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Tuesday January 21, 2003 20:04
by cleo shoukri
The 3 main loyalist paramilitary groups in east belfast, the UVF, UDA and red hand commandos, in a gesture of goodwill to the catholic and republican population of east belfast, are to take down any sectarian grafitti or murals in an effort to defuse any sectarian tension surrounding the republican short strand enclave.
The 3 main loyalist paramilitary groups in east belfast, the UVF, UDA and red hand commandos, in a gesture of goodwill to the catholic and republican population of east belfast, are to take down any sectarian grafitti or murals in an effort to defuse any sectarian tension surrounding the republican short strand enclave.
Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4of course the real motivation behind this is the loss of jobs that the East has suffered recently and the effects of sectarian graffeti on attracting new inward investment. Attacks on Catholics will likely continue in other flashpoints or interface areas by Unionist paramilitaries
The recent job losses had nothing to do with sectarianism, you cannot blame workers, for the unfair employment practises of these companies, management of these companies could if they so wished have stamped out sectarianism a long time ago. The employment practises of these companies were dictated to by fat cat buisness men and unionist politicians as a sop to keep working class loyalists voting for the establishment unionists.
The recent job losses had more to do with the mickey mouse mismanagement of these industries by aggressive fat cat fly by night company owners. With establishment unionists collaborating with the fat cat big buisness owners to decieve and con workers into accepting shite wages and working conditions in exchange for the broken promise of job security. The truth is the fat cat unionist establishment politicians knew what these company owners had in mind in the future, but decided to play along and dupe the workers just the same.
The removal of offensive sectarian graffiti and murals is a big step in the right direction for working class loyalists, and is in essence a hand stretched out in friendship and reconcilliation. This move is to be commended, and will contribute towards repairing and mending the recently damaged cross community relations. Working class loyalist paramilitaries have also stated that they wish to resume cross community activities with their republican and catholic short strand neighbours. I believe working class loyalist paramilitaries are genuine in these efforts and are grateful to their catholic and republican counterparts for their support during recent feud with Johnny Adair/LVF. There are decent working class people on both sides of the divide, and with the removal of Adair and also the sectarian graffiti/murals, hopefully this may pave the way for our communities to come together again to fight other dangers which threaten the welfare of our working class communities. Remember sectarianism has been entrenched within our communities and institutions for many years, it is a big step to denounce it, reject it, and also to reform, espeacially for paramilitaries. There will be a lot of sceptism on both sides, but I believe it is possible to stand together against our common foes as we did in the 1930s and also recently during Adairs terror campaign.
i didn't say the job losses had anything to do with sectarianism and i didn't say that there weren't people of good will in that community. As always you read what you want to read into comments and show just how naive you are about certain matters
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