WEST Belfast MLA Gerry Carroll has condemned the racist violence that took place in various part of Belfast last night.
The People Before Profit man hit out at those who attacked family homes and businesses and branding unionist politicians as "hypocritical".
"Last night, masked mobs set out to burn families out of their homes and businesses," he said. "This was not a protest. It was racist terror, plain and simple. You don't set a family's home on fire to register a concern. You do it to terrorise people because of the colour of their skin or where they were born. We should call this what it is – an attempted pogrom.
"This is the same playbook as Ballymena last summer and the disorder in 2024 – concentrated in areas of strong loyalist paramilitary influence, with masked men coordinating and children pulled to the front line. The so-called 'defenders' of working-class loyalist areas have given those communities nothing but drugs, intimidation and poverty for decades. Now, they're recruiting the next generation through racism.
"The hypocrisy from unionist politicians is staggering.
"These are the same people who have spent years telling working class communities that migrants are why they can't get a house, a GP appointment or a school place. They light the fuse and then act shocked when it goes off.”
He added: "The people herded onto these streets are living in real deprivation, ground down by years of austerity and told lies about who's to blame. Migrants didn't cause the housing crisis or gut the health service. The politicians who slashed our services while protecting the wealthy did. Divide and rule is the oldest trick there is: set ordinary people against each other so nobody turns their anger on those who actually hold the wealth and power."
