On Friday 17 September Ken Livingstone leader of the GLC came to speak at a public meeting called by the Labour Committee on Ireland. Two days before the local press carried a prominent announcement stating the time and place of the meeting thus laying it open to loyalist attack. The EISC twice offered to assist with stewarding but both offers were declined. On the night, 30 loyalists blocked the entrance and the door was locked against them. The LCI stewards were nowhere to be seen and the police bowed to the loyalist demands that everyone should be cleared from the door and form a queue behind them. When the stewards appeared from behind the door they handed over the responsibility of letting in ticket holders only to the police. The EISC managed to get 7 members into the meeting-the rest were abused and assaulted outside after the police and loyalists successfully kept them and others outside.
At the meeting, speakers were Mary Pearson of Birmingham LCI and Ken Livingstone. Mary Pearson, also a leading TOM member, spoke about the necessity to work with the trade union movement and within the Labour Party to ensure a British withdrawal from Ireland. Ken Livingstone spoke for half-an-hour and spent most of the time covering Irish history and then went on to say that although the Labour Party as a whole were ‘reluctant’ to withdraw British troops from Ireland we must still work through the proper channels, i.e. lobbying councillors etc in order to ensure that a Labour Government pull out the troops. After the speakers there was time to raise questions and discussions. A member of EISC announced the 1/2 October Unity Demonstration and Conference and proposed future joint activities with the LCI. There was no positive response to this- in fact an LCI member tried to disguise their one-party method of work by implying that the EISC was ‘only the RCG’ although there was not one RCG member present!
Whilst there is no doubt that Ken Livingstone’s visit to Edinburgh was very welcome, the actual event failed to take the solidarity movement forward. The loyalists and police won a victory in being handed control of the audience and in being given free rein to harass and intimidate those abandoned by the LCI outside the hall. The actual audience was only 45 or so people out of a potential 200-300 because of this. There was no will to look at the possibilities of uniting all potential support for the Irish right to self-determination – instead there was a concentration of confining work ‘within the narrow limits of the Labour Party.
Lorna Morgan
FRFI 33 October 1983
