The courageous stand of the McCartney sisters has helped lift the lid on the role of paramilitary organisations in attempting to control working class areas.

That IRA members murdered Robert McCartney is not in question. However it is also clear that the republican movement are attempting to conduct a damage limitation exercise over the issue.

Encouraging people to go to the police gives the appearance that the IRA are attempting to sort it out. But letting people hand themselves over and say nothing is also a way of ensuring that no one will ever be convicted of this killing.

The Socialist Party have given what assistance possible to the McCartneys to help them get justice and will continue to do so.

The problem is not just the methods of the IRA in areas like the Markets and Short Strand. The loyalist paramilitaries have long used intimidation and fear to try to maintain their grip over Protestant working class communities.

It is time for all the paramilitary organisations to disband completely. They do not offer "defence" to any community.

If sectarian attacks continue the best way to stop them is by mobilising the communities on both sides of the peace lines to co-operate in bringing them to a halt. If the people who have a vested interest in maintaining the sectarian division are put to the side, the vast majority of working class people would support joint action to stop the attacks.

There is a need for a policing service that is both effective and accountable. This can certainly not be provided by the paramilitaries. The PSNI do not fulfil this role either.

We need local based policing services that work alongside the communities and are under the democratic control of elected policing committees. This would be genuine community policing, not paramilitary style community "control".