The Irish Republican Socialist Party’s Belfast Steering Committee unequivocally condemns the sectarian pogroms visited on the Short Strand district over a 48 hour period from the early evening of the 20th of June, until the morning of the 22nd of June, 2011. Hundreds of masked Loyalist paramilitaries laid siege to the Catholic enclave, causing scores of serious injuries and thousands of pounds worth of damage to residents’ homes.
Alex Mcguigin, Chairperson of the IRSP’s Belfast Steering Committee, stated earlier: “The unprovoked attacks on the ordinary working-class people of Short Strand, clearly orchestrated by hawkish elements within the East Belfast UVF, were the worst kind of Strasserite-style scapegoating. The spurious reasons cited by elements within East Belfast Loyalism in vain attempts to ‘justify’ the Midsummer pogroms on Short Strand, ranged from blind sectarianism to the downright illogical.”
Mr McGugin continued: “I have no doubt that Protestant working-class people in East Belfast feel alienated and forgotten by the Establishment parties and the Stormont regime. However, it is wrong and highly illogical to attack Catholic working-class people in Short Strand, for the economic marginalisation in East Belfast and elsewhere, caused by the greed and mistakes of the ruling class! In times of economic downturn, the ‘Orange Card’ has been played time and time again, ultimately to protect the interests of the ruling-class and it was most blatantly played during the Midsummer Short Strand pogroms.”
The IRSP’s Belfast Steering committee will be monitoring the situation in Short Strand and indeed all the city’s ‘interfaces’ over the coming weeks.
