Niall Mulholland, Committee for a Workers International
The city of Belfast has been rocked by racist violence against ethnic minorities. The vast majority of working-class people in the north are appalled by these events. Many older people in Northern Ireland will have shuddered at the scenes which are reminiscent of the widespread sectarian violence of the past.
Yet there has been a courageous and significant pushback last week by community organisations and anti-racist groups and, most importantly, by the organised working-class movement through the trade unions.
A workers’ anti-racist lunchtime rally was held on Friday 12 June outside the Royal Victoria Hospital, west Belfast, initiated by the largest union in the north, the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (NIPSA), involving workers from several unions. The health service in Northern Ireland is dependent on immigrant workers. Last week, unions reported nurses having to run from gangs outside hospitals. And other workers were targeted. A bus driver, a union member, was ordered off his bus by racist assailants.
Anti-racist demonstration
On Saturday 13 June, thousands gathered outside Belfast City Hall to condemn the racist street violence and targeting of ethnic minorities over the previous few days. Another anti-racist demonstration was held in Derry city, initiated by the local trade union council. NIPSA general secretary, Carmel Gates, speaking from the Belfast podium on behalf of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, warned the far right that the organised labour movement will come down hard on attempts to cause division in society. As Carmel pointed out, Northern Ireland has gone through decades of bitter sectarian divisions and killings and will not allow itself to be dragged back into wider conflict by the actions of far-right organisations, and by racist mobs and their billionaire backers.
Another platform speaker at City Hall, Padraig Mulholland, Deputy General Secretary of NIPSA, and a Militant Left supporter, recalled how the organised workers’ movement had acted against sectarian outrages in the past. He asked for a show of support from the crowds to support NIPSA’s approach to ICTU that should the racist attacks against union members continue, “we will shut down this place”. Clenched fists and raised hands went up from the thousands of protesters.
Earlier in the week, a brutal knife attack in North Belfast was filmed and shown widely. The alleged assailant comes from a Sudanese background, and the victim was a local man, Stephen Ogilvie. He was probably saved by the actions of passers-by who tackled the attacker, including Maitiu Mág Tighearnán who fought off the attacker with a hurl. Despite Stephen Ogilvie’s family and Maitiu Mág Tighearnán calling for calm and not to allow the horrendous attack to be used to incite violent disturbances, the video was quickly seized upon by racists, and far-right and populist-right politicians. Some local politicians and sectarian pundits and so-called community leaders also whipped up anti-immigrant sentiments. Newly minted trillionaire Elon Musk also fanned the flames of racist violence in Belfast through his social media posts.
Far-right social media calls were made for people to go to the streets. For two days, gangs of youths, clad in black clothing and masks, roamed the streets of parts of Belfast, bringing terror to working-class and immigrant communities. Houses of immigrants were stormed and set alight. Immigrant families had to flee for their lives. Children of immigrants were too fearful to go to school. Road ‘checkpoints’ were set up by racist gangs to try and identify ethnic minorities. Local people born in Northern Ireland were also caught up in this indiscriminate carnage and some lost their homes.
At the same time, many people in working-class communities contacted terrorised immigrants living in their areas, offering to give them refuge and to bring them food. Workers offered to bring immigrant fellow workers to work in their cars to try and minimise the danger of attacks.
Although the numbers involved in the racist rioting were relatively small, especially compared to the riots of the past during the height of the conflict in the north (euphemistically known as ‘the Troubles’), the terrorising led to Belfast’s commercial city centre shutting down early during workdays. Many people commuted from work early, and many other people did not leave their homes at all. This is reminiscent of the worst years of the Troubles, when sectarian tensions, state repression, and the grisly actions of sectarian death gangs led to Belfast city centre becoming a ghost town.
Many people are questioning the role of the Police Service for Northern Ireland (PSNI), given that a monitoring group called The Accountability Project Northern Ireland warned the police over several months that far-right networks were circulating lists of addresses of migrant homes. The group even sent a copy of the so called ‘hit list’ to police in January 2026.
These only underline, once again, that immigrants and refugees, and working-class people in general, cannot rely on the state forces to protect them against racists and the far right, let alone sectarian attacks. Only working-class solidarity and action can defend working-class communities and cut across the actions of the far right.
As Carmel Gates stated from the podium at the Belfast city centre rally on Saturday 13 June, successive government policies have starved working-class communities of essential funding and resources and helped to create the conditions for the emergence of the far right. People in Northern Ireland have had enough of decades of sectarian divisions, she added, and do not want racism and racist divisions layered on top.
Racist street violence can also quickly morph into sectarian clashes, engulfing wider parts of society. As the north enters the summer ‘marching season’, sectarian tensions will grow.
Unite the working class
The way to effectively fight racism and the far right is to unite the working class and impoverished communities around common demands for decent and affordable social housing available for all, for a living wage, for jobs for young people and real opportunities in education and training with full trade union rights and decent pay. The National Health Service in the north needs massive investment – it is creaking and has the highest queues across the whole of the NHS. Wages are lower in Northern Ireland than Britain. Poverty is endemic in many areas.
The boast of the establishment parties and capitalist governments that oversaw the Good Friday Agreement, that it would bring peace and stability, and prosperity, has proven to be a fraud. The Stormont power-sharing assembly is based on sectarian headcounts and is regularly paralysed by sectarian-based parties’ manoeuvring. The Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin have passed on Westminster cuts to local working-class communities for years.
The right-wing billionaire-owned mass media also is culpable for the racist violence we have seen in the streets of Belfast. Along with right-wing politicians, they have whipped up anti-immigrant rhetoric, attempting to lay the blame for the ills of society at the feet of a small minority.
What is desperately needed in Northern Ireland and other parts of these islands facing the rise of the far right and racism is a political vehicle for the working class and impoverished that can successfully counter their appeal, and against local right-wing parties. The Northern Ireland political landscape is dominated by sectarian-based parties that thrive on divisions in society. The working class needs a socialist voice rooted in the communities that can bring together people based on their common struggle and common misery under capitalism and put forward policies to cut across the racists and the populist right and the sectarian-based parties.
Trade unionists respond to the recent racist violence
Watch Carmel Gates, General Secretary of NIPSA and a Militant Left (CWI Ireland) supporter, and Padraig Mulholland, Assistant General Secretary of NIPSA also a Militant Left supporter, respond to the recent wave of racist and anti-immigrant violence and pogroms in Belfast. In these two videos, they reflect both the shock felt across communities and the determined, collective pushback led by the organised working class.
Speaking to a demonstration thousands-strong outside Belfast City Hall last Saturday, Carmel Gates addresses the rally on behalf of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, underlining the trade union movement’s clear opposition to racism and division. Carmel and Padraig highlight how trade unions and community organisations have mobilised in defence of migrant workers and ethnic minorities. Drawing on Northern Ireland’s history, they said that racism, sectarianism, and far-right intimidation will be met with trade union and working-class unity, organisation, and action, and will not be allowed to drag society backwards.
