O'Neill called the general election in Northern Ireland to give him a mandate - he came near to losing his seat to the arch-bigot Paisley. That one result typified the whole farce: nothing was changed and nothing was solved. The basic problems of Northern Ireland - as explained elsewhere in this issue - are incapable of solution without a basic social overturn in the six counties.
The one feature which surprised most people - including most of the left - was the relatively large vote gained by the candidates of People's Democracy and other militant Civil Rights candidates. This, too, underlines the complete lack of any perspective of a solution through parliamentary means. Owing to the efforts of British imperialism to create a social base through bigotry in the six counties, there is no prospect of any parliamentary combination appearing in Stormont which will take decisive measures against discrimination. The fact that a significant section of Catholic workers have transferred their allegiance to candidates associated with militant action on the streets is the most hopeful thing to come out of the election.
This election underlines our general assessment of the situation in Northern Ireland: there is a permanent crisis, one which will be fought out by militant means on the streets (by both sides) and one which has no solution without revolutionary struggle. That being the case, the left in Britain has to consider very carefully how it can assist the defeat of the Stormont bigotry and their Whitehall backers. The working out of correct slogans is thus of extreme importance.
We welcome contributions to a discussion on this topic which has been initiated in our columns.