e

lreland’s
complex: .

struggle

The long drawn-out agony of the North goes on.
Economic crisis of an acute character is now. added to
the fundamental political crisis, but all hopes of serious

advance to a solution remain blocked by the continua-
tion of the Provisionals’ military campaign.. That cam-
-paign should never have begun. It should now be ended. ite

‘i

Support for the prisoners’ demands for political =e status was s limited by those rey to express support for

The lack of general support for the campaign, espe- 5
cially from those opposed to the British presence in
Ireland was particularly shown during the H-Blocks
Campaign. What was significant was not the number

~ mobilized, but those who held back, unwilling to support:

the demand for political status in case that demand was
seen as support for the military campaign.
The Communist Party has consistently held to the

| view. that the political status of those jailed because of:

their activities in the political crisis should be recog-
nized. With special courts, special interrogation
methods, special rules of ‘ evidence’ and special prisons,
how could it be otherwise?

But the Communist Party had to refrain from: i in-
volvement in the National H-Blocks Committee precise-
ly because there could be no question of being thought to
support an armed campaign which has played into the
hands of British imperialism.

The Stronge killings (former speaker in the disbanded
N. Ireland parliament.and his son) once again em-
phasized how completely out of touch with political, and
indeed military, reality the Provisional IRA are.

Communist opposition to the military campaign is not
based on any pacifist or pseudo-moralist reasons. It is

‘hot a question of supporting the right of South Africans

or Zimbabweans, but rejecting it at home. The point is
that political circumstances determine whether or not

-Inilitary means are needed or helpful. And always, they

will be the last resort.
In our case, there’ are two factors. Firstly, for all its
weaknesses we have an independent state in the South.

the provisional IRA’s military campaign.

even within its structures there are forces that will pres-
surize the British. The mass political campaign of the
civil rights movement created the conditions for that
pressurizing, and created conditions too where Britain
was internationally vulnerable for its policy towards Ire-
land. The military campaign ended that.

It-gave the excuse to do nothing but collaborate to
those who wanted that excuse; it gave the British a
pretext for their repressive involvement; and it forced off
the streets the very mass movement that had put the
British on the defensive.

The second point is that it ignores the fact that existing
Protestant support for Unionism is not biologically es-
sential in Protestants.. There is a material basis for dis-
crimination and sectarianism without which it cannot
survive, And particularly in the light of the exacerbated
economic crisis in the North, the objective necessity of
progress towards unity is becoming ever clearer. :

What is needed is to recover the mass political move-
ment to pressure Britain. And this is given a special
urgency because while the Provisionals pose and strut on
the stage of history, the dangers of a real sell-out of the
essence of independence in return for a superficial unity

is well on the cards and under active discussion.

A mass political movement_could prevent that sell-
out. It could set the pace and determine the terms of
reference. But such amovement must be based on politi-

-Tule. over any part of Ireland, we should press for an

-block to achieving the diminution of tension essential to

cal realities. It must be able to build on the actual needs
and demands of the people of the North.

The way forward is that spelled out ‘in the resolution
For People’s Unity, passed at the 17th National Con-
gress of the Communist Party of Ireland. Rejecting in
principle any spurious ‘right’ by British Imperialism to

unequivocal declaration of intent to withdraw on n the part
of the British Government.

But most importantly, we should press for the intro-
duction of democracy, for the dismantling of the system
of sectarianism and discrimination, for a positive re-
dressing of the balance of discrimination endured over
the last sixty years, and fora major economic revival of
industry. The context of this is clearly a devolved as-
sembly in the North with full fiscal and economic powers
to tackle the economic and social crisis, and with the
political power to advance to unity.

The declaration of intent to withdraw and an all-Irish
context as a guarantee of democratic rights will provide
us with a real basis for advance, without compromising
on our rights to independence and neutrality.

But the military campaign remains a major stumbling

re-establishing the mass movement.
— from the Irish Socialist

It has collaborated with the repression in the North, but

The CLC’s human rights campaign

iodrdine to the press, union mem-
bers across Canada were asked by the
head office of the Canadian Labor Con-
gress, to mark May Day by joining a
campaign with Amnesty International to
Pressure six foreign governments to free
One worker in each country imprisoned
or restricted for union activities.

These six countries whose govern-

| Alfred Dewhurst

(_Marxism-Leninism Today

bodies in the land; where fhe exploitation
of man by man, and class by class has
been thrown into the ashcan of history as
a result of social ownership of the means
of production; where all citizens stand
equal before the law and society regard-
less of race, nationality, sex or belief;
where the guiding motto of the state is
everything for the good of man.
Sane ced ok

.

_ ments are to be pressured are: Pakistan,

Yugoslavia, Syria, South Africa,
Guatemala and the Soviet Union.
* ok Ok

The reported aim of this joint action of

the two organizations is to ‘‘get Canadian

union members more involved in thé
international human rights movement”’

The CLC has given Amnesty a $10, 000
grant to help pay a_full-time person to

lobby union leaders and members to

support a campaign to free prisoners “‘of
Conscience, to end torture in prisons and
to ban the death penalty around the

world.”’ The person chosen for thisjobis .

Eunice Harker. Her aim, according to
the press is to ‘‘shake people’’ into flood-

' Ing foreign governments asking freedom

for persons; ‘‘especially ordinary work-
€rs’’ imprisoned for non-violent union or
Political activities.

* * *

An immediate, upthinking response
from the unwary to this action of the
CLC leadership-could: be to say ‘‘well
done CLC” to borrow a phrase from a
Well known TV commercial. But based
On some knowledge of Amnesty Inter-
National’s activities and methods, we
Caution close examination of its appa-
rently ‘‘humanistic appeals”’ for hidden

_ Political motives.

a *

Even a cursory look at the list of six
countries whose governments the CLC
has agreed to pressure shows that one
(South Africa) is an imperialist country,
the government of which brutally oper-
ates an official policy of racism directed

‘ against the vast majority of its popula-

tion. Two (Pakistan and Gautemala) are
client governments of foreign imperialist
states. One (Syria) has an anti-imperialist
government. Two (Yugoslavia and the
Soviet Union) are communist govern-
ments of socialist countries. Rather a
mixed bag, but: purposely so.

* * *

The list of si six is purposely contrived to
lure Canadian workers into a pressure
campaign against the two socialist states
on the list under the cover of human
rights. This is the hidden political motive
of Amnesty International which is an
organization that is far from: worker-
oriented. To be taken in by such a list, if
such be the case, reveals a woeful lack of
class consciousness, not to speak of
working-class internationalism on the
part of the CLC leadership.

- It goes without saying, that the CLC ©

should support by every means open to
it, the cause of the oppressed workers of
South Africa; Pakistan, Guatemala and

Syria. For all of them suffer from the

exploitation of capitalism as do Canadian
workers. Of course there are differeing

-degrees of exploitation. Just as there are

differing degrees of oppression and the
violation of human, civil and union—

rights. :
ake

For instance; in South. Africa: the
Black workers are struggling and fighting
to establish and to secure trade union and

political rights which have been denied —

them for years too long to count. The
same sort of struggles are waged by the
workers of Pakistan and Guatemala. In
these countries militants lay their lives
on the line when they undertake dem-.
ocratic class struggles for freedom from
want, oppression right-wing reactionary
governments or military dictatorship and
official terrorism against the people, and
above all for human dignity.

But under the cover of such struggles,
the CLC leadership sees fit to join a pres-
sure campaign against the governments
of two countries, where the above-
mentioned evils against the dignity of
man have been abolished forever; where
real political power is in the hands of the
working people; where the working
people’s economic, social, cultural and
political organizations are the leading

Surely, the CLC leadership has within
its ranks sufficient intellectual savvey to
appreciate the basic difference between
the nature of the two socialist countries
‘on the Amnesty list and the basic nature
of the other four countries; as well as the
basic differences between Syria and the
other three. One would be naive indeed
to think otherwise. Surely, the CLC
leadership knows why the capitalist
monopolists and their helpers champion
the alleged grievances of the scabs of
socialism disguised as ‘‘dissidents’’.
Surely, they know that socialist re-
negades are no different in essence than
union renegades.

Experience has shown over the years
that when an individual or a clique delib-
erately set out to discredit, sabotage or
destroy a union, the leadership moves
. swiftly to nip such destructive action in
the bud. And rightly so, for that is what
the union membership would want.
Then why should they deny workers and.
their leaderships in socialist countries
the same right?

ok * *

‘Class conscious workers and all dem-
ocratic persons should tum their backs
on Amnesty International's pressure:

campaign against the socialist countries. .

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 29, 1981—Page 5