{"id":7630,"date":"2014-09-25T14:34:16","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T14:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=7630"},"modified":"2014-09-25T21:52:09","modified_gmt":"2014-09-25T21:52:09","slug":"two-articles-on-northern-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/25\/two-articles-on-northern-ireland\/","title":{"rendered":"TWO ARTICLES ON NORTHERN IRELAND"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0We are printing two articles from the Socialist Democracy (Ireland) website examining aspects of politics in Northern Ireland:-\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Peter Robinson repudiates peace deal.\u00a0<\/strong>Another step towards the abyss.<\/strong><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Paisley, the chief bigot is dead.\u00a0<\/strong>The sectarian state lives on.<\/strong><\/p>\n

______<\/p>\n

1. PETER ROBINSON REPUDIATES THE PEACE DEAL. ANOTHER STEP TOWARDS THE ABYSS<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/a>
Peter Robinson shows his wholehearted support for the Peace Process!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The statement by the North\u2019s first minister Peter Robinson that the local administration is \u201cnot fit for purpose\u201d and that the St. Andrew \u2018s agreement, on which the current settlement rests, must be renegotiated has brought cries of horror from the press and from London and Dublin governments who have been accommodating an accelerating slide to the right by unionism.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yet in his own strange way save Robinson is trying to save himself, the unity of the DUP and the local administration.<\/p>\n

He makes no call for action. Negotiations can take before or after an election at some future time. There are no demands. Robinson and the DUP do not say how the St. Andrew\u2019s agreement can be improved.<\/p>\n

Yet the flag protests going back to 2012, the withdrawal from the\u00a0 Haass talks, the formation of a \u201cUnionist family\u201d which includes the loyalist paramilitaries*, these add up to unionism tearing up the deal and demanding a return to majority rule and the exclusion of nationalists from government.<\/p>\n

This is despite the fact that the Stormont assembly is a haven of impunity for DUP ministers. Recently Robinson emerged from a four year sex and money corruption scandal centering on his wife Iris. Health minister Poots has been condemned by the judiciary following an attack on them in a dispute around a \u201cgay blood\u201d ban in the health service. The DUP used a technical \u201cpetition of concern\u201d to squash a finding that Minister Nelson McCausland had lied to the assembly in relation to a housing corruption charge.<\/p>\n

The logic of the situation is that the DUP can only enjoy office as long as it commands a majority within Unionism and panders to the most reactionary and sectarian elements within it. This is what Robinson\u2019s statement successfully does, serving as the \u201cgraduated response\u201d promised to the Orange Order and paramilitaries in protest against curbs on a sectarian march.<\/p>\n

Sinn Fein argues that there is nothing wrong with the St. Andrews agreement and the problem is that the unionists are refusing to operate it. However Sinn Fein will join in any talks.<\/p>\n

This is an example of Sinn Fein\u2019s amnesia. As with many other aspects of the peace process they claimed at the time of signing that it was woefully insufficient and would have to be improved. Now they are its chief defenders.<\/p>\n

It is also an example of the party\u2019s willingness to conciliate unionism. The only purpose of the talks proposed by Robinson would be to move the whole process to the right, yet Sinn Fein are anxious to participate. \u2028\u00a0 \u2028What is the cure if unionism is refusing to operate the agreement? Gerry Adams has wheeled out yet again the \u201cdark forces\u201d argument. The bad DUP are running the show. It is up to the good DUP to show leadership. From past statements we can see that Sinn Fein are appealing to Britain to discipline the unionists \u2013 an appeal that they have turned a deaf ear to.<\/p>\n

In the short term the Robinson statement puts a great deal of pressure on Sinn Fein. They have threatened to block a major welfare cuts budget if unionism will not honour the agreements already made. Robinson is telling them that this will not work \u2013 that the unionists really are rabid enough to tear the structures of the peace process asunder.<\/p>\n

This leaves Sinn Fein in an awkward spot. Do they build on their left credentials by holding their ground? Or do they demonstrate to southern capitalists that they are a safe pair of hands?\u00a0 A recent \u201cthink in\u201d in Louth, where one of the sessions was called \u201cPreparing for government\u201d may contain a hint.<\/p>\n

In the longer run the Robinson statement marks a step towards the abyss. It cannot be withdrawn. Despite almost universal middle class support for the peace process, it continues to unravel. The steps are getting longer, the distance to collapse shorter.<\/p>\n

*of the paramilitary components of the unionist family, one is currently engaged in ethnic cleansing of migrants, the other is engaged in an armed feud.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

12 September 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article was first posted at:-<\/p>\n

http:\/\/socialistdemocracy.org\/RecentArticles\/RecentPeterRobinsonRepudiatesPeaceDeal.html<\/a><\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

2. PAISLEY, THE CHIEF BIGOT IS DEAD. THE SECTARIAN STATE LIVES ON<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An older more moderate Paisley!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some years ago, when Ian Paisley ascended to the post of First Minister at Stormont,\u00a0 Hollywood began to pitch a new film \u2013 a biopic of his life. The narrative was a straightforward formula: An outsider, something of a rough diamond, gradually transformed into a statesman and peacemaker. At one stage Liam Neeson was approached as a possible Paisley.<\/p>\n

The idea fell through. It was too far away from reality for even Hollywood to run it with both the arch-bigot and his many victims around to present the truth.<\/p>\n

Now death, and a natural reluctance to criticise the dead, makes it possible to run yet again with the fairytale of Paisley the peacemaker.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still a tissue of lies.<\/p>\n

Paisley was never an outsider. The stew of bigots, paramilitaries, Orangemen and religious zealots was, and is, an integral part of unionism\u2019s base. Bible thumping and bigotry had for many years been a recognized career path for the ambitious \u201cpoor white\u201d of northern unionism. Paisley apprenticed in Ireland and graduated by travelling to the US to link up with the far right US Christian fundamentalist movement.<\/p>\n

Those who want to spin the peacemaker story begin late in his career with the \u201cNever, Never, Never\u201d opposition to power sharing.\u00a0 Few outside the gay community remember his \u201cSave Ulster from Sodomy\u201d campaign \u2013 a campaign that lives today inside the DUP.\u00a0 Those who doubt his conversion to peace quote the 1968 claim that Catholics homes had burnt in the pogroms because they were filled with petrol bombs. Those with a more intimate knowledge remember his threat, before the outbreak of the troubles, to invade the Falls Road to remove a tricolour and the Divis Street riots that followed. Even more revealing was: \u201cdid ye tell?\u201d \u2013 reported by an informer in police custody when Paisley was granted access as a pastor \u2013 evidence of his close links with the emerging death squads. This involvement in riot and on the edges of paramilitary activity predated both the Civil Rights movement and the regrowth of republicanism.<\/p>\n

Those who advance the great man theory ignore the context of Paisley\u2019s rise. He was the chief bigot in a sectarian society sponsored by an imperialist power. His early proposal to march into a nationalist ghetto to remove a tricolour would have led to his arrest in a democratic society. Instead the police invaded in his place and smashed up a republican election office to seize the flag. Paisley\u2019s following grew apace. His revolts against British plans rarely had any personal cost and usually increased his influence.<\/p>\n

The development of the peace process is a perfect example of this. British policy after the Downing Street agreement can be informally summed up as: \u201cUlster must say yes to something,\u201d but within that limit the usual strategy of conciliation operated. A spiral of reaction went on where Paisley was able constantly push the deal to the right and each success increased the DUP vote. The end result was a mass shift to right within Unionism, Paisley finally winning majority leadership and the DUP becoming the dominant party.<\/p>\n

All is forgiven by the emergence of Paisley the peacemaker. Yet Paisley\u2019s\u00a0 endorsement of the settlement contained little in the way of conciliation, claiming that he had extracted every last drop of blood from the Provos and heaped \u201csackcloth and ashes\u201d on republican sinners and that even then the main reason for signing up was that the alternative \u2013 an advisory role for Dublin in the local administration \u2013 was far worse.<\/p>\n

Paisley agreed to the setting up of the local administration involving Sinn Fein because at the end of the day the British, this time, would not take no for an answer and because the bribe was too big. He was able to end his career as first minister of the North, oversee the surrender and disbandment of the IRA and with himself and his wife entering the House of Lords. Throughout his career political and religious advancement had always led to personal profit for himself and his family.<\/p>\n

Paisley\u2019s death has led to a strange disjunction. Unionist tributes have for the most part been formal and restrained. Many Unionists hated him for his ruthless attacks on their leaders. Many Loyalists believe that he led them up the hill towards paramilitary violence and abandoned them to time in jail while his career went onwards and upwards. His passing is in sharp contrast to the triumphalism of the death of Lord Carson, the founder of Unionism.\u00a0 In contrast to the militarised class unity of early unionism Paisley was able for a time to become the chief faction in a factionalised movement \u2013 a movement constantly unravelling, with a suicidal programme of asserting yet again the sectarian ascendency of the past.<\/p>\n

On the other hand there is an outpouring of grief from Sinn Fein. Martin McGuinness has lost his bestest friend. Derry Council opens a book of condolence, followed by Belfast. Gerry Adams is prominent in the queue to sign up and the nationalist councillors agree to fly the Union flag at half-mast.<\/p>\n

The tears of Sinn Fein are easy to explain. They explain their capitulation to British rule as part of a joint journey by themselves and unionism towards a new, equal society. Each side must make compromises. Yet the daily headlines and the 20 years since the IRA ceasefire show little sign of unionist compromise. Surely big Ian, in his role as one of the \u201cchuckle brothers\u201d alongside McGuinness, is the perfect example of what is possible?<\/p>\n

Yet in their time as minister and deputy Paisley never referred to McGuinness by name, only as deputy. He rarely looked directly at him. The constant chuckling evidence of a man in a bizarre situation he was unable to cope with.<\/p>\n

The death knell of the common journey thesis is shown by Paisley\u2019s fate. He is to be buried alone, having been forced from power in both the political party and the fundamentalist church that he founded. As chief bigot he had the authority to enter an administration with Sinn Fein. However the monstrous tiger of bigotry devoured him in his turn.<\/p>\n

Those who write the obituary of Paisley in terms of the man himself miss the point. He was an able and intelligent man whose mental furniture was extremely narrow. He was an opponent of democracy who knew nothing of science and what little philosophy he knew was learnt in order to thoroughly reject it.\u00a0 A religious zealot, creationist, racist, homophobe and misogynist, he inhabited a world of the 14th century \u2013 a sort of fundamentalist Christian Caliphate.<\/p>\n

In most societies outside America\u2019s deep South these attributes would have represented a dreadful handicap. In the North of Ireland it was a sure-fire road to the top. The inevitable revolt by the victims of the Orange monster he controlled was suppressed by the British sponsors of the state.<\/p>\n

The chief bigot is dead. He used the ogre of sectarianism to devour many generations of unionist rivals. He was devoured in his turn.\u00a0 Robinson, the Brutus who brought him down, will soon be devoured also. The imperialist powers look on indulgently, searching for ways to preserve a corrupt society.<\/p>\n

The Archbigot is dead. The death of the sectarian statelet, of imperialist domination, awaits the working class awakening last seen in Ireland in the \u201860s.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

John McAnulty, 16 September 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article was first posted at:-http:\/\/socialistdemocracy.org\/RecentArticles\/RecentPaisleyTheChiefBigotIsDead.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0We are printing two articles from the Socialist Democracy (Ireland) website examining aspects of politics in Northern Ireland:-\u00a0 1. Peter Robinson repudiates peace deal.\u00a0Another step towards the abyss. 2.\u00a0Paisley, the chief bigot is dead.\u00a0The sectarian state lives on. ______ 1. PETER ROBINSON REPUDIATES THE PEACE DEAL. ANOTHER STEP TOWARDS THE ABYSS \u00a0 The statement by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1873,1876],"tags":[253],"class_list":["post-7630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-against-unionism","category-ireland-against-unionism","tag-author-john-mcanulty"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"views":3853,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7630"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7645,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7630\/revisions\/7645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}