['Here, have some democracy. pipe of the Sandinista…]

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'Here, have some democracy.

pipe of the Sandinista revolution is also a test of the professed support for the regime from the Cuban leadership and its Soviet backers.

The 'contras' do not have big forces at their disposal: and Nicaragua's oil needs are not vast. Mexico has been supplying it virtually free of charge. Will the Cuban leaders offer practical support, or merely sit back and watch the Sandinistas fight for life?

In any event the responsibility of the workers' movement internationally is to step up the fight in solidarity with the Nicaraguan workers and peasants and against Reagan's brazen sabotage and military intervention.

US HANDS OFF Nicaragua! AS THE main political facts of the situation in Nurthern Ireland remain more or less static, it is easy to forget that the social and economic facts behind them are far from static.

A recent report on the rundown of the Shankill area of Belfast highlights this* The Shankill is a major Protestant area in West Belfast. Its backbone, the Shankill Road, runs parallel the Falls Road and the Catholic district round that.

It was in the area between the Shankill Road and the Falls Road that the Protestant sectarian attacks and house-burnings erupted in 1969 which were the immediate background to British troops going onto the streets.

Although the relation between the Shankill and the Falls is not much different in 1983 from what it was in 1969, the Shankill itself is very much changed.

The population has declined by about 60%, and jobs in the area by 71%.

The loss of jobs comes from a decline both of big firms and of small. In 1968 there were four major employers in the area: Mackies engineering (4500), Ewarts linen mill (1340 — it had been 4000 at its peak), Falls Flax (611), and Ladybird clothing (300). By 1982 Ewarts, Falls Flax and Ladybird had all closed, and Mackies was down to 1200 workers.

The report estimates that small businesses in the area employed 5900 workers in 1968, 2466 in 1981.

In one part of the Shankill, there were in 1968 64 small warehouses, scrap and coal dealers, and builders' yards, employing 535 people. In 1981 there were none.

A 1967 map shows the Lower Shankill densely dotted with shops, pubs, small factories and other businesses. In the 1980 map they have all disappeared, bar a few shops and pubs along the Shankill Road itself and just four small businesses elsewhere.

Other major Belfast employers have also been declining. Harland and Wolffs shipyard was already in serious decline by the 1960s, but still employed over 20,000. By late 1982 it was down to 5,500.

The biggest new employer in the Shankill since 1968 mentioned in the report is the Snugville Street dole office.

In the Shankill itself, an official report noted, "nearly all (the houses) lack(ed) any amenities except a cold water tap and else in the world, the percentage of women in waged labour has declined since the '20s.

In Belfast in 1926, 45% of all adult women were employed -a very high ratio for the time. By 1971 it was down to 40% -not an exceptionally low figure by international standards, but lower than the average for Britain.

Another result of some political consequence is that the economic differential between Northern Ireland and the South has dwindled considerably: National income per head in the South is about 60% of Britain's, in the North about 70%.

The common misery, against which the marginal privileges of Protestant workers appear more farcical than ever, has not yet produced a united class response even of the faltering and temporary sort seen in 1932 and in the early '60s.

The economic pressures clearly do not automatically force their way through to political conclusions. But they do indicate a tremendous scope for agitation by socialists capable of putting forward a convincing programme to show how an Irish workers' republic could provide jobs and decent housing for all. * The Vital Statistics: Shankill Employment Report. Published by the Shankill Community Council, 93 Shankill Rd, Belfast 13.

TONY Benn, Ken Livingstone, and Clive Soley are among the speakers at the 'Ireland: Peace Through Democracy' conference called for November 26. • The conference aims to build up support for an end to any British presence in Ireland, an end to the Unionist veto on reunification, and the right of Ireland to maintain its traditional neutrality (i.e. not to be pushed into joining NATO).

It has already won support from nearly 30 MPs and a number of trade unions leaders süch as Ray Buckton, Alan Sapper, and George Guy.

The conference will focus on the situation in the trade unions and the problems of raising the issue of Ireland, particularly where British unions have mem. bers in the North. Time will be set aside for delegates from different unions to meet, exchange experiences, and, we hope, keep in contact after the conference.

Speakers have also been invited from unions such as NUPE and ASTMS where Ireland has been raised at conferences over the last few years and where, in the case of ASTMS, an Irish caucus has been set up.

The conference is open to delegates [£3] and observers [£2]. Further information anc credentials from Box 189, 32 Ivor Place, London NW1. Cheques payable to Labour Movement Conference on Ireland.

Time: Saturday November 26, 9.30am.

Place: Edrich Hall, South. Bank Polytechnic, Borough Rd,. London SE1.

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