Socialist Republic: Vol. 1 no. 6, October 1978

socialist republic chotsialach ncorporaeng UNIFI RIES CHIMZEIN Paper of People’s Democracy / Movement for a Socialist Republic vol 1 no6 go

DEMANDS

OCTOBER 1978

POLITICAL STATUS

TROOPS OUT NOW

END REPRESSION

OCTOBER 1968

ONE MAN ONE VOTE

END DISCRIMINATION .

END SPECIAL POWERS ACT _

iL APPPAL FROM ORGANISERS OF

| DERRY MARCH, OCTORFP 1968

ee

APPEAL

FOR

UNITY

Workers! Resource Centre, 52 Broadway, ; Belfast, Connolly Bookshop, ! Avoca Park, Belfast 11, or | Dear Editor, i We are approaching the 10th anniversary of the March in Derry on October 5th 1968 which first captured world attention for the Civil Rights struggle in the rth when it was attacked by the RUC wi watons and water cannons, We who participlated in and/or helped organise that march would like to make clear that we believe ‘that the struggle to-day for : : An end to RUC torture and the Emerney Provisions Act, Political Status for Republican and Socialist prisoners in the H-Blocks and elsewhere, S The withdrawal of British troops, ‘is the direct continuation of the original civil rights struggle. i ' I i j i a We call on all those who supported the vriginal civil rights movement to give their support now to achieve these demands, + in particular we call for a united demonstrort these demands to be held in Derry on Setober 8th to commemorate the first March there, We would hope that the demonstration could be organised by a united committee ;and that the platform of speakers would be broadly representative of all the participating groups. agree with this call but whom we have not had time to contact to get in touch with us or directly with the press to indicate their support, Yours etc, Frank Gogarty, NICPA Executive, Famonn McCann, Chairman Derry Labour Party, ohnny White, James Connolly Pep, Club, inbar O'Doherty, Derry Housing Action ommittme, ichael Farrell, Belfast Young Socialists, 2ernadette McAliskey, Dermot McClenaghan, Secretary Derry Young Socialists, Positions held at time of original march, ation of all individuals and groups who supp- | We would ask others who helped organise’ or participated in the original march and whe:

SOCIALIST

— OUR

Socialist Republic is the | joimt pape: of the Peoples “Democracy ané 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 tthe paper.We hope the following ‘outline will stand over the next issues until the fusion is | complete. We are agreed that the cent- ; wal political question for the | arish people is the political, economic and military domination | of Ireland by imperialism and jthat the central task of the ‘Irish revolution is the solution of the national question through the ending of partition lena the achievement of political and economic independence.

We are united in our rejection ict, the'é nations' theory. In our rejection of the claim that any lasting solution to the oppress-~ itor of the Irish people can be Hound in a 6- county framework, and in our rejection of any ‘right' of the Loyalist minority .] to continue partition.

-| We are Marxists and believe ‘[that a Social Revolution is qmecessary to overthrow Capitalism d Imperialism,that the Capitaldist State must be smashed and replaced 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 is the oppression of women, and hat this is especially so in eland given the history of lerical power here. We beieve that a fundamental preondition for ending this exloitation is the socialist revolution. We don't believe hat women should wait for this r 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 that wealth. It is potentially stronger than any other class because of its ability to organise politically on & mass base,combinging its economic power and its strength of numbers .

AIMS

REPUBLIC

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 believe 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 themse.-res for the masses and win freedom foi them.

We believe in the building of an organised and experienced leadership in 2 Marzist Party based on the lenini:' theory of Party Organisation. We are Internationalists and believe tuat Irish works s should actively support stripvies throughout the world and learn from them. The M.S.R. are members of the 4th Interrational an International trotsxyist organisatiqns P.D. not such a clearly defined position, although we informally agree on the theory of permsnent revolution, and on the fact that the Russiati Revoluticn has degenerated. This is one of the wajor issues around which discussion will take place curing the fusion process and within the fused organisation. The Socialist Republic will report these discussions as well as other Bspects of the fusion process.

In future issues we hope to carry 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 ctruge gle.It will use the combined experience of the members and supporters of the two organisat~ion 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 building of a Socialist Republic.

a I “| of H,Block, The ficht. for Political Status.

The 10th anniversary of the anti-impertalist str: RAC, which has been established since early 1976 and continually supported by PD, has played an important role in the organisation of protests and demonstrations in support of political prisoners, The 2nd year of H,Block was marked with a successful | demonstration of well over 10,000 in Coalisland. Previously the fight for Political Status has | been ill-co-ordinated and has won only the support of political activists,but the march proved that the support is there and there is now a fairly big movement ready to demonstrate and

~ TWO YEARS ON THE BLANKET

tegle in Irelard coincides with the end year The march in Coalisland and another held more recently from Dunville Park has shown that a broad mass resistance exists against British rule and repression which even forced O'Fiaich to speak out against the conditions of political prisoners saying, " Everything required by the normal man to maintain his physical and mental health and to live a life which is tolerably human. should be restored to these prisoners without delay."

It's taken the SDLP two years to make a statement on H,Block, They needn't have bothered, As usual they tried to be on both sides of the fence saying that on one hand, the prisoners! conditions were not as good as they might be but on the other hand the! security forces ' had a difficult job to do and were probably doing their best, This statement just about lives up to our expectations of the SDLP, It waffles about and is as pro- British as the party itself, However the fact that they did make a statement shows they are vulnerable on the issue, and also shows the broad support that the prisoners have. Unity around the October march and for Political Status could bring a speedy end to the prisoners! ordeal, There are still big problems because of the lack of unity in the political groups. Only 4 “united movement which establishes Political Status as the central aim of the struggle has any chance of success, There its the potential as has been shown in the massive demonstrations but there must be

UNITE FOR

centralised and united action if we are to win.

RESISTANCE

NEW

SDLP PARROT UNIONISTS

On the eve of the Coalisland - Dungannon march which marked , the I0th anniversary of the , Pirst Civil Rights demonstration ' Gerry Fitt and Austin Currie put out a hysterical statement . denouncing the march as contr- ‘ olied by the IRA. Ironically that's exactly what William Craig said abous the first Civil Rights marches which Currie and Fitt took part in. The SDLP _has sunk pretty low when they're ' parrotting the words of Bill ' Craig. Fitt and Currie also claimed .that the demands off the march, _{ against torture and for political status and British with- / drawal had nothing to do with the original Civil Rights dem- ) ands. They've come a long way ' since 1968 and perhaps they've ' forgotten what those demands | were but one of the key ones | Was against repression and for ' the repeal of the Special Powers Act. The: ‘Special. Powers' Act has been replaced by the‘ Emergency Provisions Act and it is under it..thet the torture at Castlereagh has been carried -on afd the " confessions "| -_ -,extracted which have led to the jailing of most of the political prisoners. As for British withdrawal it became the logical extension of the Civil Rights demands when British troops intervened on the streets in 1969 to prop up the sectarian state the CR movement was protesting about. The SDLP got their answer on August 27th when,the vast majority of the? yank and file of the old CR movement including some of their own members turned out for the march they had denounced. Gass roots opinion was swinging against them and with an election in the offing they had to try to . catch up. Within. the last few weeks the SDLP has guddaniy i discovered that’ the Paergency Provisions Act should 22 en aled, that the Prevention 2° Terrorism Act discrimina against working-class Catholics ‘and have managed to issue , statement critic ising con in H Block without mentionias ppolit ical status. But the SDLP has not just jreneged on the demands of the jearly Civil Rights strukegle.

Perhaps more important, as they have become more and more clearl1 ‘}the party of the Catholic busin- ‘less class, they have turned against its methods as well, the method of mass protests and demonstrations. Any movement which mobilises the mass of the people and encourages them to think and act for themselves threatens the cosy deal the SDLP hope to work out with the British and the Unionists.

The best answer to these polith-out.. ingDerry , on- Setober 8t fand the building

The sham republicanism of Fianna Fail was exposed yet again by their rejection of the O' Briain Report on safeguards for people in Garda custody.

Only a Fianna Fail hack like | Gerry Collins would have the hard-nosed effrontery to call for a public enquiry into Amnesty's charges of Garda brutality when he was in oppos- -ition thenywhen he became a :Minister,set up a private en- _guiry and when it reported react all its major recommendati fons. Fianna Fail won the last | election by exploiting the back- {lash against the Coalition's | collaborationist and police state voiicies but it hasn't taken long for the real face of Fianna fail to show itseif. 3 5 =) When Fianna Fail got back to cower Collins, as Minister |ror Justice, established the |C' Briain Committee, not to investigate the allegations of 'Garda brutality, but to recommend on future safeguards for people jin Garda custody — and for the iGardai themselves. Civil libert- ‘ies groups and TUCAR denounced the fact that the enquiry was | private and its restricted terms ‘or reference as a sell-out and -eritiecised Ruardhi Roberts of -the ICTU for sitting on a white- /washing committee. t é Even this committee, including 'a former Garda Commissioner, made some useful recommendations lhowever. They called for an » independent tribunal to invest- |@ate complaints against the ‘Gardai, said the practice of | sotaining people for questioning without arresting them was illegal and should be stopped, said people in custody should have immediate access to a sol- | icitor and that he/she should be allowed to attend interro gations, and recommended a :series of smail reforms which would make brutality and torture more difficult to cover-up. The overall effect would have been to put a sharp curb on the activities of the Garda Heavy Gang. Gollins got the report in April and sat on it till September. In the meantime he refused to take anv action over the *O’Briain report rejected

LYNCH PROTECTS HEAVY

finger-print scandal in the ‘Garda Technical Bureau. In September, after sparking a wave of hysteria about an increase ‘in ordinary crime, he announced that the Government had rejected most of the recommendations outright and would "consider" the others. In practice they're moving in the opposite direction. Collins has hinted at the creation of an elite armed unit within the Gardai ana there have been two cases recently of armed Gardai shooting at robbers. There has also been an increase in Garda beatings of working class youths in Dublin with one teenager Aidan White, dying after a spell in Garda custody. Fianna Fail's record on civil liberties in the past has been just as bad as Fine Gael's.

If they're not stopped now it looks as if the Garda Heavy Gang will soon be back in full swing.

After the last election the State of Emergency and 7-day detention were scrapped but the opportunity was missed to step up the campaign against repression, to get rid of the Special Criminal Court and the Offences Against the State Act. It is essential that Amnesty International, the ICCL, ICRA, It is s only a few W a few weeks since the name of Willy Gallagher captured all the newspaper headlines.

The Strabane youth had been on hun hunger strike for almost seven ‘weeks and there were fears for his life. Sentenced to I} years imprisonment by a Diplock Court for the bombimg of the British legion Hall in Strabane, Gallagher has throughout protested his innocence. He went on hunger strike to protest his conviction.

Following a television play based on his trial which showed up the farce which passes as a judicial trial in the 6-Countier: many organisations pledged their support to a campaign for his The case of

WILLIE GALLAGER

GANG

and especially TUCAR and the trade union movement in general, all of whom originally called for a public enquiry into Garda brutality now campaign actively to get the O'Briain Committee's recommendations implemented and get rid of repressive legislation. The re-opening shortly of the IRSP 4 trial where the state’ case relies heavily on forced "confessions" should provide a focal point for the campaign.

There is one other importar point. Collin's private enquiry which didn't investigate the actual Amnesty allegations of Garda brutality gave Roy Mason ' the idea for his similar private committee on safeguards for people in RUC custody in the North. Torture is an even more’* crucial instrument of government policy in the North than in the 26-counties. Mason must not be allowed to use the example of the South as an excuse for refusing to implement any safeguards in the 6-counties.

It is a glaring indictment of the real nature of Fianna Fail that they have provided Mason with such an excuse. ~ trelease. was in view or tnis support that Gallagher's father was able to convince him to give up the hunger strike and allow more time for the campaign to succeed. Meanwhile however, instead of the opportunity being taken to intensify the efforts of the campaign most people seem to jaws deserted it. Only three ople, including a delegate from PD/MSR attended the last meeting lot the Belfast Defence Committee.

'No other organisation was represented. ,

CONTINUED ON PAGE ,8 -

BUILD

UNITED

MASS

MOVEMENT

COALISLAND MARCH SHOWS THE WAY _

> the first civil neld from Coalnon. The 3,000 [Le “Lh. ilIle Dart were prevsering Dungannon “nerd minority could march only where the Unionists consented. On August 27th many of those who walked the four miles ten years ago were joined by thousands more as I5,000 peuple turned out in support of tre demands : Political Status!

Close the Torture Centres !

and British Withdrawal! This time however, the marchers reached the town square and held their meeting. The demonstration was a marvellous success. Once again a large section of the anti-unionist minority demcnstrated with their feet tnat they wanted the political prisoners out of jail and the British Army out of Ireland: Maura McCrory speaking for the Belfast RAC was absolutely right when she predicted that ne march would surely embarrass Roy Mason and the British Govt.

The thousands on the streets that day revealed the British lies in a way that nothing else ean. They demonstrated the nonsense of Mason's claims that the minority accept direct rule by Britain and that the resistance is dead. Mason could not dismiss the 15;000 marchers as " 1 " " godfathers "or " gangsters °.

The Dungannon march showed that the minorftty is getting bagk on the streets with renewed .

confidence in the fight against repression. It showed the real possibiliv-y shat exists to build a mass movement that can win pack political status for ali anti-imperialist prisoners. And, yaile the organisation of the march had serious weaknesses, at the same time it yet again confirmed the single lesson that Unity is Strength! The task after Dungannon is to build on its success while eorrecting the mistakes that were made. In the last issue of ' Socialist Republic ' we critieised the organisers for excluding certain speakers from the 1963 Derry march would = an opportunity to buita unity in action whicn oc; a ving all those who support <n: demands of the march would 2re.r2 that Derry would see an ever larger turnout. Unfortunately, the organisers of the October 8th march have decided that this is nct to be.

In our view, Sinn Fein's insistence on keeping control of the maren ror themselves does no service to the prisoners, because it stands in the way of building the broadest anc strongest movement. in their defence. At the time of writing it is not yer clear Wrether Sinn Fein will relent on this sectarian apnroscn to the Gefence of thea prisoners.

But whatever they decide, it remeins the key tesk for ell militants to co wet ; for a campaign which by organising democratically sad cy openin ‘tts ranks to all those prey S to unite in section to derend of political status = real possibility. @

OFFICIALS :

One of the effects of Callag- _han's on and off Election pantomime was a marked increase in the activity of parliamentary parties in the North. One of the greatest bursts of activity was by Republican Clubs - The Workers Party. Since their formation almost 9 years ago the ' officials ' have been moved from a radical-sounding programme to a crude reformism. Their recent avtivity in the North shows that this process has not yet come to an end. Perhaps the clearest example of this further shift to the right came in the election leaflet ' Jobs for West Belfast ' issued by Republican Clubs - The Workers Party. In it they said fhat the main reason for unemployment in West Belfast was ' Govt. neglect of inner city areas ' and that discrimination was a very minor factor. This amazing statement probabiy explains their unqualified support for the De Lorean car Factory ( criticised as a confidence trick by even the capitalist papers ) and their recent meeting with De Lorean representatives when they demanded that jobs shouldn't just go to unemployed Catholics in Twinbrook but to ' all sides of the community '. The Republican Clubs have a great deal of influence in the Northern Ireland Women's Rights Organisation. Recently NIWRO held a meeting in Ballymurphy to which they invited speakers from : Republican clubs, Cammunist Party, SDLP, and all the Unionist and Loyalist parties.

Anne Dickson ( UPNI ) actually attended and spoke at the meeting.

The effect was to give reactionaries a platform in an area

ANOTHER STEP

FROM SOCIALISM

where they are cordially and to allow them to pretend that they are concerned acour women's rights when the coposite 1s the case. A The climax came when Zive councillors came to Belfast from the South at the beginning of October. They met former UVF spokesman Hugh Smyth, toured the Shankill and met all the Loyalis= groups ( but not the anti-unionist parties ). They said that the main reason for the tour was " to make common cause with people like Hugh Smyth ! The Officials set out to defeat sectarianism. They appear to have capitulated to it. At one time they were the main crities of the old NILP. Now they seem like a poor copy. Their decay should be a warning to all who go for day-to-day reform and exclude revolutionary objectives.

| | rates eet enn path tN LR A AR Nt RE NN ER cI eR reine ent “Ate er

10 YEARS OF STRUGGLE PART 9!

after the success of the Coalisiand Demonstration the obvious centre for another Demo.

nstration was in Derry. The main reason was symbolic. As a Catholic town permanently controlled by a gerrymandered unionist council it represented all the worst aspects of unionist discre imination. The segond practical reason was that a great deal of political activity was taking place there. For some time Derry socialists and Republicans had -been co-operating in agitation around a housing action committee.

The committee soon ran up against the facts of a brutal discrimination against Catholics in housing.

They weve attacked by both Union ists and Nationalist politicians as ' Godless communists ' but won a wide local support. Wt was the housing action committee which decided on the march and invited NICRA to sponsor it.

BA . . ° In the meantime the Union.

ists were getting worried about the growing strength of the movement and had decided to nip it in the bud before it developed further. They were given their excuse for action when the Apprentice Boys announced a ' traditional ' march along the same route as the civil rights march. Craig immediately banned ail marches for a month and began drafting RUC men into the city. The reformists who controlled WICRA had never considered it as an agitational body. They had only reluctantly agreed to support the march and when the ban was ennounced they held a hurried meeting and were about to call the march off. The Derry action committee was outraged. They said they would go ahead regardless and NICRA decided to continue support. October 5th. On the day of the demonstration two thousand marchers set off from the Waterside station and got about 200 yards.

Nationalist leader Eadie McAteer had opposed the march but attended on the day. Gerry Fitt also attended and was batoned along with other marchers as they reached the RUC. The organisers tried to hold a meeting but the

‘THE LESSONS

ap Gs et GD Gt ED OP ED OP 22S OD @ EES eee This is the second article ir general history of the struggle : in the last issue of the 'Sociali: formation of the various groups This article deals with the first RUC began a series of pvaton charges from both sides and brought in water-cannons. Scattered fighting broke ont throughout the city as the RUC charged groups of marchers and it developed into a major attack on the Bogside. The Bogsiders came out to defend themselves and that night barricades were thrown up and petrol bombs used.

77 civilians were injured.

After October Sth events moved with amazing speed. But the attitudes which the various enti-unionist groups took around the march gave a clear indication of the roles they were to play in the years ahead. The socialist @roups and the individual repub-_ licans were the initiators of the demonstrations and carried out agitation and organisation. The Communist party, the then leadership of the Republican movement and other reformists in NICRA tried desperately to retain a ' respectable ' image and avoid activity on the streets.

The Catholic workers, their confidence improved by a relative economic boom, moved to organise themselves and defend their areas when they came under attack.

The attitude of the Catholic business class deserves an even closer look. Shortly after the march a meeting of ' concerned citizens. ' was held in a Derry hotel. They set up a ' Citizens Action Committee ' and moved to oust the socialists from leadership and to hold back the general struggle. A local businessman who hadn't even attended the march, John Hume, became leader of the committee. This role of difusing and holding back struggles was to be the hallmark of the Catholic business class throughout As more and more details come to light about the new DeLorean As more and more details come to light about the new De Lorean car factory in Belfast's Twinbrook area,it is becoming even clearer that the whole thing is a@ massive con-trick. Various investigavions into De Lorean's background have shown a history so shady thet it would make a mafia mobster green with envy.

AIL sources,except DeLorean the struggle. and the Northern Ireland Office, Mass mobilisation are agreed thet the whole deal is extremely dubious and risky.

Much has been made of Delorean's connection with the Chrysler motor company-In facet he is working as an individual.In 1975 he set up a company to develop & eports car and managed to get $3.5 million from investors. With a lot of wheeling and dealing he managed to put together about $8.5 m and then went looking for grants. In April 1977 Puerto Rico offered him $65m if he After the Derry march a wave of anger swept through the Northern minority and they mobilised against the unionists. On October 9th students marched through Belfast and at a meeting afterwards the : Peoples Democracy was set up. It was to play a décisive role in the future struggle ( see puilout supplement to this issue ).

On October I5th the Nationalists a

SPP PS PD OD SD NE HAD Ca GRD ERY EIN GLEE END QOD ED Gem eRe p series of articles about the t pm 1968 on, The first article,, P| Republic! dealt with the !

nd the first Coalisland march. H - Derry march and its aftermath.

could put up $25m of his own. The deal fell. througn.He opened up negotiations with tke IDA in the 26 Counties.They offered £33n, ($700) without strings.But it was "financial Wizard" Roy Mason who orfered the softest deal.After an incredible ten days of negotiations he offered DeLorean a £65m, ($1%0n) ‘no strings’ deal.

It's significant that. negotiations were carried out by George Quigley,the civil servant responsible for the ‘Quigley Report' on the Northern economy published tn 1976. He showed that the economy was headed for collapse and argued that to attract miuitinational companies the British Government should put up mast 4f not all of the capital needed to carry the risks for an initial period. And this is the main point of the DeLorean affair. It's not some isolated brainstorm by Mason.

It's an extreme example of what gyernment economic policy, both

F OC

CTOBER |

withdrew from their position as official opposition at Stormont.

The next day PD held another march to the City Hall in Belfast It was the last anti-repression march to get into the city centre until a TUCAR demonstration in 1978. On the 24th October PD took over the Stormont buildings and staged a sit-in. In the South Lynch was forced to compl+ ain to the British and they in turn began to pressure the unionists. . Another march was planned for Derry on November I6th. Craig banned all marches for a month.

15,000 people marched but were stopped by a massive force of RUC. The Derry CAC difused@ the situation by staging a token march of members of the committee but the situation generally was outside their control. Derry workers kept on the march and broke Craig's ban two and three times a day. The whole city was in revolt. At the same time meetings were taking place all over the North and local committees set up. Support was gathering in the 26 co North and South,really is -- to make Ireland a haven for the capitalist enterprises that noone else really wants. Reform On November 22nd O'Neiii announced a package of reforms.

Derry corporation was to be abolished and replaced by 4 nominated commission, there woul be an ombudsman, local authorit.

ies would be encouraged to adopt a points system for housing, the company vote would be abolished for local elections. I+ was a case of too little, too late. It was enough to outrage loyalists | without satisying the civil right movement. The campaign began to centre around '‘ one man, one vote ' and control of the gerrymandered counciis. NICRA decided ‘to continue with a march planned for Armagh on the 30th November.

_ On the morning of the march Paisley took over the cantre of Armagh with an armed mob. The RUC made no effort to remove the Paisleyites but stopped the march at the edge of the ghetto.

Any support that O'Reill had won for his reform package was lost by his capitulation et Armagh.

‘It was clear that the denonstrations would continue. ’ defending living standards ené in the long serm atruggle to determine who controls the Irisz economy Hote: For further information on DeLorean. see : Belfast Workers Research Bulletin . No 5. Delorean has got e lot of money for nothing.He expects a lot more. : He expects 77% of any profit and the freedom to move it out of the | country He expects from Irish t .

workers a level of productivity ; SOCIALIST 14 times higher than his nearest competitor. ‘€ REPUBLIC He expects that Irish workers Hi will work for rock bottom wages. i From the last tssue of And so do all his capitalist tiSocialist Republic the price cronies. lief the paper has had te be lincreased from 8p te 10p, ij a § a é i i] a a All this shows that any Irish r e much regret the need } worker employed by DeLorean ij for this price increase but @ should'nt spend too much time p t ‘ t a i f a q . qever-rising production costs praising the boss . They will have have made the increase a hard struggle against this capitalist shark. The fact that Oe te or the Trade Union leadership have Socialist ~~ ublte costes 1 given unconditional support to but we are sure that all 5p Delorean means that little help ur readers will acree that can be expected from that fer 20 pages it is ol ch quarter. Rank and file organ- ice € wor tion wi ucial b e price,

Feminist Marie The case of the State vers be Forgotten by the Dublin Gardai for some time to come.

on trumped up charge McMahon us Marie McMahon is one that won't A few weeks ago the Director of Public Prosecutions withdrew a charge t “common prostitution ' and ‘Breach of the of out charges of asainst Marie. a Dublin D istrict Justice threw Peace’ and ‘Obscene Language’ The fact that the case was brought at all is an object lesson in how the Southern Gardai really operate.

Marie McMahon is well known activists north and south of the border. An ex-menber of P.D., she has been nmuously active in both the 1ti-imperialist and feminist ments over the past ten veavs. She has been a constant source of irritation to the Southern Gardai. tO politics! move The case arose from the fact that she had given help to an RTE radio programme in contacting a prostitute who was xe @ number of accusations = the Garda Vice squad on io. Her accusations, up by a Dublin social who had made a number ‘idavits to Dublin Castle on the matter,revealed that not It also shows clearly that a united political opposition can defeat these smear attempts.

There are other lessons for socialists and feminists. The case shows clearly that when poverty and destitution force women onto the streets they are oppressed and victimised not only by the criminal pimps but by the prostitution laws and the vice squad. These women are the historical scapegoats for the ~ gexist double standards of Irish society. The Marie McMahon case only emphasises the need for a public enquiry into the Operation of the Garda Vice Squad,whose track record in this area is every bit Victimised Willie Gallagher

CONTINUED

FPOM PAGS 4,

There are those who believe that it is wrong to highlight particular cas They argue that all the srisoners are in the same situation and noone should receive more attention than others. This 2s a foolish argument! It does nothing to help any of the political prisoners. On the other hand, if Roy Mason and the Diniock Courts are defeated over the case of Willy Gallagher then the chances of winning victories for all the prisoners are increased.

were sections of the Garda 'glorious'as their corrupt only as vice squad operating in collusion British counterparts. ] with well known 'pimps', but eee shat there were cases of Gardai ‘assaulting’ prostitutes and refusing to protect those women who were attempting to break from the criminals who operate a stranglehold over Dublin& prostitution racket. Marie McMahon became personally involved in protecting one such woman and her children from a notorious British 'pimp' well known to Dublin Gardai. It was in her company that Marie was arrested on her way home one night a couple of months ago.

The trumped up charges against her met with firm resistance from feminists,civil libertarians and socialists. On the day of ner trial a hundred strong picket was placed on the court™ house demanding an end to political victimisation and the right of women to walk the streets unmolested. Fearing the consequences Of their action the state dropped the charges.

The Marie McMahon case shows the extent to which the Southern police will go to frame and blacken its political opponents.

i The lessons however are clear | i One thing is certein, if Gallagher resumes his hunger strike because we have failed to give our full support and dies then that will be a defeat not just for Willy Gallagher, not just for the H-Block prisoners but for us all. The massive demonstrations which have taken place recently around the issues of political status and repression, along with a new awareness in organigations like the Trade Union movement, show that a major fight back is possible. However because a united and democratic movement does not exist organisational sectarianism can allow cases like that of Willie Gailagher to go by default. PD/MSR ask all organisations and individuals willing to rebuild the Willie Gallagher Defence Campaign to contact us at th Connolly Bookshop, Avoca Park, Andersonstown, Belfast II (phone 623472) ( i

This can be seen in its establishment at Maynooth This seminary was established as a university for Catholics the same year as the founding of the Orange Society, Its position was reinforced under the Union; indeed, it was under one of the most repressive of the Orange administrations that its position as a seminary was asserted and its role as a lay university ended for 150 years, After O'Connell's failure at Clontarf, it gained a United Kingdom state subsidy.which ended with independence, After the failure of the Anti-Partition propaganda campaign in 1951, the 26 County state resumed the subsidy, At all times, Maynooth has lived up to the expectations of its imperialist and pro-imperialist patrons : it has been a bastion of puritanical Catholic conservatism, In 1966, decline of numbers of vocations in the Catholic Church caused Maynooth a corresponding crisis, It was being subsidised to educate fewer priests, The Trustees, its governing group of Bishops, opened its doors, once again, to lay students, The ‘Government accepted this and continued the subsidy, It has not asked for greater control ver administration, even thouh lay students number today twice the amount of clerical ones, . Permanent Irish unity must involve the loss of the special privileges both of Protestant ascendency in the North and of the Catholic Church, The first is identified openly with the British impertalist rule in Ireland, The latter, although linked often with the struggle against that rule has, in fact, benefited as much as the former from the struggle's defeats.

In 1976, Dr, Patrick Me Grath. Professor of Metaphysics and Malachy O'Rourke, Lecturer in Modern Languages, decided to leave their clerical orders, They were dismissed from their jobs; McGrath because of articles that he had written and because he had not always worn clerical dress : O'Rourke because he had not always dressed thus, because he had not lived on campus and because of his laicisation, Both lecturers took legal action for restitution of office and for damages, On the 9th of August 1978, they received a disturbing judgement, Me Grath won damages but not restitution, O'Rourke lost his case altogether, Worse still, Mc Grath won his damages on technical grounds that the real reason for his dismissal was his laicisation but that this was not given as a reason by the Trustees, On every other point, judgement was given against the dismissed lecturers, The Trustees! absolute authority was affirmed, What was more, on the question of McGrath's articles it was pronounced that the only hope of redress -was by appeal to Rome under anon Law. Thus, though two-thirds of its students are lay, and although it ts subsidised by the 26 County state _ Maynooth is recagnised leg- “Irish people (although they are _ 2 the. two lecturers, ally as independent of the state and under the control of clerical law. The judgement in the Maynooth case leaves both staff and students at the absolute mercy of the Bishops, But it has implications that go well beyond this and that are of importance to everyone in Ireland, The constitution promises to cherish all the jpeople of Ireland equally and \the state {s supported by many; jpeople who believe it is both: | ‘democratic and independent, | This judgement confirms that the Catholic church is placed above the state and the law and that the whole arena of education controlled by it is outside the control of the’ expected to pay for it.) The case reached court only after a long period of opposition by students and industrial action by the teaching unions, The state has -shown its hand, It's now up to the students, the teaching unions and the trade union movement as a whok to fight for democratie rights in education and an end to church control in the 26 Counties, Note : Archbishop O'Fiaich has gained some credibility because of his H-block state-~ ments, It's worth remembering that he was president of Maynooth at the time the lecturers were dismissed and was responsible for a lot of personal harrassment te

' monn epee ene ES ~The Struggle in Britain - Part 1

BUILDING THE SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT:

A decade into the current stage of the Irish Revolution.while the : movement in Ireland is recovering its fortunes there is also a ! growth of support for it in Britain,the imperialist heartland.The ' United Treops Out Movement which in July last year had only seven branches and was supported by only two of the major organisations Group (British Section of the Fourth International) now has more i \ of the British Far Left,Big Flame and the International Marxist i | than 25 branches and has become a pole of attraction for everyone claiming to support the demand "Troops Out Now".The UTOM has brought the majority of people on recent marches defending Irish political prisoners,.the biggest demonstrations in support of Irish freedom for more than four years and has played a leading role in forging united solidarity action between organisations and individuals who have important disagreements on other questions.

The comparison that can be made between the level of mass activity in Britain and that in ireland is not merely coincideniai.There is a definite link.

when the mass movement in the Six Counties was at its height between 1969 and 1972,marches of between twenty and forty thousand veu = were a regular feature of che su.idarity work in Britain.

the steepest decline in Britain was in 19/4 to 1977.This was at a time when mass activity feil away sharply in Ireland after _ coe Pirst reactionary Loyalist oppages.Now,once again,the setions of the Relatives Action Committees and events like the Coulisland conference in January - have provoked a similar upturn . in Britain. In other words ,the /.esson of the last ten years is chat it is the level of mass activity in Ireland which determines what the solidarity move- 'ment in the oppressor nation is | capable of at any point in time.

The reason for this is that iwhile it is true that the British ‘Labour Movement and its allies in | the womens and student movement ‘have no interest in maintaining ‘the oppression of Ireland as a ‘nation,the traditions of working | class struggle in Britain prevent imoet workers at most times from iseeing why they need to link up jwith the Trish struggle.

The victorfes won by the class jatruggle over the last. hundred lyears and more, in Britsin, have ‘heen mainly economic ones won by ‘rade untons.Because of the super lprofite Imperialism makes, the ruling class has been able to ?' to concede some ground, vugh things are changing, -ish workers therefore have a no g bys ed history of successes won without confronting the state,something only possible in an Imperialist nation.Looking at Ireland therefore ,they see no reason why economic struggles through trade unions cannot alleviate the oppression of the Irish people.

That is why campaigns like the "Better Life for All" can inits ially seem so attractive.Military struggle on the other hand is alien to their experience and so they become suseptible to the lies of the State propaganda machine which portrays all Republicans and anti-imperialist fighters in Ireland (not just the Provisional IRA) as isolated gangsters.

These lies are exposed by mass action.How can the fact of thousands of ordinary Irish people supporting in action the call for a United Socialist Ireland and the immediate withdrawal of the British Army be reconciled with the idea of IRA supporters being on the lunatic fringe ?.Every mass action in Ireland raises a new doubt in the mind of the British workers about “her” or "his" governments role in Irish affairs.Similarly in periods where there is a low level of street activity,the lies of the British ruling class gain strength. The first of three articles on the struggle in Britain by Allen C'Callaghan ofthe International Marxist Group. The tyne of consciousness described above ("Labourism") is not so strong in the womens movement,the student movement and among immigrants es it is in the Laoour movement..Tha: is wh, up to few Une CacKbune a nate ,however waged,is much easier inside the movements of the most oppressed in Britain than it is inside the workers organisations. e The questions raised through mass action in lreland,however, allow the solidarity srgu nents to be taken deeper into the Labour movement itseif.This is whet is being done by the UTOM today.The RAC's have made repression an issue,but the “Better Life" campaign has no answers to issues like ‘political status' and so on.The initiative of the International Tribunal on Britains Presence in Ireland has allowed the UTOM to force wider layers in the Labour Movement into united action with "troops outsupporters on the questions of repression.

'- The impact of the Tribunal will not only itself cause immediate problems for the British Government if successful,but will be a bridge by which the UTOM can cross to penetrate the British workers movement with its ideas. se The state of the movement in Britain in solidarity with the Irish revolution,is therefore healthier than it has been for many years ,and it will undoubtedly grow in the next period. However, activists in Ireland must not be over-optimistic.Labourism is not about to end its dominance over the vast majority of British workers.A mass movement of hundreds of thousands led by the organised workers movement will not appear tomorrow.It cannot appear until the Irish Revolution itself has built a more powerful movement than even now exists. Nevertheless,in , the fight to construct that movement against British oppression the Irish revolutionaries can already count on an important force giving support from within the belly of the : Imperialist monster. f

RAIDON SOCIALIST

The Connolly Bookshop, the main production office for the ' Socialist Republic ' was raided by a joint force of RUC/British Army last August. ( See report in our last issue ). On that occasion, along with the arrest of two members of the edtsorial .board, massive damage was caused to the premises and contents.

Office equipment was sabotaged and almost all of our literature stock was so badly damaged as tu be unsaleable. Duplicating ink ‘had been poured over many of the books and papers. As a result, we are lodging a claim against the Northern treland Office for 4,000 pounds oux estimate of the cost of the damage done. In addition we have taken out a writ against the RUC for the return of documents which they are still holding.

In particular, we are anxious to get back the: list of subscribers to tiie ' Socialize Republic '

REPUBLIC

and the files of the James Connolly Society. If proof were needed that the sole purpose of the raid was to disrupt the political activities of anti-imperialist militants them the fact that this ° material has not been returned > provides it. These documents are of no other use to the RUC or British Army. The arrest of Danny Morris~ on, editor of Republican News' .

shows that Mason's campaign against the opposition press in the North has not let up. The need to wage a campaign in defence cf the opposition press remains an urgent necessity. A first ' step is to demand the dropping of all charges against Danny Morrison and the other ' Republican News ' comrades.

APPEAL FUND

OCTOBER TARGET £200

The arrest of Danny Morrison, Editor of 'Pepublican News', indicates that Mason's, attacks on the opposition press will continue, We are happy therefore that there has been a good response to our £300 Fund Drive, launched in the last issue of the paper, Our August target of £75 was more than met and the money conttinued to come in throughout September, With £lll,00p raised ow readers have until Xmas to send us another your friends to buy the paper and if you can't always get the paper then take out a subscription (12 issues for £2 postage paid). All donations: will be acknowledged in the ' vaper, Send us something immediately so that we meet our October target of : £200 The address is : Fund Drive, Connolly Bookshop, Avoca Park, £189.00p. So there is no Andersonstown excuse for not reaching our LP LT A TS LE GE ROS Ce MD target and putting the paper $ DONATIONS | f on @ solid and regular footing, Belfast t ‘Particular thanks are due to ‘ Anon Belieet er prays H our London supporters who 4 p, Devine, Tyrone £7/00 8 sent us £30.00p and to the § Ballymurphy reader 50 & American comrade who sent Dublin members ° ‘ us a cheque for $100,00p § and szsport . ’ But e But all those who have so far Hl K.M.Cravin, ULS.A. Prot H given are | due many thanks! | London supporters £30.00 § E er you can ‘¢: Swiss solidarit today; large or small amounts f: nity cHtee 25:00 ‘ ‘will be equally welcomed, Get §.

TOTAL #i7T,00 4 pen apen on as om on oe > oe en on a eee

PADDY KELLY

aren INTERVIEW conti repression but there's nothing to bind them together within the docks itself, Outside of the docks they may be involved in - say - Peoples Democracy, Sinn Fein or other parties but inside the docks | there {s nothing to hold them together, 7S > Gp te Gt OP OP ns a a a a a Q. There was animosity shown by Paddy Devlin towards TUCAR when it became involved intryingto help |; build support for your case, | Were you aware of this? SSS SSS Oee2ew wae es Se A, At the time I wasn't aware of it but when I came | home several people said that TUCAR had approached the Docks Action Committee - our ' “own union - to give support to the campaign for me to be released, I was told that Paddy Devlin had told TUCAR’ to take themselves off, because: they were only down looking for cheap publicity, Personally I don't think that it was a matter of cheap publicity fcr them, TUCAR have been out |!

. on the streets over Brian | Maguire and other cases, They are an active campaign against repression, I think it | is a good thing and all trade | unionists should be involved in it, 2 GD GP Ob OP Ge OD GR GF OD OP GD GF a8 Os oe on on .

Q. - What do you think are the lessons, from your arrest and the activities which . took: place around it, that can ‘be learned by workers in other places? Oe Ee OD OP ED Om On OE On aD aD om an an on om a 8 A, I think the one lesson | ‘is that ex-internees should stay away from England !!

But on the other hand, I think that the protest action taken by my colleagues at the -docks shows that it fs possible to put pressure on the , British Govt,, the police and ‘army, to have people relea- _ sed, If all trade unions were ‘to get involved in this sort of activity, you could bring the ' place to a standstill any time you needed to. If they are pushing the repression, torture, harrassment, it's only a matter of bringing the country to a standstill until you ' , get them to stop. I think they | would. B

~ ARRESTED

DOCKER SPEAKS ON PTA

TORN

INTERVIEW WITH PADDY KELLY

Paddy Kelly , an ex-internee, ‘and six ‘other Belfast ‘Dockers were arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act by Liverpool police as they travelled to a training course in om England. Paddy was held for four days and then served with an ' exclusion order! banning him from England, His arrest provoked major industrial action from trade unionists in the deep - sea docks. to Belfast, ' Socialist Republic ' interviewed Paddy shortly after he was deported ean an ee ee ee eo on 6 a om oe oe os oe os CG. Were you aware of the , protests that were being organised on your behalf by your fellow workers in the docks?

A, I wasn't aware of this uniil Wednesday night, I was “fre in my cell when a polnan brought the tea aroura. I asked him for a newssr or something to read, rought me a copy of the ily Post ', one of the local newspapers in Liverpol, and it was then that I =st sead about the protest “kh O » me io) 1e “docke were taking. I must acmit that I was highly delighted when 1 read it, It was a bit of a surprise, I didn't expect that the protests would have gone on as "ar as they did. I thought that it would have been a token protest but they went the full hogg they blocked Stormont, City riall, the motorways, picksted the docks, Castlereagh barracks, They really pushed it. Q. What effect did the stoppage in the deep-sea docks actually have here in Belfast, and was there much solidarity from dockers in other ports? A. Its effect was mostly in the grain silos - things like wheat, barley, soya beans were affected most, Farmers were coming from all Those interested in contacting

PEOPLES DEMOCRACY

MOVEMENT for a SOCIALIST REPUBLIC can do so at: Connolly Bookshop Ph.623472 Avoca Pk. Andersonstown Belfast. o over the place to get their grain and stuff from Belfast and they were being refused entry and having to go elsewhere, Ships that were lying in the docks with general cargos of timber and other such stuff wanted to go to Dublin to discharge their boats but the docks in Dublin said that they would refuse to handle any boats coming out of Belfast because of our dispute as they had officially backed the dispute, Telegrams were also sent to the dockers in Liverpool asking them to come out in support, They said that they would have a token stoppage and that their shop-stewards would approach their local M.FP.s to put questions in the House of Commons, Warrenpoint dockers were to have come into the dispute on Friday if I was still being held and the dockers in Derry were also going to come into it. Q. Do you think that the protests had much effect on what was happening to you in Liverpool? oe GD @P GP OD oe Ob 6D 6D OF Fe ow os oe on ee oe ae a A, There is no doubt that they did. The police had already told me that they were going to hold me for 7 days but with all the protests they had to let me go after only 4 days, I heard two policemen outside my cell talking, 38 Clanawiey Road = Dublin.

PED CD GAD AD SD AEE NS NN AD GED AND GG GE ED <> 90> 2n GD Ge GUN GON cate OD ene enw tn Gn aE exe ene caw eee esv-emn ented jap an > on oe oe a One of them said," What do you think of that, the whole of Belfast docks is closed up because of that bastard in there and we have to get rid of him." So the protests had an effect O.K, Q. Is this the first time that the trade union in the docks -has taken action like this against repression? A. As far as I am aware they have backed the 'Better Life for All Campaign', but I think this is the first time they have actually come out on to the streets about repression, a aD OP GD Gp OP @ a@ OD Oe oD OD oF a aS Oe eee Q,. The Trade Union Campaign Against Repression (TU | CAR) has been working with- | in the trade union movement to try to get the Trade Unions to fight against repression, What do you think would be the possibility of such activity being continued in the docks?

A. I dontt know what the policy of the docks committee actually is on this personally, I think it would be a good idea for all Trade Unionists to be involved in such a campaign. The only platform that a working class man has to speak for him is in the Trade Union, It gives him the strength and solidarity of his fellow workers, 2p GS 2S GP Gb Gn 62 2 6 SP Gn Oe @ oO oe as a a Q. Do you think it would be possible to get support for such a campaign from the dockers?. nn ae os os ee ee ee > es @ Ge es es ss oe a A, It should be possible, There are a lot of individuals there who have ideas on the question of harrassment and «cont.d inside back page

the PEOPLES The Peoples Democracy: was founded ten years ago dn October 9th 1968, To-day P.D. together with the Movement for a Socialist Republic (MSR) is still battling away in the struggle against imperialism and for a Socialist Republic in Ireland. In this supplement we look year by year at some of the more important aspects of that momentous decade, at the work of Peoples Democracy and at the lessons we have learnt which will continue to have major significance in the struggle.

1968 saw the coincidence of a world-wide upsurge of | radicalism by students and young people with a new awakening b ppressed Catholic minx i

DEMOCRACY

In June 1968 a Young Socialist Alliance was formed in Belfast by young people influenced by the semi-marxist ' New Left ' ideas then.

in vogue, It was concerned about both international and local issues, During the summer it held protests about the war in Vietnam and bad housing in Belfast and Derry.

One fateful week-end in August the YSA held a march in Belfast against. the invasion of Czechoslovakia and then went to Coalisland for the first Civil Rights march in the North, body grew rapidly, ‘RUC and turned back, The students were frustrated and demoralised, YSA members took the initiative and propose the establishment of a perman ent Civil Rights organisation.

The Peoples Democracy was \born, The P.D. was a mass democratic organisation modelled on the student-worker assemblies in Paris earlier that year. The structure had its draw-backs, the organis- _ation was naive and confused at times but it had all the ‘vigour, energy and flair of the Paris upsurge. The YSA hard-core also gave it a leaver of tough determirof the YSA in the lo PR. quickly ation and the political influence } i

out a constant stream of leaflets and posters, even occupying the. Northern? Par- Nament buildings at Stormont on October 2hth, This ceaseless activity which was an ~ essential part of the Civil Rights! campaign would continue for the next two years but it was in.-1969 that the PD assumed a new role which was to be one of its major contributions to the struggle over the next ten years, a 1969 ee At the end of 1968 Terenee O'Neill introduced a few half-hearted reforms and called for a halt to Civil Rights demonstrations, The respectable middle-class leadership of the Civil Rights!

movement were only too happy to comply because they were frightened by the mass movement they had unleashed The PD refused to accept this squalid deal and went ahead with the Burntollet march which dramatically exposed the sectarian nature of the six-county state and its so-called security forces, That put paid to. the attempts to de-mobilise the mass movement, A month later O'Neill made a clever attempt to confuse the issue and divide the Civil Rights movement by calling a General Election in which "mo-~ derate" Unionist candidates sought the support of the Catholic minority against "hardliners", Once again PD took the initiative to foil his stratagem by nominating candidates who counterposed a militant Civil Rights programme to the illusory choice between two brands of Unionism, The 8 PD candidates got 23,000 votes an effective mandate to carry on the campaign, By now the YSA had dissolved itself into PD reckoning that PD could soon be won to the full YSA programme and PD was playing a new role - one it was to assume many times in the years ahead, At crucial moments in the struggle PD would intervene to raise new demands or guide the movement in new directfons which would strike ever nearer the roots of imperialist control in the North and change the movement from a reformist one into one whose demands could only be met by revolution, F.D. was also beginning to raise issues which would become ever more important as the years went by. In April 1969 it held a crossborder march to Dublin demanding Civil Rights North and South, The march was a bit disorganised and its politics confused but it was the first major attempt to link the struggle in both parts of the country, Around the same time PD was strenuously arguing the need to broaden the Civil Rights agitation to include social and economic questions like bad housing and unemployment, In August 1969 the Stormont govt., unable to contain this mass upsurge, unleashed the RUC, B Specials and Paisleyite gangs to attack the Catholic ghettos of Belfast and Derry, The people responded by sealing off the areas with barricades, - The No Go areas, PD immediately went to work behind the barricades, In Derry PD members worked with Eamonn Me Cann and Bernadette Devlin, in Belfast they ran Radio Free Belfast and produced a daily resistance paper in co-operation with the Republicandominated Citizen's Defence Committee though eventually in September they closed down the Radio and withdrew ‘from: ‘producing the paper because of Republican attempts at political censorship, The Radio and the paper had done a lot to boost morale in the ghettos however and the experience gave PD its first real roots in West Belfast, ee 1970 =1 In October - November 1969 PD formally committed itself to the aim of a Workers!

Republic and moved away from the University to base itself in the working class areas, It also established the Free Citizen as a regular weekly journal of agitation and propaganda which was to be a thorn in the side of the Untonists, the British, the SDLP and the Southern politicians for the next few years, In the meantime PD had also established local branches in most of the six counties and

was developing contacts with sociaiists in the South, For the rext 1&8 months or so, while there was no let-up in agitation against Stormont and the British troops who had been brought in to prop it up.

PD devoted much of its attention to two topics raised in 1969 - agitation on class issues and the question of the South, During 1970 and 1971 PD waged a series of campaigns on economic issues in the North : against the importing of cement through the six counties to break a cement strike in the South, - cement lorries were burnt and a number of PD members jailed {in this campaign; against a ‘major bus~fare increase in Belfast - pickets were held on the Shankill Rd, and in Sandy Row and 50,000 signatures collected for a petition against the increase; for the expropriation of the company which claimed the eel fishing rights on Lough Neagh eventually the Govt. bought out the company and sold the rights to a fishermens! cooperative, And ail the time PD members were involved in housing agitation in Belfast and elsewhere. As for the South: PD... members addressed a series of meetings all over the South early in 1970 which did much to alert Southern opinion to what was happening in the North, In the summer of 1970 PD helped to set up the Soc- {alist Labour AlMance which included lefi-wing members of the Southern Labour Party (many of them now in the Socialist Labour Party ), some Republicans and members of some of the far-left groups including our present comrades of the MSR, The SLA did useful work linking agitation North and South but it was eventually split apart by the sharp polarisation on the left when internment was introduced in August 1971. 1971-2 In a sort of unintentional compliment to the organisatfon 8 PD members were interned in August 1971, The government obviously expected PD to take the lead in organising the protests against internment and were trying to silence it in advance, Instead the members outside responded magnificently, The paper changed its name to Unfree Citizen and was on the stre- ‘ets the day after the first arrests, PD members took a leading role in organising the Rent and Rates strike in the first vital weeks after August 9th, Then in October November 1971 PD took another major initiative in the struggle, At a time when NICRA, by then tightly controlled by the Offictal Republicans, refused to go beyond the demand dor a Bill of Rights, wouldn't defy the ban on the street protests, and tried. to keep all activity under their own control, PD took the lead in setting up the Northern Resiszance Movement, The NRM promptly took the struggle hack to the streets with an illegal march along the M1 to Long Kesh on Christmas Day 1971 and then a series of mass marches in the New Year which forced NICRA back onto the streets as well.

The British tried to crush this new mobilisation by the massacre of Bloody Sunday but instead provoked the greatest mass reaction in recent Trish history, the 50,000 .strong march in Newry, a one-day general strike jin the North, the burning of the British Embassy in Dublin and what was effectively a general strike in the. South, The NRM also raised the clear and unequivocal demand to smash Stormont which gave a central focus to the whole mass political and military struggle at the time culminating in the abolition of Stormont - still the biggest gain of the last 10 years, The NRM .

had another significance as well, PD ca-operated closely

with Provisional Sinn Fein in setting it up thus becoming the first socialist organisation to reject the then fashionable critique of the Provos as green fascists and to chararterise them instead as a major anti-imperialist force, PD was strongly critical of the Provos' vague and ambiguous Eire Nua policy but recognising the ¢entral importance of imperialist domination in Ireland saw the necessity of a united front with other antiimperialist forees, The Revolutionary Marxist Group, now the MSR, took a similar position. . 1972 -3 a The NRM organised a constant stream of marches, rallies, border road fillings etc, until the fall of Stormont at the end of March 1972, © The scrapping of Stormont confused the anti-Unionist population, There was no gre~ at central aim to carry the movement forward, The sudden Provo ceasefire, their secret negotiations with the British and the equally sudden and unexplained resumption of the military campaign deepened the confusion, Also one of the central demands of the NRM had been ' No talks till internment ends ', The Provos were the first to break this condition and left the way wide open for the SDLP to sell out, The effect was more serious than anyone in the anti-imperialist movement realised at the time. It enabled the British at the end of July 1972 to mount a major offensive, called Operation Motorman, which crushed fully 32 Co, movement, a one of the most stgnificant developments of the struggle, the No-Go areas, The Provos!

failure to consult the NRM about the ceasefire and their secret negotiations together with the general confusion spelt the effective end of the NRM, Its collapse illustrated a more general weakness of the stnuggle, NICRA had actively discouraged Southern support, The NRM had some Southern support but had not been able to develop as a PD and the NRM mounted a couple of memorable protests against Motorman outside Casement Park with the crowd burning a Saracen arm-~ oured car but by then it was essentially a defensive campaign, PD kept up a hectic pace of rallies and marches for the next 9 months but the anti-Unionist population was becoming divided and demoralised and by mid-1973 support for marches was down to a couple of hundred hardcore militants, But then how-

ever PD was involved in two initiatives which gave new life to the struggle. In the interim PD had formally become a marxist organisation though it would take several years more of political debate and hard experience before the organisation's work would really be informed by marxist principles and analysis at all levels, Early in July 1973 two PD members Tony Canavan and Michael Farrell who had been jailed for organising a march in Belfast went on ical status, Their case was so clear and their record in and that in turn gave greater impetus to negotiations then going on to establish a new united front. PD had taken a leading role in the negotiations and on July 22nd the Political Hostages Release Committee was set up, It got a major boost when on the eve of August 9th Tony Canavan, Mich - PD also took another important initiative in the 1972-3 period. By now there was’ a hunger strike to demand polit-.

the struggle so well-known that they quickly won mass support of the Price sisters, Hugh ael Farrell and 100 other short term prisoners were released, PD branch active in Dublin and in July 1972 PD held a demonstration in support of Republican prisoners at the Curragh camp. The protest caught the Free State army by surprise and produced dramatic pictures of protestors stopped by fixed bayonets and loaded sub-machine guns which did a lot to expose the growing, police-state atmosphere in the South as Govt, collaboration with the British became closer, PD hammer~ ed away at this theme with demonstration after demonstration in the South over the next few years, 1974-5 The PHRC brought together much the same forces as the NRM - Provisional Sinn Fein, PD, local activists and, this time, some other left groups. It mounted some major protests in the winter of 1973-4 and even though . Sinn Fein withdrew in February 197) complaining that PD had too much influence in it the PHRC remained strong enough to lead the campaign in support TR hg * ~~ @ Feeney and Gerry Kelly, As late as October 1971, after the burning of Long Kesh, the PHRC organised an important march which outwitted the British Army by fording the Collin River on the outskirts of Belfast, But by then the anti-imperlalist movement no longer held the initiative. The powersharing Executive was setup in January 1974 with the SDLP feeling strong enough tg collaborate with the Unionists and come out in open support of imperialism, back-~ _ing the RUC , condoning recruitment and penalising the rent and rates strikers, Then in May 197) the Executive was brought down, not by the anti-imperialists but by the Loyalist para-military gangs..For the rest of 1974 and most of 1975 the Loyalists appeared to be consolidating their position and preparing to take over power, The result was utter confusion and demoralisation among the minority in the North and it was presumably because of this demoralisation that the Provos declared a ceasefire at the end of 197k and began a new round of secret negotiations with the British.

This was not a pericd for new initiatives on the streets, PD continued to agitate ceaselessly against recruitmert, in support of hunger-strikers in the South and against the nvox iment Bill there, But there was little support for protest demoinstrations, The PHRC faded laway at the end of 1974, In ‘August 1975 PD took the initlative in setting up the United (Anti-Internment Committee with the IRSP and the Revplutionary Marxist Group but the IRSP soon withdrew and the Committee petered out,

a Where PD did take important initiatives was in the ideo-— logical field. In the welter of confusion and demoralisation at the time elements in and on the fringes of Sinn Fein began to flirt with loyalists i.e. the UDA, UVE, DUP section of Unionism, welcoming the Boal plan for some sort of federal Ireland and arguing that their Eire Nua proposals would allow loyalists to keep control of the North, Incredibly Sinn Fein even appeared to welcome the UWC lock-out and this flirtation continued well into 1975, PD launched a major debate on this question pointing out the utterly reactionary, sectarian and proimpertalist character of the loyalist paramilitary and political groups and warning that to attempt to disguise this would be to disarm the anti-imperialiat movement against a dangerous enemy, This argument still continues to-day with elements in Sinn Fein still equivocal in their attitude to loyalism, PD also began an important debate with Sinn Fein early in 1975 over the secret negotiations then going on with the British and over their triumphalist claims that the cease-fire was a victory for the IRA and that the British were about to withdraw, PD attacked the idea of secret negotiations as showing contempt for the people and tending to seriously demoralise them, and argued that there had been no victory yet and the British weren't about to .withdraw, Sinn Flein themselves acknowledged the last point two years later at Bodenstown in 1977, 1976 Probably because PD had to fight so strenuously against Republican illusions about loyalismand: about victory being imminent we ourselves erred in the opposite direction, We overestimated the loyalists' strength and wrongly assumed that the British would put them back in power, For 18 months in 1974-5 we felt that a loyal- {ist take-over was imminent and accordingly devoted most of our energies to warning of the impending danger and working for a united political and military defence against it, This had repercussions on the organisation, the Unfree Citizen became increasingly strident in tone and serious political differences which were beginning to emerge in the organisation were shelved in face of the common enemy.

NEWRY

PEOPLE'S

DEMOCRACY

MARCH

AGAINST

IN TERNAINT

DERRYBEC

TO UDR. CENTRE

FRI. OTH AYGUST

3 PM

MEETING FOLLOWS

By the beginning of 197 it was becoming clear that there could be no immediate loyalist take-over and the political differences had come to a head, There was a serfous split in the organisation partly over the refusal of some members to discard the takeover theory and more fundamentally over what should be the correct relationship between the Republican military campaign and the overall struggle, The majority of the organisation felt that the Provos! military campaign and still more clearly actions like the Herrema kidnapping were increasingly divorced from any mass volitical struggle and that imperialism could only be defeated by such a mass struggle on an all-Ireland scale and based on the working-class, We therefore believed that the priority of the day was not ‘the military struggle but rebuilding the anti-impertalist political movement and that it was vitally necessary to argue, this out openly. with the advocates of the military struggle, PD was seriously weakened by the split, especially in the South, but even so we again took some important initiatives in 1976, In May’ one of our members Michael! Farre- ‘ell published a book on the North, Northern Ireland and the Orange State, which was a major statement of the antiimpertalist position, In October we started a James Connolly Society in Belfast as a forum for. serious discussion and debate among soctalists and anti-imperialists, And we opened up a debate on mass action versus militarism in the anti-imperialist movement which has continued up to the present time, These initiatives were ideo-~ logical, there was still little support for mass protest but we didn't neglect agitational work, We were among the first organisations to raise the question of the British plans to remove political status.

We collected some 5,000 signatures in Belfast and helped to publicise the issue in many areas, In May our members participated in the establishment of the Relatives Action Committees and we have actively supported them ever since, | 1977 -8 There were few dramatic developments in 1977, There was a sharp escalatton of repression and torture North and South and PD members played an active part in stimulating opposition to it in the South as well as the North, We supported the campaign to reprieve the Murrays in.the South and the opposition to the Queen's visit in the North, PD members also intervened to argue the anti-imperialist postition in a number of theoretical conferences on the Northern question including one organ-.

ised by the influential Socialist Register in Britain,

For the organisation itself there were two other important events in 1977 one of them with (we hope) major tmplications for the future of marxism in Ireland, At the beginning of August our General Secretary, John Mc Anulty was arrested on a bogus documents charge and held for 6 months, This together with considerable general police harrassment made our work a lot more difficult, - other members were arrested and victimised and our industrial organiser, Denis Murphy was jailed for holding weapons for self-defence, The other event was more encouraging. In October 1977 a PD Conference voted unanimously to begin discussions on fusion with the MSR, the Irish section of the Fourth International. The MSR took ‘ Te . Bla Lene Kev ee a Sysenaricaniy

W 1 YOU CARE!

a similar decision, This represented a growing convergence of both the theoretical position and the day to day practice of both: organisations and a joint belief that by pooling our theoretical resources a.nd our considerable and varied practical experience in the Irish struggle we can create a really powerful and effective marxizt organisation, The fusion process has proceeded well. The two organisations were quickly ‘ merged at.local and at national level and a new joint paper notably at Eastwoods' scrap The Socialist Republic replaced the Unfree Citizen in | February of this year, Disc~ ussion is continuing on the programme of the fused org-~ anisation and the process should be complete by the en of-the year, In general 1977 saw a quickening of the pace of political struggle especially in the North where PD's work | was now centred, Apart from the regular protests by.

the RAC there was a new and important development, an upsurge of activity by workers as workers, There was a number of militant strikes in West Belfast, firm and workers began to .

hold protests against repression leading to the establishment of a branch of the rv hlack; My BT ERS ‘DY YOu CAR “ as TUCAR in Belfast, Once again PD took an active part in these developments, The general election, opposition to Garda Brutality and the formation of the SLP showed the same upsurge in the South, In 1978 the tempo of the struggle has continued to quicken, PD and the MSR played an important part in building support for the Coalisland anti-repression conference in January. That conference showed the potential support for a united campaign against repression bringing together the broadest spectrum of anti-~imperialism forces since 1972-3, Unfortunately it failed to build a united front organisation mainly because of Sinn Fein's insistence on the primacy of the military campaign and their desire to keep all activity under the auspices of the RAC or their own organisation, However the broad support for the © anti-repression struggle is still there as witnessed by the massive Coalisland - Dung.annon march at the end of August and PD - MSR will continue to work for the creation of a six-county wide and eventually an all Ireland front against repression. _ This has of necessity beer only a brief survey and sele-~ ction of our activities over the last 10 years, We have throughout,even when the direct struggle against imperialism appeared to overshadow all other questions, tried to maintain some level of activity on class questions, We have consistently since 1968 stressed the connection between the struggle in Ireland and the struggle against imperialism and for socialism throughout the world and developed contacts with anti-imperialist and marxist groups in other countries, In the future we hope to do this more consistently and systematically through our contacts with the Fourth. International, We have over the last few years become seriously involved in the struggle against the specific oppression-of women. And throughout this period we have produced dozens of pam-

phlets and articles, hundreds of leaflets and 9 years of the Free Citizen / Unfree Citizen / Socialist Republic containing a stream of comment and analysis which has become part of the political consciousness of almost every militant in the six counties and many of those in the 26 counties as well, We have had our failings as well, In the early years of the struggle we under estimated the central importance of the national question and partition, the violence with which imperialism would react to the challenge of the civil rights and Fesiatance movements and therefore the need for armed defence of the ghettos. We were not alone in that, the TRA leadership of the time made the same mistake leaving the way open for the re-appearance of a more traditional nationalist and militaristic republicanism.

However we realised our error, the Official Republicans \} never did and have since degenerated into the crudest reformism, We were wrong about the imminence of a loyalist take-over in 1974-5 but we feel it was better to err .in that direction than to create dangerous illusions about the real nature of the loyalist organisations, In a more general way perhaps our greatest mistake was to let the pressure of day to day agitational activity stand in the way of development of a rigorous marxist analysis of the ‘situation in Ireland and the correct strategy and tactics te meet it, At times we also allowed outside pressures to postpone the resolving of vital differences within the organisation. As a result our marxism was learned in the hardest school of all by trial and error, Had we been better marxists at an earlier stage we might have avoided some of the errors and given clearer leadership at certain periods. A firmer theoretical grounding might also have helped some of our members who dropped out through the attrition of years of struggle to have soldiered on instead, Taken all in all however we are proud of our record, We believe that at certain key points in the struggle we made vital interventions which helped to push the struggle forward; for example when we smashed the attempts to make a truce between the middle-: class NICRA leadership and Terence O'Neill in 1968-9 and when we pushed the Resistance movement back onto the streets in 1971-2 and raised the slogan Smash Stormont. We hope our emphasis from 1976 onwards on the need to return to mass polit-.

ical action will prove to have been of similar importance, We also believe that some of our ideological interventions have been of central importance such as when we argued from 1968 on that the Northern state was inherently sectarian and unreformable and when in 1974-5 we attacked the illusions that the loyalist paramilitary organisations were in some way progressive and potential allies in the anti-imperialist struggle, Throughout the last decade as well all PD's work has been influenced by certain key conéepts which we believe are still central to the succes) of the anti-imperialist struggle We have constantly stressed the importance of mass polit ‘ical action, first against the parliamentarians who feared it and later against the militarists who saw no virtue in anything but the gun, We have consistently argued for the united front as the best vehicle for mass action and have again and again taken He iniative in building united fronts We have always striven to link the struggle North and South and despite our Northern base have time and again been in the forefront of antiimperialist activity in the 26 counties, And we have constantly sought to link the national struggle with the class struggle always proclaiming our belief that only a movement based on the workingclass can defeat imperialism in Ireland. We are confident that out of the fusion with the - MSR and the joint paper will come a clear analysis of the struggle and that from that analysis will come a programme for an all-Ireland movement of the workingclass. The anti-imperialist move ment and PD with it has com through the worst period of | isolation and demoralisation, Mass support for the strugel is manifesting itself again, We are confident that in a fused organisation with the MSR and in co-operation with fraternal marxist organisatfons in other countries through the Fourth International we will make an equally vital contribution to struggle in Ireland in the next 10 years and to its ultimate victory.