6% WAGE CUT
2 Ireland/Pop *As followers of Christ, The Prince of Peace who himself died a violent death upon the Cross to bring about our redemption, to lead us all to the peace and happiness of his Father's Kingdom, we must support every genuine effort to bring about a cessation of the terrible conditions of violence we have in our society today'.
The words are those of the Mos Reverend Dr. Brooks, the Bishop of Nothing surprising in that. But what may surprise you is that this lieutenant of God gave us his message on 24 August, the day before the Dublin Government gave us the dec laration of a state of emergency and the invocation of Article 28 of the Irish Article 28 is a simple matter. gives the Government the power to introduce a law allowing the state to hold a person under arrest for seven But for the Gays charge ghouls of the Dail this was nowhere near enough. INDIGNITY A Criminal Law Bill will now impose 10 years in prison on anyone inviting anyone eise TO 10In UnaWTUl organisation, whether or not the person actually accepts the invitation. Prisoners now expect to Call searched any time a prison officer feels like it. Furthermore, the same prisoners will suffer the added indignity or naving paim prints, skin swabs and samples of hair taken. This, course, all in treatment already being meted out to prisoners by the Cosgrave Goven. ment-treatment which means that Republican prisoners in Portlaoise are naked and have had all the furniture removed, except for the bucket in the comer which ine government cansa Of course, the new laws are not just almed at prisoners. They are aimed in the main at the decreasing section of the Irish population still outside prison. Offences involving arms, if they can be construed as intimidation of the Government, can be punished with 20 year sentences instead of seven. Participation in an 'unauthorised military excercise' will get 15 years instead of two. Membership of an illegal organisation will get seven years instead of two.
REPRESSIVE The list goes on. The people who have drawn up these laws have put the 26 Counties in the front rank of the most repressive regimes in Europe. They have completed the process begun by all the vicious legislation almed at those who believe in the right of the Irish people to determine their own TUTUTE One of the few growth areas in the 26 Counties is prison cells. To cope with the new legislation, one hundred new cells are now available at the Curragh prison camp. A second Special Criminal Court will be opened if the first becomes clogged. Internment is being considered. This is the price of serving imperialism.
Meanwhile in Britain the Tory spokesman on Ireland, Mr Airey Neave of Colditz, urges the British Government to follow Dublin's lead. Furthermore, he would like the law of evidence in Northern Ireland changed to put the onus of proof on those charged with terrorism. In other words, the accused will be guilty unless they can prove That is what these 'democrats' and Christians have in store for British and Irish workers.
Merlyn Rees, however, does not see what all ine luss is doout. The law works as it is, he says: - .. The number of convicted persons in prison • has been growing steadily at the rate of 500 a year There is success like fallure. Every plan and every 'solution' put forward by only failed, it has brought more people into the struggle against it. At the end of this seven days in the 26 Counties, it is clear that the puppets in the Dail have learned very little.
Ted Coxhead. Red Weekly 2 September 1976 PAT SHIVERS-The British Government have been found guilty of his torture by the Army. Next week Red Weekly will examine in depth the barbaric record of the British Government in the nortn of Ireland as revealed by the Strasbourg Court. ALL REASONABLE PEOPLE love the peace of Belfast. Morning Star has given them full Party of has said that they are *an effective way to defeat the bombers and assassins', the ruling class praises them in terms normally reserved for the British troops. Even the Protestant paramilitary Ulster Defence Association gave its support by "defending' the marchers in the Shankill last Saturday.
That in itself says a good deal. It is indicative that the Communist Party of Ireland issues a statement which talks about 'defeating the bombers and assassins' but does not mention the British Army, or the denial of the right of the Irish people to rule themselves, from which all the violence flows.
Nor is it terribly remarkable that the Irish and English CP's now find themselves in an alliance with the UDA and the British capitalist press. Because what unites these bedfellows is a desire to see the defeat of the -Pea 02LS And in promoting the peace movement it gets distorted out of all recognition. The original march attracted 10,000 people we are told. The Irish press had a rather different estimate: the Irish Times said 1,000, the Irish Press 2,000, and the Irish Independent 3,000. The second demonstration was said to have attracted 20,000 (the Morning Star bumped it up to 50,000), but the Irish Times reported that the majority of those present came from the Protestant areas of East Belfast.
We were told that the peace movement was a spontaneous outburst of Catholic working class women. Yet within a matter of hours of this *spontaneous' movement springing up, there were full page adverts in the Irish newspapers promoting the movement. Just where did the money come from? Certainly not from the working class -women of Andersonstown.