NUPE knifes troops out' strike
Socialist Press1980 1980-04-23Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 12 →
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The solid and united strike by 1,200 Protestant and Catholic NUPE members against British army occupation of the as the prerequisite for possible military intervention have plainly had some effect-and he is now under pressure to take desperate action.
American youth have already demonstrated in their thousands against the war buildup: it is necessary for the labour movement in the US and every Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, foundered last week under pressure from pro-imperialist union bureaucrats and rabble-rousing loyalist politicians.
The strike was opposed from the outset by NUPE regional organiser John Coulthard÷ whose politics have included an attempt to launch a new six-county political party with UDA leader Glenn Bart.
was also opposed by NUPE's National : Executive which declared its committment to the preservation of British imperialist rule by ordering their members back to work.
Pressurise
At the same time strike leader Brian Sullivan was accused of being a leading member of the IRA as part of a campaign to pressurise Protestant strikers into a return to work.
Paisley-with slavish backing from Gerry Fitt-raised publicly the allegation that the whole strike was "Provo orchestrated" while loyalist MP Robert Bradford branded the Protestant and Catholic pickets as "IRA communists".
Eventually the witch-hunting pressure on the Protestant strikers brought a break in their ranks and a drift back to work.
Recognising this, the strike leaders voted to call off the action but seek an ICT! inquiry.
This battle was lost: the troops remain in the RVH. But the-albeit brief-example of Protestant/Catholic unity in a" struggle against British military, rule points to the necessity for principled revolutionary leadership to develop a programme of anti-imperialist and" transitional demands in the struggle to mobilise the working class independently from their reactionary bureaucratic and loyalist leaders, drive out the British occupying army, and struggle for an Irish workers republic.
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