Ireland: the cause of labour? among Protestant men. Catholics are under- represented in engineering, utilities, bank- ing, finance and business and have an un- healthy over-dependence on the construction ment for Catholics is one and a half times that of their Protestant counterparts. Although these statistics suggest a better deal for women than men, they in fact obscure the double oppression experienced by Catholic As a result, the low participation rates of Among women, the ratio of unemploy- women in the province due to strong reli- gious and social influences are overlooked; the low numbers of women returning to the labour force after completing a family are industry. women. main focus of Irish solidarity work Committee on Ireland trade union on employment discrimination in in the next year. Here, ALISON campaigning around the general issue must be raised in the trade A major trade union conference the six counties is being held in election, this conference is the department, explains why the IRELAND CLARKE of the Labour November. Along with have been published in a variety of docu- century, when the south was the centre of trially backward and revolutionary part of mination on a sectarian basis in the north ments, ranging from those produced by gov- The division of the working class in Ire- land is not new. It was being cultivated by the British as far back as the early eighteenth the country. By the end of that century, this order of ascendancy was in FACTUAL ACCOUNTS of employment discri- industrial capitalism and Ulster the indus- with a more dominant north and As in Britain, the rise of industrial capital- ism went hand in hand with the growth of the ernment agencies to republican newspapers. backward south. though, reverse
despite the progressive convergence of ignored; the relative immobility of women in terms of looking for work is marginalised as a factor in women's employment experience. And the reluctance of women to register as unemployed is missed. This is to say nothing of the types of industries in which women predominantly find work and the part-time, against the Catholic community in the six counties has endured - and is getting worse, not better educational achievement between the two communities, and despite the passage of the Fair Employment legislation through Parlia- And yet the issue is not discussed by the low paid, low status work open to them. Employment discrimination ment 11 years ago. union movement. of Ireland at that time. Divisions began to early craft unions which, in Belfast, were essentially Protestant organisations. They were beginning to reflect the class structure emerge on a craft and religious basis: Prote- stant and more skilled; Catholic and less skilled. Despite this early start, the trade union movement in the six counties did not There are currently about 300,000 union members in the north of Ireland, of whom 80-90 per cent are in unions which are affiliated to the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), but have their headquarters in Bri- tain. (The NIC was set up in 1944 to deal specifically with problems relating to the win official recognition until 1964. north).
provides an opportunity to hear the views of British trade union movement which do- minates the scene in the north of Ireland. It is the Protestants, as a small minority in British trade unions, who dictate to the majority membership what the policies of our unions even what topics are fit for But equal opportunities are the proper concern of our trade union movement. It is the job of the unions to combat discrimina- tion of any variety - be it sexual, racial or 'Ireland: The Cause of Labour?' confe- rence is an opportunity to find out the facts cuss policy implications for the unions. It about employment discrimination and dis- Irish trade unionists and the response will be and discussion. religious. /Reflex The union structure in Ireland is not, of the unions operate only in the north and are affiliated to the TUC. Others operate both in the north and the south. There are a few with membership in the north which are not affiliated to either the ICTU or the TUC. To add to the confusion, a few have their head- quarters in the twenty-six counties, have members in the north but are not affiliated to the ICTU. There is no bar on British-based unions being affiliated to both the TUC and Despite this organisational complexity, one element is dominant: the role of the Their record there has not been a proud British trade unions in the six counties. Some straightforward. however, the ICTU.
Lenin Peace Prize holder, and the patron of The conference will hear differing views on including an exposition of the MacBride Principles, a set of nine equal opportunity guidelines, by Dr Sean MacBride, Nobel and ognised trade union bodies in Ireland and • The conference will be held on 28 November It will be open to delegates from rec- Britain at branch, district and national level. 1987 at the Camden Centre, Bidborough Street, London NWI. Further information may be ob- tained by writing to Treland: The Cause of La- Socialist Outlook No 1 May/June 1987 bour?, BM Box 5355, London WCIN 3XX. how to combat discriminatory British trade unionists to them. this conference. sectarian to the Protestant majority in the what they mean is that they adhere to the They covet these labels on the pretext that to do otherwise would split the membership Nor is it any wonder that they adopt this line, given the way the employment scales are tipped in favour of their majority mem- bership. The level of unemployment among Catholic men is two and a half times that unionism and Unionism, the sectarian When the unions claim to be non-sectarian organisations, what they mean is, non- north. When they claim to be non-political, accepted status quo, ie that of the Unionists. along sectarian lines. organisations, combination one. It has, in short, been one of very selective activity, having found little to say about civil rights, internment, Bloody Sun- day, violations of human rights or sectarian- Yet the trade unions claim to be 'the most ing all sections of religious and political tions'). That being the case, why has this united band of 300,000 not yet achieved The answer is that the NIC and ICTU are sent some 300,000 people but they are a representative body in the province, embrac- opinion' (in the NIC's 'ICTU: Role and Func- anything of significance in the six counties. deluding themselves. They may well repre- people who have been historically and cul- ism in the workplace. turally divided. 116
Algiers offers vivid proof The recent Palestinian National Congress in military and political that twenty years of Palestinian woman
pressure from imperialism, failed to crush the fighting nationalist regimes have spirit of the Palestinian Zionism, and Arab
Marking the anniversary articles on issues of Middle of the watershed 'Six Day presents two extended War', Socialist Outlook people.
the combined fight against JOHN TURKIE looks at draws a historical balance ANNA WAGSTAFFE struggle since 1967; and sheet of the Palestinian both Zionism and anti-Semitism. East politics. Twenty years since the six-day war