Sectarian clashes in Glasgow: What should socialists say?
Socialist Party Scotland statement
August and early September 2019 saw some serious sectarian incidents in Glasgow. Following these clashes the SNP-led council banned a number of marches over the weekend of the 14/15 September. A majority of those parades refused permission were Orange Order and Loyalist parades but one Republican event was also banned.
In response around 2,000 Loyalist sympathisers were mobilised into George Square, Glasgow on Saturday 14 September to protest the bans. The following weekend a number of parades went ahead without serious incidents. However, the situation is still uneasy and for Glasgow the scale of these clashes mark an unusual situation. So what position should socialists and the workers’ movement generally take on issues like parades that have the potential to lead to deepening sectarian division?
It’s important not to overstate the numbers involved in parades. The overwhelming majority of parades – around 90% of them – are organised by the Orange Order. This year so far there have been 180 Loyalist processions in Glasgow. Up to the end of September there had been 16 Republican marches. The vast majority of the parades have small numbers of participants, often less than 100 people.
The Orange Order is widely seen as a reactionary, right-wing organisation that socialists obviously give no political support to whatsoever. At the same time the political approaches of some of the Republican marches are often sectarian in character. Neither have widespread support never mind significant participation among the working class in Glasgow.
Reflecting this and not surprisingly a large majority of workers and young people in opinion polls and surveys in Scotland favour the banning of what are often seen as a sectarian blight. Moreover, parades are seen as a source of increasing conflict and contributing to division.
While understandable, we do not support a blanket ban on either Loyalist or Republican parades. In fact the large Loyalist mobilisation into George Square to protest the bans and to defend the right to parade on 14th September underlined the mistaken approach of the council. An outright ban has the potential to allow the Orange Order and Loyalist groups to gain wider support, even among those who would never have taken part in an Orange parade previously. The same applies to Republican events.
However, the conduct and behaviour of marchers and those who are supporting them is an issue. Proper stewarding by the organisations involved is essential, an agreement by all participants to not engage in sectarian abuse or any form of physical confrontation is also crucial. For example, the incident in 2018 when a Catholic priest at St Alphonsus Church in the Calton was spat on and abused following an Orange parade caused real and justified anger.
Nevertheless we do not support the approach of organisations like Call It Out – a campaign against “anti-Catholic bigotry and anti-Irish racism in Scotland” – who have produced material and banners last year saying there should be no “anti-Catholic marches passed Catholic churches”. This is at least strongly hinting that Orange parades should not be able to march on routes and main roads that contain Catholic churches.
What we are in favour of is genuine negotiation and compromise between parade organisers and the communities affected, including conduct if passing sensitive places of worship.
Some of the most serious clashes this year involved Loyalists protesting at Republican marches in Glasgow. The Govan march for “Irish Unity” at the end of August organised by the James Connolly Republican Flute Band saw a large counter protest by Loyalists and significant clashes did take place between protesters and the police in particular.
A week later two further Republican marches that passed through some of the streets in the city centre were also targeted by Loyalist protests. Again the numbers on the parades were not huge, 100 and 300 respectively. In the run-up to one of these marches the organisers released a public statement that commented: “Saoradh [a political front organisation of the New IRA. The New IRA admitted to the killing of journalist Lyra McKee in Derry earlier this year] and the Friends of Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association in Scotland re-commit ourselves to taking to the streets of Glasgow in support of Republican objectives and Republican Prisoners. The fightback begins next Saturday, September 7, at the IRPWA Anti Internment March…..it is imperative that all Republicans attend and show loyalists that Glasgow is our city and they will not dictate where we go and when.”
The following weekend the council banned five marches and the George Square protest by Loyalists was organised. At that event banners were made that accused the SNP-led council of having blood on its hands and of allowing the IRA to march on the streets of Glasgow.
Working class city
The reported statement from the Republican organisers of one of the marches that “Glasgow is our city” is of course wrong and it is sectarian. No less sectarian than some of the statements and actions from bigoted Loyalist organisations. Glasgow is the city of the working class; Catholic and Protestant and of many other faiths and none.
It is the city of the Equal Pay victory of 2018 which saw the working class united in mass struggle for pay justice. The same working-class unity will be key as postal workers prepare for a national strike to take on a vicious union-busting employer. It is that unity in struggle led by the mass workers’ organisations – the trade unions – that is essential to cut across sectarian division. It is vital that the trade union movement puts forward a clear policy in opposition to all forms of sectarianism from wherever it stems from.
In Northern Ireland, too, the trade union movement has the potential to play a leading role to undermine and defeat sectarian division. Recent industrial action by thousands of Protestant and Catholic workers organised by NIPSA, the main public sector union, and also Harland and Wolff workers successfully occupying the shipyard to defend jobs and communities, is a testimony to that.
The trade union movement must base itself on the principle of offering a united response to any attempts to divide the working class. Yes there is the right to march and parade, but the right of the working class to stand united in opposition to all forms of division is paramount. Conflicts over parades, their routes, frequency, stewarding and conduct of participants, including who takes part in and accompanies parades, should be agreed through negotiation and compromise where necessary.
The trade union movement in Glasgow is uniquely placed to play a central role in such a process and above all in ensuring the danger of sectarian polarisation is cut across. It cannot simply rely on the police to “keep both sides apart”.
Political roots
These recent clashes, albeit limited, of recent weeks has its roots in the sectarian division in Northern Ireland which continues to have its echoes in parts of Scotland. The failures of the peace process, increased sectarian polarisation following both the 2014 independence referendum (with Republicans generally being in favour of Scottish independence and Loyalists opposed) and the Brexit vote (a majority of Catholics voted Remain in Northern Ireland and majority of Protestants voted Leave) have all contributed.
Additionally, the increased likelihood of a second indyref and demands for a border poll in Ireland are also further increasing the sectarian tensions in the North. As we have pointed out previously, the feeling among protestants in Northern Ireland is that their position is now more insecure than at any time since partition, that the union with Britain is under threat and a united Ireland more of a possibility. All of this has played a certain role in the recent weeks in Glasgow over the parades.
At the same time Catholics resent and are suspicious of the advantages the DUP gained from supporting the Tory government. Many Catholics fear that Brexit will take away what they believe is some sort of EU ‘buffer’ to British rule and lead to a ‘hard border’, underlining the division of the island and opening the way to renewed conflict.
Clearly the sectarian polarisation in Northern Ireland is far greater than anything experienced in Scotland. Unlike in Scotland the two communities are deeply divided in NI, including being largely separated through living in primarily Catholic and Protestant areas. It’s in the workplaces and the trade unions that the basis for unity and common struggle exist. Socialist policies also form the basis on which a class unity can be built that can overcome sectarian divisions by a fight back against capitalism and austerity.
Socialists and trade unionists should support a united working class struggle against all forms of austerity, bigotry and sectarianism. We defend the democratic right of self-determination for Scotland – for an independent socialist Scotland that forms a free and voluntary socialist confederation with England, Wales and Ireland.
We stand united with our comrades in Ireland, north and south who have a long and unique record of fighting for workers’ unity, against all forms of sectarianism, discrimination and state oppression. For a socialist Ireland and democratic rights for all and no coercion for any community on the basis of socialism. We fight for the building a mass workers’ party on socialist policies that can lead the struggle for a socialist solution to capitalist oppression.
