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 IRSP this was a particularly scandalous proposal, as some 50 of the blarket-prisoners are supporters of the IRSP.

posal 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' something we would have thought Kesu AePuEeT Aly 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, then Sinn Fein would not speak on RAC platforms. In the case of the Sinn Fein explained their i10“eli. is not!.

to be identified with the RAC — Was up to TUCAR itself to decide!

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 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.

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 wage-labourers 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, 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.

This year's the leadership's reformist line.

this year - Below they report on events.

Pa tb 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 Several members of PD were at USI Congress

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Contraception action programme. (from page 12)

MASSES EXPELL THE SHAH Masses take to the Street's