Can Lcl. Fight Repression?

The Movement for a Socialist Republic has argued that the Free State Government began a deliberate assault on civil liberties with the hijacking of Frank Stage's funeral, and that thi: assault was developed and deepened through such things as: the banning of Provisional Sinn Fein's 1916 Commemmoration; the attempt to charge members of the Irish Republican Socialist Party with the Sallins train robbery and the use of vicious police brutality; the attack on "selfish" women by Minister for Finance Ryan, who blamed them for the economic crisis; Cooneyts description of the Union of Students in Ireland as "Sino-Hibernian (!) Marxist"; the mzzling of "Hibernia" and the main daily papers in the Murrays case.

Few people any longer believe that it was the killing of the British Ambassador, Ewart-Biggs, which motivated the declaration of a state of emergency and the passing of more repressive legislation. Opposition to the new lawa has come in the various forma ef strikes in Navan, Killala and Shannon, large-scale protests in the Presa, the widening of the crisis in the Labour Party, and condemnation of the legislation by the newly-formed Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICC), This bedy is of particular interest to the MSR, since we say that the only way to defeat the Government offensive is to launch @ mass civil liberties campaign. The question that must be asked is whether the ICCL can do this. The person mainly responsible for sett— ing this organisation up is its chair"man", Kader Asmal. Like all lawyers, he has a tendency to express himself in the private language of the court-room. This need not be a fault for some use this jargon to make fun of the legal system and others use it to try and explain in as clear a manner as possible how it actually works. There is no harm done provided an attempt is not made to mystify the subject under discussion. We can see that this is the trap Asmal falls into in his revealing "Hibernia" article (27/2/76) entitled "Case for a Council of Civil Liberties", and this is directly related to the way in which he seeks to draw attention away from the main civil rights issue - the Government assault on republicans - and avoids the need for charting a real strategy to put a halt to repression, MARXISM VS. MYSTIFICATION The first issue dealt with in the "Hibermnia" article is the question of whether the State has the right to defend its democratic institutions from subversive attack. A Marxist would begin to amswer this question - and Asmal is sympathetic to the Communist Party (CPI) - by asking whether in fact the Free State was democratic., Asmal thinks it more important to explain in complicated language the simple idea that any State will use extreme measures to defend itself: "Because of the particular congruence of events in both parts of Ireland at the present time, it needs to be said that. no state in the world, whatever its ideological (sic) complexion, would tolerate a fundamental threat to its very existence."

The only reason he is not interested in "law and order" is that this is being taken care of "by those who are charged by the electorate to do so", If by some chance Cosgrave and Cooney lost interest in building up repression, presumably Asmal would step into the breach! This, of course, would be if the State really was threatened, but"we are nowhere near such a situation in the South", A realistic look at the Free State, not just since the Frank Stagg hijacking, would reveal that it has depended for its very existence on the denial of a series of democratic rights since its foundation, the most basic being its attempt to impede the struggle for national emancipation. Only a fool would claim that a State which has used internment on a large scale in every decade of its existence has not been under some strong threat and that the crisis since 1968 did not provide further evidence of its rocky and illegitimate foundations.

FOOL'S PARADISE This, however, is what the chair"man” of the ICCL says, and that is why he makes a fuss over "less fashionable issues" like discrimination against itinerants, the mental health laws, and homosexuality. The ICCL must take up these and other issues if it is to function properly. It would be absurd to counterpose them to action on repressive legislation. But this is the type of fool's paradise the ICCL seems to live in, because at one of its first meetings a person who asked if anything was being done for the Murrays was told "Ne", because liberals (?) would be scared off. The meeting proceeded to set up a jungle of committees dealing with burning topics like

La emer 88 associates of the Irish Writers Cotraders overcharging on VAT. The real large organisations (Official Sinn Fein world eventually penetrated into the and the CPI?) and against individual deliberations: the flood of Government members. Even trade union representation repression led to many enquiries as to does not automatically mean anything what stand the ICCL was taking, and it unless the issues are discussed at branch came out with a statement opposing the and shop-floor level. legislation. Its only other action was To fight the repression it will be to hold a small public meeting in Trin- necessary to go to the streets, to watch ity College. every "trial", to publicise cases of MESS SOON RN pick up from its slow start it will only Some supporters of the ICCL probably slide slowly downhill to the level of its sympathise with these criticisms, One predecessor, the Irish Association for member of the executive, John Mulcahy, Civil Liberties. A spokesman for it orighas shown no reluctance to support the inally supported the new laws, but it Murrays. Yet what chance has the ICCL later wrote an “occasional letter to the of not becoming "a discreet lawyer- press" making some minor criticisms. This dominated group which makes polite rep- decline need not happen to the ICCL, but resentations to Ministers and writes an there is a great danger that it will. A occasional letter to the press" (to slow start is better than no start and quote Asmal) unless it is prepared to the repression will have to be fought c ni eighted in favour of 4 Se eee Further solidarity actions are being built by revolutionary socialists, including the Revolutionary Commmist League (French Section of the Fourth International). organise mass activity? Can it really do hard, this when membership costs £3, and its onstitution is weighted in faw SAVE THE MURRAYS!

WRITERS PROTEST DEATH SENTENCE Irish justice "follows the legal tradition and practice of Fascist states," write Jean Paul Sartre, _ Heinrich Boll(a Nobel Prize Winner), and 15,000 German people in a telegram from the West German Irish Solidarity Committee to the President of the Supreme Court, demanding "the immediate suspension of the death penalty for Marie and Noel Murray."

And a letter from members and proven guilt or innocence, since we do not accept that the State has a right to carry out any execution in the name of the people,” brutality, etc. If the ICCL does not

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"NO TO THE POLITICAL EXECUTION OF NOEL AND operative (Trish Times, Oct Sth) MARIE MURRAY", Oct Sth picket by "Comite states: "We are opposed to hanging Irlande' on offices of Aer Lingus in Paris. in principle, irrespective of any