The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.35           October 7, 1996 
 
 
Letters  

Irish hunger strikes
The Militant's coverage of the struggle in Northern Ireland is excellent. However, for readers unfamiliar with the struggle in Northern Ireland, I think more information, on the hunger strikes of 1980-81, mentioned in Jack Willey's September 16 article, might prove useful.

The hunger strikes won the restoration of de facto POW /political prisoner status for imprisoned Irish freedom fighters; but the victory came with a price. Between March 1 and October 3, 1981, ten young Irish freedom fighters died of starvation. Seven volunteers from Oglaigh na hEireann (the IRA) and three volunteers of the Irish National Liberation Army, chose a slow and painful death as their last means of struggle against the imperialist power that occupied their country and had attempted to strip them of their human dignity.

The first hunger striker was Bobby Sands; his fast began March 1 and ended, with his death, May 5, after 66 days without food. In these few weeks of painful struggle, Bobby Sands became an example to freedom fighters across the world. On April 9, after five weeks on hunger strike, Bobby Sands was elected to the British Parliament, with some 30,000 votes. After his death, four weeks later, over one hundred thousand mourners marched with his body, through the streets of West Belfast, that city and all of Ireland was swept by protests.

Two other hunger strikers, Paddy Agnew and Kieran Doherty, were elected to Southern Ireland's Parliament, and died in their turn. As the strike continued and the death toll climbed, the British government began to pay a steep political price. At the end of strike, the five demands were won. This is seen today in the improved conditions at Long Kesh. The victory went beyond prison conditions. In those terrible months of 1981, Britain lost the political struggle in Ireland. The British government's propaganda attempt to portray the Irish freedom fighters as criminals was decisively defeated.

In the aftermath of the hunger strike, the nationalist movement, which had been driven underground by British repression, returned to the streets of N. Ireland. The republican struggle, which had been carried on by a narrow vanguard, again became a mass political movement. With these 10 deaths the Irish republicans won the moral high ground and have held it ever since.

Roy Inglee

Wilmington, Delaware

Ricadro Aldape Guerra
On September 16 - Mexican Independence Day - some 20 demonstrators carried signs and banners and chanted in Spanish and English demanding freedom now for Ricardo Aldape Guerra in Houston. The protesters marched in front of the Harris county jail where Guerra is currently being held.

Aldape Guerra, an immigrant from Mexico, had been in the U.S. only two months when he was framed-up and sentenced to die for the killing of a Houston cop. After 14 years on death row, a federal court finally ordered Guerra released from death row and ruled the state must either retry or release him. This marked an important victory for the fight to end the death penalty and the struggle for immigrant rights.

A hearing in Aldape Guerra's case is set for October 18 and a new trial for December 20. Participants in the demonstration vowed to continue fighting until Guerra is free.

Participants in the demonstration included representatives of the Union of Families of Mexicans Condemned to Death, the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Coordinadora '96, Committee in Solidarity with the People of Mexico, Guatemala Support Network, and the Socialist Workers.

After visiting Aldape in jail, Maria Jiménez told supporters, "Ricardo wants to thank everyone for coming." She said they had talked about the building of the October 12 march, where a banner will be carried demanding Guerra's release and abolition of the death penalty.

Lea Sherman

Houston, Texas

Confronting the Klan
On September 1, members of the fascist, racist, terrorist KKK held impromptu rallies in Ebensburg, county seat of Cambria County, in western Pennsylvania, as well as in the nearby town of Patton.

In Patton, according to local news reports, 150 angry residents confronted the Klan who were passing out racist leaflets advertising for a September 14 "White Unity" rally near Ebensburg, where District 2 of United Mine Workers of America has its headquarters.

I called the head honcho of UMWA, who had run for state senate in the last election as a Democrat, and asked him if he could help organize a counter-demonstration.

He told me that he would contact other labor leaders and politicians to hold a unity rally against the Klan. No such luck. All of them are busy campaigning for the antilabor Clinton, I suppose.

Nicholas Brand

Loretto, Pennsylvania  
 
 
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