THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST During the past two months the campaign against Chichester Clark's leadership of the Unionist Party has been growing. Pressure has been brought to bear on M.P.s considered to be too "moderate" and, in one or two cases, motions of no confidence passed. In Carrick constituency a pro-Clark M.P., Mrs. Dickson, was asked to resign on a motion carried by the casting vote. Powerful area meetings of Unionists have expressed a lack of confidence in the present leadership, among them the West Ulster Unionist Council. Over the weekend of September 18th-20th the Executive Committee of the Party itself rejected the policies of Chichester Clark. During this period Craig, erstwhile Home Secretary and now with the Unionist Party whip removed from him, has more and more openly challenged Chichester Clark's leadership. The most confused and reactionary of the Protestant masses can find an echo of their situation in his speeches. He categorises the reform programme as attempting to right wrongs that never existed. Craig has said that, although Ulster would stick with Britain, if Britain decided to abandon the Province they would be better off going it alone than throwing their lot in with the Republic. He has castigated the official Unionists for believing that Ulster could have a police force like that of an English county where no national problem exists. For him, the police force must be armed and take over much of the role at present played by the British Army. The quarrel hinges round the question of whether Ulster can continue to be ruled in the same way as it has been since 1920 or not, and indeed, whether it's desirable for it to be ruled in this way. The right-wing dissidents from the Party stand for the old method of "Croppies Lie Down" at its crudest. They do not believe (or want) the Catholic Middle Class in the North can be brought into the fold with reforms. Indeed, for them the introduction of reforms represents a fatal undermining of the basis of Ulster society. Large sections of the Protestant working class, alarmed by its worsening economic situation, and now confused by the apparent desire of its erstwhile leaders to withdraw its historical privileges over the Catholics, are unfortunately attracted by these ideas. In a way of course the perspective of the Six-Country petit bourgeois and worker is correct: they have little to gain from the manoeuvres of British imperialism for a rapprochement with the Southern bourgeoisie.
FACTIONS IN THE UNIONIST PARTY The difference between the politics of Craig and those of Paisley (see recent copies of United Irishman) is largely a tactical one. What Paisley hopes to gain by organising outside the Unionist Party, Craig is attempting to achieve from within. It is Craig and his followers who have been extremely active in the campaign against Chichester Clark in the last couple of months. The fourth faction of the Unionist Party (the third being Chichester Clark and his followers) is the so-called Alliance Party. Formally still inside the Party, this group may well split off if Chichester Clark proves incapable of continuing implementing the reform programme. They could well form one of the important bases of a Westminsterimposed political solution.
Craig's attempts to infiltrate the Unionist Party from within appear to have been highly successful. In this his assessment of the basic nature of the Unionist Party seems to have been much more realistic than that of the British Government. The credibility of using the Unionist Party as a tool in the search for a modus vivendi with the South must now seem very strained indeed.
If Craig is successful in overthrowing Chichester Clark and replacing him by himself or by his proteges, it will place the British Government in an extremely difficult situation. Sharples, a British Minister of State on a recent visit to the North, has stressed that Chichester Clark must stay and the reform programme be implemented. The threat if Chichester Clark is overthrown is that Stormont will go with him and direct rule be instituted from Westminster. The policy of a Craig Government would be one of much more severe repression against the Catholics and nationalist and revolutionary political organisations.
If Craig decides to make an outright bid for power, it could well be that he will attempt to co-opt some of the present Unionist leadership to his support. Faulkner, traditionally regarded as a hardliner but of late criticised by Craig for being a Chichester Clark man, is a case in point. Faulkner could be used to form a transitional stage or a front man in the overthrow of Chichester Clark in an attempt to shield Craig from the wrath of the British Government. British imperialism would undoubtedly not like such a situation, and they do have a standing army on Irish soil to enforce what they decide to do. Also, since the disbandment of the B-men, the Ulster state machine has to some extent been destructured; and we should not forget that the Six County economy is very heavily dependent on British subsidy. Nonetheless, the presence of semi-illegal (or at least tolerated) Unionist para-military organisations and the Unionist Party and Orange Lodges does indicate that a Six County state machine with some degree of autonomy can be brought into play. The British Government could conceivably dismiss Stormont and impose direct rule, possibly with an eventual idea of setting up some advisory council of Alliance Party plus middle-class Catholics who could be depended on to toe their politi line. This course, however, might well involve a physical showdown between the British Army and the Ulster Protestant masses. During the street-fighting in Shankill Road recently the British Army has shown that it is not averse to putting the boot in against the Protestants. How ever, in view of the ever present threat from the left, the other possibility is that British imperialism will capitulate in the face of the threat of force by the right. (One vital unknown is the ability of the British ruling class and the imperialist Army itself to act as a united force on this issue.)
THE REFORM PROGRAMME Meanwhile the vaunted reform programm has not shown much sign of life. The Central Housing Authority purported to remove the power of bigoted Councils over the allocation of housing has not seen the light of day. Development Minister Faulkner equivocates, stressing that Stormont has not necessarily accepted all the reforms but not satisfying the Craig followers who regard him as having sold out to the moderates. The implemen tation of the one man-one vote principle has been delayed until a new register is formed. In Fermanagh where the Nationalists have been gaining ground, a spot of the old gerrymander has been brought into play again. A new amalgamated Fermanagh County Council has been set up and parts of Tyrone have come into its jurisdiction precisely to counteract the growing influence of the Nationalists who threatened to upset the original situation despite the initial gerrymandering that had already taken place. Fermanagh County Council has continued in the tradition of its predecessors pursuing a ruthless policy of bigotry with regard to the employment of Catholics In Derry the elected Council which was Unionist-controlled has been replaced by a non-elective Commission, still of course