It is easy for the British ruling class to pass leginlation at Westminster and to draw up schemes fot "power sharing" between different sections of the ruling class in Ireland. But to impose them presupposes the completion of one gigantic task: repression. This is what Britain has pursued since the troops first moved in in 1969. The failure of the repression so far means that today the White Paper can be little more than a holding operation while the repression continues under a new legal facade. The White Paper therefore highlights the choice facing the By refusing any important concessions to the anti-imperialist minority in the North. If their resistance fails they face the same expioitation by British imperialism in a restructured Ireland. If they resist they can expect no respite from Whitelaw and his allies in the North. The long promised White Paper was originally stended to be something more far-reaching than is actually possible for the British now. When Direct Rule was introduced Whitelaw thought that two things could be achieved in a very short time:
First, he thought that the IRA could be defeated within a few months. Second, he believed that with the IRA defeated he could isolate Craig and the extremists in the protestant camp and build up a strong party of moderate unionists more pliant to Britain's will. From such a position of strength Britain could then start to negotiate with the South and achieve its aim of restructuring Ireland in the interests of British capital.
But Whitelaw was wrong. So what now is the significance of the White Paper? It has two essential aims. First, it is an attempt to strengthen and step up the repression while at the same time giving it a more "legal' appearance. Second, it tries to alter the balance of forces within the protestant community in favour of the moderates and against the extremists. Concentration