Given the cash crisis which many farmers face, mainstream and social media has been crammed with photos and footage of massive traffic tailbacks at various commuter junctions across Northern Ireland.
In some quarters, it has become known as the so-called ‘Sunningdale Strategy’, named after the use of farm vehicles to block roads during the 1974 Ulster Workers’ Council strike which collapsed the Sunningdale power-sharing Executive.
However, the British Government learned its lessons from that traffic debacle and has contingency plans in place for future events. In 1977, the then leader of the DUP, the late Rev Ian Paisley, attempted another 1974-style loyalist strike, but it collapsed mainly because the security forces were well prepared for any disruptive tactics.
But the real danger for the current farming community is that the general public will abandon support for those farmers. The organisers of the tractor protests should remember the consequences of the March 1986 Day of Action in Northern Ireland against the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
Again, farm machinery was used to block many roads and junctions across the Province that day. But as the day wore on, frustration boiled over and in some areas, there were ugly scenes of confrontation between the security forces and loyalists.
While the signing of November 1985 Dublin diktat mobilised a substantial section of the pro-Union community against the Anglo-Irish Agreement and the Ulster Says No rally at Belfast City Hall saw some 250,000 people on the street, middle class Unionist support for the campaign began to quickly evaporate once the road blocking of 1986 turned to violence and confrontation.
Farmers who take part in these current road blocking protests or the use of slow-moving convoys say they are at their wits end financially and have no other option but to resort to the tactics which have been deployed successfully in the Irish Republic, prompting the Dail to bring in a series of measures to assist the Southern agricultural community.
However, Northern Ireland is already in a cost of living crisis and coupled with the Iran war, prices are starting to rocket. Northern Ireland politicians have been voicing their demands that Westminster must intervene to assist Ulster’s beleaguered farming community. But is Downing Street really going to listen and act simply because routes to Belfast International and Belfast City airports have been blocked?
Could Westminster adopt the same attitude as it was perceived to adopt during the era of the Troubles? As long as its happening in Northern Ireland and not happening in mainland Britain, then it becomes an Ulster problem and we in Westminster need only pay lip service to the situation.
Who is being hurt the most by the current tractor blockades and slow-moving convoys? As in 1986, all is takes is for tempers to flare, harsh words to be exchanged, and the farming lobbyists will lose the support of the general public if the tractor protests descend into violence.
What makes the farming community think they will succeed with these types of protests when the British Government has already plans in place to deal with groups such as Just Stop Oil and Palestinian Action?
Put bluntly, policing authorities are now well versed at handling and controlling so-called campaigns of civil disobedience. And the authorities can also throw the full weight of the courts against potential protesters.
In the Eighties, when Unionists were advised to withhold payment of certain bills as part of the Ulster Says No campaign, many folk ended up in court.
Taken today, could a number of the farming protest group end up in court as a result of the tractor road blocking campaign? Could that affect their chances of successfully gaining individual future funding?
In practical terms, how much fuel will be used up taking part in these tractor protests given that the rocketing costs of fuel prices is at the heart of the matter? Does this mean the tractor protests will eventually become self-defeating?
If the tractor road blocking does not work, would some in the farming community take even more extreme measures by withholding products from the shops and supermarkets sparking a food shortage crisis on top of a cost of living crisis? Then again, the argument can be made - that is only hurting our own people!
The trick of the trade will be to get Westminster to vote on a package of measures which will radically help the Northern Ireland farming community. That means lobbying specifically the MPs in mainland Britain who will vote on such a package.
Perhaps if the broad UK farming community feels that a civil disobedience campaign using tractors is the best tactic, then they should park their tractors and slurry spreaders outside the homes and constituency offices of those MPs?
A Labour MP, even one very loyal to PM Sir Keir Starmer, will not take much notice of traffic delays and massive tailbacks on the Sydenham bypass in Belfast. But if a dozen massive tractors are parked outside the entrance to their home or constituency office, they’ll be on the phone almost immediately telling the PM - ‘we need urgent legislation!’
The point in terms of strategy which the current farming lobby needs to learn - hurting our own people risks losing public support; you need to take your protest right to the very doors of the folk who can influence the Government. That’s genuine pro-active civil disobedience using your heads.
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| Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. |
