NATIONALIST Junels The three nationa

THE POLITICS of Ireland have gener been presented as si kind of anomaly on British scene.

The gerrymandering constituency boundaries, violent passions aroused by religious divisions • and dominance of the m ost reactionary section of Tory Party used to be regarded as an exception to the orderly process of parliamentary democracy.

In the 1970 crisis General Election, however, Ulster must be understood as showing the way political life is developing in the country as a whole.

In this crisis, all the problems of British capitalism are felt with greatest force in Britain's oldest colony, Ireland.

Partition, embodied 1921 Treaty, and reaffirmed in the Labour government's 1949 Republic of Ireland Act, only changed the form of Ireland's national oppression.

The very fact that the Six Counties are involved in the election of a British parliament symbolizes the situation in which the Irish working class is cut in two.

The semi-colonial position Ireland is reflected in the backwardness of industry and agriculture and extreme poverty of its working class.

The continued division of the workers on religious lines likewise a product of the impossibility resolving Ireland's national problems so long capitalism remains.

This the implications of the crisis, dangers in front of the working class and urgency of the struggle for revolutionary leadership, appear earlier and openly than anywhere else in Britain.

Menace

The return of a Tory government to Westminster on June 18 would be an even greater menace to the Ulster workers than to the rest of the working class. In N Inland, yor unemployment runs at 8 per cent in 'normal' times, world economic crisis can mean total collapse.

Unionism represents the most reactionary section of the British capitalist class.

It is based on the 'settler' middle class, and depends entirely on the maintenance of the religious divisions in the working class. The Protestant workers, many of whom still vote Tory, are among the most oppressed and exploited sections of workers.

With the Unionist Party coming more and more under the control of the extreme right wing, led by Craig and Faulkner, the establishment of a rightwing dictatorship, protected by the Army, becomes direct threat to all workers, in England as well as Ireland. The Special Powers Act is already a step towards this.

Meanwhile, Paisley continues to advance. In April, he and his Antrim N Clark (Unionist) 31,927; Moore (Liberal) 8,94] Maj: 56.2 per cent; Poll 56.7 per cent. / Antrim S Cunningham (Unionist) 40,840;

Stewart (NI Labour) 22,672. Mai:

28.6 per cent; Poll: 55.9 per cent.

Armagh Maginnis (Unionist) 34,687;

McGlennan (Republican) 13,467.

Maj: 44 per cent; Poll: 63.3 per cent.

Belfast E • McMaster (Unionist) 21,283;

McBirney (NI Labour) 17,650.

Maj: 9.4 per cent; Poll: 68.2 per cent.

Belfast N Mills (Unionist) 26,891; Overend (NI Labour) 19,927. Maj:

14.8 per cent; Poll: 65.5 per cent.

Belfast S Pounder (Unionist) 23,329;

Holmes (NI Labour) 12,364. Ma):

30.8 per cent; Poll: 63.3 per cent.

Belfast W Fitt (Republican Labour)

26,292; Kilfedder green supporter Beattie won Bannside and •S Antrim from the Unionists in the by-elections for the Stormont parliament. On June 18, his Protestant Unionist Party challenges Chichester-Clark for the leadership of the Protestant middle class and for power.

Only the working class can resolve the national problems of Ireland, and only a Marxist party can unite Catholic and Protestant workers, North and South of the border, in the struggle for a united socialist Ireland in a Socialist United States of Europe.

The question of how to defeat Toryism, in its farm of Ulster Unionism, can only be answered in this framework, for there is no other way to break the Protestant workers from the grip of Unionism.

The Ulster voters go to the polls under military occupation, with the troops sent by Wilson, reinforced to preserve 'law and order' But law and order' is no longer an Ulster issue: the Tories, preparing for battles with the entire working class, make this the major question in the election in Britain. Unemployment High unemployment has always been the background to Ulster politics. Today, the shadow of economic collapse stands over the workers of every country.

The efforts of churches. and politicians to keep the Irish working class divided are now the model for the racialists to get to work and prepare the way for a fascist movement in Britain, if they get the chance. forces, and the violent clashes between the workers and the state, seen in N Ireland since 1968, were signs of the basic 1966 24,281. Maj: 4.0 per cent; 74.8 per cent.

Down N Currie (Unionist) 38,706; Murnaghan (Liberal) 10,582. Maj: 57 per cent; Poll: 48.9 per cent.

Down S Orr (Unionist) 32,876; Quinn (Liberal) 9,586; Mussen (Republican) 8,917. Maj: 45.3 per cent; Pall: 65.8 per cent.

Fermanagh and S Tyrone Hamilton (Unionist) 29,352;

Donnelly (National Unity)

14,645; Brady (Republican)

10,370. Maj: 27.1 per cent; Poll:

86 per cent.

Londonderry Chichester-Clark (Unionist)

34,729; Gormley (Nationalist)

22,167; Gillespie (Republican)

2,860. Maj: 21 per cent; Poll 76.4 per cent.

Mid-Ulster Devlin (Independent) 33,648;

Forrest (Unionist) 29,437. (Byafter the death of sitting Unionist member). Maj: 6.6 per cent;

Poll: 91.5 per cent. (Parliament hereby declares Majesty's Dominions and of in no event will N Ireland or His Majesty's Dominions and consent of the Parlia- ‹ ment of N Ireland.

Clause 1 of the Ireland government in May. 1949.

revolutionary crisis developing in Britain and W Europe as a whole. The coincidence of the election with the approach of a world economic depression makes this relationship still more significant.

Three years ag based their the Civil Rights reformers campaign on the directly opposing view. For them, this was the time for reforms to be pushed forward.

Captain Terence O'Neill, the "moderate' Tory, was going to allow all the old antagonisms to die away and permit Ulster to become a 'normal' part of 'democratic' Britain.

Eamonn McCANN Of course, they said, this would not happen automatically, but with a few demonstrations, O'Neill would be pressurized into moving against the rightwing Unionists, and their Paisleyite Orange friends.

Everyone knows the result. The clashes between demonstrating students and police sparked off massive struggles involving big sections of both Catholic and Protestant workers, especially youth. O'Neill was toppled, and the Unionist Party moved even further to the right. The aims of the Civil Rights leaders had been restricted to discrimination against Catholics in voting, jobs, and housing. But the thousands of workers who fought in support of them were driven on to the streets by povunemployment, appalling housing conditions-in tact, by the class issues.

It was their eruption as a class force which escalated the strugDecember unemplo) (percentage fi!

Male 26,592 (8.7) 26,627 (8.7) 25,728 (8.4) 25,792 (8.3) 20,016 (6.4) 23,147 (7.4) 26,613 (8.4) 26,998 (8.5) 30,010 (9.4) 28,384 (8.8) that N Ireland remains part of His the United Kingdom and affirms that any part thereof cease to be part of of the United Kingdom without the Shaded areas show main nationalist influence. introduced gle to the point where troops were despatched by Wilson to prop up the Unionist regime. While the barricades were cleared away, and Derry's Bogside reoccupied, Paisley's rightwing forces strengthened their position.

Today, the Civil Rights movement is in ruins. On Wednesday, John Hume, who won the Stormont seat of Derry as an independent civil rights candidate, announced that he would back Eddie MacAteer, Nationalist Party leader, in the General Election.

The Nationalists the 'green Tories', , representatives of the Catholic capitalists. They work as hard as Paisley to keep the workers divided on religious lines.

It is not yet clear whether Republican candidates will stand in the Election.

Their policy, supposed to be based on the heritage of James Connolly, is for the ending of Partition to precede any question of socialism.

No road If elected, they will refuse to take their seats in the British parliament, whose rights they do not recognize in Ireland.

While the Republicans, some of whom use Connolly's phrase: 'the Workers' Republic' to describe their aims, receive support from sections of the Catholic workers, they cannot find a road to the Protestant workers.

At the 1966 General Election, the Unionists held all but one of the 12 Ulster seats. The excepWest, which Gerry Fitt won as a Republican Labour candidate. The seat has shifted between the Unionists and the Irish Labour Party since 1945.

In 1964, the Tories held the seat with a minority vote against N Ireland Labour Party, Republican and Republican Labour candidates. In 1966, Fitt was their only opponent, and they lost the support many Protestant In Belfast North and East, the N Ireland Labour Party retains some support. But this feeble echo of Wilson can never defeat the Tories.

Avoiding the real issues as far as they they succeed in repelling the he Protestant workers without rallying the Catholic Outside Belfast the widespread constituencies are designed to it figures 1960-1969 is in brackets)

Female 7,829 (4.4) 11,070 (6.2) 11,153 (6.2)

9,804 (5.4)

8,626 (4.7)

8,553 (4.5) 11,075 (5.7) 11,193 (5.8)

8,566 (4.4)

8,295 (4.3)

Total

34,421 (7.1) 37,697 (7.8) 36,881 (7.6) 35,596 (7.2) 28,642 (5.4) 31,700 (6.3) 37,688 (7.4) 38,191 (7.5) 38,576 (7.5) 36,679 (7.1) enderry:

ONDONDERRY Belfast CARMACH DOWN maintain the lead of the Unionists. In Londonderry-the whole county is included, not just the city-the Catholic vote is traditionally corralled by the Nationalists and the Unionists easily keep the majority.

In this election, Eamonn McCann, prominent in the Civil Rights movement, is to stand for the Derry branch of the Labour Party, but is almost certain to be disowned by the NILP itself.

Derry City is the classic case of gerrymandering in the local government elections. The wards are organized so that 20,000 Catholics and 10,000 Protestants weeks leading up to the General Election, Work ers Press will provide on - the - spot coverage of all major campaigns in all parts of the ountry and Ulster In the East, Antrim, Down and Armagh are the Unionist strongholds. In this election, the Paisleyites will be working to pull the Protestant farmers, menaced by the Common Market, away from the official Unionist candidates.

Fermanagh and Tyrone, divided since 1949 into the constituencies of Mid-Ulster and Fermanagh and S Tyrone, is the main centre of Republican support. In 1955, both their candidates were in prison at the time of the election, and were both elected.

A court petition had them both unseated, as 'convicted felons', and two Tories installed at Westminster in their place.

Mid-Ulster

In Fermanagh and S Tyrone, a 'National Unity' candidate stood in 1966, as well as Republican, and the Unionist easily won. In Mid-Ulster, the Republican was also beaten, but more narrowly.

In 1969, a by-election was time when the movement in the working class was getting under way.

In Bernadette Devlin's book "The Price of My Soul', she describes the 'Unity Convention' held to decide on an agreed antiUnionist candidate. The Republicans withdrew in her favour, and, helped by divisions in the Unionist ranks, she was elected.

It is now fairly certain that Devlin • will be the only antiUnionist candidate on June 18, the Republicans having agreed to withdraw. Despite the confusion of her attitude on many questions, notably the presence of British troops, she is likely to win the support of many The June 18 election takes place under conditions where the issues in front of the working class, which demand revolutionary leadership in both North and South, will be hidden and confused by the candidates.

The Irish Trotskyists, with the Young Socialists to the fore, will be fighting to bring these questions out into the open before as wide a section of the working class as possible, and preparing for the revolutionary solution.

NATIONALIST THE COMING election, says the Scots Independent, weekly paper of the Scottish Nationalist Party, is not a matter of politics but one of national survival.

The role of the SNP is therefore to obscure the class issues in the election and to confuse to the maximum those sections of workers who turned to Scottish nationalism in protest against the betrayals of the Wilson government.

Of the 71 parliamentary seats from Scotland, 44 are at present Labour and another six are marginal, including the one seat occupied by the SNP.

A swing to nationalism could open the door to a decisive number of Tories and secure the return of Tory government, now urgently required by the capitalist class.

The revisionists' policy which is to abstain in the election comes very close to the form of radical middle-class protest-the form of politics of the SNP.

Such theories of abstention, coupled with the proposal that the demand for a Scottish parliament should be advanced as a transitional demand as put forward by the revisionist Purdie of the International Marxist Group - must be viewed with great hostility. they oppos Market.

The 'Scots in its May 23 'But for t nation, one 1 every bit as Both are bent land into the with all its tra farmers, hou: businessmen.' Advanced : oeuvre again business, the certainly threi but its main c and discipline