Letter from North Ireland

In early 2017, it came out that a Renewable Heat Initiative by the state, meant to incentivise petit-bourgeois shop owners to use heating from renewable resources, had cost the state close to £500 million. This was because the moneybeing paid out was greater than the cost of fuel, so profit could be made simply by heating one’s home so long as renewable heat was used. Fraud in the system became rampant by about April of 2015, but was covered up by the Democratic Unionist Party that had implemented it, until January of 2017.

The scandal that broke out then triggered the collapse of the Stormont parliament, which since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement has required support from both the main Nationalist and Unionist parties, the DUP and Sinn Féin. The latter saw an opportunity to gain the upper hand in some of its desired policies that were and remain unacceptable to the unionists, such as the implementation of an Irish Language Act and the legalisation of same-sex marriage. The two parties have since been in a deadlock position even till now.

As always, this inter-bourgeois struggle has taken its greatest toll on the workers. To take the example of Derry, one of the lowest-performing cities in the UK, employment has hovered around 50% since 2009. The worst areas are those typically associated with the Catholic working class, such as Creggan and the Bogside. These areas remain largely ignored by the reformed police force the PSNI, and are largely left to the various paramilitary organisations remaining after the Good Friday Agreement.

The paramilitary organisations still remaining such as the UDA, UVF, and the ”New” IRA, are largely criminal rackets now, engaging in extortion and acting as brutal police forces in working class areas. A common activity is ”knee-capping”where drug dealers and other offenders are brought to secret locations and shot through the knees. Often times relatives and others in the community, out of terror for their own well-being, participate in the process. These paramilitary organisations have seen an increase in recruitment in the past few years, as the failure of the bourgeois state has become more apparent.

As well as this, the labyrinthine Brexit discussions have tied up the UK parliament and prevented it from taking control of the situation. Even if it wasn’t so occupied, the DUP would vigorously oppose it, and the Tory’s reliance on the party is well known by this point. As well as this, the possibility of a hard border has brought out Republican paramilitary activity further out.