Unfree Citizen: Vol. 4 no. 9, 2 December 1974

UNFREE newspaper of

CITIZEN

Vel4 No. 9 -5p. For a 32-Co. Workers and Small Farmers Republic af 2 nd Dec.1974 Peoples Democracy

_ RESIST

F 4 , 4

CAR ASSEMBLY WORKERS

VICTIMS OF IMPERIALISM

The Irish car assembly industry was started in the early 1930’s and under the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Agreement it was a protected industry. The existence of Car Assembly in Ireland meant that in addition to the employment given on the actual assembly of cars, factories came into being in order to manufacture in this country many of the components used in the vehicles. These brought about more employment. Just some of the components manufactured in Ireland for Lrishassembled cars, are Tyres, Tubes, Glass, Batteries, Spark-plugs, Sealers, Adhesives, Welding and Soldering materials, Paints, Springs, Floorcovering, Upholstry and Abrasives.

Obviously outside of the actual work in building cars there is a vast amount of employment given by car-assembly to all these other industries.

But all these are dependent on the car assembly being a ‘Protected’ industry, all are dependent on the government imposing tariffs on the import of fully assembled vehicles in order to make their sale here uneconomic to the motor companies. Under the EEC tarrifs are not allowed and so the Irish Car Assembly Industry is facing a challenge from imported fully built vehicles at a much cheaper price than they can be built in Ireland.

Loss of jobs for workers For the workers employed at present in car assembly that means they are going to lose their jobs. They are supposedly ‘guaranteed’ alternative employment by the government. But ‘alternative employment’ that is being offered at the moment is based on offers by some of the main assembly firms to have industries connected with the parent firms set up here in Ireland. British Leyland have offered to set up a factory at Inchicore to miake seat frames for export; General Motors plan to close their McCairns and Reg Armstrong plants and set up a factory in Tallaght to make electrical wire looms for export (this will employ mainly women); Volkswagen intend to close their plant and set up a plant to assemble shipping containers for use on export cars — few workers could be employed in anything like this.

Car industry controlled by monopolies The motor companies which are at present operating assembly lines here in Ireland are among the biggest in the world: BLMC, General Motors (American controlled and multinational), Volkswagen (German); Fiat (Italian), Toyota (Japanese), etc. They have set up plants in Ireland not for any benefit to Ireland or to Irish workers, but for their own economic ends. As long as Car Assembly in Ireland was ‘protected’ by government tariffs they were prepared to stay and use a badly-paid workforce in a country where unemployment was high. With the entry into the EEC, pushed through by the Fine Gael and Fianna Fail parties, tariff barriers are down and so there is free importation of fully-assembled cars. In terms of “economy”, as far as the Motor companies are concerned, workforces in car-assembly must be numbered in tens of thousands, not thousands, for them to get the profit they want. Hence the tiny Irish assembly industry employing less than 10,000 is only a burden on their profit account.

Profit not jobs In Ireland we live under a system that is concerned with how much profit can be got from an industry, not how much work it supplies to those who need it. Under that system we can only expect to see the like of what is happening to Car Assembly continue: to happen more and more industries.

Many new factoriés are set up each year here, but many more close down.

Businessmen are attracted by the ‘generous’ benefits offered to them by the Industrial Development Authority — often a large grant to establish a factory followed by several years of tax-free profits. Since such factories are established often in areas where unemployment is rising (usually because of the fact that the EEC agricultural policy is driving small farmers off the land) the wages that are offered are low. As the factory gets under way and the workforce becomes more and more discontented with conditions or wages, demands are made for better wages or conditions. The management resists such demands bitterly and ultimately if they have to concede defeat, they close down the factory. The only reason they were there in the first place was because they were getting higher profit than they could have got in any other country. Profit is what they are interested in and to hell with the workers. This is what is happening with the car assembly industry at the moment.

Under EEC conditions there is no profit in assembling cars in Ireland so the companies pull out. Under the present system Irish workers will always be at the tender mercies of the world’s international profit-seekrs.

Only if we take control of our own Natural Resources can we establish any industry in Ireland for the benefit of the Irish people. Effects of entry to the EEC At the moment the 26 Co. Govt. is engaged in selling off Irish mineral and oil reserves to foreign companies — and with them they are selling off all the employment which they can give at home. The EEC, of which Ireland is a member, was set up to make Industry and Agriculture profitable to European businessmen. Only largescale industrial enterprises and large-scale farming suit these purposes.

Therefore EEC policy is to force the closure of small industry, to force the small farmers off the land and by economic hardship to force all those unemployed as a result, to the big industrial centres of Europe as immigrant workers. In Britain we see how the economic domination of Ireland has forced Irish workers to go there and do the dirty jobs to build up Britain’s prosperity. In Germany at the moment hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers from Greece, Spain, Italy etc. are doing the dirty work to build up the prosperity of the multi-national companies which control the economy there.

Irish people don’t want to emigrate Few Irish workers will want to subject themselves to a new emigration surge. They have the power to stop this process, for at the moment a war is taking place in Ireland which is attacking the very basis of foreign control. It is attacking the once-secure foothold of British imperialism. In the 26 Cos. the government has backed Britain, therefore a victory over Britain in the struggle will be a victory over the 26 Co. collaborators, and over their policy of selling out the interests of Irish workers. There is little that can be done about the destruction of the Irish Car Assembly industry, in a world where profit is the most important thing.

It is inevitable that it should go eventually but not until suitable and secure employment has been got as an alternative. Reg Armstrong workers give the lead In the short-term, car-workers should support the lead given by the Reg Armstrong assembly workers in their sit-in at their plant in Ringsend in Dublin. They are demanding committment from the managment on the future of their jobs.

The action sub-committee of the ATGWU in a statement issued recently has made several recommendations to their union representatives concerning the immediate future of the industry. They ‘include: * Call on the government to invoke the anti-dumping clause of the Treaty of Rome at once in order to halt the massive importing of fully assembled cars into Ireland.

To at once commence extensive publicity campaign to answer claims that the industry is not viable.

To at once organise the whole industry, particularly the component factories, in a militant manner for the defence of the livelihood of the workers. * To demand from the government special provision, such as the ‘green pound’ agreement on agriculture.

Such a provision to ensure the continuation of the industry on a full working week. * To call on the government to withdraw all import licences to any car assembly firm which ceases production in Ireland. We demand that all cars and commercial vehicles sold in Ireland must be assembled in Ireland.

Essentially these are all- short-term demands but they show that workers must force from the government a guarantee of employment in their jobs.

It is not the workers who are to blame for the run down of the car-assembly industry. Why should the workers be asked to'pay such a bitter price for the policy of the government?

The new British ‘Anti-terrorist’ Bill presents the true face of British democracy and standards of justice, and in the subtlety of its anti-Irish bias, makes a complete mockery of Westminster’s anti-racial legislation.

For in effect what it is designed to do is to create a climate of strong anti-Irish feeling in Britain backed up by tough laws so wide-ranging in their powers, as to extend the Special Powers Act and the Offences in Dublin — and obviously with some Against the State Act to the U.K.

In the broader view it amounts to a rationalisation of repressive laws through the area of the lapsed Sunningdale partnership, making the work of the Common Law Enforcement Commission almost obsolete and by the swiftness and vindictiveness of its introduction, providing a whip with which to beat the submissive puppet government effect, for the Coalition Government is already preparing to press home even more repressive laws at the behest of the British government.

The carnival of reaction constituted by spot arrests, expulsion, seven days detention, unlimited powers of the ordinary police constable and the bowing to the ‘hang ‘em and shoot em’ lobby, stem not so much from the Birmingham bombings, but rather from the grim determination of the

{UE FACE OF BRITISH

DEMOCRACY

British government to refuse to solve “he Irish question on anything but their own terms — and the terms of the extreme. right-wing at that.

This week has seen the final bankruptcy of a Labour government pledged to a just solution in Ireland.

Legislation which even their own Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins describes as “‘draconian”’ and which pinpoints the large Irish working population as number one targets for the attacks of the right-wing National Front thugs.

CHILDERS BURIED ON

THE EVE OF 50TH

ANNIVERSARY OF HIS

FATHER’S EXECUTION

BY COSGRAVE NO.1

The anger of Liam Cosgrave against the remains of James McDaid brought to Dublin on the way to Belfast, cannot be separated from the eulogies associated with the death and funeral of the late Erskine Childers Jr. Childers established a reputation for generoisity and humanity by quoting the command given to him by his father, Erskine Childers senior, in the death cell in Beggars Bush Barracks a few hours, or days, before he stood unblinded before his execution squad after shaking hands with them. During the time between the death of Childers junior and his burial one listened in vain for any generous comment, any slightest sign that those working on the obituaries of the younger Erskine believed his word regarding the principle on which he claimed to have mouided his life.

The present action of Cosgrave confirms that impression.

The 52nd anniversary of Erskine the I.R.A. man, the Editor, the political leader fell on November 24th, two days after the funeral of his son, and on that same Nov. 21st the funeral of James McDaid arrived in Dublin. But there were no generous words for the widowed mother from Liam Cosgrave, which might at a future date be recognised as belonging to the generous tradition by a biographer of Erskine senior, or even of Erskine junior. Such a person, turning over his materials will find the obituary articles for Arthur Griffith and for Michael Collins which Erskine senior wrote and published in ‘An Phoblacht’, of which he was the first editor. He will find also the obituary for Childers himself, written probably by Frank Gallagher.

Ironically Cosgrave Junior has jailed the present editor of ‘An Phoblacht’ By another strange coincidence a _ spontaneous public funeral, one of the greatest in Dublin’s history took place fifty years ago, in 1924. By then public opinion had forced the government of Cosgrave senior to yield the bodies of its 77 executed victims. These were excommunicated men, not admitted in any Catholic church. Those transferred from Dublin prisons were waked in Hardwick Hall. The funerals went to different places — Liam Mellows to Castletown. In addition to the illustrious dead from 1916 to 1921 the Republican Plot in Glasnevin holds Rory O’Connor, Joe McKelvey, Erskine Childers, James Fisher, Peter Cassidy, Richard Twohig, John Gaffney, John Murphy and Patrick Farrelly, all executed inside about three weeks in Nov.—Dec. 1922.

Bad memories for Cosgrave jr.

to conveniently cover up at the present time. LC.R.A. picket on R.LE. continues

PICKET ON RTE CONTINUES

The Dublin Committee of ICRA continuing their weekly protest against ‘media muzzling’ at RTE on Sunday — were surprised to see that the Assistant Commissioner of the Special Branch Mr. E. P. Garvey — was one of the many ‘law and order’ men in attendance. Once again the picketers refused to give their names to the Gardai. Before the picket dispersed a letter of protest against censorship within the stion, was handed into an R.T.E. Official. The text of the letter was as follows: Green Paper aims at

LOYALIST

TAKEOVER

NEW ANTI-PEOPLE WEAPONS

Two of the British Army's most recent anti-people weapons were used in the Sixcounties in the past few weeks. As the brutal murder of Hugh Coney while escaping from Long Kesh was producing strong reaction in the North, the Brits were once again trying out the ‘squawk box’ and ‘plastic’ bullets to break up demonstrations.

Arally at Casement Park on the day of the killing was used as the guinea-pig for the ‘squawk box’. The existence of this device has previously been denied by British Army H.Q. at Lisburn. A result of its use has been that some people at the demonstration suffered from nausea and dizziness. This device has a very varied effect. It does not affect ali people, and its effect depends a lot on the vehicle it is used from. Basically the ‘squawk box’ gives out two slightly different sounds which can hardly be heard.

These combine to create two other sounds even more difficult te hear.

The device depends on atiecting several people, or even one person, in a crowd. Its effect lies in the panic which follows as people see the affected person fainting or being sick. The beam of the machine can be narrowed to focus on a single individual.

A further sophistication is the ‘photic driver’ a light machine which uses a flickering infra-red light and a very highpitched sound. It produces epileptic fits, even in people without a history of epilepsy. After having one such fit a person is in future likely to have others. This device has not yet been fully tested so it would see that the anti-Unionists will be the guinea-pigs. The plastic bullets fired at crowds in Belfast and Armagh since October 15th showed that the British Army are making no further pretence about not firing straight at human targets — they obviously intend te maim or to kill. The material in these bullets is a very hard plastic — too rigid to rebound off the ground, so they are fired at head level. The shape of the bullet has changed too — to a solid, harder and more damaging shape. It is about the size of two torch batteries fixed end to end, and about the same weight. A blow from the old type of rubber bullet gave the victim some chance of not being serious injured; plastic ones do not. These developments in warfare against peaceful demonstrations underline the incredible disregard the British government have for human life. The various devices are developed in universities, using advances in science which should be used for the benefit of man. They are developed by personnell who are supposedly ‘neutral’ in the state machinery in Britain and in America. Their use indicates that in taking on British imperialism there is more than just !CRA members at RTE last Sunday A Chara, For 3 weeks members of the Dublin Committee of |.C.R.A. have been picketing your studios to highlight the operation of censorship in RTE under Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act.

You claim that “men of violénce” only, are subject to this censorship, yet continue to broadcast British Army propaganda and interviews with Loyalists. We call for the repeal of Section 31 and the extension of the right of freedom of expression to all political groups.

/n addition, we support the disciplined staff-members of 7 Days who are now feeling your wrath simply because they broadcast a programme which told the truth about internment. Copies of this letter are being sent to Conor Cruise O’Brien, Minister for Posts & Telegraphs and to the National Press.

/s mise, P. MacUidhir,

P.R.O.

(CRA Dublin Committee

STATEMENT FROM P.D.

re British Green Paper To-day’s green paper from the British Government is a smoke-screen of empty verbiage which the British hope will help provide a cover under which they can withdraw militarily from Ireland and leave a loyalist, fascist junta in control.

The British have decided that the proposed convention elections will provide a veneer of democracy for their handover of power to the loyalists. When they have taken the reins of power, the Loyalists, through their various military groupings — the U.D.A., U.V.F., U.D.R., R.U.C.

etc. will attempt to use total repression against the anti-Unionist population. The policy is ‘“‘Croppies lie down’’. We in Peoples Democracy are pledged to resist such a loyalist take-over. We call on.the anti-Unionist population to prepare immediately to defeat loyalist and British plans.

The publication of the Green paper indicates the laying of the foundation for the implemention of these plans. Equally our preparations for defence against and resistance to, the fascist take-over must be stepped up. an army against us — there is a whole system.

. SAVE Ader Ag iG OVANSTS I

AE OVERSREATEY

MEANS

IN NL. IT WILL BE THE

OYALISTS

The ‘Unfree Citizen’ has repeatedly warned of the serious danger of an Orange Fascist'take-over in the 6 Counties. But we are often asked: What does Fascism mean, why is so much worse than what we have at the moment?

Capitalist states repressive All capitalist states are repressive and their police army and courts serve the interests of the ruling class. Even in Britain traditionally the most stable and secure capitalist country, the police have always persecuted blacks, itinerants, squatters and leftist groups.

Today with the British economy in crisis the police are attacking strikers and the Courts are jailing them on trumped-up charges, while there are constant efforts to get the people used to seeing the Army on the streets “‘in aid of the civil power”.

The more seriously a capitalist or imperialist state is threatened, the more repressive it becomes and the more openly the Army, Police and Courts intervene on the side of the ruling class. But there are still restraints on them. The bosses try to maintain the fiction that the State is neutral in the conflict and they don’t completely abolish the democratic rights wrung out of them over the years by the workers. Usually the press still has some freedom and there is freedom to organise for some opposition parties. These are important rights because they make it possible to organise resistance. Fascism a last resort? But as a last resort the ruling class will turn to Fascism to preserve itself.

What that means can be seen by looking at what happened in Germany In the midst of the Great Depression with 6 million workers unemployed with the Communist vote steadily rising in the elections and with none of the established parties able to get a majority in Parliament, the desperate German ruling class turned to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis to save them from revolution. Hitler and Nazism Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on January 30th 1933. Within a month his henchman Goering had set up a 50,000 strong Auxiliary Police in Prussia to suppress any resistance in the most strongly Social Democratic of the German states.

Forty thousand of the Auxiliary Police came from the S.A. the Nazi Party’s para-military private army and the other 10,000 from the paramilitary wing of the right-wing Nationalist Party. The German government was arming the Nazi thugs and giving them licence to wipe: out the German Left. ; On February 28th the Reichstag, the German Parliament, was burnt down — almost certainly by the Nazis themselves — and the resulting hysteria used to pass an Emergency Decree which suspended freedom of speech, freedom of the press etc. and introduced internment without trial.

Within a few days over 4,000 Communists, Socialists and Radicals were rounded up, some killed and the rest jailed. On March 23rd the Parliament passed an Enabling Act empowering Hitler to rule by decree for 4 years. He got the necessary 2/3rd majority by disqualifying the 81 Communist Deputies and using armed S.A.-men to prevent many of the Social Democrat Deputies from getting into the Parliament building.

Nazis abolish all democratic rights After that it was straightforward.

Goering set up the Gestapo, a secret political police, who were above all laws. Dozens of concentration camps were set up and all political opponents thrown into them. Trade unions were suppressed and strikes banned by June 1933 and all parties except the Nazi party outlawed in July. The S.S., the ruthless elite corps of the S.A., was made an official state force and eventually took control of the whole German police.

Like the S.A., the S.S. was made up of sadists, thugs, petty criminals, brutalised ex-soldiers, the dregs of humanity. In the words of a biographer of Hitler “the gutter had come to power’. Within 6 months the Nazis had abolished all democratic rights, closed down all opposition papers, smashed all other parties and the trade unions and jailed tens of thousands of opponents. But it didn’t stop there. In June 1934 Hitler decided to eliminate troublesome elements in his own party and in one night without a semblance of legality the S.S.

murdered hundreds of Nazis, including some of Hitler’s closest associates in the early days. They took the opportunity to kill a lot of other people who were getting in their way as well, including Hitler’s predecessor as Chancellor, General Von Schlemher. Opponents and Jews butchered After that Hitler or the S.S. and the Gestapo were the law in Germany.

S.A.-men could beat a man to death in the streets or gun him down and the regular police would tym their backs or join in. People disappeared at night and were never seen again or their bodies were found in a river.

No-one dared ask questions. The slightest criticism of the regime, even in private, amounted to a death warrant. Not enough enthusiasm at party rallies could lead to a forced labour camp. And a whole series of laws were issued against the Jews. Jews were barred from public employment and the professions, they were forbidden to own property, they were forbidden to marry non-Jews, they were forced to wear a yellow star

IN GERMANY THE NAZI PARTY

BECAME THE STATE —

which was an invitation to be beaten up in the streets, they were forced to live in ghettos. Eventually 6% million of them were herded off to die in the extermination camps.

Nazi fascist party became the state — it took a world war to crush it In Nazi Germany there were no limits, no restraints on the repressive measures of the state’s forces to defend the ruling class. — Hitler ruled solidly in the interests-of the bosses. — The state no longer even pretended to be neutral. It was totally involved on the side of the ruling class and against the working class. Fascism was really a civil war turned into a system of government. And it lasted long after the threat from the Left had been totally crushed. In fact it took a world war to get rid of Hitler for when repression reaches the level of terror it reached in Nazi Germany it succeeds in suppressing almost all resistance. Fascism meant that the State openly became the instrument of the Nazi Party and its wealthy backers, in fact the party became the state, and the Nazi thugs and storm-troopers became the Police, the Army and the Courts. 6 Cos. — high level of collaboration between British imperialists and Fascist Loyalist groups In the North where British Imperialist’s control is seriously threatened, we have virtual military rule and a high level of collaboration between the Police and British Army and the Fascist Loyalist groups.

British troops can gun down civilians * and they are always cleared in Court.

Loyalist murder-gangs assassinate Catholics at will and are rarely caught. Hundreds of Republicans are jailed without trial with only a handful of Loyalists to take the bad look off it. But these are restraints. The press has still some freedom. Papers like : ———

the ‘Irish News’ and less frequently, the 26 Co. papers, can still report atrocities by the RUC and British Army. Political organisations like the Peoples Democracy, though harrassed, can still operate, publish papers, organise meetings. The Courts cannot impose the death penalty and when the British Army murder civilians they still have to tell lies and make excuses. The State still tries to keep up a pretence of neutrality. Loyalists are still charged in the Courts and some are convicted and jailed. The U.D.A.

and U.V.F. are still separate, though only just, from the R.U.C. and U.D.R. We are still a few steps away from outright Fascism. Britain hands over to Loyalists But, as the British try to extricate themselves from direct involvement in the North; while retaining economic control. they are preparing to hand over to a Loyalist regime backed by the para-military thugs of the U.D.A., U.V.F. etc., who are itching to stage a coup anyway.

In the heat of the ensuing struggle all restraints would go: Political opposition would be banned and even the moderate bourgeois press would be muzzled or bombed out of existence. The Loyalist gangs would become the Police and Army, armed by the State, the murder of Catholics an official policy.

Loyalist prisoners would be released, no more Loyalists would be charged by a police force totally under Loyalist control. Discrimination would become the law and the concentration camps would overflow.

Repression would be worse than ever before for Catholic minority We have seen it all before. When the 6-county State was established in 1921 the original RUC and A, B and C Specials were recruited directly from the U.V.F. and under cover of the Curfew carried out a systematic policy of murdering Catholic civilians as reprisals. The Special Powers Act placed them above the law and all Republican organisations and papers were banned and ruthlessly suppressed.

Discrimination and gerrymandering were accepted Government policy.

For years N. Ireland was a semi-facist state. This time it would be worse for just as the threat to the existence of the State is more serious so the response will be more brutal and violent. In 1921 Craig was able to keep the U.V.F. in their place, the gutter was not allowed to come to full power. This time they need the butchers more, they will have to give them more of a say. Fascism attacks both real and imaginary enemies It is characteristic of Fascism that it attacks not only its real enemies but also its imaginary ones. Hitler outlawed and jailed not only Communists and Marxists but the timid and harmless Social Democrats and even the Catholic Centre Party who collaborated with the Nazis. Many S.D.L.P. supporters and uninvolved Catholics can see the Loyalist take-over coming but are consoling themselves that it is only Republicans and Marxists, like P.D., who will be hit. They are only fooling themselves. A U.D.A.

regime would smash the §.D.L.P.

and even the Alliance Party; all Catholics and liberal Protestants would become targets. Only the Orange bigot would be safe.

We spell this. out to alert all those people not actively involved in the present struggle and who pin their hopes on some sort of compromise after the Convention elections and those in the South who may be lulled into apathy by the fawing interviews with Loyalist thugs on R.T.E. which represent Craig, Paisley and the U.D:A. and U.V.F.

as moderate reasonable men.

NO ONE CAN STAND ASIDE

The North faces a Fascist take-over which would subject the minority to a worse slavery than they have experienced for the last 50 years.

Once Fascism is in power it consolidates itself and is extremely difficult to overthrow. It must never get into power. ALL antiunionists, ALL anti-imperialists must unite to resist the coming Loyalist take-over. No-one can stand aside from this struggle. History will condemn them if they do.

used aS excuse for more repression It is not clear yet who planted the bombs in Birmingham or exactly why they were planted, but it is generally assumed that it was the I.R.A.

This has led, not only to the unparallelled chorus of condemnation from the British government and its propaganda machines, including the Coalition Govt., but it has been used by both governments, under cover of the hysterical reaction, encouraged and fostered by them, to introduce their latest bit of repressive legislation. This legislation is aimed not only at the I.R.A. and those who support the struggle in the North of Ireland, but also at the whole Irish community in Britain. Far from being ‘upset’ about the deaths of innocent civilians, as they tried to make out in their hypocritical speeches and statements, the two governments welcomed the opportunity to get tougher laws passed. No outcry about sectarian murders or bombs in Dublin & Monaghan The sickening hypocricy of the British and Irish governments can be seen only too clearly when the list of sectarian murders for this month alone is counted. On the night the bombs went off in Birmingham 19 people were killed. Exactly the same number of innocent people had been assassinated on the streets of Belfast in the three weeks leading up to that night. Did we hear any outcry from the British government, or for that matter the British public? Did we hear any outcry from the 26 Co. govt. or politicians in the South? Did we hear any outcry from Church leaders?

Why theri the massive reaction to the bombs in Birmingham? Because it is the deliberate policy and plan of the British Government to use every opportunity and incident to discredit and run-down, not only the I.R.A.

but the whole anti-imperialist struggle going on in the North. When British soldiers shoot 13 innocent civilians dead on the streets of Derry, or an innocent 12 year old boy in Newry, or an internee in Long Kesh there is no outrage shown by Britain or the 26 Co. Govt.

When the Loyalists planted bombs in Dublin and Monaghan killing 37 innocent civilians there was no outrage shown by the British Govt.

In fact the 26 Co. Coalition used the opportunity yet agin to try and lay the blame on the I.R.A. and

BLACK WATCH

PANIC

IN COLCHESTER

The P.D. branch in Ipswich in England reports that, as a result of a threat issued by Provos in Andersonstown to the Black Watch Regiment — because of their behaviour on their recent tour of duty here — extraordinary precautions are being taken in Colchester where they have gone to. The centre of the town, a major British Army depot — has been sealed off like in Belfast. So far the Barriers are temporary but permament omes are being built. Even in Ipswich 35 miles away strict precautions are being taken and joint police and British Army road-blocks have been in operation recently.

refused to admit at any stage that it was loyalist fascists who had planted them. Another attempt to break the support for the struggle of the people in the ghettoes of Northern Ireland.

The bad memory of British and Irish governments To further illustrate the hypocricy of both British and Irish States here are a few examples of history to refresh their bad memories. The British during the-2nd World War bombed without warning, German towns, killing not tens, not hundreds, but thousands of innocent civilians.

To listen to them at the week-end it could be believed that they never used bombs in wars themselves.

In Ireland the 26 Co. Govt. need to be reminded how the State and Constitution which they uphold and defend, came about. It was not established through peaceful requests and.deputations to the British government. No, it was achieved through the armed force of the I.R.A: — using more or less the same tactics as are used today.

Civilians, — innocent civilians — were also killed then. And when Jack Lynch leader of the Fianna Fail party built from the armed violence of the I.R.A. in the 30’s, says that the I.R.A. today have nothing in common with Cathal Brugha and Michael Collins, he is either a fool or he thinks everyone else is. Struggle must go on While we in P.D. regret to see the death of innocent civilians we say that this does not change the situation in the 6 Cos. Time is running out for the anti-Unionist population, a Loyalist take-over is approaching and the people in the Catholic areas need all the support they can get. Regardless of Birmingham or anything else the people in the Catholic areas must be supported. Their cause is just and the only solution for the 6 Cos. is victory over British imperialism and Orange fascism.

To the Irish in Britain we urge them to resist anti-Irish and racist hysteria. They must stand their ground and oppose discrimination and victimisation. And finally to the British Govt.

we say there is one way to make sure bombs don’t go off in Britain again and that is for Britain to get out of Ireland. There would be no violence if they weren’t there in the first place. Toby ; a a LC A

MURRAY CALLS FOR PEACE~ON

LOYALIST TERMS

Harry Murray, who only last May announced the beginning of the Fascist-led U.W.C. Lockout, spoke at U.C.D. during the week. Murray now claims to be a pacifist. He now believes that it is worth Keeping everything the way it is at the present — rather than spill more blood.

He announced that “We are still in the Commonwealth nations with ‘Great’ Britain. 1 know you don’t like it but nevertheless it is true’.

Harry Murray is a political opportunist.

He refuses to face reality and is happy to let the violence of the repressive sectarian system — operated in the North — continue. — With a pacifist like that who needs repression! Harry Murray (left) speaking at U. C.D. meeting

“THE UNSPOKEN MURDERS

On October 19th five men were travelling along the Upper Springfield Road Belfast in a van, on their way to work. A British Army Saracen speeding down the wrong side of the road ploughed straight into their vehicle. The driver of the van said the first thing he knew was “‘the grille of the Saracen was in the middle of the van”.

As a result one man died instantly and another has since died. One received serious internal injuries and two others were hospitalised. Eye witnesses at the scene said that three soldiers jumped out of the Saracen and ran down the road towards the Taggart Memorial Post — showing a callous and cowardly disregard for the dead and injured. This is only one of numerous incidents involving the army resulting from their driving through narrow unlit streets without lights on their vehicles, speeding, mounting the pavement, etc. etc. In other words the army pesonnell show a total disregard for human life.

Soldiers driving vehicles are supposed to he subject to the law just the same as civilians, but it is very clear that this is nut so. Since the RUC quite clearly turns a blind eye to their murderous driving it might be more accurate to say that even in traffic affairs it is the Army who are the law. The Central Committee of Peoples Democracy wish to extend their sympathy to the families of the men who died, especially to the family of Paschal! Maginn, father of seven, who untii the time of his death, took part in every P.D. march and was a tireless worker against injustice.

Government must pay Bombay In August 1969 Bombay Street off the Falls Road, was burnt to the ground by Loyalist thugs while the British Army stood by and watched.

Over 30 families were left homeless.

All the Stormont Govt. did for them was to put them in miserable pre-fabricated huts on waste ground.

And even the huts were provided by the British charitable organisation ‘Shelter’. A voluntary group, the Bombay St.

Housing Association, was set up.

Money was collected in America by Bernadette McAliskey and others and donations came from all over Ireland but especially from the people of the Falls Road. Eventually Bombay St.

was re-built with most of the work being done voluntarily by the men of the area. 33 houses were built and allocated to the former residents of Bombay St. The houses were modern but the rents were a lot higher than those of the old Bombay St. Most of the residents are paying £3.75 per week which doesn’t include heating and this is a heavy burden on the working class families of the area.

Now the Bombay St. Housing Association is proposing to increase all rents by 50% and the residents can’t afford to pay. The Association say the high rents all along, and now the proposed increase, are because the money raised initially wasn’t enough to cover the cost of building and they had to borrow money from the ol. debt Banks and the Govt. Govt. should have re-built houses in the first place But it was the Government which should have re-built Bombay St. in the first place. It was their hate-crazed followers who brunt the houses down and their biased police force who let them do it. The Bombay St.

Housing Association has saved the Govt. money by doing their job for them. It is ludicruous that they should be paying the Govt. interest on loans for houses which the Govt. are responsible for anyway. Association should drop rent increase demand The people of Bombay St. éan’t afford a 50% rent increase and they shouldn’t have to pay it. The Association should drop all plans to increase the rents and demand the immediate cancellation of their “‘debt”’ to the Govt. and also that the Govt. pay off their debt to the Banks. © If Stormont and Westminster could pay out £64 million in 5 years to subsidise the Orange aristocrats of labour in the Shipyard, then let them hand over a few thousand to compensate the people of Bombay St. whose houses and possessions were destroyed.

NO RENT INCREASE FOR BOMBAY ST.!

DEMAND THAT THE GOVT. PAY OFF

THE HOUSING ASSOCIATION’S DEBTS!

The New Lodge is one of the few Since the early days of the campaign the area has been noted for its tough an spirited resistance to the remaining old working-class anti-Union- : - : British army. The. first soldier ever to CaS GB ist ghettoes in Belfast. Its isolation and proximity to the Loyalist Tigers Bay ig : : - : and Shore Road, has made it the l1/ A \ be killed in N. Ireland during the i { present trouble was shot dead during a riot in the New Lodge district.

frequent target for Orange fascists.

Billy Reid, one of the first I.R.A.

The explosions at McGurks Bar : ig f th ee War of the volunteers to be killed in action was from the New Lodge. district took a terrible toll of children, women and men and over a period of years dozens of the local residents have been pcked off going to or coming from work, walking down the street or on occasions sitting in their own homes. Jails & Dole queues filled from N.Lodge Many of the cells and cages of Crumlin Road and Armagh Jails, Long Kesh and Magilligan camps are filled with young people from the New Lodge.

So too are the Dole queues. Although the docks, the Duncrue Street Complex Jennymount Industrial Estate, Gallahers cigarette factory, etc. are quite close to the New Lodge they employ very few people from the area and even then usually only in lower-paid, manual-type jobs.

So it is not surprising that nearly half the male working population is unemployed. Price of supporting struggle This is the price which the people are being forced to pay by the British for supporting the present campaign to force British interests and oppression out of Ireland. Cp

EM BE

New Lodge ‘mini-Motorman’ After Operation Motorman had come into effect, the New Lodge was later singled out for another ‘mini-Motorman’ in which the area was placed practically under curfew and ripped apart in arms searches. Nothing was found, yet only hours after the operation ended, another soldier was shot dead. British and Loyalist assassins Similarly a few days after ‘Bloody Sunday’ in Derry, the New Lodge came in for its own massacre when one night six young men were shot dead and others wounded by the British Army. Since then a campaign of terror by assassins has been carried on by army-protected loyalist fascists.

Recently during a particularly bad spate of murders a car bomb was planted outside a Catholic primary school. The explosion devasted several nearby houses and injured children playing in the street.

fom

SPRINGFIELD »

2 Teen) lymurphy e | en st Phe. 5 bs Playing Te i! Fields, : Repression fails to repress New Lodge All this indicates the ruthless determination of the authorities to hammer all resistance in the area.

But the violent upsurge in recent weeks after the ‘Long Kesh Riot* not only proved that the people were not cowed by murder and terror — it also boosted the morale and the confidence of the people in themselves.

The people of the New Lodge have hung on for five years now, and are far from surrendering now that victory is closer than ever.

People from the estate immediately The murder of Gerard Fennell shows Was MURDERED organised a march to the headquarters up once again the dual standards of the of General King — the British Army GOC, British imperialist forces. For during the who lives in a large mansion not far UWC strike the British Army stood by It is now becoming standard practice for Gerard Fennell, along with many other away. They broke open the large entrance and watched armed Loyalists hi-jack the British army to lie in an ambush people from the area, was engaged in gates and were finally stopped by two hundreds of vehicles — and not a word position from which they can watch the hi-jacking vehicles in the estate to block saracen loads of soldiers at a second barrier. | Was said, let alone shots fired.

movement of their prospective victims, kill roads as a protest against Hugh Coney’s Two women were finally admitted to And these are the security’ forces them and still not be seen by anyone murder. Shortly afterwards the army put make a protest to a lower-rank officer that Bishop Philbin wants us to put our around. This exercise was used most out a statement saying that Gerard who promised an enquiry. But two later faith in.

recently in the Twinbrook Estate in Belfast. | Fennell was armed, despite denials by the the murderer was back on daily patrol in We strongly condemn the murder Following on the murder of Hugh Coney, people present when he was shot, and by the estate. So much for promises from of Gerard Fennell and offer our sympathy the unarmed Long Kesh prison escapee. the driver of the man that was stopped. the B.A. to his young wife and family.

PACIFIST BURIED—

WITH FULL MILITARY HONOURS

NS Foe OR Ou'DdD thik i ‘ zi Lons Kes

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CHRISTMAS DAY MARCHES

| WED. DEG. 20TH

AC e Pec le’s Democracy isa .

fighting for ® sunhcnnatehe” 32-County Work blig in Ireland, In that fight @ learned through our experier oe ~_ a the North = there Id seni of the domination ; and exploitation of Ireland British imperialism is therefore support t FULL DETAILS TO BE ANNOUNCED IN UNFREE CITIZEN LATER| Jf sivcomine:2 svat, to tck up ORGANISE _A_BUS IN YOUR AREA_NOW gape oo — and wat anges ¥ teuas eae —rrereereeerreeeeeeenmeersetiiceePOliticians — support Britain in iain a ; of partition in Ir ‘ and actively promote this by t!

eo If you are interested in joining the People’s Democracy and fighting for policy of repression in the 26 C . a Socialist 32 County Republic, fill in the form below and send it to Consequently uggle for National Liberation and . ey ivi at aed woe 3