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8 July 1999 Edition

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Supremacist season

The announcement by Belfast Orangemen that they intend to move their annual Twelfth Parade to Ormeau Park is typical of the supremacist tradition that exists within unionism.

The decision to march 30,000 Orangemen and their supporters to within a couple of hundred yards of the nationalist area was taken, says the Orange Order, in support of the right of the Ballynafeigh Orangemen to march through the nationalist Lower Ormeau Road. So much for the traditional route to Edenderry. The bigger reality is that it is an attempt to up the ante against those beleaguered nationalist communities across the Six Counties facing contentious Orange parades. Indeed, the relative calmness of this year's marching season to date only serves to belie the Orange Order's claims that they had no control over the sectarian violence that has characterised previous years.

The creation of the Parades Commission was the ploy the British government used to avoid taking on the Orange Order. But instead of confronting reactionary Orangeism and stopping supremacist demonstrations, the British government allowed the Parades Commission to become the referee and ensure fair play between two supposedly culturally opposed groups.

This allows the British to avoid the reality that the Orange Order and their so-called ``cultural events'' are symbols of unionist supremacy. The right to march is not about civil rights; it is about letting the ``croppies'' know who has the power.

The Parades Commission's decision to reroute up to 26 marches in the coming days does not mean the British are facing down the Orange Order. The simple fact is that almost every condition which has been placed on Orange marches and rallies has been broken and no action has been taken against the Order.

The unionists will use the rally at Ormeau Park, if it goes ahead, to intimidate the Lower Ormeau community under the guise of cultural expression. By failing to face down the Orange Order, the British government is showing its unwillingness to stand up to unionism at an extremely crucial time in the peace process.

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland