The Socialist(June 2016)

PaPer of the SocialiSt Party

iSSue 97

New Assembly Executive, Same Failed Politics

June 2016

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Build a Cross-Community

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Special feature on the EU Referendum

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Assembly Elections socialist analysis

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By Daniel Waldron

T

he DUP and Sinn Féin have emerged again as the largest parties of Unionism and nationalism respectively and are now the sole coalition partners at Stormont. There are new faces around the Assembly executive table but the politics of austerity, sectarianism and inequality will remain unaltered. The two main parties will continue slashing jobs and public services, co-operating to deny women's right to choose and maintaining division in their own narrow interests.

New Ministers for austerity Sinn Féin's fake opposition to austerity will be further exposed in the coming period. After months of grandstanding on the issue, in the ‘Fresh Start’ agreement, they handed the Tories the power to implement their so-called ‘welfare reform’. Now, 'Entrepreneur' Máirtín Ó Muilleoir's role as Finance

Minister will be to out-Tory the Tories – making up to 20,000 public sector workers redundant and overseeing the cut to corporation tax which all the main parties championed, transferring hundreds of millions directly from public services to the profits of big business.

By appointing Paul Givan – architect of the so-called 'conscience clause', which would legalise discrimination – as Minister for Communities, the DUP are making a provocative statement that they will continue to trample on the rights of the LGBT community and the wishes of the large majority by abusing the Petition of Concern mechanism to block marriage equality. We need to build a movement to demand that he is removed from this office. It is true that he would likely be replaced by another dinosaur, but the act of forcing him from office would be a blow against bigotry and be an important assist in the fight for equality.

Build opposition on the streets The official Opposition of the UUP

socialistpartyni

and SDLP offer no alternative. They support the same right-wing economic agenda and represent the same politics of division. The SDLP made a mockery of its claim to be a party of 'civil rights' when it helped block abortion even in the most difficult circumstances of fatal foetal abnormality and sexual crime.

Meanwhile, Alliance is incapable of uniting communities because it champions austerity measures – such as water charges and a hike in tuition fees – which create the social conditions in which sectarianism breeds.

The election of People Before Profit and Green Party representatives to Stormont reflects the growing alienation for the sectarian, backward and right-wing status quo.

These parties can make an important impact if they act as a genuinely anti-sectarian and anti-austerity opposition. However, opposition to the Executive’s cuts and archaic social policies will have to primarily come from outside Stormont, through cross-community campaigns in the streets, colleges and workplaces. The trade union move-

ment’s leadership must abandon its failed policy of social partnership with the Executive and begin rebuilding a co-ordinated fightback based on mass demonstrations and industrial action.

Labour Alternative The Socialist Party launched Labour Alternative alongside other trade union and community activists to provide a genuinely cross-community, left alternative in the Assembly elections. Our three young candidates – drawn from both Protestant and Catholic communities – won the largest left and labour movement votes in their constituencies in decades. This is an important beginning to building a genuinely anti-sectarian and fighting working class force. Labour Alternative will be front and centre in supporting and assisting the struggles of workers and young people going forward. If you want to be part of the fightback, get involved today!

US Elections: Political polarisation deepens

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Join the Socialist Party Text ‘Join’ to 07821058319

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June 2016

THE SOCIALIST

news

Drilling begins in Woodburn Forest

By Donal O’Cofaigh Fermanagh Against Fracking

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ooDbUrN ForeST reservoir feeds the strategically important Dorisland Water Works which provides water to 131,000 people in belfast, Larne, Carrickfergus, Newtownabbey and Whitehead.

As such, you might think that the risk of contaminating that water supply might give rise to some concerns among statutory agencies and government departments. If so, you’d be wrong. For it is precisely within the water catchment for this reservoir that the first drilling for hydrocarbons in Northern Ireland has started, on forestry land leased by oil and gas exploration company Infrastrata from Northern Ireland Water.

While campaigners have raised significant concerns that drilling for oil in the area poses a significant contamination risk to the water table, the Department of Environment has not conducted any risk assessments. Instead, exploratory drilling has proceeded without any environmental or health impact screening by being considered as ‘permitted development’ on the site – basically a loophole in planning policy which means no such assessment is

Protests are ongoing at the Woodburn drilling site

required.

While the same loophole has been targeted elsewhere in the UK, it has not proved necessary in North Yorkshire where the Torydominated council voted through exploratory deep-well drilling to frack for gas, despite overwhelming local public opposition. This will be the first fracking exploration well in a few years since setbacks in planning application refusals in a number of councils in 2015.

We can be assured that Infrastrata will report a multi-billion oil find in Carrickfergus, promising tens of thousands of jobs .

That will be front-page news and the implicit threat of huge legal costs should anything limit the company’s profits (a situation already occurring in the case of Tamboran who were halted from fracking in Belcoo) will offer Stormont Ministers the excuse to do nothing.

The campaign against drilling in

Labour holds its ground, Blairites disappointed

Woodburn has been very active and held large meetings in the area. It has focussed largely on legal challenges to oppose the drilling – unfortunately, this approach has been unsuccessful.

By comparison, campaigners in Belcoo focussed for three years to build public awareness on fracking: information meetings in villages and even sought to use the G8 Summit in Enniskillen to focus on the issue. When the drillers landed, the community were already well-

TUC Must Follow Example

By Andrew Farley

he LAboUr Party came out of May’s local elections better than expected, despite predictions of doom from the party’s right-wing. It’s true that Labour suffered a serious defeat in Scotland, due to the SNP’s posturing as an anti-austerity force, but in england they managed to keep control of their 58 councils. They lost 18 council seats overall, a small loss in comparison to the 150 to 200 predicted by some analysts. This didn’t fit in to the narrative of the right-wing media and blairites in the party, who have openly campaigned against Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership since his election in September 2015.

The challenges Corbyn faced during this election campaign shouldn’t be underestimated. The hostility he faces within his own party as well as from the political establishment elsewhere is overwhelming, and this time it manifested itself as accusations of antisemitism.

Following a Guido Fawkes article about a historic Facebook post made by MP Naz Shah, the antisemitism issue came to dominate coverage of the election campaign.

This suited the Blairites perfectly. Doubtless, many MPs and other Labour grandees were hoping the party would be decimated in the elections. This would have given them the ammunition they needed

On 26 April, doctors engaged in the first ever all-out strike in the history of the NHS. Joint protests by the British Medical Association (BMA) and the National Union of Teachers (NUT) brought thousands to the streets in opposition to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt's imposition of a new contract on junior doctors and Tory plans for forced academisation.

The Health Secretary's new contract would have an increased working hours for junior doctors for less pay. It is evident that the goal of the Tory government is to allow the NHS to fail in order to provide justification for further privatisation.

One way of doing this would be by cutting the wages of health workers, making privatisation a more appetising prospect for corporations. Last year, the number of contracts allocated to the private sector rose by 500%.

However, Jeremy Hunt has been forced to backtrack on his closed door policy towards junior doctors and a deal has now been proposed. This would not be the case were it not for mass opposition and activism of health staff and the public. The success of the junior doctors

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party defied the expectations of the media

to call for Corbyn’s resignation.

The right-wing’s line of argument has always been that Corbyn is unelectable. His socialist policies are extremist positions that would take the party back instead of forward.

They call for the Labour Party to go back to the centre ground, and argue that only more moderate policies can appeal to voters.

But of course these are largely the same group of people who supported the ‘moderate’ policies of Tony Blair, the invasion of Iraq, hand-outs to big business and attacks on welfare. No matter how much they talk about sensible policies and the centre ground, it’s clear what direction they would take Labour.

In reality, ‘New’ Labour’s brand of neoliberalism is what is now unelectable. Throughout the Blair years and later under Brown and Miliband, it became clear that Labour was another party of the 1% and had no relevance to ordi-

nary people. This was reflected in the surge of new members who enthusiastically rushed to join the party to elect Corbyn, who won on a platform of left-wing, anti-austerity policies.

Since being elected, however, Corbyn has shown himself willing to compromise with the right of the party. Whether through his support of the EU, which he openly opposed in the past, or through his allowing of a free vote on the bombing of Syria, this is a tactic that’s clearly not going to work. The Blairites can’t be conciliated with and are unwilling to compromise. The only way the Labour Party can really move forward again is if Corbyn mobilises his popular support in a meaningful way to take on the rightwing, initiating mandatory reselection of elected representatives so the Blairites can be removed and replaced with people willing to genuinely fight in the interests of workers and young people.

informed.

The popular response in Belcoo involved almost every person in the village and extended quickly to include those in neighbouring communities thereby becoming fully cross-community. The community provided a 24 hour presence at the site – supported by activists from further afield.

Teachers from local schools brought whole classes to get involved. Frail pensioners walked hand-in-hand up hills to attend protests and rallies at the gates.

Well-attended daily meetings were held in community buildings to coordinate the response and deal with problems. The cross-community involvement was so strong that the local DUP councillor publicly broke ranks to oppose the fracking promoted for three years by his own colleague Arlene Foster.

The Ministers were left with little choice but to back down.

No doubt the frackers will be back in Belcoo and the battle will have to be rejoined but lessons should be learned. Only mass mobilisation – not individual acts of direct action – organised by democratic community campaigns and including publicised plans for mass civil disobedience can force politicians to make the back down and defeat the oil and gas industry.

Doctors & teachers force tories back

By Ryan McNally

T

Mass Mobilisation is key to victory

demonstrates that organised resistance and determined struggle can bring about change by putting pressure on politicians. Threats by the NUT to ballot their members caused the Tory government to backpedal on their plans for forced academisation by 2022. A strike vote is still a possibility, however, given that Education Minister Nicky Morgan still plans to implement her academy programme.

At the BMA-NUT march in April, the civil service union PCS called for the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to organise a national day of action in support of the junior doctors. Against the interests of those they claim to represent, the TUC did not act on this proposal.

It is clear from recent events that now is the time to act and build momentum. The gains made by the junior doctors in solidarity with other workers clearly shows that victory can be achieved if we stand together against a weak and divided Tory government. The TUC should mobilise the trade unions and help to create a mass movement in opposition to austerity.

The Tories and their detrimental policies can be defeated, but only if we cooperate and actively fight them.

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June 2016

THE SOCIALIST

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eAFLeTS Are now falling through our letterboxes and advertisements are appearing to inform us that the welfare system in Northern Ireland is ‘changing’. This is a direct consequence of the Fresh Start Agreement, where the DUP and Sinn Féin handed the Tories the power to implement their ‘welfare reform’ programme directly.

After grandstanding on the issue of welfare reform for months, Sinn Féin – like Pontius Pilate – washed their hands of responsibility for the cuts. They will boast that they have secured £585 million to mitigate against the impact of these cuts over the next four years.

However, this still falls far short of

the estimated cost of the cuts. Sinn Féin themselves estimated that £122 million per year would be lost by claimants in just two of the North’s eighteen constituencies, Foyle and Upper Bann. This represents a dramatic retreat for the party’s previous position that no one would lose out!

When these measures run out in four years – rather than the six originally agreed at Stormont House – nothing is guaranteed and the full impact of these attacks on welfare are likely to be felt. The evidence is there as to the effect it will have. A recent report in Britain found 590 extra suicides, 279,000 extra cases of mental ill-health and 725,000 more prescriptions for anti-depressants associated with the contro-

Force Paul Givan out – fight for LGBT equality!

Sinn Fein protesting against cuts they are now implementing

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OUr New Minister for Communities Paul Givan was a key architect of the DUP’s proposed ‘conscience clause’, aimed at amending our equality laws to allow religious business owners to refuse services to LGBT customers. It is a blatant attempt to enshrine a right to discriminate into law and drive society backwards.

Last year on the Nolan Show, Givan refused to even clarify whether gay sex should be legal, insisting in a TV interview: “I’m not going to give you entertainment value. My personal opinions actually don’t count.” Part of his remit will be to look after equality issues what a calculated insult to LGBT people in Northern Ireland! The DUP are sending out a clear message that they will continue to abuse the Petition of Concern to block marriage equality, despite support from a clear majority both in society and the Assembly.

We should demand that Givan steps down and send a message to the DUP that this arrogant disregard for people’s rights will not be tolerated.

More importantly, we need to get organised to fight for full LGBT equality. 20,000 people marching for marriage equality in Belfast last year has had an effect. If has forced a number of MLAs to changed their position and vote for marriage equality.

Building a stronger grassroots movement can force even the DUP back. The fact that Jim Wells was forced to resign as Health Minister after making disgusting homophobic comments shows they are not immune from pressure. The Socialist Party & Socialist Youth have been active in building the Fight4Equality campaign to mobilise people against Stormont’s backward social policies.

To get involved, email: fight4equalityni@gmail.com

versial ‘work capability assessments’ between 2010 and 2013.

Crucially, the £585 million is not new money from the British and Irish governments. Rather, it is to come from cuts to other Stormont departmental budgets, including from the discretionary social fund which provides loans for urgent, essential spending to people on benefits. Cuts are simply being moved around rather than wiped out. Austerity is austerity, whatever public services are targeted.

This demonstrates that Sinn Féin’s opposition to austerity is hollow. They are not potential allies, as some trade union leaders believe, but a party which is willing to go along with brutal attacks on working class communities.

Day centres campaign rattles politicians and management

By Pat Lawlor NIPSA Belfast Health Branch organisers (personal capacity)

Homophobic Givan should be removed as Minister for Communities

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Welfare cuts on the way despite grandstanding

T IS without doubt the Save our Day Centres Campaign to keep open facilities for people with mental health problems and learning difficulties across belfast has been nothing short of an overwhelming success.

During the last six months, service users, carers, staff, trade union activists and supporters have embarrassed, humiliated and rattled the belfast Trust executive. What was considered a done deal, to be easily implemented by senior Trust management, has become a Pr disaster, as they have been forced to delay the proposals until after the Assembly election.

With little or no mainstream media attention, the campaign has transcended all limitations. It has engaged thousands of local people across Belfast and beyond. Over 16,000 people have signed the

petition to stop the closures through organising local public awareness stalls and attending events such as International Women’s Day and May Day rallies in Belfast.

Local MLAs from the majority of the Executive parties fell over themselves during the election to tag their name to the campaign.

But when challenged, the majority refused to give a commitment to do all in their power to stop the proposals going through. When senior Sinn Féin MLAs Fra McCann and Pat Sheehan were challenged what Sinn Féin would do if they took up the Health Minister portfolio, they gave a commitment that they would stop the proposals in their tracks. The campaign must now demand that Sinn Féin honour that commitment, but should take nothing for granted and maintain the pressure.

This campaign gives a template of what can be achieved when a coordinated, principled fightback is carried out across all sections of

our communities, supported by the trade union movement. Only this uncompromising and challenging approach to the austerity of the Fresh Start Agreement will safeguard our essential public services.

Resist library cuts By a Belfast Library worker

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TorMoNT AUSTerITy cuts are forcing yet another cut in libraries. This time, the 14 largest libraries are to have their opening hours cut from 54 to 45 hours per week. This is the fifth year in a row that libraries have had their budget cut. Last year, there were 3 separate rounds of cuts. This ''death by a thousand cuts'' is designed to deflect attention by not introducing massive library cuts in one go. but the end result will be the same - a very small library service.

Remember - these cuts are all to balance the books after the government bailed out the bankers with billions of pounds of our (taxpayers’) money!

These cuts do not reflect the needs of communities. On the contrary, library use is increasing, possibly due to increased unemployment. Working class communities especially need libraries - as a community hub, for reading/literacy, for internet access. The poorest families don't have internet access at home and are dependent on libraries. This is especially important as so many job adverts and applications are online now.

Many of the threatened libraries – including Finaghy, Carrickfergus and Lisburn – have been recently refurbished or recently built.

Where is the sense in cutting their hours now?

Before the recent Stormont elections, the DUP, Sinn Féin, UUP, SDLP and Alliance all voted through these

cuts. None defended the needs of the working class to have decent local libraries. Ordinary workers and library users should protest and put pressure on the DUP and Sinn Féin to cancel these budget cuts and defend libraries. How can either of these parties claim to represent ordinary workers and yet support these cuts?

Local Labour Alternative activists have launched campaigns to resist these cuts in Finaghy, Carrickfergus and Enniskillen. A public consultation is ongoing until 17th July. This gives us an opportunity to put pressure on library management and the politicians.

If you want to get involved in fighting these cuts, email: info@labouralternative.org

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June 2016

THE SOCIALIST

news

NIPSA Conference 2016 – Serious challenges ahead T

whenever and wherever they take a stand, support other trade unionists when they resist austerity and assist community and campaigning groups in their efforts to protect services and communities.

Ultimately, however, widespread and co-ordinated action will be necessary to really challenge austerity.

By Patrick Mulholland

hIS yeAr’S NIPSA conference comes at a very important time. The new executive, now entirely dominated by the DUP and Sinn Féin, are pushing ahead with their plans to make 20,000 public sector workers redundant.

The next four years will see more cuts, pursued by both the Tory government and the Executive. If the Tories, the DUP and Sinn Féin get their way, the public sector will be stripped to the bone and those of us who remain will be stretched to beyond breaking point trying to meet the needs of our communities.

Over the last two years, NIPSA – under the leadership of a NIPSA Broad Left (BL) majority on the General Council – has played an important role in arguing for the need for the trade unions to struggle to stop austerity. NIPSA and other unions pushed the NIC-ICTU to call the one day public sector strike in March 2015– and NIPSA was the only union that argued for

No links with sectarian parties

NIPSA must take a resolute stand against “Fresh Start” austerity

the naming of a second day of strike action in May. NIPSA has provided a loud voice of opposition to the Fresh Start Agreement, including at the recent NIC-ICTU conference.

NIPSA Broad Left will be a minority on the General Council over the coming year, and we do not believe that the incoming

majority group will take the resolute stand that is necessary. This will not stop Broad Left and Socialist Party members making the case for action to stop the cuts at all levels in the union, from the General Council to the branches. It is necessary to build resistance to the cuts carefully and patiently.

NIPSA must support its members

Some in the union movement, including some in the leadership of our union, have no real intention of resisting the cuts but instead would like to reach agreements with the Executive. NIPSA Broad Left has been fundamental in opposing the push by some leading officials for greater links between the trade unions and the sectarian parties in the Assembly. The trade unions are the biggest movement (with 220,000 members) that unite Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland – we cannot allow that unity to be destroyed by union leaders who support part-

nership with the likes of Sinn Féin and the DUP. The main political parties in Northern Ireland are based in one or other community only and are dependent on continuing sectarian division. Their words and actions cement division. Trade unions have to deal with these parties in various ways but should never form links, no matter how loose, with such parties. To do so risks the unity of the trade union movement.

That does not mean that we ignore politics. There is no such thing as non-political trade unionism. Every trade union has to deal with a wide range of political, economic and social issues affecting its members on a daily basis.

NIPSA is no different. We are the largest union in Northern Ireland and we are on the frontline of the fight against austerity. In order to defend our members and public services, we need to move in the direction of adopting a political fund. Until we do so we are held back in our ability to fight for all that matters to us.

No for-profit universities Bring Leisure Services back in-house

By David Adair

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ON 25 & 26 May, members of the University & Colleges Union took strike action across the UK to demand a 5% pay rise, an end to increasing casualisation of the profession and real action to tackle the ongoing gender pay gap. Since 2009, lecturers have seen their real pay fall by 14.9%.

Increasingly, universities are being corporatised – meaning they are becoming run like forprofit businesses rather than as public bodies focussed on providing educational opportunities and encouraging the pursuit of knowledge. Nowhere is this more clear than at Queen’s University. We have recently seen a wave of redundancies.

Under the proposals of the new ‘Institutional Size & Shape Review’, academic staff will be placed under increased pressure to attract outside research funding or face losing their jobs. This will inevitably have a negative impact on teaching.

Entrance qualifications are also set to rise, various courses are to be merged and two degrees

are to be cut.

The Students’ Union held a Special General Meeting on 11 May which overwhelmingly rejected these proposals and was followed by a teach-in protest in the Lanyon Building, which has since been followed up with further action.

Queen’s management have long been outspoken proponents of corporatisation and have openly called for tuition fees to rise sharply. They are not alone, however.

Alliance’s Stephen Farry – former Minister for Employment & Learning – implemented deep cuts in further and higher education and proposed that fees could rise to as much as £9,000 per year. This would discourage people from working class backgrounds from going to university.

We can be sure that the Tories and the new Assembly Executive will continue the attacks on higher education. We need a united struggle of staff and students to resist cuts and corporatisation and demand free and fully-funded education, run in the interests of society, not profit.

N JANUAry 2015, control over the day-to-day running of leisure centres across belfast passed into the hands of Greenwich Leisure Ltd (GLL).

Although widely criticised by workers and their respective trade unions, as well as members of the public, belfast City Council ignored all calls for the services to remain in-house and pushed the deal through.

Although promises were made to retain the same level of service and professionalism, in the months since the takeover, staff have become increasingly worried by the undermining of health and safety due to unsafe staffing levels and the low standard of training provided to new employees. At the time GLL took control, promises were also made to keep all employees on their current NILGOSC (local government) pension scheme and that this would also be offered to future employees. However, it has now come to light that those employed after the changeover are being offered a lower quality private pension in place of this and were initially offered no pension at all.

On 24th May, after a ballot by Unite the Union saw 97% of returned ballots in favour of strike action, workers across all the Belfast sites stood on picket lines demanding that the health and safety concerns be immediately corrected and that all staff, regardless of when they were hired, have the same rights in regards to pensions. While some centres were forced to close for the day management forced the opening of others.

With already dangerous staffing levels in place, GLL decided to push ahead with business as usual, placing profit before the safety of those few who decided to use their

premises on that day. With GLL refusing to budge, further days of action are likely, with NIPSA possibly balloting their members on joining their Unite colleagues.

The Socialist Party calls for Belfast City Council to immediately bring leisure services across Belfast back in house. With the council owning and maintaining the eleven centres, plus investing

£105 million as part of their 10year leisure transformation programme, it makes little sense, financial or otherwise, to allow a private entity to maintain control.

We demand the council act to retain full control over their services, restore staffing levels and training to a safe level and ensure all employees receive access to the previously agreed pension scheme.

SP Graham: end poverty pay!

By Conner Smith workers at SP Graham bookmakers went on strike to coincide with the Cheltenham festival, the second largest race day in the year. They did so because, despite SP Graham’s highly profitable turnover, they still continue to pay their workers a poverty wage, only 9 pence over the legal limit. Davy McMurray, Unite official, stated “even at this late stage we are asking management to share some of the company’s success and become a fully accredited living wage employer”

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June 2016

THE SOCIALIST

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By Ann Orr

T The time of writing, the dust is still settling on the formation of the new Stormont cabinet. Arlene Foster has been successful in keeping her post as First Minister and two women – Claire Sugden and Michelle o’Neill – have been appointed as Ministers for the Department of Justice and Department of health respectively. This surely is a first for Northern Ireland but unfortunately, it is not set to change the appalling situation which means women here are prevented from controlling their own bodies due to the archaic abortion laws dating back to 1861.

Arlene Foster has repeatedly made her position and that of her party crystal clear – she and the DUP are “pro-life”. Claire Sugden, in a speech in the Assembly on International Women’s Day, declared 2016 “the year for women in Northern Ireland”. Yet, when it comes to the right women should have to control their own bodies, Sugden’s position leaves much to be desired – she voted against allowing abortions in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities.

While Michelle O’Neill voted in favour of this bill, Sinn Féin has also made it

Sugden and Foster, new Justice Minister and First Minister

Women are still denied the right to choose in Northern Ireland

Ban on ‘legal highs’ won’t tackle underlying problem

abundantly clear that they are not a pro-choice party and do not support the extension of the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland.

However, both Sinn Féin and Claire Sugden have taken stances in favour of marriage equality.

Hopefully, the Assembly can be given the necessary push to correct its glaring failures in this regard and bring Northern Ireland in line with legislation in the rest of Ireland and Britain. But this will not happen unless these politicians and those of other parties are put under serious pressure from below.

When it comes to abortion rights, three other women have shown far more leadership than these leading female politicians.

Diana King, Collette Devlin and Kitty O’Kane have taken the brave step to hand themselves into the PSNI for having helped others procure abortion tablets. As they themselves have pointed out, these medicines are on the World Health Organisation’s list of essential medicines but cannot be legally accessed by women seeking terminations in Northern Ireland unless they fit the current and extremely restrictive criteria.

Their action was also taken in response to a young woman having been prosecuted and sentenced for taking these medicines to termi-

nate a pregnancy. Our laws have to change. These three courageous women must be supported and applauded. Actions like these, as well as protests such as the one held at Queen’s University when Arlene Foster was invited to speak on “women, leadership and peace building”, are vital in building support for the pro-choice movement and in putting public pressure on Stormont.

Official figures published recently showed that over 800 women travelled from Northern Ireland to England or Wales in 2015 to terminate a pregnancy. The real figure is likely to be higher and does not include women who have medical terminations by accessing tablets illegally. We can therefore easily say, that the outdated laws in Northern Ireland directly affect over 1,000 women every year. In addition, it is clear that those who cannot afford to travel are being forced into breaking the law. This situation must end.

The recent prosecution has highlighted that we cannot rely on the courts to change things. Instead, we must campaign actively for change through protests and movements on the ground. This will allow us to pull Northern Ireland into 21st century on the issue of women’s rights.

Socialists make impact at students’ conference

By James Campton

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he TrAGIC death of 17-year old Adam owens last year underlined the dangers of socalled ‘legal highs’. As of 26th May, the Psychoactive Substances Act has come into force, a blanket ban on the production, distribution, sale and supply of such substances. These substances, which mimic the effects of already banned A and b Class drugs, destroy the lives of vulnerable people by creating a drug compulsion that leads to a breakdown of personal relationships and so leaves the already disadvantaged without any means of support.

Socialists support a ban on the supply of untested psychoactive substances, at least until their effects are understood, although we oppose the criminalisation of drug users. Drug abuse should be treated as a health and social care issue. The failure of Stormont and the Tory government to invest properly in our addiction services means that a blanket ban will not solve this problem. Upper Springfield & Whiterock addiction centre – aiding 4,000 individuals last year through counselling services for mental health and addiction – as well as the Railway Street addiction centre in Ballymena have suffered significant cuts, while FASA on the Shankill Road was forced to close due to lack of funds.

The crudeness of blanket bans failure to acutely challenge the

Laughing gas is used by more and more young people as a “legal high”

roots of drug abuse is highlighted by the experience of the Republic of Ireland - since 2010, it has only resulted in only 4 convictions, whilst failing to deal with chronic drug problems in many working class communities. Meanwhile, poverty has increased in the South two-fold since 2008, which pushes people towards substance abuse to escape the blight of reality.

We as must oppose the ‘war on drugs’ approach and recognise it for what it is – a deliberate act of capitalist governments to

demonise those who are gripped by substance abuse, to divert attention from massive social disintegration caused by their neo-liberal policies. So called “legal highs” are a ruinous blight on society.

However, the solution is not criminalisation but fighting to ensure that people who are gripped by these awful drugs get the treatment they deserve through supporting investment in addiction centres and challenging endemic poverty by fighting for well-paid, stable jobs.

MeMBerS Of Socialist Youth attended the annual Conference of NUS-USI – the students’ movement in Northern Ireland – in April as delegates from their various colleges.

Belfast Met Students’ Union – where Socialist Youth members play a leading role – put three important motions on the agenda, all of which were passed.

The first motion called on the students’ movement to reject the austerity measures contained in the ‘Fresh Start’ agreement between the DUP, Sinn Féin and the British and Irish governments. Crucially, the motion also committed NUS-USI to work with the trade unions to build co-ordinated opposition to these cuts and attacks.

The second motion called for support for the campaign against the drilling taking place

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Women in top positions but rights still denied

at Woodburn near Carrickfergus while the third called for solidarity and support for the rights of refugees fleeing war and oppression in the Middle East.

Now, the key is to ensure that these motions are translated into meaningful action.

Unfortunately, in the recent past, the NUS-USI leadership has failed to live up to the wishes of its members, as expressed at Conference. For example, the 2013 Conference clearly called for action to resist any cuts to EMA, yet the leadership subsequently acquiesced to the cuts put forward by Alliance Minister Stephen Farry.

If NUS-USI provides a serious leadership which has a strategy for resisting the attacks on the rights of students and young people, it can become a powerful force for change. Socialist Youth members will be at the forefront of this struggle.

June 2016

THE SO

special feature

6

EU Refer

BreAk froM the BoSSeS’ eU – f

Six reasons to Vote ‘Leave’

I

n the establishment media, the eU referendum has been reduced to a clash between different wings of the tory party.

It’s Cameron vs Johnson, they say – two old etonians. Many working class people are no doubt worried about the prospect of leaving the eU but socialists believe it is necessary to break with this capitalist institution. Since its formation, the eU was designed to further the interests of the european capitalist classes at the expense of working class people. here are six reason why you should vote to leave the eU. 1. the eu is neo-liberal & pro-austerity The ‘Troika’ of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund have waged class war on the people of Europe, driving an austerity agenda which has had horrific humanitarian consequences. After years of crippling austerity, SYRIZA came to power in Greece with a mandate to end austerity. This was arrogantly dismissed by Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, who stated, “There can be no democratic choice against the European treaties.”

Then, in the referendum on 5 July 2015, a magnificent 61% people voted ‘Oxi’ to a new austerity deal despite the blackmail of the Troika.

What happened next was described

by Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek Finance Minister, as “terrorism” and by an EU official as “extensive mental waterboarding.”’ The EU responded by threatening an immediate banking crisis by cutting off access to liquidity.

The Greek government capitulated and billions more austerity measures have been imposed on the country’s people. SYRIZA are now responsible for imposing austerity primarily because they didn’t have a programme that was prepared to break with the framework of the EU and capitalism itself.

2. the eu is undemocratic These events show how the politics of austerity is institutionalised into the EU by successive treaties and pacts. Restrictions are placed on government deficits, public spending and national budgets are “monitored”. The so-called Fiscal Stability Treaty states that government deficits must not exceed 3% of GDP and public debt must not exceed 60% of GDP. This effectively renders not just socialist policies but also

Keynesian and social democratic measures illegal This will have real consequences for left governments elected anywhere in Europe, including a Corbynled government in Britain. If Corbyn was to implement the popular policies which saw him elected as Labour leader – such as nationalisation of the railways and energy companies – he would find himself in a confrontation with the EU, whose laws and directives forbid such actions. Even to stop the dismantling of the NHS would mean violating EU competition laws.

The idea of “People’s Quantitative Easing” proposed by John McDonnell would be illegal under EU treaties. It is, therefore, in the view of the Socialist Party, a mistake for Corbyn and Labour to support remaining in the European Union

3. fortress europe: Blood on eu’s hands It may have won a Noble Prize and boast about free movement of people, but the EU’s appalling treatment of refugees fleeing for their lives from Syria and elsewhere makes this a sick joke. Over 50% of Syria’s population are displaced. Tens of thousands have died trying to enter Europe, in the hope of escaping the barbarism of war and dictatorships.

Despite a wave of solidarity with the refugees from ordinary people, the EU now plans to establish a border agency which will act to reinforce its racist migration policy.

Member states have been guilty of human rights abuses, often egged on

by EU Ministers. For example, the Greek Migration Minister Yiannis Mouzalas claims that at one EU meeting he was told to "push" migrants "back in the sea”, with a Belgium representative saying, “I don’t care if you drown them.”

The EU has agreed a dirty deal with the increasingly dictatorial regime of Turkey. Now, NATO ships are stopping people fleeing across the Mediterranean to Greece.

Refugees arriving in Greece are to be sent back to Turkey. In return, a

regime that is waging a war on the Kurdish people and is repressing any dissenting voices within its borders will receive funding from the EU and have its EU accession-bid considered.

4. the eu promotes militarism The refugee crisis flows from the chaos caused by Western military intervention in the Middle East.

While David Cameron recently claimed that the EU is about securing peace, the reality is very different.

Millions of people have died in imperialist wars created by EU powers.

The EU has also acted to fund the armaments industry and demanded that member states spend large amounts of public money on the military, while demanding more and more austerity.

At the same time it pushes for more military cooperation. The EU ‘battlegroups’ are an initiative aimed at promoting the integration of national armed forces and providing the EU with an independent military capability. They are supposed to be the ‘rapid response’ force of the EU and have been used in military adventures across the world.

5. ttiP: a bosses’ charter If all this isn’t bad enough, the EU is in secret negotiations with the US to launch the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This ‘free trade’ agreement is about promoting privatisation and reducing regulation of corporate activity. War on Want estimates the deal could cost almost a million jobs.

Public services, especially the NHS, are in the firing line. One of the main aims of TTIP is to open up Europe’s public health, education and water services to US companies.

This could essentially mean the privatisation of the NHS. The deal also will see the creation of unaccountable corporate courts which will allow multinationals to sue governments when there bottom line is threatened by regulations.

This ‘Investor-State Dispute Settlement’ mechanism (ISDS) has already been introduced in other free trade agreements and used by US company Lone Pine to sue Canada for the ban on fracking in Quebec.

French company Veolia is suing the Egyptian government for loss of profits as a result of the country’s decision to raise the minimum wage.

6. Bring down the tory government A vote to leave will undermine the Tory government. As one Tory MP put it, “As the debate on the EU referendum intensifies, so do the possibilities for a split in the Conservative Party.” Despite the bravado, this was always a weak government – supported by only 24% of the electorate and with a parliamentary majority of

just 12. The Financial Times estimated that Cameron has been forced into 20 u-turns since last year’s general election, including on the junior doctors’ contract, on tax credits and on privatisation of schools. Losing a

vote on such a key issue for capitalism can be the final nail in the coffin, forcing Cameron from office and creating a crisis for the Tories.

Jeremy Corbyn and Labour are missing a golden opportunity to

Defend workers’ rights: Op M

oST LeADerS of the trade union movement have, unfortunately, decided to support David Cameron’s campaign to stay in the eU. In britain, Trades Union Congress (TUC) leaders have been very vocal in defending the eU. In a 'better Together in europe' leaflet, current TUC General Secretary Frances o'Grady is quoted alongside right-wing figures such as Virgin’s richard branson and bank of england Governor Mark Carney . her predecessor, brendan barber, went one further and co-authored an article with David Cameron.

Closer to home, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions is also advocating a vote to remain.

They claim that there is a “social Europe”, but the reality, of course, that is there is an “austerity Europe”.

They claim that staying in the EU will defend jobs – but, in fact, the opposite is true. The EU prides itself on the free movement of capital which means many jobs going to eastern Europe as bosses search for cheap labour. EU competition directives ban governments from saving jobs by nationalising industry, as Corbyn has demanded for the steel industry.

Union leaders also claim that the EU acts as a check on the Tories and even that it has granted us various rights. However, the British government already has opt-outs to many relatively progressive EU employment laws such as the Working Time Directive. Other EU employment

regulations such as the Posted Workers’ Directive – which allows migrant workers to be paid less than the legal minimum in their host country – are designed specifically to drive down wages and undermine trade union rights. In 2009, this Directive was used in an attempt to undermine conditions for construction workers at Lindsay Oil Refinery, provoking a series of strikes.

Similarly, in December 2007, the European Court of Justice delivered a crushing blow to trade unions when, in the Viking and Laval decisions, it decided that the right of businesses to freedom of establishment must take priority over the right of trade unions to take industrial action to safeguard the inter-

June 2016

OCIALIST

fIght for A SoCIALISt eUroPe FAQ: Socialists & the EU NO DOUBT, some readers of The Socialist will have questions regarding the eU referendum.

Here, we try and answer some of the most common concerns.

Won’t uKiP and the far-right gain from a Brexit?

bring down Cameron’s government by failing to advocate a ‘leave’ vote and campaigning independently for a working-class, socialist alternative, as Corbyn did in the 1975 referendum. Nonetheless, this is an opportu-

nity for working class people to give their verdict on this hated government and fight for left-wing government that can break with the austerity agenda.

ppose the bosses’ EU

Many working class and young people will vote ‘Remain’ because of an understandable fear that a ‘Leave’ vote would mainly benefit UKIP and lead to a strengthening of racism and anti-immigrant sentiment and policies.

But UKIP has gained ground and has been expressing its racist politics while the UK is in the EU. The status quo is clearly not working to combat this. In fact, the racist policies of the EU - which continues to deport thousands of refugees from Greece to Turkey - are contributing to gains for the far-right across Europe.

The ground for UKIP to grow is provided not by Brexit but by vicious austerity, repulsion towards the political establishment and a deep desire for working class people to take control of their own lives and have the chance of a different type of society.

UKIP doesn’t represent this alternative - it is yet another party of big business whose politicians vote for cuts to jobs and services, just like the other capitalist parties. Polls have consistently shown UKIP voters are more likely than average to support nationalisation of the railways and utility companies and other pro-worker policies.

The way to undermine UKIP’s support is, therefore, to build an alternative capable of actually achieving this kind of policy, dispel anti-immigrant myths and answer the fears of working class people about how best to defend their jobs and services. This requires building a strong, united movement against austerity which could cut across racial division and bring about real change to ordinary people’s lives. Why would such a movement opt to give a vote of confidence to an institution that is fundamentally opposed to these aims?

could we not stay in and reform the eu?

The EU has almost no mechanisms of democratic accountability, with central decision making in the hands of the European Council – the heads of government of the 28 member states – and an increasingly powerful, unelected European Commission.

Those running them are contemptuous of democracy. Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström’s attitude to anti-TTIP campaigners sums this up: “I do not take

ests of their members. British Airways bosses used the ruling to stop the BALPA pilots’ union striking against plans to set up a subsidiary with worse terms and conditions.

More fundamentally, our rights were not granted from on high by benevolent EU leaders but won from below by workers’ struggle. It’s misleading for trade union leaders to claim otherwise. A jewel in the crown of EU employment law is the Equal Pay Directive, which formally guarantees equal pay for women.

This was won first by the mass strikes in France after World War II. Later, the French government demanded equal pay be included in the Treaty of Rome as they feared

being at a trade disadvantage.

However, it was only much later that this law was enforced across Europe, again following the heroic strikes of women munitions workers in Belgium, Ford workers in Britain and countless others in the decades that followed.

The Socialist Party believe it is a mistake for trade union and labour leaders to support the bosses’ EU and echo the fearmongering of the political establishment. Instead, they should follow the example of unions like the RMT transport union, which is prepared to tell its members the truth about the EU and organise to defend its members conditions through serious industrial action.

my mandate from the European people.”

The elected European Parliament is little more than a rubber stamp without the ability to initiate legislation. The majority of MEPs are at the beck and call of an army of 20,000 corporate lobbyists.

The only reforms we are seeing from the EU are right-wing counter-reforms. Cameron has been granted more reactionary opt-outs for Britain, in particular in relation to restrictions on immigrants and social welfare rights. The model of Europe that the EU favours favour is a more “competitive” Europe with less regulation – i.e. more exploitation and fewer rights for workers. It is this EU that we are being asked to vote ‘Yes’ to.

Will leaving the eu undermine the peace process?

Like in the recent Scottish Independence referendum, the approach of the establishment has been to unleash “Project Fear.” This is reflected in claims that leaving the EU would undermine the ‘peace process’ in Northern Ireland’. This has been the argued by Peter Mandelson, Enda Kenny and Martin McGuiness, but it is simply not credible. A ‘Brexit’ will not mean a “hard border” between the North and the South, nor does leaving the EU mean the scrapping of the Human Rights Act, which is not connected to EU membership.

The truth is that the “peace process” is based on institutionalising and maintaining sectarian division, rather than breaking down the barriers between our communities. While Orange and Green politicians routinely intervene to sectarianise issues, including this referendum, working class people have historically mobilised to prevent a return to conflict. That is the only power we can rely upon, not the EU or any other outside force.

aren’t socialists internationalists?

Yes, but there is nothing genuinely internationalist about the EU. What was internationalist about the EU’s role in Greece? Where is its internationalism when refugees are left to drown in the Mediterranean? The solidarity and internationalism we need is constrained by the EU. Socialists stand for building a different type of Europe - a socialist Europe run by and for the millions, not the millionaires. A Europe of this kind will not be achieved from within the bosses’ EU but by building united movements of workers and young people across the continent in opposition to austerity policies – whether from Brussels or national governments – and attacks from the bosses.

special feature

rendum:

7

8

June2016

analysis

THE SOCIALIST

Assembly e

Main Parties suffer setbacks – How

this is an edited version of a longer article which can be found on socialistpartyni.net

T

he ASSeMbLy elections held on May 5th saw the DUP and Sinn Féin remain the largest parties, further consolidating their position as the main representatives of the Protestant and Catholic communities respectively. The UUP and the SDLP failed to mount significant challenges to their dominance.

These headline results mask very significant developments, however.

There is widespread and profound disillusionment with the failure of the twenty-five year old “peace process” to deliver real change.

Sectarian division has not been overcome, the lot of ordinary working class people has not improved, and the violence which blights working class communities has not gone away. The results of the election reflected this anger.

The turnout of voters in this election fell yet again, and the vote received by all of the five Executive parties declined. Importantly, candidates who stood outside the sectarian camps, to one degree or another, won good votes. The Greens had a very good election, trebling their total vote to over 18,000 and winning a second MLA seat. Most notably, the People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) won seats in West Belfast and Foyle in a result which was the single biggest story of the election.

DUP See off Challenges Within Unionism Large numbers of workers and young people are turning away from the five parties which have formed the Executive for a decade, fed up with the cuts and the lack of progress on issues such as marriage equality and abortion rights. The turnout in Assembly elections has been falling consistently. It fell again in this election, if only by a further 1%. The main parties had reported disinterest or even hostility on the doorsteps.

The main issue in the election was clear for the two main parties whether the DUP or SF would come out top with the most MLAs, and hence with the prize of the post of First Minister. The DUP conducted a presidential style and openly sectarian campaign, calling on Protestants to keep new leader Arlene Foster in the First Minister’s chair and to prevent Martin McGuinness from replacing her. They made sure to consolidate their core vote by promising to use their ability as the largest party of Unionism to block equal rights for gay people for another five years.

These tactics allowed the DUP to see off a challenge from its right in the guise of the hard-line Traditional Unionist Voice and UKIP, though together these parties did win a notinsignificant 34,000 votes compared to the DUP’s 203,000. Both parties are weaker coming out of the election

– the TUV leader Jim Allister remains isolated at Stormont and UKIP are no longer represented there.

The UUP had high hopes of making gains after modest success at the last Westminster and local elections under its new leader Mike Nesbitt.

Instead, it lost votes and came back with exactly the same number of seats. This is a serious setback for them. They have reacted by refusing to take seats in the new Executive and instead going into opposition, a move which will allow it to capitalise on disenchantment in Protestant areas over the next five years.

The UVF-linked PUP also had a bad election, failing to capitalise on its success in winning several council seats in 2014. That year may come in retrospect to be seen as a false dawn for the PUP, but it should not be forgotten that its local election success was propelled by the turmoil around the flag protests and a it could gain a similar impetus in the future depending on events. Young working-class Protestants feel left behind by the peace process. When they look around, all they see is an educational and employment wasteland.

Working class Protestant areas have the worst school exam results and traditional jobs in manufacturing industry have been decimated.

Future eruptions of anger onto the streets are inevitable. These same areas have a proud but half-forgotten tradition of strong trade union organisation and labour and socialist politics. Despite the sneers of sectarian cynics, that tradition has not died and will help provide the bedrock for a new politics which unites Protestant and Catholic workers.

DUP, Sinn Fein and an independent are now the only parties in the Executive

Sinn fein and crossclass alliances Sinn Féin (SF) continued with its well-established all-class alliance approach in the election, asking Catholics to “put Ireland first”. In South Belfast, its candidate was a self-described “entrepreneur” who, without irony, boasted of his business acumen and connections whilst calling for “equality” for all (presumably entrepreneurs are more equal than others).

It did not repeat the mistake of nakedly calling for a vote on a sectarian basis as Gerry Kelly did in North Belfast at the Westminster election but its appeal to voters is simply one to out-vote “the other side”. Sinn Féin tried to capitalise on the centenary of the 1916 Rising through frequent references to the events of 100 years ago in its literature. It called for Catholics to “Join the Rising”.

Despite all its efforts, SF’s vote fell and it lost one seat. Nevertheless, it easily defeated the SDLP, which was unable to halt its decline in both votes and seats. The once dominant SDLP have been going backwards for fifteen years as SF advances its position as the dominant party in the Catholic community. Panic-stricken, it unceremoniously ditched its previous leader six months before the election and installed a new, younger figure, Colm Eastwood. He is deemed by the media to have performed well against SF Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness but the long term decline of the SDLP continues. The logic of sectarian politics is to vote for the candidate who most loudly and robustly represents “your com-

Green Party received anti-austerity votes, but their opposition to austerity is suspect, as seen by their support for water charges

“Sectarian division has not been overcome, the lot of ordinary working class people has not improved, and the violence which blights working class communities has not gone away. the results of the election reflected this anger”

Mike Nesbitt and Colm Eastwood have brought the UUP and SDLP into opposition in Stormont

9

June 2016

THE SOCIALIST

w Do We build a real alternative? munity” and the SDLP find it difficult to out-manoeuvre SF on this count.

Seeking a way out of electoral oblivion, it has now joined the UUP on the opposition benches.

The decline in both SF’s and the SDLP’s vote meant that the total nationalist and republican share of the vote fell. This is difficult for SF, in particular, to explain, given its repeated assertions that Catholics will simply vote Protestants into a united Ireland in time. When challenged on this point immediately after the election, John O’Dowd plaintively called for the votes of various “independents” to be included in the nationalist and republican total, without specifying which candidates he had in mind (Nolan Show, Radio Ulster, May 9th). Since then, SF figures have suggested that the People Before Profit vote comes from the same “pool” as their vote.

Some commentators argue that the reason Catholics are now less likely to vote is because they are increasingly content with the status quo. In fact many Catholics, in particular the working class and young, are more and more fed up with the way things are. Those who once looked to SF are angry that it is implementing cuts and appears to have abandoned the most down-trodden layers in Catholic areas. The result is a turning away from SF with both positive and negative results: many Catholics, especially young people, are seeking a genuine way forward and trying to cast their vote accordingly but others are lining up behind one or other of the multiple varieties of “dissident” republicanism. None of the forces which claim this mantle offer any way out of the problems of impoverished communities. Instead, their backward-looking and reactionary politics will only lead in the direction of increased sectarian division. Only the creation of a cross-community left alternative offers a real alternative.

The fifth of the large parties in the outgoing governing Executive was the Alliance Party. It appeals for votes from both Catholics and Protestants but its base is largely in the middle class and it puts forward right wing economic policies. In recent times prominent members of Alliance have called for increases in student fees and the introduction of water charges. Alliance had hoped to gain seats in some areas, standing additional candidates in East and South Belfast, for example. In the end it too lost votes and it came back with the same number of seats, ending a run of six elections when its vote was edging upwards, and losing the right to automatic entry into the Executive.

Alternative candidates poll well Whilst the DUP and SF competed for poll position on a simple sectarian head-count, they in effect stood on the same programme for government. The centrepiece of their next five-year term of office will be the “Fresh Start” Agreement, a deal for which the DUP and SF can claim credit as its architects. Fresh Start has many clauses but it can be reduced to one simple equation: tax cuts for big business paid for through public sector job cuts.

The virtually identical economic

and social policies of the big five parties was one reason for the increase in votes for candidates from outside the main parties. The beneficiaries were the Greens, the Labour Alternative platform initiated by the Socialist Party with others, but especially the high votes achieved by the PBPA. The Green Party provide a home for some of those who are turned off by sectarian politics. Many young people are drawn to its non-sectarianism, its environmental policies, and its position on a woman’s right to choose and the rights of LBGT people. The Greens have also taken a vocal anti-austerity stance, through its one MLA in the last Assembly, Stephen Agnew. He has now been joined at Stormont by Clare Bailey, who won a seat in South Belfast. The anti-austerity credentials of the Green Party are suspect, however.

The clearest indication of this is that its members have called for the introduction of water charges, a tax which hits the poorest hardest. The Green Party indicated their willingness to join the new Executive by taking the Justice Ministry, and thus become a party of government.

Green parties in a series of other countries have gone down that road in recent years and in every case have imposed cuts and other rightwing policies.

Eight members of the British Labour Party stood under the title Northern Ireland Labour Representation Committee (NILRC).

Over the last year, the British Labour Party has grown remarkably in the North. It now claims more than 1,700 full and “£3” members – a clear response to the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Party leader. The Labour Party in Northern Ireland declared its wish to stand in the Assembly elections but was blocked from doing so by the L National Executive Committee (NEC) in London. The NEC is “reviewing” its position on standing in elections in Northern Ireland but, for now, is sticking to its historic position of supporting the SDLP as a fellow member of the socalled “Socialist International”. The eight Labour Party members who stood have risked expulsion to do so.

Now, all Labour Party members must consider the way forward. In particular, they need to address the question as to whether a party which appears to originate outside the North is the most likely vehicle by which voting on a class basis, as opposed to a sectarian basis, will become established here.

PBPA breakthrough The biggest news story from the elections is undoubtedly the success of the People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA). Gerry Carroll topped the poll in West Belfast and Eamonn McCann won a seat in Foyle after coming fourth on the first count. Gerry Carroll is known as a hard worker on the ground and a fighter who speaks out in support of workers in struggle.

Eamonn McCann has been a prominent activist since the 1960s. Both have capitalised on growing disenchantment with SF in its heartlands.

PBPA has also drawn a vote away from the SDLP. Various commentators have suggested that the PBPA has attracted votes which otherwise might go to dissidents republicans, if

analysis

elections

Labour Alternative stood on a cross-community, socialist platform

they were to stand, and this is undoubtedly true. They have also attracted new, young voters who have no time for the dissidents, and older voters who have had enough of tired, old sectarian parties, however.

The success of PBPA is to be welcomed. It represents a break with the old, sectarian parties and is a vote against austerity. It is entirely possible that the advent of left voices in the Assembly will help to create a space for class-based politics. There are dangers ahead, however, and it is necessary to point to these at this early stage.

Much depends on how the two PBPA MLAs perform now that they have been elected. It is inevitable that contentious issues will come up, perhaps within weeks. Gerry Carroll and Eamonn McCann have, in the past, taken positions on issues such as parades which are, in the opinion of the Socialist Party, one-sided. If they were to do so again in the future, with the greatly increased publicity which will be provided by holding Assembly seats, then this would be very problematic. There is already a tendency to associate socialism with republicanism. In the tense and dangerous climate created by conflict on the streets, a one-sided intervention by PBPA could possibly make worse an already bad situation.

If this sounds like an unlikely possibility, or even far-fetched, then we should examine the lessons from the past. In 1996, rioting erupted across Catholic areas of the North after an Orange Order march was forced down the Garvaghy Road in Portadown by the police and army. In this tense atmosphere, a call went out for the blocking of Craigavon Bridge in Derry to prevent the Apprentice Boys parade crossing it on its annual march on August 10th.

If the parade had been blocked, who can now doubt that the result would

have been an intensification of violence with a risk of all-out conflict between communities? The response at the time of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) – the organisation which is central to PBPA and to which Eamon McCann and Gerry Carroll belong – was to pour petrol on the flames. A leaflet was issued by the SWP calling for a mass turnout to block the bridge. Thais was a serious error. It is to be hoped that lessons have been learned from this time but there is no evidence that this is the case.

Cross-community Labour Alternative The Socialist Party is very conscious of the need to overcome the reality of sectarian division. We worked with others to form Cross-Community Labour Alternative (CCLA) in order to provide a clear, anti-sectarian and left alternative in this election. We stood on an anti-austerity and proequality platform. A vote for CCLA was not an easy vote for anyone who wanted to stay within the umbrella of their “own” community. The “cross-community” label was adopted to make this absolutely clear.

CCLA stood three young candidates: 18-year-old Courtney Robinson in East Belfast, 19-year-old Sean Burns in South Belfast and 24year-old Conor Sheridan in East Antrim. Courtney won 517 votes, Sean 871 and Conor 551. This is a very creditable 2000 votes across three constituencies which include both Protestant and Catholic working class areas. These votes were the highest achieved by radical left candidates in these areas for more than a quarter of a century. The votes in South and East Belfast were won in the teeth of major campaigns by the Greens.

We are proud of the stand that we

made in the election. We fought for votes in both Protestant and Catholic areas. The Labour Alternative election campaign has put down a marker for the future. We gained a good response on the doorsteps with our message and we have been noticed.

Unionist commentator Alex Kane described our “raw energy and passion” and nationalist commentator Fionnuala O’Connor our “wide-eyed if cock-eyed optimism”!

Above all else, Labour Alternative stood to point the way forward. In the aftermath of the election, we will organise in local areas and will talk to others to consider how we best proceed in the longer term struggle to establish class-based and anti-sectarian politics as the only way forward. Labour Alternative will engage in the struggles of working people in the years ahead and will stand candidates across the three constituencies we contested and further afield in the local council elections in 2019.

The Way Ahead The incoming Executive will be one of austerity and discrimination.

Over the next five years, workers will inevitably resist the cuts, local campaigns will develop, and opportunities will be presented for the further advancement of a real alternative to the sectarian parties.

We need a new party which represents both Catholic and Protestant working people. Such a party should seek to involve trade union activists, community activists, and young people who are up for a fight on social issues. All those who are on the left with regards to social and economic issues, and who also reject sectarianism in all its forms, should be join and become active in building Labour Alternative as a serious step towards such a party. for more info, visit labouralternative.org or email info@labouralternative.org

10

June 2016

THE SOCIALIST

US Presidential race

US elections

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly T

He UNITeD States is the heartland of international capitalism. It is the land of “The American Dream”, where we are told that each and every individual – regardless of race, religion or economic position – has an equal opportunity to succeed and climb to the highest echelons of society, writes SeAN BUrNS. for the vast majority, however, this dream has become a nightmare. The US continues to rank as one of the most unequal societies in the world. The top 1% have more wealth income than the bottom 90%.

Poverty is growing as wages fall and prices rise. racist policing continues to oppress the black people. There are, in reality, two Americas – one of extravagance, extreme wealth and luxury and another of poverty, oppression and despair. Now, the American two-party system and the political establishment are facing revolts from within their own ranks in the form of Donal Trump and Bernie Sanders.

Clinton – Wall Street’s candidate h ILLAry CLINToN offers no real alternative to Trump or any republican. She represents the continuation of the status quo. A former executive at unionbusting multinational WalMart and a hawkish Secretary of State who has consistently backed imperialist wars abroad, she is part and parcel of the Democratic establishment.

In the 1990s, Clinton backed her husband’s gutting of the welfare system which plunged millions deeper into poverty. She has

Trump – the billionaire megalomaniac

I

NTerNATIoNALLy, yoUNG people and workers have reacted with shock and disgust to the Presidential campaign of Donald Trump. his platform of open bigotry – describing Mexican immigrants as “rapists”, calling for a ban on Muslims entering the US and calling for the criminalisation of women who have abortions – has provoked massive anger.

The threat from Trump is serious. His dangerous brand of rightwing populism has the potential to seriously threaten the lives of all workers. We have to make a serious attempt to understand the basis upon which Trump has won support. Dismissing him as a joke does not adequately address the danger he poses.

Trump has won support from a significant section of the white working-class which is disenfranchised with the Republican elite.

His support primarily comes from the poorest regions in the US which have been rocked by deindustrialisation and have high levels of unemployment. The system has failed these people. A deepseated anger against the corrupt and aloof political elite has developed, and this is what Trump has tapped into. At the first Republican primary debate, he said: “I will tell you that our system is broken. I gave to many people.

Before this, before two months ago, I was a businessman. I give to everybody. When they call, I give.

And you know what? When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them.

They are there for me. And that's a broken system.”

Trump's aim, however, rather than challenging that system is to reinforce it. His politics deflect from the failures of capitalism and blames them instead on migrants

and ethnic minorities. He is part of the class responsible for the domination of Wall Street, inequality and poverty. He intends to scapegoat minorities and, in doing so, preserve the position of the 1%.

While they are overwhelmingly opposed to his populist position, the Republican Party establish-

ment are responsible for the rise of Trump. They have made conscious use of chauvinistic and racist scaremongering to undermine Obama and now the chickens have came home to roost. Trump has emerged as a candidate who has taken their rhetoric even further and is now out of their control.

DUMP TRUMP! PROTEST RALLY 5pm Friday 17th June Belfast City Hall Contact Sean on 07709276057 for more info

referred to black youth as “superpredators” and has, in the past, opposed LGBT rights. Her current ‘progressive’ face is merely cynical posturing.

Clinton's bid for the democratic nomination has been greeted by some as a historic attempt to elect the first female President. Yet she has failed to attract majority support from young women. Various political pundits have attempted to explain this away. In reality, it is because she does not convincingly speak to the concerns and aspira-

tions of the majority.

Polls are showing that in the event of a Clinton vs Trump Presidential race, Clinton leads only by a slim majority. Anti-Trump activists should not fall into the trap of lesser-evilism and cheerleading for Clinton – to do so will allow Trump to further build upon antiestablishment sentiment and potentially ride to victory. Building an anti-corporate, left-wing force is the best way to undermine support for Trump.

Bernie Sanders & the need for a political revolution IN THIS context, Senator Bernie Sanders has emerged as a serious challenger to Clinton’s coronation as the Democratic nominee. His call for a political revolution against the billionaires and support for ‘democratic socialism’ has resonated with a huge layer of workers and young people. He has addressed monster rallies of tens of thousands in cities across the US. He has tapped into the desire to sweep away the rotten vestments of the current system which has failed the vast majority.

For the millennial generation, the American dream is little more than a cruel joke.

Unemployment, the chains of student debt and growing inequality have shackled young people to a life of poverty.

Sanders is the embodiment of the desire change, the hope for a break with the status quo.

The Democratic Party has shown itself to be anything but democratic. While Sanders has won victories in state after state and is neck-and-neck with Clinton in elected delegates, the super-delegates – made up of elected officials and other party grandees – are overwhelmingly on the side of Clinton. The party’s machinery has been mobilised to do everything possible to cut across Sanders’ momentum.

It now seems that Sanders will lose the primary race due to these undemocratic manoeuvres. He now has a choice – to let this movement die a death or to carry it on forward building a real challenge

to the billionaire class. We have reached a historic point in history where the fate of the twoparty system hangs on a knife edge. Those have flocked to Sanders in support of his challenge have laid the basis for a new party – a party free from the domination of the 1%, a party which will fight for the interests of workers and the oppressed. Sanders should refuse to back Clinton and instead stand as an independent candidate, using his campaign as a vehicle to build a new party for the 99%.

Such a party has to be organically connected to the struggles of ordinary people throughout the US, whether it be the Black Lives Matter movement, the struggle for a $15/hour minimum wage, the student struggles for free tuition or the environmental fight to save our planet. It is only through the creation of such a force that the 99% can deal a substantial blow to the the 1%. Sanders has the potential to pave the way for the creation of such a party if he takes the necessary steps. If he fails to do so, it will fall to rankand-file labour and left activists to ensure the momentum behind Sanders’ campaign is not lost but instead channel it into the fight for a political voice for workers, young people and the oppressed.

June 2016

11

THE SOCIALIST

A

By Gary Mulcahy

S We go to press, workers and young people across France are pitched in an intense conflict over the socalled Socialist Party government’s attempt to introduce draconian anti-worker legislation. on 26 May, an estimated 300,000 people marched against President hollande’s plans, which include removing restrictions on bosses firing workers, extending the 35-hour working week to up to 46 hours, giving bosses more powers to cut wages and slashing maternity leave and holiday time.

Workers across several trade union federations have went on strike, leading to oil refineries and electricity power stations being shut down. The response of the state has been to attack demonstrators with CS spray, which has backfired on the government.

The national emergency called in response to the terror attacks in Paris last November is still in place, outlawing all public demonstra-

Tens of thousands of workers and young people in France have marched against new anti-worker legislation

tions. Yet, Nuit Debout (Night Rising) – a new movement inspired

by Occupy Wall Street and the Indignados movement in Spain – has seen nightly assemblies of mostly young people in public

South: new government bruised by mass resistance

squares where opposition to the governments labour laws have been discussed. They have also been used by people to raise all sorts of issues affecting them.

Youth unemployment has hit 25 %

of May 1968, but there is no mass political alternative which resists the neo-liberal agenda of the government. With the far-right Front Nationale attempting to stir up antiimmigrant and racist moods in society, there needs to be democratically convened assemblies involving the youth and workers who are prepared to fight the government to discuss the formation of a new mass party, with federal structures to unite left parties, to fight for working class people and put forward a principled socialist alternative.

The strike movement has already shaken the ruling Socialist Party, with more than 50 MPs coming out against Hollande’s labour laws. Hollande and others in the government have even suggested certain changes. This is a clear indication of the unpopularity of the government’s plans. Hollande has the lowest ratings of any president in French history. This favourable situation should be seized by the leadership of the trade union movement to escalate and broaden mass strike action in the coming weeks.

Latin America: Right-Wing on the Offensive

By Aaron Spiers

By Oisín McKeown

I

N The South, after a prolonged period with no government, Fine Gael’s enda Kenny has managed to retain his crown as Taoiseach (Prime Minister) ; however, its place on his head has never been more tentative after the main parties’ tallied their lowest combined vote in the history of the state in February’s general election.

Amidst a tentative alliance with perennial rivals Fianna Fáil, the Fine Gael minority government has been forced to suspend the controversial water charges. This is the narrative anyway, that the mainstream media would have us accept. In reality, the water charges have not been suspended by the benevolent hand of Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin - on the contrary, Martin's party once sought to impose a similar tax upon the working class themselves.

Instead, the establishment's hand has been forced by the strong and cohesive action of the people, who boycotted the austerity tax en masse and took part in mass demonstrations.

Similarly, the JobBridge scheme – an exploitative ‘work for your dole scheme’ aptly dubbed 'ScamBridge' by its opponents, including the Socialist Party – has also been placed on the backburner. Tellingly, the Irish Labour Party, who defended the scheme most zealously, have even turned their back on the policy.

The establishment hopes that the suspension of these policies alone will serve to quell the anger which has manifested itself so

across the country, but is even higher in the cities where young people see no future.

Many people want to see a complete change in how society is run, echoing the revolutionary uprising

e

actively among ordinary people.

The quango Irish Water remains a registered entity. JobBridge, it seems has a successor of its own, in a collection of more targeted (read: ruthless) policies, perhaps the most disgusting among them the 'Fit for Work' scheme – a nefarious stripping of benefits from disabled people lifted straight from the Tory playbook, that incidentally saw 2,380 people dead within six months of being declared "fit to work", and subsequently losing their benefits. The Irish establishment’s own scheme will yield similar catastrophic results.

Kenny et al will be disappointed then, when the newly found fervour of Irish working people is not so easily muzzled.

Emboldened by the victories won through struggle, groups of workers – including Tesco staff and Luas tram drivers in Dublin – are standing up to defend their rights and conditions through industrial action. The rediscovered method of active resistance will not be restricted to a single issue, and instead will be the new norm for what is the least popular government in the history of the state.

CoNoMIC AND social turmoil has now caused a political crisis in both brazil and Venezuela. In both cases, the traditional right-wing parties have used the economic crisis to attempt coups against the current governments.

The Venezuelan right have long been waiting for the opportunity to move against President Nicolás Maduro, Hugo Chávez’s successor and leader of the United Socialist Party (PSUV). Since coming to power in 1999, the Chavista government have made many positive social reforms and made big steps in tackling inequality. However it fell well short of implementing a genuinely socialist programme of nationalisation and workers’ control. As a result, the PSUV government has allowed Venezuela’s economy to be exposed to the turbulence of the market and the economic sabotage of international capitalists.

The Venezuelan right have used the current crisis of inflation and drastic shortage of everyday goods to rally support against Maduro’s government. In April, the Supreme Court shot down an attempt by the right-wing controlled Congress to shorten the Presidential term, an attempt to force an early election.

They are now collecting signatures from Venezuelans in an attempt to trigger a recall referendum and remove Maduro.

In Brazil, the coup against President Dilma Rousseff of the Brazilian “Workers Party” (PT) has already taken place. Dilma was removed on the 12th of May by the right-wing in Brazil’s Chamber of

south & international

France: Revolt against attack on workers’ rights

Protest against President Dilma in Brazil

Deputies. She has been replaced by former Vice-President Michel Temer, a man synonymous with corruption. Dilma’s government has been guilty of implementing a programme of austerity and antiworker counter reforms. This, combined with an economic situation spiralling out of control with 10 million now unemployed, undermined her support amongst the working class.

Despite her neo-liberal agenda, the coup against her must be opposed as these undemocratic tactics set a precedent for much harsher undemocratic attacks by the right-wing against Brazil’s working class. Temer’s new government has already announced yet more counter-reforms and plan to accelerate the pace of privatisation and austerity. Prior to the coup, school students had occupied government buildings protesting cuts and many public sector workers were on strike.

Temer’s cuts and the right-wing’s

attack on democracy are likely to see these movements grow. The CUT, Brazil’s main federation of trade unions, is now coming under pressure from workers to take action against neo-liberalism in Brazil.

In both countries and internationally, it is time for the workers’ movements to mobilise against these undemocratic manoeuvres.

In Venezuela, Maduro’s government must step up its action against the capitalist class wishing to remove them. His government must take control of the economy through nationalisation and workers’ control to stop the economic sabotage and to ensure he regains the confidence and support of the working class. In Brazil, it is important the left stands against the coup, whilst also taking a stand against the austerity of both Temer and Dilma. A genuine struggle of workers against this could form the basis for a new party of the working class to replace the PT.

PaPer of the SocialiSt Party

iSSue 97

June 2016

Fight for a Europe of the

99%

Vote to LEaVE the Bosses’ EU

By Kevin Henry THe refereNDUM on the UK’s membership of the eU is set to be an important political event that will shape political developments in Britain, Ireland and across europe in the years to come.

Socialists want to see a Europe that is run in the interests of the millions, not the millionaires. The EU project is the polar opposite of this.

It was a central part of the “Troika” which imposed austerity on the working class of Europe, including in the South. It imposed technocratic governments of bankers on the people of Greece and Italy and acted to corral SYRIZA when it was elected by the Greek people to end the nightmare of austerity.

The EU has institutionalised neoliberal policies in various treaties

including the Lisbon Treaty and Stability Treaty and through international free trade agreements.

This includes the TTIP agreement being negotiated between the EU and US, which will allow governments to be sued by multinationals when labour, health and environmental regulations limit their ability to profiteer.

Many believe the EU is a guarantor of human rights.

However, its “Fortress Europe” immigration policies which have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of refugees fleeing war show that to be a sick lie. Despite protests across Europe demanding a humanitarian approach to the refugee crisis, the EU has acted to reinforce its borders, including doing a dirty deal with the reactionary Turkish government to

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effectively establish prison camps for refugees. Meanwhile, the European Court of Justice upheld the DUP's homophobic 'gay blood' ban.

Crucially, the EU cannot be reformed. The Parliament we elect cannot initiate its own legislation, only tinker with the laws put forward by the right-wing, unelected European Commission.

Power is increasingly being concentrated in the hands of unelected technocrats who act in the interests of the 1%. Breaking from the EU will be a necessary step in the fight for a left government which implements policies in the interests of working people.

Despite the bravado, the Tory government is weak and has be forced into u-turn after u-turn on

their right-wing programme. The EU debate has opened up divisions within the Tories. Cameron and Osborne – representing the majority of the capitalist establishment – support remaining within the EU. A vote to leave will escalate these divisions, with Cameron fundamentally undermined and the bosses’ party facing a serious succession crisis.

For capitalism, this referendum is high stakes and their ‘Project Fear’ has gone into overdrive to try to secure victory. Socialists say we should vote against the fearmongers, break with the EU and join the fight to build a different Europe run in the interests of the 99% - a socialist Europe based on international solidarity between the working class and oppressed, not exploitation and inequality.

Text ‘JOIN’ to 07821058319

THe SOCIALIST PArTY SAYS: l fight austerity from Brussels, westminster and Stormont l No to fortress europe! Let the refugees in, fight for jobs and homes for all l No to wars and occupations! Oppose eU militarisation l Yes to workers’ unity and real international solidarity l Vote against the bosses’ eU – fight for a europe run for the millions, not the millionaires

www.socialistpartyni.net