MISS McGUIRE FEEDS WITCH- HUNTERS

Shortly after she moved into a prominent position in the Provisional IRA, Miss Maria McGuire admitted that her new-found colleagues suspected her of being a Special Branch infiltrator.

"They wondered if I was joining for kicks,' Miss McGuire told interviewers from the now-defunct 'Ink' magazine. "The Continental affair won me quick acceptance as a working member.' This is à surprising statement, especially since the 'Continental affair'—when McGuire and leading Provo David O'Connell travelled to Amsterdam to take delivery of a consignment of Czech arms—was engineered and then thwarted before the world's capitalist press by British intelligence.

But whether McGuire is a Special Branch agent or not is irrelevant since her latest actions are completely in line with the requirements of the ruling class in Britain and By breaking from the IRA and rushing to the capitalist press with her murky memoirs, McGuire has struck a blow against the oppressed peoples of Ireland and simultaneously given aid to the repressive British army actions.

Broken ranks In January this year Workers Press •drew attention to McGuire's vociferously anti-working • class, anti-socialist ideas. At the time there was a chorus of middle-class and Women's Lib opinion that we had treated this 'heroine' of the Irish cause unjustly. Now, in the capitalist press each Sunday, McGuire spews out her venomous prose to the acclaim of that paper's Tory readership ... for an undisclosed fee.

The Provisionals have reacted with anger and hurt that McGuire has broken ranks and betrayed them. But it is illuminating to ask how they ever let her into the inner sanctums of their command. After all, McGuire never made any attempt to hide her views.

In the January 'Ink' article she said: 'There's too much bloody emotion here. I tell people I'm tired of them sobbing in their, whiskey. They should get up from their bar stools and fight.' (This puritanism is forgotten in her 'Observer' memoirs where she reveals that during her arms-buying mission to Europe she met O'Connell 'in the bar where we drank a lot of Irish whiskey').

The 'Ink' article also clearly showed the sort of political direction she was taking: 'Dublin is the centre of all activity and too many supporters expect Dublin to make even the most minor organizational decisions. I think that we need regional organiza tion lines. By that mean that we shoul use the Nazi ideal disciplin ed organizato street levels.' need not explain to sh means by organon Nazi lines. In the mmunists were beaten to death by the Black Shirts and their predecessors, the Brown Shirts, in Nazi Germany.

the 'next breath she expresses her hostility to.

'We lurch towards socialism isn't our aim.' Or again on her rejection of the Official IRA: "They are pseudo-intellectual Marxists. They do nothing' And again on her political leanings: 'There common ground between the two groups (the Provisionals and the Rev Ian Paisley's party). Approaches have been made in secret to Paisley and there have been signs of some success. Paisley moves with the times and has proved to be the most able politician in Ireland. A bargain is not out of the question.' So as early as January this year, at least publicly, McGuire had developed certain attitudes which could be defined as anti-Marxist, anti-communist, veering extremely But not only was McGuire permitted to remain the Provisional movement on this publicly-stated basis, she was actually fêted. She spoke at rallies and carried out important central tasks for the military command. Indeed, at the pinnacle of her stay in the Republican movement she was confidante of its leading members.

would be entirely justifiable if a senior member of the Provisionals decided to break from the organization on politically principled grounds.

In some senses it has been a miracle that the top echelons have stayed together despite the fact that it has swung from outright terrorism to complete before the Tories' Ulster Secretary, William Whitelaw.

McGuire's the Provisionals has, of course, not an iota of such principle.

She has rushed to the bourgeois press, the unmistakable enemy of the Irish working class, and revealed intimate information on the state of the movement. At the same time as blurting out valuable material for British intelligence, Above: Maria McGuire with leading Provisional IRA man, David O'Connell she has shrilly attacked the IRA for reasons that will only reinforce all the prejudices of the middle class against the struggle of the Irish working class to free itself from British imperialism.

Although McGuire denied she was in the Provisionals 'just for kicks', it's difficult not to make this very conclusion after reading the first instalment of her story. Ihis is particularly evident in the section dealing with the talks with Whitelaw, the ceasefire and the restart of hostilities. Some excerpts will suitably demonstrate this: Thinking it over 'Dave [O'Connell] was elated with the understanding he had with Whitelaw, whom he admired and respected. He certainly had a lot more time for him than for Harold Wilson, whom he had met in Dublin a few months earlier. During those truce days Dave and Whitelaw were busy throwing bouquets at each other and we had quite a lot of fun looking in the papers at the nice things they were saying about each other.

I cried when the truce ended. It was the first time for a long while that I had had chance to think about things •. With the end of the truce, we were almost relieved to get back to what we understood.

'At about this time I began to think about leaving the movement. I decided to go to Madrid—where I had lived for three years and have many friends-to think things over.

It was after she 'thought things over' that McGuire decided to defect, come to an undisclosed address in England and tell the 'Observer' the inside story on the Provisionals.

We have our sharp political criticisms of the Provisionals. The McGuire experience is full confirmation of this criticism.

Their narrow ultra-nationalist policies, their long-standing refusal to build revolutionary leadership to lead the working class, has resulted in the formation of petty-bourgeois, militarist clique. Such an organization cannot meet the attacks of imperialism and lead the emancipation of the Irish working class.

What it will do, however, is attract disoriented middle-class psychology students like McGuire.

At the same time we are duty-bound to defend the Provisionals from imperialist attacks-and from the press witch-hunts now given more impetus by McGuire. JAMES REID'S When the Marathon deal at Clydebank was signed on August 5, the Communist Party's 'Morning Star' was in raptures. High Hopes for Final Clydebank Agreement' it announced in bold letters. It went on:

'UCS leader Jimmy Reid told the "Morning Star": "This is a very good agreement which in no way violates the principles or policies of the trade unions.

• "Perhaps the most important of all is that both Marathon and the unions are pledged to honouring the continuity and stability of the labour force at what was known as the Clydebank division of UCS.

• "This is a good agreement by any standard. No doubt there may be future problems, but the basis has been laid for negotiations on all questions." ' This good news was splashed on the front page of the 'Morning Star'.

But people interested in following up the future probBOOKS HIGH HOPES lems might well have missed a small item tucked away at the bottom of page 3 of last Thursday's 'Morning Star'.

This declared, quietly, 'UCS Jobs-Union Official's Plea'.

And then we read: 'Redundancies that may arise at the UCS Clydebank shipyard are "a temporary problem orobably for about six nonths" Mr Joe Black, Clyde district chairman of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions, said yesterday.' The Stalinist daily was reluctantly forced to admit that redundancies of up to 1,000 workers could occur at year's end if new owners, Marathon Manufacturing, did not get an order for the conversion of an oil-rig.

There is a labour force of 1,900 at present employed by the UCS liquidator on completion of ships.

The 'Morning Star' carried no statement from the previously loquacious Mr Reid.

Below: James Reid ellent on UCS redundancies LEON TROTSKY :

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