Goodbye to the loyalist 'socialist' gangsters

In the last issue of  Socialist Democracy we warned that the loyalist groups, hailed as the socialist voice of working-class Protestants, were falling through the cracks of the peace process.  In the months since then the UDP, the voice of the UDA, has dissolved while the PUP has been in the front line in the sectarian intimidation of Catholic Schoolchildren.  It had also emerged that the UVF were behind some of the most vicious armed actions on recent times, including the sectarian murder of a Catholic teenager and attempted mass murder with a car-bomb in Ballycastle.  We await, without holding our breath, for those on the left and within republicanism who promoted these gangsters to explain how they came to adopt such a clearly criminal policy.