Another dissident bomb in the realm of GBH
In 1991, Channel 4 broadcast a television series that was called GBH.
This compelling and ultra believable series was written by Alan Bleasdale who wanted to show how the English ruling class (by the use of agents of influence in the media, agent provocateurs and informers) can manipulate an upsurge of militancy in a working class area so that it turns in on itself and implodes. This scenario is not at all far fetched. In fact it is exactly the way England's secret services have operated since time immemorial. English upper class spooks have a long track record of dark intrigue. Readers only need to read Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights like Shakespeare, John Webster or the life and savage death of Government spy Christopher Marlowe. Plays like John Webster’s White Devil are perfect prototypes for Bleasdale's script.
Of course, when writing GBH in the middle of the dark days of Thatcherism, Bleasdale was well are aware that England’s Security Service (MI5) descends directly from the offices of the monarch’s all powerful Privy Council and other star chambers, which flourished with the later Stuarts.
MI5 exists, in the first instance, not to defend the rights of the people of England but to defend the English monarchy as the head of parliament. To defend the rich in other words. But it is a proactive defence, which involves the placement of influential people in the media and the procurement of agents for operational areas. A classic example of this is UDA killer and torturer of Catholics Brian Nelson who did not, as most journalists wrongly say, work for British army supremo Gordon Kerr. Kerr was simply Nelson's commanding officer in the field.
In his diary, Nelson simply calls his paymasters “BOX”. BOX 500 is the pet name for MI5 and all Nelson’s information and exploits were controlled by MI5 officers and fed back to the Joint Intelligence Committee in Margaret Thatcher's cabinet office. MI5 is still active in Ireland, subject to almost no scrutiny, and is still fomenting the kind of “strategy of tension”, that has worked so well for English crown forces all over the world. So called Irish republican “dissidents” who disagree with the peace process have walked right into the psychological and strategic booby trap left by MI5's officers operating in our country. It is the GBH scenario writ large.
MI5’s track record here shows exactly how it operates - the encouraging and condoning of attacks (including murder) on people so as generate fear; give kudos to its agents who without a shadow of a doubt are operating within republican groups and, most crucially of all, to confuse and curtail debate about the achievement of a just society. This latter point is the single most important function of MI5 - the continued survival of capitalism.
Consider MI5’s reaction to dissident bombs in comparison to that same constituency's likely horror at the magnificent gesture outside the Dáil last week when an anti bank activist left a cement lorry outside the gates of the Irish parliament. The words “Toxic Bank” were emblazoned across the lorry and the image has flashed across the imaginations of an increasingly angry Irish public. What do we get from the dissidents? A bomb at the back end of Derry that, ironically, has no relation to the social and economic concerns of our people and leaves them cold. Bombs suit MI5. They keep MI5 tails up, not to mention wages, and give it a raison d'etre. MI5 will even arrange them for the dissidents (see below), it does not want imaginative (and peaceful) acts on the part of a people risen against capitalism. MI5 wants bombs. It does not want mass movements.
In a recent trial that went largely unnoticed, it emerged that a group of dissidents were encouraged and eventually entrapped, by MI5 operatives as part of a sting that now sees those Irish republicans serving very lengthy jail terms. What a waste! And MI5 is laughing. Furthermore, given MI5's very clear track record in Ireland, there is almost no doubt that Her Majesty's Secret Service has allowed dissident operations to go ahead so as to foment its GBH scenario. The dissidents are on a road to nowhere and will take some of our best anti capitalist youth with them.
As a fitting conclusion, I will report the words of a Catalan nationalist (and fervent anti capitalist), whilst we holidayed in Catalonia recently. Speaking to me in Spanish (and I am providing a rough translation here) he firstly offered his views about the recent, and very significant, ETA ceasefire and said:
"After 9/11 our Basque cousins know that everything has changed. To play the terror game is not an option. They have spoken to their comrades in Catalonia and from here we will work together for the full independence of both our countries. Our brave Irish comrades have shown that the struggle does not always have to be murderous but instead must be clever and outmanoeuvre the ruling class – the worldwide capitalist bastards (en todo el mundo). Our struggle for independence with justice and equality in Catalonia is strengthened tenfold by what la izquierda abertzale (Herri Batasuna) and ETA have done."
If the dissidents want an example of peaceful resistance that works, they need look no further than Catalonia – where the people are not only strong in their language and culture but also have the confidence to use the trappings of the Imperial Spanish state for their own ends.
Bíodh ciall agaibh a ghasraí. Wise up lads.