AGREEMENT STILL TOTTERING

FACING certain defeat at the October 28 Ulster Unionist Council meeting David Trimble compromised with his opposition within his party who are opposed to the Stormont Agreement.

By watering down his position on it he scraped through for another two months -- until early January -- when the situation is to be reviewed again.

Belfast RSF offices raided IN an obvious attempt to shore up the tottering position of David Trimble in the UUP the British Crown Forces (RUC) raided the public offices of Republican Sinn Féin at 229 Falls Road, Belfast on October 13. In a statement the organisation said: "By clamping down hard on legitimate political expression of opposition to the Stormont Agreement and the promotion of the Republican alternative to it -- ÉIRE NUA, the British occupation regime in Ireland hopes to rescue Mr Trimble and placate the hard-line unionist opposition to him. "What price now freedom of political expression under the new Stormont? Republican prisoners are denied political status in Maghaberry prison and open political opposition is blatantly harassed."

In spite of promising sanctions against the Provisionals, calling for a moratorium on the Patten Report. Promising a more proactive role for the decommissioning commission and holding out the definite prospect of a UUP review of its position in January Trimble gained only one percentage point on his 53% win at the UUC meeting last May.

Clearly the UUP leader must be a very worried man.

He must know he cannot hold out indefinitely -- hoping something will come up -- with only half his party at his back.

Only if he had made no concessions to the 'No' camp and gained substantially could he feel that he had turned the corner. The reality was that if he had not moved to make concessions to the Donaldson camp he would have lost the vote.

At the UUC meetings since the Stormont Agreement Trimble started with 72% support in April 1998. He has since seen his majority in the Ulster Unionist Party slip to 58% (November 1999), 57% (March 2000), 53% (May 2000) and now 54% by compromising with the 'No' people.

The Irish Times London editor Frank Millar wrote on October 30 " . . . the Ulster Unionists turned the clock back on Saturday, all the way to last November".

The concessions to the unionists by the British during the same period included Peter Mandelson's promise that control over security would be returned to Stormont and his decision to fly the British flag over all public buildings on certain days important to the British Crown.

Meanwhile on the streets the loyalist feud continues with four more deaths in four days at the end of October. The Provos assassinated a young man opposed to the Stormont Agreement in Belfast's Ballymurphy and a member of the British forces (RUC) was seriously injured by a bomb sat Castlewellan, Co Down.

Republican Sinn Féin recognises there is no real peace and that the Dublin and London administrations, the SDLP and unionists will tolerate multiple killings by pro-Stormont Agreement organisations. If the killing is deemed to be in support of the agreement it is acceptable to these parties and administrations.

ÉIRE NUA remains the credible alternative to the Stormont Agreement despite the best efforts of the pro-Stormont parties to pretend there is none.

As the agreement edges towards possible collapse the Republican Sinn Féin alternative will continue to win increasing support among nationally-minded people.

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