Irish women ırisn wom fight PTA

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Dear Comrades and Sisters, We are writing this appeal to you on behalf of our friend and comrade, Maire O'Hare, who went over to London in October 1980, along with other women from Belfast, as a delegate from Women. Against Imperialism, to the national SocialFeminist Conference which was held on the last week-end of October.

On arrival at Heathrow Airport on Friday evening, Maire and another sister from Belfast, Anne Boyle, were arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and imprisoned in a police station near Heathrow, from where they were taken to Rochester Row - at that time the London police station used to hold victims of the PTA.

At the time this took place, Maire was suffering from an infection of the kidneys and had been under medical supervision at home in Belfast. It was inevitable that the tension and the primitive conditions which she was forced to endure in the Rochester Row station brought about an aggravation of her complaint.

While she was still held, a sympathetic solicitor, called Alistair Logan, had applied for a writ of habeus corpus for both Maire and Anne. Whilst the legal wheels were grinding slowly into motion, Maire was released on Sunday evening whilst Anne was held the full seven 'Berg' letter (a letter signed by several prominent US academics lead by Paul Berg, which denounced genetic engineering for safety reasons).

The result of this is that a large number of genetic engineering processes are patented and therefore, financially controlled by the US; with all this implies as to the inbalance between medical advancement and and the third world the West The second and potentially most undesirable effect of the USA's lead in this field is that patents are permitted under American law for micro-organisms. This is a precedent previously undreamt of, as it implies the financial control of a living organism over and above those normally acceptable in farming and animal husbandry. It prevents the development of simlar strains of micro-organisms by other workers.

So we see the gradual development of genetic engineering by the capitalist system. Genetic engineering is potentially a liberating technique for mankind with its great medical significance and its enhancement of food production in some areas. It is too important to allow it to be controlled by the multinationals for research to be strangled by oppressive US patents. days.

Although she was released, Maire too.: the political decision to go ahead with the application for the WIll, on the grounds that it was important to expose the workings of the PTA and to publicise the case as much as possible.

At the time of the court case, women comrades in London and at the Socialist Feminist Conference raised a considerable sum of money which was used towards the publicity campaign mounted to get both of the women released. Now, two years on, the Legal Aid Department in England has decided that Maire is liable to pay £290 towards her costs for the application of the writ. Anne,, because she was unemployed, was not liable to any payment.

Debt

Maire is not in a financial position to pay this money - and we feel, as a matter of principle, that it is unjust to ask her or any other person to pay for their victimisation under the PTA. Nevertheless, under the equally infamous Payment of Debt Act (which is enforcible only in Northern Ireland) this money is now going to be deducted from her wages completely against her wishes.

We are therefore appealing for donations from concerned groups and individuals in Britain, to help pay these legal costs. All contributions will be gratefully received and will be acknowledged.

Yours fraternally, C. Devlin, Irishwomen Against the PTA.

Money should be sent to the contact address: c/o THOM, Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, Bethnal Green, London E2.

/ Advertisementa RiveN 2 WHOSE WARS Workers' Socialist Review no. 2 includes: debate on the Falklands/ Malvinas; Bob Sutcliffe on Argentina in the world economy; articles on Lebanon, Central America, Poland, South Africa, France. 80p with supplement, plus 20p påp, from WSL, PO Box 135, London NI ODD.

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