"Bloody Friday" was Whitelaw's pretext for launching the Army's invasion of the no-go areas. In his statement on Monday, he called the invasion a response to "the insane and deliberate killing of innocent women and children on what is now known as Bloody Friday'", which 'had been the deliberate work of the Provisional IRA."
WARNINGS The events of 21 July were apparently very opportune for British imperialism-a little too opportune for the version put over by Whitelaw and the B.B.C. to be entirely credible. Now a Sunday Times report (30 July) has confirmed something of what in fact happened that day. In accordance with standard IRA practice, warnings of every one of the 20-odd bombs which exploded on Friday were phoned in to the public authorities and the Samaritans to ensure that there was time for the area to be evacuated of civilians. The facts given here tally with the document on the affair published by the Belfast Provisionals, Friday, The Facts. For the Cavehill Road bomb, which killed three people, 68 minutes warning was given; for the Oxford Street bus station explosion, which killed six, 22 minutes notice was given. The agency which received the Oxford Street call has stated that details were immediately passed on to the security forces: the army deny this.
The British Army kept quiet about the warnings. The result was a bloodbath which has now been used as a pretext to invade the liberated areas.
.E IN THE SOUTH course. His response to the invasion of Free Derry was: "I such a mature and calm approach is adopted, This new development could lead to greater understanding and cooperation all round and create a better atmosphere for political talks, which I urge should be held without delay." Irish Press, 1 August)
This approach was spelt out more comprehensively when Lynch addressed the National Convention of the American Ancient Order of Hibernians in Dublin recently. During the course of his speech he tried to portray the IRA struggle of 1918-1921 as essentially different from the present IRA struggle. He stated that "the only long term settlement of this difficult legacy of history is an Ireland united, by agree: ment, and with good relations with Britain". The message is clear: Fianna Fail is prepared to Jettison its residual republicanism and the logic of the coming period is a re-alignment in Irish politics, overcoming the structures which emerged from the Civil War.
CRISIS IN THE SOUTH We can therefore diagnose the situation in the South a s one of acute social crisis. Many militant and diverse struggles are continuing: struggles of tenants, struggles of workers against redundancies and low wages, struggles of republicans against political repression etc. The Fianna Fail government is definitely under pressure from these struggles. The fact that it has had to strengthen its repressive machinery and introduce the Forcible. Entries Act and the Special Criminal Courts demonstrates this; as does its postponement of a confrontation with the trade union movement over the National Wages Agreement.
CRISIS OF LEADERSHIP However these struggles have not yet led to any decisive political shift among the southern masses. No political force has arisen which can turn these struggles into a generalised political struggle against the state.
It is here that the weaknesses of both sections of the Republican movement are highlighted quite clearly. The Provisionals can only see Lynch's collaboration with British imperialism in terms of moral betrayals. They have therefore failed to build a political base in the south which would safeguard them against political repression. The Officials, although representing a political development within Irish republicanism, have failed to develop an adequate programme for the south. Their rigid "stages" concept of the struggle has prevented them from outlining a strategy which would link the struggle north and south, a need that has only been grasped by small revolutionary organisations such as the Peoples Democracy and the Revolutionary Marxist Group (Irish supporters of the Fourth International). Among the revolutionary vanguard the combined nature of the Irish revolution will have to be grasped. As the social crisis intensifies, a crisis of political leadership will develop among the working masses. A leadership will have to be built which can centralise all the struggles of the working masses and channel them into an offensive against the state. To achieve this task the vanguard needs to be aware of the interrelationships of each struggle and of the dominant contradiction in the situation. Only then will the vanguard recognise which specific struggles have the greatest dynamic in a particular situation. If we realise that the abortion of the national revolution in 1921 meant that not only the economic structures but also the political structures were restricted by the imperialist straitjacket, them we can grasp the fact that for the Irish masses to make political advances they will have to burst free from these restrictions.
NATIONAL QUESTION This shows the importance of the national issue. The destruction of the Orange state is therefore a struggle in which the southern masses have a direct interest. Struggles in the south in support of the struggles in the north are of decisive importance at present. We have seen some concrete examples of these struggles already in the demonstrations against the harassment and imprisonment of republicans and the mobilisation throughout the country in support of the Newry demonstration after Bloody Sunday.
OLE SPEGIRL NOT Section of the Newry march, which mobilised support from both North and South.
Such activities, if they gain momentum, will quickly come into confliet with Fianna Fail. This will have an educative effect on the southern masses about the class nature of Fianna Fail. It will lead to a situation where the contradictions within Fianna Fail will be sharpened and hasten the erosion of its populist base.
Given these pre-conditions the Irish people mobilised in a centralised struggle will break free of the imperialist fetters and having smashed both reactionary states reconstruct Irish society in the interests of the toiling masses. Niall Nolan