People's Democracy sit-in THE BACKGROUND Since the beginning of this year, the struggle of the minority has increased by leaps and bounds. The rent and rates strike is solid and has shown no sign of a let-up. Combined with this, the mass demonstrations in defiance of Stormont's laws showed the depth of the resistance. The meaning was clear-internment had failed, the repression that followed internment had failed too. Even the brutal murders on Bloody Sunday in Derry could not stem the tide of rebellion.
This mood amongst the minority protected the military actions of the IRA, and these too developed tremendously. In fact during the period between the ending of the Provisional's 72 hour truce and the ending of Stormont, the number of British Army casualties had almost reached the total number of casualties during the entire period of the previous IRA campaign of 1956-62.
Heath finally had to face up to the fact that the IRA could not be defeated without separating it from the mass of the Catholic minority, but any proposals for concessions were blocked by Stormont. Faulkner & Co. understood that the base of support for the Unionist government within the protestant population had been eroded, and the mass rallies of the Ulster Vanguard gave notice that no concessions could be made by the Unionist Party if it wished to retain its support. Heath had also to contend with the problem of the 36 Tory MPs who have been bought by the Unionist Party: together with the votes of the Unionist. MPs at Westminster they pose a threat to the Th Dad Mala 20 March 1972 Pane 6 CAMPS Internees relatives picket House of Commons government's majority as the voting over the EEC showed.
All of these factors dictated the delay in Heath's initiative but they also meant that when it came Heath would brook no opposition. He had made an assessment of the effects of the resumed Provisional campaign, and was well aware of the likelihood of a major offensive in the near future. When finally Heath proposed his measures, the Unionists overplayed their hand, leaving Heath with no alternative to direct rule other than an indirect escalation of the crisis situation.
AN HISTORICAL CRISIS The crisis in Ireland flows from basic historical factors which cannot be abolished as easily as Faulkner's comic opera "parliament". The intervention in Ireland by British imperialism in the past relied on using the Protestant population of the North East as a bridgehead against the entire Irish people. Thus the 1801 Act of Union which followed the defeat of the United Irishmen in 1798, by means of free trade between Ireland and Britain insulated the devel. oping industry of the North East from the rest of the Irish economy. giving it access to the British market, and keeping the rest of the Irish economy as a backward agricultural reservoir for Britain. In order to bolster their position, they supported the institutionalisation of religious sectarianism in that part of Ireland. This was given state form by the partition of Ireland, and the setting up of the Northern Irish state in 1920. This state could only survive through the continuous oppression of the one-third Catholic minority within its boundaries, and the distribution of patronage and privilege to the Protestant majority in order to maintain their reliance on the reactionary myths of the Orange Order.
When in the mid-sixties, British imperialism began to change its policy, and turn to rapprochement with the 26 Counties, (whose economy had become very important for Britain) a desire to be part of Lynch's gombeen "Repthe whole structure of British relationships to the two Irish states became redundant. However this was the beginning, not the end of Britain's problems with Ireland. The Northern state prov ed incapable of reform. It staggered from crisis to crisis, and was only just rescued in August 1969 by the intervention of British troops.
When these troops began to move against the Catholic areas they met a mass revolt; this revolt was not put down by internment, and has grown with each attempt to destory it by repression. This intractable crisis will not be solved by a few decrees from Downing Street, but only by the elimination of the deep historical contradictions within the state.
FAKE PROPOSALS Even if this were not so, even if the crisis did not have such historical roots, the proposals tendered by Heath will have no deep or lasting effect on the minority. The "phasing out" of internment is a concession, and the people of the ghettoes will be glad to see even a small number of men freed. But they are well aware that a large proportion of the internees are detained precisely so that they can later be released as a'concession', and Heath has made no mention of the 300 or so convicted political
sis. The coming weeks and months will pose new ity in the North in particular. That challenge resolves Westminster is an expression of the depth of the crisis of and those who support it in the 26 Counties and in Britain.
Loyulist rally outside Stormont Photo: This Week IRA training manoeuvres Photo: This Week