http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWAPafHuhUo

Nationalist youth hate the polis more than they love their bikes

Celtic fans take to the streets after hearing that the Holy Goalie has left

If you’ve seen News 24 over the past few days, you’ve probably noticed that something strange is afoot in Belfast: everyone’s been infected with the rage virus and started fighting with da cops, employing such deadly weapons as planks, slabs and bikes (decommissioning has hit them hard). What’s going on? Are these people born with an inherent genetic love of fighting? Do they just HATE da poleez?

According to British UK news coverage… YES, all of the above, and more. Never one to take what the television tells us at first hand, Leftfield decided to investigate for itself..

What the rolling news coverage of EXCITING RIOTS neglected to tell us, at least for a good ten minutes anyway, was who these rioters actually were, and what they were so angry about.
Some of you reading this may have heard about a small Protestant family cultural group, renowned for their tourist friendly day events (and promotion of the retail trade): the Orange Order.

The biggest date in the Orange Order calendar is, of course, the 12th of July. In 1690.

Three hundred and twenty years later, they’re still mad keen on marching on that date, celebrating  the glorious victory of King William of Orange over the Catholic claim to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland, at the Battle of Boyne. In 1690.

As it happens, some folk in the North of Ireland aren’t too big on the Orange Order. Even less so when what they see as a Protestant supremacist and anti-Catholic organisation is allowed to parade through Nationalist (and largely Catholic) communities. This is what happened last week, and was what triggered four nights of rioting in Belfast.

What much of the media attention of the rioting neglected to mention was the main spark of the violence: a police attack on a peaceful sit-down protest against an Orange march passing through Ardoyne. As the protesters sat in the road chanting ‘peaceful protest’ and wearing t-shirts proclaiming ‘Residents Not Dissidents’, riot police waded in and began to remove and arrest the local people protesting against an unwelcome Loyalist march in their community. A number of people were injured from police firing deadly rubber bullets into the crowd. While we’ve heard a lot about the mostly relatively minor injuries suffered by police officers, a self-imposed blackout has stopped police-inflicted injuries from the use of rubber bullets from receiving media attention.

In the video below, made by the Irish socialist group Eirigi, you can see footage of what happened:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1XDd0h12TI

The mainstream consensus, supported by everyone from the UK media to Sinn Fein to local priests, has been that these protests were orchestrated by near-mythical ‘dissident republicans’, the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA. There’s no doubt that these violent elements will have been seeking to exploit the unrest we’ve seen, but the idea that this pathetic bunch of macho losers could organise a riot is laughable, given that they can’t even tell the difference between Dominos Pizza and the British Army.

The riots must be seen in the context of rocketing youth unemployment and huge economic and social deprivation. Given the provocation of riot police and pissed-up Orangemen invading their community, it’s hardly surprising that hundreds of them used it as an excuse to have a riot. Much has been made of the participation of young children, but if there was a riot on your estate when you were 8, what would you do?

Let’s be clear that it’s not something in the water over in the North – it’s symptomatic of poverty and unemployment combined with divided communities, establishment sectarianism and partition rule. For working class people from all communities, the Good Friday Agreement has not addressed any of these factors – rather, it’s normalised the situation, and put Sinn Fein in a position where they can now just fuck over “their own” community in exchange for a few token concessions.

Furthermore, young people in Ardoyne have grown up amid a backdrop of sectarian violence and bigotry. In 2001, primary school children were unwillingly pushed into the forefront of this, when their Catholic school, Holy Cross Primary, began the target of loyalist bomb attacks and pickets, purely because the route to school passed through a loyalist area. It’s not beyond imagination that some of these same school children – now teenagers – were involved in the recent protests.

because the 12th of July has always been about shopping, and nothing else.

Sinn Fein are now in a dominant political position, able to top the polls in the last two elections, mostly as a result of the Unionist parties being divided on varying levels of nutterism. But this shouldn’t obscure the fact that the Orange Order are still a hugely influential political force: while only 3% of the population belongs to a lodge, 66% of all the Unionist members of the Northern Ireland Assembly are members. The OO are keen to assert their own power on the streets, and their 12th July demonstrations are as more about pushing their own political agenda than any notions of celebrating Protestant ‘culture’ – it’s important for them politically to be able to force the police into supporting their demonstrations, which is why they continually attempt provocative marches through nationalist areas.

This is despite the best attempts of local authorities, who’ve hilariously tried to rebrand the whole affair into a family fun day with a carnival atmosphere and, allegedly, shopping: ‘Orangefest’.

The grand solution that both the Shinners and their governing partners the DUP are proposing is a new piece of legislation on parades, the Public Assemblies Bill. Similar to what’s happened in Glasgow over the past year, this will use the cover of Orange marches as an excuse to clampdown on demonstrations by trade unions, community groups and anyone else who’s getting in the way of the neo-liberal restructuring of the Occupied Six.

It will require that anyone planning a public assembly of more than 50 people will have to give 37 days notice, with failure to comply potentially leading to a prison sentence. Meanwhile, the Orange Order themselves will barely be affected by this, given that their demonstrations are organised well in advance.

In reality, it’s being used to stifle dissent – in a country not afraid to take to the streets – to the massive package of cuts, job losses and ‘austerity measures’ that’re being forced through by the main two parties – the same two parties who’re drafting this hugely undemocratic legislation. Remember that Northern Ireland, like Scotland, is heavily dependent on the public sector for employment; during the election campaign David Cameron said it was ‘worse than the Eastern Bloc’ in terms of state dependency.

Whatever you think about it, whenever there’s a group of young people from a deprived community which has been under siege by loyalists and the police for decades coming out into the streets to show their anger at the system, it’s hard to condemn them. As long as these problems persist, there will be riots every year around the July parades – no one should have to live with the threat of Orange Order marches parading through their communities, effectively putting them under police lockdown.

At the same time, these same communities are losing the right to protest. The idea that this is being done to contain sectarian marches is a cruel joke when you see the police attacking protesters trying to defend their own communities.

Glasgow Critical Mass, June 2010

Last Friday in Glasgow I attended the really fun and empowering event that is Critical Mass, a monthly celebration of cycling that takes place in cities across the world on the last Friday of every month.

The basic premise of CM is that dozens, hundreds , sometimes even thousands, of cyclists meet up and cycle through the centre of the city, to celebrate cycling as a mode of transport and raise awareness of the plight of marginalised urban cyclists. For one night, to reclaim the streets, and proclaim that cyclists aren’t blocking or getting in the way of traffic, because they ARE traffic, and deserve the respect and equal treatment given to any other motorist or pedestrians. It’s a movement that grew up alongside Reclaim the Streets in the early 1990s, with similar ideals – of rejecting the gentrification and increasing corporate ownership of public space, and the overarching dominance of car culture in capitalist society.

Cycling in an urban environment can be testing at the best of times, and outright dangerous at its worst. In Glasgow, this generally means navigating potholed streets and, where they exist, “cycle lanes” that’re barely two feet of coloured tarmac, usually doubling as parking space for any number of vehicles. It’s no surprise that the city was recently found to be among the worst for cycling in the UK. Glasgow City Council responded to this by listing lots of nice new projects, like the Chris Hoy Veledrome for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, all of which sadly had absolutely nothing to do with cycling as a mode of transport. So it’s hardly surprising that approx. 1% of all journeys in Glasgow are made by bike, somewhat below the Scottish Government’s target of 10%.

Batons are drawn at Edinburgh Critical Mass, 25.06.2010

Edinburgh, on the other hand, came out third in the poll, surely making it some kind of two-wheeled paradise where cyclists are welcomed and don’t have to come within inches of their own life everytime they step outside. Alas, no. Just last Friday, the Critical Mass ride in the city was attacked by the police, with six vehicles being summoned in a concerted effort to smash the critical mass, just months after it was revived following a lengthy absence.

After over an hour of cycling, the well-attended mass was suddenly confronted with a police van, that swung in front of the cyclists and forced them to stop, reports Indymedia Scotland. Attempting to single out a ‘leader’, a cyclist carrying a soundsystem was subsequently questioned. With the riders refusing to hand over information – having committed no crime – large scale back-up arrived, batons were drawn, and the soundsystem rider was violently arrested. The rider now faces four charges: cycling without due care and attention, obstruction of the highway with a bicycle and trailer, failure to provide details when required, and the resisting of arrest.

In Glasgow, we had around 50 bikes and only suffered minor harassment, with one police van trying to pull over the Mass; upon establishing that there wasn’t “any leaders” though, they left us alone. Harassment has been known in Glasgow in the past, however, with similar incidents as happened in Edinburgh last week occurring a couple of years ago.

What happened in Edinburgh was clearly the tactics of intimidation and an attempt to destroy the resurgent critical mass in the city, with completely token, trumped up charges being placed on one cyclist – for being the person who happened to be carrying a soundsystem. Cycling is not a crime – and police suppression should not be allowed to ruin what should be a fun celebration of cycling as a means of inner-city transport. Next month, people involved with the Edinburgh Critical Mass are calling for a huge turnout – as a symbol of defiance against the police, and as a show of solidarity with the cyclist facing these overblown and unjustified charges.

Glasgow CM meets on the last Friday of every month – 5.30 for 6 in George Square
Edinburgh CM meets at 5.30 at the foot of the Mound, Princes Street