BY NAOMI CRAINE

Activists in more than a dozen cities across the United States participated in a Day of Action July 20 to protest the recent actions of the UK government in occupied Northern Ireland.

Protesters demanded British troops get out of Ireland, the disbandment of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and for Prime Minister John Major to begin all-inclusive peace talks now.

The actions also called for an end to Washington's harassment and deportation of Irish activists from the United States, such as Jimmy Smyth, an Irish worker in San Francisco who currently faces an extradition order.

Paul Doris, chairman of the Irish Northern Aid Committee, issued the call for the protests. Doris urged activists to call for the banning of plastic bullets, 6,000 of which were fired by the RUC at nationalist protesters in Northern Ireland in early July as they tried to prevent the right-wing Orange Order from marching through their neighborhoods.

Among the larger protests was a picket of 100 outside the British consulate in New York.

The Irish People reported a similar number of demonstrators in Philadelphia displayed black flags and marched around a mock coffin recalling Dermot McShane, who was crushed by a British Army vehicle during protests in Derry July 13.

Forty people turned out in front of the British consulate in downtown Boston. Protesters marched for more than an hour carrying signs that said "Disband the RUC" and "British plastic bullets kill Irish children, Ban Them Now!" Speeches were made by demonstration coordinators, representatives of Irish Northern Aid and other organizations, as well as by Andy Buchanan, Socialist Workers candidate for Senate in Massachusetts. The speakers called for an end to British support to the Orange provocations in Catholic areas, and for an end to Washington's complicity in London's campaign of repression. "We'll be here if it takes 100 years," one demonstrator from Ireland said. "One way or another we'll remove Britain."

Protests were also organized in Albany, Cleveland, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Omaha, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Seattle.

Jarad Friedman, a Young Socialists member in Boston, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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