Speech last week was the 17 seats.
during the present parliamentary session.
control at least 14 of the 17 seats.
GEOFF BELL
Labour's proposed handout of power.
A fortnight ago the Official Unionist Party held its annual conterence in a disused cinema in the rural Northern Irish town of Enniskillen. The 'platform"
consisted newspaper report described as "two rickety tables'.
It was a rather unimpressive display compared to spectacles of privilege power the Unionist Party was able to put on a few years back Ireland through the Stormont parnament.
But if the power of Official Unionism has lessened, their ideas remain much the same.
Captain Official Unionist, recently offered this explanation as to why Catholic workers are either unemployed or in low 003.
•Big families, living for years on social security, knowing they get more than working nard - what sort of jobs would you give them but the manua ones?' MANIA More humorously, Democratic Unionist Party, led Tan Paisley, showed adherence to religious mania when it declared two months ago that The Sound of Music should be banned because it *Romanist Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men should be excluded from school libraries because it was 'obscene"
Paisley went so far as to threaten to set his own schools because of the teaching in state schools of the 'pagan' Darwinian theory of evolution.
But the politics of Official Unionists and Democratic Unionists are not really a laughing matter. The Official Unionists' demand for the reintroduction of internment in the North of Ireland is OlIC malcanon or where it stands.
Other clues are to be found among the personnel who run the party. The leadership of the of failed British Army officers, lords of the realm, and country squires.
WORTHIES Although such worthies no longer have the same dominance, they retain more than a foothold in the power echelons of Official Unionism.
The chairperson of the party 1S JOSIES Cunningham, AN ALMOST UNNOTICED feature of the Queen's announcement that the Labour Government will increase the representation of the North of Ireland at Westminster from 12 to Labour's intention could be seen as further evidence of its determination to maintain the partition of Ireland. Equally it could be interpreted as a ruse by Labour to secure the votes of the ten Loyalist MPs Nevertheless the effect of the proposals will be to increase the number of Loyalist bigots in Parliament; Unionists of one variety or another are expected to examines the beneficiaries of nephew of both the party's president, Sir James Cunningham, and of one of the most reactionary Unionist MPs, the late Sir Knox Cunningham.
ESTATES Josias has a large country the estate in Country Antrim. and similar estate Armagh is the residence of Michael Armstrong, chairperson of the COmmitee Armstrong barrister and a former Army captain.
Martin Smyth, the VICE president, qualifications. He is seen as the Unionists' main 'theoretician'.
It is an indication of that theory that he is -pala minister and Grand Master of the Orange Order The Orange largest of the Protestant secret societies, but the Royal Black Perceptory is HOSE upper The head of that august body is James Molyneaux, leader of Official Unionists the Westminster. The leader, Harry West, describes himself as a natural conservative" and owns a large farm in County Fermanagh.
Cunningham, Smyth, Molyneaux and Wes John make UD the leadership Official Unionism. famous advocate, Powell, has never quite made it to the top; one reason is h advocacy of full integration of Northern Ieland into the UK is not shared by the majority of Unionists.
TERe INDEPENDENCE the West and Smyth are keener on a return to the old Stormont parliament. The other Loyalist option is independence.
For an ideology which claims to put the link above all else, this might appear odd. But the Unionists have always indicated that they are only advocates of the link with Unionists at one time consisted • Britain if it is on their terms.
Harry West has no logical objections to independence, only practical ones.
He recently argued: We couldn't now, we haven't the financia resources. Encie was a lime Ir the '60s when we were on the crest ot a wave. We could have thumbed, our noses at the British then.
Today, the only significant advocates of independence are County partys sccunt is party's has different to be found in military Ulster Defence Associpresbyterian ation, whose strongest base is in Protestant Order is the excuses Harry West, of the Official Unionist Party, in Orange regalia.
the paraworking •Class dence. failure; partitionist Official Paisley bread aonerenc Protestantism and petty afford to be But the UDA is no longer the strength it was, and in a recent opinion poll only two per cent of the Protestants questioned said they favoured indepen The decline of the UDA is symptomatic of the general to inability the Protestant working class has shown in breaking from the politics of Unionism.
Vocasional altempis by ine odd individual to formulate a "socialist' version of Unionism have met with the inevitable inevitable occausE "socialism' and an adherence to undemocratially and undemocratically conducted state of "Northern Ireland' is a contradiction in terms. FANATICAL Accordingly, the main proODDOSILIOn Unionism the Democratic Unionism of lan His willingness to take up butter issues combined with his fanatical fundamental continues to appear to many working class bourgeois ProteAlthough the Official Unionists have 15 seats on Belfast's city council, Paisley's party has And the Official Unionist leaders know that they cannot seen as tOo anti-Paisley. Thus Harry West recenty described nim as man of many good points and a Parliamentary Labour Party Commission of Inquir into the Present Conditions in Ireland', first published are wholly oversimplification.
military reprisals of the British Government of the day.
socialist movement remand. today is faced with a situation which is beginning to develop features not unlike those of the 1920s: a general dissatisfaction with the Government's policies increasing willingness to take a second look at the issues involved in and produce pontica positions which articulate these currents of tions first fruits of these efforts has been the mounting concern about the position of the political prisoners in the Six years. Counties, the use of torture But CUTCHES to the GALLAGHER, father of post free. steadrast defender ol the Frotestant raith But despite recent attempts by Unionists of various shades patch things up, their asunty remams. None or them is able to come up with COnCICaL surategy walch wold maintain the state of •Ulster' as they wish to see it maintained They are suspicious of complete integration with the UK because they think that a Westminster government might the vast areas of discrimination which continue LD CXISE They are reluctant to go all out for a return to Stormont because they think no British government will give it Similar problems of ruling elites who face rebellions bel sections of their population exist elsewhere. -PerhaDs the best indication of the politics of the Unionists is the following comparison made recently by former Unionist cabinet mem*Six thousand • miles away and yet Rhodesia has much in common with Northern Ire ana...ue orecarousnessorre situation, the feeling of being beleagured. the ever present menace of terrorism'.
ot course. •т шакіь зи comparison.
really talking of Rhodesians and them to Northern -company Ireland's Loyalists. fair comparison. chauvinistic is a gross during interrogation, and the of internment by New moods and currents of opinion were reflected in the recent roops Out editorial it the Daily Mirror.
It is easy to see that all the old confusions of the PLP's report in the 1920s have been and ar continuing to be reproduced in these new currents of opinion This is not surprising when we consider that these views reflect the concerns and preoccupa of working class movement which is only just beginning analyse these issues for the first time in 50 should have contents in the captat these capable generating a radical challenge policies imperialism for all that Loughborough Road, London SW9. Issues 1 to 3 of ISR, 80p Socialist Challenge 9 November 1978 Page 11
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