Unfree Citizen: Vol. 4 no. 2, 14 October 1974

Vol.«} No.2,-5p. Fay a 32Co. Workers’ and Small Farmers’ Republic 14th October 1974

SECTARIAN ©

KILLINGS

DEFEND

CATHOLIC

~T

Tanks in the streets a as eSpitola ¢ Stages the coup in Portugal earlier this year

~ PORTUGESE STRUGGLE

HAS A LESSON FOR IRELAND

Last week ‘Unfree Citizen’ carried an article on the sericusness of overproduction by the world’s capitalist states. For us here in Ireland this should be an encouraging sign — for one of the countries going to be hit hardest by it is Britain. British capitalism, after centuries of exploitation and murder all over the world, has carried oppression and went so far ih its own homeland that it is now locked in battle with its own working class.

The National Question in Ireland * plays a major part in this. Firstly, Northern Ireland is now being used by British business interests for the revival of Fascism and right wing movements — look at how the fascist National Front have attached themselves on to the Ulster Loyalist$ to get support for some of their bigger demonstrations. And secondly, the anti-Unionist opposition to British military and political might has weakened Britain’s confidence in its ability to crush either the Irish people or even their own working class.

They are weakened and divided at a time when the struggle is reaching a climax. Looking at this situation we can learn a lot from the events in Portugal and her African colonies.

A freedom struggle has been going on in these colonies for many years.

The people in them were much poorer and weaker than we have been in Ireland. They had no chance of defeating a well-equipped Portuguese army backed by a Fascist government in Portugal in an open battle (an army and government which used mass murder to maintain their rule).

But in a mass war.of attrition the people of the Colonies not only defeated the Portugese army, but also brought down the fascist state that had ruled Portugal without allowing any opposition for fifty years.

The Press has been quick to try and hide this. General Spinola was put forward as a ‘hero and lover of freedom’ who had ‘saved’ Portugal.

But Spinola is an extreme right winger. He was responsible for the operation of the policy of mass murder in the colonies in Africa!

His pleasant face has only been shown since he has been defeated. However his admission of defeat has set free forces in Portugal that he has not been able to control. CH

IN REVOLUTION

Class struggle is intensifying Members of the armed forces support socialism. The working class demonstrated in the streets and British, German and American factory owners are howling in protest as the underpaid wage slaves of yesterday demand a living wage today.

In an attempt to end this Spinola last week tried a Coup. His appeals for support from the ‘silent majority’ failed, and instead the Left wing in the army seized control. The way in Portugal is now open for greater democracy and for even greater freedom of the Portugese working class. This is a lesson worth learning.

We have never been able to beat the military might of the British in open battle, but in both the military struggle and in the mass street demonstrations the British have lost the will to win. Like the Portugese government they are now beginning to get the backlash from their own misdeeds. It is up to =socialists to use this advantage to press forward in the struggle — on both sides of the border. Che guevara, Argentinian revolutionary, who conquered in Cuba and died in Bolivia was killed on October 9th 1969, at a time when struggle was only beginning in Ireland. But who was the Che Guevera we see all the time on posters and tee-shirts in nearly every European and American city? What did he represent?

The imperialists would have us believe that he was an eccentric romantic go-gooder. They deliberately cloud the fact that he was one of the most articulate and committed revolutionaries in Latin America. He represented the oppressed peoples of that continent and indeed voiced the feelings and plight of these people to the world. Far from being a pseudorevolutionary, like some groups today who preach socialism but when it comes

BACK ON

THE MAP

WORLD NEWS ™

cia Pe Bolin Since the long overdue retirement of Richard Milhouse Nixon as President of the United States a remarkable change has come over US/Cuba relationships.

Since the Cuba revolution which began to lay the basis for socialism the attitude of the U.S. has been totally hostile: Besides a total boycott of trade with Cuba, the USA persuaded the organisation of American States (0.A.S, an economic grouping of reactionary S. American governments) to impose an economic blockade on Cuba. Only for its trade with the U:S.S.R. Cuba would be immeasurably weaker economically than she is now.

The new Ford administration recognises that the era of cold-war politics is dead, that Cuba poses no major threat to the U.S.A. given the U.S.S.R. attitude of peaceful co-existence and so having learnt lessons from its defeat in Vietnam is developing a new strategy towards socialist bloc countries.

Visas have been issued to two senators to go and visit Cuba, Mr. Jacob Javits and Clairborne Pell and with them went the American Press. The visit clearly should end the secret attempts by the C.I.A. to assassinate Castro and end the struggle for socialism in Cuba. They are a recognition that the USA suffered a massive defeat when the Cuban revolution took place, a defeat it now admits as it begins to normalise relations within Cuba. The British have indicated that they are willing to hand over power to the Loyalists. But almost daily they are becoming more and more confused and the economic crisis at home is increasing their feeling of defeat. Increased resistance from Irish Socialists and Republicans, and from the British left-wing organisations could lead to their complete collapse, and to that of their Orange puppets.

The mass unity needed for this is great and the dangers and threats which will arise are many, but the lesson of what happened in Portugal shows how the Imperialists can be defeated and how our goal of a Workers’ and Small Farmers’ Republic can be brought closer.

E GUEVARA: LIFE AND DEATH

ARY STRUGGLE

to the crunch disappear back to their armchairs. Guevara bitterly opposed and resented this. He was born into a well-to-do family in Buenos Aires in Argentina, but rejected this background to oppose the landlords and capitalist class there. He was inflicted from an early age with chronic asthma yet he pulled up his roots on qualifying as a doctor to travel Latain America helping the poor. He arrived in Guatemala in 1955 and it was then in the midst of political upheavals following the nationalising of the United Fruit Company, a monopoly eontrolled by American Nelson Rockefeller, now vice-president of the United States. The U.S. had opposed the nationalisation plan and had sent in the CIA to create civil strife in order to Continued on Back Page

GARDA ATTACK BRINGS HUGE SUPPORT —

— __FOK PRISONERS’ DEMONSTRATION

; J ~“s : oat ony > k, « se 4, LCRA ahd wi : “ee le PENAN Sate, : el

\3 ACCES | 7"

7 T Q vs * O Last Saturday the Irish Civil Rights Association in Dublin organised a picket and sit-down protest in support of prisoners demands for better conditions and food parcels in 26 Co. jails and also calling for the release of Joe: Cahill who is seriously ill in Portlaoise. The protesters had barely sat down on the road when the Gardai moved in without uttering a word and removed the people from the road with the full force of ‘their’ law — the boot and fist.

The Gardai however were reckoning without the ordinary shoppers and workers in O’Connell Street where the demonstration was held. Within seconds hundreds of people were out on the road supporting the demonstration and attacking the brutal behaviour of the Gardai. They stopped the | traffic for nearly half-an-hour in support of the prisoners.

iti is becoming more and more obvious thatthe people in the 26 Counties are getting sicker of the.Collaborating Cosgrave/O’Brien regime and its police state. Last Saturday’s show of solidarity from ofdinary people was an indication that people are prepared to take action in support of the Struggle ' in the North and against repression in the South.

fi (Our photographs show P.D. member Marie Mac-Mahon being lifted by the hair from the road and the big picture shows the Dublin shoppers blocking the. road in support of the demonstration) | q

LIST CANDIDATE

FOR SOUTH DOWN

_ POWELL: "*™"

In an interview on the R.T.E. | programme “This Week” last Sunday, Enoch Powell, ex-brigidier, ex-professor of the classics, ex-British Conservative and the most recent political immigrant to Ireland, nailed | his colours firmly to the mast by saying that.there must be total victory for the majority in the North and if the anti-Unionist minority do not like it, then they can lump it or get out!

Powell who made his name in British politics by making no bones about his attitude to coloured immigrants in Britain and endeared himself to racists and fascist organisations like the National Front with speeches such as the ‘‘Rivers of blood’’ one he made a couple of year back. Now seeing himself as a latter day Randolph Churchill or Edward Carson come to play the Orange Card and save Ireland for the Union, he has endeared himself to the fascist right-wing in the North with his latest ‘‘non-nonsense”’ revelation about total victory to the Loyalists.

(In fact it has already endeared him to the greatest political acrobat bar non, Roy Bradford; who came out at the last minute to back William Craig in East Belfast — quite a.

somersault for the bould Roy whose gymnastics on the question of Power-Sharing and a United Ireland would have earned him an Olympic Gold Medal any day of the week).

Nothing new from Powell Powell’s speech told us nothing new.

about himself — He is a racialist, anti-trade union, anti-working class and the foremost spokesman for the reactionary right-wing in Britain.

His sole function in coming over here is to use the Loyalist vote as the base for his come-back in Westminster either outside or inside a more right-wing Conservative Party. What he has done for the Loyalists is to give the lead and to make respectable the political objectives of the fascist murdeér-gangs and the Loyalist right-wing. As potential leader (for the moment at least) of the united forces of the Loyalists, he obviously sees as his job to provide the intellectual artillery and the ‘‘statemanship” to justify a loyalist total victory in the North. By saying as much and in such blunt terms, he has crystallised the situation where it is now possible for a supposed “liberal’’ Unionist and power-sharing: “stalwart’’ such as Bradford now _ finds himself able to come out behind Bill Craig, the man Whose proud boast is to “shot to kill’. = © All this highlights the role of the 26 Co. government To the anti-Unionist working class this comes as no surprise — to .southern workers it highlights even more just what the collaborationist role of the Dublin Government really signifies for the Catholic minority in the North. What Powell said last Sunday is an echo of Loyalism down the years — another way of saying ‘‘A protestant parliament for a protestant people” What he and Bill Craig and the sectarian murder gangs represent will not go away if we just close our eyes and wish them away ,— they are a living reality for the population of the anti-Unionist.areas. They.

must be faced up to now, — not only in the North but by anti-imperialist workers all over Ireland.

If Powell-and the combined forces of the Loyalist right-wing believe in total victory for what they call the — majority — then they must mean total defeat for the minority, with all that this entails. We have said over the past 6 years that there can be no going back to the days of Stormont rule and: Orange supremacy — to give in to Powell-and his politics would bring us back beyond that, toepre-historic times.

For the secorid time in the last few months the Ri.M.G. paper “The Plough’ has attacked the Peoples Democracy for calling the Loyalist para-military groups Fascist;. In a sneering little piece filled with intellectual snobbery they accuse us of not analysing or defining fascism. In fact we have done so in two series \of articles in the ‘Unfree Citizen’. However, since it is a vitally important concept for the socialist movernent to understand, we will do so again. Capitalist society is divided into 3 main classes, the big bourgeoisie or — employing class, the petty bourgeoisie or lower middle class and the working class. Modern capitalism with its take-over bids, monopolies,

SECTARIAN KILLINGS INCREASE

multi-national companies and the EEC, tends to squeeze out the petty bourgeoisie who are left v.ithout money or power, a disgruntled group.

The basic conflict in society is between the working-class and the employing class who exploit them.

Normally the employers can keep the workers under control by brainwashing half of them through the press and television and using their police and army to put down the other half. But in times of crisis when capitalism is under serious attack the bosses have to turn to the _petty-bourgeoisie for help as well.

That’s where Fascism comes in.

The traditional conservative parties - aretoo identified with the upper class to appeal to. the pettynicola ——

LSLER |

THE THREAT THAT MU

REPUBLICANS A

bourgeoisie who resent and envy the bosses. So they have to turn to crude violent para-military parties who can mobilise the masses of petty officials, shop-keepers, factory managers, foremen, policemen etc., by a combination of racialism or sectarianism with denunciation of capitalism and a pseudo-radical programme. In fact the radicalism quickly disappears if the Fascists get into power while their violent anti-Communism and _pro-imperialism continues. Fascism has a further advantage as well. Its violence, radicalism, demagogery (extravagent oratory) and sheer thuggery attracts the lumpenproletariat: the touts, informers, petty criminals, bully-boys and punch-drunk

CATHOLIC GHETTOS

NEED DEFENCE —

News bulletins-on almost every morning for the last two weeks have carried news of sectarian assassination attempts in Belfast.

NO FEWER THAN TWENTY

ONE SUCH ATTEMPTED

KILLINGS HAVE BEEN

RECORDED IN THE LAST THREE

WEEKS AND FIVE OF THE

VICTIMS SO FAR HAVE DIED.

ALL HAVE BEEN CATHOLICS.

In some of the more gruesome murders the victims were horribly _ tortured — and their bodies sadistically mutilated before they were killed. A doctor’s statement after examining the body of one ‘youth was that “would have taken an abbatoir worker or else someone who works at cutting up bodies to have had the mental resistance to inflict the tortures without getting sick’”’. Evefy election campaign in the last couple of years, every period leading up to major political events, has brought with it its gruesome spate of sectarian killings. Each period of killings has served always as a reminder of the terrible reality of life in the sectarian Northern Ireland State, and each has been ~ claimed as the work of such Loyalist organisations as the Red Hand Commandoes or the U.D.A. organisations based and operating from behind the lines of the Loyalist areas in many parts of Belfast.

These groups have been allowed to operate with the obvious knowledge and consent of the British Army. It needs little speculation from that, that the British are using the Loyalist campaign ‘‘to keep the Catholics in submission’’ for it has always suited them to have a cowed and terrified Catholic community.

CIVIL WAR COMING

Peoples Democracy have been saying for some time now of the imminent danger of Civil War in the North — of another take-over by the Loyalists on the lines of the UWC strike.

Such a seizing of control will be accompanied by massive murder and intimidation of Catholics. The events of the last two weeks, the nature of the killings themselves serve as the grimmest reminder yet that this is going to be how things will happen in the North. We will be faced with a Fascist takeover and the introduction of a state, which would make the old Stormont mild by comparison. 26 Co. WORKERS MUST

PREPARE TO TAKE ACTION

The anti-Unionists of the North can have little faith in the 26 Co.

government to help them — for only last Monday Cosgrave, O’Brien & Cooney, had talks with UDA leaders

LEADERS OF THE VERY

_ MOVEMENT THAT CLAIMED

‘ RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE

DUBLIN AND MONAGHAN

BOMBINGS DURING THE UWC

LOCKOUT LAST MAY, and leaders of the very organisation from bhind whose lines the assassins of the Red Hand Commandos operate.

The workers of the six-Counties must continue to prepare for defence of their areas. But there is little chance of them surviving a Loyalist onslaught unaided — they will depend on the workers of the.

South — NOT on Cosgrave or Cruise O’Brien, but on the republican working class of the 26 Cos. It is the duty of socialists and republicans to organise that support and solidarity now. ex-@oldiers on the fringes of the workimg class. They in turn become »«: its #hock-troops for attacking and breaking up socialist and working class organisations. The upper class despise the Fascist: and only let them seize power as a last resort. But as a crisis approaches they have to let Fascist parties organise, drill and beat up their opponents and the Army and police have to collaborate with them and give them tacit support — exactly what’s happening in Britain at the moment, as the authorities tolerage and protect the National Front.

Thus there are 2 phases in the development of Fascism. In the first the Fascists are out on the streets attacking socialists and denouncing and even clashing with the Govt.

In the second big business and the Government openly back the fascists.

and hand over power to them, as they did in Italy and Germany.

And Fascism in power is a serious ‘business. The para-military thugs are turned into a Govt-armed_.and paid militia to crush all opposition.

Hitler's Brownshirts or stormtroopers became the shock-troops of the S.S.

All the democratic rights — freedom to organise, hold meetings, produce papers — which the working-class have won in a normal capitalist state, ‘are swept aside by Fascism. It took the 2nd World War to get rid of Hitler and Mussolini. Continental and 6 Co. Fascism The parallels between continental fascism and the situation in the 6 Counties are obvious. British .

Imperialism is in a serious crisis in the North. They have tolerated, even: encouraged, the growth of Loyalist para-military organisations (a British officer recently revealed in the Monday Club magazine that the Army had acted mid-wife at the birth of the U.D.A.) and are now conceding their every demand. The U.D.A., — U.V.F., Red Hand, U.F.F. etc. with their violent sectarianism, thuggery and occasional outbursts against the old Unionist ‘’fur-coat brigade” are almost a carbon copy of the Brownshirts in Germany or the Blackshirts in Italy: At the moment the imperialists hope to hand over power to the Parliamentary right-wingers like Paisley and West and are only using the Loyalist para-military groups as shock-troops to beat the Catholics into submission.

If that doesn’t work however they will hand over to a fully-fledged Fascist regime if necessary. William Craig with his lurches from > parliamentarianism to Fascist demagogy, is keeping open the possibility of becoming the new Fuhrer. If Fascism does come to power in the North the Loyatist murder-gangs will be institutionalised into a 50—60,000 strong B-Special

ST BE FACED UPTO BY

ND SOCIALISTS

force and wil! launch 2 reian of terror against ail opposition elements.

Meanwhile because of their weak and muddled politics Provisional and Official Republicans and almost all socialist groups have been thrown into utter confusion by the rise of the U.D.A., U.V.F. etc. They have been fooled by the Loyalists’ ‘working-class’ image and phony radicalism, into seeing their deadliest enemies as friends. The Officials called for joint patrols with the U.D.A.

_and Daithi O’Conaill praised the “‘discipline’’ of the U.W.C. Lockout in May. P.D. alone has for 4 years warned consistently of the danger of Fascism in the 6 Cos. and argued that there can be no compromise or alliances with Loyalist para-military groups. Trotsky in the early 1930's warned time and again of the dangers of Fascism only to be scoffed at hy the Communist Parties who actually collaborated with the Nazis in Germany. The R.M.G. claim to be Trotskyists but faced with the serious danger of Fascism in the 6 Counties they can only quibble and argue about definitions like the Stalinist hacks Trotsky denounced. Why the R.M.G. say the Loyalist | are not fascists | The R.M.G. produce only two | arguments to prove that the Loyalist , | | groups aren’t Fascist: (A) ‘Classical’ | Fascism (i.e. Hitler & Mussolini's | brand) had its base in the petty bourgeoisie, the Loyalists have theirs among the ‘Labour Aristocracy’, the | Protestant skilled workers; | (B) ‘Classical’ Fascism was linked | with and financed by heavy industry {and finance capital. The R.M.G.

{don’t appear to have read Trotsky who, writing about Fascism in 1932, | described the ‘Labour aristocracy as {the new petty bourgeoisie’ (Leon | Trotsky: Fascism, What it is and How to | Fight it). Appear to forget that \Italian big business didn’t back {Mussolini until after the workers’ jrisings of 1920 and that big business in Germany didn’t back Hitler until 1927-8. British Imperialism in Ireland backed Sunningdale until ~ May. They have wavered since then and now seem more and more likely to back the Loyalists.

In general it is true that the U.D.A.

and U.V.F. show some differences from ‘classical’ fascism but the R.M.G. forget that even in the 1930's there were fascist movements in a fozen countries all of them jomewhat different. Trotsky himself jalled the Pilsucski regime in foland Fascist though it was very lifferent from Hitler and Mussolini.

flost importantly the European fascist movements were in fetropolitan countries where there Jas a fairly straightforward conflict tween capital and labour and the Fascists’ main.targets were the trade unions and working-class organisations. The North is under British Rule and the conflict here is between British Imperialism and its local agents and anti-imperialist forces. The Fascists here devote their energies to smashing Republican and Socialist groups and terrorising the Catholic population rather than destroying the trade unions — though they are attempting that too. The parallel is closer with the OAS in Algeria. Even the R.M.G. would hardly deny that the OAS were Fascist.

The P.D. have characterised the Loyalist para-military groups as Fascist for good reasons. It helps to clear away the confusion caused in the revolutionary movement by the Loyalists’ pseudo-radicalism; it alerts the anti-Unionist population to the tragic seriousness of a Loyalist take-over and the need to resist to the length of civil war; and it helps to clarify the situation for the socialist movement in other countries confused by British propaganda about ‘religious’ war in N. Ireland.

The R.M.G. had earlier charged P.D. with crying ‘Wolf’ too often about the Fascist threat. The trouble in Ireland is that most of the Republicans and the Left believe that wolves are extinct and wouldn't recognise one until they ended up ‘U.D.S. para-militarv readblock in its belly. This is no time for arguing over academic niceties. The RMG should stop quibbling, get down off the fence and join in the fight.

On the same page of the ‘Plough’ as the article about Fascism there is an article condemning the equivocation of the Southern intelligentsia. It says ‘It (the intelligentsia) can afford to sit back and ponder the finer points of Loyalist ideology. It is welcome to do so. But the workers of Ballymurphy, the New Lodge and Ardoyne,must fight tooth and nail against Loyalism to survive. Unlike the intellectuals we Marxists are not afraid to stand on their side... ’’ The R.M.G. should practice what it preaches.

Powell, Smith, Craig and West — the new Fascists? : ——————— eee

- Treland’s highest unemployment in years There was a time when only Marxist economists predicted an ihevitable slump in the capitalist world.

Capitalist apologists could see no end to the long lease of prosperity begun after the 2nd World War. The workirtg class in the western world were politically inactive as they enjoyed “ relative full employment and a rising standard of living. But in line with Marx’s prediction of slumps and booms due to over-production the western capitalist governments now face severe economic crisis. We here in Ireland, who are so heavily dependant on the British market for the sale of our exports, suffer doubly when recessions take place in Britain: There’s an old saying as true now as ever: “‘When England catches the cold, Ireland catches the flu’.

The 26 Coun. establishment are expressing severe concern at their economic plight., Inflation, the steady ’ rise in prices, is now at a rate of 18%.

‘ For those on fixed incomes or with small savings this is disastrous as it means their real incoine is being reduced by this rise in prices.

There has been a steady increase in the numbers unemployed. It now stands at 70,000 which is the highest September figure for five years.

Most experts believe that it will rise to 90,000. The social and economic ill effects of unemployment are incalcuable. There are now 70,000 people unable in any way to contribute to the wealth of the people of Ireland because of the anarcy of the capitalist system.

The balance of payments position has rapidly got worse in the last six months and it is estimated that the current deficit will ke about £300 million compared to a deficit of £86 million in 1973. The balance of payments shows the difference between imports and exports and a deficit means more imports than exports. The imports are goods coming into the country and in Ireland they are chiefly industrial goods. The exports are when Irish made goods are sold abroad. So in other words foreign

FOREIGN INVESTORS GROW

RIGH WHILE TRISH WORKER

GO REDUNDANT

Figures released by the Central Statistics Office for September showed the-total number of unemployed in the 26 Counties to be 69,726 — a rise of 8,727 on September last year. Areas where employment has dropped drastically are: Monaghan, Mullingar, Dundalk and Wexford. The C.S.O. are reportedly disturbed by the significant drop in employment in the areas of industrial employment. While these figures were being reled$ed, Dr. Fitzgerald, Minister of Foreign Affairs boasted that 2 Californian companies were to invest a total of 13 million dollars in Ireland. But the two Companies, Shaklee Corp., which produces cosmetics and cleaning agents for overseas markets, and hopes to open at Newbridge, Kildare and the Californian Pellet Co. which will open in Wexford, between them -will employ a grand total of not more than 100 Irish workers! While Fitzgerald preens himself at this ‘investment success’, more Irish workers join the dole queue — most of them from foreign owned companies. These companies are engaged in high capital investment as opposed to high labour investment ‘and once they have taken advantage of cheap labour, tax free profits and all the other perks the 26 Co. government hands 6ut, they can pack up and go home with their fortunes made, leaving Jrish workers to face the bread line.

This is clearly illustrated in the case of the factory owned by the American company Geneso, in Kinsale, Cork. Faced with an annual loss of £80,000 the owners have put the factory up for sale. The union sought a higher redundancy settlement for the workers so Geneso simply withdrew their previous offer. The workforce of this company represents 30% of Kinsale’s total employment and the workers have put an embargo on £m worth of Even the real robots get blown up goods and plan a sit in for better redundancy payment. This action is industrialists are increasing their sale of goods to us — thus increasing their possibilities for profit.

Irish made goods — mainly agricultural are not expanding their sales as fast as they could. The result is, and has been now since at least 1958, the gradual takeover of most of 26 Co.

industry by foreign interests, attracted by the pool of unemployment which keeps wages relatively low.

But even the rate of foreign investment has slowed down due to a combination of reasons; the uncertain political situation in Ireland, the slump in the world market and the resultant squeeze on credit.

To maintain the attractive rate of profit the capitalists will have to stabilise for a number of years, wages, and to do so they need to slow down the rate of inflation. But part of the present rise in inflation is due to factors beyond the control of capitalists operating in Ireland. Crop failures reduce the amount of cereals available, thereby pushing up the cost of flower. (Hence the rise in head prices). Although some of these crop failures took place in widely separated countries they have affected the living standards of Irish workers. This clearly indicates the internationalism of capitalism and shows that ultimately socialism will be international. Another important reason for inflation was the huge increase in oil prices, caused by the policies of the oil-producing countries. This intra-capitalist conflict could lead to a sharp decline in world trade.

The resultant slump would undermine confidence in the stability of bourgeois capitalist governments.

So just like the early 1930s the bourgeoisie would be caught between fascism and socialism. In other words the objective situation indicates the possibility of socialism being triumphant. In Ireland given the weaknesses of the bourgeoisie caused by the war of .

National Liberation in the 6 Counties any serigus economic crisis ¢ ould trigger off a massive workers response which would transform the present struggle into an ongoing struggle for socialism. Speed the day.

Workers at the Danus factory in Limerick sitting-in. They are refusing to leave unless of clothes as hostage against the employers they get a better redundancy pay offer, and.meanwhile are holding £200,000 worth threatening the take over of the factory by yet another foreign company, Vulco, German curtain manufacturerers who will employ a staggering 50 workers, 36 of them female! The workers at Genesco’s factory realise that they can run the factory successfully and have drawn up efficiency plans to prove this. Meanwhile the embargo stays until a better deal from Geneso is guaranteed. There are 157 American companies operating in Ireland, producing goods mainly for foreign markets and the rate of Companies from all foreign countries opening in Ireland is a staggering 2 per week!

Only when the workers of Ireland unite and topple capitalism will they be able to plan their own future, reap the benefits of their own country and rid themselves of faceless foreign shareholders, who at the moment, with the blessing of the Republic and men like Fitzgerald, are robbing them of years of their lives and the wealth of their country.

a dying trade In the past five years Northern Ireland has become the testing ground for a whole range of British Army anti-personnel weapons _ from CS gas to machinery for sophisticated torture. One of the more recent.

applications of ‘science’ in the 6 Cos. is the use of psychiatry and of psychological techniques in the selection of bomb-disposal experts. . Anyone contemplating the career has now to go through a series of tests that even a real guinea pig would fail — any signs of humanity means that the recruit is either rejected or sent for even deeper interview. With the continuing bomb attacks on pioperty in the North, and with the decline in bomb disposaj experts (three at least have retired to the Minister of Defence psychiatric hospital near Southampton) recruitment of younger and younger men has become necessary for the Brits. Selection tests include the ability to carry out delicate operations with the fingers without rushing, shaking or making mistakes! Most emphasis is however given to three personality tests ‘Clinical Analysis’ is one of these and involves answer 50 questions on sleeping habits, behaviour at school, attitudes to home and family and the like.

Naturally there is also screening for suicidal tendencies! So strict are these tests in search of human robots that one third of a recent batch of hand-picked recruits were rejected after the first tests.

SOUTH ARMAGH AND

BRITISH WITHDRAWL

A short time ago the British Army announced that when the present tour of duty of the ‘40 Marine Commandoes’ in the Newry-South Armagh area is over there will be no replacement force being sent there. The much talked about British Withdrawl] will have begun. In fact this process has already started for the Brits have already left their base at Gosford Castle ten miles south of Armagh city. The last straw for the Brits would.seem to have been the humiliating defeat they suffered on the issue of street lighting in Newry in August last — then they were forced to back down on their whole policy and indeed on the many threats they had made. What then is going to happen to the area with the withdrawl of the British?

It is very doubtful whether the RUD/RUC-Reserve or UDR will dare to or indeed be capable of, “‘patrolling”’ the area and the nearest regular army base will be 19 miles away in Armagh. So Newry-South Down will

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BRITS HAVE IT

BOTH WAYS

It is a well known fact that it is British big business interests which are behind army occupation in Ireland, behind the British government's policy of buying off token freedom, it will raise the question a section of the Irish middle class with of just what is meant by liberation.

In that situation the people to be wary of are the discredited SDLP.

They have put all their eggs in the British parliamentary basket and it would not be surprising to see them demand a British military presence locally. Newry-South Armagh must become as near as possible, selfgoverning, with a Council for the area representing all anti-Imperialist groups. The Council must take over as much as possible the responsibilities and functions of the area. The experience that can be gained in this area will be invaluable when the British government’s ‘Ulsterisation’ policy has been completed — and the Loyalists stage their next bid for power — on the lines of the anti-Catholic pogroms of 1969 and the UWC strike of May this year.

e “Behind the Wire” The personal accounts of life in British prison and concentration camps.in Northern Ireland by two members of Peoples Democracy. Phil Mc Cullagh describes the mind-wrecking boredom and terror of the daily routine in Long Kesh where he has been interned without trail since August 1971. Michael Farrell describes the course of his and Tony Canavan’s hunger strike ordeal in Crumlin Road Jail while sentenced on a trumped up charge of breaking-a law that only Orange and UDA men are allowed to break.

Order now from Unfree Citizen sellers or from Connoliv. Bookshoo “Struggle in the North” The first edition of this pamphlet produced and published by P.D was issued in 1969, the second in 1972 It covers the background to the present conflict in Ireland and deals with the various stages of the struggle from 1969-1972 It 18 essential reading to anyone wishing to understand the present situation Price 15p; or 21p post peid from Fannolly Bookshoo FLAGS. Full size ‘Starry Pleughs’ 5° x 3’ - £1.00

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jobs in parliament. But another side to this is the importance which the CONTINUATION OF WARS plays in the providing markets for goods produced by many of the same husiness interests. ; The most recent example of this has been in the Middle East. Two British firms Pauling Middle East and Brooke Marine have won contracts worth £10,000,000 and £6,000,000 in Oman in the Persian Gulf. The contracts are to supply fast patrol boats to the Omani government for use against Liberation fighters there, and to build a network of military installations north of the Dhofar mountains. The bases will give the Omani government even greater power to strike against the revolutionary guerillas.

But the Omani government is kept in power by the British army. The Brits supply the personnell for the top ranks in the Omani army, and are effectively in control of it. Behind all this is the fact that the Brits want to keep a foothold in the Persian Gulf because of the vast oil reserves there. So they make sure that a repressive capitalist government is kept in power against the wishes of the people. In return the Omani government supplies oil to Britain and as a sideline gives its military contracts to British firms. 215,000

HILDREN

IN

26 COUNTIES

WITHOUT -

ENOUGH FOOD

The Twenty-Six County State was set up over 50 years ago to promote the ~ combined interests of British and Irish businessmen. Today we have ample evidence that that was the intention behind its establishment. But the clearest example of this was confirmed on Monday last with a remarkable statement by an Irish government minister.

The Coalition Minister for Sagcial Welfare, Labour Party member Frank Cluskey, was speaking at a Luncheon in Dublin given by the Dublin Junior Chamber of Commerce.

He claimed that more than 215,000 Irish children have not enough food, that 250,000 have not enough warm clothing and that more than the Such a statement from a 26 Co.

government minister is indeed remarkable, but we must be wary of it, for Cluskey was only announcing the figures as an added propaganda bonus for a ‘pilot scheme to combat poverty’ which he claims the government are launching. — Strange that after fifty years of governing under a constitution which claims that ‘’no child shall suffer cold or hunger or from lack of food, clothing or shelter’’ any government should have to admit these shocking figures. That’s what holy Catholic Ireland puts down on paper as a pledge to her people and that’s the pledge successive Fine Gael and Fianna Fail governments have ruled under.

But: what do we see around us in 1974? Up to 20,000 families homeless:or living in crumbling one-room flats (in Dublin alone); a 60,000 strong average dole-queue all the year round-and the worst Social Security system in Europe.

Hardly evidence of the application of the policy of the 1st Dail which even still is law (or meant to be) in the 26 Cos. Even more pathetic is the meaning of the claim to look after the old and the unemployed, to provide a roof and sufficient food for all same number have inadequate housing.

citizens — a single man on the assistance gets the magnificent sum Z of £6.35 a week — not even enough to provide food for a week let alone a flat and heating. It is clear that the ‘Free’ State has not even attempted to start easing its citizen’s problems for it has not even provided homes for many even after 50 years. The admission by a Coalition government minister that 215,000 children are underfed is shocking by any standards; the admission that as many are poorly housed and underclothed is only ridiculous in a country where the difference between rich and poor is increasing daily, where there is a continuous attack on the living standards of the workers by rising prices and now the attempted lowering of wages. . The Coalition government like its predecessors Fianna Fail have no | interest in the Irish working class.

They are the representatives only of those who are interested in swelling their bank balances at the expense of their workers. &- The sell-out of the 26 Co. workers by their governments is ohly equalled by the sell-out by the same governments of the struggle for freedom of the Catholic minority in the North. The success of the National struggle in Ireland and ultimately the socialist struggle, depends on unity of the working class North and South. That unity will become more and more essential in the coming months as the threat of Civil War in the North comes closer.

We must work to build this unity between socialists, republicans and trade unionionists — with the Republican anti-lmperialist work*2 class of the 26 Counties.

Donegan FUNCKs it again? The saga of the reknowned Patrick Sarsfield Donegan, gun-crazy Minister for Defence of the British-controlied 26 Ces. of Ireland, continues with yet another episode in a dark, wet, cold and damp Irish port. This time the scene was Cork where the Monasterboice publican, still smarting from his emberrassment last March when he ‘Parsonally soopervised’ the searching of a couple of freight boats for illegal arms, and instead found a consignment for his own army, arrived on the scene dressed in the blue cloth of the Garda Siochana.

The search of the coaster ‘Jen Funck’ was subtle. The government information services did not publicise it, but the helicopter fiend was confident as ever. ; Anyway, to make a short story long, the boul’ Patrick Sarsfield had to return to his £20,000 labourer’s cottage near Drogheda feeling an even bigger eegit than he did last...

March. Ys indeed, Donegan, Cooney, and Cosgrave had once again well and truely ‘Funck-ed’ it! And 26 Co. collaboration had taken yet another drunken step into ridicule.

MEANWHILE IT 1S RUMOURED THAT WHILE THE BATMAN AND THE COCKROACH

WERE GOING THROUGH A HUNDRED TONS OF SOYA MEAL WITH A TEA

STRAINER IN CORK, THIRTY SEVEN CHIEFTAN TANKS FOR ILLEGAL ORGAN-

ISATIONS WERE UNLOADED IN DUBLIN (!)

COONEY'S POUND OF FLESH

Belfast Republican Joe Cahill was given a three year jail sentence in early 1973 for his part in Claudia gun-running to the Co. Waterford coast. Since then he took part in the long Mountjoy hunger strike along with‘eleven other Republicans. That took a considerable toll on his health by the time it ended on 10th October last year. Following on that Joe was admitted to Baggot St. hospital in Dublin after a heart attack and only left there earlier this year. He was again admitted to hospital in August with the same trouble, in a very bad condition. But for no apparent reason he was suddendly transferred back to Portlaoise Prison at the end of September — to be left without proper medical attention in the normal prison cell — sixty miles from the specialist treatment he needs.

It is clear that Joe Cahill’s condition alone, merits his release, but it appears that Cooney is prepared to save face for the Dept. of Justice rather than save the life of this man.

The re-jailing for 15 months of Tomas Mc Thomais, Editor of ‘An Phoblacht’ for the same offence as he was recently jailed for and served his sentence has stripped bare any pretence of justice in the 26 Co. Special Court.

To say that Internment does not exist in the 26 Cos. is to fool oneself, for what is internment if it isn’t keeping Che Guevara, continued from Page 2 help bring about a US controlled dictatorship like Chile today.

Here Guevara cut his teeth as a revolutionary helping to orgenise arms for the workers. He narrowly escaped assassination by the ClA and had to flee to Mexico where he came into contact with a group of Cuban exiles led by Fidel Castro. He became a close friend — of Castro and joined in his preparations for armed struggle against Batista, the Cuban ruler who governed by butchery and terror. Eighty of them set out with arms for Cuba by boat, but on lending were caught — in an enemy ambush. Only twenty survived and Guevara was among those wounded. The remnant headed for the Sierra Maiestra, a mountaineus region, from where they continued their struggle with the help of local peopte. Their ranks quickly swelled with those who resented the Batista regime and finally someone locked up permanently by jailing him again and again for the same offence! ; Yes, the 26 Co. regime in its own clever way is equally as repressive as the 6 Cos. where atleast the British gevernment don’t deny that they are interning people. after a long and bloody struggle of four years they won their victory.

STRUGGLE TURNS SOCIALIST

In the process of this struggle Castro and his followers had become committed socialists and the regime which they set about establishing in Cuba was a socialist one. Che Guevara was given the task of running the island’s economic affairs, but he tired of this, preferring to be involved_in the running of the People’s militia — the armed working class.

The C.I.A. at this time were operating a sabotage campaign against Cuba because the island was important to America for sugar and Castro's socialist government would not allow American business to control its production.

They bombed Havana the capital of Cuba in much the same way ¥s the Loyalists in the North bomb Catholicowned pubs; in one bomb-incident If you are interested in joining the People’s Democracy and fighting for a 32-County Socialist Republic, fill in the form below and send it to: Belfast: CONNOLLY BOOKSHOP, AVOCA PARK,

ANDERSONSTOWN RD.,BELFAST 11.

London: P.DOHERTY, 134 - 136 KINGSLAND HIGH ST.,

LONDON , E8.

2 BRITISH

WITHDRAWL...

OR JUST A

COAT

OF PAINT ?

| The Hunt Commission which investigated i the RUC behaviour in 1969 confessed g to be ‘shocked and horrified’ that a police force could be equipped with armoured cars. Paragraph 114 of the report said “the armoured cars now in use should cease to be part of police equipment’. That referred to the Shoreland armoured cars manufactured in the Loyalist-controlled

SHORT BROS. AND HARLAND

engineering firm in East Belfast.

But the RUC were reissued with them in January of this year, and only last week it was quietly announced the the RUC are now issued with British two-ton ‘PIGS’ — vehicles which are used at the moment m by the British Army. And as part of the ‘ ‘handover’ of power to the RUC the . ‘pigs’ have been given a coat of grey paint — the RUC’s colour. ; This is one of the most ominous signs yet to for the Catholic population of Belfast. For it comes only four weeks after Merlyn Rees announced that the Loyalist demands for a third force were to be met by vastly increasing the strength of the RUC Reserve and UDR. This is the real meaning of British withdrawl — the , handover of military equipment tc the uniformed Loyalists of the RUC and UDR.

It can only convince the Catholic working class that the thfeat of Civil War is real and it emphasises the necessity to PREPARE FOR DEFENCE AND

RELIEF NOW.

if 6 Wherever death may surprise us, it will be welcome, provided that this, our battle cry, reaches some receptive ear, that another hand stretch out to take up weapons, and that other men come forward to intone our funeral dirge with the staccato of machine guns and new cries of battle and victorv. | Each and every one of us will pay on demand his part of sacrifice . . . knowing that all together we are getting ever closer to 9 3 the new man, whose figure is beginning to-appear. t Venceremos! CHE alone a hundred workers were killed.

Finally in 1963 the CIA landed an invasion ‘force of U.S. marines and mercenaries in Cuba on the Bay of Pigs and Guevara was among those who put up a heroic resistance and defeated them.

Still intent on fighting for the liberation of all Latin American oppressed peoples, Che Guevara decided that the central position of Bolivia made it an ideal position from which to begin. In his own words he would create “one, two, three Viet Nams” to bog down the US troops.

Tragically he was killed in that struggle on October 9th 1967. The struggle in -Latin America still continues, for, as in Che Guevaras own words — “You can kill the revolutionary but not the revolution”.

THE PEOPLES DEMOCRACY |

— What we stand for The People’s Democracy is a revolutionary socialist organisation, fighting for the establishment of a 32-County Workers Republic in .

ireland. In that fight we have learned through our experience of the struggle in the North that there can be no progress made until. the age-old problem of the domination and exploitation of Ireland by British imperialism is settled.

We therefore support the wer of resistance against British contro} in the North and have aQitated and will continue to agitate, to back up that war — north and south.

‘Because both states, north and south, are capitalist controlled we recognise that the 26-Ce. government — and indeed all the Leinster House Politicians — support Britain in the continuation of partition in Ireland and actively promote this by their policy of repression in the 26 Cos.

Consequently we see that the Struggle for National Liberation and Socialism must be fought here as well.

Our activity is based on our experience and Marxist analyses of the situation in treland. We consider the anti-imperialist struggle should be fought to gain the support of the working-class people of Iretand and the People’s Democracy pledge themselves to achieving through.

the struggle for National Liberation — a Workers Republic of ireland.