SF train is getting up steam
By Mary Nelis
As the people of Bellaghy were burying their most respected
citizen Sean Brown, the New Labour Prime Minister, Tony Blair was
in Belfast reassuring the Unionists that the Six Counties will
always be part of the United Kingdom and that even if a majority
of people in the North gave their consent to change, the British
government would have the final say and he, Tony Blair and his
New Labour Government would not be persuaders for Irish unity. He
went on to say that Nationalists should not be afraid for their
future in such a scenario.
Blair reinforced the Unionist veto by saying - no less than six
times in his speech - that there will be no change in the status
of the Six Counties without the consent of the majority. But that
majority does not understand the word consent because it still
sucks the breast of British imperialism.
Blair's speech, hailed by John Hume et al, as opening new doors,
could have been written by Churchill, Thatcher or his predecessor
John Major. It was, by its clear references to some form of
devolution, a chilling reminder that new Labour's intention is
the back to the future scenario of giving Nationalists promises
and Unionists power. As Blair said, ``if people succeeded in
arguing for a United Ireland within the talks, we would respect
it. But none of us, even the youngest person in this room is
likely to see Northern Ireland as anything other than part of the
UK.''
Blair's New Labour is a mirror of the old Tories in that it is
committed to the Union and colonialism. Such imperialist thinking
is reflected in the arrogance of Blair's assertion that the
nationalist community give its allegiance to a government which
set up, through the Government of Ireland Act, this undemocratic
entity and used its army to protect the apartheid institutions it
created.
Blair talks ad nauseum about the principle of consent, but fails
to acknowledge that no person, in either part of Ireland, ever
cast a vote for partition, which has been responsible for the
monster lined up at Drumcree Churchyard in the past two yeas.
d just in case the Unionist and the Drumcree backwoodsmen felt
that the triple lock guarantee given to them by the previous
British administration, was not sufficient, Blair has stated that
New Labour would ``not negotiate any arrangement that would be
threatening to Unionists''.
In addition Blair, like his Tory counterparts, is advocating the
removal of Articles 2 and 3 from the Irish constitution, so that
it would reflect the Dublin government's strong support for the
Unionist cause through the consent principle.
Blair is suggesting that we, the Nationalists, become a minority
without an identity. In other words, the opposition in the
resurrected Stormont Parliament would be like the Palestinians,
stateless.
Should the Dublin government agree to this outrageous suggestion,
the Nationalist people, who in every decade since partition have
been driven from their homes by Unionist pogroms, would not be
guaranteed sanctity or safety in the South of Ireland, as that
government would no longer have any legal responsibility for us.
Rather than opening doors, Blair's speech is about closing
borders, both constitutional and political.
How then can this much-hailed speech promise a new future? How
can it encourage the IRA to consider a ceasefire when it would
seem the outcome of talks has already been pre-determined? Blair
speaks of words and deeds matching - Sean Brown was murdered by
people whom Tony Blair saw fit to commend for their restraint,
but whose words and deed have left a trail of murders, bombings,
arson and intimidation throughout the entire island. The UVF, the
UDA, the UFF, the Red Hand Commandos, the British Army, the RIR,
the people who speak through the CLMC but who in reality are but
surrogates of the British government, would take comfort in
Blair's reassurance that there was not the remotest possibility
of a democratic resolution to the conflict.
John Hume would do well to hail the process towards his
canonisation, not only because thank God, he is still alive, but
because Blair's speech has put him in the unhappy position of not
being able to deliver peace.
The local government election results have given Sinn Féin an
increased mandate. It reflects the will and the consent of 16.9%
of the electorate that Sinn Féin represent their interest in
talks, without preconditions and which will guarantee them as
Northern Nationalists, the right to decide their own future,
without interference from the British government, its armies, its
surrogate murderers and most of all from New Labour.
If there is a renwed IRA ceasefire, then it will clearly have to
be for reasons other than admission to talks. Our train, Tony, is
getting up steam, we would not want it to leave without the real
peacemakers.
New Labour has the majority to buy the ticket.
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