Labour Representation Committee Annual Conference: Irish Republican Prisoners Support Group
29/09/2013 by socialistfight
Irish Republican Prisoners Support Group
motion on POWs.
November’s annual conference of the The Labour Representation Committee, to which Socialist Fight is affiliated, is fast approaching. We publish below the first of two conference motions being supported by Socialist Fight. Socialist Fight is proud of the work it has done with the Irish Republican Prisoners Support Group, which is also affiliated to the LRC, and we stand proud of our internationalist, anti-imperialist and Irish Republican politics.
This AGM reaffirms its stance on Irish and international anti-imperialist political prisoners and continues to oppose all forms of Islamophobia which is used to erode the civil liberties of all opponents of capitalism and prepares its use against all working class organisation as the crisis deepens.
We pledge to fight the continued use of forcible strip searching in the north of Ireland both in Maghaberry and in Hydebank. We are particularly concerned with its return for female prisoners, which amount to brutal sexual assaults. On 14 August Sharon Rafferty was forcibly strip-searched in Hydebank gaol prior to a court appearance and again on return. This recalls the brutal victimisation of the pregnant Róisín McAliskey, the daughter of former Mid Ulster MP Bernadette McAliskey, strip searched more than 70 times before she gave birth. Amnesty International described her treatment as “cruel, inhuman and degrading”. There is absolutely no need for such barbarism as is practised in these prisons by members of the POA. The BOSS chair is available for all body scans and is acceptable to the prisons authorities in Texas, the most draconian of all prison regimes in the US.
We demand:
1. Immediate implementation of the Maghaberry Agreement of August 2010 conceding freedom of movement and an end to all strip searching.
2. Repatriation of Michael Campbell from Lithuania.
4. Release of Martin Corey and all held using the excuse of revoking the GFA license – this amounts to political censorship and a reintroduction of internment in another name.
Socialist Fight 