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From Socialist Worker, No. 116, 5 April 1969, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
AS FORECAST in Socialist Worker last week, Ulster Unionists have put uniforms on Paisleyites and called up the hated B-specials.
Using as an excuse last Sunday’s explosion at Castlereagh’s electricity station – believed to be the work of provocateurs – the government has authorised the mobilisation of over 1,000 B-specials.
The marches and sitdowns of the last two weeks have made it clear that the Ulster Constabulary alone would be unable to enforce the proposed Public Order Bill.
Premier O’Neill had a clear choice: to grant civil rights or start to plan mass repression. He has opted for repression. By doing so he forces the civil rights movement to make a choice – accept repression or organise to resist.
VIOLENCE FLARED briefly in Derry last Sunday at the end of the latest march in the city of protest.
It happened when Paisleyites waved Union Jacks in the faces of the 7,000 strong civil rights marchers. About 200 civil rights supporters broke past stewards and set about the loyalists in the Diamond, the city’s main square.
The Paisleyites, with the conditioned arrogance of 50 years’ rule behind them, used the British war memorial as their strong point as they set about the civil rights supporters with flagpoles and clubs, but they were swept back by waves of marchers.
After the short 12-minute battle, the marchers entered Guildhall Square to hear speeches from John Hume, Ivan Cooper, Eammon McCann, Michael Farrell, Bernadette Devlin and others.
The march was called by the moderate Derry Civil Rights Committee in an attempt to regain the initiative from the Derry Labour Party, which last week held a mass sit-down. The numbers both demonstrations were roughly similar.
Last updated: 15 January 2021