Issue 063, Saoirse : Irish Freedom (July, 1992)

              387.096 at the start of july 387,096 people were unemployed in the 32 counties 103,796 of these in the six counties strabane once again has the greatest number 23.2 per cent out of work in the 26 counties the state manipul ated the figures taking 7,500 people off the live register at the stroke of a pen the old figures are used here three demands still valid republican sinn fein terms remain • british withdrawal must be on the agenda for any real peace in ireland in the midst of the current welter of media speculation and rumour republican sinn f6in spoke out with a clear voice at its recent comhairle uladh ulster executive meeting in cootehill co cavan after discussion with the delegates the following statement by ruairi 3 bradaigh president was adopted for release to the media british withdrawal essing where they stand in the light of irish history still valid are the three republican demands of 1 . a british declaration of intent to with draw for republican sinn fein the terms and con ditions for a british withdrawal from ireland have not changed it is necessary to issue this caution ary statement in view of reports and articles in the press over the past week we welcome talks at any time but in our view these must not be directed towards reconstituting 2 a new ireland negotiated by the irish stormont on whatever basis — peace with justice people themselves and does not lie in that direction therefore the talks taking place at present cannot be of interest to 3 a ral amnest f n ,. ^ republicans because british withdrawal is not on rtmt p the agenda we ask the irish people to take great care in ass these are detailed in our towards a peaceful ireland policy document drafted by daithf 6 conaill and published by us last y ear eire nua - a new democracy elaborates our proposals for a new four-province federal ireland including a nine-county ulster with maximum devolution of power to local level republican sinn fein is determined to keep to the high moral ground of irish republicanism in keeping with this our proposals safeguard the rights of minorities and majorities alike by a far reaching redistribution of political power within a new ireland talks aim for a new stormont1 > stormont seat of unionist power for 51 years as we went to press there were reports that the unionist parties the sdlp and the british and dub lin administrations intend moving to strand two of their talks about setting up a new stormont strand two was supposed to involve north-south talks yet it is clear that six patrick may hew british secretary of state in the six occupied counties will sit with the northern parties in any discussions this feature is not new — it was present in the original unissued state ment by his predecessor peter brooke on july 5 1990 when he made clear that discussions between the unionists and the dublin administration would only take place with the unionist leaders as part of a uk team led by brooke himself mayhew now expects to play this central role which means that the british cannot pretend to be neutral or merely disinterested facilitators with no object ion to this coming from the sdlp or the dublin representatives it also follows that they both accept that mayhew as britain's supremo in the six counties is entitled to sit in on the north-south talks which means the british are entitled to be in ireland in that case also what is the difference then between strand two and the discuss ions in london on wednesday june 30 supposed to be the anglo-irish strand three ? there is none obviously this talks process has gone on now for two-and-a-half years the aim is to construct a more acceptable stormont under one guise or another this will not bring peace and a lasting solution because it does not address britain's presence in ireland it will and must fail because of this