Fortnight Publications Ltd.

Cry from the Heart of a Protestant SocialistAuthor(s): Mark LanghammerSource: Fortnight, No. 218 (Apr. 29 - May 12, 1985), pp. 15-16Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25550399 .

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^ ^ ^ lB PERSONAL ANGLE

CRY FROM THE HEART OF

A PROTESTANT SOCIALIST Mark Langhammer

PERSONAL

ANGLE PROUD TO be British? Proud to be loyal to the Crown? What is the reality of the

'marginal privilege' or 'labour aristocracy' which supposedly retains Northern Ire

land Protestants' allegiance to the Crown

and the Union? The results of a benefits 'take-up' cam

paign conducted in over 600 houses in the Rathcoole estate in Newtownabbey by the local Self Help Group last year might con vince you. Almost 70% of households were in receipt of state benefits, with those

in work largely on very low incomes. Prob

lems related to this endemic level of un

employment, such as debt, domestic vio

lence, marital breakdown, rape, alcohol

ism, solvent abuse and vandalism, have all

become apparent to a greater degree than

before. Rathcoole is not an isolated exam

ple of a run-down Protestant community. Look at the Shankill, Glencairn, High field, Sandy Row, Donegall Road or East

Belfast and you'll find a similar picture. Clearly the interests of people in these areas are not well served by allegiance to

this particular system of government.

Probably then, Protestant support for Unionism is based in a defence of 'civil and

religious liberties'. Or is it? In the last ten

years alone valuable social legislation such

as the Matrimonial Homes Act, the Abor tion Act, the Sexual Offences Act, the

Divorce Reform Act, the Children and

Young Persons Act, the Housing Finance Act, the Domestic Violence and Matri monial Proceedings Act and the Homeless Persons Act have been either delayed, cut to ribbons, or not introduced at all in Nor thern Ireland.

Why is it, then, that working-class Prot

estants back the political interests of polit icians, most of whose aims are diametric

ally opposed to their own? It is only relatively recently that the

monolithic facade of Protestant unity has been broken, revealing a profound social

disunity. This unity was broken for all the

wrong reasons, largely because Captain Terence O'Neill, for sound capitalistic reasons, went soft on Catholics, and not

for any reason of Protestant discontent

over social and economic conditions.

Then, and to a great extent still, a chal

lenge to the state and its institutions is

interpreted, for a variety of reasons, as

support for a united Ireland with a very similar state structure. 'You'll never get

your "broo" down there,' they say (not

withstanding the fact that every Unionist MP at Westminster voted against the pro vision of the 'broo' in 1948).

Any increased consciousness on social

issues has been quickly isolated and dis

couraged - the Self Help Group in which I

work has met virulent mistrust, suspicion and political opposition from all shades of unionism. The constitutional issue is con

sistently used by Unionists to mystify the real issues. Instead of questioning the fun damental roots of capitalism in the North, the South and in Britain, Protestants are

encouraged to compete for supposedly scarce resources within the system

- thus

we have sectarianism.

While a deep-seated mistrust of Britain is commonplace in Protestant areas, what

is not adequately understood is the British role in working against the interests of the

working class, both Protestant and Catho

lic. The six-county state was set up prim

arily to protect British interests in the in dustrialised North of Ireland. The need to foster growing British interests in the South eventually made extreme loyalism redundant and embarrassing

- the very

same loyalism which had initially been used to further British interests. British interest in Ireland is now retained to pro tect economic and strategic interests and

not least to use the North as a testing ground for repressive technology aimed at

what Mrs Thatcher calls 'the enemy with

in' Britain itself. Within this context un ionism only has value to Britain when it reflects the interests of those dominant in Britain.

Here the territorial question becomes

largely irrelevant, as better conditions for Protestants will not be realised by a simple all-Ireland solution, or by throwing our lot

in with a red-tinged but ultimately sectar

ian republicanism, particularly when that

'revolutionary' movement has not serious

ly questioned or come to terms with its own power base. It will be done by the establishment of socialism throughout both islands.

This can be helped by attacks from with in Protestant communities on the institut

ions of the state, attacks which also dis

tance themselves from the theocratic and

even less attractive proposition of South

ern capitalism. The handing of power to

politicians who can no longer even patron ise Protestants with a slum house and a

lowly-paid job (which are a house and a

job nonetheless) may in time wilt. The unsatisfactory representation that

Protestants receive may be seen when we

get across the message that a change in

territory is not what we propose. For

instance, Rev Ian Paisley, in his pre-Euro election whistle-stop in Rathcoole last

year, trooped twice round the estate to

gather a small crowd to whom he delived a

piece of rhetoric stunning in its simplicity. He firstly congratulated the band on play

ing 'good Protestant music', then praised the small crowd on the fact of their being Protestant, before finishing with 'Vote

Paisley No. 1'. And that was it! For this he received a sizeable contribution of Rath coole votes towards his plane ticket to Brussels.

This type of representation, though clearly inadequate, and often seen as such, still seems to suffice. The alternatives have

continued overleaf

RIGHT LOUIE) '

APPOINT'IN4 YOU MY' ELECTION AGENT Ai0I YOUR FIRST TASK IS T GA1rIEg THE WORLPS PRESS ro6MRH..

Fortnight 29th April 1985 15

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LETTERS

Sir, I read with interest your special edition on

Londonderry. SDLP leader John Hume was

allowed a very prominent article; a local journ alist with the nationalist Deny Journal did a

preview of the local government elections with

a totally nationalist outlook; Martin McGuin

ness of Sinn Fein was given an article, as was

Nell McCafferty, another article from another

nationalist.

All in all one could have assumed from your

magazine that there are no Protestants what ever in Londonderry. I am sure Fortnight would

be one of the first to complain that the trouble

in Northern Ireland was that Unionists did not

take enough notice of the substantial Roman

Catholic minority which existed here since the

state's inception. It is perhaps ironic therefore

that your magazine should commit exactly the

same 'crime' only on a much greater scale.

The Protestant people are here to stay in

Londonderry, Fortnight articles notwith

standing. Yours, etc.,

GREGORY CAMPBELL, Northern Ireland Assembly,

Stormont, Belfast 4.

Sir,

Following Seosamh Watson's article on 'The

Belfast Protestant heroes of the Irish language

struggle', some of your readers have been writ

ing with enquiries about the current schedule of

activities planned by Oideas Gael (of which Dr

Watson is co-founder). I would like to advise that this summer's pro

gramme in South-West Donegal has been ar

ranged for the period July 20 - August 5, and

includes folklore, crafts, concerts, guest speak ers, Irish language classes, dancing and histor

ical outings, as well as music, song and storytell

ing workshops. It is anticipated that people of

very many backgrounds and various national

ities will participate this year again.

Copies of the programme may be obtained

post free from The Secretary, OIDEAS

GAEL, Glencolmcille, Co. Donegal. Yours, etc.,

L. 6 CUINNEAGAIN, (Secretary),

Oideas Gael, Glencolmcille.

Sir,

Perhaps the biggest problem facing Ethiopia ., is the fact that Americans like W.B.S. Butler think 'there's not a damn thing you can do'

except money and... (Letters, 1st April). Dear W.B.S. Butler, we who live in the rich

half of the world, we are the problem. Do you not realise it is we who are cutting down the

equatorial forests in Africa, so exacerbating the

drought? Do you not realise it is we who are

importing cash crops from third world count

ries, so exacerbating the famine? And do you not realise that the greatest obscenity of the age is the fact that while the scourge of hunger so

savagely strikes the poor, we in the north waste millions and millions of human and other re

sources, on bombs and the likes star wars?

Indeed, war and the preparations for war are

probably the biggest cause of poverty and fam ine and hunger and disease in Africa and else

where. And do you not remember that in the 1960s USA supported Emperor Haile Selassie

against socialist Somalia which was supported by Russia, until a coup deposed the old Lion of Judah and Ethiopia went Marxist and so the

USA and the USSR swopped sides and you both continued to support that damnable proxy war?

The world is one. We are all members of the human family. For us to say, 'there's not a

damn thing we can do' is for the hand to ignore the gangrene in the foot.

W.B.S. Butler pointed out, no doubt in sup port of his arguments, that he is 'recently re

turned from Africa'. Perhaps then I should add a few small words: so am I.

Yours, etc., PETER EMERSON,

Rhubarb Cottage, 36 Ballysillan Road,

Belfast 14. P.S. I attended that lecture of Professor Prit

chard's, and was appalled by his lack of com

passion and environmental awareness.

A Protestant Socialist continued from page 15

not been spelt out. A rediscovery of real

interests depends on the humane few gett

ing more and more counter-information

across. Our actions and information must

link up to actual needs, and the need to

dismantle the structures which stand in the

way of progess. There has been some, if

very limited, progress. The very existence

of our own group and the existence of a

very few progressives within groups such

as the UDA and even the DUP bear test

imony to that.

continued from page 12

mistakes, but we have provided the means

to rectify them through the review pro cedure. This too is largely myth. When the child has been defined as a failure this definition itself becomes a powerful self

fulfilling prophecy. Children in the main

accept the examiner's view of them and

will begin to act in ways consistent with this: if you call a child a failure he/she will

prove you right. That is one reason why so

few transfer later on in their school careers.

The great so-called public schools of

England were established to prove this

point. They were non-selective, and told

their children they were leaders. The chil dren became leaders and still become leaders and the schools are still non

selective, except in terms of wealth. They do not accept the necessity for an Eleven

Plus examination.

This brings us to our final point. The

system of selection does not simply fly in the face of natural justice, it is also basic

ally cynical. The safety-valve in Northern

Ireland is not the review procedure but the existence of fee-paying pupils at grammar schools. Most grammar schools in North

ern Ireland are thus biased against those children whose parents are too poor to

take advantage of fee-paying places: that

is, precisely the children with very little

going for them. For those who are able to

take such advantage, the grammar school

is in reality a comprehensive school. Given

the flaws in the selection procedure, no

case can be made for denying parents this

right. We would, however, like to see this fact

recognised and the comprehensive system made available to all and not simply to the

already privileged. This is not the place to discuss the social, psychological, econ

omic and educational benefits of compre hensive education, but even on narrow

academic grounds it is worth noting that in

1982 28% of school leavers in Northern Ireland left school with no graded result

(at GCE or CSE level). The proportion of

teenagers leaving school in England with

out a graded result was under 11%. The

time surely has come to rethink our prior ities in education.

For further details contact the NORTHERN IRELAND ABORTION 1 LAW REFORM ASSOCIATION, P.O.Box 151, Belfast BT9 6FT 16 Fortnight 29th April 1985

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