By TOM FOLEY

NEW YORK — “The situation
in Northern Ireland is into!er-
able. People just can’t live this
way any longer,” Mrs. Margaret
Murray of Belfast told a news
conference here.

Mrs. Murray, mother of five
children, told newsmen that. the
brutality of the British troops
“has to be seen to be believed.”

Mrs. Murray’s sister-in-law
was shot and killed by British
soldiers. Two of her brothers,
now interned in Long Kesh con-
centration camp, were so badly
tortured during their British

military police interrogation that

their cases have been taken up
by Amnesty International, the
London-based political prisoners’
organization. A third brother re-
quired 12 stitches to close a face
wound inflicted by a British
Army rifle-butt.

“My brother, Colum, was ar-
rested by two detectives on Aug.
16,” Mrs. Murray said. “He was
punched, kicked and beaten for
43 hours of ‘interrogation.’ They
kept putting a gun to his head
and pulling the trigger, telling
him he was going to die.”

Mrs. Murray said she belonged
to no political organization, legal
or illegal. She added, “T used to

. say when I heard these torture
stories, ‘This is IRA propagan-
da.’ But then I saw my brother
six days after his ‘interrogation’
and I could still see the marks
of the beatings on him.

“My brother, Eamon, was ar-
rested later, and when I went to
see him, he didn’t even recog-
nize me.”

Mrs, Murray said Amnesty
International had examined the
documentary evidence of her
two brothers’ torture and agreed
to present their cases before the
Council of Europe’s Human
Rights Court.

Her brothers are now in Long
Kesh concentration camp _ in

(1) Arrest without warrant;
corpus or a court of law;

any hours of day or night;

answer 8 question;

property;
imprisoned without trial;

‘

regulations.”

leliovable brutality’

The Special Powers Act

Northern Ireland
Under the Act the authorities are empowered to:

(2) imprison without charge or trial and deny recourse to hebeus
(3) Enter and search homes without warrant, and with force, at

(4) Declare a curfew and prohibit meetings, assembiles (includ-
ing fairs and markets) and processions;

Permit punishment by flogging:

Deny claim to a trial by jury:

Arrest persons it Is desired to examine as witnesses, forcibly
detain them and compel them to answer questions, under
penalties, even if answers may incriminate them. Such a
person is gullty of an offence if he refuses to be sworn or

; (8) Do any act involving interference with the rights of private
(9) Prevent access of relatives or legal advisers to @ person

Prohibit the holding of an inquest after a prisoner's death;
Arrest @ person who “by word of mouth”. spreads falee
reports or makes false statements;

Prohibit the circulation of any newspaper:

Prohibit the possession of any film or gramophone record;
Arrest @ person who does anything “‘caiculated to be pre-
judicial to the preservation of peace or maintenance of order
_- In Northern Ireland and not specifically provided for In the

Northern Ireland, Mrs. Murray
said, under the internment pro-
visions of the Special Powers
Act, which allow them to be
held indefinitely without charge
or trial. There are 1,200 prison-
ers at Long Kesh, she said.

“It’s bitter cold in Long
Kesh,” she said. ‘‘The prisoners
have no heat, no proper clothing,
and no regular facilities for
washing. They are all very dirty
and many have come down with
scabies.”

Asked about religious differ-
ences in Northern Ireland, she
said: “I fear the British troops
more than the Protestants. I feel
as a mother that most Protes-
tant and Catholic mothers want
peace more than anything. I
think most people feel that way.
The bombings that go on are
acts of desperation, of retalia-
tion for unbelievable brutality
people can’t endure.

“We want to smash intern-
ment. Either let the men go or
bring them to trial is what we
say.”

Her sister-in-law, Mrs. Maire
Meehan, and a woman friend
were both shot and killed by
British soldiers while riding
through Belfast in a car.

The British military claimed
at the time that both women
were dressed in military uni-
forms, as “IRA auxiliaries,” but
photographs taken on the scene
of the shooting clearly showed
the two women wearing ordin-
ary civilian clothes.

Both women were shot in the
back of the head at close range.
Mrs. Murray said they had been
demonstrating a new type of
horn used as a warning device
by women in Belfast action
committees to alert neighbor-
hoods to the presence of British
troops. The troops were known
to be very angry about this, she
said.

=

By B. BULATOV

The world has marked the
23rd anniversary of the Univer-
sal Declaration of Human
Rights. Twenty-three years is an
adequate amount of time for the
noble principles proclaimed by
the UN to be implemented.
What could and should be said
in relation to this?

First of all, that the granting
of political and civil rights to
people is a sheer formality if
they lack the opportunity to ex-
ercise economic and _ social
rights as well. No genuine per-
sonal freedom can exist without
the guaranteed right to work,
rest, education, and maintenance
in old age or in case of sickness.

The pitiful speakers who have
been yapping in London’s Hyde
Park for decades about the ne-
cessity to respect human dignity
have not brought the triumph of
social justice nearer by one iota.
But then it is an absurd idea to
speak of social fairness in the
world of capitalism. The money-
bags who constitute less than
1% of the population in the
USA appropriate two-thirds of
the country’s national income.
The wealth of three clans of
multibillionaires — the Rockefel-
lers, DuPonts and Mellons—ex-
ceeds one year’s wages and the
entire savings of all. American
workers.

Liberation of Labor

The implementation of the
basic human freedoms and rights
depends on the socio-economic
pattern of society. The liberation
of labor from exploitation is the
main condition for genuine per-
sonal freedom. Experience has
shown that only socialism liber-
ates labor and secures real
equality in all respects for each
and every member of society. It
was not by chance that the
USSR and other socialist coun-
tries insisted, in spite of the re-
sistance put up by the capitalist
West, that the clauses on social,
economic and cultural rights of
man be incorporated in the De-
claration. M. Cranston, an Eng-
lish jurist, had to admit in his
book What Are Human Rights?,
which is inimical to socialism on
the whole, that the inclusion of
economic and social rights in
the Universay’ Declaration of
Human Rights constituted a
considerable diplomatic victory
scored by the communist coun-
tries in the UN.

Labor is the source of man’s
subsistence, and therefore the
right to work is the main one
among socio-economic human
rights. The chapter on the fun-
damental rights and duties of
citizens in the USSR Constitu-
tion starts as follows: “Citizens
of the USSR have the right to
work, that is, the right to guar-
anteed employment and payment
for their work in accordance
with its quantity and quality.
The right to work is ensured by
the socialist organization of the
national economy, the steady
growth of the productive forces
of Soviet society, the elimination
of the possibility of economic
crises, and the abolition of un-
employment.”

Jobs Are Assured

The recently adopted Law on
the 9th Five-Year Plan lays it
down that state capital invest-
ments will grow by almost 40%
by 1975, as compared with 1970.
The increase in industrial pro-
duction will be nearly 50%. It is
planned to create approximately
10,000,000 news jobs. In other
words, the right of Soviet man
to work will be even more firmly
_guaranteed. The Soviet working
people are absolutely assured of
their future. This is not the case

-communal

Expanding power for new industry guarantees jobs. The Burshtyf
heat and power plant on the Bug River is the largest in the Lvo¥

power system.

in the world of capitalism, which
is now passing through a period
of industrial depression, and
where unemployment rages.

“Situations vacant’”’ advertise-
ments, saying “We need turners,
fitters, milling-machine opera-
tors, engineers, technicians,
bookkeepers,” etc.—hang by the
entrances of industrial enter-
prises, research institutions and
offices in the USSR.

Just Wages

“Everyone who works,” says
the Universal Declaration, “has
the right to just.and favorable
remuneration ensuring for him-
self and his family an existence
worthy of human dignity, and
supplemented, if necessary, by
other means of social protec-
tion.”

The minimum wage: in many
areas of our country is to be
raised to 70 roubles per month
in the forthcoming year of 1972,
according to the Law on the 9th
Five-Year Plan. Seventy roubles
is, of course, a modest sum, but
then it is the minimum wage.
On the whole, the average
monthly wage of Soviet working
people will increase to 150
roubles in the forthcoming five-
year period and, with account
taken: of the payments made
from public consumption funds,
it will amount to 200 roubles. It
would be quite opportune here
to remind the reader that the

“USSR has low taxes, one of the

lowest rents in the world (6-8%
of one’s wages, as against 25-
30% in the USA), low prices for
services, transport,
etc.; free medical care and free
education at all levels. The stan-
dard of life of the Soviet people
is by no means the highest in
the world as yet. But what is
important is the trend of its
steady growth.
Equal Pay

“Everyone,” states the Decla-
ration, “without any discrimina-
tion, has the right to equal pay
for equal work.”

The question arises, how is
this article implemented? Any
discrimination with respect to
labor -remuneration has been
eradicated in the Soviet Union,
while the USA has no all-Amer-
ican law on equal pay for equal
work. The ‘New © York * Daily
World wrote that if all the wom-

“ciety is democracy for the Nou

| : a
St
e

«
A

en workers in the USA woulds
overnight turn into men, the |
employers would have to payr
10,000 million dollars more ime:
wages than at present. Is thatts
not a feature of the other capi,
talist countries as well? K
The right to work cannot bey:
separated from a person’s attita
tude towards labor. Man_ nott
only has the right to work im
socialist society, but work is hisA
foremost primary duty as wellic
The USSR, which has abolishedli:
exploitation of man by man forti
ever, has no classes or social:
groups free from the obligatiome
to work. We cannot conceive @.
life of idleness or parasitism. \d
The overwhelming majority of}
Soviet people cannot even ima
gine life without work. Theif\t
life, of course, includes innume
erable other things as well, bulh
it is precisely labor which they
consider to be their vocation and,
the purpose of life. Therefore,
honest and enthusiastic work:
elevates a man in the eyes Oh
Soviet society, and makes him an
example to be copied. The social
ist emulation campaigns — thal
mighty stimulus of economigl
development — are based upon
this feature of free labor, which*
becomes not only a duty, but a
natural necessity as well. |
Persecute Parasites {t

Every able-bodied person if,
a socialist society must work\¢
This obligation is not only 4 |
moral norm, but is supported by
law. The state, acting on behall;
of the working people, pers;
cutes the few parasites and usé\,,
severe sanctions against them\,.
We think that forcing a parasit\,
to become a human being i
highly democratic and humane,

Naturally, our enemies do no,
like this. They raise a hullabal\
loo about “the stifling of demQ
cracy” and try to describe thi
parasites sent to do obligato
labor as some kind of “cham
pions of freedom,” “‘social pro\,
testers,” etc. Let us remin(
everyone once again that thi;
principle of socialism is, “ \
who does not work neither shi
he eat.” As for the concept
democracy, it was always a clas |
concept, and remains such. Thy
democracy of our socialist $0,

;

tu

ing people. (Moscow New

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 1972—PAGE 6