PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY
ISSUE 48
OCTOBER 2009
NO TO WATER
S E G R CHA PREPARE FOR NON-PAYMENT IN 2012 ATER CHARGES are set to be imposed on every household in 2012. It is estimated the charges will be in the region of £369 a year - another hit which working class and middle class families cannot afford to take. Throughout September, the Assembly politicians openly spoke of the need to impose water charges. Finance Minister Sammy Wilson has repeatedly warned that "hard decisions need to be made", such as the introduction of water charges. Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy followed this up by saying he could not rule out the introduction of water charges. The arguments the politicians have given for water charges have been cynical in the extreme. They are attempting to blackmail people by threatening that unless water charges are introduced, they will be forced to carry out cuts to public services such as closing schools and hospitals. This is economic nonsense. Water charging has nothing to do with the financing of schools and hospitals and other public services. We already pay for water through our rates, which are due to rise in the coming years. The reason for the financial black hole in the Executive’s budget is politicians’ incompetence. The cuts are taking place with or without water charges. The Executive has been forced to defer water charges until 2012. They hope that they can fudge the question of introducing water charges in the upcoming general election and the Assembly and local elections in 2011. Their intention is to introduce water charges after these elections in the hope that they will avoid being punished in the ballot box. But people are not stupid. Most people can see that the Executive parties are preparing to introduce the tap tax. Even the UUP and SDLP, whose representatives have recently stated they are opposed to water charges, cannot escape the fact that they originally agreed the introduction
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of water charges in the first Assembly in 2002. They cannot be trusted. That is why it is important that the ground is prepared for people to resist water charges over the next two years. The We Won’t Pay Campaign needs to be built in every town and city across the North between now and April 2012. There is no party in the Assembly which opposes water charges. There is a major vacuum in political representation for working class people. The Socialist Party has consistently opposed water charges and has been the only party to support and build the We Won’t Pay Campaign. The tactic of mass non-payment of water charges, which has won big support, has forced water charges to be deferred for seven years saving every household thousands of pounds. This demonstrates the potential of a united cross-community working class alternative to the right-wing sectarian parties carrying out cuts and water charges. A socialist opposition which stands up for working class people must be built to challenge the sectarian parties in the upcoming elections and represent a genuine opposition to water charges.
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INSIDE
Schools under threat in Fermanagh p3
FEATURE: Health service under attack
p4&5
Climate Change no solution under capitalism p6
NIPSA should prepare for action on equal pay p7
CONTACT THE SOCIALIST PARTY - 02890 232962, 13 Lombard St, Belfast BT1 1RB; socialistpartyni@btconnect.com; www.socialistpartyni.net
September 2009
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news
THE SOCIALIST
Can Executive deliver a ‘shared future’? By Gary Mulcahy HE EXCHANGE of insults between Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness in recent weeks has exposed the real crisis within the power-sharing Executive. After returning from his luxury holiday home in Florida, Robinson chose to turn the temperature up by declaring at a meeting with big business that the DUP were now in favour of scrapping the current veto arrangement in the Executive and replacing it with a weighted majority arrangement. This proposal would mean in effect overturning the St. Andrew’s Agreement, taking away Sinn Fein’s veto and installing a form of majority rule which Sinn Fein would never agree to. The ensuing attacks between McGuinness and Robinson have continued over a series of contentious issues, not least the devolution of policing and justice powers. The roots of this current fall-out can be traced back to the European elections which saw a significant drop in support away from the DUP away to their new rivals Jim Allister’s
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McGuinness and Robinson try to hide the divisions in front of the world’s media.
Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV). The TUV took 14% (66,000 votes) away from the DUP, leaving Diane Dodds just about crawling past the finishing line to secure the last MEP seat behind the UUP and Sinn Fein. It was a humiliating experience for the DUP and a real warning that they could continue to lose ground to the TUV, raising the possibility that Sinn Fein could become the biggest party in the North. While European elections can present an opportunity for a protest
vote, it would be a mistake to believe the TUV are a flash in the pan. Turnout for the European elections was historically low for Northern Ireland at 42.8%. Turnout was lowest in working class areas, in particular Protestant working class communities. The vote Allister received is not a floating vote but reflects a deep opposition from many former DUP voters to power-sharing with Sinn Fein. The Chuckle Brothers days are now long gone. Since the summer political
recess, the DUP has had to be seen as more hardline and not giving any leeway to Sinn Fein. With the general election due next spring, this poses serious problems for the future of the Executive. On many issues there is stalemate and paralysis – academic selection, policing and justice, victims compensation, truth commission, the Irish Language Act etc. The DUP and Sinn Fein cannot even agree to the Cohesion, Sharing and Integration Strategy consultation document,
which is supposed to look at breaking down sectarianism! The Socialist Party has consistently argued that the sectarian parties in Stormont are incapable of achieving a genuine lasting peace. In fact, these parties have a vested interest in maintaining sectarian division. When it suits them they will attempt to stir up sectarian tensions to divide working class people especially when they are carrying out attacks themselves. The outlines of this can be seen in the arguments put forward by the DUP that cuts should be made to the crossborder bodies and other quangos such as the Equality Commission. At a recent ‘Assembly on the Road’ meeting on the Ormeau Road in Belfast, Alex Maskey of Sinn Fein, desperately tried to muddy the waters, attempting to put the blame for water charges on the ‘Brits’. None of the main parties are capable of bringing about a genuine settlement or a lasting peace. What is needed is the development of a mass socialist alternative uniting working class people across the sectarian divide which can cut across the potential for sectarian forces to drag society into sectarian conflict.
Scrap Invest NI Socialist Party to stand in General Election Socialist opposition needed HE SOCIALIST Party is to stand candidates in the upcoming general election in the South Belfast and East Belfast constituencies and is considering running in other constituencies in order to provide working class people a real reason to go and vote. All the parties in the Executive share the same right-wing economic agenda. They are all pursuing cuts to services, jobs, privatisation and planning to introduce water charges. They continue to bail out big business by awarding multimillion Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts, while they claim there is not enough money to fund services or to pay decent wages. There is no opposition within the Assembly to these policies. The
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Socialist Party is standing in the upcoming elections to provide a genuine alternative to the pro-rich policies of the Executive parties. The Socialist Party has played a key role in campaigning against water charges through the building of the We Won’t Pay Campaign. This campaign has succeeded in forcing the British government and the Assembly into deferring water charges for over four years, saving thousands of pounds. If it wasn’t for this campaign, water charges would most likely have been introduced by now. We want to build a socialist opposition to the policies of the main parties and unite working class communities across the sectarian divide. Unlike most of the politicians in Stormont, if elected Socialist Party candidates will pledge to live on a
workers’ wage, not on the massive salaries many Ministers are living on. Like Joe Higgins, who represented working class people in the Dail in the South, or socialist MP’s Dave Nellist and Terry Fields in Britain in the past, Socialist Party candidates are not standing to carve out a cosy career. It is essential that working class people have elected representatives who can use their positions to highlight and campaign in workers’ interests. So if you’re tired of giving out about useless sectarian politicians who are out of touch with ordinary people and want to shake up the political establishment, get in touch with us to help out with our campaigning work and assist us in building a socialist alternative which can speak for working class people.
The ‘We Won't Pay Campaign’ got up the noses of the MLAs for picketing one of their meetings on Belfast's Ormeau Rd.
Assembly politicians have thrown millions at big business for little return.
By Daniel Waldron N RECENT months, our politicians have spent a small fortune jetting off to the United States and bringing representatives of American big business here at our expense of course. They are trying to convince us that inward investment from big business is the key to kick-starting the economy. If we examine the track record of Invest NI, the quango set up to attract investment, it becomes obvious that this just isn’t the case. Over the last six years, Invest NI has thrown £1 billion at corporations to encourage them to set up shop here, a third of which went to just 10 companies! And what did we get? Companies that have received millions taken from taxpayers’ pockets have simply shifted production to the cheap labour countries, where they can get away with paying workers next to nothing, as soon as they’ve milked the handouts dry. For example, the Industrial Development Board (IDB) (Invest NI’s predecessor) handed over £15
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million to Valence Technology, a US firm. Valence never delivered on the jobs they promised to create, and actually slashed 320 jobs just days after receiving nearly £4 million! They finally moved to China in 2003. A similar story can be seen with Bombardier, while other companies who have been enticed by the handouts have tended to be like Firstsource, a call-centre firm that pays poverty wages and delivers no job security. It shouldn’t surprise us that they want to hand money to the heads of big business; the chief executive of Invest NI, Alastair Hamilton, used to be one of them! He also used to work as an advisor to Ian Paisley, First Minister at the time. If that doesn’t reek enough of cronyism, the body has handed millions to firms in which Invest NI board members have a vested interest! The Socialist Party says that companies which try to run off with our money should be nationalised and the profits put to useful purposes instead of going into fat cats’ profits. Invest NI should now be scrapped and the money saved used to create decent, public sector jobs that would improve public services and produce useful goods.
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October 2009
THE SOCIALIST
By Domhnall O Cobhthaigh, Fermanagh Socialist Party OMMUNITIES ACROSS Fermanagh are asking where the benefits from having local Ministers are as proposals to close schools progress relentlessly. On the 25 September, Finance Minister Sammy Wilson let the cat out of the bag when he said that "we may have to lose schools" in order to pay for the current crisis. It does not matter if you’re Catholic or Protestant, your local school could soon close. The Bain Report on Sustainability identified that primary schools should have at least 105 pupils and post-primary schools at least 500. If applied across the North, these figures would result in the closure of over 60% of rural primary schools and over 77% of rural post-primary schools. The effect on Fermanagh would be severe. In an attempt to avoid damaging publicity from the impending wave of closures the Minister has handed these decisions to the regional education board. Their initial strategic approach met such resistance that now schools are being allowed to gradually wither
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on the vine one by one. In Fermanagh, a 2007 Western Board ‘Pre-Consultation’ included
a proposal that would see the closure of all but one post-primary school for the Controlled sector in
the county (requiring the closure of five other schools). The story is the same for Catholic-maintained schools (CCMS) in the county where either three or four post-primary schools look likely to close. In addition, virtually every rural primary school is nervous of falling below the guideline enrolments. In August 2008, the CCMS initiated a consultation on the closure of St Mary’s post-primary school in Brollagh. For over a year now, parents and teachers have organised a strong grassroots campaign to resist a proposal that would force some children to travel a round journey of 50 or 60 miles to Enniskillen. Campaign spokesman and local teacher Seamus Kelm recently told the local press, “You can’t look at children’s education through economic eyes. If the school closes, we lose the centre of the community, forever.” He has pointed to the benefits of having small local schools and the benefits of small class sizes. There is a similar campaign against proposals to close Lisnaskea High School. More campaigns are slowly developing around schools in Roslea and Derrylin and will grow up around proposals to close rural primary schools in at least half the
Bosses spell out attacks on third level education By Kevin Henry HE BOSSES’ union, the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) recent Further Education Taskforce proposals should act as a strong warning to students, parents and education workers on the direction in which vice-chancellors and big business wish to drag our education system. The proposals include raising
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student fees to £5,000 a year, fewer grants being made available, higher loan interest rates and the government dropping its "target" of having 50% of young people in education - meaning in reality more restrictions on university places. The proposals rely heavily on the evidence from vice-chancellors including one retired vicechancellor, who is reported to have described domestic students as "nothing but a drain" and they
are “the charity end of the business.” The report also states that “heavy cuts” would negatively affect Britain’s competitiveness. The reality is massive cuts are already being introduced in many universities. such as the proposal to cut crèche facilities at the University of Ulster, and the cutting of 104 jobs in Queens University Belfast. The timid response by the leadership of the National Union of Students is not enough. Their
strategy of lobbying political parties which all support tuition fees is completely ineffective. These same parties listen more to the likes of the CBI than to students. Instead they should seriously mobilise students and link up with the trade union movement to fight for the scrapping of tuition fees and campaign for a fully funded education system that is run in the interest of the public rather than big business and profit.
Review: Steve Earle, 28 September, Belfast
“The people’s lyricist” By Tommy Black N 28 September, the man with “attitude” Steve Earle performed at the Open House Festival 2009, at Customs Square, Belfast. Two hours of an energetic acoustic set was accompanied with a narrative that was both witty and engaging. An audience made up of a variety of age groups, from the young fans who for various reasons are drawn to his unique form of music, to an old timer like me who had a limited knowledge as to what he has recorded. Each age group was rewarded with the skills and talent of Steve Earle, the people’s lyrcist and musician. What really came across was the overwhelming loyalty of the fans. The way they
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responded to each number he sang and played showed they agreed and connected with what he has written into his lyrics and music. In return, Earle kept up a continual narrative between each song, ranging from the times when he was not so compos mentis, out of his brains, due to drink and drugs, to the time when he was homeless. All these stories were made to be laughed with, and rightly so. But there was one story that he kept referring to. That was about his friendship, and sometimes not so friendly relationship with his mentor and contemporary, Townes Van Zandt (I’m led to believe Steve called his son Justin Towns Earle, after Townes). Even though the stories were humorous, I could sense a more profound and meaningful relationship between the two.
On the menu was Blues, Country and a little bit, just a little bit of so called “Irish”, with Galway Girl. What got my juices flowing were Copperhead Road and Tom Wait’s Down In The Hole and many, many more too numerous to mention, but not forgotten. What really had a
enormous impact on me (besides the music) was Earle’s wit, with off the cuff lines like, “there are two kinds of music, there is skip de do da and the blues, well I know what kind of music I’m going to play”. And play he did. A non-stop performance from start to finish.
Domhnall O Cobhthaigh speaking at a Socialist Party public meeting in Enniskillen
villages in the county. To date, these campaigns have been limited by the intervention of local political representatives who made sure to be publicly “seen” to disagree with their leaderships. At the same time, the Boards have played a clever game of encouraging competition between schools. Yet, there is a growing realisation that this is a common agenda. What is needed is to join up the school campaigns across the Board area, uniting communities, teachers, staff and pupils to force the politicians who sit on the Boards and the Minister for Education to abandon their plans to close schools.
More pay rises for the rich AS WORKING class people are forced to struggle with the effects of the worst economic crisis in living memory, The Guardian newspaper’s annual survey of executive pay has revealed boardroom pay at Britain’s top FTSE 100 corporations has shot up more than 9% in the past 12 months. £170 million was shared by the ten most highly paid executives alone with almost a quarter of chief executives surveyed receiving packages above £5 million. Having been bailed out with massive amounts of public money by their political backers it is now business as usual for the corporate elite. The real burden of the recession is being placed on ordinary workers who are forced to contend with rising job losses, wage cuts and continuing attacks on working conditions.
news
Schools under threat in Fermanagh
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October 2009
feature
THE SO
HERE IS A SENSE OF crisis across the Health Service in Northern Ireland. In the last few weeks the Belfast Trust has announced plans to close 152 beds at the City Hospital and Royal Group of Hospitals from November. The Northern Trust has halted more complex surgery at the MidUlster Hospital in Magherafelt and Whiteabbey Hospital in Newtownabbey. All such surgery will now be concentrated at the Antrim and Causeway Hospitals. Parking charges are to be introduced at the Antrim and Causeway sites. There is a clear threat to the future of Accident and Emergency services at the Mid-Ulster and Whiteabbey.
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By Ciaran Mulholland, UNITE (AMICUS) Health Services Branch (personal capacity) HE BELFAST Trust is also proposing to end all overtime from 1 October and not to use agency or bank staff. There is already an effective freeze on filling any staff vacancies that arise. As a result there is mounting pressure on the staff who are at work. If there is a major outbreak of swine flu over the winter, under-staffed wards will struggle to cope. These cuts are a consequence of demands from Northern Ireland’s Department of Health on the Trusts to make “efficiency savings” of £700 million (or 3% of expenditure each year) over the next three years. On top of that several Trusts have built up deficits which they are being told to reduce. According to Health Minister Michael McGimpsey, “they are reporting deficits and these deficits are not permissible under Treasury rules.” The Belfast Trust has also announced that it will no longer be referring patients to the private sector for operations. Patients are often referred to private clinics for knee, hip, heart and cataract operations, in
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e s h t l a He t t a r e und
a bid to reduce waiting lists. The Belfast Trust paid for 7,000 private operations last year and has commissioned another 4,000 so far this year. According to the Trust Chief Executive, William McKee: “It doesn't appear, at this stage, we have enough money to meet the activity we were able to do last year.” He told BBC Radio Ulster: “This is hopefully a brief pause while we take stock of how much money is available and how much more we can do internally.” He admitted that the Trust was finding things “very difficult” financially and said “hard choices” would have to be made.
Worse to come These cuts are only the beginning. The three main Westminster parties New Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats - are all committed to a sharp reduction in public expenditure after the next election. The Assembly parties have no strategy to resist the dictates of Westminster and will simply do as they are told. The Tories attack New Labour’s handling of the NHS, suggesting that New Labour plans 10% cuts and will threaten 137,000 NHS jobs. It is laughable to suggest however that the party of Margaret Thatcher is a friend to the service. When Tory MEP Daniel Hannan urged Americans to oppose Obama's health care reforms and described the NHS “as a sixty year old mistake”, Conservative leader David Cameron attacked him. The reality is that Hannan’s outburst tells us much about the views of the Tory party. A large number of Tory MPs, including members of the shadow cabinet, have put their names to Hannan's two books arguing for the destruction of the NHS and Tory shadow health minister, Lord McColl, is a paid adviser to Britain's biggest private GP service, something which Cameron has described as a “perfectly satisfactory state of affairs”. Cameron is very careful in his pro-
nouncements because he knows that the NHS is still overwhelmingly popular.
Private Parasites Whoever wins the next general election, the health service, alongside the rest of the public sector, is going to face an acceleration of attacks. The current capitalist crisis has led to a spiralling of the public debt. While the banks are bailed out, the public sector is being expected to pay the price. And many of the problems facing the NHS are a result of the massive Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes which have shovelled NHS funding into the coffers of the banks over the last decade. Of the 133 new hospitals built since New Labour came to power, 101 were financed under PFI. In total there are 149 PFI hospitals in Britain, valued at £12.3 billion. A recent report by University of Edinburgh academics shows that the NHS will eventually pay £70.5 billion for these hospitals! Lloyds and RBS banks dominate the PFI market and have lent tens of billions of pounds in order to finance new hospitals. According to the
Edinburgh report these banks, bailed out by the state with our money, “continue to charge excessive risk premiums to the taxpayer”. Professor Allyson Pollock of the University of Edinburgh's Centre for International Public Health Policy said: “Instead of using the opportunity of the taxpayer bailout (of Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland) to reopen the contracts and negotiate better rates in favour of the public sector, the UK government is allowing the banks to restore their balance sheet by charging relatively high rates of interest for PFI schemes. The increased costs of servicing the debt are met from NHS annual budgets, and result in reductions in the money available for services.”
Resisting the Cuts The attacks on the NHS must be met by determined resistance. Communities in some areas are already mobilising - at the end of August around 30,000 people marched through the small town of Hayle in protest at cuts and closures of Cornwall’s hospitals. Similar mobilisations here would send a loud message to the Executive and Assembly.
The NHS trade unions have a duty to organise an effective campaign of coordinated industrial action in defence of jobs, pay and conditions. Unison officials in Northern Ireland have made noises about industrial action but they have no track record of organising effective action. Recently in Wakefield and Pontefract Hospitals, as a result of a new PFI development, management attempted to impose new jobs on the workforce at lower grades and lower rates of pay. This move was met with determined resistance by the local Unison and Unite branch memberships. A massive 95% of union members voted to support strike action in a consultative ballot. Despite management’s claims that the job changes were contractually set in stone, the ballot result forced them to withdraw all the proposed downgradings. This dispute shows that with a determined union leadership and a determined rank and file, management attempts to attack health workers' conditions can be defeated.
Renewing the NHS It is necessary to fight for a series of fundamental demands to defend
October 2009
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OCIALIST
heard about the new round help, I just kept gettin of cuts in the Belfa g told ‘do what you can st Trust? as there is no staff ava ilable.’” “Well to be honest, I Have you spoken to wasn't surprised and yo ur union about it? don't believe any oth I “What's the point? Do er worker in here wa n't get me wrong I am either. We have been s in Unison and believe tha under constant pressu t workers should stick re for almost a year now together, but you rar with management exp ely see a rep unless it’s ecting us to carry out mo for the AG M and they are loo re and more duties.” Can you explain what What do you think sho king your vote.” you mean by that? uld be done now? “They stopped all “Well I think staff are recruitment about six getting fed up, mayb months ago, and the e no t rea dy to strike or anythi y don't bring in any ng just yet but it’s agency workers when get tin g the re. Th e Unison leadership is say we are snowed under .” ing When you say ‘they’ that they will support , you mean the manus but I've heard tha t agement? before. If you ask me they are too close to the managers. “Yeah, I used to work one level with “I think that the union another domestic and s will get a bit of that took you time to see what the almost all of the mo y can do. I don't rning to clean have much faith in and get sorted. But the them knowing n managewhat they have done ment took her away before and I to anoththink it will be up to the er unit and now I hav worke to ers themselves in the basically do it myself. end to do something.” When I ask for
MICHELLE is a student nurse in Belfast. She spoke to The Socialist about what the Assembly’s cuts will mean for student nurses.
"Things are already at breaking point in the health service. For student nurses the chances of getting a nursing job are next to zero. Last year, there were only three positions for nurses in the entire Belfast Trust. In my particular branch of nursing (adult branch), there are 150 of us hoping to graduate next year. That is not including the other branches such as children, mental health and disability." and renew the NHS. All health services (private hospitals, independent treatment centres and care homes) should be taken into public ownership and incorporated into the NHS. The Trusts should be abolished and representatives of central and local government, NHS workers, trade unions and health service users should make the decisions about how the NHS is run. All new hospitals should be built with public funding using direct labour and existing PFI schemes should be cancelled. The pharmaceutical industry and medical supply industry should be nationalised under working-class control and management. The cost of drugs makes up 10% of the entire NHS budget. Multinational drugs companies take billions out of the NHS through overcharging, price-fixing and blocking cheaper generic drugs. Cleaning, catering and other services should not be run for profit. If these measures were taken, profit would be driven out of the NHS and it would be genuinely democratised. Ultimately however a socialist programme to eliminate poverty and inequality - the biggest killers and causes of ill-health - is necessary. ■
"At placement I see when people retire, their jobs are not being replaced. It’s another way of cutting jobs. Now with 150 beds being cut in Belfast, there is even less chance of finding a job." "Student nurses are being used more and more as a source of cheap labour. We are paid a measly bursary, but are expected and pressurised to carry out work that requires experience which puts patients at risk. We work a 37.5 hour week, but only get paid the equivalent of 50p per hour. Sometimes I don’t get any break at work because we are so understaffed. I know many people who are looking at emigrating to Australia or America, not because they want to, but because there are no nursing jobs here." "People are also being encouraged to take a career break to cut back on costs. Managers have even admitted that waiting lists for hip replacement operations will rise from 8 weeks to three years due to the cuts."
SARAH SALTERS is the director of NI-ADD, a charity which provides essential services for children and adults suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Sarah spoke to The Socialist about the service and Belfast Health and Socials Care Trust’s recent decision to refuse funding. "NI-ADD was founded in 1997. We started out as the Belfast ADHD Family Support Group, but have grown over years into a fully developed service. We work to provide a much needed service to young people and families affected by ADHD. ADHD affects about 10% of school age children, with a wide variety of symptoms and treatments. It is very important that children are diagnosed early to avoid further problems in adulthood. But because of a lack of resources many children do not
get the help they need. "We operate out of a support centre in South Belfast and are a specialist and unique service providing a range of support from early intervention to preventative services. We recently applied for funding from the Belfast Trust. 54% of all referrals come from the Belfast Trust. Parents are advised by the Trust to come to us for assistance, but they have refused to give us a penny. We are now seriously concerned with the lack of funding we now face an uncertain future."
For a one day strike against cuts & job losses By Gary Mulcahy THE HEALTH service has become the most visible victim of the Assembly’s cuts until now, but cuts are being carried out across the entire public sector. In total, the Assembly has targeted cuts amounting to £1.6 billion. These "efficiency cuts", as the ruling parties like to describe them are resulting in job losses and the loss of vital services. The closure of the crèche facility at the Tower Street campus of Belfast Metropolitan College is a direct result of these "efficiency savings" which will rule out further education for many people, especially women. At a time when public transport should be receiving extra funding to cut down on CO2 emissions and heavy traffic, Minister for Regional Development Conor Murphy has enforced 75 job cuts at Translink this year, mainly in the bus service. Finance Minister Sammy Wilson has attempted to deflect blame on to the Treasury for the cuts, but all the parties in the Executive have agreed to carry them out.
Then Finance Minister Nigel Dodds speaking in an Assembly debate on 23 February 2009 explained “each Minister on the Executive agreed to the 3% efficiency targets overall and in their own Departments.” The economy in the North has not experienced as severe a collapse in growth as Britain and the South. It is expected that Northern Ireland will see a 3% contraction in 2009. This is due to the greater size of the public sector relative to Britain and the South. One in three workers are directly employed in the public sector. Half of all workers are directly or indirectly dependent on the public sector. The recession has so far devastated much of the weak private sector. If major cuts are carried out in the public sector, it will have a serious knock-on impact on much of the private sector, especially the services sector which depends on public sector workers’ spending power. Mass unemployment is already making its mark in many towns and cities, especially amongst young people. The Assembly Executive’s austerity measures will cut off the option of a job in the public sector
for thousands of young people leaving education every year. The trade union movement must take a stand in order to stop this violent destruction of jobs and services. All trade unions must come together to coordinate a united campaign against cuts and job losses. The social consequences of the cuts must be exposed to build support for a one day strike involving public and private sector workers, which should also involve mobilisation of working class communities who will be affected by the cuts. The ICTU protest on 6 November should be a step towards building for a one day all out strike. A mass movement of workers and communities united against cuts and job losses can force the politicians in Stormont to retreat. Union reps and shop stewards should pass motions through their branches and unions now calling for a one-day strike. Joint committees bringing together union activists in workplaces should be elected in order to organise action. Working class people cannot afford any more inaction from the union leaders. Step up the pressure for a one-day strike.
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ervice tack
GERRY BROWN has worked for 18 year s as a Bedside and Hygiene w o Victoria Hospital in Bel rker at Royal fast. He spoke to The Socialist about the cuts at the RVH. Gerry, how did you feel when you
October 2009
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socialist youth
THE SOCIALIST
No capitalist solutions to c h a n g e e t a m i l c By Daniel Waldron ORLD LEADERS are to meet in Copenhagen this December to hammer out a successor to the Kyoto Protocol in an attempt to control greenhouse gas emissions. But after their failure to reach the modest target set at Kyoto of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 5.2% from 1990 levels, we should not expect that whatever agreement they reach will seriously tackle the threat of climate change. Climate change is here already. It is undeniable that weather patterns are changing. For example, we have seen increases in woodland fires, such as those which have recently ravaged areas of Greece and California. Australia is currently in the middle of an unprecedented drought which is hitting food production there hard. Our polar ice caps are rapidly
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shrinking. These are the effects seen when mean global temperatures have increased by less than half of a degree. The leaders meeting in Copenhagen say they aim to keep global warming within two degrees, which is what they term an “acceptable level”. We must ask the question, acceptable for whom? A two degree increase would cause very real changes in regional weather patterns, threatening the livelihoods of people as traditional crop production becomes unfeasible. Millions would be displaced as rising sea levels leave their homes under water. Extreme weather events would become more frequent and many natural habitats would be threatened with destruction. And there is serious debate among climatologists as to whether a two degree increase would initiate a vicious cycle of events beyond our control. The melting of the polar ice caps could cause a large increase in CO2 levels, thus threatening further deforestation and exacerbating the effects of human
greenhouse gas emissions. We are in a race against time. The governments of the USA, Russia and China have now been forced by a massive public outcry to recognise the issue of climate change. But the solutions being put forward by capitalist commentators are absolute red herrings. Clean coal technology, bio-fuels and nuclear power cannot bring the huge reductions in emissions necessary to eliminate the threat of climate change, and in fact each poses different threats to the environment and human life. They do, however, offer the possibility of huge profits for big business. Only serious and urgent investment in truly renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind and geothermal power, can provide a stable and sustainable future for humanity. Capitalism cannot achieve this, no matter who’s in power. Even when Greens have entered government, as in the South now and Germany in the past, they have failed to deliver real change, imple-
Say no to mass youth unemployment! By Alex Hussein, Belfast Socialist Youth CCORDING TO the most recent statistics available from the DETINI Labour Force Survey, between April and June 2009, there were 52,000 people unemployed in Northern Ireland. Incredibly, 58% of these people are aged between 16 and 29. In terms of actual numbers this comes to around 30,160 people. But it doesn’t end there. On top of those termed officially unemployed, there are also the ‘economically inactive’. According to Government statistics, 586,000 people in
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Northern Ireland are “economically inactive”. 19% of these (111,340) are young people, aged between 16 and 24. The true extent of youth unemployment is far higher than the ministers at Stormont would have us believe. As reported in the September edition of The Socialist, actual unemployment is at 13% twice as high as the official figures when you add those categorised as economically inactive and looking for work. Apprentices are also experiencing a crisis. In April it was reported that over 1,000 apprenticeships were lost from the Apprenticeship Scheme which had been hailed previously by Minister Reg Empey
as a pathway to work for young people. And yet, in spite of these huge unemployment numbers, the Assembly parties continue to cut public sector jobs. Young people have no choice but to get organised to campaign for decent jobs and a future. It is up to us to fight for our jobs and our rights together. We are being expected to pay the price for bailing out the banks which have destroyed our chances of finding a job. The Youth Fight for Jobs campaign will be organising a day of action on 28 November to protest against mass youth unemployment. For more information contact 90232962.
Rising sea levels and torrential flooding as seen above in the Philippines threatens millions of poor across the world.
menting anti-environment as well as anti-worker policies. This system cannot be run for anything except profit as the bottom line. We cannot allow the greed of the bosses to threaten our future. We cannot rely on the representatives of world capitalism to safeguard the future of our planet. By
taking the massive wealth of our world into democratic, public ownership and using it in a planned way, we could reduce waste and rapidly slash CO2 emissions while also providing jobs and a better living standard for the mass of people on the planet. This is, however, now an urgent task.
"We need to have a rally, have a march" WITH FEWER rights and seen as an easy target by bosses, young workers are getting hit especially hard in this recession. Socialist Youth spoke to Joseph, a young welder who was recently made redundant from his job in FG Wilson after working there for nearly two years. "In March the company started to cut temporary workers and admin staff until they finally got to the shop floor. First we were reduced to just two shifts and a three day week and then I was laid off in May. I was sacked without any compensation from the company. It’s because of the recession that there are job cuts here and job cuts there, but then you see the banks who have been compensated but are still making profits. "I have been forced to sign on Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) and I am now on £100 every fortnight. The JSA needs to go up. There has been plenty of money to give to the banks and it’s ridiculous they are still getting big bonuses. "There are no jobs out there. We need to do something about it; every other day we need to have a rally, have a march!"
Rock against racism! Students attracted to Socialist Societies HE SOCIALIST Societies at University of Ulster and Queens University have been very busy organising stalls to recruit new members at this year’s Freshers’ Fayres. The Society stalls attracted a lot of interest, with many students looking to get involved, realising the need for a socialist solution to the mess capitalism has created and concerned by issues affecting all students such as fees. MATTHEW WEAVER, a European Politics and German student at Coleraine, described joining the Socialist Society as a good opportunity to get involved, saying “the socialists are the only ones talking real politics.” He said his biggest concern was the lack of jobs he would potentially face after graduating, and sees socialism as the only solution. At Queens, we were over-
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A fantastic night was held at the Rock Against Racism gig at Auntie Annies on 30 September in Belfast. All proceeds went to Youth Against Racism.
whelmed with the interest in the Society. 42 people joined up on Freshers’ Day. We are organising regular meetings at Queens, beginning with one dealing with the need for a
socialist alternative to the crisis capitalism has created. The Society is also organising a protest against the closure of the German Department and the loss of 104 jobs.
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October 2009
THE SOCIALIST
By a civil service worker ESPITE years of laws, publicity campaigns and crocodile tears from politicians, women are still cheap labour for employers. Discrimination has always suited big business; a difference in pay between men and women works out very well for the boss who wants to shave money from pay so that the profits of his company are pumped higher. In a recession bosses are even more ruthless in the drive for profits and putting an extra squeeze on women is one way to put more money into their shareholders’ pockets. This is a harsh reality in the private sector. In the past many workers and their unions pinned their hopes on a remedy being found through parliament or the NI Assembly. Unfortunately the truth is that the vast majority of the current batch of elected representatives in parliament and the Assembly are far more concerned with keeping bosses happy than achieving equal pay for women. Over the last few years the gap between the pay of men and women across Britain has increased rather than decreased and in Northern Ireland women are now earning 17.9% less than men. What is truly shocking is that our local politicians are quite happy to carry on a policy of discrimination themselves. The most stunning examples of this are in the very government departments that our politicians themselves run. For 30 years the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) has
Postal workers vote for strike action
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Women in northern Ireland on average earn 17.9% less than men
treated women as second class citizens and there is no sign of an end to this policy of discrimination. The NICS was caught out years ago short-changing women who work in the civil service by paying them less than men doing a comparable job. During all this time women have been losing thousands of pounds. When he was Finance Minister, Peter Robinson was forced to publicly admit that it had been going on for up to 30 years and since then the union representing civil servants, NIPSA, has been trying to negotiate a solution to the issue. After almost two years of negotiations it seems that a solution is no closer today than it was then. With behind the
scenes comments from politicians and senior civil servants that equal pay can’t be afforded during the recession, it is clear that the only way it will be achieved is through a strong campaign. It is time for the trade unions to change course on equal pay. The issue has to become a central part of trade union strategy. No more reliance on the current politicians to set things right, instead the unions must make everyone aware of what is going on in the workplace, organise members to resist, prepare to fight for real equality for all and get genuine representatives in the Assembly who will put workers’ interests ahead of bosses’ profits.
120,000 POSTAL WORKERS throughout Britain and Northern Ireland have been balloted for strike action. Gabriel McCurry, Chair of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) NI Combined Branch, spoke to Gary Mulcahy about the issues behind the ballot. "We have been forced to ballot for national strike action because Royal Mail management have breached an agreement reached in 2007 on pay and modernisation by imposing changes in shifts, driving up workloads, slashing jobs and refusing to negotiate any changes. "We have lost 40,000 jobs in the last two years due to voluntary redundancies and dismissals, but not a single one of these 40,000 jobs has been replaced. That’s meant postal workers have seen a huge increase in workload. "Management though say we are still not working hard enough. They’ve imposed a pay freeze, despite the latest financial results showing £321 million annual profit. They’ve also told us we won’t receive any further benefits for further changes. The CWU rejects this Royal Mail management’s vision of a future of an overworked, underpaid workforce, with no say on what
goes on and an industrial strategy of managed decline "The CWU is calling for an immediate halt to the imposed changes without agreement. We are demanding real negotiations leading to a new comprehensive agreement covering all aspects of modernisation across our industry. "We are fighting for a shorter working week and an increase in our basic pay. Our members have worked hard to create Royal Mail’s profits and should receive a fair share of the company’s success. "The CWU believes a positive future can be agreed with Royal Mail in relation to modernisation and a successful company, but that can only be achieved by negotiation, mutual respect and agreement.
All out on 6 November - Stop the cuts THE NORTHERN Ireland Committee of ICTU has called a protest in Belfast on 6 November to protest against job losses in the private and public sector. The protest will coincide with what is expected to be a day of major protests across the South. STEPHEN BOYD reports from Dublin HEN ICTU’s General Secretary David Begg spoke about the Irish government’s plan to cut public spending by €4 billion he said, “What they are trying to do is too brutal, too soon and will militate against the possibility of any short-term transition to a new environment”. David Begg and many other ICTU leaders are not actually opposed to what the government are trying to do – they only differ on the scale of the cuts and the timeframe over which they should be implemented. David Begg has made it clear that he opposes the government’s plans
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to implement major cuts in public expenditure in order to reduce borrowing by 2013 to within the 3% range set by the European Central Bank. Begg says they should go more slowly and make the cuts over a longer period with the target date of 2017. He still supports the cuts, just spread out over a longer period of time! ICTU’s decision to stage a day of protest on 6 November was arrived at after much “wailing and gnashing of teeth” at the Congress executive. Trade union leaders are divided over which is the best way to deal with the crisis facing their members. Most of the trade union leaders are out of touch with reality. Not
12,000 people took to the streets of Dublin on 30 September to protest against cuts to the community sector
surprising when many of them earn over €100,000 a year and haven’t a clue about the lives of ordinary workers. The anger of trade union members has pushed the union leaders further than they wanted to go. IMPACT is balloting for strike
action in the event of a threat to their members’ jobs or pay, despite the fact that some of its leaders are opposed to organising the 6 November protests! Twenty thousand public sector jobs are under threat. This will mean that thousands of teachers,
nurses, doctors and others will lose their jobs. The response of the ICTU leaders is not enough. The Socialist Party believes that the 6 November protests should be turned into a one-day general strike that could stop all of the cuts by bringing down the government.
workplace news & south
NIPSA should prepare for action on equal pay
WHAT WE STAND FOR In the workplace
PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY
ISSUE 48
OCTOBER 2009
KICK THE
BNP OUT By Patrick Leathem-Flynn HE BNP is operating from a secret office in Dundonald in Belfast. Located at a business park, this ‘call-centre’ as they describe it, is used to recruit people. They also use it to distribute their far-right propaganda and spout their racist rhetoric around Britain. The BNP has recently made an electoral breakthrough by winning two seats in the recent European elections in England. In recent years it has have relied on far-right populism, and tried to disguise its fascist past. It would be a mistake to confuse the protest vote the BNP are receiving (as a result of the lack of a genuine mass socialist alternative) with a shift to support for fascism. But it would also be a mistake not to recognise that the BNP has been strengthened by these electoral victories.
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salutes. Their presence dangerously legitimises far-right lunatics like the Burnley 2, who met at BNP meetings and were convicted in 2007 of stockpiling bomb-making equipment to prepare for a “race war”. One half of the Burnley 2, Robert Cottage, stood three times as a BNP candidate. The BNP sometimes claims to be campaigning for the interests of the working class. This is a lie. Last year, they proposed over £1 million in job cuts in Kirklees council in Yorkshire. They also campaign for the introduction of ‘workfare not welfare’ which means forcing the unemployed (who
Pensions
Water charges
Shut down BNP ‘call centre’
are now increasing at an alarming rate) into dead-end jobs in order to receive benefits – in other words slave labour! As if it is not difficult enough to survive on what scarce benefits are available, the BNP want the unemployed to feel like criminals too. In contrast to the BNP rhetoric against political corruption, six out of 12 of their councillors in Barking turned up to less than half of the meetings they were supposed to attend and still claimed over £60,000 between them. Where the BNP grows, it also leads
At the BNP’s ‘Red, White and Blue’ festival in Codnor, Derbyshire during 14-16 August, they played 1930s Nazi marching songs and gave Nazi
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to an increase in racist attacks. They deliberately try to whip up divisions between working class people. This only plays into the hands of the bosses and government. It is clear that the BNP should be opposed at every turn. They are anti-working class and despite their glossy ‘respectable’ veneer are closely linked to neo-nazi thugs and fascists. This cannot be ignored. There is an onus on the trade union movement to campaign together with genuine community groups against the BNP using Belfast as a hub to organise recruitment and distribute racist propaganda. The BNP should be kicked out of Northern Ireland. The BNP must also be challenged politically. Because there is no mass fighting political opposition on offer in Westminster and the Assembly, the BNP can grow if there is no alternative. It is not enough to simply say “Don’t vote BNP”. The trade unions should stop propping up New Labour and the sectarian parties in the Assembly and support the formation of a new socialist working class party which can unite people to stop cuts and job losses.
Equality g A complete end to all forms of discrimination, whether on the grounds of religion, race, sex, sexuality, or disability g Free nursery and creche facilities g Equal pay and equality of opportunity for women g For mass community action to stop the racist attacks and the attacks on gays and other minorities
Reclaim the trade unions g Build the lefts in the unions g Trade unions must be democratically controlled by the membership g Full time officials should be regularly elected and paid the average wage of those they represent
Peace process g Build a real peace process based on uniting the working class communities, not on bringing discredited politicians together g Joint trade union and community action to counter all forms of sectarianism g An end to all activity by all paramilitaries, loyalist and republican g Complete demilitarisation - establish genuine policing services that are locally based and under the control of democratically elected policing committees g The conflict cannot be resolved on a capitalist basis - for the building of a mass political party capable of uniting the working class in the struggle for a socialist solution g For a socialist Ireland as part of a free and voluntary socialist federation of Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales
No to the bosses’ EU g For solidarity action by the working class across Europe g For a socialist confederation of European states established on a free and voluntary basis
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g Capitalism is capable only of delivering poverty, environmental destruction and war g We need an international struggle against this system and its effects g Take the major finance houses and the 500 largest companies into public ownership and place them under the democratic control and management of the working class g Build a socialist world in which the resources of the planet are used to satisfy the needs of the mass of the people, not the thirst for profit of a tiny minority of super rich
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g Scrap the proposal to introduce separate water charges g No water privatisation g Full support for the We Won’t Pay Campaign’s call for a mass campaign of non payment if charges are introduced
No to racism & homophobia
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Public services g Stop the sell off of schools, hospitals and other services g Scrap student fees - for a living grant g No backdoor privatisation of services through Public Finance Initiatives or Public Private Partnership or other schemes g Bring back into public ownership industry, land and services that have been sold g Provide adequate funding of all public services to meet need. g Run public bodies democratically through elected governing bodies, with majority representation given to those who work in them and the communities they serve g No to the attack on pension entitlement g No increase in the retirement age g For a living state pension available to all - with annual increases linked to average earnings
A threat to workers
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g An immediate increase in the minimum wage to £8 per hour as a step towards the European Decency Threshold g Abolition of the youth exemptions g Trade union action to enforce these minimum rates g For a 35 hour week without loss in pay g Full employment protection rights from day one of employment g Scrap the anti-trade union laws g Reject Welfare to Work: for the right to decent benefits, training or a job without compulsion
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TEL: 028 90 232962