See the discussion HERE
After nearly two years of political paralysis, the Northern Ireland Assembly met on Saturday February 3rd . The Democratic Unionist Party (a communal Protestant party) finally ended its boycott and agreed to return to the power-sharing Executive. For the first time ever, Sinn Fein – a party representing voters from the Catholic community – is now the largest single party, and holds the key position of First Minister. However, the problems facing ordinary working people – falling wages and disintegrating public services – have not gone away. The contradictions inherent in the workings of the Good Friday/Belfast agreement remain. The Assembly and the Executive have only functioned for 60% of the time since it was signed in 1998, and devolved government has only been in place for two years in the last seven. Future disputes, boycotts, and collapses are inevitable. Competition between the sectarian blocs, and within these sectarian blocs, will continue until a new united mass party of the working class emerges. The wave of strike action over the last 18 months, culminating in the magnificent one-day general public-sector strike on January 18th , has demonstrated the power of the workers’ movement. Working class people are united in their trade unions, but they have no political voice. The struggle for a mass anti-sectarian left political party must be the central objective of all serious activists in the period ahead. Ciaran Mulholland, a long-time socialist activist in Ireland, explained recent events and pointed the way forward for the workers’ movement in 2024.