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These are regular editorials
produced alongside the corresponding issues on Nonviolent
News. |
Also in this editorial
Decommissioning of weapons by the IRA is an amazing signal
and symbol that the peace process in Northern Ireland has
actually travelled somewhere, even if destinations are still
in short supply. While Ian Paisley, the DUP and some other
unionists were playing hard to please, there was an acceptance
by most that the business had been done. Without decommissioning,
unionists were never going to say ‘yay’ to devolved
government, and even with it the period of ‘quarantine’
that they will look for is still open to question.
It is natural that unionists are asking questions
about the process, particularly when this is something that
‘should’ have happened in 1998. But except for
those in the Paisleyite camp who wanted sackcloth and ashes
there is some realisation that in the nature of things, everything
was not going to happen exactly as unionists wanted. Even
if Ian Paisley had appointed one of the independent witnesses
he would still have been no wiser as to whether all IRA weaponry
had been destroyed. Certainly it is possible some arms fell
into the hands of non-ceasefire republicans but given the
control that the leaders of Sinn Féin and the IRA have
tried to exercise in this matter, it would be ludicrous to
suggest that it was policy at any level to allow this to happen.
Maybe some members close to, or going over to, the dissidents
will have passed on weapons. But de Chastelain seems sure
that the IRA’s arsenal has been dismantled, and Fr Alex
Reid and Rev Harold Good, as independent witnesses, agreed
with this completely. The Ulster Unionist line of waiting
to see the outcome of forthcoming Independent Monitoring Commission
rulings seems a sensible one from their position.
Presumably over time, momentum will build for
the DUP to engage with Sinn Féin and indeed all parties
on the restoration of devolved government in Northern Ireland.
While loyalist paramilitary parties are not in a political
position where decommissioning can be demanded as the price
for admission to government, there is still the need now to
push loyalist paramilitaries to come clean on what future
they see for themselves. Most recent ‘Troubles’
killings have been coming from this source; with the IRA disarmed,
what reasonable reasons can they give for continuing?
With IRA arms out of the way, a very significant
amount of total arms in paramilitary hands have been destroyed
and the majority of arms in the hands of ‘any kind’
of republicans. Decommissioning of mindsets is one next task
– a rather more difficult task than encasing disarmed
weapons in concrete - in fact, it’s more like digging
minds out from concrete to set them free.
It’s a riot
The extent of working class and general Protestant
alienation in Northern Ireland was well revealed in the rioting
and blocking of roads which took place in Belfast and elsewhere
early in September following a very minor rerouting of an
Orange parade. It was obvious that this was not just about
the rerouting of a parade. Some in the Protestant community
made the point that Protestants were learning the lesson from
Catholics that violence was effective in making a point to
authorities and getting an argument across; this is rather
inaccurate as unfortunately some in the Protestant community
had already discovered this methodology thirty-five years
ago, arguably before the Catholic community in the context
of the recent Troubles.
So what was recent rioting about? Political
alienation, yes. Economic deprivation, yes. Powerlessness,
yes. The vast majority of loyalist parades go through as planned
and only an extremely small percentage are restricted and
yet once again we had the ‘extrapolation scenario’
from the Orange march in question; it was no longer a question
of losing a hundred or so yards of a march but of the whole
struggle in Northern Ireland becoming wrapped up in that hundred
yards. As Ian Paisley once encapsulated the Drumcree struggle,
it became not a battle for Drumcree but a battle for Ulster.
Loyalist identity became identified with (and trapped in)
one small battle of conflicting rights – and it was
a question of conflicting rights as it had already become
defined as a win/lose scenario for Catholics and Protestants.
And it seems that some in the Protestant community have difficulty
in moving from ancient superiority to something like equality.
There was also undoubtedly loyalist paramilitary
involvement in the rioting. With no carrot of government before
them, and no foot in any political door, it is difficult for
loyalist paramilitaries to move on. The peace process may
have had difficulty with republicans and their refusal, until
the move by the IRA recently, to disarm. But the peace process
has almost completely lost hold of loyalist paramilitaries
who have been hanging in there by a very frayed thread. Their
participation in politics has been a chastening experience
as they have not received the votes from the Protestant community
which would have given them an opportunity to move strongly
into the political arena in the way Sinn Féin has done.
The negative nature of their existence has been highlighted
by continued internecine killings.
Loyalist and DUP figures have demanded increased
economic support for Protestant areas on the back of this
recent rioting (the Glenbryn situation over Holy Cross school
ended with an economic package for the local area). It is
true that British government action on economic and social
deprivation has not been what might have been envisioned in
the Good Friday Agreement. But the figures and indices still
clearly show (see e.g. ‘Daily Ireland’ 3rd October
2005) Catholic deprivation as worse than Protestant. Of course
there is Protestant economic, social and educational deprivation;
the archetypal Shankill is witness to that. And that does
require action. But what the figures show more generally is
the extent to which investment goes to already ‘successful’
areas, ignoring areas of deprivation, be they Catholic or
Protestant. It can be strongly and convincingly argued that
areas of social need deserve greater resources, irrespective
of religious background, but targeting exclusively ‘Protestant’
social need or ‘Catholic’ social need in isolation
is a recipe for sectarian disaster and strife in the long
term.
The Protestant community may have been sold
the Good Friday Agreement in the short term but not in the
medium term over the last seven years. The idea that the ‘Union’
is currently at risk, or that Protestants (i.e. the Protestant
working class) are discriminated against in a way that Catholics
(and the Catholic working class) are not, is sheer fantasy.
Regarding the ‘Union’, the level of cooperation
between North and South is something that might parallel cooperation
between different Scandinavian countries but has anyone recently
accused one Scandinavian country of trying to take over another?
And while it may have been painful for many Protestants to
see prisoners (of all shades) released, and the RUC rebranded
the PSNI, most Protestants do not see the massive change in
Sinn Féin being willing not only to sit in a partitionist
parliament at Stormont but also to be part of the government
in Northern Ireland.
Yes, Protestant leaders need to fight their
corner to get the resources that working class Protestant
areas deserve but they also have a task to share the news
that Northern Ireland remains a variety of British state at
a time when devolution has loosened the political definition
of what it means to be British. And, despite Sinn Féin
bluster and anyone else’s wishes on the matter, this
is likely to remain the case for a very considerable time.
The release of the ‘Rossport 5’
after 94 days imprisonment says a considerable amount about
the power of corporations in today’s Ireland versus
the power of the community. On the other hand, it can also
be said that the fact they were eventually released, after
considerable and sustained public and political pressure,
shows that it is possible to mobilise public opinion against
the worst excesses of said corporations and state apathy.
The high-pressure Corrib gas field pipeline
going 9 kilometres overland to a refinery in Co Mayo is a
potential time-bomb, and the many safety issues received scant
attention including both the kind of pipe used and safe distances
from the pipeline to dwellings. You would want an extremely
long back yard (a good proportion of a kilometre) before you
would feel in any way safe with such a development beside
you; it was no wonder the local community has been rejecting
the pipeline which was courtesy of Shell, Statoil and Marathon.
And the state, which should have been the guardian of the
people, acted as the guardian of the corporations - including
over planning issues - until it was eventually pressured into
taking its obligations seriously (including illegalities by
the consortium) and it has now instituted mediation. This
could have happened before the imprisonment of the Rossport
5 for contempt of a High Court order restraining them from
denying the consortium access to land.
The non-violent resistance of the local community
is to be admired. Their safety is our safety, and it is unprecedented
to run such a pipeline overland and in the vicinity of housing.
Another issue altogether is whether the consortium involved
is paying a fair price to the state and the people (which
is a matter of state legislation and practice). And yet another
is that with a precious carbon resource like gas there should
be no rush to production.
It is great to see the commitment and energy
which has gone into this non-violent campaign of resistance
to multinationals riding roughshod over a local community
while the state sat idly by. It shows that Ireland has not
yet been completely eaten up by the Celtic Tiger.
Larry Speight brings us his monthly column:
Spooky or what
In the last week of August many shops had full Halloween displays
in their windows, and this past week I noticed Christmas cakes,
cards and decorations for sale. This out of season promotion
of goods not only corrupts our traditional sense of the times
of the year but also perpetuates the consumer culture. As
we are susceptible to social pressures, and are easily induced
by the illusions presented to us, it is likely that a great
many people will buy Christmas decorations that they don't
need and in a weekend of household cleaning throw them into
the Council skip on the pretext of getting rid of clutter.
On this point Leo Hickman informs us in The Guardian, 20 Sept
2005, that 80% of what we buy is discarded within six months,
and that collectively UK homes throw away 26m tonnes of 'waste'
a year.
What I find particularly disturbing about encouraging
people to buy what they don't need is that Hurricane Katrina,
and now Rita, whose intensity scientists think was probably
intensified by global warming, appears not to have had a subduing
affect on consumerism. The rationale in Ireland might be imbedded
in island thinking, which is to say that we often consider
that what happens in other parts of the world does not concern
us. This is to misunderstand the dynamics of the biosphere
in which all things are connected. Climate change is a result
of our reliance on fossil fuels, and in time will likely have
a catastrophic impact on us. Tim O'Brien informs us in The
Irish Times, 24 Sept 2005, that among the changes we can expect
from a change in the climate are water shortages on the east
coast, changes in agricultural production, more intense storms,
flooding and health risks from tropical diseases. The rise
in sea levels will likely cause flooding in many of our costal
towns and cities, including Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Limerick,
Galway and Belfast.
The international economic order will also be
affected with serious consequences for our whole way of life
that we are clearly not prepared for. Perhaps the economic
and social disruption caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
will bring about a paradigm shift in the United States on
how they conduct their relationship with nonhuman nature,
and this will be taken up elsewhere, the pebble in the pond
affect. As Bill McKibben, author of the classic “The
End of Nature” (1989) recently said, there will be no
change in consumer habits until people " felt fear in
their guts."
1908 – 2005
By Mairead Corrigan Maguire
Joseph Rotblat died on 3lst August, 2005 peacefully
in hospital, in London. He was 96 years young. I will miss
him very much, but take consolation from the fact that I had
the blessing in my life of having spent some time with Joseph,
and listened to him share his experiences, passion, and vision
for a world without war and nuclear weapons.
He was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1908. His love
of science lead him into the scientific world of atomic research
and he worked as a scientist, first in the UK at the University
of Liverpool and then at Los Alamos, New Mexico, helping to
create an atomic weapon. When he discovered in late 1944 that
Germany would not succeed in developing an atomic bomb, he
believed there was no reason to continue working on creating
a US bomb. He then left the Manhattan Project on moral grounds.
As General Secretary of the Pugwash Conferences
on Science and World Affairs, and later President of Pugwash
Conferences, he dedicated his life to the abolition of nuclear
weapons. In 1995 Joseph and the Pugwash Conferences were joint
recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. Joseph believed receiving
the Nobel Peace prize carried with it the responsibility to
work for peace, and he did so every moment of his life, with
a passion and with joy.
Two years ago he has a stroke, and I went to
visit him in a London Hospital as he lay recovering. I was
accompanied by his great friend and co-worker for Nuclear
Disarmament, Bruce Kent. Joseph looked so ill and frail I
though surely he would not leave the hospital at all. But
when he started talking to us I am awe-struck at the energy
and passion he exuded. He asked me if I was going to the Gorbachev
Conference in Rome in two weeks time, and said he wanted to
get out to go to the Conference, as he had two speeches prepared
to give. He said he had to get out of hospital soon, as there
was so much peace work to be done! Six months later he travelled
to Denver, Colorado, to deliver a two hour lecture to several
hundred teenagers! The following year, (2004) when met again
in Rome, I asked Joseph what kept him working for Disarmament,
with so much enthusiasm and joy. He said it was important
for people to have goals and he had two goals in life. “My
short-term goal” he said “is the abolition of
nuclear weapons, and my long-term goal is the abolition of
war”.
Joseph never saw his goals fulfilled, but he
did fulfil the most important goal any human being can attain.
He evolved and was transformed during his earthly journey,
into a truthful, joyous, compassionate, gentle, kind, human
being. He was truly an inspiring and wise man for our time….
As for his goals of nuclear disarmament and a world without
war, I believe we can best pay tribute to our brother Joseph,
by continuing to work to make his dreams come true and build
a world safe for the human family.
Mairead Corrigan Maguire (Nobel Peace
Laureate ) http://www.peacepeople.com
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