Boyd Barrett calls the lyndsey strike 'racist'

international | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis

Wednesday April 01, 2009 17:52

by Jolly Red Giant - Socialist Party / CWI

RTE Radio 1 had both Richard Boyd Barrett (People Before Profit) and Eamonn McCann (journalist and broadcaster) as contributors on the Spirit Moves programme with Myles Dungan on March 29th. Neither Boyd Barrett nor McCann declared their membership of the SWP (no surprise there). However the most disgraceful aspect of their contribution was the opening comments by Boyd Barrett who attacked the recent Lyndsey strike in Britain as 'racist' .

RTE Radio 1 had both Richard Boyd Barrett (People Before Profit) and Eamonn McCann (journalist and broadcaster) as contributors on the Spirit Moves programme with Myles Dungan on March 29th.

Neither Boyd Barrett nor McCann declared their membership of the SWP (no surprise there).

However the most disgraceful aspect of their contribution was the opening comments by Boyd Barrett who attacked the recent Lyndsey strike in Britain as 'racist'

When asked if there was 'any circumstances in which protest actions would be immoral or unethical?'

Boyd Barrett responded 'yes of course. I mean I was alarmed by the protest that took place in Britain recently where people were calling for British jobs for British workers with a clear racist overtone to it. I need to qualify this by saying that British workers including those involved in the protest have legitimate greviences about unemployment and wages and conditions their position and so on, but very sadly that was being directed in a racist way and I, you know, given the current economic crisis the potential for that sort of thing clearly exists and I certainly wouldn't be supporting protests like that. I'd be urging people in those protests to re-direct their anger towards the people who are genuinely responsible in my opinion...so yes clearly there are examples where you would not support any old protest. It depends on what the content of that protest is.'

Both Boyd-Barrett and McCann repeated on other occasions during the programme their opposition to the strike.

Of course the fact that the use of the 'British jobs for British workers' was a swipe at Gordon Brown - the fact that the BNP were run off the picket line when they turned up - the fact that by the third day of the protest the slogan had been dropped (in part measure due to the lead given by the elected strike committee) - the fact that contact was made with and support given to the foreign workers involved despite the efforts by the company to prevent it - and the fact that that the workers did exactly what Boyd-Barrett was suggesting in this interview i.e. targetting the company, their supporters and the government - is lost on Boyd-Barrett, McCann and the SWP.

Of course Boyd-Barrett and mcCann may be blissfully unaware that the SWP in Britian changed it stance on the strike at Lyndsey when it was clear to the Brisith SWP leadership that they were completely out of step with what was actually happening on the ground. When the SWP finally turned up (after four days) at the Lyndsey strike to hand out a leaflet attacking the slogan 'British jobs for British workers', a mass meeting was taking place where a call for 'workers of the world to unite' was receiving a huge and sustained round of applause from the strikers.

But even more interesting that during the building workers strike in Ballybrack, Boyd-Barrett, the SWP and the PbP supported calls for the employment of local labour on the building sites.

When given an opportunity to have, not one, but two representatives on national radio - it beholds elements of the left not to mis-represent strike action and protests by workers and to make sure they know what they are actually talking about.