A Better Life For All Demonstration in London in 1978. Unlike other Irish demonstrations it was allowed to 'violence' ter Life' is a good idea, and that the trade unions in Ireland are courageous, 'Better Life' any taint of 'sectarian' feeling.
This is a load of baloney.
First of all, a number TU News, trade unions NIC of the Ireland are the political members hold on the Irish naParty their nonal quesuol For example, the Irish Bank Officials tiona! Teachers Organisation The the Irish Tanion and the a the Con- tional Association of Transport Workers Union and support for Employees are which organise in the North of Ireland but have Conser- quarters in the South.
Accordingly, told the are seen as 'Irish' unions their membership is overwhelmingly greatly ad- Catholic. Loyalist workers Join British-based equivalents.
A substantial 'Bet- workers in the North of Ireland members of belong to these British based unions. In part, this is because substantial • Len employed workers in the North are Protestant. rally in Trafalgar Square because it was classed as 'non-political'. Less than 200 people took part pure and free from object of lofty praise of wrapped up Northern organised around deceptive tag VICWS their it was 'sectarian Union, the Irish Na- the the all unions their headbecause they arbitrary ment.
unions, both elsewhere, majority of such maiority ofa political divide But this means that the Northern Ireland Committee, the share with by Len Murray, is very careful not to opposed. do or say anything that offends socialists this majority. This is caretully La 'nonsectarian' label, but, in fact, it is a This is evident in Murray's trades councils speech. He said 'to demand the withdrawal of the British Army repeal of repressive This is the wrong use of the word 'sectarian' There There is nothing 'sectarian' in opposing laws which deny NIC such basic human rights as the right to trial by jury, the right to be judged ine freedom from ved guilty, the freedom ment arrest prisonment that:
Indeed socialists and trade Britain and have tought and hard for such rights To call for the ending of laws is not, as Murray would have it, coming down on one side of a 'sectarian divide on one side the Loyalists Unionists Len Murray a view that these laws should not be Republicans, and nationalists Ireland take the contrary view.
Len Murray is correct when he says that the views of the TUC are the same as those of the Northern Ireland Commitof the Irish Congress For the NIC shares with the TUC a dismal record on the defence of human rights in the North of Ireland.
case of memorandum produced by the " in 1978 on the Protection of Human Rights in Northern In this report the only arguadvanced against imwithout trial 'A number of cases have heen brought to the Commit tee's attention where the threat dismissal has arisen because at ne arrest detention This is the approach of a concerned personnel manager.
also evident the memorandum's of Prevention of - Terrorism Act: 'In one case a person who was detained and subsequently served with an exclusion notice has had to turn down offers of employment for jobs in Europe or the Middle East since the agents for the companies operate from Lon don and require applicants to attend there for interview from which they are debarred by the notice.' So the NIC or the TUC mas refuse to oppose it in principle. They refuse to lead a campaign abolition these laws That places them on the side of the repressive laws and on the side of the Loyalists: it is a reflection of the Loyalist majority in trade unions in the North of Ireland Today, the Better Life fo All Campaign is dead. That will not stop the TUC supporting !! in Blackpool this week, for as is the case with hunger stuker. and victims of the British Army and doesn' always acknowledge, death in