Major strikes in the civil service and National Health Service have shaken the capitalist establishment in Northern Ireland. These enormous workers’ action followed watershed struggles in the private sector at the Harland and Wolff shipyard and Wrightbus factory.

The rival sectarian parties are required by the Good Friday Agreement to agree to govern together. They had refused to reach such an agreement after a supposed renewable heating scheme collapsed due to incompetence and alleged corruption three years ago. The strikes forced them back into the Assembly to make concessions to the workers.

But having tasted some of the power of collective working-class struggle, will workers allow a return to business as usual? More strikes seem likely. But how about a political alternative to austerity, sectarianism and capitalism?

This episode of Socialism looks at Northern Ireland: the strike wave.