BY JACK WILLEY

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - During a four-day visit to Northern Ireland at the end of August, Laura Garza, Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. vice president, joined in actions against sectarian marches through predominantly Catholic nationalist communities (see article on page 3) and discussed the U.S. elections with a range of Irish republican activists. Two members of the Communist League in the United Kingdom, who are active in the struggle to force British troops out of Ireland, joined Garza on the fact-finding tour.

In a meeting at the Belfast City Hall August 29, three of the 10 Sinn Fein members on the Belfast City Council described the conditions faced by Catholics under the British-imposed caste system that guarantees privileges for the Protestant population in the north. Alex Maskey noted that Catholics are three times more likely to be unemployed, suffer discrimination in housing and social funding, and are subject to loyalist attacks on their homes and communities on a regular basis. "Not a week goes by without a Catholic family being burned out of their home somewhere," said Maskey.

Fran Mckee, another councillor, said the resistance to the unionist marches this summer has united nationalists as never before. One result is an unprecedented boycott of businesses owned by some Protestant businessmen who played a prominent part in imposing the roadblocks and marches.

Mckee noted that only in the last eight years have nationalists won the right to hold a demonstration of their own through downtown Belfast. Even the right to function on the city council has been a battle at each step, since Sinn Fein first won seats in 1983. Their offices at city hall have been bombed, unionist councilors attempted to keep them off committees, insults and derogatory comments were commonplace at meetings, and meetings are deliberately shifted at the last minute by unionists to try to exclude the republican representatives. The Sinn Fein members had to take the council to court to secure many of their rights, including to participate fully in all council committees.

In one indication of the colonial status of the six counties of Northern Ireland, the Belfast city council has no power over housing, welfare allocations, or education, but it can determine allocations for community leisure centers. While funding for a women's center in the Protestant area of Shankill was approved recently, the council tried to deny funds for a similar center in the Catholic area of Falls Road. The Sinn Fein councilors have used their offices to encourage community residents to mobilize for meetings and make their presence felt at City Hall, something unseen before. Marie Moore, another Sinn Fein councilor, told the visiting socialists that the greater number of women participating was also an upsetting prospect for the unionist-dominated council.

The councilors asked the vice presidential candidate several questions about U.S. politics, such as what does the welfare bill recently signed by William Clinton mean, why did the U.S. government deport Irish political prisoner Jimmy Smyth, and where does the fight for independence in Puerto Rico stand today.

Smyth's recent deportation by the U.S. government is not exceptional, Garza said. "Through recent `anti-terrorist' legislation, Washington has chipped at democratic rights, especially for those who are not citizens. The government now has the right to deport immigrants it claims are supporters of terrorist groups. Without a jury trial, the courts can have activists deported, using `confidential' evidence. The U.S. government still holds Puerto Rico as a colony, just like London occupies northern Ireland," said Garza, who recently returned from a trip to Puerto Rico where she participated in pro- independence demonstrations.

Visit to prisoners in Long Kesh
Prison is a normal part of life for families throughout the north, Garza learned. Many Catholics have family members or close friends who are serving prison time in Long Kesh. Under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and other undemocratic laws, thousands of fighters, predominantly young, have been framed up and convicted in a court system with no jury. Refusal to cooperate with police interrogations and demanding to see a lawyer are assumed to be evidence of guilt.

On August 30, Garza visited Brendan Donaghy and Peter Lynch in Long Kesh, where hundreds of Irish political activists are incarcerated. She was struck by the conditions of prison life compared to U.S. prisons. In 1980 and 1981, republican inmates staged hunger strikes to protest appalling prison conditions, Donaghy explained.

The demands of the hunger strike, including the right to wear their own clothing, exemption from penal labor, and free association and organization were all won. All the prisoners now wear civilian clothing and are free to move throughout the H- block until 10 p.m. After that, prisoners can travel within their wing of the H-block and are not locked into their cells. Although many gains have been won in Long Kesh, prison conditions for Irish nationalists in England remain very harsh, noted Lynch.

Republican prisoners organize classes and have access to several political newspapers and books. Both Lynch and Donaghy asked several questions about Cuba, the struggle of Palestinians for self-determination, and the democratic revolution in South Africa.

During her tour, Garza also visited young members of Sinn Fein. They told her about efforts to build a youth group of Sinn Fein - Glor na nOg (Voice of Youth) - to draw more young fighters into the republican movement.

In Bellaghy, a village of about 700, Garza and other visiting socialists were asked by residents to serve as peace observers to aid the community in enforcing an agreement that limited how far the rightist Royal Black Preceptory could march into the Catholic neighborhood. Garza also marched in Strabane at a commemoration to the martyrs of the Irish independence struggle.  
 
 
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