'Justice' in the Free State

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I would like to draw to your attention an important legal development within the so-called Irish "Free State"

Following the death sentences passed in 1976 on Noel and Marie Murray the Dublin branch of the Association of Legal Justice issued a statement which stated that the sentence was "particularly reprehensible because it was passed by the Special Criminal Court, a court composed of government-appointed judges naving no judicial independence, which sat without a jury and which so abused the rules of evidence as to make the court akin to a sentencing tribunal."

The Director of Public Prosecutions responded by bringing contempt proceedings against two officers of the Association for "scandalising the court"

Some freedom of speech for a "Free State"! But more was to follow. Since the contempt charge was initiated a legal battle has been raging over the right of Noel and Marie Murray. to have the case tried by a jury.

The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Finlay decided the issue in favour of the DPP and argued (in July 1978) that he was entitled to try the case and impose a penalty without a jury.

The defendants, knowing the way Irish laws are twisted to suit the government were prepared for this so they made sure that their comments on the case would be so graphic and detailed that under the Constitution which allows for trial by jury in serious cases of alleged contempt they must be given a trial by jury.

Even the most law-abiding, brainwashed, "anti-terrorist" jury would throw out the contempt charge when they heard the evidence and the conduct of the Murray case, the suppression of the testimony by vital defence witness R: Stenson who beyond any doubt was so badly tortured by the heavy gang that he was too ill to appear in court.

Recently the Supreme Court has been considering the appeal from the defendants to be tried by a jury and after a three-day hearing reserved its judgement. At the time of writing, the judges have yet to announce their decision.

If trial by jury is allowed the whole farce of the Murray trial will be laid bare for all the world to see.

Even if the Supreme Court should find a face-saving verdict for the government it will mean that fresh publicity will have been given to the Murray case which the government is desperate to keep in the past.

I feel confident that the Supreme Court won't dare to trample underfoot all legal justice in Ireland.

But, of course, if necessary the government can use the Act passed by De Valera in 1936 (when he believed that all the judges and clergy were fascists and he feared a coup by Duffy and his followers) altering the Constitution so that the government when it so desired could throw out the Supreme Court decision, remove the judges and replace them with more reliable, handpicked 'yes' men.

I don't think that Charlie Haughey, noted for being a contortionist, can work his way out of this one.

I would be very grateful it all leading pro-justice for Ireland papers at home and abroad would reprint this letter because it might make people more conscious of the real face of justice in the "Free" State which I would say was no better than Franco's Spain.

Yours, Willie Moloney Coventry Haughey see military repression as the one sure way of preserving their system of exploitation and private profit.

The capitalists wish to ensure that the underdeveloped economies remain dependent upon the capitalist world market-providing them with cheap raw materials and sweated labour, at the expense of chronic poverty and political repression for their own . And the capitalists wish to preserve iner investments and political authority by propping up reactionary dictatorships and In fighting to end this system, workers' natural allies are their class brothers and sisters internationally.

That is why workers must not be neutral on the question of war, or side with their "own" ruling class.

In every instance we must take a stance in opposition to the capitalist class and its agents.

We must fight for unconditional defence of those nationalist movements fighting to throw off the shackles of colonial rule or pro-imperialist dictatorships.

This does not mean of a Middle East oil state, a Central American republic like El Salvador, or the Mobutu dictatorship in Zaire-without in any way supporting the existing capitalist regime in those countries.

We recognise that in the last resort the only way to prevent such action is through action of the working class in the imperialist countries themselves -through strikes, blacking and the fight to organise soldiers into rank and file committees that will oppose the war.

And in the case of a war between two imperialist counat the same time for the political overthrow of the ruling Stalinist bureaucracies.

As Labour and trade union leaders line up in collaboration with British employers in their demands for nationalist import controls and in support for the war in Ireland, it is vital that the voice of internationalism is strongly and consistently raised in the workers' movement.

Only a revolutionary party, equipped with an international programme for the overthrow of capitalism can carry through such a fight.