No 200 AUTUMN 2007 40p Newspaper of the Spartacist League .IMradon Banner:31V8lfS of BrldSIl Arlll terror in lIortlllmlr8land . The myth 01 British imperialism as alorce lor peace All British troops and bases out of Northern Ireland now! On 1 August the British Anny offi­ cially ended "Operation Banner", the codename given to its military operation in Northem Ireland that began in 1969. The formal ending of the army's 1111//1- role-which has been greatly reduced on the streets since the IRA cease­ iW~<jfS;.., ..' '<1f fire-is partly a recognition that the ~i': c,>, _~agrftC.%<._w~ __ ,~~&% British military is overstretched in the Belfast demonstration on 12 August demands truth about British ism suspect" in July 2005. imperialist occupations of Iraq and imperialism's shoot-to-kill policy and collusion with murderous Loyalist The much-trumpeted end of Opera­ Afghanistan. Nevertheless an internal paramilitaries. Below: a child wounded by rubber bullet is carried away on tion Banner in no way means the end of report prepared by the army itself en­ Bloody Sunday, 30 January 1972, when 13 Catholic civilians were shot British troops in Northern Ireland. In titled "Operation Banner-An Analysis dead by British Army. fact the army is keeping in place a gar­ of Military Operations in Northern rison of some 5000 troops, stationed at Ireland" brags that the army's campaign three bases, who can be called upon in Northern Ireland, was "one ofthe very instantly to provide "assistance" to the few ever brought to a successful conclu­ 9000-strong heavily armed Police sion by the armed forces of a developed Service of Northern Ireland/Royal nation against an irregular force" and is Ulster Constabulary (PSNVRUC) police being used as a model for other coun­ force. We demand: All British troops tries, saying: "Operations in the Balkans, and bases out now! Sierra Leone, East Timor, Afghanistan We have consistently fought for the and Iraq have already demonstrated both immediate, unconditional withdrawal of the particular techniques and the levels British troops .as an essential starting of expertise learnt through hard experi­ point for any just solution. We pointed ence, both on the streets and in the fields out that the 1998 "Good Friday of Northern Ireland." Agreement" was premised on the pres­ The foreword is written by none other ence of the British Army whose purpose than General Sir Michael Jackson, was the maintenance of the Orange retired former head of the British Anny state let. As Marxists we seek to bring a during the Iraq invasion and former proletarian internationalist perspective Chief of the General Staff. Jackson is an to struggles in Northern Ireland. authentic spokesman for the top echelons mate, but will become the blueprint for their victims (page 4) shows. The British Regardless of the presence of Sinn Fein of the British state's armed forces. He the future. This applies not only to impe­ Anny chiefs transferred the "lessons" of today in the Stormont Executive, earned his stripes in Derry on Bloody rialist machinations abroad, but equally Malaysia to Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is a sectarian state let Sunday in January 1972 as adjutant to to the "war on terror" in Britain. The The British capitalist rulers are par­ based on the subjugation of the the Parachute Regiment, the regiment British imperialists pride themselves on ticularly well-versed in the use of local oppressed Catholic minority and divide that was centrally involved in the cold­ their mastery of "counterinsurgency", militias to do their dirty work while and rule of the working class. The back­ blooded killing of 13 Catholic civilians based on the experience of subjugation denying responsibility for it, as they bone of the state is the PSNIIRUC and, (another man shot by the army died in their former colonies. This point is not used the Loyalist death squads in for the last 38 years, the blood-soaked later). The army's report predictably lost on the US imperialists; General Northern Ireland against Catholics. British Anny. glosses over the brutality of these impe­ David Petraeus, who currently com­ They have long used Northern Ireland rialist butchers. Dealing with Bloody mands US imperialism's troop "surge" as the testing ground for domestic The imperialist "peace" deal Sunday, its only criticism of the army is in Iraq, recently published a "counterin­ repression in Britain, as is evident in and Blair's bloody legacy that one commander used vehicles, surgency" manual drawing on the exam­ the "war on terror". The treatment rou­ rather than foot soldiers, in the "arrest ple of Malaysia in the 1950s, where the tinely dished out to Irish Catholics, For decades the British imperialist operation", which is described as "heavy . British military crushed an anti-colonial who were once indiscriminately tar­ rulers have made no secret of the fact handed". It chillingly states: "Almost revolt with unspeakable brutality. About geted as "terrorist suspects", is now that they want rid of the cost and burden immediately shots were fired and within half a million mainly ethnic Chinese, the being applied to Britain's Muslims of their massive operation in Northern minutes 12 civilians were dead". To date, base of the Communist-led insurgency, and indeed to any perceived opponent Ireland. But as we have always warned, despite a public inquiry, the army has not were forcibly concentrated in "new of British imperialism. Internment this in no way implies that the British even admitted that its soldiers carried out villages" -concentration camps sur­ without trial and the shoot-to-kill ruling class -which has perpetrated 800 this killing. rounded by barbed wire and observation policy, practised for years on the years of subjugation of Ireland - has British "democracy" was never much posts. Atrocities by the British imperial­ streets of Northern Ireland, has been suddenly become neutral, as reformists, in evidence in Ireland and this report by ist butchers included wanton massacres brought to the streets of London as liberals and Sinn Fein nationalists the military's top brass confirms that the of villagers as well as beheadings, as the seen in the brutal execution of would have us believe. Such illusions in brutality carried out under Operation gruesome photograph of a British offi­ Brazilian immigrant Jean Charles de the "democratic" credentials of British Banner is not only regarded as legiti- cer displaying the severed heads of two of Menezes who was labelled a "terror- continued on page 4 '------_._----_.- - We reprint below a Spartacist League well with the union members. At Lon­ force walked out demanding they be s to leaflet issued on 8 August and distributed don s Mount Pleasant sorting office, Victory the CWO strlkel reinstated. Similar provocations by to postal workers battling Royal Mail angry postal workers told Workers Ham­ Postal workers banle Roval Mail management have led to walkouts in over pay and in defence oftheir pensions. mer sellers that they feared a sell-out. Oxford, Liverpool and Tyneside. In the wake ofa number ofwildcat strikes As we go to press the CWU has and labour government The CWU leadership'S piecemeal in Scotland and elsewhere by postal announced that the talks, extended to 9 The series of strikes begun by the strikes are designed to avoid a serious workers furious at management s pro­ September, have ended without agree­ Communication Workers Union (CWU) confrontation with Royal Mail, behind vocative victimisation of strikers, on 9 ment and that Royal Mail intends to push on 29 June, the first national postal which stands the Labour government August the CWU leadership of Billy through its agenda of attacks on the strike since 1996, is the first test of the and the anti-union laws. At a Liverpool Hayes and Dave Ward treacherously sus­ wages and conditions ofpostal workers. Gordon Brown-led Labour government strike rally on 21 July, CWU leader Billy pended all further official strikes in In response the union has now said it is and is of vital interest to all public sec­ Hayes boasted that the CWU "got the order to hold talks with the management. planning to call further strikes before the tor workers. Under Tony Blair, Labour Labour Government to carry a commit­ Calling off the strikes did not go down end ofSeptember. opened up the postal service to private ment in its Manifesto not to privatise competition while Gordon Brown as Royal Mail". Viewing the capitalist gov­ chancellor imposed a pay freeze on pub­ ernment as any kind of ally is the kiss of lic sector workers and slashed tens of death in class struggle, where it is criti­ The partition of India thousands of jobs in the civil service cally important to know who one's ene­ Sixty years ago British imperialism was alone. To compete with private courier mies are! Regardless of whether Labour driven out of India by a tumultuous companies who are vying for the more currently backs total or merely partial upheaval that involved millions of work­ lucrative parts of the postal service, privatisation, management at Royal Mail ers, soldiers, students and women. The Royal Mail management is hell-bent is bound by the logic of the capitalist final phase ofthe struggle began with the on driving down wages and slashing market and the quest for profits to turn 1942 Quit India movement and reached a jobs of postal workers. This year postal the screw on postal workers and there­ climax in 1945-46. What was posed was workers, who are extremely low-paid, fore on the CWU. TROTSKY not only the question of independence LENIN have been offered a below-inflation Taking on the vicious Royal Mail bos­ from.250 years ofBritish subjugation but 2.5 per cent pay "rise" - effectively a ses is no easy matter, and this govemment of social liberation of the subcontinent s pay cut-and are facing upwards of would not hesitate to use the full force of toiling masses from centuries ofcaste, gender, communal and class oppression.