A Caribbean Ireland?

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150 British troops have been flown out to the tourist-rich colony of Bermuda this weekend, supposedly o keep "order" in the wake of the barbaric execution of two black workers convicted of murder.

Every Irish I worker will know the meaning of such "peace-keeping" activities, of the British imperialist army.

While posing as a 'neutral" force seeking to pacify two "warring camps" , the role of these troops will, as in Ireland' be to ensure _ the continuation of British rule.

And while firemen continue to man picket lines in their bitter confrontation with the 10% pay policy, they too are Increasingly coming to recognise that the army is not a "neutral" force, but a direct, strike-breaking tool of the capitalist class.

Significantly the 150 soldiers sent to Bermuda were diverted at short notice.

They had just completed the rudimentary army "training" in firefighting, and had been about to take up scabbing duties in South West London.

In Bermuda they will be able to use their rifles rather than hose pipes, and will move in to protect Britain's 300-year domination island. The surroundings may be different, but the army's job is essentially the same in both cases. Though two-thirds of the 55,000 population is black, the leading governmental and administrative positions are held by whites, and whitesoften expatriate British-also comprise a majority of the island's vicious police force.

The trade union and labour movement must unite to demand the withdrawal of British troops, and the breakling of the Lib-Lab coalition government that has sent them into action.

IT'S EASY, OLD BOY...

JUST CLOSE YOUR EYES AND THINK OF ULSTER!

FIRE

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SOCIALIȘT PRESS, Wednesday 7 December, 1977 Pa.

In a sharp, abrupt move announced last week, the Dutch-owned Ferenka company has decided to close down its steel cord plant at Annacotty, Co. Limerick, throwing 1,400 workers out of a job.

The ostensible reason for the closure is the dispute at the plant involving 900 members of the Marine Port and General Workers Union (MPGWU), which has cost £1.2 million in lost production in the past seven weeks.

Over two months ago, the men-formerly of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU)switched to the MPGWU in protest at the hidebound conservatism of the ITGWU bureaucracy which has done nothing to protect workers' interests at the plant.

Militant sounding

have now pulled outalthough this decision has prompted an occupation of the plant by the workers on strike, who are determined to keep the factory open.

The correct demands now for the workers involved are for the opening up of all Ferenka's books to reveal its operations in Ireland, and for the uncompensated nationalisation of this multi-national firm.

Predictably, the Ferenka decision to put up the shutters has scared the life out of Jack Lynch's Fianna Fail government, which has grovelled at every opportunity before both national and international capitalism.

Tax-free concessions for companies investing in Ireland, coupled with relatively low wages and government handouts for capital equipment have combined ta ensure that the "adjusted earnings rate of return" in Ireland is the highest in the world-at 29.5%, compared to the world average of 11.7% and the British figure of Such a rate of exploitation is not confined to the south, driving out the occupying army in the north.

That opposition to imperialist exploitation is not just a six counties matter is shown by the Ferenka events; that the working class are willing and capable of fighting such oppression is likewise clear. Both the eight year old opposition to the army, and the eight week old strike and occupation in i Co. Limerick are eloquent testimony to that. -all of which are p rfectly supportable but which remain a dead letter as far as this pseudo-Trotskyist With Australia's general election now just a few days away (to be held on December 10), it seems likely that Gough Whitlam's Australian Labour Party will secure a narrow victory over the conservative Liberal Party which currently shares office with the Country Party.

This outcome will be something of a surprise, since Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser had called the elections confident that his party would romp home.

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to lost who rules election?