In the past two weeks there have been assassination attempts on three leading members of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP)-Sean Flynn and Jim McCorry of the Belfast executive, and Seamus Costello of the national executive.
Meanwhile the Officials key figure in Belfast, Billy McMillan, has been shot dead. The pessimistic conclusion which one is forced to draw is that both sides are locked in a vicious circle of attack/retaliation, a cycle which threatens to devour them both.
In a previous article in Red Weekly (13 March) we pointed to substantial evidence indicating that the Officials had Bernadette McAliskey and Seamus Costello of the IRSP at a recent press conference, ments trom tne Urncials proclalming that 'more people have yet to die.' In a speech at the tuneral ol Sean Fox in Belfast on 26 February, for instance, Cathal Goulding - widely regarded as Official IRA Chief of Staff-explicitly threatened military retaliation against the IRSP's "sectarian" ACHVACS In contrast, the responses of the IRSP were generally moderate in tone, stressing mal tney werc anxlous to avola violence between the two organisations and regularly indicating their willingness to accept intermediares to end the tensions and conflict.
The conflict between the two organisalons Is all the more tragie when set avainst the political background in reland today. The results of the Constitution Convention lections have deepened British imperiausin s ponacal crisis in treland. Ine possibility of a "Doomsday' situation in the Six Counties is heightened. Such developments feud goes completely against this. need.
cials are completely at variance with the needs of the anti-Unionist population. wnen nere were moves in mme amore areas to build community defence forces under the favorable situation created by the Provo ceasefire the Officials de nounced these as moves to create a 'sectaran' police force.
ficial leadership and the Belfast UVF (8 Матст yo at me Larasaown cour Hotel, involving Des O'Hagan, Harry a well-known bomb maker). This willingness-to talk to the UVF-a self-confessed close links with the British NF and regulany acknowicages its part in sectartan murders-contrasts strongly with the Officials' refusal to discuss with their former comrades of the IRSP. This is 'CONSISTENCY' 'politics". In the Officials' view, avoiding actions which might alienate Protestant workers' has become the paramount prinCuDe or DorECa acLviLy. Cass umE arouna economic demanos nas been and anti-imperialist demands.
THe orcocOns ov me orcs ua socialist currents were about to merge from the Loyalist paramilitary groupings. Hence emerged the tendency of the Officials to demonstrate to the Loyalists that March, when the Officials began to release press statements claiming that the In fact, the whole politics of the OttiAn Phoblacht of 2 May revealed that a meeting had taken place between the OfMcKeown and for the UVF Tommy West, sectarian anti-communist group which has justified because the IRSP is... sectarian!
There is a crazy consistency to these OTCIRIS.
counterposed to unity around democratic Coupled to this have been the regular they were not like the rest of Republicans.
This led to a bizarre situation in early previous sexua experiences. Evidence of an abortion was always mailed by the defence as "proof of the victim's licentious As any social worker will tell you, it is quite unusual for women who have beer raped to go to the police. In the United States- where rape cases are even more frequent-only 28 per cent of rape cases are followed up, according to the Federal waver varr or tuat roadm men acaunen that the British figures are no different.
Officials, Cathal Goulding and Mike Ryan. Then two incidents occurred which cast light on many of the aspects of the feud.
First a Protestant paramary group claimed responsibility for the bomb attack on Goulding and Ryan. Then when a Catholic bar in North Belfast, Conwaysreported to be frequented by Official Republican supporters-was subject to a bomb attack, some of the perpetrators were caught in the act. Were' they IRSP members trying to spark off a sectarian civil war? No-they were members of a Protestant paramilitary group!
CONFIRMATION
These incidents were a sober confirmation of the warnings that the feud was providing a cover for provocateurs.
We have indicated where we think most of the responsibility for this political tragedy lies. We have also stated previously, however, that-whatever the pressures upon them-any move by the IRSP to resort to retaliation would be disastrous.
Many will be sceptical that IRSP sup porters have not been involved in any of the attacks on the Officials. Certainly one could fault the whole way in which the IRSP presented its relationship to the People's Liberation Army-something it: opponents were able to seize upon to question its integrity in regard to its denials of involvement in attacks on MISGIVINGS We still feel, however, that the key to the solution of the feud lies through the establishment of broad support for the IRSP's right to organise. Within that framework-despite many political differences we have with the IRSP, and desorte ceram msavnes aoou maen nanaing or tne contact witn tne wucials the International Marxist Group, in conjunction with other socialist organisations, Is sponsoring a tour of Britain next week for a prominent IRSP speaker.
red weekly 15 may 1975