Vol. 71/No. 38      October 15, 2007

The government is led by Ian Paisley of the DUP and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein. As it was coming to power, Paisley and McGuinness called on London to lower corporation taxes in northern Ireland to 12.5 percent, the same as those in the Irish Republic. Business tax rates in the United Kingdom are up to 30 percent. Low tax levels on businesses in the south have contributed to the profit boom there. Paisley wants Dublin’s economic growth to benefit capitalists in the north. The British government has so far refused to change the rates.

During a recent outbreak of foot and mouth disease among livestock in Britain, Paisley worked with agriculture minister Michelle Gildernew, a Sinn Fein member, to secure exemption from the United Kingdom’s restrictions on livestock movement. The two also collaborated to retain free movement across the border with the Irish Republic.

By adopting a policy that Sinn Fein leaders dubbed “Fortress Ireland,” Belfast avoided a European Union ban on meat imports from the United Kingdom. “Fortress Ireland” included setting out disinfectant mats at ports and airports and banning movement of livestock from Britain to northern Ireland—measures comparable to those in place in the south. The moves protected the profits of the food industry bosses.

Archbishop Sean Brady, head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, has hailed the new “power-sharing” government. He said he and Paisley share the same views on many social issues, including school segregation of Catholics and Protestants. With job discrimination against Catholics in decline, the system of school and housing segregation here remains a way to divide working people.

London fosters divisions between Protestants and Catholics to maintain their control over northern Ireland, but British imperialism’s grip is weakening.

British troops, deployed here since 1969, can no longer be seen on the streets. “Operation Banner,” the British Army’s brutal policing operation, formally came to an end in July. At the height of the nationalist struggle, London had 27,000 troops occupying the north. The British government still keeps 5,000 troops here—“training” in their barracks.

Visible police presence has also declined. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), formerly the Royal Ulster Constabulary, received the backing of Sinn Fein for the first time ever earlier this year. The support paved the way for the coalition government. The PSNI, which remains overwhelmingly Protestant, is seeking to recruit Catholics.

Still, huge fortresses marking militarized PSNI bases can be seen throughout Belfast, and cops patrol with armored Land Rovers.

The Irish News reports that the Special Branch of the police recently tried to recruit a man to be an informer. Steven Harper said that two officers “said that the Special Branch had changed and they wanted me to spy on certain people in Ardoyne,” a Catholic area in north Belfast where Harper lives.  
 
 
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