Schoolboy Michael was punched, kicked, and beaten with a baseball bat in an alleyway in Ballymena in May 2006. The 15-year-old died hours later in hospital. Four people were given minimum terms ranging from 13 years to 10 years at Antrim Crown Court for killing the teenager three years later, Another man convicted of manslaughter was given a three-year suspended sentence. Two others were also sentenced-one was given 10 months for affray and criminal damage, and the other a conditional discharge for criminal damage.
The Socialist Party and Socialist Youth intervened in Ballymena, seeking to build a united, anti-sectarian movement amongst young people in the town. This is one example of many when of the conscious efforts of comrades to influence events.
Bill Webster, Chair of the Labour and Trade Union Group, speaking at the Stop the Tories Conference, Belfast, Europa Hotel, 1983. Ciaran Crossey in chair.
In 1979 the Tories returned to power and under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher began to implement a programme of privatisation and deregulation which was to have a major impact on the lives of working-class people.
From the start there was resistance and a magnificent half-day general strike in April 1980 brought out both public and private sector workers across the North. The ruling class were on the offensive however, and sought conflict, determined to defeat the strongest trade unions, one by one. In 1979, they took on and defeated the steelworkers in a major dispute. Behind the scenes they were preparing for a battle with the National Union of Mineworkers and in the great miners’ strike of 1984-1985 they threw the full weight of the state against organised labour.
Peter Hadden speaking at 1983 Stop the Tories Conference, Europa Hotel, Belfast. Bill Webster on right.
The workers’ movement in Northern Ireland were without a political voice, as we still are. There has been no mass independent working-class political party in the North since the demise of the Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) in the early 1970s. It is largely forgotten now just how successful the NILP was. In 1962, it gained 62,175 votes in Belfast compared to 67,350 for the Unionist candidates. This vote represented 26% of the votes cast. The total left vote was 32.8% if other left parties are added. It won 105,759 votes across Northern Ireland in the 1970 general election. However, this base was squandered as the NILP adopted a one-sided unionist position, and it gained only 18,675 votes in the 1973 Assembly election.
In the early 1970s Militant supporters worked to push the NILP to the left and argued that it should take up issues of repression and discrimination. Furthermore, we argued that the NILP could not deal with the national question by ignoring it but instead must pose a class-based alternative to the sectarian parties on either side. Militant and others on the left, formed the Labour and Trade Union Coordinating Committee (later the Labour and Trade Union Group) to keep alive the idea of a mass party.
In the late 1970’s and into the 1980s we campaigned vigorously for a Conference of Labour, to bring together trade unions, trade union branches, trades councils, other workers organisations such as tenants’ groups, and left political parties with an anti-sectarian position. Such a conference would provide a springboard for the creation of a new working-class party.
We called upon the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to act, or sections of the movement to act if the umbrella would not. By 1982 the call for a conference of labour was backed by the National Union of Mineworkers and the Furniture, Timber and Allied Trades Union. Executive members of the FBU, SOGAT, the Boilermakers, NUPE and the Bakers Union had given individual support.
The 1981 British Labour Party Conference (with almost every trade union delegation in favour) overwhelmingly endorsed the call for a Conference of Labour. The Irish Labour Party, also by Conference decision, came out for a Conference of Labour. Derry, Ballymena and Meath Trades Councils were in support. In Derry significant union branches, from NIPSA to the AUEW, backed the call. In Belfast it was also the policy of many union branches.
We didn’t wait on developments but sought to create momentum and to show by example. In 1979 comrades worked in Paddy Devlin’s “Give a Straight Left to Europe” campaign when he stood in the first European election campaign (winning over 6000 votes). In the 1981 local elections we supported several candidates standing on a ticket of workers unity and socialist politics, including the Derry Labour Party and the Antrim Labour League.
As the 1983 general election approached, discussions around the idea of an alternative to the Tories and the sectarian parties intensified. In the spring of 1983, the LTUG convened the “Stop the Tories” conference. This event, held in the Europa Hotel in Belfast, provided a platform for the arguments for a new party our movement to unite working people. We argued for a slate of candidates standing on a common programme. Unfortunately, whist the conference was a success on the day, the desired result of a united party or movement, did not emerge. The LTUG stood one candidate only in the election, Muriel Tang in East Belfast.
The Stop the Tories conference, an open forum for those committed to the idea of change is an illustration of the initiatives that are necessary if we are to build a new party of movement for the working class. In the coming weeks all activists should consider whether the time is now for a new initiative.
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.
Bill Webster speaking at support rally during Great Miners' strike in 1984. Bill was Chair of the Labour and Trade Union Group for a decade from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s
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.
First Published on Militant Left Website, September 30 2023 (with Anton McCabe)
Veteran East Belfast socialist Willie Nevin has died in his 67th year, after a period of severe illness.
Willie, from a Protestant background, was already a trade union activist when he came across Militant, forerunner of Militant Left, in the 1980s. Soon he was an active member where he joined regular sales of the paper ‘Militant’ outside local factories, including the Harland and Wolff Shipyard, and door to door in the majority Protestant area.
First published October 12th 2019 by Socialist Party
Long standing member of the Socialist Party in Belfast David (Davy) Bell has died at the age of 69. Davy joined Militant, the forerunner of the Socialist Party in 1978 and across more than four decades dedicated himself to selfless activity on behalf of the working class.
Davy came from a Protestant background and grew up in the Cregagh estate in East Belfast. He liked to say that he once “skinned” George Best, who was also from Cregagh, when playing football as a teenager! He worked for British Telecom and was an activist in the Communication Workers Union (CWU), attending national conferences of the union, and working with is comrades Bernard Roome and Judy Griffiths and many other genuine lefts to overcome the dead weight of the dominant bureaucratic layer. In his union role he represented literally hundreds of workers over many years. His patient approach to trade union work gave him hard-earned respect and standing and he was well known in his own area as a “union man” who would help out with a benefit claim and countless other tasks.
Image: Benny on picket at Mid-Ulster Hospital Magherafelt, during strike against sectarian killings, March 9th, 1989.
Benjamin (Benny) Adams died after a long illness on October 6th 2014 at the early age of 65. Benny was active in the Militant, the forerunner of Socialist Party in Ireland, from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. For most of that time he worked full-time as a political organiser.
