THE LOGIC OF ORANGE BIGOTRY the row about the nationalist demonstration recently in castlederg, a routine event held by sinn fein to polish its well faded republican credentials has the appearance of a parish pump squabble, Behind this appearance lies a festering sore that illustrates the continuing fragility of the political settlement in the north the unionist case is quite simple, Ulster is british and this gives 1st class citizenship to themselves to publicly assert sectarian dominance though the endless parades and the accompanying of symbols and insults, Their right to offend is accentuated by a right to be offended, the few second class nationalist parades are seen as sectarian, not because they themselves advocate any kind of sectarian hatred but because advocating a democratic solution to the Irish question is seen as illegitimate subversion that should be outlawed, This mindset was given expression by senior DUP figure Ruth Patterson, who supported a call to ambush and massacre at the march, this was within weeks of another senior DUP figure supporting the common practice of Irish tricolours on orange bonfires A supporter of Patterson remarks that for the majority of loyalists, not enough republicans were killed in the troubles. First minister peter robinson steps back from the most extreme comments but is forthright in asserting that loyalist bigots should be able to deny democratic rights to nationalists, a position that the unionist parties fervently expressed during the flag protests and orange marches,Its hardly surprising that the U.S.government is pouring in resourses to design yet another patch to hold together a corrupt and unstable structure. The problem is that the british administration, through the parades commission,by placing restrictions on the republican parade is indeed accepting the bigoted logic of the loyalists. Sinn Fein although it now protests, has itself swallowed the sectarian logic . through its advocacy of " equality of the two traditions" witch led it to voluntarily re route its parade This is firmly within the unofficial policy of the upper crust nationalists "let them have their flags"( while we get the kickbacks and backhanders). The end result was that nationalists were barred from the centre of Castlederg, a situation that existed before the birth of the civil rights movement . Accompanying this row the parades commission had placed restrictions on the 9 of august civil rights march in Belfast by republicans and loyalist had of course organised three counter demonstrations. 45yrs on the loyalists still oppose the civil rights march and the british still sponsor their bigotry, However the response to this oppression should not be to roll back to the civil rights era, or to the armed campaign of republicanism, instead we should look for a new political party, organised in all 32 counties and are willing to target political and economic oppression across our land
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 16:54:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015