[Marxism] addition to Paul LeBlancs tribute

[David Walsh <davidrail68@xxxxxxxxx>]

Paul forgot to mention one other key struggle that helped to radicalize so many 
youth in his excellent tribute to Steffie Brooks. The Irish Civil Rights 
movement. It helped Irish-American kids, like me, at that time to make some 
important connections to Black Liberation and then even broader issues.     
Northern Ireland is a European country which has witnessed violence over many 
decades mainly because of sectarian tensions between the Catholic and 
Protestant community.

 

Bloody Sunday (1972) memorial mural
The Civil Rights struggle in Northern Ireland can be traced to women in 
Dungannon who those are some to fight for better housing for the members of the 
Catholic community. This domestic issue would not have led to a fight for Civil 
Rights if the policies of Northern Ireland did not make being a registered 
householder the qualification for the local government franchise. Thus these 
women were not only challenging what they saw as unfair housing policies, they 
were also taking the first steps toward fighting for Civil Rights for their 
community. Using various means to defend and improve the conditions for their 
communities, these women were in fact preparing a large part of the Catholic 
population to move beyond local and domestic issue and to embrace the larger 
purpose of the Civil Rights battle. This substantial contribution made by women 
is often erased from the general history of Northern Ireland primarily because 
this country still has a Protestant
 majority and a conservative culture who often overlook the role of women in 
the political sphere. [1].
On a more broad based and organized front, in January 1964, the Campaign for 
Social Justice (CSJ) was launched officially in Belfast. This organization took 
over the woman's struggle over better housing and committed itself to end the 
discrimination in employment. The CSJ promised the Catholic community that 
their cries would be heard. They challenged the government, promising that they 
would take their case to the Commission for Human Rights in Strasbourg and to 
the United Nations[2].
Having started with basic domestic issues, the Civil Rights struggle in 
Northern Ireland escalated to a full scale movement who found its embodiment in 
the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. NICRA campaigned in the late 
sixties and early seventies, consciously modeled itself on the civil rights 
movement in the United States. Empowered by what African-Americans were doing, 
the movement took on marches and protest to demand better conditions for the 
minority of Catholics who lived in the Protestant state. Republican leader 
Gerry Adams explained that Catholics -courtesy of television- saw that it was 
possible for them to have their demands heard. He wrote that "we were able to 
see an example of the fact that you didn't just have to take it, you could 
fight back"[3].
NICRA originally had five main demands:

one man, one vote 
an end to discrimination in housing 
an end to discrimination in local government 
an end to the gerrymandering of district boundaries, which limited the effect 
of Catholic voting 
the disbandment of the B-Specials, an entirely Protestant Police reserve, 
perceived as sectarian. 
All of these specific demands were aimed at an ultimate goal that had been the 
one of women at the very beginning :the end to discrimination towards the 
Catholics.
Civil rights activists all around Northern Ireland soon launched a campaign of 
civil disobedience. There was obviously widespread opposition from Protestant 
extremists (or Loyalists), who were aided by the Royal Ulster Constabulary 
(RUC), Northern Ireland's Police Force. At this point, the RUC was over 90% 
Protestant in its make-up. Violence escalated, resulting in the rise of the 
Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) from the Catholic community, a 
reminiscent group from the War of Independence and the Civil War that occurred 
in the 1920s - this group launched a campaign of violence to end British 
government presence in Northern Ireland. The British government responded with 
a policy of internment without trial of suspected IRA members. For more than 
three hundred people, the internment lasted several years. The huge majority of 
those interned by the British forces were Catholic. Protestant Loyalist 
paramilitaries had begun murdering dozens of
 Catholics, but were largely ignored by the British forces. In 1978, in a case 
brought by the government of the Republic of Ireland against the government of 
the United Kingdom, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the 
interrogation techniques approved for use by the British army on internees in 
1971 amounted to "inhuman and degrading" treatment.
Although it is common knowledge that for a time the aims of the Republicans - 
and their military division, the IRA - and those of NICRA converged, the two 
bodies never merged. The IRA told the Republicans to join in the Civil Rights 
movement but it never controlled NICRA has Unionists often portrayed. The 
Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association fought for the end of discrimination 
toward Catholics and it was happy to do so within the British state [4].
One of the most important event in the era of Civil Rights in Northern Ireland 
took place in Derry, it was an event that changed the peaceful movement who 
used civil disobedience into an armed conflict. The Battle of the Bogside 
started on 12 August when an Apprentice Boys parade - a Protestant order - 
passed through Waterloo Place, where a large crowd was gathered at the mouth of 
William Street, on the edge of the Bogside. Different account described the 
first outbreak of violence either as an attack by youths from the Bogside on 
the RUC or as an outbreak of fighting between Protestants ans Catholics. In 
either way, the violence escalated in the neighborhood called the Bogside, 
where barricades were erected. Proclaiming this distrinct to be the Free Derry, 
Bogsiders carry on fights with the RUC for days using stones and petrol bombs. 
The government finally withdraw the RUC and instead sent the army to disbend 
the crowds of Catholics who were barricated
 in the Bogside [5].
Bloody Sunday in Derry is seen as a turning point in the Civil Rights movement. 
On this day, the Catholics were trying a peaceful way of resolving the problem. 
But they were ignored and fights broke out.Fourteen Catholic Civil rights 
marchers protesting against internment were shot dead by the British army and 
many were left wounded on the streets.
The peace process has made significant gains in recent years. Through open 
dialogue from all parties, a lasting ceasefire from all paramilitary groups 
seems to be lasting. A relatively strong economy and more opportunities for all 
citizens has improved Northern Ireland's standard of living. Civil rights 
issues have become far less of a concern for many Catholics in Northern Ireland 
over the past twenty years as laws and policies protecting their rights and 
forms of affirmative action have been implemented for all government offices 
and many private businesses. Tensions still exist in some corners of the 
province, but the vast majority of citizens are no longer affected by the 
violence that once paralyzed the province.


 


      
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