to call an election in the South of Ireland, the most important is that contained in his first statement on the elections: "The incoming government in its appraisal of the British White Paper will need the unequivocal support of the people to deal firmly with the new situation as it derelops." This is the key. As is argued elsewhere in this paper, Whitelaw's Green Paper offered all kinds of everything to the Irish people. In the proposed White Paper, these promises must be delivered. But the Tories cannot deliver the Heinz 57 Varieties needed to fool all of the people all of the time. Either Orange or Green must be double-crossed.
Lynch declared an election because he believes that the British will renege on their promises to him: he has bought a pig in a poke, and now he realises that it is going to be a rat. But before the people of the South of Ireland twig this, he goes to them asking for a mandate in advance of the White Paper, because he believes that he will not get a mandate afterwards. He realises that the chances are that the White Paper will contain little of significance for the Northern minority. That he is forced to carry out this manoeuvre is a sign of his weakness: that he is able to carry it out is a sign of the political weakness of his Republican opponents, whose failure to prepare their supporters for an on-going political battle is emphasised by the confusion amongst the Provisionals on the question of participation in the election.
The differing responses of Provisionals and Officials to the Southern election is a reversal of their respective roles in the North. The Officials show drive, push and a desire to get at them, while the Provisionals hesitate, afraid to commit themselves for fear of a humiliating defeat.
But the recipe for a humiliating defeat is exactly this tailist attitude. By using the election to expose Lynch to advanced sections of the population they can show that there is an alternative. If the people are not offered such an alternative, they can become cyncial and frustrated.
A cynical and frustrated people would be easy meat with which imperialism and Green Tories could play.
FUND DRIVE: THE LAST PUSH? The £10,000 Fund Drive for a weekly paper now stands at £8,200.
This means that we have gone over 80% mark. But the crucial question for the production of •the weekly will be decided in the struggle to get the last remaining sum.
On page 8, we publish a letter from Phil McCullough, a political internee in Long Kesh Concentration Camp. With his understandably "limited financial resources" he donates £1. A short while ago, a serving solier in the British! Army, who supports our position of solidarity with the IRA, donated E10.
Many readers of this paper, some supporters of the IMG, have heretofore seen this appeal as being directed beyond them to someone else. The attitude has been: "Let X who is not active give the money. I don't have to do that.
Wrong, comrade, wrong.
If supporters of the IMG cannot make comparable sacrifices to those made by our comrades in Lorg Kesh, and in the enemy army, then a question mark will hang over our ability to make the transformation to a weekly.
All monies must reach us by Wednesday 2Ist February. A Fund Drive form will be found elsewhere in the paper. The Tory government has thrown out a challenge to the working-class. It must be met.
The government is throwing everything it can lay its hands on into the fight against the gasmen. After months of slobbering about the