PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY
ISSUE 89
JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2015
Stick together, build non-payment and... INSIDE
BURY
WATER
CHARGES n penalties don’t come into effect until June 2016 n they can’t take it from your income n they can’t turn down your water
Joe Higgins on Lucinda Creighton & Shane Ross
p3
Historic elections in Greece
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Horrific terror attacks in Paris
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January / February 2015
2
news
THE SOCIALIST
The real face of The recovery Billions more for the Billionaires The richest 400 people in the world now sit on top of a vast fortune worth $4.1 trillion, an increase of $92 billion in 2014 alone according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Of course, they all worked very hard to get this wealth, mainly through rising share prices on the stock market. Bill Gates (below) remains the world’s richest person with a fortune of $87.6 billion,
up $9.1 billion on the previous year while Warren Buffet reclaimed second spot from Mexican telecommunications boss Carlos Slim after he added $13.7 billion to his personal wealth.
Global super-rich 400 have $4.1 trillion in wealth
71% in Ireland struggle to make ends meet
Despite the so-called ‘recovery’, and the government’s latest budget which according to their propaganda ‘people would feel in their pocket’, an eu survey on living conditions has found that 71.4% of people have difficulty making ends meet at the end of
Taking the roof from over your head The rise in property prices has made the option of repossessing homes from people struggling with their mortgages much more attractive to banks. In the first 11 months of 2014, 6,400 families were brought before the courts for the repossession of their homes by banks. extra sittings of the courts have been organised to deal with the case load. There are 49,000 more families in serious mort-
The deadly legacy of health cuts By Michael O’Brien
B
ack in august i was given a glimpse of the developing crisis situation in Beaumont Hospital when at the invitation of a member of staff i was taken on a tour pointing out the various stresses the system was being put under. The bad situation in A&E goes without saying but on that particular day the main issue brought to my attention was a situation where increasingly, older people who are due for procedures are forced to spend longer than is necessary in hospital day wards as a result of the succession of cuts to home helps and social care packages.
ThEy ArE simply not in a position to go anywhere, particularly if they have no family in a position to look after them. It is estimated that some 800 bed spaces in our entire hospital system are taken up in this manner. however in some instances there are not even beds availabl. As was pointed out to me on my visit some were left in chairs for days. The word 'acopia' is being used now to describe the situation that older people are finding themselves in. Acopia was described to me as the vulnerable mental and physical state older people can be in after an injury or illness or medical procedure that appears like a state of confusion but can be wrongly looked on as the first signs of dementia, when in reality a bit of
ple to emigrate. Between cutting the dole for young people to €100 a week, and introducing free labour schemes JobBridge and Gateway, Ireland is no country for the unemployed. In the latest figures for 2014, 81,900 people had left the country. This was a drop from the 89,000 forced to leave the previous year. at times during the crisis someone was emigrating every six minutes! But just in case people hadn’t got the message and needed a friendly reminder, Joan Burton’s department sent 13,000 letters to unemployed people advising them of job opportunities abroad. This was an increase of 225% compared to the previous year!
each month. This is a direct result of austerity, in some of the other bailout countries the rate is even higher. In Greece, an incredible 90.7% of people are in this position because of the destruction wrought by austerity. In portugal the rate is 75.7% and in Spain 63.1%.
49,000 families are in serious mortgage arrears
The consequences of the cuts
By Dave Murphy
gage arrears who will face the same fate in 2015. There needs to be an immediate ban on economic evictions and a write down on mortgages.
No country for the unemployed
225% increase in letters advising unemployed about jobs abroad
It’s been obvious for a number of years that a key part of the government’s solution to mass unemployment has been to force peo-
FIGHT THIS ROTTEN SYSTEM
By Eddie McCabe MalColM X, the revolutionary civil rights leader, was killed 50 years ago in February. a brilliant speaker who could explain the essence of complex problems succinctly, he once famously said, "you can't have capitalism without racism". He was undeniably correct, as the reality of the ever-present racism in the US – even under obama – has shown clearly. Capitalist society is based on inequality, between the rich elite and the poor majority, and it maintains itself by fostering division, hatred, violence and wars. But it's just as true that today, you can't have capitalism with austerity, homelessness, health crises, corruption and the list goes on. The system that pursues profits above all else, is in fact the cause of the problems we all face on a daily basis. The hypocrisy of our political establishment is exposed on all issues by their promotion of capitalism. Socialism is an alternative based on real democracy and the public ownership of society's wealth and resources to meet the needs of all.
JOIN THE SOCIALISTS TODAY TEXT “JOIN” TO 087 3141986 Full support to nurses’ industrial action
care and support has them back on their feet. however, the absence of such care means that the people concerned may not recover their independence. The knock on consequences for Beaumont and potentially other hospitals is increased waiting times for people awaiting procedures because the bed spaces are taken up indefinitely by people who do not need to be there. The 2,000 beds taken out of the hospital system across the state is another root cause. When I heard about the crisis point reached in Beaumont over the Christmas period when they could not receive anybody into A&E it came as no surprise. Besides A&E the Sunday Business Post also recently revealed that Beaumont was also now refusing to
even put public patients on their waiting lists such are the waiting times. So the work to rule announced by members of the INMO for the 27 January as well as the recent lunch time protest are entirely justified initial steps to begin to put management and the government under pressure. It has already been demonstrated in recent months that organised protest and struggle can force results and we desperately need to mount a struggle on this issue. Such a struggle can be linked with the demand for a reversal of all the cuts that been imposed in the last six years and the creation of a top quality public health service that is funded by taxing the superrich.
January / February 2015
3 THE SOCIALIST
column
a GEnERal Election looms. It cannot be delayed beyond april of next year. However, with mass mobilisations against water charges and austerity, the Fine Gael/labour Coalition government was shown to have clumsy feet of clay and there is no certainty that it will survive until next year especially if there is a renewed upsurge of anger in society. This is the background to the constant speculation in the capitalist media about new political formations being launched by various politicians and political factions based in the Dáil. For more than a year now Independent Newspapers especially, have been desperately attempting to push former Fine
Gael Minister of State, Lucinda Creighton, into launching a political party. As she appeared to drag her feet, they moved to talk up Dublin South TD, Shane Ross, as launching a new network of independent Dáil deputies and councillors and more recently bolstered the credentials of Michael Fitzmaurice returned in the recently Roscommon By election as a man to lead a new rural group of deputies in the next Dáil.
Collapse in support for establishment parties There has been a massive shift in the attitudes of ordinary people away from the establishment political parties. Six years of aus-
terity and the cynical breaking of promises by the current government parties have massively undermined the credibility of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Labour Party. The huge movement against the water charges in the closing months of last year has further sharpened this process. Opinion polls show the results, a catastrophic fall in support for the government parties and a significant increase in support for Sinn Fein, for Independents and for the smaller anti-establishment parties of the Left as seen in the remarkable by-election wins by the Socialist Party and the AntiAusterity Alliance. This new political reality is terrifying the capitalist establishment in this State which is fearful it may not have a reliable majority in the Dail to protect its interests and profits. This explains the manoeuvrings of Independent News and Media. They are desperately trying to create a political safety net to halt a mass of voters going over to Sinn Fein and to the Left by encouraging these new alliances. While they understand
that Sinn Fein is introducing Tory austerity in the North, it is positioning itself in the South as an anti-austerity party and the establishment fears that Sinn Fein in government could come under heavy pressure from working class voters to oppose further austerity thus complicating the continued implementation of the neo liberal agenda.
The politics of right wing populism The various alliances being promoted are for the purpose of fashioning a few pillars on which the weakened capitalist parties might be able to rely to form a government after the election. Make no mistake such a government would be firmly on the Right in its economic policy. Shane Ross is quite skilled at striking anti political establishment notes and regularly attacks the ‘insiders’ in the banks, in business generally and in establishment politics. But behind the populist rhetoric, he is totally committed to the capitalist market and indeed was a big admir-
er of Anglo Irish Bank as it inflated the property bubble in the lead up to the crash in 2008. Whether supporting a government from inside or out his alliance would underpin the economic status quo. There is often a tendency among many populist politicians to attempt to say they are neither Right nor Left. The Green Party tries the same tack. But, in government, that posture quickly evaporates in front of the demands of the capitalist establishment as seen when the Greens treacherously joined Fianna Fail to impose savage austerity after the 2007 election. That is why working class people need an independent party to fight in their interest and campaign for a Left government to replace capitalism with the fundamental socialist transformation that is needed to resolve the crucial problems caused by the crisis and consequent austerity.
Joe Higgins is a Socialist Party TD for Dublin West
Lucinda Creighton – Anti-choice, anti-equality, “business friendly” By Emma Quinn
“i
am here because i believe irish people deserve a genuine choice at the next election, it is my intention to provide that choice” - what a galling statement from Lucinda creighton who resigned from Fine Gael after refusing to support the extremely limited Protection of Life during Pregnancy act in July 2013. Lucinda is apparently all for choice, until it involves pregnant women; and in the case of suicidal pregnant women Lucinda fundamentally doesn’t even support Creighton’s economic policies could have been scripted by Thatcher their choice to live. Another choice Lucinda has “commodifying children” in that will impoverish ordinary peo“reservations” about is the right to regards to adoption by the LGBTQ ple and believes “the majority of choose who you marry. She has community expose her backward Irish people recognise that it is a stated on numerous occasions views. good idea to link their tax bill with that she does not support gay Not only out of touch with work- how much water they use”. marriage, and although has more ing class people on these basic After years of diligently implerecently “rebooted” her position social rights, her economic poli- menting Fine Gael and Labour auson this to say she will “probably” cies could have been scripted by terity, Lucinda’s “business friendvote in favour of marriage equality Margaret Thatcher herself. ly” programme is the last thing in this year’s referendum, her Creighton is in favour of the hated women or working class people warning cries of the danger of water charges and property tax, should choose.
Media fanfare & #rebootireland launch By Manus Lenihan So lET’S get this straight: Creighton, Hobbs and an obscure councillor showed up a year after the hyped “monster meeting” in the RDS to tell us they’re finally launching a party. They have no distinct ideas or policies. They do not represent a significant force, inside or outside the Dáil. In spite of all this, they got front-page headlines and pages upon pages of analysis in every major newspaper. It’s embarrassing to watch Lucinda Creighton and Eddie Hobbs hamming up their “radical” act. With the hashtag “#rebootireland” (which will have to do while
they think of a party name) they’re trying to look all techsavvy and 21st-century. Hopefully Fidelma HealyEames won’t ruin the act by making another speech about “sexting” and “fraping”. It’s “repackage”, not “reboot.” These shysters are trying to sell us the same old Irish capitalism whose traditional political peddlers, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour, so many of us have so firmly rejected. They hope we’ll be stupid enough to elect 10 or 15 of these “radicals”, so that they can prop up the old parties in a coalition. If they still fail, in spite of all this barefaced plugging, it will be all the more humiliating.
Eddie Hobbs – Cheerleader for profiteering & speculation By Ciaran McKenna
E
ddiE HoBBs has been to the forefront of Lucinda creighton’s new right-wing party. The presence of Hobbs in this outfit is a warning sign to all workers of just what policies and positions we can expect. hobbs has a long history of attacking public sector workers, for instance. he opposes pay rises for this group of workers. he is also opposed to decent pensions for public sector workers. however, he doesn’t argue for good
pensions for all workers but cynically uses the issue of pensions to pit workers in the private sector against the public sector. he was an enthusiastic and unapologetic propagandist for property speculation prior to 2008. he claimed that buying property was an ‘investment’ for ordinary people. But today tens of thousands who took advice like his, face repossession and financial ruin. hobbs, however, has moved on, and recently made a financial killing from property speculation in the US city of Detroit. A city bankrupted by neo-liberalism and
where a full scale class struggle is taking place over access to water. The tens of thousands of foreclosures in Detroit provided hobbs with a chance to turn a quick buck, which he didn’t hesitate to take. We can have no doubt that he would attempt the same in Ireland when the tidal wave of threatened repossessions takes place. Working class people should make no mistake and remember that behind hobbs’ genial, carefully constructed, media image lies a staunch capitalist who will actively strive to worsen living and working conditions for all workers.
Hobbs made a financial killing from property speculation in Detroit
opinion & news
JOE HIGGINS the
“he [Shane Ross] is totally committed to the capitalist market and indeed was a big admirer of Anglo Irish Bank as it inflated the property bubble”
January / February 2015
4
water charges news
THE SOCIALIST
Mass non-payment is key to victory By David Vallely
W
iTH THE new Year upon us, a new phase in the water charges struggle has begun. it is clear that the Government intends to wait out the anger and hopes that momentum will drip from the movement now that the legislation has been passed into law.
Non-payment is essential We are only four bills away – at most – from a General Election, before which there are no sanctions if you do not pay. Therefore it’s clear that a key tactic in this phase of the struggle is organised mass non-payment. It is not simply one of many equal tactics, it is the singular most direct and effective form of protest we have. Irish Water want our money, we must refuse to give it to them. Any level of compliance when the bills drop will be seized upon by the capitalist establishment to declare the campaign over. The momentum of the campaign would stall and the
Government would hope that it will give them space to recover the ground they lost over the past year. We cannot take anything for granted. Opinion polls indicate that there is a momentum behind the idea of non-payment but that it is still all to play for. According to the Millward Brown poll from 21st December, 37 percent of respondents say they will pay, 14 percent say “it depends” if they will pay or not and 10 percent say they “don’t know”. What does it depend on? The question of whether water charges can be defeated and what are the consequences of standing up to Irish Water.
An active campaign can answer doubts Active campaigns on the ground are capable of answering these doubts people have and bringing them into the non-payment camp. Lots of people have gotten involved in building anti-water charges groups in their local communities through anti-meter protests, often getting active for the very first time. Many more have been mobilised by the mass demonstra-
Steps to building nonpayment in your area
tions we have seen around the country. This is the strength of the campaign – a mass movement in every sense of the word. The level of non-payment will be decisive to the outcome of this struggle. The Government know this too. There will undoubtedly be a barrage of propaganda and intimidation from the billionaire-owned media whose interests are not served by an ongoing mass, active movement against austerity in communities. Those lies will have to be answered, but by whom? Unless campaigns exist locally, the offensive by the establishment could prove successful in diminishing the levels of non-payment and therefore the campaign. Non-payment has to be actively advocated and defended, and that can’t just be done through occasional protests or calls over social media.
We can defeat this Government It cannot be a case of talking to the already converted, but identifying people who are more unsure or inclined to pay and consciously
seeking them out with the intention of turning them over to our side. however, that will only be possible by having a campaign in the areas that answer the arguments of the Government and give people confidence. Understandably, most people who are active now have never been involved in anything like this
before and are faced with concrete organisational questions that haven’t come up so far. If the collective experience of everyone involved is tapped into we can overcome that hurdle and achieve a truly historic victory over this Government and the whole old rotten establishment.
Anti-Poll Tax Campaign: An inspiring victory that buried Thatcher By Sean Malone
i
By Rita Harrold Inform yourself on the facts: l The cap is only temporary, the bills will skyrocket after 2019. l There will be no sanctions against non-payers until after the Government have gone. l Revenue aren't involved, the charges can't be deducted from your wages or Social Welfare. l Irish Water can't reduce your water pressure even if you don't pay. Promote non-payment today Like, join and share We Won’t Pay the Water Charges on Facebook and get your friends to do the same Get We Won’t Pay newsletter Get the information, arguments and leaflets to be able to con-
vince your friends and neighbours, sign up for our weekly newsletters at wontpay.ie or text "newsletter" and your email address to 0863676089. Get active in your local non-payment group If no group already exists in your area we can help establish a local We Won’t Pay group. organise activities to get the word out Two or three people at a small table with information leaflet from wontpay.ie, window posters and a petition outside a shopping centre or other busy area can make a real impact. You should ask people to donate to the campaign to help finance the printing of material, booking of rooms and other cost involved with the campaign.
n 1987 Margret Thatcher had wielded the axe of austerity for almost a decade by drastically cutting social expenditure and privatising public services. Militant, forerunner to the socialist Party, recognised that the poll tax was a generalised attack on working class and poor that could act like a lightning rod for united struggle against Thatcher’spro rich polices and that mass non-payment could defeat this tax. Different tactics were put forward during the anti-poll tax campaign. Some put forward token opposition through the slogan “Can pay, Won’t pay” where a privileged 1,000 who could afford to pay would refuse to do so on principle. Others, like those in the Labour Party leadership said they would be “responsible” and “wouldn’t break the law”. Like Sinn Fein today, their main focus was on building a parliamentary opposition to the tax and waiting for the next election.
Building non-payment in every community Militant recognised the centrality of an organised campaign of nonpayment and building local AntiPoll Tax Unions (APTU) in every community that were linked with the All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation so that non-payment could be coordinated. The Fed, as it became known, also organised a
mass demonstration in central London on March 31st 1990 with 200,000 participating in it. Despite the hard work of the campaign by the time of the first deadline there was still significant payment of the tax because of fear and confusion. however the campaign wasn’t discouraged and continued organising weekly stalls, public meetings, and door knocking. This armed people with the arguments and the confidence to join the growing army of people refusing to pay. The Thatcher government used different repression measures to break non-payment. Threating letters were sent and fines were issued to scare people. Bailiffs were sent to people’s home to rob non-payers’ personal possessions and many had to make court appearances resulting in some occasions in imprisonment, including 34 members of Militant. At each step the APTUs relied upon the mobilisation and selforganisation of working class peo-
ple to make these measures unworkable. Communities were so well organised that despite many attempts by bailiffs not a single stolen possession was ever sold to recuperate the cost of the tax. Courts faced massive demonstrations outside and even occupations which brought the court system to a standstill.
18 million refuse to pay As time went by the campaign grew and grew. Each new repressive measure failed and the campaign steeled the determination of non-payers and gave confidence to people who had paid to join nonpayment. The importance of the leadership provided by Militant allowed non-payment to become a reality. By the time the poll tax was abolished in 1991 Thatcher had been forced to resign and 18 million people were refusing to pay. It was an inspiring victory with many lessons for activists today.
January / February 2015
5 THE SOCIALIST
Eighth Amendment:
A
fter Another horrific case of a woman her family abused horrendously by Ireland's Medieval eighth Amendment, the constitutional abortion ban, Socialist Party tD ruth CoPPInger questioned the taoiseach in her first Leader’s Questions speech, printed below. the Socialist Party supports roSA's campaign for a referendum in May alongside other planned referenda. to get involved with roSA's "repeal the 8th in May 2015" campaign, contact rosa.ie / facebook.com/roSAwomen2014 / 0876418519
T
His is the first chance the dail has had to discuss the horrific case of the clinically dead pregnant woman kept 'alive' for 23 days in december against her family’s wishes. I'd like to convey the sympathies of the Anti Austerity Alłiance to her family, who had to endure the trag-
ic loss of their young daughter and then had to watch the indignities heaped upon her; and who were forced into the courts to be allowed bury her over Christmas. All this solely due to fears of doctors of the 8th Amendment. Taoiseach, you've said this is a 'personal case', 'highly sensitive' etc as if we should somehow keep out if it. But it's the state that is preventing people making personal decisions on sensitive matters, not the other way around. Dr Peter Boylan (former master of holles Street maternity hospital) has called what was done to this tragic woman "grotesque" and "experimental". And let's be clear it was fear of the 8th Amendment which led doctors to do it. No 15 week foetus has successfully been brought to delivery anywhere on the planet, but doctors told the family the attempt was "for constitutional reasons". The details are highly disturbing, but people need to hear the reality of having this law and the macabre ordeal the family were put through. This woman had a ventilator inserted, a tracheotomy tube through her neck, six syringe
Ruth Coppinger TD and the Abortion Pill Train, October 2014
pumps for drugs to fight infections and make-up applied for visits by her children to try make her look like how she used to be. It's all the more incredible that doctors felt they had to take this course in the context of a developing A&E and bed crisis. And we end up with legal representation
having to be given by the state to the unborn and deceased woman all due to the 8th Amendment. Taoiseach, this is the third high profile abuse of women under the 8th Amendment under your watch. This weekend, you marched through the boulevards of Paris against religious fundamentalism.
Are you willing to allow the Irish people their chance to remove a law that is the envy of religious fundamentalists everywhere? Or were you just strutting and posing for liberty in Paris while continuing a situation where women are vessels and incubators at home – alive or dead?
Vultures make a killing on NAMA property interest is the highest possible return on their investment through the highest possible rent. With property prices rising again, in part due to competition among all these international investors, the banks and NAMA are now selling off properties individually again. In many cases, they can now make a profit because more mortgages are back in positive equity. Along with firesales by vulture funds and rackrenting by rEITs, this has increased evictions and repossessions and helped
By Diana O’Dwyer
a
LiTTLE noted feature of the so-called ‘recovery’ from the banking and property crash is the sell-off of residential and commercial property to international capitalist investors. Typically enough, the impact on the former property-owners and occupiers has varied enormously, in accordance with their power and wealth and influence over government policy. There was never any bailout for mortgage-holders in arrears, who along with tenants of bankrupt buyto-let landlords are being thrown out on the street. Under orders from the Central Bank, 50,000 repossession orders have been issued by the banks. Meanwhile, the cosseted coterie of property developers who crashed the economy and had their loans taken over by NAMA are being paid €11m a year to help sell off their own bad investments. NAMA paying over the odds for bad commercial property loans was part of the first phase of the government’s strategy to ‘fix’ the banks, which also involved wasting €64 billion on ‘recapitalising’ them. The second phase is to pressure the banks to plug the remaining €30bn hole in their balance sheets from the amounts outstanding on mortgages in arrears. Simultaneously, NAMA is to flog off its remaining property portfolio, preferably fast enough so that it can claim to have made a ‘profit’ before the next election.
swell the housing list to nearly 100,000 households. We can begin challenging the right of foreign or domestic capital to endlessly profit from the immiseration of mortgage holders and tenants, by demanding an immediate freeze on rents, combined with penal taxation of rental profits. The property must be brought into democratic public ownership as should the mortgages portfolios they have equired so that the payments can be reduced to affordable levels.
Worst homelessness crisis in a generation
Profiteering from homes repossessions Initially, the banks responded by selling off whole mortgage loan books to foreign vulture funds at knock-down prices. These then swoop in to repossess people’s homes and sell them off. Often the new owners represent yet another form of rentier capitalism, known as real Estate Investment Trusts (rEITs).
These invest money in real estate and then sell shares in their overall portfolio to smaller investors. In keeping with its general ‘development strategy’ of marketing Ireland as a tax haven for foreign capital, the government has attracted rEITs here with a two-year tax exemption. They have since become the largest landlords in the state and are likely to be at least at predatory as the homegrown variety, given their only
IRElanD IS in the middle of the worst homelessness crisis in a generation. In little over a month, two homeless men have died on the streets. The first, Jonathan Corrie, was the centre of a few days of media and government handwringing, mainly because he died only metres from the Dáil. By contrast, the death of a Lithuanian man in Temple Bar on 9th January caused barely a ripple. Apparently, the government is so short-sighted that even a kilometre away is out of mind. Yet these tragic deaths and the growing numbers of visibly homeless people on the streets represent only a fraction of the crisis.
More than a family a day are losing their homes and all the councils are offering in response are tiny, overcrowded hotel rooms. The immediate triggers have been Joan Burton’s savage cuts to Rent Supplement; rackrenting by landlords; and spiralling home repossessions, now house prices are rising again and the banks can make a quick profit. But the root cause is that private landlords own 30% of homes, while another 35% are occupied by mortgage-holders and effectively owned by the banks. Until this radically changes, the profit motive will take precedence over the homelessness crisis.
news
“the envy of religious fundamentalists everywhere”
6
January / February 2015
special feature
THE SO
BuIlDInG a neW lefT I
n this extract from an interview with andros Payiatsos, Xekinima (CWI in Greece, sister section of the Socialist Party) from 6 January 2015, andros predicts a Syriza victory in the 25 January Greek elections. Syriza, or “coalition of the radical left”, was formed as an anti-austerity political force in the context of the unbearable butchering of living standards and immiseration of the majority of the population that the EU/IMF and successive Greek Governments have meted out to the working and poor masses of Greece in recent years. Xekinima is campaigning for votes for Syriza in the election and is simultaneously pressurising Syriza to stick to its antiausterity commitments and to pursue a radical left position. Central to this is the need to repudiate the debt in defiance of the EU/IMF. a left government in Greece that pursued a clear pro-worker, pro-poor masses agenda would come into conflict with the EU/IMF and Greek capitalist interests, but would also be a beacon of light to working class people across Europe, including in Ireland, and a spur to the spreading of the anti-austerity movement and left political alternative.
How do you think Syriza will act in government? In some ways, Syriza’s leadership would prefer to win without an overall majority so that it can blame relying on the votes of others for having to pursue less radical policies. This would be an excuse. The Syriza leadership has been moving clearly to the right since the elections of 2012. In the rest of Europe, Syriza is presented as a very left, radical, even far-left party. But in Greece, there is great suspicion and lack of enthusiasm in the masses because they see that the leadership of Syriza is doing everything possible to come to an understanding with the forces of the market - the Troika, the EU, and the national establishment. It’s not ruled out that Syriza could move further to the right to stay within the Eurozone once in power. But things will not be black and white in the next period in Greece, because we shall also have the interventions of the mass movements. The problems in society are so major, millions of people are in an absolutely desperate situation. They will have to fight, and they will fight, pushing a Syriza government to the left. So, despite the fact that the Syriza leadership is moving to the right and looking for a compromise with the forces of the markets internationally, it is possible that they will be pushed to the left under the pressure of the mass movement.
How does Xekinima think the campaign of fear about the Euro etc. should be answered? We think that it’s impossible to have a pro-working class programme - to abandon the memoranda, to get out of the present crisis of the economy by using the public sector as a steam engine for the economy to grow and in general to say no to the neoliberal policies of the EU - and at the same time to stay within the Eurozone as it is today.
after election in Greece – how can the Troika be challenged?
Bold socialist policies are needed to challenge the rule of the Troika in Greece
There are only two possibilities. One is that there will be a mass, internationalist appeal by radicalised forces of the working class and the government of the left in Greece to the working classes of Europe and to the developing left forces of Europe to fight for major changes in a socialist direction across the continent. If this does not take place (being put in check by the SyrIZA leadership) or doesn’t have sufficient time to develop, then the country will be outside of the Eurozone.
Alexis Tsipras, leader of Syriza
Spain: Massive surge in support for anti-austerity Podemos By Linda Schuetz PoDEMoS (Spanish for “we can”) is a new left part that is currently leading in opinion polls with 28.7 %. This means Podemos is ahead of the governing PP with 19.2% and also 5% ahead of PSoE, marking an end of the two-party system that has existed since the end of Franco’s dictatorship. This is the second political earthquake caused by the party since its recent foundation in January 2014: Podemos won 8%, or 5 deputies,in the election to the European parliament only 5 month later.
Crisis radicalises new generation Podemos’ development is also significant because the party came
out of the 2011 mass movement from below, the Indignados (the outraged) Since the property bubble burst 7 years ago, the working class has shouldered the burden of economic crisis with drastic cuts in public services and the welfare system, affecting the unemployed and people on low income most. That and mass unemployment, rampant among the under 30s, politicised a layer of young people, who started initiatives from below such as occupations of squares that developed into a vivid movement - inspiring similar if smaller movements in other countries. As a result of Podemos emerging from struggle, there is an orientation towards mass action and demand for the party to be open and democratic. In reality Podemos is centred around one
figure, Pablo Iglesias and proper democratic discussions need to be established that give the membership a say in its programme and strategy. Elections are in autumn and the election of a Podemos led government would give people confidence to struggle and to generalise the resistance that is currently localised and blocked by the trade union leadership. Similarly repercussions will be felt all over Europe, depending also on the result in Greece in the upcoming snap elections.
Media scare campaign A media campaign can be expected to warn of chaos in the case Podemos wins the elections and danger to "national unity". By replacing Mariano Rajoy as
head of government, Angela Merkel & co. would lose a loyal follower of their austerity policies. In addition, leaders of both established parties have been found out to be corrupt, prompting the PSOE to present a new leadership, which failed to fool people. The right-wing PP are trying to sit the scandals out, alienating a layer of former voters. The rapid development of Podemos shows people’s thirst for radical answers and alternatives to the neoliberal austerity policies of the past. There is the risk that these demands will not be fulfilled by Podemos as there are some weaknesses in their programme; demands include for example the “limitation of privatisation“ or “more public control in private companies“
The rise of Podemos has had a positive effect on discussions on the left in Spain, strengthening the left inside Izquierda Unida (United Left party initiated by the Spanish Communist Party) against a bureaucratic right-wing leadership that orientates towards agreement with the leadership of the big trade unions and participation in future governments, instead of orientating towards struggles and the radicalised layers. Socialismo Revolucionario, the sister organisation of the Socialist party argues in both parties for a programme that includes demands such as rejection of participation in governments with austerity parties, the non-payment of the debt, the nationalisation of the banks under control of the working class and the right of self-determination of minorities.
January / February 2015
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OCIALIST
believe that this approach has to be put openly to the Greek working class to prepare it for the battles that are looming ahead. Unfortunately the leadership of Syriza is not doing either of the two and it just creates an artificial optimism – “don’t worry, nothing will happen, we guarantee that the country will stay in the Eurozone”. This is a major mistake.
How should the struggle be organised under a Syriza government?
A return to a national currency, however would not necessarily be a disaster – if it is accompanied by socialist policies in Greece by a government of the left. Under a left government using a national currency and applying socialist policies, based on nationalisations, the planning of the economy and workers’ control and management, the economy could quickly take off. In these conditions the internationalist appeal would have to continue, aiming at bringing forward major socialist change across Europe. We
There has to be a very conscious attempt at coordinating the struggles because no isolated struggle can win in the present context. These struggles must try to link with the left rank and file of Syriza to push the party to the left. They have to attempt to create democratic structures within society and within the movements so that the rank and file has the decisive say. To get rid of the Troika and the present government, these struggles should be in the hands of the whole of the left, a united left. Unfortunately the left is split. Part of the blame for this is that the leadership of Syriza does not try to genuinely build a united front. But society and the working class will move in the great masses to vote for Syriza. Xekinima is part of this movement. As part of the “Initiative of 1,000” we’re calling for a vote for Syriza. The final factor is that the struggles must aim for a socialist programme - nationalise the banks, nationalise the commanding heights of the economy, plan the economy. All of this has to be under democratic control and management by the workers, otherwise we shall have the corruption that we had in the state sector in the past. On this basis struggles can be victorious and can provide huge inspiration to the working masses in the rest of Europe. For more reports and socalist analysis from Greece visit: www.socialistworld.net
Challenge austerity & the system… We need a new Left party in Ireland By Kevin McLoughlin
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rELand is not run as a democratic country, it;s run as a business. Those who own wealth have huge power and they use it to exert massive pressure to keep the keep the system sweet for them. So when the legislation regarding the water charges was put in front of President Michael D. higgins, there was never any doubt that he would sign it. Labour buckled under the pressure of the establishment many years ago. The absence of a mass party able to resist the pressure from the establishment and committed to fighting for working class people is a key reason why the capitalist establishment were able to get away with imposing vicious austerity for more than six years. Our two hands were tied behind our backs, particularly when it became clear that the trade union leaders had no intention of fighting back.
Fight the austerity propaganda Even a party with minority support and say a dozen TDs, once it was serious, could have answered the barrage of demoralising austerity propaganda and lies and exposed that austerity is simply robbery solely aimed at making the rich richer. Such a party could also have given working class people confidence and an understanding that they have the power to change things and acted as a catalyst to mobilise a mass of people and make it very difficult for them to impose austerity. But tired of waiting any longer, the explosion of activity and struggle against the water charges initiated by ordinary people themselves has started the necessary change. This new movement needs to go right to the end against the water charges but crucially it could also represent the birth of the new mass party that is desperately needed to challenge the system itself.
Build non-payment of water charges
Podemos leader, Pablo Iglesias (furthest right)
DEC 10TH PROTEST: Paul Murphy TD called for electoral challenge from antiwater charges movement
While the government have been knocked back, the mass demonstrations have not been enough to stop water charges. The movement now needs to become more consciously organised in order to ensure there is mass non-payment of water charges, as that is now the only way they can be defeated. The vast majority are opposed to the charges, but a very significant section of people are fearful of the consequences of not paying and in the next weeks the propaganda machines and the media will be wheeled out to try to barrage people into paying. Those who are convinced not to pay need to convince the rest. We need active campaigns in every
community to leaflet and talk to people in every household. If that happens, it is possible a majority could refuse to pay the first water bill in April/May. That would constitute the death of the water charges; all that would remain would be to bury it, and the Property Tax. There have been three mass mobilisations and currently there are more than three hundred and fifty anti water charges groups and Facebook pages around the country. The capability exists not only to undermine the charge, but to challenge the parties that have imposed them and the rest of the austerity in the next general election.
New movement should stand in election In each area if those who are organising non-payment came together and decided to stand a candidate, or to support a candidate who had a real record of fighting water charges and austerity, we could ensure not only that the next general election would result in the abolition of water charges, but also that a whole batch of new fighting working class TDs could be elected. That would be a huge step forward in building a new mass party for working class people, but would also be a platform from which you could challenge the
system itself. All the indications are that the shift away from the establishment parties of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour will continue. Sinn Fein will do very well in the next election, but even a government that has a Sinn Fein majority will not satisfy the needs of ordinary people, as just like Labour, they are already bending to the pressure from the establishment. We can have no confidence that Sinn Fein will in any serious way challenge the capitalist policies and approach which are destroying the lives of millions. In the next months, as activists and groups are coming together to organise mass non-payment, there should also be a democratic discussion about the idea of the movement standing candidates in all 43 constituencies. We can’t hope or rely on the likes of Labour or Sinn Fein, nor the host of Independents who play to the gallery, but who actually support the status quo. Working class people started their own fight back on the water charges, and we must see it through to conclusion. But when we defeat the water charges, the establishment will come back with more and more. So too we must build our own party - a new mass left party – to actually fight to change the whole system.
special feature
In auSTerITy eurOpe
January / February 2015
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special feature
THE SOCIALIST
The revolutionary legacy of Malcolm X By Eljeer Hawkins Socialist Alternative NYC
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His FEBruarY 21 marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X. in the shadow of the nationwide revolt against endemic police violence, economic exploitation and social alienation, the embryo of a new movement led by youth of color is upon us under the banner #BlackLivesMatter. Gone for 50 years, Malcolm remains a towering figure in the pantheon of the 20th century revolutionaries that sought to end systems of oppression and degradation. This generation is engaged in a struggle to define and preserve their humanity in the face of cold
Cold hard facts show deep racism By Monika Janas l Institutionalised racism is apparent in the statistics regarding the Stop and Frisk practices of the new York Police Department. While making up only 1.9% of the city’s population, black men comprise 25.6% of those stopped. l Huge disparity is also clear in the american prison system where 65% of non-violent offenders serving life without parole are black. 16% are white people. l one in three black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime, and further on, black offenders often receive sentences that are 10% longer than white offenders for the same crimes within the federal system. l This inequality starts very early on. Black and Hispanic children are three times more likely to live in poverty than whites, which can put limits on their ability to successfully engage with the school environment. l White young people are also twice as likely to graduate college as blacks and Hispanics. l There is a direct connection between these statistics and the never ending circle of oppression and poverty. l 84% of black school children cannot read or do maths at grade level, and this continues through adulthood; the black unemployment rate was 2.1 times the white unemployment rate in 2012.
blooded indifference to their suffering under capitalism and racism. Let’s examine the final 11 months of Malcolm’s life and legacy.
“You can’t have capitalism without racism”
The evolution of a revolutionary On 8 March, 1964 following his “chickens come home to roost” statement following the death of John F. Kennedy in November 1963, Malcolm X decided to make an announcement that he was breaking with the Nation of Islam (NOI) to fully engage in the struggle for civil rights at home and abroad. NOI, that preached that black people are the “chosen people” to be delivered from the evil of white supremacy and Jim Crow, had a non-engagement policy concerning the most important social movement of the time, the civil rights movement. Malcolm formed Muslim Mosque Inc. to continue to practice black American based Islam and also established a political entity to allow him to fully participate in the civil rights movement, The Organization of Afro-American Unity. In April 1964 Malcolm began two international trips to Africa, Middle East and Europe, that had political and religious objectives. he said, “Our success in America will involve two circles, black nationalism and Islam… And Islam will link us spiritually to Africa, Arabia and Asia,”. Politically, Malcolm aimed to bring the case of the 22 million Afro-Americans who faced a Jim Crow USA of poverty, police violence and political disenfranchisement, to a world stage. The anti-colonial revolutions of the period, the emergence of the United States as the pre-eminent capitalist super power, and the strengthening of Stalinism provided
Malcolm X speaking at mass rally in Harlem, New York
the back drop to Malcom’s evolving ideas over the span of 11 months. At home, the black freedom movement under the phase of the civil rights movement beginning in 1955 following the brutal murder of Emmitt Till and rosa Park’s defiant refusal to get up from a Montgomery bus seat, ignited a powerful social movement against racist discrimination; Jim Crow. Due to militant social struggle by the movement, Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration was forced to implement key social programs and laws, such as the Civil rights Act 1964 and Voting rights 1965. In Malcolm’s vision was seeking to re-tie the threads of the struggle in the US for civil rights to an internationalist framework, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, uniting the most oppressed in the colonial world and US, and total liberation from the power structure of daily oppression and exploitation. The international ruling elite, U.S. governmental forces and NOI members wanted Malcolm dead because of his potential to organ-
ize, inspire and provide an alternative to racism and capitalism.
The meaning of Malcolm X today At the end of his life Malcolm draw a deeper analysis of capitalism and white supremacy providing a blueprint for black power activist organizations for generations to follow. Malcolm matters because the conditions that produced Malcolm still exist. The abject poverty, racism,
high rates of unemployment, mass prison incarceration, police violence, layoffs and massive budget cuts, are a byproduct of a sick capitalist system based on delivering super profits for a small global ruling elite. These conditions are producing a new generation of revolutionaries, such as the youth in Ferguson, who continue the struggle of Malcolm X. Such young people can be key to building a movement for a democratic socialist change so desperately needed in the US.
#Blacklivesmatter: Revolt against racist oppression By Paddy Delaney
August, there was a further erup-
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iTH THE deaths of unarmed black men Eric Garner and Michael Brown at the hands of white us police officers in 2014, ‘#blacklivesmatter’ became the slogan of a powerful movement of the thousands who have taken to the streets demanding an end to state sponsored police brutality and racist oppression.
“I can’t breathe” 43 year old Eric Garner died in Staten Island in July 2014 after being held in a ‘chokehold’ by a White police officer. his harrowing last words – “I can’t breathe” – reverberated around the world. his death drew thousands of people onto the streets, with 2,500 participating in one protest march alone in Staten Island in August. With the shooting dead of 18 year old Michael Brown by a White police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in
Thousands have taken to the streets in cities across the US in wake of racist police killings
tion of anger, with young people of colour pouring onto the streets. The subsequent militarisation of the police force in Ferguson only served to illustrate the true nature of the repressive capitalist state and embolden the protesters.
Thousands take to the streets Despite the best efforts of the establishment to ‘tame’ the movement, it continues to grow in scale. In November and December, the
Grand Jury failed to indict police officers for the killing of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, leading to a new wave of protest. Thousands took to the streets in 170 cities across the US in November, with 2,000 marching in Boston, over 1,000 in New york and 1,000 in Oakland and Seattle on Black Friday. On 13th December thousands protested across the US again, with 30,000 people on the streets in New york. On 20th December 3,000 protesters occupied the Mall of America in Minneapolis. The economic realities for people of colour which underlie the protests cannot be ignored. 27% of black people in the US live in poverty. Black people are twice as likely to be out of work as white people. This movement could become a new black freedom movement and in so doing should take up the economic issues and challenge the rule of capitalism to put an end to a system that breeds racism and inequality
January / February 2015
9 THE SOCIALIST
By Cillian Gillespie
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HE FirsT week of January witnessed horror on the streets of Paris with the horrific killing of twelve people in the offices of the satirical magazine charlie Hebdo, a police officer and four Jewish people in a kosher shop two days later. These inexcusable criminal attacks must be unreservedly condemned. They have shocked and horrified working class people, non-Muslim and Muslim alike, in France and further afield. They once again illustrate the reactionary nature of right wing Islamic fundamentalist terror groups such as Al-Qaeda who have claimed responsibility for the attack. As well as resulting in the shocking tragic loss of life as occurred in Paris, they provide an excuse for capitalist governments to introduce repressive legislation and create a climate where Islamophobic and racist prejudices can be fostered and whipped up. A major contributing factor to the growth of such groups like AlQaeda has been the interventions by imperialism in the Middle East and North Africa. More recently France and other major powers armed and supported groups like ISIS in Syria and many young Muslims have been radicalised by wars such as those in Iraq and the oppression of the Palestinians thus leading them to join these groups.
Workers unity against racist division 4 million took to the streets throughout France the Sunday following the killings. As well as seeking to register their outrage at the events of the previous week, many ordinary working and young
people consciously sought to use the mass demonstrations as opportunity to show their opposition to potential divisions being opened up between Muslims, Jews, Christians and atheists. Gauche revolutionaire, the French sister organisation of the Socialist Party, participated in these protests and highlighted the need for the unity of working class people to oppose Islamophobia, antiSemitism and all forms of racism. The importance of such unity has been highlighted by the fact that over 50 anti-Muslims incidents, including arson attacks and shootings, were reported in the week following the killings alone.
Above & Below: Two angles of carefully choreographed photo stunt of hypocritical world leaders in Paris
Disgusting hypocrisy of capitalist leaders The enormous display of solidarity and unity shown on the demonstration of January 11th was marred by the carefully choreographed and hypocritical “participation” (see photo above) by leaders of various capitalist and imperialist countries. Many of these individuals have been more than willing to brutally repress freedom of speech and deploy terror against civilians on a scale far greater than those who brought bloody carnage to Paris at the beginning of January. One example of this hypocrisy was that that of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government slaughtered 2,200 people in its one sided war on Gaza last summer, including 17 journalists. It is also noteworthy that during this war the French state banned demonstrations in opposition to it. It is very important that a movement seeking to build solidarity amongst ordinary people remains independent of capitalist politicians in France and war criminals such as Netanyahu.
Charlie Hebdo cartoons Since the attack on Charlie hebdo there has been much debate about the nature of the cartoons that it published. On a number of occasions, it provocatively published crude cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, something the editorial staff had to know would cause offence to much of France’s Muslim community. This is a community that is a marginalised and discriminated against minority within France and this has only been added to by the rise of Islamophobia in France and Europe in the last decade and a half, consciously fostered by the ruling classes as illustrated by the banning of the hijab (headscarf worn by Muslim women) in France in 2004. Unfortunately this is
something the broader French left failed to oppose and indeed in some cases enthusiastically supported. It is also important to note that the vast majority of the Muslim population are of Algerian origin. Algeria was a colony of French imperialism for over 130 years and 1.5 million Algerians were killed in their country’s struggle for national liberation between 1954 and 1962. The Socialist Party defends the right to free speech, and we oppose all blasphemy laws, however we believe this right should be exercised responsibly and not used to insensitively offend peoples’ religious beliefs, particularly when they are those of an oppressed minority. Satire can be progressive tool when it is aimed at those in power, not those who are powerless. Understanding the above con-
text is very important. The publication of the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in Charlie hebdo will understandably add to a real sense amongst Muslims that they are second class citizens in France. Therefore they should not have been published. Needless to say, this is no way excuses the heinous attack on the magazine. Working class people and all sections of the oppressed, regardless of their religion and ethnicity have a common enemy- the system of capitalism that breeds imperialist war, racism and austerity. The poison of racist division must be fought by a united working class movement in France that can also give a vision of a democratic and socialist society based on human solidarity where everyone regardless of their race or religion can develop to their full potential and not face discrimination and poverty.
Belgian workers resist “Thatcherism on speed” By Katia Hancke RESISTanCE aGaInST austerity has grown explosively in Belgium in the last few months, culminating in a massive general strike on 15 December last. after electoral success for populist right wing parties in the elections last May, they put forward an aggressive programme of government aimed at weakening the trade unions and fundamentally changing the balance of forces between the Belgian capitalist class and the workers’ movement. In practice, this means a diet of Thatcherism on speed: wage restraint to the tune of €20,000 over the course of a career, the prospect of having to work to the age of 67 or older, severe cut backs in all public services, dismantling of the health service, two half days of unpaid forced labour for the unemployed, third level fees to be doubled – young
or old, working or not, public or private sector, the proposals from government would hit everyone hard.
Preparing for action In response, the two trade union federations developed a plan of action to build mass resistance to austerity and to get this government out of office. Starting with demonstrations, they built up to one of the biggest national protests in recent Belgian history last October. Building on this success, they called a series of regional strike days. Shop stewards and union activists went into their workplaces armed with the arguments as to why a determined fight back against this government was needed, and the response has been impressive. All regional strikes were well adhered to and gave workers the confidence that a national
strike was possible and necessary to rock the government. On 15 December, all major workplaces were shut, towns and cities came to a standstill and mass pickets were well attended
all over the country.
Young people show their solidarity The solidarity between workers
and young people has been one of the striking aspects of this new movement. On the day of the general strike, school students in Gent cycled from picket line to picket line to express their support for the striking workers. The prospect of third level education being priced out of reach of working class youth has become the catalyst for a new youth movement across the country, fighting not just cuts in education but linkingthis to the wider struggle. This movement has mass support, with the government now being the most unpopular in the history of the state, with less than 20% approval ratings. The task posed now is to bring this advantage home with a further plan of action, building for further regional days of action to culminate in another general strike, this time of 48 hours, to do away with this government and its austerity agenda once and for all
international
Horrific terror attacks in Paris
January / February 2015
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news
THE SOCIALIST
Stormont House Agreement – Agreeing to disagree By Daniel Waldron
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usT BEForE christmas, negotiations between the main parties in the north along with the British and irish governments resulted in the signing of yet another supposedly “historic” milestone in the peace process. The stormont House agreement, according to us diplomat Megan o’sullivan, would usher in a “new era” for northern ireland. in reality, this agreement – like the Good Friday agreement itself and all the subsequent deals – is just an agreement to disagree. The talks were meant to focus on finding some framework to deal with the divisive and contentious issues of parades, flags, emblems and the past. The “solution” agreed was – as always – to find some mechanism to kick the can down the road. Commissions will
Sectarian parties agree a programme of cuts
be established to examine issues of “culture and identity”, reporting – conveniently for the main parties – after May’s general election. As the Socialist Party has consistently argued, no real solution to these issues can ever be achieved by
March 13: striking against Stormont cuts By Kevin Henry In RESPonSE to the Thatcherite budget agreed by the Stormont parties, unions have come together to announce a campaign of action against the cuts. This will include a one day strike on March 13- involving all public sector workers and a layer of private sector workers including importantly in public transport. If union members vote for action, the strike will potentially be the greatest display of trade union power since the strike against Thatcher, which shut down Northern Ireland in April 1980. It will be an example of what can be achieved when the working class unites and makes a stand. A solid strike will put down a marker and will send a clear message to the Executive.
But a one-day strike alone will not be enough to defeat Stormont’s austerity. Socialist Party members in the unions are campaigning for a strategy of sustained, co-ordinated and escalating industrial action, including a second day of strike before the general election. This is vital as workers know that one day is not enough and need to be convinced that there will be serious campaign and no repeat of the sell out after the November 30 public sector strike where after the significant show of strength by workers in Britain and the North against attack on pension- union leaders sold their members out for crumbs of the table. Alongside this ,we need to link up with workers and campaigners in England, Wales and Scotland- in a powerful movement to defeat austerity.
politicians who rely upon and have a vested interest in maintaining sectarian division. On one issue, however, a genuine consensus was reached – on implementing sharper and deeper cuts across the public sector. The
agreement will see a massive redundancy scheme rolled out with up to 20,000 jobs, including 10% of teaching positions, wiped out. Most public sector workers will face a further five-year pay freeze, a cut in real terms. Public services already in crisis will be stretched to breaking point. youth unemployment – already at almost 25% – will be exacerbated. NI Water is threatened with all-out privatisation, inevitably leading to water charges. While Sinn Fein pose as an anti-austerity party in the South, Martin McGuinness has said that anyone opposed to this budget needs “a good shake” and is living “in fantasy land”. As part of the agreement, the British government has now introduced legislation to allow the Assembly Executive to cut corporation tax, something championed by all the main parties. Every penny handed to big business will be mirrored in further cuts to public services. We are told we must
“” "Martin McGuinness has said that anyone opposed to this budget needs ‘a good shake’ and is living ‘in fantasy land’."
destroy public sector jobs in the hope that they may be replaced by mostly low-paid and precarious jobs in the private sector. The reality of austerity’s impact on the economy as a whole is plain to see: rather than green shoots of recovery, the Northern economy has slipped back into negative growth and wages continue to fall. While the Stormont politicians bicker and whip up conflict around sectarian issues for their own cynical reasons, they are united around a neo-liberal consensus of cuts, privatisation and hand-outs to big business. The Socialist Party stand for the building of a united fightback against this agenda and the building of a new political movement which unites Catholic and Protestant workers and young people against the Green and Orange Tories at Stormont.
“Conscience” Clause enshrines homophobia into law By Kevin Henry
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HE aTTEMPT by the duP to amend northern ireland’s equality laws to allow religious business owners to refuse services to LGBT customers if it is “facilitating” an act against their religion is an attempt to enshrine a right to discriminate into law. This attempt to drive society backwards would make it perfectly acceptable under the law for a B&B owner to refuse to cater for a gay couple. The DUP – who have a long record of opposing gay rights – have tried to say this is about “rebalancing” rights, with Peter robinson claiming that “[m]ore and more, the balance is tipped against people of faith.” LGBT people in Northern Ireland are still
denied the right to adopt, the right to marry and even the right to give blood! The Socialist Party is completely opposed to religious discrimination, such as the comments by Peter robinson several months ago that he wouldn’t trust a Muslim. This “conscience” clause, however, is not about defending real religious freedom but giving a small group of business owners the right to deny others their rights. There is huge opposition to this bill. Over 10,000 have already signed an online petition against it and protests are planned across the North in the lead up to the bill being discussed. reflecting this, other parties have been forced to say they will block the bill. Even if this attack on LGBT rights is defeated, we still need a struggle for real equality. This means a fight for equal rights,
including in access to marriage and adoption, and a struggle against homophobia in our schools, workplaces and communities. But it’s not just the DUP who are influenced by hardline religious forces. Leading figures in the SDLP, UUP and Alliance have all opposed gay marriage rights and all parties are united in opposing a woman’s right to choose. What is needed is a new political movement of workers and young people to fight for real equality, and against sectarianism and austerity.
End state racism against asylum seekers By James Hallinan
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FTEr BEinG forced to flee their country, asylum seekers end up being marginalized here and become one of the most vulnerable sections of society. They end up being stripped of some of their rights. They can’t work or get proper education, are placed in cramped accommodation, and have limited control over when or what they eat. Direct provision is akin to the ghettoisation of a community and can have adverse effects on the health, both physical and mental, of the asylum seekers forced into these centers. Already this year two examples of how asylum
seekers suffer under this system have thrown the issue to the fore. One was the case of Mohamed Sleyum Ali a Somalia national. Mohamed was sent to Cloverhill Prison while waiting to be deported. This limits the ability to interact with lawyers and bodies such as the Irish refugee Council. hours after being deported to Tanzania, Mohamed was attacked and would later die from his injuries. The other involved a flight in 2010. The flight had 36 deportees including children. After the flight had to return to Dublin, the Irish refugee Council received information that some people were handcuffed and at times stopped from using the toilets. This ended up with one child wetting himself and two others being made to urinate
into bottles.
Defend the right to asylum Often the capitalist establishment uses asylum seekers as scapegoats, saying they are a drain on society, they take our jobs and lower the wages of workers. It is they who attack workers' wages and jobs are lost when companies move in their search to increase their already bloated wealth. We must demand the right of asylum for those who come here to flee persecution and oppression. We must demand jobs, homes and services for Irish and migrants alike and not allow ourselves to be divided by our common enemy. Treatment of asylum seekers by state is a disgrace
January / February 2015
11 THE SOCIALIST
By Conor Payne
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HE MosT recent opinion poll shows an enormous 76% support for the upcoming referendum on marriage equality. While this should not lead activists to be complacent – there will be a major campaign by the catholic right to sow confusion and play on backward ideas – it does show a sea change in attitudes to LGBT people in irish society and a huge aspiration for equality. But what would a ‘yes Vote’ mean? Marriage equality is often presented as ‘the final hurdle’ to ending discrimination against LGBT people in society. Labour TD John Lyons said in a recent statement: “Civil marriage is one of the last institutions in Ireland where inequality still exists.” This may suit attempts to present this Government as socially progressive, but it is important to register that marriage equality would represent an important step forward for LGBT people in Ireland, but not an end to the fight
for a society free of homophobia. The reality is that homophobia remains widespread in Ireland, and this is reflected in many aspects of the law. Ireland is the only country in the EU that does not provide for gender recognition for transgender and intersex people. The government’s bill to deal with this issue requires ‘medical evaluations’ of applicants which the Transgender Equality Network Ireland calls ‘restrictive and unnecessary’. The bill also requires the forced divorce of any married transgender person seeking recognition of their gender. The religious exemption to equality legislation means that employers can still legally discriminate against LGBT people working in workplaces run by religious organisations. This includes most schools and hospitals, and forces thousands of workers to stay in the closet or risk their jobs. There is still also a discriminatory ban on gay men donating blood. There needs to be a fight for legal equality in relation to all these issues. But it is not just a
Review: Vessel By Fiona O’Loughlin
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HE docuMEnTarY film Vessel, screened by rosa in december, is an inspiring account of the development of Women on Waves and Women on Web. it charts how a group of women led by dr. rebecca Gomperts, endeavoured to provide abortions to women who lived in states that banned or restricted abortions. They wished to create a space where the only permission a woman needed to continue with her pregnancy was her own. The audacity, passion and bravery of the women stand out as they overcome one barrier after another to pursue this goal. Initially, they offered early abortion in International waters on a ship converted into a clinic. As the ship was registered in the Netherlands, when in International waters, it came under Dutch abortion law. Vessel highlights the discovery by women themselves of the abortion pill which was actually developed originally for gastric ulcers. Women on Waves / Women on Web make use of cartoons instructing women on how to access and safely use abortion pills. They travelled the world getting this information out via their helpline and various direct actions including hanging a huge banner from the enormous statue of the Virgin Mary in Quito, Equador.
The women were harassed by aggressive, violent protesters in every country, the overwhelming of majority of whom were men. Throughout the film, emails from women in desperate situations are shown, many from Ireland. Some are victims of rape, some are women who cannot afford another baby, some who say they are just too young to be a mother. The common thread of the emails is fear and desperation. The Women on Web doctors are helpful and supportive. For me the most poignant part of the film was when a young Irish woman says “I cannot go on with this pregnancy but I am not a monster.” Vessel finishes by depicting the transition to Women on Web which posts safe abortion pills to women around the world after an online consultation with a doctor on womenonweb.org.
Tens of thousands have protested for marriage equality in recent years
question of legal equality. homophobic attitudes in society continue to have a corrosive effect on the lives of LGBT people. research into the lives of LGBT young people by the Anti-Bullying Centre in Trinity found that 15% had attempted suicide and 21% had self-harmed. This is the product of a society where LGBT still
routinely encounter homophobic attitudes, and in some cases abuse and violence. Despite major changes in the attitudes of ordinary people, Irish capitalist society remains deeply backward; a society where the Catholic church retains huge power over the provision of public services and where calling those
who campaign against equality for LGBT ‘homophobic’ constitutes slander. To challenge this means challenging all forms of oppression of LGBT people and everybody else and linking this to a struggle for fundamental social and economic change, a struggle for a democratic socialist society.
Review of a classic: Socialism Made Easy by James Connolly
By Cian Prendiville PRoBaBlY ConnollY'S most famous pamphlet, this short collection of articles is one that should be read by every activist and opponent of oppression. Dealing with topics such as the need for strong, fighting trade unions, a political voice for workers and real democracy - many passages could have been written yesterday. It also answers many of the anti-socialist slanders that still feature in the scripts of Enda and co, such as the claim socialists are impractical or violent.
Being “practical” means selling out The first article in this collection is laced with sarcasm and wit as Connolly rips up these myths. For instance, he explains how those who call for “practical” policies and who work within the system are precisely the ones incapable of making any real change, whilst it has always been radical movements that actually secured improvements. Connolly ridicules those “practical” politicians as sharply and comically as Russell Brand at his best, pointing out how for them: "a party too indifferent to the sorrow and sufferings of humanity to raise its voice in protest, is a moderate, practical party".
Building a fighting workers’ movement The second section of the pamphlet has a more sombre tone, but is equally as sharp. Here he
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SOC IAL ISM Made Easy
lays bare the weaknesses of the workers movement at the time, how in a series of struggles they had been beaten by the bosses. However, far from accept defeat, he asks what lessons must be learnt. He argues workers must get more organised and more militant. Almost as if he was talking about the recent bus and rail strikes in Ireland, he explains how we cannot allow bosses to pick on workers one section at a time, and use one group to pick up the slack when the other strikes. Instead he argues for building the strongest, broadest movement, and striking together to force the boss to give in. Connolly is not content for workers to only be organised in their workplaces and act together industrially, he also argues that we must organise politically to take on the bosses in that arena too.
The case for socialist change Finally, the pamphlet is a strong argument for socialism, which he discribes in this pamphlet as the “great anti-theft movement” – taking back from the 1% the wealth they have stolen from workers. Foreshadowing the slogan of the Spanish Indignados that “there is no democracy when the markets rule”, he argues for democratic, public ownserhip of the key sectors of the economy to allow "the application to industry, or to the Social life of the nation, of the fundamental principles of democracy". All in all, this is a fantastic short pamphlet, a must read. Read it online at: http://www.marxist.net/ ireland/connolly/socialism/
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PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY
ISSUE 89
JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2015
Strike two blows against right-wing, backward Ireland in May:
Vote Yes to marriage equality & demand a referendum to...
Repeal
the 8
th
Amendment
50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF MALCOLM X – his revolutionary life, & the #BlackLivesMatter struggle in USA today
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ELJEER HAWKINS, community and anti-war activist, born and raised in Harlem, New York is a writer on race, criminal justice & the -black freedom movement. Eljeer is a member of Socialist Alternative, sister organisation of the Socialist Party in the US
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