The Troops Our demand has been taken up by reactionary clementsthe left will be tainsed if it does the Same.
If muddled reactionaries make this demand it is because of the succeas of the anti-imperialist struggle in Ireland. Their scream of pain is the first sign of a possible split in hourgeois politics. We must fight their anti-lish chauvinism, but try to widen that split, and use the heightened interest get acros our reasons for getting the troops A British withdrawal would elimInate a powerful barrier to the advance of the Irish struggle, and make it easier to destroy the Southern ruling class, and the Orange ascendancyIf reactionaries want the same ma aar tae contraceton. DOt OUTS The TOM will incurbly come 4p against the problem of its arteride to the armed struggle, Iz must tannediately adopt the poxition of solidarity with the IRA.
It is self-evident that it is not necessary to support the IRA in or. der to support the withdrawal of the troops and sell Jererminstion for Ireland, especialy when this is molivated on the basis of the repressive implications for workers in Britain of what is happening in Ireland.
It is true that such a campaigo incritably raises the question of the IRA, but it also enables that ques tion to be answered. Bringing into focus the links between the Irish struggle and the struggle of the British working class makes it much casier to get workers to understand why the IRA deserves our support.
The TOM will win more people to solidarity with the IRA in six months, than the 'solidarity first" merchants have done in tour years.
Yes, we should have a troops out movement, bat it should demand that the troops are replaced by a worker militie, bused on the trade union mOveMeNt, in the North of freiand.
When the people who support this argument define the political aims of a 'workers militia we will be abie to tell whether or not il is a serious proposition.
If it aims to advance the progress of the Irish people towards nationa freedom and socialism, it will have to light the inajority of trade inionists in the Norch of Ireland, as recent events show.
If it defends the privileged positjon of the loyalist aristocracy of lubour, which is what the majocity of trade unionists in the North of Ireland want, it will have to fight the Thee best way to get the Army our is for trade union rights for soldiers.
is by helping deserters to escape from its clutches.
The struggle for civil and trade union rights for soldiers is an important means of undermining the army as an instrument of class rule, But there is no reason to assume that soldiers thrown into the Irish bojo caust must go through the stage of trade union consciousness before they break with the army.
tory which led to the growth of trade unions, the army is a quite different proposition. Because of the because soldiers are deliberately cut off from the rest of society, opposition usually takes the form of individual action.
That means that desertion is a more realistic proposition than building a trade union for most sive role in Ireland. diers helieve that they will have a future which is more tolerable thin continued service, no signiticant against the Irish war advance of the rest of the Irish people.
to weaken it from within, by working The best way to get the Army out.
dramatically.
be doing a valuable job.
It was the experience of the facway in which discipline operates, and soldiers who reject the Army's represBut unless sol numbers will 'vote with their feet' That means that what happens outside the Army is at present more important than work aimed directly at the ranks of the Army, If, in addition to the blows struck by the IRA, soldiers come to believe that large sections of public opinion in Britain no longer support the Irish war, the cop-out rate will increase So at this stage we should concentrate on work outside the Army, although anyone who decided to prepare now to assist deserters would The main demand should be a Bill of Rights to guarantee democrazic rights position. to the minority in the North of freWe should be demanding the repeal of the Emergency Provisions Act, which is the basis for mort of the repression in the North of fre If the labour Government cannot even enforce the tuil implemencation of the Council of Ireland, who is going to enforce the Bill of Rights?
History has shown that Northern Ireland cannot be reformed. Any dininution in the sectarian basis of the State challenges the very reason for its existence. The cid rights move ment in the late sixties proved be yond a shadow of doubt that the only road to progress was the smashing of the Northern Ireland State.
And since the British Government cannot accept the destruction of the State, the role of the British Army is to stand in the way of progress. That is why the Emergency Provisions Act was passed, and the Bill of Rights rejected Clearly those who now counterpose the Bai of Rights to the demand for troop withdrawal have failed to draw the lessons of history. Their failure over five years to make any impact on the British labour move ment underlines the tutility of their But there are people who want to combine the troops withdrawal and the Bill of Rights derands. It would be sectarian for the TOM to reject joint work with such people. in building support for the withdruwal of the troops.
But the position of these people ir contradictory, In the final analysis, the demand for the British Govern ment to lepislate reform is neither practical, nor compatible with the complete withdrawal of British imperialism from Ireland, which is the logical outcome of the TOM's demands of troops oul cow and sell determunation.
Red Weekly 30 May 1974
catastrophic proportions such as the one of 1929-32. PERMANENT INFLATION is one of the principal characteristics of capitalism in decline. It is by means of inflation that present-day capitalism tries to prevent inevitable, periodic crises (today modestly called 'recessions) from developing into crises of It would be pointless to try and name the main agent