Protestant and Catholic Unite and Fight

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday June 10, 2002 14:47 by Dan Buckley - SWP dan_buckley_1917 at hotmail dot com

Stop the bigots

Over the last few months it has been extremely difficult not to notice the sickening attacks different people in different parts of Belfast. It came to the notice of the vast majority of people with the UFF backed “demonstrations” against schoolgirls walking to school.
When the postal worker Daniel McColgan was shot dead by the UFF, under the guise of the Red Hand Defenders, postal workers across the north stopped work and went on strike for several days. The bureaucracy of the ICTU in the north was forced because of the pressure from below to call the first ever general strike against sectarianism.
This united working class action put the bigots on the run, the UDA was even forced to discipline some of its north Belfast brigades, the RHD cover name was disbanded to try and appease workers demands.
This type of action is needed again and before another person is murdered. But this action has to also reflect the concern over issues that matter.
Look at the postal workers again, privatisation looms and attacks by management are continuous.
Last week following the entry of loyalist gunmen into a college, where both catholic and protestant students were threatened, the NUS/USI condemned the attack, words are by far not enough.
Now the NUS/USI should tackle the issue head on by joining together with the lecturers and other staff at the college and with bus drivers and other workers who are facing attacks.
The demonstrations following Daniel McColgans murder were a magnificent show of unity in the face of bigotry, lets follow it through and smash sectarianism and smash privatisation and taking on the real issues.