This chauvinist campaign is being carried out in the name of combating "sectarianism." While decrying efforts to impose "sectarian" religious views on others--Protestant or Catholic--officials have in practice used the term as a cover for targeting Irish nationalists.

In recent months, government officials have branded Irish marches in Scotland as "sectarian." Authorities suspended the license of a pub that police claimed had "memorabilia and music" supporting the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Cops have seized Irish and Palestinian flags from fans of the Celtic team at football (soccer) games.

Joining the anti-Irish campaign, First Minister Jack McConnell of Scotland has proclaimed his determination to "end an attitude which, like racism, is a stain on Scotland’s reputation." McConnell has worked with the directors of football clubs to ban the sale of "paramilitary" flags outside football grounds--supposedly referring to the IRA and rightist pro-British groups. The Scottish executive (government) is also considering legislation that would supposedly combat "sectarianism."

Jim Slaven, a leader of the James Connolly Society, Scotland’s main Irish republican organization, condemned these moves. "We believe most of the examples they give as sectarianism are legitimate expressions of the Irish," he said in an interview. "The real issue is that the Irish themselves are victims of sectarianism, and they [government officials] do nothing to deal with the intolerance to the Irish." Slaven said his organization, along with others in the Republican Commemoration Committee, had no intention of pulling back from the regular marches they organize.

This initiative by the Scottish government coincides with the British rulers’ efforts to weaken gains made by Irish nationalists in the six British-occupied counties of northern Ireland.

In October, claiming that Sinn Fein was running a spy operation, London unilaterally closed down the Northern Ireland Assembly--a body in the north with limited self-government powers--and reimposed direct British rule there. Leaders of Sinn Fein, the party leading the fight for the unification of Ireland, have denounced the British government for trying to demonize them. Meanwhile, rightist supporters of British rule have stepped up their violent assaults on Irish Catholic areas in Belfast.

Slaven remarked, "The direction and tone of the debate on ‘sectarianism’ in Scotland is part of a long-term campaign by the British government to label the conflict in the north of Ireland as sectarian. It is another attempt by the British to portray themselves as neutral in the face of two warring factions."  
 
16 percent of Scottish population
The Irish are Scotland’s largest immigrant group. Coming mainly from nearby northern Ireland, they make up an estimated 16 percent of the total population. Since the first waves of mass emigration at the time of the Irish famine in the 1840s, they have predominantly been concentrated in lower-paying jobs in the central belt of Scotland, from Glasgow through to Edinburgh.

Workers of Irish descent in Scotland have been subjected to a system of job discrimination--parallel to that in the British-occupied north of Ireland--that has excluded them from key skilled jobs such as in shipbuilding, which were reserved for workers of Protestant origin.

This job discrimination has at times been reinforced by anti-Irish campaigns fostered by London. For example, in 1935 anti-Catholic riots took place in Edinburgh after the Scottish General Assembly declared that the Judenfrage (Jewish question) in Nazi Germany was akin to Scotland’s Irischenfrage (Irish question). As in northern Ireland, the pro-British and anti-Catholic Orange Order continues to hold parades in Scotland.

Today, however, the rise of confidence among workers who are Irish, combined with the decline of the traditional industries where discrimination of Irish workers was concentrated, has weakened this system of discrimination and divisions that serves the interests of the employers.

"It’s anti-Irish racism," said Paul Steele, a leader of the Volunteer Tom Williams Republican Flute Band from Glasgow, referring to the government’s campaign against "sectarianism." He explained, "Every time we have a parade, the police and media brand us as sectarian. It’s not about religion, though, because we have Protestants in the band--it’s because we’re Irish."

Steele said the Irish flute bands in Scotland really took off after the 1981 hunger strikes by Irish republican prisoners in British jails, one of the high points of the national struggle in Ireland. His band, named after an Irish republican executed by the British in 1942, regularly plays at Irish parades in Scotland and travels frequently to Ireland.

The band has raised funds for Irish prisoners held under British rule. On May 27, 2001, some 5,000 people led by the flute bands marched through Glasgow’s city center to commemorate the Irish hunger strike. On June 8 of this year 2,000 people marched in Edinburgh, having pushed back police attempts to restrict the flying of Irish flags.  
 
Confidence among Irish workers
These marches reflect a broader confidence among working people of Irish Catholic background, including the refusal to be pushed out of jobs by the anti-Irish abuse that is prevalent in workplaces in the central belt. As a result, anti-Irish abuse is being pushed more to the background.

First Minister McConnell’s focus on trying to restrict flags at football games is an effort to undermine the increased confidence expressed by supporters of the Celtic football club. An article in the Scottish Sun, for example, complained that their matches are like Irish theme days.

The Celtic club, whose foundation is historically linked to the Irish independence struggle, has continued to fly Irish flags from its masts, despite occasional government moves. At games its supporters sing the Irish national anthem as well as songs of the Irish freedom struggle, and some display banners and flags supporting the fight against British rule in Ireland. Steele reports that in recent years Palestinian and Basque flags have also been flown by some in the crowd.

The other main football club in Glasgow is Rangers, whose fans display the British Union Jack flag as well as banners associated with the rightist paramilitaries in the north of Ireland, and sometimes Israeli flags. They often sing anti-Irish songs. In 1999 the vice chair of the team, prominent Scottish lawyer Donald Findlay, was forced to resign after it was revealed he sang anti-Irish songs at a celebration. As a lawyer Findlay has defended several Rangers supporters charged with knife attacks on Celtic supporters. Each of these clubs attracts up to 60,000 to their home games.

According to the Scottish Mirror, several of the eight "sectarian" murders reported in Scotland in 1999–2000 took place after games involving these teams. This expression of the divisions fostered by the British rulers among working people and expressed through football loyalties is paralleled with teams in Edinburgh.

Scottish justice minister James Wallace used clashes after an October 6 Celtic-Rangers football game to announce new laws to punish "sectarianism." According to the Glasgow Herald, the Scottish government is likely to incorporate an amendment by a Liberal Democrat member of the Scottish Parliament, Donald Gorrie, into a "criminal justice" bill currently going through the legislature. The amendment would consider any "criminal" offense as aggravated if it was deemed to have a "sectarian or religious hatred" element, and would impose a harsher penalty. The bill would also require companies and government offices to draw up a code of conduct to combat "sectarianism."

Slaven responded, "The Scottish Executive won’t even recognize the Irish in Scotland. They view us as Catholic--they don’t recognize us as an ethnic group. They have a billboard campaign proclaiming that Scotland is a land of many cultures, but they don’t want to touch anything to do with the Irish."

Slaven says the James Connolly Society intends to challenge the Scottish Executive on their claim that anti-Irish discrimination no longer exists.  
 
 
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