Conference tallis::celt

                                  PART II

   There are strong indications that the British government, wary of the
consequences of promoting full Equality has instead opted for the
cruelly-pragmatic alternative of 'CRUMBS and GUNS', (i.e. the defeat of the
armed uprising whatever the cost in lives and abuse of Human Rights, accompanied
by limited economic advancement for a section of the Catholic community.)

   Certainly, its record in legislating to eliminate anti-Catholic
discrimination gives no evidence of a commitment to promoting Economic Equality
between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.

   On the contrary, the record is one of consistent opposition to taking the
decisive and effective action essential to the promotion of Economic Equality.

   In consequence, the economic situation of the Catholic community is today
deteriorating alarmingly. Catholic professionals in communal service are, of
course, shielded from economic distress, while the Catholic legal profession has
benefitted hugely from the civil strife. Some Catholics have secured advancement
in the Civil or Public Services, while the sharper edges of denial of access to
employment have been blunted by the continuing agitation and the governmental
strategy of 'CRUMBS abd GUNS.'

   However, the haemorrhage of Emigration of young Catholics of employable age
remains unchecked, in a per capita ratio of 2:1, Catholics to Protestants.
Catholic unemployment is streadily increasing with the impact most severe upon
young male Catholics of employable age, regardless of their academic status.

   Fifty-two percent of schoolchildren aged fifteen years or under in northern
Ireland are of Catholic origin. Throughout the coming decade, young Catholics
will be flooding onto the employment market in a ratio of 5:1 of their
co-religionists currently in employment; while the ratio of young Protestants
will be 2:1.

   It is therefore, patent nonsense to predict (as some publications have done
recently) the emergence of a Catholic majority in Northern Ireland by the year
2030.

  This could only occur if Catholic emigration ceased and scores of thousands
of young Catholics were prepared to live indefinitely on unemployment benefit
in Northern Ireland, without hope of ever attaining Economic Equality.

                             [End of PART II]

                                   PART III

  It is the purpose of this publication to demonstrate that the British
government has been, and continues to be fundamentally opposed to taking the
decisive action necessary to promote equality and social justice, with the
potential for peaceful evolutionary change which would be involved.

   The record shows indisputably that it is prepared to sustain a corrupt system
of inequality and disadvantage indefinitely, while simultaneously fighting a
bitter war and enlisting a proportion of th Catholic professional classes in the
support of a containmnet strategy.

   All sections of society in Ireland are morally obliged to examine the
consequences of such past inequality and decide whether they can calmly accept
the implications of such a strategy for the next generation of Catholic youth;
or whether they will now mobilise all of their resources to demand full economic
equality. The obligation of the entire Catholic community to confront this
continuing social evil is inescapable.

   It is the lesson of history in all societies that where peaceful evolution is
made impossible, violent revolution is made inevitable. The possibility of
peaceful evolution was perceived as a threat throughout the lifetime of the
northern Ireland state, and was prevented by carefully structured injustice
and inequality, while peaceful protest and agitation was ignored by powerful
influences inside and outside the state.

   The consequences are now apparent in the present conflict which persists
inNorthern Ireland today. It is not an acceptable response for those who
possessed the power to create social justice, and who refused to do so, to react
to this conflict with further injustice; or strategies to restore the staus quo.

   Those, who in the past, were unwilling to create the coditions for peaceful
evolution to occur, and who even now persist in sustaining widespread social
injustice, have contributed heavily to promoting the present violent conflict.
They should recognise that, through such strategies, the seeds of future
disaffection are already being sown.

   There is, therefore, a gravel moral obligation upon all sections of our
society, and inparticular upon the Catholic community, to take action now to
create the essential conditions for peace, equality, and an end to
discrimination.

- The Equality Working Group
  Andersonstown Rd
  Belfast

  1 March, 1991 
                                [End of PART III]

    
    Dear Mr Drotter,
    
    Thank you for inserting this note, but I have read its content
    elsewhere. It was handed out by Sinn Fein supporters at a meeting
    I attended in Dublin some months ago. It may not be the identical
    document but the language (e.g. the expression "Crumbs and Guns")
    is identical.
    
    I therefore suggest that the "Equality Study Group" is a front for
    Sinn Fein.
    
    Now, there is nothing wrong with entering a Sinn Fein document in
    these notes - but it should be identified as such. Sinn Fein is
    a political party espousing a particular viewpoint, to adequately
    discuss this document we should be told its true origins. It is
    unfair to people who read these notes to pretend that this is a 
    neutral or unbiased document. I have queried your use of Amnesty 
    International as a front in other notes, this looks to me like more 
    of the same.
    
    [By the way, should party political propaganda be entered in
     these notes - moderator, can we have a ruling?]
    
    In the interests of fairness, you should also enter the views of
    the SDLP, the Worker's Party, the DUP, the Unionist Party, the
    Alliance Party and the British Government on this topic.
    
    I suppose I will be subjected to the usual harangue on this.
    Why not use this opportunity to state where our biases are,
    and to discuss the problem of religious discrimination in Northern 
    Ireland from a REASONABLE standpoint?
    
    Otherwise, this may be just another dialogue of the deaf.
    
    Toby
    
    P.S. When are you going to reply to 1082.81 and 1062.90?

    Tom,
    
    Do a show mod and you will find that the one and only George Darcy is
    the moderator.
    
    - Joe
    

    
    re .3
    
     What?  A political viewpoint other than your own warrants moderator
    intervention??
    
     

    re: .4
    
    <I therefore suggest that the "Equality Study Group" is a front for
    <Sinn Fein.
    
    Toby,
    
      There is nothing in the entire book that identifies the Equality
    *Working* Group as being sponsored by Sinn Fein.
    
    I just love the clever way you put: in one breath implying through innuendo
    that the article is "Sinn Fein" - intimating that that alone may make
    it some kind of "dangerous entity"; while in the next breath, you
    seem to begrudgingly hint that while there is nothing wrong with it
    being from Sinn Fein per se, the article must be a "front" for SF,
    because you think it might be. Therefore Toby has decreed: it should 
    be dismissed.
    
    You've acted as judge, jury, and hangman, dismissing this article out
    of hand - all by innuendo. Your entire note is based on one premise: 
    a premise put forth only by yourself! To recap, you thought you saw
    a term that looked familiar to you at a political rally some months ago.
    Then you write:
    
        <Why not use this opportunity to state where our biases are,
        <and to discuss the problem of religious discrimination in Northern
        <Ireland from a REASONABLE standpoint?
    
    Talk about "stating what your biases are" It's your WHOLE NOTE!
    
    
    As for discussing the problem of religious discrimination, I thought
    that by entering the Introduction of this document, I was actually doing
    that. Once again, there is no identification to ANY political
    affiliation in the book. And, if there were, I would publish it. 
    
    You, obviously with your *supernatural power* to identify books you've 
    never read, know better. Mea culpa.
    
    I think what annoys me the most about you Toby, is that you want to be
    rid of the "problem" of the north. The fact that Irish Nationalists in
    the north, who have been treated unfairly, undemocratically, and who
    have been discriminated against at every turn, is not the problem for
    you, nor is the British response of the colonial repression: it's the 
    embarrassment of the whole thing.
    
    Don't worry: when the vote to remove Articles 2 and 3 comes up in the
    near future, and people just like you finally caste your northern 
    brothers and sisters adrift from the Republic, you can walk away with 
    a clear conscience. How? simply by just dismissing them *all* as 
    "Sinn Feiners." OK?

  The Directory of Discrimination that Joe has
  kindly entered, is based on reports of the Fair
  Employment Agency, and its successor, the Fair
  Employment commission.  Next Toby, will tell us
  that these Agencies and Commissions, are Sinn
  Fein fronts. 

                       Mark

    
    Re: .7
    
    Not surprised, just disappointed again. I think I can rest
    my case on Mr Drotter.
    
    Very limp response, Mr Drotter. Tsk, tsk, I expected better.
    
    Why not enter the Fair Employment Commission figures directly?
    Instead we get a gloss on them from a group that is suspect in 
    my eyes. If not Sinn Fein, then they are definitely of the
    extreme Republican end of the political spectrum.
    
    For the record, who are the members of this group? I believe
    we should be accurately reporting our sources, so that people
    can judge for themselves the extent to which they are biased.
    

    re: .9
    
        In all your notes, you draw conclusions from assumptions made only
      by yourself. As I stated in 1070.7, you then act as judge, jury and
      hangman with conclusions that everyone is supposed to follow. A
      rather rank, amateur debating technique.
    
        But, with those "talents", I dare say you'd make a great Diplock
    judge.
         
     Just one blatant assertion after another, and attempt to imply 
    "political incorrectness" (that's 'PI' as opposed to 'PC' ;^>) because 
     of your own foregone conclusion, based soley on your own opinion.
     Cut the crap, Toby, everyone can see through that hackneyed ploy.
    
    
    As for the classic Toby, line
    
    <Instead we get a gloss on them from a group that is suspect in
    <my eyes. If not Sinn Fein, then they are definitely of the
    <extreme Republican end of the political spectrum.
    
     Again, your same old modus operandi: judge, jury, hangman, all
     based on your own blatant assertions stemming from your opinion.
     
     The only thing more obvious" around here Toby are your attempts
     at trying to stir up trouble where there is none. Shakespeare said,
        "Nothing is so bad, as thinking makes it so."  
    
    If that's the case, then what a twisted mind you have. So you see
    bogeymen (or "Sinn Feiners"?!) behind every blade of grass?
    People of your twisted ilk could make Mother Theresa look like a slut -
    all though your innuendo and assertions.
    
    In 1062.90 you ended your self-serving self-fulfilling little diatribe
    with the statement:
    
           <Some commitment, some peace.
    
     Toby, you have no commitment to Ireland, and thus your country has
     no peace.
    

    Ach now lads!

    
    Re: .10
    
    There is no real need for me to reply to this. 
    
    Mr Drotter, way not leave off being continually defensive?
    A couple of notes ahead I give you a chance to state what
    you POSITIVELY believe is the way forward for Ireland,
    instead of constantly pointing out what you are against.
    
    Surely someone who feels so passionately about Ireland
    must have some interesting ideas. Let's hear them.
    
    Toby
    

----

Ford worker faced loyalist threats

EVIDENCE of Sexual and religious discrimination against 39-year-old Catholic
woman and mother of two was heard by a Fair Employment Tribunal (FET). Mary
Daly who is employed by the US multinational car manufacturers, Ford.
The hearing heard what was described as ''a litany of wrong-doing'' by Ford
which made a mockery of the company's claim to be an equal opportunity
employer.

Mary Daly decided to pursue her complaint after Ford appointed a Protestant to
a job vacancy even though an interview panel had given Daly the highest mark
in the summary sheets of the interviews for the post. She also claimed that a
supervisor had subjected her to continual sexual harassment from 1985 until
she was moved to a new department in 1991.

As reported in AP/RN on the 27 August 1992 two of the main trade union
representatives who might have been expected to assist Daly in her attempts to
highlight job discrimination are actually members of the sectarian Orange
Order.

Ford's Belfast Convenor, Ray Kelly of the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU)
and Ford's senior representative for staff, Robert Graham of the
Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union (MSF) are both members of the Orange
Order. Graham is in fact Deputy Master of Loyal Orange Lodge 490.

Giving evidence at the tribunal, Daly said she had been subject to harassment
by senior Ford executives over many years. The tribunal heard that the
chairperson of an interviewing panel which failed to appoint Daly to a new
post had written letters which showed he was ''deeply resentful'' of fair
employment investigations within the firm.

Daly said that Ford ''one of the largest organisations in the world'' went to
great lengths to state that it was an equal opportunity company and produces a
booklet every year on fair employment in the Six Counties. Indeed the company
has its 'Ford Principles' which includes the call for affirmative action to be
taken in areas where minority groups are underrepresented.

Daly applied for the post of Programme Timing Coordinator in the engineering
department, where no women were employed. Her qualifications provided Ford
with a perfect opportunity to put their affirmative action principles to the
test. However, the company failed the test when Daly was refused the job.

Giving evidence, sometimes in tears, Daly said her employment at Ford had
become ''a nightmare'' after the staff were informed she had sent the letter
of complaint to Peter Pestillo at the company's HQ.

Following this letter her husband Gerry received a Christmas card with a
threat from the UVF. After the delivery of this card the RUC told the Daly
family that their house was being watched and they should take the threat
seriously. On 30 January 1992 a senior RUC officer told them they were in
serious danger of being shot. The Dalys were forced to move house and were off
work for three months.

As the hearing continues this week it was also revealed from the United States
that Ford was the only company which had testified at a state hearing against
the MacBride Principles. With another seven high-profile cases against Ford
due to be heard by the FET within the next 12 months the spotlight presently
on the company is a major embarrassment. This embarrassment is more acute
because the Ford plant, sited in an area of massive nationalist unemployment,
has a majority Protestant workforce.

                          Des Wilson writes from Belfast
                               from The Irish People
                                   May 25, 1994

    The European Parliament has issued a Report in which it recognizes the
worth of, and the need for, the MacBride Principles campaign. This has been a
major boost to those who put forward the Mac Bride Principles in the United
States and elsewhere. They have been under attack not only from the British
government which spent millions of dollars on their opposition, but also from
church leaders in Ireland who did everything in their power to detach United
States religious support from the campaign. The European Parliament Report was
inspired originally by a meeting of European Parliamentarians at the end of
1991. This meeting was brought together by Neil Blayney and addressed by him
and by the Equality Group Secretary, Oliver Kearney.

    Resulting from that meeting fifty one (51) members of the European
Parliament tabled a motion about Discrimination by the British regime
in Ireland. Then the President of the European Parliament referred the matter
to the Euro Committee on Social Affairs. In January 1993 Jaak Vandemeulebroucke
was appointed to examine the situation and a final Report appeared in March
1994.

    Most of the British and Irish press ignored the Report, which was approved
unanimously by the Euro Parliament on April 22, 1994. The appearance of the
Report was the final nail in the coffin of "respectable" opposition to Mac
Bride. Church officials and others hastened to distance themselves from
outright condemnation of Mac Bride and of its supporters. Now British
secretary in Ireland, Patrick Mayhew, has declared that the British government
approves the Principles but disapproves of the campaign! Church officials had
already taken this line in consultation with the Northern Ireland Office who
were also engaged in damage limitation. The European Report acknowledges the
need for Principles such as Mac Bride, acknowledges also that British
legislation has made no significant progress to end discrimination against 43%
of the population, recognizes the accuracy of figures given in the Directory
of Discrimination and reports that British officials in the Northern Ireland
Office admitted the accuracy of the figures.

    This is significant, because one of the planks on which the church leaders
and British politicians, etc. built their opposition was that the Directory
figures were inaccurate or out of date. The Parliament has accepted that the
figures are up to date and accurate. There is greater anger than usual at the
role of the churches in the attempts to destroy the campaign for the
Principles. This anger would have been concealed in the past but is rapidly
coming to the surface now especially when some newspapers are promoting
Cardinal Cahal Daly as a possible future pope. Such promotions would bring
forward an unprecedented wave of opposition and would probably be abandoned
but there is a significant British interest in putting forward such an idea.

    The emergence of this European Parliament Report underlines one of the
significant differences in the Irish situation since Britain joined the
European Union. In the past the last recourse of Irish democrats against bad
government in the northeast was the British House of Lords where of course no
democrat could get a realistic judgment on political and religious
discrimination. Once Britain entered the European Community, or Union as it is
now called, Irish democrats could appeal to the European Court of Human
Rights. This has been done a number of times and the European court has proved
that gross violations of human rights not only have occurred but are a normal
part of British rule in Ireland.

    Now for the first time the European Parliament has acknowledged that
Britain has created and maintain s a regime of inequality in Ireland and
must do something real about it. For many democrats in Ireland the European
parliament's Report, expressed as it is in diplomatic language does not go
nearly far enough. It relies, they say, too much on presumed British ability
and willingness to undo the cruelty it has inflicted and continues to inflict
on people who want democratic rule in Ireland and are refused it. But
nevertheless the Report is most valuable. It shows that now there is a regime
superior to, and critical of, the British regime in Ireland. It shows also
that no longer will the opposition of church leaders be accepted by European
parliamentarians if it is undemocratic. It also shows that the Mac Bride
campaign, brilliant and successful as it was in the United States had
ramifications and effects which even its strongest supporters did not at first
expect.

    The British government did not expect them either. In the light of this
European intervention and of renewed American interest it is time for
democratic people in Ireland and elsewhere to assess seriously their power
rather than lament their weaknesses.


                               ********************

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