US imperialists press for capitalist 'solution' in Ireland

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director of the US Irish National Caucus told a press conference held in London last week that "Until Ireland becomes an American issue there's going to be no breakthrough."

McManus announced that the Caucus, which claims responsibility for Carter's decision to cease the supply of American arms to the Royai Ulster Constabulary, is urging the 30 million Irish-Americans to support presidential candidates with the strongest line on the North.

Cut off arms

The Caucus, which is in favour of the withdrawal of British troops. plans to deepen its campaign by attempting to end the export of arms to both the UDR and the British Army.

At the press conference the Caucus indicated its support for the recent proposal from Governor Carey of New York for a conference in the USABourgeois spokesman- "Tip" O Neil supposedly designed to explore avenues for a "solution to the Northern Ireland problem."

The Irish government has expressed its agreement with such a conference providing it is supported by House of Representatives Speaker Tip O'Neill and Senators Moynihan and Kennedy.

Carey claimed that he had received initial acceptance of his invitation from Northern Ireland , Secretary of State Humphrey Atkins but a few days later the Northern Ireland Office issued a statement denyina this The British government has announced its willingness to attend a private meeting in New York to explain Tory government policy on Ireland but would not agree to any meeting to negotiate the future of Northern Ireland.

The Irish government is disappointed at the British response. Desperate to be seen as trying to do something to 'solve' the situation in order to defuse the national struggle in the six counties it feels that British attendance at such a conference would be a useful back-up to those in the US who are trying to fight the widespread enthusiasm within the Irish American population for the war of liberation in the North.

This problem is one recognised by the British ruling class which has loudly applauded the anti-republican mission to the USA by 'Broad Left' NUS President Trevor Philips.

The Tory government has itself said that it intends to make a trip soon to campaign against support for "terrorism' in the USA.

The British government is in a desperate position in Northern The impact of support for a conference along the lines suggested by Carey on the Loyalists would be a dangerous one for a government seeking to prove against all the evidence to the contrary that its struggle against the Provisionals is meeting with success.

The only force in Northern Ireland which supports the Carey initiative is the widely discredited gang of touts in the SDLP.

The only policy the Tories can produce at present is continued repression of the Republican forces.

Last week's display of force by the Provisional IRA has been followed by a series of arrests and the threat from the UDA to launch a violent campaign against "the terrorists"

Thugs

Were the Tories to show any sympathy with Carey's conference it would undoubtedly. prompt these loyalist thugs into new provocations for fear of Regiment dismounted from lorries in Watertoo ite Londonderry, with steel helmets, fixed bayonets and rolls of barbed wire, any forecast that a grisly decade lay ahead would have been treated with derision."

At that his rhetoric runs out. The rest of the article is a compendium of the Telegraph's favourite phrases:

"sinister para military gangs. . . steadily ground down the terrorists. public wearied and disgusted by the excesses of the terrorists."

Even the Telegraph does not pretend that the army's popularity has improved:

'The soldiers of 1969 would find Londonderry and Belfast unrecognisable today. There are no cups of tea or free beer in 1979, only the risk of a boobytrap or a sniper's bullet"

The leader writer does not share any complacency about "wearing down" the IRA. It celebrated the tenth anniversary with yet another call for the reintroduction of internment.

The only maverick in Fleet Street is the Daily Mirror.

Last year it announced its conversion to a policy of withdrawing the troops.

It used the anniversary to repeat the call "Bring home the troops" on its front page, and a centre page spread headed "Diary of Despair"

It echoes broadly the slogans around which the Liberals mobilised for the August 12 demonstration.

The Mirror mourns the dead soldiers and RUC The Mirror's position is staunchly pacifist on Beneath a picture of being sold out" by their imperialist backers.

While the moves within the American ruling class obviously reflect the needs of the approaching US elections, they also reflect the mounting support for the Irish national struggle there-support that penetrates not only the US Congress but also the trade union movement.

There is also a feeling that Britain cannot continue with its present policy of brutal repression by boot and bullet indefinitely.

Labour movement

As the pressure on the impérialists to find a bourgeois "solution" to the Irish crisis mounts, the British working class must come to the aid of the anti-imperialist forces in the North.

A massive movement must be built in the unions and the Labour Party to force the with. drawal of British troops from; the occupied six counties and enable the Irish people to determine their own future. helmeted and shield-carrying RUC men wading into a demonstration,: they put sorrowfully:

"Police with riot shields face the hate of fellow citizens".

This stance is, of course, a chink in the unanimity of the press.

One Mirror reters to th aliure or Northern relan to rate a mention in the election campaign. It even mentions history:

"Ulster remained part of the UK when the rest of Ireland was given its independence because of the cowardice of the politicians of the 1920s. Today's politicians have a chance to eliminate that legacy instead of once again passing it on"

But whether, like the Mirror, the press expresses horror at the ten year war, whether, like the Telegraph, it is generally encouraged by the efficient fighting machine it has made the British army, there is not one glimmer of understanding of the causes of or responsibility for the war.

Oxford labour movement bulletin on Ireland - issue 1 includes speech by Brendan Gallagher. Copies are available (25p incl postage) from Socialist Press.

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thugs as "those who tried, in vain, to keep the peace."