UNITED IRISHMAN AN tElREANNACH AONTA UIL (JULY) 1977 Vol. 35 No. 7. lOp (30c) Monthly Newspaper of Sinn Fein The Workers' Party A new generatioFiannn of voters made itsa difficulFait task inl re-establishin cannog itself as tessentiall delivey this is all Brownre cathn offere, whicgoodh for workerss woul d mean a return voice heard loud and clear on June a party of the working-class. The party Workers will also be looking for To the 'guaranteed Irish' hardship of 16th last. In throwing out the which failed to add even a social- something more than a sudden fit of the Thirties. 'Government of all the talents' hun• democratic flavour to the Coalition socialist fervour from Labour leaders. So, while the 'nationally-minded' dreds of thousands of young voters Government will be hard pushed to Already the unseemly scramble to the Provisionals and IRSP celebrate the showed they wanted jobs not excuses. convince workers that its' 'soul' is 'Left' has begun as the O'Learys and victory of Fianna Fail, the organised And they will be just as decisive in socialist. The debonair Michael Halligans brush up their old working-class must prepare for victory telling Fianna Fail that promises must O'Leary may cut a fine figure as a socialist speeches. But it will not go in the years ahead. The response to be kept. socialist in the rarefied environs of unnoticed that the Labour Party is socialist policies in this election was This worries Jack Lynch. Fianna Grafton Street but it won't wash with 'socialist' only when in opposition. encouraging. And as the population Fail's dazzling array of promises will the Dublin working-class. Neither should it go unnoticed that grows, so too will the recognition of haunt him during the lifetime of the The working-class vote which Fine Gael in defeat is prone to un• the need for a planned economy. In next Dail. For he knows that his party Fianna Fail undoubtedly attracted in typical bouts of honesty. The votes addition, an increasingly young has raised hopes that cannot be this election will not automatically were barely counted when Richie Ryan electorate has shown that it is con• realised within a gombeen-capitalist revert to the Labour Party in four years declared himself in favour of a move to cerned more with the future than with economy. Yet, with a massive twenty- time. Even In the unlikely event of the the Right in a speech which harked the past. This is a most welcome seat majority, Lynch will have a dif• maverick Noel Browne gaining any back to the hey-day of the Blueshirts. development as it sounds the death- ficult task explaining Fianna Fall's significant influence in the party, Not to be outdone, John M. Kelly knell for traditional civil-war politics and opens the way for a growth in inevitable failure to the electorate. workers will be looking for something called for a return to the halrshirt spirit class politics. So too, the Labour Party faces a more than a one-man band. And of Arthur Grifffth and Eamon de Valera Party vote Sean Cronin The massive swing to Fianna Fail in the General Election leaving them as It is difficult as yet to come up MAR& THE IRISH QUESTIOXN the party with the largest number of seats in the history of the State has with any positive analysis of the somewhat overshadowed the excellent performance of Sinn Fein The reasons behind the unique swing to Workers' Party. Fianna Fail. Clearly the politics of The Party polled overall 27,203 Party vote was a very credible the Civil War played almost no part increaseFirst Preference votes; the final in the votingd. As the Iris h Times 27.5%. And in the three vote i.e. including all transfers was constituencies of North East Cork, opinion survey had pointed out prior 31,745. The average for the 16 Waterford and Louth the Labour to the Election there Constituencies contested was Parly were defeated easily. was a degree of cynicism about the roughly 4.4% of the total valid poll. difference in the policies of the But there were the dramatic rises in Contesting five seats in the Dublin Coalition and Fianna Fail. Efforts Cork North East, 9.47% and in area the total votes gained was 6,201 also to make the North a key issue Waterford. Paddy Gallagher gained which in fact was better than the failed and it is unlikely that this :i).56%. national average. Although if played any part in the decisions of Some interesting pointers for the examined as a percentage of the voters. future emerge when the voting "Left" poll it was considerably Two of the most interesting, figures are broken down and lower. The fact of fresh candidates rejections which may have had comparisons made between the in the field like Eric Byrne and Ray more political content than the Party's performance and the McGran had some effect on the overall %'oting behaviour were that This new Repsol is by Sean Cronin, Labour Party. For example in the 16 of the former Ministers O'Brien and former editor of the United contested constituencies our total; both however took over 4% of Cooney. Both of whom in their own Irishman. Currently working in the percentage of the cornbined the poll. A reasonable performance way had alienated large sections of USA he contributes a weekly 'Letter Labour and Sinn Fein The Workers' on a first contest. the population. from New York' to The Irish Times. Marx told a meeting of the Cllr. Joe Sher• Cllr. Donncha Alderman Pa• General Council of the International lock (North East Mac Raghnaill ddy Gallagher that "he considered the solution of Cork) who in• (left) who polled (Waterford), his the Irish Question as the solution of creased his vote 1,900 first pre• first time to run, the English, and the English as the by 80% over the ferences in lasted until the solution of the European." 1973 election. A Louth. Not dis• last count having History has altered the form of the spectacular ad- missed until the gained a total of Irish Question but this does not V ance. Joe would 8th count Mac 4,500 first pre• lessen the relevance of Marx's now seem cer• Raghnaill de• ferences. Like thoughts on Ireland. This present tain to take a feated two Sherlock, Galla• study provides ample food for seat in any Labour Party gher should win thought for both the student and future election. candidates. next time round. practitioner of politics. Solzhenitzyn is amplified on page 12. •Editor's comment It has been established Letters In last month's issue due to absolutely that the CIA pressure of space an recruit agents among Death Comrade, in make-believe journalism, or editorial comment on a letter American foreign I refer to your lead article you have read the material in (J. Harrison) was ommitted. correspondents and that entitled "War of Nerves" in which case you could not have Mr. Harrison quoted ample funds are available to the May issue of the United been in any doubt whatsoever remarks from a member of assist the efforts of of veteran Irishman. In the course of a about our position in regard to the Central Committee of the 'dissident intellectuals' in piece on the UUAC strike you Ulster independence. If that Is Italian CP. and the smearing the achievements suggest that an 'independence so, then you have qult& Secretary of the Spanish CP. of the Socialist countries and qroup' in the UUAC en• deliberately lied in in support of his defence of the Soviet Union in couraged in this belief by misrepresenting the B&ICO. Soviet 'dissidents.' He also particular. Republican (those) members of the British Indeed, It Is difficult to believe speculated as to the sources The "United Irishman" and Irish Communist that you are not well used by the United Irishman has no intention of engaging Organisation who can exert acquainted with our literature for what he described "as a in any disagreement between some influence in those since your publication, the puppet-like reiteration of the members of Western quarters. Irish Industrial Revolution, on Official Line". Communist Parties as to the If you had actually read which your reviewer in the The sources of the article degree of freedom in Eastern what the B&ICO have been same May issue, waxes lyrical, were certainly 'official' if Europe. But we could not saying over the last few years bears a most striking that can be understood to agree with the quote instead of wildly speculating, resemblance to the B&ICO mean that they were not attributed to the member of you could not possibly have pamphlet the "Economics of taken from the "Daily the Italian CP. Central come to the above conclusion. Partition", published in 1969. Telegraph" or the "New Committee as to the Soon after the 1974 Loyalist Nevertheless chagrin should York Times". reliability of the Socialist strike, the B&ICO discovered not be allowed to get the Does Mr. Harrison Press. We can only base our and subsequently publicised better of truth and objectivity. seriously believe ^hat the opinions on the knowledge the fact that the Northern Yours etc. Western media, in particular that in Pravda there is daily Ireland Office were Eamon O'Kane, the wire services would print criticism of aspects of the assiduously promoting the 10 Athol Street, the truth about criminals Soviet Union in the form of idea of an independent Ulster Belfast, such as Solzhenitzyn and the readers' letters.