East Antrim Conflict Transformation Forum
Addressing the Legacy of the Conflict
1. Defining the Legacy of the Conflict
- The existence of armed groups<
- Culture of violence that underpins violent responses to conflict
- Paramilitary policing of interface communities and anti-social elements
- Criminal elements who masquerade as loyalists but who are engaged in criminal enterprises for Privilege, Power and Profit.
- Marginalisation and demonisation of working class loyalism - stereotyping based on the worst possible tabloid caricature.
- Ever-widening cultural gap developing between civic society (middle unionism) and working class loyalist communities.
- Polarisation of communities along sectarian lines - at best, a form of benign apartheid; at worst a force of violent sectarian violence
Government and funding agencies pay lip service to addressing the legacy of the conflict but shy away from supporting those who wish to tackle the real problems of paramilitarism.
2. Addressing the Legacy of the Conflict
- If armed groups are part of the legacy of the conflict all the negative aspects of their existence need to be addressed.
- The focus of both the media and civic society is now in clearly on loyalist paramilitaries.
- We believe that each armed group has a responsibility to engage in its own internal conflict transformation process and, where there is evidence that a specific group has genuinely begun to do that, civic society has a responsibility to assist in that process. Assist, not control or manipulate.
- It is now in the public domain that the UVF-RHC constituency has been engaged in its own internal consultation process for some time now. Those involved in that process need time and space to continue with the process so that they might secure a favourable outcome.
- Civic society can support that internal process by engaging with the political and community activists who may have some credible influence with the paramilitary group. Support does not necessarily mean finance.
- By "civic society" we mean: Government (statutory bodies, local government officers, NIO Civil Servants); Policy influencers (academia, church leaders, responsible journalists); and The Community Sector and Faith-based organisations.
The East Antrim Community Transformation initiative is designed to complement the internal conflict transformation process currently being undertaken within progressive loyalism.
The loyalist constituency represented by the Progressive Unionist Party and those organisations with whom it is associated in the public mind are involved in a comprehensive consultation process aimed at determining their respective roles for the future.
In February 2005 representatives of these groups, assisted by local community representatives, formed a Focus Group to assist each other in developing a strategy for conflict transformation at community level for those loyalist communities in East Antrim from which they drew their membership. East Antrim = the three Council areas of Newtownabbey, Carrickfergus and Larne.
1. The Focus Group
The Focus Group is a progressive loyalist initiative aimed at facilitating a transformation process that will transform both the nature of the loyalist constituency which it represents and the wider communities from which they draw their membership and support.
The Focus Group will develop and co-ordinate a strategic plan to help enrich and enhance the quality of life for people living in loyalist communities and to help address and remedy those negative aspects of loyalism that undermine the security, safety and social & economic development of loyalist communities.
The Focus Group will seek to encourage Critical Friends from civic society to assist it in developing its strategy by providing critical analysis, drawing in appropriate expertise and evaluating the process.
Critical Friends may be defined as those who, while not supporting or condoning the actions of loyalist paramilitaries or the politics of the Progressive Unionist Party, do recognise the need for engagement with both groups if conflict transformation is to be facilitated.
Our current critical friends include academics, church people, consultants and one responsible journalist. (See side panel)
2. Local Transformation Groups
The Focus Group has encouraged the establishment of local geographic-based and interest-based Transformation Groups that will engage both internally with the several components of its constituency, and externally with the wider community.
Each Transformation Group is a voluntary association of individuals from the local community in which they are established and are responsible for developing their own agenda and programme of activities.
The only requirement for Transformation Groups is that they are committed to principles of best practice in both the design and delivery of conflict transformation initiatives aimed at addressing the legacy of the conflict in East Antrim. They are comprised of members from the several strands of the progressive loyalist constituency and representatives from the local community sector and civic society.
The local Transformation Groups will seek:-
- To understand the fears and anxieties of the wider community regarding loyalism in general and that constituency of loyalism represented by the Focus Group in particular.
- To understand the concerns of the local membership and supporters of the constituent groups represented by the Focus Group.
- To assist the Focus Group in the design and delivery of initiatives that will help to address the fears, and concerns of both.
- To address the legacy of the conflict by co-operating with both the community & voluntary sector, statutory bodies and progressive loyalist influencers in effecting real change at community level
The East Antrim Community Transformation Forum will take the form of a quarterly Standing Conference which will be open to all relevant stakeholders.
The Forum will receive monitoring reports on the work of the local Transformation Groups and other relevant organisations, both internal and external to the constituency represented by the Focus Group.
The Forum will also provide safe space for individuals and groups to address specific topics of interest respond to the monitoring reports and raise fresh issues