Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews M

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.

I have been more or less ignoring this- the need for me to become familiar with The Original Series. In general I don’t like much of what I’ve seen. In any case, I am now watching it and will be doing reviews of those episodes. I will be giving pretty low scores, probably no higher than three stars out of five- I just don’t like TOS.

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

“Is There in Truth no Beauty?” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.

“Spectre of the Gun” See this for a plot summary.

There are basically three political aspects to this episode:

1) The Enterprise is ordered to make contact with an alien race “at all costs.” When they encounter some kind of space buoy and are told to turn around and not enter the aliens’ space, Kirk acknowledges the buoys message and explains his mission to the aliens. He then takes a small landing party and transports down to the planet.

It reminds me of the United States forcing Japan to open itself to the US. In general, that sort of thing is wrong.

2) There is some talk about how humanity “overcame” it’s “instinct for violence.”

3) At the end, it turns out it’s another episode where an alien race wants to test the Federation citizens to see if they take life when it’s not totally necessary, and then the aliens move towards friendship with the Federation. Some times Kirk goes a bit far in proclaiming the Federation’s commitment to non-violence, but over all it’s fairly true.

I give it three stars out of five.

“Day of the dove” See this for a plot summary.

There are two minor political points made- 1) there’s an incident of sexual assault (or at least attempted sexual assault), which in the context of ST can be seen as a feminist statement (when Chekhov did that, he was under the influence of an alien); and 2) some incidents of racial hostility, which lead to statements against racism.

The political aspect that really deserves some attention comes from Spock: “Those who hate and fight must stop themselves, otherwise it is not stopped.” This presents a problem for me, although I feel comfortable disagreeing with ST on some stuff here and there. But I have gotten the idea that, for example, UN Peacekeepers usually are doing something good that helps with ending conflicts. I also believe in something similar with the non-armed aspects of conflict resolution- for example, I believe that it was a good idea that the International Decommissioning Commission in N. Ireland was led by people from third party countries. In a mid-1990s publication of the Pat Finucane Center in Derry, they called for the police patrolling nationalist areas to be replaced by officers from European Union nations. Partly inspired by those last two items, I wrote up a proposal for resolving the conflict, one that would involve such international elements.

I still believe in such an approach (there’s a possibility that Spock’s theory doesn’t apply to the North, since there is really not much anti-Protetsant bigotry coming from the Catholics) (the Peace-Keepers should come from countries that don't have any selfish interests in the conflict, and civilian 3rd party personel should meet similar criteria). The thing is, when Ireland is close to being united, there will be some degree of loyalist backlash, and I think a UN force dealing with that would be better than either the British Army or the Irish Army would be. That’s because if it were the BA, some soldiers would be sympathetic to the loyalists and hostile to the nationalists, and their presence on the streets might attract attacks by republicans. If it were the Irish Army, that might increase the backlash if they’re suspected of being sympathetic to the nationalists. Third party peace-keepers (who would also have to be conducting raids when necessary) would probably be at least a little better.

I give this episode one star out of five.

“For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.

Anti-Sectarian

Immediately below is a poem I’ve “written.” For more information on my poetry, see this. It’s about anti-sectarianism in the North of Ireland, against both the anti-Catholic kind of bigotry and the anti-Protestant kind of bigotry. Below IT are some notes on that subject.

For the rest of the poems click on the "lyrics" label at the bottom (there are at least four pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).

“Catholic, Protestant, and Dissenter” based on “Tearing Down the Red Flags” (or something like that) by Razor’s Edge. Original lyrics are here.

1. At first I thought of doing a small alteration of this- making it about the Union Jack and unionism and/or British imperialism. But then I decided to go a bit further and in a slightly different direction, and make it about sectarianism in the North.
2. The Union Jack is the British flag.
3. There are six counties in N. Ireland and Orange is the color of anti-Catholic bigotry in the Irish-British context.
4. Fermanagh is in the south-west of N. Ireland, Belfast is in the east and mid-way between north and south of N. Ireland (so, it's not perfect, but I think it works pretty well).
5. For info about Orangemen marching through Catholic areas and why that’s wrong, see this.
6. The BA is the British Army.
7. This is set somewhere around 2000. From what I remember, it was around then that Sinn Fein (I'm not sure if that means this is about SF, and is that appropriate???) stepped up their effort to reach out to Protestant Unionists, and the BA were usually still involved with forcing Orange marches through Catholic areas. (SF is very anti-sectarian with both kinds of sectarianism)
9. The red, white and black are the colors of the Nazi flag. Once again, what the Union Jack stands for in the Irish-British relationship isn’t as bad as what the Nazi flag stands for, but there are many points in Irish history when it was close.
10. As far as republican sectarianism towards Protestants, see the second half of this post, beginning with the paragraph "a lot of people..."
11. As far as “republican revolution” this is the second poem which requires me to explain why I believe that Sinn Fein (and most of the rest of the republican family) can be called revolutionaries. I’ll do that soon, for now just take my word for it : ).
12. I give this poem five stars out of five.
13. **57% of this version is me, 43% is the original.
14. As far as the second line of the first verse, I believe that the Orange nature of the statelet was slowly, more or less decreasing, although it has certainly been a slow process and there is still a lot of room for improvement. As far as the end of the statelet itself, even today I’m not sure if we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
15. The last line is about tearing down the structures of Orangeism, unionism and British imperialism (reforming the police, more movement towards a United Ireland, a ban on Orange marches through Catholic areas without the consent of the residents, starting an international and independent process of looking at the past that will make it clear to everyone what the nationalist and Catholic communities went through during the Troubles, and the decades before that, etc.).
16. Definitely about non-violence with the possible exception of sort of violent rioting in response to OO marches forced through Catholic areas.
17. UPDATE 5/4/11 I just realized there is a small conflict between the 3rd line of 2nd verse and the 3rd line of the last verse. I might change that soon.
18. UPDATE 5/3/12 I put Orange in the 2nd line of the 2nd verse; it used to say Northern. As I mentioned in another post, I don’t think the Orange Order is 100% as bad as the KKK, but even today they’re close and in the recent past, they were definitely close.
19. Razor's Edge were British and supported the British and Unionist causes.


You fly your Union Jacks and your symbols full of hate
Don't you see the end of your six-county Orange state?
We're tearing down sectarian divisions from Fermanagh to Belfast
and in their place we create solidarity of the working-class

Chorus:
We're tearing down sectarianism - we'll banish the North’s shame!
We're tearing down sectarianism - we’ll all oppose the British claim
We're tearing down sectarianism - we're never giving in!
We're tearing down sectarianism - and we're gonna fucking win!

Orangemen still marching on our streets, supported by the BA
Don't they fucking realise, we won’t surrender to the Orange KKK
They're just a bunch of wankers, with nothing new to say.
Well here's some headlines for ya- “republican revolution’s on its way.”

Chorus

You display your orange bunting and your union jacks
In the North it’s almost as bad as flying the red, white and black
We're tearing down sectarian divisions and we'll talk with you as well.
So you can join us in tearing down this Orange capitalist hell

Chorus

******

If you look at figures for unemployment and income, and sectarian murders, homes attacked, and Orange marches through Catholic areas, in recent decades (and certainly before that) it’s clear that Catholics have been targets of the overwhelmingly vast bulk of sectarianism in the North.

And here are some things I want to mention about sectarianism going the other way, and about sectarian DIVISIONS. Some of the stuff below I wrote partly as a pre-emptive response to people who might say that as a republican I can't be against anti-Protestant bigotry. (my attitude about sectarianism is completely compatible with republicanism, or at least the republicanism of the overwhelmingly vast majority of republicans- SF is VERY good at trying to break-down divisions and have dialogue with Protestant unionists)

1) The Speedwell Trust is a great organization in the North. They bring Catholic and Protestant kids together through environmental education and community relations programs. It’s doing very important work. In late 2002 I read an article in the Irish News about how they needed funding from the government immediately or they might have to close down. At the time the group I organized on the CU-Boulder campus, Students for Justice in N. Ireland, was active, and we tried to help Speedwell by contacting the N. Ireland Office and getting others (largely via environmentalist groups on campus) to do the same.

The Speedwell Trust’s web-site is here.

2) In 2002 I made two trips to Ireland. The second one was during the marching season (when anti-Catholic organizations have marches , including some in Catholic areas with the police and/or Army forcing the march through (For info about Orangemen marching through Catholic areas and why that’s wrong, see this)). Often the ones through Catholic areas result in riots. I was at two such protests and (at both) at one point a small number of the kids rioting threw some rocks over the Peace Line fence into a Protestant area. Several people, (including myself, the second time this happened), yelled at them to stop. Although I was fine with them throwing stuff at the police and Army, throwing rocks into Protestant areas is very unhelpful and just increases tension and hate and I'm pretty sure is almost never a good idea (the one possible exception in recent years I can think of is when an isolated nationalist enclave in east Belfast was under siege for weeks in 2002).

About a week before that, I went to Ardoyne in north Belfast. I had been there 1-2 days earlier and the local nationalist kids surrounded me with questions- I was pretty popular. So the next time I was there a couple of boys, probably 10-12 years old, talked with me when I was waiting for a bus back to the city center. The street we were on was one of the main roads in north Belfast and was one of the boundaries for the nationalist Ardoyne area. At one point a taxi drives by and one of the boys says he wished he had a rock to throw at it. It was a taxi from a business with links to a loyalist paramilitary. I could understand wanting to throw a rock at such a taxi, but realized that there would very likely be passengers who did not deserve to be attacked like that. I explained that to the boys and they sort of understood.

3) The Pat Finucane Centre for Human Rights and Truth Recovery is a very important organization in N. Ireland. For some number of years they organized what you might call "official" events around the annual commemoration of Bloody Sunday (as far as I can tell there was little or no competition with other political forces hostile to the PFC). Another thing they do is facilitate dialogue between the two communities (I’m sure overwhelmingly at the working-class level) in different ways. They’re generally very progressive. Although it ended up being only slightly successful, I worked with some others to organize a benefit show for the PFC, I think we got them about $50 (the two groups that organized it together were Students for Justice in N. Ireland (my group) and the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center).

Their web-site is here.

4) There is, of course the issue of integrated education. For most of my thoughts on that, see this review of Star Trek episodes, when I discuss the episode “In the Hands of the Prophets” (the relevant part is about half-way down from the top of that episode review).

5) About two and a half years ago I found a fan-made music video on YouTube for the song “There Were Roses (Cara Dillon version)” There’s two crucial facts about the lyrics that I couldn’t find, and in general I don’t agree with all of it. But there’s one thing it’s about that I like- celebrating friendships that cross the sectarian divide (there are some other elements I like, such as the description of Catholic fear about loyalist retaliation).

The missing facts are, who killed the Protestant, and why (I found something saying that it’s based on a true story but I couldn’t find their names in a data-base of all the people killed during the conflict). Also I’m not crazy about the last verse. But the anti-sectarianism of most of the lyrics is great. The YouTube music video is here. (the fan-made video is not viewable in America, but the song can be heard here).

6) There's some info about Irish Republicans and sectarianism towards Protestant about 2/3 down this post, starting with the paragraph "a lot of people..."

7) Lastly, in case someone thinks there is no anti-Protestant bigotry in the North, I have absolutely no doubt- you could almost say I experienced it myself. On the night July 11th/12th 2002 I was walking in a republican part of west Belfast. Each year that night sees some large degree of tension and fear in nationalist areas that there will be loyalist attacks. That doesn’t justify what happened, but I think it might partly explain it. So, what happened was that I passed a bar as two guys came out of it and they asked me if I was Catholic (I think I stood out like a sore thumb with the haircut I had then). I said yes. But I can only imagine what would have happened if I were a N. Ireland Protestant and had admitted it.

 

 

 

The Oppressed of the UK (Lyrics!)

I've got three more songs. They're pretty good and have a common theme that inspired the title so I think I'll just do them now, not sure if I'll do any more on the same theme.

These songs are all based on stuff by an anti-fascist band called The Oppressed. I've done five other songs based on their stuff, four of them about N. Ireland. These three are all about N. Ireland and are more republican than the first four. The thing is, The Oppressed was a British band and it's kind of up in the air how the leader, Roddy Moreno, feels about N. Ireland. I have some reason to think he'd got the right attitude, but not much. I think the first four N. Ireland songs I did based on his stuff he'd like, but probably not these three. Anyway, the title is a reference to both the band and the nationalist population.

For the rest of the poems click on the "lyrics" label at the bottom (there are at least two pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).

“London” based on “Government” by The Oppressed, original lyrics are here.

1. It’s set during the decades between the formation of N. Ireland (the Six-Counties) in the early 1920s and the large-scale intervention by London starting in Aug. of 1969. During that time there was a devolved government for N. Ireland that was unionist-dominated and sectarian. London provided a fair amount of support to that statelet in various ways but refused to intervene in the interest of the Catholic and nationalist minorites who were experiencing discrimination and other forms of sectarianism.
2. The B-Specials were kind of like the national guard if the police were the Army. You could also call them a unionist, government-sponsored militia.
3. The Orange Order often marches through Catholic areas. See this for why those parades should not go through Catholic areas.
4. The line about white sheets is borrowed from my favorite republican song, Time To Go by Black 47. In both that song and in this one, it’s referring to anti-Irish racism, although that accusation would stick much more to the Tories than to Labour in my opinion. White sheets is a reference to the KKK- the idea is that the anti-Irish racism is similar to white supremacy.
**5. 59% of this version is me, 41% is the original.
6. I give this song/poem four stars out of five.
7. Nothing about violent resistance.

The Six-counties are British, you like to insist
you say, we will be okay, if we don’t resist
But the B-Specials oppress us, with rifles that you sent
can’t you see, we don’t need, British government

Chorus:
Government, government, we don’t want British government
Government, government, we don’t want British government

we live with the poverty, the Orangemen on our streets
face it, you’re racists, all you’re missing are the white sheets
hiding behind your unionist Belfast parliament
But it’s your responsibility, you’re the government

*******

“Orange Society” based on “Violent Society” by The Oppressed, original lyrics are here.

1. It’s about the period 1970-1997; some of it (not the 4th line of the second verse) could be extended to some time around 2005-07, but it’s not meant as an endorsement of armed struggle since 1997.
2. The parades refers to Orange and other loyal parades. See this for why those parades should not go through Catholic areas.
3. The police, until sometime shortly after the Patten reforms kicked in in 2001 were very unionist, or Orange.
4. Squaddies are British soldiers.
5. The comprehend line is a reference to Protestants abandoning their anti-Catholic bigotry.
6. Prod is a derogatory term for Protestant but has been adopted by Protestants. Fenian is a derogatory term for republican and for Catholic, and in the sense that it refers to the former, has been adopted by republicans.
7. The sectarian divisions and sectarianism, primarily from the Protestants, weakens the labor movement and leftist organizations. That’s almost guaranteed to change when Ireland is united, see this.
**8. 49% of this version is me, 51% is the original.
10. I give this song/poem five stars out of five.
11. Except for the 2nd and 4th lines of the 2nd verse, it's not necessarily republican.

Orange society, been this way for decades
Orange society, with their police and their parades
Orange society, to oppress, the state is designed
Orange society, resistance in your mind

chorus:
Orange society x3
We'll make it go away

Orange society, violcence from the police
Orange society, no justice, no peace
Orange society, Squaddies kicking down the door
Orange society, Ireland unfree will always be at war

Orange society, when will they comprehend?
Orange society, when’s it gonna end?
Orange society, Prod fighting Fenian
Orange society, the worker can’t win

********

“Rioting” based on “riot” by The Oppressed, original lyrics are here.

1. It’s about the response to the death of hunger-striker Bobby Sands in 1981. See the middle third of this.
2. Buses were often hijacked and set alight as barricades during riots.
3. The behavior of the police (“peelers”) contributed to why nationalists would riot, as would have more generally the policies of Thatcher. The second line is kind of borrowed from another song by The Oppressed, “Same Old Story.”
4. the red, white, and blue are the colors of the British flag.
5. Land rovers are a british kind of vehicle, this refers to the versions used by the Army and the police in N. Ireland.
6. Stormont is where the Northern Ireland Office, the British government in N. Ireland is headquartered.
7. Orange was put in place of blue (a reference to the police) because it’s the color of anti-Catholic bigotry in N. Ireland, and the police at that time were motivated by Orangeism.
8. The Battle of the Bogside, in Aug. of 1969, saw the police defeated by nationalist rioters.
**9. This version is 53% me, 47% the original.
10. I give this song/poem four stars out of five.

There’s black smoke in the sky overhead
they just heard the news, Sands was dead
the kids are gonna set the bus alight
all this injustice makes them wanna fight

Chorus:
riot, riot on the street tonight
riot, riot, gonna do it right
riot, riot gonna scream “Brits out!”
riot, riot, we’re going to win this bout

who’s to blame, the peelers or the Tories
With Thatcher, it’s just the same old story
we’ll stick together, we’ll see it through
we’re gonna riot, fuck your red, white, and blue

Chorus

land rovers can burn, Stormont too
just like last time, when the petrol bombs flew and flew
we’re gonna smash your thin Orange line
Just like the Bogisde in August 1969

Chorus


One last note: Even with the songs that are only about 10% me (and at the upper end, one is 75% me), I have a request, although I don't have strong feelings or expectations about this. First, I want credit for these songs. Second, I'd appreciate it if the notes follow the lyrics around the internet. If you modify the lyrics further, please either make some notes for the changes if you leave some of my changes, or just provide a link to this URL so people can see my version. Although I'm not sure how many people will like what I'm doing with the lyrics, to one degree or another (depending on how much I changed them) I'm proud of these songs- and at the risk of getting a little personal, if people like the songs, I could really use the extra boost of getting credit for them right now.

Loyalist Riots, Poverty, and Irish Labour in N. Ireland

Below is an article I wrote in early Oct. 2005. It's about how around that time a problem seemed to be peaking (I don't think it was all that new, but seemed to have peaked or at least gotten a lot more attention in the media), a problem with the socio-economic problems facing the unionist/loyalist working-class and how (and this was definitely not new) their political representatives overwhelmingly either didn't care or were inclined to offer solutions based on capitalism and/or sectarianism.

A significant chunk of it was based on an email interview with Mark Langhammer, the current head of the N. Ireland part of the Irish Labour Party (at the time it was called the N. Ireland Labour Forum, basically a transition (I imagine) to smooth over the fact that organizing there would bring them into conflict with their sister organization the Social Democratic and Labour Party). Unfortunately, I ended up wasting his time. The second article I was going to write (about the NILF) didn't get written for various reasons, and although it's complicated and kind of involves me not doing something I told Mark I would do, the first article didn't get published. But I'm publishing it now. At the very least it'll be a neat picture of how things were recently, and it likely has not changed (unfortunately, I'm pretty sure this is the kind of thing I could only know if I had been reading something like 125-150 articles a week the last 4 years, and it was closer to 55, and I'd probably have to dig to have any chance of finding the info now). Also, it might generate some support for the Irish Labour Party. Anyway, here it is.

UPDATE 4/23/11 When I say that 44% of the population is Catholic, that is the % that are from a Catholic background, which would include Atheists who live in Catholic areas and probably identify to some degree as nationalists and probably view the police as sectarian towards them (the police don't know these people are Atheists and might not care).

UPDATE 2/23/16 Before or after you read this you might want to read a relevant post on my blog here.

Loyalist Riots, Poverty, and Irish Labour in N. Ireland
By Tom Shelley

In early September Northern Ireland (NI) experienced 3 days and nights of intense rioting by elements of the Protestant, pro-British "unionist" population. Although not unprecedented, it was of the intensity almost always associated with the Catholic Irish "nationalists" and republicans when tension with the security forces reaches breaking point. The spark that ignited the unionist rioting on Saturday Sept. 9th was the slight re-routing of a unionist Orange Order (OO) parade away from a nationalist area- the OO is very hostile to nationalists and refuses to even negoatiate with them about this. But all commentary about the violence has said that it was much more about a growing sense of alienation from, and anger towards, the Peace Process among working-class unionists. Mark Devenport of the BBC NI has said, "... they believe the political process is slanted towards republicans, as the British and Irish governments push ahead with their quid pro quo for the IRA's announcement that it will destroy its guns and end its armed campaign. Beyond the high politics, many loyalist areas are clearly suffering an economic and social malaise, with Protestants in inner city working class enclaves feeling increasingly alienated from wider society" (BBC News Online, 9/11/05). In late Aug. Tom McGurk, a columnist for the Sunday Business Post, wrote that "these Protestant working class communities are currently in the grip of a terrible malaise, with high economic and educational failure rates and more and more traditional employment areas - such as security, for example - closing down on them. Hidden behind the dispute about the peace process is the failure of the wider unionist leadership to organise or even motivate these communities in a new direction. Behind the predictable unionist political shibboleth-speak is a political and communal failure that has left these communities without hope or expectation" (SBP 8/21/05).

After a recent unionist protest where mainstream politicians worked with unionist paramilitary leaders, one of the politicians, from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), defended this collaboration by saying "this is about the victims, we are the victims” (SBP 9/04/05).

It is this sense of alienation and social/economic malaise which needs to be seriously examined and where something can be done to redress their grievances without re-inforcing the historic and current inequality between nationalists and unionists, urgent action needs to be taken. But are the specific grievances of these communities legitimate? Some might be inclined to think that the "tables have been turned," that unionists are now the under-dogs, that the British government has made so many concessions to nationalists and republicans that they are now in a dominant position. The following issues have generated discontent among unionist, and especially working-class unionist communities:

EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATION
According to official figures, from March 2002 to February 2003 unemployment among Protestants was about 4%. According to a recent official report, 25% of Protestant households are in poverty. In general, NI has always had much lower wages than most other western industrialized nations- that has not changed. For example, in 2004, on average, a junior computer programmer in Belfast earned about Euro26,005 a year, compared with Euro44,014 in Dublin or Euro47,065 in London. In education, when taking an exam (the hated, class-biased Eleven-Plus) that determines which level of secondary education they go to, working-class unionist students often do worse than all other groups- in the Shankill area (a large section of Belfast representative of working-class unionist areas), only 2% passed in 2001. A report by the Shankill Partnership found that in the Shankill 62.04% of adults aged between 16 and 74 had no post-secondary qualifications, compared with the Belfast average of 39.60% and a NI average of 41.64%.

On the other hand, plenty of statistics indicate that, where sectarian inequality exists, it is Catholics who are disadvantaged. According to official figures, From March 2002 to February 2003 Catholics were twice as likely to be unemployed as Protestants (in 1988 the rate was two and a half times, in 1971 it was twice). According to a recent official report, 39% of Catholic households are in poverty. Of those Catholics who in 2001 were economically active, 9% were managers and senior officials, while 10% is the figure for Protestants. Among large employers and higher managerial positions, 35% are Catholic and 62% are Protestant, but in the general population Catholics are 44%, Protestants 53%. Among the long-term unemployed, Catholics are 57%, Protestants 40%. These figures indicate significant improvement, but also significant room for more improvement. They certainly don't indicate that Protestants are now the victims as some unionist politicians have recently been claiming. And, to whatever degree Protestants are losing jobs to Catholics, that is, unfortunately, a somewhat unavoidable result of anti-discrimination measures in a capitalist society without full employment. To their credit, most anti-discrimination campaigners are sensitive to this and have called for full employment measures and anything else that will end discrimination without hurting Protestants.

While working-class unionists are experiencing poor educational rates, in 2001, of those adults with no educational qualifications, 43% were Catholic, 56% were Protestants, almost exactly what they should be in a non-sectarian society. The figures were almost the same for those with Bachelors (and similar) degrees. It should also be pointed out that the Eleven Plus and the two-tiered, class-based education system it represented was officially ended by Sinn Fein's (SF) Martin McGuiness while he was NI Minister for Education (this was just before the NI Assemby was suspended in Oct. of 2002 and a replacement system has not yet been decided on). The two main unionist parties supported retaining the Eleven-Plus. The idea that working-class unionists are harmed by the advancing republican agenda is largely nonsense; in fact, they are often helped by it.

PROTESTANT PARLIAMENT FOR A PROTESTANT PEOPLE??
A lot of loyalists are unhappy that NI is no longer a Protestant supremacist statelet. NI was founded on sectarianism and inequality for the Catholic minority. Until the 1970s senior unionist politicians frequently made public comments affirming this. In 1934 James Craig (Prime Minister from 1921-1940) said "all I boast is that we have a Protestant Parliament and a Protestant State." The Orange Order, an exclusively Protestant group, was used as a network to facilitate widespread discrimination. Gerrymandering and property qualifications kept Catholics out of power even where they were a large majority. In local elections, those without a home (either public-sector or private) didn't have a vote, but some (mostly Protestant) company directors got extra votes based on the worth of the companies. In regional elections (for the NI Parliament) there was no property qualification, but the compney vote existed, and (mostly Protestant) University graduates voted in both their geographic constituency and a virtual one that elected four MPs (out of 52). In order to maintain unionist power at local level, in most areas Catholics were denied any new housing, which resulted in various forms of homelessness such as multiple large families living in the same small house. Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) governments (the only kind during the entire 1921-1972 life-time of the devolved parliament) were dominated by the business class, but generally had the complete support of working-class Protestants through the bigotry of the Orange Order, discrimination, loyalty to the British Monarchy and Empire, and hyping the threat from republicans and the South (the Republic).

Starting in the 1960s with a liberal Prime Minister and the Civil Rights Movement, and accelerating with the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), the Protestant supremacist nature of the NI state has been severely eroded. The British did, in the early 1970s, completely reform the electoral set-up. In 1972 they ended the regional parliament and introduced direct-rule. After that there remained many ways in which unionists wielded undue influence and in many ways the British authorities had a double standard against nationalists, but raw anti-Catholic bigotry was rarely evident with the British government and they weren't quite as deferential to the demands of extreme unionists as the regional government had been. The GFA has fully legitimized the identity and equality of Catholics and nationalists. It has required that the Executive of the Assembly includes both nationalists and unionists, whereas from 1921-72 the regional government completely excluded nationalists.

These democratic reforms are entirely appropriate and in fact more is needed. Does this mean that unionists are, will, and should continue to "lose?" In terms of Westminster MPs, until the recent 2005 election, unonists were over-represented; in 2005 the percentage of MPs who are unionist mirrors that of unionists in the general population. That was also true in the 1998 and 2003 Assembly elections. And certainly there has been no gerrymandering or voter disenfranchisement against anyone. In fact, because of some IRA activity, real or alleged, SF MPs (who don't take their seats), have been denied the allowances that they're entitled to as MPs.

DEMILITARIZATION
A central demand of SF and the SDLP in recent years has been that the presence of the security forces and especially the British Army (BA) should be dramatically scaled down. NI was until recently an incredibly militarized society, even years after the IRA cease-fire and some decommissioning. Now that the British government is pushing ahead with demilitarization and cutting troop numbers in NI, this will inevitably affect the unionist economy- since the BA has done a lot of business with unionist firms, those firms will see a shortfall and have to lay people off. Also, London will, in 2007, disband most of the NI-recruited BA unit, the Royal Irish Regiment, which will result in even more Protestant unemployment and has infuriated unionists.

Demilitarization is absolutely appropriate and neccessary if the Peace Process is to move forward. The BA has consistently and one-sidedly brutalized the nationalist community since 1969 and their presence intimitadory to nationalists. The RIR units based in NI are notorious for their sectarianism and connections to unionist paramilitaries.

However, economically there will likely be a very negative impact on unionists. In general, some voices have been calling recently for greater funding in all disadvantaged areas, Catholic or Protestant, and it would make sense for the British to use money saved from demilitarization for this purpose, as a peace dividend.

DRUGS, RACKETEERING AND FEUDING
It's widely accepted that drugs dealing in NI is dominated by unionist paramilitaries, and that many unionist working-class areas are steeped in drugs, paramilitary racketeering, and paramiltary thugery. This has certainly had a negative effect on, for example, young people and the development of community infrastructure in such areas. And yet some of those who complain about the problems plauging such areas are also associated with unionist paramilitaries. In general, the police do little to stop unionist paramilitaries, despite the liklihood that they have enough intelligence and evidence to arrest and convict most of them (this is based on the well-documented history of collusion between the two, and the sometimes shared background of family and neighborhoods). On a related matter, in recent years there have been frequent feuds between the different unionist paramilitaries, including one that claimed four lives this Summer. In a very blatant display of their double standards, in July the police stood by while masked men, members of one paramilitary, took over a unionist neighborhood to expel members of another unionist paramilitary.

Mark Langhammer, a long-time Independent Labour district councilor in working-class unionist area, describes the effect of these paramilitary activities on working-class unionist areas as "corrosive" and says that the paramilitaries work to run them like "criminal fiefdoms. ... Paramilitarism does form part of the community, but a parasitical rather than positive part."

Despite these activities and continuing sectarian murders (since the IRA's cease-fire began in July 1997, unionist paramilitaries have committed 32 murders motivated purely by bigotry), the police have done very little to crack down on them. Even after the rioting in Sept., which engulfed the Belfast area for 72 hrs. and included many shots fired at the police, only about 50 people were arrested. The police have the ability to arrest and convict a huge chunk of the unionist paramilitaries, something which would go a long way to improving conditions in working-class unionist communities.

COMMUNITY
In nationalist working-class areas, there is a rich political culture based on center-left politics and strong networks of community groups. SF, although multi-tendencied and focused on the national question, is generally socialist. Their more moderate rival, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), although slightly mis-named and to the right of SF, is nonetheless somewhat social-democratic. Nationalist working-class areas are home to numerous anti-poverty, women's, youth, residents', and cultural groups that help people with advice and assistance on a wide range of issues. Even though there is great poverty, it generally doens't result in despair and destructive behavior.

In working-class unionist areas, such community and political culture rarely exists. Sammy Douglas, the director of the East Belfast Partnership has explained that "the tradition in Protestant areas has tended to be of self-reliance, individualism and jobs in heavy industry - jobs that are now gone" (BBC News Online 9/13/05). He fails to mention the discrimination and lack of conflict with the State. Langhammer says that community leadrship a generation ago "was provided by working class people steeped in the trade unionism of manufacturing," but that this is no longer the case. In general, the relatively privileged position that working-class unionists had until recently meant that they didn't need to develop such community groups or any kind of socialist agenda. Under the regional government between 1921 and 1972, and to some degree for a couple decades since then, jobs, housing, political power and education were largely handed to them, relative to nationalists. They weren't in conflict with the State, they were allied with it.

This disparity in community organization (which, according to Langhammer and also the NI Department of Regional Development might be exxagerated), is actually one of the recent complaints by unionists. Douglas complains that nationalist communities “are streets ahead of us in terms of education, community development, culture, everything" (SBP 9/18/05). Although Douglas is very critical of the early Sept. riots, most unionist spokespeople don't explain how the recent rioting, or support for unionist paramilitaries and center-right parties, would redress this imbalance by developing unionist working-class communities.

Another part of this problem is the decline of two small working-class unionist parties. The Ulster Democratic Party, while connected to the paramilitary Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and not defined by progressive politics, did have some progressive tendencies. But it didn't win any seats in the 1998 Assembly elections, and in 2001, when the UDA became solidly anti-GFA it ordered the pro-GFA UDP to dissolve itself, which it did. The Progressive Unionist Party, while connected to the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force, is progressive, socialist, feminist, relatively anti-sectarian, and very willing to dialogue with nationalists and republicans. Their growth in the late 1990s was welcomed by nationalists and republicans, but in recent elections they have declined to getting only two local government seats in 2005, from a 1997 high of 7. The PUP has been completely shoved aside by the UDA and the DUP (who now has 9 out of 18 MPs). The DUP, although using some populist appeals to unionist workers, is generally conservative, almost fascist, fanatical about maintaining partition, and sees everything in terms of what Protestants get compared to what Catholics get.

To a large degree the unionist working-class can't blame anyone but themselves for this decline of political organizations that would contribute to developing their communities- they certainly can't blame republicans and nationalists, who have given some of their transfers in proportional representation elections to the PUP and some UDP candidates. Also, working-class unionists sometimes seek assistance from nationalist community groups and recieve it.

UNITED IRELAND
Another issue aggravating unionists is the perception that they are sliding into a United Ireland, that London is close to "abandoning" them. This perception is somewhat irrational, as republicans and nationalists have compromised a lot in the Peace Process- SF has officially accepted that the status of NI will not change until a majority of it's voters say so, and they have been helping administer what is largely British rule in part of Ireland through participating in the Assembly's Executive. On the other hand, there has been some movement towards a United Ireland. Such moves are in line with Ireland's right to national self-determination and, based on hundreds of years of Anglo-Irish history, are neccessary to protect the rights of nationalists. When Ireland was partitioned in the early 1920s, the Ulster Unionist Party was organized in all nine counties of the province of Ulster. But they, and London, realized that, since they were losing control of most of Ireland, the nine county area had too large a Catholic/nationalist minority. They cherry-picked the six counties that make up NI- four of which had Protestant/unionist majorities, and two which didn't but had some of the best farmland in the area. They also included the large nationalist majority city of Derry, which could have been easily excluded- but it had historical value for unionists, as well as a lot of industry with a cheap, disempowered Catholic workforce. NI was gerrymandered so that the British could retain control over as large a part of Ireland as they could, within which there would be a semi-permanent unionist majority. As a minority in NI, nationalists experienced a nightmare comparable to that of Blacks in the American South under segregation. While London's involvement since 1972 remedied some grievances of the nationalist community, the BA, the police, and their surrogates in the unionist paramilitaries frequently brutalized that community. It is clear that nationalists can't realistically expect more than occassional justice and equality under British rule.

Although unionists, out of bigotry or fear of being abused, are very opposed to a United Ireland, history and Irish politics indicate they have little to worry about. Since partition, in the South (the Republic) there have been almost no instances of anti-Protestant discrimination and violence, and at one point Protestants were over-represented in Parliament. Although problems remain with the Catholic Church-inspired policies on abortion, the fact is that most unionists are pro-life, and in general the power of the Church in the Republic has been greatly reduced in recent decades. Ireland's main paper, based in Dublin, is actually somewhat pro-unionist. All political parties in the South have expressed sensitivity to the concerns of unionists.

Resolving this problem will involve unionists becoming more comfortable with the Irish part of their identity, and for working-class unionists to think of themselves more as workers and make common cause with their nationalist brothers and sisters. A United Ireland will almost certainly not involve more than tiny, isolated incidents of anti-Protestant abuse and a successful resolution of the conflict will almost certainly strengthen labor and progressive movements which will benefit working-class Protestants.

POLICING
There have been some reforms to the police in NI. The Royal Ulster Constabluary had always been armed and enforced the inequality of nationalists through intimidation and ocassional bouts of internment, violence, and/or collusion with extreme unionists. Although some reforms have been made as part of the GFA and it has been renamed the Police Service of Northern Ireland, this hasn't stopped them from occassionally continuing their activities against nationalists, but it has created some hostility between them and working-class unionists.

Even after four years of an affirmative action, 50/50 Catholic/Protestant recruitment plan, in January of 2005 only about 18% of the PSNI were Catholic, while about 44% of the population is Catholic. The membership of the PSNI includes most of the old RUC. So, in fact reform of the police needs to go even further. Those who have colluded with unionist paramilitaries, are members of the anti-Catholic Orange Order, or are human rights violators, should be purged.

The reforms already made, and any additional ones that will be made, will be beneficial to working-class unionists. In recent decades there has been occassional and small scale police brutality aimed at unionists, and the repressive machinery of the police could be used against leftists and labor activists, including those among the unionist community.

UNIONIST BACKLASH?
If, after such modest change, unionists react with the intense rioting of early September, what can be expected when further progress on equality and uniting Ireland is made? Depending on how that progress is achieved, probably much worse violence. Although the IRA completely disarmed in late Sept. the unionist paramilitaries haven't disarmed and have said they won't- in recent years the UDA cease-fire has been very shaky, and in September London announced it no longer recognized the UVF cease-fire.

What can be done to avoid or at least minimize a violent unionist backlash? In general, everything that can facilitate dialogue between nationalists and unionists should be done. Many groups are already doing so, such as the Pat Finucane Centre. It's also neccessary to develop working-class unionist communities. Something that would help with both of these would be the development of labor and socialist organizations in NI, especially in those communities.

But NI, especially recently, has been dominated by parties that largely focus on the National Question- partition. In Westminster elections, during the entire history of NI, no more than 5 times have candidates been elected on a platform that didn't focus on partition.

The UUP, which until the early 1970s had a monopoly on unionist politics and won most elections, was, until 1972, also the NI branch of the Conservative Party. The nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party has been since it's formation in 1970 a member of the Socialist International and in the 1970s was somewhat socialist, but since then has attracted almost no Protestant support, possibly because it's close to the Catholic Church. SF has often throughout it's history, especially in the 1980s and in recent years, been dominated by socialist tendencies. But both SF and the SDLP have been based mostly on the National Question, and the former is connected to the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The DUP, formed in the 1970s, sometimes exhibits economic populism, but not of a sort that could be described as socialist, and it's extreme committment to maintaining Protestant supremacy and the link with Britain is primary; it attracts zero Catholics.

The Alliance Party, formed in the 1970s, has based itself largely on straddling the unionist and nationalist positions and attracting Catholics and Protestants, but is very middle-class (there is less tension and violence among middle-class people) and centrist. They get about 5% of the vote. The Women's Coalition (WC) is similar to the Alliance (though more prorgressive and all female) but after highs of about 1% in the late 90s, they got .1% in the 2005 Local elections. In those elections the Green Party broke out, getting 1% and 3 councilours, but on averge their voters were fairly middle-class. All other parties in this vein do even worse than the WC.

But there is a recent development that could mark the beginning of something with great potential to attract working-class unionists to an anti-sectarian, progressive, labor/socialist agenda which could develop their communities and prepare them for a United Ireland. The Irish Labour Party (ILP), in late 2004, launched the NI Labour Forum as an official section of the Party. At this point it is not contesting elections and welcomes people who are members of either no party or of a party that is in the Socialist International, including the British Labour Party (which doesn't have any organization in NI) and the SDLP.

The ILP, although supportive of a United Ireland and the human rights concerns of nationalists, is in no way associated with the IRA, SF, the Catholic Church, or the communal divisions in NI. As such it will probably be able to attract a lot of support from working-class and progressive unionists who are moderate on partition. Unlike the Green Party or WC the NILF would, as a part of the ILP, have a strong connection to the trade-unions in NI, which are affiliated to the ILP.

The most prominent figure associated with the NILF is Langhammer, who has run for office as a Labour candidate for decades. In 3 elections between 1993 and 2001 he was elected, with a surplus of votes (in the Proportional Representation/Single Transferable Vote system used in most Irish elections), to the Newtownabbey District Council. The urban, multiple-member constituency he represented is overwhelmingly Protestant and three of it's six wards are, acording to the 2001 census, incredibly poverty stricken- the remaining three appear roughly lower middle-class. It is just outside the conflict-ridden interface neighborhoods of north Belfast. After an impressive vote in 2001, he decided against running this year, partly to focus on the NILF and partly because local government will be dramatically re-arranged in the next few years, so this term will be more of a "lame duck" period where not much work will be done.

On the potential for the NILF to lead the unionist working-class away from scetarianism, paramilitaries, and center-right parties, he says, "in the short term, very little. In the longer term, I believe that ONLY the gravitational pull of state power - the battles of 'Who Governs and in Whose interest?' will be capable of drawing people away from sectarian and communal positions."

The fact that the NILF will have a strong connection to the trade-unions should also be very helpful. Although they have generally been held back by sectarian divisions, in 2003 39% of the labor force in NI was unionized. In his 1998 book "McCann: War and Peace in Northern Ireland," NI socialist and trade-unionist Eamonn McCann writes, "the trade union movement is better placed than any other to purge the politics of this island of sectarianism. No other institution brings Catholic and Protestant workers together on a regular basis in pursuit of a common purpose which is antipathetic to sectarianism." McCann makes it clear that he doesn't think this potential has been tapped more than occassionally, and Langhammer agrees with his analysis.

But when combined with a socialist/social-democratic political agenda developed by an all-Ireland party (as the ILP is becoming), this potential might be realized in such a way that, in ten years or so, will help transform working-class unionist communities.

Joint Sovreignty Assembly

This is a slightly edited version of something I typed up in 2005 and showed to a small number of people. Before, as, or after you read this, you might want to read "Catholic Protestant and Dissenter."

Below is a proposal for a solution to the Northern Ireland conflict which will result in a United Ireland in such a way that a Unionist backlash is unlikely. It is also based on the idea that the way the GFA institutionalizes sectarian identities is very unhelpful and inhibits the development of normal politics in the North even more than is already the case with partition. Members of the Assembly have to identify as Nationalist, Unionist or Other, and on crucial votes regarding power-sharing, there has to be a majority of both Nationalists and Unionists (or 60% overall and at least 40% of each side). In general, this probably does institutionalize sectarian divisons, although it t does prevent a Unionist-only government and it makes it unlikely SF will be excluded.

But there is a better way.

What follows is based on the idea of shifting sovreignty over the North towards Dublin, with the end result a guaranteed United Ireland, but the JSA part could, without changing the composition of it and without the other things that move towards a United Ireland as described below, be used to govern the North in a way that avoids institutionalizing sectarian identities.

********

I have always believed that Ireland's reunification cannot and shouldn't be done "overnight" (that is, within one year). The process should be gradual but with the end result of a United Ireland guaranteed by treaty between Dublin and London. The process should also involve a lot of neutral elements and make an effort to partly balance the over-all trend towards a United Ireland with some relatively harmless concessions to Unionists.

The Irish and British governments would sign a treaty outlining a series of three stages over 30 years that result in Dublin having full sovreignty over all 32 Counties of Ireland. The following are some suggestions as to what should be in the Treaty. ** indicates my explanation and justification of each section above those paragraphs.

Also, I'm not an expert on this stuff, so I'm leaving out a lot of technical details, and if this were adopted, I wouldn't be surprised if some things I recommend just have to be done differently.


The Treaty will establish three stages, each lasting 10 years, plus some conditions to last after the end of Stage 3 until amended by the Irish and/or British parliaments. The central element of this solution will be a Joint Sovreignty Assembly that will govern Northern Ireland.

** I think 30+ years period will be helpful. Easing unionists into a United Ireland will probably lessen the total amount of negative response by the unionists. It's kind of like how if you put a frog in water and then heat up the water gradually, the frog will not jump out of the water (and will die). When the first stage starts, I can't see there being a massive backlash, as the changes would be small. There would be 10 years for them to get used to the South having a significant input into N. Ireland government. Basically the same with the second stage, the third stage, and the Six-County assembly after stage 3.

** Although many would probably suggest that a joint sovreignty government should be based on an executive made up of appointees from Dublin and London, perhaps with some Northern Ireland dimension, I think it would make more sense and certainly be more democratic to establish an Assembly with members elected from the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Great Britain, from which a cabinet would be formed and to which the cabinet would be accountable. An executive made up of Dublin and London appointees which completely excludes NI politicians obviously would not work. If NI politicians were to be included at the discretion of London and Dublin, that would make them accountable to London and Dublin, not any constituencies in NI. Even if NI politicians in the executive were drawn from a NI Assembly, the British and Irish Cabinet members would still be accountable to London and Dublin. A Joint Sovreignty Assembly as I'm proposing it would mean a unified Cabinet drawn from and accountable to the same Assembly so there would be a lot more consistency and coherency in government policy (there would probably be less shuffling of cabinet members), and Assembly members, especially those elected from NI, would be accountable to voters. This would, temporarily, result in more election boundaries being drawn and more elections being organized, but it would be worth it if it lasts only thirty years and results in a resolution of the conflict in NI.

** Some republicans and nationalists might complain about people elected from Britain being in the Assembly, but I have gotten the impression that they feel good about joint sovreignty of the normal sort as a step towards a United Ireland, and that would involve people from Britain.

At every stage, representation in the Assembly will be weighted towards NI, and to a lesser degree, the Republic. There will be no designation of members as Unionist, Nationalist, or Other, nor any requirements on cross-community support for an executive or anything else.

** There is almost no chance that a unionist majority could exclude nationalists from the executive and return to the old days of Stormont. The only way that could happen is if, in the first stage, the British Conservatives got more than 30 seats out of 50 in Britain, and that's unlikely. Very few of the parties that would be in the Joint Sovreignty Assembly would tolerate even the exclusion of SF, although it's slightly possible SF might end up in the opposition anyway, but that would probably not be as bad as it would be under the current situation, where an Executive without SF would have a very large Unionist majority.

Stage One- Years 1-10

The JSA will be made up of 50 members elected from NI, 50 members elected from GB, and 10 members elected from The Republic. There's no reason why the elections in NI and The Republic couldn't be based on Proportional Representation with Single Transferable Vote, but it would probably be acceptable if the election in GB were conducted on a First-Past-the-Post basis. It will function on a parliamentary basis and elections will be held at least once every 5 years. Powersharing across sectarian lines would not be required, coalition governments would be formed the same way they are in Dublin, London, and elsewhere.

** The voluntary nature of coalition governments would faciliate the development of normal politics.

** Someone wrote a piece about joint sovreignty here. It's a good idea and I'm open-minded about a NI-only Assembly instead of what I propose in this post, although I'm not sure how it'll work if either London or Dublin don't give laws passed by the Assembly legal effect.

The JSA Treasury will pay for everything except UN-affiliated operations, and will get 45% of it's revenue from NI taxes, 10% from Dublin, and 45% from London. Initially all laws which had been applied from London to NI would continue but could be repealed or altered by the JSA. Laws and policies adopted by the JSA need not be in line with British laws, but the ultimate authority of the British constitution and House of Lords (or a Supreme Court) would continue.

The electoral quota for Westminster seats in NI would be doubled, while NI would elect members to the Dail with an electoral quota three times what it is in the rest of Ireland.

** This sounds kind of messy, as it will be altered two more times, but if the experts think it works, it should be done, although the important part is the joint sovreignty and the shifting of sovreignty to Dublin.

The British Army in NI will not exceed 10,000 and will be confined to barracks except in certain circumstances. A UN Peace-Keeping force (excluding British and Irish forces) of about 20,000 would be established. All UN forces will be under the command of a General (who is neither Irish nor British) approved by the Treaty Commission (whose members will be agreed by the Irish and British governments, and once appointed can not be forced to resign). The commander will be accountable on a day-to-day basis to a Defense Committee made up of the JSA Home Affairs Minister, a senior figure from the British MOD and one from the Irish MOD. The British Army can be deployed on the word of the UN Commander, but within twelve hours it must be approved by all 3 members of the Defense Committee and must be approved every 12 hrs. after that.

** SF and probably all other republicans do not like the idea of UN Peace-keepers in the North. Here's why I include that anyway. Even if this is done the right way, there will be a Unionist/Loyalist backlash, and the local police might not be up to it. On the other hand, using the British Army is unnatractive because A) we don't want them on the streets of the North, considering their history, and B) we can't be certain they'll consistently go after the loyalist paramilitaries, given their history. On the other hand, compared to UN Peace-Keepers, the Irish Army might just piss of the Unionists a little bit more- not because the IA would be brutal with civilians, they probably wouldn't, but because, until the Unionists have been eased into a United Ireland and realize that they have nothing to fear, they will likely react worse to the IA than to the UN.

The PSNI would, based on criteria drawn up by a Policing and Cease-Fire Commission (whose membership will be agreed by the British and Irish governments), purge itself of officers who are sectarian and/or have colluded with Loyalist paramilitaries. The vacated positions will be temporarily filled by officers organized by the UN (but excluding British and Irish Officers). Plastic bullets (and rubber bullets) would be banned (neither the police, Army, nor UN forces may use them). A Chief Constable would be appointed by the JSA Home Affairs Minister, and the CC would continue to be accountable to the Policing Board and District Policing Boards. Police will be unarmed but may be accompanied by UN Peace-Keepers when neccessary.

** UN forces would very liklely be made up of military units trained to use force only when absolutely neccessary, and their rules of engagement would reflect this, meaning that shooting unarmed civilians would be a lot less likely. While some Unionists/Loyalists might be hostile towards them as enforcers of the Treaty, they would probably be a lot less hostile to UN forces than they would be to the Irish Army. Nationalists and Republicans, because the Treaty is a victorty for them and because they largely support the UN, would probably be very unlikely to come into conflict with the Peace-Keepers. It is concieveable that, especially during the Marching Season, sometimes the UN forces might be briefly overwhelmed in specific geographic areas. In such cases it would make sense to briefly deploy the British Army rather than see rioting or paramilitary attacks. Ideally the officials involved would be smart enough to deploy the BA only in loyalist-only disturbances (or maybe that should be in the Treaty itself), to avoid the possibility of a return to republican-BA conflict.

** A purge of those PSNI officers who are sectarian and/or have colluded with loyalist paramilitaries will greatly increase the number of Nationalists willing to join the police, but in the meantime filling vacancies with officers organized by the UN would help maintain the PSNI's operational abilities and at the same time develop a human rights culture in the force. The continuation of plastic bullets would be unacceptable, whoever they might be used against. Considering police in the Republic and most police in GB are unarmed, disarming the PSNI is not unreasonable and would lessen the liklihood that the police would provoke violence as they have before. On the other hand, there would be many neighborhoods, both Loyalist and Republican, where unarmed police would be at risk, so it would make sense for them to be accompanied by armed UN Peace-Keepers. (I'm not sure if I'm wedded to the idea of unarmed police in the early part of this process)

** On purging the police, the more time that goes by, the likely that is to be neccessary if trends on Catholics joining the police continue- the more Catholics, the more the sectarians will leave.

Parades would continue to be determined by the Parades Commission, whose members will be agreed by the Irish and British governments. Security for controverisal parades will be provided only by UN Peace-Keepers.

The Republic would re-join the British Commonwealth.

** Although I'm not familiar with the Commonwealth, it seems like it has no real power over members, and requires few committments from it's members, so it really doesn't place the 26-Counties back under British rule at all, but being in the Commonwealth might have some special meaning for a lot of Unionists so this might make the transition to a United Ireland easier.

The Treaty Commission will consider any ambiguities in the Treaty and make any adjustments such as extending the time period for a Stage or an aspect of a Stage. It will also have responsibility for approving the Commander of UN forces. It's 7 members will be agreed by the Irish and British governments, should be composed of international affairs experts, former senior politicians from across the world, and include only one person from the Republic, one from GB, and one from NI. It's decisions can be vetoed by either a 75% vote of the JSA, or a majority of both Westminster and the Dail.

** I'm sure that even with a Treaty drafted by experienced people there will be at least some ambiguities and there will be some need for minor adjustments. Such changes should be made by people with at least no direct interest in Northern Ireland politcs (although the total exclusion of Irish, British, and Northern Irish people would be a mistake) but who have experience in international affairs. This way they're decisions will probably be accepted by most as being fair. If such a body has some degree of control over the peace-keeping forces, that will probably result in them being accepted more than they normally would. On the other hand, it would be somewhat undemocratic to have their decisions be completely final, so the three representative bodies should have veto power.

The Policing and Cease-Fire Commission's members will be agreed by the Irish and British governments. They should be people from across the globe with experience in human rights, criminal justice, conflict resolution and related fields and it's 7 members should include only one person from the Republic, one from GB, and one from NI. It's first job will be to establish criteria by which the JSA Home Affairs Minister will dismiss those Police Officers who are sectarian and/or have colluded with Loyalists. After that, the Commission will be charged with determining which organizations are on cease-fire. Towards the end of Stage Two they will help determine the relation between the Six-County Gardai, Dublin, the JSA Home Affairs Ministry, and the Policing Boards that will be used in Stage Three.

** Creating objective criteria for purging the police will probably be tricky and should be done by a group that can be seen as detached from the conflict so that the criteria will be seen as fair. And while determining the status of paramilitary cease-fires will be incredibly important, it is equally important that such determinations be and be seen as fair and objective. The details of integrating the PSNI into the Gardai while maintaining the power of the Policing Boards will need to be done by experts in such fields as policing.

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission will be established, it's members agreed by the Irish and British governments. They should be people from across the globe with experience in human rights, criminal law, conflict resolution and related fields and their 7 members should include only one person from the Republic, one from GB, and one from NI. They will review every incident since 1966 chronologically and make decisions on amnesty for those who have not been sentenced or haven't completed their original sentence.

Paramilitary organizations that are on cease-fire but are believed to still have weapons and explosives will be targets of searches for weapons and explosives. Anyone arrested in connection to such searches whose only crime is possession of weapons and explosives and membership of an illegal organization will be quickly released without charge. Organizations that are not on cease-fire will be subject to both searches, arrests and charges. Those who have been charged with paramiltary-related offenses will be given political status whether jailed in NI, The Republic, or GB.

** It is very likely that large chunks of the loyalist paramilitaries, and probably a very small number of dissident republicans, will engage in armed actions. It'll be neccessary to deal with those organizations, but arresting members of organizations that are on cease-fire would almost certainly just push them into ending their cease-fires, so it would make sense to create some kind of legal mechanism so that arms and explosives can be seized from cease-fire groups without having to detain their members for more than a day. POW status should also be given to members of paramilitary groups in jail- to do otherwise would invite more resistance.

STAGE TWO Years 11-20

At the beginning of this Stage (or between years 9 and 12 as decided by the Treaty Commission) representation in the Assembly will be changed to the following: 50 from NI, 30 from GB, and 30 from the Republic. Correspondingly the financial contributions will be changed to 44% from NI taxes, 28% from the Irish government, and 28% from the British government. NI representation in Westminster will be at three times the normal electoral quota, and NI representation in the Dail will be at twice the normal electoral quota.

** It makes sense to gradually shift representation to the Irish Republic and away from the UK.

The Irish Constitution and Supreme Court would replace their British equivelants, but laws and policies adopted by the JSA wouldn't have to be in line with Irish laws.

The British Army would be withdrawn from NI, their barracks occupied by Irish Army units. However, the IA would be confined to barracks in the same way the BA units were. All other security arrangements would remain the same as they had been in Stage One.

** Again, these measures would gradually shift NI towards integration with the Republic. The confinement to barracks of Irish troops would lessen the negative reaction of loyalists.

At this point Loyal Order marches will be allowed anywhere they want to go, provided the security for such marches is exclusively UN Peace-Keepers. The Parades Commision will still regulate some aspects of parades in NI.

** This is based partly on the fact that at least one Orange Order parade takes place every year in the Republic with little security, and without incident. As NI moves towards integration with the Republic, Loyal Order parades should be more acceptable to nationalist residents. And such a move would lessen unionist opposition to being eased into a United Ireland.

** In general, I stand by this, but it might be better saved for Stage Three, unless dramatic progress has been made on equality for Catholics- for example, how many years has it been since Catholics were significantly more likely to be unemployed than Protestants, how many sectarian murders of Catholics have taken place, etc. This is something that should be dealt with by the Treaty Commission.

STAGE THREE Years 21-30

At the begginning of this Stage (or between years 19 and 22 as decided by the Treaty Commission) representation in the Assembly will be changed to the following: 50 from NI, 10 from GB, and 50 from the Republic. Correspondingly the financial contributions will be changed to 45% from NI taxes, 45% from the Irish government, and 10% from the British government. NI representation at Westminster will end, NI will be fully represented in the Dail.

** I'm not quite sure what I was thinking with completely ending representation at Westminster, although it largely makes sense, maybe this should be tweaked so that there's still something like 1-3 MPs.

The Irish Army will replace the UN military forces who will be withdrawn from NI. A Six-County Irish Army commander must be approved by the Treaty Commission and on a day-to-day basis will answer to a Defense Committe made up of a representative from the British MOD, JSA Home Affairs Minister, and a representative from the UN Secretary-General. Police provided by the UN will be replaced by Gardai. The PSNI will be integrated into the Gardai and the Chief Constable will be appointed from Dublin but will still be answerable to the Policing Boards.

** Twenty years should be enough time to significantly reduce tensions and the paramilitary presence so that there will be little or no military presence needed on the streets; and whatever presence is needed should be provided by the Irish Army at this point, although they would still have some supervison from Britain, the UN, and the JSA Home Affairs Minister (who would, to some degree, be answerable to Unionists in the Assembly). By that time the PSNI should be fairly representative of the communities it polices (there should be a large Catholic element of the force) and there should also be a strong human rights culture in the force, so UN officers won't be needed. And it will be time for the PSNI to be almost completely integrated into the Gardai, with the Policing Boards as a local check.

POST STAGE THREE

The Six-County area will now be under the complete sovreignty of the Dublin State. The JSA will be dissolved. A Six-County Assembly with limted devolved powers determined by the Dail will be established and will last for at least 10 years. The Assembly will function as any other such body, without a requirement for members to designate as Unionist, Nationalist, or Other, or a requirement of cross-community support for an Executive.

** Although unionists really don't have anything to be concerned about, the fact is that even after 30 years there will still be some anxiety for them as they are finally cut off from the UK. A Six-County Assembly with at least limited autonomy will make this easier, as they will probably still have a small majority in the Six-Counties.

** Even without a power-sharing requirement (which it shouldn't have) there's no way this will result in a return to Stormont (the sectarian, Unionist-dominated government that existed from the early 20s until 1972)- even if the unionists try, the National government in Dublin will have authority to block such a move. This is also why a Six-County Assembly won't be a dilution of republican goals, as Dublin will have ultimate authority and the UK will have no formal influence at all. The idea that such an Assembly should include all nine counties of Ulster I think is a mistake. In a nine county area, unionists would probably be a small minority- certainly nowhere near as small a minority as they would be in all 32 counties, but still such a small minority that the effect of making them feel less ovrwhelmed would be negated. And I don't think there's anything wrong with acknowledging that the Six-County area is different from the rest of Ireland. And there's a good chance that "normal" politics will have taken hold there by then, especially as the main "southern" parties will almost certainly be organizing there (actually, at this point, all but one of them are).

** At this point, even in a Six-County Assembly, the odds of a return to the old days of Orange rule are very low. Even if the Executive is solidly Unionist, A) Unionism will probably have changed enough that they will not try to impose Orange rule on the Six-County area and B) if they do head in that direction, the Government in Dublin will have various means to check them. With that in mind, it is important that "normal" left-right, Labour-Tory politics develop which will focus on things like social and economic justice and encourage people to focus less on their national and religious identities and more as workers (or socialists, or middle-class, or whatever).

British pass-ports will remain available to anyone in the Six-County area and the Common Travel area between Ireland and the UK will remain, although they can both be ended by Westminster and/or the Dail.

** This will simply contribute a bit to making unionists feel comfortable asserting some kind of new British-Irish identity.

UPDATE 8/16/15 Very shortly after the end of Stage 3 a constitutional convention will be held for all of Ireland, organized by the international community.

**At some point in the past for at least a year or two and probably a decade or two, Sinn Fein called for a constitutional convention to be part of a future unification of Ireland. I think it’s a great idea that should be revived as it would probably make the northern Protestants feel like they would have a very big say in what kind of Ireland they’re being added to (and they’d be right- they’d be on the same level as everyone else).


(I always knew that with two aspects of this (possibly others, I haven't read it in a while, but for now I'm gonna go with two) I was aiming for the extremes. 30 years is at the upper end of how long this process should last. It might make more sense to aim for 5 years instead of 10 for each phase, with some flexibility as described above. The other area is security force levels, but letting the BA stay around during the first phase makes sense in terms of making the process easier on the Unionists, and having the IA move in before the UN leaves more or less makes sense)

Even More Lyrics

There are more lyrics. First, for those new to my songs see this post for an explanation, although this batch of songs is mostly from sources where I agree with the original lyrics (that's the last 4, the first three are based on the songs I don't agree with).

The rest of the songs/poems can be found by clicking on the "lyrics" label (there are at least two pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).


I'm going to start with three that really aren't that great, and end with the two that are the best.

1. Ireland Awake. The broad republican struggle in Ireland.
2. Make a Stand. N. Ireland.
3. Free at Last. Republican struggle in N. Ireland.
4. Spirit of '32. The need for working-class unity among Protestants and Catholics in N. Ireland.
5. Orange Tories. Class conflict in N. Ireland.
6. Surf Fermanagh. N. Ireland from a British dissident view.

7. The 26. An appeal from a N. Ireland Catholic to the population of the South for support in the Peace Process.

"Ireland Awake," based on "Europe Awake" by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here

1. This is largely aimed at people in the Republic.
2.  This is also about unarmed republicanism, and a lot of it could also come from nationalists.
3. The second line refers to how republicanism was widespread in Ireland during the War of Indendence.
4. In May of 2006, a Catholic teenager was beaten to death in Ballymena, the police and his family said the motive was sectarian.
5. The Gardai are the police in the South. In general they're probably a bit better than American and N. Ireland police (for one thing, they're mostly unarmed), but they have powers they shouldn't, are very hostile to republicans, and can be quite brutal. UPDATE 2/23/09 That line isn't meant to apply to all Gardai, but probably some small minority of them.
6. Ruth Dudley Edwards is an Irish scholar who is very pro-Unionist, not to mention very conservative.
7. The DUP is the Democratic Unionist Party.
**8. 29% of this version is me, 71% is the original (and I skipped the 3rd line of the Chorus).
9. I give this song/poem three out of five stars.
10. Skrewdriver were British and supported the unionist causes in N. Ireland.
11. UPDATE 2/11/11 the 2nd line of the 3rd verse, is basically referring to an Ireland with an economy worse than it is now, probably some other things, all of which can be partly blamed on the partition of the island.

Ireland come join us for one final republican thrust
What has happened to the struggle that once belonged to all of us
A capitalistic economy, the divided working-class is too weak
Teenagers aren't safe in Ballymena, what solution do we seek?

Chorus:
Ireland awake, for the nationalists sake
Ireland awake, before it's too late

We've got to get together soon, and take our nation back
The Gardai and the traitorous politicians should be sacked
You can't turn on the TV because you know what you're going to see
Either Ruth Dudley Edwards or the lying DUP

Chorus

We've got to get together now, and wage our nation's fights
If we don't act quickly, we're going to face the endless night
We've got to take our nation back, from all the traitorous scum
You'd better believe it, our day will soon have to come

Chorus

********

UPDATE 6/10/09 I'm changing the names of those songs that had retained the original name.

"Make A Stand," based on "Fight Back" by Kill Baby Kill, the lyrics here.

1. "Unionist bastards" I'm not sure to what degree they have learned, in terms of being non-sectarian. For example, they still seem to think it's appropriate for the Orange Order to march through Catholic areas. For more info on why that's not a good idea, see this (and give money to the PFC, they're going through a funding crisis, and they're great)
2. In the NI context, I'm not sure exactly how to spin the last line of the second verse, although it seems pretty harmless. It could mean that republicans should stick to their beliefs and, baring some advancement of the republican agenda under the Good Friday Agreement (which is possible), wait for a better day to continue the armed struggle (of course, 9/11 means that day is a long way off, but if the armed struggle resumes at some point, maybe the rest of the world will put enough preassure on London that it will be successful, unlike the 1970-1997 period)
3. In general, there are other lines that seem to fit less than perfectly in the puzzle I'm putting together, but they seem okay.
**4. 8% of the lyrics are mine, 92% are the original.
5. I give this song/poem four out of five stars.
6. This poem will seem barely twisted at all, but the band are from Holland (I believe) and would have probably gone with Ian Stuart's opinion about N. Ireland (he supported the unionists).
7. This is more or less about the IRA, although some of it could come from unarmed republicans and even from nationalists.

Will you stand and watch them take our Ireland down the drain?
Will you stay there on the fence, just sit there and complain?
Or will you listen to the republican's voice, which the Dail ignores
Will you fight to take your country back, take back what's rightfully yours?

Chorus:
Fight Back! Against the vested powers
Fight Back! Against right-wing lies
Fight Back! Against the corrupt system
Fight Back! Before your nation dies

The richman has a laugh, on the nationalist working-class
Will you stand your ground or will you sit down on your ass?
The unionist bastards haven't learned, will you let them get their way?
Will you stick to your guns and keep the faith for a better day?

We'll make a stand, to save our land, destroy this Orange state
We won't bow down to anyone, it's us they love to hate
It's time to face the enemy now that's causing all the fuss
It's up to me and you to take back what they took from us

*****

UPDATE 6/10/09 I'm changing the names of those songs that had retained the original name.

"Free At Last," based on "Hail The New Dawn" by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. Although there have been some tendencies like this in the past, I think that today very few republicans, and even fewer in Sinn Fein and the IRA, want to take state power through force (UPDATE 2/21/20 I doubt that at this point a single member of SF wants that, even if I were typing this before the recent election). UPDATE 2/11/11 I should also explain that I don't believe the British would be driven out by armed struggle alone, as the lyrics at one point seem to imply.
2. In general, it's not the most timely, although the fighting could be a reference to the non-violent sort, or a future armed struggle.
3. Bread is a symbol of economic justice.
4. My feelings about dissident republicans are here, towards the bottom.
5. UPDATE 2/23/09 I just realized that the last verse in reference to dissident republicans (who aren't on cease-fire) only makes sense if the fighting referred to earlier in the song is of the non-violent sense, and even then it's a little odd (this reflects a contradiction in the original).
**6. 36% of this version is me, 64% is the original, and I ignored those lines that were just a chant.
7. I give this song/poem three out of five stars.
8. Considering the original, I should say that Irish pride within N.Ireland is very different from white pride (most of the time). (I just heard something making me think that it's probably a small minority of northern nationalists that would talk about "Irish pride"; I still feel odd completely re-writing that line, so I'm going to keep it)
9. Skrewdriver were British and supported the unionist causes in N. Ireland.
10. This is about armed republicanism, basically the IRA.

Comrades, the voices of the dead Battalions
Of those who fell, that Ireland might be great
Join in our song, for they still march in spirit with us
And urge us on that we gain the 32-County Socialist state

Chorus:
The streets are still, the final battle has ended
Flushed with the fight, we proudly hail the dawn
See over the streets, the Republican emblem is waving
Triumphant standards of a people reborn

Our fathers and daughters, friends and brothers
Of the small farmers and working-class, for who's sake they bled
Against the vested powers, Loyalist front and massed reaction
We lead the fight for freedom and for bread

People who we trusted, sadly have let us down
Ignoring the people's wishes, they won't work for peace
We will struggle forever, until we unite Ireland
But at least for now, the armed struggle must cease

*******

UPDATE 6/10/09 I'm changing the names of those songs that had retained the original name.

"Spirit of '32" based on "Work Together" by The Oppressed (Anti-Fascist Oi!), original lyrics are here.

1. The Orange Tories are the two main Unionist parties (plus 1 small party, 1 samll-medium party and some independents), who are basically centre-right. There are Green Tories, but among those Tories with power, only something like 1/4 are Green.
2. Fenian is a derogatory term for republican (in that sense it has been adopted by republicans) but is also often a derogatory term for Catholic; Prod is a derogatory term for Protestant, although I know that "Proddie" has been adopted by Northern Protestants.
3. '32 refers to the 1932 Outdoor Relief Riots, by the unemployed in Belfast- the first several days there were was a fair amount of unity between nationalists and unionists, but the police focused their violence on the former, and shortly after that Unionist leaders encouraged sectarianism, especially with serious competition over jobs at that time, to break the unity of the unemployed.
**4. 36% of this version is me, 64% is the original (this reflects the change I made to the last line of the 2nd verse).
5. I give this song/poem four out of five stars.
6. This is about unarmed republicans and unity between working-class Catholics and Protestants.
7. UPDATE 11/4/10: I have re-written the last line of the 2nd verse.

Dreaming of how life could be
If Ireland was free
If no one voted for the Orange Tories
It's up to you, it's up to me, to me!

We gotta work, work, work together
Fight, fight, stay alive
Work, work, work together
We're fighting to survive
Connolly's vision we'll keep alive

Work for all in a care free state
No more anger, no more hate
No more fighting, Fenian and Prod
In '32 we all took on the riot squad

*******

UPDATE 6/10/09 I'm changing the names of those songs that had retained the original name.

"Orange Tories" based on "Same Old Story" by The Oppressed (Anti-fascist Oi!), lyrics are here.

1. Partition is the divison of Ireland.
2. I'm not quite sure how much this song applies to the current situation, especially with how reformed the police have become at this point. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if the stuff about schools and hospitals applies to earlier periods either (I'm fairly sure it at least sort of applies to the current situation UPDATE 2/14/11 At this point it definitely applies as services are being cut).
3. If it is about the current situation, it's not meant as an attack on SF members who currently or in recent years were in charge of health and education. I heard that when SF had health around 2000, that sector was already in horrible shape. In general, as far as I can tell (and if someone could point me to a credible source clarifying this, either way, I'd appreciate it) the Assembly and Executive have only limited power over how big the overall budget is (UPDATE 2/14/09 I've slightly tightened this up and am pretty sure they have very little control over the overall size of the budget, and also SF members have far from total control over their departments), and SF, as about 1/3 of the Government and 1/4 of the Assembly, have got very little control over the budget. Overall, I'm confident they're probably doing almost as good a job as can be done, and there are arguments against them taking up the position of opposition to avoid being connected to bad policies. Also, SF abolished the 11 Plus, a test school kids take at age 11 to determine what schools they go to- I've read that working-class kids disproportionately went to the less advanced schools. There's been some dificulty with replacing it, but as far as I can tell, abolishing it was a good idea. (UPDATE 4/14/09 A speech about 10 months ago by the head of the Northern part of the Irish Labour Party indicated that SF is not the problem with the Executive, and as recently as late 2005 he expressed some positive feelings for SF)
4. Orange Tories are Unionists, that community's political center is certainly center-right.
5. The issue of how Protestant workers were treated in N. Ireland under Unionist rule from the early 1920s until 1972 when London took over, is one reason I strongly reccommend people read Michael Farrell's book "Northern Ireland: The Orange State." It's an amazing book. Farrell is so well respected that in the 1990s he was a Co-Chair of the Irish Council of Civil Liberties, basically the ACLU in Ireland. Unfortunately, the vast majority aimed their hatred not at the bosses, but at Catholics.
6. There are also Green Tories, nationalists, but in the past they had basically no power, and today I think they represent probably something like 1/4 of NI Tories with any power, considering the continuing economic inequality (the last I checked, recently, Catholics were 50% more likely to be unemployed than Protestants) and the fact that the political center of the nationalist community is center-left.
**7. 26% of this version is me, 74% is the original.
8. I give this song/poem four out of five stars.
9. This is meant to be about class war; not always non-violent and possibly armed, on the workers side.

Look around the North and see the state it's in
Discrimination, and repression, because of partition
Hospitals are closing and schools are falling down
The Orange Tories get the life-boat and the rest of us can drown

And every day we get the same old story
Just another lie from another Orange Tory
And every day we get the same old story
Just another lie from another Orange Tory

One law for the Protestant, who let's his religion speak
No law for the Catholics, because Northern equality is weak
So, you Protestant workers, before it gets too late
Open up your eyes and see the Orange Tory you should hate

One day you will understand just what they do to you
And then when you see the light, you'll know just what to do
'Cause all the years of suffering, and all the broken hearts
Will be remembered when the revolution starts

********

"Surf Fermanagh," based on "Surf Nicaragua" by Sacred Reich (despite their name, their politics are very progressive- I'm fairly famliar with all of their music and at least some of it is more or less socially liberally and it's also economically progressive and it's anti-war). The original lyrics are here.

1. There's actually a British version of GI Joe, I think it's called Action Force, but I decided to stick with GI Joe.
2. South Armagh is a staunchly republican area, and during most of the conflict the security forces could only operate by helicopter, they were at such great risk of IRA attack.
3. Fermanagh is a County in N. Ireland, and it actually does have two large bodies of water, but it's landlocked.
4. This is basically about the early years of the conflict (the 70s), although it would sort of also apply to the 80s. The line about maintaining the control the Unionists had isn't perfect, but in some ways it makes sense (London used internment as demanded by the unionists, the British Army forced Orange Order marches through Catholic areas, the British Army kept the anti-internment march which would become known as Bloody Sunday out of the center of Derry as demanded by the unionists, and the BA failed to break the 1974 anti-Sunningdale loyalist strike which brought down a sort of good effort at resolving the conflict). (It is slightly flawed in one way- towards the very beginning of the conflict the British BRIEFLY DID talk with the IRA, but overwhelmingly they were more interested in the SDLP).
5. Dublin and Cork refer to the War of Independence in Ireland, I think Dublin and Cork were two of the main centres of resistance.
6. To a significant degree, the security forces of NI before London took direct control in 1972 were supported by London.
7. The Social Democratic and Labour Party, Sinn Fein's more moderate rival, has sometimes been referred to as the "Stoop Down Low Party" (see here). From a republican and socialist perspective, they're horrible- they have even undermined non-violent efforts. Until sometime in the 1990s, the British were more or less inclined to isolate republicans and do some kind of deal with the SDLP, instead of addressing the situation by beginning a process of withdrawl (they haven't really moved much at all on the question of withdrawl, but the Good Friday Agreement is better than earlier efforts, and the British significantly changed their attitude about SF being involved) (UPDATE 2/20/11 I can't believe I forgot about this, but there were SOME negoatiations between Provisional republicans and London in the very early years of the conflict and also in the mid-1970s. But in general, the idea was to isolate and destroy republicans.)
**8. 28% of this version is me, 72% is the original.
9. I give this song/poem four out of five stars.
10. UPDATE 3/24/17 this is sort of from the perspective of a Briton who’s fairly critical of their government’s actions in the North. If the last line of the 2nd verse sounds like they might support the BA, they don’t and I THINK that line is not in conflict with the anti-occupation position.
10. UPDATE 2/14/19 I Changed "Dublin" to Vietnam. I know the UK wasn't involved in Vietnam, but it was a good example of gueriila war . And I like to make my blog as internationalist as possible without being obnoxious about it. And Vietnam was right there in the original.

I know a place where you're all going to go
They'll pay you to kill if you're eighteen years old
First you'll need a haircut, and then some new clothes
They'll stick you in Belfast, to play GI Joe

Chrous:
You fight for "Democracy and the British Way"
But you're not in your country, what am I doing here you say
Now it's too late, you're entering south Armagh
If you had brought your surfboard, you could surf Fermanagh

What is this we're fighting for, what's our ultimate goal
To prop up the Unionists and maintain their control
Republican resistance grows deeper every day
The situation "worsens," more soldiers on the way

Chorus

Lessons we have learned, are easy to forget
Hints of Vietnam and Cork, how soon we all forget
First we sent them rifles, now go in the troops
And our best idea is to make a deal with the stoops

Chorus

*****

UPDATE 6/10/09 I'm changing the names of those songs that had retained the original name.

"The 26" based on "One Nation" by Sacred Reich (despite their name, their politics are very progressive- I'm fairly famliar with all of their music and at least some of it is more or less socially liberally and it's also economically progressive and it's anti-war). The original lyrics are here (Although it's not clear what it actually is, according to other sites, the very last line is "Why don't you understand?")

1. This is largely intended as a song to help recruit people in the South to support the republican movement, in the context of the early years of the Peace Process (most would say it started sometime in the mid 1990s, and this is about the period around 2000).
2. The issue of multi-racial unity isn't the primary issue, but it is there, and SF is good at anti-racism.
3. I said state instead of nation because there's already a nation of all religions, there needs to be a 32-County state with religious freedom, it's not calling for a formal relationship between religions and the State.
4. The soldiers being referred to are British.
5. At one point about 3-10 years ago, there was a lot of work done to dismantle British security force bases for them, mostly by Sinn Fein Youth.
6. Peace- I agree with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who said that "Peace is not merely the absence of tension, but the presence of justice."
7. There are some people in the South who support the British presence.
8. The last thing I would say is that Irish unity must wait until the British public comes around, but in the past efforts were made on that, and today, with the end of the armed struggle, that's even more important. Also, although it's not super clear, it's pretty safe to say the IRA basically never or almost never intentionally killed innocent civilians in Britain.
9. TOM is the Troops Out Movement, a British organization that more or less supports SF.
10. At one point, around 1990, one of the the Birmingham Six (they spent about 15 years in British jails for a crime they didn't committ) at a rally in Derry, said A: the British Army should be sent home in boxes, and B: the English working-class people are the "salt of the earth."
**11. 27% of this version is me, 73% is the original.
12. There are 26 counties in the South (the Republic).
13. I give this song/poem four out of five stars.
14. This is about non-violence, with the sort of exception of trying to dismantle security force installations.
4/5/11 UPDATE 15. I felt that there was something wrong with the lyrics, and I fixed that by re-writing a small amount of words to have the poem come from the voice of a northern nationalist (i.e. a Catholic living in N. Ireland). Below is the new version.

A vision of unselfishness, a union of black and white
One state of all religions, it's clear within my sight
I see it clear, no hate, no fear, no soldiers come to die
A state that's free and thrives on peace, no greed no threat to life

We'll dismantle the weapons of war which loom over our heads
We'll take on the British war machine that caused so many deaths
Don't close your eyes to the atrocities which abound
Don't stand and watch until you’re six feet under ground

The future is our burden, don’t stand and watch
Because the Peace Process might crumble and British units march
We all work towards our goal, one nation unity
And you must be the convert, who works towards Irish peace

There are those around you who stand and say NO WAY
They support the British presence, say it's here to stay
But no one knows until we try, what we all we can do
Don’t stand by, watch children die, it's up to me and you

Our island is divided, the boundary has been drawn
We must continue until the British have withdrawn
And we don't judge the British by the government of their land
The Troops Out Movement will work to educate them, until they understand


One last note: Even with the songs that are only about 10% me (and at the upper end, one is 75% me), I have a request, although I don't have strong feelings or expectations about this. First, I want credit for these songs. Second, I'd appreciate it if the notes follow the lyrics around the internet. If you modify the lyrics further, please either make some notes for the changes if you leave some of my changes, or just provide a link to this URL so people can see my version. Although I'm not sure how many people will like what I'm doing with the lyrics, to one degree or another (depending on how much I changed them) I'm proud of these songs- and at the risk of getting a little personal, if people like the songs, I could really use the extra boost of getting credit for them right now (or if you don't like them, they were all written by Sarah Palin- that fascist, what kind of sick person enjoys altering racist lyrics?).