political prisoners in Thailand today is unknown. They may be held indefinitely without trial. Six of them are in special danger: the leaders of the National Student Center of Thailand and some students who, before the coup, had acted in a play denouncing the murder of two militants by the police; they are now charged with having hanged the king's son in effigy. Their lives must be saved:
* Sutham Saeng Prathum, secretary general of the National Student Center of Thailand;
* Surachat Bamrong Suk, deputy secretary general of National Student Center of Thailand;
*Prathon Wong Sin;
*Apinant Buahapakdi, a student actor said to resemble the king's son;
*Viroj Tang Vanich, another actor who participated in the play depicting the murder of militants of the Antidictatorship Front;
*Anupong Pong Suwan, president of the theater group. A list of fifty-seven journalists "who served communist" or who are considered "more than 70 percent communist (sic) by the police has been published by a Thai newspaper. At least two of these journalists have been arrested: Pansak Vinyartn, editor of the weekly Chaturat and Vachara Cedhoyaterang, alias Yodthong, who worked for the daily Thai Rath. The trade unionist Arom Pongpangarn, vice-president of the Thai Labor Council has been arrested. Several militants are reported to have been slaughtered in prison or to have died under torture:
* Jarul Didta Apichal, accused in the press of having been the "direct representative of the Thai Communist party " in the student movement;
*Phichien Amnatwaraprasert, president of the student union at Thammassat University; *Chatchowarn, president of the Antidictatorship Front
IRELAND: by GEOFFREY. BELL In Belfast on August 11 this year a British soldier shot at a car being driven by a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). The soldier's bullet killed the driver and the car went out of control, careening onto the pavement and running into three children and their mother. All the children were killed and the mother died a few days later. This event led to the birth of the now famous "peace people" of the North of Ireland, a movement which has been portrayed as the "single voice of sanity" to emerge from Ireland in years. The leaders of this movement have traveled all over the world since August. They have been interviewed on American television, been invited to West Germany by Bundestag President Renger, and have received more than £100, 000 from a fund collected by Norwegian newspapers. In Britain they have received the support of the major churches; their activities have been reported enthusiastically by the ruling class press and they have even been backed by the Communist party and its newspaper, the Morning Star. In Ireland itself the supporters of the "peace people" have ranged from the Stalinist-dominated Official Republican Movement (Official IRA and Official Sinn Fein) to the Northern Ireland Unionist party, which governed the Northern Irish state for fifty years and presided over a system of discrimination that alloted Catholics the role of second-class citizens. In addition to this support, the various marches held by the "peace people" have attracted as many as 20,000 deople in Ireland and 12, 000 people in England. They plan to hold a rally in London at the end of November which the leaders of the movement, Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams, say could attract up to 100,000 people. That is probably an overestimation, but there is no doubt that the "peace people" have attracted widespread support, even among many working-class Irish Catholics who previously have been sympathetic to the Provisional IRA. That these people could support a movement that is also backed by the Northern Ireland Unionist party appears quite contradictory. That the Official Republican
WHO ARE THE "PEACE PEOPLE"? Movement and the Communist party of Great Britain could find themselves lined up with the British ruling class press and the churches appears equally contradictory. In fact, however, the British and Irish Stalinists' support for the "peace people" tells more about the Stal inists than about the "peace people. " Because this movement of "peace" is essentially reactionary and counter-revolutionary. Moreover, despite the impressive support the "peace people" appear to have gained, where it matters most, in the Catholic working-class areas of Belfast, they are in rapid decline. An understanding of the reasons for this decline and of the reactionary character of the movement provides valuable lessons for understanding the overall situation in the North of