Socialist Republic: Vol. 1 no. 4, 1978

poblacht shoisialach

SMAS

The British reaction to Amnesty International's report on torture in the six-: counties reaches the limits of hypocrisy even for the British, They banned TV comment on the report vhile mounting a propaganda campaign against Amnesty.

They stood logic on it s head to argue that the small number of cases investigated didn't prove torture - ignoring sthe-fact.that they refused Amnesty further. information and the simple point that to find conclusive proof of torture in only 78 cases suggests a truly massive and systematic background of torture. The farce was complete when Mason and his friends announced with straight faces that they were holding a private inquiry into themselves, The British aren't very convincing, After all they're two time losers, It wasn't so long ago that they were found guilty at Strasbourg and lied to the court, saying socialist rep ublic incorporating NIFREE CIIZenN NEWSPAPER OF PEOPLES DEMOCRACY AND MOVEMENT FOR A SOCIALIST REPUBLIC NO.4 VOL.f

H CASTLEREAGH

that they hadn't @ne it and they wouldn't do it again.

Most Irish workers see this and see Mason's inquiry as a whitewash but you have to read the fine print to see it's extent, The private inquiry will not examine evidence of police brutality at all, Allegations will be examined by the North's discredited Department of Public Prosecutions and they will present a general summary to the inquiry. The use of systematic torture in the North is a fact, It's a daily fact of life for those in the ghettoes, It's been established by a whole series of probes, documented statements and independent inquiries like the one in Dublin recently, all leading to the Amnesty ; report, We cantt afford to let the British off the hook with their private cover-up that doesn't even examine the question ‘of torture.

We must unite to press home our advantage, Our aim shouldn't be clouded by arguments with the British ahqut whether torture exists We should have the clear aim of forcing an end to torture through the following demands; * End seven-day detention, * Scrap the emergency laws.

* Close the torture centres, * Scrap the Diplock courts (80% of convictions before .these non-jury courts are are based on confessions made at the torture centres) * Release all those sentenced on confessions extracted by torture, * Political Status for the victims of this massive political repression held in the H-Blocks, Many organisations have made statements about the torture but getting them to co-operate in action will be difficult, The opportunities are there however, In Britain trade-unionists have at last begun to move against .the blatant censorship, There’ the real chance of a broader based sympathy in the future, In the South Fianna Fail’ lack of action on the report on brutality in the 26-counties mean they are condemned with the British since the British cover-wp is a carbon copy of Fianna Fail's, The Southern inquiry is so blatantly corrupt that it is concentrating on ways of reducing prisoners' rights, Whatever strong words the Fianna Fail government use to condemn the British over Castlereagh they too stand in the dock, Dublin has it's own Castlereaghs as the treatment of the IRSP

AMNESTY REPORT SPELLS OUT TORTURE |

In the last issue of Socialist Republic we discussed the formation of the Socialist Labour Party (SLP). We welcomed it's formation as a valuable contribution to the development of working-class action in the 26-counties. but warned that an over-emphasis on parliamentary activity and lack of clarity on the national of a real working-class party.

first policy conference, question represented dangers for the for mation Recently the SLP- had it's How has it developed and what direction has’ the conference mapped out?

REFORMISM

One of the problems with reformist parties like the Labour Party is the absence of effective party democracy.

The parliamentarians hold control, ignore conference decisions and define party policy to suit themselves, Regrettably, this tendency exists in the SLP, This was clear-.

ly shown by Dr, Noel Brown's pre-empting the conference discussion on the national question when he made a major personal statement on the issue, (For comment on the speech see inside pages). At the conference itself the leadership absented itself from major debates - their attitude suggesting they didn't.feel themselves bound by the conference decisions, Over 200 delegates attended the Dublin conference, debating policy documents on the oppression of women, agriculture,th: national question and the economy.

A large number of amendments were put to each document and with a crowded agenda debate tended to be become rushed at times, It became clear during the conference that this reflected defendants shows only too clearly, And it has it's own Long Kesh as the Amnesty report highlighted, Torture and repression are vital to defend the exploitative system maintained in this country by British imperialism and it's servants on both sides of the border, They are instruments of imperialist rule, Striking a blow against these instruments will be a major ‘advance on the road to ending British occupation, But to secure that advance we need unity. We need the united action of all those who oppose torture and repression, The efforts of TUCAR in the trade unions, Relatives' Action Cttees the Association for Legal Justice and all other antirepression bodies must be co-ordinated to build a massive campaign to shut down the torture centres and to finally sweep Mason and his tortures into the oblivion they deserve,

S.L.P CONFERENCE- A STEP BACKWARDS

political confusion and disagreement within the party.

This was most apparent in the debate on the national question and on the economy when the question of how the party should relate to socialist and non-socialist forces became a contentious issue,

NATIONAL QUESTION

An amendment to the document on the national question, calling for a constituent assembly over all 32-counties and deeming the call for contd. on page 4

BELFAST HOSPITAL ROW:

SECTARIAN ATTACK ON WORKERS RIGHTS

Loyalist politician Robert Bradford recently added another chapter to his book of attacks on the anti-Unionist workingclass when he attacked workers in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, using the 'privilege' Loyalist politician Robert Bradford recently added another chapter to his book of attacks on the anti-Unionist working class when he attacked workers in Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital, using the 'privilege' of the Westminster Parliament to name them as supporters of the IRA. This follows on from his campaign to force cutbacks in the West Belfast Poleglass housing scheme.

He got away with it then because of the lack of reaction from the anti-Unionist working-class, but this time it may be a different story.

Bradford's activities are very like those of American Senator Joe iicCarthy in the mid-50s. He established a reign of terror where anyone with left-wing sympathies was blacklisted and barred from all fors:s of employment, It's also reminiscent of the system of discrimination in the North - universal under Stormont and stilla dominant factor in industry - which kept socialists, republicans and the mass of ‘disloyal!

catholics on the dole. In fact one of the victories of the mass movement in the North has been to considerably weaken this system in the Royal and this is probably the main reason for Bradford's attack, in this attack on workers!

rights the British Labour govt. has been tail-ending the loyalists all along the line.

When Loyalists mounted a campaign about security they spent enormous sums erect-— ing a'security barrier' to keep local people out - while continuing to cut back money spent on hospital services and this in an area with the highest infant mortality rate in Western Furope. The British use of Parliamentary 'privilege' in tnis case points only in one direction -— against ine work-ers. The British use of parliamentary 'privilege' in this case points only in one direction - against the workers, When left-wing MP's named intelligence agent 'Colonel B'!

they were reprimanded and papers publishing the name were prosecuted. Yet Bradford is free to set up Irish workers and the recording of the names is rebroadcast by the media.

There has been a heartening reaction to this intimidation from the men involved and from their union,.Within ‘hy hours one man had gone to the RUC and challenged them to produce evidence against him, John Coul’hard of NUPE,, acting on behalf of the men, challenged Bradford to repeat the allegations and helped the men to issue a writ for slander, But these activities are not enough in themselves to beat back Bradford and T.U, officials have too weak a record in fighting repression to be left in charge of the fight. Rank and file activity on the streets is an urgent necessity, RVH workers have in the past organised to fight health cuts and unfair dismissals, They should take advantage of their own organisation and rank and file contacts through TUCAR (See P4&& 5) to force a declaration from their employers that they will - respect the democratic rights of the workers and that no worker will be vicimised for their. political beliefs, This sort of organisation could push the trade union movement into active opposition to repression and also prevent further erosion of the health services that Belfast workers depend on.

The British govt. and thé bosses are already attacking the workers and are ready to appease Bradford. The workers much depend on ~their own strength to defeat him.

IRISH TROOPS IN LEBANU

"We view the Arab question through a rifle's sight" that is the famous declaration of the Israeli general Abraham Yoffe some years ago. After expelling the Palestinians from their homeland in 1948, the Zionist regime at first considered the Palestinian problem merely a diplomatic nuisance, which its delegates to the United Nations had to deal with whenever an Arab state raised the refugee question, Since 1965, however, confronted with the armed and political struggle of the Palestinian national movement, the rulers of Israel have been determined to eradicate the problem which has grown into an international question - through the rifle's barrel. And it was this "final solution" that Israel sought to achieve by means of the recent "purifying operation" in Southern Lebanon.

BLITZKREIG

The 25,000 Israeli troops who invaded the Lebanon in March were supposed to be "retaliating" against "terrorist bases" after a Palestinian commando operation which resulted in the death of 44 people. The ferocity and ruthlessness of the Israeli troops soon showed that this claim was pure hypocrisy. Just one week after the invasion the number of refugees in the Lebanon was estimated by the United Nations at 265,000, not counting the 100,000 made homeless because of the Lebanese civil war in 1975-76, Far from making any effort to concentrare only on 'militey' targets, the Israelis made a special effort to hil refugee camyos, For the first ‘ime in the Middle Fiast the Israeli bombers dropped cluster bomb units which scatter shrapnel indiseriminately across a footballfield -sized area, The appalling results of this were clear from the newspaper reports and television reports of what happened to the affected areas, Fiven the United States govt., traditionally an unconditional backer of Israel, was forced to make criticisms of its 'blitzkrieg'. However, it was not concern for 'Human Rights' which motivated the U.S, administration in its subsequent proposal for the replacement of the Israeli's with a U.N, "peace-keeping! force, They realised quicker than the government in Tel Aviv that the invasion was not going to achieve its aim of - in Israeli Premier Pegin's words - "cutting off the evil arm" of the Palestinians.

Instead what had happened was : 1) the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO regrouped north of the Litani Piver ; 2) Israel was getting bogged down in a military commitment which could drag on indefinitely and fatally under mine it's ability to survive; 3) Israel was rapidly losing international sympathy and gaining the type ofunwelcome publicity the U.S. received during it's occupation of Viet Nam, Hence the setting up of a UN 'peace-keeping' force.

It's principal advantage from the imperialist point of view-is that it has a greater ability to present itself as neutral!

Just like the 'neutral' Pritish | troops who came onto the | streets of Pelfast and Derry | in 1969.to replace the 'extr- | eme! PUC and'defend!' the catholic ghettoes from Orange attacks, their real role has | gradually become apparent. | They have gone only to Lebanes territory and not to Israel a | where the blitzkrieg was | launched; they are only trying to disarm and demobilise the Palestinians; they are trying to rebuild a Mational Lebanese army in co-operation with the extreme vighl-wing Phalangists, in order to put down the j Palestinia ‘esistance, i wilt All of this means that it is the duty of all anti-imperialist organisations in this country to demand the withdrawl of Irish troops from Lebanen and opposition to any UN involvement there, Not alone does the 26-county regime collaboration with i.aperialism in this country in order to frustrate the desire of the Irish for national

DENIS MURPHY —

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

P.D. member Denis Murphy is due to come to trial at the end As this paper is being produced it is becoming clearer and clearer that the British intend a major piece of political victof June, " imisation, Denis was arrested in March 1977 after a massive army raid on the Dermott Hill estate where he lives.

He was Subsequently charged with four seperate arms and documents offences. The number of charges in themselves show a political decision by the RUC to aim for the highest possible sentence, This aim is even more clearly shown in the most serious charge, 'posession of a weapon with intent to endanger life.' This charge is normally put when someone is captured in personal posession of a weapon which v N independence but it is now helping Israel to crush the Palestinian national resistance, There can be no ambiguity on this question. We say:

IRISH TROOPS OUT OF

LEBANON!

SUPPORT THE STRUGGLE:

OF THE PALESTINIAN

PEOPLE!

DEFEND THE PLO!

is loaded and ready to fire, The evidence in Denis! case is that he did not have the weapons on his person and that they were unloaded and 'broken down! - yet the judiciary have accepted that this charge go forward as the central element of the Trial, We see this as clear evidence of victimisation, But then is nothing unusual in this victimisation,

CONTINUED ON PAGE

3

CONTRACEPTION ACTION

PROGRAMME (0112 covrractrrion Now No restrictive legisation on Contraception.

This was the call made from the platform of a public me.ting on Contraception in Dublin South East on the 24th May.

The meeting was one of a number of different activities organised in Dublin in the past few months by the Contraception Action Progra mme and the S.L.P.. The following article deals with aspects of the proposed legislation and suggests ways in which a national campaign against any restriction in the distribution of contraceptives can be built.

THE BISHOPS

On the 4th of April Catholic Bishops made a major statement cr Contraceptive laws. The media have presented this as an increasing Liberalisation begause they heve graciously accepted that the state no longer has to follow their dictates in freming laws. In fact this is sheer dishonesty and hypocricy by the bishops. The constant pressure being maintained by them is quite clearly designed to influence the forthcoming legislation. Their pgsition must be seen for the reachionary one that it is. They say: "the present. legal situation regarding contracept ives is indeed unsatisfactory.

Contraceptives can now be imported without legal restriction.

They can now be obtained in many places by young unmarricd people: They are in favour of "some mirinum amending legislation} which they say"would bring about a better situation than we now have: Its clear from this that they want the strictest possible controls placed on the distribution of contraceptives and especially a law making them available only to married couples. Minister for Health Haughey has nothing to say about the bishops campaign. His silencs demonstrates clearly that the Government is not prepared to confront the Catholic hierarchy on the issue.

A RIGHT EOR ALL

A law making contraceptives available only to married couples would have the most reactionary effects.. In effect it would be an 1 ultimatum to all unmarried people especially the youth of the country. They would either have to live their lives according to the rigid moral ecde established by the bishops or suffer all the social ills of illegitimacy backstreet abortions and women left abandoned to bring up children. By its very nature such legislation would produce a situation whereoy the distribution cf contracectives even to married people woulc. be limited.

‘As shown from countries in the past it would be impossible to operate and would put severe psychological pressure on' women to prove that they are merried.

The passing of such a law would have effects in areas well cutside the immediate. issue cf contraception.:-It would meen that the Cathcli: hierarchy maintained maintained a dominant position in the 2€ county state.

It would heve the effect of entvenching some of the most reactionary view prevelent in Ireland on sexvalicy and pertia ITE]

SUBSCRIPTIONS

cularly Female sexuality. The official view would depict sex not as a nevurel relationship between people but as a rigidly controled meathod of producing children. This would entrench the idea of women as mainly child bearers without the right to an independent life, ,and would weaken the fight for womens rights te control their fertility. It would strengthen the laws discriminating ageinst women and confirming their secondry position in society and push back the fight for equal pay and equal opportunities.

NATIONAL. CAMPAIGN

If we are to succeed in pre.

vembing the introduction of restrictive legislation a national campaign against any such measures and for contraception for all who seek it must be built now. Ihe Contraception Action Programme has the ability of drawing together large numbers of people from wouens, politica] and trade union organisations, as well as people outside.

Support should be sought from as many as possible, and tr ensure that.the:- resolutions passed by tradeunion vodies and others are put into oractice in a real way. C.A.P should send a deputation to visit such bodies. The Labour Party, the ICTU, the SLP and end exreutive committees of all the unions, and all. organisatd -ions who are pledged on paper to fighting for contraception facilities to be availeble to all who seek them must be approached for financial, political, and organisational support. This is a vital requirement to building a mass national campaign. C.A.P. should alsc call for a national. demonstration and rally in September or early autumn before the bill is to be intrcduced in the Dail.

Propaganda through leaflets, stickers, posters etc is important. We shovld siso discuss ways of giving the campaign a feminist dimension and bring to the fore the specific needs of women. Particular consider ation must be given to involving students in third level education and youth in the campaign. for the sasic democratic right to contraception for all is a vital part of the fight to end Church domination and contrel over cur lives.

A campaszn that can wir such a demand threugh a national mass mobilisation would te a big ctep forward for Irish women.

The struggle From now on subscriptions to the SCCIALIST REPUBLIC internationally and in the twenty-six counties will be dealt swith from our Dublin office. Subscriptions to Britain and in the six counties will be dealt with by our Belfast Office, See addresses on page eight.

The North has one of the worsthousing records in Europe and the recent cuts in Belfast's Poleglass housing scheme show that it's not likely to get any better, But life for those housed in one of the ‘instant slums!

thrown up by the housing executive is no picnic, This was clearly demonstrated by the recent massive protests by the residents of Divis Flats in which they called for the immediate - demolition, of the Flats, The intensity of these shocking housing conditions was tragically illustrated by the suicide of 41-year-old Rosaleen Anne Nolan, found hanging inthe closet of her Turf Lodge flat on the 2hth of May. Mrs Nolan had repeatedly asked to be re-housed, She was responsible for a one parent family, had a mentally handicapped daughter and one girl at school and was herself an epileptic. The condition of the flat was reported as follows: "The walls were often soaked when the toilet of the flat above overflowed and a broken drain in the front garden left a constant pool at her door which carried the dank and dirty water into her hall," The conditions for this tragic death could have occurred in many parts of Ireland: or Britain, But there is one

DEBT ACT CLAIMS VICTIM

Women attending the C.A.P. public meeting in Ballyfermot neighborhood centre element in Mr’s Nolan's death which is unique to the sixcounties, For some time before her death the family's standard of living had been pushed below the poverty line by the draconian 'Payment for Debt Act', which allows the atate to take money om social security payments, See letter on back page.)

Mrs Nolan lived solely on the meagre supp lementary benefits payments she recieved, She fell behind with her rent, which meant that she came to the attention of the N.I. Office's Benefits Allocations Branch - a misnomer ifthere ever was one, for the dept exists to take away money from people in debt, Mrs Nolan: was never brought before any court or found guilty of any crime, but she was killed by a state bureaucracy that exists to punish the working-class for the 'crime!' of poverty. This death comes as directly from imperialist exploitation as does British Army brutality. Any successful united action against imperialism must include action on these day-to-day struggles for survival by the working-class. The Divis Flats residents have shown that such a mobilisation is possible, It's up to the political parties, women's and community groups to build on this,

DEFEND _DENIS_MURPHY

arr | CONTINUED FROM PAGE TWoO., It's normal for anti-imperialists to be charged with the most serious offences and recieve the maximum sentences, What is unique about Denis! case is that he is basing his defence at the trial on the right of antiunionists, under attack by both state forces and loyalist paramilitaries, to hold arms in their own defence, We in P.D./M.S.R. unreservidly support that right and will be active in ee a the campaign iff support of Comrade Murphy. Meanwhile the petition: in support of Denis has drawn support both nationally and internationally, Signatories include; The members and supporters of Comite Irlande in Paris, the members of the panel of the International Tribunal held in Dublin, prominent trade unionists and supporters of civil liberties in the South, and over 200 Irish emigres in Coventry.

A step backwards ~* CONTd FROM PAGE | a United Ireland a progressr one was defeated, In opposition a motion reading ‘A united capitalist Ireland would be reactionary even if were possible since it would require the smashing of one section of the working-class, We must therefore make it clear that the only united Ireland we want is a united socialist Ireland.' Socialist Republic believes that this decision represents a step backwards for the SLP, It sounds like a very socialist and ieft-wing position but in practice it means that their support for the central political issue in the struggle is ambiguous and conditional, If a united Treland not controlled by the socialists would automatically be reactionary why do the Pritish oppose it so determinedly? How are we to win to a Worker's Republic if socialists aren't to the forefront in calling for national independence and the right of Iseland to selfdetermination? Unfortunately things didn't improve in the debate on activity. Motions calling for united activity with "all forces prepared to fight repression" were defeated, The conferen- Platform Lessons of Strathearn Audio: xo 6co. sovution To UNEMPLOYMENT news for the bosses! 2 m7 at S.L.P. ce did agree to work for a united front against repression, but only with "workingclass, anti-imperialist forces", Leaving aside the considerable problem of who defines which organisations fit this definition, this means that in effect the SLP will only engage in united anti-repression work if it approves of the other groups involved, For example: would the GLP have refused to support the Murray Defence Campaign because the Liberal editor of *dibernia' supported it? Do they not support the Independent inquiry into brutality (reported elsewhere in this issue) because a catholic priest helped organise it?

Tt's clear from the debate that the majority of the delegates lacked the experience to force such problems and that some at least are committed to a politically sectarian position of abstention from any real work in these areas, PD/MSR believe in the necessity of broad based unity against repression, We believe that it is only in action and in debate with other forces that the socialist programme can win the support of Irish workers, A refusal to carry out such work amounts to a failure to fight for the socialist programme, conference The Business Location File zine which is described as reporting on "industrial development and investment" or in plain language, where a capitalist can make a quick million or two - has been singing x the praises of Northern Irish workers in its latest issue, Workers in the 6 counties it claims "work harder to compensate for the bad image which is painted of their province."

Airey Neave was also striking the same note a couple of weeks ago when he compared the leaping productivity of workers in the workers, ne sceptical people t think that al! this talk of productivity is all very well, but what about all” those businesses that have been affected by the "troubles" all the investment which went elsewhere as the Provos bombs and incendiaries reduced industry and commerce te rubble? Well, the same magazine has done a survey and it seems that 21% of firms here have never suffered as a result of the troubles, All in all it appears that the 6-Cos, is something of a bosses paradise, Further proof of this has been provided by the Dept, of Manpower who have just released the April unemployment figures, These indicate that there ‘are some 64,270 people ‘orth to the falling productivity levels of British without jobs in the 6-Cos, at present - that's ll.8 % of the working population and some 1,475 of these are Fiaster school-leavers, With almost 2 % unemployment the North has the highest percentage of workleses of all the regions of the PEC, So its certainly no paradise for the worker and particularly for the catholic worker, The sectarian character of the 6-Counties' statelet has always ensured that catholic workers have borne the brunt of unemployment and that the better-paid, skilled jobs have been almost exclusively reserved for protestant workers, The April unemployment statistics tell the same old story the highest unemployment levels are all catholic districts Strabane 27.5%

ECONOMY

The same approach was evidentin the debate around the document on the economy, A motion for building a broad current in the unions around issues such as equal pay, union democracy, support for wea weaker sectors, etc was defeated, One reason was because this would mean the involvement of at least some trade union officials, The opposing proposal was 'for atrank and file' movement whose only policy would be 'more militancy’. In practice this means the exclusion of broader political issues from work in the trade unions. A good example has been the 'New Liberty' group in the Irish Transport and General Workers! Union (ITGWU). It's +membership was united in nothing but strident criticism of the bureaucracy for not being militant enough and would split if broad political issues were raised, It has not been hard for the union leadership to isolate th them by making slightly more militant speeches,

WOMEN

The debate on women's oppression was perhaps the most successful of the conny Newry 23.5%, Cookstown 22.9%, Dungannon 21.2%, Derry 17%. For heads of households the facts are even more dramatic, the catholic ghettoes of Belfast : Ballymurphy 52%, Clonard 46%, Falls 45%, New Lodge 45%, Short Strand 39%. Such figures haven't really changed all that much from the old days of Stormont when the Unionist bosses made no secret of their efforts to exclude catholics from skilled jobs and ensure that catholic workers paid dearly for their opposition to Orange rule in the 6- Counties, rule discrimination is supposed to have ended, a nasty horror from the past, Promises to this effect were heaped on the anti-unionist opulation after the suspen.

ton of Stormont in 1972. And if private employers could not be persuaded to recruit catholic labour then the” Firitish state would itself provide the jobs, Many people thought that the British were making good their promises when the Kennedy Way industrial estate was opened Take But under direct LP. ference (helped by the fact that women members are able to organise independently ) but even here there were weaknesses, The party did agree to call for free abortion on demand, but unfortunately there was no debate on the more immediately important issues of campaigning to: change the laws relating to contraception in the South or fight to win effective equal pay. A motion involving the SLP in broad areas of the women's movement was passed in opposition to a motion calling for a working class women's movement, This is especially significant.

Tt's the only major area in which the 'workers only' line was defeated, It seems that some delegates had detailed experience of work in this area and were able to counterpose reality to sterile sloganising.

OPTIMISM

Some of the decisions taken at the conference represent a step backwards for the SLP, They cut the party off from broad-based united action by opposing it to 'workers only' movemen.s which don't exist, In reality this is a policy for doing nothing. And yet action is a necessity if the SLP is to in Andersonstown offering jobs to the hardpressed catholic workers of West Belfast, With state-managed firms like Strathearn Audio and so--called co-operatives like Antrim Crystal, both largely government financed, a brighter future seemed assured for the Falls Poad unemployed, Though firms like Strathearn never employed more than a few hundred workers there were high hopes that the number of firms and the number of jobs would multiply before long. Thus even the paper of the West Belfast Workers Action Council (set up last year around the strike for union recognition at Fiastwoods*) could carry an article which talked of “a healthy future" for Sirathearn and described the firm as"a shining example to industry anywhere", The same article heaped praise on the Strathearn management stating that it aimed to make Strathearn "into the best! if not the biggest of its kind anvwhere in the world.", That was only last summer just just a few months later hundreds of workers,more than three-quarters of ‘the Matt Merrigan of S.L.P,. gain roots in the workingclass and contribute to Irish socialism, Without activity by the members the leadership will come more -and more to determine party policy.and to turn the party into an electoral-machine,.

But there is still room for optimism abdut the SLP's future, There are plenty of signs of a new ferment in the Irish working-class and.without doubt all the issues discussed atthe conference will be the focus of debate and action both North and South, We have no doubt thatSLP members will be.involved in this activity and will define their activity in relation to tt, It's worth remembering that the SLP is still in advance of other organisations like the Communist Party and Sinn Fein - the Worker's Party, The standing ovation given to Mrs, Green of the Relatives Action Committee, the motions in support of the H-Block prisoners and political status and the condemnation of the of Brian Maguire - :se- show that the mem-~ are determined to fight ssion and give us hope e future contribution of LP to the socialist aent, workforce were made redundant , and today the total closure of the plant seems only a matter of time, Just as the high hopes of Strathearn have been dashed so too the promises o the direct rule administration have also come to nought, Interviewed on television a few weeks ago, Denis Faulker (brother of the archbigot Faulker) Chairman of the Northern Ireland Dev-elopment Authority, the organisation charged -with bringing new jobs to the North,admitted that he had no plans for siteing any new industry in West Belfast. And what goes for West Belfast goes for all the nationalist districts of the 6 -counties, The major lesson which anti-unionist workers can draw from the never-changing monthly unemployment figures, the failure of Strathern and other pink elephants, is that there can be no solution to the problem of Catholic unemployment within the context of a partitioned Ireland, The only response which the leader ship of the Northern trade unions has made is the pathetic 'Better Life For All' campaign a Noel Brown & Republicanism Shortly before the Socialist Labour Party met to discuss policy on the Nationalist Question, Dr.Noel Browne preempted discussion within the party. In a major speech he launched a massive attack on republicanism and by implication on the central position of the National Question, "There are three strands to Irish republicanism ," said Dr.Browne, "Its conservatism, its authoritarianism and its callous indifference about taking human life", He illustrated this by examples taken from the history of the_pro-imperialist parties - internment under De Valera and the repressive laws passed by Fine Gael, He said that Connolly was ' grieviously mistaken in believing that he could have stemmed those nonsocialist and anti-socialists whom he joined in 1916 in their garderene rush to the flesh pots of the new Irish republican bourgeois classridden society.' He went on to suggest that the struggle in the North was a war between conflicting religiouns and to say that the only way to peaceful unity was to ‘create a secular pluralist society in the Republic! and that this would lead to a socialist society. He concluded, "Irish republicanism bears no relationship whatever to any kind of social democracy or socialism that I know of", In the debate that followed our position was given by Brendan Kelly of the MSR in a letter to the Irish Times, On the idea that Connolly had liquidated the socialist tradition in 1916 he said, " What a flippent, shameful and ill-considered opinion!

It was not Connolly who lowered the socialist standard but the leaders of the labour movement who came after him", He went on to say that workers had an instinctive belief that the severity of their social ills was caused by imperialist domination. Unless socialists showed at least as much common sense they would never have the chance to elaborate a consistent anti-imperialist socialist philosophy. He further argued that socialists who take up the national question do not inevitably end up as republicans and gave as an example a debate between Republican News and Socialist Republic as the correct way to put forward the alternative in a constructive but principled manner, Socialist Republic believes that Dr. Browne's speech was an illogical and intemperate slander of republicanism, The same logic could be used to condemn socialism by examining the history of the Irish labour party, of which Dr,Browne was a member for many years, We totally oppose any "socialist ‘condemnation of republicanism which is used by socialists to dodge the responsibility of opposing imperialism, This said, the speech has opened up a debate on the national question both inside and outside the SLB We see the debate inside the SLP as being of crucial importance for the future of that party and hope to contribute to it, Outside the SLP all sections of the labour movement have been drawn into debate, even the wily leadership of Sinn Fein - the workers! party.

We see this as a discussion of major importance and we will continue to contribute to it. Mass pickets at Fastwoods, Belfast 1977 which .viuses to challange the sectarian character of the Northern Trish -statelet which itself guarantees that the most exploited and oppressed section of the population will always remain the lot of the Catholic workers, ' That the trade union leadership have been able to get away with this is due in large part to the failure of antiunionist workers to organise inside the unions around the defense of their democratic right to work, good housing and social amenities and against the structural exclusion of Catholic workers from the skilled workforce, Unionisatior is the first step ‘ta an effective fightback against the deprivation which afflicts them, It would lay the basis for a campaign of independent working-class action against unemployment and to improve our standard of living. Such a campaign would aim to mobilise the strength of the entire Irish Trade Union movement in this battle in the sure knowledge ‘that any serious fight for full employmentin the anti-unionist ghettoes will aim for an all- Ireland solution,

CONNOLLY

A QUESTION

OF CULTURE

. The James Connolly Society held it's third meeting of the present session in the leke Glen Hotel. Belfast on Monday T7th Avril. one of the meeting was "Tse need for an Irish Weeking- Class Culture} end, like the first two meetings, ("T968-78, Ten Years after the Civil Rights Marches} aod"Imperialism, Way the Frits ere here") there wes a very good ettemience, each meeting averaging about 5C pesple.

The C.lture debate was cpened by a speaker from toc Jaelie Community on tre Shawr Rord, Beivast, who gave a short history of the gevelopment of the Community arid schoul since it's irsention in the late I¢hO's.

A genera]. theme ~cthich ran Lhrough this cortribition end su: sequent ones was the sy wbic suppress Lo: and milture % 4 ism. The Aker notcé that .evetsing this yp ocess would take nany wenerabions. i language riale- A speaker frou the "Black } : " obraased yoap stressed the impertan:e of an Irish Wo-king Class Culture. Tie xh : 6 theeugh “Street Th > ina visual marmer, reise people's politsen? SFarerNs to a certaia extent, as had heppeved with the the Fubitee Show. cis Stvtf Tha third speaker, ,Jcan Kelly of the Socielist Workers Ter.iency, spoke cf the effects Bourgeois Culture nas on the working elass through T.V. Radio ect.

This was followed by a lively discussioe from the sttendance ab.thea meeting. The meetings so far show clearly that the Society has succeeded in it's function of provicing a forms for €iscussion among committed anti-inperial-_ ists, and as the subjects in this session are particularly r-levant to the present struggle, there has been a gradual increase-in the mmber of non-aligned individuals iu atterdance at the meetings.

HELP!

The Connolly Society has run into difficulties since the meeting reported above.

The management of the Lake Glen Hotel have refused to allow it to hold any more meetings there and it has had considerable difficulty in finding an alternative ‘hall, It has held a meeting on Loyalism in the Connolly bookshop, but this holds only a fraction of the audiences attending the earlier meetings. Readers in Belfast can help by checking with local organisations to-. see if a hall can be made available for the Society.

CONTd FROM PAGE | a United Ireland a progressr one was defeated, In opposition a motion reading 'A united capitalist Ireland would be reactionary even if were possible since it would require the smashing of one section of the working-class, We must therefore make it clear that the only united Ireland we want is a united socialist Ireland,' Socialist Republic believes that this decision represents a step backwards for the SLE, It sounds like a very socialist and left-wing position but in practice it means that their support for the central political issue in the struggle is ambiguous and conditional. If a united Ireland not controlled by the socialists would automatically be reactionary why do the Pritish oppose it so determinedly? How are we to win to a Worker's Republic if socialists aren't to the forefront in calling for national independence and the right of Ireland to selfdeter mination? Unfortunately things didn't improve in the debate on activity. Motions calling for united activity with "allforces prepared to fight repression" were defeated, The conferen- Platform ce did agree to work for a united front against repression, but only with "workingclass, anti-imperialist forces", Leaving aside the considerable problem of who defines which organisations fit this definition, this means that in effect the SLP will only engage in united anti-repression work if it approves of the other groups involved, For example: would the SDLP have refused to support the Murray Defence Campaign because the Liberal editor of *dibernia' supported it? Do they not support the Independent inquiry into brutality (reported elsewhere in this issue) because a catholic priest helped organise it?

It's clear from the debate that the majority of the delegates lacked the experience to force such problems and that some at least are committed to a politically sectarian position of abstention from any real work in these areas, PD/MSR believe in the necessity of broad based unity against repression, We believe that it is only in action and in debate with other forces that the socialist programme can win the support of Irish workers.

A refusal to carry outsuch work amounts to a failure to fight for the socialist programme, at S.L.P. conference

ECONOMY

The same approach was evidentin the debate around the document on the economy. A motion for building a broad current in the unions around issues such as equal pay, union democracy, support for wea weaker sectors, etc was defeated, One reason was because this would mean the involvement of at least some trade union officials, The opposing proposal was 'for a'rank and file! movement whose only policy would be 'more militancy’. In practice this means the exclusion of broader political issues from work in the trade unions, A good example has been the 'New Liberty’ group in the Irish Transport and General Workers! Union (ITGWU). It's :membership was united in nothing but strident criticism of the bureaucracy for not being militant enough and would split if broad political issues were raised.

It- has not been hard for the union leadership to isolate th them by making slightly more militant speeches,

WOMEN

The debate on women's oppression was perhaps the most successful of the con-

-CONFE

ference (helped by the fact that women members are able to organise independently ) but even here there were weaknesses, The party did agree to call for free abortion on demand, but unfortunately there was no debate on the more immediately important issues of campaigning to: change the laws relating to contraception in the South or fight to win effective equal pay. A motion involving the SLP in broad areas of the women's movement was passed in opposition to a motion calling for a working class women's movement, This is especially significant.

It's the only major area in which the 'workers only! line was defeated, It seems that some delegates had detailed experience of work in this area and were able to counterpose reality to sterile sloganising.

OPTIMISM

Some of the decisions taken at the conference represent a step backwards for the SLP, They cut the party off from broad-based united action by opposing it to ‘workers only' movemems which don't exist, In reality this is a policy for doing nothing. And yet action is a necessity if the SLP is to Lessons of Strathearn Audio: xo 6co. souution Good news for the bosses!

2 magazine which is described jevelopment and investment" or The Business Location File as reporting on "industrial in plain language, where a capitalist can make a quick million or two - has been singing the praises of Northern Irish workers in its latest issue, Workers in the 6 counties it claims "work harder to compensate for the bad image which is painted of their province," Airey Neave was also striking the same note a couple of weeks ago when he compared the leaping productivity of workers in the North to the falling productivity levels of British workers, Some sceptical people might think that al! this talk of productivity is all very well, but what about all those businesses that have been affected by the "troubles" all the investment which went elsewhere as the Provos bombs and incendiaries reduced industry and commerce to rubble? Well, the same magazine has done a survey and it seems that 81% of firms here have never suffered as a result of the troubles, All in all it appears that the 6-Cos, is something of a bosses paradise, Further proof of this has been provided by the Dept.

of Manpower who have just released the April unemployment figures, These indicate that there ‘are some 64,270 people without jobs in the 6-Cos, at present ~ that's 11.8 @ of the working population and some 1,475 of these are Fiaster school-leavers, With almost l2 % unemployment the North has the highest percentage of workless of all the regions of the FEC, So its certainly no paradise for the worker and particularly for the catholic worker, The sectarian character of the 6-Counties! statelet has always ensured that catholic workers have borne the brunt of unemployment and that the better-paid, skilled jobs have been almost exclusively reserved for protestant workers, The April unemployment statistics tell the same old story the highest unemployment levels are all catholic district : Strabane 27.5% Newry 23.5%, Cookstown 22.9%, Dungannon 21,2%, Derry 17%, For heads of households the facts are even more dramatic, Take the catholic ghettoes of Belfast : Ballymurphy 52%, Clonard 46%, Falls 45%, New Lodge 45%, Short Strand 39%. Such figures haven't really changed all that much from the old days of Stormont when the Unionist bosses made no secret of their efforts to exclude catholics from skilled jobs and ensure that catholic workers paid dearly for their opposition to Orange rule in the 6- Counties, But under direct rule discrimination is supposed to have ended, a nasty horror from the past, Promises to this effect were heaped on the anti-unionist opulation after the suspen ton of Stormont in 1972. And if private employers could not be persuaded to recruit catholic labour then the FRritish state would itself provide the jobs, Many people thought that the British were making good their promises when the Kennedy Way industrial estate was opened in Andersonstown offering jobs to the hardpressed catholic workers of West Belfast, With state-managed firms like Strathearn Audio and so--called co-operatives like Antrim Crystal, both largely gover-ment financed, a brighter future seemed assured for the Falls Poad unemployed, Though firms like Strathearn never employed more than a few hundred workers there were high hopes that the number of firms and the number of jobs would multiply before long. Thus even the paper of the West Belfast Workers Action Council (set up last year around the strike for union recognition at Fiastwoods’) could carry an article which talked of "a healthy future" for Strathearn and described the firm as"a shining example to industry anywhere", The same article heaped praise on the Strathearn management stating that it aimed to make Stratheatn "into the best"! if not the biggest of its kind anvwhere in the world.", That was only last summer just just a few months later hundreds of workers,more than three-quarters of ‘the

‘Matt Merrigan of S.L.P,.

gain roots in -+he workingclass and contribute to Irish socialism. Without activity by the members the leadership will come more -and more to determine party policy.and to turn the party into an electoral-machine, But there is still room for optimism abdut the SLP's future, There are plenty of signs of a new ferment in the Irish working-class and.without doubt all the issues discussed atthe conference will be the focus of debate and action both North and South, We have no doubt that SLP members will be.involved in this activity and will define their activity in relation to tt, It's worth remembering that the SLP is still in advance of other organisations like the Communist Party and Sinn Fein - the Worker's Party, The standing ovation given to Mrs.Green of the Relatives Action Committee, the motions in support of the H-Block prisoners and political status and the condemnation of the of Brian Maguire - ‘se-show that the memare determined to fight ssion and give us hope e future contribution of LP to the socialist nent,

TO UNEMPLOYMENT

workforce were made reduns dant , and today the total closure of the plant seems only a matter of time, Just as the high hopes of Strathearn have been dashed so too the promises o the direct rule administration have also come to nought, Interviewed on television a few weeks ago, Denis Faulker (brother of the archbigot Faulker) Chairman of the Northern Ireland Dev-elopment Authority, the organisation charged -with bringing new jobs to the North,admitted that he had no plans for siteing any new industry in West Belfast, And what goes for West Belfast goes for all the nationalist districts of the 6 -counties, The major lesson which anti-unionist workers can draw from the never-changing monthly unemployment figures, the failure of Strathern and other pink elephants, is that there can be no solution to the problem of Catholic unemployment within the context of a partitioned Ireland, The only response which the leader ship of the Northern trade unions has made is the pathetic 'Better Life For All' campaign nn a Noel Brown & Republicanism Shortly before the Socialist Labour Party met to discuss policy on the Nationalist Question, Dr.Noel Browne preempted discussion within the party. In a major speech he launched a massive attack on republicanism and by implication on the central position of the National Question, "There are three strands to Irish republicanism, " said Dr.Browne, "Its, conservatism, its authoritarianism and its callous indifference about taking human life", He illustrated this by examples taken from the history of the_pro-imperialist parties - internment under De Valera and the repressive laws passed by Fine Gael, He said that Connolly was ' grieviously mistaken in believing that he could have stemmed those nonsocialist and anti-socialists whom he joined in 1916 in their garderene rush to the flesh pots of the new Irish republican bourgeois class-— ridden society.' He went on to suggest that the struggle in the North was a war between conflicting religiouns and to say that the only way to peaceful unity was to ‘create a secular pluralist society in the Republic! and that this would lead to a socialist society, He concluded, "Irish republicanism bears no relationship whatever to any kind of social democracy or socialism that I know of", In the debate that followed our position was given by Brendan Kelly of the MSR in a letter to the Irish Times, On the idea that Connolly had liquidated the socialist tradition in 1916 he said, " What a flippent, shameful and ill- considered opinion!

It was not Connolly who lowered the socialist standard but the leaders of the labour movement who came after him", He went on to say that workers had an instinctive belief that the severity of their social ills was caused by imperialist domination, Unless socialists showed at least as much common sense they would never have the chance to elaborate a consistent anti-imperialist socialist philosophy. He further argued that socialists who take up the national question do not inevitably end up as republicans and gave as an example a debate between Republican News and Socialist Republic as the correct way to put forward the alternative in a constructive but principled manner. Socialist Republic believes that Dr, Browne's speech was an illogical and intemperate slander of republicanism, The same logic could be used to condemn socialism by examining the history of the Irish labour party, of which Dr,Browne was a member for many years, We totally oppose any ‘socialist’ condemnation of republicanism which is used by socialists to dodge the responsibility of opposing imperialism, This said, the speech has opened up a debate on the national question both inside and outside the SLP, We see the debate inside the SLP as being of crucial importance for the future of that party and hope to contribute to it, Outside the SLP all sections of the labour movement have been drawn into debate, even the wily leadership of Sinn Fein - the workers! party, We see this as a discussion of major importance and we will continue to contribute to it, Mass pickets at Fastwoods, which .siuses to challange the sectarian character of the Northern Trish -statelet which itself guarantees that the most exploited and oppressed section of the population will always remain the lot of the Catholic workers, That the trade union leadership have been able to get away with this is due in large part to the failure of antiunionist workers to organise inside the unions around the defense of their democratic right to work, good housing and social amenities and against the structural exclusion Belfast 1977 of Catholic workers from the skilled workforce, Unionisatior is the first step ‘ta an effective fightback against the deprivation which afflicts them, It would lay the basis for a campaign of independent working-class action against unemployment and to improve our standard of living. Such a campaign would aim to mobilise the strength of the entire Irish Trade Union movement in this battle in the sure knowledge ‘that any serious fight for full employmentin the anti-unionist ghettoes will aim for an all- Ireland solution,

CONNOLLY

_ SOCIETY

A QUESTION

OF CULTURE

The James Connolly Society “held it's third meeting of the present session in the Leake Glen Hotel. Belfast on Monday I7th Avril. Thome sf the meeting was "Tse need for an Irish Wecking- Class Culture) end, like the first two meetings, ("I968-78, Ten Years after the Civil Rights Marches} and “Imperialism, ’ Why the Frits are here") there ves : Very good ettenience, each meeting averaging about 5C pesple.

The C.lture debate way bpens ed by a speaker from toc taelic Soumunity on the Shawr Rord,; Beivast, who gave a short hist be ory of she ne aiggl wf the Community ard school singe it's insertion in th odake 1o60"s.

A genera]. theme ~thich ran Lhrough this cortribition end su.

sequen. ones was the systematic suvpressior f trish language and milturve vy British Inperial- JSTe 1€ speaker notcc tant ve.

ve*sing this vp ocess would take nany wenerallons. “Wt ebi eel king Class Culture. that through “Street alist ideas could be ye we Pon > in a visual inmamer, as had happened with the “igee ee che Tubitee Show. Tha third speaker, pee Kelly of the Socielist Workers Ter.iency, spoke cf the ettects Bourgeois Culture nas on the vorking class through r.V. Radio ect.

This was followed by a lively Giscussior from the sttendance at.the meeting. The meetings so far show clearly that the Society has suceeeded in it's function of provicing a forms for Giscussion among committed anti-inperialists, and as the siudjects in thiss session are particularly rolevant to the present struggle, there has been a gradual increase in the muber of non-sligned individusis iu atterdance at the meetings.

HELP!

The Connolly Society has run into difficulties since the meeting reported above, The management of the Lake Glen Hotel have refused to allow it to hold any more meetings there and it has had considerable difficulty in finding an alternative hall, It has held a meeting on Loyalism in the Connolly bookshop, but this holds only a fraction of the audiences attending the earlier meetings. Readers in Belfast can help by checking with local organisations to-. see if a hall can be made available for the Society.

_ INDEPENDENT

MASSIVE REPRESSION REVEALED

After months of preparation an independent inquiry into abuse and tor‘ure of prisoners was held in Liberty Hall, Dublin, The inquiry, held on 19th, 20th and 2ist May, was organised by a group of individuals including trade unionist Phil Flynn and Piaras ©'Duiall, evidence was assessed by a panel of judges made up of those involved in the struggle for human rights internationally; Judge FE, Bloch of France, Paul Betaerp of Belgium, Juan Bandres of Euskado/Basque and Yuan He also In his speech he But this was not We need activity responsible for the inquiry The should continue in existence and be enlarged. publish the verdict and detailed reports ofthe evidence, It should list the witnesses and advocates who had taken part and use them as speakers at public meetings up and down the country. should organise a future action It should Above all it Goulet and members of Irish trade unions and pro- of the repression and organise fessional bodies, was presented by an ‘advocate!

in anti-repression work, There was an enormous attendance at the three-day hearing, wih crowds attimes exceeding the capacity of the hall, ‘Those who attended found themselves face to face with a grim reality as detail after detail of brutality and torture were presented by the witnesses, The inquiry heard how the PTA had been used against the Irish in Britain - 3,126 people arrested for 12 charged (and most of these charged with non-political offences). How articles on prisoners are censored because of the PTA sections on supporting the IRA, And the details of brutality against Irish political prisoners ,including the fact that only Irish prisoners are held on 'Special Category A' conditions, whicl.

involves sensory deprivatior and solitary confinement, In the 26 counties they heard evidence of brutal torture by the Garda ‘heavy gang' in tortures which forced Thomas O'Connor to jump through the second story window of a Garda station and come within inches of impaling himself on railings, They heard also of the degrading brutality and strip-searches in Portlaoise prison - and were told that the men responsible for these acts still remained in positions of authority. But it was in the North that sthe full face of police brutality was revealed; Ronnie Bunting the RUC carved the letters 'UVE' on his arm and he was later fined £100 for 'making malicious complaints' about torture, Sean Mackin - attempted sucide after torture and and was brought back to be tortured again, Paul Burns reported the use of hanging and strangulation as torture techniques, Paul Armstrong -taken paralysed from an intensive care unit to the torture cell, Examples were given of the long terms of imprisonment handed out on confessions extracted using these methods ar then a succession of witnesses spoke of the horrors of H-Block - how men are kept naked and continously locked in their cells; how brutality and degradation forced the 'no wash! protest; how the men are now stretched to the physical and mental limits of human endurance, Written and verbal evidence was taken from victims of repression and each section who had been involved locked in cells filled with urine and excrement and assaulted by the screws with high-pressure hoses, Because of the censorship and self-censorship of the press the evidence presented had a devastating effect on those unfamiliar with the details of state repression - including the judges. Even those involved in anti-repression work saw for the first time the breadth and scale of repression, The inquiry should be a lesson to all those who attended, They should learn that a united fight-back against repression is not a matter for organisational wrangling or petty political sectarianism, but an urgent necessity involving our very survival, Despite a press boycott the inquiry was a massive success, It was the biggest gathering of those opposed to repression to be held in the South for may years, It collected together an enormous body of evidence and produced a clear and unamiguous verdict (see below) establishing the facts of repression and establishing the root cawe of these as the British presence in Ireland, Unlike the many white-wash inquiries held by the British this verdict is a weapon which can be used bv antirepression groups, It is the duty of all those involved in this work to study the report and publicise it as widely as possible, But it had weaknesses as well, It was @ganised by a group of concerned, individuals rather than by a wtnited front of political organisations anl this fact accwrately reflects the weakness of the anti-repression movement and the lack of any real unity, especially in the South, Another weakness was that the witnesses were organised in a rather 'ad-hoc!' way - a series of public meetings to reach witnesses would have helped build the inquiry and made it even more successful and would have formed the nucleus ofan all-Ireland movement.

Because the inguiry was mainly concerned with establishing the facts of repression it was not able to investigate the causes or to propose methods of fighting back.

( SOCIALIST REPUBLIC

Socialist Republic is the joint paper of ‘the Peoples jocracy and Movement for a Socialist Republic and is the first major step towards the merging of the two groups. There is not at this point final agreement between the two organisation on all areas but there is principled agreement on fundamental matters of central.

importance.This principled agreement .is the starting point for the fusion and the basis of the paper.We hope the following outline willstand over the next issues until the fusion is complete. We are agreed that the cent~ ral political question for the |Trish people is the political, -Jeconomic and military domination of Ireland by imperialism and that the central task of the Irish revolution is’ the solution of the national question through the ending of partition and the achievement of political and economic independence.

We sre united in our rejection of the'2 nations' theory. In our rejection of the claim that any lasting solution to the oppress- ‘ion of the Irish people can be found in a 6- county framework, and in our rejection of any 'right' of the Loyalist minority to continue partition. We are Marxists and believe hat a Social Revolution is ecessary to overthrow Capitalism a Imperialism,that the Capitallist State must be smashed and placed by a Workers state and hat only the organised workinglass can provide the motive orce for doing this. We believe that a crucial ea of capitalist oppression s the oppression of women, and hat this is especially so in eland given the history of lerical power here. We beieve that a fundamental pre: ondition for ending this exloitation is the socialist revolution. We don't believe shat women should wait for this see the question as a side ssue.Thus we support the right f women to organise independntly to oppose their exploit tion. As. marxists we believe that the working class has the ability to sucessfully challenge and defeat imperialism. It produces the wealth of society without being able to own or control thet wealth. It is potentially stronger than any other class because of its abil- | ity to organise politically on , & mass base,combinging its ecorfomic power and its strength of numbers.

INQUIRY

VERDICT :

BRITISH PRESENCE THE CAUSE

A member of PD/MSR, John McAnulty, presented tle evidence in the session on prison conditions, spoke towards the end of the conference. pointed out that tl verdict was itself a weapon which could be used against the British presence, enough, which would draw the mass of the Irish people directly into action against repression, For this reason the committee united mass action, We in PD/ MSR see this as the outline of an action programme for building the movement around the Tribunal and will give active support to the future work of the Committee, In its conclusion the panel found that the framework of repression was directly linked to the British presence in Ireland. It called far immediate action on the following points: *O:, H-Block conditions *On the systematic harassment .of the minority community in the North *On the Special Criminal Court and Garda brutality. *The ending of discrimination against Irish prisoners in Britain ard their return to’ Ireland. | *End to restrictions on tue right conference to examine the causesof access of doctors and lawyers to those in custody

AIMS

We accept the analysis of the capitalist state put forward by lenin. We don't accept that the state is neutral and therefore don't believe that electoral victories or parliamentary reforms will bring about the revolution, though they can play a propaganda role in educating the workers We beljeve that workers have the right to defend themselves against the violence of imperialism.However we do not accept the ideology of militarism- the belief that armed groups can substitute themselves for the masses and win freedom for them.

We believe in the building of an oggentsed and experienced leadership in 2 Marxist Party based on the Leninist theory of Party Organisation. We are Internatjonalists and believe tuat sh worxers shoyld actively support struggles throughout the world and learn from them. The M.S.R. are © members of the 4th International an International trotskyist organisation, P.D. not such a clearly defined position, although we informally agree on the theory of permanent revolution, and on the fact that the Russian Revolution has degenerated. This is one of the major issues around which discussion will take place during the fusion process and within the fused orgenisation. The Socialist Republic will report these’ discussions as well as other aspects of the fusion process.

In future issues we hope to cerry articles explaining the aims of the paper in depth.

Socialist Republic aims to do more than report and comment on events as they occur.We see the paper as a weapon in the strug+ gle.It will use the combined experience of the members and supporters of the two organisation to analyse struggles in the anti-imperialist -ghettos, the trade unions,and in the student and womens movements.

It will use this analysis to .put. forward a strategy for militants fighting in these areas, to link the struggle in one area with that in another and build a framework around which socialists can organise.

It will also provide information on workers throughout the world and provide a platform for de bate within the anti-imperialist movement. All these elements will be directed to one end -the destruction of imperialism to the builéing of a Socialist Republic.

STRATEGY

FOR EUROPEAN WORKERS ?

WING VICTORY IN THE FRENCH GENERAL ELECTIONS ARE OJ’ GREAT SIGNIFICANCE TO THE EUROPEAN WORKING CLASS.

STRATEGIES FOR REACHING SCCIALISM OFFERE]) BY THE LEFT.

CAPITALISM WAS TO BE SHELVED UNTIL THE ELECTION WAS WON.

‘RECENT EVENTS ON THE CONTINENT, THE DEATH OF ALDO MORO IN

ITALY, ASSASSINATED BY THE RED BRIGADES, AND THE RIGHT

THEY ILLUSTRATE TWO ALTERNATIVE

IN FRANCE THE PATH OFFERED WAS THROUGH THE ELECTORAL VICTORY AND CONFRONTATION THE DEFEAT OF THE LEFT HAS NOW LEFT THE WORKING CLASS IN THE LURCH.

WITH

IN ITALY THE

RED BRIGADES ARE ATTEMPTING TO CARRY OUT THE REVOLUTICN BY PURELY MILITARY ACTIVITIES AIMED AT INDIVIDUAL CAPITALISTS AND THE POLITICAL

THERE ARE

ESTABLISHMENT.

MANY LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM BOTH COUNTRIES.

FRENCH ELECTIONS

The defeat of the Left in the March elections was received with great disappoint-— ment by Socialists both in France and around the world.

For the French working class it was particularly demoralising, having been held back by the Communist and Socialist Parties from engaging in any major economic struggles to defend their living standards, ‘on the pretext, that such problems would be solved ‘after the election victory', Why did the Left lose?

Every opinion poll predicted their victory, The crisis on the French stock exchange and the devaluation of the franc also indicated a Left victory, The parties of government in France were in disarray, wide layers of the French population were demanding social change in other words the scene could not have been more favourable to the Left,

INFIGHTING

Unfortunately it.must be said that the fault for the election defeat rests squarely on the shoulders of the union of the Left, The campaign for a Left victory opened up in the strangest of circumstances, It began with the Communist Party launching an attack on its ally, the Socialist Party, The main problem, it was said, was over the level of nationalisation that the new Left government would embark on, Both parties accept ed the Common Programme's demand for the nationalisation of only nine major companies, leaving 85% of industrial production in private hands, The dispute “arose over how many of the nine's subsidiaries would be included, In 1972 the 1C.P. indicated that according to their ‘scientific criteria' I450 would be included By September I5th of last year it was down to 1008, A week later, still applying the same 'scientific' standards, the C,P.. had reduced the number to 729, The S.P. had originally wanted only 69 included but in the interests of compromise increased that to 250. This may rightly seem all rather tedious particularly if you remember that all these firms are to be nationalised with compensation and that.

two of the motor car giants, Peugeot-Citroen and Chrysler-Simca are not even included, This dispute became very bitter and effectively the Union of the Left broke up. The C.F. refused to say whether they would support S.P. candidates in the second decisive round of the elections, indicating that they would only back them if the C.P.'s own vote was high enough on the first round, Indeed much of the pre-election period was taken up not with a united assault on the austerity measures and rightwing programme of the government but with the sectarian infighting of the THE GROWTH OF THEIR ACTIVITIES DERIVE TO AN EXTENT FROM THE ELECTCRAL DEFEAT OF THE ITALIAN LEFT LAST YEAR.

United Left, In other words instead of the French working class being presented with a clear alternative to the present economic and social crisis of French society they were treated to a Union of the Left that seemed more interested in stabbing each other in the back than in winning the election, The result became more and more predictable as the election dates came nearer, An analysis of the results indicates just how irresponsible was the activity of the two main working class parties,

RESULTS

Both the C.P. and S.P. concentrated on proving their 'respectability' in the period leading up to the elections, They formed an allianee with the 'Left Radicals' a small middle class party tc the right of them, (Since the election the Left Radicals have been on the verge of a split with one section ready to join the right-wing government parties). they fought the revolutionary left tooth and nail and opposed their policy of mobilising on the streets and in the factories.

The election results show how disastrous this policy was. The Left Radicals got less votes than the Revolutionary Left or the Ecologists. And the results as a whole show clearly that the oppressed majority of the French people voted for major social change and that they would have responded to a policy of mobilising on these issues,

POSTURING

What lay behind ‘the much publicised polemic between the C.P. and S.P.? Since the beginning of the Left alliance the C.P. had continued to lose support to the S.P. The last few years has also seen the growth of a strong revolutionary left, The basis of the C.P.s left stancé' was to win back its leading position from the S.P. and to squeeze out the forces of the revolutionary left, As such it was a sectarian manoeuvre and not one based on a. principled defense of the interests of the working class, Overall both parties refused to show the working class any lead, This is even more obvious in the period since the elections, The only thing that both the S.P. and C.P. are agreed upon is the need to meet and negotiate with President Giscard, Such posturing only serves to reveal the nature of their "principled" differences before the election, The demoralisation of the French workers will pass and with it will come a new period of upsurge and struggle’ in France, with or without the leadership of the Communist and Socialist parties, The close on one million votes for the French revolutionary left show .that it their policy of mass mobilisation of the workers and their allies that will head the way. in future European upsurges.

ITA

Y: THE D

EATH OF M

Press reaction to the killing of Aldo Moro, the Christian Democrat leader kidnapped by the Rod Bridades, has been predictably hysterical. In death the most cynical and intelligent.

capitalist politican has become the Mr Nice of Italian politics.

This touching humanitarianism would be more convincing if it had applied to all those killed in Italy recently - student ljemonstrators murdered by police for example.

Nevertheless, if the kidnapping of Moro and the sight of the Italian state being made monkeys of for two months was a show of strength by the Red Brigades, the final killing: was a Sign of their weakness and lack of perspective. Recovering from their hysteria the bourgeois media tried to find 'sociological' explanations for the Red Brigades. They came up with the standard cliche; children of hourgecis homes revolting against their parents.

They then give this a Mediterranean flavour with a few remarks about political instability, rural poverty the legacy of fascism, and so on. But the Moro kidnapping has far more specific roots in Italjan politics. It, took place on the very day when the new government ,backed by the Communist Party (PC1),was to have been inaugurated. Moro himself was the architect of centre-left coaiitions,and his corpse was left in a street betwen the two major party headquarters.

The symbolism was deliberate and obvious. ‘The government agreement signed by the PCI includes an austerity programme that makes the Social Contract look mild and gives the police sweeping new powers of search and arrest members oftheRedBri and almost unlimited use of firearms. The Red Brigades grew up in a decade of closer class collaboration by the traditional party of the Italian working class,as well as utter chaos on the far left. The Red Brigades were dis gusted by what they saw. The irony is that their solution only makes things worse. -f the PCL was worried that it would have problems selling the new government package to its supnorters it can rest assured.

Tre Moro affair an unholy and al unity,.s has cemented ine naticnned the govéernment,and legitimised a quasi-military police >resexce on the streets. The growing opposition to the PCI within the unions has been isolated and only the most courageous jare to march on the streets.

The whole affair has been a massive defeat for the Italian working class. what's more,this js a conscious strategy on the part of the Red Brigades. Instead of projecting a pol*tical alternative to the reformist ~ leaders ,they direct their energies towards provokirg a strengthening of the state in order *o 'radicalise'the working class.

This can only spell disaster.

igades in jail awaiting trial—many socialists willbe joining them in the repression now growing But we still retuse to join the PCI and the Italian state in their witch-hunt. However disastrovx.the Red Brigades' policies, we utterly condemn the barbarous spectacle ‘of their leaders caged and chained together by the capitalist state.

The party leaders chose this course rather than regotiating for Moro"s release. They delibwrately anc cynically provoked Mcro's death. Moro himself ma7e this point in his letters-which have not, for the most part, been pubiished. Tney are the ones who must have his death on their ecnsciences.

BEATROR Mea

WORKERS LEAD HGHTBACK

ee The last month has seen a new anti-repression orgenisation take to the streets in Belfast. On two successive Thursdays the red banner of the Trade Union Campaign Against Repression (TUCAR) lea hundreds of striking workers down the Fails Road in demonstrations against repression. The immediate focus for these protests was the death of Brian Maguire by hanging in the infamous Castlereagh torcure centre. Maguire, who played a leacing role in organising last year's "Workers Against Repression" march dicd while urder interrorgation py the RUC Special Branch. Shortly after Maguire's death the badly decomposed body of IS years old Jake McMahon wes fished out of the River Lagan. McMahon was last seen alive four months before in Musgrave ocarracks where he also was 'questioned' by the RUC Special Branch. These summery executiors provokeé. a storm of protest throughout the anti-unionist districts of Belfast. It also angered Maguire's fellow workers Strathearn Audio who downed their tools as socn as news veached them. Along with the Strathearn workers TUCAR orcanised a march on the following Thursday. Some 1,500 people set out for Transport House to demand that the trade union leadership take action to halt the increased repression. But the march never reached Transport House as its way was blocked by the British Army and the

RUC.

at Following this blatant denial of democratic rights both TUCAR and the Relatives Action Committservices, Imperialism has shown that it can do nothing tc ease the social problems of West Belfast (except build some new unemployment offices) and is unwilling to try in a period of Instead it proposes to build a new road scheme which will make capitalism more efficient if the 'up-turn' in the economy ever comes and it attacks the living standards of the working-class through the so-called public services using,for instance,the Payments for Debts Act, The aim of the government is to service and protect the capitalist system and structures while it is ailing.

event it is the working class who have to pay.

economic depression, The black taxis are far from a perfect example of socialism in action but they nevertheless show that it is possible to run public services better that they are under control of a capital- It is in the interest, economic and political, ist government, Defend the Black Taxis The declaration by the British government that it intends to "eliminate" the black taxis of West Belfast as part of their new transport scheme for the city is but another of a long series of attacks on the workjng-class of the area, In apology the governmat cynically claim that the taxis, by depriving the bus company of it's most profitable routes, show no'social responsibility 'towards the other city routes. So the Northern Ireland Office intend to deprive hundreds of people of their livelihoods in an area where unemployment reaches 50% in order to subsidise the middle-class Malone and Breda bus A fine sense of social responsibility!

ee resolved to organise an even tigger march the following week.

The next week some 3,000 people joined the demonstratior and this time succeeded in reaching Transport House. The sight of so many anti-unicnists marching past Belfast's City Hall enraged both RUC and loyalists alike.

For those on the march it was a victory over Britain's repressive policies. For the first time in many years the City centre resounded to chants of "SS RUC" and other arti-repression slogans.

At the rally outside Transport House speakers made it clear that the trade union leadership would no longer be allowec to get away with their meek silence about RUC and British Army atrocities orc their shallow demands for a "Bill of Rights". An official of the National Union of Puslic Employees condemned the hypocrisy of the trade union leadership who condemned torture and repression throughout the world but were struck dumb about the same things in the North of Ireland. Welcoming the setcing up of TUCAR he said .

that the fight was now on to get the trade unions to oppose torture and repression and appealed for support for TUCAR's demand for a trade union based enquiry into In the of the working class to defend the black taxis, hose Interested in contacting

PEOPLES DEMOCRACY /

MOVEMENT for a SOCIALIST REPUBLIC can do so at: 1 "38 Clanawley Road Dublin

INQUEST

Connolly Bookshop Ph.623472 Avoca Pk. Andersonstown Belfast.

‘BRIAN MAGUIRE

very shortly Our information is that en

FAST HRANE:

Maguire's déath and the situation of the political prisoners in H-block. Support for this demand has also come from the Dublin and Derry Trades Council as-well as the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union and the Socialist Labour Party. North and South of the border, TUCAR is pressing ahead with the organisation of workers within the unions and workplaces. It has a long way to go but the response to the recent demonstrations provides a solid base on which to build.

As Jog Edwards from TUCAR's National Executive told the Transrort House Rally: "We are in Belfast city centre and this is a victory for us. We will be back time and time again until our demands are met. We are sick of torture and repression; there will be no more Brian Mgguire's, Payment for Dear Sir In 1971, following the introd- Debts Act no more dawn raids on working class homes ‘and no more bodies fished out of the Lagan." All workers should support TUCAR to make sure that this is the case. The recent attack on Royal Victoria Hospital workers by Bradford makes clear how necessary it is for workers in the North to organise in their own defence. TUCAR offers this possibility and already exists as a 32-counties' organisation. It's up to workers to join TUCAR and work to bring the Union officials ‘1 book in the fight against repression. Belfast TUCAR meets each Saturday at 4.00pm in the Workers' Resource Centre, 52, Broadway. A creche is proviced. Under the Payment for Debts uctio of internment,a large sectionagy money is deducted by the of the population with-held payment of rents and rates as a protest.

The response of the Northern Ireland Government at Stormont was fast and within two months « j;iece ef temporary emergency legislation was passed - The Payment for Debt (Rorgency Provisions) Act (NI) 1971. Despite the fact that the rent: and rates strike has been over for some considerable time, the temporary Act still remains.

I. 1976 it was extended by tae Labour Government at Westminster to cover anvone who owed more than £20 rent or rates. The Act applics only in Northern Ireland. People in Northern Ireland do owe rent and rates but no more than necple in Great Britain dc. Now the Act is to be extended again following a debace in Westminster.

Shortly it is to be used against those who cannot pay their gas ane electricity bills. In Northern Ireland unemployment.

averages at 12% of the working popiilation. Wages are lower than in Great Britain. According to a Child Poverty Action Group survey one third of the population are below tke poverty line. According to a Northern Ireland Housing Executive survey one fifth of the houses are unfit for human habitation. Coal is dearer. Gas is dearer. Food is generally dearer.

As we go to press we have recieved information that Brian Maguire's inquest is to be held gineering consultants have said that it is possible that Brian could have committed sucicide - i,e. that a sheet could have gone into the slot in the ventilator and that it eould have borne the weight of a man, massive propaganda exercise to turn this possibility into a certainty, as witnesses almost the entire staff of Castlereagh, the man brought over from the British police to mount an "independent! inquiry.

Star witness will be Rawlinson - Benefit Allocation Branch at Stormont from those recieving benefits. Those already on the poverty line have rent deducted together with arrears and a further 50p. collection charge.

They lose their entitlement to rent rebate and almost always are refused Exceptional Needs Grants. Naturally greater poverty ensues. Those working are not exempt.

An order can be made to take pubaic debts due by employees straight from their wage packets before they have even been paid, and without the debt having been adjudicated on by any Court.

Many more criticisms can be made against this Act. If you feel that this repression m ould not be increased please inform your M.P. before the forthcoming debate or raise the issue in your Union or Community Group or other interest group. The Act as it is causes almost unendurable hardship.

It is to be extended. This will allow people less money than is necessary for survival. Is this inhufhan or degrading treatment or punishment or torture?

Yours Faithfully

PAIDRIGNAN DRINAN

NORMAN SHANNON

The British plan a They plan to call