[CptSternn]

I thought a new topic on racism, bigotry, and human rights was in order, as a few people here seem to be quite blind to many aspects of these topics. I will even start, since I am the one starting the topic.

I thought of this today when reading the following article...

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Irelandclick.com

Unemployment figures static for last 30 years

* REVEALED Government figures show Catholics still twice as likely to
be on dole

Catholic women are three and a half times more likely to be
unemployed than Protestant women in the North.

We can also reveal, in general, Catholics remain precisely twice as
likely to be on the dole queue as Protestants.

The shocking figures are drawn from official British government
Labour Force Survey statistics which have been obtained by our sister
paper Daily Ireland. The survey was conducted on a quarterly basis
for the 12 months between Winter 03/04 and Autumn 2004.

Margins of sampling error – which are consistently greater for the
Catholic aggregate – mean that the real disparity could be even worse.

For over 30 years the unemployment differential between Catholics and
Protestants has been regarded as a crucial indicator of inequality
across the North.

In April 2003 the British government pledged in the Joint Declaration
with the Irish government to take effective action which would tackle
the unemployment differential "by targeting objective need".

This assurance followed successive fair employment laws introduced in
1976, 1989, 1991 and 1998. Throughout that entire period, the
unemployment differential has remained virtually static, with
Catholics consistently at least twice as likely to be unemployed.

However when the positive political, social and economic developments
of the last decade are taken into account alongside the overall fall
in unemployment, the lack of any significant change in the ratio is
arguably even more serious. The figures demonstrate that, for
Catholic women in particular, the prospects are not improving.

In recent years, British government sponsored researchers have
claimed that social factors other than discrimination are responsible
for the disparity in the unemployment differential.

However, the startling precision with which such inequality has been
maintained remains a source of considerable concern for anti-
discrimination campaigners.

The latest figures come just days after the official 2005 deprivation
statistics for the North were published.

According to the deprivation statistics, the predominantly
nationalist parliamentary constituencies of West Belfast, Foyle and
West Tyrone are among the four areas of the North where the highest
proportion of deprived people live.

Strongly unionist constituencies of North Down, Strangford, Lagan
Valley and South Antrim have the least number of people living in
deprived conditions.

A major conference on equality which is taking place tomorrow in
Belfast will be addressed by one of North America's most powerful
elected politicians, Alan Hevesi.

Mr Hevesi is the financial comptroller for New York state and his
office administers the second largest pension fund in America.

In spite of bitter opposition from the British government, Mr Hevesi
has remained a determined campaigner for fair employment initiatives
in the North, such as the MacBride Principles, throughout his
political career.
At a press conference tomorrow morning, Mr Hevesi is expected to make
a major investment announcement.

Last Friday Daily Ireland revealed that the British government ban
which prevents Irish citizens gaining employment in the North's
senior Civil Service will remain in place for at least another 12
months.

An analysis by the Andersonstown News last year concluded that, based
on recruitment trends over 30 years, the senior Civil Service could
not achieve fair representativeness until at least 2057. At present
just one out of every four senior civil servants is Catholic.

In March, Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern caused considerable
disquiet in Northern nationalist political circles when he alleged in
a newspaper interview that "the type of discrimination that took
place (in the North) in previous decades, all of that has
disappeared."

Journalist:: Jarlath Kearney


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Now, as I mentioned on many occassions I work for a political party here in Ireland and our whole platform is based on civil rights, equality, and the right to self-govern. For those who have never been to Northern Ireland, you might not know of what we call 'The Troubles'. That refers to the mid sixties to '98 when the GFA (peace accord) was signed.

Worldwide people hear about Catholics vs. prodestants, but thats really not what the major issues are in this conflict, they just happen in many cases to fall along those lines.

So heres some background. 800 years ago the brits invade and took over Ireland. After many hundreds of years of war, they decided to try a new strategy. The brits moved in tonnes of troops and what not to the north of ireland (the closes port to their island) and bring in settlers from poor areas mostly in Scotland. Now, Scotland had be conqouers for an even longer time, and there were many poor families living at the brink of extinction there. The brits capitalised on this by offering free farm land and homes to people who wanted to migrate. Of course they didn't have land to offer, so they came into Ireland, forced farmers off their lands, lands that had been in their families for hundreds of years, and gave it to Scottish settlers. Families who won't moved were executed.

So thats where it all begins. Now generations later you have grand grandsons of the original mainly Scottish settlers who hold lands in Ireland. Also note at this time the displaced peoples tried to battle for their land in court, for many decades. The brits were able to combat this by first denying access to the voting booths unless you were protestant. Later they just outright told who to vote and who to go home. So now we have all the legal system and government packed with brits and people who to save their own, although stolen by their grandfathers, homes are making the laws and enforcing them. Needless to say this didn't sit well.

So we get an insurgency going. After years of half assing it, 1916 the lads get together and start an uprising on Easter Sunday. Only problem is, the guns being shipped from Germany get caught in a british blockade. So of the thousands of original Irish Volunteers, only a few show up (under 100). However, they were determined. These few men took over the local governmetn building in Dublin (the Post Office i.e. GPO). They held it for two days, until the brits sent in a few thousand troops to reclaim it. Note however 45 men held off a few thousand for almost 72 hours. Says something about the men, and also about how hard it is to fight in an urban setting.

Skipping ahead again, 1921 the brits let 26 of the 32 counties go. They let them govern themselves. They only keep the 6 counties where they have close proximity and thousands of troops. They rule this area like a war zone. To this day there is razorwire, watch towers, and tanks throughout the streets in the region.

So, why all the conflict still? Well, the above article is part of it. The wealthy are all descentants of previously wealthy families (there are exceptions like any rule, but for the most part, all businesses and government positions are held by people who consider themselves british and support british rule. These people tend to be prodestant. The majority of the people though, are Catholic, but have little to no policial power and even less resources and things available to them to help them move ahead in society.

The laws are specifically structured to keep things in this balance. Until the 60's, any political party whos campaign was equality and civil rights was deemed a terrorist organisation and not allowed to participate in the system. That changed in the late 60's early 70's. Why? The IRA led a bold campaign on the brits forcing them to allow the Nationalist parties into the political system. And now we have Sinn Fein (it mean Ourselves, Alone in Irish).

Now, today, things have begun to swing to the side of the people and away from the wealthy who get their power from britain. There is still much work to be done. So what is SF about? Well, here is why they exist, why the IRA is still around, and whats happening with racism, bigotry, and human rights in the North of Ireland.

First we have employment as mentioned. Much like blacks in the early 1900's in the united states, Catholics are denied jobs based on their religion because it usually signifies their political beliefs. Employers don't want disgruntled people in their ranks, they want team players, they want people they can relate too, people who live in their social bracket and go to their types of establishments. So they find reasons not to employ Catholics. Even as the stats show, to this day, its a 3-1 descrepancy when it comes to hiring.

Next lets look at politics. Nationalist parties were banned by law until just a few decades ago. They don't have long ties to other people in the government, so they aren't able to pull resources that other pro-brit parties can use. They don't get extra funding from britain, so even financially they are at a loss. Plus, ever few years the pro-british groups talk the british parliment into 're-districting' to help split up Catholic neighborhoos and merge their districts into the prodestant neighborhoods to help cut down on the voting power. Since the Nationalsit parties are still so small, they have been successful at this everytime, something that the united states calls gerrymandering and was a popular tool in the south to help 'control' the black vote during the 60's.

Policing is another area where there is much conflict. Police do not respond to Catholic neighborhoods at nite. They also dont respond unless its a Class 1 Offense. When they do, its in full riot gear in an urban tank. Of course when responding to a loyalist call, they happily come out in their nice hats in a patrol car. Crime in Nationalist areas stays for the most part unsolved. The stats on this are extremely slanted, and right now their is a special commission looking into this. They also have a policing board now setup to handle complaints on this, of course the board is made up of all prodestants from areas where there is no police problems and very low crime rates.

Irish until the brits invaded was the national language. The natioal sport was hurling, and Gaelic football was extremely popular. The british banned the irish language for years. They also banned all non-british sports. Only in the past decade has traditional Irish sports began returning to the north thanks to the public outcry of groups like Sinn Fein. For those who don't know, Irish dancing was also banned. Tis where the Riverdance style of Irish dancing emerged. By british law, one had to move their arms to be considered dancing. The Irish who wanted to dance but were banned by law created the style of dance to get around the british law. Anyone caught preforming Irish dance or speaking in the Irish language could be shot on site, a practice which continued up until the late 1800's.

Now, thats just a few of the problems facing the Irish today. However, as mentioned in another article, Sinn Fein has for the first time taken a dominant place in NI politics. The people HAVE given them a mandate. They want the way things are heading to continue as such. The british however do not want to lose a large source of revanue (Belfast is a huge international port with lush fishing waters). The natural resources available in NI are ones not found in the continental UK. To lose NI would set a significant set back to the UK economy. They would live, move on, and eventually get over it, but no one in the government there wants to cut the budget in such a way so to speak.

Today, Nationalists are denied jobs (once again it jsut happens they tend to be Catholic). Nationalists are also kept out of the political system, or made insignificant. Their neighborhoods have to police themselves (IRA NPU's - neighborhood protection units). If your kid gets *****, murdered, or ends up dead because of a drug overdose, you don't call the police, as they will merely file it away, if they show up. You know the man in your neighborhood who takes the complains straight to the people who police your block. If you want work, you visit your local SF office and read the message board. If you need a loan, you can't go to the bank (much like the blacks in the united states today), you contact your local SF MEP and talk to him about finding a private loan company to help you.

I could sit here for hours and tell of even more issues but, think thats enough to get us started. Anyone else live in such a place? Anyone else ever been subject to this type of life? Had their rights deprived because of what they believe in? Been shot for defying the government? If you had, what did you do? How did you do it?

Slán