Building an an women's n International Women's Day will be connected. Beth TAGGART
Internment, when introduced in August 1971, initially was applied exclusively to men, but it was not long before the first women internees found themselves in Armagh jail. In subsequent years there was a small flood of prisoners who had passed through the infamous 'conveyor belt' system of arrest under emergency legislation; interrogation in the notorious torture centres, often resulting in 'confessions' to serious charges (at the start of the 1981 hunger strike approximately 80% of political prisoners had been convicted solely on the basis of such confessions); trial in juryless special courts and finally long prison sentences.
By the mid-1970s there were about 120 women in Armagh. Between 1972 and 1976 prisoners convicted for political offences were given special category status. As such they allowed freedom of
The contradictions that remain in Cuba with respect to women's questions were expressed clearly after the well-known Brazilian television drama Malu (8) was run on Cuban TV. It aroused a furor and a lot of commentary. Unlike in the other Latin American countries, the state, the party and the FMC socialized the debate, opening it up to the public with a forum on TV. Later, Malu, the lead, was invited to Cuba, after she had expressed her desire to meet Fidel Castro. The day after she arrived she got a big bunch of flowers, followed by a visit from Fidel.
This support for women's liberation by Fidel and the great work by the FMC, along with all the programs designed to raise the professional and educational level of women, has enabled women to raise their problems and get respect, if not agreement, from all men. 8. Larguia and Dumoulin, Op Cit., p. 11. ti-imperialist lovement commemorated in Ireland this year, association among themselves and were able to control many aspects of prison routine such as educational and recreational activities and housekeeping chores. Relations with prison authorities were conducted through an elected officer commanding'.
With the introduction of Britain's criminalisation policy in 1976, these rights were withdrawn and conditions deteriorated sharply. The prisoners embarked on a non-cooperation protest, refusing to do penal work and were in retaliation punished by restrictions on recreation, visits, educational facilities and lost a day's remission of sentence for each day's protest. Beyond this, the internal regime was made harsher — harassment increased, there were cases of beatings and medical care became nonexistent. The lack of medical care is a major problem which has still not been resolved. In recent years at least four prisoners have been released on the
International Viewpoint 11 March 1985 as it has been since 1979, with a demonstration at Armagh Women's Prison in solidarity with women political prisoners. This is the only all-Ireland activity to celebrate the event.
In 1969 there were no women political prisoners. Bernadette Devlin, now McAliskey, at the time a Member of Parliament, was the first woman to be jailed in this phase of the struggle against the British presence, which opened with the 1968 civil rights movement. Since then, there have been many developments, inside and outside the prisons, always closely interas it has been since 1979, with a demonstration at Armagh Women's Prison in solidarity with women political prisoners. This is the only all-Ireland activity to celebrate the event.
In 1969 there were no women political prisoners. Bernadette Devlin, now McAliskey, at the time a Member of Parliament, was the first woman to be jailed in this phase of the struggle against the British presence, which opened with the 1968 civil rights movement. Since then, there have been many developments, inside and outside the prisons, always closely inter-
grounds that their health was so bad that greatest effect in undermining the it precluded further imprisonment -but they were allowed to be on death's door before outside pressure forced action.
Early in 1980, prison authorities at Armagh provoked a major incident in which many of the women were badly beaten and which forced the women into adopting the defensive measure of refusing to leave their cells, thus forcing them, like the male prisoners in the H Blocks [so named for the shape of the prison buildings], to live continuously in cells covered with their own excrement, going without changes of clothing for three months at a time, with no washing facilities. This situation had an even more devastating effect on the health of the female prisoners than it did for their male comrades.
In October 1980, three prisoners in Armagh embarked on hunger strike in tandem with their male comrades in the H Blocks, demanding a return to all political prisoners of the conditions which still applied (and now apply) to all political prisoners convicted on charges dating prior to March 1976. This hunger strike was called off in December 1980. The women were in no condition to take it up again the following year when Bobby Sands and his comrades took it up again.
While certain minor improvements were introduced in the wake of the hunger strike, these were quickly rolled back, and the situation inside the prisons has become increasingly repressive and vindictive.
In Armagh since November 1982 a new policy, that of strip searching, has been implemented and is having a serious impact on the morale and psychological well-being of the women prisoners. Strip searching of anyone, prisoner or otherwise, is inherently degrading, but in Armagh its use is specifically designed and carried out to have the determination of Republican women to resist the criminalisation policy.
The Armagh women are not hardened criminals; however much the British government tries to portray them as such. They are, for the most part, extremely young, Catholic women - housewives, cashiers, hairdressers, shop assistants, stitchers, occasionally a student or computer operator. In January this year the last woman with special category status was released. She left behind 17 comrades serving sentences ranging between five years and life, the average sentence of the current population is 13 years. Many of these women have been in prison since their teens, some will be middle aged when they are due to be released. Life under British military occupation
Prior to the present phase of political struggle in the north of Ireland, there were no long-term women prisoners, political or otherwise. Since 1970 the numbers, while up and down, have risen dramatically. Armagh is now full of young women convicted for participation, or alleged participation, in military activities directed against the British colonial regime. This is a reflection of the role that women have played, not just in the armed struggle against British imperialism, but in all facets of anti-imperialist political activity in the past 15 years. The majority of the prisoners are in their early twenties and most of their lives have been dominated by the war situation.
In her book The Armagh Women, published in the weeks between the 1980 and 1981 hunger strikes, Nell McCafferty gives a glimpse into the person impact the war has had on some of their lives:
"Mary Doyle's mother had been killed in a Loyalist pub bomb explosion. Maire
Strikers confronted by the owner of Keen Foods, Belfast during a strike over work conditions and pay (DR)
International Viewpoint 11 March 1985
Og Drumm's mother had been shot dead in hospital by Loyalists. Susan Loughran's brother had been shot dead in the New Lodge Road while bending over a dying man. Rosemary Simpson's husband was shot dead; her mother died of a heart attack after being struck by a British Army rifle-butt. Two sisters, serving sentence, were told that their brother had been shot dead by the British Army. Katrina Pettigrew learned that her sister had burned to death in a car carrying incendiary bombs. Brenda Murphy's father was shot and wounded by Loyalists and died later.'
Beyond these major personal tragedies, the war and the British presence generally have deeply affected everyone in the north of Ireland, but no one has suffered more than the women of the nationalist working class communities.
British-occupied Ireland is one of the most deprived areas in the EEC. Belfast is rivalled only by Naples for the title of most poverty-stricken and socially disadvantaged city in the Common Market. Male unemployment in the Six Counties is overall around 27% - in the nationalist ghettoes it is closer to 60%, often repeating through several generations.
Women, in fact, constitute about 43% of the workforce, but this is a reflection of the distorted nature of the economy. One fifth of all workers in the north of Ireland are part-time, but of these part-time workers, 80% are women.
As the manufacturing sector disappears the trend is for part-time work to increase. Employment prospects for Catholics in the North of Ireland have never been good at the best of times. For those Catholic women who do get paid employment, it is usually at the bottom of the scale - domestics in hospitals, receptionists, etc. Whether or not they work outside the home, the overwhelming burden of daily survival for themselves and their families falls on their shoulders. It is a massive burden.
The cost of living is considerably higher than in Britain, but social security benefits are the same. Unlike Britain, social welfare payments can be deducted at source for arrears in rent, rates or other money owed to the state. (This is done under the Payments of Debts Act, brought in to counter the effect of a mass civil disobedience campaign protesting against the introduction of internment when people went on rent and rates strikes). In practice this means that many families are expected to live on a pittance, made even less by the need to pay inflated food and electricity charges.
Social services are minimal - cuts in the National Health Service have hit even harder here than in Britain, there is no abortion, virtually no nurseries, no statutory education for the mentally
Compounding all this is the reality of the military occupation by the British Army and the paramilitary Royal Ulster Constabulary (police) and the Ulster Defence Regiment (a locally-based, almost completely Protestant, regiment of
23
the British Army). For women in the na- antly women relatives of prisoners who chettoes this means at the formed the Relatives Action Committees ę confronted by gun-toting (RAC) in 1976, to demand the restoraice every time one goes tion of political status to prisoners. The ibe daily shopping or take a RACs were the forerunners of the H school Block/ Armagh committees. assassinations by loyalist In the nationalist neighbourhoods they агат itaries - often the "security organised warning systems so that when out of uniform - continue to hap- the British Army entered an area, women pen. Everyone lives with constant sur- would come out in the street banging metal lids from rubbish bins and blowing past few years Britain's re- whistles; time after time they came out and marched and picketed and staffed arsenal has been expanded to de the use of mass show trials (the offices, collecting evidence on repression; argest presently taking place has 46 de- telling their stories and opening their fendants) to arrest and often convict homes and lives to countless visitors in dozens of people on the uncorroborated the hope that they would be able to word of a single paid perjurer. Even if help. In many cases these women were the case eventually falls, many of the raising their families on their own. accused have already served the equival- During the 1980 and 1981 hunger strikes, women played a major role at all ent of a four-year sentence by the time they come to trial. Many nationalists levels in the campaign, which was organare not even given the benefit of these ised throughout the 32 counties in a network of local and regional committees kangaroo courts.
There is a shoot-to-kill policy in op- coordinated by a national committee. eration which extends not only to sus- It was the campaign for political status pected guerrilla fighters, but to peaceful which brought together the issues and demonstrators and to youth who commit individuals who were fighting for national liberation on the one hand and women's the capital offense of stealing cars for the purpose of 'joyriding'. At the same time, rights on the other. police actively encourage crime and antisocial activity in the nationalist areas as a means of putting pressure on the com- The anti-imperialist struggle munity and because often "hoods' provide - a crucial issue for feminists a useful source of information in return for being given a free rein to operate. Anti-imperialist feminists, coneerned
Fifteen years of this kind of daily that the Armagh prisoners were not reoppression and repression has produced a ceiving the support which should be response from the nationalist community forthcoming, especially from the woon a mass scale. Particularly since the men's movement in the south of Ireland, hunger strikes, Irish nationalists have and also recognising the connection beabandoned any hope of political reform tween the specific interests of Irish wowithin the context of the Northern Ire- men and the struggle against imperialland statelet. Resistance has taken many ism, began to agitate specifically in supforms and takes place on many levels. port of the Armagh prisoners and organ-
In all cases women have been at the ised the first of what is now a traditional forefront of the struggle. For every picket at the prison on International woman in Armagh, indeed for every wo- Women's Day. Eleven women were arman engaged in military resistance, there rested at this demo, two of them servare hundreds politically active and ing short terms in prison themselves as thousands more who give support in one a result. way or another collecting money for The women's movement, like Irish prisoners' dependents, participating in society in general, became polarised over pickets, providing safe houses or in- the issue of Armagh, in particular, and volving themselves in community self- the orientation that should be taken by help projects; meanwhile taking care of Irish feminists to the anti-imperialist their own families, which may well mean movement in general. The debate Is
Armagh a feminist issue?' raged on, with regular visits to one or more of their own children or their companion in jail. women who supported the prisoners
Women for a number of years have pointing out that it was the duty of anyhad equal status as fighters in the armed one claiming to be a feminist to be opresistance organisations. But far beyond posed to the kind of treatment the pristhis type of involvement, it has been wo- oners were getting. men who have ensured the continued and But more than that - the facts of life deepening of the resistance in the com- in imperialist-dominated Ireland are that munities. Irish women cannot hope to realise their
In 1970, when the British Army im- aspirations as women within the frameposed a curfew in West Belfast, con- work of a partitioned country. The other fining people to their homes, it was the side of the argument was that women should unite around women's issues' women who took to the streets, confronting the army and bringing bread and ignoring the national question. This pomilk to their beseiged neighbours. In the sition of course begs many questions, not mid-1970s, when so many families had least of which is the problem of to whom members in prison, it was women who feminists should direct their demands. organised to draw attention to the These discussions were not held in a prisoners' prisoners situation. situation. • It was predomin- It was predomin- vacuun. vacuum. Women from the nationalist 24 ghettoes, many of whom would not have identified themselves as feminists or relate to the women's movement, had, through their experiences, learned a new confidence in themselves individually and collectively. They had politicised, drawing many lessons from their own lives — not the least of which was a deepper understanding of their oppression as women. Women began to organise as women around their own demands and interests as well as continuing and extending their involvement in broader anti-imperialist and community questions.
While the mass movement which existed during the hunger strikes has been demobilised, its long-term impact continues to be felt. In the north of Ireland expecially, a significant cultural revival is taking place, which is giving a deeper quality to the national liberation struggle beyond the defensive movement against repression. In Belfast and other centres, Irish language classes have blossomed.
A major development for women in West Belfast has been the opening of a Women's Centre in the heart of the ghetto. This centre is run by women from the community, most of them Republican activists. The centre has a creche, a fulltime counsellor, and is an organising centre for various campaigns, as well as being a hospitable drop-in centre.
In June last year an all-Ireland women's conference took place in Dublin. Over 600 women from all over Ireland came, including a good representation of rural women and women from the North: Although the concrete results are not always visible, it was in many ways a watershed. A large contingent from the north played a central role in the discussions.
The workshop on women and the national struggle was the largest and most controversial. The debate remained largely between Republican women and other northern women who argued that feminists should not identify with the anti-imperialist organisations. What was important at this conference was that for the first time the organised women's movement on an all-Ireland basis was in its majority anti-imperialist. While many women have differences with the anti-imperialist organisations, this very representative conference was overwhelmingly in favour of all the anti-imperialist resolutions, and understood the need to break the imperialist control of Ireland if they were to win their freedom as women.
What is necessary now is to develop that debate, and to broaden it to build a strong anti-imperialist women's current which encompasses women from the workers' and anti-imperialist movements as well as those active primarily on 'women's' issues. This will entail not only winning feminists to the anti-imperialist movement, but a discussion with Republicans about the role of an autonomous women's movement and its relation to the national liberation strug gle.
International Viewpoint 11 March 1985
USA
- cept Sweden read: "Governments are