For Peace!

The convergence of anti-militarism and anti-colonial struggles can be seen in Irish solidarity organisations such as the Troops Out Movement. Founded in 1973 in London, the group had two core demands: the withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland and the self-determination of the Irish people as a whole. These demands referred to the British state’s involvement in the war in Ireland during the euphemistically termed ‘Troubles.’ The Troubles refers to the thirty-year period between 1968 and 1998, during which over 3,600 people were killed in a conflict primarily concentrated in the six Northeastern counties of Ireland.

The Troops Out Movement quickly established branches across England, as well as in Wales and Scotland. For 25 years, although the group campaigned primarily for the withdrawal of British troops, it also addressed other issues including miscarriages of justice, political prisoners, hunger strikes, the use of plastic bullets, and strip-searching. The group was partly composed of former soldiers, and also targeted and picketed Army Recruitment Offices in working-class areas to discourage recruitment for the war. Their publication, Troops Out, ran for two decades, amongst other things, countering the British press’s portrayal of the Army as a peacekeeping force and exposing the continuity between colonial policing methods used in places like Kenya and the military policing in Northern Ireland.

This section also makes connections with those acting in solidarity against the military oppression of the people of Northern Ireland and that of the people of Palestine. We have included material highlighting actions ranging from campaigning for political prisoners to blocking the production and transportation of weapons (from rubber bullets to aerial warfare technologies), while also emphasising the continuities between the two struggles as anti-colonial movements.