Writings on the struggle for workers unity and socialism
The history of Northern Ireland is portrayed as a history of two sectarian blocs in endless conflict. There is another side to this history, however, one which is often hidden and denied. The workers’ movement has a rich and proud record of opposition to sectarianism, taking united action on many occasions in order to prevent sectarian violence from spiralling out of control.
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There is a hidden history to the ‘Troubles’. The role played by the organised workers’ movement in opposing sectarian violence and, at times, preventing it from spiralling out of control does not appear in the history books.
Throughout the ‘Troubles’ the majority of workers remained united in their trade unions. Not once has a strike been defeated by sectarianism.
The sectarian parties have a sectarian view of the past just as they do of the present. They seek to proclaim themselves as the best representatives of ‘their’ community in the present. And they defend their positions from the past in order to bolster their positions today.
Class-conscious activists have a duty to counter this view, and to act as the collective memory of the working class. It is important to preserve the working-class history of the North, in particular the high points of class struggle when the working class moved in unity on social or industrial issues, or in opposition to sectarianism.
In a series of articles this website will seek to do this. Today we publish an article on the many examples of workers actions against sectarian threats and actions between 1969 and 2001.
We also re-publish a review of the film “Good Vibrations” from 2013, and an updated obituary of trade unionist and class fighter Davy Bell.
First published in Socialist Voice May 16, 2013
Good Vibrations (directed by Lisa Barros D’Sa & Glenn Leyburn)
tells the story of Terri Hooley, the record shop and label he founded in Belfast at the height of the Troubles, and the Northern Ireland punk scene. The film starkly portrays the bleakness of life in Belfast in the 1970’s.
Written by Bill Webster and Peter Hadden , members Better Life for All Campaign Council. Originally published in Militant Irish Monthly, No. 139, March 1986 and on Marxists Internet Archive (as transcribed by Ciaran Crossey).
Generally speaking among political commentators on Northern Ireland the loudest voices belong to those who deny that the working class can overcome sectarian divisions. Such sceptics choose to ignore the true history of the working class movement.
And since writing on the recent troubles has been dominated by such people it is no wonder that there has been no commemoration by press or other media of a vital episode in the history of the labour movement which took place ten years ago.
At the beginning of 1976 the Trade Union Better Life For All Campaign was launched. For a brief moment the trade union movement raised the united voice of Catholic and Protestant workers against sectarianism and against poverty. The potential for class unity was vividly and for all time demonstrated.
Continue readingSinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald stated that a united Ireland is “within touching distance” in the days before the restoration of power sharing. Her comment was widely reported, not just in local media, but also outside Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein frequently suggest that there is a momentum towards a united Ireland, with references to their hope to be in government on both sides of the border soon and to the impact of Brexit. What they hint at, but are reluctant to state openly, is where the momentum really comes from: demographic change. The population of the North is very slowly changing, with a higher proportion of Catholics and a lower proportion of Protestants.
The idea that demographic change provides a solution is entirely wrong. It would be a mistake to assume that the imperfect peace that now reigns in Northern Ireland will continue indefinitely. That the “peace process” could unravel is clear both from an analysis of the situation in the North but also from an analysis of other places.
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First published by Socialist Party of England and Wales on 29th October 2014.
William (Bill) Webster died in August 2014 after a long illness, aged 73.
Bill was a prominent member of the Socialist Party in Ireland from the mid-1970s until the mid-1990s. Originally from Liverpool, Bill joined the Militant Tendency, the Socialist Party’s forerunner in 1971 in south London.
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The Northern Ireland Assembly met on Saturday February 3rd, and after nearly two years of political paralysis, the Democratic Unionist Party agreed to return to the power-sharing Executive. Day-to-day control of the governing of Northern Ireland has once again been returned to the main parties. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Republic of Ireland Taoiseach Leo Varadkar visited Belfast to applaud this development but did not meet themselves or issue a joint press statement. There was speculation that Sunak would provide increased funding over to assist the Executive, above the £3.3 billion already on the table, but he did not do so.
As the dust settles all the contradictions inherent in the workings of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement remain to test the system. The problems facing ordinary working people have not changed and remain unresolved. There is an obvious and immediate shortfall in funding, especially for public sector pay claims. Whilst many workers and young people “welcome” the return of devolved government there is little sense of optimism.
Continue readingFirst published by Socialist Party, April 30th, 2002
In the late 1960s, the name of Frantz Fanon became associated with the idea of an armed revolution in the ’Third World’. In the words of his biographer, David Macey, in his new book, ’Frantz Fanon: A life’, “Fanon came to be seen as the apostle of violence, the prophet of a violent Third World revolution that posed an even greater threat to the West than communism”, and “the spokesman of a Third Worldism which held that the future of socialism — or even the world — was no longer in the hands of the proletariat of the industrialized countries, but in those of the dispossessed wretched of the earth”.
Review of ‘Frantz Fanon: A Life’, by David Macey. Published by Granta Books, London, 2000 (paperback edition, 2001).
Continue readingBy Athina Kariata. First published by Internationalist Standpoint, July 20th, 2023.
Fifty years ago, events on the island of Cyprus were watched around the world. On July 15th, 1974, a right-wing Greek-nationalist coup was launched. Five days later the Turkish army invaded the island. After a period of intense bloodshed, the island was partitioned. Half a century on there is a “frozen conflict”, with no resolution in sight. Activists in Ireland can learn from studying other places where “unresolved national questions” dominate politics. There are clear parallels between the complex issues in Cyprus and the situation in Ireland but also major differences. We republish here an article written by a comrade in Cyprus and first published in July 2023, which explains the events of July 1974. Further articles will be published over the coming months.
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The Northern Ireland power sharing Executive has been restored today after a two-year period of stalemate. It was boycotted by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from February 2022 in a protest against the post-Brexit arrangements for trade between Northern Ireland, Europe and Great Britain.
Much has been written and said about the DUP and its boycott over the last two years. Vitriol has been heaped on the party by leading figures from the nationalist parties North and South. Many prominent British political figures and European Union bureaucrats joined in the fray.
The DUP were told repeatedly that the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, the Northern Ireland Protocol, and the Windsor Framework were the best that was available, and that renegotiation was possible. This turned out to be untrue. The capitalist powers will often renegotiate what was previously agreed, and will jettison what was once sacrosanct when it suits. The ruling class will always act in its own interests.
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