Fightback

There are storm clouds on the horizon for the economy in the North. While the recession took longer to bite than in the south this only reflects the weakness of capitalism and the predominance of public sector employment. There are now as many people who are economically inactive (26%) than work in “private industry”. But the crisis has now caught up with a vengeance and it is only going to get worse.

The North is in the firing line from the British Tory/ Liberal Democrat coalition who have said that planned spending cuts will fall most severely on those areas where there is a high density of public sector employment. This means the North of Ireland and the North East of England in particular. But the effect in the North where 70% of jobs are in the public sector is likely to be catastrophic.

The isolation of electoral politics in the north of Ireland from that in Britain meant that the general election campaign and result were of a very different nature to the campaign elsewhere. The sectarian divide once again raised its ugly head as the dominant factor in politics in the north.  Yet the result also highlighted discontent within the working class; Peter Robinson’s defeat in East Belfast demonstrated not just disgust at the actions of Peter and Iris Robinson but also with the expenses scandal and the degeneration of parliamentary politics.

The decline of the UUP vote echoed a strong anti-Tory sentiment from both sides of the sectarian divide which was only hardened by Cameron’s declaration that the north was to be a prime target for public sector cuts. This is even more alarming for the working class than in Britain, given the fact that over 70% of the north’s economy is reliant on public sector spending. Pro-Tory candidates lost three seats, whist Sylvia Hermon who resigned from the UUP stating she was “not a Tory” and stood as an independent gained an increase of 13% of the vote. Whilst she is hardly a pro-working class candidate her result demonstrates the mood of resentment towards the Tories. In Britain this sentiment led to the strengthening of the Labour vote in its traditional urban industrial heartlands.

This article which appears in the latest edition of the Red Plough; the Independent Republican Marxist email bulletin, answers a number of points raised by Liam O’Ruaric in a previous edition of the Red Plough. Gerry Ruddy takes up the points made in Liam’s article and in addition analyses the contemporary political situation in the north from a Marxist perspective. We consider that this is an extremely  useful contribution which clarifies many issues for Marxists in the north at the current time.