BALLYMURPHY frem a special correspondent In less than eight months, the British troops in Northern Ireland have completely destroyed their image as impartial defenders of minority rights. Welcomed as replacements of the RUC and B-Specials in Derry and on the Falls Road last August, the troops are now viewed differently; since their repeated confrontations with street gangs in the Bogside and, most recently, the Ballymurphy area of Their counter-insurgency tactics ensure that the very people whom the claim to protect-the silent majority of the familiar cliché,—will be driven to the side of the young insurgents While the middle class civil rights lea ders have been quick to denounce the street gangs as hooligans, their parents and neighbours in places like Ballymurphy have strengthened their loyalty to the 'hooligans' in the face of harsh military intimidation. Mothers walk their seventeen year old sons hrough the streets at night to preven them from being 'lifted' by the ubiqui tous Army arrest squads. When the first lot of hooligans were brought to trial following the events of April 1 and 2, hundreds of Ballymurphy fami lies turned out to pack the courtroom A crucial factor in the British Army's alienation of communities like Ballymurphy is its use of the riot conrol agen CS. CS as the people of logsid (last August) and Ballymurphy know. IS weapor of community punishment. Not becaus CS affects 'hooligans and bystanders indiscriminately; but because it doe discriminate-against those whose age and health make them the least likely to be involved in the incidents which the military is trying to control. CS has its most severe effects on the old the very young and the previously ill In a place like Ballymurphy, where there are many children already suffering from malnutrition and even more people of every age who are chronic ally ill, the use of CS involves risks of very serious casualties. The reports of an independent investigation (see New Society, April 9) show that CS was fired into houses in Ballymurphy. causing families LO evacuate their homes. Both children and adults suff ered the now familiar effects of vomiting and diarrhoea, and one fifty-seven year old man, with previous heart and chest complaints, was hospitalised after collasping in the street following exposure to CS. A two year old child living on Ballymurphy Road died in hospital on April 7 after suffering from severe vomiting and diarrhoea The MP for the area, Paddy Devlin, stated, This child was in good health It is quite possible that his death was connected with the use of the gas in the area'. He was putting it midly CS is also a symbol of the Army's hope that advanced military techno logy (or in General Freeland's echo of Curtis LeMay, just plain 'firepower") may stabilise the Ulster situation. The Army is not the RUC, and it tries constantly to emphaise the distinction in terms of military efficiency. When trouble starts. the troops appear promptly in tight formation. A helicopter circles ominously overhead The Saracen tanks move in. Every fourth or fifth soldier seems to be equipped with electronic communicaions apparatu: The image is comlete when they don their gas mask and begin firing CS. As the people panic because they cannot breathe or see, the Army moves steadily forward with robot-like efficiency, with tanks, respirators, walkie talkies providing a grotesque science fiction scenario But the real fiction is political. The Americans have amply demonstrated in Vietnam that no amount of terror technology can compensate for the political shortcomings of an unjust régime. Far from isolating the hard core' rioters and hooligans, General Freeland's counter-insurgency operation in Northern Ireland is beginning to force the mass of both Catholic and Protestant workers and their families into extreme, hostile positions. At the moment the use of CS risks the lives of infants, the aged and the infirm. In the long run its use may prove fatal to British soldiers themselves.
trol of labour supply and discipline whereby employers are unable to hire and fire without the consent of the union side of the Dock Labour Boards. Recently both employers and government spokesmen have been pressing for abolition of the scheme. However the dockers have won a partial victory in compelling the Minister of Transport to issue assurances that nationalisation will not result in changing the scheme Since the government has conceded neither the demands for full nationalisation or workers control the dockers are developing a campaign to extend the scheme's coverage. Already Hull dockers have called several one-day strikes to protest against the arrival of ships which have visited "non-registered' ports en route for Hull. A national shop-stewards meeting, representative of all the main ports, is to convene shortly to adopt a programme on this issue. Whatever happens to the Bill, the dockers have identified a threat to