She was speaking at the launch of a joint campaign with Women's Aid to educate and train trade union officials to deal with victims of domestic violence. Britain Solidarity with Roisin Following successful protests across the world on March 8, International Women's Day British authorities have been forced to concede that Roisin McAliskey will be able to keep her baby with her when it is born in a few weeks.
McAliskey has been imprisoned since November 1996 for supposed involvement with the IRA bombing of the Osnabruck bombing in Germany. Her solicitor Gareth Pierce told a packed London meeting organised by Fuascailt (the Irish republican prisoner support group) that "if she were charged here tomorrow there would be no requirement to prepare to defend the case; there isn't a case" Pierce also explained that she had never seen a prisoner treated so badly - some feat given Pierce's involvement with other Irish prisoners who have been abominably treated such as the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four.
Denmark * real alternative, even within the framework of reformist policies, can only really develop if there is progress in the class-struggle.
The immediate priority is to build strong and well organised left wing currents in the workers' movement. This means defending collective bargaining rights, fighting for the generalisation of job-sharing, a break with the system of industrial relations courts, and resistance to European Union attacks on collective bargaining and social welfare.
To win these goals, revolutionaries should support "united fronts" with the reformist leadership of the labour movement.
But they should make sure that it is the left which wins the credit for resistance against cuts and privatisation, and for daring to struggle. *
The author is a member of the Socialist Workers Party (SAP), one of the groups which founded the Red-Green
Alliance, and Danish section of the Fourth International. violence?
Roisin McDermott of Women's Aid said women who apply for barring orders against violent partners have to wait up to two months, during which time they may be living in a refuge and have difficulty working. A woman could go on benefit, but there would be no guarantee that she would get her job back. "Economic dependence and nowhere to go" are the reasons many battered women don't leave, she said.* Source: The Irish Times, March 8, 1997 McAliskey
McAliskey is the only Category A prisoner to have ever given birth in prison and the civil liberties implications of her treatment is beginning to raise objections from many who have taken little interest in Irish politics.
In London 300 mainly women protesters gathered outside Holloway prison to show solidarity. Hundreds of bunches of flowers were delivered from supporters across the world but only a token number were allowed into the prison. Roisin asked that the rest go to Women's Aid centres - the primary area of her own political activity.
The picket produced one of the most lively and committed International Women's Day mobilisations in London for some years. Other actions took place in Germany, Ireland, Norway Australia and the USA. *
Terry Conway April 1997 #287 11
* Nicaragua