Loyalist Association of Workers

[1] The LAW first came to prominence in 1972, with the abolition of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, when it became a leading force for the campaign against this move, ultimately coming to work closely with both the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party (for which Hull stood as a candidate after the Sunningdale Agreement) and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA).

Mainstream unionism had baulked at the excesses of the night whilst some members were suspicious of Hull, feeling that his background in the Northern Ireland Labour Party brought his loyalism into question.

[8] For his part Hull spoke of converting the LAW into a working-class loyalist party in the immediate aftermath of the strike, something that drove a wedge between him and his closest political ally Vanguard leader Bill Craig.

[8] Meanwhile, disagreements over how the LAW should become involved in anti-internment campaigns and whether or not rent and rates strikes, a favourite tactic of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in the late 1960s, saw the movement disintegrate.

[1] According to Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack the UWC was established by Harry Murray because he wanted a loyalist workers group that was nonetheless independent of paramilitary control whilst the LAW was wholly run by the UDA.