Statement by the CC of Workers Party Youth on 15/06/26
Serious disorder and violence against migrants in Northern Ireland erupted this week following the sharing of footage of a knife attack in North Belfast Monday 9 June. The victim of the attack has been left with serious injuries including the loss of an eye. The attacker appeared in court on Wednesday charged with attempted murder.
The riots that ensued engulfed the city in terror for all inhabitants, but particularly for its targets: migrant workers and their families. Cars, public transport, and homes were set alight across the two worst nights of disorder. Several migrant workers and their families in Northern Ireland are now homeless following the targeting and destruction of their homes by roving groups. Others continue to leave their children with neighbours or friends for fear that they are next.
The idea that the decline in living standards for the working class in Northern Ireland is because of inward migration is deeply insidious propaganda, spread by the ruling class and now being dressed up as the will of the working class. Capitalism continuously strives to limit the provision of social services necessary for the reproduction of the working class and a decrease in living standards as a consequence. The position of the working class in Northern Ireland has been on a downward trend since long before the current wave of mass displacement, which began around 2015. Repetition of Malthusian ideas about overpopulation cannot and do not explain the real origin of such crises and only fuels further illusion of reformism while also planting the seeds of the politics of extreme hate and fascism among the most vulnerable sections of the working class. The linking of the actions of an individual as representative of an entire group is also dishonest and is done to manipulate the feelings of fear and anger which is a natural reaction to such incredible acts of violence.
The Ulster movement is largely responsible for the rioting and racially motivated attacks which have taken place since Monday. The Ulster movement is one of the most stalwart supporters of British imperialism and contains bigotry which Lenin likened to that of the black hundreds, the pro-monarchist and nationalist groups that carried out pogroms against Jews and revolutionaries in Tsarist Russia.1 This violence directly serves the interests of British capital, and particularly the faction of the bourgeoisie which seeks to spread false narratives about migrants in order to develop popular support for its own imperialist ambitions. The overlap between supporters of the Ulster movement and Reform UK is particularly significant. 50% TUV/DUP voters stated they would support Reform UK if they were to run in assembly elections in Northern Ireland. The stoking of hostilities towards ethnic minorities and nationalist sentiment is also directly linked to the war preparations of the United Kingdom and other capitalist countries. The obfuscation of class antagonisms and identification with one’s own oppressor in a national context is a necessary development to ensure popular support for imperialist intervention and war.
The consequences of such actions have a direct and negative effect on the struggle for socialism. Riots and criminal actions are used as a pretext to introduce intensified and invasive surveillance and to empower law enforcement. These developments have particularly negative effects for revolutionaries and the labour movement in general. Increased state power signifies an attack on the whole working class under the pretext of ensuring law and order. All the while, doing very little to tackle the root cause of criminality which in many cases is rooted in poverty. This serves to further weaken the collective power of the working class at a time when the labour movement is already severely damaged and disoriented. It also discourages migrants, who are often the most exploited layer of the working class, from taking part in the class struggle for fear of repercussions. As a result, the working class remains divided and has no course of action to challenge the increasing reactionary developments of the capitalist system that deprives workers of the essentials upon which a good life can be built.
Many so-called Communist and Worker’s parties are also guilty of fuelling illusions that migration policy can be anything other than a tool of the rulers while the capitalist system remains intact. Even on the theoretical level, concessions to reaction and xenophobic arguments have dire consequences and must be met with resistance. Victims of imperialist intervention and war deserve our solidarity and also have a role to play in the class struggle. Racial hatred and division is a weapon against the workers movement, the juxtaposition between native and migrant workers is completely opposed to proletarian internationalism and pits the working class against itself much to the delight of the rulers. The entire working class has a shared interest; the struggle against capital, against exploitation and barbarism.The source of workers’ misery does not have a national or ethnic origin but lies with the capitalist class and its system of exploitation.
- Lenin, V. I. 1914. Home Rules for Ireland and the Ulster Crisis ↩︎