The Socialist (July 06) - North: Union and community action needed to stop racist attacks

Racist attacks inc-reased by 15% in the North last year according to the latest PSNI figures. A total of 936 racist incidents, ranging from assault to pipe bombs and arson attacks, were reported. It is widely believed however that many more cases are not reported to the police, making this a conservative figure.

Since these statistics were released, a spate of racist attacks have occurred across Northern Ireland. Over one weekend in June alone, six attacks on migrant workers were reported. Lithuanian workers were burnt out of their home in Castledawson, Co. Derry.

In Cloughy Co. Down, three female migrant workers were beaten by five masked men wielding baseball bats when they broke into their home during the night. A group of Polish and Czech workers were lucky not to have been burnt to death in Carrickfergus after their oil tank was set ablaze at the rear of their house. While in Lisburn, a Latvian man was viciously beaten by two men with baseball bats.

BNP links

Many of the attacks are being carried out by sections of loyalist paramilitaries who have a history of close links with far-right groups based in Britain such as the BNP. But there have also been attacks against migrant workers and asylum-seekers in Catholic areas.

The underlying reasons for the increase in racism in the North is the decline of industry, lack of jobs and affordable housing, greater economic insecurity and the lack of a political alternative for working class people. In order to cut across the rise of racism, it is necessary to develop a programme which fights against the poverty conditions gives rise to racism.

For example, housing prices have soared in the North over the last few years. The latest figures, say on average house prices, are increasing by £600 a week. Landlords and property speculators are making huge profits and driving house prices beyond the reach of many working class people. At the same time, migrant workers are being used as cheap labour and housed in appalling conditions. In many working class areas, particularly in inner city areas, landlords are buying up property to let out to migrant workers.

Meanwhile, local residents who have grown-up in the area can no longer afford to stay in the community. This can lead to resentment against “foreigners” taking homes from local people. Socialists and anti-racism campaigners must link the fight against racist attacks with the fight for decent affordable housing for all, to best mobilise local communities against the racist thugs.

While there has been an increase in the reporting of attacks to the PSNI, there have been few convictions for race hate crimes. A report commissioned by the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities has labelled the Northern Ireland criminal justice system as “institutionally racist”. Robert McVeigh, a researcher who was commissioned to write the report, claimed there was “unambiguous evidence of institutional racism right across the criminal justice system”.

Yet many organisations that have spoken out against racist attacks, like the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities, rely solely on the state and the criminal justice system to act against racism. Likewise, many of the NGO's rely on the sectarian right wing political parties to take a lead in combating racism. These parties are responsible for implementing anti-working class policies such as cuts in education, agreeing to introduce water charges, and privatising public services. These policies create ripe conditions for the rise of racism.

It is estimated that over 40,000 migrant workers are now based in Northern Ireland. Most of these come from the new EU countries, the majority coming from Poland. Many thousands more are believed to be working in the black market. Bosses are using these workers as a source of cheap labour with which they can undermine the wages of other workers and drive down wages overall. The threat of Dungannon Meats to sack workers and replace them with cheaper agency workers is an example of how the bosses are attempting use migrant workers to increase profits.

A working class alternative needed

The trade union movement faces the responsibility of organising migrant workers and fighting for decent wages and conditions for all, so the bosses are unable to get away with undercutting wages. At the same time, the trade union movement together with genuine community groups, socialists and anti-racist groups must unite communities, migrant workers and ethnic minorities in opposition to racist attacks.

Such an approach could seriously undermine the racists who seek to scapegoat ethnic minorities for the ills of society. It would also raise the need for an independent political voice for working class people against the neo-liberal policies of the right-wing parties. But this approach runs completely in the opposite direction to which the majority of trade union leaders are facing today. Instead of seeking to build a new party which represents the needs of the working class, they continue to stand aside and lobby the sectarian parties. As long as the conditions of poverty prevail, racism will too.

A struggle for a socialist society which unites working people of all ethnic, national and religious backgrounds would lay the basis for the abolition of racist division and the class division which creates it.