First published on Internationalist Standpoint website, January 7th 2023

Fifty years ago, the British government was actively considering the forced movement of one third of the population of Northern Ireland in a desperate attempt to stabilise a situation which was spiralling into ever deepening chaos and violence. An all-out civil war seemed possible, even likely.

Today these events are only half-remembered. This is convenient for political forces which thrive on sectarian division and who push forward with dangerous agendas. The workers movement -the trade unions and left activists and groups who are seeking to win both Protestant and Catholic workers and young people to the ideas of socialism- have a duty to remember the events of the “Troubles” and to draw the correct political conclusions.