Europe-wide there is a trend to dismantling free health services, social security and unemployment benefits; even in the social democratic "paradise" of Sweden.
This is a frontal attack on the so-called "post war settlement" between capital and labour, leading to huge class battles attacks which have claimed lives in Germany and Britain. This must be led primarily by the communities themselves. Socialists and the labour movement can help build self-defence, but small socialist organisations cannot patrol the CTAPTO FASCISM For details see page 8
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 67, August 1994, Page 12 Committee for a Marxist Programme TWENTY FIVE years ago the British Army was put onto the streets of Northern Ireland. "Acting in support of the civil power" it was to act as a force of persuasion promoting "reconciliation between the two communities" and the re-estab lishment of "peace". The legitimate grievances of the Catholic population were to be addressed and their representatives given a place in the political process. prompted mass action from the working class who remain supporters of the demand for national unity. However not only has the northern struggle not "spilled over" into the south to create a combined 32-county one but no mass solidarity movement has been created in the south either.
The mass action after Bloody Sunday and during the H-block crisis are near enough the limits to a struggle of a purely solidarity character.
Certainly no combined 32-county struggle will be created under a republican nationalist leadership which can promise only a 32-county Free State capitalism. (Nor should revolutionary socialists in Ireland fight for one.) The derisory vote for Sinn Fein at around 2 per cent is proof of