Draft Agenda

Government. SESSION | THE POLITICS OF REPRESSION ‘Why the British Army cannot solve the Irish crisis; the repression against the minority; The British Government and Army props up sectarianism; Whitelawism and the perspectives of the British SESSION 2 THE THEORY & PRACTICE OF REPRESSION The theories of Brigadier Kitson; case histories of Army repression; the implications for the Labour Movement in Britain. Speakers invited from the Association for Legal Justice (Belfast), and AIL. SESSION 3 WILL TAKE THE FORM OF THREE SIMULTANEOUS WORKSHOPS WORKSHOP. 1 The Technology of Repression, Rubber Bullets, CS Gas and Torture. Speaker invited from British Society for Social responsibility in Science. :

WORKSHOP 2. The Implications of the Irish struggle for the British Labour Movement. The background, the British state and British imperialism, the British working class and the Irish struggle, repression in Itreland and Britain. Speakers from AIL.

WORKSHOP.3° Film Show and Discussion. Film:-"Bringing it All Back Home", discussten om the AIL and future actions, etc. Speakers from AIL. Venue of Workshops to be announced, Workshops subject to alteration. Central London AIL will be organising a social which will take place “after the end of Session 3; venue to-be announced. . Further information from: Anti-Internment League, 88 Roslyn Road, FREE IRELAND MAY 1973 PAGE FIVE

The Border Poll is only one of the more recent examples of the strategy of British Imperialism to divide and rule. In the case of Ireland, the particular form this strategy has taken is in fostering division of the Irish working class along religious lines, so that Ireland, North and South, can be exploited in the interests of British Imperialism.

The partition of Ireland which created the Northern Irelam statelet was brought about by Str James Cratg-first Premier of the Str Counties. _ acy of the Unionists would ‘be seriously threatened". As Captain Craig stated in the Commons a few months later -"We quite frankly admit that we cannot hold the nine counties". In other words the border was so placed that bearing in mind the’division of the working class along religious lines, the Unionists might govern as. large an area as was consistent with assured Unionist supremacy and still be economically viable.

THE BOUNDARY COMMISSION However, before the final seal of approval was bestowed by the British on the new Northern Ireland state, a few more 'tricks' were placed on those who signed the treaty on 6th December, 1921. Article 12 provided for the establishment of a Boundary Commission to determine "in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants as far as may be compatible with economic and geographical conditions, the boundaries between Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland". Michael Collins in a memo made immediately after the relevant interview and shortly before the treaty was signed AU Michael Collins THE BRITISH TERMS take a rational view of the limits of its own Jurisdiction and will reach a rational conclusion”. The Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Justice Feetham, proved not to be a lunatic and the Commission never reported. The state was a fait-accompli as the British had already armed the exclusively Protestant B Specials. It did not prove necessary for Craig, as he offered at Stormont on 7th October 1924, to place himself at the disposal of the Loyalists "as their 7 ae 4 3 chosen leader to defend any territory which we may consider has been unfairly transferred". Thus the Orange Statelet was born. A British soldier has told of his desertion to the South of Ireland after being ordered to shoot down children in Belfast.

In. a recent interview with the Limerick Leader, Gunner George Williams of the Third Royal Horse Artillery of the British Army described his arrest and subsequent escape to Ireland.

While the British Press has been so occupied with deploring the

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The Tale of Gunner Williams