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‘Plain Clothes’ Occupation Must be Opposed

29/03/08

Those demanding a British withdrawal from occupied Ireland could be forgiven for having a wry smile at recent events in England.

Whilst it has been common place for Irish republicans to demand that British troops are taken off Irish streets, and for their brothers and sisters in Iraq and Afghanistan to demand the same soldiers get off their streets, recent events in Britain are something of a new departure. The departure involves, ordinary British people forcing British soldiers off their streets and out of their educational facilities. The departure involves ordinary people, disgusted at the imperialist crusades in the Middle East, banning British military recruitment stalls and the British Officer Training Corps from the University College of London. The departure involves, the British Royal Air Force banning its personnel from wearing their military garb in public, whilst off-duty, due to the abuse meted out to them from the enraged citizens of Peterborough.

The answer of the British military top brass, in this instance, has been for British military personnel to wear civilian clothes whilst off-duty and in public spaces. Unsurprisingly, the answer does not involve a radical rethink of the British military and political strategy, which has led to such a reaction, but rather an order for military personnel to go ‘undercover’.

A similar situation, of sorts, exists within the occupied Six Counties. Obvious differences aside, the British, driven by a strategy of ‘normalisation’, gradually withdrew British soldiers from Irish streets and whilst the colonial police force, the RUC-PSNI, remain, a significant segment of the British occupying forces have been ordered to go ‘undercover’. For some, not being able to actually see the British presence on our streets is tantamount to it not being there.

This is where the two tales diverge. For whilst the people of Britain view uniformed soldiers and recruitment sergeants as the greatest threat to their people’s safety, the greatest threat to Irish people, and Irish republicans in particular, emanates not from the 5000 strong British garrison, a force numerically greater than that deployed in Iraq. No, arguably the greatest threat posed is that of MI5, which is currently building a super spy base just 10kms outside of Belfast. Just 15 minutes drive from any republican district in Belfast, MI5 is building a £20 million (26 million euro) spy base, second in importance and size only to the, central, London HQ.

This spy base will be home to hundreds of spooks, spies and snoops for which the recruitment process has begun in earnest in Irish newspapers and recruitment centres. A number of northern dailies have carried a recruitment advertisement for the ‘Secret Service – MI5’, which have been placed alongside those of the British Territorial Army, RUC-PSNI and the Gardaí.

Advertising for ‘English Language Monitors’, potential applicants are told at the outset that they will be “in a front line intelligence role” where they will analyse “intercepted material, extracting key information and communicating it…to the relevant intelligence officer”. If those reading the advertisement were in any doubt as to the nefarious nature of the organisation involved, the fact that potential applicants are told that they “must limit those you tell about your application to your partner and/or immediate family” should clear up any misunderstandings.

What is now absolutely clear is that, whilst uniformed British military personnel were largely withdrawn from Irish streets, the British government had clearly resolved to address the deficit by swamping the occupied Six Counties with ‘Secret Service’ personnel.

These same ‘Secret Service’ personnel have and continue to recruit and run informers in the Six Counties. This has inevitably resulted in the death of Irish republicans and the intrusive harassment of untold amounts of other Irish citizens with little or no challenge from the political establishment in this country.

‘Secret Service’ personnel so unaccountable that they have been implicated in attempts to bring down their own government led by Harold Wilson. ‘Secret Service’ personnel who have the rights and freedoms of every citizen in their sights. ‘Secret Service’ personnel who must be exposed and opposed at every juncture and in every instance, by all progressive groups and individuals.

éirígí opposes such intrusive and malevolent interference in both Irish affairs and in the lives of Irish citizens and calls on people to support our ‘Campaign for British withdrawal’ at every available opportunity and within every institution and field of influence possible.