workers disarmed, the serious offensive against working class living standards began. The Unions suffered from internal splits, especially the Transport Union between Larkin and O Brien. between the militants and bureaucracy and between British and Irish based Unions. In the docks. the mines and the grain trade among others the employers forced wage reductions of Is per hour. By October 1930 Sean Lemass, a lieutenant of De Valera's was predicting the complete demise of the small Labour Party. In 1932 De Valera's Fianna Fail Party came to power. The threat of a mass based anti-imperialist struggle was no longer so immediate and the small bourgeoisie could act a little more conndentry Protection established in the South and legislation enacted, which would insist that 51% of all new industry was Irish owned. One obstacle existed to these exponents of capitalism in one country, however, and that was the small size of the Irish market - too small to provide an adequate base for modern large-scale industry.
DeValera's government succeeded Britain's naval bases in 1938 and removing keeping out of Britain's war. Their economic achievements were very limited, however. In the absence of an industrial base, rural poverty and unemployment continued, forcing many Irish to emigrate. Initally inere was some SuCCesS from De Valera's policies. Manufacturing output increased by 30% between 1932 and 1936 but this increase could not continue within the confines of the Irish market. Between 1926 196l, the agricultural petty bourgeoisie actually increased from 73 to 78% of the population, while the workers 15 2 the muzber o serial org the numer or industrial workers dropped from 644,861 to 637,759. There was only one answer in bourgeois terms to the stagnant state of the Irish economy. To open it up to the wider imperialist markets. In the 1950s protection was gradually dismantled anc foreign capital was allowed free entry fron 1958 onwards. The result was a general influx of European capital (mainly West German). In the donoral noct umr mneriglict noam reland d The explosion of the civil rights struggle in Northern Ireland has, more man any struggle against British Imperialism in recent years, opened up the imperative necessity of solidarity action in this country. For this reason he Irish Civil Rights Solidarity Campaign has experienced a rapid growth; now the Campaign is extending the fight to a new field, the North Islington by-election.
The by-election is being fought, in this heavily Irish populated area, to get publicity for the facts about the civil rights struggle in Their attitude has been; "We don't mind if you rot, so long as you rot quietly. Now the rot has been stirred and the struggles in Northern society Now Labour Government, and ironically the Tory/Unionist Party, have decided that they also are for civil rights. But it is too little and too late, with no real feelings for the aspirations of the people.
He also points out the role of the major parties so far as Islington is concerned "The Labour Party and the Tory/Unionists have nothing to be proud of in Islington. Islingto has the worst housing record in England, w have had Labour Governments and Labour councils, and Tory Governments and Tory housis record in England stil has the worst councils, and Islington Even at this early stage the I.C.R.S.C campaign has had some success, there have been headlines in the local press about Brian's candidature, and the Labour majority Islington is so delicately balanced, that the prospect of a rival for the Irish vote in the constituency has sent the local Labour Party into a panic, they hurriedly picked an Irishman as their candidate, almost splitting the Party in the process, and produced a chain reaction amongst parties.
Conservative/Unionists nave chosen an Irishman, and the Liberals also intend to jump on the civil rights bandwagon. So, whatever Brian's vote, or even if the I.C.R.S.C. do not in the end put down the deposit, the die is cast, tremendous opportunities for propaganda for the Campaign.
Although fighting the by-election on a broad civil rights programme, Brian makes no bones aboul being a revolutionary socialist. Like many good Irish socialists he comes from a background of the Republican movement, and describes himself as having been in the fight for the Irish revolution since the age of 12. He says: Rosa Luxemburg Poster. 15/- from The Black Dw ERNEST MANDEL IS COMING TO BRITAIN He will be speaking in the following places: contact .V. Gelderen. 62t 2urch Rd... B'han Tuesday Oct. 28 contact T.
Manchester - Wednesday Oct. 29 contact B. Allen, 21 Finney Drive, Chorlton, N Glasgow - Thursday Oct. 30 contact T. Southall, 97 Otago St., Glasgow W Edinburgh - Friday Oct 31 contact I. Miller, 35 Castle Terr., Edinburgh. A berdeen contact T. Southall as above.
York Marse. Precentors Ct.. York contact P. Hearse.
Hull - Tuesday Nov 4 contact J. Bearpark, 88 Park St., Springpark, Hull. Nottingham Wednesday Nov 5 contact J. Atkinson, 105 Castleboulvard, Not'm. Oxford
was taken by the Committee for the Defence of The Black Dwarf 26th October - 15th November 1969 Page 14
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civil rights in Northern Ireland will be the issue in the North Islington by-election, affording
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