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The 9 July demonstration called by the Prisoners Irish republican prisoners of war seems certain to-be the biggest mobilisation against the role of British imperialism in Ireland for several years.

Trade union and labour movement bodies from as far away as Edinburgh have resolved to send contingents on the demonstration, which will assemble at Speakers Corner, Marble Arch at 2.30 pm.

This level of support indicates a growing awareness within the British labour movement of the savagery and brutality being carried out by the British army of occupation in Northern Ireland under the watchful eye of Labour ministers.

Driven These willing servants of British and international capitalism recognise all too clearly that should the republican and socialist militants in the North succeed in driving out the armed forces that preserve British rule, the struggle would not stop there.

Both North and South of the imperialist drawn border" ', Irish workers face chronic unemployment, ruthless exploitation by Irish and foreign capital, and state attacks on the independent strength of working class organisations-problems which can only be resolved through the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a workers' republic.

A blow adminstered to British imperialism in forcing the withdrawal of troops from the North would disrupt the precarious structure of capitalism in the island as a whole.

The age-old Irish liberation struggle is therefore vital not only in terms of securing the legitimate right of the Irish people to self determination and in weakening British imperialism but as an integral part of the struggle for social revolution in Irish capitalist Prime Minister Lynch recognises this clearly when he carefully combines face-saving talk of a possible "united Ireland" with repressive laws and military action against republican forces and against the Irish labour movement. most barbaric methods in their efforts to intimidate and crush republican and socialist forces in It was Labour leader Wilson who sent in the British army in 1969 to forestall any prospect of the 'civil rights' agitation by the Catholics flowing over into more generalised demands by workers in Northern Ireland.

the next Long Kesh concentration camp And it was the Labour leaders who deprived those republican prisoners who were jailed for their legitimate struggle against imperialism of their status as political prisoners theoretically guaranteed by the Geneva Convention.

And now under Labour minister Roy Mason, the torture of these prisoners has reached euch a laval that avan tha European Commission for Human Rights and Amnesty International have been forced to draw attention to the brutality used.

The torture begins as soon as a "suspect" is picked up.

Only recently, trade union activist Brian McGuire was allegedly found "hanging in his cell" at the notorious Castlereagh RUC station after a prolonged interrogation.

A 195-page book The Castlereagh File has recently been compiled detailing the gruesome treatment meted out to men and women "suspects" by the Special Branch in the torture chamber, in pursuit of forced "confessions"

POW status

Meanwhile in the Long Kesh concentration camp at Lisburn over 300 convicted republican and socialist men are undergoing torture as a result of their determined fight for Prisoner of War status.

Since they refuse to wear prison clothing or do prison work, both of which reflect criminal status, they are clad only in a blanket; they are kept under continuous bright lights in permanent solitary confinement in cells overflowing from urine and excreta; they are denied food parcels, cigarettes, access to news or TV; they receive no proper medical treatment, no exercise; and they suffer repeated beatings by warders.

This vicious, barbaric treatment must be fought throughout the British labour movement: it is Labour leaders who are inflicting this punishment on the opponents of imperialism in Mason acts as part of the Callaghan cabinet-which in turn is preserved and protected by the TUC bureaucracy.

Bill Sirs and the leaders of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation last week cynically acted out their charade of "opposition" to the planned closure of Bilston steelworks.

They were outraged the fact that they had been publicly humiliated by British Steel Corporation management, which had scarcely given the ISTC bureaucrats time to murmur the last rites over the doomed Shelton steelworks before being called on to force their members at Bilston to leave quietly for the dole queues.

Management, taken aback by Sirs' apparent inability to control his members'- and the enthusiasm shown by ISTC delegates for his show of militant talk, decided to postpone their closure But looming in the background to these events is a world-wide crisis in steel production in the capitalist countries, which threatens thousands of jobs.

Near collapse

The EEC in particular faces the near-collapse of its steel strategy as capitalist producers have broken its rules by undercutting minimum price levels or producing inexcess ot agreed limits.

Now punitive fines are to be levied on low priced imports and suspect cargoes impounded at EEC ports by customs officials.

Meanwhile in Sweden huge losses have led to government plans to 'restructure' and rationalise' the industry; 'restructuring' is also planned in Spain.

In Belgium the nationalised steel industry has announced plans for 8,800 redundancies. When hundreds marched against this on May 19 they were met by police with teargas and water cannons.

A strike against the sackings by 40,000 workers from all but one steel plant in Belgium began on June 22.

In the USA huge losses by the privately-owned steel monopolies have intensified demands for stringent import controls, while a process of mergers and layoffs (which already number thousands) continues.

And in France thousands of jobs are under the axe in the Usinor and FacilorSollic works in plans to rationalise production.

Without a fight in each case for work-sharing on full pay, and nationalisation of steel under workers' mangement as part of a planned socialist economy, there is no way these jobs will be saved.

If left to Sirs and his international co-thinkers, steel workers in every capitalist country will be heading in their thousands to join the millions capitalism has made unemployed.

Steelworkers must ensure that this is not the case.

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Aid Committee against the British army's torture of