The Belfast Civil Rights Conference             [1965]

[Desmond Greaves attended this conference organised by the Belfast Trades Council in May 1965 and wrote the report on it below in the “Irish Democrat” for June 1965. Headlines for the item were: “Amazing Conference in Belfast…Catholics and Protestants Unite…Unanimous demand for democracy”. Unfortunately, there was no follow-on from this event, mainly because of the reluctance of the Northern Ireland Labour Party to take up the issues raised and press them on the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish TUC, as had been agreed at the conference. Greaves regarded this as a significant lost political  opportunity, for if that had happened the Northern Ireland civil rights agitation might possibly have developed under the auspices of the Trade Union movement, whose leaders would have known how to control the ultra-left. Also that movement might have got going earlier, while inter-communal relations in the area were still relatively good.  By contrast, when the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was established in 1967 and organised the first civil rights marches in 1968, the Republicans and others who had influence on that body were unable to maintain hegemony over the movement as a whole. The tactics of the leftist student agitators of the parallel “People’s Democracy” group, in particular the Burntollet march, significantly raised sectarian tensions in the area. As Greaves remarked years later in his Table-Talk, “What was important in the years between 1965 and 1968 was that nothing happened:  Paisley got more wind behind his sails; the Republicans and nationalists got more impatient; and ever more sectarian tinder piled up, which burst into flames in 1969.”  This is an historical might-have-been of course, but one worth bearing in mind when considering these events … Editor]

–   –   –

High up in the green monstrosity that houses the Belfast District of the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers’ Union, is a hall which may one day be preserved as a National Monument.

In it, on May 8th, I tended a meeting where Catholic and Protestant workers decided unanimously to sink all differences and unite in a campaign for democratic rights for everybody.

In a resolution which was passed unanimously, the meeting decided to go for “one man, one vote; one vote, one value” and an end to gerrymandering and religious discrimination.

Credentials

Organised by the Belfast Trades Council, the meeting was a triumph for its secretary, Miss Elizabeth Sinclair, who has worked and fought for years to bring this position about. It was also a triumph for those in Britain who have sponsored the cause of civil liberty in the six counties and by their action given encouragement to the people at home.

The credentials report showed that 62 delegates attended, including six members of the E.C. of the Trades Council, six from the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, and four from the Amalgamated Union. Unions represented were DATA, AScW, the AEU, NUVB, Painters, Lithographic Printers, Sheet Metal Workers, Clerical Workers, Slaters, ASSET, Woodworking Machinists, NUGMW, Carpenters, and among other societies were the Northern Ireland Labour Party, represented both at E.C. and Belfast level, the Communist Party, Sinn Fein, the Students’ Christian Movement, the National Party and several student organisations. The “Irish Democrat” was represented by an observer, its Editor.

Chairman Ted Morrow opened the conference somewhat shyly. This was a momentous occasion, and his manner showed he knew it. He hoped the two sides would forget all the bitterness of the past. But the fruit of years of labour could be lost by some ill- considered remark.

He was soon relieved and smiling. One after another Catholic delegates from the ITGWU got up and told of being refused employment on grounds of religion. Their Protestant fellow workers listened with quiet respect. Here was a new atmosphere, unthinkable only three years ago.

Rights

Several delegates who described themselves as atheists got up to condemn discrimination against Catholics; a laugh was raised when one of these told of being refused a job at a notorious “No Catholic” factory. “You must be a Catholic atheist,” cried one of the delegates. Protestants also proclaimed that all workers, one and all, were entitled to employment and housing irrespective of creed or lack of creed. These things were human rights.

The resolution was proposed by Mr Morgan (ITGWU) and seconded by Mr Hemming (ATGWU) and spoken to by a large number of delegates.

Close attention was paid to a paper on the electoral system read by Mr McCartney of the Queen’s University Faculty of Law. His proposals for reforming the electoral system met with general agreement.

But those for the virtual abolition of local government in the six counties met with some opposition. It was felt that doing away with local councils would remove the people too far from the management of their own affairs.

For my part, I felt that Mr McCartney’s view that the electoral system should be treated in isolation from other democratic demands  – abolition of discrimination and abolition of inordinate police powers – contained the elements of danger that are always inherent in reducing political content to technical form.

Never Before

Fine speeches were made by Mr Sean Caughey and Dr Gormley of the Campaign for Social Justice, in which all aspects of democracy were dealt with, and full recognition was given to the responsibility of the British Government.

It was decided to press the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish TUC to carry the campaign further. I cannot forget the smile of delight which crossed Chairman Ted Morrow’s face when he realised that the resolution was passed unanimously.

After the meeting was over I asked Mr Andrew Barr, who was there from the Sheetmetal Workers’ Union and is a member of the General Council of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, if he ever recalled a similar gathering where Catholic and Protestant workers discussed the dangerous things that had divided them and emerged unanimous.

“It never happened before,” he said. 

Anybody with a sense of history would have in mind the year 1791 when Wolfe Tone called on Catholics, Protestants and Dissenters to unite under the common title of Irishmen. Today they are uniting as workers. Inevitably they will unite the workers of all Ireland in the kind of Republic the workers want.