Photo: LAURENCE SPARHAM (IFL)
Best shown by Amnesty.
ASSASSINATION -OES
Drumm, the former Vice-President of Provisional Sinn Fein, is yet another foul deed committed by British imperialism in Ireland. As Maire Drumm herself stated, Ene responsibinty for every deal ouring the current Irish war rests firmly on the shoulders of the British state. But a direct In can be more easiy traced SOmE cases than in others.
In the case of Maire Drumm's death, while the finger which pulled the trigger may have been a Loyalist one, the prime sumulus came from bondon. rrom cart this year through to his appointment as Home Secretary, Merlyn Rees waged a scandalous Cam Dalen of verbal abuse directed personally at Maire Drumm.
His campaign combined with a hysterical witch-hunt waged by the Fleet Street gutter press to make Maire Drumm a prime target for Loyalist assassins. Ever Guardian writer Derek Brown was forced to acmit sarine eno orate ceasenre sne became the Number One bête noir of Merlyn Rees.' West Midlands Murray Defence Committee occupy Amnesty International offices last week in protest at the secret trial of the two young Irish anarchists in the shadow of the gallows and the lack ot inter Maire of sectarianism.
country.' force of arms.
Dual Diana in South Africa. organised? conference. adequate In April she explained: * have never attacked a Protestant, nor the Protestant ence is attracting religion, ever. My whole effort is agains the British. All I ask is that they make a declaration of intent to get out of our Her hatred was for the colonial forces this country? that have ruled by the gun in Ireland fo 800 years. And she lost no opportunity to spell out the message loud and clear: if the British refuse to leave then they will have to be driven out by their own methods -general aims are.
Some of the less hysterical bourgeois commentators saw in her a dual identity.
One the one hand 'a friendly, cheerful' person who was first and foremost a wife and mother, concerned for her children's welfare and education, worried about her Determination' husband's unemployment and anxious that any visitor to her home should be well cared for'. On the other hand, "she epitomised the hard face of militant Re publicanism, screaming abuse at soldiers, snarling defiance at the Government and These commentators seem incapable of PAMELA HOLMES, Vice-President for External Affairs of the University of Kent at Canterbury Students Union [UKCSU], is the Planning Convenor for the 13-14 November student conference on Ireland. Red Weekly asked her what were the aims of the conference.
The aim of the conference is to campaign against repression in Northern Ireland. In the past British students have taken up similar campaigns in defence Soviet dissidents, against apartheid and against the Chilean dictatorship. But the NUS has done virtually nothing about Ireland since 1972. although it's right on their doorstep.
How has the conference been From the beginning we recognised that to be successful we would have to involve the broadest number of students in all the decisions leading up to the conterence, as well as in the conference Itself. So the Students Union here set up a Planning Committee (PC) which is open to anyone supporting the aims of the The PC's job is to publicise and build the conference. We have always made sure that the big deci- good sions were taken by National Planning Meetings which have been fully advertised well in advance. There have been occasions when we consciously refused to take decisions until we were sure that there was representation. democratic preparation partly explains the broad support the conferHas the Planning Committee taken a position on the political basis for building a solidarity campaign in No, that is the job of the conference. That is why it was called When we have talked of a 'campaign against British repression in re land', that is not a slogan for the conference - it merely says what its Anyone who has a position to which they aim to win the mass of students should come and argue for it at the conference. Anyone sup porting the aims of the conference can submit a resolution, and we expect a number from both those who support the Troops Out Now/Selfposition and those holding other viewpoints. Provided it is borne in mind that this is an Committee STUDENT MOVEMENT CONFERENCE ON UNIVERSITY OF KENT CANTERBURY, 13th NOV 1976 acion conterence, stract chit-chat, we expect a very debate on just this sort of question What do you mean when you say that it will be an action conference?
That's best illustrated by looking at the conference agenda. Friday night we've got an Irish band for those who get here early. Then next day we will have a panel of speakers talking about different as pects of repression - the repression of Irish women, for example We have also invited the NUS delegation and the Labour Move ment Delegation to Ireland to send speakers, but all these are struc tured in such a way as to inform the debate which will take place in workshops and plenary sessions.
Apart from the very first session on Sunday, when we hope to show the film A Sense of Loss', which was banned by the BBC, the whole of the second day will be devoted to debating resolutions from the floor. In this way the debate on political positions intorms tne debate or campaigning activity; and campaigning activity on an informed basis is our larger Further information about the conference from: Pamela Holmes, Kent University Students Union, Canterbury [tel. 0227 65224).