Irish Hunger Strikers: We Must Not Let Them Die!

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The huge Belfast support demonstration They are demanding restoration of their status as prisoners of war, in opposition to the attempts by Labour and Tory governments to brand them as "criminals" for fighting to liberate their country from British rule-imposed by military force. In fighting such imperialist repression, the five specific demands raised by the prisoners are for:

*The right to wear their own, not prison, clothing.

*The right to refrain from prison work.

*The right to free association amongst other political prisoners.

*The right to organise their own educational and recreational facilities, and to receive one visit, one letter and one parcel a week.

*The right to full remission of sentences.

These demands have been consistently raised by republican prisoners in Lóng Kesh since their special category status was stripped from them by the Wilson government in 1976, in a bid to portray as common criminals those who fight the efforts of the British army to preserve the imperialist oppression of the Irish people.

Blanket protest

For four years, up to 300 republican prisoners at any one time have been engaged in the "blanket" protest at Long Kesh in which they have refused to wear prison clothing or to slop out their cells.

In retaliation they have been subjected to savage • intimidation: clothed only in a single blanket, they have been left in filthy, unheated cells and subjected to brutal body searches, beatings and endless abuse.

This maltreatment at the hands of British imperialism which has been internationally condemned, has run alongside a complete silence on the blanket struggle from the leadership of the British labour movement.

Trade union and Labour leaders-who so easily comdemn barbaric behaviour by right wing regimes in far away. Latin America, Asia and Africa-have raised not a whisper "against similar activities being carried out by the British military authorities in their efforts to repress the liberation struggle in the six coanties of Northern Charter signatories Benn and Sean McKenna In some cases this shameful silence has been the result of indifference to the struggles of the Irish people for national liberation: in others it is the outcome of tacit or open support for their "own" British ruling class in maintaining its rule over the six counties of Northern Ireland.

The capitalist press and mass media are ever ready to witchhunt anyone who takes up the struggle against British imperialism.

As a result, few labour movement leaders have seen any political advantage to be gained from declaring themselves in support of the Blanket men of Long Kesh.

After four years of bitter struggle have failed to make any impact on the British government's position and failed to win the support they need from the British workers' movement, the 'H' Block prisoners have resorted to desperate tactics.

Desperate is certainly the word: the decision to launch a hunger strike in their present weakened state could quickly bring death to the seven men involved.

But there is no doubt that they have been so goaded by ill-treatment and oppression that they are willing to press through their struggle. The only way they can be saved is to ensure that. they win their demands.

There have already been too many martyrs to the Irish revolution: the British labour moveJohn Nixon Tommy McKearney ment has the responsibility to act in solidarity with the hunger strikers and ensure that no man dies.

Aiready it is-clear that the hunger strikers' stand has formed a focal point for a growth of the struggle against British imperialism.

A huge 25,000-strong demonstration through Belfast bore witness to the solid support for the liberation struggle in the six counties-now at a greater level than any time in the last ten years.

And the fears of a rise in the struggle and of the possible deaths of hunger strikers have helped to stampede a group of union leaders, Labour MPs and individual liberals into adding their signatures to the Charter 80 petition endorsing the prisoners' five demands.

With one or two notable exceptions, these signatories have until now taken no signiticant stand on the prisoners' issue or the Irish liberation Their involvement now must be made the starting point of the broadest possible campaign throughout the labour movement for action in solidarity with the hunger strikers.

This means demanding that these union leaders and Labourites conduct an active campaign at every level in their own organisations for resolutions in support of the prisoners' demands, and for preparations to mobilise maximum support on the national demonstrations on November 15 and December idan Hughes Tom McFeeley 7 in London.

The fight on these issues must be linked to a full scale mobilisation in the British labour movement against the Thatcher government and against the defenders of British imperialism in the Labour ANSGreen Ray McCartney In this context, socialists must explicitly raise the demand for the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Ireland as the basis for the ending of imperialist rule and the self-determination of the Irish people as a whole. Armagh jail. Having exhausted every other means and alternatives available to us, we see no other way of ending this inhumanity.

Whilst the Irish nation remains unfree, partitioned and at war with an alien government, torture in the prisons and oppression in the streets will always exist. And no different is today than from the same Black and Tans of sixty years ago, when the same alien government murdered Terence MacSwiney : and young Kevin Barry.

So, in the spirit of MacSwiney, and with the determination of eight centuries of uncompromising resistance, we the undersigned, of yet another risen Irish generation, declare our firm resolve to uphold those fundamental principles of right and justice, for there is no right in torture, and no justice in British justice.

We call upon the Irish nation to bear witness not only to our trials of inhumanity, but to the perennial wrong inflicted upon our nation by an alien government. We face death in the mind of those who are right. We leave our lives in the hands of the Irish nation and our souls to the most high God.

Signed Leo Green Brendan Hughes Ray McCartney Tom McFeeley Tommy McKearney Sean McKenna John Nixon

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Some of the 19 King Henry's strikers with supporters on the picket line The management of strike-bound King Henry's Meat Products, Levenshulme have been found guilty and fined €500 on two charges at Manchester GANG Hypocritical tone of the week was set by the Daily Mirror which set out to woo the mass anti-bomb movement.

One of its special editions was given over to chilling stories about the effects of a nuclear blast and the build up of atomic weapons.

The issue included a superSOCIALIST PRESS. Wedness: 1.

Now it has become obligatory for all the press to begin editorials on the economy by listing the pitfalls and problems that face the Tories and listing some of the opposition to their policies. But there is never any doubt where the leaders are going.

"Suicide" stewards left however, little time for celebration since the next attack-the 6% limit-was announced simultaneously.

A rash of anxious hand wringing broke out. The government was nervousiy accused of a 'U turn' (which it isn't).

Liberal newspapers-like the Guardian, complained that not all workers would be equally attacked: "It will not be their