By Bernie McAdam
THIS SUMMER Belfast has been at the centre of a vicious campaign that has targeted immigrants in and around the city. At the beginning of August a far right mob threatened the Islamic Centre but were blocked by police, only to be followed by a rampage through Botanic Avenue, a multi-ethnic area, where shops and businesses were attacked and firebombed with police nowhere to be seen. The overwhelmingly Loyalist character of the hate mob was shown when they tried to attack a nationalist area on the Lower Ormeau Road but they were put to flight by local residents.
For several nights after this riot there were further clashes with the police in some Loyalist areas but these have petered out, at least for now. The mobilisation of anti-racist protesters at a number of incidents has contributed massively to countering the racist right, in particular the impressive 10 August demonstration which saw at least 15,000 marchers come out in solidarity with migrant and minority communities.
However the disappearance of far right street protests has been overshadowed by a concerted and vicious campaign that has witnessed serial attacks on the shops, restaurants, religious buildings and homes of ethnic minorities. This amounts to nothing less than a creeping pogrom against migrants with the express intention of driving them out of these areas. The involvement of Loyalist paramilitaries is clear with even the police acknowledging the links between the riots and such groups.
Growing threat
The pace of this pogrom may well have hastened this summer but it has been ongoing for several years. The PSNI (police) report 1,400 racist incidents within a year, up 144 from last year with racist crimes recorded at 891. Inevitably, not all racist attacks are reported, so the true figure is higher. The Village in South Belfast has had several attacks and their elected representative Edwin Poots of the DUP has struggled to condemn the rioters, preferring to excuse them as people who are ‘angry and frustrated’ and saying that it’s ‘essential that we meet the needs of people who have lived in an area for generations’. The DUP are clearly looking over their shoulder at the more hardcore Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) who have lashed up with Reform UK.
So why is Unionism in the frontline against migrants? The answer lies in the origins and nature of the six county statelet which was Britain’s very own apartheid response to Ireland’s war of independence. The ‘Northern Ireland’ state was born in 1921 as a sectarian anti-Catholic and anti-Irish entity with institutionalised discrimination which has spawned systematic attacks and pogroms on Catholic / nationalist areas. This ‘tradition’ of bigotry and hate has now effortlessly been replicated and extended to ethnic minorities.
Of course, not all racist attacks are in Unionist areas and a recent assault on an Asian shop on the Falls Road has to be condemned as well. The response from groups like the Beechmount Residents Collective was prompt and welcome. They supported the victims and organised a community solidarity protest and rally. Clearly though there is a huge problem in some Loyalist areas, where the control exerted by paramilitary groups would make such solidarity actions difficult.
That’s why it is imperative that workers’ organisations, especially the trade unions, are won, not just to deploring racism but also to practically organising solidarity and defence of the migrant section of the working class. The union leaders though, who historically cannot boast any form in tackling even the sectarianism of the Unionist state, will be more of a hindrance to building an anti-racist and anti fascist movement which can defend all workers and drive the far right off our streets.
As ever the real enemy of workers is capitalism and imperialism, not a fellow section of the working class. The police, like the army, are the defenders of the capitalist state and cannot be relied on to protect communities under attack. Indeed in ‘Northern Ireland’ they have a long history in the suppression of Catholics / nationalists. The Lower Ormeau residents proved that self-defence is the only way! Only militant mobilisations with organised defence can protect our communities from attack.
