“Tions which denied the right of political an independent…”

Tions which denied the right of political an independent presence in the campthe relief of many activists only narrow We argued that the broad campaign we an association which can be manipulated ration workers. campaign. But this middle tier remains favouring ge been disappointed by the Conference.

These were adopted with little rancour be done to transform the decisions of conference into flesh and blood in the stentions.

to develop structures to carry out this tax campaign.

demands must stil be won.The confere- in the union the nce indicated the high level of support avaailable. We must develop from this While Jim Kemmy uses the platform of the Dail to attack the H Block prisoners, his former workmates in Limerick Corporation have been organising themselves in support of the five demands. The Corporation Workers H Block Committee has already undertaken a number of activities in defence of the prisoners and will soon present a petition to the Town Hall, signed by the vast majority of the CorpoHow does the boss class see the performance of Limerick’s ‘socialist’ TD, Jim Kemmy, in his first few weeks in the Dail? Tom Morris, a past president of the Limerick Chamber of Commerce and an acknowledged voice of the city’s employers, writing in this month’s Limerick Consumer, used the Further indications that Jim Kemmy’s support forMargaretThatcher’s Hi Block policy is rejected by the working class has come from within his own union, the bricklayers. The Dublin branch decided to support the prisoners on August 31. Their motion will now go forward to the national executive and probably later to the national conference.

The meeting which supported the prisoners was very eventful First of all, the executive proposed a motion sral prison reform and declared it passed after a show of hands. This challenged from the floor and a secret ballot was called. The executive's motion was defeated by 60 votes to 34 with 4 spoiled votes. During this vote a check was run on the eligibility of all those in attendance to vote, and it was found that 20 who ‘ voted in the show of hands had no right to participate in the secret ballot. Then the motion supporting the H Block prisoners was proposed and carried by 68 votes to 30 with 2 abAnother notable absentee from the . meeting besides Kemmy (who usually attends) was Sinn Fein - the Workers’ Party member, Fergus Whelan, a leading member of the Dublin Trades Council and prominent in the PAYE Since the Dublin branch is thé biggest Ends for The petition reads We, the undersigned Corporation wo kers, call on the Mayor, City Council members (including Kemmy - Ed) anv Corporation officials to take all steps possible to help ensure that the H Block prisoners’ five demands are granted without further loss of life. We call on our Mayor and all politicians who back the prisoners to get together and organise themselves in active support immediately.

.... BUT WORKERS DON’T following terms in reference to Comrade Kemmy’s efforts: ‘well done’, ‘sensible’, shines out like a beacon’, ‘maturity’, ‘courage’, ‘such worthy motives’, and ‘commonsense’. At least someone thinks Kemmy is ox the right track...

‘The precarious position of the South ern government emphasises the importance of elections at the present by H-Block prisoners means that the anti-imperialist movement has a pow erful lever for keeping the prisoners’

cause before national and internatio public opinion. Unfortunately the t use has not been made of this situation. The pending by-election in Cav Monaghan requires urgent redress of this weakness.

The Cavan-Monaghan contest will no be an-ordinary by-election. There ar two distinct aspects to it. Firstly, it will not be simply about the fate of one seat in Leinster House but about the fate of a whole government. Because of this it will be difficult to win a large sympathy vote. Given th: Kieran Doherty won 15 per cent of the vote last time out a pro-H-Block prisoners’ candidate will need double that figure this time. The campaign is undoubtedly in an awkward positic The second factor is the state of the H-Block campaign itself. SinceLast J There are now ten dead hunger-strike Four prisoners have been taken off the fast by their relatives. The nation alist collaborators have not been shift beyond verbal condemnation of Brita while Thatcher remains as intransigen as ever. It will be hard enough to con vince people that a mere vote for a HBlock candidate will bring any real change. And it will be twice as hard because the voters will feel they may be bringing down the Coalition gor ernment. Certainly, Fianna Fail supporters of the prisoners, who have illusions in the verbal militancy of

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KEMMY ON THE RUN