is nationalist parsocial Democratic had to Party (SDLP) harassment that police, in not standing a and for political status -ly believe that could gather 30,000 votes.
blish an interview centres on the vious hunger strike em- period of the capitalist crisis. hey was ock The need to offer an altere of native came up not lust trade union movement. It was posed for Irish society as a tall whole. The campaign polarising the country.
If anyone ever doubted the had fundamental importance of the L0B- scues be prisoners, they should into realised it watching the effect d of this campaign had on political and social life in this country. they There wasn't • In organisation — ison Fein and People's Democracy d be that wasn't rocked to its Dive foundations over the question of attitude towards the prisoners. became clear that those who were wrong on the question of the imperialism could not fight efcur- fectively either for the interests dn't of the groups they claimed to акrepresent. but In the feminist movement, up for examnle. the against feminists who were opade DUSCU ost and the more they objected the more anti-feminist you iney became.
It was the same in the trade an for- unionists who tried to argue ого- against support uld prisoners found Jers more and more forced to resort тіс reactionary class arguments. Harassed In fact, the campaign against confront heavy degrade, the break the British army prisonels and the UDR at every step. The For example, hussey, (ine spokesperson ol women's issues for Fine Gael, LNe non- imperialist of parties)
H-Block campaign Were being UNCU politically aware women fighting, were being used as a ploy of men.
Those women didn't have the political intelligence to see what they were doing. tually said Inal the women cam- Armagh prison were only going on hunger strike to emulate the men, that they ordered onto it by the men Here was a woman who had been árguing all her life that women were intelligent human beings. And then she fell back in the on the argument that the reason Mairead Farrell was on hunger strike was live without McKearney.
Tommy McKearney's going to die the Armach brison. out of dumb have loyality, and die with him Then you Burcas single «enuncan excer no became outside of Sinn pulled out the inal tne source or violence is ine male ethic. It has no basis in opto take pression, slum housing.
And it and women nothing to do with it. want to go off and kill them. selves, we should have nothing to do with it. organise themselves against all violence. we natue Line trade-unionists wno aid not want to support the prisoners turning to class-collaborationist You're dividing the workforce, Those trade setting worker against worker in this factory.
for the themselves this discussion, the workers are arguing at their machines. anu-working level or procucuvity nas Tallen They would stressed that they called only for a vote the late 60s.
the allclIDl humiliate and the nationalist fact that Sands' Gemma were doing relatively more pro the bourgeois told me that in the not our concern.
women The women In were us jobs.
She aclevel of productivity.
and creating had been and is not conditions, no jobs. was that she didn't want Tommy and his sweetheart in to be class iș going to lie down ported the prisoners. had Mairin De former Official the Socialist argument will make unemolovincil.
Violence is the male ego, democratic should have it mer support it.
Women should On the other hand, you had the tactics hunger strikers?
They said:
The started off by Since we've had to take up The political. argue that while Rights movement did in And in the same way it can touch off a violent crisis of the system. jobs were being wiped out in the North by the recession, the undefined Southern nation well, and the problems of the North were It's not good for us to be divided over what was going to happen in the North, that is not good for the national interest.
People had come in here and Sands. built a factory and were giving And in present recession keeping these jobs remaintaining a certain And you're coming in here the prisoners. you're dividing our workforce vil sulliculllie tilal Is lut warc and if prisoners you continue to do that, then at the end of the day, you will anger our employer, and if you own prisoner. factory away, and we will have Then you'd get the other side of the coin. Look at the people people who support you, have Fiana Fail, it a bour them. The geois party. We were supposed collaborationists because Fianna Fail people supWe got their argument from Workers Move- munity ment. We cannot support you unless you raise a demand tha it impossible for members of Fianna Fail to support you. The slogan should be 'We support the prisoners and workers control'.
That way not terrible people like Fianna Fail will be able to people in their How did the various political groupings manage to work in the campaign? Donognmore, What did you think about followed by the careful What he hunger strike was seven men and three women. I think that they way they were chosen on the inside was very effective and very gesture, it showed great political ability on the part of ment. Campaigning for Bobby Sands The hunger strikers the second time "This round (from left to was right) Patsy O'Hara Frankie Hughes, Ray saying McCreesh and Bobby The ones chosen were with out doubt the best men. The were selected to represent the various areas, and there was a great affinity of people in these areas with their This gave the lie to all the propaganda that the Provos were a military parasite, that was afraid of prisoner from this area was Tommy McKearney were very Tew people who didn't know him, didn't know him as a very good perSOnSo, there was a great comwill WILD une prisoners. Moreover, the herosmore prisoners was all tiportant factor. I don't think that the people would mobilised without this example. The emotion and the nationalism it drew out of the people frightened the establishment.
was remarkable • own small way were ready to do. It came to the point that people were fighting for the right to pray. We had one of the local clergymen up in publicly stated that people should be how and when they prayed during the hunger strike in case it was construed as support for the prisoners. that was sayıng was 'You are not allowed to stand in the street and pray for the prisoners because it may be construed as an anti-imperialist might be construed as part of the resistance moveWe had a serious discussion in this town about whether we should put up a picket line on the church with signs saying, organisation does SUDDOIL the prisoners' That because the priest had refused to lead the people in the Rosary for the prisoners.
It was the ones who wanted the participation of the clergy themselves who wanted picket the church.
Well, do you think that the country was on the verge of a revolution or not?
There was a feeling in the meetings, not that we would Tree Ireland by caristilas Du that we were on the start of something, the end of which freedom and a united He ano. sere was alone rodu between here and there but that we had started on that road again and we could see the end ot it in our litetime It was a feeling that you could actually It's like my experience in You start out thinking you don't have a chance of winning, it's just to get your positions out. And then you begin to see that you can win. It's like the first time I ran for the mid-Ulster seat.
It's like the beginning of the civil rights movement, when people felt that at least they had ended forever the days of quiet subjection I don't think that this is something that can be underestimated. layer of people who would be with you, if they thought you had a chance of winning. As long as they are not convinced you're winning, they wouldn't touch yOU. They don't want to get involved.
We had begun to pull people like that over to our side, not because they supported the prisoners particularly but because they gave the impression of being people who were Socialist Challenge confident and determined and could win a lot more than they were asking for. who dise need this and made There were jokes that we were trying to drive the people into the bost. office, that is to an insurrectior like 1916. •was saying toward the end of the hunger strike that we had to be pre pared for all the possibilities.
possibility was tha Sean McKenna would die and he followed within a tew days Peeling of the people our The Tommy McKearney The area of Tyrone is an indication of the sort of emotion the National Committee would have had to deal with.
The local committees were saying that if McKearney died they woe marc Kesh. And come hell or high water they'd go through her They'd go through the wire Now nationally they said tha was madness. i can see that 1l was madness. But we couldn't have stopped it.
It was quite possible that several thousand people would have marched into a situation where they would have been massacred and we could no have stopped it. If that had happened it was very difficul to say where you went from there My argument was that if something like that happened vou had to bush it on Any other position would mean retreat. it was an indication that people were going to drive her beyond the bounds of what we were discussing, which were shop closures , days of mourning, or the closest thing to a general strike we could get It was quite possible that we could be in a situation of a general explosion and if we backed away from it, if could not handle it politically then we were lost because it would swing against us.
The atmosphere in the country on the fifty-first day ol the hunger strike was electric -the hunger strike ended two days later. believed that anything could happen.
16 April 1981 Page 9
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...Monthly ..And on the same date in the month thereafter. month to Watada Japan Revolutionary Watada and thirteen others (mostly JRCL members) were being victimised for their part in the massive demonstrations against Narita airport on 2o vacy The other defendants received sentences or bel ween four and nine years in prison Construction airport has been delayed by DIOLCSLS and demonstrations ever since the plans were announced in 1965. Although now officially open, it still has onlansported to it by rail ly one runway, fuel is rather than underground pipeline. , and security is so tight that all departing passengers are bodysearched and well-wishers are prohibited for Japanese militant A TEN-YEAR sentence was handed down last Kumeo, a leader of the Communist League, Japanese section of the Fourth International.
'functions as such even betore its inauguration', but since it had only the Judge to convince (there are no juries criminal trials), it made the Chare SUCK The 14 will no doubt appeal the sentences, and meanwhile about three hundred more demonstrators are on ba waiting trial.
against th airport still continue focussing on the unsaf transportation of jet fu by train through al cas Letters of protest at th verdict and sentences shoul suoreme Kasumigaseki Tokyo, Japan, with a copy the Airport U00osiIk Senue. Shinjidaish Shiba, Tokyo. Messages of solidari could also be sent via Shi jidaisha.
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