Over the weekend of October 9th and 10th early 100 delegates and observers gathered in Irmingham for the founding conference of the Irish Solidarity Campaign. There were delegates from groups in Stafford, Birmingham, Bristol, Coventry, Manchester, Oxford, London and Glasgow, and from various political organisations: the International Marxist Group, Intersational Socialists, Clann na h-Eireann (the irish Republican organisation in Britain), the partacus League and the Independent Labour Party, among others; and fraternal delegates trom the Civil Rights Association, People's Democracy, the Republican Movement and the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign. Previously the London organisations had operated under the name of the ICRSC (Irish Civil Rights Solidarity Campaign) but the Irish Solidarity Campaign will be the name of affiliated local groups from now on; the changed name reflecting among other things the changed content of the struggle in Ireland.
The Conference served the purpose of uniting these diverse organisations into a national ISC. It was an important step towards hammering out a coherent national policy for the Irish Solidarity Campaign so that efforts do DRAWINGS BY RAZ NOVEMBER:
PREPARE Red Mole 16+h.31d Oot 1970 Paro 12 not remain fragmented and localised. It was pointed out that a national campaign would be able to contribute a great deal to stimulating local activity in areas where none had previously existed, so that the building of the national campaign and local branches, far from being contradictory, was in fact a mutually reinforcing process On the first day James Anthony (Butch) Roche (the man who gassed the House of Commons) and Bernadette Devlin were elected Joint Presidents of the Campaign. Reports were delivered on the activities and prospects in the various areas. A Programme for the national organisation was agreed upon, which included the following demands: —Support of the Irish people's right to self-determination, -Release of all Irish political prisoners in British and Irish jails. —An end to British intervention in Ireland and the immediate withdrawal of British armed forces. -Opposition to those fostering religious sectarianism in Ireland and preventing working class unity.
RED IT SOR ...IN SCANDANAViA PREPARATIONS ARE ALSO BEING MADE..
RÕDA EUROPA İ SKANDINAVT —Support of the right of Irish workers to arm and organise in self-defence of their homes from attack by sectarian gangs, the military and the police.
-Support for popular movements, North and South, fighting political and economic domination by British imperialism.
Two addendums which were added to the last demand stimulated the most debate on the Programme. The Spartacus League proposed an addendum, stressing that support for the struggle in Ireland must be for the movement as a whole and not for one or the other tendency of the movement, since this had caused trouble in the past and would do so in the future unless it were clarified.
A solidarity movement, it was argued, was different from a revolutionary group with a full programme, or indeed a group in Ireland. It should be a principle of solidarity movements that they attempt to win the widest possible base around not the full programme, but around the principled and single question of opposition to the role of British imperialism in Ireland and support for the struggle of the Irish against it.
An I.S. addendum added that the Campaign MEANORiCE VIVE IN GERMAN ROUGE.
THIS İS ONLY THE BEGINNING. recognised that only those fighting for a Workers' Republic could lead the struggle against imperialism consistently.
Both motions were passed after some discus sion, with many delegates abstaining; they did not consider the addendum as having a clear political meaning, since some delegates had, in supporting it, expressed doubts about the demand for self-determination, while other supporters of the same addendum expressed agreement with the principle.
The following day the Constitution wa. discussed and a National Committee elected The Conference ended with a successful rally addressed by Vincent MaeDowell, Bob Purdie. Seamus Collins, Padraig Yeats, Des O'Hagan (Republican Movement), Kevin McCory (Civil Rights Association), and Gerry Ruddy (People's Democracy). Over £100 was collected.
It is important that comrades build the Solidarity Campaign and give it whatever financial and political support they can. For information on the campaign and how to become a member or how to affiliate, write to: Padraig Yeats, 67 Birchwood Road, Birmingham 12. R. Mossgeil .... IT IS NECESSARY FOR WORKERS TO GO TO BRUSSELS
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BRUSSELS 21°22md