Troops out now!

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AS MEMBERS of the Troops Out delegation to Belfast on August 5-7 we should like to support the appeal, reported this week, by the Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood, Clare Short, for British troops to be withdrawn from the six counties READERS WILL know from the appreciation in the last issue of Socialist Organiser (no. 143) of the death of Mary Archer. Mary and her husband John lived in Leeds from 1937, after graduating from the LSE, until after they were expelled from the Labour Party, along with many other left-wingers in 1959.

Comrades who remember their arrival on the staid, rightwing Labour Party scene in Leeds describe their stimulating and controversial intervention as a "fire-work party" • Leeds had become a stronghold of the right wing with Gaitskell, Alice Bacon, and later on, Denis Healey.

Mary's talents operated on both the practical and theoretical levels. She worked tirelessly to build the youth movement and acted as election agent when Harehills, a working class area in Leeds hitherto held by the Tories, was won for Labour for the first time. She also challenged major figures such as John Lawrence and Tony Cliff in public debate.

A meeting to honour Mary's memory is to be held on Sunday 4 September at 7.30 p.m. at Leeds Trades Council Club, Savile Mount, Leeds, to which all are welcome. It is also hoped to establish a Mary-Archer Memorial Fund to reprint socialist works that have fallen out of print, details of which will be passed on when known.

WENDY AND GARTH FRANKLAND Safe Economical Reliabje actioning leaflet ase chosen are ing chlordane.

Most no.

of the North of Ireland.

It is 14 years now since the British army was sent to N.

Ireland and Clare Short is only echoing what many on the left of the Labour Party have been saying for most of that time. In fighting for their self-determination, the Irish people are only demanding, after all, what has already been won in India and, more recently, Zimbabwe.

We were able to see at first hand the reality of colonial armed rule only an hour's journey from Britain, with soldiers prowling around suburban streets with loaded rifles, convoys of armoured cars, barricaded forts and armed city centre checkpoints.

I was pleased to see the two pieces on the current situation in thurporth of id and hstoner des 143). What a welcome change.

SO's recent coverage of Ireland has been confined almost entirely to condemning the politics of 'sectarian terrorism' (apparently equally applicable to loyalist and republican actions) mixed with rhetorical calls for working class unity, and to a long and laboured theoretical debate about the need for Protestant rights of autonomy in a reunified Ireland.

(For what it's worth, Gerry Adams told us on the Troops Out delegation that proposals for such autonomy were often made in order to avoid the need to state clearly that a united Irish state would be both democratic and entirely secular).

Hopefully SO will continue this improvement and contribute to the building of an effective labour movement solidarity campaign which, as comrade Murphy says, and inspite of the success of the TOM delegation, remains at present so pathetically inadequate.

P. ALLEN THE development of 20th century agriculture has been bound up with the growth of pesticides use so that nowadays, some 2,000 million kilograms of pesticide are used each year.

These are mainly used in the richer countries and have provided a very effective way of reducing the competition with insects, etc., for our crops.

•Roughly 100g of pesticide per person is being used every year in the "Third World' and use is increasing fast.

This leads to a problem, for, as David Bull points out in this book*, pesticides are classic example of an inappropriate technology.

For the Third World poor, pesticides as promoted and used at present are an unfolding disaster. Bull shows why this is the case, as well as pointing out some possible solutions.

Insect There are at lea st 1 million species of insect, o E which only. about 1% are pes ts. But in addition there are about 10% who compete with us for our crops but whose effects are too insignificant for us to notice.

These are potential pests. The other 90% are either harmless or beneficial, by helping plants to grow or by eating pests.

If insecticides All this shows that Britain's propping up of the six county sectarian state will only lead to more bloodshed and strife. The only solution is for he troops to be pulled out now and the Irish people to be allowed to determine their own future.

We hope that many more labour movement delegates will accompany the Trades Council banner for the second time on next year's TOM delegation, and see for themselves the contrast between what is reported in the press in Britain and the reality of the situation in Ireland.

PETE LEYDEN, MICK RICE, STUART RICHARDSON ROW, CHERRY SEWELL GEORGE WRIGHT Send letters to Socialist Organiser 28 Middle Lane, London N8. No longer than 400 words please: longer letters are liable to be cut.

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