Monday, Jun. 03, 1974

Squeezing the Biggies

STAND FAST! KEEP CALM! VICTORY is IN SIGHT! implored the words scribbled on a blackboard at a Belfast street corner last week. The message was an appeal to Protestants in Ulster's latest, and perhaps most serious crisis. A province-wide general strike brought business to a complete standstill, forced most of the province's 180,000 industrial workers off the job and shut down virtually all shops. Ulster was on the brink of economic paralysis.

The cause of the strike was militant Protestant opposition to the Sunningdale agreement, a compromise reached last December that led to the creation of the Provincial Executive, where Ulster's 1 million Protestants and 500,000 Roman Catholics began sharing political power. The militants, reflecting widespread Protestant apprehensions about Sunningdale, fear that the agreement will eventually result in the unification of Ulster and the Republic of Ireland that would relegate Protestants to minority status in a predominantly Catholic nation.

Farmers Dumped. An ad hoc group of militants calling themselves the Ulster Workers Council proclaimed a general strike on May 14. They appealed to employees of the power plants, most of whom are Protestants, to stay off the job. Electricity output was cut to a trickle, forcing frequent blackouts and slowing industrial operations. The work stoppage spread to other industries, even though trade unions refused to support the strike.

Last week most of Ulster's Protestant workers stayed home, as a sign of their support or because they were intimidated by the bands of cudgel-swinging, paramilitary youths roaming the streets to enforce the strike. Most of Belfast's main roadways were blocked; only doctors and others involved in essential services who had U.W.C. "passes" were allowed through its checkpoints. For barricades, the militants used hijacked cars and trucks, telephone poles and paving stones. Traffic in Belfast and most other Ulster towns came to a standstill. Fruits and vegetables rotted in locked shops, and electricity shortages threatened to shut down sewage-treatment plants. In the countryside, farmers dumped thousands of gallons of milk because they lacked transport.

For a time, it indeed seemed as if the U.W.C. had set up an alternative government. The council's headquarters was a large, comfortable villa in a middle-class neighborhood of Belfast. There the U.W.C. distributed "ration coupons" without which gasoline could not be purchased because the militants had taken control of nearly all the province's gas stations. "We are out to spare the people as much as possible," said a U.W.C. spokesman, "and squeeze the biggies."

The aim of the U.W.C. is immediate new elections for the province's assembly. The strike leaders believe that a majority of the new legislators would oppose any steps leading to unification of Ulster and the Republic of Ireland. The U.W.C. opposes the entire Sunningdale agreement, but particularly objects to the eventual creation of a Council of Ireland. Made up of political leaders from the North and South, the Council would have administrative powers, a ministerial executive, a permanent headquarters and a secretariat.

New Roadblocks. Ulster's Provincial Executive, the Protestant-Catholic coalition government led by Protestant Brian Faulkner, so far has taken no action against the strikers. But Len Murray, leader of Britain's Trades Union Congress, attempted to intervene. He flew to Belfast to lead a "back-to-work" march. Less than 300 workers joined him, and they were all pelted with garbage, eggs and tomatoes by angry Protestants. The British government increased its 15,500-man Ulster garrison by 1,000; in full battle gear, thousands of soldiers swept through Belfast, clearing the streets of the barricades. However, the U.W.C. erected new roadblocks almost as soon as the soldiers left.

Faulkner then tried to defuse the strike by meeting some demands but the militants rejected his proposals, denouncing them as a "confidence trick." At week's end, with neither London nor the Executive willing to negotiate directly with the U.W.C., the impasse continued. Leaders of the Executive met secretly with Prime Minister Harold Wilson, which may be a prelude to the use of British troops to break the strike. The Rev. Ian Paisley, however, declared: "The strike must go on!" If it does, the victim will not only be Ulster's economy, but also the Sunningdale agreement, which six months ago promised an end to Northern Ireland's tragic and bizarre sectarian strife.

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