Resolving a conflict
It should not be a surprise to anyone that the Unionist political
leadership is demanding the surrender of IRA weapons before political
progress is made. They have never seen the peace process as being
about the removal of the causes of conflict. Not for them an
acknowledgement of inequality or that nationalist rights have been
denied. Nor the slightest acceptance that Unionism, backed by the
force of arms through the RUC, UDR/RIR and the British Army had any
active role in bringing about and sustaining the conflict. Nor indeed
that Unionism and their state forces engaged in sectarian slaughter
in order to sustain their rotten regime.
Unionists never accepted that the reason negotiations were needed was
because there was a genuine conflict with deep-rooted causes.
Instead, the Unionist political leadership have all along approached
the peace process with the tactical necessity of maintaining as much
of the status quo as they could. At every stage they have been
dragged kicking and screaming to the table, never once acknowledging
that republicans had a right to be there or that their voters counted
for anything.
That tactical necessity led some Unionists to finally negotiate the
Good Friday Agreement. However much they tried to deny it, that
Agreement's very clear terms emerged with such difficulty because it
was an attempt to resolve a real conflict. It wasn't a case of
Unionist powermasters dealing with a criminal conspiracy of
republicans. Its very clear terms reflected the fact that a war was
waged and no side had been victorious.
The Good Friday Agreement was a genuine attempt to assert the primacy
of politics. It laid out the steps to be taken to put in place the
necessary political institutions. Those steps should already have
been taken. After all, how can you assert the primacy of politics
without political institutions?
Those who, like the Unionists, have never accepted that there was a
genuine conflict also now demand an IRA surrender as the next step
(however mildly they dress it up). This is also no surprise. That
they couch it in terms of democracy is merely nonsense.
But what would be surprising is if the two governments step outside
the Agreement and back the Unionists' wrecking tactics. It would then
be fair to ask why so late in the day they doubt Republicans'
commitment to resolving this conflict. It would also be fair to ask
what their alternative is.
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