SDLP Parrot Unionists
Socialist Republic1978Labour, the left and left unityLoyalism and unionismCivil rights movementPrisoners and the hunger strikesInternment, repression and the courtsLabour, the left and left unityLoyalism and unionismCivil rights movementPrisoners and the hunger strikesInternment, repression and the courts
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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 Powers' Act has been replaced by the‘ is under it..thet the torture drawal it became the logical demands when British troops intervened on the streets in state the CR movement was protesting about.
on August 27th when,the vast 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 Emergency Provisions Act and it 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 withextension of the Civil Rights 1969 to prop up the sectarian The SDLP got their answer majority of the? yank and file of the old CR movement including some of their own members turned out for the march they 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.
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LYNCH PROTECTS HEAVY *O’Briain report rejected The sham republicanism of finger-print scandal in the
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The best answer to these polit- h-out.. ingDerry , on- Setober 8t fand the building