Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland: the peace illusion

17 March 2009
The British media were filled last week with weasel words of peace from politicians following a spate of armed attacks on British troops and the police in Northern Ireland.

Local government workers win 0.3pc

10 March 2009
Some 1.3 million local government workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, have received an award of an additional 0.3 percent pay rise, bringing the 2008-9 pay increase to 2.75 percent.

Northern Ireland: a sectarian state born in the violence of partition

10 March 2009
Britain presided over the creation of Northern Ireland in 1921, when it was forced to quit the rest of Ireland. The six counties in the north were formed into a one-party state born in violence.

Special Reconnaissance Regiment’s record of murder

10 March 2009
A few days prior to the attacks, Northern Ireland’s chief constable Sir Hugh Orde announced that British army special forces from the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) were being deployed.

Are the Troubles set to return to Northern Ireland?

10 March 2009
The killing of two British soldiers outside a barracks in Antrim last Saturday, followed by the subsequent killing of a police officer in Craigavon, have raised widespread fear that Northern Ireland’s "Troubles" might be set to blaze once more.

Hunger DVD

24 February 2009
This film tells the story of Bobby Sands and hunger strikers in the H blocks of Northern Ireland.

New Derry protest against Raytheon's complicity in Israel's war crimes

20 January 2009
Nine women protested in Derry, Northern Ireland, to stop Raytheon selling military components to Israel.

Derry occupation gets results

02 December 2008
Workers at Calcast in Derry, Northern Ireland, have won better redundancy pay after occupying their factory. The plant makes parts for Ford. Some 90 redundancies were announced there.

Derry factory occupation against redundancies

25 November 2008
Workers at Calcast in Derry, Northern Ireland, have gone into occupation after 90 redundancies were announced.

Hunger: The mundane evil at the heart of the British state

04 November 2008
Looking back the shocking thing is just how mundane it was to visit Northern Ireland’s H Blocks of Long Kesh – or "the Maze" as the British called it.

Unison stifles debate on council pay talks

07 October 2008
The leadership of the Unison union in local government met last weekend but failed to have a proper debate over the decision to go to binding arbitration over the pay claim covering workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland 1968: Derry’s days of rage

30 September 2008
On 5 October 1968 a few hundred demonstrators assembled in the mainly Protestant area of the Waterside in Derry in Northern Ireland.

Unison’s call for arbitration in local government dispute is big set back

23 September 2008
The fight by 600,000 Unison union members in local government in England, Wales and Northern Ireland against poverty pay took a disastrous turn for the worse last week.

TUC conference: abortion debate

09 September 2008
The TUC overwhelmingly voted to call for an end to anti-abortion attacks on women’s rights and for improved access to abortion services. Their demands included extending abortion rights for women in Northern Ireland.

Early warning signals of attacks on local government ‘green book’

09 September 2008
After two fantastic days of strike action in July there appears to be a worrying twist in the fight for decent pay for local government workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Letters

05 August 2008
Northern Irish need Abortion Act Diane Abbott MP has tabled an amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill to extend the Abortion Act to Northern Ireland. This long-overdue attempt to give equal rights to women in the North almost didn’t happen, despite it being Labour Party policy to support extension.

Public sector strikes making an impact on second day

17 July 2008
The strike by the people who keep local services going every day continued into its second day in every town and city in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Classroom assistants, refuse collectors, admin workers, street sweepers, and other grades stopped work again.

Thousands of workers to fight the public sector pay freeze

01 July 2008
Street sweepers, school cooks, refuse workers, teaching assistants and the hundreds of thousands of other people doing vital jobs in local councils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are gearing up to take on Gordon Brown’s pay curbs with two days of strike action on 16 and 17 July.

Raytheon 9 anti-war campaigners on trial for ‘crime’ of solidarity

27 May 2008
As Israeli forces were pounding Lebanon in the summer of 2006, nine anti-war activists in Northern Ireland occupied the offices of arms company Raytheon Systems Limited – the UK subsidiary of the US company Raytheon.