Civil war in Ulster? WITHDRAW TROOPS NOW

Civil war in Ulster? WITHDRAW TROOPS NOW

From Newsletter, August 16, 1969

At the time of writing, 300 British troops are standing by on the outskirts of Londonderry ready to intervene in what has been described as the most serious riots yet seen in Northern Ireland. 

Acting, no doubt, in collusion with the so-called Labour government of Harold Wilson, the Ulster Tories have banned all meetings and marches, thus taking away the basic democratic rights of the working class, both Protestant and Catholic, with one stroke of the pen. 

In what has been described by eye-witnesses as an orgy of unprecedented police brutality, two men have been shot at the height of the street fighting. 

This situation can only be described as one of civil war in which the ultra-right government of Ulster in alliance with Wilson and the Labour traitors have encouraged provocations which will now enable them to bring in the armed forces. 

There was some speculation in Ulster, says the “Evening News” of August 13, 1969, “that the troops may be used to relieve weary police.” This is a formula for the intervention. 

The capitalist press has gone out of its way to describe the disturbances as the results of a holy war between Catholics and Protestants. 

Whilst in some cases it may take this form, it is basically nothing of the sort. The real reason lies in the economic crisis now affecting the six counties and stemming from the worsening position of British capitalism as a whole. 

Chronic unemployment, the threat to jobs, rotten housing, low wages and rising prices have drawn tens of thousands of ordinary men and women into bitter conflict with the so-called forces of law and order. 

The capitalists are determined to crush the Catholic and Protestant workers alike. To do this they drag out all the old prejudices, pageantry and lies from the past. But the truth will out. 

What is at stake is the future of the working class as a whole not only in Northern Ireland, but throughout the length and breadth of Britain. 

That is why it is necessary to organise the maximum mobilisation to force Wilson to withdraw the troops immediately.