parlez vous.
We've got an army of our own!
Inky pinky, parlez vous.* So sang a contingent of Belfast women, who brought the militancy of Andersonstown and Over 600 people turned out for a march through Coventry on Sunday, 12 August, organ- leafletted the Colchester Tattoo from 1-4 Aupised by the Coventry Prisoners Defence Commi- ust in an attempt to expose the reality behind ttee. The march, to mark the second anniversary of intemment and to keep up the pressure of the campaign to free the Coventry 7, was the largest activity ever organised in Coventry on the Irish issue, The march was followed by a rally at which the from which troops are sent to Ireland, and in main speakers were Michael Gallagher (Sinn Fein) and Gery Lawless (ING). Representatives of the Blackburn 3 Defence Committee, Coventry 7 Defence Committee, IS and WF also spoke. Gery Lawless finished by stressing the need to continue the struggle, and outlined the possibilities for developing a movement to get the troops out of Ireland. Over E100 was collected for the activities of the Defence CommiThe next main priority for the Coventry Defence Committee will be to convene a national meeting of all the Defence Committees in the country to co-ordinate tactics for the opening of the trials of the various Irish militants.
On Saturday, 4 August, a meeting was held outside the Dublin GPO in support of Michael Farrell They had travelled to London to take part in a demonstration to mark the second anniversary of internment, and to hand in a highly disrespectful letter to 10 Downing Street on behalf of the Political Hostages Relatives Committee. The demonstration was the largest and most Supporters of the Anti-Internment League the tattoo spectacle: a reality of army repress ion in Ireland, of troop demoralisation, and a growing feeling in this country that the troops should be withdrawn.
Colchester is one-of the major garrison towns the past few months Army wives have twice attempted to launch a national petition for the withdrawal of the troops. The leafletters met with a reasonably sympathetic response from army families, while that from the crowd was As for the troops, reaction ranged from the aggressive to the defensive to the openly sympathetic, Particularly encouraging was the response of many of the bandsmen, some of whom took piles of leaflets and were distribuling them amongst the crowds and other soldiers. It is amongst those dragged into the war in an attempt to boost the Army's strength and presence that the real disallusion ment is setting in.
EG. HITCHEN RELIAS POUTICAL TREE TUREE: ation in January. 2,500 marchers poured through the streets of London challenging the illusion that the struggle in Ireland is over. The largest contingents came from Sinn Fein (Provisional), Clamn na hEircann, and the IMG, but there were other banners from the AntiFISTERS DETIVE AGARCY GUARD DOGS *NORTHERN Above: Bandsmen discuss with leafletter at Colchester. Below left. Supporters picket Blackburn 3 hearing, 25 July.
A big defence campaign is under way for three Defence Association, the Belfast Ten Defence Committee, Peoples Democracy, IS and the London District Committee of the Communist Party. At a rally at the Temple, where the main speaker was Maire Drumm, the Vice-Presideht of the Provisional Sinn Fein, £350 was collected for the internees and their dependants. Over 20 different organisations affiliated to the Anti-Internment Ad Hoc Committee, and co. operated in organising and publicising the march. This helped in drawing into the demonstration a broader range of organisations than has been seen on an Insh demonstration in London for a long time, in particular, the fact that the CPB supported the march, albeit with a small contingent, was a hopeful sign. However, neither the response from the CP nor from 15 can be allowed to pass without comment. These organisations are capable of turning out hundreds of their members on such "fashionable" issues as Mozambique; to mobilise approximately thirty members each for a demonstration concerned with British repression in Ireland displays a very distorted set of political priorities. Once again we have evidence that these so-called 'revolutionary" organisations are so steeped in British insularity that they can be swayed by the propaganda of the British press into believing that the struggle in Ireland is no longer an issue of central importance.
Indeed another factor which led to the success of the demo proves the opposite. There has been a resurgence of the civil resistance struggle in the North of Ireland in the past month. It was the rioting in Belfast, spurked off by the Farsell and Canavan case, and the promise of bigger riots to come, that forced Whitelaw to release the two PD comrades and others besides. It was the impact of the militancy displayed in the Six Counties which brought out large numbers of Irish people in London last Sunday, However, a large demonstration in London with an Irish face on it is not sufficient. Experience has shown that such demonstrations can only have a limited impact on the higger battalions of the British labour movement. The success of the next major mobilisation can only be measured in the size of the participation from British organisations. The resurgence in the North is only a foretaste of what will happen when the Assembly dis plays its monumental futility. The opening of a new crisis of British policy will be accompanied by a new interest in the demand for the withdrawal of the troops, If the British left is to seize this opportunity to bring real weight to bear againat British imperialism in Ireland, the time to take up the Irish issue is now.
and on a 32 County basis Cosgrave knows that the