dinațing Committee (LCC) on Ireland, Peter Hain, supported by Ken one parliament.
have as public declaration practical taken by the Socialist Action editorial board.
THE discussion that Diace within the welcome. It has resulted in the forthcoming union conterence initiated by the Labour Committee on Ireland (LCI). Seizing further opportunities for united action such as a Iliaos British withdrawal on the twentieth anniversary the troops being sent in -woula be a genuine colltribution the cause of musu iccuolll.
But joint action in no way implies political support lor ine le of the Hain paper, proposal •ilascu withdrawal programme to implemented future Labour government not ine road to Irish liberation, British In this country, parliamentary politicians and the media speak of the * Irish problem But for the irish people the problem very clearly British UlIt centuries-long domination of been the cause genocide. lilass starvation and emigration, subordination distortion, cultural destruction This entire history shows how far Britain will go to defend lIS prize possession Successive rebelions hv the irish beople have been met with the continues take this stance because of the stakes involved for im perialist rule. Not only would a successful struggle for unity independence be a beacon to anti-imperialist fighters worldwide, it would be frontal challenge immediate economic power of the British ruling class. THE ADVISORY conference of the Labour Coorheld in January, voted in favour of a paper submitted by Livingstone parliament. Socialist Action considers this opens important new opportunities to strengthen campaign forces demanding British withdrawal from Ireland. Socialist Action considers that the crucial task on this is not abstract propaganda but the practical task of getting Britain out of Ireland. The left can unite around demanding the withdrawal of Britain from Ireland during the lifetime of one parliament - and implementation of this demand would represent an paper Socialist Action agrees with the central demand that Britain should withdraw in the lifetime of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, speaking in Government of Ireland Act and an irreversible and by a British government that establishment would remain there only for as long as it took to arrange their permanent withdrawal. This would need to be accomplished within the shortest Only a revolutionary mobilisation of the Irish themselves Debbic wall overthrow British colonial rule over the 6 Counties its semi-colonial domination of the Counties The British working has deep self Cass interest in the struggle of the Irish people for their right to self-determinnation which enslaves another can never itself be free.
breaking ruling over the not be able to necessary independence achieve anything on its At the centre of policy workIng toward the Irish nor can there be.
determine their can resolve tian immediate withdrawal of debts.
tour, the • L02 growing of the but Hain 'A for immediate within which violence dissension They conterpose a profor phased withdrawal during which time such 'violence and dissension' will overcome, they argue by Britian conTROOPS OUT SWP vs STA Committee.
tion of militants within the NUT.
have escaped the author's memory.
agreed alms. IN ONE OF the most badly timed set of articles ever produced in the left press, Socialist Worker launched a massive sectarian attack against the Inner London Teachers Association (ILTA) on 11 April, the day eight of its members received notices saying that they had either been expelled or suspended by the NUT Executive Appeals The eight are all members of the Socialist Teachers Alliance (STA), an organisaThe paper describes the STA as an organisation 'dominated by the lower levels of union officials which 'does not reflect organisation by classroom teachers'. The fact that the STA was responsible for the 13 January strike against Baker's Pay and Conditions Bill involving 8000 London teachers, seems to The STA has grown in influence over the last 11 years. Its great strength is its ability of welding a diverse body of political opinion in order to fight for Socialist Worker charges that 'many STA activists have illusions that left Labour councils can deliver real. change. This may or may not be true. It says nothing of the STA's nature which is revealed by the actual resistance led by the STA to attacks by such Labour councils — or any others. This resistance has been effective because the STA has rejected the SWP's sectarian abstention from the political struggle in the labour movement — including in the Labour Party-
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others, calling for British withdrawal from Ireland by a Labour government during the lifetime of one
historic victory for the Irish struggle for freedom. While not agreeing with many points in Peter Hain's
London on 10 February called on Britain to adopt a 'strategy for decolonisation'. Such a strategy must its central tenet the abandonment of the
•Northern Ireland' is no longer a part of the United Kingdom and that the British military and political
period and a definite date within lifetime of the parliament would need to be set for the completion of this withdrawal. JON SILBER- MAN argues a minority view opposing the position