Socialist Party leaflet ICTU Rally 31 Jan 2014 Belfast

SECTARIAN POLITICIANS CANNOT DELIVER TRADE UNIONS MUST BACK A NEW MASS PARTY TO UNITE WORKING CLASS

For united mass action against their austerity & sectarianism The failure of the Haass talks hasn't surprised many. Since the Assembly Executive was restored, the constant bickering and downright sectarian clashes between the parties has dashed whatever hopes ordinary people had that they can deliver a real peaceful future.

While agreeing at the top to maintain 'power-sharing', the main parties and the political process have led to increased sectarian division on the ground. From flags, emblems, parades, commemorations, to achieving justice from victims and getting to the truth of the past, the politicians in Stormont have stoked up sectarian tensions and are responsible for sustained and severe clashes on the streets.

The flags dispute illustrates the poisonous role of the sectarian parties. Feeling under pressure from the growth in support for 'dissident' republicans, Sinn Fein (supported by the SDLP) used the issue of the Union flag at Belfast City Hall to enhance their republican credentials after failing to deliver actual change in

Catholic working class communities.

The role of the DUP and other unionists in whipping up sectarian tension resulted in thousands of people from the most deprived Protestant working class communities, angry at the failure of the unionist parties to deliver for their communities, to take to the streets. The deep anger which has been building over years in Protestant working class areas has revealed how much the main parties and the official 'peace' process has failed working class communities.

Anti-peace process republicans and sections of loyalist paramilitary groups have grown as a consequence of the sectarian role of the main parties at Stormont. While the vast majority of working class people are completely opposed to a return to sectarian violence and conflict, sectarian forces will continue to grow unless the trade union movement takes steps towards offering a real alternative which unites working class communities to fight for their common interests which are dominant.

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The main parties have a vested interest in maintaining sectarian division. If the working class was not divided along religious lines, these parties would not exist.

They also consciously provoke sectarian tensions and fears in order to deflect attention from the horrendous austerity they are jointly implementing along with the Tory-LibDem government.

There is a massive political vaccuum – when it comes to elections there is not a mass party to represent the united interests of ordinary people which determinedly opposes the right-wing social and economic agenda of the Assembly Executive. Instead of pleading with right-wing, sectarian political parties to 'sort it out' and come to an agreement on contentious issues, the trade union movement (alongside socialists, genuine community groups, anti-cuts campaigns and the tens of thousands of suffering young people) needs to expose the sectarian role of the main parties and argue for the need for a new mass political alternative. In order to do so it is vital that the trade union movement does not lean towards one sectarian camp or another but takes an independent class position.

The failure of the Assembly to create jobs, decent public services, to tackle sectarianism, racism, homophobia and sexism etc. has disillusioned the majority of working class people in all the parties. Unless a real, credible alternative is built – based in working class communities and workplaces – then sectarian forces on the extremes will at some stage fill that vaccuum, bringing with it the threat of violence and repression.

There is huge potential to build a united movement of workers. Pay, conditions, public services and living standards are being hammered at a time when the wealthy are seeing increased profits. The trade union movement must launch a determined and energetic campaign of industrial action – with support built in communities – to fight the austerity of the Assembly, linking up with workers across Britain and the South who are fighting the same issues.

The potential of united workers action to defeat austerity and the rightwing, capitalist agenda of the political establishment would be a powerful demonstration of the need to fight sectarianism in all it's forms and show how a new society, based on solidarity and equality can be achieved. The need for a mass campaign to fight austerity and a real anti-sectarian working class political alternative needs to be the focus of the trade union movement, not sowing illusions in sectarian parties.

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The Socialist Party unites workers and young people, Catholic & Protestant, to campaign in the interests of ordinary people. Our members are active within the trade unions, in the workplaces, communities and amongst young people, fighting against attacks on jobs, conditions and the austerity of the Assembly Executive. We stand for the development of working class politics which unites ordinary people against sectarianism - in both communities - and the failure of the capitalist system to deliver decent living standards and a future for young people.

We are organised throughout Ireland and work closely with our sister parties in Scotland, England & Wales. In the South our TD Joe Higgins and MEP Paul Murphy alongside the Anti-Austerity Alliance building resistance to austerity. We stand for an end to the anarchy of capitalism and it’s replaceent with a democratic socialist society where poeple and the environment’s needs coe before profits of the greedy few.

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