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.
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.