Once More the
Prospect of Direct Rule of the North of Ireland from Westminster
Once more the British government is playing its well-worn
game of preparing to rush through legislation to re-impose direct rule of the
north of Ireland from Westminster.
The focus is being put on some pretext. The Report of the
International Decommissioning body has been withheld from publication, the
implication being that it contains dark news about how little progress has been
made towards the handing over of arms by the IRA. Even the withholding is
designed to create a climate of suspicion whereby, despite all the claims of
good work by Peter Mandelson and his forbears, the bad news is too much for the
Northern Ireland Assembly to bear, the Ulster Unionists would walk out, and all
the good work of the external forces from Senator Mitchell to Tony Blair to
Bill Clinton would come to nothing. Therefore, there is nothing left for it but
for direct rule from Westminster to be put into operation once again. A
"Review" (by the British and Irish governments) under the terms of
the Agreement would be required before the Assembly and its Executive could be
restored. Meanwhile, executive power rests with the Secretary of State for
Northern Ireland, and its legislative powers are to be exercised by Orders in
Council. It has been left to the Republican movement to point out that the
problem of decommissioning at this stage is strictly speaking a non-issue. The
"deadlines" have no significance in terms of the Good Friday
Agreement, and no significance in terms of the operation of the Northern
Ireland Assembly, and generally speaking in terms of the development of the
political process in Ireland.
The focus, as well as being put on the IRA, is also put on
the Ulster Unionists. Once more this is to take the focus away from the British
government with the scenario presented that the Unionists are forcing the
government’s hand or that the government is caving in to their
intransigence and bigotry.
The point, however, is that at every stage, the government
has been acting in the interests of the bourgeoisie in this country. The
division of Ireland and then the government’s own strategy for devolution
and an all-Ireland dimension has been played out not only with an eye on how
they can maintain domination of Ireland, not only as part of their
geo-political strategy whereby they pursue their interests in line with their
slogan of "stronger in Europe, stronger in the world". Most crucially
it has been played out as part of creating an elaborate smoke-screen whereby
the working class in England, as well as Scotland and Wales, is cajoled,
manipulated, into forgetting its own historic role on the one hand and its
marginalisation on the other, and acting in sympathy with its own exploiters.
The British government cannot be the arbiter of progress in
Ireland. The working class must see through the smoke-screen which it continues
to erect. The bourgeoisie has been coming under pressure due to the tactics of
the Republicans who have pointed out the failure of the policy of partition of
Ireland and have taken a step towards building the Irish nation anew, as well
as objectively from the growing globalisation and the impossible drive to make
Britain number one in the global marketplace. Unity with the Irish bourgeoisie
to produce a hybridised Irish nation to put the assets of Ireland too up for
grabs is a further piece in the jigsaw that makes up the bourgeoisie’s
strategy. The working class must take advantage of this pressure too to take a
stand and push forward its programme for its own interests and for modern
sovereign states, in the course of the utmost condemnation of the government
and the stripping away of all illusions about its actions.
