[The following statement on the attempted assassination of Bernadette and Michael McAliskey was released January 16 by the Irish revolutionary-socialist organization People's Democracy.]
People's Democracy totally condemns the attempted assassination of Bernadette McAliskey, a founder member of People's Democracy and of the H-Block/Armagh campaign, and her husband Michael. There can be no doubt that there is a concerted campaign of murder against leading members of the H-Block/Armagh campaign. Two other members of the National H-Block/Armagh Committee, Miriam Daly and Noel Little, have also been murdered, as have three leading members of the campaign, John Turnley, Ronald Bunting, and Tony Valenti. On the occassion of each of these murders the British army and the discredited RUC [Royal Ulster Constabulary] have expressed no interest whatever in apprehending the perpetrators of these crimes. If anything they expressed cynical satisfaction at their occurence.
Bernadette's shooting is the latest and most dastardly incident in the catalogue of horrors perpetrated by the British and their loyalist allies. The H-Block/Armagh campaign, a legal and open campaign, has had to contend with vicious attempts by the British and their supporters to harass, intimidate and murder supporters of the political prisoners. There can be no more telling indictment against the democratic pretensions of the Six-County statelet. The Catholic minority is exposed, day in and day out, to vicious attacks, both legal and illegal, by the forces of the British crown.
Because the British know they cannot eliminate the entire anti-imperialist population they have resorted to assassinating our leaders and attempted to terrify us into submission. They fear the dynamic set in train by H-Block/Armagh more than they fear any other single factor in Ireland. The mass mobilizations all over Ireland shocked the British because they assumed they had beaten our resistance out of us. They had reckoned without the unquenchable instinct for justice of the Irish people which Bernadette played a large part in rekindling. Not only were the British forced to concede an agreement, they are now being forced to implement that agreement after cynically attempting to renege on it.
The only force strong enough to force the British Government to keep its word and the only force strong enough to force it out of Ireland is the mass mobilization of the Irish people. Because Bernadette understood this simple truth she is now the victim of the assassin's bullet and lies seriously ill, with her husband Michael, in the hospital.
What of the Irish Government? [Irish Prime Minister] Charles Haughey can sip tea with [British Prime Minister] Margaret Thatcher but he appears unable to openly demand that the British call off their terror campaign. He did not openly support the demands of the H-Block/ Armagh
[The following statement on the attempted assassination of Bernadette and Michael McAliskey was released January 16 by the National H-Block/ Armagh Committee, the group responsible for organizing support for the struggle of Irish political prisoners against British mistreatment.]
The National H-Block/Armagh Committee is shocked to learn of the attempted assassination of Bernadette McAliskey and her husband Michael. We express our total abhorrence at this latest shooting which is clearly part of a concerted campaign of murder against H-Block activists and leaders. To date, several leading members of the campaign have been murdered, including two members of the National H-Block/Armagh Committee, Miriam Daly and Noel Little. Three other leading members of the campaign, John Turnley, Ronald Bunting, and Tony Valenti, have also been murdered. Little or no attempt has been made by the British authorities to apprehend their killers.
This peaceful and legal campaign for the rights of political prisoners in the H-Blocks and Armagh has been the victim of slander, intimidation, and physical elimination from the British establishment and its supporters. While the H-Block/Armagh committee has used only the methods of peaceful and legal pressure, its opponents have not.
The Attempted Assassination of the McAliskeys The Attempted Assassination of the McAliskeys