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In Scottish Socialist No. I we carried an article on the Peace Movement. Since then we have had no coverage on the Irish issue. This was omission rather than design. As John MacLean repeatedly pointed out, socialists in Scotland have double the reasons to attend to . these struggles, not fifty miles away from Glasgow. This issue we begin to repair the omission.
Death threats have been made against the man who told the BBC Tonight programme about RUC brutality. Bernard O'Connor, who helped to spark off a furious controversy when he spoke on television about being beaten up by police at the Castlereagh interrogration centre in Belfast, is now receiving threatening phone calls nearly every night.
These threats come in the wake of a torrent of criticism directed at the BBC
for showing the interview. This criticism has little to do with the accuracy of the programme, which revealed only one tiny part of the brutality which is meted out day in and day out; what angered the Government and its Tory and
Unionist backers was that the programme
co-incided with their attempts to beef up
the role of the RUC and the Ulster Defence
Regiment.
The RUC has just taken delivery of
a number of amoured personell carriers,
and has been issued with deadly Mi Carbine
rifles: the purpose of this equipment is made clear in aletter to the community paper Andersonstown News of 26 March ... the RUC have been edging further into the Catholic areas of Belfast... they can now be seen every day in the
Falls Road, Andersonstown, and Lenadoon.
It is obviously their intention to gradually increase their patrols in the hope that they will again be accepted into these areas... The prospect of these Loyalist thugs patrolling regularly is frightening. They must never be allowed back!'
The RUC was one of the roeks which
wrecked the so-called 'Peace People' in the eyes of most Catholics, Forced into backing the security forces by their sponsors in the establishment, they even went so far as to call the RUC. our friendly local Bobbies'. This was seen as dangerous nonsense by most ordinary Catholics, who, although they deeply want peace, are not so desperate as to desire a return to the days when the sectarian RUC and B Specials ruled the rOOSt.
One of the most important indications of this was the superficially non-political St. Patrick's Day Parade, which took place in West Belfast on 20 March. About 40,000 marchers and spectators participated, and the contingents and floats ranged from Sinn Fein through trade unions to sporting and cultural organisations. It was a happy carnival occasion, but it showed that despite everything the Catholics have a very strong attachment to their Irish identity, and their sense of community solidarity has been maintained. They will not casily be persauded to accept the old sectarian set-up, and the RUC will be resisted as it tries to encroach on their
areas.
BOB PURDIE.