without doubt the new situation will be wed to create Basion in the possibility of a Constitutional" settlement in the framework of the Six County statelet. But such illusions need not andescut the growing sentiment for troop withdrawal amongst the British working class.
Such illusions have hit the dust too often already. What we are more likely to see is the opening of a major debate inside the working class on how the situation in Ireland can be resolved.
The Tribune group of left Labour MPs have already staked their claim. As far as they are concerned the crucial thing is to recognise what has always been the really mountainous obstacle to peace in Northern Ireland: the fears of the one million Protestants'. Their ans wer is that the Labour Government must show that these fears are unjustified, by creating a system whereby power can be handed back to them.
We have to assert on the contrary, that the major factor preventing peace in Northern Ireland is the presence of British Imperialism and the continued division of the Irish nation. The Loyalist organisations are the political arm of British military strength which ensure the continuing division of Ireland. The Loyalists will have to be smashed rather than sucked up to.
The Communist Party policy of a Bill of Rights enforced by the British Army will not do that job. Indeed, the next perlod will show that this approach too ends up in prostration before the Loyalists. The only consistent policy. and the only one which can guarantee