Capitalism creates poverty, racism and sectarianism: Unite to defend jobs and public services

By Eamonn McCann

The best way to counter right-wing politicians like Sammy Wilson and racist organisations like the BNP is to campaign for politics which bring people together on a basis which has nothing to do with the community or the country they come from.

When we link arms to fight together for a better future, the differences between us don’t matter.

As the recession bites, workers are more and more being treated like dirt. Since the beginning of August, Ulster Bank has announced 250 job losses across the North. Stream International has threatened the same number in Derry. BE Aerospace has shed 88 jobs in Co. Down. Belfast engineering firm Central Services has closed, with 50 jobs lost. These are just the most recent examples. And the jobs massacre seems set to continue.

At the same time, the housing crisis worsens. Only around a quarter of houses promised by the NI Housing Executive in 2000 have materialised. The collapse of the greed-fuelled construction sector has made the prospects even worse.

The public sector is under constant attack. Everywhere, community services are being cut back. The young and the elderly on some of the most deprived estates are being abandoned.

These are the conditions in which hatred can thrive. A glance at the areas where the ugliest recent incidents of racism and sectarianism have occurred makes the point.

Many decent people and organisations denounce and distance themselves from the hatred and violence. But what’s really needed is a grass-roots response which links opposition to sectarianism and racism to a fight against the conditions in which they thrive.

This means supporting every group of workers who stand up to bosses out to destroy jobs. It means opposing the repossession of homes by any means necessary and pushing for the takeover of houses left empty by recession-struck developers. It means young and old organising to fight for their rights.

It means giving no quarter to those who would try to justify or “understand” sectarian or racist attacks.

Working-class people are right to be angry at the way we are being treated. The best way of ensuring that anger is not directed against one another is organise so that it is directed against capitalism.

We need socialist leadership in our unions and communities. Otherwise, the way will be left open to sectarian and racist parties.