One of the benefits of the past thirty years of conflict in Northern Ireland has been the politicisation of the ordinary people. Gone are the days when political activities were something that were engaged in by the professional classes. Men and women from marginalised communities, ex-prisoners and former paramilitary activists together with the more progressive elements of civic society have had to stand in the gap created by the democratic deficit.

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We are more politically aware now than we were in the days before the 'troubles'. It would be a pity if our politicisation were to lead to a reinforcement of the politics of division. Constitutional politics are important but there are other equally important issues that have to be addressed. Local enmities need to be addressed but local enemies need to realise that they both have a common enemy that needs to be addressed. The forging of local working class alliances is essential, but so too is the need to forge common international alliances. We live in a global situation where multinational interests affect the local scene and where the enemies of the common people in one country are the enemies of the common people in another country.

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Lack of jobs, for example, is not just a problem in Belfast; it is a problem generally across Europe. The benefits of the global economy are not reaching ordinary people around the world. As Juan Somavia, Director General of the International Labour Organisation, recently commented, �The global economy does not pass a human decency test�. It is profit-dominated and it militates against the rights and welfare of the common people everywhere.

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Granting and defending the fundamental rights of workers together with developing effective measures to combat social exclusion ought to be a natural extension of the human rights agenda for local political activists. As we move closer to resolving local human rights issues we need to be aware that the real threat to human rights for both loyalists and nationalists comes, not from each other, but from the profit-centred multinationals that control the global economy.

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Globalisation is the theme of the �Human Development Report� published this year (1999) by the United Nations Development Programme. This report urges world leaders to make globalisation work for people as well as for profits. It flags up the fact that those who control the global economy are creating an ever widening gap between the richer and the poorer countries, as well as between the rich and the poor within countries. The poor within both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland are not faring well under globalisation. Both countries have the highest poverty levels in the industrialised world outside of the United States.

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The UN Human Development Report places the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland fifteenth and sixteenth respectively out of seventeen Western countries with over 15% of their population living in human poverty. Many of us have long argued that the so-called �Tiger Economies� do not really enhance the lives of the poor, and the benefits of the Celtic Tiger have certainly not benefited the marginalised poor in the Irish Republic. The United Kingdom fares little better. The difference between the UK and the RoI in terms of human poverty is a mere 2%. The UK is reported as being the most unequal in terms of the distribution of wealth with the richest 10% of the population having ten times more than the poorest 20%.

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Globalisation is also a health and safety issue that should concern trade unionists and political activists everywhere. While there is a growing consciousness about health and safety issues within the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, there are countries where the same health & safety consciousness is not encouraged and where profit is put before people. Usually there are no legal safeguards for either workers or consumers.

Why should this concern trade unionists and political activists in Northern Ireland? It should concern us because the same forces that exploit workers in other nations are active in our own country.� Some 3,000 workers die each year in the United Kingdom from asbestos related diseases alone, and it is estimated that this will increase to 10,000 per year� over the next twenty years. Across Western Europe, 250,000 workers will die from the asbestos-related cancer, mesothelioma, between 1995 and 2029. Workers and consumers everywhere face the some multinational foe and this demands solidarity across nations.

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Fifty-one of the world's top one hundred economies are companies, not countries. The world�s top three billionaires have assets greater than the combined GNP of all the least developed countries and their 600 million people. Multinationals think globally, and have the economic muscle to make governments listen. They also have the power to get away with corporate murder.

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The only international industry police force with real, enforceable sanctions, the World Trade Organisation, uses its muscle to protect trade at the expense of workplace safety and environmental standards. Poisonous exports can have global protection, while workers can't. Human life is cheap when you put profits before people.

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Workers everywhere are told to expect worse conditions, less security and lower wages because "that's the reality of global trade". Make no mistake about it these global trends do affect us in Northern Ireland. Can we really afford to squander our potential political strength by remaining entrenched in our tribal camps? Count the column inches in the local press devoted to the politics of division and compare it with the space given to the struggle for the social and economic emancipation of the 15%+ across these islands who live in human poverty.

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Whether our political allegiance is to the United Kingdom or to the Republic of Ireland, do we really want to live in a British or an Irish society that is controlled by soul-less multinational interests propped up by native lackeys. Do we really want to live in a society, however politically correct it might be, where there are gross inequalities between the rich and the poor? While we remain divided this is exactly what will continue to happen. The British poor and the Irish poor will continue to get poorer while the rich in both jurisdictions will continue to get richer. The latter will rest safe in the knowledge that the divided poor will never be in a position to mount a serious political challenge to their system of inequality and legalised corruption.

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If patriotism and loyalism means anything, surely it means working for the social and economic emancipation of the underprivileged. This is what our priorities should be as we move progressively into a new era peace and stability.