Paying lip service to sectarianism in Scotland
JIM SLAVEN argues that the focus of a new campaign against sectarianism in Scotland has been exclusively placed on the Irish community and particularly worrying has been the attempt to label legitimate expressions of Irishness as sectarian
Last week, Scotland's First Minister Jack McConnell announced it was time to end sectarianism. His announcement followed the violence that accompanied the first Celtic-Rangers match of the season. Up until this time, the Executive had resisted pressure from the media and backbench politicians to bring forward legislation to tackle the issue. However he now feels "we must act before sectarianism becomes synonymous with Scotland". Although he has offered no details, the media and other political parties have welcomed his comments.
Ever since James McMillan, Scotland's foremost composer, declared in 1999 that the country was guilty of "sleep walking bigotry" and "a visceral anti-Catholicism", the media has been in a regular frenzy over the issue. Politicians lined up to say he had got it wrong, nothing like that existed in the New Scotland. The then Scottish Secretary John Reid even had the gall to argue that his being a cabinet minister proved there was no discrimination against Catholics. Which is a bit like arguing that as Thatcher was Prime Minister, sexism doesn't exist.
Plans by Donald Gorrie, a Liberal Democrat MSP, to introduce a private members bill to " ban sectarianism" has given a focus to the media campaign. He is now proposing an amendment to the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act that would see crimes motivated by sectarianism viewed as aggravated crimes, thereby incurring a heavier penalty. It is likely to be something along these lines that the Executive will finally introduce.
Last month, myself and other members of The James Connolly Society, Scotland's largest Irish republican solidarity group, met Donald Gorrie at the Scottish Parliament to discuss his proposals. We began by restating our commitment to work with others to eradicate sectarianism. We also stressed the need for an agreed definition. Our belief that the problem of sectarianism had to first be properly defined was driven by our frustration at the continued misunderstanding and misinformation as to what sectarianism was and, crucially, was not.
There are two connected points to be made here. Firstly, the emphasis has been exclusively placed on the Irish community and particularly worrying has been the attempt to label legitimate expressions of Irishness as sectarian. There have been attempts to ban the tricolour from marches and football stadiums and Celtic have actually listed the National Anthem as one of the songs not to be sung by their fans. Pictures of the leaders of 1916 have been confiscated from public houses by the police and given as evidence of sectarianism in an attempt to have the licences suspended.
This is not to say that all expressions of Irishness are targeted. Some, such as St Patrick's Day, are actually encouraged. It is an attempt to make some expressions legitimate and some not.
Such a move would not be accepted by any other community and the Irish community in Scotland should not be expected to accept such restrictions. At their core, these attacks on Irish culture are attempts to narrow the definition of Irishness. This is not being done in vacuum and is clearly politically motivated.
Last year's controversy over Bertie Ahern's visit to Lanarkshire to unveil a monument to victims of An Gorta Mór was an example of this attempt to narrow the parameters of Irish ethnicity in Scotland. To place such a monument in a religious site and declare the unveiling a "religious event" as the organisers did was an attempt to reduce Irishness to Catholicism. It may suit the Catholic Church to portray the Irish community in Scotland as exclusively Catholic, but the reality is very different. Many people, Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter, would have liked to see the monument placed on a non-religious site.
The decision to postpone the visit was used as an example of sectarianism. However, it is clear that had this been the Italian Prime Minister unveiling a monument to Italian immigrants, there would have been no controversy. The problem is not religious. This brings us to the second reason to properly define the behaviour we want to tackle.
The focus on the Irish community is ironic, as it is our community that suffers disproportionately from intolerance and discrimination. Much of the verbal and physical attacks are examples of anti-Irish racism. However, not one Scottish politician has spoken up to defend the Irish community. Instead, the victim community are blamed for provoking the attacks.
The James Connolly Society has also had discussions with the Commission for Racial Equality in an attempt to establish why they classify certain behaviour as racist in England but sectarian in Scotland. Racism and sectarianism are clearly related. Both attempt to reduce people to otherness and less deserving of respect, etc. The idea that anti-Irish racism changes shape into sectarianism at Berwick is absurd. If someone is prosecuted under race relations laws for attacks on the Irish community in England, why not in Scotland?. We should define this behaviour correctly and not introduce legislation without doing so.
Much of the political focus has been on behaviour at the fringes of the problem and not at the problem itself. Campaigns such as Nil by Mouth and Bhoys Against Bigotry have palpably failed to address the root cause of sectarianism. Instead, they have, much to the media's delight, concentrated on football and the behaviour of supporters.
Celtic's Chief Executive Ian McLeod's decision to write to the club's season ticket holders urging them to stop singing republican songs has been hailed by the Scottish media as another example of the club's determination to stamp out sectarianism. The reality is quite different. McLeod's letter never even addressed the problem of sectarianism or the atmosphere of religious intolerance that accompanies Old Firm games.
This may appear a side issue; the attempt to arrive at a definition may appear no more than an exercise in semantics. However, contrary to Ian McLeod's claim that Celtic is a "non-political organisation" determined to "retain its political independence", the club's intervention was clearly political and even more clearly directed exclusively at republicans. The direction and tone of the debate on sectarianism in Scotland is part of a long-term campaign, led by the British government, to label the conflict in the North as sectarian. It is another attempt by the British to portray themselves as neutral. If the problem is sectarian, it is irrational and therefore unresolvable. It is in this light that Celtic's statement and the reaction to it should be viewed.
Celtic's initiative mirrors that of the Orange Order to a remarkable degree. Both focused on groups who they defined as being "politically extreme" while at the same time claiming they had no political views themselves. Both did so after talks with the politicians involved. From this we can assume that any legislation will be directed at Irish republicans and the wider Irish community in Scotland.
While organisations which do very nicely out of the status quo, like Celtic and the Orange Order, will continue unhindered, it will be another lost opportunity for those of us genuinely opposed to religious bigotry and looking to address these issues from a position based on the principles of inclusivity and equality.
The Scottish Parliament's cross party group on sectarianism will publish its report and recommendations later this month. Unfortunately, it is unlikely to confront the sort of behaviour that led one of our most successful novelists, Andrew O'Hagen, to describe Scotland as "a divisive and bigoted country". To do so would require an acknowledgement of the complexity of the problem that scars Scottish society and confounds those politicians who, in an election year, are long on platitudes and short on vision.
Issues such as identity and ethnicity, viewed in the context of institutional racism/sectarianism, require consideration and responses that are thought through, not pushed through for good headlines. A current advertising campaign by the Scottish Executive against racism declares Scotland to be " One Country, Many Cultures". Many, perhaps, but just not Irish.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)