council to use its influence with the present Labour government...to see that this very, very low henaviour is stamped out.
The president of the TUC replied to this speech by saying, note what you have said The TUC has been North of Ireland ever since. four congresses since 1966197,1, 1976, 1977 and 1978 -there been resolutions on Ireland. References have been made in various general council reports, but inactivity and disinterest are the best way of describing the attitude of the leaders of the British trade union movement towards Ireland. Invaded Only rarely have delegates heard the reality of situation in the Six Counties.
delegate National Union of Seamen congress in 1971: 'Can you imagine the situation Britain had : invaded by the Germans and we had later kicked them out of Britain with the exception of the six counties in the South-west. corner...this position in Northern Ireland.
'What would be the position if Vol lis way to delly.
type Guarantee In 1970 the "We shall 'take action to 'noting' the At only years - those in United Kingdom'..
present the British government on the North of Ireland. In year internment impression of congress exaggerated one' the Once the applauded and told Workers been said in the that year: peace of peace.' general council's report called on 'all concerned' to promole a reculll lo order in Northern Ireland,' while two later the report went Loyalist and called on the British government to 'provide a guarantee that Northern Ireland would remain a part of the As a variation on this Loyalist theme, the TUC has been happy to Is view 1971, the same was introduced, TUC press statement insisted that "the widespread violence and civil disorder...is a considerably Then in 1976 the TUC leaders joined the reactionary chorus who over-estimated the Peace People. Transport and General Union leader Jack Jones general international report for 'We welcome the women's marches throughout which demonstrated the overwhelming yearning for a return to the ways In all this — the defence of the Council, Gardens, Benwell, Newcastle 4. partition of Ireland, the need for a return to 'order', the underplaying of the struggle taking place in the streets - the TUC was speaking with the that of whichever British government happened to be in office at the time. Common to them all was a misrepresentation of what was actually going on - an ignoring of the national question and the Irish national struggle.
Instead, the TUC insisted, all that was required was a few reforms.
council report commended 'a Bill of Rights as one method of achieving a guarantee of full civil and other rights to the people of Northern Ireland': Ills Vicw was applauded by Belfast delegate Andy Barr, who maintained that 'the Bill of Rights is the key question'. State Hum See Arkins! RUC and Secretary Sullivan went on to tell delegates that it was time the trade union movement stopped avoiding responsibilities and looked at the whole situation in the Six Counties. He said the ICTU should withdraw Carlin the police authority.
Ignored
The response ICTU executive was to say that conference had authority on these matters, which to Northern mittee to consider.
Carlin himself ted to delegates that the LULLICH - one which had called for a public enquiry into Maguire. shop steward of the white Engineering Workers who was found hanged in an RUC police cell just over a The failure of Carlin and the rest of Northern Tre and mittee to follow resolution hardly prising- After all, police authority Carlin himself come under scrutiny in any such enquiry. Much of the information in this article is taken from Five Days in Ireland, a report of a visit by a delegation to Belfast and Derry from Newcastle Trades report is an informative and interesting account of first hand experiences of a group of British trade unionist in the North of Ireland. It costs £l and is available from Newcastle on Tyne Trades Council, 199 Hugh In later years the advocacy of the 'Better Life for All Campaign' was added to the elaborated 'solutions' for the North of Ireland. The 1975 council report enthusiastically noled "campaign' that 'tens of thousands of people have signed a calling for the right to live free from violence and discrimination; the right to security of employment; the right to free association and to advocate change by peaceful means; the right to The good housing; the right to equality of 1972 educational opportunity; the right to adequate social services' The Better Life for All Campaign was designed to "rights'. Today it has joined the Peace People in history's dustbin.
Both the solution of the Bill of Rights and that of the Better Life for Illusions TUC has about • in 1974, workers.
TUC's ritualistically have declaration based on silence. achieve all these • becan All Campaign were promoted by members of the Communist Party Both were unanimously endorsed by the TUC; in that sense the vote was as as the policies they The unreality of the TUC and its Irish policy is illustrated in other ways. A constant theme has been the references to what the council report 1971 as 'the non-sectarian of the trade union movement...extending the workplace to the community at local and national level.
Throughout the last ten years the been fond of moralising the non-sectarianism and strength of the trade union movement Illusions about this movement's influence were rudely when a march led by Murray designed to break that strike attracted the support of less than 200 That was hardly surprising. By avoiding the central issue in Irish - the partition of Ireland and the British presence — the TUC might achieved the 'unity' membership in Northern Ireland, but it is a valueless 'unity' because it is So there are no motions on H Block at this year's TUC, no motions on the Prevention of Terrorism Act, none on the revelations torture in Ireland which have hit the world's headlines since last year's Congress. There are no motions at all on Ireland. Which, for Tory Northern Ireland Secretary Humphrey Atkins, is one of the few pieces of good news he has had since his miserable regime