Re: Palestinian flags, Loyalism, etc.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe <nidhighe@xxxxxxxx>]

At 05:14 AM 6/19/2002, Xxx Xxxx wrote:
>If this strikes some as naive or uninformed, maybe so, but
>this country, at present, seems to have all the preconditions
>of near-civil-war.

The Good Friday Agreement was built on a house of cards.  It failed to
address any significant issues.  All it did was hide the crumbling walls
with a fresh coat of paint.

Oh, sure, the GFA has been good for the middle class and the capitalist
class.  The Belfast business community seems to have done quite well.  When
I was over two years ago, there seemed to be quite a few new buildings
going up.  This, we've been told, is what peace looks like.

One gets an entirely different view in working class Catholic
neighborhoods, which have remained under siege from Loyalists and annual
Orange Order marches.  In places like North Belfast, this siege has been
constant and unrelenting, while the bourgeois politicians wring their hands
and ask people to give peace a chance.

Sad to say, some of this hand wringing has been done by Sinn Fein, who used
to understand the nature of the Six County statelet and that it couldn't be
reformed.

On the other side of the divide, working class Protestant communities have
also seen none of the "peace dividend".  The continuing poverty, despair,
and the sense of being excluded have only fueled the flames of sectarianism
for many.

The preconditions for near civil war?  Possibly.

Danielle Ni Dhighe
Puget Sound Chapter, Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America
nidhighe@xxxxxxxx - http://www.irsm.org/irsm.html
Free Dessie O'Hare! - http://www.irsm.org/irsp/free_dessie/


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