The Socialist (Jan Feb 2018)

PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY

FORmERLY

A&E CRISIS: FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE OF THE NHS

ISSUE 106

INSIDE

Tories are hanging by a thead

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s Emergency funding NOW! s Kick out the private profiteers s Tax the super-rich for an NHS that meets need rd

Protest: 1PM Sat 3 Feb, Belfast City Hall

#Metoo shakes the system

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Called by NI Save Our Services & NIPSA Belfast Health Branch

by Donal O'Cofaigh Fermanagh Save Our Services

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he annual winter crisis in the nhS reached even greater heights over the recent weeks as the Tory government’s funding freeze resulted in huge pressures at emergency departments across Britain and northern Ireland. In the South, the same story was repeated again, the result of chronic underfunding.

Funding for the NHS has been restricted since 2010, meaning the service has faced the greatest period of austerity in its history. Since 1950, NHS funding has increased by an average of 4% each year, meeting additional demands and rising costs of treatments. Since the 2010 parliament, funding risen by an average of 0.5% per year – below the average rate of inflation in the same period and making no allowance for rising demand, an ageing population or increasing treatment costs.

The impact was entirely predictable. Waiting times at A&Es rocketed, not just because of increased demand but because of the government’s cuts to social care, meaning many beds were taken up by recuperating patients for whom no care pack-

age could be put in place at home. The papers carried stories of patients sleeping on floors and even dying waiting at A&Es. An engineered crisis The Tories' goal appears clear: to starve the NHS of funding, resulting in an engineered crisis which then provides the pretext for further outsourcing of services and the promotion of private healthcare.

A pliant media tells us that there is no alternative, neatly forgetting the billions in tax avoidance and evasion repeatedly evidenced in the Panama papers and then the Paradise papers.

The situation in Northern Ireland was even worse.

Significant underfunding of GP services here has left more and more patients going to A&E units. In one case, a new UK record was set as a patient waited 49 hours to be seen at an acute hospital. Some local politicians seek to wash their hands of responsibility and lay all the

socialistpartyni

blame at the Tories' door – yet the DUP, Sinn Féin and the other main parties have all embraced the logic of cutbacks and privatisation.

They have closed and downgraded a number of A&Es in recent years, not to mention other beds and services.

Meanwhile, hundreds of millions make their way into the coffers of big business through privatisation schemes like PFI. Join the fightback!

There has been a strong public response to the crisis across the UK. In recent months, health campaigners from Fermanagh have joined up with colleagues across the region and have launched Northern Ireland Save Our Services (NI SOS) with a focus on defending public health provision.

Only mass mobilisation and trade union action will be able to defend the NHS from profiteer predators and the politicians doing their bidding.

A major demonstration has been called in London on Saturday 3rd February by the People's Assembly and Health Campaigns Together.

Locally, a protest has been called on that date at 1pm at Belfast City Hall by NI SOS and NIPSA's Belfast Health branch. We call on everyone to join this protest to begin to build a movement for a fully public and free health service which meets people's needs.

Film Review: No Stone Unturned

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Join the Socialist Party Text ‘Join’ to 07821058319

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January / February 2018

THE SOCIALIST

Tories hanging by a thread – unions must fight to deliver fatal blow

By Daniel Waldron

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hereSa May's Tory government – propped up by the DuP – is careering from crisis to crisis and scandal to scandal, wrought by divisions within, under pressure from without and with its support and legitimacy steadily eroding. The only things keeping the show on the road are the lack of action from the trade union leaders and the Tories' fear that, as the polls indicate, a general election could lead to a Corbyn victory.

Rocked by the Brexit vote and then the general election upset, May has at times sought to pretend she empathises with the situation facing ordinary people. The Tories have shamefacedly tried to claim to the title of 'the party for working people'. Reality tells a different story. The Tories have presided over the longest pay squeeze since the Victorian era, so sharp that nurses and other workers are being forced to turn to food banks.

In the last four years, an extra 700,000 young people and pensioners have slipped below the poverty line. Meanwhile, the Paradise papers have highlighted the obscene wealth being hoarded by the super-rich elite which the Tories really represent.

Divisions on Brexit Despite the recent deal, the Tories remain divided into hostile camps on the issue of Brexit. Like

‘Britain First’ must be challenged!

Jayda Fransen appointed Britain First's leader in NI

The fAr-righT Britain first group has its eye on building in Northern ireland, with its leader and deputy leader facing charges for provocative statements made on protests here. it is no coincidence that this comes at a time when racist and islamophobic attacks are on the rise.

They must be challenged on a consciously cross-community basis and the trade union movement has a responsibility to give the lead, offering real solutions to the problems and concerns of working-class people to answer the far-right's lies and hate.

May's government is divided and weak

Cameron and Osborne, May wanted to remain in the EU, reflecting the views and interests of the British capitalist class. However, she realises the eruption which could take place if she ignored the referendum result which, at its core, represented a working-class revolt against the neo-liberal establishment. She is attempting to secure a Brexit deal which defends the interests of big business and the super-rich against challenges from both the hard-line pro and anti-EU wings of her party. Under pressure, these fissures could yet see the unravelling of May's government.

So deep are these divisions that

Tory 'Lord' Heseltine has asserted that a Labour government could be preferable for capitalism to the current government in order to avoid a 'hard Brexit', hoping the Blairite right-wing would blunt Corbyn's anti-austerity programme. Historically, Corbyn – like the Socialist Party – consistently opposed the bosses' EU. Unfortunately, when he became Labour leader, he buckled under pressure from the Blairite rightwing of the party and took a critical Remain position, even though the EU's pro-capitalist rules would act as a barrier to many of his own policies. Corbyn should now state clearly that the UK would leave the

EU under his watch but also outline a vision of a socialist Brexit which would improve workers' rights, environmental safeguards and defend immigrants.

Actions need from union leaders, not talk In Britain, conditions are ripe for a mass movement against austerity, particularly on the issue of public sector pay, reflected in concessions given by the Tories to some sections of workers and divisions which opened up within the Cabinet on the issue. Workers sense the government's weakness and can smell blood.

Unfortunately, the tough talk from

some union leaders at the last Trades Union Congress has not been followed up with a concrete plan for coordinated industrial action, despite important strikes by some small groups of workers.

Instead, the union heads have a policy of waiting for Corbyn. In reality, a determined campaign across the public sector and linking up with private sector workers could not just win real pay-rises but also be the factor which forces the Tories from power.

Corbyn's left-wing, anti-austerity policies have inspired millions and the party's performance in the general election – the greatest upset in post-war history – has quietened the pro-capitalist Blairites.

However, Labour remains essentially two irreconcilable parties in one: Corbyn and the mass of members against the majority of the MPs, councillors and apparatchiks.

These divisions will resurface sharply if and when Corbyn becomes Prime Minister. He will find himself caught between workers and young people demanding meaningful change and the Blairites pushing him to play by capitalism's rulebook. To prepare for that clash, Corbyn and the left within Labour should organise now to democratically transform the party from top to bottom and replace incumbent right-wing candidates and officers with those who represent the wishes of Labour members and ordinary people.

20 years after Good Friday Agreement: 'Peace process' in crisis

Orange and Green politics offer no way forward hIS January marked the T anniversary of Martin McGuinness' resignation as

Deputy First Minister and the subsequent collapse of the Stormont executive in the midst of the rhI scandal which exposed significant issues of corruption at the heart of the institutions, particularly involving Sinn Féin’s partners in the DuP. In reality though, Sinn Féin's withdrawal from the executive had little to do with rhI and more to do with the growing opposition they faced to their implementation of austerity, particularly allowing the Tories to implement welfare reform here. Since then, the two main parties have consciously shifted the political debate away from corruption and austerity and onto the divisive questions which they can more easily manipulate in their interests, leading to sectarian polarisation.

Sinn Féin claim that their position in the on-again, off-again negotiations is about a “rightsbased society” and “mutual respect”. Their commitment to rights is simply a matter of political convenience, as demonstrated by their refusal to support a woman’s right to choose. In the South, their members on the committee discussing the anti-abortion Eighth Amendment voted for a more conservative position than members of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, the main establishment parties. Many will baulk at Sinn Fein’s idea of

Promises of peace dividend and normal society not delivered “mutual respect”, particularly given the controversial video posted by their MP Barry McElduff on the anniversary of the Kingsmill massacre.

In the past, the DUP opposed the idea of joining a government with Sinn Féin. Today, they blame the problems facing Northern Ireland on Sinn Féin’s refusal to re-enter government but they too are not prepared to concede ground to what Foster has described as “Adams' radical, republican agenda.” Their approach in the middle of Brexit negotiations was a reflection of the pressure they feel not to concede any ground relating to the “constitutional position” of Northern Ireland.

Proposals to cut the pay of MLAs or move the negotiations to an alternative location with a neutral chair will not deal with the underlying problem, which is that is the current stalemate is a reflection of the sectarian polarisation in society. The two election campaigns of 2017 were best described as the “mother of all sectarian headcounts” and saw both Sinn Féin and the DUP consolidate their positions as the largest political forces in their respective communities at the expense of their more “moderate” rivals.

The need for a budget to be drawn up for the next financial year will pose the question more starkly of whether we have a return to

direct rule or power sharing. A recent report from the Department of Finance outlined the possibility of even deeper austerity, including cuts to some departments of up to 12%. The best answer to these threats is not an agreement between the DUP and Sinn Féin their record in government shows they embrace the austerity agenda.

Instead, we need a fighting approach from the trade unions in order push back this threat.

We also need the building of a political alternative to the establishment parties in Stormont.

Twenty years of the Good Friday Agreement has delivered an “acceptable level of violence” from the establishment's point of view, but the last year saw a doubling of paramilitary shooting and attacks, continued sectarian division and neo-liberal policies which are having a devastating effect on working-class communities. Any deal will really be another agreement to disagree on the contentious issues with unity when it comes to austerity measures. The politics of Unionism and nationalism cannot offer a lasting solution but only continual crisis and the spectre of returning to conflict. Instead, we must rebuild the labour movement tradition, mobilising people in common struggle on the issues that unite working-class communities and seeking genuine solutions to those which divide us in the spirit of genuine mutual respect and solidarity.

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January / February 2018

THE SOCIALIST

he InTernaTIonal Trade T Commission (uS) will decide on 1st February whether to

uphold 300% tariffs on Bombardier's innovative CSeries jet as a result of complaints made by Boeing. If upheld, this effectively blocks sales and leasing of the C-Series within the uS, which represents 50% of the market, and puts in jeopardy the entire programme.

Without the C-Series programme, the future of Bombardier in northern Ireland is very much at risk.

Currently, 30% of the remaining 4,000-strong Bombardier workforce in Northern Ireland are engaged on C-Series work. This was anticipated to quickly rise to 60%. The loss of these jobs would have a hugely adverse effect on the NI economy. Bombardier accounts for 10% of the economy and represents 38% of manufacturing GDP. But, most importantly, it would be

a hammer blow to the thousands of direct Bombardier workers and also to the 20,000 more across the North and Britain who work in its supply chain. Added to this and despite Boeing exploiting the US administration's ‘America First’ policy, there are also currently 23,000 workers in the US engaged on C-Series work.

It’s hard to go to a local shop or takeaway in Belfast and surrounding areas without seeing the red Unite posters which workers have been posting to build support for the union demand to ‘defend jobs & skills’. There is a developed understanding that if these jobs go - on the back of other major losses at Michelin, JTI Gallagher and many others - they will not be replaced with similarly paid, skilled jobs or the opportunity for apprenticeships.

Gallingly, while workers and their unions are fighting to save jobs, Bombardier are continuing to

implement their earlier cost savings which have seen a further 300 workers in Northern Ireland facing redundancy. Companies like Bombardier and Boeing will

Coolmoyne House Fire – Lessons of Grenfell Not Learned

always do what's best for them.

Political parties here and in the UK have been exposed as incapable of managing their own chaotic system. All the parties and the UK gov-

M3 Construction Scandal: Environment & health put at risk

By Gary Mulcahy

By Coolmoyne House residents iN The wake of the grenfell Tower disaster, the immediate response of the housing executive in maintaining its 32 high-rise blocks was to check the fire extinguishers and put up informational posters attempting to reassure residents that, if a fire did occur, the situation was prepared for and safety checks carried out.

Their message was that a tragedy like grenfell could never occur here but, the day before the grenfell death toll was announced, a major fire occurred in a housing executive high-rise in Dunmurry.

The Coolmoyne House fire occurred on the ninth floor when a resident’s toaster combusted and they failed to extinguish it themselves. The fire service arrived and quickly had the blaze under control, with two people being hospitalised for minor injuries. The statements made by all the relevant bodies following the event focused on how the fire was

eCenTly DeClaSSIFIeD govr ernment files have revealed that the Stormont Department

dealt with as expected.

However, the fire highlighted the lack of sprinklers in the building, despite research showing that this reduces the risk of fatalities in a major fire by 87%. The Housing Executive’s use of private contractors for repairs has also impaired their ability to respond to an event like this properly.

No one should have to live in

an unsafe home. A number of households have left Coolmoyne due to the Housing Executive’s inaction following the fire, fearing for their safety.

The sad reality is residents are leaving the regulated social housing sector to be put at the mercy of landlordism. Instead, residents must organise and demand their lives take priority over austerity budgets.

ernment are under pressure to avoid job losses of this magnitude but, not surprisingly, May & Co are impotent to act as they are heavily indebted and bound to Boeing for long-term defence contracts and are desperate to secure favourable trading terms with the US. The skills, techniques and graft of workers, here and internationally, are what has made the CSeries possible. In the face of political ineptitude and corporate greed, the battle to defend jobs and skills must now broaden its scope to raise the need for nationalisation with workers' control of sectors such as aerospace. If private industry means constant threats to workers' livelihoods and endless exploitation, most sharply seen in supply chain, it’s essential that our trade union movement advances arguments and fights for a solution that can actually provide jobs and a secure future to working class people.

of the environment granted permission to a private construction firm in 1992 to dump extremely dangerous toxic chemicals into Belfast lough, including up to 5kg of mercurycontaminated water per day.

The decision was made after readings for high levels of toxic waste were made at the construction site of the M3 motorway bridge connecting Sydenham bypass with north Belfast.

Wastewater at an excavation site was found to be contaminated with arsenic, sulphate, lead and mercury 5,000 times more concentrated than recommended. These levels of toxicity are highly damaging to plant and animal life and can significantly erode buildings.

The decision to dump the contaminated water into the river Lagan and Belfast Lough involved officials from the Water Service and Roads Service. Belfast City Council also agreed that 2,294 cubic metres of solid waste be buried at a landfill site currently being built on for film studios and

other workplaces in the North Foreshore in north Belfast. A report by expert scientific consultants said that “contamination by arsenic, lead and sulphate in the Dalton Street depot is extremely heavy … contamination by lead was widespread … total sulphate values at all locations were extremely high”.

The fact that these decisions have been kept secret for 26 years is indicative in itself that construction bosses and government officials colluded to ignore the likely damaging consequences for the environment and public health. £32million was awarded to the company involved to construct the bridge. All documentation linked to this scandal must be made public.

The silence from politicians speaks volumes too. All the main political parties are very close to big business, including construction firms, whose only interest in public infrastructure is to make as much profit as they can. The relatively few companies which increasingly rely on public sector infrastructural contracts should be taken into public ownership and run democratically and transparently to protect the interests of our environment and people.

Schlumberger: Naked profiteering must be fought The SocialiST spoke to Susan fitzgerald, Socialist Party activist and Unite industrial Officer representing workers at Schlumberger in Newtownabbey.

“At the end of October, global management arrived at the plant in Newtownabbey and used a power point to explain to the workforce that, after a more than sixty year history, they proposed to close the site in the second quarter of 2018 with the loss of all 205 jobs.”

“The company have indicated

that the work currently carried out in Belfast would likely go to China, Mexico and the US. It’s clear to us that they are covering every base, appeasing Trump's ‘America First’ policy, while also carrying out superexploitation of workers in lowpay economies.”

“Normally, when faced with the closure of a plant or redundancies, one of the first things a union should do is demand to see the books. We didn’t have to do it in this case because we knew that there was a very healthy £30 million order book.

Since the announcement, another £10 million in orders have come in. There is no economic or moral justification for what the company are attempting to do.”

“Following the announcement, we held a mass meeting of all workers on site.

Notwithstanding the shock and concern, when Unite Regional Secretary Jackie Pollock put a motion to the floor to not accept the company’s ‘proposal’ and fight the closure, it was unanimously supported.”

“This plant cannot be allowed

to close. This company have benefited from significant Invest NI grants and they shouldn’t be allowed to just walk away. By announcing their intention months in advance, the company hope that the thought of the remaining work or production bonuses will be enough to keep people compliant but, as workers and as a trade union movement, we cannot afford to be timid. We are fighting to save jobs and retain skills here in Northern Ireland because when they go they don’t get replaced”.

Susan Fitzgerald, Unite organiser at Schlumberger

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Bombardier jobs threat: Market fails workers, public ownership the solution

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January / February 2018

THE SOC

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NIPSA General Council Elections 2018:

Vote Broad Left!

By Ann Orr, NIPSA member

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018 has opened with a crisis across our entire health service. Working people are both worried and angry worried about the service they will receive if they become ill and angry about the unending programme of austerity which has chipped away at our public services.

Previously, the Northern Ireland Executive implemented austerity but the Executive collapsed a year ago and there is no sign of the necessary level of agreement to bring it back. Instead, the Secretary of State has overseen the cuts, based on the budget plan left on the table by the last Executive.

The DUP are particularly complicit in the current programme of cuts. They claim that their deal with the Tories has brought an extra £1

Broad Left leadership has seen NIPSA challenge austerity

billion and protected Northern Ireland from the worst of the cuts but this simply not true. They, in fact, vote through every aspect of the Conservative Party programme.

Ryanair recognise unions

Sinn Féin claim that they stand firm against Tory austerity, but previously handed power to implement benefit cuts back to Westminster, in order to avoid any flak for these

savage cuts.

Whilst the main parties squabble, NIPSA members are left to cope with falling real wages and attacks on health, education and welfare. We can only rely on our own strength to push back the austerity agenda. We need a real payrise in 2018. We must stand together to defend our public services.

NIPSA has played an outstanding role, with others, in standing against the cuts over the last decade. In particular we were central to the organisation of the two one-day public sector strikes across the North in 2013 and 2015.

We need to renew our efforts in 2018, campaigning and demonstrating against the cuts. We need to work with the other unions to fight for a pay-rise which wins back what we have lost in a decade of wage awards which were less

#McStrike claims important victory

Precarious workers: Organise to win!

than the inflation rate. It is only the trade unions, and genuine anti-sectarian left and socialist activists, who can defend working people in the difficult period ahead.

It is vitally important that NIPSA has a firm, fighting leadership in the year ahead. The Broad Left candidates in the General Council election are pledged to lead a robust campaign and to fight energetically for all our members. Vote Broad Left and ensure you have a leadership that delivers for you.

Ballots will be issued from 30th January and the vote closes on 20th February. As we go to press, the Broad Left slate of candidates is still being finalised.

For details, please visit facebook.com/NIPSABroadLeft and check candidate election statements.

Library staff vote to consider industrial action By a NIPSA library worker

Michael O'Leary left red-faced by threat of union action

By Ryan McNally yanaIr haS pledged to r recognise trade union representation for its workforce for

the first time in its history. The move came after the company faced the potential for strike action from pilots across europe demanding representation.

Irish-based pilots voted to strike in early December, and were quickly followed by colleagues in Germany and Portugal.

Facing the threat of serious damage to its profits over the Christmas period, Ryanair was forced to concede and, for the first time in its 32-year history, has agreed to recognise independent representation for its workers. The company has also indicated its intention to recognise union representation for cabin crew.

Ashley Connolly, an official from IMPACT, a key union involved in the dispute, described the victory as "an historic achievement that would resonate beyond the company" and added that it would "assist thousands of workers elsewhere , who want independent workplace representation but whose antiunion employers had been encouraged and emboldened by Ryanair’s previous antipathy towards IMPACT and other unions."

The victory will have particular

significance to the Irish working class who have been forced to endure years of Ryanair owner Michael O'Leary's anti-worker diatribes. In 2016, O'Leary called for striking Luas (Dublin tram) workers to be sacked, adding, "There's plenty of people who would replace them." During an Aer Lingus strike in 2014, O'Leary called for striking workers to be punished by taking away their travel discounts. In a TV interview in 2011 O'Leary referred to pilots as "overpaid peacocks" and "glorified taxi-drivers". O'Leary, who has amassed a €1.08 billion fortune as owner of one of Ireland's biggest polluters, rejects the scientific consensus on climate change and has referred to environmentalists as "lying wankers".

The victory at Ryanair has the potential to inspire other workers in the struggle against exploitative employers. The fact that such a notoriously anti-union company can be brought to heel by the threat of collective action is a good indication of the power of workplace organisation. Ryanair's approach to workers' rights is hardly unique among employers, and the lesson of this struggle is sure to resonate with other workers who face opposition to their basic rights by similarly exploitative companies.

Strike was first of McDonald's workers in Britain

By Neil Moore, Chair, Irish Youth Committee, Unite the Union CDonalD'S WorkerS in M Britain are set to receive their biggest pay increase in

over a decade at the end of January, which will see increases of 6.7% across non-franchise stores and some workers receiving £10/hour. The decision comes in the wake of an historic strike of McDonald's workers in September last year. The #McStrike - the first ever of McDonald's workers in Britain saw staff in two stores striking to demand £10/hour, an end to zero-hour contracts and an end to bullying by management.

McDonald's bosses have decided to make this concession due to the negative publicity caused by the strike and their fear that the strike could spread across the chain.

The announcement of the pay award is a commendable victory for the Bakers', Food and Allied Workers' Union (BFAWU) and the courageous handful of McDonald's

workers who went on strike. Not only did they shine a light on the exploitative employment practises of the second largest employer in the world but also highlighted that there is a way forward for workers caught in the race to the bottom.

This victory will surely provide new momentum to the Fast Food Rights Campaign in continuing their fight against zero-hour contracts and the culture of bullying and harassment in the industry, as well as demanding that all workers receive a minimum of £10/hour, regardless of age. If determined action by just 30 workers can win a pay-rise above anything McDonald's have offered or been forced to give by legislation in a decade, imagine what we can do when thousands organise across McDonald's and indeed the rest of the industry. This is a valuable lesson for precarious workers across hospitality, retail, call centres and other traditionally unorganised sectors - we can win significant concessions if we join a union and organise.

LiBrAry BrANch managers are considering a work-to-rule in a dispute about increased and changing workloads in Libraries Ni. With a 77.5% turnout , 94% of them voted to call a formal industrial action ballot. Branch managers get the rough end of the stick.

They take all the responsibility of running a library and deal with any complaints, yet their pay isn't that much better than a library assistant. There is a strong feeling that their workload has increased substantially over the last ten years.

Although this dispute is around workload issues, there is no doubt that the falling real pay has led to a huge amount of anger which will have influenced the vote to take action. Library staff have not had a proper pay-rise in 10 years. Most years, we get zero. A couple of times, we've got a very small rise, eg £250.

Inflation means that our pay has decreased by 25% over the last 10 years in real terms.

Reduced staffing levels have also added to the stress as the remaining staff have to work harder and harder.

There is huge anger towards senior managers on £50k or even £100k/year in their backroom jobs where they never have to deal with the realities on the front-line.

Library assistants will be watching to see what happens. A similar regrading claim for them could be in the offing. Library assistants are on just £9/hour and many are part-time with poverty level incomes.

January / February 2018

CIALIST

By Christopher Stewart iN DecemBer, the US federal communications commission (fcc) voted to repeal net neutrality, removing its own regulatory authority in preventing internet service providers (iSPs) from giving preferential treatment to some web content producers whilst slowing down speeds for or blocking others. in the US, it will be legal for iSPs to offer higher quality streaming to companies who are willing to pay for faster speeds.

The free flow of information currently on the internet is being dismantled and corporations like Comcast and AT&T are being granted coercive powers to charge more for access to fast internet. This grants censorial power to the telecommunications oligopoly.

For example, if an ISP doesn’t like the political view of a particular outlet, it could slow or block the site’s content. There are already examples of this happening elsewhere.

Canadian communications company Telus blocked its subscribers from accessing content supporting unionised workers taking strike action against the firm.

Roughly half of all Americans live in areas where only one ISP is available to them, meaning they cannot simply choose another if theirs is overly censorial. FCC chairman and former Verizon attorney Ajit Pai has cynically framed this as the repeal of “Obama-era regulations”. This is ironic, as plans to deregulate the internet in favour of corporations began under the Obama administration and were only stalled following massive public outrage.

Corporate influence over the FCC is clear. Earlier in the year, an FCC commissioner spoke to the Communications & Technology Task Force of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and asked for their help in bringing down net neutrality. ALEC is a corporate-sponsored body which drafts and pushes legislation through politicians in its pocket. AT&T and Exxon Mobil currently sit on its Private Enterprise Advisory Council. ISPs have spent more than half a billion dollars in lobbying the FCC and other government agencies in the past decade.

The regulatory power of the FCC has been completely diluted by corporate influence.

The repeal of net neutrality lays corporate control of the US political establishment, both Democrat and Republican, bare. It is not simply the consequence of the nightmarish Trump presidency, as years of previous deregulation show us. But rather, it is the symptom of a false, capitalist democracy and must be resisted.

#Metoo: Time’s up on women accepting sexual harassment

BY Kelly Bellin

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uST a few months ago, detailed allegations of harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment first broke into the mainstream media. Courageous actresses took a stand against a powerful figure within a multibillion dollar industry that normalises sexism and further headlines were made by the legal fund created by actresses under the “Time’s up” banner. This has sparked a new phase of a growing women’s movement in the uSa which began with the explosive reaction to Trump’s election but has also had international repercussions. It was also quickly followed by accusations of similar harassment in Westminster.

Even while #MeToo remains a primarily internet-driven mass discussion, its power has rocked the globe. A whole series of men in media and politics have been exposed, and many forced to resign. The Washington Post reports that the last time this many congressmen were driven from office in the USA was during the Civil War. Even before the antiTrump protests that kicked off 2017, there has been a steady flow of resistance from women to their abuse under capitalism. The Slutwalks, Carry That Weight, and #YesAllWomen all showed that

The #metoo movement has given women confidence to speak out

young women are ready to fight back against sexism and abuse.

These movements are part of an international revolt by women from Latin America to Eastern Europe. Already the impact has been felt, bringing front and centre the need to stop sexual harassment in the workplace.

But what about the tens of millions of women whose bosses and harassers are not famous people?

These issues are chronically underreported. Taking legal action means

looking to a court system that has systematically failed women. In fact, a study from the University of Cincinnati reported that only 4% of workplace discrimination lawsuits in the US, which includes sexual harassment, result in awarding damages to the victim.

To successfully challenge sexism, we need to go beyond expressing opposition and disgust. We can take inspiration from the struggles of working women in the past. In the 1830s in Lowell,

Massachusetts, teenage girls working in textile mills, faced with pay cuts as well as sexual harassment and assault on the job, went on strike. This was the first female-led labour struggle in American history, long before women even had the right to vote. These are the kind of steps we should look to today in the USA, across Europe and internationally. They speak to the urgent need for a re-built labour movement that stands unabashedly on the side of all workers.

Equal marriage: Referendum tactic must be considered cians to get out of the way. Many are understandably wary of putting the rights of a minority at the will of the majority. But ultimately some group of people will have the final say on marriage equality – either the MLAs at Stormont, the courts which rejected legal challenges on the issue last year, or the mass of ordinary people. The latter are the most likely to enthusiastically endorse equality. This is a tactic which should be reconsidered by the LGBT+ movement. challenge the dinosaurs While Sinn Féin, the SDLP and

Alliance back marriage equality, they have supported and implemented austerity policies which disproportionately impact the LGBT community. None of the main parties support a woman’s right to choose, also despite the wishes of the majority of people here. To challenge the backward status quo, we need a cross-community party which unites working-class and young people against the Orange and Green establishment in the fight for decent jobs, homes and public services for all, as well as for LGBT and women’s rights.

Why I joined the Socialist Party

By Brendan Lenfesty Australians backed equal marriage by 61.6%

I

n noveMBer, australians voted to endorse same-sex marriage by 61.6% in a referendum, putting their reluctant government under huge pressure to make it legal. as we go to press, the first same-sex couples are getting married.

Polls have consistently shown that a clear majority here back marriage equality. Tens of thousands have demonstrated in support of equality, forcing a number of MLAs to change their position on the issue, leading to a majority vote in favour of same-sex marriage at Stormont two years ago.

Unfortunately, the ‘Democratic’ Unionist Party vetoed this step forward.

DUP block can be broken If the Assembly is re-established, the DUP and other homophobes will still be able to block equality by abusing the ‘petition of concern’ unless it is reformed. However, they are not impervious to pressure from below. For example, they were forced to sack Jim Wells as Health Minister in the wake of bigoted comments against same-sex couples. The majority of DUP voters back marriage equality. If a determined and genuinely crosscommunity campaign is built, they can be pushed to stop undemocratically blocking progress on this issue.

Demanding a referendum on marriage equality is a tactic which can increase the pressure on the DUP and other homophobic politi-

JOiNiNg The Socialist Party presented a great opportunity for me to meet like-minded people who are campaigning around major issues in society such as cuts to the NhS, abortion rights and workers’ rights, as well as many other issues. The party isn't backed by big business, it's not made up of establishment politicians who represent the interest of the richest 1%. it's there to represent the people and help create a mass movement to end the tyranny of capitalism, allowing us to create a fair and equal society where everyone has the right to the best possible medical care, where everyone has equal opportunity to be educated without the worry of a massive debt over their heads.

The Socialist Party helps me envision a society that looks after the environment by managing it sustainably and not destroying it, a society where everyone can love without the fear of being persecuted and where women have the right to choose what they want to do with their own bodies. The Socialist Party offered the chance for me to be educated and to learn about key problems that, as a society, we are facing and must fight on. The party allows for expansion of your base of knowledge and gives you an even more in-depth perspective as to what socialism really is and how it can allow us to develop and become a better society for the many, not the few. Join us today!

news

US: Net neutrality repeal is a corporate attack on freedom of information

5

January / February 2018

6

THE SOCIALIST

international

Eyewitness report from Palestine

By Carmel Gates, NIPSA President (personal capacity)

W

hen DonalD Trump made the announcement that the uS was recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, he did so in full knowledge that it would enrage Palestinians, with strike action and major protests taking place in Gaza, the West Bank and within the Israeli state. This anger has been echoed across the world.

The reaction of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has been sharp and brutal. They are not just shooting to wound but to kill.

Their victims include a double amputee who was shot for holding a flag. Scores have been injured or arrested and many of them are children.

The arrest that has captured the attention of the world is that of Ahed Tamimi, a 16-year-old woman from the West Bank. She faces 12 charges, including attacking a soldier after a video of her slapping him went viral. The incident occurred after her 15-yearold young cousin was shot in the face. Another of her young cousins was subsequently shot dead on 3 January. Even though Ahed is only 16, and under international law should be tried as a child, she could face 10 years in prison.

There are currently more than 300 Palestinian children in Israeli jails, held under Israeli military law rather than the civil law which applies to Israeli settlers. This allows the state more freedom to abuse its prisoners. To make matters worse, there has been a recent

Abdul-Khaliq Burnat, arrested during recent protests. Pictured during trade union visit

vote in the Israeli parliament to move towards introducing capital punishment for Palestinians.

Another young man who has also been arrested on foot of Trump’s declaration is 17-year-old Abdul-Khaliq Burnat from the town of Bil’in. Abdul-Khaliq faces 17 charges. I met him whilst on a trade union visit to the West Bank in November. Bil’in is known for its weekly, non-violent protests which have taken place every Friday for almost 14 years. The protests began in 2004 when Israeli forces uprooted the village’s ancient olive groves and confiscated their farm-

lands to build a separation wall and an illegal Israeli settlement that is now 60,000 strong. Similar settlements continue to spring up across the West Bank.

On our visit, we met Palestinians in their towns and villages, we met trade unionists who are trying to fight back in the workplace and we met Israeli citizens who had served or refused to serve in the IDF. The ex-soldiers are now part of an organisation called Breaking the Silence, which aims to unite with Palestinians against the oppression and expose the actions of the IDF. They

explained that the deliberate strategy of terrorising families and innocent children is called “making your presence felt”. The objective of the IDF action is to scare Palestinians into submission and to prevent young people from joining the fight against repression. The strategy is not only failing, it is having the opposite effect.

As we go to press, mass protests are now taking place in Iran (see article on this page). Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has applauded Iranians “courageously risking their own lives for freedom.” Trump has also praised the protests and stated that “oppressive regimes cannot endure forever”. The contradictions in their words and actions are staggering.

Israel, with the militarily and financial support of the USA, has been systematically denying the rights of Palestinians for 70 years.

Palestinians face disgraceful poverty, discrimination, racist abuse, violence and the demolition and theft of their homes and land.

Effectively, they live in an apartheid state. They are struggling against the occupation but, rather than being applauded, they are being condemned, killed, beaten and jailed.

There is no solution to the oppression of the Palestinian people within the framework of imperialism and capitalist exploitation.

Only the re-building of a mass movement against the occupation and oppression which challenges this system, reaching out to the Israeli working class, can create the basis for a democratic, socialist solution which guarantees the rights of all the people of the region.

Catalonia: Election another blow to Spanish establishment arrest, while his Vice-President Junqueras and a number of other ministers have been arrested and bail denied. Since the election, more leading figures of the movement have been arrested and charged with rebellion.

By Paddy Meehan S We go to press, talks to crea ate a new pro-independence government in Catalonia contin-

ue. The election on 21st December resulted in a majority for pro-independence parties.

The Spanish state and the conservative rajoy government had attempted to suppress the independence referendum and subsequently suspended Catalan autonomy, prompting the snap election. This result is a decisive defeat for the government and a blow to Spanish nationalist forces. The Partido Popular (People's Party, PP - rajoy's party, descended from the Franco dictatorship) saw their vote collapse and held onto only 4 seats in the Catalan parliament.

Unfortunately, Podemos (We Can - populist, left-wing party) passed up the opportunity to give a lead, instead sitting on the fence on the independence question. The party opposed both the referendum and the state’s suspension of regional autonomy. As a result, they performed poorly in this election and have lost local activists in

Pro-independence parties won a majority despite repression

a pro-independence split. The CUP (radical left-nationalists) also performed poorly because they failed to distinguish themselves adequately from the pro-capitalist nationalists of PdeCat.

more repression to come Since the police violence during the 1st October referendum, the state has come down hard on pro-independence activists. Puigdemont, the outgoing Catalan President, had to flee to Belgium to avoid

Where now for the movement for national independence?

The independence movement has been at its strongest when mass mobilisations of ordinary people have been to the fore. Esquerra Revolucionària (Revolutionary Left, the sister organisation of the Socialist Party in Catalonia) has called for a renewal of the campaign to mobilise the working class and young people around the call to end repression, free political prisoners and remove the state police. They’ve called for a united front of the left to fight for a socialist republic, not one run for Catalan big business, as part of a socialist federation which would take the banks and strategic industries into public ownership and run them in the interest of ordinary people. This is the programme which will be most effective in mobilising the masses and cutting across division.

Iran: Workers & youth challenge regime

By Oisin McKeown The SUDDeN eruption of protests in iran has shone a spotlight on the crisis of the theocratic regime. This new and largely spontaneous movement, spearheaded by young people and workers, marks the most serious challenge to the regime in recent years and the first since the 2009 green movement.

The economic crisis of recent years illustrates the inability of the corrupt, capitalist regime to provide a genuine solution to the sharp decline in living standards.

The movement began in the city of mashhad on 28th December with the backdrop of President Hassan Rouhani's announcement that a cash subsidy programme would no longer be available to 34 million Iranians. This was only the latest attack that Iranian workers have had to endure in recent years. Living standards have declined by 15% , youth unemployment is up to 40% and even basic foods like eggs are becoming unaffordable.

On top of this, it’s becoming clearer to ordinary Iranians that a wealthy elite connected to the regime is getting rich at their expense.

Corruption and embezzlement is rife and a failure to prosecute bankers involved in the plundering of people’s savings in now bankrupt private financial institutions has nakedly displayed the class nature of the regime.

As a result of this, the demands and slogans around the protests quickly became political, moving beyond economic demands. Unlike the 2009 movement, this new movement sees the need to bring down the clerical regime and has no illusions as to who Iran’s leaders represent. The state has unleashed fierce repression against the protesters, fearing the strength of the mass movement. This has left at least 21 people dead.

For the movement to advance, democratic committees of defence and action must be developed to coordinate activists. The working class must decisively take leadership of the movement and put their stamp on events through coordinated strikes and workplace occupations.

Only the huge social weight of the working class, armed with a socialist programme, can topple the Iranian regime and transform the lives of ordinary people.

7

January / February 2018

THE SOCIALIST

Film Review: No Stone Unturned

By Kevin Henry

o

n The night of 18th June 1994, the heights Bar in loughinisland was packed with fans watching the Ireland versus Italy game in the World Cup. Members of the uvF burst in and opened fire, killing six innocent men and wounding five others. No Stone Unturned tells the story of their families' fight for justice. This massacre was the uvF’s answer to the killing of three of its members in Belfast by the Inla and part of the long cycle of ‘tit for tat’ killings.

The name of the documentary is taken from comments from the RUC to the families that they “would leave no stone unturned.”

The reality, of course, was very different and the documentary shows the lengths to which the RUC went to cover up the involvement of their informers in this atrocity. The film names the main suspects, one of whom was a UDR soldier and the other a police informer.

One ex-investigator interviewed says there was “a forensic goldmine”, yet – as the Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney put it – the cover-up “was staggering in terms of its breadth and audacity.” The field where the getaway car was found was never properly examined. A remarkable amount of evidence was destroyed, including the transcripts of the suspect interviews and the car which the gunmen used in the attack.

The narrator ends by saying that British officials now want to tell us

State agents involved in brutal killings

what to “remember and what to forget.” This, of course, is very true.

Former Secretary of State Theresa Villiers claimed, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the many examples of collusion between the state and loyalists represent a “pernicious counter-narrative” and a “deliberate distortion of the truth.”

The government continues to refuse, under the cover of “national security”, to hand over countless

documents that could provide some degree of truth to families and victims of state violence.

However, it is not just the state but also the sectarian forces on both sides who want to tell us what to remember and what to forget about the Troubles. At the time of writing, Sinn Féin MP Barry McElduff is embroiled in controversy for making a video featuring Kingsmill bread on the anniversary

of the Kingsmill massacre, a sectarian atrocity in January 1976 which saw ten workers murdered by the IRA – using a cover name – simply because they were Protestants. At best, McElduff displayed shocking insensitivity and, at worst, disgusting sectarian triumphalism. How can McElduff and his Sinn Féin colleagues be trusted to provide any truth or justice to the families of the Kingsmill victims?

How can the DUP provide any truth or justice to the families of the Loughinisland victims? Its leaders were central figures in the founding of Ulster Resistance, an organisation which collaborated with the UVF and UDA to import guns from South Africa to Northern Ireland, one of which was used in the attack on the Heights Bar. All the contending forces in the Troubles seek to examine the past through the prism of today in order to reinforce their positions. A genuine examination of the past would expose the rotten roles of the state, sectarian parties and paramilitary groups.

Throughout the Troubles, trade unionists took action to oppose sectarian barbarism. After the killing of six Catholics by the loyalist Glennane Gang and the subsequent Kingsmill massacre, Newry Trades Council organised a strike against tit-for-tat killings, bringing thousands onto the streets. It is the labour movement, which tried to hold working-class communities together during the Troubles, that is uniquely positioned to deliver a credible account of the past.

No Stone Unturned does a great service in illuminating the reality of collusion and showing the horror of this sectarian atrocity. It is a warning about the brutality of the Troubles and why we must resist the attempts by the Orange and Green politicians and the lurking paramilitary forces to divide our communities for their own cynical ends and potentially plunge us back into conflict.

Reclaiming our history:

Common History, Common Struggle by Peter Hadden Review by Ciaran Mulholland 018 marks the fiftieth 2 anniversary of what is commonly accepted to be the start

of the “Troubles”. In a few brief months in 1968 and 1969, northern Ireland changed forever.

A chain of events mobilised tens of thousands of young people, both Catholic and Protestant, in a mass movement which challenged the Unionist government and briefly posed the possibility of a revolutionary transformation of society.

Young people rejected the old ways of doing things, not just the misrule of the Unionist Party but also the deadening conservatism of the equally sectarian Nationalist Party. They turned to the left and the ideas of socialism, seeking a way forward in the struggle for civil rights, against sectarianism, and for a better life free from poverty and unemployment.

Now, it seems as if Northern Ireland has always been the same, a battleground of competing sectarian parties and paramilitary groups. The reality that the “Troubles” were not inevitable is largely forgotten. The sectarian forces which emerged victorious in the early 1970s have a vested

interest in painting the past in sectarian colours.

It is vital that workers and young people who are opposed to sectarianism and capitalism and its innate exploitation learn about the events of the 1960s in Northern Ireland.

Herald Books, in association with the Socialist Party, has published Common History, Common Struggle - written but not fully edited by Peter Hadden before his early death in 2010 - to counter the widely-accepted narratives of our past.

Peter Hadden wrote this book not as an end in itself, but because he had a profoundly optimistic perspective for the future. He believed that the unity of Protestants and Catholics was not just possible but offered the only way out of the nightmare of sectarianism and capitalism. Peter argues that the 1960s presented an opportunity for profound, positive change in Northern Ireland but that this opportunity was squandered by the leadership of the trade unions, the Northern Ireland Labour Party, and other left forces. He was determined that future opportunities would not be lost because of the absence of leaders who are capable of taking the workers' movement for-

ward, and of seizing opportunities when presented.

There is no doubt that we will see united, mass movements of working-class people in the North

in the years ahead. The twenty-five years of the so-called peace process have not resolved a single one of the issues which divide our communities, nor delivered the

much promised “peace dividend”.

The peace process has failed to deliver for working-class and young people, whatever their background. It has failed to overcome the underlying causes of conflict because, under capitalism, genuine peace and real economic advancement for working people is not possible.

Today, there is no doubt that the vast majority of workers and young people are opposed to Northern Ireland being dragged back to its more violent past. In each community, there are many who are consciously anti-sectarian and who see clearly the role of the sectarian politicians. This layer is inspired by developments elsewhere, just as in the 1960s the civil rights movement drew inspiration from across the globe.

Thousands of new activists will join the struggle for a democratic, socialist society where the needs of all are met and the rights of all guaranteed. The time is now to build a real alternative to sectarian politics. Reading Peter Hadden’s book will inform and inspire all who are prepared to engage in the historic struggle for a new society free of the evils of capitalism and the scourge of sectarianism.

review

Loughinisland Massacre – real accounting with the past needed

PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY

ISSUE 106

Southern Repeal referendum:

Establishment on the retreat

Step up fight for

abortion rights, North & South!

By Rita Harrold, ROSA, Dublin VicTOry iS in sight for the movement to repeal the anti-abortion 8th constitutional Amendment in the South. The government has been dragged further than some would have thought possible and the committee they set up has recommended not only repeal of the 8th but also to legislate for abortion in various circumstances, crucially without restriction up to 12 weeks gestation.

In 2014, socialist-feminist group ROSA travelled to Belfast to procure abortion pills with support from Northern activists, bringing them back to Dublin and taking the pills in front of the media outside the cen-

tral train station. This "Abortion Pill Train" opened the discussion to acknowledge the reality of what was going on behind closed doors: abortion was a reality in Ireland no matter what the law said.

The political establishment has not simply been won over by reasonable arguments, they have been forced to confront the reality that banning abortion doesn’t work. This committee or the citizens' assembly that preceded it would never have been convened only for the action taken by women and young people protesting on the streets particularly since the horrific death of Savita Halappanavar after being denied a medically necessary abortion. 2017 saw major protests and a swell in

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people stepping forward and joining pro-choice campaign groups.

Members of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael – the main establishment parties – voted for abortion on request in early pregnancy, some citing regret that it was necessary or saying it was the only way to ensure access for rape survivors. However, it is clear that the issue of widespread use of abortion pills despite the law was the most pressing issue and they have recommended that GPs be able to prescribe them. The three Sinn Féin members of the committee abstained as it went “beyond party policy.” This conservatism and tailending of the movement for Repeal which they say they support makes it clear that Sinn Féin cannot be relied

on to win equality. Movements must act to fight for it themselves.

A referendum is now likely in May. The anti-choice groups will throw everything they have into their campaign though fundamentally the vast majority of people have moved away from that conservative approach to sexuality and women’s rights. Over years of campaigning, we have seen that raising pro-choice arguments with ordinary people is not a problem as most understand that parenting is life-changing and should be taken on willingly. Anti-choice myths do come up from time to time but those questions can easily be answered by a boldly pro-choice 'yes' campaign.

A victory south of the border will

Text ‘Join’ to 07821058319

be an assist to those in the North who need abortion care. It should also signal that change is possible and inspire activists to get organised to fight for abortion rights.

Opinion polls show that even voters for the most conservative, antichoice parties support liberalising abortion law. A cross-community, grassroots campaign which highlights the reality that abortion is necessary health care and is happening both with people travelling to clinics in Britain and using pills in Northern Ireland is needed to encourage women and young people to step forward to win change.

To get involved in ROSA & the fight for abortion rights, text 'ROSA' to 07523289324.

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