Ireland: Who Are Real Criminals?

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if which it was an expression Paisley Westminster and set up an inde- less."

Seven brave men are dying in the Long Kesh women prisoners in Armagh Gaol have decided to join their hunger strike.

They are Irish republicans. They are "guilty" of struggling to liberate their country from a foreign • occupying army -a struggle that has been waged for centuries. the Lab Tur leaders call and Novenient 2000l the criminals.

But all kinds of people fit into the Tories' category of "criminals". • The Thatcher government's new anti-union laws make it "criminal" to picket effectively, and "criminal" to defend or impose a closed shop.

It is also apparently "criminal" for Labour councillors to refuse to sell oft council houses, "criminal" for them to build new houses, and "criminal" for them to refuse to carry out spending cuts. And of course anyone who occupies a factory to defend jobs is also a "criminal" under the law.

In short any serious action taken by workers against the Thatcher government is likely to wind up branded as "criminal" action-while the Tories themselves carry out spending cuts which deliberately heap misery and suffering on tens of millions of working class men, women and children, ana equip themselves with nuclear weapons designed for mass murder!

But of course it is not. only the Tories who have attempted to brand republican prisoners as criminals.

It was under Wilson's Labour government that the decision was taken to strip republicans of the special category status they had won in 1972.

Under chief torture minister Roy Mason the Labour leadership embarked on a sustained campaign to bludgeon the opponents of British colonial rule into submission.

Their attacks on the Irish people were part and parcel of a package of reactionary policies carried out by the Labour government at home and abroad.

Under Wilson and under Callaghan the Labourites slashed workers' living standards, cabbed on the Grunwick strike. scabbed on the firemen, scabbed on the public sector workers and paved the way for Thatcher by slashing spending on health, education and social services.

SAS thugs

Yet in the midst of these attacks they still found time and resources to step up the military repression in the six counties, to re-introduce internment (under the disguise ot prolonged remand without trial for republican "suspects"), to introduce the so-called "Prevention of Terrorism" Act to terrorise Irish workers travelling in and out of Britain; and to send a gang of real criminals-the thugs of the SAS murder squads-into action to intimidate, beat and murder Irish militants.

Nobody would claim that there are no criminals at work in Ireland. There are thieves and exploiters: they draw fat profits from the labour of the working class.

There are also opponents of democracy, and wild gunmen: but these are precisely the extremist elements of the Loyalist movement, who are sponsored and miltarily supported by British government!

Indeed it ' has been the opposition of these forces to democracy that brought about the historical monstrosity of a six county Orange sectarian statelet in the North East of Ireland in the first place.

In 19f1 nobody had ever heard of a six county Ulster.

Ulster was a traditional grouping of nine counties-in which the population divided into 886,000 Protestants and 690,000 Catholics.

Five of the nine counties had a Catholic majority; and in 1913 representation at Westminster gave the advocates of Home Rule 17 MPs as against 16 Unionists.

Industries

In the remainder of Ireland there were only 250,000 Protestants compared to million Catholics.

But the major industries were focussed largely in the North East of Ireland: the capitalist owners wished to retain their links with Britain and thus access to the extended markets of the British Empire.

The British capitalists in turn wanted the support of Unionist MPs in the face of the growing Labour representation in Parliament.

But as the struggle for Home Rule developed to a new intensity, the Liberals promised Home Rule-in a bid to secure the support of Irish nationalist MPs.

Once the Home Rule Bill was passed in the House of • Commons in 1914 the campaign by Tories and Unionists to block Irish independence was niceties of Parliamentary demo- forced to Ily in the tace of the cracy.

Bonar Law declared:

"There are things stronger than parliamentary 'majorities."

He denounced the "tyranny of Parliament" as being worse than the tyranny of Kings.

In March 1914 Carson, the Unionist leader, rejected Home Rule. He announced he would lead armed resistance to the new law!

This was no empty rhetoric: An "Ulster Volunteer Force" was formed, with 8,000 armed men-to defy the rule of law.

The UVF however drew funds and support from the British capitalist class and "patriots" such as Rudyard Kipling. It was trained by British army officers, and set up an office at Belfast Town Hall!

These well-placed criminals and opponents of democracy did not have to rely on their own strength alone: they were able to count on the brazen support of the officers of the British army-who refused to obey orders to repress the UVF.

This combination of extraParliamentary struggle, armed force and army mutiny served to force the Liberal government to back down. The Home Rule Act was suspended as soon as it had been passed in September 1914.

In the wake of this retreat by the British government, frustrated republicans attempted a military onslaught on British rule in the midst of the war-the Easter Rising of 1916.

The Rising was a failure-but he wave of nationalist feeling continued to develop despite repression and the execution of its leaders.

In the 1918 elections, 79 out of 105 Irish seats went to the advocates of Home Rule: 73 to Sinn Fein and six to the United Irish League.

But as the Sinn Fein MPs took steps to implement their election pledge-to boycott pendent assemn Diy in Dublin the British imperialists who would not touch the Loyalists, without hesitation moved in to obstruct the nationalists.

Black and Tans

The notorious Black and Tans were unleashed on the Irish people to leave a trail of blood and fear across the landwhile the Irish Republican Army fought back.

Faced by an escalation of the war, and the beginning of a "troops out" campaign in Britain, led by the then revolutionary • Communist Party and by the Labour Party, Lloyd George changed course and offered partition as a "compromise" soluton.

Home Rule would thus be granted to all of Ireland except for six of the nine counties of Ulster, in which the bulk of British capitalist holdings were Rampaging British troops concentrated.

A treaty elaborating this, arrangement was signed in December 1921-and narrowly endorsed in the Dublin Dail by 64, votes to 57.

Those republicans who fought this sell-out were quickly crushed by the combined forces of the pro-treatyites, the British army and the Loyalists.

Many of the featúres that today mark out the six-county sectarian statelet were quickly established. The gangsters of the UVF received the seal of approval and were made the backbone of the new Special Constabulary.

The 1921 elections saw savage intimidation of antiUnionist candidates.

And in 1922 the Special Powers Act was brought inallowing the police to arrest and search: without warrant, denying the right to trial by jury, banning certain newspapers, and prohibiting inquests into the deaths of prisoners.

Police Terror angrily demanded to know: "When will the Protestant From the very outset, there- employers of Northern Ireland fore, the six county statelet has recognise their duty to their rested openly on police/military Protestant brothers and sisters terror aimed against the substan- and emplo! them to the tial Catholic minority. exclusion of Roman Catholics.

In areas where the Loyalists It is time they realised that were clearly in a minority gerry- whenever a Roman Catholic is mandering and discriminating brought into their employment legislation was used to deny it means one Protestant vote Catholics a voice.

The Unionist leaders went to With such conscious sectarconsiderable lengths to prevent ian agitation driving a wedge Protestant workers lining up between Protestant and Catholic with their Catholic brothers and workers, the rudimentary step sisters in anti-capitalist struggles. towards working class unity Large-scale non-sectarian against the employers were demonstrations against unem- halted. And while the nationalployment in the 1930s were ist movement remained active. met by . selective and brutal with periodic outbursts of attacks by the RUC on Catholic military or political a treman ted ghetto areas, while Loyalist balance forces remained demagogues denounced the fundamentally unchanged until demonstrations as an IRA plot. the emergence of an increasingly The Ulster Protestant League profound economic crisis in the issued a statement declaring early 1960s. that: The traditional industries of "These unfortunate condi- the SIX counties had fallen tions were used as a cloak by behind on a world scale. New the Communist Sinn Fein ele- capital investment was needed ments to attempt to start a and new industries. revolution in the province. We In 1964 the new Prime also greatly deplore that some Minister Terence O'Neill began few of our loyal Protestant to implement a more planned unemployed were misled to economic strategy designed to such an extent that they associa- attract foreign capital. ted themselves with the enemies But as he did so, he was of of their faith and principles." course also diluting the strength And Sir John Davidson of the Protestant economic domination and therefore also weakening their political control in the six counties.

Multi-national firms failed to follow the old established pattern of discrimination -and O'Neill even went so far as to hold talks with the government in the so-called 'Free State' in the South, and eventually embrace the ultimate Loyalist heresy -'one man, one vote' In opposition to these changes there emerged a new hardline current of Loyalists headed by lan Paisley and dedicated to preserving and reinforcing sectarian divisions in the North and the privileges enjoyed by the Protestant working class.

Attacks on schools

There were vicious attacks on Catholic schools and shops, assassinations, and Loyalist marches were provocatively routed through nationalist areas.

But at the same time the Catholic minority were organising to fight for their rights. The Civil Rights movement organised huge protest marches -each of which was violently attacked by RUC and B' Specials.

As the pacifist politics of the Civil Rights movement led simply to increased Loyalist

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SIUFTULLON

Loyalist workers march in protest at plans for Catholic housin; nationalist resistance of the abolished the special category IRA. status for republican prisoners RS 8 YEI 0. HAGAN; DEVLIN Wednesday HE at the background to the an prisoners in Long Kesh in their fourth week. violence against the minority licans. so support grew for the armed Repress Catholics It was only when the "Battle of the Bogside" in 1969 had proven the ability of the nationalist forces to hold their own against an onslaught of the 'B' Specials that the British Labour government dispatched troops "to "restore law and order" by repressing the Catholic community.

The repression grew year by year.

In 1971, under the Tory government, came the internment of republican "suspects". It subsequently emerged that internees had been cruelly tortured.

In January 1972 came the cold blooded massacre of 13 unarmed civilians by British paratroopers-'Bloody Sunday'.

In March 1972 Stormont was suspended and direct rule brought in.

Juries abolished

, In July 1973 came a new spate of . repressive laws embodied in Heath's Emergency Provisions Act. This abolished jury trials for republicans; placed stringent conditions on bail: admitted hearsay evidence and confessions even if these arrest; and placed the onus of Droof onto the accused charged with possessing weapons.

The half-hearted efforts by Heath at establishing a non-sectarian Consultative Assembly through the Sunningdale talks collapsed within months, as the Loyalists in May 1974 staged a najor strike demanding Sunningdale be scrapped.

Once again the army-so ready and eager to crush repubican resistance-stood back and illowed the Loyalists to flout the authority of the "direct rulers" in London.

Intimidation

Indeed 1974 also saw the abour government scramble rough the "Prevention of errorism" Act-designed as an timidation and informationthering exercise against repubNovember 27, 1980.

UDA gunmen on the streets And in 1976 the Labourites of war in a desperate bid to brand them simply as criminal "men of violence" • Yet in the same year Roy Mason admitted dispatching undercover hit squads of SAS thugs to carry out their work of assassination and intimidation the six counties-and in the South.

Indeed those who today fight to rid Ireland of the British army of occupation face the same lethal alliance as those who fought the treaty in 1921.

They are up against the British military machine, the Loyalists, and the Green Tories Haughey's Fianna Fail government, who have collaborated down the line with the British repressing the republican movement.

the South republicans race a barrage of special powers arrest, torture, and no-jur courts.

In the six counties the various strands of legislation have combined to form what is termed the "H Block conveyor belt"-in which republicans are snatched on the streets, taken to interrogation centres, held on prolonged remand or tortured to extract "confessions", hauled before a anjury "Diplock" court, summarily despatched to Long Kesh.

Framed up

Since many are brazenly framed up in this process and others have been victimised solely for their struggle against imperialism, the Long Kesh prisoners-supported now by the women of Armagh Gaolhave fought back against attempts to portray them as criminals.

They have used the only means at their disposal-noncooperation.

They have refused to wear prison uniform or to do prison work. They have demanded the right to free assocation with their fellow political prisoners, the right to organise their own recreational and education facilities and to receive one visit, one letter and one parcel per week; and the right to full remission of sentences.

These demands are consistent with the recognition of the republican prisoners as political prisoners, jailed for their role in the war against British imperialism.

And if their tactics in pursuing these demands seem self-destructive, it is worth considering what other options are open to prisoners to vent their anger and express their refusal to capitulate to imperialism.

Should we expect them simply to submit to brutality, to attempts to brand them as common criminals, to the very forces they have fought to drive out of their country?

The prisoners have a right to the solidarity of the British labour movement in their struggle. It is after all our ruling class that is repressing them and the Irish people as a whole-in our name.

And of course this same ruling class is also oppressing us as workers in Britain. We should be shoulder to shoulder with the Irish militants in the battle to defeat a common enemy-the British capitalist class.

Little support

But what solidarity have the Irish prisoners received? Until the hunger strikes were announced there was next to no' support from any section of the British labour movement. The 'H' Blocks of Long Kesh LAN estate A Sinn Fein national demonstration in support of the Long Kesh prisoners last year revealed a vivid contrast between the readiness of trade union and Labour leaders to denounce imperialism in distant parts of the world, and their refusal to attack the barbaric behaviour of their own ruling class in Chile Solidarity Two weeks before the Irish demonstration, some 25,000 socialists and trade unionists leaded by almost the whol IGWU leadership and leading igures from the Communist anc Labour Parties joined a Chile Solidarity Campaign demonstration..

Yet the demonstration to support the heroic "blanket" protest at Long Kesh was attended by a mere 600 people -with not a single Labour MP I untor official sight All of a sudden, however, the Hunger Strike has drawn forth a list of signatures to a petition endorsing the prisoners' five demands Tony Benn, Lawrence Daly (NUM), Alan Sapper (ACTT), Bob Wright (AUEW), and Ron Todd (TGWU) have added their names-along with Communist Party members Mick McGahey (NUM), Ron Halverson (AUEW Executive), Kevin Halpin (LCDTU) and CP General Secretary Gordon McLennan.

We should welcome the growth of support for the prisoners' fight: but the prisoners have been fighting now for PoW status for four years! Where have these big names been during that time?

Maybe now they feel that the likely death of Irish prisoners on hunger strike is something they would prefer not to have on their consciences: but why have they not lifted a finger up till now to campaign for solidarity with the Irish liberation struggle?

Why did they not mobilise support for the November 15 national demonstration on Ireland-which was attended by only 2,000 people and almost entirely bare of trade union and Labour Party banners.

If Tony Benn, Lawrence Daly and Ron Todd had taken up a fight three years, two years or even one year ago to raise the issue of Ireland in the labour movement, there is a chance that a substantial 'troops out' current could have been created -and seven brave men might not be dying in Long Kesh.

Mason Indeed the response from constituency delegates at this year's Labour Party conference indicates that there is potential rank and file support for a policy of withdrawing British troops from Ireland and self-determination for the Irish peoplê.

Yet most union leaders and right wing MPs-seeking only piecemeal reforms from the British capitalist class-stand four-square alongside the imperialists in their repression the Irish working class.

There is an effective gag on discussing Ireland in the labour KUDON BOSCO DOHERTY Sinn Fein marchers movement-most vividly expressed in the TUC decision to disaffiliate Tameside Trades Council for the "crime" of calling a conference on Ireland!

Those who raise the demands for troops out and oppose imperialist iepression in Ireland can find themselves witch-hunted not only by right wing bureaucrats and Labourites -but even by the Communist Party, whose "peaceful road to socialism" leads its members to demand only a 'Bill of Rights' and "A Better Life for All"

within the sectarian Orange statelet!

The fight to defend and support the hunger strikers requires that British socialists build wide support in the working class-and thus fight all of those elements that effectively side with British imperialism.

The Irish republican prisoners are "guilty" only of taking up arms to defend themselves and the Catholic minority against criminals-against the sectarian violence of the Loyalists and the uniformed thugs of the British army, RUC and UDR.

Theirs is a political struggle, a war of liberation-dealt with by imperialism in political and military fashion. The republican prisoners are prisoners of war.

Their demand for appropriate status is entirely legitimate.

The Irish people have the right to fight, arms in hand, to drive the foreign army of British imperialisin out of their country.

And the British working class has a duty, an obligation, to support them in this task -by any and every means at our disposal Wrong tactics We may feel-as Socialist Press has repeatedly arguedthat the tactics employed and the political programme embraced by the republican movement are fundamentally mistaken, and even counterproductive, in that they head away from the mobilisation of the masses against imperialism.

We are not obliged therefore to give uncritical support to every action: but we are obliged unconditionally to defend the republican movement against the repression of British imperialism.

Socialist Press and' the Workers Socialist League fight for the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Ireland to allow the Irish people the basic right of self determination.

In this fight we have a particular obligation to those men and women who are placing their very lives on the line. Around the hunger strike we must build a campaign of mass solidarity.

Emergency resolutions This means turning into the trade union and labour movement in the next few weeks, lobbying and raising emergency resolutions of support for the hunger strikers.

The Labour Party NEC, formally pledged to support the prisoners' five demands, must be called upon to mount a campaign. Todd, McGahey, Daly and Wright as well as Benn must be called upon to come out into the open and fight to mobilise trade union support.

In the next two weeks maximum delegations must be built to participate in the national demonstration in London on December 7.

And in building for this demonstration we must look also towards the possibility of mobilising solidarity strike action to support the hunger strikers.

The situation doesn't give us a lot of time to make up for decades of silence and collaboration on Ireland in the British labour movement. The hunger strikers could be dead by Christmas It is up to us to develop the anti-Tory, anti-war feeling that Is emerging now in sections of the workers' movement and link this to the fight for troops out of Ireland.

If we don't do this, then we too play a role in leaving the hunger strikers to die.

And if that sorry event is allowed to come about, it will be seven more martyrs to the Irish struggle-while the criminals remain alive!

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Page 8 SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 26 November 1980 general strike action nationally, if they are to save their unions.

This, of course, terrifies the Kirklands and others who have made a career of open collaboration with the capitalists and

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concentration camp in the six counties of Ireland. And

JOE RekIERAN 18 YEARS

PATRICK 6 YEARS