There has been no devolved government in the Six Counties in the north of Ireland for over a year. In February 2022 the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) walked out of Stormont in protest at the Northern Ireland Protocol, agreed as part of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. After years of dispute and escalating tensions between Britain and Europe over the application of the Protocol, in March Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a new deal had been reached with the EU: the Windsor Framework.
Brexit deeply divided unionists, a layer of whom see their material interests tied to EU membership. Almost 80% of ‘professionals’, both nationalist and unionist, voted to remain in the EU. Working class unionists, Loyalists, remain ideologically committed to their union with Britain and insist the deal contained in the Windsor Framework is not sufficient. They are pressuring their political representatives in the DUP to continue to refuse to return to Stormont.
When Britain left the EU, it left the single market. The British occupied Six Counties was kept in the single market so checks on goods travelling between Britain and the north of Ireland could take place at ports in Belfast to avoid putting a hard border between the Six and 26 Counties in Ireland. This was met with fury from the Loyalists who saw the economic border as undermining their union with Britain. It has been opposed too by the Eurosceptic lobby group in the Tory Party, the European Research Group (ERG).
Under the leadership of Boris Johnson, Britain refused to implement its Brexit deal with the EU. Tensions were escalating towards a trade war that would have devastated the British economy, which has already been damaged by a depreciated pound, lost trade, labour shortages and greater productivity stagnation due to Brexit. Sunak, in the interests of British capitalism, has had to negotiate with the EU while trying to keep the Tory Party together by getting sections of the ERG onside and come up with something sellable to the Loyalists.
The Windsor Framework is a new deal that includes vastly reducing the checks on goods taking place at the ports. It also includes the ‘Stormont brake’ clause, which would allow unionist parties to use the emergency mechanism to reject new law from the EU without a cross-community vote. If 30 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) reject a new EU law, it will go to the Westminster government who will have the ability to veto its application in the Six Counties.
This is a direct sop to the Loyalists to try and get the DUP back to power-sharing in Stormont. The Stormont brake can only be applied if there is a fully functioning executive and assembly. But the Loyalists are adamant they still won’t accept it because it leaves in place some pre-existing EU law. The ERG had assured the Loyalists all EU law in the Six Counties would end. Britain was never going to secure a deal with the EU for that to happen and the Loyalists should never have believed a word that came out the mouths of ERG members.
The DUP knows the Windsor Framework is the best it is going to get. A 22 March poll from Irish News and the University of Liverpool found support for the Framework among voters in the Six Counties is three times greater than opposition to it. The DUP is trying to figure out how it can sell the deal as a win to the Loyalists so it can get back to Stormont without losing its voting base. Its MLAs want their money: MLAs’ pay has been cut almost 30% while Stormont has been dissolved.
However, it had to vote against the Framework in Parliament on 22 March, forced by the Loyalists and bolstered by career driven opportunists like Johnson and Liz Truss rallying to undermine Sunak. The DUP qualified the vote by saying the Party will seek ‘further clarification, re-working and change’ and would ‘continue to work with the government on all the outstanding issues.’
Crisis for poor people
Loyalist opposition to the Protocol, and now the Framework, has only ever been an expression of frustration at their deteriorating position as they lose the historic privileges, relative to the nationalist population of Ireland, afforded to them by British imperialism. They fear a united Ireland in which they would hold no superior position. There are growing numbers of the population in the Six Counties who identify as ‘Irish only’, closer cooperation between Belfast and Dublin and perceived barriers to the union with Britain. At the same time, residents in the Six Counties are routinely the worst off across the United Kingdom, living conditions are deteriorating and the health service is on the brink of collapse.
On 14 March seven Royal Colleges representing thousands of nurses and doctors across Britain and the Six Counties released a joint statement warning that action is needed to prevent the ‘total collapse’ of the health service in the north of Ireland. And yet, Westminster’s Spring Budget has cut allocations for Stormont departments from £13.8bn in the current financial year to £13.5bn in 2023-24. Stormont health ministry officials have outlined a £550m ‘best case’ funding gap (Financial Times, 16 March 2023). In January Fermanagh and Omagh District Council requested support from Cuba’s Henry Reeve Brigade so it can meet its required staffing standards.
Post-tax income for low earners in the Six Counties is almost 10% below the United Kingdom average. 44% of parents (and 58% of mothers) face difficulties in accessing or affording the childcare they need, but the childcare support package of up to 30 hours free childcare for under-threes will not be available for residents in the Six Counties. Britain has also said it will scrap the Investment Zone intended to boost the economy in the north of Ireland unless power-sharing is restored.
Whether the Loyalists agree to allow the DUP to re-enter power-sharing or not, the conditions for all working class people in the Six Counties will continue to be driven down by British imperialism in crisis.
Ria Aibhilin
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 293 April/May 2023
