The recent rioting, hijackings and attacks on police in Belfast and Derry are completely without justification. They cannot, and must not, be ‘explained’ away by apologists for community vandalism.

What we have been witnessing in the past few days is the dwindling annual ritual of destruction and rampage with neither purpose nor political rationale. It is a self-destructive orgy of violence imposed on already hard pressed working class communities by a combination of local hooligans and sections of the political fringes who seek self-promotion through other people’s misery.

None of these events have anything to do with internment or any other issue. These days and nights of petrol bombs, rioting, wreckage and personal injury are the outworking of miscellaneous mavericks and groups whose only contribution to society is to drag it backwards and justify it with their own invented indignation.

All of those involved, whether they be front line rioters or back line generals, should remember the rioting of April 2019 which resulted in the murder of a young journalist. Even then there were those who sought to justify, explain and rationalise those events.  That must never be repeated.

Hard-pressed working class communities deserve better. Communities beset by poverty and neglect need positive leadership towards genuine progressive political and social change and a better future through the creation of a socialist alternative.

These communities and those young people who live in them need a life free of the parasites who visit destruction, disruption and even death and who sabotage efforts to build the working class movement. There are no excuses for these events – none should be accepted”