Progressive Unionist Party

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Progressive Unionist Party (German: Progressive Unionist Party ), PUP for short , is a loyalist , Protestant party in Northern Ireland with headquarters in Belfast , which was founded in 1979. The party is considered the political wing of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a banned loyalist paramilitary organization.

The PUP was created around Hugh Smyth : Smyth had been a member of the Belfast City Council for Shankill Road since 1972 ; In 1973 he was elected an Independent Unionist to the Northern Ireland Assembly . Smyth appeared several times as spokesman for the UVF without being a member of the organization. Smyth's electoral successes are attributed to his close connections with voters rather than his ties to the UVF. Smyth's followers founded the Independent Unionist Group in 1978 , which in 1979 became the PUP. Initially, the party served the UVF leadership as a framework for contacts with the UK Ministry of Northern Ireland. After his release from prison in 1984, Gusty Spence was a leading PUP member. Spence had been involved in the first UVF attacks in 1966 and had already advocated a peaceful solution to the Northern Ireland conflict while in prison.

During the Northern Ireland peace process in October 1994, the PUP was involved in reaching a ceasefire for the loyalist paramilitaries. Part of the peace process was the disarmament of the paramilitary groups. The PUP had "a political communication function for militant loyalism"; One of their main goals was to “prepare a farewell to militancy among the violent core of UVF supporters”. Compared to Sinn Féin and the IRA , this was only possible to a limited extent: In April 2004, the PUP was fined £ 25,000 for “continuing criminal acts” because the British authorities believed the ceasefire had been breached. This was denied by the PUP leadership.

Hugh Smyth and David Ervine won seats for the PUP in the 1996 Northern Ireland Forum elections . Both were involved in the negotiations for the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 . In 1998 the party won two seats in the election to the Northern Irish Parliament , in 2003 and 2007 only one seat. The strongholds of the party were the Protestant working-class neighborhoods in the north and east of Belfast .

The PUP's first party leader was Hugh Smyth. He was followed by David Ervine from April 2002 to 2007. After Ervine's death, Dawn Purvis took over the party leadership. In June 2010 she resigned from the party; The reason was the party's links with the UVF and a murder for which UVF members were held responsible. Her successor was Brian Ervine , who resigned in October 2011 after the party lost its only mandate in the Northern Irish general election. Since then, the party has been led by Billy Hutchinson .

Programmatically, the PUP advocates maintaining the union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland . The PUP considers the nationalist criticism of the Northern Irish government system before 1972 to be justified. In the PUP's view, traditional unionism has failed to take into account the social and economic interests of the working class . The historian Corinna Hauswedell classifies the content and goals represented by the PUP as a “contradicting programmatic mix of moderate loyalism and progressive social criticism”. The PUP sees itself as a center- left party .

Individual evidence

  1. This assessment by Steve Bruce: The Red Hand. Protestant Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1992, ISBN 0-19-285256-6 , p. 147.
  2. ^ Ed Moloney: Voices from the grave. Two men's was in Ireland. Faber, London 2010, ISBN 978-0-571-25168-1 , p. 396.
  3. ^ A b c Corinna Hauswedell: The Protestant-loyalist milieu in Northern Ireland: reactionary radicalization and ethno-social loss of identity. In: Stefan Malthaner, Peter Waldmann (eds.): Radikal Milieus. The social environment of terrorist groups. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-593-39599-9 , pp. 307–338, here p. 322.
  4. ^ Hauswedell: The Protestant-Loyalist Milieu , p. 327.
  5. Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) at CAIN - Conflict Archive on the Internet (accessed February 17, 2014)
  6. Purvis quits PUP over murder of loyalist Moffett on BBC News , June 3, 2010 (accessed January 9, 2012).
  7. ^ Ervine's brother is elected new PUP leader. at BBC News 16 October, 2010. (Accessed January 9, 2012).
  8. Billy Hutchinson new PUP leader on BBC News , October 17, 2011 (accessed January 9, 2012).
  9. Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley: Encyclopedia of British and Irish political organizations. Parties, groups and movements of the twentieth century. Pinter, London 2000, ISBN 1-85567-264-2 , p. 241.
  10. Own presentation on the official website http://progressiveunionistparty.org/about/ (link no longer available, accessed on January 9, 2012).

Web links