LONDON — The Thatcher Tory government is once more shuffling the worn-out cards of British rule in Northern Ireland. A new scheme of “devolved government” that would supposedly transfer powers back to the political parties in the province after a decade of direct martial law- style rule by Britain is being devised. There are a number of factors that appear to be causing the Thatcher re- gime to make such a move at this time, - aside froma the fact that it is politically expedient for a British government to periodically appear to be doing some- thing about the prolonged Northern Ireland crisis. For one thing, the Provisional IRA has made some political gains in re- cent months. It is concentrating, through its Sinn Fein political wing, on parliamentary election campaigns in both Northern [reiand and the Irish Republic, with success in both, and would probably run Sinn Fein candi- dates for the ‘‘devolved’’ Assembly the British are contemplating. The main Catholic party, the SDLP, is being forced to match IRA republicanism. For another thing, a move is needed to offset the growing support in the Protestant community for right-wing extremist Rev. Ian Paisley and his so-called Democratic Unionist Party. Paisley threatens to proclaim a “‘uni- lateral declaration of independence”’ for Northern Ireland if the British government does not act decisively to quell republicanism based mainly in the Catholic community. Along with the Paisley threat on the right is the menace of the line coming from Enoch Powell, the Tory-Union- ist whose British parliamentary seat is now in Northern Ireland: his is press- ing for the complete integration of Northern Ireland into the United Kingdom, a step that would throw the whole Catholic community into the arms of the Provisionals. By making no gesture at a political solution in Northern Ireland, the Thatcher government would be sit- William . Pomeroy ting and watching the province polar- ize ever more sharply into militant re- publican and right-wing Unionist alignments. On top of this, the Thatcher government may be forced by events into a national election ofits own by 1983, and may then be caught in the midst of this deteriorating Northern Ireland situation. A further factor that is worsening the political climate in the six North- ern Ireland counties is the rapidly mounting rate of unemployment. Dur- ing the present prolonged economic crisis, this has always stood higher than any other region in Britain and it is now reaching disaster levels. At the beginning of this year it was anticipated that unemployment in the province would hit 118,000, which British martial law rule ... digging a trench too deep? Thatcher’s phoney plan for Northern Ireland would be 21% of the labor force. Since then two grave developments: have occurred which threaten to raise the is jobless total to 125,000, or a 25% rate. These are the possible shut-downs of two major industries, the De Lorean sports car plant and the big Harland and Wolff shipyard. A Tory political initiative at this time would therefore hope to divert attention in the province away from the grim unemployment question and to the political arena. The scheme, divised by the current Northern Ireland secretary, James Prior, is to elect a new Northern Ire- land Assembly of 78 members, to which substantial powers would be devolved. Prior is even holding out the tempting plum of restoring control of security policy to such an Assembly (control of security by the old pre- 1969 Stormont Assembly which was what led to the crisis that began in the province in that year, due to the vici- ous suppression of the civil rights movement by the security police, the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Such a control now would appease the res- tive Unionists including Paisley. As for actual ‘‘devolved power,” - that would be an illusion. Prior pro- poses to set up an appointed “‘execu- tive’? over and above the Assembly, which would be controlled essentially by the British government. Above all, any new political ar- rangement in Northern Ireland would have a built-in system of guaranteed rights and participatory roles for the Catholic and republican minority. This has been the sticking point that has wrecked every other ‘‘solution’”’ mu) by British governments over the past m decade or more. Judging by the ex- tremist attitudes in the Protestant- 7) Unionist sectors, it will continue to be "| the main issue in the present move. The new British government plan has yet to win the actual support of any party in Northern keland. British imperialism may have dug the trenches of divide and rule so deep that it may not be able to get out of them. PACIFIC.TRIBUNE—APRIL 2, 1982—Rage 8 Peace movement. snowballs in U.S. NEW YORK — Actress Joanne Wood- ward, official spokesperson for STAR (Stop the Arms Race) announces a campaign to collect one million signatures by March 8, 1983 to be delivered to NATO headquarters -- and to the White House. Organized by the — Wortien’s International League for Peace and Freedom, STAR involves several public figures including Warren Beatty and Marlo Thomas. ‘‘The sheer terror of our situation, the escalating arms race, has caused me to say, Stop,” Woodward told reporters. ‘As an actress in the public limelight, I think it is crucial to add my voice to those who will stop the arms race.” : The STAR campaign reflects the snow- - balling U.S. peace movement which has. mobilized thousands of Americans. These - include scientists, physicians, lawyers and others determined to stop Reagan’s drive to _ It is now estimated that the various movements and initiatives involve more than 20,000 volunteer workers in a na- tion-wide crusade. Soviet freeze _ plan outlined . MOSCOW — Addressing the Congress of Trade Unions here March 17, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev outlined a major proposal to stem the arms race and told delegates the USSR will uni- laterally freeze its medium-range missiles east of the Urals. Brezhnev said, ‘‘to facilitate a just agreement on a major reduction of nuclear weapons by both sides in Europe ... (we) have taken a decision to uni- laterally introduce a moratorium on the deploy- ment of medium-range weapons in the European part of the USSR. We are freezing,” he said, ‘‘in both quantitative and qualitative terms, weapons _ of this kind already stationed here and are suspend- ing the replacement of old missiles known as the SS-4 and SS-5, by the new SS-20 missiles. “‘This moratorium will be force,’’ Brezhnev continued, ‘‘either until an agreement is reached with the U.S. to reduce, on the basis of parity and equal security, medium-range missiles designed for use in Europe, or until the time, if and when, U.S. leaders, disregarding the security of the na- tions, actually go over to practical preparations to _ deploy Pershing-2 and Cruise missiles in Europe.” The Soviet leader invited the United States and its western allies to respond to this initiative in forthcoming arms talks by constructive steps in 4 | spirit of good will. He said that if the two sides reached agreement on a moratorium, the USSR is prepared, as a sign of good will, to carry out 4 unilateral reduction of the number of its nuclear weapons in Europe as part of the future reduction agreed upon. ; However, Brezhnev warned, ‘‘we regard it as our duty to make the following perfectly clear: If the U.S. government and its NA TO allies . . . actu- ally carry out their plan to deploy hundreds of new American missiles in Europe capable of striking targets on Soviet territory, a different situation would arise. There would be an additional threat to the USSR and its allies from the U.S. This would compel us to take retaliatory steps that would put the other side, including the United States, in an analogous position: This should not be forgotten.” The Soviet leader emphasized the urgent need for a Soviet-American strategic arms limitatio® (SALT) and reduction agreement and pointed to the fact that introduction of new U.S. missiles it Europe will upset the strategic balance of weapons. He also said that development of new weapons of mass destruction now underway could ‘‘knock — the ground out from under limitation, reductio® and control agreements that are today still possi ble.”’ Brezhnev called on the U.S. to get down to serious talks with the USSR on SALT and, pend- ing their resumption, both sides agree not to open 4 new channel in arms build-up, not to deploy sea- based or ground-based missiles.