on the May Day march in Belfast

Took time out from campaigning to attend May Day march

hypocrisy on the march

Once again Sinn Fein and the SDLP turned up at the May Day march in Belfast. These two parties are in government, which has just approved £4bn in cuts. Where on earth do they get the gall to turn up at a workers march after kicking them in the stomach?

Not a new Dawn

Just read one of the softest interview I've seen in a long while in the Irish Times about Dawn Purvis and the PUP who are laughingly referred to as a left-wing grouping. http://www.dawnpurvis.com/?p=337

No where in the article is Dawn asked about her attitude to the Orange Order or sectarianism in general. She says she broke away from the PUP over the killing of Bobby Moffat, but does not outline her attitude to sectarian loyalist paramilitaries in general. She also applauds the memory of David Ervine who never once rejected loyalism. People may applaud the 'bread and butter' politics of Dawn, but she has a hard journey ahead of her if she is ever to be described as as a socialist, ie a person who rejects sectarianism in all its forms and the causes behind it.

reply to Eamonn McCann

In his column in the Belfast Telegraph Eamonn McCann takes us back to the killing of two soldiers at Masserine barracks and reminds us that, shortly before, the SSR, a special reconnaissance regiment closely associated with the shoot to kill policy and the death squads, was deployed in the North, breaking the deal A step too far

My thanks to Eamonn McCann for his thoughts on the revival of physical force republicanism. In my view he goes too far to accommodate the moral panic and, in the process, clarifies the issues.

on policing and provoking Provo outrage.

Eamonn argues that a political movement against this deployment were sabotaged by the militarists and forced the Provos to move quickly to unconditional support for the state forces.

That's nonsense. As Eamonn himself has argued in the past, armed actions speed up things that are already in the pipeline. The Provos capitulated on the issue of the SRR just as they capitulated on all the other shifts needed to placate the British and the unionists.

By carrying the argument too far, Eamonn contradicts himself and gives the physical force tradition the power to trump politics - a power he denies that it has.

He does one other useful thing. He reminds us of the mailed fist, the shadowy forces of the British military in the background.

They haven't gone away y'know.

Did Sinn Fein councillor support the closure of the Andersonstown Library?

The Northern Ireland Library Authority approved the closure of a number of libraries in Northern Ireland at Lisburn City Library, 23 Linenhall Street, Lisburn, on Tuesday, 18 May 2010. including Andersonstown library.
Cllr Anne Brolly of Sinn Fein was at that meeting. Did she approve the closure of Andersonstown Library?. This particular library was very dear to me as it introduced me to a love of literature, along with countless many other working class families. No where in the minutes does it record her voting against the closure.

I took part in subsequent protests in a bid to save the library, which failed. These protests were primarily organised by Sinn Fein.

It sounds like Sinn Fein's budget strategy, They voted for the cuts and then took part in trade union marches against the cuts.

No alternative

No alternative

I hesitated before deciding to stand in the Assembly election. The corrupt and reactionary nature of the institution is self-evident. As time goes on I see that there really is no alternative.

One factor influencing me was the ‘IRA’ statement at Easter announcing a return to war.

I don't agree for a moment with the hypocrisy of Sinn Fein's condemnations, but the completely negative elements of a physical force strategy are self-evident.

Republicans seem determined to support Sinn Fein and the current corrupt settlement by agreeing with them that the only alternative is another 30 years of bloodshed.

Hidden in the ‘IRA’ statement are some core republican beliefs.

One belief is that the British really want to leave Ireland and that an extension of the military campaign will exhaust their will. Recent history indicates the opposite. It was the republican resistance that became exhausted, while the British dedicated substantial military, economic and political resources to imposing a settlement in their interest.

Another belief is that a military struggle will unite the nation against the British. What actually happened was that Irish capital united with the British to reject any democratic solution, shore up partition and reinforce a new 26 county nationalism.

In fact all the recent history of republicanism has been permeated with a narrow legalism. By claiming to be the IRA the new group is claiming to be the legitimate army of Ireland, entitled to wage war. This claim is in turn based on the democratic mandate of the first Dial, a vote negated by the British decision to partition the island.

In the minds of republican militarists the votes of the dead trump those of the living. That's not the case. Politics is about relations between people, not about empty legal formulae. You don't win votes once. You have to win them over and over again.

Many workers believe that the current settlement will eventually lead to a peaceful and just society. Others feel that there is no alternative.

I believe all the old colonial, sectarian and class mechanisms are being re-established, but I can only make this case if I organise with others and if I use the opportunities available to put forward an alternative. That's what I am doing by standing in the election and what I will continue to do when the election has come and gone.

Poster war

The last few days have been taken up with putting up posters on the Andersonstown-Falls Road, right down to Castle Street. Finding a vacant space on overcrowded lamp posts has been a real challenge. But that is nothing compared to the huge challenge facing all the groups opposed to the £4bn cuts offensive and the sectarian set-up at Stormont. Where do we go after May 5 is the question facing all of these parties and individuals? I am ready for that debate. We have to have it if we want to build an effective opposition to Stormont rule.