Y Block strike
Socialist Press1980 1980-10-15Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 12 →
Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 12
"We, the republican prisoners of war in the H Blocks of Long Kesh demand as of right political recognition and that we be accorded the status of political prisoners.
«We claim this right as captured combatants in the continuing struggle for national liberation and self-determination.
«We refute most strongly the tag of criminal with which the British have attempted to label us and our struggle, and we point to the divisive, partitionist institutions of the . six county state as the sole criminal aspect of the present conflict"
With these words, the courageous blanket men of Belfast announced that they are to commence a hunger strike on October 27 in the hopes of achieving the demands for which they have been fighting for four years.
Their struggle is just: it is one which the British labour movement must support with every means at its disposal. They have not yet received such support and their hunger strike is a sign of desperation as well as determination.
Don't let the "H' Block prisoners fight alone!
*Troops out of Ireland now!
*Self determination for the Irish people! Ted Knight