Despite its attempt to remain outside either the nationalist or unionist camps within the Northern Ireland Assembly, in 2001 the APNI registered as a unionist party in order to provide a unionist majority for the first minister, saving Northern Ireland from even greater political turmoil.
Its focus was on class struggle and its aim was to unite the nationalist and unionist working classes in order to overthrow capitalism, both British and Irish.
Rev Martin Smyth, who stood down as the MP for South Belfast in 2005, said the DUP and the UUP should co-operate in order to maximise the unionist vote.
Rumours began circulating some time ago about the DUP and UUP forging a united unionist ticket, as they have done in the past in order to maximise the anti-nationalist vote, and now we know they're planning it.
Peter Robinson has moved to secularise the DUP in order to continue to appeal to middle class unionists who are turned off the strict moral codes of the rural fundamentalist right.
Cowen related his impression that Gerry Adams was playing a 'double game' -- taking a hard public line against criminality, but avoiding definitive action in order to retain maneuverability for final negotiations with unionists".
Alliance leader David Ford has claimed that unionists have whipped up tension in east Belfast over the flag issue in order to win votes.
"How much more do we let the middle class get slaughtered?" The fear, among unionists and many citizens, was that Righeimer's council would destroy the city in order to save it.
When I talk to senior trade unionists in the transport industry, they are fully aware that they need to change in order to develop an approach that is more in keeping with their strength in today's world.
While 39 assembly members voted for the no-confidence motion versus 36 against, it was still defeated because in order to pass it needed the backing of a majority of nationalist and unionist members.
Thus, in order to prevent a return of the representation gap of the 1960s and channel the energies of workplace unionists into economically innocuous activities, governments in a number of countries allowed industrial democracy to make significant inroads into managerial discretion.
