MILITARY RULE courageously IN N. IRELAND

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units arots of the Sarta daingates rectiag at Poribspecially trained in stree cawl last Wedoesday (August fichting and in arresta 1 a ten lam 20)-turied doms a reconcall n trans by force, has been com arrested orde rendation from the South pleted. can be for up te three Walex executive of the - 1- In tara Waltog. with tee without charge. National Union of Minefull support Tory places of mark and starty. warkers for a strike against Farty, bas Fall chsure the Avoa ter colliery at Blagwynt, always securty dections to Grann Glamorgan troope Frectand intrats and Fobowing their Augus 12 African dachion to mandasend strike dere acticet to tac slip in dee six consties for caniey sogolka Arraut. unoffcial end the 13,000 MP. to Callaghan to 'take orei росі сіж açn inrolted woold lure lad cateret: fearth international and Czechoslovakia Di counter-revolutica Bost march. the "Star" of Aut- id it stavish apotogists in the interrurtional Stalin Did tra setary br which actatist fores. dee Creco it of them crinke showing them that it was not their houses or jobs that Catholic workers wanted, but more jobs and more houses.

Physical attacks The failure to develop such a programme allowed the right wing of the Unionist party to depict the Civil Rights movement as an antiProtestant republican conspiracy.

These elements organised physical attacks on Civil Rights demonstrations-most notably on the march organised by People's Democracy (a loose grouping of students at Queens University) from Belfast to Derry on January 4 1969 at Burntollett.

The several hundred marchers were ambushed by a large gang of Loyalists, among whom RUC men and 'B' Specials mingled amiably.

The confusion among the left wing about how to react to these attacks emerged graphically when Michael Farrell, one of the PD leaders, at a meeting in the Guildhall Square called for a United Nations Peace-keeping Force!

The beginnings of an alternative to this insane reliance on the bourgeois state was to emerge the next day. In response to an attack on the Catholic Bogside area of Derry by drunken RUC men the previous evening, the people of Creggan and Bogside barricaded the area and established a "vigilante" force to defend it.

Although this organisation was inadequate even in its more developed form o: The Bogside Defence Associatior' in the August riots 0i ago. i. provided the tass 10: * establishment of waters defence guards.

These bodies devices : strong measure of ions over services and detence within the Catholic area.

Isolated

But the tailure of the icit wing of these bodies, notably the Derry Labour Party Young Socialists led by Lamere Melann, to develop See or ralsing their =:. ==:: Protestant and British troops was a decisive test for all left-wing tendencies both in Ireland and Britain.

The reaction of the Bogside Catholics to the arrival of troops was one of relief at the removal of the immediate danger.

The leaderships of the Derry LPYS and PD equivocated in the face of this confused response.

While they claimed to recognise the role of this imperialist force, they refused to act on this understanding by demanding their immediate and unconditional withdrawal.

Somersaults

They lamely engaged in producing posters such as "Remember what the barricades keep out" referring to the RUC, implying some qualitative contrast between the RUC and the British Army in favour of the latter.

However this bowing to the spontaneous consciousness of the Catholic working class by the Irish groups became somersaults on the other side of the Irish Sea.

The International Marxist Group aped the ambivalent attitude of the Irish left.

Its paper, Black Dwarf, on August 30, 1969 sagely advised the Catholic working class:

"Don't rely on the troops to disarm the B-Specials"

The British army was treated not as the imperialists of Aden, Cyprus and Kenya, but in the same way as a he 'exposed, which needed to The working class of Northern Ireland would supposedly have to wait for experience to teach them the :e3 nature of the British The IMG certainly weren't going is tell them. The article actuals states this:

"Bogside as well as Belfast will learn that real independence does not come in the form of British troops.

The International Socialism group inow the SuPi in their usual slavish response to the existing consciousness of the masses refused to even auopt the equivocal IMG slanie. A military policeman watches a parade.

constant statement of general policy called 'Where We Stand"

Before August 1969, its section on Imperialism read:

"The Labour Movement must demand the immediate recall of British Troops from abroad as the first step towards ending colonial exploitation"

Cathal Goulding But after August 1 969 the 'Where We column read:

"Opposition to imperialism and support for all movements of National Liberation"

This change, explained neither at the time nor since, reveals the deep-going opportunism of this group, which starts from the moods and confusion within the working class rather than workers' objective needs.

The Socialist Labour League (fore-runner of the Workers Revolutionary Party) correctly saw the use of troops by Britain as the prelude to increased repression The Anglo-centric orientation of the British SLL leadership . prevented the development of such a programme for the Irish situation by their wholesale export of the positions of the British organisation.

The August 12-14 situation also precipitated a severe crisis within the Republican movement.

Their orientation after the defeat of the 1956-62 campaign had been under the influence of British Stalinists to concentrate on economic and social issues.

Stageist

Under the leadership of Cathal Goulding, the IRA had adopted a stageist conception of 'first' reforming the Northern State and 'then' fighting for national independence.

Their turn to reformism had driven the hard-line nationalists opposed to any politics-particularly a leftwing variety-out of the movement.

Even within their ranks dissension at the political turn existed. The August 1969 situation brought this conflict to a head.

Vindication

The inability of the IRA to defend the Catholic areas, particularly in Belfast where two Catholic streets had been burned down, seemed to be a vindication of the views of that section who favoured a purely military approach to the national question.

This section found support in an unexpected areaamong three Fianna Fail ministers in the Southern government, Blaney, Haughey and Boland.

These right wing landTHE ULSTER ernie is litary i In ite dontortal ili Mplate column. al with intervention fram ках 1и сненс наст. BY DAYIO tionary periali Tter. MPs tel The International Committee of the Ispared MP :

List movemen. ansociated BONAPARTIST lenggod Mp so 47- ATATEH iosLAy rostos Taa po ta t tan cà popsecsc cumrt SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE Catholic and Protestant workers unitel Withdraw British troops from Uister!

PUBLIC MEETING FRIDAY, AUGUST 28 Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, W. C. 1 Starts 7.30 p.m. 5peakers:

Mike Banda (Editor of The Netshetter) 'lif Slaughter (Cental Computter mcraber of Socialist Labous Leag Chairdam: Shella Torrance (Natlecal Secrecary of Young Socialists) machinating behind tl scenes from 1 early 1969 for split in the IRA.

Financial support

They offered financial support for a separate Northern command, which would drop the left-wing orientation and concentrate on the North.

In December 1969 at the ockert from che CKD tartary barricaded thee West nante irgkon! Et teer Col bor te kadd vne n ț German SIM IH are leo thoud bo gae lenno!

d'amu: o b co End + •TAl SOTO er = Auster porr August WEST GERMAN'S aro Nad Notionel Draacratt unemploymert Party (NPD) * Fow erins sen Sestemenr Committe t" October nan ocarl sercap-arme squads spatast highest ARLES polítical oppascat Ther • serer way that Fitier'a Nevis ! since war did.

a notteco of cae ol o THIS MONTH'S omen aad e boll a Oscar Spurs abar Britsa empi.

Ipn ne Frankiest mall on ilse roe to scribed, traa Pula ustry muse te placed curaplenel sabena l0 war: voto Workers' counsils 1017. They. use batoero and : Hecaed mich me pamt o 4 work my top helmers and other protectira a har roet ds dele ne Ohn Hint fo sintn Hatore at theet pubhe rellics ! Mr oat i : cotal talos h sanno.t 1be Fourtb ArR nanS AmnA Al che Friskfur • Fre Naome dade / vorkens, rulo de biesl [aternatione) demarrtron loo the Duocab :

witb ithirtoen 1FI1Nr E bur froup aw cert minto tor te list tiche in MORE VIOLENCE trito MEDWAY TOWNS per cent of Ibe Shuraday. Ageer Zd, d put ee oa la tac irai ,ta sanaas or saone of iot PsILC roud probably casure The Gronde lule sr: det : Bbe NeDs electie a dire Weddesday Auxes 27, 5 poe procesbes DAGENHAM Panor Wemer Ill ran HILLESDEN werk ennorad fir " ua " - dangerous sage. A was. le a the Somma the neion's sadonal against IRA army convention the militarist section walked out in protest against the proposal to end abstention in the elections to Stormont, the Dail and Westminster.

The dissenters formed the Provisional Army Council of the IRA under the leadership of Sean MacStiofain.

"Choice"

A similar split occurred in the Sinn Fein, the political wing of the movement.

The split was in no way a principled one.

The "choice" was merely between a bankrupt Stalinoid reformism and straightforward nationalist, anti-communist militarism.

Neither wing offered the revolutionary leadership necessary to imperial- defeat ism in Ireland Concluded next edition

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dom and equality-at this level the dictatorship of the proletariat was merely accomplishing the democratic tasks of the bourgeois revolution.

Sexual oppression and the distortion of sexuality are inherent in all forms of class society.

They can be abolished finally only by a development of the productive forces sufficient to end universal want, and allow the develop-

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