Ulster Unionist Labour Association

The Ulster Unionist Labour Association (UULA) was an association of trade unionists founded by Edward Carson in June 1918, aligned with the Ulster Unionists in Ireland. Members were known as Labour Unionists. In Britain, 1918 and 1919 were marked by intense class conflict. This phenomenon spread to Ireland, the whole of which was part of the United Kingdom at the time. This period also saw a large increase in trade union membership and a series of strikes. These union activities raised fears in a section of the Ulster Unionist leadership, principally Edward Carson and R. Dawson Bates. Carson at this time was president of the British Empire Union, and had been predisposed to amplify the danger of a Bolshevik outbreak in Britain.^[1]

The Ulster Unionist Labour Association was made up of trade unionists and Ulster Unionists and was founded by Carson along with J. M. Andrews^[2][3] as a means of instigating a purge from the local trade union movement of 'Bolsheviks' and republicans. Both Carson and Bates feared this class conflict and the development of a militant Sinn Féin would threaten the class alliance with dissolution which had been embodied in the old Ulster Volunteers. By sounding the counter-revolutionary alarm, it would be a call to "loyal workers" against what it considered the twin threats of socialism and republicanism.^[1]

The grouping adopted as formal policy an opposition to socialism, but was seen by many as an attempt to convince people that the Unionist Party had the interests of the working class at heart.^[4] Members included Tommy Henderson, later an independent Unionist member of parliament.

During the 1918 general election the aims of the UULA were set out by Bates. In a letter to Carson he stated that they would be used as a means of distracting younger members of the working class from the Independent Labour Party, who held views which were very different from their own organisation, i.e. socialism.^[5]

The Belfast Labour Party put four candidates forward, but they lost out to two UULA and two Unionist candidates.^[5]

La UULA tuvo tres miembros que regresaron a Westminster, todos ellos en Belfast : ^{[ 6 ]} Thomas Henry Burn en Belfast St Anne's , Samuel McGuffin en Belfast Shankill y Thompson Donald en Belfast Victoria .

Los trabajadores de la ingeniería y los astilleros de Belfast, predominantemente protestantes y tradicionalmente bien organizados, protagonizaron una huelga de tres semanas exigiendo una reducción de 10 horas en la jornada laboral. Esto se hizo desafiando a la dirección nacional de la Confederación de Sindicatos de Construcción Naval e Ingeniería . La huelga se extendió a los trabajadores de la electricidad y el gas municipal, lo que provocó el cierre de amplios sectores de la industria y el comercio. Comenzaron a publicar un periódico diario y se formó un Comité General de Huelga que empezó a emitir permisos que solo autorizaban la producción "necesaria". ^{[ 1 ]}

Hacia 1920, el creciente desempleo en las industrias del lino y el sector de la ingeniería generaba tensiones dentro del "bloque protestante". Un gran número de excombatientes bien organizados seguían sin trabajo, lo que preocupaba a la clase media local . Fue esta clase media la que alegó que la "infiltración pacífica" de miles de católicos en la industria de Belfast durante la guerra había creado el problema del desempleo, especialmente el de los excombatientes. Sería la clase media local la que lograría darle al conflicto un tinte sectario . ^{[ 1 ]}

En la primavera y el verano de 1920, miembros de la clase trabajadora del círculo del "Old Town Hall " de Carson celebraron reuniones de protesta en Belfast para atacar a los sindicatos británicos por su " bolchevismo " y su "pro-republicanismo". Importantes sindicalistas y empresarios participaron en estos eventos e incluso los justificaron, pues se sentían vulnerables. Tras una reunión celebrada en los astilleros en julio, comenzaron los ataques contra trabajadores identificados como miembros del Partido Laborista de Belfast, socialistas y católicos. Esto se extendió posteriormente a algunos sectores de la industria del lino y la industria de la ingeniería, lo que resultó en más de 8000 despidos en una semana. ^{[ 7 ]}

Paul Collins suggests that the expulsions were partly the result of a speech made by Carson on 12 July, Orange Order celebrating linking Labour with Sinn Féin: "…These men who come forward as the friends of Labour care no more about Labour than does the man in the moon. Their real object, and the real insidious nature of their propaganda is that they mislead and bring about disunity amongst our own people and in the end before we know where we are, we may find ourselves in the same bondage and slavery as is the rest of Ireland in the South and West."^[8]

Collins however suggests that the direct cause of the expulsions was the killing of Banbridge RIC man Colonel Smyth on 7 July in Cork. Rail Union members in the south of Ireland refused to allow his body to travel home by train, leading many Loyalists to then identify the Labour movement with his assassins. It was on the day of his funeral, Collins says, that the expulsions began, resulting in ten thousand Catholics and so-called "Rotten Prods" with connections to Labour.^[8]

Most Protestant employers looked on with tacit approval as "Vigilance Committees" were established to prevent "disloyalist" workers from being re-employed. Protestant domination of the Belfast industries was celebrated with Union Jack unfurlings and addressed by members of the UULA.^[7]

Catholic retaliation and reprisals were inevitable, with gun and bomb attacks on trains carrying shipyard workers. This resulted in yet more reprisals, with widespread looting and burning of Catholic owned businesses. The British army while guarding Catholic properties clashed with Protestant crowds with fatal consequences. This resulted in UULA creating an "unofficial special constabulary", with members drawn chiefly from the shipyards, tasked with "policing" Protestant areas. Carson and Craig need to establish a militant basis for resistance to republicanism, wished to reconstitute the UVF which could operate independently of the British. They then set about securing British government approval and funds for the UULA constabularies in Belfast, along with the UVF.^[7]

While Neville Macready commander-in-chief of the British army in Ireland withheld his approval, he and his supporters in the Irish administration were over-ridden; David Lloyd George's government approved from the beginning and granted official status in the form of the B Specials in November 1920. This official endorsement would shape both the formation of the state of Northern Ireland and Catholic feelings to it.^[7]

Además de su oposición a una Irlanda unida y al socialismo, la asociación no hizo intentos serios por hablar en nombre de los trabajadores unionistas. Sin embargo, en sus inicios organizó algunos programas limitados de educación para adultos y abrió dos clubes obreros en el este y el norte de Belfast. La asociación también logró nombrar a veinte delegados para el Consejo Unionista del Ulster a principios de la década de 1970. ^{[ 9 ]}

La organización nunca logró atraer a los principales sindicalistas y pronto perdió importancia. Si bien Andrews y William Grant pudieron inicialmente hablar en su nombre en el Parlamento de Irlanda del Norte , en años posteriores solo el menos prominente John William Kennedy y algunos senadores ocasionales ocuparon escaños en el Parlamento de Stormont. ^{[ 10 ]}

La Gran Depresión llevó a muchos trabajadores a recurrir al movimiento sindical oficial y al Partido Laborista de Irlanda del Norte , y muchas secciones de la UULA quedaron prácticamente extintas. En la década de 1950 se lanzó una campaña para revitalizar la UULA, aunque solo se formó una nueva sección, en Derry . ^{[ 10 ]}

En la década de 1970, su papel como movimiento para la movilización de las clases trabajadoras unionistas fue asumido por grupos más militantes como la Asociación Lealista de Trabajadores y el Consejo de Trabajadores del Ulster .

Ya a principios de la década de 1970, la función principal de la asociación era organizar la colocación de ofrendas florales en el servicio conmemorativo anual de Carson, y hoy existe únicamente para desempeñar esta función ceremonial. ^{[ 10 ] [ 11 ]}

• Peter Barberis, John McHugh y Mike Tyldesley, Enciclopedia de organizaciones políticas británicas e irlandesas
• Paul Bew, Peter Gibbon y Henry Patterson, Irlanda del Norte: 1921/2001 Fuerzas políticas y clases sociales , Serif (Londres, 2002), ISBN 1-897959-38-9
• Jurgen Elvert, Irlanda del Norte, pasado y presente ( Nordirland in Geschichte und Gegenwart ), Stuttgart: F. Steiner, 1994. ISBN 3-515-06102-9ISBN 978-3-515-06102-5.
• Graham S. Walker, Historia del Partido Unionista del Ulster: protesta, pragmatismo y pesimismo , Manchester University Press (2004), ISBN 978-0-7190-6109-7
• Brian Lalor, La enciclopedia de Irlanda , Gill & Macmillan (Irlanda, 2003), ISBN 0-7171-3000-2

• Sean Hutton y Paul Stewart, Historias de Irlanda: Aspectos de Estado, Sociedad e Ideología , Routledge (Londres, 1991) ISBN 0-415-05335-8.