[Behind an elaborate smokescreen of anti-imperialist rhetoric, the…]

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Behind an elaborate smokescreen of anti-imperialist rhetoric, the Social Democratic Labour Party has been holding its conference in the North of Ireland.

Jockeying But the thin veneer of hostility to British imperialism is not enough to conceal the fact that these dyed-inthe-wool middle class careerists are concerned chiefly in jockeying for more influential positions for themselves, and shielding themselves from the hostility of the Catholic population they claim to represent.

The resentment of the SDLP at the British Labour leaders' failure to provide them with comfortable jobs in the power structure of the sectarian statelet was expressed on Friday by party chairman Dennis Haughey:

"One might have expected that a socialist government [!] could have broken with, or at least, modified, the traditional colonialist stance of the British government. That has not been the case."

Indeed much to the embarassment of the SDLP their Second International "comrades" in the Labour leadership have ensured that "repression has been almost as ruthless as at any other period in the history of this coüntry."

Struggles

Does this mean that the SDLP will support the struggles of those forces presently fighting British imperialism, and mobilise seriously to force British troops out of Ireland?

Not if Haughey has his way. Class action for him must be supplanted by SDLP MP Fitt "pressure".

"The activities of this party in the immediate future must be directed to pressuring the British into changing. In doing so, it will be necessary to bring the British government more and more before the bar of international opinion to expose the blatant colonialism of its policies and to enlist the aid of anti-colonial opinion throughout the recognised international channels."

Whatever the "recognised international channels"

might be, there should be no illusions that the SDLP has moved to support of anti-imperialist struggles actually taking place.

could in principle be put on sale in the next speculative maelstrom.

And the gaping cracks which last week's rescue money papers over-the US deficit, the menacing imbalance of the imperialist economies which it reflects and most basically of all, capitalism's inability to produce and realise adequate surplus value-show no signs of closing.

They will again tear apart the international currency Carter truce that last week gave the dollar a respite.

The situation, therefore, remains one of latent instability which threatens at any time to lead to a massive intensification of trade war leading to slump and unemployment.

Only socialist policies to defend jobs and wages to the point of expropriation of the capitalist class can avert this threat to. all workers.

An emergency resolution tabled at the conference endorses the SDLP's stated position that the republican prisoners' two-year struggle for prisoner of war status at 'H' Block in the Long Kesh concentration camp : has caused the infringement of their basic human rights.

And it goes on to call for an "enquiry" into 'H' Block.

But at the same time the SDLP calls on the republicans to call off their campaign, and demands not prisoner of war status but "emergency status" for the heroic fighters of Long Kesh who have endured indescribable horror in pursuit of their basic rights.

Having administered this kick in the teeth to the anti-imperialist forces, the SDLP seeks to cover-up by demanding the withdrawal of the British SAS murder squads.

Zimbabwe-style

• The nearest to a clear 'troops out' demand comes from Coalisland, in a resolution calling for what sounds like a Zimbabwe-style "political solution" organised through a quadripartite conference composed of British and Irish governments and representatives of Loyalist and Catholic communities, designed to protect capitalist interests.

With such miserable reformist and careerist petty bourgeois leaders' masquerading as spokesmen of the oppressed Catholic minority in the North, the crisis of leadership confronting the Irish workers' movement is shown up for all to see.

But the British working class has an obligation to play a role in the struggle for Irish liberation-through fighting through every labour movement body for the removal of the reactionary Callaghan-Healey Labour leadership, including Irish butcher Roy Mason.

Repression

Completely at the service of imperialism, these class traitors combine attacks on the British working class with savage repression in Trade union branches and Labour Parties have the opportunity to express their hostility to this treachery, by mobilising the maximum contingents on the Day of Solidarity with Irish Prisoners of War in London on November 26.

The march, organised by the Prisoners Aid Committee, leaves Hyde Park at 2.30pm, and is called around the slogans:

*Solidarity with Irish POWs.

*POW status and amnesty for all Irish political prisoners.

*Brits out of Ireland!

Further details from and support to: PAC, 2a, St. Paul's Rd., London N1.