December 3 1974
An appeal to all British trade unionists to resist all attempts to use the recent Birmingham bombings to “set worker against worker, English against Irish” has come from the Trade Union Committee in support of workers in Ireland.
The committee, which was formed last year to organise support on a continuous basis from the British working class for their fellow workers in Ireland, has about 65,000 members, mostly in Manchester and London.
“Anyone who says ‘get the Irish out’ is nothing but a fascist and an enemy of the working class, seeking to divide the trade union movement,” says a statement from the committee.
Organisations such as the National Front were trying to stir divisive hostility and the “Draconian measures” announced by Mr [Roy] Jenkins were open encouragement for the artificial, NF-inspired backlash.
In urging trade unionists to fight any anti-Irish backlash in factories, union branches or elsewhere, the committee advise that this must be linked with opposition to the use of Jenkins’ measures, which were a frightening instance of deportation or arbitrary arrest merely on suspicion.
The statement from the committee adds: “The relation between the Birmingham bombings and the Jenkins’ repression is a direct parallel to the situation in Northern Ireland itself. In both Ireland and England fascist murder and state repression feed off one another. So in Ireland the last month of sectarian murder of ordinary working people are related to the continuing and mounting repression by the British army. And in Britain too, there is beginning a similar circle of repression and divisive, anti-working class murder.
Following the Birmingham bombings in November 1974, there was a significant backlash against the Irish population in Britain, with Irish centres and Catholic schools and churches attacked as well as Irish workers targeted.
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We can make A-Bombs says Israelis
Israeli President Ephraim Katzir said in Jerusalem yesterday that Israel had the potential to produce atomic weapons. “If we need it, we will do it”, he said.
Asked if this potential meant that parts already existed for weapons, the President replied: “That is difficult to say. It is mainly the knowhow”.
He said that if it was necessary Israel would protect herself by “all means possible”.
President Katzir was speaking to a reception of international science writers on a tour of Israel.
It is now widely believed that 50 years later, Israel now possesses about 100 nuclear warheads.
