March 2011 Edition of the Socialist

PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY

ISSUE 60

MARCH 2011

FG/LABOUR PROMISE MORE CUTS!

By Stephen Boyd NDA IS Taoiseach, Eamonn his second in command, Joan is upset!

They have the biggest majority of any government. Many people voted them in because they thought it might make a difference. However, on day one of the new government, it was made clear by Fine Gael and Labour that Fianna Fail may be gone but their legacy of austerity, cuts and bank bailouts lives on!

By the end of March, Fine Gael and Labour will implement another bank bailout of €10 billion. They are starting as they mean to go on – putting the interests of the bankers, the bondholders and the rich before ordinary people.

As Joe Higgins TD (Socialist Party) said on his first day back in the Dail, “The poisonous cocktail of austerity concocted by the witch doctors in Brussels and in Frankfurt because of the sickness of the financial system is to be continued to be force-fed to the people”.

This government’s fate is already decided. They will become as hated as the previous government because they intend on implementing a draconian programme of cuts and attacks on working class people.

The claim to be putting job creation at the top of their agenda yet they are getting rid of 25,000 public sector jobs. IBEC has come out and said that this will only be achieved by sacking public sector workers something which they advocate.

These job losses come on top of the 17,000 jobs that have already been cut in the public sector and these are

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not overpaid senior managers. They are Special Needs Assistance in schools, language support teachers, and teachers. These are the much needed nursing posts and junior doctor positions that are not being filled or the unfilled fire fighter vacancies which are putting people’s lives at risk.

With 450,000 on the dole, the last thing this society and economy needs is to lose another 25,000 jobs. The coalition claim that they will unveiled a jobs budget during their first 100 days. Fine Gael talk of a job stimulus package of between €6 - €7 billion.

Even if this happens, it would only be enough to potentially create 60,000 – 70,000 jobs.

They plan to help fund this stimulus by selling off our public assets by privatising the ESB, Bord Gais, Bord Na Mona, Irish Rail, Bus Eireann, Dublin Bus, Coillte and so on.

Privatisation of profitable state companies will result in thousands of job

losses. They are getting rid of 25,000 public sector workers, their privatisation programme will lead to thousands of more job losses - do the maths – at the end of it, all there will still be at least 400,000 unemployment and 1,000 a week emigrating.

That is not all. The new government’s Programme for Government will be a deflationary drag on the economy which will lead to even more job losses as they plan to take upwards of another €9 billion out of the economy and pay back the bankers and speculators debts that will be €10 billion a year in interest alone by 2014.

This government will not have a honeymoon. There is an element of give them a chance amongst some people but very quickly this will dissipate as it becomes clear nothing of substance has changed.

In Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and all around the Arab world, ordinary people have had enough and have risen

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

in their millions to fight for change. In Ireland, people are at the stage of literally being unable to take anymore austerity and cuts. They too will emulate the people of North Africa and the Middle East by fighting back against a government that is going to drive them into poverty just so that faceless bankers and bondholders can get their “pound of flesh”.

The answer to austerity and cuts is to stand up and fight back to call a halt to the madness of the capitalist market. The breakthrough in the elections for the Socialist Party and the United Left Alliance is of historic significance and we believe that support for a real left and socialist alternative will grow as the opposition to this government grows.

Now is the time for you to get active, to step forward to play your part in building a real socialist opposition to austerity. Contact the Socialist Party today – stand up, get active, make a difference!

info@socialistparty.net

Historic defeat for Fianna Fail, historic step forward for the left

By Councillor Mick Barry THE GENERAL Election was genuinely historic in two respects.

First of all, it was historic for the severe wounding given to Fianna Fail by the electorate. Fianna Fail won 78 seats in the 2007 election and was reduced to just 20 this time. In Dublin, the party won just one seat!

The only example from Irish history in the last 100 years which compares to Fianna Fail's mauling is the fall of the Irish Parliamentary Party which was reduced from 73 seats to just 6 in the 1918 General Election held at a time when the winds of revolution were blowing.

The Irish Parliamentary Party didn't survive their 1918 mauling, will Fianna Fail survive theirs?

This is an open question. The answer would more than likely be no were it not for the fact that Fine Gael / Labour will become a tremendously unpopular government in the lifetime of the new Dail and that there is, as yet, no mass workers' party organised in the state.

This massacre should act as a grave warning to any party or parties that intend to support an austerity programme such as that implemented by Fianna Fail.

The memory of Fianna Fail in office 2007-2011 will linger long in the memory of the working class and recovery, if it happens at all, will be more likely in the rural or semi-rural areas and be of a limited character.

The election was also historic in terms of the breakthrough that it represented for the Socialist Party, winning two seats with Joe Higgins and Clare Daly, and the United Left Alliance, winning five.

There is currently a huge vacuum in Irish politics, with no mass force representing the interests of the broad working class.

Continued on page 2

www.socialistparty.net

March 2011

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news

THE SOCIALIST

... Continued from front page This was shown by the fact that the electorate voted out a Fianna Fail-led government with neo-liberal policies and that the only alternative on offer was a Fine Gael-led government with neoliberal policies.

The key to the establishment of a new, mass force representing working people lies on the one hand in tearing away the illusions that Labour somehow will defend the interests of ordinary people and on the other, in significant numbers of working class people moving into struggle, being politicised and drawing the conclusion that they need to get organised politically.

The election of five United Left Alliance TDs will speed up this process and can provide a launchpad for the launch of a new mass working class party in the lifetime of this Dail.

The election of two Socialist Party TDs will not only assist this process but increase the chances of any such new force being given an overtly socialist character.

Many commentators have hailed Fine Gael's record haul of 76 seats, Labour's record haul of 37 and the size of the new government's majority as "historic".

However, the rise of Fine Gael and Labour is more a measure of the hatred stored up for Fianna Fail than the genuine popularity of either party. The parties have both signed up to the penal IMF / EU deal and although they may succeed in having the deal "tweaked", no one believes it will be anything other than "Frankfurt's way".

Both parties have agreed to the cuts lined up by Fianna Fail for the next two years and will serve up an unrelenting diet of savage austerity, cuts and stealth taxes for a longer period again. This means that their victory will prove more pyrrhic than genuinely historic and their "popularity" very temporary indeed.

This will be all the more the case as Fine Gael / Labour drive the country towards national bankruptcy as they attempt to pay off the unrepayable IMF / EU loan terms.

The working class simply cannot afford another four years or more of austerity.

Pinned to the wall, working people will have no alternative but to fight against the Fine Gael / Labour austerity and this opposition will be the real opposition to the new government. It is an opposition on the crest of whose wave the forces of the Socialist Party and the United Left Alliance will rise.

Singing from the same (Fianna Fáil) hymn sheet

ULA - historic breakthrough

Now build a socialist opposition

By Kevin McLoughlin NDA KENNY was proposed as Taoiseach by the youngest Fine Gael TD in a gushing speech. Then Labour's youngest TD was very happy to second the proposal. Micheal Martin gave his own endorsement. As well he might, seen as the new government just copied and pasted the policies of the outgoing Fianna Fail / Green administration, who in turn had copied and pasted them from the IMF and EU bosses.

As people watched and listened on live TV and radio to the opening of the new Dail, undoubtedly many wondered who is going to bring some reality into these proceedings, who will oppose this austerity consensus and fight for the victims of this crisis, ordinary working class people?

Gerry Adams, leading a group of fourteen Sinn Fein TDs should have been next but in a move that will be symptomatic of the new Dail, he was beaten to the punch

by Socialist Party and United Left Alliance TD, Joe Higgins.

Joe saw Adams’ hesitation, rose to his feet quicker, was duly recognised by the Ceann Comhairle and then delivered a blistering speech that marked the cards of the new government and outlined the role that the Socialist Party and the United Left Alliance would play in opposing the government’s attacks and to build a real left and socialist alternative. Timing is very important in politics.

In the course of the first day, new Socialist Party TD Clare Daly and the three other ULA TDs also spoke.

Since its establishment last October, the United Left Alliance has had the impact it was designed to have. However, at the start of 2010 the then Fianna Fail and Green government seemed to have weathered the storms of the Lisbon Treaty, the re-negotiation of the government programme and

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a draconian austerity budget. This was largely because of the capitulation of the trade union leaders but to some it looked as if the government may be in for some peace and stability.

The Socialist Party’s perspective was that the crisis would get worse and that it was likely that the government would be on the ropes by the years end. That was the basis we re-ignited the discussions regarding an alliance which lead to the formation of the ULA. We felt that it was very important to establish a principled left alliance before an election.

As it turned out, the ULA was established at precisely at the time when attention turned to politics and the need for an election and it became part of that debate.

Then when the EU and IMF stepped in, Labour signalled its capitulation to austerity, while on the other hand Sinn Fein mounted a spirited but fundamentally phoney opposition austerity considering the huge cutbacks they are imposing austerity in the North. In this situation, the existence of the ULA was critical as it represented a real force of opposition and for a left and socialist alternative.

Getting five TDs elected and standing 20 candidates was a major achievement. Each candidate was strengthened by their involvement in the ULA. Though it is likely that most or all of the TDs could have been elected even without the ULA, its establishment was very important for other reasons. If the ULA hadn’t been established to give a good political definition to a left alternative, undoubtedly there would be now be a scramble of discussions amongst the host of Independent / Left TDs with the possibility that a political group would have emerged that was much more vaguely left and potentially unprincipled.

Even though the ULA’s programme is not explicitly socialist, it is consistent in its rejection of capitalism and is generally left. This

programme can act as an anchor and help ensure that ULA representatives clearly distinguish themselves from Labour and Sinn Fein and point a real way out of the crisis. The Socialist Party strongly believes that the ULA should advocate a full socialist programme as the only way forward, but we recognise that for now the ULA programme has had an effect and is a step forward to be built on.

A new formation has – in our view - to be linked to the struggles of the working class. Therefore it needs a socialist programme breaking with the dictatorship of the markets. While being prepared to fight against cutbacks and attacks with everyone serious about this, a new formation has to exclude any fundamental concession or even governmental participation with formations like the Labour Party, as they are committed to implementation of austerity and attacks on working class people. We ask all workplace and trade union activists, social campaigners and interested people to be involved in these discussions – and the fight back.

ULA is now in a position to fight for the mantle of being the real left and socialist opposition in the Dail and is well placed to be the principled nucleus around which a new party for the working class can be established.

All this and the ULA is just four months old. The immediate task is to consolidate the alliance politically and organisationally but at the same time, we have to go on the offensive, particularly in the Dail against the government. Using the Dail as a platform, the ULA must struggle to establish itself in the broad consciousness as offering a real opposition and popularise the left/socialist alternative. This will be a huge help to organise the coming battles to defend public sector jobs and services, the fight the water charges and home taxes, and all the other attacks, already announced by the new government.

We should move to try to estab-

lish the local groups of the ULA where local launches have taken place. Just under 2,000 attended these launch meetings in total.

Unfortunately, a relatively small minority of those actually got active in the election campaigns but now we need to see if independent groups can be established. The Steering Committee should also organise launches in some of the key cities that haven’t yet been touched.

The national convention of all ULA registered supporters that had been pencilled in for February but which had to be postponed, should now be properly prepared and built for to take place in May or early June. There should be a full and free debate on what next for the ULA and the programme and ideas that it stands on before and at such a convention.

The ULA should be open to discuss with a few of the independent TDs who consider themselves to be on the left but this should be done on the basis of trying to convince them to take a genuine step to the left in the context of this profound crisis of capitalism.

However, what is most important is that the ULA tries to attract and encourage workers and young people who have not been involved to get active in the struggle.

The Socialist Party believes the ULA should launch a new party for working class people. As stated previously timing is crucial in politics. The issue is not if, it’s when a new party should be launched. The ULA needs to clarify its programme, perspectives and orientation. The best conditions in which to launch a new party would be on the basis of shifts in opinion against the new government based on their austerity policies, radicalisation and the development of activity and struggle in workplaces, communities and of young people.

The job of the groups in the ULA and of the ULA itself is to prepare the ground so that when a new party is launched it becomes a real factor in Irish politics.

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March 2011

THE SOCIALIST

column

BEFORE HUMANS understood the science of how climate works, it was believed that particular weather events presaged serious developments for good or evil in the lives of individuals and of tribes. Had a few of our ancestors suddenly dropped in from the distant past and spent the day in the environs of Leinster House on the first day of the new Dail, they would have had serious fears for the future wellbeing of the new Fine Gael / Labour Coalition.

The day began in glorious sunshine with crowds milling around the seat of parliament, mainly excited family and supporters of newly elected Dail deputies. It seemed to augur well for a good start for a government still in the process of formation. However, seven hours later, just after the nomi-

nation and election of the new Cabinet, those emerging from the debate were greeted by darkness falling and a threatening sky spitting cold rain driven by an unforgiving wind.

The contrasting weather mirrored the debate in the Dail chamber. Leaders and supporters of the new government were sunny and upbeat about the “democratic revolution” they claimed to represent and vowed to implement policies appropriate to a revolutionary change. Others in the new Opposition and particularly the United Left Alliance challenged any talk of revolution pointing to the stated intention of the government to implement the programme of the discredited, departing regime. The same programme of savage austerity that brought on that regime the fury of the majority of citizens.

“The time for patching up the capitalist system has long passed, it must go”. That was true then but how much more true today.

New Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, spoke a lot about a fresh openness and honesty being demanded from government.

He will be strongly challenged to follow through on this. First off he needs to justify - what no one in the establishment has done so far – why his government continues the reviled and rejected policy of Fianna Fail and the Green Party of transferring the private breathtaking financial losses of speculators to the Irish people and thereby wrecking the living standards and threatening the public services of the majority.

During the second debate of opening day on the composition of the new government, Minister Noonan compared the remnants of Fianna Fail who returned to survivors of a shipwreck desperately clinging onto a rock and looking around to see who had survived the disaster. Unfortunately, there wasn’t an opportunity to respond to the Finance Minister but if there was, it might have gone something like this.

“Rather than mocking the Fianna Fail castaways, the

Are Sinn Fein a real left opposition?

By Michael O’Brien N THE run into the election, Sinn Fein received a significant boost by the election of the articulate Pearse Doherty, the migration South of Gerry Adams and midst the massive anger in society, its left “posturing” in opposition to the IMF/EU deal, calls for the burning of the bondholders and opposition to austerity saw them take a significant leap from five to 14 TDs. With Fine Gael and Labour continuing where Fianna Fail left off, Sinn Fein look set to make more gains potentially setting them up to be coalition partners in a future, if not the next government.

Sinn Féin are viewed by the majority of those who voted for them as representing an alternative to the three traditional parties of the Southern Irish establishment. The hostility demonstrated to Sinn Féin by the right-wing media further fuels the idea that they represent a threat to the interests of the rich. No doubt there are rank-and-file Sinn Féin activists who genuinely hold these views.

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However, it is important to look beneath the veneer of radicalism and examine if there is a real basis to Sinn Féin’s claim to be the left opposition to the new government compared to the United Left Alliance to which the Socialist Party belongs.

Take for example the recent comments of Sinn Féin’s Mitchell McLoughlin who criticised the right-wing SDLP in the North for opposing the cuts being handed down by the Westminster government saying that by contrast they should be more like Sinn Féin and “begin to make constructive contributions to Executive attempts at minimising the effects of the Tory cuts on frontline services and the vulnerable in society”, Irish Times, 8 March 2011.

This position is a direct parallel of the position being adopted by the Labour Party south of the border.

As part of the government, Sinn Féin, acting as Green Tories, cannot escape sharing political responsibility for the £4 billion cuts being implemented in the North cuts which they have voted for and defended and which their Ministers have “pragmatically” agreed to implement.

In the North, Sinn Féin & the DUP have implemented savage Tory cuts.

In a debate with Joe Higgins on Pat Kenny’s radio show on RTE during the election campaign, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald defended her Northern colleagues’ position saying that they had to work within Westminster spending limits. Again, the same excuse is used by the Labour Party and the rest of the political establishment in the South regarding the EU/IMF deal.

Politically, Sinn Féin hold to the illusion that solutions can be achieved within the framework of capitalism and in their manifesto, while they call for expanded public works and public services, they essentially see the state playing a support role for the private sector.

Likewise when it comes down to the crunch of the need for militant struggle by workers, Sinn Féin abstain from any debate on the sell outs of the trade union leaders.

They have not taken a clear position on the wage deals or the likes of the Croke Park deal which sold out workers nor seriously advocated as strategy of strike action by workers against the attacks on their pay and conditions.

The credibility of Sinn Féin will be tested in the heat of the struggles that emerge in the years ahead. Unlike the Socialist Party, Sinn Féin have a poor record in advocating and organising struggle on the ground like we saw in the past with the water charges and bin charges. The spectacle of emerging struggle in the North against Sinn Féin / DUP administered Tory cuts will somewhat expose Sinn Féin south of the border among those looking for a real radical left alternative.

In the South, Sinn Fein’s political trajectory isn’t towards struggle but to the right and into coalition government with the establishment parties.

Finance Minister should have regarded their fate as a cautionary tale as he surveyed their plight from the bridge of his newly launched, massive ocean going liner. He might have reflected that the Fianna Fail sailors were equally arrogant before they steered their once mighty ship into the choppy waters that wrecked them.

The same wild water awaits his crew and considering that they have adopted the same faulty navigation instruments as their Fianna Fail predecessors, they could easily be the ones clinging to the rocks after the next election. We might also remind the Minister that with the huge crew on his ship and the majority of them sweating it out in the engine room rather than lounging in the officers’ quarters, mutiny must be a constant worry for him, particularly as the ship begins to heave in the increasingly turbulent waters”.

We would also have rejected the charge of negativity with nothing positive to say. Of course, it is essential to be negative and to staunchly oppose a fundamental economic policy

that is not just immoral and unjust but one that will only extend the crisis in the system with a programme of savage austerity designed to salvage European banks from the consequences of their reckless speculation in the Irish property bubble. However, Michael Noonan, so steeped in the ideology and workings of the capitalist markets and so accepting of the insanity of the financial markets couldn’t begin to see the alternative proffered.

That alternative is based on reorganising economic structures for the benefit of the majority in society, for social solidarity and the creation of a world of plenty for all. That can only be achieved when we take ownership of the major levers of finance and production and develop them under democratic control.

Joe Higgins is the Socialist Party TD for Dublin West

Corrib pipeline Carey’s last despicable act!

By Conor Burke EFORE LEAVING office, the Fianna Fail Minister for Energy, Pat Carey, signed the key consents for the much disputed last section of the Corrib gas pipe line. This action stands as a testament to a party that has spent the last 14 years in direct service to big business interests.

The decision to sneak this through in the covert manner it was done is to bypass any further public or legal objections to the revised route that was approved by An Bord Pleanala in January. An Taisce is currently seeking a Judicial review of this decision as it believes it to be in breach of several EU directives.

Socialist Party TD for Dublin West, Joe Higgins, said, "this is just outrageous and it is grotesque that a Government whose credibility

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has been shattered and that has been utterly disowned by the Irish electorate would make such a momentous decision".

Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar gave a clear indication of how little the approach to the Corrib gas project will change under the new administration when he defended the actions of Pat Carey and Fianna Fail.

It is estimated that there is the equivalent to 10 billion barrels of oil and gas off the west coast alone, worth in the region of €540 billion these vast resources should be used to end mass unemployment and deal with the economic crisis.

As Joe Higgins TD said, "the Socialist party and the United Left Alliance will be strenuously campaigning in the Dail and outside it for these natural resources to be brought back into public ownership and developed with public investment".

opinion & news

JOE HIGGINS the

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March 2011

THE SOCIALIST

news

Fine Gael / Labour’s Faircare means

Privatise the health service!

By Conor Mac Liam N THE Saturday before the election, Enda Kenny said he couldn’t guarantee that more wards wouldn’t be closed and the next day it became clear why, as Fine Gael announced plans to cut €1.1 billion from the health budget over the next four years. The truth about Fine Gael’s health policy has been coming out and far from being a bright new future of single-tier healthcare, it’s turning out to be more slash and burn of the public health system and the letting loose of the private-for-profit vultures on what remains.

From the outset, this new Fine Gael / Labour coalition has spoken in grandiose terms about its programme, especially in the area of health. But they’ve quietly admitted they’re continuing the outgoing government’s four year plan of merciless austerity.

With James Reilly installed as Minister for Health, it looks certain that all the “negotiating” he

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Health campaigner Conor Mac Liam

boasted about doing with big foreign health insurance companies will result in an attempt at fullscale hand-over of the health service to these profit-merchants by the back door.

Fine Gael’s “Faircare” strategy is

based on the troubled Dutch health system. Over 50% of Dutch hospitals are verging on bankruptcy, and nearly half a million citizens are uninsured or defaulting on their health insurance payments. This means there is now a third tier

added to an already two-tier system of basic and supplementary health insurance packages.

How did Fine Gael decide that the Dutch system was so wonderful? Because they relied on reports produced by two right-wing, proprivatisation groups who receive funding from a lobbying company with close links to multi-national pharmaceutical companies, private health insurance companies and private health care providers, all of whom would be interested in exploiting the new Universal Health Insurance system that Fine Gael propose to implement.

Since the Dutch introduced Universal Health Insurance (UHI) in 2006, 41% of Dutch people say that the quality of the health system has worsened, as against only 8% indicating that it had improved. And bureaucracy has mushroomed with the necessity to negotiate and implement 30,000 Diagnosis Treatment Combinations (DBCs) between private health insurance companies and individual hospitals.

In Ireland last year, 65,000 people dropped out of private health insurance as they could no longer

afford it. Yet UHI means everyone will be forced to buy private health insurance with subsidies only for lower income groups. The UHI basic package in the Netherlands costs on average €1,194 per person for this year. On top of that employers deduct a further 6.9% of a worker’s income up to a ceiling (€2,233 in 2009). Since the introduction of Universal Health Insurance in 2006, premium costs have risen by 41% and could double from the current rates by 2014.

For the thousands of people who don’t have medical cards but are not rich enough to afford private health insurance, UHI is going to be just another massive stealth tax – and we already pay for the health system through taxation. The Socialist Party argues for a singletier democratically-run public health system funded by progressive taxation and free at the point of use as the most efficient, rational way forward.

Article based on research conducted by Dominic Haugh, Socialist Party member, Limerick.

Download at macliam.org/Health/ AnalysisFineGaelFaircare.pdf

Scorched earth policy for public sector

Government to cull 25,000 jobs!

By Terry Kelleher HE PROGRAMME for Government scores high on fanciful aspirations and endearing phrases. We will hear them infinitely quoted

by Fine Gael, the Labour Party and even the trade union bureaucracy as they attempt to fool workers, particularly in the public service, into believing this plan is necessary and that it will work. In reality, the plan is a continuation of the strategy of the Fianna Fail/ Green government and focuses on a major programme of cutbacks and huge job losses in the public service. Therefore, any public servants that hoped that the

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Labour Party, particularly with a minister over public sector reform, will defend their interest will be shockingly let down.

In between the positive spins of the document “Government for National Recovery”, the new Fine Gael / Labour Party government plan to slash 25,000 jobs, privatise and outsource public services and undermine the working conditions of public servants. The will continue the disastrous policy of bringing market policies into the public service. The core decision of this new government is to defend the core principle of the IMF/ EU bail out and “re-commit to structure reforms”.

Translate structure reforms and you get neo-liberal polices attacking the principles of the public services.

Public sector workers to be cut

Up to 25,000 jobs (8%) are to be cut by 2015 and that’s on top of the 17,500 (5%) already cut. They claim front-line staff, nurse, teachers, ambulance driver etc will be protected. This is an empty claim as is the commitment to no compulsory redundancies. IBEC have already come out and stated that compulsory redundancies

will be necessary because the government will be unable to get 25,000 to voluntarily leave.

A legacy of social partnership has left many thousands of public sector jobs casual and temporary jobs and these can be just let go.

Many public sector jobs are now targeted to be sold off to the lowest bidder through outsourcing, not just in Ireland but in Europe. The effects of outsourcing and privatisation could mean an actual exporting of jobs outside Ireland. Such a wide scale development will severely damage the Irish economy.

The government also plan to sell off €2 billion worth of state assets.

The most obvious and valuable is the ESB. The effect of privatisation is simple and ever more commonlower wages, less jobs and higher

private profits. It is outrageous if the socialisation of the bankrupt private banks debts will now be paid for by the privatisation of profitable public companies and services. Their answer to the market destroying the banking and housing market is to hand over more services to this mad system of greed.

The plan also advocates that local managers, school principles and hospital boards be given more powers in negotiating terms and conditions of staff. This is designed to undermine the negotiating power of the unions to defend their members by undermining central agreements on pay and staffing.

These cuts and job losses will becoming to your workplace soon.

Now is the time to get organised and prepared for the fight back.

100 years on still struggling for women’s rights

By Aine Nic Liam N THE 8 March, women all over the world gathered to celebrate the 100th International Women’s Day. The origin of this day goes back to 1908 when 15,000 women marched through the streets of New York demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. The next year, in accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day was celebrated across the United States.

In 1910 the idea of an international women’s day was tabled at the second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen.

The objective was not only to celebrate the accomplishments of

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women but to use such a day to highlight the oppression of women and to press for their demands.

The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing trade unions, socialist parties, working women's clubs, and some of the first female MPs, greeted the proposal with unanimous approval and thus the first International Women's Day was celebrated in the following March of 1911.

In the hundred years since, the first International Women’s Day much has changed due to struggles down through the years. However, there is a big difference between “legal” equality and the reality faced by most women.

Sexual discrimination is rife across the globe. We live in a world where domestic violence causes more death and disability world-

wide amongst women aged 15-44 than war, cancer, malaria and traffic accidents or any other single cause. Where two thirds of the world’s illiterate are women and where an estimated one-in-five women will become a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime.

Unfortunately, these sorts of trends have already risen in parallel with the worsening economic climate. Recently, the Unite trade union has claimed that it is dealing with a sharp escalation in cases of women’s rights being abused in the workplace. Much of this abuse revolves around employers illegally pressuring expectant mothers to leave, in some cases through overt bullying and swearing at them.

This is just another case of a vulnerable group in society being victimised as a result of a crisis they did not create.

Laura Ashley workers on strike

Rather then allowing any group to bear the brunt of the attacks on ordinary people, men and women should stand together to defend

and better the rights of all.

International Women’s Day may have begun 100 years ago but the struggle still goes on.

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March 2011

THE SOCIALIST

By Daniel Waldron N 9 March, the Northern Ireland Assembly voted through a cuts budget which will strip £4 billion from the economy in the next four years. This attempt to make workers and young people pay for the debts of the bankers and speculators will have dire consequences in the North, where the public sector accounts for a third of employment and two-thirds of economic activity.

Despite claims it had been “ringfenced”, in reality over £700 million will be cut from the health service.

Thanks to previous Assembly cuts, our health service is already at breaking point, with staff under huge pressure and shortages of basic resources. These cuts will lead to the slashing of even more beds and services across the North, with 4,000 more job losses expected. Ulster Hospital in Dundonald has already been earmarked for closure. Community support services for the most vulnerable in society will be hit.

Education will be similarly hit, with over £150 million removed from the service. The Irish

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National Teachers’ Organisation has predicated that 20% of teaching staff could face losing their jobs, not to mention classroom assistants and support staff. The huge backlog of school maintenance – with many schools in temporary buildings not fit for purpose – will deepen. Cuts to transport and school meals will have a real impact, particularly on children from working-class communities.

At the same time, the Department of Employment & Learning plans to slash the miserly Educational Maintenance Allowance for school students while hiking tuition fees to £6,000 per year, making higher education inaccessible to many young people.

This budget will only deepen the economic crisis. Over 40,000 jobs will be destroyed by the Assembly’s budget, not just in the public sector but also in the private sector which is reliant upon state spending. Real unemployment already stands at 14% and well over 20% among young people.

Public sector workers who hold onto their jobs will see wage cuts in real terms. Those thrown onto the dole queues can expect an ever more meagre existence, as the Tories cut £1 billion from benefits in the North.

The Assembly has cut £4 billion from the budget.

This budget can only be described as Thatcherite. While launching a war against workers, the unemployed and young people, the interests of big business and the super-rich have been carefully protected. Extortionate payments to construction companies through PFI/PPP privatisation schemes have been guaranteed. Huge rates subsidies to manufacturing compa-

nies and those who live in mansions will be maintained.

In fact, all the main parties want to hand even more wealth over to big business by slashing corporation tax, even though this would require even deeper cuts to public services. Their hope that this would bring significant multinational investment in the midst of a global economic crisis is a pipe a dream.

The political parties have conducted a phoney war around this budget. While Sinn Féin blustered about fighting the Tories’ cuts – rhetoric similar to that they used in the Southern election campaign – they proved themselves to be their willing accomplices, acting as one of the main architects of the budget and pushing it through the Assembly. With elections just around the corner, the SDLP and Ulster Unionists opportunistically voted against the budget, even though they supported the draft budget which was fundamentally the same. After the election, these parties will be in the Executive implementing brutal cuts. None of the main parties represent ordinary people - we need a new, antisectarian party of the workingclass.

Urgent action is required from the trade union movement to prepare to resist these cuts. However, the leadership have been found wanting, pointing no way forward for workers to fight back except token demonstrations. As the beginning of a determined campaign, all public sector unions should now co-ordinate a one-day strike to build the confidence of workers and to send a message to the Assembly parties.

Socialist challenge in Northern elections N 5 MAY, people in the North will turn out to vote in elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly and local councils. The backdrop to these elections will be the passing of a four year budget containing enormous cuts to public services, privatisation of state assets and wage cuts for public sector workers.

All the main parties have spent the past four years carrying out cuts to public services under the guise of “efficiency savings”. These cuts have pushed the health service to breaking point as waiting lists soar and workers facing impossible demands as a result of closures of accident & emergency services. The cuts in the new Budget will destroy vital services and push the economy in the North even further into recession.

The Socialist Party will be fighting the elections to put forward a principled opposition to the cuts all

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Pat Lawlor, Lower Falls & West Belfast

Domhnall Ó Cobhthaigh, Enniskillen

Tommy Black, Pottinger & East Belfast

Paddy Meehan, Laganbank & South Belfast

the parties in the Assembly Executive will make, contesting three Assembly seats and four local council seats.

Tommy Black will be standing for the East Belfast Assembly seat and in the Pottinger ward for Belfast City Council. Tommy is a NIPSA shop steward representing educations workers who face major attacks in the Budget.

Tommy has been a vocal opponent of cuts to services in East Belfast such as the Ballymac Playzone childcare centre.

Paddy Meehan is standing in South Belfast in the Assembly elections and will also be standing in the Laganbank ward for Belfast City Council. Paddy made international headlines in 2009 when he was central in organising a residents protest in solidarity with Romanian families who were victims of racist attacks in South Belfast. Paddy is currently organising the Stop the Cuts Campaign in the constituency.

Pat Lawlor, a UNITE shop steward at the Royal Victoria Hospital, will be fighting for a seat on Belfast City Council in the Lower Falls and standing in the West Belfast constituency for the Assembly. Pat is a well-known trade unionist who has brought the issue of health cuts into the spotlight on many occasions. He is the secretary of the We Won’t Pay Campaign which has defeated the introduction of water charges by building massive support for nonpayment of charges if and when introduced.

Domhnall Ó Cobhthaigh will also be fighting for a seat on Fermanagh District Council in Enniskillen.

Domhnall, an ex-Sinn Fein councillor who resigned his council position in disgust at the anti-working class policies being pursued by Sinn Fein together with the other main parties is an outspoken campaigner against cuts to nursing homes and at the Erne Hospital in Enniskillen.

NIPSA - Translate left advance into cuts fightback ORTHERN IRELAND’S largest trade union, NIPSA, has completed elections for its executive.

In a significant turn around, the left activist group, NIPSA Broad Left, which includes Socialist Party members has scored a spectacular success in the election increasing its seats on the 25 member executive from 4 to 12 (with three Socialist Party members topping the poll).

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Although the results leave the right-wing in control with a one seat majority, the outcome of the election is a clear signal that members want the union to change direction and to begin to seriously fight against cuts.

NIPSA has a significant membership base in Health, Local Government and the Civil Service in the north. It can have a considerable influence in mobilising public sector workers for action

against cuts. Decisive control of the union Executive by the rightwing for the last year is one of the factors that allowed them to smother struggles by public sector workers over the last period. Now the left on the Executive can expose the union right wing and build stronger support for resistance to the cuts.

A key issue for NIPSA is taking political action to complement industrial action. The left, includ-

ing the Socialist Party, has been fighting for NIPSA to take political action including supporting candidates to oppose the Northern Ireland Executive cuts.

Last year’s NIPSA conference voted by a majority to move towards political action but the motion was lost due to the undemocratic requirement for 2/3 in favour for the motion to pass. In the elections for the Executive, the Broad Left manifesto made the call

to “Put genuine anti sectarian working class representatives in the Assembly to fight cuts”. The subsequent vote for Broad Left candidates reinforces the support for the argument for political representation.

This election is an important step in the right direction for the left in NIPSA with a determined left programme the union can begin to become a vehicle for resistance to cuts.

northern news

DUP & Sinn Féin £4 billion cuts!

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March 2011

March 2011

7

THE SOCIALIST

MORE AUSTERITY, MORE CUTS! Furthermore, private companies only desire profitable entities, and therefore the Programme for Government will allow them to get their grubby hands on what are revenue-creating state assets!

In essence, the bankers and superrich elite that caused the crisis through their profiteering are not going to pay a cent according to the Programme for Government. Meagre statements about “reviewing” the universal social charge don’t hide the reality that working class families will be crippled with unjust taxes and charges. The government’s intention to implement water charges will be an unbearable burden that hit those on low incomes disproportionately and flags government intent to privatise water.

By Laura Fitzgerald N 25 February, a democratic revolution took place in Ireland.

Old beliefs, traditions and expectations were blown away.”

This lofty statement that opens the Fine Gael / Labour Programme for Government verges on the ridiculous as you begin to trawl through the verbosity and startling lack of detail contained in the document that follows. A “revolution”, in the most basic sense of the word, implies a complete break with the old regime and massive change – quite a misnomer for a Programme for Government that clearly commits to implementing the FF / Green government programme for this year and next!

Quite apart from the vague and waffling nature of the Programme for Government, the policies that the new government intends to pursue, as stated in writing in this document, represent a continuation of the failed policies of the previous rotten government, namely a genuflection at the altar of EU/IMF diktats, in the name of profits, bankers and the super-rich elite. The implementation of this programme will deepen the crisis, pushing the Irish economy inexorably towards bankruptcy.

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New stealth taxes on the way

Austerity EU/IMF AUSTERITY is the backdrop to the Programme for Government. Benignly referred to as the “assistance programme”, Fine Gael and Labour clearly state that, “the new Government supports the objectives of the EU/IMF programme”. What objectives are they?

The objectives to protect the bondholders and bankers. More taxpayers’ money will certainly be poured into the banks by the new government given their commitment to the EU/IMF programme.

The government has also signed up to reduce the deficit to 3% by 2015 – namely implement a massive austerity programme, under the EU/IMF’s watchful eye. Austerity and extensive cuts will depress the economy and worsen the unemployment crisis (even the FF/Green government were working off estimates that every €1 billion taken out of the economy will lead to between a quarter and a half a per cent drop in growth) and whether or not the EU/IMF grants a marginally less punitive interest rate, which is the best their FG / Labour lackeys can hope for, the economy will shrink raising the spectre of bankruptcy as EU/IMF loan repayments become impossible.

On the basis of continued mass unemployment, the economy will not improve. Unfortunately, the jobs section of the document is less than inspiring. Lower PRSI for employers,

an abolition of the travel tax, incentives for private investment in R&D and supporting SMEs are the type of measures mentioned. Basically this boils down to a pathetic reliance on the private sector to solve a crisis 450,000 jobs deficit. The super-rich elite and capitalists, however (33,000 millionaires in this country have approximately €120 billion in wealth and assets), will not invest in this economic climate, as they cannot guarantee their profit margins and hence we have a major strike of investment. For example, last year, there was a 31% fall in physical investment alone. A reliance on the private sector – international and / or indigenous – to solve the unemployment crisis is the best the Programme for Government can come up with and is doomed to failure. Job creation, research & development, and developing an industrial base of the scale and quality neces-

sary to address the jobs crisis, will only occur through massive state investment – but the antithesis is at the heart of the programme for government.

No serious jobs plan WHILE THERE are no figures mentioned regarding projections for job creation, there is a commitment to 25,000 job cuts in the public sector.

Phenomenally, the Programme for Government actually states the fact that, “every person who leaves the dole and goes back to work reduces the deficit by an estimated €20,000, (and) spends on average an additional €15,000 on goods and services”, leaving us questioning why we will have less teachers, nurses, council workers etc. which there is a massive social need for, under a government that claims to be committed to creating employment as well as

claiming to be “guided by the needs of the many rather than the greed of the few”. Furthermore, the ESRI has calculated that a €1 billion cut in public sector employment (approximately 17,000 jobs) reduces GNP growth by 1%.

The Programme for Government plans to sell off €2 billion worth of state assets. The break up and privatisation of ESB, our forests and other strategic and natural resources and assets will be disastrous.

Privatisation means that companies buy our resources on the cheap, and then proceed to run such entities for the sole purpose of making a profit – a dangerous game when you are talking about strategic and powerful assets for both human need and economic growth, such as those of the ESB. Privatisation will lead to pay cuts and job culls as profit margins come before providing a service or workers’ rights.

SIMILARLY, THE government is considering a home tax, despite its claim to be “helping homeowners in distress”. A two year moratorium on house repossessions is hardly a radical proposal – so it’s okay for the vampire banks that profiteered obscenely during the housing bubble, causing this disastrous situation, to make working class families homeless after 25 months.

There is frequent reference to social welfare fraud in the Programme for Government and there is even a pejorative reference to lone parents, the vast majority of whom are single mothers, which insultingly implies that the latter are work-shy. Furthermore, there is a reference to a DNA database being set up which could be used in the field of immigration and asylum.

Make no mistake about it – this government will scapegoat welfare recipients, single mothers, migrant workers and just about any other group which should be united with the working class as a whole in fighting the cuts, the government, and the profit-system, in order to get their swingeing attacks through.

We can’t let this happen. The implementation of FG/Lab and EU/IMF austerity measures spells disaster for the economy. There is no prospect for growth on the basis of a destruction of the public sector and a pathetic reliance on the private sector to create jobs, a private sector that is practising a strike of investment. Rank-and-file organisation in the unions can force the leadership to fight the cuts. Mass protests, strike action and general strike action can force them back.

Organised mass non-payment of unjust taxes and charges can also win victories. Struggle and fightback will open up the question of the alternative to austerity, bailouts and the market economy and pose an historic opportunity for the socialist left to build the alternative. n

A socialist programme for The people’s economic recovery revenge THE PREMISE of Fine Gael and Labour’s Programme for Government is that there is no alternative to continuing the austerity policies of Fianna Fail. PAUL MURPHY questions this assertion and argues for socialist policies to redevelop the economy.

The purpose of the “we are where we are” mantra of the establishment is to let those responsible off the hook and focus minds on the “need” to slash public expenditure and implement stealth taxes to close the €19 billion gap between government income and expenditure. But answering why “we are where we are” is essential to understanding what sort of radical policies are needed now to redevelop the economy, improve living standards and avoid further crises.

A number of years ago, the government had a surplus on a yearly basis – income exceeded expenditure. The reason income collapsed was because of the collapse in the property bubble, which had been relied upon for taxation, the disastrous guarantee by the state of private banking debt and the mushrooming of unemployment as a result of the crisis.

The imposition of €9 billion worth of cuts then deepened the crisis dramatically. The solution is therefore not more austerity but tackling the issues that led to the crisis – the guaranteeing of the debts of the banks, massive unemployment and a system which encourages speculative bubbles.

Stop the bank bailouts – refuse to pay the speculators The government in the coming weeks will invest another €10 billion in shoring up AIB. This money, like the billions already invested in the banks, will end up in the pockets of international investors and speculators who gambled on Irish banks and lost, only to find that the government was willing to make taxpayers foot their losses.

The Socialist Party calls for no more bank bailouts – the state must refuse to pay the debts of the private banks to the investors and speculators, while guaranteeing the deposits of the working and middle classes.

State investment to create jobs & eradicate unemployment The starting point for a real redevelopment of the economy has to be getting people back to work. Each unemployed worker costs the state around €20,000 a year in social welfare expenditure and lost tax revenue. That does not account for the waste of talent that could be producing wealth and developing the economy.

The approach of the new government is to encourage the private sector to create jobs – blind faith in the free market meaning they ignore the fact that major corpo-

rations in Ireland over the past two years have proven themselves unwilling to create jobs.

Instead, in the pursuit of maximisation of profits, jobs are still being shed, with some multinationals like Dell moving eastward in the pursuit of cheaper labour.

What is needed is a massive job creation programme led by the state to get people back to work. In the first instance, the 100,000 unemployed construction workers should be employed to build necessary and useful infrastructure – developing broadband across the country, fixing the ancient leaky water infrastructure and building schools and hospitals. A 35 hour week, with no loss of pay, should be introduced, creating up to 150,000 more jobs by sharing out the work.

Use the wealth to benefit society When the mouthpieces of the establishment ridicule these socialist policies, declaring that “Ireland is broke” (conveniently forgetting that another €10 billion can be found to shore up AIB!), what they actually mean is that the massive wealth that does exist in Ireland is untouchable – because it is owned by major corporations or rich individuals.

Here are a few examples of what could be done. A doubling of the corporation tax rate would yield almost €4 billion extra. A 10% wealth tax on the multi-millionaires would yield in excess of €10 billion. Nationalising the gas and oil fields off the west coast of Ireland would mean the state taking ownership of resources worth over €500 billion.

Ultimately, all of the massive wealth that is currently in the hands of a super-rich elite should be used to provide for the needs of society.

A democratic socialist plan for the economy Fundamentally, it is capitalism that created the crisis that working people are paying for. It was the private pursuit of maximum profits by the developers, speculators and bankers that led to an unsustainable construction bubble in Ireland as well as the international economic crisis.

This failed system must be replaced.

Through taking the key sections of the economy – the natural resources and the major companies and factories into democratic public ownership – instead of an anarchic rush for profit which results in boom and bust, a sustainable economic plan could be developed.

A crucial part of this plan would be the development of real wealth creating industries in public ownership, rather than having a primarily service-based economy.

Through significant investment in Research & Development, a modern manufacturing base could be developed in Ireland that would provide a sustainable basis for economic growth and rising living standards.

Fianna Fail vanquished at polls

By Cillian Gillespie HE ONE defining event of the recent election was the historic collapse in the support of Fianna Fail (FF). Receiving just over 17% of the vote, it recorded its worst vote in a General Election since its foundation in 1926 and only managed to get one TD elected in the whole of Dublin.

The fact the party received almost 41% of the vote in the last election shows how the hatred towards FF amongst working class people has mushroomed in recent years, which is correctly seen as being the architect of Ireland’s economic crash. The level of anger towards it has grown even more as it sought to place an intolerable burden on the shoulders of working people through a series of vicious austerity budgets.

Fianna Fail first came to power in 1932 and it has been in power for sixty of the last eighty years that have preceded this as well as being the largest party in the state up until the recent election never receiving a vote lower than 39% in a General Election. Such a record alone could easily award it the title of being the most successful capitalist party in Europe. Combined with this, and unlike its counterparts in other parts of the continent, it received significant support from large sections of the working class.

Since its foundation, Fianna Fail always sought to differ itself from parties such as the Tories in Britain by portraying itself as a “national movement” which rose above representing the interest of a given class within society or possessing a distinct ideological outlook. It was “the republican party” that allegedly represented the “national interest”nothing more, nothing less. Such populist rhetoric was combined with playing the green card as it sought to use its nominal opposition to partition and demand for a united Ireland to shore up its support.

Its real record in power was to illustrate the hollow nature of FF’s radical pretences. In 1937, Eamon de Valera, then leader and founder of the party drew up a new constitution for the state that was to amongst other things ban divorce and to recognise a special place for the Catholic Church within Irish society. From the 1960’s onwards, it was to cement a relationship with property developers lead-

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FF have just one seat in Dublin.

ing to a plethora of corruption scandals as vast sums of land were rezoned in the interests of profiteering by this the most dominant wing of Irish capitalism.

The most graphic and nauseating image of this relationship in recent years was that of the biggest and wealthiest developers wining and dining in the Fianna Fail tent at the Galway races. This relationship meant that not only were vast profits made by property developers but that PAYE workers were left to pick up the tab of their massive debts when the bubble burst in 2008 as billions of euro was poured into Ireland’s banking system. The recent election was nothing less than a revolt at the ballot box as working class people deserted FF in their droves in disgust at these draconian policies.

This election showed that FF’s greatest strength, namely its historic working class base has become its greatest weakness and it will take considerable time to recover its position if it can do so at all. It may choose to turn back to its populist position in order to try and tap into the growing level of anger that will undoubtedly develop against the new Fine Gael/Labour government. This was shown recently by Michael Martin’s description of Fianna Fail as being a social democratic party.

There will be real limits to such an approach given that the new government will be implementing an anti working class programme drawn up

by Fianna Fail itself. Fine Gael and Labour will become a hated government and against that background, it is possible for Fianna Fail to rebuild some of its support, but it will never again have the same depth of support in society that it once had.

The only way to guarantee that Fianna Fail are finished off is to build a real socialist opposition and a new mass party of the working class committed to socialist policies and to ending the rule of capitalism.

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Fine Gael/Labour Programme for government 2011 - 2016

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March 2011

socialist youth

THE SOCIALIST

Interview with Cian Prendiville

Student nurses say no to pay cut

By Eddie McCabe HE DEFIANT student nurses have set a very good example for all those who will bear the brunt of the new government’s attacks in the coming months. With a lively determination, the students have engaged in a campaign of protest in opposition to one of the outgoing government’s last cruel blows.

The outrageous plan to cut the pay of 4th year student nurses (who receive 80% of the minimum salary of full-time staff during their mandatory 36-week placement periods in hospitals) is simply obscene. The plan would see a 10% reduction in the pay every year for the next three years, until finally in 2015, payments will stop altogether.

The plan has understandably

T IN ADVANCE of the election the Socialist talked to CIAN PRENDIVILLE, the youngest candidate in the country and a member of the Socialist Party.

After the election, we caught up with him again. ow did you find the election campaign?

We did brilliantly. It was our first time ever standing in Limerick, yet we came ahead of all the small parties and independents, even the Greens, getting 721 first preferences. Most importantly, we put the left on the map in Limerick, got our ideas into every house and got new members too.

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hat do you think of the result over all?

Well, it’s a case of here come the new crowd, same as the old crowd. It was brilliant to see Fianna Fail decimated and the Greens wiped out. For the Socialist Party to be stronger in Dublin than Fianna Fail is huge.

But unfortunately, I don’t believe Labour and Fine Gael will bring any real change. They are signed up to the IMF plan of savage. They are all puppets on the strings of big business

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o, what is the point in fighting in elections, if they don’t change anything?

Changing tweedledum for tweedledee is pointless, and it just underlines that capitalism isn’t really democratic. The key power lies in the hands of the bankers, bondholders and markets. But the Socialist Party stands in elections as a challenge to the political establishment, and to raise our ideas.

We use elected positions as a platform from which to organise the campaigns, like with the Bin Tax where many of our councillors and Joe Higgins TD went to prison for protesting. Ultimately, it is people getting organised in work, school, college and on the dole queues that can really change things, but this can be assisted by having elected representatives. But now that the election is over, the struggle has just begun.

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3,000 student nurses protest in Dublin

been met with horror by nurses and students across the board and public opinion in general. The INMO, the union which represents the nurses has correctly called it a plan to introduce “slave labour” into hospitals.

Economic crisis?

Eimear Sweeney, a 4th year student in DCU said, “We work 12 hour shifts sometimes. We work weekends, nights and we do the same job as the qualified nurses.

That one year of payment is likely to be the only one we’ll get working

in this country, because most of us are going to have to emigrate to find jobs anyway!”

There’s no doubt that the will is there among the students to fight this attack. The INMO and the Union of Students of Ireland have organised a series of effective protests around the country involving all student nurses, including a sizable protest of 3,000 in Dublin on the 16 February.

While the campaign has been good so far, much more needs to be done in order to achieve a full victory. Promises made by political parties mean nothing now that the election is over. Only a stepping up of the protest campaign, which would involve the USI mobilising all of its members in the struggle and coordinated strike action by nurses, doctors and hospital staff can definitely beat this and any other attacks on hospital workers.

Students told to emigrate!

The rich get richer!

By Stephen Rigney CROSS THE world, ordinary people have faced a barrage of propaganda telling them to be “realistic” about cuts - that there’s just no money left and that we all just have to take the pain.

But is it true?

According to a recently published report by Forbes magazine, “The World’s Billionaires 2010”, it’s blatantly untrue.

In contrast to the millions of workers across the world who’ve lost their jobs, who’ve seen their w a g e s slashed and t h e i r livelihoods destroyed, Forbes is able to proudly claim that this year broke all previous records on the billionaire

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stakes, both in the total numbers of billionaires and in their total net worth.

The 1,210 billionaires on the list have increased their combined personal wealth of $4.5 trillion by 25% over the past year. Their net worth is now equivalent to the total value of the bottom 138 (of 181) economies of the world.

And Ireland’s five billionaires have been doing pretty well for themselves too with a total fortune of €13.7 billion between them.

They’ve even managed to jump up a few places too!

For the super-rich, the recession has been a perfect opportunity to increase their profits by driving down costs through wage cuts, through redundancies and attacks on pensions. Don’t let them fool you, the money hasn’t disappeared, it’s just in their pockets.

RELAND TODAY is quite literally, “no country for young men” - or women. The issue of unemployment is not going away. The new government’s policies for job creation, like the previous government’s, rely entirely on the private market and will therefore inevitably fail miserably.

The old solution to this problem for the establishment, is to get rid of a generation or two through emigration. And this solution is being pushed like never before. The idea is to make emigration seem like a bright new opportunity for young people, as opposed to the reality of forced uprooting of the lives people

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Self harm problem increases

By Sarah Killeen RECENT conference held in Dublin highlighted the issue of self-harm and indicated an alarming increase in this problem among teenage girls. The conference, which was organised by Trinity College’s Department of Social Work and Social Policy aimed to improve understanding and responses to self-harm among the sectors which deal with it.

In order to understand the issue of self-harm, it must be recognised

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that the behaviour itself is not the key problem but an indication of distress or difficulty within a person’s life and an attempt to deal with it. Self-harm can function as an important coping mechanism for a person and stopping the behaviour requires finding a new way of coping. The support of mental health services may be vital in helping someone to do this.

Given that between 20% and 25% of people will experience some form of mental illness during their life, the need for adequate funding for mental health services is all too clear, but Ireland has never invest-

ed in these services.

At the conference, Cindy O’Connor, Clinical Director of Pieta House, a crisis centre dealing with self-harm said that there had been a “huge” increase in the number of young girls of twelve and thirteen being referred to the centre.

Self-harm is a serious issue and those affected by it, both men and women, need and deserve access to properly funded services and treatment. However, the increase of self-harm among girls gives a worrying indication of the particular material and cultural pressures facing young women today.

have made.

Through the media, who promote the “best destinations” and “career options”, or through events like choices 2011, where companies from abroad can exploit the desperation of Irish youth or even through college courses that now include subjects on emigration and how to go about it.

What is really behind this idea is the fear of a radicalised generation of angry youth fighting back and demanding their rights - something which is a real threat to the establishment. Socialist Youth look forward to such a radicalisation and that’s why we encourage young people to “Stay and Fight!”

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March 2011

THE SOCIALIST

By Laura Waters N FEBRUARY, five brave women mounted a picket on the Davenport Hotel on Lower Merrion Street, Dublin. They were doing so in response to the decision made by the O’Callaghan Hotel Group to cut their already low wages from €8.65 to €7.80 per hour. The company decided to implement this wage cut on the back of the outgoing government’s decision to allow a €1 per hour cut in the minimum wage.

Around 40, mainly migrant, workers agreed to sign new contracts following severe pressure from hotel management, threatening them with removal from the work roster, but these five women refused to take the wage cut on the basis that they could not afford to take a cut in their already low pay. Following their decision, they were immedi-

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Workers picket outside Davenport Hotel

ately removed from the work roster.

The women went on strike and placed a picket, where the women faced an injunction limiting the

The Scam that is Work Placement

By Pat Waine ORMER FIANNA Fail Minister, Eamon O’Cuiv, announced last year that thousands of people face having their dole cut if they do not take part in a new Community Work scheme.

The Minister said that the scheme would identify those who were not genuinely interested in work or who were working in the black economy. “They will have their payments cut if they are available for work and their payments will be suspended until they do interact. I think that is a reasonable way of approaching things” he said.

The scheme which would pay €208 (€20 euro higher than a social welfare payment) is an attempt to scapegoat the unemployed. The concept of the scheme is to match the skills the jobseeker has with “meaningful opportunities”.

However, the experience of job-

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seekers is totally different. People are being offered work placement schemes that in no way match their skill-set. In place of real useful training, the unemployed are being exploited by employers who have no intention of supplying real paid employment.

The new programme agreed recently by Labour and Fine Gael states that 15,000 places in training and work experience will be provided. This means that although the Government has changed hands the exploitation of jobseekers will continue.

We call for :

wA crash programme of public works to provide real employment. wProper on the job training for new recruits with decent rates of pay wA strategy by the trade union movement to oppose these bogus schemes

number of picketers to a maximum of six at a time and litter wardens forcing them to remove posters attached to lamp posts outside the

hotel. the Labour Court hearing, the company claimed the pay cuts were necessary to sustain jobs, but significantly they did not plead inabili-

ty to pay. The company would also not provide any trading or financial information to substantiate its claim that the cuts were needed.

The O’Callaghan Hotel Group were heavily criticised for not providing a copy of the new contracts in English or the worker’s own language, and for not offering a translation service. Basically, these women were expected to sign contracts they did not understand under duress from management.

The hotel was ordered to reinstate the striking workers immediately on their existing pay rate.

They will also receive all monies lost as a result of the dispute.

This was a victory not only for these five women, but for all low paid workers. The courageous actions of these workers should be commended and serve to encourage other workers to take a stand to protect their wages and conditions from the onslaught of cuts being inflicted on low wage earners.

EROs & REAs - pay rates under threat

By Tommy Fitzgerald S PART of the so-called National Recovery Plan, a review of the framework of statutory wage setting mechanisms for Employment Regulation Orders (ERO) and Registered Employment Agreement (REA) has been established. The review is also a commitment under the provisions of the joint EUIMF Programme for Ireland.

The outgoing government had requested that the review be completed within a short timeframe - approximately the end of March.

In announcing the review, the then for Minister for Enterprise Trade and Innovation, Mary Hanafin, advised of the need to “ensure that statutory wage fixing mechanisms work effectively and efficiently and that they do not

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have a negative impact on economic performance and employment levels”. In other words, is there a basis to either abolish this system for the protection of minimum standards in given sectors of the economy, i.e. EROs in the hospitality sector, REAs in the Construction sector or a basis to provide employers with a mechanism to pay minimum rates for a given period of time, which will have the same affect as abolishing them over the longer term.

The state, employer’s bodies and many within the wider ranks of the Fine Gael party view such minimum standards as labour market rigidities that are erosive to Irish competitiveness. This is a false line of argument in economic terms and masks the real agenda.

The fact that the majority of these REA / EROs apply in the non-traded sectors of the econo-

my and not subject to the rigors of the international market like other sectors, illustrates that the motivation to abolish them is about something else. It is about pushing down pay rates to increase profit margins.

Heretofore, trade unions have relied on these REA / EROs as an alternative to developing potent bargaining structures and workplace organisation. In the context of a downturn, it is correct for the unions to protect minimum standards, but only as a platform to be used to developed real trade union organisation. A task which the majority of the unions have failed to do, particularly over the lifetime of the boom and now workers will pay the price for their complacency. For now, the unions must rigorously defend (with militant action) the minimum pay rates to stop the next stage of the “race to the bottom”.

Job losses, redeployments, cuts in pupil resources

No more conciliation we need opposition!

By Andrew Phelan, ASTI member (personal capacity) INCE 2008, secondary school teachers and their students have been under attack and made into one of the scapegoats for the woes of society by the government and the media. Net wages have been savagely cut by up to 25%, work load has been drastically increased, class sizes have been detrimentally increased, funding for special needs obliterated, ill discipline within schools is on the rise, the list goes on and on.

This policy of cuts will inevitably lead to overburdening of teachers and ever growing frustra-

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tion among students, all adding to a rapid deterioration in the learning environment within schools.

The four year recovery plan and the EU / IMF deal, which will be carried out by the new government has, according to the Department for Education, called for it to instruct management of all schools that vacant teaching positions within a school must be filled by permanent teachers moving from other schools, replacing the temporary teachers who are currently doing the job.

This will mean that thousands of teachers will become displaced and will have to join in the increasingly difficult search for a stable position within a school, often moving large distances from

school to school each year.

This redeployment scheme is based on permanent teachers becoming available because of cuts in the last budget (1,200 posts), in particular teachers of students with special needs. It is also aligned to the increasing of the pupil teacher ratio which will make some teachers surplus to requirements and they can be shipped off to a school within 50 km of their current school. Not only will teaching jobs be lost but all those who are coming off the conveyer belt from college will more than likely be joining the social welfare or emigration queue. If current policy is pursued and permanent teachers are moved around at will every school year, the positions for new

teachers will become less and less, adding to the unemployment in the country.

Newly qualified teachers who do manage to secure a job will now disgustingly do so as second class teachers. They will now start on pay scale 1, normally reserved for unqualified staff and on top of that, take a 10% cut in wages. This means entering the workforce on average, 14% less than what their colleagues started on. Teaching already has one of the longest incremental scales of any job - 22 years to reach full pay. To push these new teachers back further down the scale, coupled with the increase in working life now demanded before one can retire, is an absolute disgrace.

The ASTI has been ineffectual in opposing these attacks. Only 38% of ASTI members voted on the second Croke Park Deal which shows the disillusionment teachers feel towards their union leadership and the whole process.

The Croke Park Deal will not protect our jobs, pay, conditions or education standards and funding. A united campaign by all of the teachers unions linked to industrial action should be organised to challenge these attacks. The new government plan to continue where Fianna Fail left off. The leaders of the teachers unions need to be challenged by the members to change their tactics away from conciliation and compliance to opposition and resistance.

workplace news

Davenport Hotel forced to restore pay

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March 2011

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March 2011

THE SOCIALIST

North Africa/Middle East

illiteracy rate in the country.

ARAB WORLD IN REVOLT To fully succeed, revolutions need to go beyond framework of capitalism

By Peter Taaffe, General Secretary Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales)

revolution is different. But there is a commonality in the social conditions, the denial of basic democratic rights and the consequent feeling of insufferable and unacceptable humiliation in all the countries affected and those that are about to be drawn into the maelstrom. A pattern – revealing the laws of revolution and counter-revolution – is evident in all the movements so far.

The dictatorships – including the kings, allegedly but falsely dubbed less authoritarian – faced with mass opposition on the streets, threaten to unleash terrible force against the population. But this only emboldens the revolution and drives it forward.

Each attack by reaction deepens the crisis and widens the circle of protest and those involved in the revolution.

In Bahrain – where the monarchy favours the 30% of the population who are Sunni and viciously discriminates against the 70% who are Shia – many Shia were reluctant initially to join the protest. But the massacre in the capital Manama massively increased the number of protesters, who emulated the occupation of Tahrir Square. "We don’t care if they kill 5,000, the regime must fall," declared TUNISIA o n e

demonstrator. Instinctively opposing sectarianism – which is a danger in the aftermath of the “Bloody Sunday” type massacre of predominantly Shias – the masses went out onto the streets shouting, "No to Sunni! No to Shia! We are all Bahraini! Down with the Khalifa royalty!"

If anything, the situation is more intense in Bahrain and elsewhere in the Gulf, both because of the rottenness of the feudal and semi-feudal regimes, but also the repressive role and reliance on foreign mercenaries.

EN DAYS that shook the world”. From Tunisia, to Egypt, to Bahrain, to Libya, to Yemen, to Djibouti and Morocco, the revolution that was sparked by the self-immolation of the desperate and heroic street seller in Tunisia has erupted throughout the Middle East.

And it is yet to complete its work, as the bloody carnage of the desperate Gaddafi regime in the last few days indicates.

BAHRAIN l In the face of protests With the vast majority of the l Thousands of protestors that left several people forced the withdrawal of the population seemingly against dead and a sit-in by tens army off the streets his regime, a one-sided civil of thousands in Tunis, l Young people to the fore war is unlikely to succeed. interim Prime Minister in movement demanding an This is truly a region-wide revGhannouchi resigned on end to the monarchy olution of the Arab people.

27 February. lThousands of youth MOROCCO l Former Prime Minister The super-exploited, impovermarched on state TV’s l Tens of thousands Ben Ali forced to flee ished workers and farmers have headquarters in opposition of Moroccans joined following weeks of antihad their fill of the dictatorial to the media’s attempts to nationwide protests government regimes of all persuasions, from whip up sectarianism on 20 February to demonstrations. between Shi’ites and Sunnis “kings” to just “plain” dictators. Like demand that King the masses in the French Revolution Mohammed hand over over two centuries ago, their refrain some of his powers to a newly elected is "tremble you tyrants, the people government. are coming". A Bahraini father on l Young activists BBC News was asked whether the have called for major murder of his son was necessary to demonstrations on 20 defeat the regime. He replied: "Yes, March "for dignity and the death of my other four sons and large-scale and myself if it benefits future genpolitical reforms". erations." As in all revolutions, the masses have lost their fear of even the most brutal dictatorships.

And when that happens, no amount of repression can stop the ALGERIA LIBYA l Sporadic protests wheel of history turning. l An uprising against Col against the rule of Gaddafi's rule has left This is graphically underlined President Bouteflika around 1,000 people dead EGYPT by the uprising in Libya which since early January. since 16 February. l Massive demonstrations by workers and young has split the army. It seems to l Attempts to march l Much of eastern Libya, people have forced President Hosni Mubarak, in power indicate that even the tribes, who through Algiers, broken including Libya's second for three decades, to resign. were the main prop of the Gaddafi up by huge numbers of city, Benghazi, has fallen to l Protesters have staged weekly Friday regime, have now gone over – as riot police. anti-government rebels. demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square, to keep have some of the army – to the l One trigger for the Several towns in the west pressure on the military to deliver change leading to unrest sharp increases side of the revolutionaries. are also being controlled by the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq - seen

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The “contagion” has spread in one form or another to all or almost all of the 22 Arab regimes in power.

In Algeria, in its capital Algiers, 30,000 police were mobilised against the demonstrations.

The bloody civil war of 14 years ago still weighs heavily on the consciousness of the masses of Algeria. But even here, President Bouteflika’s regime is under siege.

In Morocco, whose King Mohammed, up to recently, had boasted that the country was much more stable because of the “democracy” that exists, mass discontent has broken out. 18% of graduates are unemployed and there is a 44%

A REGION IN REVOLT

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in the price of food.

Commonality of conditions IT IS true, as Robert Fisk of the London-based Independent newspaper has indicated, that each of the countries infected by the virus of

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the rebels, although the government's elite troops have made a concerted effort to retake them.

Revolt in Wisconsin -

Process of revolution

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as a symbol of the Mubarak regime. l Unrest was driven by poverty, rising prices, social exclusion, anger over corruption and personal enrichment among the political elite, as well as massive unemployment. l The nationwide protests that erupted on 25 January saw almost 400 people killed, more than 6,000 injured. l Protesters stormed state security offices in early March to press their demands for change.

OMAN l Thousands protest demanding free elections, more housing and jobs l Protesters say that sacking Ministers is not enough – “We want them put on trial.” l Workers and poor demand fixed food prices and increases in wages against rising costs

THEREFORE, THE process of revolution – with some delays in some countries, perhaps – will continue throughout the region. It has revived the confidence of the downtrodden Palestinian people and consequently undermined the Israeli ruling class and their backers in London and Washington. Despite British Foreign Secretary William Hague’s attempt to distance Cameron’s government from Gaddafi and the Bahraini monarchy, it is British arms which have been deployed against the revolution.

The collaborationist Palestinian Authority – whose leaders wanted to prop up Mubarak – will come under pressure from the masses both in the West Bank and in the other Palestinian areas in the next period.

The Hashemite Jordanian regime is also under ferocious pressure despite the so-called liberal credentials of King Abdullah. As in the rest of the Middle East, corruption is rife – stretching right up to the royal household, particularly the Queen – and there is a clamour by a new resurgent movement for fundamental change in the situation which could challenge the very existence of the monarchy in Jordan.

Nor is the Syrian regime – despite the seeming lack of challenge to it on a visible level at least – entirely comfortable and confident it can ride out the present revolutionary wave. In the past, the regime could resort to mass terror to cower the population.

Ten thousand members of the Muslim Brotherhood were massacred in the city of Aleppo in 1979, an event which has lain heavily on the consciousness of the Syrian masses.

But as Egypt, Bahrain and Libya have shown, terror alone will not succeed in the changed situation gripping the region. This is a movement for democratic rights, but also to change the living conditions of the workers and small farmers in particular, as well as the middle classes who are ideologically and materially stifled by the straitjacket of the dictatorships.

In Bahrain, a Sunni leader, although a member of the secular left-wing of the Wa’ad party, declared: "We will definitely have more demonstrations and I’m sure we’ll have a general strike.

Bahrain will not be the same as it was before" (Financial Times).

Fighting for Workers' Rights

By Fiona O’Loughlin

Tens of thousands of protesters throng Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Nor can the repressive Iranian regime sit comfortably with the Middle East revolution, although it pretended initially that it was an echo of the Iranian revolution of 1979.

When the Iranian masses march out to confront the Iranian dictatorship, it is greeted with the same heavy-handed brutality as all the other regimes facing a mass movement. Pro-government MPs have called for the execution of opposition leaders. The government and revolutionary guards have a material stake in the maintenance of the Iranian regime. They have been amongst the beneficiaries of the massive privatisation of state assets and will fight alongside Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to retain this.

There are perhaps still some reserves for the regime among sections of the population who fear that western imperialism-backed forces, backed up by American imperialism, can yet make a comeback. But the Egyptian army had big links to the ownership of industry and banks too.

The Mubarak regime had not completely exhausted every basis of support but it was not enough against the majority of the people who were determined to effect change.

Astonishing and encouraging THEREFORE, THE Middle East revolution – because that is what it is – still astonishes and encourages us, the workers and poor everywhere.

The mighty movement of US workers in Wisconsin has been inspired by the Egyptian and other revolutions. The

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l Antigovernment protests started 11 February, demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for nearly 32 years. l Five people were killed on 18 February in Aden and Taiz. l Yemen is the Arab world's most impoverished nation, where nearly half of the population live on less than $2 a day.

overthrow of the dictatorships is just the first stage. The achievement of democratic rights would represent a big step forward. But remnants of the old regimes remain – particularly of the former state machine – as is evidenced by the continuing influence and repressive measures of the police and army in Egypt as well as in Tunisia.

The revolution will only fully succeed if it goes beyond the framework of capitalism and landlordism, and poses the social issues of the eradication of unemployment, the destruction of all elements of corruption, and democratic rights. This can only be established through a socialist confederation of the Middle East.

This movement has inspired workers everywhere. We don’t have an open dictatorship in Britain. But the regime of Deputy Prime Minister Clegg and Prime Minister Cameron is, in effect, an “elected dictatorship”.

Moreover, increasingly there is a bosses’ “dictatorship”, in effect, in the factories and the workplaces. They are conducting an offensive against the working class here to repress and hamper trade unions, backed up by unelected courts and judges.

We must do everything in our power to support the heroic struggling workers and farmers of the Middle East to complete the big changes in society that they yearn for.

We must do the same here in Britain, Europe and the rest of the world until all aspects of the brutal, greedy capitalist society, that can offer nothing but unrelieved misery in the future, is abolished.

Libyan revolution: Gaddafi dictatorship days are numbered

By Jimmy Dignam

YEMEN

N LATE February, over 100,000 public sector workers and their supporters engulfed the streets around the Capitol Building in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Wisconsin has a population of six million, not much more than the population of Ireland.

The scale and the anger of this demonstration is the largest ever seen in the state. Workers, inspired by the struggles of the working class in Egypt and Tunisia, carried homemade placards which said things like, “If Egypt Can Have democracy, Why Can’t Wisconsin?”, and a take on the 1980’s hit by the Bangles “Walk like an Egyptian” changed to “Protest Like an Eygptian”!

There have been daily mobilisations of thousands of workers and the Capitol building in Madison has been occupied. There have been calls to occupy the square outside the Capitol building following the example of Tahir Square in Egypt.

These protests are part of a battle in opposition to union busting legislation being brought in by the new Republican State Governor, Scott Walker. The legislation proposes, amongst other issues, to ban collective bargaining, ban wage negotiations for increases above inflation and to stop the collection of union dues by employers. Unions and workers are keenly aware that this is the beginning of a Republican offensive against the organised working class and if not resisted in Wisconsin, it will be quickly followed in other republican dominated States.

Walker’s attempt to do sweetheart deals with sections of workers to weaken the struggle was promptly repudiated when firefighters whose contracts he promised to protect joined in the struggle in solidarity with their fellow workers.

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Public sector workers directly affected by the proposed legislation have been supported by construction workers, car workers, steelworkers, electricians, teamsters, fire fighters and police.

Prison Officers had a contingent chanting “Power! Union. Power” The National Nurses Union’s placards read, “Blame Wall Street. No Concessions” The trade union leadership is not building on this massive mobilisation and development in consciousness of workers in Wisconsin and beyond. Instead of using this to strike a blow against the fact that the Democrats and Republicans - both representative of big business and capitalism they have been in reality offering Walker some concessions on pay and conditions This lack of strategy and determination to take a militant struggle all the way will sound all too familiar to union activists here in Ireland. The union leaders’ strategy of sowing illusions in the Democrats whose 14 Senators have stalled the legislation by leaving the state and denying Walker a quorum to pass the legislation, has failed.

As we go to press, Walker has just managed to get it passed the first stage by his manoevrings.

Preparation for a general strike throughout the state of Wisconsin with the mobilisation of students, the unemployed and the community as a whole, is absolutely urgent.

It’s clear - only mass working class struggle and strike action can defeat Walker. Our sister party in the US Socialist Alternative have been actively supporting the workers in Wisconsin. The struggle and determination of the workers in Wisconsin has been inspirational and is an indication of future struggles that will take place internationally and here in Ireland as working class people will have no option but to fight back.

S THE Arab world continues its wave of remarkable revolutions and uprisings, the latest developments in Libya have provided yet more inspiration to working class people across the world. The struggle in Libya for various reasons has not only been more protracted than the other revolutions in the Maghreb, but also a lot bloodier. Over 3,000 people have been murdered in clashes since mid-February and the violence has been increased as Gaddafi’s foreign mercenaries and henchmen have slaughtered any civilians in their way as he desperately tries to cling to power.

Gaddafi himself has cynically tried every tactic to appease and oppress attempts to overthrow his dictatorship. At first blaming “counter-revolutionaries” to the revelations of his Green Book, then Al-Qa'ida and finally “foreign

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forces” for the upheavals. Whilst at the same time offering vast sums of money for people to take up arms and defend his regime and increas-

ing the pay of all military personnel.

Let us not be fooled though, what we are seeing across the region, as in Libya, is uprisings by ordinary people who are fed-up of unemployment, poverty, oppression and lack of democracy.

It is true that as some commentators have pointed out, each revolution has taken on its own objective character for geographic and historic reasons, but what has not been as explicitly stated is that at their base they have all revolved around the same principle – ordinary working class Arabs yearn for much better quality of lives. But as Robert Fisk recently explained, “unlike Tunisia and Egypt, however, the people of Libya are a tribal rather than a societal nation. Gaddafi's own tribe, the Guedaffi, come from the desert between Sirte and Sebha; hence the western region of Libya remains under his control”.

The lack of an urbanised working class does make it more difficult for the overthrow of the regime, as it was they who were the real driving force behind the toppling of

Mubarak and Ben-Ali in Egypt and Tunisia respectively. The Guedaffi do now appear to be the only tribe that still back its leader, yet it is only a minority. This is only because he ensured that some of his riches were distributed to his supporters throughout the course of his reign of terror. But the capital Tripoli, which is still under Gaddafi’s control, is beginning to show tentative signs that the working classes there are beginning to organise. This will be key if there is to be a successful outcome to the Revolution.

As history has repeatedly shown us during similar mass uprisings and revolutions, ordinary working class people’s natural inclination is to organise their own affairs for themselves. In Libya, as in Tunisia and Algeria before, we have seen the setting up of various committees to not only organise resistance against Gaddafi’s armies but to organise the running of towns and cities during the turmoil.

In recent years, Gaddafi has become one of the EU’s closest allies. In 2004, the arms embargo

against the country was lifted in return for assistance in preventing refugees from fleeing the continent.

Libya has since been seen as the main ally of Europe in policing “trafficking” in the Mediterranean.

Libya’s complicity is also seen as key as 80% of its oil is sold to the EU per year (it is the 12th largest producer of oil in the World). The Imperialist Western powers are gravely concerned at a loss of control on these resources and are seriously considering some kind of a no fly zone Success for the revolution will very much depend on overcoming tribal divisions and uniting the working class and poor around a socialist programme that guarantees freedom, democratic rights and the ending of unemployment, poverty and repression.

Capitalism and the imperialist powers now “circling” Libya offer nothing more than continued exploitation, only democratic socialism can ensure that Libya’s vast wealth will be used to provide a better life for all.

special feature

special feature

THE SOCIALIST

PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY

ISSUE 60

March 2011

New Government’s “covenant”

WATER CHARGES COMING BACK CAN’T PAY, WON’T PAY

By Clare Daly TD N A disgusting U-turn, which the Greens would almost be embarrassed about, the Labour Party has completely capitulated in relation to the introduction of water charges.

The new Programme for Government is a kick in the teeth for those who believed that Labour would soften the Fine Gael blow and an abject betrayal of their so-called ideals of justice and fairness.

A water tax will be introduced following the installation of water meters, the charge set above a certain “free allocation”. This is a totally cynical move to mask a vicious new stealth tax under a fig leaf of “water conservation”.

It is a crushing blow to householders already struggling to pay their rising mortgages, petrol and public transport costs, while wages are falling with the continuance of the Universal Social Charge. There is no doubt that this new tax will be met with a resounding response of “Can’t Pay! Won’t Pay! ” A new water utility company Irish Water is to be set up “to take over responsibility from the separate local authorities for Ireland’s water infrastructure and to drive new investment.” This has enormous implications for the staff currently working in the 34 Councils across the country and of course in terms of setting up the service for privatisation in the future.

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Anti-water tax campaign protest

They claim that the new tax is being brought in “to achieve better quality water and environment” and refer to the works that need to be undertaken to upgrade the service which saw so many leaks taking place in the harsh weather. Again, this is utter rot. Why didn’t they repair the leaks and the outdated pipe network during the boom years? Why didn’t they compel developers to install rain water harvesting and other water conservation

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measures in all new houses? Let’s remember half the state’s housing stock was built since the Anti-Water Charges Campaigns succeeded in forcing the abolition of the water charges in the mid-90s. We always pushed for these measures and stressed that they would have a far greater impact on conserving water than a charge.

While paying lip-service to these measures, the new government

instead plans “to install water meters in every household in Ireland”, this will cost €500 million, monies which could be used on real conservation measures. A meter simply measures water, it doesn’t save it.

We reject the notion that people wilfully waste water. More attention and care can be ensured through education. This is simply a new tax. If you have money, you can run a swimming pool and wash your fleet of cars every day. If you have a large family on low income, or are a pensioner, you will have to ration your supply.

Indirect taxes like this disproportionately hit those on lower income.

We already have the highest reliance on these taxes in the EU and now the new government wants to hit us with more.

The details of their plans are limited at this stage, but it is clear that they intend to go full steam ahead at the earliest opportunity. The No Water Tax Campaign will be ready to take them on, in the communities, amongst the workforce and in the Dail Chamber. We will not be used as the fall guy to clear the debts of the bankers and speculators. We have paid for water through our central taxation. It is not our fault that the government has not passed that on to the Councils to fund the public water system.

We will wage war in the tradition of the mass non-payment campaigns of civil disobedience and people power which forced a backtrack on the water charges and the Poll Tax in the 1990s.

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Oppose state forestry sell off

By Stephen Rigney n 31 January 2011, Coillte, the state-owned company responsible for the management and ownership of Ireland’s forests, quietly issued a tender for the “Evaluation of the Public Goods Value of the Coillte Forest Estate”. This is the first step in establishing “market value” for Ireland’s forests, which cover over 7% of the land mass of the country, in advance of its possible fire-sale and privatisation in line with proposals from both “An Bord Snip” as well as the terms of the EU / IMF “deal” which the new government has committed itself to.

The sale of Coillte would mean that an area larger than County Tipperary will be handed over to private interests and the vultures are already circling and waiting for the kill with former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, at the head of the pack .

The International Forestry Fund, which Ahern is currently the Chairman of, has already expressed its interest in buying up Coillte. This is despite the fact that Ahern would have inside knowledge of Coillte, including possible mineral and natural resource deposits located on its lands.

This information has never been made public and is excluded from requests made under the Freedom of Information Act. Coillte employees also operate under the Official Secret Acts, something which is particularly odd for a company whose “core purpose is to enrich lives locally, nationally and globally through the innovative and sustainable management of natural resources”.

But private owners can in no way be trusted to sustainably manage our natural resources.

Privatisation will quickly cause conflicts with ordinary people as these companies attempt to restrict access to the lands they “own”, cutting off access to traditional uses of our forests and wilderness for walking, sightseeing and fishing.

Biodiversity and our environment will also come under threat as these companies ignore the conservation of native tree species which are integral to maintaining our ecosystem and instead focus on the development of non-native trees which offer greater profits from timber production. Workers in the industry will also see their pay and conditions come under attack.

The privatisation of Coillte must be rigorously opposed. Community and environmental groups must fight alongside workers in Coillte to defeat any attempts to sell off our natural resources to private interests.

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