L FOR SPECIAI POWERS ACT

•The Fabian Society exists to further socialist education and research. It is affiliated to the Labour Party, both nationally and locally, and embraces all shades of socialist opinion within its ranks-left, right and centre.

'Since 1884 the Fabian Society has enrolled thoughtful socialists who are prepared to discuss the essential questions of democratic socialism and relate them to practical plans for building socialism in a changing world.' Some indication of the kind of socialism the Fabian Society has in mind is given in the booklet on emergency powers which these phrases introduce.

Far from advocating the scrapping of emergency powers legislation, an informal Fabian study group based on Queen's University, Belfast, concludes that with suitable amendments they should be extended to cover the whole of the United Kingdom.

The explanation for this decision is given in a statement by Northern Ireland's former Lord Chief Justice, Lord MacDermott.

The authors quote him approvingly as saying, law and order have recently been assailed in many ways the world over and our malady may be yours tomorrow ...It would be better and more effective to enact an emergency code fot the United Kingdom which would be about applicable to the whole al any part thereof and be oper tive only in times of crisis'.

Working party chairma law professor William Twinning, adds that the su ject of public order al internal security is topical ai urgent, but it is not just a problem in Ulster, it is also a British problem, an Irish problem and a world problem'.

The authors begin with the damning assumption that the and legitimacy of the bourgeois state must not be questioned, but that the legislative tools it uses to function and survive Fable Wall for lass to deathbe seed violence is che repressive institutions , of the capitalist state. Here police move in on picketing, builders at Ellesmere Port and, above, on dockers at Neap House Wharf. those seeking overthrow the state.

'Subversive organizations' should first be proscribed. Membership could be made an offence and their publications banned.

Among the violent acts to be made subject to new legislation appears the 'forcible occupation of any premises' which could, of course, be used against factory workers fighting for higher wages or against closure.

With adequate legal safeguards against injustice the new legislation would include all the worst features of the Ulster Special Powers Act, including forcible questioning and detention.

The important thing, say the authors, is the rule of law on which citizens have traditionally placed great emphasis as embodying sure safeguards against the arbitrary use of government power.

Many workers will reflect that in the hands of employers and their political representatives emphasis on the rule of law has a very different purpose from protecting their The work being done by the Tories through the Industrial Relations Act to curb and, if they could, smash the trade unions, and the thought being put into a new law on picketing is all in the name ot the rule of law