nce again violence has flared across Belfast and other parts of the north as protests
continue around the flags issue. The latest disturbances come as Stormont Assembly
leaders, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness meet to discuss another wave of street
protests, and their concerns about the damaging effect it is having on the economy leading
up to the busiest shopping period of the calendar. But as each issued a separate statement
calling for protests to come to an end, loyalist gangs flexed their muscles, blocking off
streets and hijacking cars. ---- Once again violence has flared across Belfast and other
parts of the north as protests continue around the flags issue. The latest disturbances
come as Stormont Assembly leaders, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness meet to discuss
another wave of street protests, and their concerns about the damaging effect it is having
on the economy leading up to the busiest shopping period of the calendar. But as each
issued a separate statement calling for protests to come to an end, loyalist gangs flexed
their muscles, blocking off streets and hijacking cars.
This recent wave of trouble kicked off several weeks ago following a vote taken by Belfast
City Council to fly the union flag outside city hall on designated days only, instead of
365 days of the year. This was supposedly as a result of an earlier 'equality impact
assessment' carried out on Belfast City Council. Minutes after the motion was passed,
loyalist reaction to the decision was one of anger. As tension spilled out on to the
streets several hundred union flag waving protesters laid siege to the building in scenes
not witnessed here since the 1980's. As crowds were later dispersed, nearby nationalist
homes and a catholic church bore the brunt of the mob's anger.
In the days that followed it's believed that loyalist paramilitaries from both the UVF and
UDA influenced events on the ground further by hijacking and burning cars, hospitalising
30 PSNI members, issuing death threats to politicians, and attacking and burning a number
of their homes and offices. All this happened as international 'guardian of peace' Hillary
Clinton dropped into Stormont for tea with Peter and Martin - presumably for her final
update on how the 'peace process' was coming along as part of a host of 'final engagements'.
Weeks prior the initial flag vote taking place, the scene was set as 40,000 leaflets were
distributed across South and East Belfast deepening an already fraught situation further.
The leaflets themselves were part of a joint operation, said to have been carried out by
Democratic Unionist Party and Ulster Unionist Party activists, castigating the local
Alliance party whose representatives hold the balance of power within Belfast City
Council, not to mention electoral seats in east Belfast.
Ever happy to beat the sectarian war drums, unionist politicians claimed that the flags
motion at City Hall represented the tip of the iceberg of yet another attack on their
Britishness and cultural identity by republicans. Surprisingly enough, in successive
interviews not one unionist politician could remember who agreed to issue such a leaflet
that ratcheted up sectarian tensions even further. Amongst all the usual tit-for-tat
allegations that took place, former first minister David Trimble accused the DUP of
?cynically? stoking up tensions. However that in itself speaks more of the crisis within
Ulster unionism at present.
So is this simply down to the issue of flags and identity or is it something happening
much deeper than that?
When examining the issues from within working class loyalist communities many will reveal
that they have for years 'been sold a pup'. Used as foot soldiers, canon-fodder, pulled on
to the streets at the beat of a drum every time their politicians claim that the sky was
falling. Loyalists and the organisations they represent will imply that their communities
feel abandoned by the politicians they voted for, effectively isolated and left to the
ravages of capitalism as can clearly be seen. But the answers to the problems they
continue to face - from high levels of social deprivation, lack of job and educational
opportunities to housing - won't be found within loyalism whose only answer is drawing up
even more sectarian battle lines.
As the violence plays out on the streets our class must be mindful of the fact that
sectarianism is used in the six counties like a water tap. Used to divide and rule, as and
when those in power see fit to unleash it, from the halls of Westminster to the halls of
Stormont. Capitalism has used it time and time again, just as those who represent it have
used fascism, racism and repression to assist and prop up their positions of power,
dominance and control.
For anarchists, it's our belief that the events played out in Belfast City Hall back on
December 3rd and on the streets ever since, is yet another sectarian diversionary tactic
by the politicians. Their beating of the war drums over flags in the middle of an ever
deepening economic crisis, just as working class communities across the north are being
crushed under the weight of it, shows us just where their true interests lie. In the
continuation and protection of their own sectarian positions and privileges up in
Stormont. It is therefore vital that we continue to demand working class unity in the
streets and in the workplace. Our class must not allow those in Stormont to deflect us
from the struggle at hand. Creating a unified fight across the sectarian divide against
the cuts in jobs and welfare, in health and education as the crisis of capitalism
continues is the task that faces us.
http://www.wsm.ie/loyalism
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* Anarchist organization
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» (en) Ireland, Belfast flag riots: Class Unity not Sectarian Diversions by WSM - Workers Solidarity Movement*