Blanket protest victory
Socialist Press1979 1979-03-28Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 2 →
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In SP 130 we reported a protest by Noel Murray and other prisoners in the Curragh Military Detention We have now received information as to the cause of the protest.
As we have previously reported the Curragh contained less than half a dozen long term prisoners.
To keep the prison open the Lynch government filled the prison with child molesters, rapists, drug addicts and inmates of the local mental hospital.
The political prisoners were objecting to this and to the fact that the Governor had instructed the inmates to paint the prison.
This job had traditionally been done by outside contractors using union labour.
The political prisoners refused to do the work, not wanting to scab on the workers of Dublin.
For this act of class solidarity all privileges (including mail and visits) were removed for the weeks over Christmas.
We are pleased to report that the protest succeeded.
Privileges have been restored and the painting will be done by union labour.
The treatment of political prisoners in the Republic mirrors the treatment in the north.
Refusal the authorities of permission Amnesty International to investigate prison conditions and charges of torture and harrassment has led the Prisoners Rights Organisation to hold a public inquiry into such allegations.
The meeting, planned for early April, will last two days and will be chaired by Sean Macbride (Nobel Peace Prize winner), a prominent Dutch judge and various prominent figures from the legal profession and labour movement.
Exposure
It is hoped that the recent exposure by doctors in the north of torture by British imperialism will encourage similar developments in the Coming time - JUnoW ing class struggles in the south, a thoroughgoing exposure of the real nature of Lynch's justice would help to deepen the crisis facing the Irish capitalist class.
Socialist Prass congratulates the prisoners in the Curragh on their successful defence of workers' rights.
We call - on the . Dublin workers to campaign for the release of Noel and the others whose only crime has been to oppose imperialism and stand up for the rights of the oppressed.
The very least Irish workers could demand would be trial by jury for these people and an end to rigged trials of the Special Criminal Court presided over by judges alone.