Post-mortem of the anti-migrant offensive and the response
31 August 2024
Racist graffiti in Belfast.
Ireland, north and south, and England have seen the emergence of a substantial anti-migrant right that has moved onto the streets and used substantial violence and intimidation. These movements have now fallen back, but they have not gone away.
So how do we assess the first skirmishes? Below a series of articles examine the different areas.
Rise
of racism in the Irish state
Belfast
anti-racist demonstrations
Racist
violence in England
The Dublin response was by far the weakest. An initial march of 50,000 melted away once the racists took to the streets and has no re-emerged.
In England a spontaneous movement developed in many areas and was able to face down the Fascists in direct confrontation. Ethnic minority communities were able to patrol local areas and exclude the mob.
Local activity in Belfast drowned out a mob which was not a new movement but a subsection of Loyalist paramilitarism.
These demonstrations and a gradual increase in state pressure led to the end of the riots, but it must be noted right away that political leaders conceded to the racists. In Dublin, in the run-up to elections, Garda turned a blind eye. In the aftermath they were deployed to stop the violence, but the government has stepped up attacks on migrants.
A similar pattern can be seen England. Starmer struck strictly to a law-and-order message and savage sentencing policy, but overall, he claims that Labour will push down migration more efficiently than the Tories.
In the North of Ireland, the non-functioning Executive issued a joint statement praising the police for one of the worst performances in a history of capitulation to loyalism and then produced a statement that nodded at the legitimate concerns of the mob.
The importance of trade unions cannot be overstated. Formal representation of a number of local unions transformed the Belfast demonstration.
In England unions played
a major part at the level of local branches and trades councils, but the
leaderships have made their peace with Starmer.
In Dublin ICTU handed over
responsibility to the state after a short lunchtime demonstration and have
been invisible since.
The biggest opposition to the rioters in England came from the left, demoralised by the Starmer government but still able to mobilise.
In Belfast the left acted as a glue bringing together unions, NGOs, migrant groups, political parties and activists, but the alliance ended with the major demonstration and will go no further in confronting loyalism.
In Dublin the same strategy collapsed with the union leaders’ partnership with Government and the retreat of the NGOs, leaving the left isolated.
Finally, the political base of the resistance is too narrow. It concentrates on the right rather than on the central role of the state and calls for humanitarian response rather than identifying the racism as cover for a more general attack on the working class.
Following these skirmishes the right can only grow. The counter response must be a more general mobilisation based on the defence of the working class as a whole.