LONDON, Jan. 9 (By Mail)—The vicious police
regime of Northern Ireland has opened a campaign
of terrorization and repression against the Irish
Trotskyists, members of the Ulster section of the
Workers' International League. One comrade has been
blacklisted by the Belfast employers, another has been
deported to Southern Ireland, while a third has been
thrown in jail upon trumped-up accusations obviously
inspired by the Stalinists.
The first victim of this campaign was a comrade
who was driven out of the shipyards in the beginning
of November, and was blacklisted by the Employers
Federation. This means that it will be impossible for
him to obtain employment in his trade.
On Dec. 29, 1942 the second Trotskyism Pat McKevitt
was arrested and detained under the Civil Authorities
(Special Powers) Act. Comrade McKevitt is well known
in Dublin for his militancy in the Plumbers, Glaziers
and Domestic Engineers Union. Ue was held by the
authorities a week without charges being placed
against him. Then, without any pretense of a trial,
he was escorted to the border and deported into
Southern Ireland.
Finally, on Jon. 6 Bob Armstrong, the leading mem-
ber of the Irish section of the W. I. L, was arrested
and detained under the same act used against
McKevitt. Armstrong has a record of more than 10
years activity in the British labor movement. He
served his earliest years in the I. L. P. uild of
youth, following which he joined the Communist
Party. He was one of the earliest British anti-fascists
to go to Spain to fight Franco where he was twice
wounded.
Disillusioned with the Stalinist line, Armstrong
demanded a thorough discussion within the party, and
then broke with the Stalinists, along with five other
members of the Islington Dranch of the London C. P.
He immediately entered the ranks of the Trotskyists
and has since placed his entire life and experience at
the disposal of the revolutionary movement.
It is obvious that Armstrong's influence with the
workers and his undeviating opposition to the Stalin-
ists' sellout tactics made him a marked man. In a
letter sent to the WIL headquarters last November
he warned that the Stalinists were out to frame him
if they could. He wrote:
"I received a report that the chief of the political
police had asserted that I was linked up with the
German legation in Dublin. Yesterday in an interview ...
he denied that the Stalinists had directly
given 'information' on this, but tacitly permitted me
to understand that they have their own methods of
allowing such 'information' to filter through."
Although the "Special Powers Act” was introduced
ostensibly to deal with the I.R.A., the labor move-
ment in Northern Ireland has constantly fought it.
Trotskyists have explained to the workers that it
would be directed against militants. And so it has.
None of the arrested Trotskyists have at any time
been members of the I. R. A., but are Marxists who
carry out their activity with the traditional weapons
of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky—attempting to
win the Irish masses to the Marxist banner.
That they were meeting with success is evidenced
by these persecutions launched by a frightened regime
assisted by the degenerate party of Stalinism.
Militant, N Y
FEBRUARY 6, 1943
