FOYLE MP John Hume has said that the 'irresponsibility 'of the British government in capitulating to the UWC strike in 1974 led to 30 years of tragedy in the North.

Mr. Hume was speaking on the 30th anniversary of the Ulster Workers Strike which brought down the power sharing Executive set up in 1974.

A recently released memo revealed that the then British Secretary of State, Merlyn Rees, did not support the Executive.
The memo said: ""While the Northern Ireland Executive remains in being, there can be no real movement. But the situation changes once they go" - this has been typed over with "either by resignation or by being sacked". 

Mr. Hume said: "It was very obvious at the time that Merlyn Rees did not support the existence of the Executive since they allowed the UWC strike to succeed.

"But it is still astonishing that the Secretary of State at the time should have been working on the principle that it was better to allow the Executive to collapse than to confront the strikers.

"They simply stood aside and allowed the workers council strike run by paramilitary organisations to succeed."

Mr. Hume, who was Minister of Commerce in the 1974 Executive, said that the 'irresponsibility' as he described it was all the more tragic in that a lot of suffering and tragedy could have been avoided.

He said: "You cannot help but wonder how many lives might have been saved if the Executive had survived.

"It is all the more tragic when 30 years later the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement are almost identical to the institutions of the Sunningdale Agreement.

"The attitude that prevailed in the British government in 1974 was one where they did not want to be involved in the affairs of the North.

"The price we paid for that sort of irresponsibility was immense."

The UWC strike in may 1974 brought down the power sharing executive set up after the Sunningdale Agreement.

The strikers were able to bring the North to a standstill by cutting off power using the industrial might of the electricity workers.

During the 14 days of the strike there were widespread reports of intimidation and threats.

Road blocks were manned by masked loyalist paramilitaries and people were prevented from going to work.

Things deteriorated when petrol supplies began to run out and the Executive was powerless to take any action.

Many commentators looking back on the strike believe that support within the Protestant community increased after it became obvious that the British government through the Northern Ireland Office was not going to stand up to the strikers.

In Derry the strike had little support and initially made little impact on the daily lives of the people.

However, as the strike progressed the power cuts that were widespread across the North began to bite.

More and more the normal life of the city was brought to a standstill as power was cut for longer periods.

At times there were reports of power cuts lasting up to ten hours at a time.

The situation worsened when workers at Coolkeeragh Power Station voted to support the strike.

Due to the hardship caused by the power cuts communities resorted to measures to look after the vulnerable with some communities establishing food kitchens.

Eventually the British army was sent in to man petrol stations but their presence was seen by many people as being too little too late.

As the strike progressed the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson made a televised address in which he caused outrage by referring to people here as 'spongers'.

Eventually the Executive collapsed in what was seen by loyalists as a great victory for them and life in the North slowly got back to normal.