Last Friday, top paving stones where he fell.
scrapped.
following the recent general strike in the Socialist Party - had a chance to London, N.1. With the blood of one of their murdered comrades, the striking workers of Vitoria wrote out their demand for freedom on the Now the Spanish Government has arrested three of the leaders of the Vitoria general strike. These militants have been transferred from the Basque country to Madrid for trial by a kangaroo military court on charges of 'subversion'.
The British labour movement must immediately take up this case and demand that these militants are released and all charges against them dropped, that all political prisoners are freed, and that all laws against trade union activity are the Basque country, militants from most of the major groups on the Spanish left including the Communist Party and take the floor and present their point of For further information on the activwrite to: LCR.c/o 97 Caledonian Road, 1974 own protest resolutions from one year to four months.
JOHN MAGEE reports from Belfast 'I believe that a woman's place is in the home' - Loyalist MP Harold McCusker, successfully arguing against the extension of the receut Sex Discrimination Act to the North of Ireland despite the fact that the Six Counties have been subjected to direct rule from Westminster since May Northern Ireland has always been a hard-line puritan society. Like the Catholic Church in the rest of the country, the Northern Protestant Churches have constantiy opposed the retorm or tam ily law - with the result that many of tne basic retorms concerning divorce married women's property rights and aborton waica appry mn britain nave never been extended to the Six Counties.
in acolon, and bernaos mos imoortanty. ine -rovisionals still display uncertainty on the relationship between the northern and southern struggles. They have correctly grasped that the issues are likely to be settled in the North. What must be added, however, is that this will only come about on the basis of all-Ireland mobilisations. The wole weient or tne irisn workino c ass must be brought to bear against imperialism. That requires a broader and deeper political strategy than the Provisionals have yet acquired.
But the possibility of a real socialist alternative is not as remote as it sometimes seems. When the IRSP split off from the Officials, it showed that forces already exist which are willing to take up the debate needed to work outa Tear bonnical strated tor tne irisi revolution. The IRSP itself has since split. Too many of its leaders couldn't break from the organisational methods of the Officials. Nonetheless, its history indicates where political clarity will As Irish militants struggle to assess the history and achievements of Republicanism, revolutionaries will nave eve greater opportunities opened up to them. unis is comethino in which the committee ser us our ortne 14 February Solidarity Conference with the Spanish Working Class should be giving a lead. Every delegate to that conference should write to Messrs. Paynter, Buckton and Jones demanding that they take action on this question, as well as moving their Last Saturday a Francoist political court imprisoned eight militants accused of being members of the LCR-ETA VI and receiving Combate (the LCR-ETA VI's paper). Ignacio Olano Goena also accused or oroanisino serr-derence pickers. recerv ed a two year sentence, and the other seven sentences ranged simply doesn't apply here. In 1975 more than a thousand women went to England to nave aborons, Davin? abour aluu each. Clearly this just isn't an option at all for working class women.
As for the one piece of recent British legislation in this field which does apply the Equal Pay Act, it has gaping holes in it and has made little impact on the conditions of employment of most working women here even in the public service In the Civil Service. for example. the bottom grades account for 85 per cent of women employees but only 45 per cent of male employees. Outside the public service the situation is even worse Women workers are also being hit par ticularly hard by the economic crisis.
Traditional areas of female employment such as textiles have been drastically cut back, and the slashing of public expenditure has forced many women in jobs suer as cemers ourses are teaches ou to the dole.
The role of British imperialism, propping up the sectarian undemocratic Nortern misn staterer, nas ensured unac wo men have been too divided to organise arouna terr own oooression as a sex.
While many women have played an imoortant role in Down the anti-imperais and industrial struggles, their specific de manes tave ideger seen enored Recently, however, there have been suns that cuis may be chancine. one development has been the formation of a Socialist Women's Group in Belfast with a manifesto which recognises the struggle for women's liberation as an in tegral part of the struggle for socialism' The SWG places itself firmly in the ranks of those opposed to British imperialism, and asserts that the effective liberation or use workine class women are mer - requires the creation.....of an Irish Workers State.
Another organisation recently launch ed here is the Women's Rights Movement The WRM, however, concentrates on the purely formal rather than the more insidious aspects of the oppression of wo men. One of its main demands is for panty with ancain— waich now only ig nores the inadequacies of the British leg saton out fosters the us on beat a sor ution can be found to women's oppression by strengthening the link with Britain.
Women in Ireland, both North and South, can only advance their struggle for liberation on a clear class position that admits the relation between the oppression of women and the exploitation of the working class. Equally, if the rev olutionary movement is to involve wo men not just as supporters but as active participants in the fight against imperial ism, then it must show a genuine commitment to work for the demands raised by women to end their oppression as a