Can the Saville Inquiry Satisfy the People of Derry?

Saville Report- An Expensive Appendix to An Organised Crowd Control Experiment?

Today, 15th June, 2010, the families of the 14 civil rights protestors murdered on the streets of Derry’s Bogside by British Armed Forces of Occupation on 30th January 1972, pensively await for the truth of what happened on ‘Bloody Sunday’ to be recognised by a British judicial system that has served us so infamously in the past.

 As no other event, the deliberate orchestrated targeting of civil rights protestors directly reflected the sectarian attitude that echoed through the corridors of Stormont and Whitehall. This belligerent attitude manifested itself in the cold blooded ruthless actions of their enforcers of British colonial rule in Ireland, the British Army. Not only were these tragic events a testimony to the continued oppression suffered by Irish people, they were also designed to send out a clear and unequivocal message of Britain’s intentional use of military force to subdue the Fenian hordes in the State of Northern Ireland! But one simple truth remains, men, women and children of Ireland were deliberately shot off the streets of Derry at the bequest of Stormont based Unionist politicians who bayed for Fenian blood. One doubts if any British controlled tribunal will ever hoodwink any TRUE Irish Republican.

An Elaborate Laboratory Experiment of Crowd Control

The crux of the Saville Inquiry has been to determine whether the actions of the minions of British colonialism, their British Army, were the result of soldiers out running a mock through the streets of Derry. But what if their actions were pre-meditated and cleverly disguised to give this exact impression to the world media?

 At that time Civil Rights marches were happening right across the globe as people demanded regime changes and with them came increasing problems of crowd control. All the ingredients were there, the North was Britain’s troubling back yard, the Civil Rights Movement was gaining massive momentum, and world governments were becoming increasingly nervous of anarchy. Therefore, were the civil rights activists on that day, unwitting participants in an experiment in crowd control and suppression in order to provide a template that could be replicated in other global hotspots?

Furthermore, an even greater affront than the murderous actions of the day was the subsequent clandestine frame-up job known as the Widgery Tribunal (a hastily written Lab Report) which predictably and conveniently returned a verdict which placed the blame squarely on those who were shot dead that day. Today’s report by the Saville Inquiry will hopefully expose the reactionary nature of the Widgery Tribunal and its role in defending the interests of the British state in the North of Ireland during that era of colonial control. More importantly will it re-enforce the common Irish Republican perception of:

1969 -2010 – No Change!

Yet, somehow from a grass root Irish Republican perspective the utterances that we will hear from Sinn Fein and the SDLP will only serve to deepen our feeling of consternation. Whilst our political representatives can proclaim form the steps of Stormont that they have now been allowed to be heard shouting from the balcony, the justice being meted out on the court room floor is still intrinsically very British in origin. For a glimpse of the State of Northern Ireland’s new justice dispensation we need look no further than behind the walls of Maghaberry Prison. Widespread indiscriminate internment that marred the 1970’s has been replaced by ‘Selective Internment’, mainly as reaction to the threat of those deemed as being involved in ‘misguided’ micro Irish Republican groups.

However, the irrefutable fact remains, that no spin doctor of Irish or British creed cannot deny that the State of Northern Ireland’s new INJUSTICE system is STILL administered by Whitehall, and is definitely neither JUST REWARD nor RECOMPENSE for the bloodshed and sacrifice by every Irish man, woman and child since. Despite the protestations of the Tory right-wing who expose concerns about the impact that this Inquiry ruling against British soldiers will have on their operational capability in Afghanistan and Pakistan, this ruling will stabilise the British state in Ireland and at home. It will be held up as evidence that the British state is not corrupt, that it is democratic, that it respects the rights of everyone regardless of their religion. That it is a safe pair of hands. This verdict will be used to legitimise British rule in Ireland but also to draw a line under the ‘excesses’ of the past to better conduct similar brutality whether in Afghanistan or to wage war against today’s Irish Republicans.

As has happened so many times before when a revolutionary event or personality is denuded of all content and the form is appropriated by the ruling class, Bloody Sunday is being manipulated and transfigured.

To understand how this happens take, for example, the use of Che Guevara’s image which is used as a marketing tool but his economic works are not studied or the De Valera endorsed popular songs about James Connolly which portray him as a Fianna Failer and obliterate his true position as a socialist revolutionary.

Are We Mere Proverbial Colonial Lab Rats?

Let us look once again at the context for Bloody Sunday. The protesters who marched in Derry that day were protesting for ‘One Man, One Vote’ among other things – it is even one of the most prominent banners on the photographs of that day. To think that in 1972 people in Northern Ireland did not enjoy the full franchise is a hidden scandal but one which our commentators today will carefully step over. The thousands of youth out marching that day were protesting against this state of affairs and were shot off the streets by British paratroopers. Of course the British state covered up their brutality – that is what they do, because they are still the British Army!!! The media were present that day as they are not in Afghanistan today – we don’t get to see the blood and the smashed bodies of the innocents like we have repeatedly seen from 1972.

Yet today we hear nothing of this context. Instead, this is about ‘justice for the families’ – it is the event denuded of political content. Sinn Fein have converted themselves from a militant liberation movement to a constitutional nationalist party and it doesn’t do to highlight the nature of the British state’s indiscretitions in Ireland. The war is no longer being portrayed as a struggle for national self-determination but one for ‘civil rights’. The marchers on Bloody Sunday were not protesting for political rights but ‘civil rights’ – their murder was not an exposure of the nature of the British state in Ireland but a failure for British justice to be meted out to Catholics.

Yet again the working classes are being used as pawns to justify and condone the imperialist’s greed on the world stage. The memories of those murdered, and the quest for justice by their families and loved ones, is being cynically used to portray a worldwide persona that the British State’s conduct on foreign soils is above both impunity and reproach. The events of that fateful day in 1972 and the subsequent 40 year struggle for Irish Unity, which were a source of hope and inspiration for oppressed peoples throughout the world, have now been contorted so that the actions of the British have been given an element of justification. The Saville Report will not only inject an element of justification for their past miss-demeanours but will undoubtedly give the British a legal platform to justify their conduct on their new imperialist battle fields of the 21st Century. Look no further than the selection of David Trimble by Israel as an INDEPENDANT overseer in their internal investigation of the Freedom Flotilla massacre.

Closing down the Sectarian Laboratory called 'Norn Iron'?

Does any TRUE Irish Republican believe that anything fundamental has changed in the State of Northern Ireland? Do we believe that the British army is not day and daily continuing the work that they set upon in Derry that day in other parts of the world? The passage of time has successfully allowed the pain and revulsion to dissipate and wash over us because the majority of Republicans have been goaded into accepting their lot as loyal subjects of the British Crown. Those who have not, continue to bear the brunt of British security pressure and dirty tricks.

It is precisely because the British state continues to be a brutal imperialist abroad that the Tory right-wing is howling at the recent events. They see the sense in ‘drawing a line under events of the past’ but are concerned that British soldiers murdering civilians in Afghanistan today or perhaps Iran tomorrow will not be as confidently white washed in light of this verdict. Meanwhile, Sinn Fein agree to ‘draw a line’ under events and move on – treating this as an exceptional event and this bringing ‘closure’ for the families’ grieving.

If Bloody Sunday can be resolved it is only because the status quo in Northern Ireland is now sufficiently strong to withstand the truth of what happened that day and that is only because Sinn Fein are committed to the security of the state. But progressives should realise that resolving Bloody Sunday will only wash the blood off the British state worldwide allowing them to continue their murderous imperialism elsewhere in the world, and possibly to return to it in Ireland should any opposition to the status quo emerge. The big question still remains:

If the experiments carried out on the streets of Norn Iron do not pay dividends on foreign soils, will the laboratory of sectarian manipulation that is the State of Northern Ireland, be re-opened by our colonial masters for future trials?

Posted in: Bloody Sunday,Saville Enquiry,State of Northern Ireland