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From Socialist Worker, No. 101, 14 December 1968, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
EAMONN McCANN, militant Irish socialist and Socialist Worker reporter, was cleared by Derry magistrates last week of a charge of unlawful assembly arising from the police riot on October 5.
Loud cheers greeted the news and McCann was carried shoulder high from the court to a mass meeting on the dockside.
McCann told the crowd that the court decision was not victory in a war for the civil rights movement, but only a victory in a skirmish.
The tactics of the O’Neill faction in Northern Ireland’s Tory government are clear. They had meant to bring only militants before the courts.
But Craig, the police minister, who wants more extreme policies, charged 40 others, including Leader of the Opposition Eddie McAteer and two other MPs, Gerry Fitt and Austin Currie.
To imprison such respectable figures would mean committing the government to a policy of mass repression. This would lead to a break with Westminster and Rhodesia-style UDI – which Craig favours.
O’Neill imperialism’s representative in Ulster, was unwilling to follow in Ian Smith’s footsteps. Fighting back against Craig’s ultra-right threat, he is using the courts to get himself off the hook.
The second set of charges, which are minor ones, have been heard first in Derry. McCann has been acquitted, and so will many of the other defendants, including the MPs.
Then, when the dust settles and the press turns its attention from Ulster, McCann and other hard-line militants will be back in court on charges under the South Africa-style Special Powers Act.
DUBLIN:– 250 Young Socialists and Left-wing students marched on the British embassy last week to declare their solidarity with the militants on trial in Derry. Their path was blocked by 200 riot police.
Kitty O’Kane of Derry YS told the marchers that the police action was an example of the Dublin government’s support for the Ulster police state.
‘The southern establishment are just as opposed to workers on the streets demanding their rights as are the Northern Tories,’ she declared.
BELFAST:– The People’s Democracy, a non-sectarian civil rights movement, is organising a ‘long march’ from Belfast to Derry (73 miles) from December 19 to 22. British socialists are invited to take part. Full details from Mike Farrell, 8 Strandview Street, Belfast 9 Tel. Belfast 669685.
Last updated: 26 October 2020