The movement in support of the Irish struggle has been meeting with increasing repression everywhere in Britain, but nowhere has this been sharper than in Glasgow, Two demonstrations have met with attacks from Orangemen, and during a public meeting for Bernadette Devlin the hall was surrounded by a huge crowd of drunken Orangemen who abused and in some cases physically attacked those who attended it. In response to this hooliganism the Press and the City Authorities have tried to clamp down on political activity in support for the Irish struggle. Thus the demonstration following the Derry massacre met with the Public Order Act, which prescribed the route, and prevented the carrying of the Tricolour or Starry Plough. Recently two IS members who attempted to hold an open air meeting on Ireland, were arrested and held in prison for two days.
This has severely curtailed the possibilities of public propaganda on the Irish question, and poses an important challenge for revolutionaries in the City. If this situation is accepted then reaction will be stronger, and the repression will extend to other political fields. Unity is necessary because no single organisation on the left is strong enough to carry out public activity on any scale, alone. And yet the Glasgow IS have chosen to oppose such unity.
Following the demonstration on 16 October in Glasgow, when a large number of demonstrators were arrested and given heavy fines, the organisations involved formed a united front committee to defend free speech on the Irish question, and to raise money to assist those arrested. The committee organised a public rally which was a moderate success, and raised part of the money required. But following the rally IS walked out of the committee, saying that they could work better outside its framework; this followed a complaint about the distribution of leaflets for Glasgow ISC meetings at the Rally. Shortly afterwards Clann na hEireann dropped out leaving the IMG and the Glasgow group of the Communist Federation of Britain (M-L), to carry on raising the rest of the money required. About three weeks ago Glasgow ISC attempted to re-create the necessary unity by inviting a number of organsatons to discuss the basis for such unity The reply of IS is at once instructive and tragic: "IS comrades will not be attending your meeting tomorrow night for the following reasons: 1. It is being convened under the auspices of ANTI-INTERNMENT LEAGUE Mass Mobilisation -March 26 Assembly Points:
South London-Clapham Common 1.30 West London -Hammersmith Broadway 1.00 East London-Tower Hill 2.30 N.W. London-' The Crown' Cricklewood 1.00 North London - Archway 1.30 Then toTRAFALGAR SQUARE For further details phone 01-603- 3085 Please put me in touch with IMG militants in my area. an organisation which does not have an existence independent of the IMG.
2. For real united front action the forces coming together must discuss directly and honestly the platform and perspectives of such work. By deciding to issue your invitation under the auspices of the nonexistent ISC you indicate that your organisation has already decided on the promotion of a particularly sectarian kind of united front in which we decline to participate.
3. We are already working closely with members of other organisations and uncommitted comrades around the slogans "End Internment" and "Withdraw the British Troops", and for the adoption of internees in Glasgow. We believe that your failure to indicate that the IMG now has a new attitude towards united front work means that the work we are now involved in would be jeopardised if we became involved in the kind of sectarian battles that your proposal promises........ First of all Glasgow ISC is neither nonexistent, nor a 'front" for IMG, non-IMG members are in a majority in the branch, and it contains people who are active in Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities, and Langside College. Coatbridge ISC contains some 15-20 young militants, none of whom are IMG members. ISC, while not being large, is a force which has great potential for building united front actions in the West of Scotland. IS can wish it out of existence if they like, but to work up such moral indignation in the process seems slightly bizarre.
Secondly the CFB(M-L) an organisation which has a lot of respect on the Glasgow left, and about which the IS has never raised any complaints, has not been invited to participate in the united front work which IS is so anxious not to jeopardise, so that this united front does not exclude only those who are 'sectarian" in IS's eyes. But when the full facts come out IS's indignation is revealed for what it is-hypocrisy. Their refusal to support a united front has nothing to do with IMG's 'sectarianism', but has a great deal to do with their belief that they can gain more for IS with their present policy. This is made explicit in an IS internal document, dated 4.1.1972, entitled Report On Our Irish Work", a copy of which was given to Matt Montgomery, chairman of Glasgow ISC, by Gerry Doherty of Clann na hEireann. The following are some extracts: *1. .....In some parts of the country we work inside the AlL, yet elsewhere we do not try to initiate branches of it. In some places our members are leading members of Clann and sell United Irishman, and elsewhere U.I. is banned from IS bookstalls. Here we co-operate with the IMG, there we don't. "2. Our only consistent attitude to Ireland, and to the task of fighting chauvinism Weekly Discussion Group for Revolutionary Socialists - Thursdays at 7.30 p.m.
Series on imperialism now being held:
March 16: Imperialism and underdevelopment.
March 23: Britain as an imperialist power.
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amongst the British working class is shown in Socialist Worker. But SW alone cannot do the job among the millions of Irish and ex-Irish working in this country. The job of course is to convince them of the need to build a Revolutionary Socialist Party in Ireland capable of dealing with both capitalist regimes, and of the need while in Britain to Jou .....
"4. The principle problem with a mass campaign in Britain is not the need for it, nor its potential support, but the existence of the IMG ready and willing to sacrifice it on the altar of sectarianism. Thus the only basis for a national campaign free from those dangers is a front organisation of ourselves and close collaborators."
Two further points suggest the initiating of a paper directed to Irish workers based on Glasgow; it concludes*7. Locally we should prepare for the launching of such a paper by:
1. Seeking to build IS cells inside the Scottish Clann branches, 2. Establishing IS/Clann Liaison Committee to: produce joint posters leaflets and sell literature; to support each others Devlin meeting and to hold a joint McCann meeting in late March, early April; organise joint pickets.
3. Leaving the Campaign for Free Speech on Ireland as soon as the fund is sufficient."
(In fact, they did not wait for this.) In passing, we note that IS, the largest group on the British revolutionary left, has no consistent policy for solidarity work in relation to Ireland the sharpest political issue confronting them. But the most important aspect of the document is its definition of the task (see point 2). The job in Britain is not to win Irish workers to revolutionary organisations, in Britain or Ireland-it is to win them, politically, to using their strength, and their key position within the British working class to aid the struggle back home. If organisations help to bring about such a change in consciousness amongst these workers, they will deserve the appellation "revolutionary", and will be able effectively to recruit large numbers of these workers. If the approach is made from an abstract assumption that winning them to a be both political confusion, and a failure to assist the struggle in Ireland. Because IS sees the task in precisely these organisational terms it is led into a sectarian policy, and must raise shabby half-truths in order to provide a cover. Elsewhere such a policy would be disastrous, in Glasgow it is criminal. It greatly weakens the forces capable of carrying out public work on the Irish question, and mis-educates any Irish workers who do come around, while leaving the streets to Jack Glass and the Orangemen.
- Bob Purdie North London Red Circle meets every Tuesday at 8.30 p.m. to discuss revolutionary politics. All welcome.
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particular organisation is the same as winning them to revolutionary politics the result will