Campaign to admit Gerry Adams

Campaign to admit Gerry Adams

By Bill Mason

BRISBANE — "The Australian government decision to bar Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams takes away not primarily his rights, but most importantly the democratic rights of all Australians to hear the views of the Irish republican movement", Jim Neeson, a Sinn Féin representative from Belfast, told a meeting sponsored by the Queensland branch of Australian Aid for Ireland on November 22.

"All parties must be involved in the peace talks in Ireland", Neeson said. He called on the Irish community in Australia to "support every aspect of the republican struggle", in particular the campaign to free the political prisoners held in British and Irish jails.

The meeting launched an appeal to the Irish-Australian community calling for a letter-writing campaign to immigration minister Phillip Ruddock to demand that the federal government reconsider its ban on Adams which is an infringement on "the democratic rights of hundreds of thousands of Irish-Australians".

For more information, contact AAI (Queensland) at PO Box 246, Chermside, Qld 4032.

From GLW issue 256