Ulster Workers' Council Strike - Aftermath

Aftermath

Many people returned to work on 29 May, with the UWC announcing a formal end to the strike on that day. The Assembly itself was officially prorogued the following day, although it was not officially abolished until 29 March 1975. In the immediate aftermath of the strike the dichotomy between the political and worker leaders was thrown into sharp contrast. Ian Paisley addressed a rally in Rathcoole at which he claimed a personal victory before a crowd of 5000 people whilst Harry Murray returned to the anonymity of his work at the shipyard. Very soon the three political leaders also ended their relationship with Andy Tyrie, despite his leading role in the strike.

Merlyn Rees had interpreted the strike, in which avowed loyalists had openly defied the British government, as an outbreak of Ulster nationalism. Journalist Robert Fisk endorsed this view by arguing that:

The fifteen unprecedented, historic days in which a million British citizens, the Protestants of Northern Ireland, staged what amounted to a rebellion against the Crown and won... During those fifteen days, for the first time in over fifty years... a section of the realm became totally ungovernable. A self-elected provisional government of Protestant power workers, well-armed private armies and extreme politicians organized a strike which almost broke up the fabric of civilized life in Ulster. They deprived most of the population for much of the time of food, water, electricity, gas, transport, money and any form of livelihood.

T. E. Utley also recognised the fact that the UWC's apparatus had become almost a shadow government for the duration of the strike although he did not develop this point, instead concentrating on praising the strike and its aims thus:

Here was an instance of a working-class movement which had resolved to achieve a political objective by means of a general strike. ... By the beginning of the second week of the strike, support for it had spread throughout all classes of the Protestant community. Bank managers and suburban golf club secretaries cheered the strikers on. The atmosphere recalled that of Britain in 1940. ... The whole operation was conducted...with the utmost discipline and efficiency. The strikers virtually took over the task of government. They enforced a petrol rationing scheme and issued passes to those permitted to go to work. They collected and distributed food, carrying with them the farmers who willingly bore severe financial losses in the process. Their public service announcements were read out on the BBC's Ulster Service each morning. Inevitably, there were instances of brutality, theft and peculation, but the prevailing spirit was one of dignified patriotic protest.

For a time the UDA looked to this spirit of Ulster nationalism for its own policy, with Glenn Barr, Andy Tyrie, Tommy Lyttle and Harry Chicken spearheaded an initiative in this direction which culminated in the production of the 1979 New Ulster Political Research Group document Beyond the Religious Divide, which drew up a blueprint for a negotiated independence for Northern Ireland, as well as a framework constitution for the new state. The idea however failed to take off as the UDA was unable to challenge the hegemony of the political parties and it was only in the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party that there existed any sympathy for the notion of independence. The UVF formed a Volunteer Political Party soon after the strike and this group, which rejected Ulster nationalism, suffered similar problems to the politicising UDA as it too failed to make any inroads into the support of the established unionist parties.

For Harold Wilson the success of the UWC strike convinced him that it was no longer worthwhile to attempt to oppose a settlement on Northern Ireland from Westminster. As a result the next attempt at devolution undertaken by Wilson's government was the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention of 1975. Based on the principle of "rolling devolution" it elected a body of politicians and left it up to them to decide the future structure of devolved institutions. The body was dominated by UUUC and collapsed without reaching any conclusions, although it did precipitate a split in the Vanguard after Craig suggested power-sharing with the Social Democratic and Labour Party and the majority of his party broke away in protest to form the United Ulster Unionist Party.

The UWC would organise a second strike in 1977 although this time without the support of the Ulster Unionists, the Vanguard, the UVF or Glenn Barr. With confused aims and a lack of widespread support this strike collapsed and brought about a permanent rift in the relationship between the Democratic Unionist Party and the UDA.