Events the past week in the six counties of Northern Ireland demonstratively show why the withdrawal British troops from the north, the disbanding of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the unification of Ireland, and self-determination for the Irish people must be carried out immediately.

The violence against working people and freedom fighters in the north is a result of 27 years of direct British military occupation of the six counties of Northern Ireland, and decades of the partition and oppression of the country by British imperialism.

While painting itself as peace broker in hopes of gaining a greater foothold for U.S. capital in Ireland, the Clinton administration has stepped up the jailing and deportation of freedom fighters such as Jimmy Smyth, who escaped with 37 others from the notorious H-Block wing of Maze prison near Belfast in 1983. We call on every candidate in the U.S. elections to condemn these moves.

Our campaign salutes the protests in Ireland to condemn the rightist marches by the pro-British Orange Order through Nationalist communities, the complicity of the RUC in the anti- Catholic violence, and the refusal of London to allow Irish freedom fighters in Sinn Fein into the multiparty talks under way on the future of the six counties.

The resistance to these assaults and refusal to bend the knee to the British masters-whose declining empire can hardly hold together the United Kingdom-deserves the support of fighters everywhere.

We join with demonstrations and actions here in the United States. We urge workers, youth, and democratic-minded people to organize speak-outs, picketlines, and other activities to press these demands as widely as possible. The labor movement must join these protests, since doing so will weaken the common enemy of the Irish freedom struggle and the working class: U.S. and British imperialism.

Ireland must be free. This is the unconditional stand of tens of thousands who have taken to the streets, joined protest actions, and given their lives in the struggle to rid the country of the British occupiers. The oppression of Ireland was central to the rise of Britain as a imperialist power. British capitalists have reaped untold profits off their rule over the country. They have used anti-Irish sentiments to divide and weaken the working class in Britain.

The British oppressors have created a monster in Northern Ireland. In order to maintain their rule over the past decades they have put in place a range of repressive forces -the RUC, the Orange Order, and rightist gangs - that are part of a whole social setup designed to terrorize those seeking to fight against the unjust system and to perpetuate and reinforce discrimination against Catholics.

The privileges handed out to Protestants have developed a social caste that includes layers of working people who see their interests not with other workers who are Catholic, but with their masters in London. Violence by these forces will continue, which is why denying them any official backing by the RUC and British troops is so crucial to Irish patriots' ability to countermobilize against them.

Self-determination for Ireland can be advanced by building solidarity with the struggle around the world. Though they try to keep the face of strong powers, the imperialists can be pushed back by a determined fight. British troops out of Ireland! Disband the RUC! End Washington's harassment and deportation of Irish freedom fighters! For a united and free Ireland!  
 
 
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