Socialist Republic: Vol. 5 no. 1, Jan-Feb 1982

Socialist Republic · Issue · 9 scanned pages · about 20,381 words of machine-read text

Election special.

No public scan is online for this item yet; the text below was read from a privately held copy.

This text was read from the scan by machine and has not been corrected. Words are misread, and on the newspapers neighbouring columns sometimes run into each other. Use it to find things; for anything you quote, read the scan.

Scan page 1

w x Volume 5 No. | Jan-Feb 1982

ELECTION SPECIAL!

+ SOCIALIST REPUBLIC

Paper of PEOPLES’ DEMOCRACY Limerick East - Dublin Nth. Central:

JOE HARRINGTON

JOE HARRINGTON, 34, is wellknown and respected in the Limerick area for his record in fighting in defence of working people’s interests on the job and in the community.

In the mid-seventies, Joe played a major part in winning union recognition at the Standard Pressed Steel (SPS) plant in Shannon, where the bosses had resisted workers’ self-organisation for 15 years. He is currently employed by the Mid-Western Health Board, and is a delegate to the ITGWU Limerick No. 2 Branch and that Branch’s delegate to the Limerick Council of Trade Unions. Joe was involved in the struggle to save the Ferenka factory and served on the Workers Liaison Committee to save the plant. Recently, Joe has been known as a leading activist in the campaign to save the lives of the H Block hunger strikers. He worked tirelessly on their behalf, organising support on the Streets, in community organisations, and in the trade unions. Joe stood in the last General Election and made ELECTIONS cost money, and this one is no exception. We estimate that we will need to raise £5,000 to mount an effective challenge to the major parties.

All those who want to see Bernadette McAliskey and Joe Harrington elected must dig into their pockets and send us cash.

Other useful items could be ink, paper, loudspeaking equipment, office supplies, etc., which will help us to organise the kind of election machine we need to get the message across.

FLECTION FUND APPEAL

defence of the prisoners the No. 1 issue. Joe isalso well-known in the Southill area of Limerick as a community activist who campaigned against the lack of social facilities in the area. Joe is committed to the struggle for the rights of women and actively supported the setting up of the Limetick Family Planning Clinic.

Unlike Jim Kemmy, Joe is against the raising of the school entry age, the closing of the Tuam Sugar Factory, and supports the Polish workers against the ‘undemocratic military regime in that country. Limerick people will have seen Joe pushing for support and collecting signatures in the Trades Council and on the streets on behalf * of the Polish workers. Joe Harrington puts the interests of the Irish people first, second and last, and will not be bought by a Fianna Fail or Coalition vote. By putting JOE HARRINGTON in Leinster House alongside BERNADETTE McALISKEY, you are giving the Irish people a fighting chance. HARRINGTON, JOE — No. 1. Supporters of the campaign should volunteer for canvassing, leafletting and envelope writing during their spare time. In Dublin ring 744924 or 338542 if you are able to help. In Limerick contact Joe Harrington at 109 ‘O’Malley Park, Southill, Limerick.

If you want to donate money, send it to: Peoples Democracy Election Fund Bank of Ireland Ormond Quay Dublin 1 Account No. 49147310 WE ARE STANDING in this election in order to challenge the policies of the major parties and to begin to offer the Irish people a real alternative. Both ‘major parties offer the same diet of broken promises, austerity, unemployment, repression and collaboration with Britain. The Labour Party can be discounted as a party without principle with nothing to offer the Irish people. The Coalition Budget, over which the election was called, was the last in a long line of harsh anti-worker measures; rapid inflation, unemployment, cuts in social services and living standards. The closure of the Tuam Sugar Factory was the first embarkation into closures in the public sector. The raising of the school entry age was the first attempt to slash the educational needs nf Irish children. The Coalition government also presided over the deaths of the Irish hunger strikers. Millions of pounds which could have been spent on the needs of the Irish people were spent on maintaining Britain’s undemocratic border. Collaboration between the Irish and British governments has increased and the Irish Army is being trained to take on a NATO role and so increase imperialist control of our lives. Peoples Democracy is fighting this election because we want to offer the Irish people a real, honest, and fighting alternative to the policies of Fianna Fail and the Coalition. Our candidates Bernadette McAliskey (who we are sponsoring) in Dublin North Central, and Joe Harrington in Limerick East will bring the need for honest opposition to austerity and repression to the fore. The socalled ‘socialist’ independents Noel Browne, Jim Kemmy and Joe Sherlock have kept the ramshackle right-wing Coalition on the road and are to blame just as much as Garrett FitzGerald, and Michael O’Leary for the attacks inflicted on Irish people over the last seven months.

Charlie Haughey has no answer other ° than to continue the same basic policies in a different guise. Working people have no confidence in either of the major parties that is why we want to begin a fightback in the real interests of the entire Irish people. ©

FANCY

THAT!

Socialist Republic doesn’t often agree with Dessie O’Malley. But even capitalist politicians occasionally tell the truth. In an interview with the Limerick Leader, O’Malley said Kemmyvoted “for every single item he was asked to including things one would not expect a socialist to vote for.”

People who voted for Kemmy, continued O’Malley, on the basis that he was a socialist, “must be very annoyed at the U-turn he has made.”

A Ghance to Fight Back! BERNADETTE McALISKEY PEOPLES DEMOCRACY is spensoring Bernadette McAliskey in Dublin North Central because of the close association that has developed between PD and Bernadette over the last number of years, especially since the start of the hunger strike campaign. Bernadette is known all over the world and throughout Ireland as a staunch and fearless defender of the rights of the Irish people. Bernadette first came to prominence in 1969 as a leading defender of the Nationalist minority in the Bogside against the sectarian RUC and the notorious B-Specials. She served as Mid-Ulster MP from 1969-74. From.

1968 onwards she has been involved in every struggle to defend the National-ist community against the RUC and the British Army. She was present 10 years ago on January 30, 1972 when the British Army murdered 14 people on the streets of Derry on Bloody Sunday.

She expressed the rage and anger of the Irish people when she punched Reginald Maudling, the British Home Secretary, in the British House of Commons when he attempted to ex-

| VOTE GREG

DUFF No1 honorate the murdering paratroopers.

Bernadette has been to every part of of Ireland, most recently as PRO of the National H Block/Armagh Committee. Because of the outstanding role she played on behalf of the prisoners, — she was herself the victim of an assassination attempt in January 1981.

If elected to Leinster House, Bernadette pledges herself to help lead the fight against austerity measures of both the Coalition and Fianna Fail. She will show how Irish working people and their families cannot get justice in our partitioned country, how the economy is at the beck and call of the multinationals, the politics of high finance and the EEC. The fight by Irish people to take the wealth and produce of Ireland into our hands will be a central part of her campaign. Unemployment, high taxes, denial of rights to women and youth, lack of social facilities, denial of civil rights and repression will all be exposed and combatted by Bernadette. Give her your No. 1 vote.

McALISKEY, BERNADETTE — No. 1.

IN ALL the activity around the General Election don’t forget the Shannon Town Commissioners election on March 10th. The local problems in Shannon are a vital part of the problems facing the Irish economy as a whole. Peoples Democracy’s candidate is GREG DUFF who will use the election to create an awareness among socialists and republicans of the need for unity against the bankrupt and collaborationist policies of successive governments, In a statement, Bernadette McAliskey joined PD Belfast City Councillors Fergus O’Hare and John McAnulty in calling for support for Greg’s campaign, “Unity of the antiimperialist forces in this election is vital,” they concluded. ?

Scan page 2

PAGE 2 SOCIALIST REPUBLIC

‘In the early fifties, the Lemass government decided on a policy of industrialising Ireland through attracting foreign investment. Prior to this, the Irish economy was almost totally dependent on farming. DeValera had attempted, in the late thirties, to build some kind of industrial base. This consisted largely of protective trade tariffs and gained the popular term “economic war” (with Britain). However, this policy only succeeded in protecting the clothing, shoe and leather industries as well as those industries which were dependent on agriculture. In an economy which was still dominated by the interests of capital especially British, and in a country divided and weakened by partition, this policy was doomed to failure. The Lemass era was to change all this and in doing so would transform ‘backward Ireland, formerly renowned as a source of cheap food supply to Britain, into a modern West European industrial nation. The backbone of this policy was not as one might suspect the building of a heavy industrial base, which would cater for the development of an indigenous Irish industry such as food processing, which could sink deep roots into the emerging Irish economy. (Even today, Ireland, with agriculture still the biggest industry, imports practically all its agricultural machinery). On the contrary, the policy which Lemass embarked upon was one of offering Ireland as a venue of cheap labour supply, with heavily subsidised manufacturing costs, to foreign industry which was mainly engaged inthe production of light consumer goods. Combined with this, came the 1967 | Free Trade Agreement with Britain which ted to the demise of the shoe, clothing and food industry. In the early seventies, the Limerick area alone saw the closure of such traditional firms as Danus Clothing Company, the Limerick Shoe factory, the Limerick Clothing Factory and Clover Meats.

SHANNON — THE NEW TOWN

It was against this background that Shannon, the first new town in the 26 Counties in over 30 years, was to emerge. In the late fifties, the industrial estate was built and the rentfree factories were soon occupied by British, Continental, American and Japanese multinationals. The original workforce came from Clare, Limerick and Tipperary — many workers rising as early as six in the morning to bus to Shannon and return home at six in the evening. For many, this representedan improvement in working conditions, having previously worked as agricultural labourers, often for longer hours, for six days a week and lower wages. Likewise workers coming from Limerick found that the Industrial Estate offered much higher wages.

Up till then, Limerick was little more than a large market town with a big service industry which had built itself by paying pathetically low wages to its workers.

SHANNON GROWS

The sixties was a period of economic boom. Emerging from high unemployment and widescale emigration of the fifties, the Irish economy began to expand. It appeared that the new industrialisation policy was a success. In this cofttext, Shannon represented every thing that was new in Irish society. Shannon Free Airport Development Co (SFADCo) which, up to now had catered mainly for new industry, turned its attention to building a town around the industrial estate. An claborate infrastructure was set up to look after housing, shopping centres and community development. Gencrous incentives in the form of cheap housing was offered to people who opted to live in Shannon. Soon the population expanded from hundreds to thousands.

A gfeat new era of growth and prosperity seemed at hand.

In the late sixties however, cracks began to appear in this plan. It was now ten years since the estate was set up and since some of the tax free concessions were limited to this period of time, a few of the early industries on the estate began to pack their bags.

In the early seventies there were two important developments in the history of Shannon. The first was the reaction of Britain and loyalism to the demands of the anti-unionists in the Six Counties for civil rights. In 1969. vicious pogroms drove thousands of Catholics from their homes and across the border to seek refuge. Hundreds of these families eventually came to Shannon in order to start a new life. Today, they make up a sizeable section of the community there. Even in the most modern community then, the effect of Ireland’s oldest problem, British domination, is immediately felt!

RECESSION COMES TO

INDUSTRIAL ESTATE

The second development was to have a deep effect on Shannon from which it has never fully recovered. This was the recession of 1973-75. During these years, firm after firm on the estate either cut back on employment or closed down altogether. What were once household names were soon to become memories — Rippon, Callins, Lana-Knit, Butte—Knit, IP| and Progress closed their doors for the last time! The bigger employers on the estate such as E] andS PS, two American companies that had bitterly resisted unionisation claiming that their companies would ‘‘take care” of their own workers, made large numbers redundant. Lemass’ strategy, which had given new hope of secure employment to thousands, was running into big difficulties when faced with its first real test. It is, of course, true to say that some of the closed industries have been replaced, but on the same basis and by similar types of industries which are in no way linked into the Irish economy.

By PAT O’CONNER It is clear then that Shannon, although ‘unique from the point of view of the high concentration of multinational industry in one small area is but a microcosm of the whole of Irish society. The type of company which is attracted to Ireland is such that in any period of recession the company contracts, the first part of the multinational to go is the one furthest from the parent plant. While the late sixties and early seventies saw the decline of the traditional industries, the late seventies and early eighties are becoming renowned for the coming and going of countless multinationals. Ferenka in the South and British Enkalon in the North, two children of the giant Akzo group, bear cruel testimony to this.

A STRATEGY OF FAILURE

This is the kind of shaky foundation that Irish industry is based on, 60-odd Years after the War of Independence Despite the obvious effects of such a policy it is still being advanced by some claiming to be socialist, as the only way to industrialise Ireland. These socialists, such as Jim Kemmy and Sinn Fein —The Workers Party, in advocating such a policy see the continuation of partition playing an integral part in the !reland of the future.

This is why Peoples Democracy (PD) views the election in Shannon as something more than just a local election to elect a few Town Commission- National Issues to the Fore in Shannon Election The future and welfare of Shannon is tied up with the future and welfare of the whole of Ireland. Local issues, in the context of Shannon, take on a national charector.

provision of amenities which would reflect some confidence in the future of Shannon, are all important issues in this election.

THE VITAL ISSUES

While we reject the strategy of industrialising Ireland from the leftovers of the multinationals, we think it vital that all redundancies and threatened closures should be vigorously fought as each job loss threatens the well-being of those involved. The nature of the industry being attracted to Ireland is such that it tends towards very high levels of exploitation. This is especially felt amongst women and young workers. The need for trade unions in Shannon to take up this particular question is clear when one considers the above average percentage of young people living in the town — as well as the large number of jobs which are specifically orientated towards women even in these days of the Equality Employment Act. Also, in regard to women, the lack of family planning facilities in Shannon is areflection of the national situation.

With the passing of Haughey’s Family Planning Act, the right of people to contraception is now in the hands of doctors and chemists. In the context of Shannon, this means that the objection on ‘‘grounds of conscience” of a half dozen or so people could deny thousands of peopie the right to any form of family planning service in their own area. In 1969 vicious pogroms drove thousands of Catholics from their homes and accross the border to seek refuge. Hundreds of these families eventually came to Shannon in order to start a new life.

Even in Ireland’s most modern community the effect of British domination is immediately felt!

ers. The future and welfare of the people of Shannon is tied up with the future and-welfare of the whole of Ireland. Shannon, for the first time in its existence is undergoing continuous periods of struggle for survival. Unlike most other towns, Shannon is built around the Airport and its industrial estate. Should either, or both, seriously decline there would be nothing left to hold the community there. This is why even local issues, in the context of Shannon, take on a national character.

For us then, the protection of employment, the defence of workers living standards, with special emphasis on the rights of women and youth, the VOTE GREG DUFF No1 PD’s candidate in the election will be Greg Duff, a well-known trade unionist in the town. Greg, who lives at 26 Gleann na Smol, is aged 33 and has lived in Shannon for the past 10 years. A former member of the Shannon Town Alliance, he works for a a printing firm on the Industrial Estate.

Greg was active in the Dublin Housing Action Committee in the late sixties and since then has built up a reputation as an active trade unionist. He is Clare Branch Secretary of the Irish Bookbinders and Allied Trades Union and serves as a member of the national executive of that union. Greg has a long record of support for workers’ struggles in the, area and among his other involvements has been the Chile Solidarity Committee and the H Block/Armagh movement.

UNITY IS STRENGTH

Peoples democracy wants to see the Irish working class unite in action for solutions that meet its own needs. We are contesting these elections because they give us an opportunity to advance this process. We want to reach our neighbours in Shannon with a We believe that our polmessage. itics of united mass action have proven to be effective when implemented in major struggles such as the H Block campaign. The strength and number of anti- Imperialist candidates from the IRSP and Sinn Fein means that together we can mount a real alternative. We believe that the old trade union motto holds true:

UNITY IS STRENGTH!

owe

“.. THE LOWEST BLACKLEGS ...”

We see the industrial estate as surviving in the long term, only if there is a movement away from “fly-by-night” firms. Consequently, we do not see this happening in isolation from a national strategy of industrialisation.

Ireland, in order to industrialise, has to free itself from the constraints of economic domination by foreign capital. This domination, in turn, cannot be thrown off without political freedom. This is how we see partition as being relevant to the Shannon Town elections. Since its imposition, partition has divided and weakened the country in both political and economic terms. Successive 26 County governments have been unable to build an economic base from which secure and well-founded industries could emerge. Instead, they have attempted to industrialise the country by offering the income from high taxation on workers to multinationals, as concessions to provide the means of employment for those same workers, who are then warned that export competitiveness is endangered by their demands for wage increases which’ will only mark time with inflation.

This policy is, as Connolly prophesied, a policy of industrialisation by making workers in Ireland “the lowest blacklegs in Europe”’. Without political independence from British imperialism and economic independence from the interests of capital, Irish workers are doomed to such a future.

SHANNON TOWN ELECTIONS

The election in Shannon offers to all those. who are-oppesed to government policy a unique opportunity to build a real opposition. Fianna Fail policies on all the main issues differ in no real way from that of the Coalition. Shannon is the first electoral opportunity around which antiimperialists can unite since the last general election. Although there are real differences there are also areas of common agreement. PD is putting forward its own candidate in this election on the basis of our own programme, elements of which we have outlined above. However we are looking for maximum co-operation with the other antiimperialist organisations in the Shannon area, Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Socialist Party. If we can get the idea across in this election of the need for a slate of socialist republican candidates then we'll have made a lot of headway in building a united antiimperialist opposition which is: necessary to force real change throughout Irish society.

£400 NEEDED

FOR ELECTION

This election is important in that it will be the first electoral opportunity open to workers since the general election to react to government policy. The election campaign to elect Greg Duff to Shannon Town Commissioners will require campaign workers and finance. We take this opportunity to invite you to support our campaign. i If you are available, especially at weekends, and more especially coming up to election day on March 10, for leafletting, canvassing or other campaign work please contact us at the address below.

The cost of the Shannon election campaign will be about £400, most of which will have to be raised within the next month. The full resources of the major parties will be available to the Fianna Fail and Coalition candidates. Big business will see to it that they are adequately financed. We will be depending on our supporters to subscribe the necessary finance to give them a good fight. Please send a contribution for the Shannon Election campaign to Peoples Democracy, 109 O’ Malley Park, Limerick or direct to Greg Duff at 26 Gleann na Smol, Shannon.

Scan page 3

KEMMY LIES EASY WITH PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

Principles Betrayed Following Jim Kemmy’s decision to support the governments efforts to close Tuam Sugar Plant, J oe Harrington and George McLoughlin, issued the following statement. (Also see Socialist Republic Vol. 4 No. 9).

Jim Kemmy’s decision to vote for, what is in effect, the closure of the the Tuam Sugar Plant can only be described as disastrous for the people who live in that part of the west of Ireland and a betrayel of socialist principles which dictate that people are more important than profits. It becomes more obvious with each passing day that Mr Kemmy’s peculiar brand of “socialism’’ lies easy alongside the Coalition’s private enterprise ideology in which only the fittest are allowed to survive. Even Fianna Faii, a party that makes no apology for the capitalist basis of its politics and which obviously had been aware that consideration was being given to closing Tuam, has been able to present itself as having a social conscience on the matter, while Jim Kemmy’s “pragmatism” parallels Thatcherism’s “‘if it‘s not economically viable then it has to go”’ policy. His claim to the title ‘‘Democratic Socialist” seems rather pretentious when we see how Mr. Kemmy disregards the wishes of the working people of Tuam who marched in their thousands to protest the closure of their factory. In fact, the towns-people are altogether unimpressed by Mr. Kemmy’s talk of “alternative industry” for the area. This was conveyed to us very strongly by the Workers’ Action Committee and the Tuam people in general during a recent factfinding visit we made to the town on behalf of the Limerick magazine, _The.Bottom-Dog, The Action Committee told us that ‘‘there were already over 600 unemployed in Tuam who would be glad to avail of jobs in any ‘‘alternative industry” but the fact was that ten IDA advance factories have stood idle in rural Galway for the past two years. One of the townspeople summed up the general feeling quite well when she said; “We could let our sugar plant go in exchange for an IDA multi-national providing a couple of hundred jobs’ only to see it skip the country on the first night-flight out of Knock.”

UNDERDEVELOPED ECONOMY

But in case Mr Kemmy might accuse us of being frivolous we will confine ourselves to pointing out that Jim Kemmy’s “‘pragmatism” would also require the immediate closure of other loss-making parts of the Irish Sugar Company, beginning with its Thurles plant and, if reports from within the company are true, including a loss-making section of its Limerick subsidiary, Mattersons.

In fact, using the yardstick of “economic viability”, the Sugar Company itself could be in danger because of having to carry loss-making sections like Tuam is not the basic reason for the Sugar Company’s problems and cutting off its limbs will not stall the disease. The problems of the Irish Sugar Company cannot be separated from the problem of an undeideveloped Irish economy and tke inability of Irish capitalism to compete effectively in the International market. Clearly, Connolly’s claim that, under the private enterprise system, Irish industrialisation depends on Irish workers becoming “‘the blacklegs of Europe”’ still holds true. It is equally clear that Jrish workers are not willing to accept the blackleg tag nor are they happy to remain victims of a backward economy. The only way out of this vicious circle for workers is the drawing up by the Trade Union Movement of an economic plan based on its members needs and a struggle for its implementation using troops steeled in the fight to save existing jobs. Tuam Fight Goes On By JOE HARRINGTON The campaign to save Tuam sugar factory has been rather low key over the recent period. With the workers in the plant tied up in the sugar campaign, those who urder the full glare of national publicity posed as their defenders, have been busy finding other spotlights under which to display their insincerity.

Now the Workers Action Committee are moving back into the fight but their battle will be an uphill one.

As Vincent Gaffney of the WAC pointed out after the Dail voted to close Tuam next year - “instead of having our heads chopped off this year we will have them chopped off next year.”

The Coalition‘s decision that “Exchequer resources be provided for CSET to enable it to continue sugar production at Tuam for the 1982/3 beet campaign and that absolute priority be given to securing new industry in the Tuam area” has cut right across the Tuam workers’ efforts to encourage local farmers to grow more beet. While present growers may be willing to continue in beet production for another year, it will be difficult to entice other farmers to become growers for just one more season, especially as beet is grown as a rotation crop - a method of farming requiring a high degree of planning.

NATIONAL CAMPAIGN

In this situation trade union backing for the Tuam workers will be vital.

But within the confines of a weak Sugar Company the possibilities for a successful campaign to save Tuam is not great. However, ona broader scale, and with unemployment heading for the 150.000 mark, Tuam is the ideal case on which the trade union movement can build a national campaign against unemployment. In the past, Trade Union leaders have dodged the question of fighting redundancies, using the excuse that the workers involved were tempted by the lump sums and the pay related benefits. In this case, there can be no doubt that the trade union movement has at its disposal a group of workers, a whole town even, willing to stand and fight.

STRATEGY

There are two immediate aspects to such acampaign. There is an urgent need for the Workers Action Committee, the Shop Stewards from the other plants (especially the National Sugar Committee of the ITGWU) and the leaders of the various unions in the Sugar Company to meet around the table to thrash out a strategy for taking the Tuam issue out of the clutches of the politicians and building an action campaign to force these same politicans to underwrite the future of Tuam. Secondly, each and every trade union member in the country must be made aware of the importance of the Tuam fight. This can be done by inviting members of the WAC to union branch and Trades Council meetings around the country.

Requests for speakers should be sent directly to the Action Committee, c/o The Sugar Factory, Tuam.

The working class can kiss my ass, I’ve got the TD’s job at last Jim Kemmy’s Fine Gael Record As he keeps telling us, Jim Kemmy is a “‘pragmatist’”” who “stands on his record’. Recently we reported in the SR that Tim Norris, a.past president of the Limerick Chamber of Commerce, had applauded Mr Kemmy’s efforts in such glowing terms as: oo 6 “well done’, op 66 “courage”’, sensible’, reciate every detail of Jim Kemmy’s record we here begin to list his impressive achievments since his election to the Dail and we invite readers to help us update this list for future issues of the SR. Of course we should never forget that Big Jim’s efforts in the Dail are conditional on the Coalition being “a good and-décent government who will respect the Irish people” (maiden speech). JIM KEMMY has: 1) voted in-an anti-working class budget which incorporated a special claims embargo on public sector workers.

2) Failed to support the following resolution which was passed at the September meeting of the Limerick Council of Trade Unions:- “Limerick Council of Trade Unions condemns the very severe budget...

and its savage effects on working class people, also causing unemployment in an already depressed building industry .... We reject completely . the government’s suggestion that workers, by their actions, have caused the present financial situation which exists in the country ....”.

3) Demanded that a Fine Gael Minister be appointed to the Limerick area — for ‘‘pragmatic” reasons.

4) Announced that Thatcher’s policies were “‘mistakes and pitfalls” rather than conscious attempts to beat back workers’ wages and living conditions so as to boost employers’ profits.

5) denied the right of the Irish people to unity and supported the barbaric British policies in the H Blocks and Armagh Jail. 6) Voted against the holding of the Cavan Monaghan by-election after the death of Kiaran Doherty TD on the grounds that the people of the area did not require a TD since they had voted for an abstentionist candidate.

7) Called on everyone to ‘“‘share the burden and contribute to getting the economy back on the rails”. The question is - what working person wants to share in a “‘burden”’ they have no responsibility for creating?

8) voted to restrict children’s right to early education in return tor a promise _ (!) that pre-schools would be introduced sometime in the future! Prior to this . vote Jim Kemmy attended a Limerick Council of Trade Unions meeting at which a resolution condemning the | proposal to raise the school entry age _ was unanimously passed. The resolution branded the idea as a ‘“‘cost saving exercise which particularly affects the more disadvantaged sections of our community”. 9) Attacked students for opposing the Coalition’s cost saving exercises in education by declaring that ‘it would be unrealistic to think that any one group could be totally immune from the economic situation.”’. While he was slapping shines out like a beacon’”’, “maturity”, such worthy motives” and “‘“commonsense’’.

To ensure working people can also appthe students across the knuckles for fighting their corner he was ignoring the fact that one major group remains “totally immune from the economic situation” but perhaps its a case of out of sight/out of mind, as most of the boss class would be out of the country on their winter break at this time of year. They were probably chatting beside the pool in Teneriffe with Garret. 10) voted with the Coalition to close the Tuam Sugar Factory and double the rate of unemployment in the town.

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC PAGE 3

Fifth Column

REAGANOMICS

As part of Reagan’s cutbacks in school lunch programmes tomato Ketchup and pickle relish will qualify as one of the two vegetables at cach meal.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

In a part of the United States where Ronald Reagan recently took a holiday there has been an outbreak of bubonic plague,

DEAD RIGHT

Nancy Reagan says: “Il agree with the death penalty. 1 think people would be alive today if there was a death penalty.”

UNDEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST

“| hope he will retain his liberal, progressive qualities and demonstrate them in this House...” — Jim Kemmy praising the unelected Fine Gael Minister for Foreign Affairs.

ALCANTRAZ

Getting off the Alcan site on Aughinish Island during working hours can be quite a feat. The red tape involved in doing so often makes it not worth the effort. Recently a worker who had received a leg injury on the site had to wait around for half an hour while his mates searched for the appropriate foreman to sign the ‘“‘release’’ docket.

THE INSANE SOCIETY

In 1851 the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal described a new disease — Drapetomania - a form of ‘insanity’ found only in Negro slaves and characterised by their desire to run away from their master!

SPS HANDOUTS

Recent weeks have seen wage negotiations in most workplaces: ‘For many, this is their first such experience. Take Standard Pressed Steel in Shannon, for example. In its 20 years in Ireland, this American multi-national has never had to negotiate basic wage increases with its employees.

For the first 14 years the Company resisted unionisation and were free to set wages as they saw fit. In the years since union recognition was won SPS workers’ wages have been determined by National Wage Agreements and Understandings.

It is against this background that SPS workers recently gave the required notice to the Company that it was taking official strike action in pursuance of a wage increase in line with the cost of living. The Company has offered, what amounts to, 12/2% over 15 months (with no “cost incurring” claims in that time).

The company’s response to the stike threat was to call a meeting in the factory at which all workers were addressed by plant manager, lan Pullan. By the use of charts and graphs management hoped to convince the workforce that a wage increase, in line with living costs, would cause a ‘‘serious situation for all of us’. Some workers who didn‘t have the stomach for this drivel were later called in by foreman ahd asked why they had walked out of the meeting. It showed a lack of “courtesy” they were told and the Company took a ‘‘dim view’’ of the walkout. This sort of petty-mindedness is nothing new in SPS, whose American tutored-management think in terms of “trinkets for the natives”, For example, the Company has a scheme designed to make workers feel part of the firm. Workers who submit cost-saving ideas are rewarded with ahandout. Yes, that’s what they call it- a “handout”. So, for an idea that might save the Company thousands of fs, the worker will get a biro marked “Sp, Of course we should mention that all those who come up with a cost saving idea are eligible for an annual draw where prizes range from a bag of cookies to a box of biscuits to- wait for it- ashiny, brand new, handle with care, all there, toaster, (electric no less). “Dim views” and ‘‘handouts” may be good for a laugh; SPS workers certainly don’t take them seriously.

However, a more urgent cause of concern among the 300 plus Standard Pressed Steel workers is the fact that their wages are falling out of line with the cost of living - even to the extent that take-home pay for some of the young, single workers is around £50 per week. SE eS eee With 25% inflation we bring SPS’s latest offer: an extra 34%.

They have upped their offer - a £50 lump sum - bringing the offer up to a value of 13/44%. While management on the shop floor were ‘‘over the moon” about the new offer and did their best to convey their enthusism to the workers, it was rejected out of hand. In the meantime, the workers who walked out on the Plant Manager are having a message directed at them by the supervisors and foremen (who are paid to shout at workers), and by set-up men (who are not paid to shout at workers but who do so anyway). The word is being put out that they are blacklisted as far as getting work elsewhere is concerned. However, the real question is - would the mickey mouse management types in SPS last long in any other employment if the “big happy family” at SPS Shannon was ever to be deserted by the “parent” in Jenkintown,

USA?

Scan page 4

PAGE 4 SOCIALIST REPUBLIC

Polish Workers Resist Stalinist Regime ANNA Walentynowicz was a veteran activist of Poland’s free trade union movement and a crane driver at the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk. Many times the management had victimised Anna for her union activities. On 31 January 1980 a hundred workmates led a four hour strike for her reinstatement after she had been moved from the yard. In August later that same year the management moved to sack her again, and opened the door to the mighty strike movement that rocked the whole of the country.

bic, oan ‘J ne Anna. Walentynowicz “The emancipation of the working class is the task of the workers themselves.” reached their peak in August when 100,000 workers in the Baltic Sea cities of Gdansk, Gydnia and Sopot had stopped working. By this time the workers were demanding free- Since August 1980 when they created the free trade union SOLIDARNOSC, thé workers of Poland have been putting this old slogan into practice. They have been fighting for the right to organise independent trade unions, for an dom of expression and the abolition of of censorship, release of all political _ prisoners, recognition of the right to strike and free unions, abolition of privileges for police and Communist Party officials, and full discussion of the economic problems of the country.

end to censorship, for a minimum wage, adequate food and decent health care and housing. The fight began in July 1980 when there was a series of strikes against increased meat prices. These strikes After the government was forced to accept most of these demands the way was open for the organisation tion, SOLIDARNOSC. More than 12 million Polish workers joined. This of the nationwide trade union federa- At the risk of our lives and our freedom, in defiance of the draconian measures of martial law and despite the attempt to paralyse us, with fear, hundreds of thousands of workers and Polish patriots are on strike and demand the lifting of the state of siege, the freeing of all those arrested, the restoration of all trade union and democratic rights won by our people since August 1980.

Support us in our struggle with massive protests and by your moral support. Don’t stand aside with folded arms and watch the attempts to crush the beginnings of a democracy in the heart of Europe.

Be with us in these difficult moments! Solidarity with Solidarnosc!

Poland still lives! (Strike Committee of the Warski Naval Shipyard, Szczecin) rs comprised the great majority of the Polish working class. In the months following, SOL:DAR- NOSC mobilised millions of Polish workers to safeguard newly won rights and reforms and to win new ones.

One of the most important victories for the union was winning a shorter working week, a 5 day week. It also won the right to publish its own newspaper and have access to the state radio and television. It even forced the government to build a monument to those workers gunned down during a previous revolt in 1970.

The example set by the Polish workers was followed by other sections of the.

population. Students organised their own student SOLIDARNOSC while small farmers and peasants in the countryside organised a Rural SOLI- DARNOSC. The hopes and determination of the whole of Polish society were raised by these struggles.

WORKERS RESIST MILITARY

The imposition of martial law in December 1981 dashed these hopes as brutal military repression was launched throughout the country. The initial response was a stunned disbelief strengthened by the lack of information due to rigid censorship.

But this soon gave way to strikes in virtually every city, town and plant.

In the Baltic regions of Gdansk and Szczecin, the Silesian region and Katowice, Lublin, Lodz, Poznan, Wroclaw, Legnice and Warsaw there were massive shutdowns. The city of Radom, the centre of military equipment and ammunition factories was totally sealed off by the army.

The resistance and repression set into a pattern. The workers occupied the big plants like the Katowice steelworks, the Ursus tractor plant near Warsaw and the Gdansk shipyards.

Tanks were used to smash a way in and the elite ZOMO riot police were sent in to break resistance and arrest “ringleaders”, But by the next shift workers had re-occupied only for the army to start breaking them up again. Despite the arrest of key leaders and tens of thousands of SOLIDARNOSC members, the union has continued to function as an organiser of resistance.

Resistance is generally passive sabotage of production and is widespread.

In the first week of the repression only one tractor was produced by the 14,000 workers at the Ursus plant.

At the FSO car factory the workers changed the tolerance levels of the machine settings and the cars produced disintegrated.

THE FAILURE OF BUREAU-

CRATIC PLANNING’

The Polish workers will battle on because these events are a reflection of deep-going social problems that can only be resolved by fundamental changes. The main social problem is that political power is exercised by a small number of bureaucrats in senior government positions and in the top layers of the Polish Communist Party.

This layer is incapable of planning society in the interests of the great majority because it is primarily interested only in its own privileges — its own special shops, the better access to consumer goods, decent housing and education and above all political privileges in decision making.

As a result, serious economic problems have occurred. Poland owes more than 21 billion dollars...to-European and US banks due to falling markets for their products in these countries and increases in the cost of imports. These are the familiar signs of the economic crisis in the capitalist world where prices keep going up, markets keep shrinking and more workers lose their jobs.

Although the economic problems of Poland are in the main caused by the economic Crisis of the capitalist world, Poland is not a capitalist country. It doesnit:suffer the ups and downs of business that cause unemployment, inflation and wage cuts. Polish industry isn’t owned by wealthy businessmen and decisions on what a factory produces, how many workers it employs -and so forth are not made according to the greed for profits.

BEHIND MARTIAL LAW

Poland has a “‘socialised’”’ economy where industry is owned by the society as a whole but where decision making is in the hands of a small elite group. It still has to trade with the capitalists who are forcing the Poles to tighten their belts in order to pay back the loans they owe. In fact Polish workers are suffering from the same kind of cutbacks that people in Ireland are suffering from under the Thatcher and Fitzgerald governments. But in Poland the fight is not against local capitalists but against the bureaucracy which runs the country and has allowed this situation to develop. That’s why the bureaucracy introduced martial law. Through SOLIDARNOSC the Polish working class had begun to fight for a real socialist democracy, a society in which the workers themselves will decide how industry and the economy is organised. Since August 1980 a political revolution has been unfolding in Poland aimed at changing society from top to bottom. This revolution will never be successful until the power and privilege of the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union is broken. The Soviet bureaucracy are terrified of the Polish example spreading to other Eastern European states, including the Soviet Union itself. They are terrified for the same reason that the Polish bureaucracy is terrified: because they too would lose their enormous privileges.

RESPONSE IN THE WEST

Nor do the imperialist politicians want to see SOLIDARNOSC triumph.

The forms of struggle chosen by the Polish workers — strikes and factory occupations — are under attack by the Tory government in Britain and the 6 Counties. The Coalition Government proposes to make such actions illegal and has already thrown the Talbot workers into prison. And one of the first actions of Ronald ‘Cowboy’ Reagan’s administration in the United States was to shackle in chains the trade union leaders of the Air Traffic Controllers. The only reason Thatcher and Reagan pretend to support SOLIDARNOSC is that it is a pretext to continue their cold war against the Soviet Union. Similarly the rightwing leaders of the trade union movement in the West will make plenty of pious speeches but refuse to lift one finger to provide real material and financial support to Polish workers. It is vital that the anti-imperialist movement in Ireland act in support of the Polish working class. If we fail to do so we allow the imperialists to pose as “defenders of democracy” and get off the hook for crushing it elsewhere.

We need to be in the forefront of the fight within the trade unions, the community organisations, the student movement and women’s movement to win solidarity with SOLIDARNOSC: And within our own organisations we need to put every pressure on the leadership to start building this solidarity.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. Put a resolution of support for the Polish workers on the agenda of your trade union branch, tenants association, etc. 2. Ask your trade union branch, tenants association etc to invite a speaker from the ‘Solidarity with SOLIDARNOSC” to address your meeting. (Contact Alex White, Trinity College Students Union).

3. Organise a petition demanding the release of all imprisoned trade unionists and political activists in Poland and send it to General J aruzalski.

4. Collect money for the Polish resistance.

JOHN MAGEE

' be | &

LECH WALESA SHOWED HIS SUPPORT FOR BOBBY SANDS

DURING THE HUNGER STRIKE. NOW IS THE TIME TO SHOW

SUPPORT FOR THE IMPRISONED WALESA AND ALL THE

OTHER JAILED TRADE UNIONISTS AND POLITICAL PRISON—

ERS INPOLAND. SOLIDARITY WITH SOLIDARNOSC!

Declaration of Solidarity Congress, 10 September 1987 The supreme aim of the independent trade union Solidarity is to create dignified conditions of life in an economically and politically sovereign Poland, a life freed of poverty, of exploitation, of fear and deceit, in a society organised democratically and on the basis of law. Today the nation expects: 1 The improvement of food supplies by the establishment of control over production, distribution, and pricing, in collaboration with the Solidarity union of individual farmers. 2A reform of the economy, through the creation of authentic selfmanagement councils in the factories and through the liquidation of the party ‘Nomenklatura’ (Ed note: the system of party appointments to key jobs).

3 The truth through social control of the mass media and the suppression of falsehoods in education and Polish culture.

4 Democracy through the introduction of free elections to the Sejm (parliament) and the people's councils.

5 Justice through the assurance to each of equality before the law, the freedom of prisoners of opinion, and the defence of persons charged for their political, editorial or trade union activities.

6 The protection of the nation’s health, through the protection of the environment, an increase int the funds channelled into medical services, and a guarantee 10 the handicapped of the rights which are due to them in society.

7 Coal for the population and industry, through giving a guarantee to the miners of decent living and working conditions.

We will achieve these aims through the unity of the trade union and the solidari- £8 of its members. The activities of a variety of forces creating a feeling of exterior danger will not remove from us the desire to struggle for the ideals of August 1980, for the implementation of the Gdansk, Szczecin and Jastrzebie accords, Lech Walesa, leader of Soli darnosc has been held inco Le st mmunicado since the clampdown Banks for Tanks According to a report in the December 21 Wall Street Journal ‘‘many US bankers see Soviet—style authoritarianism as their best hope for recovering the 1.3 billion dollars that Poland owes them. “Most bankers think authoritarian governments are good because they impose discipline’’, said an executive at a bank with millions of dollars in Polish loans. . . “Who knows which political system works?” says Thomas Theobald, senior executive vice-president in charge of Citibank’s international division. “The only test we care about is: can they pay their bills?”

The role of the Catholic Church in Poland has been hand in hand with the authorities as long as the regime leaves the church room for manoeuvre. Accordingly the Polish Archbishop has spent his time pressurising Lech Walesa to tone down his demands. PD Solidarity Plans Peoples Democracy responded immediately to the military takeover in Poland. We produced thousands of leaflets condemning the repression and explaining why Irish workers should defend Solidarnosc. In Limerick the local PD branch collected 650 signatures in a few hours for a petition to General Jaruzelski demanding the ending of martial law and the release of all imprisoned trade unionists and political prisoners.

A similar petition was launched in Belfast where PD got the support of Joe Cooper, President of the Belfast Trades Council. PD members in Dublin launched the National Appeal and initially got the support of Bernadette McAliskey, Alex White, President of Trinity College Students Union, Joe Duffy, Education officer of the Union of Students in Ireland. Michael Farrell of PD spoke at the first meeting of the newly formed Polish Solidarity Gommittee. PD members also took part in a picket at the Sovict Embassy and a demonstration in support of Polish workers at which Michael Farrell was a speaker. The National Appeal is directed at the trade union, socialist and anti— imperialist movements. PD plans a national tour of leading speakers with meetings in Belfast, Derry, Limerick and Cork. A major meeting in Dublin is also being planned. A PD pamphlet explaining the rise of Solidarnosc, why the Stalinist regime in Poland has imposed martial law and the prospects for Polish socialism is being produced. The pamphlet explains why the fake socialists of the CPI, SFWP and individuals like Jim Kemmy TD and Noel Browne TD refuse to support the Polish workers.

PD will also be producing posters and badges in solidarity with Solidarnosc.

Our members and supporters will be making a big push inside the labour and trade union movement to get financial aid and fact finding delegations to the Polish workers to help them continue the resistance.

Help us to help the Polish workers.

Our resources are very limited. To do better we need your money. Will you help? Any donation no matter how small will enable us to do a better job in helping our Polish brothers and sisters. Rush something straight away to:

POLISH APPEAL,

C/O Connolly Bookshop, Avoca Park, Andersonstown, Belfast 11. ABOVE: Memorial to those killed by Polish Stalinism during the 1970 uprising SSS at

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC PAGE 5.

The 21 demands of the Interfactory strike committee at the Gdansk shipyard 1 Acceptance of free trade unions independent of the Communist Party and of enterprises, in accordance with convention No 87 of the International Labour Organisation concerning the right to form free trade unions, which was ratified by the Communist Government of Poland.

2 Guarantee of the right to strike and of the security of strikers and those aiding them. 3 Compliance with the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech, the press and publication, including freedom for independent publishers, and the availability of the mass media to representatives of all faiths.

4 (a) Return of former rights to: — People dismissed from work after the 1970 and 1976 strikes, — Students expelled from school because of their views.

(b) Release of all political prisoners, among them Edmund Zadrozynski, Jan Kozlowski and Marek Kozlowski.

5 Availability to the mass media of information about the formation of the Interfactory Strike Committee and publication of its demands.

6 Undertaking of actions aimed at bringing the country out of its crisis situation by the following means: (a) Making public complete information about the social-economic situation. (b) Enabling all sectors and social classes {0 take part in discussion of the reform programme. me 7 Compensation of all workers taking part in the strike for the period of the strike, with vacation pay from the Central Council of Trade Unions.

8 An increase in the base pay of each worker by 2,000 zlotys (app.£30) a month as compensation for the recent rise in prices.

9 Guaranteed automatic increases in pay on the basis of increases in prices and the decline in real income.

10 Full supply of food products for the domestic market, with exports limited to surpluses. 11 Abolition of ‘commercial’ prices and of other sales for hard currency in special shops. 12 Selection of management personnel on the basis of qualifications, not party membership. Privileges of the secret police, regular police and party apparatus are to be eliminated by equalising family subsidies, abolishing special stores, etc. 13 Introduction of food coupons for meat and meat products (during the period in which control of the market situation is regained).

14 Reduction in the age for retirement for women to 50 and for men to 55, or after 30 years’ employment in Poland for women and 35 years for men, regardless of age. 15 Conformity of old-age pensions and annuities with what has actually been paid in. 16 Improvements in the working conditions of the health service to insure full medical care for workers. ; 17 Assurances of a reasonable. number of places in day-care centres and kindergartens for the children of working mothers.

18 Paid maternity leave for three years.

19 Decrease in the waiting period for apartments.

20 Increase in the commuter’s allowance to 100 zlotys from 40, with-a supplemental benefit on separation.

21 Day of rest on Saturday, Workers in the brigade system or round-the-clock Jobs are to be compensated for the loss of free Saturdays with increased leave or other paid time off. lrish CP Get Facts Wrong The Communist Party of Ireland justifies military dictatorship in Poland on the grounds that Solidarity is a reactionary movement akin to the Ulster Workers Council and that it was planning an armed insurrection. The comparison between Solidarity and the UWC is ludicrous.

1) Solidarity is a mass movement based on the vast majority of Polish workers even a majority of Polish Communist Party (PUWP) members joined it. 2) According to the Gdansk agreement Solidarity was recognised by the Polish courts as a legitimate trade union; indeed funds from the ‘official’ trade union movement were handed over to heip consolidate local branches of Solidarity. 3) The programme of Solidarity specifically pledged itself to defence of Poland’s socialist foundations; time and again Solidarity leaders including Lech Walesa declared their opposition to a return to Western capitalism.

How these features of Solidarity liken it to the UWC is a mystery. The UWC contained in its leadership many prominent right-wing politicians and was not a specifically working class movement; it had no rank and file organisation; it was pledged to the re-establishment of the Stormont regime which for years refused to recognise the ICTU as a legitimate representative of workers’ interests. The CPI’s second accusation against Solidarity is not so much ludicrous as pathetic. There is no doubt that a major confrontation between Solidarity and the Polish government was imminent. But it is a travesty to say that this was a conscious aim of Solidarity. If anything, Solidarity hesitated too long before preparing for the inevitable showdown.

The truth is that the Polish government provoked the confrontation by breaking every article of the Gdansk agreement. And there is plenty of evidence that this was a policy of deliberate provocation. As far back as November 1980 Solidarity published documents from the State Prosecutor’s office outlining procedures for repressing opposition to the regime.

That was over a year before the dramatic revelation that police spies had overheard the word ‘insurrection’ mentioned from the lips of Walesa.

In any case, the first premeditated step towards military rule was not a response to Walesa’s private remarks but the installation of Gen. Jaruzelski as Polish head of state. The CPI’s apologia for the Polish military regime will make an interesting if odious footnote in the history of the struggle for socialism in Ireland, Hopefully the building of a united solidarity movement in defence of Polish workers will make a more substantial and worthwhile contribution.

JAMES CONWAY

Scan page 5

PAGE 4 SOCIALIST REPUBLIC

Polish Workers Resist Stalinist Regime ANNA Walentynowicz was a veteran activist of Poland's free trade union movement and a crane driver at the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk. Many times the management had victimised Anna for her union activities. On 31 January 1980 a hundred workmates led a four hour strike for her reinstatement after she had been moved from the yard. In August later that same year the management moved to sack her again, and opened the door to the mighty strike movement that rocked the whole of the country.

Anna. Walentynowicz “The emancipation of the working class is the task of the workers themselves.” Since August 1980 when they created the free trade union SOLIDARNOSC, thé workers of Poland have been putting this old slogan into practice. They have been fighting for the right to organise independent trade unions, for an end to censorship, for a minimum wage, adequate food and decent health care and housing. The fight began in July 1980 when there was a series of strikes against increased meat prices. These strikes reached their peak in August when 100,000 workers in the Baltic Sea cities of Gdansk, Gydnia and Sopot had stopped working. By this time the workers were demanding freedom of expression and the abolition of of censorship, release of all political _ prisoners, recognition of the right to strike and free unions, abolition of privileges for police and Communist Party officials, and full discussion of the economic problems of the country.

After the government was forced to accept most of these demands the way was open for the organisation of the nationwide trade union federation, SOLIDARNOSC. More than 12 million Polish workers joined. This At the risk of our lives and our freedom, in defiance of the draconian measures of martial law and despite the attempt to paralyse us, with fear, hundreds of thousands of workers and Polish patriots are on strike and demand the lifting of the state of siege, the freeing of all those arrested, the restoration of all trade union and democratic rights won by our people since August 1980.

Support us in our struggle with massive protests and by your moral support. Don’t stand aside with folded arms and watch the attempts to crush the beginnings of a democracy in the heart of Europe.

Be with us in these difficult moments! Solidarity with Solidarnosc!

Poland still lives! (Strike Committee of the Warski Naval Shipyard, Szczecin) ee ae comprised the great majority of the Polish working class. In the months following, SOL:DAR- NOSC mobilised millions of Polish workers to safeguard newly won rights and reforms and to win new ones.

The example set by the Polish workers was followed by other sections.of the population. Students organised their own student SOLIDARNOSC while small farmers and peasants in the countryside organised a Rural SOLI- DARNOSC. The hopes and determination of the whole of Polish society were raised by these struggles.

WORKERS RESIST MILITARY

But this soon gave way to strikes in virtually every city, town and plant.

The resistance and repression set into a pattern. The workers occupied the big plants like the Katowice steelworks, the Ursus tractor plant near Warsaw and the Gdansk shipyards.

Resistance is generally passive sabotage of production and is widespread.

In the first week of the repression only one tractor was produced by the 14,000 workers at the Ursus plant.

At the FSO car factory the workers changed the tolerance levels of the machine settings and the cars produced disintegrated.

THE FAILURE OF BUREAU-

CRATIC PLANNING’

As a result, serious economic problems have occurred. Poland owes more than 21 billion dollars..to-European. and US banks due to falling markets for their products in these countries and increases in the cost of imports. These are the familiar signs of the economic crisis in the capitalist world where prices keep going up, markets keep shrinking and more workers lose their jobs.

Although the economic problems of Poland are in the main caused by the economic Crisis of the capitalist world, Poland is not a capitalist country. It doesnit:suffer the ups and downs of business that cause unemployment, inflation and wage cuts. Polish industry isn’t owned by wealthy businessmen and decisions on what a factory produces, how many workers it employs individual farmers. editorial or trade union activities.

accords, Declaration of Solidarity Congress, 10 September 1987 The supreme aim of the independent trade union Solidarity is to create dignified conditions of life in an economically and politically so vereign Poland, a life freed of poverty, of exploitation, of fear and deceit, in a society organised democratically and on the basis of law. Today the nation expects: 1 The improvement of food supplies by the establishment of control over production, distribution, and pricing, in collaboration with the Solidarity union of 2A reform of the economy, through the creation of authentic selfmanagement councils in the factories and through the liquidation of the party ‘Nomenklatura’ (Ed note: the system of party appointments to key jobs).

3 The truth through social control of the mass media and the suppression of Salsehoods in education and Polish culture.

4 Democracy through the introduction of free elections to the Sejm (parliament) and the people's councils.

5 Justice through the assurance to each of equality before the law, the freedom of prisoners of opinion, and the defence of persons charged for their political, 6 The protection of the nation’s health, through the protection of the enyironment, an increase 11 the funds channelled into medical services, and a guarantee to the handicapped of the rights which are due to them in society.

7 Coal for the population and industry, through giving a guarantee to the miners of decent living and working conditions.

He will achieve these aims through the unity of the trade union and the solidaritv of its members. The activities of a variety of forces creating a feeling of exterior danger will not remove from us the desire to struggle for the ideals of August 1980, for the implementation of the Gdansk, Szczecin and Jastrzebie

LECH WALESA SHOWED HIS SUPPORT FOR BOBBY SANDS

DURING THE HUNGER STRIKE. NOW IS THE TIME TO SHOW

SUPPORT FOR THE IMPRISONED WALESA AND ALL THE

OTHER JAILED TRADE UNIONISTS AND POLITICAL PRISON—

ERS IN POLAND. SOLIDARITY WITH SOLIDARNOSC!

Lech Walesa, leader of S ss oli darnosc has been held incommunicado since the clampdown Banks for Tanks According to a report in the December 21 Wall Street Journal ‘‘many US bankers see Soviet—style authoritarianism as their best hope for recovering the 1.3 billion dollars that Poland owes them. “Most bankers think authoritarian governments are good because they impose discipline’, said an executive at a bank with millions of dollars in Polish loans. . . “Who knows which political system works?” says Thomas Theobald, senior executive vice-president in charge of Citibank’s international division. ‘The only test we care about is: can they pay their bills?”

And a report in the December 13 Sunday Times reveals that British bankers feel the same way. ‘‘Speaking only as a banker, it would be a good thing if Russia invaded, because then she would be obliged to honour Poland’s debts”, said one London banker. No Hope Pope Another supposed defender of the Polish people is the Pope! According to the Sunday Times the Pope was advised about the military clampdown two hours before it took place by the Polish Ambassador, The role of the Catholic Church in Poland has been hand in hand with the authorities as long as the regime leaves the church room for manoeuvre. Accordingly the Polish Archbishop has spent his time pressurising Lech Walesa to tone down his demands,

Scan page 6

cand so forth are not made according to the greed for profits.

BEHIND MARTIAL LAW

Poland has a “‘socialised’? economy where industry is owned by the society as a whole but where decision making ‘is in the hands of asmall elite group. It still has to trade with the capitalists who are forcing the Poles to tighten their belts in order to pay back the loans they owe. In fact Polish workers are suffering from the same kind of cutbacks that people in Ireland are suffering from under the Thatcher and Fitzgerald governments. But in Poland the fight is not against local capitalists but against the bureaucracy which runs the country and has allowed this situation to develop. That’s why the bureaucracy introduced martial law. Through SOLIDARNOSC the Polish working class had begun to fight for a real socialist democracy, a society in which the workers themselves will decide how industry and the economy is organised. Since August 1980 a political revolution has been unfolding in Poland aimed at changing society from top to bottom. This revolution will never be successful until the power and privilege of the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union is broken. The Soviet bureaucracy are terrified of the Polish example spreading to other Eastern European states, including the Soviet Union itself. They are terrified for the same reason that the Polish bureaucracy is terrified: because they too would lose their enormous privileges.

RESPONSE IN THE WEST

Nor do the imperialist politicians want to see SOLIDARNOSC triumph.

The forms of struggle chosen by the Polish workers — strikes and factory occupations — are under attack by the Tory government in Britain and the 6 Counties. The Coalition Government proposes to make such actions illegal and has already thrown the Talbot workers into prison. And one of the first actions of Ronald ‘Cowboy’ Reagan’s administration in the United States was to shackle in chains the trade union leaders of the Air Traffic Controllers. The only reason Thatcher and Reagan pretend to support SOLIDARNOSC is that it is a pretext to continue their cold war against the Soviet Union. Similarly the rightwing leaders of the trade union movement in the West will make plenty of pious speeches but refuse to lift one finger to provide real material and financial support to Polish workers. It is vital that the anti-imperialist movement in Ea Di ey a 2 Ireland act in support of the Polish working class. If we fail to do so we allow the imperialists to pose as “defenders of democracy” and get off the hook for crushing it elsewhere.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. Put a resolution of support for the Polish workers on the agenda of your trade union branch, tenants association, etc. 2. Ask your trade union branch, tenants association etc to invite a speaker from the “Solidarity with SOLIDARNOSC” to address your meeting. (Contact Alex White, Trinity College Students Union).

3. Organise a petition demanding the release of all imprisoned trade unionists and political activists in Poland and send it to General J aruzalski.

4. Collect money for the Polish resistance.

JOHN MAGEE

he PD Solidarity Plans Peoples Democracy responded immediately to the military takeover in Poland. We produced thousands of leaflets condemning the repression and explaining why Irish workers should defend Solidarnosc. In Limerick the local PD branch collected 650 signatures in a few hours for a petition to General Jaruzelski demanding the ending of martial law and the release of all imprisoned trade unionists and political prisoners.

A similar petition was launched in Belfast where PD got the support of Joe Cooper, President of the Belfast Trades Council. PD members in Dublin launched the National Appeal and initially got the support of Bernadette McAliskey, Alex White, President of Trinity College Students Union, Joe Duffy, Education officer of the Union of Students in Ireland. Michael Farrell of PD spoke at the first meeting of the newly formed Polish Solidarity Gommittee. PD members also took part in a picket at the Soviet Embassy and a demonstration in support of Polish workers at which Michael Farrell was a speaker. The National Appeal is directed at the trade union, socialist and anti— imperialist movements. PD plans a national tour of leading speakers with meetings in Belfast, Derry, Limerick and Cork. A major meeting in Dublin is also being planned. A PD pamphlet explaining the rise of Solidarnosc, why the Stalinist regime in Poland has imposed martial law and the prospects for Polish socialism is being produced. The pamphlet explains why the fake socialists of the CPI, SFWP and individuals like Jim’ Kemmy TD and Noel Browne TD refuse to support the Polish workers.

PD will also be producing posters and badges in solidarity with Solidarnosc.

Help us to help the Polish workers.

POLISH APPEAL,

C/O Connolly Bookshop, Avoca Park, Andersonstown, Belfast 11. sey

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC PAGE 5.

The 21 demands of the Interfactory strike committee at the Gdansk shipyard 7 Acceptance of free trade unions independent of the Communist Party and of enterprises, in accordance with convention No 87 of the International Labour Organisation concerning the right to form free trade unions, which was ratified by the Communist Government of Poland.

4 (a) Return of former rights to: — People dismissed from work after the 1970 and 1976 strikes, — Students expelled from school because of their views.

(b) Release of all political prisoners, among them Edmund Zadrozynski, Jan Kozlowski and Marek Kozlowski.

5 Availability to the mass media of information about the formation of the Interfactory Strike Committee and publication of its demands.

6 Undertaking of actions aimed at bringing the country out of its crisis situation by the following means: (a) Making public complete information about the social-economic situation. (b) Enabling all sectors and social classes {o:take part in discussion of the reform programme. Paha 7 Compensation of all workers taking part in the strike for the period of the strike, with vacation pay from the Central Council of Trade Unions.

8 An increase in the base pay of each worker by 2,000 zlotys (app.£30) a month as compensation for the recent rise in prices.

9 Guaranteed automatic increases in pay on the basis of increases in prices and the decline in real income.

70 Full supply of food products for the domestic market, with exports limited to surpluses. 11 Abolition of ‘commercial’ prices and of other sales for hard currency in special shops. 12 Selection of management personnel on the basis of qualifications, not party membership. Privileges of the secret police, regular police and party apparatus are to be eliminated by equalising family subsidies, abolishing special stores, etc. 13 Introduction of food coupons for meat and meat products (during the period in which control of the market situation is regained).

18 Paid maternity leave for three years.

19 Decrease in the waiting period for apartments.

20 Increase in the commuter’s allowance to 100 zlotys from 40, with: a supplemental benefit on separation.

271 Day of rest on Saturday. Workers in the brigade system or round-the-clock jobs are to be compensated for the loss of free Saturdays with increased leave or other paid time off. lrish CP Get Facts Wrong The Communist Party of Ireland justifies military dictatorship in Poland on the grounds that Solidarity is a reactionary movement akin to the Ulster Workers Council and that it was planning an armed insurrection. The CPI’s second accusation against Solidarity is not so much ludicrous as pathetic. There is no doubt that a major confrontation between Solidarity and the Polish government was imminent. But it is a travesty to say that this was a conscious aim of ‘Solidarity. If anything, Solidarity hesitated too long before preparing for the inevitable showdown.

The comparison between Solidarity and the UWC is ludicrous.

1) Solidarity is a mass movement based on the vast majority of Polish workers even a majority of Polish Communist Party (PUWP) members joined it. 2) According to the Gdansk agreement Solidarity was recognised by the Polish courts as a legitimate trade union; indeed funds from the ‘official’ trade union movement were handed over to heip consolidate local branches of: Solidarity. 3) The programme of Solidarity specifically pledged itself to defence of Poland’s socialist foundations; time and again Solidarity leaders including Lech Walesa declared their opposition to a return to Western capitalism.

That was over a year before the dramatic revelation that police spies had overheard the word ‘insurrection’ mentioned from the lips of Walesa.

JAMES CONWAY

Scan page 7

PAGE 6 SOCIALIST REPUBLIC

Peoples Democracy Conference By John McAnulty The Peoples Democracy National | Coriference of 21/22 November took place under extremely difficult conditions. Much of the documentation and pre-conference discussion had to take place during the last days of the hunger strike and at the time of our conference the organisation, in common withe all the other anti-imperialist ‘forces, was suffering the exhausting ' effects of over a year of intense political activity. For all these reasons, much of the discussion at conference represented the beginning of debate rather than its completion. However, it was clear that at the conference PD began to define a new and more active role in the Irish revolution and its formal decision to join the Fourth International was simply the most visible sign of this.

THE BACKGROUND

PD conference decisions are not taken in isolation. A great deal of conference time is given over to the Marxist analysis of society on which our decisions are based. Because we are internationalists the analysis steps outside the national boundaries of Ireland and examines the ebb and flow of revolution on a world scale. What conclusions did this discussion come to? The period since 1968 has marked a dramatic upswing in revolutionary movements all over the world. In the majority of these struggles the working class has taken a dominant position tion and a number of revolutions (Vietnam, Nicaragua, Iran) have deepened the imperialist crisis and fueled an imperialist counter-offensive. Given the pro-capitalist role of Social Democrats and Labourites and the counter-revolutionary role of the Stalinist bureaucracies this has led to a crisis of leadership for the working class. The same processes are at work in lreland. The world-wide imperialist crisis fuels Thatcherite intransigence and a new reactionary alliance with the nationalist bourgeoisie around the Anglo-Irish talks. The working class is the main force not only in the hunger strike but in a whole series of economic and social struggles.

We also have the crisis of leadership, with the Republican movement, despite moves to the left, unable to adopt a clear working-class programme and the traditional labour and trade union leadership committed to proimperialist policies, PD’s role in this situation is to help build a new revolutionary leadership by constantly struggling to unite all the revolutionary forces in an ongoing programme of mass action.

PD—IRISH SECTION OF THE

FOURTH INTERNATIONAL

We nave already shown how PD’s analysis puts the Irish struggle firmly in the context of the world class struggle. There’s nothing new about this. The Fenian movmeent had close connections with the First International established by Marx, and Connolly was an active member of the Second International. What is new is in fact the lack of an internationalist perspective in today's revolutionary movement. If we are part of a worldwide struggle then our internationalism should not be confined to gestures of support for individual struggles or to general propaganda, Our internationalism is an active internationalism and this is the base of our decision to join the Fourth International — the worldwide revolutionary organisation ‘established by Leon Trotsky following the decay of the Comintern or Third International into Staiinism.

We have been in political agreement with the International before the fusion of the old PD and the Movement for a Socialist Republic over three years ago. Our membership give us an.active voice in the overall plan of revolutionary action worldwide and also a responsibility to argue within the Irish revolutionary movement so that its members march in step with their comrades in other lands. In practice the most effective solidarity actions are undertaken in the working class. Our membership of the the FI gives a new dimension to our appeals to Irish workers and Irish youth. It helps strip the last elements, of fake radicalism from pro-imperialist groups dike Sinn Fein — The Workers’ Party and our growth will in turn strengthen the intervention of the Fl worldwide and lay the basis for a mass international of the working class.

PD'S ROLE — LESSONS OF THE

H BLOCK/ARMAGH STRUGGLE

PD is the only one of the major political forces in the anti-imperialist movement totally committed to a programme of mass action as the major weapon of the revolutionary movement. This commitment and the use of marxist analysis led us to select the political status struggle as the central defensive struggle for the anti-imperialist movement as early as January 1976 — before status had actually been removed removed. It led to our involvement in theong fight for united action through the Relatives Action Committees and meant that we were prepared with a strategic outline — Defence of Democracy and Workers Action which, if never fully adopted by the H Block/ Armagh movement, yet served as a framework for the main tactical advances of the campaign — the debate over contesting elections is a good example of this. There is no doubt that elections played the major role during the hunger strike in both mobilising and demonstrating support for the hunger strikers. PD fought, for an orientation towards elections in the H Block/Armagh campaign. Our declaration of standing in the Six County local government election brought the debate out in the open and forced the other ahti-imperialist forces to address the question. When Bobby Sands stood in Fermanagh/ South Tyrone there was no going back. Unfortunately the Republican Movement did not participate in the Local Government election. PD challenged Gerry Fitt and Paddy Devlin convincingly thereby showing what could have been achieved with a united challenge across the Six Counties. Bobby Sands’ election was the first of a series of electoral victories that in fact were the most clear cut victories of the whole H Block/Armagh struggle. These twin lessons of the H Block/ Armagh campaign have convinced PD of the need to build on the gains and victories achieved ; We must preserve not only the unity of the anti-imperialist forces but also all those other forces that were won to the campaign — trade unionists women, students, youth. We see the electoral area as having a real potential to advance unity and take forward the struggle of the anti-imperialist movement.We plan to use the electoral arena at all possible opportunities, and call for maximum unity among antiimperialist forces. It is maximum unity around a clear uncompromising programme that brings victories. The conference agreed that achieving such unity would be a major test for our organisation, the republican Movement, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, and the broader antiimperialist movement over the next year. RUC breaking up the peaceful City Hall protest Belfast 34 Test Case Hunger Strike Militant Fined £25 On Monday January 18 in Belfast, Joe Craig, an H Block/Armagh activist and member of Peoples Democracy, was fined £25 for ‘obstructing the highway”. A second charge of “conduct likely to tause a breach of the peace”’ was dismissed. The case arose after the RUC arrested thrity-four people, including two PD, two IRSP and one British Labour Party councillors, who were attempting to peacefully demonstrate outside Belfast City Hall in support Another

RUC

Whitewash The recent court. case involving four RUC detectives has once more shown to the anti-unionist population of Northern Ireland the sectarian bias of the courts. They had been accused of assaulting Dungannon man James Joseph Rafferty while he was in custody five years ago.

He had been held in an interrogation centre for three days and badly tortured, Upon being released he had to be admitted to hospital | suffering from severe cuts and extensive bruising plus internal injuries. In the course of five years the case of Joseph Rafferty led to a liberal councillor Jack Hassard resigning from the Police Authority, which had acted in collusion with the RUC and-had stonewalled all attempts to have the case raised.

Before the actual trial the RUC in a blatant move to blacken Joseph Rafferty’s name arrested him on a murder charge of killing two RUC men. Such. was the obvious frame up that they had to drop the charges.

The Lord Chief of ‘non’ justice Sir Robert Lowry brought the shametul episode to a close by acquitting the four thugs.

During the trial he along with the rest of the crown council tried to smear Joseph Raferty’s name implying that he was an IRA sympathiser. All these insinuations could now lead to Joseph Ratferty being a target for loyalist assassins, and further RUC harassment.

The decisions taken at the conference are now being put to the test.

We are confident of their relevance to the immediate and long term interests of the Irish working class.

Though we are a small organisation our history and tradition gives us,a basis for helping to lead the antiimperialist struggle to eventual victory by strengthening the forces of Marxism in Ireland. If you agree with our analysis you should join our organisation. Further information will be sent to you should you require it. of the H Block hunger strikers on June 27, 1981. As far as the loyalist RUC is concerned members of the nationalist community have no democratic right to demonstrate. The verdict of the magistrate, Albert Walmsley, is typically contradictory.

He said, ‘‘while the meeting was not illegal but (it) expressed views that were contentious at the time” and “there was nothing unlawful about Bernadette Calls For Enquiry ee, the conduct of the meeting”. Yet Joe Craig was still fined £25 in order that loyalist law saves face.

In a statement condemning the fine, the two PD Belfast city councillors, Fergus O’Hare and John McAnulty, said, “‘ Even when the anti-unionists try to demonstrate peacefully in the city centre the reactionary RUC will prevent them and then have the decision upheld in court. While loyalists have paraded unhindered in private armies during the past month all over the 6 Counties, anti-unionists attempting to hold a peaceful meeting are attacked, held in police stations for hours and heavily fined.”

In a statement the Belfast H Block/ Armagh Committee said, ‘‘We will not be deterred by bigoted attacks on our supporters from carrying out futurd activities in support of the prisoners.”

The Belfast 34 Defence Committee will continue to mount a vigorous defence of the arrested militants.

The H Block/Armagh Committee recently reaffirmed its decision to that defence of the campaign was to be acentral priority throughout the 32 Counties. Exposure of the Belfast 34 arrests and the Embassy 20 arrests in the South must be seen as the central priority of militants in the campaign. All over lreland the nature of the attempt by the loyalist RUC and the collaborationist Gardai must be driven home to the Irish people. Pressure must be put on the SDLP and Fianna Fail to condemn these victimisations.

Resolutions from trade union branches and trades councils in support of the defendants must be sought. Having failed to criminalise the prisoners the RUC and the Gardai are trying to criminalise their supporters.

Peoples Democracy fully supports the call by Bernadette McAliskey for an independent enquiry into the events surrounding the a attempted assassination of herself and Michael McAliskey.in January 1981. There is evidence to suggest that the British Army allowed the UDA assassins, Watson, Graham and Smallwoods, to mount their attack before “accidentally”? stumbling upon the attackers. The first Brits on the scene did not give Michael or Bernadette first aid, even though they were both bleeding profusely. According to an Irish Times report (22.1.81), the Brits were watching the house because they believed there was going to be a-UDA attack. It is also clear that they were hanging back until the killers had done the job. Collaboration between the UDA and the Brits must also be the subject of the proposed enquiry.

PADDY DEVLIN EXPOSED

In a hard hitting statement Peoples Democracy councillor for West Belfast, John McAnulty condemned Paddy Devlin’s ‘‘support for RUC” petition to Belfast City Council. Councillor McAnulty asked where Devlin’s petitions had been when the RUC had murdered his constituents with plastic _ bullets or had broken up peaceful protests otitside the ‘City Hall, and pointed out that Devlin’s support for tne RUC had been rejected by his constituents in the May local government elections when he had only held onto his seat by scraping in.

Join Peoples Democracy

PD, CONNOLLY BOOKSHOP

AVOCA PARK,

ANDERSONSTOWN,

BELFAST 11.

Councillor McAnulty concluded: “Clearly Devlin has learnt nothing from his study of trade union history despite the publicity surrounding the publication of his book. We reject his sham socialism and his pretended independence which is nothing more than subservience to the RUC and an alliance with unionists. PD’s policy is quite clear — we call for the disbandment of the RUC and UDR and condemn the repressive policies they carry out. We call on Devlin to resign, | as his views are totally unrepresentative of his constituents.and invite him to participate in a debate on this issue in the constituency which we will be happy to organise.”’

SDLP CAPITULATION

Devlin has failed to take up the challenge. At the City Council meeting the pro-RUC motion was exposed by the two PD councillors and the IRSP’s Sean Flynn. Atten- ~ tion must also be given to the craven capitulation of the SDLP who abstained on the motion. Presumably this means they don’t care one way or the other when their constituents are murdered, tortured or intimidated by the RUC.

Scan page 8

The Irish Transport and General Workers Union at its annual Delegate Conference in Wexford in 1980 discussed and adopted a document, “Equality for Women”. The document covered most areas of discrimination against women and proposed measures to be taken within the Union itself and within society to combat inequality. Though accepted in principle by the union, obviously much work is required in order to define priorities and a strategy for implementing this policy. In December 1981 the Union held a workshop for women members on “Positive Action for Equality” which aimed to involve shop floor activists.

EDUCATION

Amongst the many areas pinpointed for further discussion and trade union action was inequality and sexism in education. In response to this widespread concern a special workshop on ‘Women and Equality in Education’ was held for women members of the union on December 11th and 12th last year. One encouraging aspect was the lack of interference by the male hierarchy of the union. The workshop was well organised by the Womens Advisory Committee, creating a relaxed but efficient atmosphere. The three main speakers were Catherine Byrne, INTO, Sally Shiels, INTO Principal teacher in a Dublin City National School and Lucy McCaffery of AnCO. The 120 or so women delegates formed a broad cross section of the union including young women not so long out of the education system themselves and mothers with children at various levels within the system. Though the invited speakers set the tone for the weekend the workshops conducted by the delegates provided the really serious materialyand:strong recommendations on what the Trade Union movement could and should do to end sexism and inequality in schools.

CLERICAL CONTROL

Probably the change felt to be most urgent was to remove education from the effective control of clerical bodies.

The overwhelming majority of those present, particularly those with school going children condemned the present selection of National School boards Paisley’s Day of Action on November 23 had a greater significance for the nationalist community than its expression of Loyalist venom, of which we have always been aware. Not enough attention has been given to the RUC’s active collaboration with the Third Force — another demonstration of the fact that they are a legalised loyalist militia. The split in the Police Federation (see elsewhere in this issue) is an obvious indication of the RUC’s sectarian role and permanent inability to offer protection to the nationalist community.

DRUMAHOE AND DERRY

INCIDENTS

At Drumahoe on the outskirts of the predominantly loyalist Waterside, several vehicles were hijacked by men, some of whom were dressed in complete paramilitary uniform. Much to the dismay of some catholic families in the area, and also to the workers of In the 17th Century it was perfectly legal for an English man to kill an Irishman. The case of two Derry youth, Gary English and James Brown, shows that not much has changed.

They were mowed down by a British Army Land Rover sent out to corner groups of protesters during the H Block hunger strike. The vehicle ploughed into a crowd at Creggan Junction.

English and Brown died as a result.

The Brits tried to ignore the massive cry of outrage which ensued. But a local enquiry forced them to take Unions Must British Murderers Get British Law where the local bishop has the final say. As long as the Church with its backward attitude to women’s role continued in control, the delegates saw little chance of reversing the sex stereotyping which exists. The Department of Education provide 75% of day-to-day running costs and 100% of teachers’ pay and the workshop was very insistent that the state should take the reins as it feeds the reindeer.

Although the plenary session called on the trade union movement to put its weight behind the demand that the Department of Education should refuse funding to single sex schools, thére was general recognition that even in coeducational schools equality is not by any means guaranteed.

SEXISM IN EDUCATION

School books of course come in for a bashing, both for their sexism and their total failure to reflect the world as it is rather than the way the ruling class would want us (and especially our children) to think it is.

In service training for teachers in this country is practically non-existent.

and given the fact that teachers themselves have been through the same sexist education system, they tend to perpetuate the same values. In the case of primary school teachers, even their training colleges are denominational. The workshop did a good job of pinpointing the changes necessary to eliminate sexism in our educational system. It was felt, quite rightly, that the trade union movement must take a hand in bringing about the radical changes required. Derry’s Day of Action Desmond’s factory (who were hemmed in by the loyalists), the RUC stood less than forty yards away and failed to take take any action while a lorry driver was being forcibly removed from his cab. Likewise on Derry bridge, absolutely no protection was given to workers returning by bus or car from the Maydown industrial estate. Direct attacks were made by stone-throwing mobs on workers’ buses, and attempts were made to overturn them with the occupants still inside. An eye-witness who asked for police protection, when returning across the bridge, was told in no uncertain terms, “You have your day, let them have theirs.”

A typical example of RUC hypocrisy.

When have we ever seen the RUC stand back when loyalism is under threat?

MISLEADING COMMENTS

The demands by people tike Canavan some cover-up steps. Two soldiers were sent for trial — not for murder but for ‘reckless driving’! Predictably the two Brits were aquitted.

This episode illustrates the larger injustice of H Block/Armagh. The special repression against the prisoners is, as we in PD have argued, directed against the whole nationalist community. It exists alongside ‘normal’ law for supporters of British rule. The aquittal of the two murderers shows this: one law for the British and arother for the Irish, One element that was somewhat lacking however, was on how the trade union movement could effect such change. The educational system is-designed in a certain manner for a specific reason. People (both men and women) are being prepared for the world outside and therefore must be educated to fill their roles.

The trade union movement could use its muscle in national wage negotiations to force the government into action to fulfil its demands if the will is there in the movement. However, though this may begin to change (and certainly seems to be changing in the ITGWU) so far practical steps towards women’s equality have been nonexistent in previous national negotiations. It is within the area in which the trade union movement has most influence— the world of work — that it can have the most impact on sexism in education. That is in fighting for women’s rights at work — establishing the principle and practice of positive action to encourage women into traditionally male areas of work.

It is right and good that the trade union movement should place all possible pressure on the government to banish sexism from education.

However,*this is a chicken and egg situation. Education is more and more geared towards the world of work and if the role of women in that arena is restricted then there is little point in educating them for jobs or roles which they cannot attain because the trade union movement has failed to establish the principle of equality at work.

of the SDLP for the so-called security forces to investigate the involvement of members of the RUC and UDR in Third Force demonstrations is nothing more than a devious attempt to cushion nationalist reaction.

The SDLP, who have already expressed support for the RUC (if they act in an impartial manner!) know only too well that it is highly improbable that sectarian forces who have continuously been let off the hook on charges of murder and brutality, would be indicted on this current sectarian count.

POLITICAL COSMETICS

What the SDLP are doing is toying with a system they know well is geared toward immobilising the political activity of the nationalist working class. This can be seen in, the consistent hemming in of the nationalist community, by the combined actions of legalised ‘security’ forces and their loyalist para-military bedfellows. On a wider front, instead of the taking of action against members of the RUC and UDR involved in the Third Force parades, what we have is the ultimate expression of the biased nature of the law in the North. Scores of people are being charged in relation to nationalist political activity asa continued appeasement to Paisley’s mobsters..: The catholic hierarchy and bourgeois politicians who played a major role in undermining the hunger strike haves also been vigorous in their condemnation of the assassination of members of the RUC and UDR. These people have consistently acted to stabilise and shore up imperialism jn the North, because to do otherwise would challenge their positions of power and privilege, which they have no intention of letting go.

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC PAGE 7

Fight for Equality | YicroryToTHEARMAGHWONE Experience Should Not be Forgotten! TELL THEM EVERYTHING by Margaretta D’ Arcy Pluto Press.

Reviewed by Sue Pentel, member of Peoples Democracy, a founder member of Women Against Imperialism and one of the Armagh Eleven.

In reviewing this book it is worth recalling the circumstances leading to Margretta D‘Arcy and Liz Lagrua (another member of the Armagh |!)

spending 3 and 2 months respectively in jail for non payment of fine They had been arrested ona feminist protest outside Armagh gaol on International Womens Day 1979, and, together with 9 other members of Women Against Imperialism, they became the “Armagh 11”. This had been the first protest organised by feminists protest organised by feminists in solidarity with republican women prisoners. The defence campaign around the Armagh 11 organised by Women against Imperialism was the first issue that brought home to English and Southern women the relevance to feminist politics of the struggle in the North, and the conditions in Armagh.

As a result of the work of Women Against Imperialism, Armagh support groups mushroomed throughout Britain and in the “South, producing mass demonstrations and massive publicly for the women in Armagh. In Sinn Fein a debate raged about the relevance of womens liberation out of which came the Sinn Fein Womens Committee. Clearly Women Against Imperialism had struck anerve. In fact what it had done was re-establish the sort of anti imperialist feminism fought for by Markiewicz and Maud Gonne; and was a new thrust forward for the anti-imperialist movement of the ’70s. Despite the international growth of the womens movement; this was the first Anti-imperialist womens group to emerge from 10 years of struggle which had its orgins both in the anti-imperialist movement and the feminist movement.

Because of this, and because the issue of Armagh had been so badly neglected in the shadow of H-Block, the defence campaign had a real impact. It was on the crest of this wave that Margaretta and Liz took.the |. decision not to pay their fines and instead to go into Armagh.

Gut of this experience comes the book. In many ways this is a disappointing book. It gives no sense of the background against which the Armagh II campaign developed nor of its impact on women in the anti imperialist movement who had been active for the last 10 years (as did Nell McCaffertys excellent book ‘The Armagh Women’ ): At times there is so much detail about the day to day events of the defence campaign that no clear picture emerges. Yet the book comes into its own when describing the author’s imprisonment in Armagh and the meeting of minds and experiences between the two feminists and the republican women prisoners.

“Getting to know my fellow prisoners on the no-wash protest was a very slow process. We had only | hour a day together, and | felt like a new girl at school, coming in when term is half over.”

But it is because of this position and the insights it produces, that we learn much of the courage and spirit of the women on the no-wash protest; the sort of adjustment that had to be made from living outside to the inhuman conditions in Armagh. The reality of having to use the cell as a toilet and the two beginners’ attempts to decorate the cell are at times pathetic, at times absurdly funny; the cold inedible food, the constant hunger, the lack of exercise and fresh air. Yet, much more importantly, we learn of the fighting spirit and determination of the women prisoners, their organisation and discipline as a group. Perhaps the most memorable part of the book is the description of the “‘night-life’’, the songs, the quizzes and best of all the debates on politics, ‘on feminism, and for this alone it is well worth reading. Margaretta’s and Liz’s experience in gaol was a unique one. It should not be forgotten. But neither can we wrench it out of context and forget that it represented, for the movement that produced the Armagh 11, the end of one stage of development. The issue that created so much support for this anti-imperialist women’s group was also a direct reason for the forget « Text missing - if you have a place b copy of this issue, email develor limited [email protected] going to gaol for non-payment of fines and reduced it to a symbolic gesture.

The debate around this in Women Against Imperialism between Peoples Democracy and the other members of the group is still relevant. Under what conditions can this tactic of voluntarily going to gaol, spark off mass protests? Unfortunately Margaretta does not deal with this politically in the book and will thus limit its usefulness to those who may read the book wishing to learn from the experiences of Women Against Imperialism.

Nevertheless, for all those who wish to move from the past to the future of re-building an anti-imperialist feminist movement, despite the many weaknesses of the book it details a part of our history which should not be forgotten.

SLANDER ANSWERED

In this review we make the point that Margaretta D’Arcy ommits a political account of the discussion in Women Against Imperialism concerning the tactic of non-payment of fines.

Instead she gives a psychological explanationof the PD position on this tactic by suggesting that PD males did not want their women members to ‘‘gain too much kudos” or leave the field open to Sinn Fein members by their absence in jail. Basically that PD are a devious calculating bunch!

This is slanderous fantasy!

It is regrettable that Una O’Neill, in her review of the book in An Phoblacht (Jan 21st) takes up this matter in a petty sectarian way. She describes the logic of the ‘‘non payment’ tactic as “‘absurd’”’ yet quotes Mar- 2 garetta’s opinions on PD’s opposition to the tactic as ‘‘fact” with which to ridicule PD. This kind of sectarian jibing will not help anti-imperialist women learn the lesson of the role of women in the national struggle.

Margaretta is entitled to her epinion.

An Phoblacht, however, focuses on this episode politically and begins to rewrite history. PD argued consist: ently that the ‘non-payment’ tactic could not substitute for the work that had to be done to build a mass movement. It could not, in and of itself, strengthen the anti-imperialist current which PD had fought to ‘build.and which had taken up the issue of Armagh at a time when the anti-imperialist organisations, including Sinn Fein, were indifferent to the ‘woman question.

Scan page 9

J oe Sherlock and Jim Kemmy o

‘STOP BEING SO

OBVIOUS FIM OR

Youll HAVE us BoTH TUT OUT, Kemmy Accepted Coalition CONTRARY TO the spoutings of the establishment mouthpieces, the Irish Press and the Irish Independent, Jim Kemmy will not go down in history as the ‘man who brought down the 22nd Dail’. When the history books are written, Jim Kemmy will be known for his long and consistent record, not as an uncompromising socialist, but as a traitor to the cause of the _working class; who shored up “one of the most repressive and anti-working cliss governments in the history of the State.

SHERLOCK'S

HYPOCRISY

SINN FEIN The Workers’ Party’s sole representative in Leinster House is Joe Sherlock. Before attempting to cover himself in glory by wisely voting against the Coalition budget, Joe Sherlock entered the division lobby to vote against the holding of the Cavan/Monaghan by-election where hunger striker Kieran Doherty TD had his seat. In this Sherlock and his party were continuing their opposition to the rights of the H Block/Armagh political prisoners. The SFWP denies that the prisoners are political and calls them ordinary criminals. This is unusual since Joe himself, as well as other members of SFWP, are exmembers of the IRA. Joe Sherlock took part in the [RA border campaign in the 1950s. Nowadays SFWP lives off its republican past and puts a “socialist” face on top of it. Many people in the south are not aware that SFWP are now a pro-Unionist party.

In Queens University Belfast, during the hunger strike, SFWP members and Paisley’s DUP united to prevent pro-prisoner motions going through the Students Union. All the Republican Clubs (the name of the SFWP in the North) councillors in Belfast lost their seatsto Peoples Democracy and IRSP members because of their refusal to support the prisoneis.

Joe Sherlock is in the same tradition as his members in the North who kowtow to Paisleyism. Only by antiimperialists challenging him at the polls can these facts be brought out effectively. The intervention at the last General Election went some way in exposing the SFWP. Sherlock himself was not challenged and thereby won a seat. This time around there must be an anti-imperialist candidate in Sherlock’s constituency.

Strategy Kemmy himself made it clear that he cast his vote against the Budget reluctantly, and was prepared to sell his vote to Fine Gael for a concession on food subsidies. It was Fine Gael who refused to compromise on their strategy of immediate erosion of living standards. Jim thinks people can be fooled into accepting a gradual erosion of living standards. Kemmy sees his role as TD as one of begging for crumbs from the Coalition table in return for his active betrayal of the cause of working people to seek radical social change. In an interview with the Sunday Independent, Jim Kemmy stated that because he had supported the government through a couple of serious divisions he felt he had ‘earned the right to make some contribution to the Budget’. Jim Kemmy unashamedly admits his complicity in the Coalition’s savage attacks on those he claims to represent. In an excerpt from his diary (published by the Sunday Independent), Kemmy condemns himself: “Tn serious divisions in the Dail, on the Tuam Sugar Factory, the reduction d the school entry age and others, it was my vote which held the government in power. I had responsibility for government decisions since my vote was keeping them in power.”

For Kemmy the vote against the Budget was a “‘hard decision’. He really wished he could help out the Coalition friends. He says he was “very sorry that it (the Coalition) saw fit not to entertain my modest views. This they could have done without damaging their overall proposals or strategy.”

Precisely, Jim. We couldn’t have said it better. Jim Kemmy’s record on the National struggle is no better. He is a vociferous opponent of the movement in defence of the H Block/Armagh prisoners and the aspirations of the Irish people to unite the country.

Instead he supports the ‘right’ of loyalists to impose their undemocratic and violent veto on the rights of the Nationalist community in the North. Likewise, he categorically refuses to defend the rights of the ‘working people of Poland, who are fighting for free trade unions and workers’ democracy — perhaps the one virtue Mr Kemmy can be credited with is consistency. Jim Kemmy’s politics are based on getting piecemeal reforms without posing a socialist alternative to the present system. Joe Harrington is part of the Socialist Alternative — he is part of the day-today struggles of working people to organise themselves to win a better life. Give JOE HARRINGTON your No. 1 Vote. We'l{ Keep

THE RED..-

WHITE AND BLUE...

FLAG FLYING /

HERE

Michael O’Leary and Labour's Mournful Face The demise of the Labour Party is a pathetic sight. The party founded by James Connolly who led the Irish Citizen Army and fought in the GPO in 1916, and was General Secretary of the ITGWU, has turned its back on Jrish working people North and South.

Who would have thought that a ‘Labour’ Party would tax social welfare — steal workers’ contributions away from them?

Who would have thought they would put VAT on clothing and footwear and lower food subsidies? Who would have thought they would close the sugar factory in Tuam and put half ;a town out of work? Who would have thought they would turn their backs on the Nationalist community in the Six Counties and the unity of the Irish nation? Yes, it is a sad day for socialism when “socialists” go down on their knees to brutal Brutonism and terrible Thatcherism. The Labour Party is no working class alternative to Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. Fianna Fail has no real alternative on the economic crisis or on the North; Only candidates like Bernadette McAliskey and Joe Harrington, who take unity of the country and uncompromising defence of our interests seriously can be relied upon in Leinster House not to bow the knee, tug the forelock or sell us out. : Noel Browne 1 Against Collaboration * Defence of Workers’ Living Standards Against Austerity Give Working People Control of the Nation’s Wealth * Defence of Democratic and Civil Rights * Complete Opposition to Imperialist Alliances No to NATO — Out of the EEC AT ITS NATIONAL Conference in November, Peoples Democracy pinpointed the electoral arena as having a real potential for the advance of the anti-imperialist movement over the next year. Last year’s General Election allowed all those who supported the hunger strikers’ demands to express their anger at British policy and Free State collaboration. The election provided a focus for the prisoners’ supporters to work together for the five demands.

Anti-imperialist organisations, youth, women, students and trade unionists all sunk their differences amongst themselves to deal with the pressing issue of trying to save the hunger strikers’ lives. It is important that the lessons of unity learned last year are not forgotten.

The hunger strike may be over, but Ireland is still very much in a state of crisis. The British Army and Loyalist assassins daily threaten the very lives of Nationalist people in the Six Counties, whilst in the 26 Counties the working class is being made to pay for an economic crisis not of its own making. The situation demands that those who supported the hunger strikers, who oppose the British presence in our country and who wish to see an end to the economic domination of Ireland by foreign capital, unite to mount an all round political challenge to the stagnant capitalist parties in Ireland. The fact that a general election is now taking place in the 26 Counties is due to the instability created by the anti- Our Unity Programme * For a United Independent Ireland Complete British Withdrawal with Britain imperialist intervention in the General Election last June. The election of Kieran Doherty and Paddy Agnew ensured that Fianna Fail could not form a government and that Fine Gael had to cobble together a creaky Coalition of themselves and the socalled socialists and independents. The coming General Election holds out the prospect of unity on an agreed programme for all anti-imperialists.

Peoples Democracy believes that the anti-imperialist organisations have an opportunity and responsibility to intervene in this stiuation and offer the people of Ireland a real alternative.

The formation of an anti-imperialist united front to contest all elections, especially the general election, is a logical and urgent development of the H Block/Armagh campaign. This united front would build on and extend the gains of mass united action won while defending the prisoners.

We therefore call on Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Socialist Party and all other anti-imperialist individuals and groupings to combine with PD and Bernadette McAlis] ev to present a real alternati ‘e to the ; ‘o-Britisia and anti-workiag class policies of the major parties in this General Election.

PEOPLES DEMOCRACY is an antiimperialist socialist organisation which puts the unity of Ireland as the first task to be met by socialists in every part of Ireland. If you are interested in Peoples Democracy.

write to us at 38 Clanawley Road, ’ Killéster, Dublin 5 or 109 O’Malley Park ; Southill , Limerick.

Budget Nobbles Browne IN A LETTER to the Irish Times, Noel Browne TD attacked the SDLP for failing to stand a candidate in Fermanagh/South Tyrone. According to Browne the SDLP should have put up a candidate in order to split the Nationalist vote and elect the Unionist in the interests of democracy: It is hard to see how democracy is served by electing a Unionist MP in a constituency that is majority Nationalist.

But Dr Browne is not talking about real democracy, but a specific form: bourgeois parliamentary democracy.

He is not interested in the right of the Irish people to self-determination: when the struggle to achieve this democratic right challenges the parliamentary institutions which maintain partition, Browne stands for Unionism. To defend parliamentary democracy against the democratic wishes of the people Browne has to ignore the facts and turn them on their heads. The Unionist candidate in that election was Ken Maginnis, an ex-major in the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), representative of a tradition which has denied democratic rights to Catholics during the 50 years of Stormont rule.

He became, in Browne’s words, “‘the Protestant Unionist Parliamentarian who is not a gunman”’. Browne is a self-styled socialist with a warped view of the world. He thinks the national question is an unnecessary complication of Irish politics. He has ignored the events in the Six Counties to the best of his ability. He can ignore it no longer. The H Block/ Armagh campaign once again made what is happening in the 6 Counties an issue in the 26 Counties. The victories of Kieran Doherty and Paddy Agnew in the last General Election showed clearly the level of support for the prisoners. Seven months ago Browne was challenged in Dublin North Central by Peoples Democracy candidate, Vincent Doherty, who supported the prisoners in their struggle. Browne claimed credit for his 30 year -old Ministerial accomplishments during the 1981 campaign. A general- *sed populist denunciation of unequal distribution of wealth (without explaining how the have-nots could get an equal share) was presented to remind people that Browne was once a ‘socialist’ Labour politician, It is fitting that he now shares a room in Leinster House with Jim Kemmy (who would have been more honest, and perhaps even more successful, had he campaigned under the slogan ‘Jim’ll fix it’.) Defying the SLP he seemed set on trying to revive with Kemmy the parliamentary contribution of the National Progressive Democrats that he maintained in the early 60s.

Alas, as Marx said, the first time is tragedy, the second farce; the NPD consistently opposed the government of the day, and did not ‘critically support’ it. Noel Browne has ‘critically supported’ the raising of the school entry age, ‘ thereby causing hardship to mainly working class people. He has also supported the closing of the Tuam sugar factory. In the recent budget Noel Browne voted for VAT on clothing and footwear, lowering of food subsidies and taxing social welfare benefits. All these measures would have directly attacked the livelihoods of people socialists are normally expected to defend. Browne was a self-proclaimed champion of a ‘goit-alone’ stragegy for the Labour Party in the early seventies. He now finds himself tagging on to the coattails of a discredited right wing government.

Once Noel Browne went wrong on Irish unity and defence of the Catholic minority in the North of Ireland, there was no holding him. He has wound up on the side of the antidemocratic forces in our society.