THE LOYALIST STRIKE in the North of Ireland could be the last crushing blow to the Sunningdale agreement. It certainly represents the most formidable expression so far of loyalist opposition to the British Government's strategy.
It is unlikely that, as in previous Toyalist confrontations, this strike will simply peter out in confusion. Things have changed in the North SCENT OF VICTORY The general election result has given the loyalists the scent of victory: and the success of the latest IRA campaign, along with the growing mood for troop withirawals in Britain. has made them fear a British pull out, which would make a united Ireland inevitahle.
Over the last year the "hard men" centred mainly in the formerly illegal Uister Volunteer Force have asserted their domination over the broader and looser Ulster Defence Association, and the other parsmilitary groups Ruthless and cynical, they have decisively asserted their indepen dence from the loyalist 'politicians" (Craig, West, Paisley, etc.). They express the interests of the Orange aristocracy of labour-determined to maintain the relative privileges of the loyalist industrial workers, which they see as bound up with maintenance of the sectarian Northern seate continued on p.3 There will now be squeals of quate. A massive campagn must be of wages:
by threshold agreements.