More Sectarian Shite

national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis

Thursday November 17, 2005 15:47

by James McBarron - WSM - Workers Solidarity

An anarchist take on the loyalist riots

The recent spate of sectarian attacks in villages in Antrim and elsewhere are obviously not a reaction to the IRA as there is no longer anything resembling a war going on. In fact they are a product of the sectarianism deeply embedded in northern society. They're a product of hundreds of years of cynical use of same to maintain the privilge and position of the ruling class.

Once you let the genie out of the bottle it is not so easy to put it back in. The genie of course still has its uses. The recent riots on the Shankill Road and other areas of serious social deprivation in the poorest protestant areas of the north were ostensibly about the right to hold marches in sensitive areas. People in these areas have good reason to riot but over issues that affect them and their Catholic working class fellow citizens as well.
If the riots had been over unemployment, social deprivation or state repression then the ruling class might well be worried. Fortunately for the state and capital the riots were over the right to hold a sectarian march in front of Catholics. The genuine anger and alienation in these areas is again manipulated in a self defeating sectarian direction.

Burning out your Catholic neighbours or fighting the army and police for the right to parade in front of them does nothing to advance the best interests of Protestant workers no more than recent firebombings by the IRA splinter groups help improve the conditions of Catholic working class.

The message that needs to be sent out is that yes the protestant working class are getting a raw deal, but the answer is not to ally yourself with the people and the ideas that have delivered this raw deal. The British state is dispensing with the LVF, UVF and UDA as they are no longer of use to the state. Sectarianism still is though, and it is the enemy of the working class whatever our background. Each power block in the north is now built on an entirely communal basis. Each negotiates with the British and Irish states and each other for its share of power and spoils. The working class loses over and over again. It is in this difficult context that anarchists argue for class politics and workers unity.

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Comments (3 of 3)

Divided Society

by D Williams

Thu Nov 17, 2005 16:00

As a Socialist I agree with a lot of your points. I am permanently depressed by the level of sectarianism, bigotry, and racism in this small society. I feel there is a whole generation that will never change, and unfortunately this generation is already bringing up their own replacement bigots/racist.

How do you break the linkage?

by Rob Roy

Thu Nov 17, 2005 18:24

"As a Socialist I agree with a lot of your points. I am permanently depressed by the level of sectarianism, bigotry, and racism in this small society. I feel there is a whole generation that will never change, and unfortunately this generation is already bringing up their own replacement bigots/racist."

Clearly as long as the sectarian divide exists the present bigots/racists who learned bigotry and racism from their parents who in turn learned it from their bigot/racist parents will inevitably tranform future generations into bigots/racists.
I believe such as society will not change until it freely wishes to face up to the sickness.
I don't believe you can legislate racism and bigotry away - you can punish it of course and rightly so if it is manifested in violence or discrimination- but you can never police private thoughts nor intervene between parents and children in their own homes where this tradition of hatred is being perpetrated - i don't believe desegregating schools will do all the work though I believe it will do much good.
All we can do is live in hope.
Just as people have the freedom of association so too do they have the freedom not to associate. The sad reality is they more often choose the latter.

Tolerance

by CV

Fri Nov 18, 2005 11:21

I think tolerance has to be taught. I know that if you put pre school kinds together they will interact and not look at the colour of the skin of their playmate, or wonder what religon they are. But I do think that the saying " For evil to exist it just takes good people to do nothing"is relevant here. Sadly I think the human condition naturally attracts like to like, and fear/ distrust of what is different. Clearly education plays a huge part. But even without the "negative" influences turning children into bigots, I thinks divisions would still emerge. This makes the solution even harder to attain, we need a generation of possitive influences to teach tolerance and respect of diversity. I think that place is somehere over the rainbow. How depressing.

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Comments (3 of 3)