ON DECEMBER Parliamentary Labour Party held a special meeting, clusively devoted to Ireland. The meeting was called following sharp differences expressed after the Enniskillen bombing. Kinnock had moved even more sharply towards the Unionists - visiting Ireland to attempt to persuade southern Irish prime minister Haughey to The aim of everyone in the labour movement, must be to bring to an end the long history of violence in the North of Ireland, to secure self-determination for the Irish people, and to strengthen democracy in Britain. These goals are self-reinforcing, not mutually contradictory. But they, and in partichair an end to violence, cannot be achieved by pious hopes nor, as the history of the last half century shows, through repression. Any investigation of the tion shows that violence can only be brought. to end by withdrawal from Ireland.
Present Labour Party policy Ireland is, unfortunately, illogical and tererore does not stand une test or There are in fact only two coherent courses.
* The first is that the union of Britain and the North of Ireland must be maintained. In that case Labour must be prepared face the economically, militarily, and politically — not only for itself but in terms of denying the right of the Irish people to self-determination.
* The second is that Britain withdraws — in which case it is in everyone's interest that this withdrawal takes place as rapidly as possible.
Why the second course is the only correct one is clear. The great majority of the Irish people have expressed their desire for independence. Furthermore for more than a century Britain has in fact been in the course of withdrawal from The tragedy has British governments have failed to take the decisive step of complete withdrawal when this has been possible. They have taken only partial steps - thereby prolonging the agony and losing lives in order to try to avoid an historic process which is finally inevitable.
Table I: Housing conditions in Belfast 1971 Catholics as % of males of working age Falls Dock Pottinger Shankill Victoria the sign the extradition treaty. Ken Livingstone argued that the ex- source of the Ireland was the partition of the country and the maintainance of a sectarian state in the north. This led to a sharp clash at the NEC and the PLP -the meeting being preceded by statement signed members of the Group of Labour MPs calling The job of the Labour Party is not to lag behind events but to bring to an end this episode and get Ireland. Furthermore, in addition to its principled character such a policy would command popular support.
The three successive steps to British withdrawal from Ireland are clear. - from 1885 to 1914. adopted by the British parliament. — in 1921 Britain withdrew from 26 out of the 32 counties of Ireland. At that time situa- a golden opportunity to withdraw from the whole of Ireland was missed.
British - the Anglo-Irish Treaty, whatever attitude one takes towards its provisions — and i oppose it. now makes it clear that Britain cannot rule even the North of on Ireland itself. Furthermore, the British labour movement cannot continue to Ireland in which systematic discrimination against the Catholic population in employment and other areas continues cost Separation Labour's policy allows unionists to veto withdrawal - although some are now trying to make this ambiguous. The choice on separation must of course be taken by the Irish people. But the problem is which political unit is involved. The Northern Ireland state cannot be considered a democratic unit and as con. fusion on the unionist veto is at the core of many errors in the Labour movement it is worth looking at in detail.
Firstly the border is a purely gerrymandered unit. Its sole purpose was to secure, by hook or by crook, a majority that for unionism. The border was drawn in such a way as to secure a majority for a particular political current and not vice vc.sa.
In the historic province of Ulster, comprising 9 counties, the population was divided 54 per cent Protestant and 46 per cent Catholic - which would have No No Outside fixed hot WC wallet de. violence in Wing the case paper. These by Action.
Campaign of jority.
after prolonged Home Rule was Gerrymandered State -per cent Catholic majority economically unviable.
parliament in Dublin majority and a subservient do with democracy. majorities.
Irish unity systematic Catholics.
colonell Households with cars tionalist control of local authorities even where the nationalist population were in a big majority — as in Derry for example.
of the catholic and nationalist population.
troduced six times between 1920 and for British withdrawal from Ken Livingstone circulated a document to the PLP outlinfor British withdrawal from Ireland and has produced a background are abridged here. The editing is by Socialist created in the future a vote in favour of Irish unity. To exclude the possibility of a democratic vote for British withdrawal three overwhelmingly Catholic counties were removed from the Ulster in 1921 to secure a safe Protestant/Unionist maIn a further move against democracy it was decided to include two counties with Catholic majorities in the Northern - Fermanagh with a 56 percent Catholic majority and Tyrone with a 55 as otherwise Northern Ireland would have been The councils elected in both Fermanagh and Tyrone after partition were dissolved because they refused to recognise the legitimacy of the new northern Ireland state and instead offered their allegiance to the Irish These councils, and most of the others where nationalists predominated, were promptly dissolved.
The drawing of the border, in short, was gerrymandered to secure a unionist Catholic minority. Such a method has nothing to This is why a test of opinion in the North of Ireland alone is not democratic. Only the vote of the Irish people as a whole is valid in determining its status. The last such votes on a 32-county basis were the 1918 general election when the supporters of a united and independent Ireland won 75 per cent of the vote, and the local elections in June 1920 when 28 out-of 32 counties returned republican Subsequent opinion polls show a consistent 32-county majority for Secondly, and equally importantly the Northern Ireland state is based on discrimination against Following the creation of the Northern Ireland state religious and political discrimination against catholics and nationalists was institutionalised in housing buttressed by political discrimination. Gerrymandering, a limited franchise, and a loyalty oath were systematised to prevent na- the B-specials Such an unjust and oppressive system could only be maintained by repression Internment without trial was in-