2009 Summer Fourthwrite

              Issue No. 36 Summer 2009 Price £1.50/€2
Sensitive Policing!
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
2
Contents
Editorial...When will they ever learn?..............................................3
They haven’t gone away.............................................................4&5
Fourthwrite reporters
Might Sinn Fein & Labour merge?............................................6 & 7
Tommy McKearney
Pushing back regressive policing.............................................8 & 9
Anthony McIntyre
Other means.........................................................................10 & 11
Eamonn MacGabhainn
Community unionism............................................................12 & 13
Brian Garvey
The ned for socialist unity................................................14,15 & 16
Allan Armstrong
Solidarity divided...................................................................16 & 17
Susan Rosenthall
August 1969..........................................................................18 & 19
Patricia Campbell
Made of money.................................................................20, 21& 22
Aine Ni Gabhainn
Lisbon Treaty..................................................................................23
Clarrie Pringle
Keep this man in the Dail
and allow him to continue his good work of
providing rescue packages for speculators,
bankers and building contractors
Vote Yes to Lisbon II
and bail out Ireland’s rich gamblers
Lisbon II
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
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Editorial
How a society is policed is one
of the sure signs of whether
there is a consensus about
how that society is governed. Where
there is widespread agreement that
laws are just and equitable there is
seldom disagreement about the
application of the law and by whom.
There are of course those who
break the laws and are therefore at
odds with those who enforce the
legislation and frequently find fault
with their methods. This type of con-flict
is between individual lawbreak-ers
and the state’s enforcement
agencies and only raises matters of
concern in so far as those tasked
with enforcement carry out their
work fairly and impartially and within
the limits of their authority.
There is of course a ques-tion
about whether some legislation
can ever fair in any society gov-erned
by neo-liberal economics.
Laws that protect banking institu-tions
at the expense of working peo-ple
who are forced to pay for the
risks taken by what are little more
than highly paid gamblers are hardly
fair. These laws and others such as
the prevention of secondary picket-ing
are symptoms of capitalist socie-ty
and as such are addressed by a
socialist critique and its options.
Arguments relating to differ-ent
economic systems are not, how-ever,
at the heart of what is currently
happening in different parts of the 6-
Counties. The account of a PSNI
raid on homes in the Drumarg area
of Armagh on 12 July 2009 (See
page 4&5) is the old familiar tale of
heavy-handed policing that we have
become so used to in the northern
part of Ireland.
The questions raised are
enlightening. Why did the police
choose to raid on the morning of 12
July? Was it not possible to carry out
this operation at a less sensitive
time bearing in mind that the house
searchs yielded no illegal materials
and those arrested were all released
without charge within 48 hours of
their detention? Why did the police
resort to a verbal warrant when it
was plainly obvious that the opera-tion
was well planned and had taken
some time to put together? Why was
it necessary to bring heavy
armoured vehicles into an area
where there has not been any trou-ble?
Why are police not instructed to
treat by-standers with courtesy and
why was it felt necessary to prevent
a mother accessing nappies and a
baby-bottle for her infant child? Did
the PSNI make this decision locally?
Although it may appear rhetorical,
the question has to be asked
why this raid was carried out in such
a fashion. If the objective was to
detain a suspect for questioning, it
was a clumsy and heavy-handed
way of doing so. If it was necessary
to conduct a house search, why was
it necessary to do so with such inep-titude
that the police provoked local
youth into a riotous response the fol-lowing
day.
In reality there is only one of
two answers. Either the police are
unaware of the situation on the
ground in a nationalist working class
district in Co. Armagh and are there-fore
incompetent or that they carried
out the raid by way of a communal
punishment on all the residents and
they are therefore unreconstructed
‘Peelers’. Neither position is accept-able
nor should political parties
representing the local population
tolerate either answer.
In short, the policing issue is
far from settled in the 6-Counties.
Far too many issues remain to be
addressed and done so satisfactori-ly.
Consequently, no person or party
should attempt to impose a pre-cooked
settlement on the area until
it becomes clear that things have
changed for the better.
When will they ever learn?
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
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People living in a nationalist
council housing estate in
Armagh City have recently
formed an association called
Residents Against PSNI
Harassment. This decision followed
an escalation in police raids that
have been happening in the area
over recent years.
In what was viewed by
many local people as a deliberate
act of provocation, police arrived in
the Drumarg estate on the morning
of 12th July at 8:30 am. Two houses
in the estate were raided, the
searches at these houses continued
for approximately five hours. One of
these properties was the home of a
24 year-old man who is the father of
a young child. He was arrested and
brought to Antrim Police Station.
Shortly after his arrest, the man’s
partner and child arrived and tried to
enter their home while police were
inside. They were refused entry,
despite the mother explaining that
she needed clothes and nappies for
her child. The child’s father was
released without charge late the fol-lowing
night.
During the lengthy raid PSNI
officers continually attempted to pro-voke
people in the area, addressing
some people as ‘scum’ and using
other derogatory terms. Two people
tried to take photographs of police
harassing residents but were
stopped and forced to delete the pic-tures.
Two other men in the Armagh
area were also arrested in the raids
and an untaxed car was seized in
the locality. Police continually drove
past openly taking photographs of
residents from inside their vehicles.
Some of the police persisted in
insulting residents with sectarian
jibes (“fenian scum” etc). These
searches were initially carried out
using verbal warrants.
There was also a high police
presence in the area on the follow-ing
morning, July 13th, and a gener-al
feeling of tension due to the police
aggression during the previous days
raids. At approximately 2:00pm,
PSNI vehicles returned to the
Drumarg estate. Police jumped out
of their landrovers and approximate-ly
thirty officers in riot gear charged
through the estate and residents
gardens. They proceeded to ran-domly
arrest local youths.
Allegations have been made that
police were chasing youths who had
thrown stones at vehicles on a road
nearby, but these allegations were
rubbished by the fact that the named
road had been closed on the day in
question from approximately 12:00
midday.
During this onslaught PSNI
officers aggressively pushed moth-ers
and children out of their way and
shoved a pregnant woman against a
fence as they stormed by. A fourteen
year-old youth who had just left a
nearby house was aggressively
grabbed by the throat and dragged
over a fence by police. At this point
a few of the residents attempted to
intervene. Within the next few min-utes
another youth who had just
walked out of a relatives house was
charged at by a number of officers
and dragged into the back of a lan-drover.
A number of very young chil-dren
witnessed the teenagers being
forcibly detained on the ground and
some were clearly distressed. A
short time after these events all of
the young people were released at a
location that is a short distance from
the scene of their arrests.
Tensions remained high as a
result of the police intimidation
and heavy-handed treatment of local
people. Landrovers were speeding
through the estate despite children
still running around who had been
playing outside. There are traffic-calming
measures in place, but lan-drovers
raced over speed ramps.
Both entrances to the estate were
virtually blocked off by police, as
they could stop anyone attempting
to leave the area.
They haven’t gone away
In what was viewed
by many local people
as a deliberate act of
provocation,
police arrived in the
Drumarg estate on the
morning of
12th July at 8:30 am.
“
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
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At one point a policeman raised a
baton and threatened a female.
When this happened a large group
of residents stood together and
faced the police, who then backed
off slightly but continued to verbally
abuse people. No weapons or any-thing
incriminating was discovered
during the course of two days of
police raiding in the area. It was
viewed as clear provocation that
three houses in a nationalist area
were raided - specifically beginning
in the early hours of the morning of
July 12th - initially with a verbal war-rant,
despite there being no appar-ent
reason for the raids, never mind
the harassment.
Later, on the afternoon of
July 13th and well into the evening,
tension in the area developed into a
riot with a large crowd throwing
stones and paint bombs at the PSNI
on a public road near to the
Drumarg estate. Some local commu-nity
leaders and politicians repeated-ly
expressed concern about the riot,
which followed two days of police
violently raiding in the area. It was
widely felt that a large section of the
community were clearly not being
supported nor represented, neither
by politicians nor community lead-ers,
following the recent police bru-tality.
More emphasis was placed on
a relatively minor riot than on pro-tecting
local people from the police
attack. This has resulted in strength-ening
the anger that people had
already plainly expressed. Residents
later agreed that they viewed as
simply unacceptable that heavily
armed police could repeatedly enter
a virtually crime-free housing estate
and attempt to bully people for no
apparent reason. One effect of the
ongoing raids is that they are trau-matising
young children.
On Friday 24th July there
was yet another raid at a house in
the area. This time police arrived at
approximately 11:00am in riot gear
and were also wearing ski-masks to
conceal their identity. They were
heavily armed and surrounded a
property before bursting the door
open. Local people shouted to be
careful as there was an elderly lady
in poor health living next door and
an officer clearly replied “f**k her”.
While the raid at this property con-tinued
until 5:55pm, at one stage the
elderly neighbour - who was visibly
shaken by the experience - had to
receive medical assistance from a
nurse. PSNI claimed that a rifle was
found nearby during the searches
and this has been removed for
examination. No one was arrested
following the discovery, nor as a
result of the raid. The BBC later
reported that; “Police have carried
out searches in Co.Armagh as part
of what they have said is an investi-gation
into serious crime”.
Later on the evening of July 24th,
residents of the Drumarg area
came together to form the
Association Against PSNI
Harassment. This group aims to
publicise and highlight the heavy-handed
tactics of police and the
intimidation of residents (including
children) in the media. The
Association also intends to call on
the two main nationalist parties, the
SDLP and Sinn Fein, to withdraw
from Armagh & District policing
board until they are given a mean-ingful
guarantee that harassment of
Armagh residents will end. The
group will also call for the NIO to
issue an apology for recent PSNI
brutality and sectarian jibes towards
residents of the Drumarg area.
Another outcome of these
raids has been that residents are
now considering a return to a com-munity
warning system (as was
used in the 1970’s to warn locals
that the RUC were entering an
area), such as using whistles to
warn other people that the PSNI are
preparing to raid. It appears to be a
sad reality in the ‘new dispensation’
that nationalist people who live in
working class areas still need to use
methods such as these to protect
themselves from British police.
Residents later agreed that
they viewed as
simply unacceptable that
heavily armed police could
repeatedly enter a virtually
crime-free
housing estate
“
you know
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
6
Denis Bradley’s proposal in his
column in the Irish News that
Sinn Fein should concentrate
exclusively on advocating Irish unity
while eschewing socialism is mis-guided.
To do so would leave the
party increasingly isolated in the
South while confining it to a danger-ously
narrow brand of nationalism in
the North. For republicans, after all,
uniting Ireland politically is only a
means to the end of establishing a
republic across the entire island.
What form that republic takes
assumes ever greater importance as
the global economy tumbles deeper
into recession. Indeed, Gerry Adams
would be well advised to seek a
much closer formal alliance with the
Irish Labour Party rather than move
away from Left politics.
Following the recent elec-tions
South of the border, Mr.
Adams’s party finds itself in political
‘no-man’s-land’. At a time when
economic hardship has led to wide-spread
disenchantment with govern-ment
policy and practice, the party
failed to capitalise on a tide of
resentment that only a few years
ago would have resulted in hand-some
dividends. Prospects of a
breakthrough in the Republic are
fading and with these plummeting
hopes, go a carefully crafted strate-gy
that has been at the core of Sinn
Fein efforts for over a decade. Party
leaders know that this lost momen-tum
will not easily, if ever, be
regained.
The most telling aspect of
the setback is not that Sinn Fein
failed to gain a significant number of
extra seats but that it was unable to
stake out any identifiable ground for
itself. At local government and
European level, Labour increased its
quota of elected representatives, as
did smaller left-wing parties such as
the Socialist Party, People Before
Profit and Seamus Healy’s WUAG in
Tipperary. Clearly there was a rise in
support for the Left. Equally obvious
from Sinn Fein’s flat performance is
that, in spite of its overwhelmingly
working class base, the organisation
is not deemed a left-wing party.
Nor did the collapse of
Fianna Fail, the ‘republican party’,
benefit Sinn Fein. A majority of
southern voters are convinced that
the northern issue is resolved and
see little point in pursing it further.
Irish unity is viewed by many in the
Republic as a vague aspiration and
one they are not currently willing to
prioritise. This outlook might well
change but only if an all-Ireland
state were to offer something much
more tangibly attractive than a hazy
promise to merge the current depart-ments
of transport and health.
Reality for Sinn Fein is that it has
failed to carve out a distinctive niche
for itself in southern Irish political
life, making it difficult to avoid the
conclusion that at best, the party will
stall indefinitely in its current margin-al
position.
However gloomy prospects may
be for Sinn Fein in the South, its
plight cannot be a source of comfort
for left of centre parties and espe-cially
not for Labour. In spite of a
heartening result, Eamonn Gilmore
and colleagues are aware that in the
midst of the most severe economic
crisis in half a decade, their party
has secured the support of less than
15% of the Republic’s electorate. If a
general election were called at the
moment, Labour could aspire only to
acting as junior partners in a Fine
Gael led coalition. Displacing Fianna
Fail might cause a degree of satis-faction
among party activists but it
would not break any mould nor
would it lead to significant redistribu-tion
of national wealth and income.
Longer term, the party would very
likely pay a price once again for its
cyclical relationship with the strongly
free-market Fine Gael.
One option for both organi-sations
would be to end the long
standing rift between working class
republicans and the Irish Labour
movement that emerged post-Treaty.
A split that has perpetuated Civil
War politics by throwing up on one
hand the unlikely pairing of Labour
and Fine Gael while simultaneously
allowing a right of centre party claim
the loyalty of a large section of mod-estly
waged citizens. As a conse-quence,
Irish politics has stagnated
for decades as two very similar polit-ical
philosophies exchanged office
but with little change in direction.
A pooling of Labour and
republican electoral tallies would, on
recent results, produce a total
approaching that of Fianna Fail.
Allowing that other left leaning par-ties
and independents would, at
least, give critical support to such an
initiative, the basis for a real chal-lenge
to the revolving door of Irish
politics would exist. North of the
Might Sinn Fein merge
with Labour?
Tommy McKearney
Website
www.fourthwrite.ie
Contact us at:
webmaster@fourthwrite.ie
or
PO Box 39
An Post
Monaghan Town
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
7
border, Sinn Fein would surely bene-fit
in the long run by clearly identify-ing
itself as socialist and thus afford-ing
it an opportunity to avoid a pitfall
it now faces of becoming merely the
6-Counties’ ‘Catholic’s Party’.
For these changes to come
about there would have to be bold
and generous behaviour from key
players in the two main parties and
a great deal of understanding from
their members. Unlike the deal
between Democratic Left and the
Labour Party, a successful partner-ship
would not see one group sub-merge
its identity into that of the
other. In order not to leave signifi-cant
numbers behind it would be
important to combine both con-stituencies
into a republican labour
party.
There is no evidence that
the leadership of either party is con-templating
such a move at present
but the underlying logic is com-pelling.
Sinn Fein has put its insur-rectionary
past behind it and is striv-ing
to make as telling an impact on
Southern political life as it has in the
North. Its socialist credentials are a
tad threadbare but its support base
is working class and feels more
comfortable with social democracy
than neo-liberalism. Labour’s social-ism,
on the other hand, is somewhat
jaded but still strikes a note with
many of its supporters. In short,
there is little to separate the parties
ideologically and cavilling from either
about skeletons in the cupboard
would ring hollow in light of history.
More important is the fact that on
their own they have limited options,
while together; they could provide
the catalyst for realignment in Irish
politics at a time when the opportu-nity
is greater than ever.
If, as Denis Bradley sug-gests,
the time is appropriate for a
debate within Sinn Fein about its
policies, then a more productive dis-cussion
might take place around the
benefits of amalgamating with the
Irish Labour Party. And for those
who dismiss such a prospect out of
hand, it’s only necessary to point out
that for parties which brought us the
Mullingar Accord and the Chuckle
Brothers; a republican and labour
partnership sounds a relatively mod-est
and plausible proposal and one
that promises more than appears to
be currently on offer.
Comrades once more?
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
8
It quickly became Kafkaesque. At
the first hearing the public, press,
myself and my lawyers were cleared
from the court so that the PSNI
could present their arguments in
camera. How could we mount a
defence when we didn’t even know
what police were saying? We were
fighting a case from a massively dis-advantaged
position – Suzanne
Breen
The recent judi-cial
attempt to
clip the wings
of Ian Paisley Jnr is to be seen in
the context of an
instinctual urge by the
state to erode the
ground underpinning the
logic of protecting
sources which allow
vital information to enter
the public arena. It
should simultaneously
remind people of the
importance of the victory
achieved by Suzanne
Breen in a Belfast
court and warn them
of the temptation to
rest on the lau-rels
of the
Breen
achieve-ment.
Although it
was the first
time the
Terrorism
Act of 2000
that the pro-tection
of
sources has
been judi-cially
approved
and
enshrined,
nothing should
be taken for grant-ed.
When
Suzanne Breen
wrote after the
verdict in her
own case,
declaring it a
triumph for
press freedom
across
Europe, it can
hardly be
said she was
NUJ member
and political
commentator
Anthony
McIntyre
reflects on the recent
court case involving
Suzanne Breen
Pushing Back
Regressive Policing
exaggerating. However, while she
forced the PSNI to pull its horns in
and desist from goring a vital princi-ple
of journalism, the state has
clearly not thrown in the towel, refer-ring
instead to use it as a gag to suf-focate
Ian Paisley Jnr.
Suzanne Breen was up
against it from the get go. As she
reported ‘the police were said to be
absolutely confident they’d win.’
They had good reason to. The
precedent favouring journalists on
the issue of protecting sources was
set almost a decade earlier in the
case of Ed Moloney who, like Breen,
was also Northern editor of the
Sunday Tribune. The state felt less
assured and steady on its feet then.
It was walking on eggshells and was
vulnerable to exposure. A murder its
own people had been involved in
through collusion with loyalist militias
had not been solved and the one
person facing prison in relation to it
was the journalist who had brought
to light many of the unsavoury
aspects of the case. At the time
there still existed a serious swathe
of opinion willing to challenge the
British policing regime.
Breen by contrast was pro-tecting
a source in the deeply
unpopular Real IRA, and in the eyes
of many people would be unable to
elicit little in the way of popular sup-port
for her stand. As in the days
when the Provisional IRA was at war
with the British state there remains a
deep hostility within the ranks of offi-cialdom
toward any voices from
within armed bodies opposed to the
state. The Real IRA unlike the
Provisionals is a body with little sup-port
in the nationalist community and
the PSNI must have felt they were
pushing a door being opened in
advance of their arrival by those pre-viously
most critical of the force.
In some areas the PSNI had been
involved in more serious violations
of human rights than had been when
operating under its old RUC name;
the detention of people in custody
for up to 28 days a case in point. Yet
there was little in the way of opposi-tion
from the political parties to the
force’s behaviour. It hardly expected
a serious challenge to its latest
encroachment and could even claim
to have been given the green light
for the move by the comments of the
Deputy First Minister who lambasted
‘dissident journalists.’
However propitious the con-ditions
as viewed by the police their
reading was one neither shared nor
acquiesced in by Breen’s colleagues
in the journalistic profession, nor by
those in the wider anti censorship
community. Despite the green light
they were determined to hold up a
very large ‘stop’ sign; so large that it
was visible to more people than the
PSNI imagined existed.
Avigorous campaign in defence of
the targeted journalist was
launched. It cut right across the
political divide, drawing the support
of many people, some of whom are
more used to signing bits of paper
against each other rather than sign-ing
the same bit in unity against the
PSNI accumulation of powers.
Commenting on the sense of pur-pose
within the journalistic commu-nity
and the strength of its opposi-tion
to the PSNI assault on media
freedom the beleaguered Sunday
Tribune journalist explained: ‘for the
first time in a source protection
case, a range of eminent journalists
would be called to give evidence
and defend our profession’s princi-ples
and practices.’ More than 5000
signatures were gathered for a
‘We’re Backing Suzanne’ petition
which was carried in the paper of
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
9
Labor Notes
Labor Notes
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the movement back into the labor movement
Lean production,organizing strategies, privatisation, fightbacks are all just
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For more information visit:
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which she is Northern editor.
From a human rights per-spective
the ruling against the PSNI
by Judge Tom Burgess was hearten-ing
in that it underpinned the claim
by Breen that the police should not
be allowed to display a wanton dis-regard
for the lives of its citizens by
putting them at risk from armed mili-tias.
When the moment the case
was initiated it was felt by many that
if Breen were to win it would be on
these grounds. However, Judge
Burgess went much further and
acknowledged the journalistic issues
at the heart of the case. The court
not only ruled in favour of Breen’s
human rights but also in favour of
her as a journalist who unflinchingly
insisted on the profession’s need to
protect sources if a function as vital
to society as policing itself was not
to be rendered dysfunctional.
John Ware a prominent jour-nalist
with Panorama said ‘there is
meant to be progressive policing in
Northern Ireland. If this is progres-sive
policing I’d hate to see what
regressive policing would be like.’
The state of political affairs in the
North today is such that citizens
there must rely on the journalistic
profession and anti-censorship com-munity
to push back the encroaching
boundaries of regressive policing
and not the politicians.
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
10
Better distribution of taxation
Noel Murphy, National Secretary of
the Independent Workers Union
(IWU), in an address to the union’s
Cork General branch in July of this
year said that the IWU has never
accepted that the workers of Ireland
should have to pay for the crisis cre-ated
by the greed of Capitalists.
“We do not agree with cutting wages
although we do believe that a more
equitable society can be brought
about by having a fairer taxation
system. What we require is a sys-tem
where those who earn the mini-mum
wage or a little more, pay no
tax and that a sliding scale upwards
would then be introduced. This
would introduce a scale of taxation,
increasing in a manner where higher
tax rates applied to higher income.
There are various formulae
for such a proposal. One such for-mula
was suggested by Sunday
Business Post columnist Vincent
Brown recently (5th July 2009) in an
article where he drew on data
gained through parliamentary
question to the Minister for finance
regarding incomes in general.
There were 258,000 people
who had an annual income in
excess of €80,000 and who paid
27% of this income in tax. Should
this group have their income-tax
take increased to 42% the additional
tax revenue for Government would
amount to a little over €4 Billion. If
this were done there would be little
or no need for cuts and certainly not
to those on low and middle
incomes.”
Noel Murphy then asked
members of the IWU to circulate
this piece of information as widely
as possible and to lobby all politi-cians
to build support for such a tax-ation
policy and to ensure that it is
implemented.
Housing Crisis Response
A working group of the I.W.U. has
condemned without reservation
recent announcements by the pres-ent
Government that it will take out
20 year leases on unoccupied and
unsold properties which are owned
by banks, developers and builders,
many of whom are now either in
serious financial trouble or bankrupt.
This action will be of benefit only to
the builders, and property specula-tors
who are friends of Fianna Fail,
the Progressive Democrats and the
Green Party. Individuals and families
on local authority lists will get little
benefit from this arrangement as
after 20 years the properties may be
once again on the market with all
the problems that go with this action.
A better solution in the opin-ion
of the IWU working group would
be for the Government to adopt a
policy of capping at 10% of gross
income, the repayments demanded
from mortgage holders and local
authority tenants alike. This should
apply either as rent or mortgage
payments to their local authorities,
banks or other financial institutions.
All rents and mortgages etc should
be set at 10% of gross income to
enable all workers to plan their
income expenditure. As the
Government is now about to prop up
the banks with massive subsidies of
taxpayers money we should demand
that we the people have a say in the
way that these banks are operated.
Developers and builders who are in
serious financial difficulty should in
be informed that as their properties
are now either unsold nor rentable
then a serious re-structuring of the
amounts and the way in which rents
are paid must come into play.
Job creation policy
Ray O’Reilly, vice-president of the
Independent Worker Union has high-lighted
the beneficial impact on lev-els
of unemployment in Spain that
the government’s public works pro-gramme
has had there.
“A huge public works pro-gramme
in Spain slowed further lay-offs
in the construction sector and
helped unemployment fall for the
third straight month” he said recent-ly,
“The number of jobless fell
20,794 in July after a 55,250 decline
in June, cutting the total number of
unemployment benefit claimants to
3.54 million, albeit still the highest
among larger European economies”
He added,“registered jobless
Eamonn McGabhan, a member of the National
Executive of the Independent Workers Union,
has collated here some alternative strategies for
economic recovery endorsed by his union
Finding different methods
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
11
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Northern office: 047 71600
in the construction industry fell by
7,282, or 1.1 percent, while industry
saw jobless drop by 6,911 people, or
1.4 percent. In the first six months of
2009, the Spanish government
ploughed some 5 billion Eros ($7.20
billion) into local infrastructure proj-ects
as part of a total state-funded
public works package worth up to 11
billion Eros.”
Ray O’Reilly went on to say
that the Spanish government’s inter-vention
is not a panacea for the ills
of that country or any other country.
He highlighted a statement from
Spain's largest workers union CCOO
in which the union was clearly less
than impressed when they said,“
The turnaround for job losses in the
last three months does not point to
any fundamental change in the neg-ative
trend, 'The decline in unem-ployment
in July is due to temporary
factors. The Spanish economy still
faces difficulties in the short and
medium term,”
Acknowledging the veracity
of the Spanish union’s comment,
Ray O’Reilly said that it is neverthe-less
a concrete step in the right
direction and one that would be very
welcome in Ireland of the present.
No cut-back on health
Independent Workers Union presi-dent,
Patricia Campbell has voiced
her strong objection to any cut-back
on the health budget in the 6
Counties. She is particularly anxious
that the allocation for mental health
should not only be exempt from any
reduction but that it should instead
be substantially increased.
“In the aftermath of a pro-longed
and bitter civil conflict, men-tal
health practitioners are con-scious
that there exists a great need
for services dedicated to dealing
with the impact of this lengthy crisis.
In fact, while it is evident to practi-tioners
through their daily case loads
that a major difficulty exists, this
should come as no surprise to any-body
who has lived through any part
of the years of bloody conflict in this
part of the country. Central govern-ment
in London has only allocated
the same per capita resources to
people in the 6 Counties as they
have to residents in all other regions
under their control. this is a non-sense
in light of the trauma that has
occurred”, she added.
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
12
“We have been the victims of
so many acts of corruption…But
the workers have supported us
in forming a new trade union,
because they want change-a
radical change –so that we are
the new administration of the
collective contract..Becasue the
one we have is useless. And
the trade union we had was
useless” Luis Flugo, Aseven
soft drinks company,
Venezuela
“I looked at the Mater hospital-this
new, ‘state of the art facili-ty’,
and there wasn’t even
changing rooms for the domes-tics.
Not even a changing
room. And I wondered, how did
the unions allow that?”
Domestic health worker,
Belfast
It is recognised that unions
need to change. Union
membership in the 26 coun-ties
has fallen by 14% (currently
32% of workforce) between
1994-2008. Writing on the situation
in UK where membership levels
have fallen continuously since 1979
(currently only 28% of workforce)
and employers have been ‘embold-ened
by neoliberal policies’ Jane
Willis of University of London writes
that ‘trade unions cannot simply wait
until economic and political condi-tions
become more favourable’ for
their recovery.
Facing a situation where the
number of people employed in man-ufacturing
has halved since the 70s,
and the number of people employed
as sub-contracted agency staff has
increased by 346% in 10 years
(accounting for almost two thirds of
full time workforce) some unions
have begin to think forward.
The Iron and Steel Trades
Confederation merged with the
Knitwear, Footwear and Apparel
Trades (KFAT) in 2005, to form
Community, and recognised that a
‘culture change in unions is long
overdue if we are to represent our
modern members as they are and
not as they were or as we would like
them to be. … our structures, our
decision-making and our very lan-guage
sometimes cuts us off from
the members we claim to represent
whose working lives have changed
beyond all recognition’. Indeed the
fact that 16-19 year olds account for
only 4% of union membership in
both UK and in the 26 counties
leaves unions open to charges of
being ‘pale, male and stale’.
Hence they have set about
helping ‘members, their families and
their neighbours’ providing advice
and support in social services, politi-cal
support for residents tackling
local authorities, guidance on neigh-bourhood
disputes and equalities
support for disabled people, pen-sioners,
women, ethnic
minorities and young people alike in
the community.’
While alliances between
community groups and unions are
not new – such cooperation was
hugely influential in mobilising
against apartheid in the South
Africa of the 80s- the language of
community unionism, social move-ment
unionism is again being used
to describe a range of relationships
between unions and other groups
that have sprung up. Many of us at
the anti-capitalist demonstrations
against the G8 in Genoa were
impressed by the Italian
‘autonomous social centres’ that
arose from the 70s as struggles
spread from factories into society
and rank and file trade unionists
connected with groups struggling for
housing and began to ‘self reduce’
their utilities bills and transportation
costs. Soon buildings were occupied
and transformed into centres that
could help serve community need,
tackling among many social ills from
heroin to sweatshop labour and pro-viding
support advice while engag-ing
in direct action.
In the US, immigrant women
from south America, long excluded
from mainstream unions in many
contexts have been forefront of new
forms of community unionism. In
the garment industry the instability of
the employment, high turnover rates
associated with poor conditions and
poor rates of pay make longer term
relations among workers more diffi-cult
and they have found it “easier
to organise outside the factory than
within it” (Jane Collins, 2006).
Indeed the centres are the sole net-work
of support for many migrant
workers and trade unions are recog-nising
that there are many ideas and
a renewed energy from their exis-tence.
The relationship between the
workers centres and unions not
straight forward. Some centres work
closely with unions, some reject the
union movement as a ‘labour aris-tocracy’.
One labour activist pointed
out that the centres can and do sup-port
workers in bargaining struggles
Community Unionism
from the workplace to the streets
Brian Garvey
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
13
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but can’t represent workers in collec-tive
bargaining and so in cases, for
example, a memorandum of under-standing
has been signed between
unions and the workers centres as
part of a developing links based on
shared interests.
The Living Wage campaign in
London bought together unions
with community and faith based
groups, used demonstrations and
coy use of the media to embarrass
companies like HSBC into a redistri-bution
of the profits. While the victo-ries
in terms of an improved wages
for the lowest paid in the workplaces
have been localised, they represent
important strategies. The campaign
took its lead from the Justice for
Janitors victories in the USA, and
the ILGWU feminist union leadership
in Toronto employed similar creative
tactics while uniting sweat shop fac-tory
workers from a community
basis. Importantly, they recognised
that building membership from sev-eral
a small workplaces located in
different places and in different com-munities
took time and so they
blitzed other workplaces in tradition-al
ways – recruiting from photo-graphic
shops, bookmakers to help
the union grow - while patiently con-tinuing
their work in the communities
from which the garment makers
were drawn from. Also in Canada
the ‘Committee to Save the East
End’ of the city of Montreal that was
facing industrial decline brought
unions together with Church groups,
community organisations, local cred-it
union and small businesses to
successfully defend jobs.
In Australia too a new
source of organising has been found
in workers rights centres, workers
associations, inner city renewal
groups, community organisations,
and racial or ethnic organisations.
And here it has been pointed out
that while industrial trade unionism
in its peak was often centred around
the community where the workers
lived, and the unions were part of
the fabric of the locality, this became
less important as work was decen-tralised,
people became more
mobile and manufacturing declined.
This new wave, however, puts an
emphasis back on the locality, or
community as a basis for organising
again.
As I write, a mix of socialists
and environmentalists have formed
a ‘red green’ alliance with 25 work-ers
of the Vestas Wind Systems on
Isle of Wight and helped inspire the
current occupation of the wind ener-gy
plant. It is supported by the local
community, 300 of whom who
marched to the gates of the factory
last week and fired tennis balls of
tobacco to the occupiers and hope
into the hearts of who believe an
alternative to closures and cuts is
possible and necessary.
In Ireland there are many opportu-nities
for practical, ethical and tac-tical
relationships developing
between union activists and commu-nities
across the 32 counties. Take
health care as one example. The so
called Celtic Tiger generated millions
of euros in a wealth that the country
had never experienced. The large
unions entered into partnership with
the government. And yet, we are
left facing recession and incredibly,
there is still not a public health serv-ice.
What health system there is
north and south, it is the target of
further privatisation as is pointed out
elsewhere in these pages.
Health sector cuts affect
everyone: the community nurse who
facing intensified workload, the
domestic worker facing redundancy,
the patient who can not get bed, the
family who brings the patient for sur-gery
to be sent home and told to
phone later in the week, the family
that can’t afford insurance, that are
left trying to pick up the pieces when
another care home closes, the com-munities
that suffer rates of drug
dependency, post traumatic stress,
unemployment rates, teenage sui-cide
and unmet need that are
among the highest in Europe. On
top of this you have under-resourced
community organisations struggling
to provide the support to those
around them while public bodies
plan to cut budgets further. It is up
to us to find alternatives.
There are new and inspiring
examples of how people have come
together to find that they have com-mon
interests, common rights to
defend, experiences to share, skills
to use and courage to fight back.
IWU is dedicated to working with
other individuals, organisations, rank
and file trade unionists and commu-nity
workers towards a fairer and
more just society and welcome any
opportunity to come forward and
explore how this may be done with
anyone reading these pages.
There are new and
inspiring
examples of how people
have
come together to find that
they have common
interests, common rights
to defend,
experiences to share,
skills to use and
courage
to fight back
“
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
14
In 2004, the Scottish Socialist
Party won 5.2% of the vote, the
most impressive Socialist result in
these islands in that year’s Euro-election.
This followed the winning
of 6 Scottish parliamentary seats the
previous year. In 2009, the best
result is to be found in Ireland (cou-pled
with some impressive local
election results). Joe Higgins of the
Socialist Party is to be congratulated
on winning a Dublin Euro-seat.
However, from the sad col-lapse
of the Socialist vote in
Scotland, to the need to maximise
the political increased potential for
Socialists in Ireland, the main lesson
of the 2009 European elections is
clear. We need Socialist unity.
In Ireland, this is needed to
take some of the impressive gains
just made to an altogether higher
level - especially those of the
Socialist Party (SP), but also by
People before Profit Alliance (SWP
promoted) and the Workers and
Unemployed Action Group (WUAG).
This will not be easy given
past political sectarian divisions, the
continued pull towards Left pop-ulism,
and the usually unacknowl-edged
political significance of the
partition of Ireland, which both the
SP and the SWP downplay. Thus,
for example, despite the electoral
successes in ‘the 26 Counties’,
Socialists vacated the electoral ter-rain
altogether in ‘the Six Counties’.
There are independent
Socialist groups beyond the SP and
SWP in Ireland, such as the Irish
Socialist Network, as well as jour-nals
to promote debate between
Socialists and with Republicans –
Red Banner and Fourthwrite. They
may find some difficulty being heard
in the face of the likely triumphalist
clamour coming from the SP and
SWP after their recent electoral suc-cesses.
Nevertheless, the job of
promoting principled unity needs to
be undertaken now, even if it does
not bear fruit until sometime later.
Very soon, the Irish ruling
class will impose a rerun of the
Lisbon Treaty referendum. Given
that Eurosceptic Libertas leader,
Declan Ganley, seems to have
thrown in the towel, after failing to
win a Euro-seat in North West
Ireland, the responsibility for oppos-ing
this neo-liberal treaty falls much
more squarely upon Socialists. The
reactions of Sinn Fein (previously
opposed to the Treaty) and Labour
(previously supportive) will be inter-esting.
This could provide Socialists
with real opportunities to make a fur-ther
impact upon Irish national poli-tics.
However, this will mean
striving for real Socialist unity, if the
whole of Ireland, not just Dublin and
Cork, is to be covered properly. The
ability of the WUAG to organise
effectively in small town Ireland (in
County Tipperary) shows the possi-bilities.
Furthermore, it is to be
hoped that Irish Socialists can take
a leaf out of the French New Anti-
Capitalist Party, and organise an
internationalist campaign against the
neo-liberal Lisbon Treaty.
Furthermore, a wider unity
strategy means confronting both the
British and Irish ruling classes, who
are united in promoting the interests
of corporate capital in these islands.
Their agreed political strategy
involves the continued promotion of
the ‘Peace Process’ in ‘The Six
Counties’, closer cooperation
between the UK and Irish govern-ments,
and developing ‘Devolution-all-
round’, all to create the optimum
conditions for capitalist profitability.
It also involves giving open (British
government) and tacit (Irish govern-ment)
support for continued US
imperialist war drives.
Nor, is it surprising
that much of this strategy has the
open or tacit support of the British,
Irish, Scottish, and Welsh trade
union bureaucrats through ‘social
partnerships’. These have rendered
trade unions almost completely inef-fective
as a means to defend their
members. Trade union leaders now
ask, as a way to counter the current
economic crisis, that bosses accept
their share of the pain too, in return
for workers being prepared to accept
massive job losses, pay cuts and
worsened conditions. No wonder
the bosses are ‘laughing all the way
to the banks’ (now, of course, pro-tected
at our expense by their politi-cal
friends in government).
Given the difficulties of uniting
Socialists within each of their
respective nations - Ireland,
England, Wales and Scotland - we
face considerable difficulties uniting
Socialists from all these countries.
The British and Irish ruling class
strategy can not be opposed suc-cessfully
by means of that organisa-tional
model – one state/one party –
supported by the parties of the
British Left (and their Irish satellites).
Although in Britain this usually
means forgetting that the UK state
does not consist solely of Britain, but
also includes ‘the Six Counties’ of
Ireland.
Clearly this model is use-less,
when the nation itself is divid-ed,
as in the case of Ireland. This
tends to lead to the acceptance of
partitionist politics, which plays into
the hands of both the British and
Irish ruling classes. It usually leads
to the pursuit of quite different poli-tics
North and South. Meanwhile,
‘over the water’, even in its attenuat-ed
‘one British state’ version, the
The need for socialist unity
This is an edited version of an article by Allan Armstrong, a member of the
International Committee of the Scottish Socialist Party. The full version can be found on
http://republicancommunist.org/blog/
In Ireland,
this is needed (socialist
unity) to take some of the
impressive gains just
made to an altogether
higher level
“
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
15
one-state/one party advocates have
been unable to consistently counter
British chauvinism, or to appreciate
the democratic aspect of the emer-gence
of national movements in
Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
The resurgence of British
Right nationalism in the UK has
been a marked phenomenon of the
Euro-elections. The fascist BNP
gained 2 seats. UKIP took the sec-ond
highest % of votes in Britain
(primarily in England, but with their
biggest increase and a new seat in
Wales). The Conservatives even
became the first party in Wales. And,
of course, the dramatic drop in the
DUP’s % vote, far from marking a
decline in hard-core British
Unionism, was mainly at the
expense of the even more reac-tionary
and sectarian Traditional
Unionist Voice. The political atmos-phere
in ‘the Six Counties’ can be
gauged by the murderous Loyalist
attacks in Coleraine, and their suc-cessful
expulsion of Roma migrants
in Belfast. The BNP must be envi-ous.
Unfortunately, the current dire
political situation throughout the
UK could well lead to a further
retreat into Left populism amongst
the existing divided Socialists here.
The SWP looks as if it wants to draw
others into another Left unity cam-paign
against the BNP, shifting the
focus away from the Mainstream
parties. However, it is these parties,
especially New Labour, which have
largely been responsible for creating
the economic and social crisis that
has allowed the Fascists to emerge
into the limelight in the first place.
The Socialist Party (SP) in
England and Wales, and its
International Socialist (IS) outrider
inside Solidarity in Scotland, offer
another road to Left unity, which also
needs to be questioned. They want
to build a political alternative to New
Labour, but by further developing the
bureaucratic, Left British nationalist,
European electoral front, No2EU.
They hope to merge it with the SP’s
own Campaign for a New Workers
Party to form a new party based on
the existing undemocratic, bureau-crat-
dominated trade unions - in
other words, an Old Labour Party
mark 2.
When it comes to proposals
for joint action, we should avoid
Allan Armstron addressing a trade union meeting in Dublin earlier this year
“Our strength is in unity”
Cont. next page
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
16
being panicked by the SWP into pre-tended
threats of a Fascist takeover.
There will be no BNP ‘March on
London’, far less Edinburgh or
Glasgow. Those at the sharp end of
BNP/loyalist attacks will mainly be
individual migrant workers. This is
why it was also so important to
oppose No2EU, with its thinly dis-guised
racist opposition to ‘social
dumping’. Support for ‘No One Is
Illegal’ allows us to come to the help
of all those migrant workers, legal or
illegal, who face either BNP attacks
or state persecution.
Neither, though, is the large-ly
‘go-it-alone’ Left nationalism,
found in sections of both the SSP
and Solidarity, the answer. The SSP
itself still remains divided between a
more outward looking wing, which
wants to get involved at all levels of
politics, and understands the need
for wider Socialist unity involving
other political groups; and those,
mainly, but not exclusively from
Glasgow, who are still suffering from
the traumas of the previous court
case and the split. Therefore, when
the SSP took the decision to stand
in the 2009 Euro-election this repre-sented
a real political advance.
Furthermore, the SSP agreed at its
Conference to stand as part of the
European Anti-Capitalist Alliance,
organised by the New Anti-Capitalist
Party.
The SSP has become
increasingly Scottish internationalist
and republican socialist in its poli-tics.
The SSP made the first small
steps towards an alternative ‘inter-nationalism
from below’ approach to
the politics of the British Left and
their Irish supporters, when it organ-ised
the Republican Socialist
Convention* last November. This
involved socialists from Scotland,
Ireland, England and Wales. There
can be no ‘British road to socialism’,
only a ‘break-up of the UK state and
British Empire road to communism’.
Genuine communism, how-ever,
means not total state control,
but the end of wage slavery, in a
society based on the principle of
“from each according to their abili-ties;
to each according to their
needs” and “where the free develop-ment
of each is the condition for the
free development of all”.
* Electronic copies of the
report are available by e-mailing rep-soccon@
live.com
In the following review of
Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in
Organised Labor and a New
Path Toward Social Justice, Susan
Rosenthal addresses the strategic
questions raised by authors Fletcher
and Gapasin. This crisis within the
labour movement is not limited to
the United States; it is a global phe-nomenon.
In Ireland, deteriorating
social conditions have also been
accompanied by declining union
membership. Workers have no con-fidence
in a Social Partnership
where the union bureaucracy col-ludes
with bosses and government
to undermine workers.
In the North of Ireland, the
Stormont Government is making
deep cuts to public services, while
unions collude with the cuts by bar-gaining
away the rights of health
workers and their patients. This is a
"social partnership," where one part-ner
robs the other. Solidarity
Divided argues that union move-ment
must become a labour move-ment
that champions the economic
and social interests of the entire
working class, union and non-union.
Clearly, we have a long way to go.
American unions avoided
the political questions raised by
Hurricane Katrina. Instead of chal-lenging
the racism, poverty and neo-liberal
government policies that con-tributed
to the disaster, unions
offered only charity. Closer to home
here in Northern Ireland, unions and
politicians did likewise when they
avoided the opportunity to challenge
the sectarian and racist state when
Roma families were attacked by
racists and the establishment collud-ed
with these attacks by assisting
the exit of the victimised Romanians
from the country. Anti-racist sound
bites from union leaders and politi-cians
rang hollow as despairing
Roma men, women and children
boarded buses, which transported
them to airports.
Fletcher, Gapasin and
Rosenthal emphasise that when
unions don’t support the working
class they cannot count on the work-ing
class to support them. As
Rosenthal puts it, "By refusing to
fight the political class war, unions
are losing the economic battle." The
authors warn that capitalism domi-nates
workers to keep them passive,
and this passivity undermines
attempts to build independent and
democratic unions. Stringent meas-ures
are required to make sure
members keep collective and demo-cratic
control of their union. This is
the major challenge for groups such
as the Independent Workers Union,
which is building new sructures.
The primary lesson of
Solidarity Divided is that we must
address the social and political
issues that affect our members and
all workers. If we want to avoid the
failures of those who have gone
before us, we must fight not only for
ourselves, but also for our class.
Patricia Campbell
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
17
What is the purpose of a
union? How should unions
respond to the oppression
of Blacks, women, immigrants and
gays? How should unions relate to
the rest of the working class, the
employer, and the State? Should
existing unions be reformed, or is
more fundamental change required?
In their new book, Solidarity Divided:
The Crisis in Organised Labor and a
New Path Toward Social Justice, Bill
Fletcher, Jr. and Fernando Gapasin
insist that we need new answers to
these questions if we hope to
reverse “the crisis facing Organised
labor - indeed the crisis facing the
entire US working class.” This crisis
is marked by declining unionisation,
inter-union conflict, falling living
standards, rising unemployment,
growing poverty and deepening
oppression.Solidarity Divided is
essential reading.
For a summary of the con-tents,
I recommend Immanuel
Ness’s thoughtful review. I will
address the strategic questions that
Fletcher and Gapasin raise because
they are so important to our own
organizing efforts. What is the pur-pose
of a union? Since Samuel
Gompers took the Presidency of the
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
in 1886, the official answer to the
question of what is the purpose of a
union has been - to promote the
economic interests of those fortu-nate
enough to be union members.
Fletcher and Gapasin argue that this
narrow focus on economic self-inter-est
(economic unionism) has been a
colossal failure for unions and for
the working class as a whole.Unions
are the most Organised section of
the working class. They could win
mass support if they championed
the unity, rights and standard-of-liv-ing
of the entire class, that is, if they
addressed social and political
issues.
When unions don’t support
the class, they cannot count on the
class to support them. And without
mass support, unions cannot prevail
against an employers’ offensive that
pits groups of workers against one
another. Here’s a good example. I
recently heard a public radio report
on a months’ long civic workers’
strike. The head of the union was
interviewed first, followed by the
city’s mayor (the employer). The
union leader focused on the fairness
of the union’s economic demands
compared with what other unionised
workers in the city have won.
The mayor talked about how the
strike was an attack against seniors
and children. He said that everyone
was suffering from the recession,
and city workers had no right to put
their own welfare above that of oth-ers.
He added that he could not
meet the union’s demands without
cutting public services. The mayor
presented himself as the guardian of
the greater good, when the reverse
is true. The union had rejected a
concession contract. It was fighting
to maintain a standard of living that
serves as a benchmark for other
workers in the area, defending
senior’s pensions and good jobs for
tomorrow’s workers. However, the
union did not say that it was fighting
for the rights of all workers.
The union did not say that it was
fighting against the unreasonable
demand that workers should pay for
economic problems they did not cre-ate.
The union did not call on every-one
who is suffering from the reces-sion
to join its fight and demand that
business profits be taxed to provide
more good jobs through expanded
public services. It said none of these
things. Unlike the mayor, it steered
clear of “politics.” So, after hearing
both sides, the average person
would be inclined to support the
mayor against the “greedy unions”
who either caused the recession or
are demanding more than their
share. How can union supporters
convince others that unions fight for
everyone, when unions themselves
refuse to make this argument?
Polls show that most workers want
union jobs, so there is potential for
majority support for unions.
However, a narrow union focus on
economic self-interest does not
invite mass support. On the contrary,
it can generate resentment among
non-union workers.
By refusing to fight the politi-cal
class war, unions are losing the
economic battle. To reverse this situ-ation,
Fletcher and Gapasin argue
that the union movement must
undergo a political transformation to
become a labor movement that
champions the economic and social
interests of the entire working class:
union and non-union, employed and
unemployed, all races, genders,
sexual orientations, native-born and
immigrant. continue reading....
Susan Rosenthal is a prac-ticing
physician and the author of
Professional Poison: How
Professionals Sabotage Social
Movements and Why Workers
Should Lead our Fight.
Solidarity Divided: A Welcome
Return to Class Politics
by Susan Rosenthal
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
18
August 1969
A crucial event in recent Irish history is reviewed by Patricia Campbell
August 1969 was the year that
transformed the face of the
North forever. The civil rights
marches of the previous year had
launched a movement for change
that the Stormont regime found
impossible to cope with through nor-mal
democratic process. Used for
decades to having its every order
obeyed, or at least having those
who objected compelled to fall in
line, the Unionist Party and its
machinery of power decided to
resort to the old tactic of subjugation
through force. People demanding
that anti-democratic practices end
would be driven off the streets and
battered into acquiescence – or pay
a heavy price for challenging the
authority of the regime. This method
had worked in the past. In fact the
very state had come into being
through the bloody intimidation of
that section of the population that
had objected to its formation in the
first place.
British governments in
1920/21/22 had allowed James
Craig and his colleagues in the
Unionist Party use widespread sec-tarian
violence in order to establish
a 6-County state. Between July
1920 and July 1922, 453 people had
been killed in Belfast, 37 members
of the Crown forces and 417 civil-ians;
257 Catholics and 157
Protestants and two of no known
religion. Of the city’s 93,000 Catholic
inhabitants, 11,000 had been forced
from their jobs and 23,000 driven
from their homes. This was the envi-ronment
in which the northern state
was created.
During the early months of
1969, supporters of the unionist
state had viciously attacked a series
of peaceful demonstrations. A march
by students in January was
ambushed outside Derry and clearly
identified among the attackers were
numerous members of the police
reserve, the ‘B’ Special. In incident
after incident for the following few
months, this the level of violence
increased. The RUC riot squad was
responsible for a number of deaths
when members of the force used
their batons on civilians in Derry
City, Dungiven, Co. Derry and
Coalisland, Co. Tyrone.
When the Derry Citizens
Defence Association(DCDA)
was formed in July of 1969, it decid-ed
to organise a defence of the
Bogside in order to prevent further
lethal attack by the RUC and ‘B’
Specials. The Stormont regime was
unwilling to curb the activities of any
of its supporters and made no
attempt to prevent the Apprentice
Boys parade taking place in Derry
on 12 August. There was little doubt
that rioting was going to break out
when thousands of unionists began
strutting along the city walls, remind-ing
the inhabitants of their second
class status in Northern Ireland. As
the Apprentice Boys march was
coming to an end the expected hap-pened
and fighting between the
RUC and local residents intensified.
Unlike previous occasions,
the RUC met with stiff resistance
from the people of the Bogside and
found it impossible to gain control of
the area as the DCDA organisation
proved effective. Key to the success
of the defenders was their decision
to occupy the high flats in the centre
of the district and use is as a strong
point to hurl stones and Molotov
cocktails down on the advancing
police below.
The struggle lasted through-out
the night and into the next day
and still the RUC was unable to pen-etrate
the Bogside. Tension grew
throughout the North as all sides
watched the conflict develop.
Nationalists and republicans were
anxious to see what could be done
to help the defenders while
Unionism was becoming increasing-ly
hysterical as it watched its
absolute authority being challenged
on the streets.
Fourthwrite Summer 2009 Fourthwrite Summer 2009
19
Grassroots unionism was demand-ing
that live ammunition be used
against the Bogsiders but Stormont’s
cabinet knew that with the world
watching so closely, it would be a
gross mistake. With the situation
under scrutiny, the Unionist regime
understood that Britain would exact
a very high price from the Belfast
parliament if its police force were to
be seen to carry out a Sharpville
style massacre in Derry with the
world’s press watching.
With the Bogsider defenders
under increasing siege, word was
circulated in all nationalist and
republican areas that it would be
necessary to organise demonstra-tions
to take pressure off the people
in Derry. Demonstration were organ-ised
in nationalist towns across the
North and RUC and ‘B’ Specials
were dispatched to contain the
events. In town after town these
events grew increasingly violent.
Police and ‘B’ Specials began to use
the live ammunition that their sup-porter
had been demanding and
gunshot casualities were inflicted on
nationalist civilians in several towns.
In Armagh city ‘B’ specials shot and
killed a Catholic civilian making his
way home from a local bar.
The greatest violence, how-ever,
broke out on the night of the
14th August in Belfast. A protest
march had taken place on the 13
and in its aftermath the IRA
exchanged gunfire with the RUC,
wounding one constable. On the
night of the 14th crowds of unionists
gathered in the Shankill area and
other unionist districts. As daylight
began to fade, shooting broke out.
Desultory at first and growing in
intensity as time went by. As dark-ness
fell, the RUC sent armoured
cars equipped with heavy machine
guns into the lower Falls and
Ardoyne firing into houses and killing
several of the occupants.
As the armoured cars raced
through the narrow streets they had
little difficulty winning control of
these districts. Once in charge, the
RUC started to systematically shoot
out street lighting. With the streets in
darkness and the inhabitants terri-fied,
crowds of unionist arsonists
supported by off duty ‘B’ Specials
started to pour into the lower Falls
and Ardoyne and other nationalist
areas in Belfast.
IRA units in Belfast were seriously
under resourced in August 1969.
The republican army’s head quarters
staff had taken a decision to reduce
its arsenal in Belfast in order to
ensure that local unit commanders
would not precipitate a sectarian
blood bath by undisciplined opera-tions.
The decision was well meant
and had a certain logic in light of the
progress of the civil rights movement
but in the context of Northern Irish
reality it was a mistaken and naive
judgment.
Badly outnumbered they put
up a spirited resistance to the
counter revolutionary assault and
joined by veteran members of the
organisation prevented a much
greater amount of damage being
inflicted on the nationalist communi-ty.
It was nevertheless, beyond
doubt that the nationalist communi-ties
in the Falls and Ardoyne areas
had suffered greatly with a huge
numbed of homes burned out and
many families driven from their prop-erty.
The trauma was enormous and
evoked memories of the worst days
of the 1920s. Within days efforts
were being made to find arms and to
organise military defence of these
districts. The IRA was to split over
the issue and in practice this period
signalled the end of peaceful, non-insurrectionary
protest.
The British government sent
troops into Derry and Belfast but
refused to curb the powers of the
Stromont regime. In time it became
obvious that London had little inter-est
in radically reforming Northern
Ireland and the Home Secretary of
the time, Jim Callaghan, told nation-alist
politicians that they could have
‘reform’ but it had to happen within
the parameters of a Stormont
regime. This dictate of ‘any colour
you like so long as it’s orange’ was
to ensure that the very existence of
the state had to be challenged if
change was to occur and that is
exactly what was t happen.Nothing
was the same after August 1969.
The Orange state was in free-fall.
Belfast burns as unionists attack nationalist homes
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
20
RJ patted his protruding
paunch smugly ‘I made
money, and money made me’
he smirked his mantra. The blonde
widow giggled admiringly. At 77 RJ
was certainly well preserved, eligible
but proving slippery. His contact
blue lensed eyes looked at her
shrewdly, dental implants smiling,
diminishing attention to his most
recent cancer spot removal on the
side of his chin. ‘No way, Jose’ he
thought now ‘is THIS widow going to
become my wife’. Why would he
marry again, anyway? He looked
good….. and few people knew his
real age. RJ spent more than half a
million on his body in the last ten
years. He recorded every cent in
his secret black book marked
‘Personal’ - no one knew quite how
personal! Some of the expenditure
had been major, like his prostrate
cancer and colon cancer, but, thank
God, he thought (he was a devout
Catholic) I had the money for the
best treatment and private nurses
when I needed them. The rest was
mainly cosmetic - hair transplants
and dyes to keep it distinguished sil-ver,
(he would never go grey!), man-icurists,
opthalmogoists. It was sur-prising,
RJ thought, how these little
toiletries mounted up, Fleets (daily),
Baby wipes, scented toilet paper, tis-sues,
special soaps and creams,
vitamins and oils. His average
monthly account with the drug store
was nearly $1000. But he deserved
it all.
Until he was 60 he had con-centrated
on making a pile of
money, and he felt every year since
then was a bonus in financial and
other ways. His money earned
money now, and got him whatever
he wanted - including people. He
had only been frustrated once when
the fool of an eye doctor refused to
consider making bifocal contacts for
him. As RJ told him ‘if they can
make bifocal spectacles, why not
contacts?’ but the $100 a minute
idiot had laughed as though he was
making a joke. He would have
liked them for the golf course - to
help hit the ball and then to be able
to see it fly through the air and land,
….also he wouldn’t have to wear
reading glasses.
He was satisfied with the
blue contacts, though. His eyes
were now a brilliant blue, an
improvement on the previous watery
grey. And the blue certainly looked
good with the silver Mink hair. His
wife had passed on years before, for
which RJ was daily grateful. Her
Trust Fund had been his seed
money way back in the 30s, and his
own inheritance of $50,000 in the
forties had helped too.
Though really, as he was proud of
saying, he had made his fortune
from nothing. His maxim had been
‘waste not, want not’ and that had
been difficult to get through to his
wife who insisted on extra lamps
lighting and heat on when not nec-essary.
Thankfully, that problem
was buried with her. Now, of
course, he enjoyed ‘wasting’ money
on himself, telling himself ‘money
enjoyed is never wasted’. And he
was very willing to spend now on the
superfluous younger women so long
as they were in his company, enter-taining
him. It was good for his
image to have good looking women
seen with him at the best restau-rants
and theatres. Sandy, the lat-est,
was now suggesting golf tomor-row.
‘Sorry, Sandy, - Doctor’s
appointment’ RJ replied, with an
inward grin. He would never play
golf with a woman! He only played
with men of his own status, the 50c
bets adding a spark of interest to the
game, while they mainly discussed
investments and moaned about
those Democrat radicals.
Made of Money
by Aine Ní Gabhainn
Short story
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
21
RJ’s ancestors had come from
Ireland in the 1800s and right up
to his own father had been stalwarts
and beneficiaries of the Democratic
machine. But RJ had seen the ben-efits
of desertion outweighing the
perks of loyalty, and had been a
staunch Republican supporter since
the 50s. He had made a lot of con-tacts
(and contracts) while in Naval
intelligence during the Way. ‘Aren’t
you feeling well, RJ?’ Sandy asked.
‘Oh, fine, fine, but I’ve had this
cough for a while and I thought I’d
better get it checked out’. He didn’t
tell her that for the last 20 years he
had a complete physical every
month. Some people were so care-less
with their health they wouldn’t
understand. The only thing he was
careless with was the truth.
RJ saw his eye doctor every
six weeks, and his dentist every
month. He didn’t believe in taking
unnecessary risks. All of his med-icals
took place on a Tuesday - he
played golf Monday, Wednesday
and Friday, and took the boat to the
beach house the other days. His
regimen was strict and he never
allowed anything to upset it. He
enjoyed the game of backgammon
with his old friend Edward at the
beach. In 20 years he had never
been beaten, nor had the beach
group varied, except for those who
had died, and sometimes he thought
their widows talked so much about
them they might as well still be pres-ent.
The champagne and caviar fol-lowed
by hot dogs and whiskey
sours for lunch was a ritual. He
liked regularity in everything from
bowels to recreation.
Control was the key to his
success, his control of everything
and everyone. He was sometimes
irritated that his children didn’t
understand that. Both in their forties
now, they had broken loose some
years earlier. RJ was non plussed
when he thought of them, which was
rarely. They had rejected his con-trol,
and lacked their own. Divorces,
remarriages, alcoholism. Lucky he
didn’t see much of them, they had
both gone out West. Of course, he
gave them money when they got
into difficulties, but only when essen-tial
to preserve his own good name.
And he had made his Will ironclad
so that they could not dissipate his
finances, but would have to be satis-fied
with a fixed annuity. Not that
that scenario was anywhere close
on the horizon. He knew he had
many years left - his money ensured
it. Right now he clicked his fingers
for the check.
The waiter left it on the tray
and remained as RJ withdrew his lit-tle
calculator and checked the bill,
carefully adding the 15% tip. The
service had been good and he did
not demur the 15%. (He quite often
did not tip.) His driver, Emil, (a well
trained and oft-threatened illegal
immigrant), was waiting outside the
restaurant. Despite his lenses his
night sight was not good, and he
tensed as he sat beside the driver -
Sandy in the back. He didn’t trust
Emil and on the short journey shout-ed
instructions non-stop till they
reached Sandy’s condo.
A brief good night to her and
they continued on to his house. The
housekeeper was as usual waiting
for him, and on his entrance he dis-missed
her for the night with the
instruction he wanted a 7 am call in
the morning. His appointment was
for 10 am and on normal days it
took an hour and a half to prepare
himself for the day - 30 minutes for
his contacts alone. (He couldn’t see
a thing without them and had difficul-ty
finding his eyes.) And he never
rushed his breakfast.
He let Dr. Kildare know he was
lightly annoyed with him, on
arrival greeting him with ‘Those
bloody medicines were no good, I’m
still coughing.’ Dr. Kildare bestowed
his cap toothed smile on him ‘Well,
Mr. Fitzpatrick, lets have another
look at your chest, then.’ Ten min-utes
and several questions later, Dr.
Kildare suggested an appointment
with a pulmonary specialist ‘just to
make sure everything is fine’. ‘I
don’t see why everything shouldn’t
be fine, I’m paying you enough’ RJ
growled, though he agreed to see
Dr. Chamberlain the following day.
Forty five years ago a spot on his
lung had been detected, and he had
stopped smoking immediately.
Surely that had nothing to do with
this?
His mood was not the best
the rest of the day and his staff
tread warily, sighing with relief when
he finally went to bed. ‘Nothing
wrong with his voice, anyway, he
can still shout loud enough’ the driv-er,
Emil, grumbled to the house-keeper.
The next day RJ spent
three hours with Dr. Chamberlain,
giving drops of blood, sputum, urine,
every orifice penetrated, nothing left
untested. The X-rays showed noth-ing,
and the Doctor suggested an
overnight stay for more extensive
tests. Despite the inconvenience,
RJ agreed. He didn’t like hospitals,
but knew they were necessary. He
hated being told what to do and
resented it. He was confident that
they wouldn’t find anything seriously
wrong, but he was too careful to let
anything invade his body, was
always fierce in its defence – treated
it the same as his wallet!
The journey to the hospital
the next day was remarkable for the
ferocity of RJ’s back seat driving
from the front seat, and Emil, being
a true Christian all the way from El
Salvador, devoutly prayed for RJ’s
painful demise, slow and tortuous,
and within the confines of the hospi-tal.
Unfortunately for Emil, the God
in heaven turned the deaf ear to his
entreaties, and the God on earth in
the form of RJ was released 36
hours later unscathed and uncancer-ous.
However, the various tests and
proddings had been unpleasant, and
his stress level was high as he was
wheeled to the car. His test hoars-ened
voice box issued the curt
instructions to Emil, intermittently
Control was the
key to his
success, his
control of
everything and
everyone.
He was
sometimes
irritated that his
children didn’t
understand that
“
Cont. next page
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
22
No to Lisbon II
Website www.fourthwrite.ie
Contact us at:
webmaster@fourthwrite.ie
or
PO Box 39
An Post
Monaghan Town
boasting of his good health, while
savagely telling Emil he was cross-ing
the white line (he wasn’t, RJ’s
lenses weren’t in and the white line
was on his blind side.)
Emil’s brief 36 hour respite
from the battering had relaxed him,
and his reaction was not as wooden
as usual. As he drove the highway
stretched to an infinite path of RJ’s
arrogance and cruelty, and for the
first time in years Emil thought ‘I
don’t need this shit!’ As the miles
sped past so the tight knot in his
chest unravelled as freedom beck-oned
alluringly, and eventually
exploded orgasmically in his brain.
As the car approached an exit, RJ’s
voice became more strident, and
with a ‘Fuck it, here goes’ Emil
pulled in to the shoulder and
stopped the car, turned off the
engine, and got out.
Momentarily silent, RJ
looked at him in shock. ‘Shove it,
motherfucker’ Emil calmly and smil-ingly
said, closed the door and
walked away. RJ rolled down the
window, screaming ‘Get back here
you little bastard spic, where do you
think you’re going?’ Emil turned and
made a physically impossible rude
gesture to RJ, whose face was pur-ple
with rage. He loudly cursed the
swarthy little spic as he fumbled into
the drivers seat and switched on the
engine. He had always been a
great driver and this computerised
high tech model would be no prob-lem,
even though he hadn’t driven
for ten years.
Silently planning to inform
Immigration of Emil’s undocumented
status, he shot out into the right lane
causing much blowing of horns. In
seconds he was doing seventy and
trying hard to get the feel of the car,
cursing his lack of lenses and the
weakness of his aged limbs. Beads
of perspiration appeared on his fore-head,
anger at Emil and the other
motorists tightening in his head, his
breathing uneven and getting more
difficult with every gasped breath, a
vice tightening in his chest….he
couldn’t move his foot, his leg was
numb, and the needle rose and rose
till his heart exploded in his chest
and blackness overtook him.
The car leapt and spun
across the road. RJ’s last thought
was ‘I’ve lost control’ as he hurtled
to eternity….. where he knew his
money was not negotiable currency.
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
23
During the last Referendum
Campaign little was said
about the possible effect of
the Lisbon Treaty on our Health
Services – or Public services.
Indeed, for some years before that
much publicity was given to the
ease with which citizens of the EU
could avail of health treatment in
any/all of the member States.
There was always a ‘good news’
story to be told of great medical
treatment, free of charge, etc.
We have recently come
across information regarding Articles
of the Treaty which would seriously
affect our health services and also
remove our national decision making
power over our Public Services.
For our purposes now we
will concentrate on the Health issue.
The then UK Health Secretary Frank
Dobson (Labour) in February 2008
highlighted concern on this issue
“Appearances would suggest that
our National Health Service is and
will remain the exclusive responsibil-ity
of the UK Government, but it is
not and, under the Lisbon Treaty, it
will not. All the apparent protection
for our sovereignty that was provid-ed
in the old and new treaties does
not exist. It turns out that some
parts of the treaties are more equal
than others.” Dobson then refers to
a recent European Court of Justice
decision (Watts case), followed up
by the European Commission, which
decided to open everything to do
with Health care up
to internal market
forces……..He
goes on to warn
that the forces in
his opinion behind
the proposition are
the US Health Corporations – who,
he says, are promoting the concept
of competition in Health provision.
The Lisbon Treaty – Article
16 would give the EU power to legis-late
upon the ‘economic and finan-cial
conditions’ for the running of
Public Services. It says the EU
‘shall establish these principles and
set these conditions without preju-dice
to the Member States, in com-pliance
with the Treaties, to provide,
commission and fund such services.’
The worrying point here is that
Article 16 does not set aside the
existing case law of the European
Court of Justice whose rulings deter-mine
what is in compliance with the
Treaties. The principles established
in Case Law by the ECJ will remain
as the legal framework for any EU
legislation arising in a post-Lisbon
scenario. According to the
Commission and the European
Court of Justice compliance with the
treaties means letting Private
Operators compete to deliver servic-es.
Legislation flowing from Article
16 would have to be in accord with
the ECJ case law, and include the
right of private operators to bid for
public services, including health
care.
We all remember the
Minister for Health Mary Harney’s
statement that ‘we are closer to
Boston than Berlin’ – well, now she
has it both ways – if what the former
UK Health Secretary stated in the
House of Commons is true (and it
has not been challenged) then we
have EU legislation heavily influ-enced
by US Health Corporations
who are promoting the concept of
competition.
We may be following in the
footsteps of the wealthiest nation in
the world in the manner of providing
Health services after the Lisbon rati-fication.
Do we want this in
Ireland? We can take preventative
steps – Vote No.
Lisbon Treaty
The implications for our Health
&
Public Services
by Clarrie Pringle
Above: British Labour Party MP who has highlight-ed
a danger posed to public health services by the
working of the Lisbom Treaty if implemented.
Website
www.fourthwrite.ie
Contact us at:
webmaster@fourthwrite.ie
or
PO Box 39
An Post
Monaghan Town
Fourthwrite Summer 2009
24
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An eviction scene from Ireland of the 19th Century
The drawing reprinted above is one of the very famous images of 19th Century Ireland. Although somewhat romanti-cise,
it illustrated a common occurrence as people in economic hardship were frequently forced from their home by
rapacious landlords. There is growing concern in Ireland of today that many people may lose their home in the cur-rent
recession and there is little evidence that the banks will be as generous to their clients as the Irish government
has been to the banks.