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Ascemble Ipm Speakers Corner Marble Anch March via Scotland Yard to Rally in Trafaloes Squan REMEMBER BLAIRPEACH NUPE strikers BACK PAGE COMMENT PICKET -POUCE STATION , The strike by hospital ancillary workers at six Belfast hospitals including the Royal Victoria Hospital is one of the first major industrial actions against the effective martial law repression operating in the North of Ireland.

Hospital workers have for years been angered by the heavy military presence inside the hospital-but their anger erupted into action last week when a soldier's rifle went off accidentally in a corridor.

NUPE members at the Royal Victoria Hospital walked outto be followed by solidarity action in five other Belfast hospitals. They are demanding the complete withdrawal of troops from the premises.

Attacked

The 1,200 strikers have been immediately attacked by NUPE's National Executive, which called for a return to work while talks were held on the issue of the troops, and by local NUPE official John Coulthard who has issued a virtual invitation to "volunteer" scabs to cross NUPE picket lines.

While condemning allegations that "a republican caucus exists within the union" at the hospital, and claiming that the difference between him and the strikers is simply that he can "deliver the goods" while the strikers cannot, Coulthard has gone on to condemn the st ike as "futile"

"Our members must know that it they stay out until Christmas it will not make one whit of difference to the army presence," he declared in a press statement. Attacking the strike leaders, he went on:

"The striking members have been pushed into a corner :.. They have allowed themselves to be led there by hotheads."

With such 'leadership' from Coulthard it is scarcely surprising that the strikers are demanding that he be excluded from talks on the army presence in the hospital.

Not easy Nobody can pretend that it is an easy matter to force the withdrawal of British troops from even a single building in the occupied six counties.

But the obvious readiness of NUPE members to take up this fight is an expression of the rising hostility to British imperialism in the North of Ireland.

And the refusal of Coulthard along with Alan Fisher and the British NUPE leadership, to strengthen and develop this struggle is an expression of their collaboration with British capitalism and its brutal colonial oppression in Ireland.

British trade unionists, as well as socialists in Ireland, North and South must however draw strength from the struggle of the NUPE strikers, and step up the struggle to force the withdrawal of British troops not only from the Royal Victoria Hospital, but from the six conties as a whole.

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TWED APRIL 23rd -aemana