>From MCELROY@zodiac.rutgers.edu Sun May 23 13:42:00 1993 Martin McGuinness on the upcoming elections Sinn Fein is standing 85 candidates in the local elections across the Six Counties on 19 May. With 44 sitting councillors, director of Elections Jim Gibney says the party is "confident that at a minimum we'll secure those 44 and we'll be going all out to increase our representation." The following interview originally appeared in An Phoblacht/Republican News and was re-printed in The Irish People of May 15, 1993. ********** AP/RN: How well do you think Sinn Fein will perform on 19 May? MM: I am confident that the party will do well. Let me explain why. The ten years that Sinn Fein has been involved in local councils have transformed the way in which northern nationalists look at council politics. Up to 1970 local councils were the institution through which the Orange Order and the unionist parties dispensed their patronage and privilege. Even after the reform of local government in 1970, unionists continued their control virtually unchallenged. Nationalist councillors, particularly the SDLP, seemed to accept their lot as second-class councillors. All of that changed in 1983 when Sinn Fein began to take seats on the councils. It was like a breath of fresh air amidst the stench of corruption and discrimination. Sinn Fein's first achievement was to expose unionist bigotry. Its second was to successfully confront that bigotry in the council chambers and in the courts. Even our political opponents accept that in the last four years Sinn Fein councillors in Belfast have espoused, for example, the scandal of junkets involving the squandering of huge sums of ratepayers' money. Several times they have forced unionists to reluctantly agree to a fairer distribution of resources to local community groups--a fight which still continues. Our councillors have led the campaign against privatization and the resulting job losses and reduced council services to the public. Finally they have defeated unionist efforts to exclude nationalists from any say in the everyday running of the council. Belfast is not the only success story for Sinn Fein in local government. Our team in Derry, in Strabane, and in councils across the Six Counties have done tremendous work.. AP/RN: This success was achieved against the backdrop of an escalating loyalist campaign against Sinn Fein. How has it affected the party? MM: The fact is we have 85 candidates standing for council seats in all those areas in which we stood in 1989. Our party membership, and those candidates, have shown remarkable resilience and courage,and we are all very proud of them. Their courage is all the more remarkable when you recall that since 1989, 13 members of our party have been killed, including three of our councillors. The most recent to die, Alan Lundy, was shot dead in an attack on Councillor Alex Maskey's home. Many more have suffered injury or had their home and family attacked. These attacks had the vocal support of unionist councillors. Many of these attacks relied on intelligence information from British and RUC sources. The guns and grenades used in these attacks were part of the shipment supplied to loyalists with the knowledge and approval of British intelligence. These weapons have not been used exclusively on republicans, of course. With those British supplied arsenal, loyalist death squads have killed 90 Catholics in Belfast alone in the last three and a half years. In addition to the British arming and aiding the Loyalists, the RUC has sought to ensure that our councillors and their families are defenseless against loyalist attacks. They have refused to issue firearm certificates and have delayed DHSS grants for securing homes by not confirming that threats had been made to individuals. Let us not forget that while all this has been going on the British have also silenced our elected representatives by way of the 1988 Broadcasting Ban. In spite of all of that our councillors have played a constructive role in their local communities and in the local councils. They have refused to be cowed. They have refused to be gagged. We will continue to pursue the rights of the nationalist community no matter what obstacles are thrown in our way by the British and their unionist allies. AP/RN: What is the particular significance of these elections? MM: For the first time since partition, and since the unionists gerrymandered local government in the Six Counties, there is the possibility that a large number of councils which are currently unionist-controlled will pass into nationalist hands. I can envisage a situation after these elections in which the west of the Bann will have gone green on a local government map. It is also clear that the days of unionist domination on Belfast City Council are numbered--and well they know it. The message to nationalist voters in Fermanagh, Magherafelt, Dungannon, Cookstown, Strabane and Belfast is quite clear. A strong nationalist vote can put an end to decades of unionist abuse. AP/RN: What about nationalist voters in other areas. Why should they go out and vote 19 May? MM: Well, of course they should elect as many Sinn Fein candidates as possible, not only because of our work record on the councils but also because we lead the way in the struggle for national self-determination. Every election since Sinn Fein embarked on its electoral strategy in October 1982 has been used as a barometer of the strength of nationalist opinion. This election is no exception. John Major, Albert Reynolds, and even the Clinton Administration have gone on record in the last few months as saying that they were awaiting the results of the local elections before deciding on their next move in regard to the Six Counties. A strong Sinn Fein vote on 19 May will send them a clear message that nationalist determination is unshakable, that northern nationalists are not interested in partial solutions or internal solutions, that what they want is their right to set up their own democracy free from British interference. AP/RN: Do you really believe that a vote for Sinn Fein can influence British policy on the North? MM: Definitely. The British are under pressure domestically and internationally. The financial cost of their war in Ireland is taking its toll. Patrick Mayhew's recent comment to a German magazine that it cost them 3 billion sterling a year "for one and half million people!" is now grossly underestimated. Coupled with the financial cost is the damage which the British inflict on their political credibility with all their failed attempts at cobbling up some internal arrangement. These costs will continue to mount as long as Britain pursues this dead-end strategy. I believe that there is a growing debate among the British establishment about the cost of the war in Ireland. Of course there are those who are advocating more repression. a return to supergrasses, more covert operations, even internment. But there are also those who say armed roadblocks on the streets of London are bad for business, the financial burden on the British economy is too high, and the British government's political strategy in the North is not working. I am personally convinced that a strong Sinn Fein vote in this election will strengthen the hand of those advocating a fundamental shift in British policy and a real basis for peace. I believe there is a growing mood for change both in Britain and in Ireland. That mood for change has been reflected in the positive response within the nationalist community which greeted the discussions between Gerry Adams and John Hume. While it is too early to predict the outcome of these discussions, the joint statement by the two leaders of nationalist opinion in the North was in itself an important development. The republican struggle has been the major catalyst fir political movement in the last 20 years, not least because of the strength of the Sinn Fein vote. As I said earlier, although this is a local government election, its political impact is potentially much greater. On 19 May we as Sinn Fein voter can help to realize that potential. We can each individually contribute to winning this struggle. ********** for further info about Ireland on Peacenet, see reg.ireland