darity movement was in its worst state for many years.
"Movement is indeed a grandiose term for what now exists. Not since the Anti-internment League in the early 1970s has there been anything like a mass movement for British withdrawal.
The 21st anniversary of Bloody Sunday on 30 January The saw ust lou moollisco.
WORLD NEWS tumout from the left was poor.
despite a bigger than usual counter-mobilisation by the fascists.
Growth in the solidarity movement has always followed upsurges in the struggle in irelano. and ine converse is also true. The mass movement on the streets in ireland durino the Hunger Strikes gave a spurt to the changes in Labour Party policy in 1984 and the advances of the Labour Committee on Ireland during the 1980s.
Disappearing
Now the LCI hardly exists, partly disappearing into the tamed Labour Party Irish Society, while Time To Go has long Troops Out Movement is" stag nant or falling; while the smaller Irish Freedom Movement/RCP clings to the 'franchise' for the, given the stage of the irish strug gle and the low body count.
It is unlikely that the British will be forced out of Ireland until the crisis of the British state. which is progressing steadily. produces the kind of political upheaval which dictates such an outcome.
Withdrawal
That is not to say that a with. drawa movement cannot be built in the coming period. It will require less sectarianism and a correct orientation to the labour movement. For all its faults. Time To Go's work in the unions showed what was possible.
But over the next period the prospects for a troop withdrawal movement will be good. The current political initiatives in the Six Counties will fail. Once they fade situation, that the Brits cannot impose a solution, will reemerge. Pressure for troops out will rise again. Opinion polls continually show a majonty for troops out.
Ireland remains a decisive test for the far left in Britain. The current difficulties in building a solidarity movement should not be an excuse for capitulating to musterical media camp ons. ine relays for imperialist pressure. THOUSANDS of left wing militants will gather in Paris on 12/13 June for a widely supported conference aimed at spurring the fightback against unemployment, racism, austerity and the destruction of the environment. An appeal signed by many well-known leftwing leaders argues that the Europe being constructed through the Maastricht treaty is a Europe of the bankers and bosses.
The appeal states that European capitalism is going through a long crisis with 15 million unemployed and 30 million, especially youth, pushed into a "marginal' existence.
Further: "The Maastricht treaty, symbolised by monetary union and an independent bank, serves as an alibi for the dismantling of social gains and the welfare state. The Schengen agreement aims to "preserve order", on a European scale.' Warning of the dangers of racism and fascism, the appeal claims: Against this bleak ing, attempting to scapegoat imAnd, for the first time in 50 cars. rascist and nico-tascist groups are asserting themselves at the ballot box and in the Repression The existing governments, far from attempting to solve these problems, only resort to repression and attack demoThe conference aims to deEurope and proposals for Europe-wide action of the anticapitalist left.
Signatories to the conference appeal so far include the leaderchip of the Italian Party of Com. munist Refoundation, including Euro-MP Luciana Castellina and long-time Communist cader cossata, touy Benn: German PDS leader Gregor Gysi; French communist and socialist leaders including Jean-Pierre Chevenement and Charies fiterman: and leadins figurers in the Spanish Workers Commissions and from the lett of the German Greens. Emest caders or the roart aniemational, have also signed.
The conference will be a unique opportunity to meet and hoped that a substantial delegation to the conference will be built from Britain.
IS you would like a copy of the Appeal and further details wrue to. buropean conch ence, clo PO Box 1109, London N4 200.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 41. May 1, 1993. Page 7