They Think It's All Over In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone. - John Kenneth Galbraith Brendan Hughes • 4 February 2002 If it is all over what was it for? Do we have freedom? Not the type I fought for. Did we get rid of oppression? Not the type I fought against. Did we change fundamental economic and social structures or did we change those who would run the same old ones? Does the working class get anything out of this deal? If so why then is Sinn Fein claiming that the working class in the Falls Road still live in one of the poorest areas in Europe? Did the deal rid us of the rogue employers and greedy financiers who exploit our squalor like cockroaches? Did republicans in the poor communities get anything out of this deal? How can we even begin to discuss this openly if those who think we get nothing can only say so at the risk of being hounded and vilified?   I remember always being impressed by Liam Mellows when he said people get into positions of power and then will do almost anything to hold on to that power because of the privilege power brings them. Why should such power be used to give privilege to rogue employers and others who exploit the poor in our communities? Is it because it brings mutual reward?   How can the use of power be justified if it fails to protect those employed by rogue businesses and instead gives contracts to those businesses? Maybe we were all naive in striving for such principled goals. But I don't think so. I just think we were right. Rather than being naive we were conned.   The ruling class still rules and the working class still works and the gap between the two is as bad as ever. Not only are the Brits still here but also are poverty, corruption, inequality, censorship and repression. How things change in order to stay the same. Can it really ever be all over when this is all we have to show for our efforts?                                                                                           Index: Current Articles + Latest News and Views + Book Reviews + Letters + Archives

There is no such thing as a dirty word. Nor is there a word so powerful, that it's going to send the listener to the lake of fire upon hearing it. - Frank Zappa Index: Current Articles   17 February 2007 Brendan Hughes Archive Material 6 February 2008 Other Articles From This Issue: Was it a War? Michael Gillespie Impossible Task for Truth Body David Adams Pandora's Box John Kennedy Villians of the Peace Mick Hall India's Undeclared War Cedric Gouverneur Borders Exist to be Crossed: Maryam Namazie Anthony McIntyre That This House Believes That Irish Republicanism Has No Future: Opposed Ruairí Ó Brádaigh Dismantling Partition 32 County Sovereignty Movement We Shall Not Be Deterred Brian Mór Martin Meehan Anthony McIntyre Washington Pressure on Dodds Fr Sean Mc Manus No Pope Here Brian Mór Fundamental Primer Dr John Coulter Internal Exiles Seaghán Ó Murchú • 14 January 2008 • Republicanism...Alive or Dying? Anthony McIntyre Pillocks of the Community John Kennedy Irish Unity Cannot Be Ruled Out David Adams A Great Republican and a Great Man Aine Doherty John Kelly Anthony McIntyre How Urgent the Need? John Kelly, from an interview with Liam Clarke My Grandfather's Insurgency Eoghan O'Suilleabhain Kitsonian Success With the Provos...? Liam O Comain McGuinness Takes the Peace...to Finland! John Kennedy Provisional Sinn Fein - Don't Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater Jerry Pepin Disappeared John Kennedy Operation Helvetic: To Be Expected Michael Gillespie Hung Out to Dry John Kennedy Re-Imagining Ireland Seaghán Ó Murchú Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission Mick Hall One Armed Bandit John Kennedy Terrorism and Leftism Paddy Hackett Power to the People John Kennedy

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