spread out into the surrounding streets - this was the high point of the Anti-internment League activities in Britain calculated to use the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, on Sunday, 28 January, to rejuvenate the solidarity movement in this country.
At two simultaneous meetings, one inside and one outside the Town Hall, speakers ranging from one mother and four wives of internees, James Wray, father of one of the victims of Bloody Sunday, through Provo, Official, PD, Gery Lawless (IMG) and Paul Foot (IS) and including Fulvio Grimaidi (editor of Lotta Continua, the Italian left-wing daily) and Mike Cooley of the AUEW (TASS), urged the need for solidarity with the struggle in Ireland, and explained the connection between this struggle and the political conjuncture in the world anti-imperialist struggle.
STEP FORWARD A significant fact in the meeting was the enthusiastic applause when speaker after speaker welcomed the success to date of the NF in Vietnam and declared the identity of interest between the two struggles. This represents a tremendous step froward from the traditional confusion among the Irish people in relation to US imperialism.
In the weeks and months preceding the demonstration, following an appeal made by Bernadette Devlin, the Anti-Internment League had organised mass distribution of leaflets and posters, and over 30 local meetings had been called to mobilise support. In most cases, the meetings were organised by local AlL branches, but in some areas, where either there was no AIL, or the AlL itself was not sufficiently representative of the potential support, then ad-hoc committees were formed on the initiative of the IMG.
The result of this unity in action and careful preparation was reflected not only in London. In Scotland, with its peculiar difficulties for work in support of the Irish struggle, the Derry Bloody Sunday Commemoration Committee was able to organise a meeting which filled the main hall of Shettleston Town Hall, with supporters travelling from Stirling, Edinburgh, Fife, Coatbridge and other centres to hear Harry MeShane, Brian Trench, Gery Lawless and Gerry Doherty address the largest anti-imperialist meeting on the Irish question in Scotland for many years.
CONFUSIONS The mobilisation was not without its confusions. Despite the fact that all the main organisations working on the Irish question had agreed to the idea of one demonstration in London and one in Scotland, a series of minor commemorations were organised in a number of areas, including Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham, which detracted from the central effort. This effect was increased by a number of active supporters of the All deciding to TROOPS DU Part of the 4,500 AlL Bloody Sunday demo en route to Camden Town Hall (Photo: Mike Cohen) travel to Derry for the main commemoration in Ireland.
Top marks politically and organisationally for the mobilisation must go the Coventry area. Here, strong united front action by IMG, IS and Irish exiles is reflected in the existence of two AlLs, one in the University and one in the town, capable of strong initiatives on the Irish question. This was reflected in a whole number of actions in the seven days preceding the commemoration.
A welcome change from the last AlL demonstration was the large turnout bylS, who for the first time in a year outnumbered the IMG on the march, and contributed in no small way to the overall success. The same unity had applied in Scotland, confounding the The Communist Party failed to mobilise a single branch, and had to content itself with photographs of the rally in the Morning Star the next day which distorted the total composition, attempting to give it a peacenik image. They made the false claim that their Irish front organisation had participated, although in fact it failed to take part. BREADTH OF VIEWS The breadth of views represented on the main platform in London reflected the range of organisations which had supported the demonstration, and drove home the first important lesson - that there does exist a large and slowly growing base of support for a solidarity movement on Ireland, but that no one of the Irish emigrant organisations, or the revolutionary groups has the status on its own to mobilise these people who have consistently voted for unity with their feet by marching or not marching. They can be mobilised, they will turn out, and they can be organised, but only when they see that the haphazard and exclusive organisational methods of the past are broken from. Only the broadest principled united front can attract them.
The Bloody Sunday Commemoration showed that in England and Wales the AlL, with all its faults, is alone capable of providing this lead.
The rally can now serve as a springboard for an upsurge of activity on Ireland between now and the crucial period of the White Paper. The impressive £500 collection at the rally provides the lubricating oil for such a campaign, and now makes possible the achievement of the next two tasks for the AlL: the publication of a paper to act as a mobiliser and organiser; and the organisation of a conference called by the AIL which will attempt to organise the full breadth of the solidarity and anti-war forces in Britain.
As we go to press, reports are still coming in of international activity on the week-end of Bloody Sunday.