Our Loyalism Must be Anti-Racist

Opinion Piece by Caroline

Northern Ireland has a problem with racism. Between June 2018 and June 2019 1,095 racist incidents were recorded and racist incidents have now overtaken sectarian incidents. The problem is so bad Belfast has been described as the race hate capital of Europe. 

The majority of reported racist incidents have taken place in areas that are majority working class and Loyalist. This is partly because recent migrants tend to live in working class, predominantly loyalist areas due to the availability of cheap rentals in low quality, aging properties that make up most of the housing stock in these areas. It is also partly due to a bias in reporting behaviours as people from newly arrived communities may be wary of reporting an incident to the police if they live in a republican area. 

Attempts to intimidate migrants from engaging with the police have been evidenced. For example a republican ‘West Belfast Welcome Pack’ warned people that the PSNI, ‘has no support. You should avoid calling them into the area’.  There is a perception that racism is only a Loyalist problem but NICEM Director Patrick Yu has described this as a ‘dangerous mistake’ and Seán Byers of Trademark has said racism ‘is a wider issue, not reducible to solely a loyalist problem’. Racism is a blight present in all NI society and we as Loyalists must play our part in routing it out of our community. 

Loyalists have been consistently engaged in anti-racist activity over the past 20 years.

• 2003 following a spate of racist attacks in South Belfast the PUP and UPRG announced an initiative aimed at ending the attacks. The UPRG leader stated ‘we will make sure [racists] are ostracized within the Loyalist Community’.
• 2003 PUP organized an anti-racist conference in Ballymena. 
• 2003 Billy McCaughey of the PUP lead a door to door campaign against the presence of the Far Right in Ballymena.
• PUP in the Monkstown area organized a weekend residential on anti-racism for local community activists.
• 2004 Following attacks on people from the Chinese community then PUP leader David Ervine said ‘we can’t stand on the same ground as those who are avowed racists’.
• UDA/UPRG members responded to racist attacks in the South and East Belfast areas by standing guard outside the targeted houses for successive nights.
• 2004 many Loyalist groups are part of the South Belfast Roundtable on Racism.
• 2005 the Loyalist Commission launched a new anit-racist poster and leaflet campaign. The new campaign was supported by both the PUP and UPRG who said in a joint statement ‘racism has no part in [our] tradition, heritage or faith’. 
• BNP leader Nick Griffin was put out of the Steeple Estate by the PUP in 2012.
• The BNP was told by organisers of the 2014 UVF Larne Gunrunning commemoration that they were not welcome and the BNP was prevented from attending. 
• Charter NI host an annual anti-racism seven aside football festival.

During the Troubles some individual Loyalists and Loyalist subgroups did have links with far-right groups. Jonny Adair for example had links to the National Front and Billy Wright’s LVF had links with Combat 18 but organisational and ideological links between far-right groups and Loyalism have been overstated. during the Troubles and into the post GFA period the UVF, UDA and their political wings produced a rich seam of radical political thought that was at ideological odds with the views of the British far-right and in contrast to the unproductive thinking of ethnonationalists.  We need to be aware of our own radically progressive history and interrogate who benefits from racist incidents in our community so we can more effectively stamp out racism and also protect Loyalist young people from grooming and radicalization by hate groups such as Britain First. 

In a report for Trademark Dr Robbie McVeigh states ‘although immigration is emphatically not the cause of racism, the interaction between relatively rapid immigration, neoliberalism and Europe-wide austerity programmes generates obvious social and economic pressures which in turn creates the space for those looking to identify scapegoats’. By offering up vulnerable immigrants as the cause of the housing crisis, the waiting list crisis in the NHS and the gutting of the benefits system politicians and media outlets protect the true cause of these issues, Privitisation Capitalism. 

American author Ibram X Kendi defines a racist as ‘one who is supporting a racist policy through their actions or inactions or expressing a racist idea’. He defines anti-racism as ‘one who is supporting an anti-racist policy through their actions or expressing an anti-racist idea’. Anti-racism is about action, its not enough to simply say ‘I’m not racist’. As Loyalist women there are many anti-racist actions we can take, some are easy, some are hard but all are essential.

• Don’t vote for political parties or individual candidates who are not committed to anti-racism.
• If you hear a colleague, friend or family member express support for a racist policy, party or idea challenge them. This does not have to be confrontational, but it does have to be done. 
• Look at the educational material your child is given. If it does not promote anti-racism raise this with the principal or Board of Governors.
• Support a people first immigration policy. As Loyalists many of us are descended from people who fled oppression, poverty and religious intolerance. It is a Loyalist action to support those in the same situation today. 
• Support the campaign to close Larne House Detention Centre. The only detention centre in NI, it does not have separate facilities for women meaning many women spend almost all the time in their cell as they don’t feel safe in the mixed communal areas. 
• Understand racism in a UK context so you are better equipped to challenge it. Some ideas to get you started include Akala’s Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race and Angela Saini’s Superior.

As Loyalist women we believe the Union must provide material wellbeing and Equal Citizenship for all who call these islands home. As such we are committed to anti-racism. In Northern Ireland’s centenary year we must redouble our efforts. 

Sources

Racism and Racist Attitudes in Northern Ireland, Dr Robbie McVeigh, Trademark, 2015

Loyalists hit out at racist attacks, BBC, 2003

Campaign bids to combat loyalist racism, The Irish Times, 2005

Youth group aims to combat racism, The Irish Examiner, 2004

Loyalists linked to 90% of race crime, The Guardian, 2006

6 ways to be anti-racist because being ‘not racist’ isn’t enough, Rebecca Ruiz, Mashable, 2020

Progressive Unionist Party Rebuttal of the First Report of the International Monitoring Commission, The Blanket: A Journal of Protest and Dissent, 2004

New report paints bleak picture of city’s race problem, Tiarnán Ó Muilleoir, Belfast Media, 2015

PUP campaigns to drive racists out of Ballymena, Henry McDonald, The Guardian, 2003