"Two Little Orphans'. That is how all the local newspapers in beirass neadlined their editions on Saturday 9 July. Renpath the headline. the papers carried a picture of two young children - both less than two years of age. The accom panying story told how Mervyn and Rosaleen McDonald har been in the kitchen of their home playing with their children the previous night when a man and a woman had entered and emptied a magazine of bullets from a sub-machine gun, killing the parents.
Why did Mervyn and Rosaleen die? They were Catholics! They also brought the number of deaths resulting from British occupation of Ireland this year to 186, and the seven year total to Earlier in the week, British Prime Minister Callaghan had flown into Belfast on an eight-hour stint at public relations. His message was that the British Goverment has no policy'.
Those who have seen every British so uDon over the last seven vears collapse in ruins may well have been emotec to beneve na. but once again Callaghan was lying; the British JOHN MAGEE reports from Belfast Government does have a policy. It is the same policy it has pursued for 800 years — the subjection of the Irish people, the denial of their right to self-determination. Blind Indeed, imperialism is now not only ists through of the RUC and UDR, but is also handing over the control of the fight against the Republicans to the Loyalists. This is the inevitable consequence of a policy that withdraws the British soldiers from Loyalist areas while at the same time introducing joint British Army nuc/von pacrois in we nationalist districts.
By withdrawing British troops from the Loyalist parts of Belfast, Britain is turning the necessary blind eye to the preparations being made to intensify the punitive war against the Catholic population - which over the list few months since the Convention folded has taken the form of widespread assassinations. No matter how much the Sunday Times and other British newspapers may bleat about the horror of the brutal killing of Mervyn and Rosaleen MeDonald, there is no escaping the responsibility for the deaths, walca cings tenaciously to une back. of the British Labour Government.
Forty-five Catholics and Protestants died the vietims of the sectarian assassin or internal Loyalist feuds in the North Belfast area alone in the last couple of months.
Some undoubtedly died as a result of "freelance" Catholic reprisals. But it is not enough wag from the increasing sense of vulnera bility felt by the anti-Unionist populabon as the Loyalist murder gang soan freely, bombing bars without warning and slaughtering Catholics in their own homes. Moralising about the finer princi ples of working class struggle will never defeat the argument that the best way to halt the Loyalist attacks is to hit of Loval hack hard. if not twice as hard legitimate' forces Socialists in Ireland must tirelessly put forward a real strategy for putting an end to the Loyalist assassination squads, based on mass mobilisations of the anti-Unionist workin" class on the streets. Key to such mobilisations will be the fight to defend political prisoners, to prevent the removal of political status. if Rees can get away with his efforts to portray the Republican fighters as 'gangsters", then a firm nail will have been driven into the coffin which British imperialism is preparing Tor me lasn resistance A real fight to defend politica status and remove the real gangsters of the British Army from Northern streets would put the anti-Unionist for socialists disapprovCatholic reprisals result efforts.
London N.W.3. working class back on the road to the struggle for a United Socialist Republie-in Ireland, and mean that it was no longer running scared of the sectarian bullet and bomb.
The present situation in the Six Counties presents the greatest opportunity for socialists to prove their worth: imperialism is in a dilemma, the Loyalists are revealing their absolute reactionary character, une traditiona Republican leadership faces an impasse. The mutants or the rourt International in Ireland, organised in the Movement for a Socialist Republic are striving to grasp this opportunity in common with socialist militants in other anti-imperialist organisations. What we don't need now is sermons Irom reined brus socialists. wnau we do need is practical solidanty The work of the Troops Out Move ment, the sending of a trade union delegation to Ireland are worthy instances of such practical solidarity. Socialists in Ireland seek and expect the tull support or workers organisa tions in ensuring the success of these NOEL AND MARIE MURRAY face execution by the Dublin Government at the end of this month after a political show trial in which they were convicted of killing a policeman during a bank raid. There will be a MASS PICKET of the Irish Tourist Board, 150 New Bond Street, this Saturday 24 July, starting at 10.00 a.m. Further details from: Murray Defence Committee, 83a Haverstock Hill, British justice registered another victory last week with the acquittal of the 14 Birmingham prison warders who had been accused of waging a systematic terror campaign against six Irishmen held after the Birmingham bombings.
Although one of the allaged bombers although one prison officer admitted he had seen orricers that knew to be quiet and docile lose control of themselves ..... it was an explosion of physical and verbal assault, although even the judge who tried the Irishmen said that they had been 'outrageously assaulted', it appears that these events didn't really take place after all. What makes this triumph of justice even more spectacular was that none of the accused warders even bothered to appear in the witness box to deny the charges.
The people of Belfast and Derry, who have so foolishly resisted attempts to bring British standards of law and order to their country, will surely now stop their opposition to the great civilising mission. Surely they will realise what a just system British troops are trying to bring. Surely the Birmingham verdicts will renew their faith in the Queen's writ. Surely they will once and for all cease their silly talk of wanting to rule themselves. Surely they will.
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Red Weekly 22 July 1976 Dilemma