The Socialist-October by Socialist Party

PaPer of the SocialiSt Party

iSSue 95

october 2015

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Housing crisis

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October 2015

2 THE SOCIALIST

housing crisis

NAMA: The developers’ bailout under the microscope Saving the Golden Circle While you’re trying to find some place to live where the rent won’t starve you, your money is helping someone else buy up a hotel. five years ago nama was started up to cover the bad debts and save the arses of a golden circle of property developers. now we’re seeing the other end of nama, and it’s no prettier. Since prices started going up, a mass flogging of nama properties has begun. foreign and domestic vultures alike, anyone who has a few million to spare, can snap them up. through nama, we’ve paid 20, 30 or 40 cents on the euro for other people’s purchases.

A project for failed gamblers failed gamblers got a massive public project, nama, to keep them in business. What a contrast to how workingclass people are treated: with this sell-off and property bubble going on, people are being evicted or priced out. meanwhile the rich are treated like gods, consulted, sucked up to, given loans and tax exemptions at every turn. the full extent of the rip-off of the public is becoming clearer. Vulture funds with two-year tax exemptions are swooping down to pick up cheap properties, which they can spend an eternity charging people as much as possible to live in. my need for a

ture, it wants yet more public money lent to the private sector. nama has spent tens of billions on debt service too.

NAMA kept “harddone-by” developers on €200k a year lifestyles

NAMA property for social housing?

roof over my head is somebody else’s opportunity never to have to work again. rather than providing social housing, nama is eagerly throwing properties at funds whose one purpose is to royally rip people off by charging the highest rent possible.

prices. but as

always, the big Only bucks will a way 6,000 residential find around the units NAMA began rules. cerberus acted as a with became middleman between social housing nama and

The developers’ fixer fees

Despite cerberus is a threewhat they say, gigantic headed hound from Greek NAMA will make mythology. cerberus capital a €40 billion management may be just as loss ugly and predatory, but this legendary image doesn’t really suit an outfit that just plays with numbers, using money to make money. nama was set up with rules that developers would not be able to buy back their properties at lower

the developers. the three-headed dog was thrown a bone: “fixers’ fees” of tens of millions – fees that drove up the price of the property, and increased the loss for us.

by manuS lenihan

let’s imagine for a second what could have been possible if nama really were set up to help the public rather than to take the golden circle of developers under its wing. nama started with 15,000 residential units. only 6,000 of these have become social housing, and only 2,000 of these are actually fit to live in. a serious programme of doing up nama properties to be habitable, providing infrastructure and services, would end the housing crisis, drive down rents and create jobs. Where would the money come from for such a project?

Well, where did the €40 billion for nama come from? you see, it’s a matter of priorities.

Bailed out developer feeling hard done by

Developer Johnny ronan’s little bon mot comparing his “ordeal” in nama to the holocaust was obviously insulting to the victims of nazi crimes. but the comparison is completely off the wall in another way too. ronan thinks nama went too hard on him while he was under its tutelage. he’s apologised for comparing nama to auschwitz but no doubt he still feels hard-done-by. ronan is being pretty ungrateful nama took him and others like him gently under its wing, kept them nursed, and set about sorting out their mess for them, at public expense.

Making a profit for us? after all this grief, is nama even on course to make a profit? they say it’s going to make a billion. but that’s if you don’t count the €40 billion spent setting it up. regardless, the whole experience has been a loss for us. nama has spent €6 billion between helping developers, helping vulture funds, and development finance. instead of using that money to build homes and improve infrastruc-

Do you feel sorry for this bailed out devel oper?

Modular hoMes:

Sticking plaster on gaping wound of homelessness By Councillor Michael O’Brien

T’S A true mark of the desperation brought about by the housing crisis that prefabricated or “modular” homes are seen as a step up for many of the thousands of people currently homeless in Dublin and enduring emergency accommodation in hotels, hostels or B&Bs. But for the thousands more of families who are not homeless but are in dire overcrowding situations, the modular homes being talked up as an interim solution might seem a less bad option.

a false economy Councillors, council officials and the media were demonstrated six different types of modular unit in September and essentially given a sales pitch by each of the manufacturers, one which is a subsidiary of Siteserv (proprietor Denis O’Brien!). What struck me immediately from

the pitches was the ultimate false economy of going down this route as a sticking plaster solution. The price range went from €30,000 at the lower end to almost €100,000 for units we are told we need only for a few years but can last decades. Dr Lorcan Sirr, lecturer in housing studies in DIT estimates that the average cost in labour and materials to build an actual house on council owned land that one would expect to last well over 100 years is €160,000.

myself that acquiring these units needs to be tied into a firm commitment for house building. These politicians have bought into the line that Troika deficit rules prevent the council from raising the funds to build.

a long term arrangement

Invest in social housing The starting point of resolving the crisis of homelessness should be liberating all empty units in the Dublin area and readying them for use by people who need them. Such units include voids (council owned vacant units), NAMA owned property, as well as private blocks for sale. But this is not enough, we need a massive house building programme, a pro-

Modular homes: A poor alternative to investing in decent housing

gramme which is not on the current council’s agenda Instead Dublin City Council’s Housing Special Policy Committee has come out in support of proceed-

ing with these modular units and identifying sites around the city to place them. Councillors from the establishment parties have resisted the point made by activists such as

Even where the council has plans for substantial development on land it owns - such as the sites in Belcamp and the Oscar Traynor Road in Dublin’s North East, where together 1,100 unit are to be built by the end of 2017 - they are bringing in private developers who do the work and take a cut for themselves, meaning that only around 200 units will meet the social need. Such a lack of seriousness about addressing the crisis means that there is a real danger that modular homes could become a long term arrangement like the prefab classrooms of the past.

October 2015

3 THE SOCIALIST

By Diana O’Dwyer

OTHING BETTER exposes the failure of capitalism to deliver for working class people in Ireland than the housing saga of the last twenty years. First came a giant credit bubble blown up by landowners, builders, developers, property speculators, landlords and banks. Cheering them on were the establishment parties, themselves consisting largely of landlords and property-owners.

Corruption and greed fuel bubble Between the early 1990s and mid2000s, land costs ballooned from 15% of the cost of a new house up to 40-50%. Farmers and other landowners laughed all the way to the bank as developers amassed huge land banks. A third of donations to Fianna Fáil came from builders and developers and councillors routinely accepted bribes to rezone land for development. With the stroke of a pen, this netted the developer a parasitic windfall of up to 1000% so it was well worth a few brown envelopes. Such crony capitalism made everyone involved filthy rich. Fuelled by all the cash sloshing around the financial markets due to rising global

wealth inequality, it inflated a gigantic credit and property bubble. Because the more they lend, the more they earn in interest, the banks recklessly lent out as much they could get. From 2000-2007, Irish bank lending more than tripled to almost €400bn, while profits amounted to €21bn from 2003-8. 60% of lending was property-related and over half that was to developers and landlords not ordinary mortgage holders. The top twenty customers accounted for half of Anglo’s Irish loan book!

From boom to bust Spurred on by half a billion euros in property-related tax breaks, all this speculation and profiteering drove new house prices up from four times the average industrial wage in 1996 to ten times it in 2007. All the while, the government assured us the problem was lack of supply and builders and developers must be incentivised to build more houses. But as they rushed to get in on the pyramid scheme before it inevitably collapsed, the end result was ghost estates and 230,000 empty houses. Fast-forward to 2015 and house prices have fallen but housing is more unaffordable because incomes are down 20% due to wage cuts and austerity taxes. Hardly anyone can afford a mortgage and the government

Socialist Party TD Ruth Coppinger and housing rights activists at Dublin 15 occupation of NAMA property

stopped building council housing to save the money for the banks, so the numbers renting are up 240,000 in eighteen months. In Dublin, rents are back to bubble levels and 130,000 households are waiting for non-existent council housing.

No reliance on private market Again the politicians are telling us it’s all a question of supply and the solu-

loNgboat Quay sCaNdal

Firetrap created by developers’ greed

tion is to incentivise developers and landlords with tax breaks to make property speculation profitable again. Apparently, profit margins of 40-50% aren’t sufficient because lenders are charging developers 15% interest. Mulryan is back building houses after NAMA (coincidentally devised by long-time Ballymore director, Peter Bacon!) paid him €200,000 a year and saved him from bankruptcy. He’s warned though that he’s finding “affordable new-house building diffi-

cult to deliver”. Clearly, capitalists like him are the cause of the housing crisis not the solution. What’s needed is large scale state investment to directly build 100,000 houses for less than half the cost by eliminating all the layers of profiteering that make housing unaffordable. We cannot rely on the private construction industry to build affordable houses, it should be nationalised so that their resources can provide affordable homes for all.

Speaking out

By Kevin McLoughlin

“F

IFTY PEOPLE died when fire ripped through an apartment complex in Dublin city centre last night. The fire started accidentally in a flat but wasn’t contained because the building had serious deficiencies in relation to fire safety”. The statement above is fiction. But, incredibly, it is something that could easily happen as the ongoing crisis at the Longboat Quay apartment complex on the southern banks of the Liffey illustrates.

tip of the iceberg There are just under 300 units in the complex and a random check on an apartment which was due to be sold revealed very major deficiencies in the building regarding fire safety. Now over €4 million must be found to make the building safe or residents and tenants will be forced to leave. This and the case at Priory Hall are only the tip of the iceberg. Many buildings that went up during the property bubble are substandard. “It is widespread, and it’s not just down to a couple of rogue developers. I’ve been in developments that have been excellent but they are the exception rather than the rule.” That is the chilling assessment of a former chairman of the Society of Chartered Surveyors. With local authorities buying homes on the open market because of the housing crisis, it is likely that more buildings

Voices of homeless housing activists from dublin 15 who participated in the occupation of NaMa property:

Longboat Quay: "the exception rather than the rule"

that are fire traps will be exposed by pre-purchase inspections.

lack of regulation While regulations have improved, there are still major issues regarding enforcement and whether regular inspections of new buildings during the building process are taking place. The Dublin Docklands Development Authority and receivers who own some of the apartments say they will pay some of the cost of rectifying the building. In effect this means the taxpayer will pay this portion but then it is up to the residents to pay the rest, which is estimated at €18,000 each. Once again the victims of a crisis have to pay the price rather than those who caused it. The professional who signed off on Longboat Quay is no

longer in the country and the company that built it, Gendsong, went into receivership and so isn’t liable. However, the owner of that company is developer Bernard McNamara. He recently availed of a quick bankruptcy in London and is now back in business and has new projects in Dublin. McNamara should be made pay, not only for the costs for rectifying the building but for such criminal negligence and the danger he put people in. This debacle and current housing crisis both show that the building of homes can’t be left to private profiteers. Both make a very strong argument for the state to take over the building industry and to build the homes and infrastructure that we need rather than relying on the spivs and chancers who dominate that industry.

“it is no life, your life is not your own. you live under supervision.your health suffers mentally and physically. i don’t know if i am feeling sick or just fatigued from the stress.life is just difficult like this.” — GbemiSola JohnSon “my kids say “We don’t have a home mam, we have a room” how is Santa going to find us here, if we don’t have a home mam. “ — Danielle aDDerley mccabe “enda Kenny has no sympathy, yet alone a solution to this crisis. he does not care about the children of this country, who are living a horrible life being homeless. So if this government do not want to house us, we take our houses through direct action and that’s, that. i have a pain in my face with the way the government has brushed off the issue.-“ — amy brennan “being in the Dail today, the Government don’t see a housing crisis. People are being arrested for Joan burton being in a car for two hours. my kids have to spend an hour and a half in a car in the mornings to go to school from a hotel. the cost of living in hotel is madness. We are eating out all the time. it’s whatever is handiest and cheapest. i can’t afford to be eating healthy food, simply because my budget won’t allow it.” — meliSSa rothWell

housing crisis

profiteering makes houses unaffordable

October 2015

opinion & news

THE SOCIALIST

Joe higgins the

column

“When campaigns like these reach high points of achievement, however, stark choices face the individuals at their core as well as the activists and strategists around them. In which way should they direct the mass movements that have crystallised in order to bring about the fundamental social change aspired to by the thousands or even millions who look to them?” a socialist europe instead.

socialist policies needed JereMy CorbyN’s spectacular victory in the labour Party’s leadership race was a blow to the entire political, economic and media establishment in britain. along with the growing support for bernie sanders, a self-proclaimed socialist, in the us Presidential campaign and the election of Kshama sawant, a member of the sister party of the socialist Party in the us, to the city council in seattle it indicates a new trend which is developing internationally. in the face of vicious austerity implemented in order to bail out the capitalist financial market system and the inaction or outright betrayal by trade union and right wing labour movement leaders, anger and frustration have found an opportunity to be expressed through the campaigns of individuals like these standing for radically different policies. they confound the hacks of the billionaire owned media who have acted throughout the austerity era as a journalistic praetorian guard for crisis capitalism.

stark choices When campaigns like these reach high points of achievement, however, stark choices

face the individuals at their core as well as the activists and strategists around them. in which way should they direct the mass movements that have crystallised in order to bring about the fundamental social change aspired to by the thousands or even millions who look to them? in Seattle, kshama Sawant and Socialist alternative intensified their campaign to achieve a magnificent victory in the campaign they initiated to win a minimum wage of $15 an hour for low paid workers. they continue to battle for the realisation of reforms in the interest of the majority while simultaneously campaigning for a socialist alternative to capitalist failure. on a greater scale, as newly elected leader of the British Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn’s victory places him at a critical historic crossroads. He faces a fundamental choice that can be starkly summed up as follows: capitulate to the massive pressure being piled on him by the establishment and capitalist media and become a prisoner of the right-wing Blairite hijackers of Labour. it is they who had turned the party into an instrument to serve the British ruling class by pushing austerity onto

Jeremy Corbyn won a massive 60% in the Labour leadership election

the poor as well as lower and middle income workers in the interests of the financiers of the City of London.

organised movement of the 99% on the other hand he can take the advice of the Socialist party in england and Wales and Socialist party Scotland: to fashion into a powerful organised movement the hundreds of thousands who were inspired to sign up to the Labour party to ensure his election and who were enthused by his anti- aus-

terity message and his pointing to a fundamentally different way to run society in the interests of the majority. unfortunately, under the huge pressures to which he is being subjected, Corbyn has already retreated on vital issues. He says Labour will campaign to stay in the eu when the tories call a referendum on the subject in the next two years, instead of using the opportunity to make common cause with the hundreds of millions of working class people in europe who increasingly see the austerity driven eu as a club for big business and advocating

Corbyn's campaign to have the British rail networks taken back into public ownership is also being watered down with his decision to wait until the franchises of the private operators run out. Worryingly these straws in the wind caused the independent on Sunday, which is owned by a Russian billionaire, to comment, "Far from adding to the evidence that Jeremy Corbyn is a wide-eyed anti-capitalist, his new policy suggests an open-minded pragmatism bent on gradual reform." an editorial in The Socialist (england & Wales) sums up the possibilities. ‘a new formation that acts in working class interests can be created out of the present fluid situation. this could be through the small number of genuine Left Labour leaders and those who support them in the grassroots of the party aided by a continued influx of new members - managing to drive out or completely sideline the pro-market Right. or, if that path meets a dead end, it could be by building a new formation that would attract that same layer from Labour, again together with many thousands more who are presently outside Labour.’

pile on the pressure...

Build and extend the boycott By Councillor Mick Barry

HE MASS boycott of water charges is still very much in place as the General Election draws closer. As “The Socialist” goes to press news is pending on the boycott statistics for the second round of bills but whether the figure goes up or down it is abundantly clear that huge numbers are still refusing to pay.

solid bedrock of non-payment If the numbers go up, particularly if they go up by a significant amount, it could create a mood for a “final push” to dump the charges, dump austerity and dump the austerity government. But even if the numbers go down by a certain amount - perhaps on the basis of landlord pressure and Irish Water’s threatening messages to vulnerable people - there will be a solid bedrock of non-payment which can play a key role in sinking this government at the General Election. High levels of non-payment; the emergence of water as a key issue in a General Election campaign; a real kick against the establishment parties on the issue on the doorsteps in an election campaign and the elec-

tion of a whole batch of new antiausterity and anti-water charges TDs can combine to put any new government under fierce pressure to abolish not just the charges but Irish Water itself.

Irish Water’s desperate tactics Irish Water have resorted to a whole array of desperation tactics to try and save the sinking ship in recent weeks: threatening letters, text messages, and the release of dodgy statistics. They issued a claim that 100,000 people had paid up after the massive 57% non-payment of the first bill and tried to give the clear impression that 51% had paid the second bill. There may well have been 100,000 extra payers after the release of the payment / non-payment stats for the first bill but contrary to the intended impression this represented, at least in part, late payment for the first bill rather than an 8% jump in payment for the second bill over the first bill. Instead, there is a clear “churn” in relation to payment/non-payment with some vulnerable people feeling forced to pay but others who eluctantly paid the first bill taking confidence from the successes of the boy-

Maintaining the boycott in the run up to the election is key to putting pressure on the main parties

cott and refusing to pay the second. This is reflected in reports indicating a 19% cancellation rate on Irish Water direct debits.

Irish water can sink Irish water The release of the dodgy IW statistics was followed by the release of an Irish Times/MRBI poll which indi-

cated that 78% of households had either paid or intended to pay. But a closer study of this poll actually showed that more than 42% of those polled were currently boycotting and that nearly a quarter of those polled were basically saying that they would never pay even if hell were to freeze over. Enda Kenny famously said that “it’s not just about water”. That’s

entirely right. The anti-water charges fightback has also been about opposition to the austerity agenda that has been placed on our shoulders for more than seven years now. With the boycott remaining significant and strong, opposition to the water charges and austerity remains a nightmare for the Government as the clock ticks down to a General Election.

October 2015

5 THE SOCIALIST

anti austerity alliance:

beginning of the movement the AAA has been consistent and to the fore in advocating the boycott as the tactic which could bring Irish Water to its knees and defeat the government. In the final analysis, non-payment is the key weapon by which the water charges battle will be won or lost – we know it and the establishment know it. This explains why the AAA is now being targeted by the establishment and the Gardaí in retribution for the role it has played as the militant, non-payment wing of the campaign.

By Dave Murphy

HE RULING class have the Anti-Austerity Alliance in their cross-hairs and are determined to use everything they have at their disposal to try to inflict maximum damage against it. The reason this is happening is because the AAA is a key force in building something which they fear – a movement of working class people. Already, as part of the establishment’s attacks on the wider antiwater charges movement, 4 AAA members including Paul Murphy TD and two councillors, along with over 20 people from the Jobstown community face trumped up charges for taking part in a peaceful, sitdown protest against Tánaiste Joan Burton.

99% vs 1%

operation Mizen This follows on from revelations in the media about a secret Garda surveillance operation targeted at water charges activists. This operation, including phone tapping and car tracking, is run by the Garda Commissioner’s husband. One of those targeted is reported to be AAA TD Paul Murphy. This is an undemocratic manoeuvre on the part of the state to attack people’s fundamental right to organise protests. It is even more sinister that an elected representative who is seen by many to have played a leading role in the campaign against water charges is targeted in this way

AAA have been to the forefront in building non-payment of the water charges

by a shadowy operation in the Gardaí.

strangling the aaa While trying to criminalise and spy on its members, the state is trying to financially strangle the AAA. In September, with an election just

around the corner, the Gardaí in Dublin South West and Galway refused permission for the AAA to fundraise - in case the money is used for ‘unlawful activity’. This is a disgraceful attack on a democratic, opposition, political party. It is an attempt to financially cripple the AAA in the hope that it

paul Murphy tD: “political policing is the rule not the exception” extract of Paul Murphy td’s speech at “Jobstown Not guilty” protest, 19 september: “they say there’s no such thing as political policing and then they send tens of gardai out to impose water meters on communities that don’t want them. “they say there’s no such thing as political policing and then in February over ten days, 6,8,10 gardai arrive in dawn raids on people, some 16, 17 years old who are in no sense a flight risk. “they say there’s no such thing as political policing and then they leak to the media that we will face extremely serious criminal charges. “they say there’s no such thing as political policing and then revelations come out about operation Mizen which is a secret spying operation inside the gardai on anti-water charge protesters simply because they are anti-water charge protesters directed by the garda Commissioner’s husband. “they say there’s no such thing as political policing and then they deny the aaa the right to collect money because and i quote ‘the money will be used to facilitate protests’.

“they say there’s no such thing as political policing and now 27 people have been summons for 6 weeks time [to appear] here and the Children’s Court because they sat down on a road. “they say there’s no such thing as political policing and then they summons Joan Collins and 12 others because they protested against water meters. “they say there’s no such thing as political policing. “in reality political policing is not the exception, political policing is the rule. Whenever the interests of the 1%, of the elite, of the capitalist class is challenged then the full force of the state is used. the repressive apparatus of the state is used to repress the 99% on behalf of the 1%. “that’s what Maura Harrington & the Rossport 5 is a demonstration of, that’s what the 23 bin tax jailings is a demonstration of, that’s

will stop it from gaining more seats in the upcoming elections.

Why are they targeting the aaa? The mass 57% boycott of the water charges has shaken the political establishment in Ireland. Since the

The capitalist establishment want to take on the AAA because what we are trying to build represents a real threat to them – not a house trained parliamentary opposition – but a Left, socialist, movement of working class people. The movement against water charges has shown that the working class when it is mobilised can be the motor force for real, rapid change in society. In this supposed ‘recovery’ the 1% like Denis O’Brien and Apple gorge themselves on profits, while the 99% continue to suffer unemployment, poverty and homelessness. New movements of the working class can emerge at any time, the anti-capitalist politics and ideas of the AAA will be key to the development and success of these movements and to the development of a new mass workers’ party which can topple the establishment.

gardai criminalise protest in Waterford

what the jailings of building workers and other workers who protested over the years is an example of. the exception is not political policing it’s the rule.”

By Denise Parker

AYS BEFORE Irish Water were due to start installing meters in Waterford, the Gardai sent a very clear message to the local anti-water charges movement. A well-know, political activist was arrested the Sunday before installations were due to commence and questioned about his involvement in an anti-water charges protest in Ferrybank 5 months previously. This was a very clear attempt to try to intimidate and silence the movement in advance. The timing of the arrest was no coincidence, this was an effort by the Gardai to link protesting with a criminal offence but after years of enforced austerity the working class community had had enough.

three days: 17 arrests

These peaceful protests were met with a large Garda presence whose sole reason for being in attendance was to assist in the imposition of water meters on a community that clearly did not want them. After their attempts to intimidate the community had failed, the Gardai began to use force and continue their approach of political policing, which resulted in 17 arrests over three days. The stress of being arrested and the manner he was man-handled resulted in one elderly activist having what appeared to be an epileptic episode. Out of the seventeen arrested fifteen were released without charge but two were brought to court and later released on bail. We have seen an increase in the level of heavy handed policing and arrests, this is a continuation of the Garda’s political policing to divide this mass movement by criminalising activists and protests.

political policing

public enemy no.1

October 2015

special feature

THE SO

the riSinG tiDe of ca Simply obscene – the wealth of the 1%

He rAllyING cry of Occupy Wall Street that sprung up four years ago, "We are the 99%" was prescient and profound, writes lAurA FITzGerAlD. The Oxfam Wealth report of 2015 predicted that next year, based on current trends, the richest global 1% will own more wealth than the other 99% of the world's population.

EALTH INEQUALITY is a defining political issue of this era, as illustrated by the social movements around Bernie Sanders in the US and Corbyn in Britain who have attracted hundreds of thousands captivated by their popular demands to counter decades of erosion of the "social wage" - demands for free health and education; and also because they've highlighted wealth inequality. On the front of Sanders's website he rails that "America has more wealth and income inequality than any major developed country on earth, and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is wider than at any time since the 1920s.... There is something profoundly wrong when the top one-tenth of one percent owns as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent."

Crisis exacerbates inequality There most certainly is something profoundly wrong. Gross and obscene wealth inequality has been exacerbated in the context of the global crisis of capitalism. In Ireland, in the recovery for the rich, the wealthiest 300 people

reVIeW:

the robbing of wealth Karl Marx 150 years ago in his study of capitalism illustrated how inequality and the profit-system, are intimately intertwined. Marx showed how new wealth is created by the labour of workers, and how inherent in the capitalist mode of production, is the robbing of wealth in the form of profits - profits as the unpaid labour of the working class. The fact that across the EU since

2009, the number of full-time jobs fell by almost 3.3 million, while part-time jobs increased by 2.1 million is indicative of how economic crisis has provided an enormous opportunity for the ruling elite to degrade working conditions, and increase profitability by driving down wages and working conditions. The obscene wealth of the 1%, or more accurately, of a tiny proportion of the 1%, is historic in its scope and is tied in completely with financial specu-

lation. This elite is nothing short of a parasite, greedily feasting on humanity. The wealth they hold is so enormous, it's incomprehensible - globally, since 2009, the richest 400 people have almost tripled their wealth, from $2.4 trillion to $7.05 trillion (Forbes).

Marie antoinettes for the 21st Century In recent years it has became trendy in

ireland's great Wealth Divide with David McWilliams (Rte 21 September)

By Eddie McCabe

have increased their assets by over €30bn between 2010 and 2015. The richest 300 now hold €84.4bn (Sunday Independent Rich List, March 2015). The largest number of billionaires in Latin America live in Brazil - there are 54. Half of all children in Brazil, that's 30 million children, live in poverty. India's capitalist boom has been very good for the 100 richest individuals who own assets equivalent to one-quarter of the GDP, in a country of 1.2 billion people. Arudhati Roy has written about the cruel horrors of this boom, the repressive Indian state and the farce of the mendacious cliches about a growing middle class in "the world's largest democracy". She writes, "In India, the 300 million of us who belong to the new, post International Monetary Fund (IMF) "reforms" middle class - the market - live side by side with the spirits of the netherworld, the poltergeists of dead rivers, dry wells, bald mountains, and denuded forests; the ghosts of 250,000 debt-ridden farmers who have killed themselves, and of the 800 million who have been impoverished and dispossessed to make way for us. And who survive on less than twenty Indian rupees a day." (Capitalism: A Ghost Story)

HOUGH IT’S certainly not his intention, in popularising this damning feature of Irish society David McWilliams has assisted the work of socialists. Ireland’s obscene wealth inequality is studiously masked by most economists and political commentators, but McWilliams wants to save this decaying system from itself by sending an ominous warning to those in power. His concluding note is this: "Something radical has to be done, not least because if we don't do it now, it's going to be done to us. The main problem is that there are far too many people who are left without hope. And when people don't have any hope, they turn to anger and their emotions turn to rage, and that is terrifying." The prospect of a 'risen people' – no longer willing to accept the injustice of a capitalist society whose resources are concentrated in ever fewer hands, while hardship and misery are flourishing for

a great majority – is a thing of sheer dread only for those who have a major stake in the status quo. These are the people, or rather this is the class, with whom McWilliams' concerns lie.

A rigged game The data he provides and much of his analysis tells the story of a game that's rigged in favour of the super-rich. We are often told that capitalism is a system that rewards innovators and risk takers, but what we see throughout the Irish and global economy is a system dominated by parasitic corporations, banks and institutions; that suck wealth from the labour of millions of workers, speculate on financial markets and cause devastating crises. But there is actually little risk involved, because these parasites – through obedient governments – make the rules. So it is incumbent on the working class and poor to bail them out when the time comes, which is convenient for them because a lot of money

David McWilliams: warning the rich

can be made from the destruction that results from crises – provided you have the cash and no one else does. Case in point: the 300 richest people in Ireland have increased their wealth by €34 billion since 2010 and the number of billionaires in the world has more than doubled since the crash in 2008.

millions of workers who over decades were forced to organise and struggle, engage mass protests, strikes and revolutions in order to carve out the basic rights and living standards we have today would be unlikely to recognise the “generous” capitalism that McWilliams now laments.

McWilliams’ fantasy capitalism

In solidarity there is hope

McWilliams, however, stubbornly insists on drawing the wrong conclusions from the very information he presents. For him, “capitalism works”, the problem is simply that: “we've moved from a compassionate, openended generous type of capitalism, to hyper capitalism.” It is here that McWilliams moves from economics and politics to plain fantasy. The billions of humans on this planet, in the global south, who for generations have known nothing but abject poverty will be curious about this “compassionate capitalism” and the

While berating anyone who ‘begrudges’ the super-rich, McWilliams makes this point: "There is nothing wrong with being wealthy. But the wealth gap needs fixing because it prevents upward mobility, the hope of being better off " Here McWilliams, like many capitalist ideologues before him, resorts to old notions of individual power and responsibility, including the old ‘American Dream’ ruse. The one that suggests that instead of being outraged by the fact that 85 individuals have as much wealth as the poorest 3,500,000,000, we should all aspire to

October 2015

OCIALIST

“Accumulation of neo-Liberalism: wealth at one the 1%’s war on our living standards pole is, therefore, at the same time the accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole” – KArl MArX Neo-liberals: Friedman, Thatcher, Reagan, Blair and Cameron

By Cillian Gillespie

the most exclusive restaurants in Stockholm, for customers, in an ostentatious display of their wealth to order a bottle of champagne worth thousands of euro and to order the waiter to "Vaska" or pour it down the sink. In a world rife with poverty and deprivation, this crude and elitist display is obscene and obtuse in the extreme. Magnify this act a million times and we might approximate the obscenity of the top financial speculators.

Quite simply, we need to disempower them and expropriate their wealth and power. Occupy's "We are the 99%" idea has found concrete expression in the US in the growth of the $15 Now movement for a higher minimum wage that has scored victories in a number of states, in Ireland in the water charges movement, and in Southern Europe in the anti-austerity social movements. The failure of Syriza in Greece to end austerity shows the need for a global movement of the 99% to engage in conscious political organising around anti-capitalist and socialist politics that pose democratic public ownership of wealth, resources and the key levers of the economy including the whole financial sector, as an alternative to the despotic rule of the 1%.

)

oN 11 september1973 the democratically elected left government of salvador allende was overthrown in a CIa backed coup led by general augusto Pinochet. an estimated 30,000 Chilean socialists, trade unionists and young people were killed by the pinochet regime and many more were imprisoned, tortured and exiled from their homeland. Side by side with these barbaric abuses of human rights came a brutal onslaught on the living standards of the Chilean working class and poor.

Pinochet’s Chile: Neo-liberal laboratory From 1973 onwards, Chile, along with most Latin american countries that were under iron heel of various brutal military dictatorships, became a laboratory for the policies that became known as neoliberalism. these policies included slashing social expenditure, privatisation of public services and assets and attacks on workers’ rights and conditions, essentially removing any barriers for capitalism to profit at the expense of the 99%. the economic advisors to the pinochet were the infamous “Chicago boys”, economic technocrats that were educated and trained in the economics department of the university of Chicago under Milton Friedman. Friedman and fellow economist Friedrich Hayek had espoused neo-liberal dogma since the 1950s, but it was not until the mid-1970s onwards that his ideas gained widespread traction amongst significant sections of the capitalist establishment.

99% pay for capitalist crisis

Graph shows Ireland’s welath divide as we think it is, as we’d like it to be and as it really is

be one of those 85. It is precisely the fact that the world has never been more unequal, which McWilliams himself touches on, that exposes the deceit in these notions. In fact the only real hope people have of

being better off, is if the ideas of solidarity and common struggle are used to unite workers and young people around the world to challenge capitalism and fight for a socialist society that can raise all of humanity to new heights.

in the period following 1945 capitalism underwent a period of sustained economic upswing globally particularly in the united States, Western europe and Japan resulting from the enormous destruction of cities and industry during the Second World War. under the massive pressure of a militant and organised working class, capitalism was forced to make reforms that significantly raised the living standards of the majority in society. these included the introduction of free health and education, the expansion of the welfare state and full employment as well a notable rise in wages and improvement in working conditions. However this “golden age” of capitalism came to a stuttering halt as the unprecedented period of economic growth gave way to the economic crisis of the 1970s. as their profit rates fell, the capitalist class and their representatives sought to find a way

out of this crisis by dismantling the gains working class people had achieved in the post war period. this fundamentally is why they embraced the policies of neo-liberalism. outside of Latin america the most notable champions of this squeezing of the living standards of the working class were Ronald Reagan in the uS and thatcher in Britain. the latter privatised a whole range of state owned utilities and council housing as well drastically cutting back on spending on the welfare state and public services.

attacking workers’ rights this constituted an attack on the “social wage” of working class people within society so that taxes on big business and the super-rich could be slashed. Combined with this, both sought to drive down wages and conditions in the workplace and in their jargon create a “flexible labour market” by attacking the organised working class in the form of the trade union movement. these attacks on our living standards, that have now been universally embraced by the traditional parties of capitalism globally as well the former social democratic parties such as the Labour party in ireland, have massively accelerated inequality. this explains why the ratio between the wage of a Ceo and a uS worker is today 331 to one, while in 1965 the figure stood at 20 to one. Since the late 1970s real wages in the uS have stagnated or declined.

there is an alternative in europe the crisis of capitalism that has engulfed the continent in the last number of years has been used to drive through enormous attacks on the living standards of working class people. austerity policies have resulted in a further transfer of wealth from the majority in society to the banks and major bondholders. in the next coming years greece will be expected to privatise €50 billion worth of its assets. De-industrialisation, lack of investment, rising inequality and the lowering of living standards have all been features of capitalism in the last number of decades and illustrate its’ deeply parasitic nature. We have been told, in the words of thatcher, “there is no alternative” to a capitalist economy where this one-sided, neo-liberal class war is being waged. However there is a growing and instinctive understanding by working class people globally that an alternative is needed. this alternative must be building what James Connolly called “the great anti-theft movement”, a socialist movement to challenge the rule of the 1% who are plundering our world for power and profit.

special feature

aPitaliSt inequality

October 2015

international

THE SOCIALIST

the struggle for liberation in Rojava This applies to both the US and to Russia which has now begun airstrikes in support of the Assad regime. Neither imperialism nor any of the ethnic or sectarian forces in Syria can provide the basis for a consistent and united struggle against repression and for equality and democracy – this can only be achieved from below.

By Conor Payne

HE MONTH of October marks the one year anniversary of the beginning of the ISIS (Islamic State) siege of the Kurdish city of Kobane in the northern part of what was formally the Syrian state. This subsequently was repelled by the People Defence Units (YPG) and Women’s Defence Units (YPJ), connected with the Kurdish party the Democratic Union Party (PYD).

No trust in imperialism

the heroic struggle against IsIs The stand of the people of Kobane against ISIS and the role of the PYD and YPG/YPJ in resisting ISIS in Rojava (the areas of Syria which are under the control of Kurdish forces) has been an inspiration to young people and the oppressed around the world. In particular, the role of women in the YPJ and PYD has stood out, with women’s brigades (the YPJ) at the forefront of the struggle against ISIS, in marked contrast to the brutal, reactionary and obscurantist politics and methods of this fundamentalist group. It has also highlighted the long struggle of the Kurdish people against national oppression, in Turkey, Syria and throughout the region. The Kurds are the largest stateless people in the world, with 30 million people and are denied democratic and national rights in the states where they reside. In Syria, Kurds have suffered the removal of their citizenship rights, confiscation of their land and repression of their language and culture. The Turkish government showed the reality of its position when they responded to an ISIS bombing inside the Turkish border with airstrikes on Kurdish resistance fighters in Syria, with the full backing of the US. The struggle against ISIS and for equality and self-determination for the Kurdish people deserves the full support of working people around the world.

Women have played a role courageous role in the struggle to defeat ISIS in Rojava

“democratic autonomy” The ‘democratic autonomy’ in Rojava under the leadership of the PYD has meant a level of democratic control, popular involvement and gender equality way beyond that which exists in the rest of the region and in many ‘liberal’ capitalist democracies. Positions on local governing bodies are elected, women are generally guaranteed 40% of the places, the right to protest is guaranteed and there is an outright ban on deportations of asylum seekers. All this must be supported and defended.

But ‘democratic autonomy’ existing alongside the major capitalist powers of the region, as put forward by Abdullah Ocalan and the PKK/PYD leadership is not a solution. Governments such as Erdogan’s in Turkey or Assad’s if it were to survive, would not tolerate such a state of affairs – which could serve as example to ordinary people in Turkey and Syria – in the long term. Nor does it resolve the question of breaking with the capitalist system, which still exists within Rojava – the Social Contract of the three Cantons of Rojava talks about putting the profit system to the service of society as a whole. In real-

ity the interests of the majority and those of the capitalist elites cannot be reconciled in this way.

Need to break with capitalism Without a break from capitalism on a wider basis, the imperialist world system would also be able to bring major external pressures to bear on any isolated area which were to break with the system. US support for Erdogan’s airstrikes against the PYD showed that imperialism cannot be a reliable ally in the fight against ISIS and is no friend of the Kurdish people.

For this reason, it is disappointing that the PYD has increasingly signalled its willingness to co-operate with, and come to terms with, the Assad regime and the imperialist powers. Any partnership with Assad would make it impossible for the PYD to win support from those layers of the population which have faced particular oppression under the Assad regime. While acceptance of US aid is completely understandable in the context of the ISIS onslaught, US intervention serves only to drive greater sections of the Arab Sunni population in particular into the arms of ISIS. The US will also inevitably turn against the Kurds, as they did over the question of Turkish airstrikes.

socialist change can bring liberation Instead what is needed is an approach of taking on and defeating the forces of imperialism, its corrupt client regimes and reactionary fundamentalism. This can only be done by building a united movement of workers and poor across religious, ethnic and national lines – one which puts no faith in any capitalist forces. The powerful working class that exists in Turkey and Iran has a crucial role in this process. Real democratic control means a socialist solution in Kurdistan and throughout the Middle East based on bringing the wealth and power into the hands of the masses.

Volkswagen emissions scandal: Why capitalism cannot be green By Ciaran McKenna

HE VOLKSWAGEN emissions scandal which erupted in September starkly exposes the limitations of ‘Green Capitalism’. It emerged that Volkswagen had installed sophisticated devices on millions of its vehicles to falsify CO2 emissions data. Given the accelerating climate change crisis this development is very serious. It is almost certain that other capitalist car manufacturers were involved in similar deceptions that have yet to emerge. And many ‘environmentally friendly’ products will likely be exposed to have been the opposite. It is estimated that as many as 11 million Volkswagen cars in the US will have to be recalled with millions more in Europe and elsewhere.

“green Capitalism” exposed

Capitalism has a long record of coopting threats to its position. One of the biggest threats to profit making over the past forty years has been the rise of environmental consciousness. The demands of consumers for environmentally friendly products posed a bigger problem for the capitalist class. Concerns over global warming and climate change, and the role of production and consumption as contributors to both, lead many workers to demand products that do not damage the environment. Allied to this has emerged the idea of ‘Green Capitalism’ which its apologists claim proves that it is possible to combine production for profit with protection of the environment.

a colossal fraud This scandal exposes the extent to which genuine environmentalism is impossible within the global capital-

ist system. What the Volkswagen scandal proves is that within socalled ‘Green Capitalism’ the ‘green’ element always gives way to the demands of profit making, which are central to capitalism. Volkswagen undoubtedly was able to market and sell millions of these cars on the basis that they were environmentally friendly. The ordinary people who bought them were given the impression that they were contributing to improving the environment given that CO2 emissions were lower than other vehicles. But we now know this was a colossal fraud.

environment before profit Production for profit always leads to demands to cut corners to increase profits. It is often based on lies and deception, as in this case. Reducing

Volkswagen fraudulently sought to boost their environmental credentials

CO2 emissions would be a cornerstone of a democratically planned economy that is geared towards providing for human need and protecting our environment. Bringing car

manufacturers into democratic public ownership is an urgent necessity to ensure that what is produced is safe to use and not a contributor to climate change.

October 2015

9 THE SOCIALIST

By William Foley THE SINKING of five boats in the Mediterranean this April with an estimated death toll of 1200 brought to light the shocking and inhuman treatment of migrants seeking to enter Europe. The intensification of conflict in Middle Eastern regions such as Syria has been one factor in the increased number of people seeking refuge from death and destruction. According to Eurostat, the number of asylum seekers applying for protection in the EU increased by 84% in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014.

barriers and restrictions The conflicts which many of these people are fleeing have, by and large, been created and fuelled by the imperialist interests of Western powers. Last year, more than 85% who first arrived in Greece came from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. Yet the ruling classes of the dominant European countries who have reaped

Horrific barriers are being erected on Europe’s borders

the rewards of imperialism are also responsible for Fortress Europe, the collection of barriers and restrictions on entering the EU. Treaties such as the Schengen agreement have created a single external border and established new barriers to entry for migrants and refugees. In October 2013 the Italian government set up the Mare Nostrum

reJeCt raCIst dIVIsIoN

Build homes for all

sea rescue programme in response to the huge public outcry around the drowning of 300 migrants near the island of Lampedusa. Over the course of a year, the operation rescued an estimated 130,000 people, and offered refugees medicine, shelter, food, and legal advice. The programme was wound down due to criticism of senior European politi-

cians that the programme was creating a “pull factor”. The governments of other countries refused to help for this reason.

defend the right to asylum Mare Nostrum was replaced with Operation Triton, which is run by

the EU’s Frontex border agency. The operation has less than a third of Mare Nostrum’s budget and has focused mainly on border protection. The result: over one thousand more migrants died in April of this year compared to last year. Those that do make it have been confined in inhumane conditions in camps across Europe from Greece to Calais where many refugees have died trying to swim across the channel. It is clear that this “migrant crisis” is yet another symptom of the brutality and inhumanity of the capitalist system. According to the priorities of this system there is no limit to the amount of money that can be found to bail out big banks and bondholders. The lives of migrants however are worth only the equivalent of back-ofthe-sofa change. We must rid Europe of this system that breeds racist division and treats the most oppressed and marginalised with despicable contempt. We must fight a socialist Europe of solidarity, human compassion and where the needs of all those who live or who live here are met.

imperialist wars fuel refugee crisis By James Tuohy

Refugee solidarity protest in Dublin, September

By Eleni Vetsika

OMES FOR all: this is what the working class needs to fight for. A decent, comfortable and, above all, safe place to live no matter your ethnicity, origin or skin colour. Nothing more, nothing less, everyone deserves a home.

take care of our own? The refugee crisis in the recent months has brought out magnificent movements of solidarity across Europe, amongst workers, youth, and pensioners who are suffering vicious austerity from the north to the south of this continent. Yet, there are voices springing up claiming that “we should take care of our own first”. And nobody amongst the working class of Ireland should be left to fall prey to such dangerous rhetoric that assumes that some people are more important than others. These are not competing issues. The housing needs of the 130,000 families on the council waiting list in Ireland (who are forced to sleep in hostels, cars, sheds and floors)

should not have to compete with those of refugees (who have to resort to sleeping on benches, in forests, ditches and inhumane reception camps). All lives matter and all lives must be protected.

No divide and rule In a capitalist world, where competition is placed on a pedestal, we cannot allow ourselves to fall into the old divide-and-rule trap set out by the rich. There is money and land to ensure houses for all, what there isn’t much of is willingness on the part of the government to deal with the issue effectively and permanently. NAMA has €3billion in cash which is being used to develop luxury apartments and offices at the Docklands in Dublin, not homes for those in need. We also call for the end of direct provision, a false choice that traps people in prison-like conditions and only adds to the problem rather than solve it. Let’s not forget that those who caused both the housing and refugee crises are seeing their wealth multiply by the day as millions are left struggling for basic needs.

there are now more refugees than at any time since World War two. the number of refugees has increased markedly since the start of us imperialism’s so-called “War on terror”. throughout the world whenever the us and its allies in europe have intervened, like the invasion and occupations of Iraq and afghanistan, plunder and destruction have forced millions to embark on dangerous journeys to escape.

Callousness of imperialism “the people there are dead because we wanted them dead”. these are the words of a pentagon spokesman when asked about the 97 civilians who were slaughtered from uS bombs in a village in afghanistan in 2001. this attitude shows the true nature of the representatives of big business whose “War on terror” has not only brought death on a genocidal scale (500,000 children in iraq alone have died since the 2003 invasion) but also has directly created the impoverished and chaotic conditions for the growth of reactionary islamic State. nor are these wars about overthrowing corrupt and authoritarian regimes. Before the invasion of iraq, Saddam Hussein was a key ally of

Wars for oil and profit

Washington and the uS supported his horrific war against iran, in which chemical weapons were used, developed with the help of german capitalism, and where up to a million iranians perished.

Merchants of death the companies that directly profit from war range from the oil giants to weapon manufacturers and banks. it is estimated that private contractors have reaped $134 billion in profit from the war in iraq alone. one company, armour holdings, saw its revenue skyrocketing by 2,247% following the invasion. a million refugees are estimated to have fled iraq to Syria from

the 2003 iraq war and are now fleeing again as there is literally no place to hide from the bombs created by capitalism’s monstrous arms industry which now has risen to $400 billion globally. the revolutions that swept the Middle east and north africa in 2011 illustrate the potential for struggle and solidarity of the workers, poor and oppressed of the region to forge a real future. Such a struggle would seek to challenge and expropriate the wealth and power of the ruling elite – the oligarchs, the finance houses and the corporations who rest on dictatororial rule and imperialism to keep their enormous wealth protected and profits flowing.

refugee crisis

Fortress europe: eu’s callous racism exposed

October 2015

north

THE SOCIALIST

How unions can break down sectarian division By Kevin Henry

HE POLITICAL life of Northern Ireland is one riddled with division and crisis. The current crisis in Stormont once again exposes the fragile nature of the “peace process.” This “peace process” has been built on the continued division of working class communities and of sectarian polarisation. We need a strong movement of working class people that can act to unite people in struggle against austerity and sectarian division. The trade union movement has a unique role to play in challenging sectarianism, as the only mass organisation that unites workers from both communities to fight for their common interests. At key points during the course of the Troubles, the trade union movement was able to mobilise ordinary workers in united action – such as demonstrations, walk-outs and strikes – in response to sectarian threats or attacks and isolate sectarian forces.

Striking against sectarian killings At the start of the Troubles, trade union shop stewards took action in the shipyards to oppose intimidation of workers and even formed “peace committees” in parts of Belfast to defend people in both communities. In March 1989, when socialists in the Mid-Ulster Trades Council called for strike action against the murder of three Protestants by the IRA, workers from the Unipork factory and others responded in their

hundreds. When Maurice O’Kane, a Catholic welder, was murdered by the UVF in Harland and Wolff in 1994, shop stewards immediately called thousands of workers out and left the shipyard empty. There are countless other examples like this which show the enormous power the trade union have to take on sectarian forces. That unity however can never be taken for granted. There is also a long history of attempts being made to divide the movement. In the 1970s sectarians tried to split the movement on religious lines by calling for an “Ulster Trade Union Congress.” Going further back, the movement did split on sectarian lines in the 1940s. Recently John Douglas, as leader of ICTU, spoke at Sinn Féin conference and called for closer relationship between Sinn Féin and trade union movement. It would be disastrous for the trade union movement to link up with a sectarian party and would force a split.

Socialist Party member, Patrick Mulhollnd is standing for the position on General Secretary in NIPSA

Working class antisectarian party Socialist Party members, will work with others in the trade union movement to defend the unity of our movement. In the NIPSA General Secretary election, Socialist Party member and the Left candidate for Secretary Patrick General Mulholland will argue that the politics NIPSA and the trade union movement needs is not that of the sectarian parties but of uniting to fight for jobs, services and anti-sectarianism. The working class has bravely and

Thousands rally against paramilitary killing in 2009

consistently resisted being dragged into sectarian conflict. However they have been hampered by the lack of a strong party of the working

class that can fill the massive vacuum that exists in Northern Ireland politics. That party needs to be built and will be built in the course

of the coming struggles of workers, of movements of young people and radicalisation that is happening in society.

NaMa ProPerty sCaNdal

Robinson & Mcguinness have serious questions to answer 25/9/15) Wells is referring to an email about the naMa deal sent to Martin Mcguinness’ senior adviser Dara o’Hagan, an email seen and part published by the Belfast telegraph.

By Stephen Boyd Cerberus CaPItal, a us multinational, made a financial killing when they bought a massive property portfolio in Northern Ireland “owned” by NaMa (the south’s stateowned bad bank) for the give away price of £1.2 billion. the property was originally valued at £5 billion. this scandal and rip off of the Irish taxpayer has been compounded by accusations that £7 million was lodged in a swiss bank account to pay-off a politician and businessmen. the accusations ironically originate from failed property developer Mick Wallace tD (he owes €20 million to the banks and €2 million in unpaid taxes), in a speech he made in the Dail. Since then Stormont’s Finance Committee has been investigating these allegations.

Pandora’s box of political sleaze Dramatic evidence was given by loyalist Jamie Bryson to the com-

No trust in assembly politicians

The murkey relationships between big business and assembly politicians are being exposed

mittee in which he claims peter Robinson and four businessmen were to receive a “success” fee payment following the sale. Bryson’s evidence may well have lifted the lid off a pandora’s Box of political sleaze and financial scandal that is rocking an assembly already deep in crisis. peter Robinson, the assembly’s First Minister has

denied the claims that he was to benefit from the sale of naMa’s assets. Martin Mcguinness has claimed as Deputy First Minister that he knew nothing about the naMa deal or the allegations that politicians and others were to benefit from the sale. However during Martin Mcguinness’ evidence to the Finance Committee, Dup MLa

Jim Wells said, “We are talking about a £1.25bn transaction here; £5bn-worth of assets. it is the largest property holder in europe... a company that holds a high percentage of all the property in northern ireland. are you saying that Dara o’Hagan, a former MLa and a senior adviser, decided that it was not for your attention?” (Belfast telegraph

peter Robinson, Martin Mcguinness, Finance Minister Michael noonan and the political and business establishments north and South have serious questions to answer. the assembly politicians cannot be trusted to investigate themselves. an independent public inquiry should be established to investigate the claim that peter Robinson was to benefit from the sale of the naMa property. it should also investigate the role of Michael noonan and the Southern government and whether Martin Mcguinness knew about this sale and the fact that a uS multinational was to benefit to the tune of billions at the expense of Southern taxpayers.

October 2015

11 THE SOCIALIST

Repeal the 8 amendment th

By Katia Hancke

T THE end of September over 10,000 people – young, vibrant, passionate and confident about the issue – made a very clear statement at the March for Choice: our time is now. We can’t wait, repeal the 8th!

repeal gains support They reflected the widespread support for repeal of the 8th amendment out of the constitution right across the population. On 22nd September the Irish Examiner reported that two thirds of farmers are now in favour of repealing the 8th amendment. A previous Amnesty International poll indicated that 81% of the population are in favour of a widening of abortion availability which would require taking the amendment out of the constitution. The widespread support for legislative change is in stark contrast with the attitude of the political establishment. Fine Gael and Fianna Fail seem happy to be stuck in a 1960s Ireland where the reality that one in four women on this island have had an abortion continues to be ignored. Sinn Fein is equally well behind public opinion, with their position being that they will only support abortion in very extreme circumstances such as foetal abnormalities. This chimes with their position in the North, where they have blocked the extension of 1967 Act to Northern Ireland. Actions speak louder than words.

labour hypocrisy Labour’s hypocrisy would be comical, if it wasn’t in the face of over 16,000 women having to travel to England over the last four years of their government because of their refusal to deal with the issue. Facing into the abyss of electoral extinction, Labour ministers are jumping every which way to explain away their actual track record on the issue – being part of a government that further criminalised abortion with a potential sentence of up to 14 years in prison! Instead, they are now trying to coat tail the broad sentiment in favour of repeal. Aodhan O’Riordan came up with

ROSA contingent and other parts of the 10,000 plus demonstration demanding: "We can't wait, repeal the 8th"

his own unique variation of the classic “It’s not me, it’s you” defence – apparently, he is all in favour of repealing the 8th, it is the electorate

who are not. And Joan Burton seems to think we have all forgotten the Tesco ad debacle, where they broke every one of their election

abortion has no place in the constitution the Pressure for a referendum to repeal the 8th amendment to the constitution is now such, that even parties who are not in favour of substantial progressive change start paying lip service to the idea. however, there is no doubt that they would rather “amend” the amendment than repeal it. as pro-choice activists, we must be very clear on this: anything less than taking abortion out of the constitution is a serious and dangerous setback for the movement. it would allow the state to continue to have a stranglehold on women’s bodies and lives. abortion is a part of life, a private decision that thousands of women make every year based on their personal circumstances. take abortion out of the constitution and treat women as mature human beings who can be trusted with a difficult decision without the state’s interference.

promises last time round. Her “pinky promise” that “Repeal the 8th “will be in their election manifesto only leads one to conclude that this may be the next issue they will betray us on.

abortion rights now Contrast this with a new generation of young women and men, emboldened by the experience of the Marriage Equality referendum, demanding change NOW. That is what the polls reflect, that is what was sung, chanted, shouted on the streets of Dublin just a few weeks ago. On top of broad based support across the population, the prochoice movement can now rely on a significant section of youth who are willing to get active around this issue and are confident that a movement from below CAN deliver real change and force the political establishment to act.

Clearly the political establishment are already feeling the pressure – hence Labour’s posing on the issue etc. With a general election now weeks away, it is crucial that the prochoice movement further ups the ante and makes this a major election issue. Imaginative actions such as ROSA’s abortion pill bus are aiming to do exactly that, and pro-choice activists across the country should join in and go out onto the streets exposing local politicians’ position on the issue and making sure they feel the pressure as they come knocking on our doors for votes. A grassroots campaign across the state, drawing on the active engagement of a new generation who want progressive social change, can force even the conservative Irish establishment to face up to reality – abortion is a fact, we need free, safe and legal access to the service in this country.

“abortion pill Bus” defies the 8th By Monika Janas

ESPITE THE abominable ban on abortion in Ireland, it is a fact of life that women still obtain them. Twelve women a day travel to Great Britain for their services. Unfortunately, while some may have the resources and funds to go abroad, others may feel they have to resolve to life-endangering methods in their desperation. This is due to the stigma surrounding abortion that translates to a worrying lack of information. It is therefore vital to get that information out there. Last year ROSA organized the Abortion pill train, an action in which activists brought abortion pills from Northern Ireland to Dublin,

and then proceeded to take them to bring attention to this issue and show the safety of the pills. This year ROSA together with WomenOnWeb.org and Ruth Coppinger TD are organising a bus tour around Ireland in order to provide women with information on the pill, as well as the pill itself. The action will be taking place on the 23 and 24 October. They’ll be visiting the cities of Kilkenny, Cork, Galway and Limerick amongst others. The backward nature of the government stops women from having access to this much needed procedure. A real battle for a repeal of the 8th amendment must be waged by undermining this medieval clause.

Participants in the "Abortion Pill Train" arrive in Connolly Station, October 2014

women

keep up the pressure to…

PaPer of the SocialiSt Party

iSSue 95

october 2015

#occupyhomes

WE NEED AC TION NOW!

housing ac tion programme

a stay in your home and refuse to leave a Ban evictions and repossessions a rent controls noW a use nama and all other vacant housing for social housing use a for democratic public ownership of the banks and building industry a Billions must be invested to build social and affordable housing

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