Racist Attacks In Portadown
Claims that racist attacks have increased markedly in the Portadown area in the past two months are ignoring a longer-term and systematic campaign against members of migrant communities in the area and in other parts of the Six Counties.
Media reports are focussing in on the fact that at least 15 such attacks have occurred in the unionist Killicomaine area of the town since the beginning of this year, resulting in at least two families having to flee from their homes. Little attention, however, has been drawn to the fact that they are the latest in a long line of racist attacks and incidents in the Portadown area and elsewhere dating back over a number years.
Unionist paramilitaries within Portadown, with its infamous reputation as a hard-line unionist town, have had an on-off relationship with fascist groups in Britain over the last three decades. Groups such as Combat 18, the BNP and the White Nationalist Party have all made links in the Portadown area. Leaflets and posters of hate have been circulated by these fascist groupings in unionist areas on many occasions.
But racism is not the sole preserve of unionist paramilitaries. In 2003, a row erupted over unionist opposition to the erection of the North’s first purpose-built mosque just outside Portadown. Although the small muslim community in the area were looking to build the £200,000 (260,000 euro) mosque through their own funding, unionist councillors voted to delay building, claiming local residents would be kept awake by the noise of worshippers and the call to prayer.
Ulster Unionist Party councillor Fred Crowe also claimed that encouraging muslims to settle in the area might open the door for "militants", while another councillor went further – suggesting that the mosque could be used by Al-Qaeda cells. Such was the intensity of previous attacks against foreign nationals in the Portadown area that, in 2004, the president of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, released a statement condemning racist attacks on Filipino nurses living in the town and directed her Foreign Affairs secretary Delia Albert to protest to the British government regarding the incidents.
Very tellingly, in November last year, in a case largely ignored by the media, the High Court in Belfast was told that racist attacks have become a major problem in Portadown. The claim was made by a lawyer opposing the bail application of a man accused of trying to force a Portuguese national to leave his home in the town’s Thomas Street by smashing the front door with a sledge hammer and then breaking the windows of his car.
Prosecuting lawyer Charles McKay stated, “This is an example of a major intimidation problem in Portadown."
The most recent spate of attacks is, therefore, clearly not without precedent. However, only a small number of cases grab the media's attention. Physical assaults, verbal abuse and discrimination against ethnic minorities are now a frequent occurrence in various parts of the Six Counties and abuse and discrimination are not confined to the actions of those carrying out the physical racist attacks.
Attempts are being made to scapegoat and lay blame with members of the incoming communities for the crises facing public services, saying that they are responsible for the lack of housing and jobs.
This is simply untrue. Public services were already in a calamitous condition as a result of British policy in the Six Counties long before migrant workers and their families began to come to the North in significant numbers. Ethnic minorities still remain only a small percentage of the population.
In fact, it is the failed policies of successive British governments and of the current partitionist administration at Stormont that are responsible for the situation facing working people of all backgrounds today. Far from directing investment into the health and education services, the Stormont administration is slowly privatising them for the benefit of profit-hungry businesses through Private Finance Initiative schemes – a point continuously flagged up during the classroom assistants’ pay dispute and similar cases.
The health service in the Six Counties is increasingly dependent upon workers from other countries, particularly nurses, as the derisory pay and employment conditions deter many people from entering into the profession.
The current dearth of social housing provision in the North has its roots in the Thatcher era and the major investment needed to provide and secure decent jobs with decent wages remains as far away as ever. Indeed, many of the migrant workers and their families are housed within the private rental sector where unscrupulous landlords take full advantage of the workers’ by charging exorbitant rents.
Many of those workers who live in such private rented accommodation are further disadvantaged by the fact that, if their home was supplied by their employer, then leaving that job, or being sacked for complaining about pay and conditions, also means finding a new home.
Many businesses, employment agencies, and unscrupulous individuals are exploiting migrant workers who come here seeking a better life for themselves and their families, using them as a source of cheap labour to make huge profits and force down wages.
The lengthy dispute in 2005 between multi-national construction firm GAMA and hundreds of its employees in Dublin who had been denied pay, food and accommodation by their bosses highlighted this. Similar cases have been recorded in the North, where employers have deliberately misled migrant workers about their rights and entitlements to get them to accept unacceptable conditions and pay.
Éirígí chairperson Brian Leeson condemned the attacks and the system which perpetuates them.
“The alignment of unionism and British fascism in this area is very worrying.
“It is all too common that politicians in Ireland and across the world, will sit on the fence while people blame migrants for economic inequalities derived from the system of governance. It also suits the business class to have a base line scapegoat to take the blame for problems created by so-called ‘free market’ economics.
“That scapegoat inevitably becomes the people who are most vulnerable and are at the most extreme end of the system’s abuse.
“The only way these attacks and attitudes will be successfully tackled is when working-class people from all backgrounds, colours and creeds work together to prevent them.
“Equally important is the need for this same class to fight for their common interests, against exploitation and for decent jobs, effective public services and proper housing for everyone.”