------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Oct. 24, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
SINN FEIN UNER ATTACK: BRITAIN, U.S. TARGET NORTHERN IRELAND MOVEMENT By Ed Childs On Oct. 14 England imposed direct colonial rule on the six counties of northern Ireland, suspending the existing home- rule assembly in which the government was shared by Loyalists, who want to remain with Britain, and Republicans, also known as Nationalists, who want to unite with the rest of Ireland. The assembly, often referred to as Stormont, was voted in by the population and is a product of the anti-colonial struggle by the Irish people, led by the Sinn Fein party. The takeover of the assembly is a culmination of British actions meant to turn back the Nationalist struggle. Recently, colonial police raided the offices of Sinn Fein, arresting four members of the party and seizing all its records. These raids were orchestrated to blame Sinn Fein for the suspension of the assembly. However, the pro-British Loyalist forces in the assembly had been planning for six months to quit the governing body on this very day. The Loyalists were demanding a reversal of the gains made by the Nationalist Catholic community in housing, education and access to government jobs. Ian Paisley and David Trimble, leaders of the two largest Loyalist factions, have been whipping up crowds demanding the colonial forces push back the Nationalist community's newly acquired civil rights. The Sinn Fein newspaper, Republican News, reported 363 attacks this summer on the Nationalist communities. The British colonial forces and the Loyalist gangs and their paramilitary force, made up mostly of police and army personnel, carried out these attacks. They included 144 bombings, 25 shootings, 151 homes damaged, 42 serious assaults and two assassinations. Historically, the Loyalist paramilitary forces have done the dirty work for England, whether terrorizing the Nationalist communities or assassinating their leaders. They are now being paid off in drug money. Nationalist prisoners are saying that the colonial police have offered them release, no matter what their crime, if they either snitch on political activity or sell drugs in the community. Politicians know drugs can break down a community's will to resist. ABC World News reported recently that Protestant paramilitaries on the streets of Belfast "jealously guard their access to the drug trade in the city, according to authoritative sources." BUSH AND BLAIR WANT COLONIAL RULE The English press reported that U.S. President George W. Bush immediately endorsed England's moves to impose colonial rule. U.S. corporations are the largest investors in Ireland and pull out the most profits. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is lined up with Washington's war drive and would find it very beneficial if the U.S. in turn helped firm up the colonial status of Ireland. Ireland is also a strategic military location. As U.S. Gen. Alexander Haig explained when he was the head of NATO, whoever controls Ireland controls the sea routes in the north Atlantic and access to western Europe and the Mediterranean. Gen. Haig further explained that it was not in the U.S.'s military interest to let Ireland become independent, because "Ireland could become the Cuba of Europe." CNN Europe has reported that two U.S. military supply vessels headed to Iraq are due to dock in Cobh harbor in Ireland. This will break Ireland's neutrality stance. Many groups in Ireland are already campaigning against it. Aengus O'Snodaigh stated for Sinn Fein that the party will campaign and struggle to stop the Irish Defense Forces from participating in NATO or in the European Union's Rapid Reaction Forces and would oppose any action by the Irish government in support of the pending war in Iraq. Part of the U.S. war drive to turn back anti-colonial struggles around the world has been to target the Irish Republican Army, Sinn Fein and other Irish Republican forces. U.S. forces in Colombia this summer arrested three Sinn Fein leaders, charging them with training the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia--the FARC. The Sinn Feiners, now known as the Colombia 3, say they were observing negotiations going on between the FARC and the Colombian government, as they had done earlier with the African National Congress of South Africa. The FARC has been carrying out a revolutionary war for three decades; it hardly needs outside trainers. The Support Committee for the arrested members of Sinn Fein has shown that the long-awaited trial of the Colombia 3 was to be held on the same day as the raids on the Sinn Fein offices by the colonial forces in Ireland. Only the U.S. State Department would have the power to coordinate such a scheme. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
