Workers' Liberty

We would like to bring to your attention the following statement by Mr Billy Hutchinson in August 1997, when he said: “We have been advising the UVF to maintain its ceasefire because the talks were the way forward, but we can’t give that advice any more. We are being taken for granted and there is nothing in it for us.”

Bearing in mind the record of the UVF of randomly killing any Catholic they get hold of, including Mr Hutchinson’s record of killing a SDLP councillor and his Protestant girlfriend for the ‘crime’ of daring to mix with each other (Hutchinson and his comrades slashed off the woman’s breasts in what was an orgy of sectarian butchery) then clearly his advice spells trouble for Catholics in the north of Ireland.

In this context we therefore ask whether Workers’ Liberty is now prepared to admit that it was wrong to allow Mr Hutchinson to write an article for your publication in October 1995 in which he claimed: “Yes, I am a socialist!” He was allowed to speak at a Workers’ Liberty dayschool on a similar theme.

We look forward to hearing your reply.

Mark Metcalf, on behalf of the Colin Roach Centre/Resistance