SOCIALIST Action has begun to systematically analyse the position of women and black people in British society and in ine workme Class However there is another which must be taken into account — this 1s the consequences of Britain's long colonial rule over Ireland, its continued occupation of the six counties, and its neo-colonial economic domination of the south.
British imperialist
domination over Ireland is well known to have resulted in centuries of genocide, oppression and poverty for the Irish. But it also had significant consequences on the British social structure. There are at least three interrelated aspects.
First British domination over Ireland historically resulted in the depopulation of Ireland through mass murder, mass starvation, and mass emigration from Ireland to the USA, Australia and Britain.
Ireland is the only Professional workers Employers and Managers Non-Manual Skilled Manual Semi-skilled Manual Unskilled Manual organisation AN article in your paper of 23 Jan has been forwarded to me in which you give a misleading and factually incorrect account or a meeting of the National Committee of Labour Women (NCLW) which considered reorganisation.
You write as if the NCLW is under some sort of obligation to accept without question the decisions of the WAC A HOW any women's sections, courcus anu tiauc unions were officially represented at that gathering?
in the NUS WE are writing to you in the interests of democracy and debate in the student movement.
On 24 January 1987 Campaign Student held a meeting to prepare Ior the National Oraganisation of Labour Students conference in February.
The meeting was broken up by members of Socialist Students In NOLS, led by Socialist Urganisel supponers.
They flooded the meeting demanding votes, attempted to country in Western Europe whose population has been reduced over the past 200 years, and emigration has continued.
Emigration from Ireland was estimated to have reached 52,000 in the year July 1985 to July 1986. 38,000 of this total are estimated to have emigrated to Britain.
Second, this emigration to Britain has created a significant Irish ethnic minority within Britain. The 1981 census registered 850,397 Trish-born people permanently resident in Britain. This is certainly an underestimate and has subsequently increased One estimate o1 lie Irish population as a whole in Britain (first to third generation would put this at four million (See Irish in Britain by Kevin O'Connor). This Irish population in Britain is extremely concentrated. More than 45 per cent of the Irish. born population in 1981 were living in the South Born in Born in England and Wales 3.6% 8.3% 22.1% 36.5% 15.7% 24.8% 9.9% The North West Region Women's Committee has made proposals which disagree on some points witn WAC. For example we are opposed to the abstract allocation.of a proportion of votes account of the level of active participation and is no incentive to build the Labour women's organisation. The decision to include both proposals concerning the election of the NLWC, ie either at Regional or National Conference, was done because although the national conference may have agreed to the change, all Regions haven't. This 1cnt the cent a new right but of actually removing a right already shouted speakers down including the chair throughout the meeting. One visitor, not even a student, proposed to delete a committment to a democratic, secular Palestine from Campaign Student's platorm Ior canaluale.
in elections. SSiN even accused Campalen Student supporters of being sectarian for refusing to allow them to outvote us in our own meeting!
The meeting was forced to close with no vote taken, and Campaign Student was prevented from adopting criteria for