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A rally at Newry Town Hall yesterday, 6 July, saw hundreds of people take to the street for a 'Newry Against Racism' rally.
It was a direct reply to a 'Newry Says No' protest held at the same venue on 23 June with speakers emphasising yesterday that Newry was a welcoming city.
The list of speakers featured effectively the entire Trade Union movement, with even the vice president of ICTU present, to strongly denounce the governmental inaction & austerity which has created an environment of deprivation.
Pádraig Mulholland from NIPSA said "It is very important that a reply is given to those people who gathered something like a week ago, to spread a homophobic, spread a racist and spread a sectarian doctrine. It is essential that we send a clear message back, and that message is this - We the people, we the working class, we stand united against homophobia, against racism and against sectarianism.
"Anybody who thinks that the issues of racism exist in only one side of the community is deluding themselves or they are a political liar. The reality is racism exists across communities at various levels."
Mulholland explained that Newry, Ballymena, Belfast, Enniskillen, Derry and Newtownards are not racist towns. "In every town the racist foot soldiers of people like Elon Musk and Trump and their right-wing demagogues here as well, in every town those foot soldiers are mobilising, they're attempting to use racism to create division so as they can attack everything that we hold dear.
"Where were the racists when you were fighting to defend public services in this town? Where were they when health workers were on the street last week defending public services in this town? Where were they when we were fighting to have a decent public park in this town? Where were they when you were fighting for decent wages in this town? It is never them that do the fighting, it is never them that put up the resistance, it is the trade unions, it is the working class and it is the ordinary people who lead resistance."
Deborah Yapicioz from Unison said "The far right often claim that they represent the silent majority. That's rubbish, they represent, not even themselves but they certainly don't represent the people of Newry from what I'm seeing today."
John Franklin, Unite added "Racism is ugly, racism is real. What's happening now in Newry has been happening all over the island. The far right are on the rise. Don't be dismissive of this threat. They no longer hide in the shadows stirring the melting pot, they openly spread their bile on social media and through various mediums, they are well financed and well organised."
Jacqui White from ICTU said "it has fallen to the trade union movement and wider civic society to challenge the rise of racism and the far right in a way that governments and pubic bodies have not"
Niall McNally SIPTU added "we must confront the hard truth. The protests driven by the far right are often built and rooted in real social distress, despair, poverty, alienation, but the targets of that anger are wrong. The cause of our suffering is not black or brown people, is not Muslims or migrants. It is the betrayal of working people by a political and economic system that no longer even pretends to give us hope."
Caitlín Fearon from Newry LGBT+ Women's Group said "Since 2020, at least 27 women have been killed in Northern Ireland. Almost every one of them was killed by someone they knew, a partner, an ex partner, or someone from their own community. These women were not killed by strangers or foreign nationals. They were killed in their own home, in places where they should have felt safe. Northern Ireland has one of the highest rates of femicide in the whole of Europe."
Fearon added "The hard truth is this, violence against women and children is mainly carried out by men, regardless of where they come from, what language they speak or the colour of their skin. That is the real issue here. It's not about nationality. It's about men abusing power and using violence against women"
The final speaker Ivanka Antova from UAR said "Just recently, we were all appalled to learn of this hateful anti-immigrant rally held in our own community. Let me be clear, this was not just an attack on individuals, it was an attack on the very fabric of our community, on the values of respect, compassion and human dignity that we hold dear in Newry. Our health care workers, nurses and doctors, irrespective of their background or where they come from, are the backbone of our health care system. They are the heroes who day in and day out, dedicate their lives to caring for us, our families and our neighbours. They work tirelessly, under immense pressure, to save lives, alleviate suffering and bring comfort. To think that some of these selfless individuals who embody the best of humanity were subject to racism in Newry is deeply disturbing and utterly intolerable."
People Before Profit Newry & Armagh representative Marc Mac Seáin who chaired the event said “Our speakers list tied together well the lies, inconsistency & hypocrisy of the far-right on so many fronts. They do not represent the workers movement, they’re opposed to it and work against it.
“It was heartening to see the genuine workers movement come out strongly against far-right hate & division, but also take aim squarely at the root of these problems. The same Capitalist Imperialist system which creates refugees is the same one which exploits and deprives the people of Newry. We have so much more in common with migrant workers than we do with billionaires who push bigotry to divide us."
Mac Seáin spoke of his abhorrence of a racist incident in Mourneview Park over the weekend “We saw another display of bigotry just a couple of days ago when someone crept out during the night to spray ‘Locals Only’ on a house viewed by a migrant family. The vandal didn’t have the confidence to do it during the day, because they know that community would be aghast, with migrant families living in Mourne View and valued as part of the community."
