'New' RUC still British

The leaked report on the Patten Commission into the British colonial police (RUC) carried in the Financial Times on August 2 indicates proposals to update the force and attempt to make it more acceptable both to nationalists and internationally.

The project to have a "recruitment drive among Roman Catholics", a sizeable increase in the force and an early retirement scheme is an attempt to broaden the base of support for British rule in Ireland. Involving nationalists in the Stormont Assembly, the Stormont Executive and in an updated RUC are all moves designed clearly to have such an effect.

Changes in name, uniform and badge, all of which date from the old RIC, are simply cosmetic. Alterations in symbols are intended to entrap nationalists into actively assisting the maintenance of British rule here.

According to reports from Belfast, the British Colonial Office at Stormont (NIO) are ready to sanction a scheme already in place that involves Provo personnel and members of loyalist death squads in policing their communities.

According to the Irish News on July 26 last "it is understood that NIO officials believe that at least some former paramilitaries will have to be accommodated in some way" in the enforcement of British law in the occupied area.

At present the British authorities are concentrating on the so-called "restorative justice scheme". This scheme which is already in operation in many parts of the Six Counties is community based, and includes in some cases the accuser coming face-to-face with the suspect.

The same newspaper report said that the scheme "would give paramilitaries an input into the justice system (sic)> in their own areas without actually turning them into police officers -- a move which would infuriate many unionists and nationalists."

With this scheme the British are attempting to corral Irish people into ghettos allowing the Provos and the pro-British death squads to exert control over their communities while at the same time enforcing British rule and suffocating any resistance.

Indeed, some nationalists, like former Provisional councillor in Belfast Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, are acting as recruiting sergeants already. In his Andersonstown News column on July 10 Ó Muilleoir goes further than the British "sources" in the Irish News.

He could foresee nationalist "new recruits" taking "seats behind a desk at Woodbourne Barracks", ie becoming fully-fledged RUC members. His views are an attempt to hoodwink nationalists into believing that a change of personnel in the imperialist forces is equivalent to the revolutionary forces taking over!

It is reminiscent of John Redmond's call on the Volunteers in 1914 to join the British army and fight in World War I. Of the 250,000 Irishmen who heeded his call more than 50,000 were killed. The Redmondites were sub-sequently discredited because of this slaughter and the resurgence of Republicanism after the 1916 Rising.

The former IRA men who joined de Valera's Broy Harriers in 1933 after he came to power in the 26 Counties were immediately put to work arresting and harassing their former comrades. Several years later they were amalgamated into the Special Branch.

As we mark the 30th anniversary of the arrival of British troops on the streets of the Six Counties we should recall that the RUC in August 1969 led the loyalist mobs attacking nationalist areas throughout Belfast. In just two days, August 14-15, nine nationalists were killed and 500 homes burned down.

Republican Sinn Féin appeals to the nationally-minded population not to become tools of the British government here as did many of the RIC -- often with tragic consequences.

If the English government does persist in seeking to rule in Ireland, let it be by its own British army and let the world see naked armed force at work here.

Do not collaborate with imperialism and colonialism, under whatever guise.

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