Socialist Republic: Vol. 2 no. 1, 1980

‘Ba socialist republic The Burntollet March

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT INSIDE

Mass Action shows the way.

Victory to the Revolution!

FEBUARY THE II TH WILL GO DOWN

IN HISTORY AS DAY I OF THE IRAN-

IAN REVOLUTION. IN A CLASSIC

DEMONSTRATION OF THE POWER OF

MASS ACTION THE IRANIAN WORKERS

WENT FROM STRIKES AND MASS DEMON-

STRATION TO ARMED INSURRECTION.

THE ARMED FORCES WERE EITHER WON

OVER TO THE CAMP OF REVOLUTION OR

SWEPT AWAY BY THE SHEER POWER OF

THE RISEN PEOPLE.

THE REVOLUTION STILL FACES

MANY PROBLEMS. THE GENERALS HOPE

THAT BY PULLING BACK TO BARRACKS

THEY CAN ISOLATE THE ARMY FROM

THE REVOLUTIONARY CONTAGION AND

PRESERVE IT AS A WEAPON OF REACT-

ION. AYATOLLAH KHOMEINE AND THE

RELIGIOUS LEADERS WILL NOW TRY

TO HALT THE REVOLUTIONARY FERMENT

AND THE WEST WILL MovE TO SUPPORT

HIM IN THE HOPE OF PREVENTING

THE WORKERS COMING TO POWER. BUT

WHATEVER PROBLEMS ARE POSED IN

THE FUTURE NOTHING CAN TAKE AWAY

FROM THE JOY AND GRANDEUR OF A

DAY ON WHICH THE MASSES EXERTED

THEIR STRENGTH AND DEALT A CRUSH-

ING DEFEAT TO IMPERIALISM.

WE CARRY A BACKGROUND REPORT ON

IRAN ON PAGE TEN.

forward to workers power!

Page 2 ct EMS, capitalist fiasco ££ The entry of Ireland into the proposed European Economic Monetary System has raised a number of important questions about the political and economic future of Ireland. Many commentators, on the right and the left, believe that membership of the EMS will signal a final break with British imperialism. The reformist Republicans (OpPicials ) and the social democrats imagine that closer integration with European imperialism will create a modern, independent Ireland. This reasoning serves as an excuse to abandon the struggle against British trade union leadership. leaving aside the curious logie which posits that dependence on European rather than British imperialism will lead to Irish independence, what truth is their in the view that Britain is no longer the decisive economic and political influence in Ireland? It is true that over the last decade and a half Irish trade has diversified considerably.

Roughly half our trade is now — with countries other than Britain.

Similarly, a substantial part of industrial investment comes from the U.S. and European countries.

But it is simplistic and superficial to think that this reflects a qualitative change in Ireland's relationship with Britain. .

T he Imperialist Link The growth of foreign trade with Europe was actually fuelled by dependence on Britain. The decline of the pound sterling had the effect of cheapening Irish exports vis a vis commodities produced in other currency areas.

it was precisely the relationship with Britain which permitted and encouraged diversification of trade. This of course was the reason why no serious move was made to break the sterling link.

Furthermore there is no substance in the belief that the new trade pattern has fundamentally strengthened the Irish economy. It is true that the decline of Sterling precipitated an export boom. But if devaluation has cheapened exports it has also made imports dearer. The result is a widening trade deficit, a balance of payments crisis and an enormous national debt. The international credibility of the Irish economy is currently at a low ebb.

Continued confidence by the international finance agencies ( in the form of exploitative loans) cannot be expected unless the. balance of payments deficit is trimmed down. This in.turn means imperialism and adapt to the pro-multinational bias of the trimming still further the living © standards of working people not a very big change in nature for Irish capitalism! But surely entry in the EMS, despite Britain's refusal, shows that Britain can no longer dictate terms in Ireland? It should be obvious that ecoaomic policies best suited to an imperialist country do not necessarily serve the metropolis when extended to its colonies. In this sense Britain and Ireland have different but not antagonistic attitudes to the EMS, Capitalists Compete Britain is hesitant about the EMS. For several years Germany has footed the bills of its poorer imperialist relations in Europe.

To avoid a trade war it has continuously revalued the Mark thereby making its own exports dearer and its imports cheaper. The balance of payments crisis of other European countries eased as a result.

But the EMS will at the very least slow down the rising value of the Mark and enhance the competitive edge of German industry. Despite the on-going devaluation of sterling and the revaluation of the Mark Britain already has a 20% trade deficit with Germany. In the context of the EMS Britain would be further at the mercy of German imperialism. However, Britain is not in principle opposed to monetary union, which in the long run wot- 1d benefit all European imperial ist powers. The free floating of the Mark confers only short term advantages. Revaluation of a strong currency means at the same time devaluation of a weak currency. The imports of the lesser powers eventually become clearer.

Prance in particular has found to ite. cost that its gains from ‘German revaluation were lost through the devaluation of the Franc in the form of higher capital costs in agriculture. In principle, ‘ a stable European monetary union suits all the imperialist powers.

Britain's success is in the long run tied to the success of European imperialism and it cannot indefinitely counterpose its specific needs to those of its partners. But the short term benefits of the floating Mark have not run out for Britain as they . have for France. Failure to impose wage restraint on the unions ‘means that Britain must fully exp- ‘loit the competitive advantages accruing from the present monetary chaos. Not until an effective incomes policy is enforced will British imperialism be competitive enough to cope with the challenge posed by a project such as the

EMS

‘- »+ Ireland, by contrast with Britain, has a much more satisfactory level of industrial productivity.

The National Wage Agreements were relatively successful in containing wages and export competitivness improved. But it is necessary again to stress that this is not a sign of independent or strong growth. In reality it réflects imperialist distortions of the Irish economy. The high mobility of foreign investment (demonstrated by the flight of foreign firms during the last recession) has confronted the Irish working class with an immediate and stark choice between low wages and unemployment. In the absence of adequate political leadership Irish workers have had to be content with the lesser evil of wage restraint. As in the case of the diversification of trade, it is Ireland's dependence on imperialism, which has afforded it a limited amount of manouverability vis a vis the EMS. So long as there is no major and prolonged divergence between Sterling and commow European currency, the Irish economy will be able to make short term gains without conflicting seriously with British interests. Such a divergence seems unlikely since the rest of Europe would suffer from the resultant British crisis.

Those who are expecting a fundamental break with sterlingand with British dependence are engaged in wishful thinking.

Independence will come by only one route, anti-imperialist struggle. ——.

PEOPLES DEMOCRACY:

_ ‘The People's Democracy, -bases itself on the following points : We agreed that the central political question for the Irish people ts the political, economical and military domination of Ireland by Impertalism and that the central task of the Irish revolution is the salution of the national question through the ending of partition and achievement of political and economic independence, We are united in our rejection of the claim that any lasting solution to the oppression of the Irish people can be found in a 6 county framework, ard in our rejection of any ' right' of the Loyalist minority to continue partition.

As Marxists we believe that the capitalist state must be smashed and replaced by a workers!

‘state and that only the organised working class can provide the motive force for doing this, We believe that a cructal area of capitalist oppression is the oppression of women, and that this is especially so in Ireland, given the history of clerical power here, Women are oppressed as a sex and even a successful socialist revolution will not automatically guarantee the elimination of this oppression, For this.

reason we unconditlormlly siipport the right of women to organise independently to fight for their emancipation, Page 3 What we stand for. As Marxists we belleve that the working class has the ability to successfully clallenge and defeat Impertalism. It produces the wealth cof soclety without being able to control or distribute it, It is potentially stronger than any other _ class because of its ability to organise politically on a mass base, combining its economic power and tts strength of numbers.

We accept that workers have the right to defend themeelves 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 tn the building of an organised and experienced leadership, in a Marxist party cased on the Leninist theory of Party Organisatior, the central feature of which is democratic centralism, The organisation is imternationalist, It commits itself to holding an organised discussion with.

representatives of the Fourth International ¢n the questions of affillation and the XIth World Congress of the Fourth International, Members of the organisation may hold individual memtership of the F'.I.

WHIDDY ISLANC

5C PECPLE DIED Al’ WHIDDY ISLAND IN JANUARY IN THE BIGGEST INDUSTRIAL DISASTER IN RECENT IRISH HISTORY, tHE 50, CREWMEN Or THE FRENCH TANKER BETELGEUSE AND IRISH TERMINAL WORKERS, WERE KILLED BY SUCESSIVE /ZRISH GOVERNMENT'S POLICY OF MAKING THE 26 COUNTIES A HAVEN FOR DIRTY AND DANGEROUS MULTI-NATIONAL

<IRMS THAT MOST CTHER COUNTRIES WOULDN'T HAVE.

The Betelgeuse disaster was predictable. From the beginning the Whiddy story has been a long saga of the Dublin Govt. turning a blind eye to the totally inadaquate safety and anti-pollution measures at the terminal run by the giant multi-national Gulf Oil company. In the first six years of Gulf's operations at Whiddy there were two dozen reported oil spillages polluting Bantry bay, the biggest one in (ctober I974 pumping 650.000 gallons of crude oil into the bay and another one three months later spilling 115,000 gallons.

The reason Gulf could get away With this was that as 4 result of a deal with Fianna Fail, there was no harbour authority to enforce safety regulations for the first six years. Eventually in 1975, the Government was forced, as a face-saving measure, to establish a harbour authority but it was only a front for the Gulf Company. The result was the lack of safety measures which doomed the fifty workers.

What did the Irish people get out of this long record of criminal negligence? Gulf O11 provided about I50 jobs in Bantry, they paid no harbour dues and it is reckoned that in their first five years they paid the Irish authorities only some £35,000 in rates.

In the same period it was reckoned they paid off their capital investment and made a profit of over £40 million. The oil offloaded at Bantry isn't even used in Ireland: its crude oil which is simply stored for delivery to refineries in Britain and Europe.

Guif came to Whiddy simply because nowhere else in Europe would have allowed them to operate with such inadequate safety measures - which meant that Gulf saved themselves alot of money.

They are only one of many multinational firms which Irish governments have allowed to operate dangerous processes with totally inadequate precautions. Another example is Asahi in Killala whicn is transporting highly danger >us chemicals right across Ireland ‘and pumping toxic waste int> Killale bay. Yet another is ‘Raybestos Manhattan which has peen dumping danger dus asbestos waste beside residential arees in Co. Cork. Potentially most Gangerous >.f all is the Government's plan in ieague witn the U.S. Westinghouse Corporation to builc a nuclear reactor at Carnsore Point. There is to be an officie.

enquiry into the Whiddy Island cisaster but ail the indications are that it will be a whitewash.

If we €on't want alot more Whiddy Isiands then we ust force the trade unions to fight for a full and open enquiry into the disaster and stop the process of turning ‘Ireland into a dumping ground for all the poisonous rubbish of multi-national capitalism.

Page

SOCIALIST LABOUR PARTY

The Conference of the Socialist Labour Party (SLP) held over the weekend of January 27 & 28 showed that there is not much point in having a correct programme taking the right side in the fight against British Imperialism without at the same time having some idea of how to put it into practice.

When the party was founded there were grounds for hoping that the membership would learn from its experience. Whilethere is no doubt that this has happened to some degree, complete awareness of this lesson does not yet exist, More than that it became clear at the conference that there is a small right-wing minority which has no interest in supporting the fight for a united Ireland, never mind struggling against atrocities like H Block, which doesn't.consider itself bound by conference decisions and feels.free to oppose them publicly, This grouping though not yet formally organised, and lacking agreement on all issues (largely due to personal petty rivalries ) does have one thing in common -a reactionary 'labourist' position on the National Question. The most prominent member of this clique, Noel Browne TD, demonstrated his contempt for the party he is supposed to represent in the Dail by writing a letter to 'The Irish Times' on January 9th in which he made the scandalous allegation that the campaign for the restoration of Political Status is "elitist". This flew in the face of SLP policy and caused a number of delegates to put forward a resolution re-iterating support

HE LE

The utter contempt in which the right wing of the Socialist labour Party holds the party's nembership was vividly demonstrat - .

ed at the first meeting of the new National Executive Committee, held in Dublin on 19-IIth February.

Not only did the NEC refuse to censure Browne for his attack on the H-block prisoners but it went on to overturn the conference decisions to mount an action campaign on the H-blocks.

Under cover of high-sounding criticsm of the “narrow nationalist aims and methods of the Provisional I.R.A.", the Socialist , Lgbour Party NEG turned its back eon the growing anti-repression struggle both in the 26 counties as well as in the North. Any doubt on this score is ruled out by Party Chairman(sic!, David Neligan who has stated that the &.L.P.'s priorities in the coming months will be the Southerp local governzent elections and for the prisoners in the H-Blocks and calling for a public statement to be issued disassociat~ ing the party from Browne's comments on this issue. The motion was ‘referred back' to the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) by 73 votes to 47, though to this writer and other independent observers it appeared a lot closer. In any case it was clear that many delegates in favour of the "reference' back" privately agreed with the motion and were trying to presefve party unity. . Their mistaken belief that a fight could be avoided on this

MUST FIGHT BACK!

campaigns against a new National Wage Agreement and opposition to _Haughey's Family Planning Bill.

recall conference. To oppose such campaigns to the urgent need of combatting repression is a sorry state for any ‘Socialist’ Party to find itself in. Opposition to the NEC decisions must be buiit immediately. Belfast NEC member Joan Kelly walked out of the NEC meeting in opposition to its undemocratic overturning of conference decis- !

ions. She and other members of the NEC opposed to the disgraceful} flouting of- conference decisions : should tour the SLP branches and build support for an immediate recall conference of the 5.L.P.

Such a conference should censure ' the NEC and demand the implementation of conference resolutions opposing repression. Battle Lines Drawn issue simply encouraged Browne to go even further. The next day he attacked party president Matt Merrigan for taking a principled stand on the Provisionals' bombing campaign. Merrigan's subsequent attempt to retreat on this principled support shows that the left made a serious mistake at the conference in not forcing home the censure of Browne.

The right-wing's confidence will have increased as a result of, this episode. If the left is “not to lose further ground then it must ensure that the resolutions on the H-blocks are turned into action on the streets.

Irish Troops Out of Lebanon! Because of the bombardment ~ U.N. positions by Israelibacked christian forces, the countries with troops in the Lebanon ( except Ireland and Norway ) refused to allow them to serve a new term there, They were initially requested to send troops after the Israeli army invaded in an attempt to destroy, once and for all, the Palestinian resistance, _ However, this blitzkrieg style invasion has generally eroded international sympathy for Israel, This is hardly surprising since the invasion of 25,000 troops was in response to the killing of 44 people in Israel, This pretext lost all credibility when the conce-_ ntrated assault on the Palestintan population became known, As a consequence there were roughly } million extra refugees according to U.N. reports,

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

| The Industrial struggle of Women Pane $

A GROWING FORCE

In the last 18 months, the number of strikes involving mainly women has increased dramatically. Women all over the country - in Drblin, Donegal, Drogheda, Enteld etc have gone on strike; in the Lombard and Ulster bank, Pizzaland, telephone and unemployment exchanges, Enfield ‘post office, Kilmartin's bookies, the Sweepstakes, Shelbourne Hotel etc. And their demands for things as basic as union fecognition, staff toilets and payments under the National Wage Agreement, reflect their employers’ mistaken beliefs that women cannot be as militant as men. The telephonists are pursuing a claim for equal pay which was made ten years ago as part of a general claim for equal pay in the public services.

In 1977 their 4 week strike, supported by the male workers, severely disrupted countrywide communications, At that time if the claim had been granted only 14% of the women would have benefitted immediately from the action as the others had not attained maximum years of service - the point where full and equal pay would apply.

But the strike was suspended because of the Department of Post and Telegraph's refusal to negotiate while a strike was on or threatened, Instead the claim was to be processed through civil service conciliation channels, The Labour Court and the Equal Pay Commissioner have rejected the claim on the basis that the women telephonists do not do night shifts even though night shift pay ts an extra onto the basic wage and it is in equelity of the basic wage that the women are looking for. So, two months ago, in December 178, 3,000 day telepiionists ~~ from all over the country, except Dublin, embarked on a daylong protest; and staged marches in Cork and Limer-~ ick, These were ‘unofficial’ ‘put the telephonists are undeterred and there remains the possibility of a general countrywide strike, In Drogheda, women occupied a clothing factory when their employer skipped the country owing three weeks wages plus six months worth of stamps and taxes which hei-had deducted from their wages but had not passed on, Their case seemed hopeless; their union, the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers, were giv- .

‘ing no real help or assistance and it was difficult to know just to whom they should make their demands, Bonte had arrived on the invitation of the IDA with no screening done of his background or financial position, Due to their own militancy and to support from other trade unionists and also feminists, the women forced the IDA to accede to their basic demands, These were; payment of the money due to them, a guarantee of no victimisation and first preference of jobs when the factory opens again. The Irish Nurses Organtsation,at their annual conference, voted to demand a 50% wages increase on the threat of mass resignations on March ist, More militant industrial action is now being considered, In the past, before the present period of upsurge, the lesser number of strikes by women has said a lot about the type of job they traditionally get in offices, shops restaurants and the declining footwear/ textiles firms - where thionism ts difficult to introduce due to the highly personalised char- :aeter of the work (similar to the kind of work women are expected to do in the home) or where employers claim inability to pay National Wage Agreement increases ETC, But it is also true that from birth women are encouraged to see themselves as passive, accommodating 'girls', This self-image is in total contradiction to the kind of activist ‘solidarity required for workers to defend themselves. Once in unions, women face: male trade union bureaucrats who want to contain any struggle, whether of women or ‘not, within the limits set by theirr need to control any situation thus maintaining their role as acting for the workers, not with them, However women have now shown that they can organise and fight, and fight to win. And where the traditional union structures prove unhelpful, it is possible to go beyond them and to obt- ‘ain wider support among indep- -endent trade unionists and ~ feminists,

10 YEARS OF STRUGGLE (part 4) vINAL THROW BY THE UNIONISTS.

KESISTANCE .

THE LESSONS O

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE UNTIL AUGUST '69 EVENTS MOVED AT BREAKNECK SPEED.

SMALL BEGINNINGS A MASS RESISTANCE TO UNIONISM GREW, DEVELOPED AND GAINED CONFIDENCE.

wAS MET AND OVERCOME AND BECAME A VICTORY IN THE STRUGGLE.

FROM

EVERY CHALLANGE

THE VICOUS POGROMS OF AUGUST '69 MARKED A

THEY BROUGHT THE GUN BACK INTO IRISH POLITICS IN AN ATTEMPT TO SMASH THE THEY FAILED, BUT THE ATTEMPT MARKED A DEEP SEA-CHANGE IN THE FORM AND DIRECTION OF THE STRUGGLE AND RAISED QUESTIONS WHICH HAVE DOGGED THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST MOVEMENT UNTIL THE PRESENT DAY.

The : It's worth remembering today the leading role that the unionist party played in the pogroms, It was they who ordered the RUC assault on the Bogside and they who mobilised the sectarian thugs of the B Specials. It was local unionists and orange associations who organised and armed the sectarian mobs, It was the RUC, now trying to establish itself in ghettos, which led the mobs with a wall of armoured cars and heavy machine guns, Unionists The pogroms were meant to utterly crush the morale of the minority in the North, They failed miserably. The whole minority population rose up to defend themselves, in the South and the direct entry of British troops on to the scene left the Irish question wide open for the first time in 50 years, The pogroms also showed clearly that the North could not be reformed and opened the way to the final fall of Stormont, The British The pogrom weapon was not new to the unionists it was the fundamental method by which the state had been founded and maintained. And time after time the British had turned a blind eye to their activities.but this time tt didn't work, The confidence and experfence of mass organisation led the Northern minority to react with anger rather than with terror. Ei'ven more importantly a larger and more aggressive working ciase {n the 26 counties in sympathy with the civil rights struggle made it very likely that to continue the pogroms would be to risk the whole existance of the Northern state and desta- The ferment bilise British control of Ireland as a whole, The British moved in slowly and ‘hesitatingly to halt-the orange mobs and oversee the internal workings of the state, Many Catholics, probably the majority, welcomed the British troops, They had been largely defenceless in the face of the orange attacks and felt that the British were protecting them, They were exhilerated by the 'no-go' areas and the absence of the RUC, And the support increased when Wilson announced inquiries into discrimination, the abolition of the B Specials and the reform of the RUC, . din fact the troops had been sent in ‘in aid of civil power!

- in other words to save Sto-~ rmont from collapse. Even the reforms were designed to increase the stability and credibility of Stormont, But this wasn't clear to the mass of Catholic workers and warnings by. PD and the Wepublicans were largely ignored, This state of affairs couldn't last very long. The British found that any reform was fiercely resented by the loyalists and they were soon locked in conflict with Orange mobs in the streets, A series of skirmishes convinced the British that any majer confrontation ; with their untontst allies would © endanger their main powerbase in Ireland. Generally they began to bow to loyalist pressure, At the same time they ffound that Catholic trust in them had definite limits and would not stretch to the return of the RUC, The result was an increasing number of punitive raids on the ghettos, A new Tory government added speed to this process and it reached its culmination in July 1970 with the 'Battle of the Falls', This massive attack on a ghetto area marked a new stage, The mass movement was now directly in cona —*

F AUGUST ’°69

flict with the forces of imper- The | South Since the Lemass period the Southern Govt. had pursued a policy of full-scale collaboration with foreign cap- {tal culminating in the Anglo- Irish free trade area, It could not afford to clash with its British overlords by opposition to their policy in the North.

Also they were as frightened as the unionists of the civil rights upsurge and wanted it stopped before it spread South, Lynch couldn't afford to admit his dependence on the British, In the absence of real independence he went in for bluster and sham republicanism, His response to the August pogroms was to announee 'that he would not stand idly by' and to send the Irish army to the border, This enraged the unionists without doing anything to defend the minority but ft gave 'Honest Jack' the republican image he needed, Partly as a result of rivalry in the cabinet, partly to keep the Northern struggle off their own backs, the Dublin Govt.

provided some money for arms, But when the British blew the whistle Lynch cracked down and sacked his main rivals.

By the time of the Falls curfew 1¢ was firmly in control and was able to back British policy, putting the Southern Govt, in he background as the 'second tuarantor', The Resistance Despite the violence of the iogroms the Northern minority iad not been defeated, In fact was the British and unfonists tho were thrown off balance, ‘he fact that Lynch was able , defuse mass support in the South was the first major setack for the movement and the eginning of an isolation that ‘as to prove critical. Tn nant this was due to different circumstances North | and South, The economic boom that brought crisis to the North had a much less dramatic effect in the South, The national question had receded into the background and in a whole © series of struggles workers had won real gains in their standard of living which made them more willing to accept the status quo,: But NICRA, had never really attempted to link up with these struggles in the South and the mass movement's main weakness lay in its lack of a 32 county perspective, There were other weaknesses as well, NICRA had set out to be a pressure group like the NCCL in Britain, but the pressure of events had forced a rather ramshackle united front structure, For much of its period of leadership it had a good democratic structure, This is very important for the development of a movement, It is by a process of action and debate that the movement advances, The mass of the people gain confidence and begin to establish their independence and throw off the traditional leadership of the bourgesisie Unfortunately the Republicans and the Communist party had no stomach for forcing the discipline of the mass movement on the nationalists and the’future SDLP. Right-wingers like John Hume were able to set up a completely undemocratic structure - the Derry Citizens Action committee - and claim for it the authority of the Civil irish Troops Sut of Lebanon! Despite protests to the Israeli government, the 26 County government shows no desire to withdraw. Accusto«= med to helping tmperialism attack all the efforts to achieve Rights movement,Also they consistently opposed any broadening of the demands for fear this might frighten away the Nationalists. They tried to freeze the movement into a pattern of reform and the result was that ft eventually split into fragments, Armed Struggle In any struggle where the working class is in the leadership the question of force first poses itself as one of the defence of the movement, The response usually leads to a fair degree of democratic control over the use of force at various points in the struggle.

In NICRA the question was posed the first time that the RUC drew their batons, but it was not seriously discussed for fear that it frighten the beurgeois leadership, The reformists felt that the state would defend them - some argued that to defend yourself was sectarian, No-one was experienced enough to forsee just how savage the state would be when it struck, After August '69 the minority wanted above all to defend it self, Because NICRA had failed to deal with this quest- ~ion it was ignored and local defence committees were set up. Thus a fundamental di visfon occurred in the strugglea division between political action and the use of force.

This division was to bedevil the movement up until the present day. national independence in Iré- Nand, the 26 counties government now collaborates actively jand without hesitation with \Israel in attacking the Palestinfan movement for national jindependence. i Therefore it is the duty of all anti-impertalists to demand the withdrawal of Irish troops from the Lebanon and to support the liberation struggle of the P.L.O.

Page 8 _

IRSP

Last month the trial of three IRSP charged with the great train robbery, ended, After the longest trial in Irish legal history the three Oseur Breathnach, Brian McNally and Nicky Kelly were found guilty and sentenced to thirty three years penal servitude, all told, The only evidence against the three defendants was their own confessions, beaten out of them by the gardai.

The case, which lasted a total of 105 days, in Dublin's juryless Special Criminal Court was a crucial one for the gardi It was as long ago as April 1976 members of the IRSP were swooped on in one of he biggest police operations ever carried out in the South, It was from this time that there were widespread allegations of garda brutality. Despite the public reaction to the allegations and the promises by Fianna Fail that the matter would be fully investigated, the garda have survived, unscathed, The brutality allegations in the IRSP case were firmly backed-up by independent medical evidence, Nearly a dozen doctors, including prison medical officers, listed the injuries inflicted on the three defendants, Osgur Breathnach was so badly injured that the High Court ordered his removal to hospital ( the presiding judge then, Hamilton, was the same judge that sentenced OCsgur in the Special Criminal Court ). As well as the torture and brutality, the prosecution admitted that constitutional rights of the defendants (eg right to a solicitor) had been broken (though unintentionally!) by the gardai.

Special Criminal Court Farce To complete the farce the prosecution claimed that the injuries incurred by the defendants were either self-inflicted or inflicted by their fellow defendants, a point which they didn't try to prove, The court accepted the prosecution ‘case!

although Osgur Breathnach was in hospital during the time the prosecution claimed the injuries were self-inflicted, Brutality Legitimised The conviction of the IRSP 3 was a vindication of the Gardai and the theavy gang’.

SPECIAL COURT

FRAME UP

members of the Osgur Breatnach Those who have been consistently accused of beating suspects within the Gardai have_not been either investigated publicly or brought to trial, In fact the opposite is the case, Under: Gerry Collins most of them have in fact been promoted.

The three key figures in the Garda frame-up of the IRSP, Ned Ryan, John Courtney and Michael Canavan have been promoted by Fianna Fail since the trial began. Campaign Should Continue The campaign to release the IRSP members convicted by the Svecial Criminal Court “hus already been initiated. The: Peoples Democracy is fully behind this campaign. Illusions among the public that Fianna Fail have any intention of ref-

BURNTOLLET

R.UC.

REVENGE ATTACK

One of the main casualties of ' the Burntollet march was the care+ fully fostered myth of a 'new' RUC. A weekend of harassment and attacks on the marchers wrecked years of cosmetic surgery by the British. Nothing has changed as far as the RUC are concerned and two weeks after Burntollet scme members of the thuggish Special Patrol Group underlined this with a revenge attack on three young people who had been on the march.

_ The attack occured as the 3 victims Michael Conlon, Eamon MacMehon and Bernadette McAnulty, were passing an RUC vehicle checkpoint when they were recognised.

They were immediately surrounded ‘cy hostile RUC men and moments orming the apparatus of repression in the South must be broken. All socialists and republicans must ensure that the case of IRSP 3 is taken-up and the campaign for their release fully supported, later found themselves kicked and punched to the ground. All three received head injuries and Bernadette was so seriously initured that she is still on erutches at the time of writing that's three weeks after the attack.

. This gallant band of SPG men was led by a well-known figure - Sergeant Rudowicz, an ex-Foreign Llegionnaire and part-time preacher.

His sidekicks for this adventure were 'Joker' Adams and Constable Moffat. In classic RUC style, they then held their victims for eight hours and charged them with various offences. Bernadette, a slight 5ft G6ins. was charged with assaulting two SPG men!! The cases will come up at the Belfast Petty Sessions on Monday, 26th February. Support for a defence campaign is urgent to prevent further revenge attacks..

Those willing to help should contact the Student Campaign Ageinst Repression through ¥F.Duffy, Students' Union, Queen's University, Belfast 7.

Page A POLITICAL STATUS — Unity Can Win !

OPPOSITION TO BRITAIN'S H-BLOCKS

HAS BEEN STEADILY GROWING OVER

THE PAST EW MONTHS 3024 IN IRE.

LAND AND ABROAD. DESPITE MASON'S

“DISMISSAL OF THE SUPPORT WHICH

EXISTS FOR THE REPUBLICAN AND

SOCIALIST PRISONERS IT IS AN

INCONTESTABLE FACT THAT MANY OF

THE MARCHES HELD OVER THE PAST

FEW MONTHS COMMEMORATING TEN

YEARS CF STRUGGLE HAVE DRAWN MUCH

LARGER NUMBERS OF DEMONSTRATORS

THAN THE ORIGINAL PROTESTS OF A

DECADE AGO. CENTRAL TO ALL THESE

MARCHES HAS BREN THE DEMAND THAT

POLITICAL STATUS BE RETURNED.

in Britain, in America and “most important of ali in the 26 covnties' there exists increasing “sympathy and support for the pé!- “itical prisoners and a correspond.

ing hostility to British policy.

The effectiveness of this spreading opposition has been shown not only oy Mason's pathetic propaganda pamphlet which tried to ridicule the prisoners' protest ‘but also dy the somersaults of both the SDLP and Fianna Fail on the H-blocks. Although the blanket protest is well into its third year, coth the SDLP and Fianna Fail have up to now contemptuously dismissed the protest as ‘Provo propagarida'. Yet in the last few weeks both have been forced to denounce British intransigence te the political priscners' demands. It is no fancy to state that the struggle in solidarity with the H-block prisoners was never stronger. Major credit for this must go to the many Relatives' Action Committees which exist in all parts of the 6 counties' and in particular to the Belfast RACs who were the first to take tne struggle onto the streets.

The success of the RACs lies in their determination to keep the plight of the prisoners tc the fore at all times and to the fact that they are in@ependent organisations who decide their own policy. We in Peoples Democracy have not always agreed with decisions taken but we have always accepted them because of the democratic and independent mature of the RACs. Over the past month the independence of the RACs has been under serious threat. At the beginning of January Sinn Fein informed the Belfast Central RAC that unless the IRSP and TUCAR were banned from RAC platforms then Sinn Fein would not speak on RAC platforms. In the case of the IRSP this was a particularly scandalous proposal, as some 50 of the blarket-prisoners are supporters of the IRSP. Sinn Fein explained their i10posal by claiming that the IRSP had criticised the Feakle talks — all of two years ago!! Sinn Fein also declared that it was not in TUCAR's ‘best interests' to be identified with the RAC — something we would have thought Was up to TUCAR itself to decide!

Kesu AePuEeT Aly Contraception action programme. (from page 12) Q. What is the state of the present campaign? A, I'm nov very happy about our organised opposition and whole contraception campaign. I'm Cisgusted that only apparent opposition came initially (beside CAP of course) from IMA (and limited reggrvation at that) but now thaf seems to be withdrawn.

It is disgreceful that of all organisations who have political positions and policies on Contraception, that they have remained totally silent. As someone involived in the discussion on clinics response to the Bill, It is of course, entirely a matter for Sinn Fein to decide ‘who to invite onto its own platforms. But to issue ultimatums to tie RAC as to whose support they ° :should accept or reject is another’ _ atter eltogether. The reception nich the RAC gave to the Sinn ‘Fein proposal shows that the RAC :i clevr about this even if Sinn “eli. is not!. Sinn Fein's ultimatum did no credit to themselves nor was it~ any service to the H-biock prisoners. Fortunately, Sinn Fein has eventually withdrawn its ultimatum for special consideration from the RAC, We hope that this indicates , a, recognition by Sinn Fein of the potential that the RAC has for uniting broad forces in the defence of the political prisoners.

The simplest lesson of our struggle is that united action is not just something to be preferred — it is essential if the struggle is to advance: The RACs are uniguely placed to take the lead in strenthening united action around the demands for Political Status, End Repression and British Withdrewal: That is why we in Peoples Democracy call on the RACs to organise a conference for all those throughout Ireland who support these demands to discuss united action. Such e conference must not be a 'talking-shop' but should be a working conference cesigned to map out a plan of action that can set us on the road to victory: I'm hoping that clinics will organise some public campaign and at the very least warn the public of dangers inherent in it.

CAP Campaign Activities: Feb. 8th.Galway,Regional Tech.College Feb.8th.Ballinteer,Dublin, reorganisation of Ballinteer Group.

Feb.I0th.Dublin. Ballymun shopping Centre Sales! Feb.I7th.Dublin, National Planning Meeting, Usher Theatre TCD 2-6p.m. All Welcome Feb.Iith.ldmerick:Street meeting city centre. 23/24/25th.Dublin:Fianna Fail Ard Fheis-activity planned, Ist.Mar.Dublin: IMA general Council activity planned. 6th.Mar.Ballinteer:Public Meeting CAP Group. 28th.Mar.Dublin:National Rally, Mansion House(date may be changed).

Poge 10 Thousands died in the mass protests which have convulsed Iran over the last year and which eventually forced the Shah's departure, They died in the streets, unarmed; shot down in cold blood by the Iranian army. Yet in all that time not only have the western imperialist powers consistently supported the Shah but the media also has presented a thoroughly distorted and hypocritical image of the conflict there, The shah's regime has been projected as an agent of modernization which succeeded in bringing substantial economic and social advance tolIran, The Shah himself appears as a reasonable and highly civilized person, a benevolent monarch confronted by ungrateful subjects who are determined to drag the country back into the stone age. Even now that the enormous popular uprising has clearly revealed to the world the breadth and intensity of the hatred which the masses feel for the Shah,. the media continues to gloss over the true nature of the dictatorship. Roots of Regime In reality the Shah's regime was one of the most brutal and despotic ever known as the Secretary General of Amnesty International put in 1975 " no country in the world has a worse record on human rights than Iran ", The major instrument for repression was the secret police, SAVAK.

Since its foundation SAVAK has extended its power and influence to virtually every area of Iranian life, 'Newsweek ' magazine claimed in 1974 that SAVAK had between 30,000 and 60,000 full-time employees and perhaps as many as 3 million (out of a population of 33 million) Iranians acie@ in one way or another as SAVAK agents, Its primary function was simply this; to uncover and destroy any opposition to the Shah, Amnesty International claimed chat there vere Veiveen 30,000 00 and 100,000 political prisoners in Iranian jails, Not only imprisonment faced oppositionists, since thg late 1960's torture had become common-~place; the rule rather than the exception, Alongside thts the Shah built up the Iranian army to be the best disciplined and best armed in the whole of the middle East with a dual purpose; to suppress any popular rising in its own. country and to act in a similar role to Israel, as the policeman of the impertalist powers in the region. In all this he was aided by the US and Britain. Indeed it was the CIA which planned the coup in 1953 which brought the Shah back to power. It was also the CIA which assisted in the formation of SAVAK including training their agents intmodern! forms of torture, However the brutality of the regime cannot be explained solely in terms of the personal victousness of the Shah, It existed because the Iranian ruling class believed that only a highly repressive dictatorship could maintain political stability in Iran, This inherent tendency to instability flows from the form of capitalist development in Iran. Vwperia liom \avedes lean The Shah did indeed preside over a period of considerable economic development, but of a very uneven kind.

The motor force of the economic development was oil pro- ‘duction. Oil production although bringing massive financial returns employs very few workers. In Iran it is the state alongside the western oil companies which controls this production, Control of the state apparatus enabled the dominant sectors of the ruling class to plunder their national resources, Very little of this money was reinvested in manufacturing industry or improving the people's standard of living.

The main effect of oil production on the rest of the economy was to insure that all areas of society were integrated into, and dominated by, the market economy. Millions of Iranians left the land to become wagelabourers and although not sharing in the dil wealth they felt its effect through steep rises in the price of rent and basic commodities, Iran became a society of dramatic social contrasts,;On one side the newly urbanised power and on the other a small but tremendously wealthy elite who assimulated all that is gross in western culture,aping the lifestyle of the Californian nouveaux riches,

MASSES EXPELL

THE SHAH

Masses take to the Street's In this context it was only a matter of time before the explosion came. Given the massive repression directed against the political expression it was natural that once the muslim religious leaders began to campaign against the Shah, that the people should swing behind them with a vengeance, Likewise it was inevitable that much of the anger be directed against the cultural symbols of their oppression and that it be expressed through Islamic concepts, It is precisely because the Ayatollah Khomeini was such an intransigent opponent of the Shah that he bacame the symbol of popular revolt, But one thing ought to be clearly understood - what we are witnessing is a social revolt, Its dynamic goes far beyond the objectives of the muslim religious leaders, Whether it becomes a social revolution will depend on whether a socialist movement emerges which ts capable of guiding and giving coherence to the demands of all the oppressed layers in Iran, including the oppressed nationalities.

Student On the issue of finance for education a concrete and detailed amendment from UCD whe itch called for a national campaign on concrete and specific issues and called for support of staff unions and the ICTU in campaigns to raise grants in line with inflation and the abolition of the means test was only narrowly defeated this year. Though the government's recent white paper deferred the question of finance for education to a white paper on education, all the signs point to cutbacks all round, the eventual doubling of fees and the introduction of a loan scheme ~ all of which would further endorse the trend that third level education is becoming more and more a privilege.

USI policy on education - "a right not a privilege ", judging by its recent congress, will continue to remain a rela~ tively meaningless demand However the congress in an emergency motion from UCD committed itself to jotning: with Dublin Council of Trade Unions in a march and lobby of the government on the question of taxation levels and against the removal of food subsidies, It also committed itself to continued liaison with the DCTU, ‘This is certainly a progression from previous years where joint marches were thrown out by congress, On the women's question UST delegates took definite steps forward this year. Amendments put forward to .

weaken a comprehensive mote ton on contraception and rape were easily defeated, The congress rejected Haughey's Bill as repressive and called for USI to campaign actively towards free contraception on demand, for USI to affiliate to CAP, for USI to educate and inform its members on .

contraception and to reject any .

attempt to restrict availability of contraceptives on any basis, Conference This year's congress of the Union of Students tn Ireland ( USI ) was significantly different from previous years. In contrast to the usual back-slapping sesston there was sharp debate on many key issues and for the first time in years, opposition to the leadership's reformist line.

Several members of PD were at USI Congress this year - Below they report on events.

USI BUREAUCRACY FACES OPPOSITION

Pa tb Congress called jor an immed- at USI takes a strong line fate change in rape legislation and for government support for the rape crisis centre.

Congress also supported the initiative taken by women in organising the rape march in Dublin last October, Finally the congress condemned the government for not taking steps to remove legislation which makes abortion a criminal offence. Opposition Meets Bureaucratic Resistance, On the national question a comprehensive and detailed motion coming from UCD calling for a realistic campaign to end repression north and south and also a concrete campaign against special courts and calling for special category status and an end to the conditons in H Block was defeated and the main motion coming from the USI officers, — which portrayed a weak~ ening tn committment to those -oppressed in the North was accepted, This however does not depict the reality of the situation since delegates from UCG, QUB and NI Poly, were also in favour of the U, C.D. amendment. This motion was defeated through reformists - ‘instilling provo paranoia and by indulging in provo bashing ~~ — The ironical situation ts Speaker: Anti-Nazi League

PUBLIC MEETING

Paul. HOLBORROW (trom England) 7th at 8.00pm. Q.U.B. Students' Union Tuesday, February 2 ‘against repression in other countries eg S.Africa,Chile, Nicaragua etc. and this year confirmed support for the Palestinian Liberation Organiscation, support for the Iranian people.in their struggle against the Shah's regime, On the question of repression in Ireland, one cannot but question the conduct of USI leadership at congress, The deputy president John Gallagher called people from the ‘Student Campaign against Repression " scabs and a scar on the student body ", SCAR is open to all students, regardless of political viewpoints, who wish to work against repression - North and South, The Peace Jobs Progress Campaign run by USI was, during the Congress, pointed to as a campaign for every-~one but the unfortunate situatfon is that it offers no real campaign to anyone and therefore enjoys no real support, It was pointed out that as long pe \PIP continued to talk about "socfal reconstruction" without tackling the problem of repre-~ ssion ‘that it was meaningless and a "cop~out" on the part of the student body. mS SCAR its the obvious alternative; students can jdin in a real united front campaign aga- Inst repression on specific issues eg, H.Block, Special Courts etc, ~~

CONTRACEPTION

ACTION

PROGRAMME.

INTERVIEW WITH C.A.P MILITANT

The Contraception debate is now once again raging in the Republic. Ten years have elapsed since the first family planning clinics were established by voluntary groups and yet the demand for a comprehensive family planning service has not been met ‘by the state. large numbers of working class people in particular are ciscriminated against by the lack of services. The Contraception Action Programme, founded in I976 at the initiativeof the feminists, has renewed its campaign with vigour. The comrades of Peoples Democracy are in the forefront of this campaign, along with militants like Ann Connolly, of the Dublin Well Women Centre, who is interviewed below for her personal opinions on the current situation and the campaign. She gave this interview just before a very successful C-AsP. meeting in Cork which drew an audience of I50 people.

Q. In '69, we saw the establishment of the Fertility Guidance Clinic by a handful of committed individuals. Ten years on, do you think Contraception is still a political issue to be resolved?

A, Yes, Contraception and the whele question of the right to control our bodies has yet to be resolved. To date, any attempts +c have laws changed fundamentally have been defeated. The battle which involves Church state relations and the power of the Church, basic civil and human rights has been frustrated by politicians. The present Bill before the Dail is one of restrictions and is in grave danger of being passed. Many people are apathetic, either because they can readily aveil of & contraceptive service through the clinics or because they are simply weary of the fight and tend to feel that some Bill is better than none. Nothing couid be further from the truth. The proposals in the new Bill will mean that (a) Contraception will continue to-be unavailable to people living outside the main towns or cities unless the local GP. is aware of and willing to prescribe a suitable method. Name COC Coo eresceresereseees COCHC CTH OOOO EROS adOE OSE SEDERE+ (b) As the doctors can decide on "pbena-fide" family planning cases (to quote the Bill) and opt out of the scheme, this leaves people without a real service. (c) 13,000 women who get contraceptives under the GMS no longer have this eligibity guaranteed.

(a) It gives the minister arbitrary powers since he may at any time change the regulations and conditions of licenses at any time. Why are these draconian powers necessary? Q. What kind of political organisations and individuals form the opposition to legalised contraception. What kind of materjal interests do they represent?

A. The organised forces of the .

opposition are right-wing offs, shoots of Catholic organisations: such as the Knigits of Colambus ss * Opus Dei, and lesfer organisations such as the league of Dec~ ency etc. These pus forward a...

soctally more extrdlié right-wing view.;, the use of which the Catholic Church seems to be shifting from in their propaganda. The -* Church's own position has shifted over the years from one of opposing Contrfeption (family planning) on the grounds that. it was selfish d materialistic to one of "family planning" (by natural If you are interested in jotning « Peoples Democracy and fighting.

for a 32-County Soctalist Republic — * fill in the form below and send it tor .c * BELFAST: Connolly Bookshop, Avoca Park, Andersonstown, . DUBLIN : 38, Clanawiey Rd, Pee Address Pee eocereoeseesceseoeene ES ah methods of course) being a good thing. However, it is important to note that representations made by the Hierarchy have been successful in so far as the new Bill is restrictive on aspects like advertising, sex-education etc. The opposition mounted by the right, is heavily financed by the wealthy members of the Knights, which include lawyers, doctors, accountants, solicitors, the editor of the Irish Independant and the assistant general manager of Aer Lingus Niall Daragh. These are the kind of forces we have to expose and resist.

abs es Geta GUM Catt CRED ines GD GHD GED GID CID DED GCS GES Gis CRD GY OS Q. Has this kind of pressure been successful? Will the government be forced to meet the needs of people obviously expressed“in the “numbers attending the family planning clinics? eS A. The government by listening to the objections of the Catholic Church are callously disregarding views of Irish people. They can no longer excuse themselyes on the grounds that there is no longer support for family planning.

There certainly is an overwhelning demand for contraception in _ 26 counties. Restrictions on Contraception — are of great significance to women. Until women can control ‘their fertility, talk offwomen's equality is meaningless. Therefore the current proposals hold serious threats: for women.

vu eee cae Sa OT OED MLD GRD OMS Gk OD GHD EAS GHD GD aE © 2 765 = Bs o. hey an continued

The first Burntollet march 10 years ago was a turning point in the struggle here, It revitalised the flagging Civil Rights movement at the . time, exposed the sham of Terence O'Neill's reforms and showed the world the rottenness of the sectarian 6-county state. The 10th: anniversary march may well prove to have been a similar turning-point, The commemoration march was a resounding success, It mobilised thousands of people right across Co,Derry and got to its destination ,it exposed the real face of the RUC, it served notice on the . British government that the H Block issue is going to dominate politics here tn 1979, and it provided a remarkable demonstration of political unity in action, As such we hope it has pointed the way forward for the anti-imperialist movement as a whole. socialist SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT Yr epublic ON BURNTOLLET

BURNTOLLET :

GROWING SUPPORT

The popular support for the march was evident from the beginning. Not only did 200-300 people leave Toome~ bridge on a week-day morning for the start of the march but many more showed their committment by making food for the marchers in Bellaghy, Gulladuff and Maghera, Even more striking {in a way was the spontaneous action of local people who came out to the road-side with bags of sandwiches as the march went past or who left their work or their farms and joined in. Probably the most impressive proof of the popular support was in Dungiven on the second day of the march, Almost the entire population of the town came out to clap and cheer the marchers those who hadn't already joined in on the Glenshane~ Marching against repression Pass - while that night well over 100 marchers were put up by local people in their homes, That should give the lie for good to Mason's claim that there is no support for the prisoners in H Block, People don't open their homes _to total strangers unless they are strongly in favour of thetr cause, On the last day despite the petrol shortage, harrassment and obstruction by the UDR and RUC, UDA threats and a general atmosphere of intimidation some 3,000 people made it to Burntollet bridge, about 10 times the number who were there 10 years ago: Burntollet which was previously just a symbol of loyalist and RUC thuggery has now become a symbol of the unbroken determination of the anti-Impertalist population in the North to carry on this struggle to ultimate victory,

The march was the clear est demonstration yet of the depth and breadth of feeling in the anti-Unionist population on the H Block issue. It gave the people of Co.Derry an opportunity to turn their passive sympathy with the prisoners into active support - an opportunity they seized with both hands, And by mobilising that support in the first days of the New Year {t made very clear that 1979 will be the year of the H Blocks: that there will be more and more protests throughout the _ 32 counties until the British give in on political status.

MASON & NEWMAN

OUTFLANKED

Both Mason and Newman, the head of the RUC, acknowledged the importance of the Burntollet march: Mason by denouncing it in his New Year speech to businessmen and Newman by laying on. the biggest security operation since the visit of the British queen in 1977, It was a set-back for both of them for Mason because it clearly had popular support and for Newman because his massive police operation only demonstrated that the RUC and its role hadn't changed a bit from the days of the original march,

69=-B—- MEN

79 RUC / UDR

The RUC have done a _massive public relations job over the last few years portraying themselves as a reformed and non-sectarian force, It hasn't convinced those who have seen at close quarters the handiwork of the torturers in Castlereagh but it has had some effect, Archbishop O'Fiaich said just ra before Christmas that he thought there had been real changes in the RUC and many people in the South and even some in the North were taken in. As part of this propaganda campaign Newman would probably have liked to adopt a low profile during the Burntollet march with RUC men merely directing the traffic but political necessity didn't allow that. The British can only keep their hold here by using the Northern loyalists and in return they have to bow to the wishes of the local bigots.

The Burntollet march had to be banned from somewhere to keep the loyalists happy and they chose Bellaghy, the lower end of Maghera, and Claudy, without a shred of an excuse for any of them, Newman's 1,500 police and hundreds of UDR and British troops were not there as he laughably claimed, to protect the march (if that's what he calls protection we'd hate to see RUC aggression) but to enforce these arbitrary bans, So once again the RUC were seen in their tradttional role as message-boys for the loyalist politicians and enforcers of the loyalistterr- - {torial imperative, Besides buckets of Newman's whitewash can't hide the ingrained sectarian bigotry of his force, The thuggery, brutality and sheer naked hate displayed by. the RUC in the confrontations at Bellaghy and on the Glenshane Pass - and recor-~ ded by the press - were enough to undo years of careful propaganda, After focussing attention on the H Block issue that was the second major achievement of the march cogently and forcibly reminding people throughout the 32 counties of the real nature of the RUC and therefore of the system they serve.

ANTI —IMPERIALIST

UNITY

The third significant thing about the march was the degree of political unity it involved, The organising committee was made up of 4 Relatives Action Committees, TUCAR, the Student Campaign Against Repression (SCAR), Women Against Imperialism and 5 political groups PD, IRSP, RRP, SLP and ISP, Once agreed on the three basic demands of the march - Eind Repression, Political Status and British Withdrawal ~ all these organisations worked well together, A speaking rota was arranged so that each grour had a speaker at at least one of the meetings held during the march and decisions during the march were taken by the organising committee, The success of the march demonstrated that antiimperialist unity is possible around a clear set of common demands and a definite programme of action and that a united demonstration can mobilise people who would not come out to something organ-~ ised by any of the individual groups, . A sour note was struck by Sinn Fein who officially boycotted the march, tried to persuade some of the RACs not to support it and attacked it in the Andersonstown News - though many Sinn Fein supporters. especially in Co.,Derry not only took part but worked hard to organise the march, The reason given for the Sinn Fein boycott was the Committee's decision to give notice of the march to the RUC, Sinn Fein claimed that this was recognising the RUC, In fact however marches are illegal in the North unless notice is given and not to give notice would have been to give the RUC an excuse -to ban the march completely, something they would have dearly loved to doy and could have enforced in this .ecase where the initial number of marchers was reiatively small, Then we would have lost the opportunity to stage such a striking demonstration in support of political status and to so clearly expose the

RUC,

np EL . Counties and helped to stim-

SINN FEIN WITHDRAWS

Sinn Fein's attitude showed the sort of inflexibility which defeats itself. The only way to beat the imperialists in the North is to use every weapon available to us and to exploit every contradiction and every chink in their armour, The question of giving notice to the RUC is a tactical one and to try to turn it into a principle which prevents militants from using an important method of struggle like long marches is to fight with one hand tied behind their backs, There may have been something more than the question of notice behind the Sinn Fein boycolt however, Sinn Fein have never been happy working with other organisations, Time and again they have’ withdrawn from united committees and united fronts, the most recent exa~ mples. being the PHRC in 1974 and‘the Irish Front tn Derry last year, There are indications that they are going into another 'Ourselves Alone! phase at the moment where they are unwilling to work with any other political group, Such an attttude would be little short of criminal at the moment when the maximum unity is needed to defeat Mason's H Block policy.

‘We can only hope that there will be enough grass-roots pressure within Sinn Fein itself to stop this disasterous trend before {. goes any further,

BUILD 32-COUNTY

RESISTANCE

The Burntollet march has given a major boost to the movement for political status and has pointed the way forward but it is important to follow it up quickly so as not to lose its impetus, In the immediate future we in PD feel that it is vitally tmportant to extend the anti-repression struggle to the 26 counties so as to mobilise the latent support there on the H Block issue and to focus attention on the Spectal Criminal Court and the Offences Against the State Act as well. We believe that it should be possible to build the same type of unity which we had on the Burntollet Committee around an {niative tn the 26 counties as well, In the longer term we believe that it is time to have another Coalisland-type conference. The first Coalisland Conference a year ago, though it had no direct organisational results, did a lot to rekindle interest and involvement in the H Block struggle right across the 6 ulate the growth of local RACs, The Burntollet march showed the degree of political unity that can be achieved in the .

anti-repression struggle. The time ts ripe to try to unite the RACs, the other united fronts like TUCAR, SCAR and the women's groups, and the political organisations in a co-ordinated campaign around common demands for the rest of 1979, It is for the RACs, the organisations which have played the leading role in this struggle so far, ’ to take the iniative in recalling the Coalisland Conference, Patsy Molloy of Dunsiven | after R.U.C. attack

"BLACK BOB’ AND THE VERMIN.

One of the clearest examples yet of RUC collaboration with loyalist violence came during the confrontation around Bellaghy, Robert Overend UUP member of Magherafelt District Council and former Convention member was standing with the RUC who blocked the Bellaghy Rd. at Ballyder-= mot, When the marchers bypassed the road-block Over.

‘end pulled out a pistol and openly threatened marchers, The RUC did nothing, Later on when the march- €rs were crossing one of Overend's fields to try to reach Bellaghy he appeared waving a rifle. This tlme the RUC disarmed him but made no effort to arrest him, Minutes later he ran towards the marchers, pulled out an automatic pistol and fired a shot In the air then levelled the gun at a couple of marchers only about 20 yards away and fired again. The shot went wide because an RUC man knock-~ his arm up and then a couple of them relieved him of the pistol, Once again they made no attempt to arrest him and merely say they've referred the matter to the Director of ‘Public Prosecutions. Mean-~ while Overend walks free and has presumably got his guns back. Continued on Page 4

JOIN US IN THE FIGHT!

The fusion conference It was P.D.'s belief in the affirmed our belief that the force of a united movement greatest single barrier to 4 that led at led us auaaeetied a Soctalist Republic is the committee, The alma of hee ee, of British Imperc sm a j ound Repression", "Troops loyalist minowtty hn ro ang.

ut" and "Political Status" right to ti le partition.

are the logical continuation The conference thought th t of the demands which ; the oppression of the Irish prompted the original march, working-clas d The Coalisland Conference fcular Ot women can be n OF ee ees rast year, ended by that working-class while, not lead to a using their economic and unite ereanisation, helped, political strength, The build we believe, to increase the ing of a united 32-county s milltanoy of the population and = m@ement ts the central task Relate er mation OF at of the Irish revolution and a ction Vomimittees strong revolutionary Marxist all over the North, A sim- art ill .

ilar {Initiative this year party will have a major role © play in it, organised by the R.A,.C.'s could brinz even more people into the fight against repress- She solidarity and spirit of ton and walld be a major those who n.arched showed gain in the battle for political the crowinz support for the status for those svfferin’. stru.:le a: ainst repression, in the P-Slocks, Everyone should cet involved in that strucgle by joinines their local FP, 4.C., and by fishtin,, in their student untor and trade unions, Those who support the aims that P.D. are fighting for should People's Democracy today is a Marxist organisation with firm roots in the anttmperialist movement. A lot of our policies have been learnt the hard way through join us.

mistakes and splits but we are confident in our basic For further information about The Last Lap ideas and this confidence was P.D. contact us c/o shown by the fusion in October of two groups, the Connolly Pookshop ? t Bi k B bh’ Movement for A Socialist - Avoca Park a . Republic and the Peoples AN acy cam .

C 0 Democracy into one DERSONS TOWN “ . organisation under the banner or 38 Cl .

Continued of the People's Democracy, DUBLIN Poad, Meanwhile Overend has no regrets, He boasted on Radio Eireann that his rifle was for shooting vermin and that he regarded the Burntollet marchers as vermin and.

he has since proposed a motion at Magherafelt District Council condemning Mason for > letting the march take place at all, It was passed by 7 votes to 2, No-body mentioned Overend's own activities, This wasn't Overend's first shooting foray, During the loyalist stoppage of 1977 he and other South Derry loyalists tried to block the road at Toome with tractors, When the local people chased them Overend fired several shots but the RUC did nothing about that either.