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March and Rallv-Saturdav Anril 25 and forcing the winarawal ucieganuns anu ravuur muveof British troops from the ment banners on the six counties. national demonstration Bobby Sands has not got called by the National H long to live. Action in his Block/Armagh Committee ialism is already long over- and publicity campaigns to due. break the wall of silence and If we do not as socialists distortion that surrounds the take up this fight with hunger strikes and blanket Mass support for the hunger strikers in the six counties PR The Honourable Member of Parliament for Fermanagh/South Tyrone could well be dead before the end of the month.

And if he dies, the leaders of the British labour movement will bear a heavy responsibility.

Bobby Sands, 42 days on hunger strike, drew Over 30,000 votes from the nationalist people of Fermanagh to win last Thursday's by election.

Those votes were votes against Loyalist candidate Harry West; and against imperialist rule.

They were therefore also votes against the Thatcher government, and against those British Labour and trade union leaders who continue through their *bipartisan" policy to support that government in its policies of military repression in the six counties of Ireland.

Indeed for the whole period of Bobby Sands' hunger strike prior to the election the British labour bureaucracy willingly collaborated in the conspiracy of silence that had blacked out media coverage.

The only exceptions had been a few witch-hunting speeches designed to isolate both the hunger strikers and any militants that might campaign for their support in the British workers' movement.

Typical was the reactionary speech from Labour's Northern Ireland spokesman Don Concannon only hours before voters went to the polls in Fermanagh.

"A vote for Sands means approval for the perpetrators of the Mountbatten and Warrenpoint murders and all the other senseless murders that have taken place over the years, including the latest brutal and inhuman killing of Mrs Mathers, the census enumerator."

The fact is that the vote for Sands was, as the recording officer was forced to declare, a vote for a candidate standing quite clearly as a republican "Anti H Block/ Armagh Political Prisoner".

Recognition

As such it was a vote for political status for Bobby Sands and other political prisoners-a demand which the Labour leadership have consistently opposed.

It was a recognition that the sometimes violent struggle by the republican movement to liberate Ireland from imperialist rule is more acceptable than the daily violence of the vicious sectarian state machine and the British army which maintain the oppression of the Catholic minority in the North.

It is for this reason that Sands' victory came as such a heavy blow to the Thatcher government and its Loyalist hangers-on.. They had attempted in several ways to minimise the republican vote by:

*The cynical murder of Mrs Mathers, the census enumerator only hours before the election. This killing, immediately denied by the IRA, was plainly a provocation designed to frighten nationalist voters out of backing Bobby Sands.

*Placing restrictions on press coverage of Sands' campaign -refusing him the right to speak direct to the press from his hospital bed in Long Kesh.

*Persistent police harassment of Sands' campaign workers canvassing the constituency -confiscating publicity material and arresting supporters only to dump them on isolated stretches of road.

Despite this filthy campaign of sabotage, imperialism suffered a severe jolt in the election.

The demand for political status has been shown to carry mass support in the six counties.

It should -after six weeks of Bobby Sands' hunger strike-by now also long ringing loud and long throughout the British labour movement.

But rather than support Bobby Sands, his fellow hunger strikers, the republican prisoners on the blanket in Long Kesh and Armagh Jail, and the oppressed Catholic minority, the labour bureaucracy have nailed their colours to the mast of support for the Tory government, the British armed forces and the sectarian statelet with its police and paramilitary apparatus.

Witch-hunts

Anyone who seeks to challenge this stance in the unions or the Labour Party must not only persuade their workmates or fellow socialists but also run the gauntlet of savage witch-hunts from right wingers, fake lefts and even Communist Party members.

Yet the fact is that by challenging and weakening British imperialism, the republican movement is at the same time sapping the strength of the Thatcher government which is so savagely attacking the British working class.

We are figh ting a common enemy. British workers have not only a moral duty but a direct interest in giving material assistance and solidarity to the anti-imperialist struggle in Ireland, in securing the defeat of 'the British army, 11 -paign against British imperof the election, then the blood of Bobby Sands' d eath will not simply be on the hands of the Tories and Labour bureaucrats: it will be on our hands too.

*Move resolutions in your union and Labour Party pledging full support for the hunger strikers and their demand for political status!

*Mobilise the maximum dolanatione and lahaur mara.

*Mobilise pickets, lobbies Brixton did not experience race riots last Saturday and Sunday. White youth fought the police side by side with blacks, who were in the majority.

For the most part, white people went unmolested.

It was an explosion of anger against the policeand against the rotting and decaying capitalist system the police defend and personify to the youth.

It was a revolt against the racist "forces of law and order" who stalk the streets of Brixton wielding the Sus laws like a club-and wielding ordinary clubs too-in a running war with black youth.

Last year Lambeth Coun cil commissioned a report on police/community relations which painted an alarming picture of the relationship between the police and black youth in the area.

Nothing was done about it. In these affairs nothing ever is. The police are a law unto themselves.

They retain the antidemocratic right to be their own prosecutor, jury and judge as well as being the accused in any investigation into charges against them of gratuitous violence, frame up or racism.

When Blair Peach was beaten to death, the internal police inquiry failed to catch the policeman who murdered him. Naturally.

The police and the media talk of "black paranoia" and say the problem is one of "bad communications"

But it is the black people of Brixton who are the proper judges of their own experience with the police.

The need for the labour movement to assume full responsibility for the interests of the workers and youth of Brixton is urgent.

Socialist Press proposes to the Lambeth labour movement:

*the police should be immediately withdrawn from Brixton.

*black/white labour movement patrols should be set up as community self-policing.

*special provision might have to be made to allow fullest involvement by black community groups.

*The Lambeth labour movement should immediately take steps to start such patrols. They are needed now-and not least against the racist thugs in blue uniforms.

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Speakers include Michael Foot, Ken Gill, Eric Heffer, Alan Sapper, Salvador Moncada (FDR)

Rally-Saturday April 25 2.30 pm at Speakers Corner