VOTING FOR District Councils takes place in the Six Counties on 15 May. Already new rules supposedly introduced to prevent personation are confirming the worst fears of voting in the name of a person absent, abstaining or long since dead, has been an institutionalised part of elections in the North.
Only when Sinn Fein stepped into the electoral away Sinn Fein's vote. It skipped over a denial of democracy by which Britain continues to rule in Ireland through partition and the gerrymandered Loyalist enclave in the Six Counties. It skipped over the denial of democracy through the construction of electoral boundaries within the Six Counties which gave a Loyalist majority in cities like Derry which have an overwhelmingly nationalist electorate. It ignored the struggle for ont person — one vote which had been led by the natonalist civil rights movement and tried to pretend that it was Sinn Fein who were responsible for electoral fraud. It was a lie which fooled few in the nationalist areas but gave credibility to the claims of middle class politicians like John Hume that the SDLP or Dublin government could speak for the Danny Morrison, himsell a victim of Loyalist personation, which he says cost him victory in the Mid-Ulster constituency at the last general election said he would welcome genuine moves to preven electoral fraud. But that is not what the direct rulers have done. Their whole attention has been directed towards minimising the Sinn Fein vote. Republicans have consistently been the subject of large scale intimidation of electoral workers, can didates and supporters from the Army and police. The new electoral rules will handicap them still further. For the well off it might be no problem to produce a passport or new style driving licence with the owners photo as proof of identity. In nationalist areas like Ballymurphy where unemployment has gone up to 80 per cent it is very different. Excluding UB40s as a means of identification has disenfranchised thousands of unemployed youth. Only post 1972 medical cards will be accepted, disenfranchising many older voters. It has not 'proved possible' to meet the demand for new medica cards over the last o months.
The British rulers are determined to prevent the legitimising claim of Sinn Fein to represent the nationalist minority in the hunger striking prisoner Bobby Sands won a landslide vote in Fermanagh and South Tyrone they claimed it was 'an emotional response'. But with Six Counties. When THIS WEEKEND Trade Union Friends of Palestine (TUFP) holds its conference to discuss with leading trade unionists in Britain building solidarity for the Palestinian cause.
and how the conference can be built on in the labour movement.
unions in Palestine have a long and distinguished history are among ine oldest trade unions in Arab world.
first Palesti nian was formed by the Haifa Railway workers and by 1926 the Arab Workers Society (PAWS) had been established.
During the 1930s, when Palestine was ruled Dy d DIlIsh mandale, tie unions were active in winmembers and challenging exploitation. The greatest threat to the livelihood of Palestinian workers came from accelerated Zionist colonisation.
Trade Union Friends of Palestine Saturday 18 May 'British Labour and the Palestinians, Which Way Forward?
Holborn Central Library Hall, Theobalds Road, London WCI (nearest tube Chancery Lane or Holborn).
Trade Union Friends of Palestine can be contacted at PO Box 196 London WCIX OAT. Socialist Action looks at the history of the TUFP In 1936 the Palestinians staged a six month general which paralysed large sectors of the The main reason for the strike wa resistance to illegal Zionist settlement on Palestinian land.
As a result of the occupation of Palestine in 1948 and the establishment of the State of Israel, the majority of Palestinian umon activists became refugees. After fusion and disorganisation the Palestinian began rebuild their trade unions. In 1965 the First the General Union of Palestinian Workers, now renamthe Union Federation (PTUF) was held in Gaza. Since then the organisation has established a world-wide movement, a consequence of the dispersal of Palestinian refugee many countries.
The PTUF plays a prominent role in improving the social and economic conditions of Palestinians in exile, particularly in the refugee camps. By 1982 eight Palestinian servicing the refugee camps were in operation. The Israeli invasion of in June 1982 destroyed five of them.
Workers in the West Bank and Gaza territories seized in 1967 are both exploited and unprotected. There syndicates operating in the occupied territories, none of their bargainins rights a1 c recognised by the occupation authorities membership of the PTUF is prohibited.
The destruction of the West Bank Gaza particularly by the seizure of land, has forced numerous Palestinians find work elsewhere. Over one third Palestinian work force are now bussed into Israel on a daily basis to do menial jobs which Israeli workers will not do. They are denied union representation, tenure of work and the right to strike.
The Organisation (ILO) estimates that Palestinian workers from the occupied earn up to 50 per cent less than tell israel couner parts. They denied basic health, ment and family benefits, however, all of which are available to Israeli workers. The parallels with apartheid in South Africa are clear. Support It was not until 1966 that workers were allowed to join the Histradut, the General Federation of Hebrew Workers in Eretz Israel' Even they were administered by a separate 'Arab Department An 'Arab section' was opened inside the Hevrat Odim (the Histradut investment company) and to this day not a single factory has been opened in the Arab sector by or with the Hevrat Odim.
Despite the 140 unions active in the West Bank, only 28 have been given of ficial permits. Ine silta tion in the Gaza Strip is evel Worse were dissolved in 1967 and only allowed to reform in 1978 after the ILO intervened. No new unions have been allowed to form since then.
There also lega restrictions. Military der 825 in 1980 gives the Military Governor auth cultural artefact in the new history ing of the Vietnam war, the one that doesn't include the Vietnamese. It is in the tradition of Apocalypse Now turning genocide into spec- the While Nineteen is a fearsome aural spectacle we should be askcandidates prove loss candidates fice, remove candidates of annul the result altogether. Between 1981 and 1983 delegations PTUF attended the Scottish TUC and toured Britain. At the delegations went from Britain to Lebanon, Syria and Jordan and in May 1984 NALGO sent all official the saist Bank. da 1982 Bank. 1982 both the TUC and LP conferences passed resolutions supporting the rights Palestinian people to self-determination sovereign state, and recognising the PLO as the legitimate representative of the palestinian people These WELC followed up by other resolutions at trade union conferences of NALGO, Sogat 82, NUM, ACTT, FBU the STUC among others.
After years of unquestioning support for Zionisin these decisions represent a significant ad. vance for the Palestinian cause in Britain. These are Ture conference she tha dull which the build.
• Information in this article is taken from Palesti nian Trade Rights available from PTUF c/o 52 Green Londor WI Tel: 01-491 8872/62 8394. Affiliations to Trad Union Friends of Palestine at 21 Collingham Road, London SW5 ONU.
'what
average age of the Vietnamese kill. ed in the war?' and how many indo-chinese people were killed in "longest war in American history'? Considerably less than 19 and over 4 million. Verdict: great sound but unsound.
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PAUL HARICASTLE