Drug allegations re INLA

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These should be taken with a pinch of salt. The reality is that the drug
problem is very mild or non existent in the Republican dominated ghettoes
in the North. Part of the popularity of the Republicans is the protection
they give the ghettoes from drugs and other forms of crime.Interestingly
the Youth of Sinn Fein are having a debate about drugs and the difference
between soft and hard and whether they should be decriminalised. This is a
forward move. The RUC and Irish guards would prefer ghettoes dominated by
gangsters rather than the Republicans. Analogous to this is that once they
destroyed the Black Panthers in the USA they effectivally regarded the
gangsters acceptable indeed allies against any form of real radicalism

As I sad before as far as the state is concernef the problem is not drugs
but Republicans gaining popularity by doing something about it.

The INLA seek to compete with the Provos in this area. They had in spite
of a promising start a fairly awful history of internal feuding. They
claim they have put this behind them. I will need a bit more evidence on
this. They share with the Provos a "Friends of the People" approach which
relegates the People as spectators/cheerleaders to the struggle of the
armed elite to free Ireland. Bernadette broke with the IRSP because of
this strategy.The INLA and IRSP came from a similar milieu to the Peoples
Democracy. The fate of the of the IRSP was a tragedy.

It is possible that INLA people have turned to drug pushing but I doubt
that they as an organisation have done so. The RUC/Gardai have been
peddling this for years.

A major contribution of Peoples Democracy to the development of an
alternative to Republican militarism as "Mass Action versus militarism".

Hopefully the IRSP or elements will emerge to join with others in a
working class movement which will combine the heroism of the Republican
tradition with Marxism, though it has to be said that many more conciously
Marxist groups have not assimilated the truths of the Republican tradition
and have ignored the effect of Imperialism.
Jim Monaghan