The last illusion of the
Provo leadership -that there existed a
nationalist family
built around irish
capital with friends on high in London and Washington and able to pressure unionism
and bring reform in the North - is on the point of collapse. mittee reported a catalogue of sectarian intimidation and violent incidents. Some of the UDA chiefs who were shaking hands with secretary of state Murphy appeared in court to cheer five men charged with kidnapping.
But the UDA act as muscle for the Paisleyites so he demanded these concessions.
This exposes the hypocrisy of his condemnations of republican violence and carries a grim message - a new settlement will involve an acceptable level of violence from the UDA against Catholics.
The collapse of the deal also led to statements from the Dublin government echoing the unionist demands about the wording of a surrender statement to ensure the complete and unconditional disbandment of the IRA.
Bertie Ahern apologised to Paisley for any suggestion that the Provos might not have to provide photographic proof of their surrender.
The last illusion of the Provo leadership - that there existed a nationalist family built around Irish capital
friends on high London and Washington and able to pressure unionism and bring reform in the North - is on the point of collapse.
What remains is the family
imperialism, united around unionism and determined to force a republican collapse complete enough to act as the foundation of a renewed stability for the sectarian Northern colony.
The fact that, in these favourable conditions, a deal keeps slipping away is support for the Marxist concept that the Northern state is not s irreformable.
Without bigotry and sectarian division it has no reason to exist. The defeat and abolition of the colony is a necessity if socialism and democracy are to advance in Piers Mostyn The Law Lords 8 to 1 ruling that detention without trial -the flagship policy of Labour's "war on terror" - is unlawful, is a significant setback for Blair's right-populist "security project.
The judgement involved an unprecedented nine law lords and an overwhelming majority. This therefore represents the unified voice of the judicial establishment, a powerful state. The decision is unlikely to be reversed within the lifetime of this generation of senior judges. If the government doesn't give way there will be a constitutional crisis.
The ramifications have already included the resignation -ot a senior lawyer appointed by the state to supposedly "defend" detainees at the farcical secret internment hearings - more may follow.
The ruling isn't simply a 'technical' judgement - for instance because the deténtions are discriminatory against foreign nationals (although that was a consideration). Judges have:
attacked the main justification of an "emergency threatening the life of the nation' underlying the derogation from the European Convention Human Rights,
• denounced the measure as incompatible with the rule of law in bourgeois democratic society
• stated that it represents a greater threat to society than Al Qaeda itself.
This is a political assault with an impact well beyond the power to intern without trial.
The very fact this was achieved by the judges and not by the 'Official Opposition', Labour rebels or the Lib Dems - whose combined impact in the three
IS BLAIR'S years since the passage of the law was somewhere between non-existent and pathetic - is an major indictment of parliamentary 'democracy.
Despite the supine nature of this parliamentary opposition, the judgement is symptomatic of a split from top to bottom of the political establishment and the bourgeois state on Iraq and the war on
Taken with the discrediting indefinite internment. of the Iraq war (over lies, unlawfulness and the lack of a short term victory) - this weakens Blair's ability to sell his Bush-look-a-like "security first policy.
But, for all that it represents a victory, serious questions remain.
Why did the judgement take so long? When the liberty of Chilean ex-dictator and CIA henchman General Pinochet was at stake a few
to U.S, EXIN LON Vindicated: protestors outside Bellmarsh prison Any new 'trial' process for the internees must be opposed. There is no possibility of it being fair, the state having repeatedly labelled the detainees as so dangerous as to justify
BLAIR years ago, he merely suffered the discomfort of "house arrest" in a mansion for a matter of months before their Lordships debated and decided on the issue.
Sixteen internees have had to wait three years. Two were forced to leave the country to face danger to their lives so serious they had previously been granted leave to stay here. Two others have had their mental health crushed. Others remain in a fragile state.
Liberal intellectuals with m anxieties about the repressive no detainees as so dangerous as laws found themselves hamstrung by their over-riding commitment to unity in defence of the imperialist state in a time of war... a war they hoped and assumed would soon be successfully concluded.
What they didn't foresee was the unprecedented mass the ruling class will sort out behind closed doors in timehonoured fashion, it won't be that easy.
This is an historic split between the judicial and executive branches of the state. Although it doesn't oblige the government to scrap the law or free the prisoners, unless that happens there will be a struggle in which one branch will be humiliated and lose authority. That is where the constitutional crisis lies.
So inevitably there will be attempts at compromise. The ground has been long prepared for a way out for New Labour involving the replacement of internment with a new swathe of other repres sive powers.
This would allow for intensive total surveillance and major inroads to the rights to a fair trial (no juries, secret evidence, state appointed defence lawyers etc).
These powers would inevitably be targeted at much larger numbers and even whole communities. They would be easily transferable to ordinary areas of criminal law - as happened with the 'emergency powers' in Ireland.
The trouble is, if there is no "emergency' how can these repressive powers be any more justified than internment?
Any new 'trial' process for the internees must be opposed.
There is no possibility of it being fair, the state having repeatedly labelled the to justify indefinite internment. Besides which they have punished more than enough.
The answer is to keep on fighting. For the immediate unconditional release of the detainees and the scrapping of all the so-called antiterror' laws.