January 30 marks the 50th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday Massacre, when British troops from the 1st Parachute Regiment shot 26 unarmed civilians in Derry, Northern Ireland, killing 13 immediately and claiming another life four months later.
The 1972 massacre of civil rights protesters galvanised opposition to British rule among Irish Catholics in the six counties and reverberated around the world. Millions in countries that have suffered historically under the yoke of British imperialism were angered and disgusted at the naked act of mass murder in its oldest colonial possession.
Bloody Sunday took place amid an explosive crisis of the entire world capitalist system. Beginning in 1968, a wave of fierce class struggles erupted in country after country that threatened the very survival of the imperialist order.
— source wsws.org | Chris Marsden | 28 Jan 2022