Luther and the

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MARTIN Luther, whose quincentenary fell recently, cannot be divorced from the prevailing socio-economic conditions of the society in which he lived, and nor can the commemoration of his quincentenary be seen isolation from the contemporary politics of Europe.

The East German state is one of the most prosperous and loyal Soviet satellites and administered on strict Stalinist lines. It is also paradoxically one of the most cosmopolitan countries in Eastern Europe, with a church that is second only to Poland in its degree of independence and toleration of the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED).

No-one in the GDR can escape the fact that they are the inhabitants of the amaller and considerably less attractive half of a divided German nation. The ordinary people of East German feel above and apart from the rest of Eastern Europe as a result of their material prosperity and a close identification with West Germany.

The people of the GDR can receive with no difficulty West German television and radio broadcasts which have fostered a sense of latent nationalism.

This latent nationalism has its manifestation in the development of relationships between the governments of the two countries. The early and mid-seventies saw the ease and normalisation of exchanges and contacts between the two with the "Ostpolitik" of Willy Brandt matched by the increased references to schemes for the eventual reunification of the two Germanies in the speeches of party leader Eric Honecker.

The result of this meeting in March 1978 was the recognition of the church as a socialiste institution within East Germany, in return for an undertaking by the Church not to act as a political opposition.

Symptomatic of the new relations between church and state was a total reevaluation of the role of Martin Luther in the eyes of Party historians. Almost overnight Luther was transformed from being a "murderous, nationalistic counter-revolutionary" to being assigned a place amongst the "first progressive and authentic revolutionaries."

The period since 1978 has seen the heating up of the Cold BOMB Martin Luther War and its effects on the two Germanies. The scenario of West Germany as a nuclear battlefield in the event of superpower confrontation in Europe and the proposal to site Pershing missiles on West German soil has created the seedbed for one of the most active and numerous disarmament campaigns in Europe.

The activities of the West German movement could be followed by all East Germans and the official Party media gave fulsome coverage to the protests of the growing peace movement in the West. The oneI DON'T know what travel does for your mind these days, but television sometimes broadens mine.

After watching Gus Macdonald's World in Action special on the Protestants of Ulster (Thursday 9th), I felt more sympathy for those Socialist Organiser supporters who think we should. n't be so 'soft' on the Northern Ireland Protestants than I've ever felt when they've raised a hue and cry in the pages of SO.

The programme would also have broadened the minds of those on the Left who think that the Protestants can be ignored.

Maodonald said he would let the much misunderstood Northern Ireland Protestants speak for themselves. And that's what he did.

His people ranged from Lord Brookeborough, son of a longserving Northern Ireland prime minister of the same name, to Harry Murray, Harland and Wolff shipyard shop steward and Loyalist militant.

Brookeborough spoke proudly of his ancestors who were planters in Uister four centuries ago. •For us Irish history begins at By Frank Higgins southern legislation on divorce, abortion and so on.

Murray, an organiser of the 1974 Orange general strike, said much the same thing, but was more fierce in condemning the IRA and INLA.

A born-again Paisleyite Christian wanted to bring back hang: ing: it was 'right for any country" , he said, because it was 'scripturally based"

All of this was valuable as a portrait of Ireland's minority community. In a word, what they said was that they are 'British and won't in any circumstances agree to incorporation in a united Ireland because it would be Catholic-dominated. They saw the Catholics in Northern Ireland as a fifth column supporting the claim of a foreign state to take over their country. Power-sharing in Northern Ireland was a first instalment of a Southern and Catholic takeover.

Macdonald chose to 'let them speak for themselves' by just passively listening to them. It 272474 His socialism was confined to wingers put question tbat leftmatter of a ruling class conspiracy to divide the workers and rule them?

This was to set up a particularly stupid Aunt Sally and invite them, one after the other, to knock it down. • 20/20 Vision on Saturday was

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