The publication of an interim report by the Kenova Inquiry into the activities of the IRA informer known as Stakeknife” on March 8th, has told us little new. The Inquiry has now lasted seven years, cost £40 million but has struggled to uncover basic facts. Even the most uncontroversial information about what happened has been withheld from families.
We do know that Stakeknife, real name Freddy Scapattici, was a state agent within the IRA for decades. In this role he was head of the IRA Internal Security Unit, also known as the “nutting squad”, which sought out and executed alleged informers. He was involved in the murder of 20 or more individuals who were accused of betraying IRA secrets. Some of his victims may well have been working for the British state, but some were certainly innocent. There is ample evidence that his British Army handlers allowed some to go to their deaths to protect his identity.
Police raid on Sinn Fein office at Stormont in search for evidence of intelligence gathering in October 2002 caused a collapse of the Executive which lasted for five years.
First published by Socialist Party 11th October, 2002
AS WE go to press, it seems almost certain that Northern Ireland’s Executive and Assembly will collapse this week. New Labour’s Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid will probably suspend the institutions in the hope that they can one day be resuscitated
A general election must be held before January 2025. Most commentators expect this to take place in October or November 2024. There is a widespread acceptance that Keir Starmer, and the Labour Party will form the next government.
As before all elections serious socialists in Northern Ireland are examining the possibility of standing to provide an alternative for working class people. With only months to go, decisions will need to be taken soon as contesting general elections is a major undertaking for small groupings. First past the post elections are not at first sight, viable territory for new parties or movements, but we should not lose sight of the fact that 1/3 of workers and young people do not vote. We also know that many of those who cast a vote for parties outside the mainstream are still in search of a viable cross-community, anti-sectarian, left alternative.
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.
Switch of Jeffrey Donaldson and Arlene Foster from Ulster Unionist Party to Democratic Unionist Party in 2004 was a key moment in process which lead to eclipse of latter as unionism's largest party, a position it had held since 1921.
First published Socialist Voice, Newspaper of Socialist Party Ireland, Jan 5th 2004
ON 5 JANUARY Jeffrey Donaldson, Norah Beare and Arlene Foster announced that they were joining the DUP. Their move underlined the results of the recent elections. The DUP are now the largest unionist party and Sinn Fein the largest nationalist party
Despite this some commentators are arguing that the forthcoming review of the Agreement will achieve a deal and re-establish an Executive. Some even argue that the outcome of the election will result in greater long term stability as a deal reached between the extremes will be more likely to stick.
Their logic largely rests on the argument that the leading members of Sinn Fein and the DUP are competent and ambitious administrators who are keen to once again get their hands on the levers of power. For this reason the DUP will abandon their position of refusing to talk to and share power with Sinn Fein. Whilst there is some truth in this it is a minor factor and will not determine the course of events in the next period.
Of vital importance is the fact that three more elections are due in the next 18 months-the European poll in June of this year and the local and Westminster elections next year. Both Sinn Fein and the DUP will see these contests as opportunities to emphasise their dominance over their rivals.
This article is based on an article first published in Socialist Voice, paper of Socialist Party, 9th April 2004
Forty years ago on March 6th the great miners’ strike began. For a year 140,000 members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) were engaged in a titanic battle with Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government and the full force of the state.
Ultimately, they went down to defeat but it was an honourable defeat. It was a dispute that would have been won were it not for the betrayal of the right wing trade union and the Labour Party leaderships.
Downshire Hospital COHSE (Confederation of Health Service Employees) Branch Secretary Raymond Blaney handing over funds collected for Scottish striking miners, October 1984
March 6th, 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the great miners’ strike. The strike lasted almost one year. It ended with the miners marching back to work behind their bands and their banners on March 3rd, 1985.
This heroic struggle will never be forgotten by every socialist activist who lived through it. There were no mines or miners in Northern Ireland, but the effects of the strike were profound.
It has been said that workers in Northern Ireland raised more money per head of the population than any other area and England, Scotland and Wales, outside the mining areas.
Trade unions and trade unionists were involved in fundraising efforts, and collected food and basic essentials to send to the pit communities. The workers movement in Northern Ireland were asked to contribute directly to the Scottish NUM and miners’ representatives from Scotland visited Northern Ireland in the first few weeks in the strike. Eventually, Barri McClatchy a Scottish miner, stayed for the duration of the strike and indeed remained in the North when it was over.
Today we published an article on the 40th anniversary of the strike. The miners’ strike was a high point for the British workers movement and its defeat has left his mark to this day. Nevertheless, we remember their struggle with pride, and we are determined to learn from their courage and determination.
Hundreds of fire officers follow the funeral of 23 year old Brian Douglas who was shot dead by the UDA/UFF whilst attending a blaze near the junction of Sandy Row and Lisburn Road in South Belfast. The killing was one of four during a one day Loyalist work stoppage on 7th February 1973.
Copyright Victor Patterson
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.
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.
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.
