YOURSELF! During the last eight years the media have poured out more garbage, distortion and slander about what has taken place in Ireland than about any other topic. Editorial writers and reporters have used euphemisms reminiscent of the Watergate cover-up to camouflage Britain's role. *Ill-treatment has been substituted for torture, 'detention' for internment without trial, 'peacekeeping for repression, and 'shot while trying to escape for murder.
Newspapers such as Red Weekly have done all they can to counter the lie machine of the British state and its parasitical supporters in the press. We cannot hope to match the huge resources of the establishment mouthpieces; all we can do, by carry• ing weekly reports from the North of Ireland and articles outlining the political and historical background to the struggle for Irish self-determination, is to point in the direction of the truth.
But in the end the best way militants in this country can learn what is actually happening in Britain's oldest colony is to go and see the situation at first hand. On the weekend of 18-19 September that very opportunity will present itself when a National Labour Movement Delegation visits Ireland for three This initiative could be the most important event yet in influencing working class opinion on the Irish situation, and so it is not surprising that it will be resolutely opposed by all those in the British labour move. ment who wish to see the British version of 'terrorism' versus 'peacekeeping' sustained. Therefore when egation in union branches, CLPs, and student unions — as all readers should - they will face a sizeable on the delegation. To meet that resistance, Red Weekly offers the following information:
GATION?
ment which is organising the trip, support from both the British and Irish labour movement. The following MPs, in sponsoring the delegation, have given their support: Syd Bidwell, Maureen Colquhoun, Robin Corbett, Dick Harry Selby, Ron Thomas, Stan Thorne, William Wilson.
agreed to sponsor it, as have over fifty prominent trade unionists in Ireland. These include Phil Flynn, the Deputy General Secretary of the Local Government and Public readers of Red Weekly raise the delresistance to sending representatives WHO IS BEHIND THE DELE.
While it is the Troops Out Move• for TOM. the venture has received widespread TION DO?
Kelly, Arthur Latham, Tom Litterick, Jeff Rooker, Brian Sedgemore, Ten trades councils have also Employees Union; Matt Merrigan, one of the most powerful trade unionists in Ireland; and Peter Keating, who as well as being the secretary of two Workers' Union of Ireland bran ches is also the industrial organiser of the Communist Party of Ireland.
Such a wide range of sponsorship - including many who do not agree completely with TOM's two main demands - proves decisively that the delegation is not a front WHAT WILL THE DELEGA It will be the delegates themselves who decide whom to meet and what to see. But the organisers have already drawn up a provisional agenda which will seek to discover the facts both about the present role of Britain - especially the troops - and about the political background to the situation.
In the South it will be recommended that the delegates meet repres entatives of shop stewards committees in Dublin, official union spokespersons, and members of the Irish Labour Party.
In the North of Ireland the delegates will not only meet political parties, but will also be asked to meet the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, the Belfast Trades Council, the Association for Legal Justice, and various com munity groups. The delegates will also tour the ghettos and see at first hand what is taking place there.
WHO HAS ALREADY AG REED TO GO?
There are nearly forty delegates committed already. Just last week Joan Maynard MP announced at a press conference her willingness to attend. There are representatives from five trades councils and branches of the following unions: AEU, AUEW-TASS, NUR, UCATT, ASTMS, NUT, TGWU, NUJ, and USDAW Already two CLPs have agreed to send delegates, as have a number of student unions. Geographically the delegates range from London to Bradford and from Coventry to Glasgow.
WHAT WILL IT COST?
Accommodation will be provid ed free, so the only major expense will be the plane fare over. fare will be something in the region of £30-35.
While all organisations sending delegates will be asked to pay as much of their own fare as they can, the organisers have and will be holding a series of fund-rasing events in order to subsidise those delegates who are unable to meet the full cost. Details of these fund. raising events will be announced in future issues of Red Weekly. AND NOW....
Raise the delegation wherever you can, and in applying for delegate credentials or further infor mation write to. LMDI, c/o TOM, 1 North End Road, London W.14 TROOPS OUT AL THE THOUGE MOVEMEN:
New Troops Out Movement bulletin just out- 10p plus 8p p&p from Red Books c/o 97 Caledonian Road, London N.1.
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GO AND SEE FOR