Cambridge
University
Saturday August 27
Kieran Crilly - Raymond Crotty, economist and
economic historian: an assessment
Chair: Anthony Coughlan, Trinity College Dublin
Sunday August 28
Dr Alt O'Brien - Nascent Capitalism, English
Colonialism and the Conquest of Ireland
Chair: Mary Cullen, Maynooth College
Jack Bennett - Northern Ireland: two communities,
identities, religions, nations or what?
Catriona Ruane - Northern Ireland: perspectives of
a human rightsand Third World activist
Chair: Noirin Green, SIPTU
£12 full school, £3 individual sessions. Social and
garden party included, Bookings to •
Cathal MacUam, Summer School Director
24 Belgrave Rd,
Dublin 6 (tel: 4973154)
IRISH DEMOCRAT A u g u s t / S e p t e m b e r 1 9 94 page 2
Michael Farrell spoke of
the climate of opinion
which percolated out of the
conflict in the North in the
70s and 80s, within which
simply to raise civil liberties
issues risked one being
branded as a "provo sympathiser"
or "fellow
traveller." During this
period the Irish government
introduced a series of
repressive measures including,
most famously, the
Section 31 media ban. Opposition
became emasculated
and the record of the
Irish Labour party in challenging
attacks on civil
liberties was, he argued,
"appalling."
However, the situation
is now changing. Greater
use has been made of International
Human Rights
standards as a means of
challenging abuses by the
state and its emanations.
There has also been increasing
interest shown by international
human rights
organisations in the situation
in Northern Ireland,
adding further pressure on
the two governments.
Farrell argued that a
Attention all members:
The ConnoHyAssociation
Annual General Meeting
will be held in early
October
Members will be
notified of date and
venue within the next
month. Contact EC
members for further
information.
Special
appeal
the Departmentt of Government,
London School of
Economics, Dr Anthony
Coughlin, lecturer in Social
Policy in Trinity College,
Dublin, Siohan Crozier of the
Labour Party Irish Society and
Ken Livingstone MP.
There were four lively
seminars which examined
various aspects of campaigning
in Britian and in Ireland
In "The one-island
economy" lead by Bob Rowthorne,
co-author of Northern
Ireland: Political Economy of
Conflict" and Inez Mc-
Cormack Northern Ireland
Regional Secretary of
UNISON, how to level out
standards of living North and
South was discussed. The
emerging unity of business interests
was examined. A
report on the seminar on
human rights is carried below.
human rights approach
could have a major role to
play as part of the peace
process by contributing to
the development of a
climate of trust and
measures of protection for
both communities in the
North. The success of the
peace process will depend,
he argued, on rolling back
repressive and discriminatory
practices currently
sanctioned under the
law so as to instill genuine
and widespread confidence
in the ability of the system
of justice to deliver.
This could play a major
part in rebuilding trust and
continued on opposite page
1994 Desmond
Greaves Memorial
Lecture
Liverpool branch
of the-
Connolly Association
Women in Irish
History
by Liz Curtis
Author and Lecturer
on Saturday
September 17
at 1.30 pm
At Merseyside Trade
Union Centre,
Hardman Street,
Liverpool
We are very grateful to all those who responded to our
special appeal for the Irish Democrat as well as our regular
contributors.
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Total: £384.38
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\
BBC exposed in the US
CENSORSHIP
James Mullin USA
The US Human Rights
Watch / Free Expression
Project has
severely criticised the US
distributor of BBC World
Service because of British
media cesorship.
The president of the
Human Rights Watch,
Gara LaMarche sent a
scathing letter to American
Public Radio earlier this
year. The letter to APR's
president, Stephen L
Salyer, made an irrefutable
case that the BBC is subject
to the broadcast ban which
amounts to "institutionaliised
state censorship"
and that it was an
inappropriate news source
for a publicly funded entity
such as APR."
The letter urges APR to
use alternate news sources
until the ban is lifted, or,
"at a minimum, to precede
BBC reports with disclaimers
that explain to listeners
the nature of the
broadcasting ban and its effects
on BBC productions."
Human Rights Watch
points out that the broadcast
ban forbids direct
broadcast of words by any
person that support or
solicit support for
proscribed organisations,
and prohibits the broadcast
of any statement by a person
"who represents or
purports to represent" one
of these organisations.
"This type of politicallydefined
censorship is a
dangerous intrusion by the
state into the realm of free
expression. In this case, it
severely restricts efforts to
provide equitable and
complete coverage of the
events in Northern
Ireland."
APR receives funding
from the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting (CPB)
which was formed by the
Public Broadcasting Act of
1967. According to the Act,
Britain holds the key
ACTIVITY
Glasgow reporter
The Glasgow branch of
the Connolly Association
held a public
meeting on Saturday June
25th in the City Halls
where the speaker was the
former Belfast correspondent
of the Irish Democrat,
Jack Bennett.
The theme of the meeting
was "How to bring
peace to Ireland", and Jack,
a Northern Protestant currently
living in Dublin was
warmly received by a
small, but appreciative
audience.
Prospects for peace in
Ireland have never been
better during the last 25
Human Rights
for a recourse to armed
struggle.
A human rights approach
can, Farrell said, play an important
role in addressing
the fears of Northern Irish
Protestants under future
constitutional arrangements
involving the Dublin
government.
Both speakers highlighted
the way in which "emergency"
legislation has seeped
into general law. John-
Wadham of Liberty spoke
about the impact of legislation
introduced into Northern
Ireland on people in
Britain such as the PTA.
Much contemporary legislation
has now become effectively
permanent. In
particular, the PTA covers
international terrorism as
well as that associated with
years, said Jack. Much of
the credit for this had to go
to the Irish peace initiative
promoted by John Hume
and Gerry Adams This has
helped to chfinge the political
agenda and put the
whole question of Irish
self-determination centrestage.
However a great
deal of serious work still
has to be done both in
Ireland and in Britain if a
just and lasting peace is to
be acheived.
Since the responsibility
for the Anglo-Irish conflict
lay with successive British
governments, it should be
obvious to all fair minded
people that the present
British government led by
John Major has a responsibility
to create the necessary
conditions for peace to
become a realisable goal.
Northern Ireland, and, so,
he argued that it would be
extremely difficult politically
to remove PTA law
from the statute books in
the UK.
HP spoke of the many inst
inces of miscarriages of
justice and strongly
criticised the May inquiry
into the Guildford Four.
This, he said, had been no
more than a whitewash of
the system, falling back on
the "rotten apple" theory of
errant, individuals as a
means of evading responsibility
for fundamental
i ailures in the criminal justice
system which required
urgent reform. May's approach
was wrong in fact
and wrong in principle.
After this lengthy process,
no individuals within the
CPB must "carry out its
purposes and functions...in
ways that will most effectively
assure the maximum
freedom of the public
telecommunications entities
and systems from interference
with, or control
of, program content..."
The Act specifically
does not authorise control
by any US government official
over the content of
public telecommunications.
According the CPB
itself, it is required by the
Act to "strive for objectivity
and balance in the
controversial programmes
that it funds."
In addition, Congress
has made it clear that "CPB
is to emphasise maximum
protectionfrom interference in
programme content to allow
the greatest freedom for the
expression of ideas from
diverse sources."
The Human Rights
Watch / Free Expression
project letter comes to a
logical and devastating
It was Britain that partitioned
Ireland against the
wishes of the majority, and
created the sectarian Norrther
Ireland statelet which
has consistently repressed
and sytematically discriminated
against Roman
Catholics trapped within
its artificial border. The
provisional IRA was a
response to events that occured
within that area, and
in a sense was produced by
the palace of Westminster
not the inhabitants of the
Falls Road.
Despite recent claims by
the British government
"that they have no selfish
strategic or ecoonomic interest
in Northern
Ireland," Northern Ireland
remains a British colony.
Britain still claims
soveriegnity over the six
criminal justice system will
be publicly held to account,
while the report itself contributes,
despite its textual
denials, to the whispering
campaign against the innocence
of the Four.
Wadham described how
the Criminal Justice Bill
now going through Parliament
imports parts of the
Emergency Powers Act (N.
Ireland) into domestic law;
such as provisions on
"going equipped for terrorism."
These measures place the
onus of proof on the accused,
who will have to
prove that their equipment
(fertiliser? clock?) or information
(journalist's contact
book?) will not be used in
terrorist acts.
conclusion for CPB and
APR:
"Having forbidden influence
in US public broadcasting
by the US
government, there is no reason
to suppose that Congress
would take a different view in
regard to influence by British
government in US public
broadcasting. APR's distribution
of BBC broadcasts, then,
appears to violate not only the
basic precepts of free expression
and full disclosure, but
Congressional intent as well."
American Public Radio,
(soon to be called Public
Radio International) is actively
undermining our
First Ammendment Rights
by disseminating British
government censored
"news" in the US, and the
Corporation for Public
Broadcasting is aiding,
abetting and financing a
multitude of lies.
James Mullin is president
of the Irish American Unity
Conference, South Jersey
Chapter.
counties via section 75 of
the Government of Ireland
Act, and maintains the
constitutional guarantee
whiclii allows the
Unionists to block political
progress. The power to
move the situation on,
therefore, is in the hands of
the British government.
This government must
be compelled to use its
power and resources to
promote change that is
consistent with basic
democratic principles.
This is where the labour
and democratic move
mentsin Britain can play a
vital role. Influence on
these movements can be
exercised by the Irish community
in Britain.
Free at last.
Congratulations to Kate
Magee who was found innocent
of the charge under the
Prevention of Terrorism Act of
"withholding information."
The Derbyshire-based Kate
Magee support group welcomed
the outcome, but expressed
anger at the decision
of the Crown Prosecution Service
to procede with the case in
the first place.
WORLD COMMENT
BY P OLITIC U S
A World of 500
countries?
That was the headline of the front page lead article
in the Wall Street Journal of June 20 last.
The house journal of US finance capitalism,
whose job it is to keep rich Americans informed
of the real world trends, seems to be
echoing a view often suggested in this column, that
humanity is still at a relatively early stage in the formation
of nation states.
"It is a paradox of global proportions," said the article,
"The closer that trade and technology bind nations
together, the bolder the moves to break nations
apart. Who would have expected all this? Following
World War 2, many predicted that a global economy
and global communications would lead to a worldwide
community. Nationalism, they said, would
decline, as ever more people saw us all as passengers
on lifeboat Earth.
"But the growth of the global economy and of more
powerful transnational institutions is producing the
opposite effect. Instead of fading away, nationalism is
flourishing, and not just in the war-ravaged Balkans.
Now, even tiny groups of people can contemplate
breaking away from the central state and plugging
into the world economy on their own. Regions nursing
ancient grievances are claiming independence, or
at least autonomy, confident they aren't committing
economic suicide.
"At the same time the big corporations and institutions
shaping the world economy seem so remote that
many people turn to local ethnic groups and obscure
languages for their identity, furthering the world's
political fragmentation."
And the new nations n«fWork at every opportunity.
Early this year in Davos, Switzerland, the prime ministers
of Estonia and the Czech Republic - two nation
states that didn't exist five years ago - huddled with
Argentina's finance minister to discuss financial
strategy. Tamils use the Internet computer network to
discuss politics with Quebecers and Slovenians, bypassing
the big power centres they would once have
had to go through. The end of the cold war has
loosened blocks of countries once bound in tense allegiance
to the superpowers.
One wishes that more people in the labour movement
knew how to take more advantage of the trend
in the formation of new nation states, rather than
seeing it as just a manifestation of nasty nationalism.
The left has traditionally neglected the factors making
for state boundaries and has often paid a costly price
for doing so.
The United Nations had fewer than 50 member
states when it came into being after World War 2.
Today it has nearly 200. In Europe, the number of
states has risen from 34 in 1989 to 52 at the last count.
The process of nation state formation is clearly unfinished
even in Western Europe. Is not Scottish independence
inevitable in time? And that of Wales and
Catalonia, Wallonia and Flanders, and maybe others?
And if that is the case in Western Europe, where
governments have been quarrelling with one another
to settle stable state boundaries for centuries, how
much more likely is it in Eastern Europe? And what
will be the situation in Africa, Asia and the Middle
East in the coming century, where virtually all the
state boundaries were drawn by the colonial powers,
without the indigenous people being in any way consulted?
There are over 2,000 distinct languages in the
world, after all, and as many ethnic groups.
So a world of 500 countries is quite likely. The Wall
Street Journal, though, does not give the cause of the
national and ethnic self-asseitiveness it discusses. The
impetus to form a nation state comes from the fact that
it is generally only on the basis of the national community
that sufficient solidarity, mutual identification
and mutuality of interest develop among people as to
induce minorities freely to agree to majority rule, so
providing a realistic basis for a stable democracy.
We are still seeing the working out of the core impulse
of the 1789 French Revolution, which asserted
the right of nations to selMetennination as one of die
Rights of Man. How far sftfrig was the Chinese
Foreign Minister Chou En*Lai, who, when asked for
his estimate of the French Revolution, said: It is too
early to say!"
IRISH DEMOCRAT A u g u s t / S e p t e m b e r 1 9 9 4 psge 3