By Thomas Carmichael
In a period of heightened global political and economic instability, Nigel Farage wants to renegotiate the Good Friday Agreement as part of a wider plan to deport asylum seekers. It is, to put it mildly, short-sighted. Farage’s plan necessitates removing the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights, which contains provisions barring the deportation of a person to a country in which they may face persecution. Under the GFA, the ECHR is incorporated into NI law, something critics of Farage’s plan were quick to point out.
His solution? To renegotiate the agreement entirely.
A look at which figures from the North have backed or condemned the plan can be instructive as to what sort of impact renegotiation may have. Sammy Wilson, Jim Allister and Jamie Bryson immediately lent the plan their support, while Colum Eastwood and Sinn Fein’s Dáire Hughes spoke out against it. The support of the former three will, in part, reflect their sharing of Farage’s views on immigration; however, on a deeper level, it reflects that support for the GFA among unionists has been declining for years.
In the event of a renegotiation, it’s likely that unionists will seek major concessions to redress what they see as grievances of the period post-1998. Nationalists will likely be resistant to renegotiation and attempts to push through changes to the agreement may prove an impetus for a serious push towards a border poll. Added to the mix would be the British government, fearful of the wholesale break-up of the UK, likely taking a more defensive approach to the union than they have previously, and the fact that Farage, who in this context would be Prime Minister, would probably be keeping figures like Sammy Wilson and Jim Allister close to him and using them as advisors on NI. It doesn’t take much imagination to see how this could lead to a chaotic and destabilising situation.
Far-right surging
The rise of Farage and Reform in the UK is a local manifestation of a global surge to the far-right. As workers and oppressed people face mounting crises and struggle is increasing across the world, capitalism finds it necessary to sow division and crush organisations of workers and movements of protest.
To this end the far-right play an important role in shoring the system up. They use bigotry and disinformation to separate different groups of workers and oppressed peoples off from one another by drawing attention to genuine issues such as housing, healthcare and especially gender-based violence, but place the blame on migrants, trans folk, and people on benefits.. Needless to say, these are bogus explanations which point the finger away from systemic issues rooted in capitalism, and for which the far-right have no solutions; a point illustrated by the volume of racist rioters revealed to themselves have been accused of domestic violence (48% of those arrested in NI and 41% across the UK).
In NI the mantle of anti-immigration rhetoric has been assumed largely by the TUV, with Jim Allister making reprehensible comments after the Ballymena riots, claiming that recent events had made Ballymena a better place to live by causing some migrants to flee the area. Polls show the TUV to be a growing force in NI politics, mostly at the expense of the DUP.
No to division!
Any plan to defeat Reform UK, and the far-right generally, must take up, in a genuine way, the issues they exploit, while also arguing firmly against their racist rhetoric and disinformation. We must point to systemic issues behind social problems and expose the lie of migrants or any other minority group being responsible. We must go even further and make the point that the tactics of the far-right and the programme Reform would implement in government, far from providing a solution to these problems, would exacerbate them. In power, Reform would further escalate attacks on the right to protest and attack organisations of workers and oppressed peoples. Today, the far-right seeks to sow division between groups of people who share common interests. A united struggle of workers and oppressed people to fight for those common interests is what is needed in reality; a type of unity that the ruling class is terrified of, and that the far-right actively seeks to destroy.
The government will be hoping that the Jubilee flotilla of 1,000 ships on the river Thames will serve as a useful distraction while it pushes through more swingeing cuts. But, as Becci Heagney explains, the Diamond Jubilee is more than just a diversion. Behind the pomp and circumstance, the existence of the monarchy poses a potential threat to the fight against austerity and more.