September 2009 edition of the Socialist

PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY

ISSUE 47

SEPTEMBER 2009

d e e N e W

Threat to Cork A&E services

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A M A N r o s t u Not c

By Stephen Boyd IANNA FAIL has hit an alltime low with only 17% support. This is not surprising when there are 450,000 on the dole, the country is about to be NAMA-ed and An Bord Snip’s menu for December’s budget includes €5 billion in cuts!

With Fianna Fail on only 11% in Dublin they would struggle to get a TD elected in the capital city. Seventy five percent of people in the latest opinion poll want a change of government.

This government is now very weak and held in place by a fear that stalks the Greens and Fianna Fail backbenchers - the fear of losing their seats in an election. Stephen Collins, Irish Times political editor, believes the odds are 50:50 that the government will last into the New Year.

We will soon know how much it is

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going to cost us to bail out the banks and the property developers. NAMA could cost us up to €70 billion and potentially bankrupt the country. The budget in December will be the most austere in the state’s 88-year history and all of this will be going on against the backdrop of what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says is the deepest recession endured by any advanced country.

Fianna Fail has driven the economy into the ground and now ordinary working class people are suffering the consequences of their mismanagement. At times of severe economic crisis, the bogeyman of the IMF is rolled out as a threat – if we don’t get our public finances in order the IMF will come in and do it for us!

While several European countries have implemented stimulus packages, Ireland has no reserves and instead the government is planning to cut social welfare payments.

But the IMF don’t need to take over Ireland’s finances - the government are doing the job for them.

Dermot O’Leary, an econo-

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with Goodbody stockbrokers, said that the cutbacks already implemented by the government are equivalent to about 5% of GDP. That’s one year’s worth of economic growth at the height of the boom - taken out of the economy by the government. Still to come is the deflationary impact of December’s budget. As O’Leary said, “That is the kind of thing the IMF imposes on countries which need to be rescued – and we are doing it for ourselves”.

Tens of thousands of workers are losing their jobs directly as a result of the government’s austerity programme.

Working class people are getting it in the neck from all sides. Employers are also trying to take advantage of the recession to introduce major attacks on workers’ rights and wages.

Coca Cola are trying to get rid of 130 of their employees by forcing them to work for contractors for pay cuts that range from €15,000 to €40,000 a year!

The High Court injunction is now a favoured weapon of employers. One of the most recent examples was the outrageous injunction granted in favour of Marine Terminal Ltd against the dockworkers and SIPTU, which could see workers being jailed for calling strike breakers scabs!

Working class people are profoundly angry at the injustices being inflicted upon them by this

CONTACT THE SOCIALIST PARTY - (01) 6772592, PO Box 3434, Dublin 8

ork’s Mercy University Hospital has put forward a proposal to the HSE that they would close their brand new €5 million A&E for 10 hours a day and operate on a 8am-10pm basis.

This is just one of many examples of the deepening crisis in the health service as the HSE continues to pursue its pro-privatisation “reconfiguration” plan and Health Minister Mary Harney plans nearly a billion euro worth of cuts in the service.

The Mercy proposal comes ahead of a HSE report expected at the end of September on the future of A&E services in the Cork/Kerry region.

Cork city is currently served by three A&Es and it is widely expected that the HSE will propose a major cutback in these services.

There is a real danger that the HSE will propose an even more severe cutback than the one being suggested by the board of the Mercy.

Rather than turn Cork University Hospital into a “centre of excellence”, A&E cutbacks at the Mercy and/or the South Infirmary would turn CUH into a centre of trolleys and chaos.

It is not unusual for 30 patients or more to be on CUH trolleys on any given night and cutbacks in the other two A&E services in the city will push that crisis to breaking point.

The Campaign for a Real Public Health Service is committed to fighting A&E cutbacks in the Cork area with a militant campaign of street protests.

Union activists in the health service should follow that example by organising to increase pressure on union leaders to fight cutbacks, privatisation and the threat of pay cuts in the service.

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government and big business. Many see the need for something to be done to take on the government and the bosses. If the major trade unions were to name the date for a general strike and build support for it, then this government could be swept aside and manners could be put on the employers who are sticking the boot into workers.

The Socialist Party are campaigning hard to defeat the Lisbon Treaty, and we will be campaigning in the months ahead against NAMA, water charges, the property tax and the forthcoming cuts in social welfare and public services. If you want to join in the fightback against the government and are looking for a political alternative to the failed politics of the establishment parties, then contact us today. To find out more about the ideas and campaigns of the Socialist Party, email us at info@socialistparty.net and visit our website www.socialistparty.net .

INSIDE SLISBON

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www.socialistparty.net

September 2009

2 THE SOCIALIST

news

NAMA

Multi-billion corporate welfare

By Councillor Mick Barry N 16 September Fianna Fail’s Brian Lenihan is set to tell the Dail the price he intends to pay for the banks’ toxic loans. The figure is expected to be more than €50 billion. It could be as high as €70 billion.

This is a truly monumental bailout for the banks. The NAMA bailout is likely to be more than ten times the size of the entire “menu” of cuts proposed by An Bord Snip.

Lenihan is proposing that the banks be paid a “long term market valuation” for the dodgy loans. The horrible irony of this is that Fianna Fail has spent the last decade lecturing the Irish people on the wonders of the capitalist market. Now when it comes to one of the biggest decisions in the history of the State they refuse to countenance paying market prices and instead plan to pay above market valuations.

NAMA will only be able to break even in the long run by significantly increasing these values, that is by inflating another property bubble. A more likely scenario is that

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NAMA

Despite the claims of some, there is no end in sight for the economic crisis.

the sale of toxic assets over an extended period will leave the taxpayer with ultimate losses running into multiple billions.

Toxic loans should not be bought from the banks in the first place.

Wealthy bank shareholders and bondholders are the ones who should pay.

AIB alone has 148 individual shareholders with holdings of more than a million euro.

The banks are backed by about €150 billion worth of bonds. The bondholders include enormous capitalist institutions such as sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds and other banks. These outfits

must not be bailed out.

Pressure should be brought on the unions to organise a one-day general strike in opposition to the cutbacks and the massive bank bailout being planned by Fianna Fail and the Greens.

The Socialist Party favours “socialist nationalisation” of the

banks to tackle the crisis. We use this term to distinguish ourselves from those such as the Labour Party who favour nationalising the banks, injecting public funds to nurse them back to profit, then privatising them once more.

Socialist nationalisation would involve sacking the boards of the banks and putting directly elected representatives from society and from the banks’ workforce, backed by supportive experts, in charge.

It would involve seizing the assets (including personal wealth) of developers unable to repay loans and using these to provide social and affordable housing, community facilities, schools, etc.

No compensation would be paid to millionaire or billionaire shareholders or bondholders. Mortgage payments would be lowered to reflect current property prices rather than bubble prices. Cheap credit would be provided for bank customers including small businesses. Bank profits would be used to defend jobs and services.

That’s the way to resolve the banking crisis in favour of ordinary people rather than at their expense.

HSE to close local Carroll’s Joinery medical card offices Race to the bottom in Tipperary

By Mick Murphy HE O’TOOLE family who own the Carrolls Joinery group have taken full advantage of the economic downturn to get their only unionised and longest serving workers off the books, by laying off everyone from their factory near Ballingarry in Co. Tipperary.

It has not closed the factory and only recently invested in new equipment in a plant that turned out over 3,000 doors as well as other goods per week in the middle of the boom. The factory is all set to ramp up again if and when things pick up only this time with a new, non-union minimum wage

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Long delays for over-70s medical cards.

By Anthony Hetherington HE HSE plans to close local medical card offices throughout the South in an attempt to save €10m annually.

HSE boss, Brendan Drumm, stated “a range of efficiency measures will be introduced to slow the increase in expenditure on the medical card, drug payment and other demand led schemes.”

To achieve this, the HSE intends to centralise assessment and processing of all medical card and GP visit card applications to one ‘back office’ in Dublin – off Exit 5 on the M50! Initially the HSE set out that it would slash 200 – 300 jobs (thought to be non-permanent staff) and redeploy permanent staff members from local Medical Card offices to fill those jobs.

A medical card gives access to a range of services, such as free GP visits and free medication.

People must go through an application process to find out if the HSE deems them to be entitled to a Medical Card. This means a lot of paper work many cases.

Depending on the arrangements in the old Health Board areas, currently people can attend a Community Welfare

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Officer and/or admin staff in the medical card offices to discuss and make a medical card application amongst other community welfare services.

Centralising the service to a back office will mean moving a vital service away from the public at the very time they need it most.

Given how complicated it can be to access public services, the facility to meet staff makes a big difference to so many people.

Since the government took away the automatic entitlement to the over-70s medical card, the HSE centralised processing of those applications to the same office in Dublin. This has led to big delays, and even in contacting the office as the only way is by phone for the entire state.

Staff are rightly concerned about the future of the service as well as their jobs. Staff do not know if they will be re-deployed to another area; let go or forcibly placed into the job of someone the HSE has let go. Staff members have taken a vote to take strike action to defend the service and their jobs for when the HSE attempts to ram this through.

They are seeking the support of the public in protecting the service and are calling on their union to stand ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with them in the fight.

workforce.

The 48 workers who were laid off in July put up a strong fight to at least make the O’Tooles pay higher redundancy terms. The minimum two weeks’ statutory redundancy was paid to the workers, who had an average service of over 30 years each. Pickets were mounted at the factory, but the men soon extended this to some of the 14 other sites, picketing outlets in Cork and Dublin also.

On 25 August the men were offered an additional week’s redundancy per year of service and very reluctantly voted 23 to 17 in favour of the offer. Just the Saturday before, five carloads of strikers supported by over 30 people from various groups around

Dublin, including the Socialist Party, shut down their main retail outlet in Bluebell. The plan was to escalate this on the following Saturday to the outlets in Galway and Cork also.

The shop stewards argued to continue the battle but the men were clearly not convinced that the O’Tooles could be brought to heel during such a big downturn in the building industry.

It is entirely possible that there will be another chapter in this battle when the O’Tooles go to re-open the plant. This was the only significant industrial employer in that immediate area and it is possible a campaign will be launched for the men to be taken back on in the future.

4Homes workers occupy to save jobs

By Liam Cullinane HOMES WORKERS in Mitchelstown, Fermoy and Annacotty were told that their stores would be closing with the loss of 40 jobs.

They were given just four days’ notice that the outlets would be shutting down and offered only statutory redundancy, despite the fact that many members of staff had given decades of service. As one member of staff put it, “There was no discussion, no options offered, no alternative, we were told that the store would close on Sunday, full stop”. Furious at the actions of the company, 16 workers in the Mitchelstown outlet took the courageous step of occupying the premises.

The workers’ actions enjoyed huge support in the town. In the past Mitchelstown was a bustling market town, but downsizing by

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4Homes workers occupation in Mitchelstown.

Dairygold (the de facto owners of 4Homes) led to a decline in manufacturing and services. One woman, while signing the book of support for the workers, commented that this type of action should have taken place 20 years ago.

Initially management callously refused any form of negotiation with the workers and, unprepared for a fight back, attempted to break the sit-in. Staff were threatened with legal action if the occupation wasn’t

ended. However, thanks to the militant actions of the workers and the huge support they received from the local community, management were forced to relent and enter into talks.

The workers have agreed to take strike action if progress is not made on their demands.

Dairygold and 4Homes made millions of profits during the boom thanks to the hard work of their staff and this money should now be used to maintain jobs and services.

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September 2009

THE SOCIALIST

To defend public services & workers’ rights

By Joe Higgins MEP IF PASSED, the Lisbon Treaty will enshrine the agenda of the economic and political elite in the European Union. The desperation of the European establishment to see this Treaty passed has been clear from my time in the European Parliament. All of the major political groupings in the European Parliament repeatedly and loudly proclaim the need for a Yes vote.

This is because Lisbon is a Treaty for the interests they represent - the major corporations and the armaments industry. Its provisions are damaging to the interests of ordinary working people throughout Europe and should be rejected.

The key points I have strived to raise in the public arena about the Lisbon Treaty are the following; it: l DIMINISHES the democratic leverage of ordinary citizens through removing the mem-

ber state vetoes in many policy areas and through a rebalancing of the voting system in favour of the biggest States which have the most powerful military apparatuses, the biggest armaments industries and the strongest capitalist establishments; l ENTRENCHES and strengthens the neo-liberal, pro-privatisation economic policies which govern the EU; l COPPERFASTENS the rulings of the European Court of Justice which legitimise a race to the bottom in workers’ conditions; l FORBIDS Member States from having an independent foreign policy; lGIVES a huge push to militarisation and for the first time institutionalises the armaments industry in an EU Treaty.

The fact that big business interests like multinationals Intel and Ryanair are putting hundreds of thousands of euros into achieving a Yes vote shows

us exactly in whose interests they believe Lisbon to be.

A sick joke in this campaign has been the appearance of IBEC’s “Yes for jobs” posters.

The true record of IBEC’s members tells a very different story.

Donal Byrne of Cadbury’s Ireland and Director of IBEC has overseen 200 sackings this year. Tony O’Brien of C&C and Director of IBEC pushed through 120 redundancies at Bulmers. Gary McCann of Smurfit Kappa and member of the Board of IBEC has overseen 140 job cuts.

However, the real reason for IBEC’s support includes the further framework of the race to the bottom and the profit-making opportunities they anticipate from the opening up of public services, including

health and education to “liberalisation” and privatisation. They understand the full implications of Lisbon, which subordinates the rights of working people to defend their jobs and public services to the rights of employers across Europe to pursue their profit-driven agen-

da at the expense of workers’ rights.

The coming month will see the debate on Lisbon intensifying as the Left tries to bring out the crucial issues. It will also see moves to bail out the banks and developers with NAMA and to devise a plan of further brutal cutbacks flowing from the McCarthy report.

When Fianna Fail calls on us to “Vote yes for the economy” as their posters across the country declare, they are inviting us to vote Yes for NAMA, vote Yes for An Bord Snip and vote Yes for their mismanagement of the economy generally. The common neo-liberal agenda of prioritising the interests of big business and developers over the needs of ordinary people which is contained in Lisbon, NAMA and An Bord Snip should be rejected on 2 October.

Coca Cola workers in battle to save jobs

By Fiona O’Loughlin IPTU MEMBERS in Coca Cola HBC (Hellenic Bottling Company) in Dublin, Cork, Tipperary and Tuam have been on all-out strike since 27 August.

Despite making massive profits Coca Cola HBC is proposing to outsource the distribution of its products to three outside companies, Kielys Distribution, Liam Carroll and Brian Daly Transport.

The High Court has already imposed an injunction against the workforce in an attempt to hamper picketing of the scab companies who are continuing to distribute Coca Cola’s products.

The workers have been been given a Hobson’s choice - either transfer to these new companies or be made redundant. This is a multinational company that in spite of the recession is making massive profits. According to the Wall Street Journal, Coca Cola

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Coca Cola – “passion for profit”

Hellenic increased its profits by 4% from €181.5 million to €188.1 million for the quarter ending June 2009 in comparison to the same period in 2008.

This is clearly an attempt by the company to significantly increase their profits by destroying the jobs and conditions won by workers over 50 years. Some of the strikers have been working more than 30

years for Coca Cola.

The outsourcing of the distribution operation will result in 130 job losses. The terms and conditions being offered by the three new employers are outrageous. Wage cuts are being imposed of between €15,000 and up to €40,000 a year depending on service. Strikers in Cork have been told that if they want a job with one of the new com-

panies they must move to Thurles!

Letters from the new companies have told the drivers that they will be on zero hour contracts and they must be prepared to deliver other products including tyres, and be available to drive to Britain and mainland Europe!

Coca Cola HBC joins the long list of multinational companies such as Dell in Limerick and SR Technics in Dublin airport who are using the economic recession as a means to increase their profits and drive down wages and conditions in the race to the bottom.

The Coca Cola strikers have received messages of support from Coca Cola Hellenic workers in factories in Athens, Volos, and Salonika in Greece.

The striking workers in Coca Cola are making a just stand in defence of their jobs and conditions and they should get the full backing of the trade union movement.

The key to winning this strike is to stop the supply and distribution

of Coca Cola products. These products are bottled at Coca Cola Bottlers (Ulster) Ltd in Lambeg Co.Down. The Lambeg workforce are members of the trade union USDAW. SIPTU, USDAW and NICICTU have an important role in trying to get these workers to support the striking workers at Coca Cola HBC. A defeat of the HBC workforce in the South would leave the workers at the Lambeg plant open to similar attacks on their wages, working conditions and job security.

SIPTU must do what ever it takes to stop the distribution of all Coca Cola products. SIPTU should mobilise other trade unionists to participate in effective picketing to stop Kielys, Liam Carroll and Brian Daly transport from scabbing on this strike. Appeals should be issued to trade unionists to refuse to handle Coca Cola products in supermarkets, shops, pubs etc. and the general public should be asked to boycott Coca Cola products.

MTL has set a dangerous precedent that cannot go unanswered by the broader trade union movement.

It needs to decisively take on MTL in such away that will shut all its business down. In doing so it cannot allow draconian anti-union laws such as the Industrial Relations Act to be a barrier to taking action.

ICTU should call an all-out picket against MTL that will ensure amongst other things, that its members black all of the cargo that leaves the site in Dublin. Solidarity action by other workers at the port, particularly by pilots who bring in the MTL ships, would increase the pressure on MTL further.

SIPTU (the union representing the workers) should use its vast

resources to contact workers in other ports to try and extend the international action being taken by workers in Rotterdam. ICTU and SIPTU should organise a mass picket at the MTL site, which could confront and prevent scabs from entering it. Such actions need to taken in order to pile on the pressure on this anti-union company and deliver a victory for all workers.

The Socialist Party has supported the MTL dockworkers from the beginning of this dispute. Our members have attended the support protests and have regularly visited the picket lines as well giving practical advice and support and a €1,000 donation to the strike fund.

Courts back bosses in dockers’ strike

By Cillian Gillespie OCKWORKERS AT Marine Terminal Limited (MTL) are still continuing their battle to defend jobs, decent wages and conditions against their union busting employer.

These workers have been out on strike since the end of June when the company ruthlessly tried to impose forced redundancies and "take it or leave it” contracts that would leave the remainder of the workforce significantly worse off.

During the course of this dispute the striking workers have received magnificent support from residents of the communities of East Wall and Ringsend. This has been shown by

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the three demonstrations that have mobilised hundreds who have marched to the gates of the MTL site on the docks. As well as this over 200 people attended a recent fundraiser for the workers which raised over €2,000 for the strike fund. The UNITE union which represents dockworkers in Britain and Belfast has given its support to the dockworkers. At the last demonstration dockworkers came down from Belfast to show their support and solidarity. This demonstration also resulted in a mass trespass on the MTL site, which forced all work to come to a halt.

A “floating picket” followed, where supporters of the dockers blocked all boats from entering

Dublin Port. Another example of tremendous workers’ solidarity was shown by the decision of dockworkers in Rotterdam to serve strike notice, which will mean all cargo from MTL will be blacked when it enters the port.

Clearly this has rattled MTL, which has been forced back into negotiations in the Labour court, something it said it would never do at the start of the dispute. However it has also sought to intimidate the workers and their supporters further through high court injunctions.

One of these includes an injunction which could see workers imprisoned for calling the strike-breakers that MTL has brought in during this dispute scabs!

news

Vote NO to Lisbon

September 2009

6

workplace news

THE SOCIALIST

Fermanagh Councillor DOMHNALL Ó COBHTHAIGH has resigned from Sinn Fein and joined the Socialist Party. This is a statement from Domhnall explaining the reasons behind his decision.

Why I left Sinn Féin to join the Socialist Party

By Domhnall Ó Cobhthaigh OR TWELVE years I was a committed member of Sinn Féin. Like other members of the party I shared a total commitment and even loyalty to the concept of a "thirty-two county democratic socialist republic".

It was something I would have sacrificed everything for but the realities of daily struggle were often very different from that long-term goal. Like many other republicans I opposed sectarianism and racism but worked within a political arena bounded by the limits of communitarian politics.

Over time, the contradictions seemed to grow more antagonistic.

When our socialist commitments met the hard realities of political power, it always seemed to be the status quo that won out. The party prioritised “not scaring the horses”, as leadership figures would say when people like me questioned decisions. Social or economic goals could be sacrificed to get a stable working relationship with the DUP in the new institutions. Somehow,

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Jim Barbour of the FBU, Ciaran Mulholland of the SP, Domhnall Ó Cobhthaigh & Joe Higgins MEP.

this was considered critical in getting to a united Ireland. In the end, it boiled down to the reality that social and economic change was dropped – a farcical re-run of the politics of "labour must wait".

The last straw to me was the leadership’s support for the bank bailout. But I was unsure of where to go and there was a huge pressure

to stay on.

So I stayed on for almost a year but experimented with politics outside the party. I went along to the People Before Profit Alliance meeting ahead of the last election, experimented with a few blogs and went down to the Corrib protests. While it was much better than electoral politics, I was left with a sense of being

directionless. What was needed was what Lenin wrote of in What is to be Done: an organisation which was absolutely committed to revolutionary politics. Today, I recognise that the Socialist Party is really the only party in Ireland that takes that challenge serious anymore.

I had believed that we could bring people to socialism through their

commitment to Irish Republicanism; that socialism represented the "ultimate" in republican democracy. Over the past year I have realised my problems with Sinn Féin stem from the party’s nationalism getting in the way of its socialism; in effect, the verification in concrete political terms of Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution.

Building a mass socialist party capable of revolutionary change will require hard work and there are no shortcuts. But the tide has definitely turned. The era of austerity heralded by the bailout for finance capitalists and their institutions has radicalised politics: working class people are challenged with the threat of a traumatic reversal in their living conditions and a generation of youth is at risk of permanent exclusion from the labour force.

Today, socialism is more relevant than ever.

I look forward to working alongside Socialist Party comrades in working to build that revolutionary mass movement. My greatest regret is that I didn’t decide to join the Socialist Party a lot earlier.

Assembly privatisation agenda exposed

By Gary Mulcahy RIVATISATION OF public services is at the heart of the economic strategy being pursued by the Assembly Executive. For the past ten years, the DUP, Sinn Fein, UUP and SDLP have been collectively responsible for awarding £1.3 billion to private companies to take over and destroy public services. And according to Professor Allyson M. Pollock, director of the Centre for International Public Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh, based on current proposed Public Private Partnership (PPP) contracts, this figure is set to rise to a massive £10 billion!

The Assembly hands approximately £2.2 billion to big business each year to ‘run’ public services.

Since February, the Assembly has awarded over £90 million in contracts to companies. Most of this has been paid to consultants, including Deloitte MCS Ltd £146,898, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

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£215,380 and KPMG £284,551. This is a complete waste of public money.

No services are safe. The decision of Education Minister Caitriona Ruane to privatise post-primary school counselling services for vulnerable school students is particularly nauseating. This will cost the public £5.4 million.

The Assembly parties have also privatised school buildings and community services. Earlier this year, a major PPP contract was awarded which will see at least 13 schools in the Belfast Education & Library Board being taken over by a private company, known as Amey FMP (a consortium of four major companies). This contract will entail the re-building of new school buildings, which will then be managed by the company. Already redundancies have been announced for non-teaching staff. More cuts and attacks on workers’ terms and conditions are inevitable. Amey FMP will also have exclusive rights to design and construct all new capital works in the entire BELB estate, covering every school in Belfast.

This company will also be able to

Three of a kind! Peter Robinson, Gordon Brown and Martin McGuinness.

make big profits by charging for local services such as youth clubs, sports halls and fields, gyms etc.

Schools across the North are being handed over to big business.

In June, PPP contracts worth £80 million were finalised which will see schools in East Belfast, Carryduff, Portglenone and Downpatrick being taken over by and managed by the multinational company Interserve for the next 25 years. Interserve is already involved in a £38 million PFI

deal to build and run two schools (St Cecilia’s College and St Mary’s College) in Derry. It is also involved in a consortium which has secured a £300 million PFI contract to build and manage the new Enniskillen Hospital. The other companies involved include the Spanish multinational FCC Construction and Allied Irish Banks. Both Interserve and Allied Irish Banks will manage services in the hospital such as mechanical and electrical mainte-

Banks plan slashing jobs, wages & pensions!

By Oisín Kelly, IBOA member (personal capacity) ANK SENIOR management plan on slashing jobs, pay, pensions and working conditions for finance workers. The recent redundancy announcements by Friends First and Ulster Bank are a taste of things to come.

The other banks are closely following these developments. After NAMA, the Irish owned banks are likely to be primed for take-over by

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multinationals. Senior management now intend making their banks "attractive" for vulture capitalists in multinational banks.

In Friends First 147 jobs are being cut. This represents 27% of the workforce. Ulster Bank announced 250 job cuts in addition to the 750 announced earlier this year. Ulster Bank intends freezing pay for two years and attacking the pension scheme for new and existing staff.

The treatment of the workers is in complete contrast to how senior

bankers have rewarded themselves. Fred Goodwin, former CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland (which owns Ulster Bank), is receiving over £700,000 per year from his pension. His pension scheme was doubled just before he left in disgrace after creating a record £24.1 billion loss.

The failure of a "partnership" approach is very evident in the financial sector. Most workers in Ulster Bank first heard of the further 250 job losses on the radio.

This is despite the bank being in

"talks" with the IBOA over pay increases due. In Friends First, the union leaders in Unite merely commented that they wanted "consultation" over job losses. In Ulster Bank the IBOA leadership has responded with a letter writing campaign!

A tame strategy is not enough to defend pay, pensions and jobs.

Unions need to respond to these attacks with a determined and militant campaign. Without this approach the greed of senior bankers will put thousands more workers onto the dole.

nance for the next 30 years. PFI is notorious for cuts in services, job losses and poorer services. The only motivation of private companies is to make as much profit as possible, not to provide for people.s needs.

All the main parties in the Assembly are committed to privatisation. Just before the Assembly broke for their long summer break, a piece of legislation called the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill was supported by all the Executive parties. This legislation empowers and promotes local councils to privatise local services through the use of PPP and PFI. All the MLAs who spoke agreed that waste facilities in particular should be privatised. This will inevitably lead to job losses and also raises the threat of bin charges on households. The trade union movement must say "Enough is enough!" and publicly campaign against the privatisation tsunami confronting workers and communities. A one day public sector strike in defense of public services should be called and built for in order to defeat the politicians privatisation plans.

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September 2009

THE SOCIALIST

By Daniel Waldron HE ANGER and disgust of millions of Americans towards the rotten US healthcare system helped Barack Obama win the presidential elections last year. He promised fundamental reform that would provide quality, affordable care for all. Yet now it looks like his administration will simply try to put a plaster over some of the worst excesses of the current, profit-driven system.

Rather than a universal healthcare system like the NHS in Britain, the system in America is based around private insurance and private hospitals. Today, in the richest country in the world, over 15% of the population have no health insurance. These people effectively only have access to accident and emergency care. Priced out of the market by the profiteering insurance companies, if they develop an illness requiring long-term medication or an operation, they are forced to choose between their health and financial ruin.

Even those who have chosen to pay through the nose for private insurance or who have won it from their employer have plenty to worry about if they or their family become sick. Michael Moore’s film “Sicko” demonstrated in a shocking manner how the insurance companies would consciously find any loophole to avoid honouring their obligations, often leaving

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their “valued customers” to die.

Before winning nomination in the Democratic primaries, Obama claimed he was a supporter of a single-payer system, where citizens would make flat-rate payments to a public body which would then provide the budgets for all healthcare institutions, free at the point of use. Unfortunately, this system would not explicitly take hospitals and clinics themselves into public hands, but it would certainly be a huge step forward for ordinary Americans and would pull the rug from under the feet of the vampire-like insurance companies.

After coming to power, however, Obama dramatically softened his plans. Instead, he proposed the establishment of a publicly-owned insurance company which would cater for the lowest-paid Americans and compete against the private sector within the market system. This would not fundamentally solve anything for workers and poor people in the United States. With the inefficiencies, waste and profiteering of the current system left intact, millions would be left with expensive, poor quality care. These proposals may even be watered down further after a backlash from the hard right in the Senate!

Why Obama’s change of heart?

After all, poll after poll shows that the majority of Americans support a universal, public health system funded from taxation. A look at the accounts of the Democratic Party

The Obama “Joker” poster - the rightwing view of his health reform.

may provide an answer. They received over $90.7 million from private insurance companies in 2008, just ahead of the Republicans’ $76.6 million. Obama

Aer Lingus - Annual cull of jobs & conditions

Rail bridge collapse – health and safety before profits

By Councillor Terry Kelleher MAJOR disaster was narrowly avoided after the collapse of the rail viaduct over the broadmeadow estuary in Malahide.

Many lives could have been lost and therefore it is crucial that lessons are learnt and the necessary resources are provided to implement new safety procedures at Irish Rail.

Two recent reports on Irish Rail were very critical of the “safety culture” and criticised the company for its lack of progress on implementing a “comprehensive system for recording and analysing ...incidents and precursor events”.

One such report in 2008 actually criticised management for abolishing CARA, a confidential reporting system for staff to anonymously report safety issues. While there is no direct link between abolishing CARA and the incident in Malahide, it reflects a process that is occurring in all semi-states, the undermining of the role of the staff and their trade unions.

In place of adequate health and

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By Cllr. Clare Daly N THE last week of August Aer Lingus issued its halfyearly accounts along with a cry of doom and gloom. Dire predictions for the future of the company appeared in the media and management emphasised the need to immediately cut jobs and slash pay.

Sound familiar? It almost wouldn’t be autumn without this annual cull!

With a global economic crisis affecting all sectors of the economy - not least aviation - there is no way that Aer Lingus management is going to forfeit this golden opportunity to impose its long sought after counter-revolution in the airline, with the attempted undoing of all of the benefits fought and won by the union movement over decades.

Sadly, in recent years the union movement has rolled over and facilitated this process, partly to avoid an all-out war. Instead they have offered up pay and conditions in the hope that a battle could be avoided. But as workers in Aviance learned by bitter experience, giving up conditions to “save” the company doesn’t work. These workers gave up jobs, pay and conditions last year, only to see the company taken over by Servisair and more jobs being lost.

Contrary to management claims Aer Lingus is not a company in crisis with costs totally out of line

received $18 million for his presidential campaign alone. Both main parties are completely tied to the insurance vultures, and to big business as a whole.

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Aer Lingus chairman, Colm Barrington (right).

with its competitors. While much was made of the fact that the cash reserves have halved from a massive €800 million to just over €400 million, nowhere was it explained that half of this went on the purchase of two new A330 aircraft.

Over €60 million was wasted on the defence of the first Ryanair bid, and about half that on the second bid - a direct consequence of privatisation.

The company’s losses of €93million are distorted by front-loading of fuel costs and one-off maintenance release costs. Staff costs show a reduction of over 10%, despite the airline carrying an extra 300,000 passengers.

These are set to fall further as the full value of last year’s campaign to encourage workers to sell their wages and conditions takes effect. Starting rates of €22,000 for ground operation staff for a 24/7,

year round operation hardly constitute living it up. These are yellow pack rates that any unionised job should be ashamed of. With half the ground staff and all those in the air still on the old rates, no doubt the company wants more.

The opening up of bases in Gatwick and Belfast where cabin crew earn a shocking £12,000 expose the real goal – the profits of the shareholders can be boosted if the wages of the staff can be slashed. If they could get away with shutting down Dublin, Cork and Shannon and operating hubs to Gatwick from where people could fly on, they would.

The chickens of the privatisation disaster are coming home to roost.

Workers at Aer Lingus need to realise that we have to be prepared to take action to defend jobs and save our standard of living. There is no more room for manoeuvre.

Obama’s limited proposals for extending the role of public bodies in healthcare provoked shrieks of horror from the neo-conservative right, represented in the media by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Network.

They claimed this represented a step towards “socialized medicine”, which would limit people’s choice, cost astronomical amounts and lead to the rationing of healthcare.

Of course, none of these claims about “socialized” healthcare are true. The US healthcare bill is almost double per capita that of countries like Canada with universal, public healthcare. On the basis of a public healthcare system, the need to create huge profits for insurance companies’ shareholders would be eliminated.

So too would the massive administrative costs of insurance companies haggling with hospitals over every item on every patient’s care bill, as well as their advertising costs. It is estimated that a public system could free up $400 billion every year for investment in frontline services.

Obama’s backtracking on healthcare reform shows the weakness of relying on change from above; change from those who have a vested interest in the status quo. Instead, American workers, young people and community activists need to organise to campaign and struggle for a public, universal healthcare service, free at the point of use- and under their democratic control!

safety resources in safety, attempts are made to introduce “safety systems”. These systems are usually over bureaucratic and meant to make the company meet its legal obligation under the health and safety laws. However most workers will tell you while these systems are introduced resources for health and safety are usually reduced. What is needed is a system, proper resources with the full involvement of the rail staff to best prevent such accidents.

Serious question needs to be answered by Irish rail management as to how their checks did not notice any danger signs of collapse. This company like most other semi-sate companies are being pushed by the government to puts profits before public service. This needs to be reversed and monies made available for a safe, reliable and affordable rail service for all.

An investigation into the collapse of the viaduct would have to look at the impact of the multiple housing developments in the North Dublin area have had on the flood plain and the estuary.

international & news

OBAMA baulks at real health reform

WHAT WE STAND FOR Workers’ rights

PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY

ISSUE 47

SEPTEMBER 2009

You can’t afford NOT to fight fees

By Cian Prendiville HE NEXT year will be crucial in the battle to defeat fees.

From September 2010 it seems college fees will be back.

Whether up-front fees, loans or a graduate tax, the result will be the same – education will cost students tens of thousands of euro.

All first year students are being told to prepare for full fees (probably of around €5,500 a year, if not more) from 2010. Far from being “just for the rich” as we were told a year ago, Batt O’Keeffe has hinted that there may be a discount of up to 20% for families that pay the fees upfront – that is those rich enough to afford to do so.

So it’s education for the rich, dole for the rest? The rest of us will have to forgo college, or else take the burden of thousands of euro of debt. Already most students need part-time jobs to get by, and as these jobs disappear, fees will undoubtedly shut off the

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option of education to thousands of working class young people.

This is not just an attempt by the government to make us pay for their crisis, it’s also a push towards privatisation of education. As a sign of what may happen under full fees, power to set registration fees has been given to the individual colleges. This “independence” is designed to encourage competition between colleges, including competition for business investment.

Organise to defeat fees The coming weeks and months are vital in building a campaign to defeat fees. Lobbying by student union leaders, backed up by occasional protests, is not enough. We need a mass movement strong enough to force the government back. Such a campaign should unite the anti-fees struggle with campaigning against the massive registration fee hikes and cuts in education.

It can be built. The Free Education

for Everyone (FEE, www.free-education.info) campaign has started that process, bringing together students from around the country in building a vibrant, fighting campaign. Such a campaign must reach out to school students, staff and parents, to build a united struggle for properly funded, free education.

With the new school and college terms starting, Leaving Cert students and first year college students in particular will be looking ahead and making plans for the next year.

With thousands of euro at stake, getting active in the fight against fees should be a top priority.

HE LENIENT sentencing of R&B singer, Chris Brown, to five years’ probation and six months’ community labour for assaulting his former girlfriend and pop star, Rihanna, illustrates that the courts are not serious about tackling violence against women.

In a vicious assault, Brown punched, choked, bit and threatened to kill his former girlfriend. Brown’s pig-headed statement after the assault was – “Everybody that’s haters, they just being haters. I ain’t a monster.” His attitude is indicative of the hip hop and pop genre that he is part of, in which women are objectified. This legitimises sexism and taken to its conclusion can send a message that women’s bodies are playthings to be used, abused and violated. This sexist culture is, like violence against women, a product of

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an economic system that forces women into low-paid jobs, poverty and economic dependence. Sexist images and attitudes in popular culture ideologically reinforce and justify this systematic discrimination.

This has a dangerous impact on young peoples’ self-esteem and attitudes to relationships and sex, as graphically illustrated by a recent University of Bristol survey of 13-17 year old girls. One in three girls interviewed said that their boyfriends had tried to pressure them into unwanted sexual activity by bullying them or by using physical force. One in four said that they had been punched or slapped by a boyfriend.

Chris Brown's music videos feature flawlessly good looking women. Lyrics like "I swear it's crazy how your man be treating ya... I'd cut him out of the picture because he don't deserve you." only show how vacuous his music is, given his own history as a violent partner.

Macho threats of Jay-Z (from “I got 99

problems but a bitch ain’t one” fame) to beat up Brown as a result of his actions hardly help matters.

In contrast to the degradation of the “bitch” and “n-word”-filled world of mainstream hip-hop, the genre was originally an opportunity for young African-Americans to express their anger and alienation at poverty and discrimination.

The corporate takeover of hip-hop has put outrageous misogyny and worshipping of greed and violence to the fore and should be rejected.

Young people’s very future is threatened by the current economic crisis.

We need a united movement of young people demanding jobs, education and a future. Attacks on health, education and welfare are disproportionately affecting women. Rising unemployment, debts and poverty can increase domestic tension and force women to stay in abusive relationships. This new movement can’t be neutral on the question of sexism and women’s oppression

S OF September 2009, free healthcare is essentially a thing of the past in Ireland’s largest university. Students will pay €10 to see a nurse, €25 to see a doctor and €40 for a

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psychiatric consultation in UCD. These changes are a serious attack on one of the most basic services that a university should provide for its students. Charging for healthcare is both regressive and unfair, and the welfare of ordinary students will be affected by these charges. In addition, this is

yet another example of students and other vulnerable groups paying a heavy price for a crisis they did not create.

Students’ Union President Gary Redmond lent his support to the new charges. In a context of education cutbacks and the threat of college fees, this is wrong and an unacceptable

Health n For a free public national health service. No to private health care.

Education n Free, quality education for all from primary to university, with a living grant.

Housing

Privatisation n No to privatisation, public private partnerships and private finance initiatives. n All publicly owned services and companies to be run under democratic working class control.

Equality n An end to discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability and to all forms of prejudice. n For the right to asylum and the scrapping of racist anti-asylum and immigration laws. For the right to work, with full protection, for immigrant workers.

Local Taxation n Scrap the bin charges - no to double taxation in any form. Local authorities to receive proper funding from central government funds.

Waste management n For major investment into a publicly owned recycling service to combat the waste crisis. No to waste incinerators.

International n Oppose the big business dominated European Union. No to the militarisation of Europe and to a European Army. n For solidarity of the European working class. For a socialist Europe. n No to imperialist wars. End the occupation of Iraq. For a socialist Iraq.

Northern Ireland

Chris Brown in court.

and its most lethal expression - domestic violence. As well as speaking out loudly and clearly against domestic violence and all forms of sexism, issues that specifically affect young women should become demands of a youth movement that’s struggling for a decent future for all.

Campaign to fight UCD health charges

By Sarah Killeen, (Socialist Party Society UCD)

Reclaim the trade unions n For democratic trade unions to fight in the interests of their members on pay, conditions and job security. n Full time union officials should be regularly elected and receive the average wage of those they represent. n Scrap the anti-union laws. An end to "social partnership".

n For a massive public house building programme, funded by central government to eliminate the housing waiting lists.

Sexism and Violence against Women Time to take a stand

By Laura Fitzgerald, Socialist Youth

n A guaranteed right to a job or training with decent wages and full workers’ rights. n For a minimum wage of €12 an hour tax free with no exemptions. n For a 35 hour week without loss of pay. n For a decent social welfare payment, linked to average earnings. n Free childcare for all.

position for the union to take.

The attitude of ordinary students however, may prove to be very different and a campaign group to oppose the health charges is already being established with the Socialist Party Society’s support and assistance.

For more info on the campaign, phone/text 086 1077562

WWW.SOCIALISTPARTY.NET

n Build a real peace process based on uniting the working class communities, not on bringing discredited sectarian politicians together. n Joint trade union and community action to counter all forms of sectarianism. n An end to all activity by all paramilitaries, loyalist and republican. Complete demilitarisation.

Socialism Capitalism is the cause of poverty, inequality, environmental destruction and war. We need an international struggle against this system and its effects. The working class can 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. n Take all major industry, banks and financial institutions into public ownership and place them under the democratic control and management of working class people. n For the working class to democratically plan the economy to provide for the needs of all, and to protect our environment. n For the building of a mass political party capable of uniting the working class in the struggle for socialism in Ireland. n For a socialist Ireland as part of a free and voluntary socialist federation of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland.