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.
The new arrangements could have been put on the table several years ago. This did not happen for complex reasons which are explained in articles on this site. The exact detail of the deal will be analysed here in the coming days.
For now, it is key to recognise and reinforce the need for the workers movement to always maintain its political independence. In articles written over the last several years we have pointed to this necessity and critiqued those on the left who piled in behind nationalism at every juncture. This applies to People Before Profit, and to a number of trade union leaders who uncritically echoed the worst nationalist politicians and commentators. We republish one of these articles “The Brexit Crisis and the Role of the Workers’ Movement”, from April 2019 to illustrate this point.
The return of the Executive takes place against the background of months of strikes by workers in the public sector. This industrial action culminated in the magnificent one-day strike on January 18th . An article on this historic event will appear here in the coming days.
The best trade union leaders were careful not to be drawn into the anti-DUP camp at any point. When workers in their trade unions are engaged in struggle, the enemy is firstly the employer and then the ruling class who stand behind every employer. Political parties which accept the constraints of the system are not, and never will be, unconditional friends of the trade unions. It is important to underline this point today as the Executive returns, as all five of the main parties (the DUP, UUP, SDLP. Sinn Fein and Alliance) have made the “right noises” in the last weeks with regards to workers’ rights, conditions, and wages. The reality of their promises will be put to the test in the coming weeks.
There is £3.3 billion on the table as part of the deal but it is widely acknowledged that this sum is insufficient to settle all the pay claims to the workers satisfaction, let alone address years of under-investment in public services. Much of the new money is not recurrent (it won’t be available in the coming years)stuggle meaning that any pay increases will only be maintained by either increasing revenue from ordinary working-class people (through increased household rates, water charges, prescription charges or other means) or through cuts in public services. This is unacceptable and the trade union movement must prepare for further action with the return of the Executive. The battle lines may shift but the struggles continue.
Today we republish an important article from 2007 which explains the context and conduct of the heroic struggle of the classroom assistants: “Three thousand classroom assistants poised to take more strike action. A militant struggle against ‘power-sharing’ government attacks”. This dispute lasted for many months and saw 3000 workers, many previously unorganised, take 10 days of strike action. They sustained their campaign despite the opposition of the five main political parties and most of the media. They were also undermined by several prominent trade union leaders in private and in public.
Their fight is a perfect illustration of the willingness of ordinary working class to stand up and fight for their rights. They were both self-organised and the beneficiaries of a conscious working-class Marxist leadership-Patrick Mulholland and Brian Booth of NIPSA played exemplary roles. In the weeks and months ahead the lessons of their struggle should be studied by all activists. More articles will be published on this theme in the coming weeks.