[SOLIDARI by lan Swindale A VOICE seldom heard…]

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SOLIDARI by lan Swindale A VOICE seldom heard at TUC Congress spoke up in support of the hunger strikers last week, to the acute embarrassment of the TUC leadership.

Moving the only resolution on the agenda on Ireland - supporting the 'Better Life for All Campaign' - Frank Miller of the AUEW Construction Section took the opportunity to call for an end to Labour's bipartisan policies with the Tory government on Northern Ireland.

He went on to urge "a breakthrough in the situation around the H-Block and hunger strikers". He pointed out that support for the prisoners' five with criminal damage and breach of the peace.

They have been told by the police that the authorities in Britain will press for deportation. Whilst in custody the students have been split between four prisons. The nine women are. being kept in Holloway and the 45 men have been put in three prisons, including Brixton.

•Executed A spokesperson for the Muslim Students Society in Britain said: "There is no question they will be executed if they are deported. demands was justified and did not imply support for the IRA, and called for an end to the British presence in the Six Counties "and for the Irish people to be allowed to determine the future of their own country"

Stifle So anxious are the TUC leaders to stifle any real debate on the question of Ireland, that a number of them, including Len Murtay, immediately rose to condemn the speech.

That this situation still prevails in the TUC twelve years after British troops went onto Northern Ireland's streets is an indication of the massive task facing us.

Some students who occupied a university in Germany were deported back and excuted."

The Muslim Student Society has already contacted a number of left Labour MPs, appealing for support in keeping the students in this country.

All supporters of Socialist Organiser, especially those in student unions and unions involved in further and higher education should be demanding that the leadership of those unions makes immediate protest and demands that the students are not deported.

Meanwhile, another H-Block prisoner, 21-year old Gerard Hodgkins, has joined the hunger strike, and later this week 100 relatives of the H-Block prisoners will arrive in London, accompanied by Owen Carron MP, to lobby leading politicians support of the hunger strikers' five demands.

Owen Carron will return at the end of the month to address a Labour Committee on Ireland fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference.

While the struggle in support of the hunger strikers may be making greater headway in the Labour Party than in the trade unions, it nevertheless remains true that the failure of the organised working class and its mass party to rally to the support of the Long Kesh prisoners is a major factor in allowing Thatcher and her government to defy the courageous hunger strikers and deny them their demands.

Every effort must be made in the run-up to the Labour Party conference to begin to reverse this state of affairs.

• Victory hunger strikers!

• Troops out of now!

• Self-determinat on for the Irish people as a whole.

Next week: an analysis of the Labour Party NEC Working Party report on Ireland.

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