Issue 163, Saoirse: Irish Freedom (November, 2000)

              belfast rsf offices raided in an obvious attempt to shore up the tottering position of david trimble in the uup the british crown forces ruc raided the public offices of republican sinn fein at 229 falls road belfast on october 13 in a statement the organisation said by clamping down hard on legitimate political expression of opposition to the storm on t agreement and the promotion of the republican alternative to it — eire nua the british occupation regime in ireland hopes to rescue mr trimble and placate the hard-line unionist opposition to him what price now freedom of political expression under the new stormont republican prisoners are denied political status in maghaberry prison and open political opposition is blatantly harassed 2vz years since it was signed facing certain defeat at the october 28 ulster unionist council meeting david trimble compromised with his opposition within his party who are opposed to the stormont agreement by watering down his concessions to the donaldson camp he would position on it he scraped through for another two months - until early january - when the situation is to be reviewed again in spite of promising sanctions against the provisionals calling for a moratorium on the patten report promising a more proactive role for the decommissioning commission and holding out the definite prospect of a uup review of its position in january trimble gained only one percentage point on his 53 win at the uuc meeting last may clearly the uup leader must be a very worried man i le must know he cannot hold out indefinitely - hoping something will come up - with only half his party at his back only if he had made no concessions to the no camp and gained substantially could he feel that he had turned the corner the reality was that if he had not moved to make have lost the vote at the uuc meetings since the stormont agreement trimble started with 72 support in april 1998 he has since seen his majority in the ulster unionist parry slip to 58 november 1999 57 march 2000 53 may 2000 and now 54 by compromising with the no people the irish times london editor frank millar wrote on october 30 "... the ulster unionists turned the clock back on saturday all the way to last november the concessions to the unionists by the british during the same period included peter mandelson's promise that control over security would be returned to stormont and his decision to fly the british flag over all public buildings on certain days important to the british crown meanwhile on the streets the loyalist feud continues with four more deaths in four days at the end of october the provos assassinated a young man opposed to the stormont agreement in belfast's ballymurphy and a member of the british forces ruc was seriously injured by a bomb at castlewellan co down republican sinn fein recognises there is no real peace and that the dublin and london adminis trations the sdlp and unionists will tolerate multiple killings by pro stormont agreement organisations if the killing is deemed to be in support of the agreement it is acceptable to these parties and administrations eire nua remains the credible alternative to the stormont agreement despite the best efforts of the pro-stormont parties to pretend there is none as the agreement edges towards possible collapse the republican sinn fein alternative will continue to win increasing support among nationally-minded people provo dumps classic counter-revolution in a statement on october 25 ruairi 6 bradaigh president republican sinn fein said that once again the provos have come to the rescue of unionist david trimble by exposing their dumps once more to people who report back to london and dublin their commitments to do action as treachery punishable so are in clear violation of their by death see hie long war own regulations ie general by brendan o'brien order no 1 1 , which classify such many of their followers now realise just where the constitutional road they started out on in 1986 has led them it has turned out to be a classic counter-revolution at the behest of the british in that they have now embarked on the assassination of those who take a stand against them republican sinn fein poblachtach 96uard-fheis2000 baile atha cliath 18-19 samhain for further details contact ard-oifig 223 parnell street dublin 1 tell 872 9747 fax 872 9757 e-mail saoirse@iol.ie