I would ask all visitors to read and engage with this detailed Socialist Party statement analysing causes and consequences of recent rioting in East Belfast. It is essential to see the need for anti-sectarian working class unity to defeat the Stormont-Tory cuts.
"The rioting in east Belfast on Monday 20th and Tuesday 21st June – the worst in recent years - did not appear from a blue sky. Throughout the Troubles, the interface between the Catholic Short Strand and Protestant Lower Newtownards Road has been the scene of sporadic sectarian violence emanating from both communities. In recent months, there has been an increasing number of attacks on homes in both areas and this has ratcheted up sectarian tensions. The weekend of the 18th and 19th June was particularly tense, with attacks on homes in both communities intensifying and a young Protestant woman being hit by a brick thrown from the Short Strand. The UVF used this incident to organise hundreds of young people from across east Belfast to join them in an orchestrated attack on the Short Strand.
"There is little doubt that the UVF carried out the attack for its own cynical reasons. It has been angered by the Historical Enquiry Team’s continued investigation into its role in sectarian atrocities during the Troubles. Like the rioting in Rathcoole last year, this was an attempt to flex its muscles and send a warning to the state to back off. Internal tensions in the UVF and attempts by the UVF in East Belfast to establish its independence from the UVF Shankill Road leadership may also have been factors leading up to the riots. On Wednesday 22nd June, UVF members were among those stewarding the area to prevent clashes between young people following a series of talks. Obviously, they felt their point had been made. The UVF certainly did not bring the attacks on the Short Strand to an end because of any concern for either community.
