Sectarianism & Intra-Class Conflict in Northern Ireland

sectarianism & mtra class conPliot in northernpaul nunsey-Dnay Ireland At first sight it would appear that in Northern you a Protestant or Catholic’ ” he is asked. Ireland sectarianism is the principal problem “I am a Moslem,” he replies. “Ah sure, but and the major determining factor in the evolv are ye a Protestant Moslem or a Catholic ing course of events. Intra-class conflict within Moslem?” The question points not only to the working class is rife. Normal horizontal the overriding preoccupation of the popul class cleavages are subordinated to the vertical ation of Northern Ireland, but also to the sectarian divide that cuts a swathe of suspicion fact that the terms Protestant and Catholic and hatred through the middle of society. Des do not simply connote a religious identity. pite appearances, however, the basic contrad The Moslem is not being asked his religious ictions that establish the parameters of the dev affiliation but his political alignment. eloping situation are not based on sectarianism To be Protestant is to be a member of the The two main contradictions underlying the ruling class, even if a working class member, conflict in Northern Ireland are firstly the identified through a variety of symbols such fact that Ulster is a unique type of colonial as the sash, the pipe-band, the Orange Lodge, situation, and secondly the nature of the ev and, before its demise, Stormont, with the olving social formations in the Province, at a position that “Ulster” is an integral part of time when the anachronistic paternalist style the United Kingdom, that all Catholics are of capitalism that still exists there is at last rebels bent on overthrowing the established being forced to come to terms with the mon order and that the relatively privileged pos opolistic managerial style of capitalism that is ition of the Protestant community has been dominant in the rest of the United Kingdom earned and must be defended. The advan and Western Europe. On this basis it can be tages gained in 1690 at the Battle of the seen that sectarianism is a manifestation of Boyne must be safeguarded at all times. It the underlying contradictions, and, while im is the unique achievement of the Unionist portant, its presence and its ramifications can movement, founded in 1886, to organise be explained in terms of these basic contradic resistance to the Home Rule plans of Glad tions. stone, to have welded together landlords, industrial bourgeoisie, petit-bourgeoisie THE SECTARIAN DIVIDE and working class into one bloc with a common consciousness and political stance. The importance of sectarianism as a crucial As Peter Gibbon notes: “The integration feature of the Northern Ireland situation must of the Protestant working class into this not be underestimated. The Province is split ultra-reactionary bloc is the specific mir down the middle, with two communities opp acle of Unionism.” (1) osing each other on either side of a vertical To be Catholic is to identify with the sectarian divide. The lines that are drawn are ideal of a United Ireland. It is to feel that associated with religion, and each commun the “Six Counties” are an integral part of ity identifies with a religious grouping, either an Irish nation, to regard the Tri-colour Protestant, that is Church of Ireland, Pres rather than the Union Jack as one’s flag, byterian, Methodist and Paisleyite, or Cathol and to feel a greater sense of identification ic. But co-existent with a religious identity with the Irish Republic than with the gov is a national identity, and a consciousness of ernment at Westminster. It is moreover a certain political role. There is a joke, comm to feel acutely the injustice of being a de on in Belfast and now hoary with re-telling, prived minority in a Protestant state that, that concerns a newly arrived Moslem. "Are for the 50 or so years since partition, has

38 AII^TRAI I AN I F F T RFVIFU/ fllir.IKT 1071 actively discriminated against Catholics, ing class divided on sectarian lines, indulg and to see relief from this situation only ing in intra-class conflict of the most in the overthrow of that state. A sure mea vicious kind. Most of the political murd sure of the degree of discrimination in job ers, the bombing of pubs and small shops opportunities, housing and the like is the occurs within working class areas. The fact that, despite the higher birth-rate of the basic sectarian division cuts across work Catholic population, they still only represent ing class alliances and splits the class into one-third of the population of Northern seemingly irreconcilable camps. It is a Ireland, the same proportion as in 1921. situation that has led some theorists aof Emigration has done well by Unionism, but conflict resolution, such as Richard Rose, not without incentives. (2) to posit a classic polar situation which Obviously not all Protestants and Catholics is not susceptible to being resolved by would fit the above characterisations. They any compromise position. Conflict and are characterisations of communities rather polar division are inevitable. To see the than individuals. What is clear, however, is situation in such static terms is, however, that a great divide runs through Northern mistaken. Such a view does not take ac Ireland, bifurcating it into two distinct comm count of the underlying contradictions unities. Catholics and Protestants live in sep that will continue to dictate change. arate areas in the Province and in the major urban area, Belfast There was some mixing THE COLONIAL DIMENSION prior to 1969, but one effect of the ‘troubles’ has been to polarise the communities with Northern Ireland cannot be understood regard to housing. Catholics in Belfast have unless it is seen as a colonial situation moved from mixed areas into Catholic where the pressures of evolving social ‘ghetto’ areas within the city such as the formations are intensifying the contra Falls Road, Andersontown and Ballymurphy. dictions associated with colonialism. The They fear a Protestant backlash such as occ view, promoted by Unionist politicians, urred in 1969 when Catholics in a mixed that the troubles in the Province are an area in Divis Street were burned out. internal problem for the United Kingdom, Members of each community can identi is a misrepresentation of the facts. The fy members of the other by name and, it fact is that Belfast is an Irish city in an is claimed, by accent. Protestants and area of Ireland artifically established as Catholics go to different schools, colleges, a separate statelet which is dominated by sports clubs, social clubs and frequently a settler community. It is a settler com different places of work. The only un munity that has been there for so long segregated institution is Queen’s Universi that the identity of its members as set ty, but, on the one hand it provides only tlers is no longer apparent either to them for an elite group, and on the other opi selves or to others. The Manichean divi nions even there are polarising as tension sion between settler and native has been mounts. Segregation is incredibly thor subsumed into religious categories. As ough. Inter marriage is rare and where it Conor Cruise O’Brien notes: occurs it is often followed by emigration. ‘Basically, religious affiliation was and In Belfast today it is physically dangerous is -- socially, economically, and politically to ‘walk out’ with a member of the other significant, for it distinguishes, with very community. It was found by research few exceptions, the natives and their child teams from Queen’s University Medical ren from the seventeenth-century settlers School that there is a statistically signifi and their children.' (3) cant difference between the blood groups To state that the fundamental problem of the two communities. in Northern Ireland is colonialism is not, The result of all this segregation and however, to suggest that the solution is division is suspicion and animosity. Thus a United Ireland In the present context one does not find a unified and class of events such a suggestion would be both conscious working class, as one would ex facile and utopian. But once Northern pect in the most underdeveloped area of Ireland is seen in the light of a colonial the United Kingdom with an ailing eco situation a clearer and more cogent analy nomy and the highest unemployment rate sis becomes possible, and many aspects of in the country Instead there is a work the conflict there, such as sectarianism. become explicable. However it is necessary time being, and the foundation stone of in the first instance to understand the a future Northern Protestant state was nature of colonialism in Northern Ireland. laid. (5) Ireland as a whole has been subjected In the North of Ireland a colonial situa to various types of colonial rule since tion developed that is analagous to that the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1169 made of Algeria or Rhodesia. The differences Henry II Lord of Ireland and established between Northern Ireland, as it was es the Pale. Over the centuries however dif tablished by the Government of Ireland ferent types of colonial rule evolved in Act of 1920, and other settler-colonial the North and the South of the island. situations are firstly, by virtue of a con The colonial presence in the South was venient partition that left three of the largely confined to an elite class of An historic counties of Ulster outside North glo-Irish landlords, to the establishment ern Ireland, the settler population out of the Church and to English administra numbers the native population in a ratio tors. Ireland was cynically and ruthlessly of two to one. (6) (Although it must be exploited. (4) It provided a source of noted that by 1920 the Protestant settler cheap labor, rents and a market for Bri community made up a substantial pro tish goods. The position of the colonial portion of Ireland’s total population, power with regard to the native Irish was, about 25% in fact. The same is true to in the South, similar to Britain’s position day.) Secondly centuries passed before with respect to other settler-free colonies, the British Government had any doubts such as Uganda or Ghana (Gold Coast). about supporting the settlers in the North, When the time came when it was expe by which time they were so firmly en dient to pull out Westminster was able to trenched that they could virtually dictate make the appropriate decisions and dis their own terms. Sir Edward Carson de mantle the political structure of colonial clared in 1912: ‘We must be prepared -- ism. As too with other colonies exploita and time is precious,in these things -- the tion continued, after nominal political in morning Home Rule passes, ourselves to dependence had been achieved, through become responsible for the Protestant pro the agencies of international monopoly vince of Ulster.’ (7) There was a lot of capitalism and the process of neo-colonial support among officers in the British ar ism. The Republic of Ireland today is my for the Loyalist cause' and rumors still heavily dependent on British capital; that they would not lead their men against it is an important market for British goods; the Protestants. Moreover in July 1914 and, through a unique relationship with ‘Ulster Protestants had a stock of more the United Kingdom, Irish labor is freely than 40,000 rifles, with ammunition and available to British industry. men organised ready to use them.’ (8) The 1914-18 war intervened, but in 1920 Colonialism in Northern Ireland proceed the same pressures forced the British gov ed along different lines because of the ex ernment to accede to the demands of istence of a settler class; settlers who were Protestant Unionism and to partition Ire encouraged to take up land and make land. their homes in Ulster. James I instigated the first Plantations in 1607-9, specifically COLONIALISM^AND IDEOLOGY because Ulster was the most rebellious province. Twenty or so Plantation towns Once the Protestant community is seen were set up, and 100,000 Scots and 20, as a settler group then many aspects of 000 English were paid to settle. Later sectarianism become explainable. Common more settlers, Scots in the main, moved to all settler groups is a natural cohesive into the area. The victory of William of ness that unites varied classes in a common Orange over James II, and the Catholic attitude towards the natives. What is true Irish who had supported him, at the for the Boers or the White Rhodesians is Battle of the Boyne in 1690 apparently true for the Protestants of Northern Ire confirmed the title of the settler Protest land. Their attitude towards the Catholics ants to the land that had been taken from is inevitably hostile as a result of a defens the native Gaels. Protestant ascendancy in ive mentality in a colonial situation. The Ireland as a whole was established for the defensive or laager mentality of the Pro- s testant community must be seen in the needs to add that this propensity was de light of the fact that until the partition liberately fostered first by the British they did not form a majority in control ruling class, and later by the Ulster ruling of a Protestant state, but a minority, if a class, for their own purposes. In the first substantial one, in Ireland as a whole. instance sectarianism was encouraged by Behind every Protestant Ulsterman’s ma the British administration at Dublin Castle joritarian claims today lurks an uneasy in order to fragment the radical move awareness of this minority position ment that arose in the wake of the French There is also a need felt by a settler revolution. The United Irishmen, a society community to find a justification for its that went from strength to strength in existence and its history. This justifica the 1790’s, numbered among its leaders tion usually finds expression as a racial many prominent middle-class Protestants rationale that belittles the status and capa from Belfast, men such as Wolfe Tone and bility of the despised native. Sectarianism Henry Joy MacCracken The Orange Order for the Protestants of Northern Ireland is arose at this time in order to protect the racialism in clerical garb. As Russel Stet- Protestant ascendancy, and thus the Crown ler remarks: 'If the setting were Algiers, and the established order, from the radic- rather than Belfast, the differences of cal movement. As E. P. Thompson notes skin color would lead us to identify rac with respect to the rebellion of the Uni ism as the core of the problem. But in ted Irishmen in 1798: ‘In the years be the Irish setting, religious affiliation, ra fore and after ’98, the Dissenters of Ul ther than skin color, has marked the so ster, the most industrialised province, cial identities of the two groups, colonis were not the most loyal but the most ers and colonised.’ (9) It is a racialism ‘‘Jacobinical” of the Irish; while it was that has produced stereotypes that closely only after the repression of the rebellion resemble racial stereotypes elsewhere. The that the antagonism between “Orangemen” Catholics are seen as shiftless, worthless and “Papists” was deliberately fostered by and incompetent; they are drunkards; they the Castle, as a means of maintaining are irresponsible and lazy. Professor Thomas power.’ (II) Wilson, a modern Ulster economist, openly proclaimed that Catholics ‘were made to The Ulster ruling class had its own parti feel inferior and to make matters worse cular reasons for fostering the sectarian they often were inferior, if only in those divide. On the one hand it was useful in personal qualities that make for success in preventing the evolution of a working competitive economic life.” (10) It is again class unity that might threaten their class redolent of a colonial situation that where rule, on the other hand, and more im as sectarianism for Protestants is manifested portantly, sectarianism was the mortar as slurs on the personal capabilities of the that held together the various blocks of Catholics, the latter reserve their chief the Unionist alliance By the latter decades hate for the institutions of colonial rule, of the nineteenth century it was clear that and are less concerned with attacks on the enthusiasm of Britain for remaining in Protestants as such. It is Stormont, the Ireland was very much on the wane The Orange Order, the Union Jack, and other first Home Rule Bill was introduced in concrete symbols of the colonial situation 1886. Unionism was the response of Pro that are vilifed by the Catholic communi testant Ulster to this situation and, as was ty. There are direct parallels with many seen, successfully welded together all classes African situations, where the Europeans in defence of a Protestant state tied to the attack the Africans as human beings, coin United Kingdom. Obviously the Ulster rul ing various abusive epithets with which to ing class needed the Protestant working describe them, while the Africans are more class to provide the mass basis for the concerned with attacking the institutions movement and for the armed rising that of colonial rule. In Northern Ireland we was threatened by Carson in 1912. In like find this familiar pattern of a racial ration manner working class support has been ale confronting a nationalist ideology. necessary for the threat of a ‘Protestant There is then a natural propensity to backlash,’ that has been less than delicate sectarianism in Northern Ireland given ly hinted at by successive leaders of North the nature of the colonial situation One ern Ireland, to retain its credibility. Thus, as long as the Ulster ruling class saw its from other colonial situations is that in future within the United Kingdom, it had Northern Ireland Protestant and Catholic a vested interest in encouraging sectarian live side by side, and are nominally equal ism and in emphasising the real threat citizens of the same state. posed by Catholics. For instance, in 1933, From the above account it can be seen during the depression, Sir Basil Brooke that sectarianism is a product of the class (later Viscount Brookeborough), a future relationships of a unique colonial situation. Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, en It means that Protestant workers suffer dorsed the Ulster Protestant League’s cam from a false consciousness that makes them paign against the employment of Catholics, see the Catholics as their main enemy, and remarking: ‘Many in the audience employ drives them into an alliance with the Prot Catholics, but I have not one about my estant landowner class and Protestant bour place. Catholics are out to destroy Ulster geoisie. At the same time the Catholic with all their might and power. They working class also possesses a false consci want to nullify the Protestant vote, take ousness. It is not class-consciousness, but a all they can out of Ulster and then see it form of nationalism interlarded with reli go to hell.’ (13) giosity and romantic idealism; a United Ire land is seen as providing the solution to all Moreover if the Protestants are seen as the problems that bedevil the Catholic com ‘home’ workers whose prosperity depends, munity, including bad housing and unem they are led to believe, on the continued ployment. No less than the Protestant false subjugation of the colonised, the Catho consciousness it mistakes the real enemy lics, then a further base of support for and abandons itself to the myths of a heri sectarianism is established. The situation tage of nationalism. This Catholic false is a common one. Workers in Britain consciousness results in a facile analysis were not concerned about the plight of that sees the situation in Northern Ireland the workers in the colonies in the days as the product of crude British imperialism of Empire, no more than they are con It is an analysis that leads to the notion cerned today about the fate of the that the presence of British troops and con Third World. It is a common feature of tinued unity with Britain are the chief, if imperialism that workers in the metropoli not only, problems. A United Ireland be tan countries are lulled into a right-wing comes the universal panacea. Indeed at its consciousness with respect to the colonies most simplistic this analysis suggests that or today the Third World, by the domi once the British presence is removed the nant capitalist ideology which convinces Protestants will recognise their essential Ir them that the benefits they enjoy depend ish identity and live at peace and amity on the continued exploitation of other with their Catholic neighbors. Such simple- parts of the world. Imperialism, as Lenin minded nationalism ignores two essential remarked, ‘makes it economically possi points. Firstly the British ruling class does ble to bribe the upper strata of the pro not, any longer, have any great interest in letariat, and thereby fosters, gives shape upholding the Protestant ascendancy, and to, and strengthens opportunism.’ (14) secondly the real problem remains the Pro The Northern Ireland situation can be testant community, which remains irredent seen in this light. Protestant workers ist and highly unlikely to be reconciled to have always enjoyed better land-tenure, any notion of an Irish state dominated by better job and better housing opportuni a Catholic majority. ties than Catholics, these advantages being It is noteworthy that in the vanguard of most frequently enjoyed through personal Catholic militancy is not the Official IRA contacts in the local Orange Lodge. Thus which holds to a Marxist line. They declar a basis for antagonism between Catholic ed a truce in early 1972 in the belief that and Protestant is this division between further bomb outrages would lead, not to ‘home’ and ‘colonial’ workers, and the con socialism, but to a sectarian civil war. It is viction of the Protestants that their prosp the Provisional IRA, which split with the erity, such as it is, depends on the contin Officials in 1969, that makes the running ued dominance of the Protestant ascendan in terms of bombings and confrontations cy. It is an attitude that has, as seen, been with the British army and the Protestants. fostered by the ruling class. The difference And the ‘Provos,’ as they are known, are

42 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW AUGUST 1973 hardly the bearers of an advanced ideology. lines of the old conflict between Catholic They seek a nationalist’s dream, a United nationalism and Protestant Unionism would Ireland, which for many of them would again be drawn. The expectations of one come complete with the paraphernalia of side in an era of change in Northern Ire entrenched Catholicism and other aspects land are automatically diametrically oppos of the Republic’s political and social sys ed to the expectations of the other tems that mark it out as a backward However the developing pattern of events state. In essence the Provisional IRA is a has effected some changes in the nature of species of Green Fascism lamentably called class interaction, changes that reflect the to life by the Orange Fascism of the Pro underlying contradictions. Firstly there has testants. been intra-class conflict within the Protest ant ruling class. For years the landowner NORTHERN IRELAND AND CONTEMP class have held sway with the acquiescence ORARY CAPITALISM of the industrial bourgeoisie. The Prime Ministers of Northern Ireland, Craig, Northern Ireland then is beset by all the Brooke, O’Neill, Chichester-Clark, all were contradictions that attend a colonial situa products of Ulster’s landowner elite. The tion, where the settlers receive support and downfall of Chichester-Clark’s government supply from the metropolitan country. But and the accession of Brian Faulkner to the situation is further complicated by the the Prime-Ministership in 1970 marked fact that another basic contradiction exists. the seizing of the reins of power by the Capitalism in Northern Ireland has for a industrial bourgeoisie, who were dissatis long time been out of step with the evolv fied with the course of events. It is now ing capitalism of Western Europe. It has true to say that the ruling class in North remained an old-style paternalist type of ern Ireland, led by the industrial bour capitalist social formation with a landown geoisie, simply want an end to the con er class governing with the acquiescence of flict. They are pragmatically willing to the industrial bourgeoisie. Anders Boserup, contemplate any measure, including the in a recent essay, has pointed to the con reunification of Ireland, if that is the way tradictions involved here: to re-establish their profit margins and ‘The underlying contradiction which man once again make the area safe for foreign ifests itself in the ongoing struggles is that and home investors. As Boserup notes, which opposes two incompatible social sys 'in Ulster today big business is on the tems: the Orange system which may be side of reform and moderation and, ulti conceived of as a paternalist or “clientist” mately, of reunification.’ (16) It is a po version of capitalist social formation, and sition that British capital would happily twentieth-century managerial capitalism.’ endorse, for there is no profit in North (15) ern Ireland. Indeed the economy of North Boserup perhaps does not ascribe enough ern Ireland subsists on grants from the importance to the contradictions inherent British exchequer. British capital would in the colonial situation, but he is correct be very pleased to be free of a political in pointing to the pressures created by an and financial embarrassment, while still, antiquated capitalist system having to come of course, being able to reap whatever be to terms with the managerial monopoly nefit there is to be had from the North capitalism of the rest of Europe. This con of Ireland as it already does from the tradiction, accentuating the contradictions South. It is precisely this point that Ca created by the unique colonial conditions tholic nationalism fails to understand. inevitably brought change. Given the pres sures created by the underlying contradict It is equally true that the ruling class in ions the Civil Rights movement of the late the Republic of Ireland has no interest in 1960’s was bound to trigger off an explos promoting Catholic nationalism. The IRA ive course of events. Moreover after years may be partially tolerated as a sop to of entrenched Protestant rule, after genera sections of the electorate, and to the Cer tions spanning the centuries in which the berus of Ireland’s revolutionary heritage, false consciousness of both communities but Irish reunification is not a serious pol had had time to mature, it was equally in icy of either of the two main parties, Fian evitable that once change occurred the na Fail and Fine Gael. The indigenous Irish capitalist class is chiefly interested in still sectarian, but it is a consciousness consolidating the economic gains it is mak that also partakes of a certain bitterness ing as Ireland modernises, and in getting towards the erstwhile leaders. the best possible deal from the new mem The point must also be made that in bership of the Common Market. The Irish terms of working class militancy and electorate, beguiled by the new prosperity Trade Unionism, the Protestant workers that is suddenly apparent in the Republic, are the most advanced in Ireland. Although is only nominally in support of the Catho a false consciousness has prevented them lics in the North. The election this year of from forming a class alliance with Cathol Liam Cosgrove and Fine Gael in place of ic workers, and has made them supportive Jack Lynch and Fianna Fail was a vote of the ruling class, nevertheless, somewhat for law and order, and in the last month incongruously, they have a history of or so the Irish army has become much strong Trade Unionism. This has meant stricter in its dealings with suspected mem that while no mass-based Social Democratic bers of the IRA. or Communist movement exists in Belfast, The failure of successive Unionist lead making it, as Boserup points out, unique ers to cope with a situation where terror among the industrial regions of Europe, and violence have continued to escalate nonetheless there has been Union militancy has also given rise to inter-class conflict and strikes. Belfast shipbuilding workers, within the Protestant Unionist alliance. who are antagonistic to the employment of Since 1969 the Protestant working class Catholics on the one hand, were, on the has become increasingly dissatisfied with other, in the forefront of the struggle for the abilities of their leaders. With the the eight-hour day in Britain. This genuine proroguement of Stormont and the im consciousness, its reformism apposite to the position of direct rule from Westminster present stage of capitalism in Ireland, in early 1972, followed by the concess holds out hope that new and meaningful ions granted by Secretary of State for class configurations could evolve with the Northern Ireland, William Whitelaw, (17) fragmentation of the old Unionist alliance. a sense of betrayal became evident. One effort, stemming from Protestant Speaking of the Protestant riots Boserup working class efforts to re-evaluate its re comments: lationships with the Catholic community, ‘But the eruptions of the Protestant has been an analysis put forward by a poor and their resistance to all reforms group called the Workers' Association, must also be understood in the context which held its first Annual General Meet of the social and moral isolation which ing in Belfast on 27th May 1972. One of had befallen these people. More than a its pamphlets is entitled ‘Why a Divided deliberate move to pressurise the authori Working Class?’ The Workers’ Association ties, the Protestant riots were the react takes a stand against Catholic nationalism, ion of despair of people who had been calling it ‘the Catholic nationalist Ansch let down and rejected by everyone and luss,’ but stands for minority rights for can find sympathy and identification no Catholic workers in a Northern state with where. Their Government, the Republic, in the United Kingdom. While opposing Britain and her Army, the BBC and the Catholic nationalism therefore the group is press, all betrayed them and all rejected equally opposed to discrimination in em them.’ (18) ployment, housing and the like. The core The result of this disillusionment has its doctrine is its ‘Two Nations’ theory, been that the Protestant working class that calls for the recognition of an Ulster have turned their backs on the Unionist Protestant nation which will remain in the leaders and have formed their own organi United Kingdom, standing alongside the sation. The Vanguard movement, the Irish Catholic nation. At the same time the Orange Cross, the Ulster Defence Associa Association stands for the ‘full recognition tion, the Loyalist Association of Workers and accordance of the democratic rights (LAW), are all essentially working class, of the Catholic minority in the Northern and all have sprung to prominence since Ireland/U.K. state, and of the Protestant the passing of Stormont. These working minority in the Southern Ireland state.’ class organisations are, of course, still in (19) ‘The Workers’ Association,’ declares thrall to a false consciousness, they are a member of its Belfast branch, ‘maintains unshackled the interest of Protestant and flict. If a way can be found where Ireland Catholic proletariat int the struggle for a as a whole, whatever the political bounda democratic settlement of the national con ries, can be drawn into the capitalist sys flict, based on the recognition of the two tem of Western Europe with the two work nations in Ireland. (20) Alan Carr, a mem ing class groups so disengaged, then there ber of the Coleraine branch, further notes would be a maturation of class conscious that ‘Northern Ireland possesses all the ness within each group. The absence of necessary ingredients for the development sectarian conflict would remove the spur of a working class political movement, but to the growth of false consciousness and that this potential has not been realised the pressures generated by the changing because the conflict between the two na social formations would encourage the tions in Ireland (and between the working growth of class-consciousness. It is assum classes of those two nations) has not yet ed, of course, that the capitalist ruling been resolved.’ (21) There are clear indica classes in Britain and Ireland no longer tions in all this that here is a nascent have any interest, for the reasons set class-consciousness, struggling to develop, out above, in promoting either sectarian and trying to come to terms with the ism or nationalism. Given such develop false consciousness and the sectarian divide ments then a time would come when the It would be foolish to place too much false consciousness of both communities faith in the Workers’ Association. It is not would be replaced by a genuine class-con a numerically significant body compared sciousness and class alliances between Ca to the more sectarian Ulster Defence As tholics and Protestants would be possible sociation or the Vanguard movement of Such a notion, at this point in time, William Craig. (Craig has drawn 15,000 seems overly optimistic, but it is the only plus to his rallies, while the UDA has realistic path towards socialism, and groups marched 10,000 men through the streets such as the Workers' Association show of Belfast), However the attempt to en that the possibility of moving away from gender a new consciousness that the Work the narrow confines of a false conscious ers’ Association represents is indicative of ness does exist. the changing face of the class struggle in The pattern of evolving social formations the Province, and must be welcomed. is a fact, it is the disengagement of the Whatever configurations of class struggle two communities from the present conflict become the pattern of the future it is that remains to be accomplished. The ugly apparent that the old Unionist alliance problem that also remains however is that has been broken. any disengagement is liable to be subseq uent to a bitter and bloody confrontation. SOCIALISM AND THE_ FUTURE OF The present situation does not hold out NORTHERN IRELAND much hope of avoiding such a confronta tion. The British government would seem To suggest that there is any likelihood to be trying to follow a similar pattern of socialism being established in Northern of decolonisation where extreme parties Ireland - or a United Ireland - in the near are in competition over what they regard future is to indulge in pure fancy. The pre as a fundamental issue. First you find, or sent struggle is bogged down in the famili create, a moderate, centre party, then you ar pattern of sectarian hatred and Orange hand over power and retreat hastily during and Green nationalism. The absence of a the contrived period of calm. When the genuine class-consciousness, and the pre country again gets out of hand you then dominance of false consciousness, precludes lament the inability of the natives to hand any possibility of socialism in the immedia le their own affairs. One possible candidate te future. Unless one adheres to the view for the centre party role in Northern Ire that socialism is a Phoenix that springs land is the Alliance party. This is a party from social conflagration, then one must that has been in existence for some time; see it as a long-term goal only. In the it is non-sectarian and claims wide support. short term, as Anders Boserup has suggest However there has been no election since ed, the best possible option is to find its formation to test that support, and it some way that will enable the two commu is chiefly run by members of the middle- nities to disengage from the present con class, many of them intellectuals, many

45 of them Catholics. In an electoral situation, the working class. Thus there is a chance where opinion would tend to follow sect for the maturation of a working class arian lines, then the party probably would consciousness in Northern Ireland; the not command the support it imagines. Ne possibility of a cessation of intra-class vertheless, given the latest British plans for conflict at least exists. But whether that a new Assembly for Northern Ireland to possibility will be realised without addi replace Stormont, elected on the basis of tional violence is a vexed and terrible proportional representation, they might question. find themselves, together with the North ern Ireland Labour Party, holding enough seats to act as a buffer between Protest POSTSCRIPT ant parties such as the Unionists and the Vanguard Unionists, and the Catholic So Since the above article was written two cial Democratic and Labour Party. The important events have occurred in Northern results of the local elections, due to be Ireland, the local councils elections of May held at the end of May, will tell us some 31st and the election of representatives to thing about party strengths. the new Northern Ireland Assembly at the British policy seems to be to keep North end of June. Generally speaking the results ern Ireland within the United Kingdom, for of these elections support the conclusions the time being at least, to appease the Pro drawn above. The splits within the old testants, while making concessions to the Unionist bloc were only too apparent. In Catholics, in an attempt to quell national the local elections eight different strains of ist fervor. In the event Britain has antago unionism competed for the Protestant vote. nised both sides. The object of the British In the Assembly election Brian Faulkner’s government is, as it always has been, to Official Unionists, as they are now called, paper over the cracks in Northern Ireland’s did not secure enough seats to re-establish crumbling political and social structure, their former hold on government. Faulk with a constitution or whatever is neces ner’s party won 26 seats in the 78-seat sary, and then to pull the troops out and Assembly, while unofficial (independent) declare a return to normality and a succes Unionists won 6 seats and the loyalist co sful conclusion to the whole operation. alition of Ian Paisley’s Democratic Union Ultimately the Protestants are correct in ists and William Craig’s Vanguard Union their suspicion that Britain desires the re ists won 17 seats. unification of Ireland and the shedding of The main Catholic party, Gerry Fitt's the problem of Ulster. To any student of Social Democratic and Labour Party, won British colonialism this comes as no sur 19 seats, and is interested in a power-shar prise. ing arrangement with the Protestant parties, It is difficult to be sanguine about the on the lines suggested by the British gov prospects for avoiding a continuing series ernment in their White Paper of October of violent conflicts in Northern Ireland. 1972, which contained the original propos Whatever happens with regard to the new als for the Assembly. However the Paisley/ Assembly, the border issue still remains Craig faction are opposed to any such no (22) and after four years of an undeclar tion, as they are opposed to the original ed civil war the strength of feeling in the White Paper. Meanwhile the Provisional IRA Province is great, and unlikely to abate boycotted the Assembly election and advis following a partial solution that strives to ed Catholic voters to spoil their ballot pa satisfy all and will probably satisfy none. pers. Predictably the performance of the The tragedy of Northern Ireland seems to moderate parties, the Alliance party and demand a violent denouement. One can the Northern Ireland Labour Party (an ex only be sanguine at all on the basis, as tension of the British Labour Party), did not argued in this paper, that the capitalist live up to their own expectations. The classes in Britain and Ireland no longer NILP won only a single seat in the new As have any interest in fostering the false sembly, while the Alliance party won 8, consciousness of sectarianism or that of insufficient for the party even to influence nationalism, and on the basis of the fact events in any coalition situation. that the old alliances have broken down, It does not augur well for peace in North promoting a search for new attitudes in ern Ireland that no adequate basis for a workable government has emerged from Ulster Protestant the anniversary of the the election. The British government, in the Battle of the Boyne is still the most im person of William Whitelaw, is anxiously portant date in the year. “King Billy” trying to get the two main pro-White Paper rides on triumphal arches every year as the parties, the Official Unionists and the Protestants reaffirm their victory over Pa SDLP, to work out a new basis for govern pacy and the Catholics. ment in the Province. But with the Paisley/ 6. There are approximately one million Craig coalition strongly represented in the Protestants and half a million Catholics. Assembly, and unwilling to cooperate with 7. Quoted in Rose, op. cit., p. 86. either the British government or the Cath 8. Ibid., p. 87. olic parties in any scheme of power-sharing, 9. Russell Stetler, ‘Northern Ireland: From and with the Provisional IRA unwilling to Civil Rights to Armed Struggle,’ Monthly accept the Assembly, only a very fragile Review, Vol. XXII, No 6, Nov 1970, p. kind of rule will be established at best. 13. Meanwhile the level of violence in North 10. Quoted in Rose, op. cit., p. 84. ern Ireland continues to escalate. A new 11. E P Thompson, The Making of the Protestant terrorist organisation, the Ulster English Working Class, (Penguin, Harmonds- Freedom Fighters, has emerged, joining the worth, 1968), pp. 470-71. Ulster Volunteer Force and extreme ele 12. The willingness of the Protestants to ments in the Ulster Defence Association fight to remain British, or rather to resist in a campaign of bombing and assassina decolonisation, has been manifest through tion. The savage methods of this new out the twentieth century. Just as Algerian force have prompted the Provisional IRA colons terrorised French cities with plastic to announce that they will no longer give explosive to remain French, so now Pro advance warning of bomb attacks. For testants waving Union Jacks attack British their own part the Provisional IRA have troops on the streets of Belfast. Just as announced that they will continue their Rhodesian Whites faced with the threat of campaign of violence until Britain is ready decolonisation declared UDI, so now we to negotiate on their terms. find William Craig of the Ulster Vanguard One is forced gloomily to conclude movement proposing a UDI for Ulster. that the possibility of a disengagement of 13. Quoted in Rose, op. cit., p. 95. the opposing working class forces in Nor 14. V. I. Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest thern Ireland from their fruitless and Stage of Capitalism, in Selected Works, bloody conflict without a major, violent Vol. 1, (Progress Pub., Moscow, 1967), confrontation seems as remote as ever. p. 758. 15. Anders Boserup, “Contradictions and Struggles in Northern Ireland,” in Social FOOTNOTES ist Register 1972, eds Ralph Miliband and John Saville, p. 170. 1. Peter Gibbon, “The Dialectic of Reli 16. Ibid., p. 179. gion and Class in Ulster,” New Left Re 17. For example the freeing of Catholic view, 55, May/June 1969. internees from the Long Kesh internment 2. vide, Richard Rose, Governing Without camp. Consensus, (Faber & Faber, London, 18. Boserup, op. cit., p. 178. 1971). 19. vide: ‘The Two Nations,’ Workers’ As 3. Conor Cruise O’Brien, ‘Holy War,’ sociation Bulletin (monthly) New York Review of Books, Nov. 6th, 20. Why a Divided Working Class?, Work 1969, p. 10. ers’ Association Pamphlet, (Belfast, Sept 4. It is noteworthy that the population of ember 1971), p. 10. Ireland at the first census in 1821 was 21. Ibid., p. 24. 6,081,000 people. In 1921 the population 22. The referendum held by Britain in was 4,228,000 people, a telling comment Northern Ireland to determine people’s ary, surely, on the ‘benevolence’ of the co views on the border issue was about as lonial regime. pointless and misleading as a referendum 5. It is perhaps difficult for Australians to can be. 99% of those voting elected to understand the immediacy of history for remain within the United Kingdom, but the people of Northern Ireland. For an the Catholic community abstained.