Abraham Lincoln's adage that you can't fool all of the people all of the time has begun to haunt the-British Government. The total failure of its political and military policy in the North of Ireland cannot be papered over much longer, and the grim realities of the war are now being felt in the cities of Britain.
It is against this background that we must note a growing concern about the Irish war within the British labour movement.
The action of South Shields Trades Council in campaigning against Army recruitment in the area was a first indication of this conpern. Already Stirling Trades Council, in Scotland, has taken a similar initiative, and a large number of Trades Councils up and down Britain have been sending delegations to the North of Ireland to report back a true picture of the war.
CO-ORDINATION A growing opposition to the war in Britain, added to the impasse in the Noeth of Ireland, would doom the Tory strategy. It is in order to deliver a blow to the developing opposition that the Government has begun a policy of Intimidation and repression against Irish activists and their supporters in Britain. But where the state has attempted intimidation It has met with vigorous resistance, In London, the rapid establishment of a broad-based defence committee prevented a quiet put away Job being done on the Belfast 1O. In Coventry, a defence committee initiated by IMG militants won broad support in the local population and in the labour movement, and when the trial of the Coventry 7 opened in Birmingham there was a militant demonstration of over 1000 people, In Lancaster, Bolton and Blackburn defence committees have been set up to defend the Blackburn 3. Over 300 people demonstrated in Blackburn agrinst the arrests.
The 3 come to trial in Lancaster on 20 October and there will be a large demonstration in solidarity with them on 27 October, Already over 10 public meetings have been held in EDE CHEA Anti-working class legislation and repression against trade union militants has enabled a small but growing section of the working class to draw parallels with the situation in Ireland. Such actions as the arrest and detention of 25 trade unionists and left-wing militants in Colchester can only have the effect of broadening this trend These manifestations of opposition to the war are as yet fragmented. They have to be co-ordinated into a broader campaign for British withdrawal from Ireland.
SELF-DETERMINATION South Shields Trades Council's campaign must be taken up by other sections of the Labour movement. Teachers must organise against Army recruitment drives in the schools, local Labour Councils must be pressurised to ban Army recruiting, as Merthyr Tydfil Council has already done, and the issue of Army recruitment should be linked to unemployment in areas where economic conscription is high. Within the Labour Party the demand for an end to 'bi-partisan support for Tory policy should be raised.
The connecting up of these strands of opposition, into a broad movement for the withdrawal of the British troops, and hased on the principle of self-determination for the Irish people, would be a powerful step forward for the working class in Ireland and in Britain. WEST LONDON COMMITTEE In West London, a committee for Troops Our has begun to hold meetings, pickets, distribution of leaflets, ete. This has given a local outlet for the growing demand for the withdrawal of the Troops, They have called for the co-ordination of such activities in other areas.
Towards the end of this month they are holding a public meeting with an impressive tist of speakers, Don Cook (AUEW Convenor at London Transport Acton Works, in a personal capacity), a housewife from the Ardoyne in Belfast, Frank MacManus MP. James Wellbeloved MP, Jack Dromey (NCCL), Famonn McCann, and Jim Kemp of the London Joint Sites Committee. The meeting will take place in Fulham Town Hall, Fulham Broadway, at 7.45 p.m. on Wednesday, 24 October. The West London Committee has also called for the setting up of an ad-hoc committee to organise a national demonstration on the basis of the slogans Withdraw British Troops from Ireland Now' and 'Self-determination for the Irish People. Further information abouf this can be obtained from Gavin Robinson, sjo Red Weekly. This is the next step which all mintants con-