The Troops Out Movement (TOM) held its latest twiceyearly national conference on ference was devoted to the plight of Republican prisoners held in the six counties of the north.
branch of the RAC-Relatives Action Committee- spoke in detail about the four-year-old to wear their own clothes, for in the labour movement, was carried. of army installations, selling and TOM stalls at festivals. full-time staff.
jectives, since early February. 28th June in Edinburgh. A large proportion of the one-day conRepresentatives from the Derry "blanket' protest conducted by the prisoners at Long Kesh who aim to regain political status, and the protest by women prisoners free association, and to organise their own education and recreation- to be taken up especially It was also agreed that TOM would organise a delegation of about 500 of its supporters to go to Belfast to picket an army station, and that TOM will support a demonstration being planned by Sinn Fein to commemorate the start of internment. Plans were discussed for the expansion of activities such as the picketing TOM's pane: Tranps Out pubbates within the Labour Party:
Another result of the conference is that TOM will be strengthened organisationally with a national Steering Committee elected by conference, and a headquarters for the campaign, with held at Armagh, for the same obWhilst morale amongst the Republican prisoners is high, the inhuman treatment to which they are being subjected in response to the campaign could eventually lead to the death of a prisoner, an RAC speaker said. Should this occur, delegates were told they could be sure that 'all hell will be let loose'.
The issue of the prisoners was a central theme at the conference and it became clear that much of TOM's campaigning activity during the next six months will be centred around it.
A resolution which called for the "political status' demandsthe right to refuse prison work, There is growing resentment within the Labour Party's rank and file at the parliamentary leadership's 'bi-partisan' policy on Ireland- ie refusing to challenge the ruling class's repression Letter from H Block They show you the excreta on the walls And tell you how we have done it all But they don't tell you why Of taunting screws that made the soft ones cry They taught us how to cope with dirt They who have done it long before When they kicked our slops around the cell floor And bade us clean it or be beaten more Call me sir you rebel swin‹ And on the floor you must dine A dinner topped with a dirty spit And tea that smelt of urine Far better it be to inflict our own thorn Than to lie down and take it issued with scorn They can perform cosmetic operations for visiting British MPs Who in turn make a cosmetic statement To put the enquiring population at ease The propaganda that they spread is dirtier than our cell wall But amidst the torture and the dirt The prisoner he walks tall there. TOM's decision to step up work in the Labour movement can only be welcomed.
NOW!
TOM has launched a new pamphlet, entitled 'No British Solution, giving a detailed analysis of Britain's involvement in the six counties since partition took place. It is available from Box TO 2a St Pauls Rd, London N1. price 50p plus postage.