Nice Treaty Not Written In Stone

A Chairde,

Those pushing for a yes vote to the treaty of Nice would have us believe that this treaty cannot be renegotiated. This is not true. Until the Treaty is passed by all European Union member states, it can be renegotiated to better take account of the interests of the newer entrants and smaller states.

The Irish People can therefore make a positive contribution to the future development of the European Union by saying No to the concept of a two-tier Europe and No to the Treaty of Nice.

Mary Jane Coughlan

Claremorris,

Co. Mayo

Understanding Oldham

A Chairde,

Your article `Oldham Explodes' (AP/RN 31 May) missed some of the most important points. Racial tension in Oldham is nothing new, and it is wrong to suggest the problems have been created by the arrival of the BNP. The working class community has been divided along racial lines for many years. As the respected commentator Darcus Howe wrote in the New Statesman (4 June), ``The elders of the Asian community had considerable influence. The municipal wallahs used housing funds to seperate the communities. The Labour mafia presided over the process. The quality of the housing they built is a disgrace. You cannot elevate the NF as the cause. Most white workers in Oldham have supported the Labour Party for generations.New Labour has abandoned them.''

The attack on the 75-year-old pensioner didn't lead to allegations of no-go areas for whites, it was seen as confirmation of police figures that claimed 60% of racist attacks were Asian on white. This anti-social attack should have been condemned, but too many on the British Left sought to justify it, which not only hardened racial attitudes but left the white working class isolated; the perfect scenario for the BNP to enter as the `representatives' of the white community.

Apart from being factually wrong to say the BNP planned to march in Oldham (it was the much smaller NF) it diverts attention from the BNP's strategy. They have deliberately avoided confrontation since 1994, to follow in the footsteps of Haider, Le Pen, etc. and fill the political vacuum in working class areas; with resources increasingly allocated along racial lines, the racism of the BNP becomes `legitimised'.

Sadly, when you say the BNP advocate ``the usual rubbish associated with fascism, including strict racial segregation'' you will find they are not alone. As Parmjit Uppal, the chair of a government sponsored housing body, said to an international conference: ``the voice of the black housing sector in Britain is saying segregation is not necessarily a bad thing.''

Gerry Adams spoke about both communities having rights and responsibilities in regard to the asylum situation, and the same principle must be applied by anti-fascists in Oldham. When there are genuine grievances in both communities, to take the side of only one alienates the other. Who benefits?

Terry Mitchell

Anti-Fascist Action (Britain)

Former POWs back Turkish hunger strikers

A Chairde,

In the year that marks the 20th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strikes it is ironic that despite the lessons the British reluctantly but ultimately came to learn, other governments seem determined to repeat the disastrous mistakes of the past when it comes to dealing with prison issues.

The penal policy of the Turkish government, which has left over 50 prisoners and their relatives dead, including many hunger strikers, is in effect an extension of that government's approach to Turkish society; an approach now seen in the eyes of many as indistinguishable from fascism.

Members of a recent delegation to Ireland in support of the protesting prisoners and their families - a number of whom have also died on solidarity fasts - drew comparisons not only between the ongoing Turkish hunger strike and our own experience in Ireland, but also between the type of conditions that produced the prison protests. In Turkey prisoners were being forced out of their collective accommodation and into isolationist cellular type confinement known to the prisoners as F-Blocks.

During the 1981 era we in the H-Blocks received much support from solidarity groups in Turkey. Now that the baton of resistance to repression has been passed on to those in Turkish prisons, we who came through the H Blocks shall not be found wanting in voicing our concern and offering all practical support.

Irish republican prisoners have historically occupied a honourable tradition of resistance to repression. Throughout our time in prison we identified with those groups in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Argentina and Chile who opposed repression and sought freedom. We supported the people of South Africa in their struggle against apartheid. Although released that tradition still continues.

The silence of the media has been deafening on the plight of the Turkish prisoners. In large part this may be explained by British and US support for and sponsorship of the Turkish state in its bid to play a full part in the EU and NATO clubs.

As former republican prisoners with experience of a repressive and brutal prison system we shall, in the coming weeks and months, be organising a series of events and protests aimed at highlighting the situation in Turkey.

We call on all ex-prisoners and interested parties to throw their weight behind the campaign to halt the ongoing state murders of political prisoners and their families there.

SUPPORT THE TURKISH HUNGER STRIKE

Alex McCrory

Joe Austin

Micky Vallely

Robert Russell

Jim Crane

Jim Torney

Paul Finnegan

Robert Campbell

Rab Fryers

Sean Adams

Liam Stone

Paddy McCotter

Micky Fitzsimons

Rab Jackson

Martin Livingstone

Give pensioners a break

A Chairde,

Up to 1996, public service pensions were based on parity. This means that public service pensions were linked to pay. The PCW of 1996 breached this principle. After a struggle led by the National Association of Retired Public Employees, the present government promised to restore public service pension parity.

Politicians will claim that the principle of parity is being maintained. At the same time, officials are working to devalue and undermine the concept of pension parity.

Pensioners, who paid ruinous PAYE when there was widespread tax fraud, are angered by the fact that the same civil service that ignored tax fraud is now spearheading this attack on public service pensions.

A Pensions Commission was set up, pensioners had no representation on it. Can one imagine a commission dealing with politicians/senior civil servants without representation from these groups?

In Britain, the Thatcher regime broke the link between public service pay and pensions. As a result, public service pensions have fallen far behind public service wages.

With regard to benchmarking, all politicians favour this for others, not for themselves. No politician has said how this new concept will affect public service pensions. Trade union officials who favour benchmarking, which will not affect themselves, have been silent on its potentially catastrophic effects on pensions and present pensioners. This new concept will be used against public service pensions, if certain interests get their way. Why do politicians, who reject benchmarking as envisaged under PPF for themselves, want it for others? Surely this is identical to the caricature behaviour of the drunken leader who preaches temperance to his underlings.

The government is planning to set up a Working Group which will have an input into questions relating to public service pensions. Pensioners must demand and get representation on this group and at all National Wage Agreement negotiations.

Pensioners, you must talk to your politicians! Make them aware of your well-grounded fears! Tell them that pensioners vote!

Seán Lydon,

Chairman Retired Secondary Teachers Association,

32 South Terrace,

Cork

Is the coalition cracking up?

A Chairde,

Are the first cracks beginning to appear in the FF/PD coalition?

There appears to be some schizophrenia at the highest levels of government in relation to Sinn Féin. Last week, Mr Ahern said that Sinn Féin were ideological bedfellows of Torys. This week Ms Harney claims that Sinn Féin had extremely left wing policies that have been abandoned by Eastern European countries.

Of course, intelligent people will see these outlandish attacks on Sinn Féin for what they really are: a desperate response to the polls' findings that people are rejecting the sleazy and corrupt politics of mé féin and turning to the progressive policies of Sinn Féin.

Ranting about right wingers is a bit rich from a government that gave such Thatcherite gems as: tax cuts which mainly help the rich, increasing the poverty gap, privatisation and joining the NATO-led PfP.

Ms Harney's linking of Sinn Féin to the former Stalinist, totalitarian states where political censorship was imposed, might be better applied to those who supported political censorship, including Section 31, here. Indeed it was those in RTÉ who supported Stalinism and are now making eulogies of a former PD leader, who were most vociferous against Sinn Féin!

Sinn Féin is proud to say that it supports sensible socialist policies such as fairer taxes on the very wealthy to fund investment in a better health service, which is also supported by a majority of Irish people.

Cllr Dessie Ellis

Finglas,

Dublin 11