On Saturday 13th June Organise! IWA Belfast and South Ulster Locals attended the rally called by the Anti-Racism Network in Belfast in opposition to the racist pogrom that swept through the city and other towns across the North in the wake of a brutal attack in North Belfast on the night of Monday 8th of June. The rally was an impressive mobilisation and saw tens of thousands gather in opposition to racism. Too many speakers to list took to the platform pledging making calls that ranged from liberal panacea’s like more power for the police and the state (the same police and state that stood back and facilitated the pogrom) to the demand for trade union action against racism and class unity and common struggle.
The cynical use of Monday night’s attack to mobilise against migrants was roundly condemned for what it was while the work, often silent, carried out in working class communities to evacuate to safety and support those put out of their homes and those in fear was applauded.
Racist ‘protests’ were not limited to those working class areas controlled by Loyalist paramilitaries, on the Tuesday night a crowd of about a dozen masked youth barricaded the Mill Road near Bawnmore before moving back to the Mill Road – Longlands Road roundabout to block it with burning bins. At Twadell Avenue – the sight of longrunning riots due to Orange marches – crowds emerged from both ‘sides’ and were witnessed coming together to mob a black woman in her car.
The pogrom itself, despite threats and more isolated incidents, was carried out in areas controlled by Loyalist paramilitaries, we wrote the following in the May edition of Black Star in the wake of the pogrom:
Always reactionary, Unionism and Loyalism have lurched further and further right. Back in 2009 when anti-Roma pogroms shook Belfast there were at least voices within loyalism that spoke out against racist attacks. No such voices seem to exist in 2026 and loyalism’s flirtation with working class politics and concerns – at its height during and shortly after the peace process – has been well and truly buried.
Loyalist paramilitaries have been directly involved in stoking racism and in conducting pogroms. Anti-racists may be in a better position than our comrades in Dublin when it comes to set piece opposition to fascist and racist mobilisations in the city centre but in loyalist controlled working class areas we are woefully absent. Racist sentiment has not only been stoked up by loyalists however, billionaires and politicians have been very busy promoting division and encouraging scapegoating. Racist Irish nationalists have also been busy. Out organised by their loyalist counterparts, and more exposed in areas where resistance to them is stronger, there have been racist blockades erected in places like the Mill Road between Bawnmore and Longlands – a pipebomb does not seem to have put off the local Clann Eireann organiser.
Events like today’s UAR rally are needed but we need much more on the ground organising, in workplaces and communities, if we are to be able to stop these fascists. We will not sow illusions in the state or its police force to tackle this. They have repeatedly sat back and let them get on with it. The work of Anaka Women’s Collective, PPR and CATU Belfast deserve mention for their bravery in acting to get families out of danger as the police stood by. Working class solidarity and self-organisation has always been and remains the only answer to fascism.
We should celebrate the massive turnout on Saturday but we cannot become self congratulatory or complacent. Class unity and solidarity needs to be built in order to counter racism and racists.
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Source: Organise! Irlande