changing people's minds. For Jones sands of militants who trekked up which is the only way to force the ruling class to free the pickets. This lesson is coming home. Nottingham Trades Council has called for a day of national strike action throughout * INSANITY gthening * itable.
Salford Trades Gouncils and others.
These leaders and bodies must now national one day strike of workers across all industries. Now the camdelegates from all workers organiLiverpool Trades Council have recalled the national conference on gathering on 9 February, a decision When the Provisional ceasefire was originally extended the Red Weekly said: "The possibility that the British Government wil give concessions to the Provisionals sufficient to secure a more permanen ceasefire are non-existent.' The situation remains one where the power of the loyalists is such that the Government is neither willing nor able to grant any major + concession. The influence of the forces of loyalism is staggering. In the past 25 days of ceasefire the balance sheet has been totally neg • ative to the nationalist minority * * No let up in army activity and harrassment * The assassination by a British army death-squad of a leading Prov isional, John Green, and the arrest of two members of the army council by the Southern Irish Government.
• Reappearance of the sectarian Royal Ulster Constabulary, accom panying British soldiers into all the pubs on the Falls Road, the heart of the Catholic minority area in Belfast. * • The release of a mere 20 Republican internees whilst veleasing five our of the remaining 20 loyalist internees.
The British Government and the British army before, during, and * after the ceasefire harrassed, brutalised and terrorised the anti-union * ist minority to the advantage of the loyalists. They do this in order * to retain the support of the loyalists who are the surest bastion of * imperialist rule in Ireland In the situation where these forces of reaction are undefeated, to * call for "peace". * demand that the minority give up the struggle Equally it is a scandal for the Morning Star to say that the ending * of the ceasetire by the Provisionals plays into the hands of the right * wing and reaction, providing the British army with a new opportunity * for harrasment of the people*. It is virtually the IRA alone which * has put a restraining hand on British imperialism!
The history of the past five years shows that the fight for even democratic demands involves armed defence against violent onsiaught * by the forces of loyalism and the British army. The six county state * cannot be reformed. It is sectarian through and through, and provides * the material base through which the Protestant working class is won * to support of the imperialist link.
It is equally nonsense for the Morning Star to claim that the armed activity of the IRA maintains and deepens the division in the north of Ireland working class and makes the work of those fighting * in Britain for democracy in the North more difficult. The sectarian * divisions have always been there, and always will be whilst the six just that longer whilst Torces in the British working class think it is Britain's job to impose a solution in ireland * democratie one. No matter how well meaning such a sentiment is it reinforoes the chauvinism of the British working class and ensures continuation of the support which the British war machine needs in Ireland. The task is to ger our ruing class out of frelane immediately But this chawvinist position is taken to the lengths of insanity * when the CP claims "The activities of the Provisionals, fur from weak ening British imperialist rule in Ireland have contributed to its strenin the past five years because of the upsurge of the anti-unionist pop ulation jed by the Provisionair, with the Orange monolith being shatt ered into 27 different varieties, only a blind factionalist could maintain such incredible nonsense The Provisionals do not foment the sectarian divisions: they lead * the challenge to them. The Provisional IRA does not strengthen imp erialism: it is the chauvinism of the British working class which * lends a free hand to imperialism. The Provisional IRA does not play * into the hands of the right wing and loyalists, it is the British Labour * Government which does that.
The mistakes of the Provisionals are quite different. The growing strength of the loyalists in the recent period and the probability of a hand-over to them after the Constitutional Convention, is the most important question to which the Provisionals should be directing the attention of the anti-unionist people.
malitary activity at this stage. * unionists with the desire to art themselves. Organising self-defence * bodies that can develop into workers' militias is the task of the hour.
This canot be done under the slogan of 'peace', in the labe belief that this might calm the loyalists. Indeed, such a slogan cuts across the need to explain to the anti-unionist population that an armed confrontation with the forces of loyalism is more or less inev The Provisionals called the ceasefire originally because they were * unable to show that the bombing campaien which they were condu* cting in the Six Counties and in Britain was connected with a pers* pective for victory. By winning concessions through the ceasefire, * they wanted to show to the anti-unionist masses the tangible results * of their bombing campaign.
Unfortunately, their campaign, especially in Britair, has allowed * the Labour Government to play upon chauvinist sentiments and win * backing for any future compromise that may be reached with the The "tangible results" are much less favourable to the anti-unionists, * In that sense the Provisionals restart their campaign from a weaker * position than when they first called the ceasefire.
That's the problem. Victory is still not in sight. The task which * remains is a political one: to claborate a programme of action for the * masses north and roath to confront the imminent hand over to the * loyalists and to deal with the developing economic crisis in the South * trough a combined assault on imperialism.
as does the Communist Party, is no more than to And the six county state will remain in existence EVEL SO ESCU After four British imperialist 'solutions' have bit the dust This shows the place of any It should be directed at arming anti-