Marching against

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. the march was evident from the beginning. Not only did bridge on a week-day mornbut many more showed their committment by making food Gulladuff and Maghera, Even more striking {in a way was the spontaneous action of local people who came out sandwiches as the march went past or who left their work or their farms and joined in.

ssive proof of the popular support was in Dungiven on 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~ GROWING SUPPORT The popular support for 200-300 people leave Toome~ ing for the start of the march for the marchers in Bellaghy, to the road-side with bags of Probably the most imprethe second day of the march, 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 aganda campaign Newman would probably have liked to adopt a low profile during men merely directing the traffic but political necessity didn't allow that.

Northern loyalists and in return they have to bow to be banned from somewhere to keep the loyalists happy 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 Britto enforce these arbitrary bans, So once again the {torial imperative, Besides The thuggery, brutality and sheer naked hate displayed ded by the press - were ing attention on the H Block issue that was the second ing people throughout the 32 taken in. As part of this propthe Burntollet march with RUC The British can only keep their hold here by using the the wishes of the local bigots. The Burntollet march had to and they chose Bellaghy, the ish 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 RUC were seen in their tradttional role as message-boys for the loyalist politicians and enforcers of the loyalistterr- -buckets of Newman's whitewash can't hide the ingrained sectarian bigotry of his force, by. the RUC in the confrontations at Bellaghy and on the Glenshane Pass - and recor-~ enough to undo years of careful propaganda, After focussmajor achievement of the march cogently and forcibly remindcounties of the real nature of RUC, 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 anti-imperialist 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

np EL .

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 ‘We can only hope that there will be enough grass-roots pressure within Sinn Fein trend before {. goes any further, RESISTANCE given a major boost to the ward but it is important to to lose its impetus, In the immediate future we in PD struggle to the 26 counties so as to mobilise the latent issue and to focus attention and the Offences Against the 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 defeat Mason's H Block policy.

itself to stop this disasterous BUILD 32-COUNTY The Burntollet march has movement for political status and has pointed the way forfollow it up quickly so as not feel that it is vitally tmportant ence, to extend the anti-repression support there on the H Block on the Spectal Criminal Court State Act as well. We believe Counties and helped to stimulate 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 ConferPatsy Molloy of Dunsiven | after R.U.C. attack