Politics Beyond the Point of Production: Class Struggle and Regional Underdevelopment in Northern Ireland

This paper explores the "underdevelopment" of Northern Ireland as a product of class struggle. It is argued that in the post-World War II period there can be seen two phases of underdevelopment: the first is where the Northern Ireland working class, both Protestant and Catholic, refused the Keynesian development that was being offered by the subversion of the welfare state; the second is a "political strike" by capital-a refusal by capital to invest in the Province in an attempt to control and discipline the working class initiative. This initiative by the working class has taken place primarily in the "community" and not in the factory, i.e., "beyond the point of production." The paper concludes that development/underdevelopment must be seen not in terms of the "laws of motion" of the capitalist mode of production, but in terms of the contest of power between the working class and capital. Further, the two phases of underdevelopment are indicative of the changing strategies of capital and presupposes changing strategies for the working class.