The Socialist Issue 228

SOME POLITICIANS and military leaders now think that Bush and Blair's war against Afghanistan could last for years. Already in the first three weeks of US imperialism's bombing 1,000 Afghan civilians have been killed according to Taliban claims.

Tens of thousands more are trying to escape to their country's borders. 100,000 Afghan children could die this winter if food doesn't reach them and US bombs make it almost impossible to get food through.

This is a brutal war. Last weekend George Galloway MP summed up the situation by saying that the phrase "Socialism or barbarism" had never been more appropriate.

George, who intends to force a procedural vote in the House of Commons this week against the Blair government's participation in the war, was speaking at a rally of young people, trade unionists and socialists at the Socialist Party's Socialism 2001 education event.

"People ask what's the alternative to war?", he continued. "I say the answer cannot be the world's richest powers bombing the world's poorest country!"

George denounced attempts to link terrorism to the Left. "Bin Laden and the Taliban have nothing to do with the Left. The US created the Taliban monster and now George Bush is reaping the whirlwind."

He castigated foreign secretary Jack Straw for lying about the accuracy of the bombing, graphically describing the terror in Kabul's residential areas as 1,000 lb. bombs ripped through mud brick and wooden huts killing and maiming whole families. "How dare Jack Straw say there's no 'moral equivalence' between the victims in the Twin Towers and Afghan civilians blown apart by bombs?"

The movement against this war is growing. So is the realisation that the grossly unequal world of capitalism creates wars and terrorism.

Even US Republican senator Chuck Hagel admits: "When people have no hope because they're living in poverty and hunger and pestilence, people like bin Laden will seize upon that lack of hope. Until we start to recognise that... we will never really get to the core of stopping terrorism."

Start organising now for the 18 November anti-war demonstration in London. But don't leave it there. Join our fight to free the planet from poverty, war and terror - that means creating a socialist world.

Stop the War Coalition national demonstration: Sunday 18 November. Assemble 12 noon, Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park, London. For details of transport from your area,

Glasgow medical secretaries

Victory Over Low Pay

STRIKING MEDICAL secretaries in Glasgow have won a massive victory for low paid NHS workers. Medical secretaries in North Glasgow Hospitals UNISON branch have been taking industrial action since the beginning of August.

Jim McFarlane, CWI Scotland

All-out strike action began on 22 October. Strike action has been solid from the beginning and workers not involved directly in the dispute have shown their solidarity.

Within days of the all-out action beginning, management were forced back to the negotiating table with an improved offer, due to the strength of the action. The offer represented a huge shift in the hospital Trust's position.

All medical secretaries now have access to a higher pay scale. The action has also won arrears of the claim backdated to October 2000, averaging around £1,200 for every member. Management have also agreed to reinstate all holiday entitlement that was deducted as a result of the action.

Branch secretary and Scottish Socialist Party member Carolyn Leckie said: "Our members are delighted that their action has been successful. I am glad that the Trust and the Branch have been able to reach agreement. Standing up and fighting works. Throughout this dispute we have had the support of other trade unionists and the general public. Public service workers don't take strike action lightly. I hope that this will help to improve the confidence of other workers in improving their conditions."

Frances Lyall, striking medical secretary and UNISON Steward said: "This is recognition at last of the justness of our claim. NHS workers, including porters, cleaners etc are undervalued. We have secured improved recognition for the job we do. But like the majority of employees in the NHS, we remain underpaid. There is still a lot to be done. I hope that this is the start of the end of low pay in the NHS."

This significant victory in Glasgow shows the potential of all workers to fight and win. This group of underpaid women workers have shown that where a bold lead is given, action can force change.

National trade union leaders should show the same courage and conviction as those workers in taking on the bosses and the Labour government in fighting to defend our jobs and public services.

What We Say

A Disastrous War...

THE CATALOGUE of disasters and mistakes in the war in Afghanistan is mounting daily. While some military chiefs and politicians have tried to put a positive spin on the campaign so far, others have had to admit that it has totally failed to achieve any of its aims.

In an unguarded moment, US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted that Osama bin Laden might never be found: "It's like looking for a needle in a haystack," he said.

Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, chief of defence staff in Britain was a little more optimistic suggesting that the war in Afghanistan could take "three or four years". But, he added, "the war against communism took 50 years to win and I wonder if we shouldn't be thinking of it ['war against terrorism' - eds] like that".

The Taliban claim that at least 1,000 civilians have been killed since the bombing began over three weeks ago. The US admit to "some" civilian casualties "but we don't know how many". Every bomb that 'inadvertently' misses its target, every child killed by a missile, exposes the futility and hypocrisy of Bush and Blair's war.

The US and Britain rightly fear that they are losing the propaganda war, not just in Arab and Muslim countries but on the 'home front' as well. An ICM/Guardian poll found support for the war in Britain dropped 12% in two weeks, with 54% wanting a pause in the bombing.

Northern Alliance

The military and political spokespeople express surprise that after more than three weeks of bombing the Taliban regime is still intact. According to some inside reports the bombing has actually strengthened support for the Taliban in some areas. Even in territory controlled by the Northern Alliance the mood is beginning to shift against the US as bombs kill civilians and fighters question the effectiveness of the US military strategy.

This war is primarily about defending and extending the prestige, power and influence of US imperialism on the global stage and in the Middle East in particular. Having failed to capture bin Laden or dislodge the Taliban, the logic of their own war is now compelling them towards the deployment of ground troops for raids in Afghanistan.

This will mark an even more bloody stage in the conflict. The supposedly successful set-piece raid on an abandoned air-field by US rangers was in fact fiercely resisted by the Taliban and almost ended in disaster for the American troops. This gives an indication of how problematic a ground war will be.

Ground incursions in one of the most difficult terrains in the world, against a determined enemy, steeled in guerrilla fighting will inevitably lead to casualties amongst US and British troops. The longer the war goes on, the more unstable the war coalition becomes and the more opposition to the military campaign is growing.

General Musharraf in Pakistan, worried that he might not be able to hold back unrest at home, appealed for the bombing campaign to be short. But the bombing could even continue through Ramadan which would massively inflame anti-war and anti-US imperialism sentiments amongst Muslims around the world. In Pakistan itself, the killing of 16 Christians in a church in the Punjab shows how this mood can take a reactionary turn.

A new terrorist attack in Britain could temporarily cut across the growing anti-war mood. But at the moment there is increased awareness that military attacks on one of the poorest countries in the world cannot defeat terrorism. Our aim is to channel this into building a massive anti-war movement.

But as socialists we also explain that capitalism creates an environment of poverty, inequality and oppression in which support for terrorist methods can grow and that only socialism can eradicate terror and war on a world scale.

...And A Dubious Peace

IT IS not just the US war 'strategy' that is going awry. The 'post-war' plans aren't faring much better.

The killing of former mujahidin leader Abdul Haq by the Taliban has dealt a blow to imperialism's efforts to stitch up some kind of post-Taliban government for Afghanistan.

The Pakistani dictatorship is a vital member of the US war coalition. But they won't countenance any government dominated by the mainly Uzbek and Tajik Northern Alliance. They want to include 'moderate' Taliban supporters who are Pashtun, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. But Iran and Russia are adamant that no Taliban should be included.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the next government of Afghanistan "cannot be dictated into existence by Pakistan or any of the other neighbours".

In reality however, the US cannot afford to antagonise the neighbouring states if it is to keep them on side during the war and afterwards.

The US were cultivating Abdul Haq as a 'credible' non-Taliban Pashtun leader and his death has reinforced the enormous difficulties they have in cobbling together an 'interim' government. As Time magazine (22 October) put it: "The message of history: If you think war in Afghanistan is hard, wait till you see the peace."

Even if a coalition government can be installed in Kabul that could still leave large areas of Afghanistan in the hands of the Taliban or rival warlords. The experience of 1992-96, when 50,000 people were killed in Kabul as rival mujahidin forces fought each other (many of which now form the Northern Alliance), is still fresh in many people's memories.

Unstable alternatives

When asked about the requirements for a successful UN mission in Afghanistan one official, who has been involved in East Timor replied: "Number one, don't do it". Another said the problem lay "between incredibly difficult and totally impossible".

Jack Straw dismissed current doubts about the war as a "Kosovan wobble" (a reference to when bombs killed fleeing refugees in the war in Kosovo). We shouldn't worry, he said, because Milosevic was eventually brought to trial.

But he is distorting history. Milosevic was still in power when the NATO bombing ended. It was ordinary people in Serbia, rising up, with workers playing an important role, that overthrew Milosevic.

Any government imposed on the people of Afghanistan on the basis of capitalism will be unstable and incapable of relieving the desperate situation that most ordinary Afghans face.

Afghan workers and poor have to shape their own future with support from working-class people internationally. A government of workers and poor in a socialist federation of the Middle East and Central Asia is the only guarantee of a decent future.

BUSH AND Blair's war in Afghanistan has encountered mass popular opposition in many parts of the Muslim world. In the Middle East and Gulf states, many people remember imperialism's bloody record throughout the region. ROGER SHRIVES looks at the crimes of imperialism in this area of great importance economically and politically.

The Deadly Legacy Of Imperialism

IMPERIALIST POWERS in the West have invaded, attacked, lied to, and connived against the people of the Middle East for centuries. For nearly 100 years, the main reason has been to control the region's huge oil reserves.

Before oil, imperialist powers had mainly a strategic interest in the area. The Middle East was on the profitable trade route to India so British imperialism's main concern was to build up "protectorates" and feudal kingdoms as military bases. Kuwait came under Britain's "protection" in 1779 while Bahrain became a protectorate and military base in 1861.

When oil production became big business, control over the Suez canal and the Gulf became vital. In 1909 oil extraction began in Iran. That same year a treaty between Britain and Tsarist Russia divided the country between them. A British firm got concessions to exploit the oil fields and Britain tried to turn Iran into a protectorate.

Suez canal

The 1914-18 war killed off the ailing Ottoman Empire, based in Turkey. As it disintegrated other imperialist powers, particularly Britain, used divide and rule tactics to stop the local people gaining any real control.

British imperialism led the Arab masses - who had fought alongside British troops against the Turkish forces - to expect independence and a homeland of their own.

But the Suez canal and the Gulf were now vital seaways for Western powers. The war itself had shown how essential oil was for their military needs and how profitable it was. Most of all, after 1917, Western imperialism feared that the Russian revolution could spread to the Arab world. Their solution was to ram the lid down tight to prevent an Arab uprising.

Rival imperialisms carved up the Ottoman empire's Arab territories. Britain and France set up feudally run client states as a bulwark against Arab revolution. France got Lebanon and Syria, relying on the Christian minority to protect them in Lebanon.

Britain gained what became Iraq, Jordan and Palestine. Britain's foreign secretary Balfour told Jewish people, discriminated against in the West, that they could have a homeland of their own within the borders of their Palestine mandate.

This was done for self-seeking reasons - in particular Britain's rulers hoped that a Jewish state might protect their control of the Suez canal. Jewish emigration started to Palestine. Of course this treaty, confirmed by the League of Nations (or League of Imperialist Bandits as Lenin styled them) in 1920, contradicted Britain's cynical promises to the Arabs.

Puppet regimes

AFTER OIL was found, national independence movements and growing workers' movements forced the imperialist powers to leave most of the Middle East. But the hugely profitable oil firms tried to prevent real independence.

They opposed any moves towards pan-Arab unity, largely because they needed to use smaller semi-feudal states, with less pressure from massive poor populations, to keep oil prices low.

When Britain consolidated power in Iraq, they made sure that they seized control of the oil-rich area of Mosul. They then signed a secret deal with their rival, France, guaranteeing them a share in Iraq's oil.

In 1920, scared of nationalist uprisings, particularly just after the Russian revolution, the British RAF put down an Iraqi revolt, killing 9,000 civilians in their bombings. Britain had a puppet king crowned.

Kuwait was kept separate from Iraq with a royal dictatorship. Britain's intention was to create a "police station from which Iraq, South Persia, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf could be controlled." Mass demonstrations in Iraq demanded independence but it was only with these safeguards, and a British-appointed prime minister, that Iraq gained nominal independence in 1932.

During the second world war the imperialist powers offered Lebanon independence from France if they turned against the pro-Nazi Vichy regime. But France refused to leave and had to be forced out in 1946-47.

Radicalising effect

THEN IN 1948 Britain and the US backed the creation of the state of Israel. After the horrors of Hitler's genocide, many people in the West had genuine sympathies with a Jewish homeland. But the wishes of the Arab masses were totally ignored and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians started a human and political problem that still lasts and is at present worsening.

The Palestine question radicalised the movements in the area. In Egypt defeat of the Arabs in the 1948-49 war with Israel showed up how corrupt and inadequate the old regimes were. Colonel Nasser and other army officers seized power in 1952. Their reforms aimed to win workers and peasants over to their side, although they didn't break with capitalism.

At that time the Suez canal was run by an Anglo-French private company which made £170 million a year in profits. In 1956 Nasser nationalised it. Britain (half of whose oil came through the canal) France and Israel invaded, bombing Egyptian cities. US imperialism, then less gung-ho than Britain on this subject, refused to support declining British imperialism which backed down.

Iran

But in Iran in 1953, when a reformist nationalist prime minister Muhammad Mussadiq tried to nationalise oil reserves in his country, expropriating the Anglo-Iranian oil company, it was the US CIA which organised first an economic blockade then a coup.

Almost absolute power was restored to the Shah who encouraged capitalist modernisation and dictatorship, aimed most against the nationalists and the Left.

In Algeria from 1954 to 1962, the National Liberation Front fought to throw out French imperialism. France sent over half a million troops, destroyed 8,000 villages, killed over a million Algerians, but failed to hang on to their former colony.

Many imperialist interventions after that were against moves towards Arab unity. In Lebanon in 1958 10,000 US marines landed to pacify a country which was demanding closer links with Nasser's Egypt and with Syria. At that stage British imperialism was considering military occupation of Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar to defend its oil profits.

In 1963 in Iraq, US CIA compiled a list of names of tens of thousands of Iraqi Communist Party members and gave it to right-wing army officers. Many left-wingers were tortured or killed by a coup against president Qasim whose land reforms and restrictions on oil profits had encouraged exaggerated talk of a "new Cuba".

The Ba'ath regime responsible for this coup is the same one as Saddam Hussein leads today. The CIA in effect built up the brutal dictator who they've spent the last decade trying to remove.

In 1967 Israel attacked the air forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan and occupied the West Bank, previously part of the state of Jordan, the Gaza strip and the Golan Heights, part of Syria since the first world war.

In 1975 Lebanon started a civil war which increased the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) influence. Israel invaded in 1978 to destroy PLO bases. When they withdrew they left Christian militias in charge of part of South Lebanon.

Israel invaded again in 1982, occupying two-fifths of Lebanon, including Beirut. In one incident the current Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon gave his Christian militia supporters a free hand to murder 2,000 Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila camps near Beirut.

Over the years Israel has annexed land, bombed neighbouring countries and defied resolutions from the UN many times but it gets no sanctions and it doesn't get bombed by the US.

On the other hand the US Reagan administration always linked Libya with terrorism. The US air force shot down two Libyan planes in 1981 and bombed Tripoli in 1986 in an attempt to kill Libya's leader Gaddafi.

IN THE 1980-88 war between Iran and Iraq, the US and the West backed Saddam Hussein's Iraq because Iran's Islamic regime with its huge army was seen as destabilising the region by upsetting the balance of power. US imperialism didn't want any one local state to dominate the Gulf region.

Iraq was vital in blocking Iran, though at least 350,000 died in that war. But when Saddam too started getting regional imperial aims and invaded Kuwait, the US turned against him in the 1990-91 Gulf War which killed 100,000 Iraqi civilians to defend oil profits. Two-thirds of the West's oil supplies come through the Gulf region (See The Socialist 19 October).

Bush promised a new world order including a Middle East free of armaments if the Arab and Muslim people helped get Saddam out of Kuwait. Shortly after the war, a summit sold more guns and missiles to both Arab and Israeli armies than ever before.

Since then US imperialism, now the world's only superpower, has tried to keep a lid on the region by such means as sanctions which have killed thousands of Iraqi children every month.

Even in the conflict in Afghanistan, where the power and prestige of US imperialism are bigger factors, the major powers still aim to keep and even extend their control over the area's huge resources.

Capitalists in many countries are now dreaming of a "post-war" Afghanistan, which could have big gas reserves and could be a corridor for transporting huge quantities of oil from the Caspian Sea area.

Throughout the last century, many mass movements of the area's workers and peasants have fought against imperialism's trampling of democratic, national and religious rights (more on this in future issues - eds).

The main task now is to build mass parties of the working class and poor and fight for a socialist solution which can meet everybody's needs not just those of the obscenely rich oil magnates and pampered rulers both within the Middle East and the imperialist nations.

Socialist Alliance Future At Stake

IN JUST four weeks time, on 1 December, the Socialist Alliance will meet in London to decide its future structure.

Clive Heemskerk, Socialist Alliance national executive member

This will be a critical moment, argues national chair, Socialist Party councillor and former Labour MP, Dave Nellist, in an Open Letter to Socialist Alliance members.

The achievements of the Alliance so far, enabling different socialist organisations and individuals to jointly contest 92 seats in June's general election, could be jeopardised if unacceptable proposals are forced through.

The conference agenda will have two main alternative constitutions to debate. The Socialist Party's draft constitution, the Open Letter argues, is the only one "which confronts the central questions in the structure debate": how to guarantee the rights of individual members while, at the same time, guaranteeing the rights of the component organisations and other organisations, groups of trade unionists and community campaigners etc which will emerge in the future and which we will need to involve in the Alliance.

The other main alternative constitution, proposed by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), completely fails to answer such questions.

In debates that have taken place in local Socialist Alliances they have been simply unable to explain how their constitution would guarantee any rights to minorities.

Democratic rights

The SWP have answered these points with general promises to 'respect' minority rights - they will be 'enlightened rulers' of the Socialist Alliance. As the Open Letter states, the Socialist Party "prefers democratic rights for minorities".

In reality, the SWP's proposed constitution enshrines the majority rule of the biggest component of local Alliances and of the Socialist Alliance nationally, i.e. themselves.

Tragically, as the Open Letter argues, "it will produce a 'Socialist Alliance' no different in structure - and therefore function - than other 'organisations' they have established in the past such as the Anti-Nazi League, Globalise Resistance, the Carworker, the Stop the Fees Campaign etc, and now, it seems, the Stop the War Coalition. This would be unacceptable, we believe, to a majority of non-SWP members of the Alliance".

The Open Letter acknowledges that "a balance between the rights of the component organisations and individual members is hard to achieve.

If the Socialist Party has got some details wrong in our proposals we're very keen to hear suggestions on how to improve on them".

But what is most important to save the Alliance, it concludes, "is that a substantial body of opinion be built around some alternative to the SWP's unacceptable constitution, which may compel them to re-think their position.

"To accomplish this we would like as many members of the Socialist Alliance as possible to declare their support for our constitutional proposals prior to the December 1st conference.

"Even if you do not agree with all the details of our constitution we would urge you to consider declaring in favour of the basic framework of our proposals, while at the same time recording any reservations you may wish to make.

"Hopefully, out of this process, a final draft could be presented to the conference which, while not what everyone hopes for, is at least acceptable to most".

For a full copy of the Open Letter by Dave Nellist and Clive Heemskerk, for a copy of the Socialist Party draft constitution or to add your name as a supporter of the Socialist Party's proposed constitution for the Alliance, write to: The Socialist Party, PO Box 24697, London, E11 1YD or e-mail: clive@socialistparty.org.uk

ISR Rally

Fighting For A Socialist Future

THE CLOSING rally of Socialism 2001 was hosted by International Socialist Resistance (ISR). It was an exciting finale to what had been a very inspiring weekend of socialism discussion and debate.

The platform speakers included young socialist activists from Europe, Clare Doyle from the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI), and the Scottish Labour MP George Galloway (see front page).

Opening the rally Jonas Brannberg - an organiser of the anti-capitalist/EU (European Union) demo in Gothenburg, Sweden, last June - said: "The anti-war movement must be tied into the anti-EU campaign as these EU states are supporting the US led war."

Next was Doreen Ulrich of Resistance International (IR) who had organised the recent 5,000-strong school students strike and demo in Berlin against the imperialist war. It showed that young people aren't prepared to accept the brutality of the capitalist system with its corporate stranglehold over the world.

Clare Doyle of the CWI reported back from events in Italy where she had participated in the anti-globalisation Social Forum in Florence. She said the 'spirit of Genoa' (ie mass defiance against capitalism) was very much alive, as shown by the huge 500,000-strong anti-war/peace march from Perugia to Assissi.

Prominent in this 25 kilometre march was the Rifondazione communists (RC). But because of the presence of the social democrats (who had only days before had voted in Parliament for military action against Afghanistan) the RC refused to march the last few kilometres and held their own rally. The Cobas trade union federation too also refused to go on the march.

Cobas is organising an all-Italy one-day education strike on 31 October and a one-day strike on 9 November - a day before a huge anti-war demo in Rome.

Wouker Gysen from the Left Socialist Party and International Resistance in Belgium described their successful 2,500-strong school students strike in Gent two weeks ago against the bosses' EU and the US led war.

He urged the audience to come together against the EU leaders in Brussels (and where NATO's headquarters is located) on 14/15 December.

Summing-up, Clare James said the ISR is international by necessity because capitalism is international. ISR unlike some in the anti-capitalist movement won't be bowed by the capitalists' attempt to link the anti-globalisation movement to terrorism.

Clare urged everyone to build for the anti-war demo on 18 November and to mobilise for Brussels, including the ISR launch conference on 15 December. She concluded: "There's only one option for a future and that's to fight for a socialist world."

Brussels demo

ON 14 December EU heads of government meet in Brussels, Belgium for a summit. As well as extending their pro-big business agenda they will be reiterating their support for the US war against the Afghan people.

Come and join the ISR protest. Also, come to the ISR conference in Brussels on 15 December and establish a new democratic, socialist organisation to fight global capitalism and to pose a socialist alternative.

Details of coaches to the demo and for the conference Tel: 020 8558 7947. Email: againstcapitalism@hotmail.com

Why The IRA Decomissioned

THE IRA decommissioned or "put beyond use" a quantity of its weapons last week in a bid to save the Northern Ireland Assembly and the 'peace process'.

Niall Mulholland.

In return, the British government announced a series of measures, including the dismantling of a number of the hated British army watchtowers that dot the landscape in rural areas such as South Armagh.

Although the IRA move was expected for some time, it still represents a huge shift in policy by that organisation.

A number of recent events persuaded the Republican leadership that the IRA had to at least partially disarm.

Earlier this month, the Ulster Unionist leader and First Minister of the Assembly, David Trimble, handed in a post-dated resignation letter, along with other Unionist ministers. Trimble was under huge pressure from Unionist hard-liners to withdraw from the Assembly.

These forces have long made IRA decommissioning an obstacle to full implementation of the 1998 Good Friday agreement.

Republican leaders, such as Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, are firmly committed to the Agreement, believing it has brought them big successes over the last few years.

Sinn Fein presents itself as a radical, nationalist party, and without the burden of the IRA's divisive 'armed struggle', has overtaken the SDLP to become the largest party amongst Catholics in the North. The Republican movement also has ambitions to win several seats in the next general election in the south and to share power with Fianna Fail, the main capitalist party. The unravelling of the Agreement would have put all of this in jeopardy.

Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness were also under tremendous pressure from the Bush administration, and the Republican movement's big business backers in the US, to force the IRA to disarm.

11 September

The arrest of three alleged IRA members in Colombia in August, and the accusation that they were giving training to the 'Marxist' FARC guerrillas in their fight against the US-backed Colombian government, was a major embarrassment to the Republican leadership. This was compounded by the terror attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on 11 September.

President Bush could no longer allow Sinn Fein and the 'unarmed' IRA to openly campaign and raise funds in the US at the same time as his administration was at "war with international terrorism".

Prominent Irish-American politicians, such as Ted Kennedy and Peter King, added their voices to demands for decommissioning. Representatives of big US corporations, such as Bill Flynn, made clear that the millions of dollars raised for Sinn Fein each year were at stake. In these circumstances, a partial decommissioning, at the very least, was unavoidable for Adams and McGuinness.

Republican Sinn Fein, which split from Sinn Fein in the mid-1980s, described the IRA's move as the "worst ever sell-out". However, they and other dissident groups, such as the 'Real IRA', with their call for a return to the 'long war', are unlikely to attract support from the working-class Catholic population.

In contrast to the IRA, the Loyalist paramilitary organisations have ruled out decommissioning their weapons for the foreseeable future.

This reflects a number of factors, including the deep sense of alienation in working-class Protestant communities towards the 'peace process' and the ongoing Loyalist feuding over areas of control and influence.

The Ulster Defence Association has carried out widespread sectarian attacks for months, finally forcing the Secretary of State, John Reid, to announce two weeks ago that their 'ceasefire' was over.

Despite Protestant scepticism, David Trimble won the backing of his party's ruling council for a return to government after the IRA's decommissioning act.

He now needs a majority of Unionists in the Assembly to vote for him to regain his post as First Minister. Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party is demanding "total decommissioning" from the IRA, but in all likelihood will follow the UUP back into the Assembly.

If Trimble were not to get the necessary votes, the Secretary of State would either suspend the Assembly again or call fresh elections.

Rival sectarianism

The Assembly is a power sharing body between rival sectarian parties. It institutionalises sectarianism and helps deepens divisions in working-class communities.

On the ground, sectarian polarisation has actually widened since the start of the 'peace process'. Recent sectarian clashes in North Belfast, which have included attacks against isolated Protestant housing estates, and Loyalist mobs 'picketing' a Catholic girls' primary school, provides a stark example of how, over time, the whole of society can be dragged into the abyss.

However, the resurrection of the Assembly will also expose before working-class people the pro-capitalist policies of the 'Green' and 'Orange' politicians.

All of the main parties, including Sinn Fein, agree on the rule of the market economy, which is resulting in new job losses, increased poverty, and fresh rounds of government cuts.

A recent huge demonstration of 20,000 in Omagh town, in protest against proposed cuts in the local hospital, is an indication that Catholic and Protestant working people can be united around class issues. Such campaigns can become the basis for building a mass socialist alternative to the bigoted parties.

Stop The War

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