Movement takes
Edinburgh on Saturday 28 June. It will be a day of debate, discussion, and exchange of information. Local Labour MP Ron Brown will open the conference and there will be reports on the work being done in the labour movement, around the issue of Irish political prisoners, recruitment, and on the other activities in which the TOM is engaged.
The last session of the conference will take resolutions the activities of TOM which now has over 40 branches scattered throughout the country.
Three issues are likely to come to the fore: a national demonstration in the autumn; Charter 80; and the establishment of a functioning headquarters.
Demonstration The proposal for a demonstration was aired in a short paper submitted by the International Marxist Group in the run-up to the conference and in a statement produed by the Committee for Withdrawal from Ireland for the for Withdrawal' forum held on 14 June in London which was attended by approximately 250 delegates and observers.
There is a difference of emphasis between on Irish Unity', 'Voices The ununthe and the IMG and the CWI. Both are agreed that one demand of the demonstration should be opposition to Tory plans for the North of Ireland, but there is a difference on additional demands.
The CWI is suggesting the slogans, "End Partition', Withdrawal'. The IMG determination for all the Irish people now'.
Alternatives The disparity between the two alternatives is not just terminological. While the demands put forward by the CWI might appear to be concrete alternatives to the are in fact too vague on the one hand and too restrictive on the other.
The IMG believes that it would be politically incorrect to make a call for Irish unity the basis of a demonstration in Britain. political structures will be developed in Ireland after Britain has been driven out will be up to hopes that a united, socialist republic will be established, but it would not dream of suggesting that a solidarity movement For •For a British proposing 'Self Sentiments proposal - for forward by own in Britain adopts such a position. The job ot such a movement is to support the struggle of the Irish to decide for themselves how they want to be governed. The probability is that this will take the form of a united Ireland, but that is up to the Irish people to decide, not for demonstrators in this country to demand.
Second, the demands in support of British withdrawal and the ending of partition, while correct in themselves, become almost meaningless if they are only vague sentiments. The IMG self-determination now makes this much more specific.
On the Charter 80 campaign the IMG will suggest that the TOM conference gives this important initiative its full support. Charter 80 has been established on the five demands put the Irish political themselves. These are: the right to wear their clothes; free association; the right to refrain from prison work; the right to organise their own education and recreation; the right to full remission of sentences.
On this basis the expectation is that Charter membership of TOM. the possibility of more effective work on the rights of Irish political prisoners than has been the case so far. At the same time it would be wrong to see support for the fight for political status for these prisoners as a formal basis for