Icra and the Elections

UWC strike opening up a period which would aid the West-Craig-Paisiey trumiverate consolidate its influence over the Protestant working class; nourish the growth of anti-Catholic militarism and lead inevitably towards a major sectarian confrontation, the Officials saw the period being characterised chiefly by the growth of Protestant working class independence and the decline of the traditional Orange movement.

In @ thinly veiled criticism of the disquited members in the ranks of the Officials the July United Irishman explained that one must “recognise that the traditional Unionist politicians were being by-passed by a new organisation (1) (3)

and legal cover. immigrant. The IRISH CIVIL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION in Britain has announced that it intends to contest a number of seats in the next British general election. The aim is to swing away the lrish vote in marginal Labour Party constituencies and thereby prevent the return of a Labour government. The rationale behind this campaign is the acceleration of repression against the minority in the Six Counties since Labour took office. THE ACCUSATIONS WHICH ICRA MAKE ARE PERFECTLY CORRECT, BUT THE COURSE THEY ADVOCATE CAN ONLY LEAD TO DISASTER.

While the repression has grown under the Labour government it is misleading to simply say that the Labour Party is responsible for it. The real source of the repression is to be found in the growing crisis facing the British ruling class. In the context of this crisis the British Army is playing an increasingly autonomous role to protect the interests of big business. In Britain, with the aid of many prominent businessmen, it is secretly organising fascist- strike-breaking squads while in Ireland itis collaborating with the Loyalists. The British Army itself is the real pace-setter of the repression in lreland. To ignore this and speak only of the Labour Party is to misunderstand the profound nature of Britain’s problems; it is a failure to understand that the Labour government is a helpless, though not reluctant, prisoner of big business and its militarist agents. :

IN THE LIGHT OF THIS, HOW COULD A LABOUR DEFEAT AT THE NEXT ELECTION POSSIBLY CONTRIBUTE TO DE-ESCALATING THE REPRESSION?

Obviously it could not. The only alternatives to a Labour government would be a Conservative or Liberal-Conservative one. Those who call for an anti-Labour vote in marginal constituencies must therefore accept that they are paving the way for a return of the Tories in one form of another. A TORY GOVERNMENT WOULD NOT BE A HELPLESS PRISONER OF THE BIG BUSINESS/BRITISH ARMY COALITION, RATHER IT WOULD BE AN ENTHUSIASTIC PROMOTER OF IT.

Such a government could only create an atmosphere favourable to the flourishing of the Army’s overt and clandestine acts of repression. In a word, while a Labour government cannot be expected to halt the growing repression, a Tory government can be relied upon to accellerate it without hesitation.

The question of Ireland is not the only one arising at the next British general election.

The central question will in fact concern the struggle of British workers to defend their living standards and democratic rights. A rebuff to the governmental pretensions of big business and the Officer caste of the British Army — that would be a double victory for both British and Irish workers. It would make the magnates of British imperialism and their Officer friends more vulnerable to the attacks of the revolutionary movement by depriving them, to a certain extent, of constitutional But the only way to achieve this is by voting for Labour where there is no revolutionary alternative. Labour, of course, is a capitalist party and no more a friend of the Irish revolution than the Tories or Liberals. However, Labour is a capitalist party with a difference. It was built not by businessmen but by workers. While it does not challenge the existence of British capitalism it shows that a contradiction exists between the workers and their capitalist rulers. To highlight this contradiction and make the entire British working class aware of it, at a time when the British bourgeoisie is trying to conceal it, is the elementary duty of every class-conscious worker in Britain, whether he or she be Scottish, Welsh, English, Irish or oppressed If those forces supporting the struggle for democratic and national rights in Ireland want to intervene in the British general election they should do so with the clear understanding that a victory for the British working class will be in the best interests of the revolutionary movement in Ireland. This means that they should first of all call for a vote for those revolutionary groups to the left of the Labour Party (in safe constituencies) who defend the right to self-determination for treland and who advocate a consistent fight against British capitalism at home. Where this course will not be possible, as is likely in most cases, they should call for a vote for Labour, without illusions, and carry on their own fight for the withdrawal of troops, the ending of internment and the repeal of repressive laws.

This is the only principled course open to ICRA which would be consistent with striking the greatest possible blow at the next election against those who are unleashing repression in Ireland. THE FACT THAT ICRA FOLLOWS A DIFFERENT, EVEN OPPOSITE COURSE, SHOWS THE MAJOR WEAKNESS OF THE ICRA AND PROVO LEADERSHIP: i.e. THEIR INABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THE DECISIVE IMPORTANCE OF CLASS STRUGGLE. This has led them to a situation where they advocate a course of action which, if successful, could do enormous damage to the struggle in Ireland.

tssued by the REVOLUTIONARY MARXIST GROUP, Political Committee The,slip toad from the motorway into the It was in the bail applications that the estate was blocked by a line of troops in full riot gear. This confronted the head of the march, attempting to leave the motorway by the only route possible. Rubber bullets were fired and political implications weré introduced, The prosecuting barrister explained that the defendents were all linked by their ““Marxist and Leninist views". He said that they were not stewards but were the march organisers. One RMG member, an Englishman, was singled out as a “foreign agitator”. The remarks were fully reported in the bourgeois press, although the prosecution were not able to introduce these factors in the ensuring trials themselves. The basis of the arrests was made clear repression against the vanguard.

In the Magistrates’ Court the evidence of several of the British soldiers was so transparently a fabrication that the cases against two militants were dismissed, charges against a third was dropped, while two others were given two-month sentences suspended for 12 months, again because the Magistrate chose to believe a British soldier would not deliberately lie in order to achieve a conviction.

The incident underlined the need for unity among the anti-imperialist groups in defence of militants and of the whole anti-unionist population. The tempo of repression will increase with developing accomodation to Loyalist elements and can be expected to become generalised against the whole anti-Unionist working class as this appeasement goes on,