Opposing sectarianism
This talk was originally written for Ideas and Action 18th May 2002. The author was regrettably unable to attend the event and other members of Organise! - ASF attended and took part in the discussion on sectarianism.
That sectarian tensions, division and conflict have continued and increased
in the north should be no real surprise to Anarchists or Anarcho-Syndicalists
on this island.
At the time of the Belfast Agreement we were all well aware that this was going to be a sectarian agreement to be ran by sectarian political parties. We welcomed at the time the fact that guns could be taken out of, or at least their use very much reduced, the sectarian political arena.
As the Solidarity Federation, British section of the IWA, said in their publication Direct Action in Summer 1998;
“Just maybe the peace agreement will take the guns out of Northern Irish politics, or at least limit its impact. A sectarian political scene without guns will be preferable to one with guns. Perhaps this is the best we can hope for from this agreement.”
Organise! - IWA, the now defunct Irish section of the IWA, stated in the same issue of ‘Direct Action’;
“ ‘Our’ politicians may well have come to some sort of
‘Agreement’ on Good Friday, one which may lead to a very welcome
reduction in paramilitary violence, but for the North’s working class,
‘unity’ seems as elusive as ever. The goal of a united Ireland
or maintaining the union with Britain are of course nothing to do with the
type of unity we are talking about in Organise!
Our communities are still sectarian ghettoes and, with perhaps the most segregated
education system in the world, how can we ever hope to break down the barriers
of mistrust, bitterness and suspicion?
The one hope for our future, for the future development of Anarcho-Syndicalism
in Ireland, surely lies in the fostering and development of ‘workers
unity’….
…This is not something which can be demanded or called upon by placard
waving lefties, it is something which must be built. It is built in very concrete
ways around the common problems workers face at their workplaces and in their
communities. It is something which occurs naturally when workers as workers
are faced with a new attack from their bosses, it is built around the response
to ‘bread and butter’ issues.”
The guns have not always stayed silent, there have been sectarian murders, young men little more than children have died while handling blast bombs, there have been countless injuries, beatings and punishment shootings, plastic bullets and police batons continue to maim and injure, families and communities have been terrorised and already almost nightly sectarian riots and street battles are making headline news. Recently police raids of houses sparked rioting in ‘nationalist’ areas of Belfast, a couple of weeks back no such ‘political cover’ could be used. Despite the claims and counterclaims about who started what, frustrated ‘nationalist’ youth, or more to the point pissed off Celtic fans, started riots in interface areas of Belfast, particularly north Belfast, when Rangers beat Celtic in the Scottish League.
Recent research has found, unsurprisingly, that sectarian division is more entrenched than ever. More, not less, people live in sectarian ghettoes, less young people have ‘met’ let alone had any form of conversation with people from the ‘other side’. And this is all set to get worse, not better, as we slide into another marching season.
Everything is not hopeless however as demonstrations in the wake of the murder of postal worker Danny McColgan have helped demonstrate. Pressure had been mounting for some time within the Trades Unions, particularly those in public service industries, on NIC ICTU to take action over the growing number of attacks and assaults, sectarian or not, on public service workers across the north. Pressure was already being brought to bear on NIC ICTU by rank and file workers and shop stewards like myself in the public transport industry. This pressure arose in several different areas almost simultaneously as more and more workers were assaulted and was beginning to become more and more co-ordinated particularly with the threat of action from Ambulance Drivers, Fire-fighters and Nurses across the north. With Danny’s murder NIC ICTU could no longer stall or sit back and do nothing. Thousands took to the streets.
While sectarian conflict is the stuff of headline news there has been another war raging across the north, a war which is raging across the globe. This war has results just as devastating as sectarianism. Untold numbers, north and south and throughout Britain die in work related accidents, or of illnesses caused by hazards they are exposed to due to bosses cutting corners, more are dieing prematurely because of the run down state of the Health Service, suicides in the north, particularly among young men living in run down areas such as Tigers Bay, are rocketing. Casualisation of labour, the running down of services and amenities, neglect of the health service, harassment at work or on the dole, benefit cuts, criminalisation of parents of ‘habitual truants’, lay offs and mass redundancies, ‘cut backs’, inflation, privatisation, bad housing, are all part of the mounting and largely untold suffering of our class whatever particular ‘ist’ your ghetto attracts to describe it.
So what can Anarchists and Anarcho-Syndicalists do to confront and undermine sectarianism in the north? Well we do not presume to have all the answers and perhaps some ideas can be discussed and debated here today.
Working in larger mixed workforces is one of the areas that sectarian divisions can be effectively challenged. Workers, many for the first time, are forced to realise that they have common interests in opposition to those of the bosses. They also get to know one another and can begin to break down the barriers and stereotypes that are used to divide them. We can, and members of the ASF who works in this sort of environment do, have an active role to play in this. How much of an impact this will have on rioting is debatable and it is getting harder and harder to discuss issues openly and honestly in the workplace without finding yourself in contravention of some censorious bullshit ‘anti-sectarian legislation’. The gist of the legislation is we can’t discuss anything that ‘may offend’ anyone, all opinions should be kept to yourself but you can go home vote for a bigot and attack your fellow workers across the street (just don’t bring it into work). Of course this sort of legislation despite its negative effect, whether company enforced or law, does not stop people from discussing issues which effect them or their fellow workers.
The fact of the matter as regards riots at interface areas is that they are for the most part carried out by young unemployed men. Given the nature of our society it is very hard to reach these people on a ‘cross community’ basis. Respect must go to the long standing ‘Giros’ and the ‘Warzone Collective’ for bringing kids together across sectarian boundaries around punk and alternative music, its predecessor the @ Centre, which was way before my time, run by the Belfast Anarchist Collective also deserves mention for this sort of work as does the old Rathcoole Self Help Group which did a lot to develop links between the ‘nationalist’ Bawnmore and ‘loyalist’ Rathcoole estates. The RSHG whilst not a specifically anarchist venture was inspired to some degree by other anarchist initiatives of the time and always had, mixed in with more regular ‘community activists’, ‘labour representation’ and BICO types a number of anarchists in its ranks.
That more needs to be done in working class communities if we are to ever build a credible and revolutionary alternative to sectarianism should go without saying. A more active role needs to be taken in the lives of our communities but this is not something that can be done by parachuting into areas, making a bit of noise and then disappearing. It requires people getting active in their own communities, it requires people on the ground and too a large degree it requires people who are willing to stick their necks out and make the arguments that in reality we should be fighting the bosses and government rather than each other. This is not easy, it is really not easy when we consider the small amount of anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists there are actually on the ground in the north.
As we get closer to the marching season we will no doubt hear the usual voices from comrades demanding that we do ‘parachute in’ to show physical support for communities under siege from the Loyal Orders and demanding our involvement in physical confrontation with those orders. We are of course opposed to sectarian institutions such as the LOL but how we confront these and confront them effectively is far from being straightforward. Nor do we reserve the label ‘anti- or counter revolutionary’ solely for them, all bodies which deliberately promote and encourage division of workers deserve this label.
It is a lot easier to sit in Dublin, or Cork and talk about ‘taking on’ the Orange Order than it is when some of us have to go home to face the reality of having to live in Belfast or Portadown like some members of the ASF here today. It is also the case that the Orange Order was built on sectarian confrontation and, with Portadown in mind in particular, confrontation has helped swell its ranks in recent years too. This is a question of size, positive impact and more importantly the desire to see our politics, organisation and vision presented and regarded as an alternative to the sectarian bullshit we have to endure day and daily as opposed to it being seen as just another, slightly more lefty, version of one side or another. I’d suggest we consider how we can achieve this during the discussion.
Any successful anti-sectarian and revolutionary libertarian movement must be built on a positive not a negative campaign. We must avoid needlessly being identified with left republicanism - a lack of appreciation of this has in my opinion damaged the potential for the organised anarchist movement in the north, and by extension across the island, in the past. This does not mean we become the opposite, some sort of ‘anarcho-loyalists’. Issues of state oppression, collusion, policing etc., are not to be avoided and will indeed be dealt with in a much more revolutionary fashion if we use an ‘anarchist’ or class analysis when we look at then and seeking to present alternatives.
Social and economic deprivation is common to both sides of the sectarian divide no where more obviously than in run down interface areas. Perhaps a bit paradoxically the sectarian institution that is Stormont may well help us build on class antagonisms and with the work of establishing an effective anti-sectarian movement in the north.
The commitment of all parties to the implementation of New Labours neo-liberal and anti-working class economic agenda, with the further running down of public services, PPP-PFI, their liberal pay rises and expenses claims and now the prospect of water charges in the north could see the forging of alliances across old boundaries and a growing bond of solidarity as the politicians tighten the screws on us all on behalf of big business. The ASF will continue to strive to strengthen and develop that bond of solidarity a reality and to build a viable alternative for working class people in the north, throughout these islands and ultimately across the world.