Socialists and Sectarianism

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday July 01, 2002 16:13 by John McAnulty - Socialist Democracy socialistdemocracyie at lycos dot co dot uk PO Box 40, Belfast

Article on the reaction of socialists to the recent sectarian violence in Belfast.

All I tell you – ALL! Socialists and sectarianism

A depressing element of the current round of sectarian conflicts in the North is the willingness of the political parties and trade union organisations to go along with the sectarian logic of the situation. This is true even of the socialist organisations whom, one would expect, would be the most fervent opponents of sectarianism.

A good example is a recent statement by the youth wing of the Socialist Party. They have a well-worn formula, which they produce on these occasions, of opposing ALL sectarianism.

This sounds fine until we ask what it means in the context of an organised campaign of sectarian intimidation by the UDA and UVF. A moment’s reflection will tell us that the general “ALL” formula from the Socialist Party is a way of avoiding a specific opposition to the organisers of sectarianism in front of their nose. Worse than this, if they refuse to identify a source of sectarianism the socialists are in reality blaming the working class as a whole for sectarianism!

To be fair to the Socialist Party, they immediately excuse the working class by saying that economic deprivation drives workers to attack other workers of a different religion. They even, in their most recent statement, call for greater social spending so that sectarian apartheid in housing can be preserved in East Belfast!

Of course, if we follow the logic of this position to its conclusion it follows immediately that socialism is impossible and that sectarianism, communalism and racialism are the inevitable outcome of human nature. The Socialist Party, and many others on the left, seem to prefer this conclusion to a simple reality that the sectarian division of working people is imposed by the deliberate and organised activity of Loyalist gangs and that there is overwhelming evidence that behind these gangs lies the British state which largely created them and to this day colludes with and conciliates sectarian reaction.

The good news is that the sectarian division of the working class is not inevitable. The bad news is that you have to defeat loyalism and imperialism in order to end it.

A principled position by the Socialist Party would be a big step forward.