Keep up the momentum for change
By Seán MacBradaigh
If anyone was carried away by the media-led euphoria when the
Stormont talks produced the Good Friday Agreement, they have been
sorely disappointed in the weeks since. This is not a settlement
and the factors which led to division and conflict remain. Indeed
the political division is set to intensify, if the Unionist `No'
campaigners are to be believed.
As we go to press, the opinion polls indicate that a large
percentage of Unionists will reject the Good Friday document
outright but that it will be carried with the help of a solid
nationalist Yes vote. This, say its Unionist opponents, will deny
it legitimacy - in their eyes only unionist votes count despite
their long-standing support for majority rule.
Already unionists have outlined their tactics in the event of an
overall Yes vote this Friday. They will seek to persuade the
unionist majority who are against the Agreement to vote for
anti-Agreement candidates in the Assembly elections on 25 June.
If they secure a majority of Unionist seats, they will then seek
to overturn those parts of the Agreement with which they
disagree.
In particular, the anti-Agreement Unionists will seek to prevent
the release of prisoners, will try to block Sinn Féin becoming
ministers in the administration and they will make the
cross-border bodies unworkable. They have also pledged to resist
changes to the RUC and to try to block the implementation of the
equality agenda.
In short, these unionist tactics are aimed at freezing the Six
Counties in conflict. It is a frantic effort to prevent the clock
ticking forward.
For this reason the referendum campaign has been dominated by the
debate within Unionism. It has seen Tony Blair paying three
high-profile visits to the Six Counties in two weeks and taking
part in numerous phone-ins and interviews. And every time his
words have been addressed to Unionists.
News and current affairs programmes have been filled with concern
about the impact the Agreement will have on the RUC; the effect
on victims of the release of ``terrorist'' prisoners; and debates
about whether democratically elected Sinn Féin representatives
should be allowed to take office.
Nationalist concerns have been lost in the rush to persuade
Unionists to vote Yes. But those concerns are very real and the
referendum campaign has shown how difficult it may be to ensure
that, for instance, the equality agenda will be pursued in the
way that nationalists expect.
No effort has gone towards ensuring people that the terms of the
Agreement can be transferred from the fine words on paper into
daily reality. There are severe reservations on the republican
and nationalist side also about constitutional aspects of the
agreement, not least of which is the document's reiteration of a
unionist veto on constitutional change. But what unites
nationalism is a desire for political change and this is
precisely the issue which is causing the divisions within
unionism.
Unionists have real problems with the prospects of political
change, of equality for Irish nationalists and with having to
recognise, for the first time, Sinn Féin's right to represent
those who vote for it.
Sinn Féin however is confident of its ability to keep up the
momentum on all those aspects of the Good Friday document that it
fought so hard to secure- equality, demilitarisation, the
all-Ireland dimension.
A Yes vote will mark the beginning of a political process, not
the end. The Good Friday document will hopefully be an important
part of a process towards a peace settlement.
The British government and its forces of occupation are still in
Ireland. Sinn Féin made it clear from the outset that this
situation would not have changed by this stage in the
negotiations process. It is incorrect to say, as some such as
Bertie Ahern have done, that the British are no longer in the
equation. They are very much in the equation and bear the major
responsibility for ensuring a transition towards a peaceful
settlement.
What is required is for the British government to work positively
with the Irish government to bring about the transition from
partition to national democracy and Irish unity in a peaceful and
stable way. In the meantime the raft of injustices inflicted upon
the nationalist community in the Six Counties must be immediately
addressed.
The only guarantee for a successful outcome of all this is the
integrity of the republican struggle itself. The British have
never, of their own volition, given Irish nationalists anything.
Every change, every movement forward has been achieved, usually
at great cost, but always through struggle.
Successive Dublin adminstrations over many decades were equally
guilty of sitting on their hands and doing very little to tackle
the problem of partition the British presence and the various
injustices in the Six Counties.
Therefore the republican struggle must intensify North and South
to increase the political strength of Sinn Féin. The momentum for
change must be maintained. We cannot stand still.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)