North of Ireland: On the Racist attacks in Belfast

We share the revulsion of the hundreds of Belfast workers who demonstrated on the Lisburn Road against these racist attacks in Belgravia Avenue and Wellesley Avenue over the last week. We applaud the efforts of those workers who gathered together and offered their moral and practical support to the Roma people who were forced from their homes by the fascist thugs using the name of Combat 18 – the British fascist terror group.

Fascism and racism prey on the most disenfranchised and downtrodden layers of society, attempting to divert the attention of the youth from the real enemy, the capitalist system, which can offer the youth of South Belfast little other than unemployment or poverty wages, drugs and sectarianism.

Racism only serves to divide the working class, setting worker against worker on the basis of the colour of their skin, nationality or religion. We fight for the maximum unity of the working class in the face of the real enemy, the one, which brought us the banking crisis and the economic slump, rising unemployment and house repossessions, in other words the Capitalist system. Racism and fascism offer no way out for working class youth, just another blind alley, but a dangerous one that needs to be fought by the Labour movement.

We are concerned that the response of the PSNI was merely to remove the Roma families from the scene. This isn’t the first set of attacks in the area and this tactic ultimately means that unless the roots of the problem are dealt with then the next set of poor migrant workers who end up in the Village will face the same problems.

Racism and fascism are a threat to all workers, catholic or protestant. Just as unemployment or low wages, poor housing, cuts in jobs and services affect all of us. We need to fight Racism and fascism just as hard as we would fight to defend our families from the threats of redundancies or pay cuts. The occupation of the Visteon plant and the 2006 postal worker’s dispute show how workers can unite and fight together. It’s not the first example of workers unity and it won’t be the last.

• End racist attacks
• For workers unity to fight the fascists
• Fight for a real future; for real jobs and training for young people

Source: Fightback - Journal of the International Marxist Tendency in Ireland