Part 011 - PAMPHLET 038 011

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fore have the Irish and Brit- ish establishments been forced to spend so much time delibera- ting on how best to isolate and defeat Irish republicanism. Since the first hunger-strike, in December 1980, when a 'totality of relationships' was announced through silver tea-pot diplomacy, a short- lived constitutional crusade, the changes of government which were as short on days in office as they were in leadership, Dublin and their Northern allies, the SDLP leadership, have been struggling to claw back the high ground of Irish nationalism which they surrendered so long ago. The Dublin Forum report, its ignominious demise at Chequers and the current talks have marked further dilutions of nationalist aspirations and attempts to lower nationalist expectations. What started off as the "greatest political initiative since the '20s" is now merely "part of a process", to quote Mr John Hume twice. What was to be the relieving of the night- mare of Northern nationalists could well end up with a treaty of the Uni- ted Nations which endorses the British claim to sovereignty in the six counties, thereby copper-fastening partition and insulating the British government from international critic- ism of their involvement in Irish affairs. W HILE it would be foolish to speculate on speculation about what shape any agreement is likely to take, it is nonetheless important to sketch out our attitude to these talks and in 6 general terms the political con- text in which they are taking place. They are not about Irish independence or Irish re-uni- fication, or even federalism or confederalism, or power-sharing – those other Forum favourites. This much the London govern- ment has made clear. And yet the talks go on. The Dublin Forum options were dismissed by Thatcher and yet the talks go on. When the Forum report was launched you will recall that we asked what the Forum parties were going to do when Britain said 'No!' Margaret Thatcher said 'No!' In fact, so that everyone clearly under- stood her, she said it three times. At that point, if Dublin was serious about its own Forum report it could have quite justifiably withdrawn from a process which was patently being conducted in the interests of the British government. Dublin did not withdraw because it shares those interests. The talks, and any subsequent agreement, are about creating a political climate in which this party can be isolated through a mixture of repression and appeasement. The ex- tent of the repression will depend on how successful we are in the con- tinuing process of developing our party and expanding our support. O N that count we can prepare ourselves for a lot of repression and I hereby give notice to Margaret Thatcher and her cronies in Dublin that we have no inten-