Cracy

Southern politicians with Thatcher’s plans.

The brave struggle of the H Block prisoners had only begun when the SWP, the American supporters of the Fourth International, organised a tour in order to raise consciousness and funds for the Irish struggle. The speakers were, Bernadette McAliskey, Anne Speed (MSR) and Fergus O’ Hare, (PD). During the tour and afterwards plans were made to unite the anti-imperialist and working class militants as broadly as possible in defence of their struggles. PD and MSR began to discuss a principled fusion around the central issues of the Irish revolution: 1. An end to repression north & south 2. Complete British withdrawal from the North, and the establishment of a 32 county socialist republic 3. For a working class fightback against all cuts in living standards, and for the nationalisation of industry , financial institutions, building land and large farms 4. To support the rights of all oppressed groups in society and in particular to actively fight for the rights of women (eg contraception, divorce, married women’s right to work etc). 5. For a real internationalism. In this context the importance of the Fourth International as the only truly Marxist party was recognised and the new party pledged itself to defend the revolutions of other countries. Perhaps more important than any other of these particular points, was the agreement on an overall analysis and method by which to analyse Ireland’s position as a neo-colonial society in the imperialist epoch, and a strategic agreement on the basic tasks faced by Irish revolutionaries in putting forward a united and coherent opposition to Britain’s strategy for Ireland. The first task of the new PD was to create a united movement in defence of the blanket prisoners in H Block by breaking down the opposition to such unity by the major anti-imperialist organisations. This was done through a series of initiatives, the most important of which were the Coalisland Anti-Repression Conference, the Burntollet Commemoration March in January 1979, and Bernadette McAliskey’s candidacy in the European Parliament elections in June 1979. In each of these initiatives the need for united defence of the political prisoners was made the central priority. The eventual formation of the H Block/Armagh Committee brought the first stage of this task to fruition.

Since that period the work of PD in calling for the using of elections as a -‘means of mobilising against imperialism and presenting an alternative to the native collaborators has become fairly well known to socialist republicans. The one thread of continuity that has run through all our work over the fast 14 years has been the need for principled unity against imperialism. The sponsoring and organising of Bernadette’s candidature in Dublin North Central was the latest addition to that continuity.

Our organisation is an open, democratic, anti-imperialist and internationalist organisation, which is always looking for new forces to help shift the crushing weight of foreign intervention in lreland’s affairs. If you agree with us then you should join and find out whether being in PD is an effective way of helping to lead the Irish working class to unity and victory. THE “HUNG DAIL” of June 1981 was caused mainly by the H Block deliberate and vicious attack on by semi-colonial stagnation. None of the major parties have any policies which can overcome these problems. Fianna Fail and the Coalition have the same basic strategy: vote; it fell over a budget which was a workers. The beginning and the end of the 22nd Dail tells all we need to know about the major issues in Irish politics; an unfinished national revolution and an underdeveloped economy blocked defence of Partition through increased collaboration with Britain and economic “development” within the framework policy can be summed up in two words: repression and austerity. That is what a growing number of Irish people are is popular distrust of the major parties. This fact was born out by the results Party. showed up especially in the performance of the anti-imperialist movement. The Sinn Fein vote and the Bernadette McAliskey campaign sponsored by PD confirmed that the anti-imperialist movement has a small but credible foothold in the South. The anti-imperialist candidates polled between 5-7% wherever they stood. This was a result similar to that of Sinn Fein—the Workers But there is no room for complacency. The momentum of the H Block campaign was not maintained. This has certain implications. The hunger strike movement found its greatest support amongst the workers and the