contravene the Incitement to Disaffection Act; some of them leaflet Some Information for Discontented Soldiers' to members of the armed forces.
It is no accident that this and other similar cases are being brought now. It is six years since substantial numbers of troops were sent into Northern Ireland, and despite repeatca promses by tie top brass that "victory is around the corner, the Army is no nearer to suppressing une nanonanst роршапоп. Іпе strain is beginning to tell on morale, and the number of desertions is increasing.
Sections of the British lacour movement are also becoming more conscious of the role of the troops in Ireland. Nearly 250 trade union and Labour Party delegates attended the Troops Out Movement labour movement conference in May. The lesson of the potential role of the armed forces inside Britain has also been brougnt nome by uneir strike-breaking intervention against the Glasgow binmen.
In a situation of deepening econonic crisis, workers striking to defend their jobs and living standards are ever more i elv to be laced with the threat of Army intervention. And any attempts to communicate with the soldiers to dissuade them from strike-breaking as Mick McGahey threatened to do if the troops were brought in during the 1974 miners' strike - will meet with a hysterical reaction from the capitalists.
PRECEDENT
With the BWNIC 14 trial the ruling class is trying to establish the precedent that such actions will be treated with the utmost severity. Certainly they are right to be worried: unemployment may be an effective 'recruiting agent' in persuading young people to join up, but the example of the four new recruits who deserted from their platoon in Cambridgeshire because of brutal treatment by their NCOs shows how easily things can go wrong.
The example of Portugal has already shown the vital importance for the working class of fighting for the democratic rights of soldiers and so undermining the reliability of the army as the ruling class's instrument of repression. Moves like that by Ron Thomas, Labour MP for Bristol North-West, who has called for trade union rights for soldiers, must be supported in every way.
CAMPAIGN
But the first priority must be the bulang or a massive campaign to defend the BWNIC 14. The use of the conspiracy charge, which carries unlimited sentences, means the politics of the defendants are central. As happened with the Shrewsbury building workers, it is not necessary to prove that any offence was actually committed, merely that it was intended.
This means that all sorts of insinuations about people's political beliefs, life-styles and friends - which would usually be dismissed as immaterial even in a capitalist court - become 'evidence'. No doubt the ruling class will be seeking to extend the precedent set in the Shrewsbury 'trials' - first to the BWNIC 14; then to the Iranian students, currently awaiting trial for conspiracy to trespass in their own embassy; and then to the 19 socialist militants charged with conspiracy to trespass in the London offices of Iberia Airlines.
The State has already failed to get one conviction it wanted when the jury failed to agree in the case of Andrew Lloyd, another BWNIC supporter accused under the Incitement to Disaffection Act in Preston last week. A victory for the BWNIC 14 would not only have an immediate effect on the other conspiracy trials: it would be a victory for the whole labour movement as it prepares for the massive struggles to come. Soldiers of the Black Watch, the British Army regiment operating in the Catholic Turf Lodge area of Belfast, shot dead 17-year old Leo Norney on the night of Saturday 13 September. The killing took place in the Shepherd's Path, a lane used as a short-cut between the Whiterock and Turf Lodge housing estates.
The British Army alleged that Leo was a 'gunman' who had fired on a patrol and been hit by return fire But the boy's mother claimed that her son had been guilty of no offence and that his killing was murder. At a press conference Mrs. Norney stated that the Black Watch had raided and searched her home at 4 a.m. on Sunday - five hours after her son had been shot dead. 'When I asked them what it was all about, they said one of my sons was missing...My son's murderer was probably in the house then and I didn't know it. I aidn't know until three o'clock on Sunday afternoon that he was dead.' 'HE WAS MURDERED' Four 1b-year ora poys who were stoppea oy the same Black Watch patrol said that they had been crossing a field when they heard a single shot. Then in the lane where Leo Norney was killed they met an Army patrol and were ordered to lie face down on the ground. They saw Leo Norney's body about 10 yards away and reported that different soldiers said: 'Say it was a sniper's bullet'; and 'If he is not dead now, we will finish him off.
A priest who attended at the boy's home, Father Patrick MeWilliams, said: 'I have never seen a body in such a condition. The hands were black and pulped It was impossible to cross them. There must be a thorough investigation into this boy's death. He was Joan Maynard MP speaking at a meeting in London to defend the BWNIC 14 on 15 September JOHN MAGEE reports from Belfast of the Highland Fusiliers.
out in practice. town district of Belfast. organisations. self passing St. Paul's Church on the Falls Road had his head cracked open by the rifle butt of a member The Royal Ulster Constabulary has also been step ping up its use of torture methods, leading to an announcement by the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional IRA that in future RUC men would be regarded as legitimate targets for retaliation a forecast rapidly borne COLLUSION What especially concerns anti-Unionists is the increasing evidence of collusion by the British Army with Loyalist extremists. We have previously noted the unexplained presence of the British Army in the vicinity of sectarian assassinations, and the ease with which Loyalist murder gangs avoid being detained by the Army. Over the last couple of weeks, evidence has been produced that the Parachute Regiment has hand ed over dossiers on Republican leaders - including their photographs — to the para-military Ulster Defence Association. The Ulster Volunteer Force has circulated a photograph of Margaret MeKearney which they said came from British Army sources; and Paisley has produced a photocopy of a document on the movements of Seamus Twomey - believed to be Chief-of-Staff of the Provisional IRA - which came from the Royal Marine Commandos, then stationed in the AndersonThe Republican newspaper An Phoblacht also recently published a document 'captured' from a Loyalist source, which was headed "The Derry Trades (IRA) Council'. According to An Pnoblacht the document lists names and addresses plus the religion of the delegates, and advises Loyalists to 'check them and see if you agree that they are an impartial body'. This information was without much doubt passed to the Loy alists by the Army, and amounts to incitement to assassinate the Trades Council delegates.
REVAMPED B-SPECIALS The British Army has never been enthusiastic about the truce with the IRA, and the last GOC, Sir Frank King, spoke out publicly against it earlier this year. The Loyalist para-militaries have never made any secret of the 'co-operation' they receive from the British Army, and have admitted that serving members of the Army are also members of their para-military Republicans in Andersontown have warned that joint patrols of regular forces and the Ulster Defence Regiment are operating in that area, and have sugges ted that this is to familiarise this revamped B-Special organisation with nationalist areas in preparation for a Loyalist takeover. Certainly, anti- Unionists are being left in no doubt as to where the British Army stands and will stand in the event of any repetition of a UWC style stoppage, such as occurred last year.
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One of the most important political trials in recent years is due to begin at the Old Bailey on Monday, 29 September. Fourteen supporters of the British Withdrawal from Nortnern Ireland Cam- paign (BWNIC) will plead not guilty to charges of conspiring to
also face additional charges under this and the Army Act. charges arise from the distribution by BWNIC supporters of the