“It THE CASE OF BRIAN MAGUIRE Because of this…”

It & THE CASE OF BRIAN MAGUIRE Because of this the union leadership have turned a blind eye to some of the most vicious incidents of repression within the state. Even when a trade union member, Brian Maguire, of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers (AUEW) was hanged in Castlereagh it was not the official leadership in either part of the country that mounted a campaign of protest but a pressure group, the Trade Union Campaign Against Repression (TUCAR). The trade union leaders Narth and South have not challenged repression, brutality, harassment, torture of dissidents and antiunionists, but only merely condem-— ned repressive laws.

ROLE OF ANTI-IMPERIALISTS What this points to is the absolute need for anti-Imperialists within the unions to begin to organise. There is a growing response among rank and file trade unionists to the information coming out about HBlock and Armagh Womens Jail.

This must be developed beyond inactive concern to organised campaig-— ning within the individual unions, * Relatives of prisoners should be invited to address union meetings, the facts should be laid before mem* Information on union members in H-Block can be presented to union * Delegations must be organised to try and gain access to the prisoners who are union members, * British trade unions should be lobbied to declare support and demand that the Tory government meet the prisoners! demands, It would be foolish of the anti-Imperialist organisations to ignore the huge social and political weight of the unions, And it would be even more foolish if the trade unionists were to refuse to support a basic democratic demand. Union members have nothing to fear from the extension of democratic rights -— however we all have plenty to fear if they are taken away,

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC PAGE 4 In a recent series of articles in An Phoblacht/Republican News, Ciaran O'Dowd has carried out an analysis of 'Revolutionary Guerilla Warfare! studying struggles in China, Victnam, Cuba and Nicaragua. This represents a serious attempt by the Republican left to deepen the content of the paper. and broaden the conciousness of the member ship and supporters of the republican We welcome this attempt and the efforts of Republican News/An Phoblacht to broaden its general coverage of working class struggles and establish itself definitively as a left-wing paper. However we have to say that in this particular series the attempt has failed. Fundamentally it fails because the concept around which the articles are organised -- that of 'Revolutionary Guerilla Warfare! has no real existence. It is not possible to show a clear connection between gucrilla war asa particular method of warfare and the process of revolution. Revolutionary forces can use any method of armed struggle in the conquest of power: guerilla warfare, mass uprisings or even the strugyle “of conventional armies. Nor is guerilla war in some way the special province of revolutionaries, The first guerilla struggle in Spain mentioned in the introduction to the 'Republican News! articles was in fact by right-wing monarchists.

NARROW MILITARY ANALYSIS This basic flaw has a number of tator Somoza. Under the pressure of defeats the movement split into three !'tendencies! —- in reality separate movements -- each with their own strategy. The 'Prolonged Popular War! tendency aimed to surround the cities from the countryside, the 'Insurrectionist! movement held to the foco theory and had links with figures in the bourgeois opposition, and the 'Proletarian! tendency aimed itself at the urban worker s.

FSLN In 1978 the Insurrectionist tendency led a mass uprising. The uprising itself was mis-timed, co-ordination between the groups poor, and Somoza crushed it in a river of blood, despite heroic resistance, Despite all this, less than a year later the Nicaraguan masses were on the offensive again. A general strike was followed up by a mass uprising which continued until Somoza fled the country.

FSLN ASSESSMENT OF ROLE OF MASSES Ciaran O'!Dowd!'s analysis of this is rather surprising. He attributes victory to the 'flexibility' of the Sandinistas and the fact that each different tendency was able to mobilise different sections of the population. A flexibility that requires three different organisations frequently working at cross purposes is somewhat difficult to understand. The Sandinistas leader ship have a somewhat simpler and more direct explanation. They say that all their analyses were wrong because they For some time now in the North, SOCIALIST REPUBLIC PAGE 5 and socially superior position they feel that their leader ship function has been usurped, In order to topple him, they first of all need an issue and then massive pressure to be exerted, The 'Atkins Conference! provided the first condition and the Orange Order the vehicle for the second.

Hence the paradox; the 'respectable! unionists are boycotting the Atkins talks (on the grounds that the SDLP might win some concessions) and the loyalist 'backwoodspersons! are ‘ attending! Nonetheless this has been a bad tactical error for the Official Unionists, They presumed these talks to be a re-run of the Sunningdale Conference which led to the 'Power Sharing! experiment. Its collapse allowed the political initiative to pass over to the loyalist paramilitaries (UDA, UVF). Logically the same should happen again, destroying the participants, However, the terms of reference have since changed; Power Sharing is no longer guaranteed, Paisley spotted this deliberate loophole left by the British and focuses on it regularly, dispelling any suggestion that he is going soft on the anti-unionists, Secondly the Ulster Defence Association and its allies are not so powerful as before, though still very dangerous, Finally this British government is determined to bring about a 'settlement! even if it has to be imposed, In addition, the Orange Order is an all-class alliance through which patronage is regulated, It isnot will not alter the basic sectarian an agitational organisation, True,