Media distortions hurt Ireland

Bombers not IRA wing

By RICHARD ORLANDINI

Sean Keane, General Secret-
of the Irish Republican
yuibs of the U.S. and Canada,
nd a member of the Official
rjsh Republican Army, has been
yorking in Canada and recently
yas interviewed by the Cana-
jjan Tribune.

Mir. Keane explained that his
fe in Canada was to establish
¢gpublican Clubs here, for pub-
ic relations and defense. The de-
ene work he said, is to defend
he “Irish people’s struggle from
he lies being carried by the
ngws services to discredit the
syruggles being conducted in
feland. The news services; UPI,
AP and Reuters are headquarter-
: in London and their main
sgurce of information is from
hye British Army in Northern
eland. And one can’t expect
ese sources to be reliable.”
As an example of the kind of
jstortion that is particularly
armful to the struggles in Ire-
gnd, Mr. Keane pointed out
at, “In press reports here,
Jhenever there is a bombing, it
y blamed on the IRA. But what
e press fails to do is to dif-
yrentiate between the Official

to which I belong, and the
Ovisionals who, because they
only have a militaristic program

d are completely devoid of a

litical line, play into the hands
f the British. The Provisionals,
ho with their bombing cam-
aign have killed innocent civil-
jams, are not a wing of the IRA

the press reports, but are ac-
gially a splinter group that
xoke with the Officials because
e Officials insisted upon car-
ying on the civil rights move-
ent in Ireland. The Provision-
S are now little more than gun-
rrying elitists whose lack of
nderstanding of the complex
litical situation has led them
jyo a stage where their bombing
campaign has fizzled out.”

Right to Arrest
“Another distortion in the
edia coverage of the Irish
truggle arose last week when
‘jhe Irish parliament in Dublin
‘was debating the passage of a
ill which would give police of-
ficers the right to arrest any IRA
guspects. The bill would also put
fhe burden of proof on those ar-
ested to prove that they are
pot members of the IRA.

As the bill was being debated,
and meeting considerable oppo-
Ygition, a bomb was exploded in

‘the offices of the Irish Transport
and General Workers Union. The
ress immediately said that it
{was the doing of the IRA when
jt was probably done by the
government to scare through the
assage of the bill, or it was
done by the British Army. Need-
sifess to say, as a result of the
“bombing, the opposition to the
1$ pill collapsed and it passed.”
; Mr. Keane also discussed the
role that the Canadian and U.S.
governments have been playing
‘Nim the suppression of the Irish
struggles. “In Suffield, Alberta,
at a Canadian Army base, Brit-
ish troops, we suspected, were
trained for duty in Ireland. The
base commander told us the
troops were being trained for
NATO and not for Ireland. But
later, Britain requested of NATO
that it be allowed to withdraw
three of the units, which had
been trained in Suffield, from
Europe for use in Ireland. The

jackets, The Queen’s Own High-
danders and The Queen’s Own
Regiment. :

units were the Royal Green-:

Working-class unity

, democratic rights are sought by Cathal Gould-

ing (above), Chief of Staff of the Official IRA, whose spokesman,
Sean Keane, gave the accompanying interview.

Okayed by Nixon

“The request for their with-
drawal went to General. Good-
pastor of the U.S. Army (NATO
force) and from there it was re-
ferred to Nixon. Nixon approv-
ed the request and ‘covered’ the
withdrawal by putting more
U.S. troops into Europe. For
this Nixon was publicly thanked
by the British Parliament. Can-
ada trains them and the U.S.
gives them the permission to go
and kill.”

When asked about the rela-
tions of the Officials to other
political parties in Ireland, Mr.
Keane noted that “the Commun-
ist Party of Ireland and the Of-
ficial IRA have worked together
in the civil rights movement in
Northern Ireland. In fact this

BRUSSELS — The 2nd Con-
gress of Greek Anti-dictatorship
Committees Abroad took place
here in November. In a message
to the Congress, the Communist
Party of Greece greeted all its
countrymen abroad who, through
their anti-dictatorship fight were
contributing to the struggle of
the Greek people to bring down
the junta.

The Congress, it said, was
taking place at a time of conti-
nuing fascist terror but, simul-
taneously, of increasing resist-
ance to the dictatorship, a grow-
ing spirit of unity, and a sharp-
ening of conflict within the
ranks of the junta itself.

The junta’s policies, dictated
by domestic and foreign mono-
polies and the imperizlist inter-
ests of the USA and NATO,
were making social, economic
and national problems more
acute, and gave rise to serious
dangers for the people and the
nation.

The message continued:

“The anti-popular posicy of the
junta on the one hand, the ever-
increasing military obligations
it is undertaking to NATO and
the American imperialists and,
in particular, the granting of
bases to the U.S. Sixth Fleet and
-the opening interference in Cyp-
rus, have meant the chasm divid-
ing the junta from the people
has deepened, and opposition to
the junta has grown simultane-

was one of the differences that
led to the breakaway of the Pro-
visionals.

“The Provisionals felt that the
civil rights struggle had served
its purpose so they tried to
break up that struggle. They also
tried to isolate it so that it was
just the Officials and the Com-
munist Party of Ireland. But the
people saw through this ruse
and recognized that winning
struggles around civil rights
forces the British to lose some
control of their domination of
Northern Ireland.” All this isn’t
to say that there aren’t differ-
ences: between. the Communist
Party and the IRA but neither
allows those differences to pre-
vent united action on certain
issues.”

ously with anti-Americanism.

“All this prevented the junta’s
effort to break its isolation from
being successful as also its ef-
forts to decide international
public opinion.

Communist Proposals

“The various reactionary solu-
tions which Greek and foreign
reactionary forces are preparing
behind the scene to maintain jin
essence the regime of coercion
and the military positions of
American imperialism and
NATO, cannot take the country
out of the impasse, solve the
crucial problems or lead to the
restoration of democratic free-
dom.

“The Communist Party of
Greece (KKE) considers that the
only way to national progress
and the restoration of demo-
cratic freedom, is to bring down
the junta and guarantee the
sovereign right of the people
freely to decide by its vote the
constitution and government of
its choice. An. essential prere-
quisite for this is co-ordinated
activity, organization and strug-
gle of all the anti-dictatorship
forces on the basis of a mini-
mum program acceptable to all
opponents of the dictatorship:

e formation of a government

by the anti-dictatorship par-
ties and organizations,

e abolition of pre-dictatorship

and dictatorship special
laws, and laws 509 and 375,

“Remind West Germany
| of West Berlin status

*

The. West German Govern-
ment was continuing to make
unauthorized attempts to exert
‘its authority over West Berlin,
the official German Democratic
mews agency ADN stated in
October.

Quoting “competent quarters
in the GDR, the news agency
stated:

“In connection with the depo-
sition in London and Washing-
ton of the documents ratifying
the ‘Treaty on the Rescue of
Astronauts, the Return of Astro-
nauts, and the Return of Objects
Launched into Outer Space,’ the
Government of the German Fe-
deral Republic made a declara-
tion stating that it was also
valid for ‘Land Berlin’.

“Competent quarters in the
GDR emphasized in this connec-
tion that the German Federal
Republic has no authority to

Arabs show

BERLIN (ADN) — Within the
framework of the recent 16th
Cultural Festival in the capital
of the German Democratic Re-
public, Berlin’s theatre goers
saw a guest performance by the
Tunis Theatre Company, in the
GDR for the first time.

The Tunis company showed
the play The Puppeteer by Leba-
nese writer Miss Andree Chedid.
The play was given in Arabic,
but simultaneously dubbed by a
German actor. It is about a plot
laid by puppets against their
master, the puppeteer.

make such a statement, since
Berlin (West) is not a Land of
the German Federal Republic,
and may not be governed by it...
This state of affairs and legal
position is categorically under-

lined the Quadripartite Agree-

- ment of September 3rd, 1971.”

The relevant paragraph of one
of the documents forming part
of the agreement stated: “The
Government of the French Re-
public, the United Kingdom and
the United States of America de-
clare .. . that the Western sect-
ors of Berlin . . . continue not
to be a constituent part of the
Federal Republic of Germany
and not to be governed by it.”

Footnote: One comment was
that to avoid international com-
plications, lost astronauts and
“objects launched into outer
space” should make every effort
not to land in West Berlin.

—German Democratic Report

theatre arts

The play revives such old
Arab traditions as that of sha-
dow-play. Oriental music, play-
ed on the lute, flute and Egyp-
tian drum, underlined the play’s
oriental style and Arab ‘char-
acter.

Syrian Cherif Khaznadar, who
staged the play, is not unknown
here. He was first to present
Brechtian plays to an Arab audi-
ence. Together with Arab stu-
dents he staged Brecht’s The Ex-
ception and the Rule at the
Berliner Ensemble theatre.

ictatorship rally

e all anti-dictatorship parties
and organizations, including
the Communist Party of
Greece, to function freely,

e immediate release of all
political prisoners and the
granting of a general poli-
tical amnesty, and

e free elections .

Greeks United
The message, signed on behalf
of the Central Committee by

First Secretary, Kostas Kolyan-

nis, continued, “in the hard

struggle of our people, under
conditions of persecution, impri-

sonment, bloody coercion, the
Greeks abroad, who are flesh
and blood of the Greek people,
stand firmly at the fortifications
of the fight against the dictator-
ship, and the struggling to bring
it down. Their work is informing
international public opinion on
the situation in our country.

“In this noble and patriotic
task of moral and material aid
and solidarity with our strug-
gling people, the anti-dictator-
ship committees are the most
obvious form to rally together,
abroad .. .”