July 2010 edition of the Socialist

PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY

ISSUE 55

JULY/AUGUST 2010

NAMA BILLIONS FOR

Strike call to save Orthopaedic

By Liam Cullinane

THE RICH

ZERO FOR DISABLED,

By Stephen Boyd HE CONTRAST between how the government treats the wealthy developers and bankers who are in trouble and ordinary people never fails to shock. While thousands were forced out onto the streets to protest against cuts in the health budget which have resulted in the closure of essential respite services for the families of those with intellectual or physical disabilities, the government continues its kid glove treatment of those who helped cause the economic crisis.

It so happens that the banks – those parasitic institutions sucking our society dry – have not asked some of their biggest borrowers to repay even the interest on their debts. According to the Irish Times (9 July 2010) “Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh said there was “extraordinary sur-

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SICK AND STRUGGLING HOMEOWNERS prise” at Nama that borrowers had free cashflow which banks had not taken charge of to repay interest bills when they could have. Some of the 10 biggest borrowers had not even been asked by the banks”.

On the very same day, Professor Michael O’Keeffe, consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Children’s University Hospital Temple Street (Dublin), warned that incredibly, some children may go blind because surgery had been cancelled due to a lack of funding!

Nine children including a six-weekold baby have had their surgery cancelled. He said, “If you don’t do them in that time frame the results are poorer and there is a possibility these children could go blind as a result”.

Compare this to the revelation that the Nama bailout of property develop-

ers and the banks is going to cost us even more than originally claimed.

The government claimed that Nama would make a profit of €4.8 billion, now Nama expects it might make a loss of €800 million. Why the sudden turnaround in fortunes? Not surprisingly the banks have been lying. It turns out that out of the €81 billion loans that the public are taking off the banks hands, only 25% are producing income, not 40% as the banks previously claimed.

As predicted, Nama is going to cost the taxpayers not just €800 million but probably many tens of billions. It also seems that many of the big developers have been using available cashflow to fund their lavish lifestyles instead of repaying their loans.

Literally living it up like millionaires whilst working class families have

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

their homes repossessed.

The government’s so-called fivestep system to help troubled mortgage holders doesn’t include a multibillion euro bailout. This is definitely a case of one law for the rich and another for the poor. The five-step plan does nothing to deal with the two hundred thousand plus families paying back rip-off mortgages on negative equity bound homes and doesn’t prevent banks and building societies from repossessing people’s homes. The opposite – it distinctly affirms the right of the financial institutions to take court action against homeowners with more than 12 months arrears.

On average two thousand jobs a week have been lost since this government came to power and there is no end in sight. Unemployment con-

info@socialistparty.net

THE CAMPAIGN to save Cork’s Orthopaedic hospital stepped up a gear with a second demonstration on 24 June. Three hundred people, largely consisting of health workers, patients and community activists, turned up to show their opposition to plans to remove orthopaedic services from the hospital.

The attendance was double that of the previous protest and the mood of anger and militancy was reflected by the fact that hospital workers returned to work at 2.45 rather than 2.30, effectively a 15-minute work stoppage.

Addressing the crowd, Socialist Party Councillor Mick Barry revealed that Professor John Higgins, architect of the planned closure, was being advised by a secret committee of 17 people, consisting entirely of wealthy business interests.

These included property developer Michael Flynn and horse racing trainer Aidan O’Brien.

Outrageously, there is not a single representative of either workers or patients on the committee. Outlining a way forward for the campaign, Councillor Barry called for a half-day strike in the autumn in order to step up the campaign and show the HSE that they have a fight on their hands.

The protest was also addressed by (amongst others) hospital workers Dave Kelly and Lorraine Collins. Lorraine called for a petition to be launched where people would pledge not to vote either Fianna Fáil or Green if the hospital is closed.

This was agreed to by the crowd and fifty people agreed to distribute petitions amongst family, friends and co-workers.

This campaign to save this vital hospital is ongoing and will be escalating in the autumn. For more information, or to get involved, become a friend of the “Save Our Orthopaedic” campaign on Facebook.

tinues to rise and now 4,000 job cuts are threatened at Eircom, Bank of Ireland and AIB. The government are investigating privatising Bord Gáis and the ESB. The €3 billion cuts in the next budget will cost even more jobs.

This government and their “opposition” allies in Fine Gael and Labour fully support the bailout of the rich at the expense of working class people.

Their market system continues to fail.

A socialist society is the only alternative that can resolve the many crises in this society. If you have had enough, contact the Socialist Party today and fight out how you can join the fightback.

www.socialistparty.net

July/August 2010

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THE SOCIALIST

The recession is over?

Don’t believe the hype!

By Michael Murphy HE GOVERNMENT, the media and various economists all trumpeted recently released figures that apparently show that the Irish economy came out of recession in the first three months of 2010. However for the unemployed, workers and their families this miraculous recovery has by passed them.

This propaganda is deliberately being pushed by the government in an attempt to justify the cut backs, job losses, wage cuts and bank bail outs because we are apparently seeing the benefits of these measures. More importantly they will use this so-called economic turn around to force workers to accept the €3 billion in cuts and new taxes that are pending in December’s budget.

As Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan said recently “our plan is working” and “we must stick to it”.

The recession is not over, there is no recovery, much of the hype has been based on a growth in exports in the first quarter of the year, aided by the weakening of the euro and primarily led by multinational companies which hides huge weaknesses in the domestic economy in terms of investment, sales and crucially employment.

The key figure that has been trumpeted is that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew for the Irish economy by 2.7% in the first quarter of the year compared to the last quarter of 2009. The reality, unfortunately, is different, as a closer examination of the figures reveals.

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Brian Lenihan says “our plan is working.” Meanwhile 450,000 people aren’t!

GDP still fell year on year in the first quarter, i.e. there was less economic output in the first quarter of 2010 than there was in the first quarter of 2009. The 2.7% upturn referred to, relates to a comparison of the last quarter of 2009 with the first quarter of 2010.

This simply demonstrates that economic output cannot fall indefinitely forever - at a certain stage even a falling rock hits the ground.

Even more revealing in the figures is the gap between Gross National Product (GNP) and GDP. While GDP grew quarter by quarter at 2.7%, GNP declined 0.5% quarter on quarter in the same period. This gap (which is overwhelmingly made up of repatriated profits by the multinational corporations) graphically demonstrates the point made in the "Is the worst over?" (articles which can be read at www.socialist-

party.net) - the continued weakness of Irish indigenous industry and the reliance on multinationals.

While different commentators predict varying degrees of growth in the coming year the most startling point they all agree on is that mass unemployment will continue for at least five years. The numbers signing on rose by 5,800 in June bringing the unemployment rate to 13.4%.

The IMF in a recent report predicted that unemployment will remain at 9% until 2015. That means over 300,000 people will remain unemployed for at least another 5 years, other organisations have predicted higher numbers.

However, that figure and others like it, are based on a certain recovery in the Irish economy. If this does not happen, then the reality is that unemployment could be far higher.

The OECD in early July predict-

ed a certain economic recovery but at the same time illustrated how weak that recovery would be by saying “Ireland's recovery will not be vigorous enough to re-employ the 174,000 people who have lost their jobs”.... “so many unemployed construction workers are unlikely to find building jobs again.”

There are huge dangers and problems facing the Irish economy.

The Irish banks are still extremely weak despite billions being pumped in and with increasing unemployment, falling incomes, bigger numbers experiencing negative equity then the possibility of major debt default is a very real prospect opening up a new banking crisis which could lead to a sovereign debt crisis, as the government find it harder and more expensive to borrow money on the international markets. Ireland is currently paying interest rates on borrowings higher even than Greece. This is not sustainable in the longer term.

A double dip recession in the world economy is a real possibility which will impact massively on an open economy like Ireland particularly as the “growth” to date has being export led – this would be brought to a shuddering halt in the context of a further world downturn.

Working class people are hoping for an economic upturn in the short term. However this does not seem to be on the agenda and bigger cuts and increased unemployment are set to be an ongoing reality.

Workers need to get organised in the unions and communities to build a movement to stop the government’s austerity measures.

Up in the polls - Are Labour a radical alternative?

By Councillor Mick Barry N IPSOS/MRBI poll published in June in the Irish Tines showed Labour as the most popular party in the state with 32% support. This had never happened before in the history of elections or opinion polling in this state.

This poll was merely the most dramatic of a series of polls showing a big increase in support for Labour since the 2007 General Election. This rise in support is particularly strong in Dublin where polls are consistently showing Labour with more than 30% support.

These poll results have provoked speculation that Labour could emerge as the dominant partner in a coalition with Fine Gael after the next election or, more likely, that Labour could come a relatively close second to Fine Gael and wield more influence in government than was the case in previous coalitions. The key factor in this increase in support for Labour is, of course, the economic crisis.

This crisis has begun to reveal the true face of the traditional rightwing parties.

Fianna Fail in Government have organised a massive bank bailout,

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carried through savage cutbacks and preside over unprecedented levels of unemployment.

Their support has been decimated with some polls showing their support below 20%.

Fine Gael, being in opposition, have not been exposed to nearly the same extent. However, their support levels are poor given the implosion of Fianna Fail support.

This can only be partly explained by the unconvincing and wooden leadership of Enda Kenny. More fundamentally, it is down to the fact that their policies are seen to be very similar to those of Fianna Fail and, in some respects, even more right-wing and anti-working class.

In these circumstances, Labour seem to many people to be different with their opposition to the bank guarantee, the bailout of Anglo and their insistence that the pain be “shared more fairly”.

In this sense, the increased support for Labour reflects a growing rejection of right-wing policies and the search for an alternative.

However, a serious examination of the politics of the Labour Party shows that Labour do not represent a real alternative.

For starters, Labour support policies aimed at making working

people pay for a crisis that is not of our making. In the run-up to the last Budget, Labour supported cutting the public sector pay bill by €1.3 billion. They also supported a carbon levy aimed at raising €500 million. Eamonn Gilmore boasted at the time that Labour had an alternative budget programme not of €4 billion in cuts but €6 billion!

Labour leader Eamonn Gilmore was severely criticised by the millionaire press during the Croke Park ballot for not speaking out in support of the deal. However, Gilmore does support the deal which means 20,000 job losses and a five year pay freeze. When the result was announced he said: “I welcome the outcome of the ballot and I welcome the fact that it has been agreed and it is an agreement that if Labour is in government we will honour and will respect.”

Next up, look at who Labour are planning on going into Government with - Fine Gael. Fine Gael in government will block any policy aimed at seriously improving the living standards of working class people at the expense of big business and the rich. Why choose as your coalition partners a rightwing party with such a stance if you have any intention whatsoever of fundamental change in the inter-

ests of working people?

It is also worth taking a look at some of the people Labour are recruiting these days. In recent months a number of career politicians have joined the Labour Party.

These include independent councillors in Roscommon and Donegal, a Sinn Fein councillor in Dublin and a former independent TD for Mayo-East Jerry Cowley.

None of these people have a background or track record in left-wing politics.

However, the most interesting of the new Labour recruits is Mae Sexton from Longford/ Westmeath who joined the Progressive Democrats in 1997 when they made mass public sector sackings and attacks on single parents the centrepiece of their election programme and served as a PD TD from 2002 to 2007. If Labour are recruiting star candidates like Sexton it says a lot about Labour and the kind of policies they

will be backing in the next Government.

A Fine Gael/Labour Government will be a capitalist government that will make working class people pay for the economic crisis. Labour will, no doubt, extract some concessions on secondary issues, in return for ditching their radical image. However, as the radical image fades a new space will open up for genuine left-wing politics in Irish society. The Socialist Party is building now in preparation for using that opportunity to the maximum.

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THE SOCIALIST

HIGGINS SOCIALIST PARTY MEP THE FIANNA Fáil/Green Party Government has just about limped to the shelter of the Dáil summer recess, battered and severely frayed at the edges. Now there must be serious questions about how long more it can stagger from crisis to crisis.

This is the most despised government in the history of the Irish State. It is a government with not a shred of credibility or moral authority, elected three years ago on a programme that is utterly unrecognisable from the vicious policies of cuts that it has been implementing for the past two years.

The government should not have survived this long. It should have been driven from office as soon as it began its programme of bailing out banks on the one hand and

then hammering living standards and public services on the other. That it is still there is largely due to the cowardice of the trade union leadership which has conspired with it to force the cuts onto the shoulders of working people. Its role has been to undermine any idea that there was an alternative and demoralise the membership into accepting the attacks.

The other factor is that there is no confidence whatsoever among ordinary people that the political parties in opposition would have any fundamentally different policies were they in government. If there was a real opposition then the pressure to hold a general election to change the government would have been unstoppable.

The reality is that Fine Gael

“How much longer can this government stagger from crisis to crisis”

stands for the same policy as Fianna Fail, of making working people pay for the crisis. And in a number of areas they would be even more right wing in the implementation of cuts and privatisation of public assets.

The Labour Party has been attempting to gain credibility among the majority who are hit by the cuts by verbally opposing policies such as the banks guarantee. However Labour is only too willing go into goverment with Fine Gael. It will then implement the cuts demanded by the economic establishment.

This is an inevitable consequence of the Labour Party believing that there is no alternative to the capitalist market, having long ago abandoned any allegiance to the idea of a socialist aternative.

Labour showed its utter cynicism when it voted against legislation banning the Ward Union Hunt from chasing a stag around the Co Meath

countryside.

Labour had pledged itself to oppose this barbaric practice. However it seems pressure from few a backbench deputies brought the party to oppose the bill.

Shamefully the Labour Party gave credence to the reactionary idea that a ban on stag hunting was an “attack on rural Ireland”. In fact, anybody in rural Ireland who took a domesticated animal from its paddock and set a pack of dogs to chase and terrify it for several hours around the countryside, would rightly be regarded as a reprobate.

The government hopes to buy itself more time by closing down the Dail until the end of September. However, there will be no escaping the fallout from the crisis of their system.

Apart from the economic disaster there are vital political issues.

The Green Party is declaring that a Mayoral election will be held in Dublin in the Autumn.

Fianna Fáil will resist this as it would receive an unmerciful hiding. If this election is held, then how can it refuse to call the three outstanding bye elections which would also register how hated Fianna Fail now is?

Looming over everything of course is the Budget in December where another €3 billion in further cuts is on the cards. While it is not absolutely certain that the government would fall on this one, it will soon be time for us to be preparing for a general election and trying to build an alternative to this disastrous system and those who run it.

Joe Higgins is the Socialist Party MEP for the Dublin constituency

Week of “Protest & Solidarity” held across Europe Make “ETUC 29 September Day of Action" decisive workers’ mobilisation

By Paul Murphy OLLOWING THE call by 16 MEPs from the European United Left (GUE/NGL) group in the European Parliament which was initiated by Joe Higgins MEP, protests and activities took place across Europe in the week 21-26 June.

In protests initiated by the Socialist Party and endorsed by other left organisations and the CPSU trade union, 500 people took to the streets in Dublin on Saturday 26 June. The protest was called around the slogans of "Stop the bailouts - Oppose the IMF/EU cuts - End the dictatorship of the markets." Earlier in the week a protest of 150 people took place in Belfast. The protest received official backing from the Fire Brigades Union, INTO (Northern Region), Public and Civil Servants (PCS) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).

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Protests took place in several other countries across Europe during the week. In Greece, several protests organised by Syriza took place, culminating with a rally of hundreds on Friday evening in Athens. In Britain, the National Shop Stewards Network marked the week with a rally on Saturday 26 June. In Sweden, activists from the September Alliance protested at the European Commission office in Stockholm.

In Portugal on 26 June, Left Bloc activists distributed 200,000 pamphlets on the economic crisis which called for international solidarity and action. Around 80 people protested in Brussels in a demonstration organised by the Front des Gauches and supported by local branches of Italian and Greek left wing parties. Members of the Sozialistische Linkspartei (CWI in Austria), organised a protest in front of the Chamber of Commerce in Salzburg and unfurled a 35 metre long banner

Instead, he placed the responsibility for the crises on the EU, the Greek government and on speculators. In Italy, the week of protest was publicised by Controcorrente members during the general strike on 25 June.

With the draconian Tory/Lib Dem coalition budget in Britain, Merkel’s announcement of vicious cutbacks in Germany, and austeri-

ty measures announced in France, it is now clear that all of Europe is headed in the same direction of Greece - vicious attacks on working people to bail out big business.

Over the last few days, there were also general strikes or partial general strikes in France, Italy and the Basque Country.

The week of action initiated by the Socialist Party has actively pointed the way forward for the workers’ movement across Europe - stressing the necessity of common protest and industrial action on a Europe-wide basis to defeat the onslaught of attacks that are being imposed.

The key focus will now turn to the "Day of Action" which has been announced by the European Trade Union Confederation for 29 September. Spanish unions have announced that they will organise a general strike for that day. This day now needs to become a significant day of mobilisation and workers’ action across Europe.

Party’s decision to oppose the ban which was most surprising. Many argue that this move represents a cynical U-turn away from a principled opposition to stag hunting which Labour would have articulated in the past.

It can be argued too, that such a move is indicative of a broader uncertainty about, and willingness to compromise on, key principles which would occur if Labour goes into coalition with Fine Gael after

the next election.

The stag hunting issue has shaken the parties and has added to increasing divisions between Fianan Fail and the Greens causing significant instability within the coalition making their future less certain. As the implications play out over the near future, the Socialist Party welcomes a ban on stag hunting as an important step forward in relation to animal welfare.

500 hundred marched in Dublin.

proclaiming "International protest and Solidarity".

In Denmark, the week was featured in the annual midsummer rally of the Red-Green Alliance on Wednesday 23 June. Finn Sørensen, Vice-Chair of an industry and services trade union in Copenhagen, attacked the claim that the crises in Greece are a result of Greek workers living beyond their means.

Ban on stag hunting exposes Labour

By Sarah Killeen HE GREEN Party’s Wildlife (Amendment) Act was passed- just, with a total of 75-72 votes. The Act bans the hunting of deer with dogs and horses and mainly affects one particular hunting group, the Ward Union Hunt.

None of the parties come away from this issue looking well. The

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Act represents quite a narrow consideration of animal welfare issues and doesn’t look at the even more brutal blood-sports such as fox hunting and hare coursing.

However, further animal welfare legislation is set to be considered soon. The reaction of Fianna Fáil backbenchers, several of whom spoke strongly against the Bill, indicates a strange kind of conservatism, whereby they wish to defend traditional, rural “ways of

life” but are willing to vote through cuts to disability services, child benefit and single parent benefit, attacks not so much on “ways of life”, but means of living. RISE (Rural Ireland Says Enough), a well organsed and heavily funded campaign involving well know property developers who are big financial backers of Fianna Fáil brought heavy pressure to bear on many Fianna Fáil backbenchers.

But it was perhaps the Labour

opinion & news

JOE

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THE SOCIALIST

Step up action to stop government disability cuts

By Councillor Matt Waine HE CUTBACKS to disability services, accessed by over 25,000 people across the country, represents a new low in the government’s slash and burn policies. Not content with laying waste to the economy to facilitate bailing out the banks, the government is now sticking the boot into the most vulnerable section of society.

In recent days, government ministers have been busy peddling a media spin campaign of lies and misrepresentation, particularly claiming no frontline services will be affected by cost cutting measures. The reality is the complete opposite. The cuts that have already been implemented or will be implemented in the coming weeks has meant the closure of a number of respite centres and the reduction of other services like day services, family support and after school respite.

The Brothers of Charity have lost €4 million on top of €1.8 million last year. They have been forced to close respite services caring for 377 people in Limerick and residential homes in Galway, catering for 20 people.

The Daughters of Charity in Dublin have seen €7 million slashed from their 2010 budget forcing the closure of Ard Cuan, in Cabra, Dublin, which caters for 84 people with Down Syndrome and intellectual disabilities, and severely cut service in another house, St Louise. The recently opened day care centre, Glenmaroon, on a residential housing complex in Chapelizod, Dublin cares for 54 residents with intellectual disabilities is also facing cuts.

These cuts will have a devastating impact on the lives of service users and their families. Respite care offers a vital break for carers who look after family members 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Some families can access only one night of respite care per month!

But it gets worse. Enda Egan of the Carers’ Association reported that carers who had asked for

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INTERVIEWS: “I don’t know how we are going to cope” more incontinence pads were asked to bring in used “nappies” to be weighed so the HSE could determine if they actually needed more than the permitted quota! What a disgusting way to treat people. But compare this penny-pinching approach to the way the developers have been treated. No stone is left unturned nor any sum of money is too great to bailout the richest of the rich.

There are an estimated 160,000 carers in the state, mostly family members, who provide 3 million hours of care per week. The lucky ones, if you can call them that, receive a paltry €212.50 per week.

Most do not receive anything as the Carers’ Allowance is means-tested. A report commissioned by the Jack and Jill Foundation found it is nine times more expensive to provide acute hospital care for children with a severe disability than to have them cared for in the fami-

Restore respite care at Bawnmore!

By Conor Payne HE HSE has introduced savage cuts to the services provided by the Brothers of Charity in Limerick, leading to the end of a range of programmes. Worst has been the closure of Bawnmore Respite House.

The cuts to respite care are a new low even for this vicious government. Bawnmore provides respite for 63 families in Limerick who are caring for their intellectually disabled relatives. Many of the carers are elderly and have been looking after their relatives for 40 years, saving the state countless millions.

The government is now essen-

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tially telling them to work every day for the rest of their lives. The families have responded by picketing the office of local Fianna Fail TD Peter Power and Brian Cowen when he visited Limerick.

The government have given a committment to “look into” the case, but they clearly can't be trusted. There needs to be a campaign in Limerick that can tap in to the support and anger that exists in communities right across the city and county over these cuts.

The fact that the Clonile respite home was shut at the same time Limerick was playing host to the Special Olympic Games shows the true face of this government and the callous disregard they have for the most vulnerable.

ly home. Rather than show a morsel of respect and appreciation for this vital care, the government reward the sacrifice of carers and their families with draconian cuts.

Fianna Fáil and the Greens must not be allowed to get away with these cuts. Fianna Fail backbenchers who were falling over themselves to oppose the proposed new legislation on dog breeding and stag hunting display only the silence of the lambs when it comes to these cuts.

Nonetheless, the protests and pressure mounted by parents, guardians and users of disability services across the country has forced the government onto the backfoot. Both Cowen and Minster for State John Maloney have been forced to state categorically that there will be no cuts to frontline services. Now is the time to up the ante and force the government back.

DEBORAH LARKIN, whose 11-year-old daughter suffers from mitochondria, which has resulted in delayed development.

“I’m a single mother of two children so I rely heavily on the support that I get from the Daughters of Charity. I get five nights a month overnight respite and home support of four hours a week but all of that will be significantly reduced.

“My daughter needs 24-hour constant care so I am dreading these cutbacks. Also, the quality of care that our children have had will be seriously affected as a knock-on effect from the staff cuts. Danielle can scream and shout for hours on end and goes absolutely berserk if she notices anything out of place in the house. She can go crazy at the smallest things like me taking off my glasses or passing a piece of paper to somebody else.

“The respite we get through the Daughters of Charity has been a lifeline. We understand the predicament that the Daughters of Charity are in, which is why we are begging the Health Service Executive to row-back on the cuts.”

BERNIE BLOOD of Clonee has a nine-year-old son Aaron, who also receives respite care in St Vincent’s.

“Aaron is not toilet trained and he needs help feeding himself.

He has the mind of a two-year-old but the strength of a 20-yearold so it often takes two people to change him.

“He’s a danger to himself and has absolutely no sense of fear or danger. I once turned my back on him for just a few seconds at home and in that time he threw himself over the banister and needed to be taken to the hospital. I really don’t know how we are going to cope if these cutbacks are implemented.”

Children suffer as government set to slash another 500 teaching posts!

By Kate Relihan, INTO (personal capacity) HE PRESS release by the INTO on 29 June criticising the government's intention to further implement cuts to EAL (English as an Additional Language) teachers is welcome but quite incredible. The ink was hardly dry on the Croke Park deal when it's business as usual in terms of the government's chilling cutbacks.

Our union leaders endorsed this deal "as the least worst option" which disgracefully has become the worst option for thousands of immigrant children, who, come this September, may face withdrawal of another 500 more EAL

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teaching posts. Leaving a meagre 1,500 EAL teachers for the entire country and this will be reduced to 500 by September 2011!

These savage cutbacks result from the budget of 2009 when the government generally capped a maximum of two EAL teachers per school, and placed a maximum of two years for EAL teaching for all immigrant children, irrespective of ability or learning difficulties.

I have taught as an EAL teacher and I am only too aware of the serious deficiencies in the system.

Teaching in a school in which 85% of the children are from immigrant families I have seen the harsh reality of these cuts as we lost three of our six EAL teachers in 2009.

The training for this important area of work is practically non-

existent, the provision for EAL is often poorly co-ordinated and even haphazard, textbook choices are at a minimum, and there is no access to assessing an EAL child with learning difficulties.

Such stark cutbacks are having serious and far-reaching implications across the country. The rapid and drastic reduction in EAL teachers will further marginalise already vulnerable immigrant children, and is dooming thousands to potential educational failure as they struggle to keep up in class sizes which are the highest in Europe.

If Sheila Nunan and the INTO leadership are sincere in their condemnation of these cuts then they must organise a militant campaign to defeat them.

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THE SOCIALIST

By Stephen Boyd HE PASSING of the Croke Park Agreement represents an important setback for public sector workers and the working class as a whole. If this deal is implemented unhindered then 20,000 public sector jobs will be lost, working conditions will be decimated and the quality of public services from health to education etc will be driven further into the ground.

SIPTU, IMPACT and INTO leaders dishonestly argued that there way no alternative to Croke Park and that if the members voted no they would have to embark on a campaign of strikes that was doomed to failure. Even now Croke Park could be defeated if we had a trade union leadership that was prepared to organise a united campaign of industrial action by the 300,000 plus public sector workers.

The sad truth is that the majority of union leaders support Croke Park because they support the government’s agenda of public sector counter-reform.

The Public Service Implementation Body has been set up and is already discussing the implentation of the deal. Four union leaders, Shay Cody (IMPACT), Sheila Nunan (INTO), Patricia King (SIPTU) and Tom Geraghty (PSEU) will be doing the government’s dirty work. They will be involved in directly deciding which parts of the public service are to be attacked, who is to lose their jobs. The body will also have

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IMPACT change of leadership: Out with the old, in with the same old.

Shay Cody and Kevin Callinan will continue on where Peter McLoone left off.

the remit of imposing a downgrading of the terms and conditions of all public servants! This committee, which also has three government appointees on it, is also empowered with “resolving” all industrial disputes that arise from this process – they are the enforcers of a no strike agreement.

The majority of ICTU leaders have shown once again they are rotten and not fit to hold their posts. It is no wonder that faced with a choice of accepting the deal in the hope that there will be no more pay cuts or levies or rejecting it and hoping that Jack O’Connor, Sheila Nunan or Shay Cody were going to get you a bet-

ter deal wasn’t an attractive option for many workers. Most trade union members have little or no confidence in their union leaders.

Those who are at the head of the so-called “No” unions didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory. The Socialist Party argued for an alliance of “No” unions to fight a co-ordinated public campaign for a No vote based on the idea that the alternative was a campaign of national public sector strikes to defeat the government’s agenda.

Even after the passing of the deal by ICTU’s Public Sector Committee, the “No unions” could have formed an alliance to discuss

how to stop the implementation of the agreement. Instead the leaderships of the INMO, TEEU, POA and UNITE have all ignored the democratic vote of their members and signed up to the deal.

This leaves the teachers in the ASTI, TUI and IFUT and the civil servants in the CPSU in a difficult situation. The Socialist Party supports the continued rejection of the Croke Park Deal by these unions.

Nothing has changed – this is the same rotten deal that you rejected in your democratic ballots.

These unions should refuse to sign up to the agreement and not co-operate with its implemetation.

Doing so will most likely lead to a confrontation with management and the government and will require resolute industrial action to defend any members who are disciplined or victimised.

The implementation of the agreement will result in confrontations across the public sector. The

remaining “No unions” can give a lead and credence to the idea that the government’s agenda can still be fought by public sector workers no matter what union they are a member of, or what sector they work in.

For left trade union activists the only response to the passing of the deal is to get straight back to the task of building an oppostion to the pro-social partnership trade union leaders.

The Socialist Party is actively engaged in building opposition broad left activist groups within unions around the need for fighting democratic trade unions. If you are a public sector worker who is angered by the sell-out of the union leaders and you want to know what you can do to change the unions then get in touch with us today.

The passing of this deal does not get the government of the hook. The repercussions of the deal will create conflict and combined with the impact of the continuing economic crisis and the €3 billion cuts due in December’s Budget, are a recipe not for industrial peace but for major conflict between working class and the government.

ESB workers - Vote no to rotten pension deal 60 large and multinational firms.

This, in effect, was a subsidy from small businesses and domestic consumers to these large electricity users. Confident of their position the government announced a review group to look at the privatisation of semi state companies, including parts of the ESB, even before the ballot has started.

By Dave Keating, ESB Network Technician (personal capacity) HE ESB staff pension fund has a €2 billion deficit. In putting forward new pension proposals management and the group of unions (GOU) argue that there are three main factors for the pension deficit. The stock market crash, wage inflation (i.e. pay rises) and because “We are all living much, much longer.”

The stock market crash has played a role in exasperating the deficit. Also some people are living longer, but it depends hugely on where you live, the type of job you worked at and the age and circumstances in which you retire.

Deliberately, no mention is made of the colossal impact that voluntary redundancies and the non replacement of staff has had on the pension fund. Voluntary redundancies have been a curse for existing ESB workers – good well paid unionised jobs have been replaced by sub contractors and on top of this the pension fund is now in crisis.

In 1981 when the two pension schemes amalgamated there were five staff members for every pensioner. This meant that for every pound that was paid into the scheme only 50p was paid out.

However, after years of voluntary redundancies and the replacement of staff with contractors there are now more pensioners in the ESB

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What is the alternative?

ESB workers should reject this rotten deal, which worsens conditions and stores up problems for the future.

than there are staff working .This means that for every euro paid into the pension scheme now, approximately €2 is being paid out.

This situation is set to get worse with an average age of 50 in the company. Despite this all new staff are to be excluded from the existing pension scheme and will instead go into a defined contribution scheme.

Other measures agreed between the group of unions and management include an extended pay freeze until 2012, extended pension freeze until 2014, different rates of pay for new staff, CARE method of calculating pension and the breaking of the link with pensions to pay.

If accepted pensions will in

future be linked to the consumer price index (CPI) but with an upper limit of 4%. With inflation this could render a pension worthless and the vast majority of ESB workers are not eligible for a state pension.

Over 10 years the ESB will pay €591 million into the pension fund which is far less than the €1.46 billion they splashed out to buy Northern Ireland Electricity over the weekend. Disgracefully of the three big unions only the ESBOA are recommending rejection and UNITE and TEEU who have given no recommendation are de facto arguing for the deal.

The government are determined to ring fence the amount of money that has to be set aside to pay ESB

pensioners into the future. Why? In order to protect future profits with an eye towards privatisation. And the profits in the ESB are not inconsiderate. In 2006 ESB made a profit after tax of €223 million, the following year this jumped to €432 million and in 2008 the profits would have been €603 million except for a one off general subsidy. The profits will be even greater when the upgrades stop, releasing billions more. Big business is dripping at the mouth waiting to get their hands on these profits and the government are keen to oblige. Last year, while the pension negotiations were taking place, the ESB government handed €176 million rebate to a group of fewer than

WORKERS AT Shannon Airport Development Authority fought and won a ten year campaign to have the state guarantee their pension payments. In France over 2 million workers marched to defend their pensions while in Spain 2 million public sector workers took strike action to stop pension reform and austerity measures.

Staff and pensioners in the ESB should not be made to bear the cost of government policy, where the government took a strong and healthy company and turned it a shadow of its former self, all the while nurturing profits for competitors.

ESB workers should vote no and reject this rotten deal, which basically worsens conditions and stores up problems for the future.

Then we can get down to the business of discussing how we can wage a united campaign to force the company and the government to protect our pensions.

news

Public sector deal No support for the implementation of Croke Park

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THE SO

AGES HAVE BEEN slashed, unemployment has exploded and our public services have been cut savagely as the economic crisis developed in Ireland. All of this is the result of the policies of the right-wing government and the actions of a small group of speculators, bankers and developers.

Here PAUL MURPHY outlines the socialist alternative

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WHILE WORKING PEOPLE pay the price for this crisis, it is clear that the bankers, developers and speculators have gotten away lightly. In fact, a recent report by the Boston Consulting Group revealed that the rich got richer despite the crisis, with the worldwide net assets of private investors increasing by 11.5% to $111.5 trillion in 2009! In Ireland, this process is epitomised by the pouring of â‚Ź14 billion down the drain of Anglo Irish Bank, primarily for the benefit of the speculators who had invested there.

Although Ireland has had a particularly sharp crisis because of the extent of the property bubble, it is not at all an exception. The same process has happened in most major economies - like in the US where unemployment stands close to 10% or Spain where youth unemployment now stands at over 40%. Working people's lives continue to be wracked by the crisis, while bonuses and salaries are returning to "normal" for the rich.

Why has this happened worldwide? Attempts have been made to lay the blame for this state of affairs on "crony capitalism", "unregulated capitalism" or corruption. Even Eamon Gilmore, leader of the Labour Party has condemned the "crony capitalism" that operates in Ireland.

However, we should be clear - the adjectives are superfluous. The crisis in Ireland and around the world is not a case of capitalism performing badly. In fact, it is capitalism working exactly as it is meant to - the rich

Capitalism has fa

THE CASE

SOCIALIS have gotten richer, while the rest have gotten poorer!

The "Golden Circle" IT IS EMBEDDED in the very nature of capitalism that policies are shaped in the interests of a small rich and big business elite. A recent report produced by the TASC thinktank called "Mapping the Golden Circle" outlines the close relationships between many of the key figures in Irish capitalism. In an examination of 40 key companies in the Irish economy, it found that 39 individuals held powerful positions in 33 of these 40 companies. These people held more than 93 directorships in these 40 companies as well as an average of ten directorships each in other companies! Over half of these 39 people held board positions in at least one of Ireland's four biggest banks - Anglo Irish Bank, AIB; Bank of Ireland and Irish Life and Permanent.

Unsurprisingly, the report also found that these powerful individuals rewarded themselves handsomely for their "hard work", with their salaries increasing by more than 40% in a two year period!

However, although Ireland's business elite is particularly well interconnected, there is nothing unusual about that situation. Power under capitalism is held by an extremely small number of people. The key source of this power is the ownership and control of the key sectors of the economy by a small number of private individuals. Their interest is to pursue profit without regard to the interests of their workers, the environment or society as a whole. The example of the BP oil spill is a perfect illustration of the fact that the profit of corporations comes before the environment or the needs of working people.

The establishment parties in Ireland and elsewhere support this rule of big business. Their key funders are often part of the "Golden Circle" and they place the interests of big business before the interests of ordinary people. Normally this is disguised by the need to "maintain employment" by attracting multinationals with low tax rates and wage rates. However, the financial crisis has revealed the genuflection of the Irish government and other govern-

ments across Europe to the "wishes of the markets" even more clearly.

These markets are primarily rich speculators who profit by gambling on the stock market, often at the expense of working class people. Up to 50% of transactions on the major stock markets are carried out by hedge funds. The minimum investment in a hedge fund is $500,000 or much more - clearly only accessible to tremendously wealthy individuals or institutions. Yet policies of governments worldwide are now explicitly in favour of these people. It should be clear that capitalism means the dictatorship of the markets and the rule of profit.

economy - to minimise excessive risk taking which puts working people in danger.

However, regulation alone will not be enough. The economic crises and boom and bust cycle flow from the fact that profit dominates in society.

Therefore, for socialists the key issue is who owns and controls the wealth and economy. The only way to build a society based not on the short-term profiteering of a rich minority but on the needs of the vast majority is to take the key sectors of the economy (banks, construction companies, major corporations) into democratic public ownership and implementing a socialist economic plan.

Can capitalism be regulated?

Nationalisation for the millions, not millionaires

REGULATION IS REPEATEDLY put forward by the representatives of capitalism as a way to avoid a repeat of the crisis. Even many of the politicians who supported the neoliberal deregulation now breathlessly call for regulation of banking in particular.

Much of this is hot air that will go nowhere. The banking sector vociferously opposes any serious regulation which will curb their ability to take risk and profit. The Socialist Party is in favour of strong regulation of the banking sector and all aspects of the

WITH THE BAIL-OUTS of banks internationally to benefit speculators, nationalisations have received a bad name for some. The Socialist Party is in favour of something completely different to these "bail-out nationalisations", which have not fundamentally changed the nature or structures of these institutions - they still exist to maximise profit, and will be sold off once they return to profitability.

Socialist nationalisation means compensation only on the basis of proven need. So the millionaire speculators and investors in Anglo Irish

Bank would have to take their losses, rather than being bailed out.

Secondly, democratic workers' control and management means bringing the industry's workers and the wider working class to the heart of the control and management of the nationalised enterprises, through elected workers' councils. In this way, the interests of working people would determine the running of the institution, rather than the insatiable thirst for profits.

Socialist planning of the economy THROUGH PUBLIC OWNERSHIP of the key sectors of the economy, instead of relying on the "invisible hand of the market" (in reality, the drive for profit of big business), through democratic discussion, an economic plan to benefit the mass of people could be put in place.

Democratically planning the economy would mean the elimination of the massive wastage that results from the anarchic nature of capitalism. For example the $1 trillion a year spent on advertising internationally that is primarily aimed at creating new needs or pretending products that are the same are in fact different, is enough to give every family in Africa $1,000. The same amount is spent yearly on arms that are only

July/August 2010

7

OCIALIST

E FOR

SM used to benefit the rich at the expense of deaths like the 1,000,000 killed in Iraq for oil and profit.

More than simply ending the inefficiencies of capitalism, a democratically planned economy would be able to massively increase society's productivity. On the basis of co-operation rather than competition , massive advances could be made. For example, in the pharmaceutical sector there are a small number of major companies internationally. Currently they invest in research aimed at developing the most profitable (not most necessary) drugs, quicker than their rivals - meaning an expensive race to develop the latest slightly better headache tablet. On the basis of socialist co-operation, the research would be shared and priorities would be shifted - with a new focus on developing those drugs and medicines that would save lives and improve quality of life for billions around the world.

Socialist programme to end the crisis THE IRRATIONALITY OF capitalism from the point of view of ordinary people is demonstrated daily in the crisis in Ireland. One hundred thousand building workers sit on the dole while massive infrastructural problems exist across the state.

There are tens of thousands of empty homes across Ireland as a result of the property bubble, while 56,000 families languish on the housing waiting list.

Socialists call for the immediate bringing together of these needs and resources. For example, launching a major national infrastructural programme to improve schools, hospitals and homes across the country, while providing work for those 100,000

builders. The Socialist Party calls for the empty new homes to be taken over by the councils and rented at affordable rates to those without homes.

More generally, we demand a 35 hour working week without loss of pay to be introduced immediately, which would take over 150,000 off the dole.

These perfectly rational demands do not take place on the basis of capitalism because there is no profit to be made. However, more than enough resources exist to implement them.

Instead of giving away €500 billion worth of oil and gas to Shell and wasting €14 billion to benefit the investors in Anglo Irish Bank, the resources could be used to get people back to work.

Fundamental socialist change is needed to make this happen. The power of working class people has been seen in the combativity and militancy of working people fighting to defend their jobs and against the government's cutbacks programme. This power has been held back by the sellout policies of the trade union leaders. However, a fighting working class movement armed with a socialist programme in Ireland and internationally can overturn this irrational system and create a democratic socialist society.

Labour in Irish History 1910-2010 - One hundred years of a socialist classic

By Cillian Gillespie THE PUBLICATION of James Connolly’s Labour in Irish History 100 years ago this year was a landmark in the development of a socialist and Marxist understanding of Irish history. In this book James Connolly sought to outline the key social struggles of Irish working people uniting all religions and to explain why the struggle for national liberation against British imperialism was inherently linked with these movements.

In the conclusion of the book Connolly pointed out that “the Irish working class remain as the incorruptible inheritors of the struggle for freedom in Ireland” and that the “whole long age-long fight of the Irish people against their oppressors resolves itself into a fight for the mastery of the means of life, the sources of production in Ireland”.

For him, only a socialist movement of a united working class, could end the exploitation and oppression of the British capitalist class in Ireland and ultimately resolve the national question.

Despite writing in isolation, these ideas echo the theory of the permanent revolution that had been developed by Leon Trotsky in the aftermath of the 1905 revolution in Russia.

Given that it was tied by a thousand strings through co-investments with landlordism and imperialism, Trotsky explained that Russian capitalism was both unable and unwilling to challenge the existing Tsarist social and political order in revolutionary struggle. The Russian capitalists also feared that this struggle would result in the working class challenging them in a struggle against poverty and for social and democratic rights. In this respect, James Connolly argued that the Irish capitalist class were no different to their Russian counter-parts – they too feared the struggles of the Irish working class and peasantry and in the last analysis would betray them.

One notable example that Connolly provides of this was during the reign of the parliament of Henry Grattan in the latter half of the 18th century. In response to the threat of a French invasion in 1778, the Irish Volunteers were formed. This force was to grow to 80,000 armed citizen soldiers and in 1882 it became a tool used by the Irish parliament, which sat in College Green, to extract the concession of free trade from the British parliament. However Grattan and his ilk quickly disassociated themselves from the volunteers when they demanded universal suffrage in electtions to the parliament.

Connolly summed up what happened when the British authorities sought to disarm the volunteers: “the working men fought, the capitalists sold out, and the lawyers bluffed”.

An important lesson for today, that Connolly draws out in the book, is the common oppression and misery of Catholic and Protestant working people and how this would ultimately lead to common

struggle. He points to the development of the Oakboys and Whiteboys in the 18th century where Protestant and Catholic peasants began to struggle against landlordism. The ultimate expression of this was to find itself in the rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen, a rebellion that was inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution of 1789.

The defeat of the 1798 was followed by an uprising led by Robert Emmet in 1803. Connolly points to the key role played by the working class during the rebellion in places such as the Liberties in Dublin. He contrasts this with the treacherous role played by the capitalist establishment in Ireland in 1798 and quotes United Irishmen leader Henry Joy McCracken who, in the aftermath of the rebellion, wrote “These are the times that try men's souls you will, no doubt, hear a great number of stories respecting the situation of this county. Its present unfortunate state is entirely owing to treachery.

The rich always betray the poor." One of those who was to fight in suppressing the rebellion of 1803 was “the great Liberator”, Daniel O’Connell.

In a later chapter, Connolly is scathing in his assessment of O’Connell, clearly illustrating his anti-working class outlook. The latter was to support the reactionary Whig government when he was elected as an MP in the 1830s. He used this position to attack trade unions in Ireland and opposed legislation in 1838 which sought to shorten the hours worked by children. Again, when writing of the 1848 rebellion led by the Young Irelanders, he points to very real limitations of its middle class leadership. At the height of the famine, they refused to link the social struggles of the peasants in with the national struggle. In one instance, one of its leaders, William Smith O’Brien attacked peasants for felling trees in order to build barricades because they had not sought the permission of the landlords.

Some of the key themes that Connolly develops in this socialist classic have enormous relevance for today for workers in Ireland and for the working class and oppressed who are seeking to end national oppression throughout the world. Despite all the rhetoric of the Celtic Tiger Irish capitalism has not overcome the historical weakness which Connolly described.

The rise in sectarianism in Northern Ireland shows the failure of the capitalist establishment to resolve the national question. Connolly wrote in Labour in Irish History “revolutions are not the products of our brains, but of ripe material conditions”.

The material conditions created by capitalism on this island will create the basis for the building of a workers movement based on the socialist ideas that Connolly defended throughout his life. Such a movement can end sectarianism, oppression and capitalism in Ireland. This is why the central ideas contained in this book can, and remain, a guide to action for the socialist movement today and why it is such a recommended read.

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ailed us

REVIEW:

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THE SOCIALIST

s r e k r o w g n u o Y : China lead the fightback

By Jimmy Dignam

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HE HOST of strikes across many regions of China in recent weeks and months have served to once again highlight the brutal working conditions in the country. The “Sweatshop of the World” has seen a litany of strikes take place within the last months in many multinational corporation factories, many of which have been instigated by young migrant workers.

The strikes originated in Honda-affiliated factories in the Guandong city of Foshan, where workers, many only in their teens or early twenties, began a fight back against their barbaric conditions of employment. They demanded vastly improved working hours, pay rises and a restructuring of the state-controlled trade unions. One of the most important demands was the right to replace state-implemented heads of local unionbranches with elected worker representatives. The strike lasted 10 days, which was quite remarkable as management, local government and puppet union officials made many attempts to intimidate the workers into backing down. Workers won pay rises ranging from 24 – 32%, but the threat of further action hangs in the air as the

ÁINE NIC LIAM

Foshan strikers have inspired workers across China.

workforce have a further 147 outstanding demands!

The Communist Party bureaucracy were desperate for the strikes to end before the Tiananmen Square anniversary took place as they fear nothing more than a genuine, independent workers’ movement. Despite the efforts of the bureaucracy, the commemorations still recorded their biggest turnout since the atrocity occurred.

These strikes occurred against a backdrop of much anger and disillusionment within the working class, especially

Education for all!

Look lads, I can’t promise yiz a job when you’s leave school, but if you work hard, you might be able to emigrate

amongst an increasingly radicalised younger generation.

The popular backlash against the multinational Foxconn (supplier of components to Apple, Dell and Sony), only served to ignite the struggles further.

Foxconn was recently exposed, as 12 workers have committed suicide in the factory due to the military-style administration and harsh working conditions experienced. Foxconn workers were forced to work 70 hours a week for 50c per hour.

Workers are also finding it more and more challenging to

Action now on Youth Suicide

By Conor Payne

P

By William Foley, Socialist Youth Kilkenny

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DUCATION CUTS show that the government is willing to do anything to ensure that their friends, the wealthy elite who caused this crisis, get a bailout even if it means that thousands of young people will not receive the opportunity of a full and comprehensive education. Many third level institutions are at crisis point due to underfunding, lay-offs and cuts to classes. Consequently, we have an outrageous scenario that despite the existence of mass youth unemployment, the thousands of Leaving Certificate students who have applied for a place in third level are not guaranteed a place in further education.

The “smart economy” is a phrase often hypocritically bandied about by ministers and government TDs. Essentially, it is a rather vague and ill-defined framework for economic recovery which, according to the government’s Innovation Taskforce, relies on “intensify-

ing foreign direct investment in high-value areas” and “fostering entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation across the economy and society as a whole.”

However, as the government knows well, the likelihood that multinational companies who are currently leaving Ireland en masse, in order to take advantage of lower paid workforces elsewhere will invest here is low. The “smart economy” plan isn’t smart at all. It’s no more than a collection of empty promises designed to help government TDs and ministers bluster their way through a period of massive unpopularity.

Socialist Youth pledges to fight alongside students against the savage attacks of the wealthy elite. Instead of cuts to, and commercialisation of, education we stand for a socialist society, in which education would be free from preschool to post secondary level and organised by those involved: the parents, pupils, teachers and the local community so that every person can enjoy their right to a decent education.

survive as capitalist “reforms” attack their living standards.

The share of GDP, for example, that goes to workers has shrunk dramatically from 57% in 1983 to 37% in 2005. This is despite GDP growing as fast as ever, expanding to 11.9% in 2009 alone. The action taken by the Foshan workers has inspired other young factory workers across China to struggle against the exploitation suffered under the hands of other major multinational corporations as we witness a summer of discontent in China.

IETA HOUSE, an organisation dealing with prevention of suicide and selfharm, is reporting an increase in the numbers of, particularly young, people, who are considering suicide in the context of the economic crisis.

There has been a rise of 21% in self-harm cases involving men aged 20-24 since 2008 and the first three months of 2009 saw a 43% increase in the number of suicides recorded. While the causes of suicide and selfharm are complex, it's unsurprising that the stresses and pressures of the recession would have an impact. An American study found that unemployed people, for instance, are two to four times more likely to commit suicide.

Even during the boom, suicide and self-harm among young people was a major crisis. Ireland has the third highest rate of suicide among young men in the OECD. This rate has doubled since 1977 and is the most common cause of death for young men.

There was never any decent funding given to suicide prevention. It receives a tenth of the funding of road safety measures, despite being a higher cause of deaths. Now, even the funding which was available is under attack. Disgracefully, the HSE has cut funding to a number of mental health groups it was funding by up to 12.5%. We can't accept cuts to these agen-

cies in the context of the increased pressures of the recession. Instead, there needs to be a significant increase in funding.

We also need to look at the social roots of suicide, which are being exacerbated by the recession caused by an economic system based on the greed of the few. There is no one cause of suicide but poverty and social exclusion feed into the issues around suicide and mental health. Young people, having grown up being told that they would be able to get a job and a decent standard of living, are particularly vulnerable to the feelings of inadequacy and isolation which accompany unemployment. We shouldn't accept this dead end existence, which is all that capitalism has to offer.

A society where the wealth is under democratic control and people have real say in how their lives are run is needed to ensure that the greatest possible chance of a healthy and happy life is available to all.

AFTER MY mother, Susie Long, died in 2007 after waiting seven months for a potentially lifesaving diagnostic procedure which private patients were receiving within days at the same hospital I naturally became concerned about the link between income inequality and inequality in health in our society.

According to the Institute of Public Health report “Inequalities in Mortality” over five thousand premature deaths could be prevented every year in this country if social inequality, and therefore the stresses and hardships that inequality begets, were eliminated.

Of course health inequality is not the only discrimination that people on lower incomes face but it is one example of how an unfair system can impact on the quality and even length of people’s lives.

However, any attempt to right the wrongs of social inequality would require a major redistribution of wealth and resources. It is quite clear that none of the mainstream parties would be capable or even willing to undertake such a process.

Under capitalism power is concentrated in the hands of people who have money which is why for instance, globally there is much more money being spent on finding a cure for baldness then malaria, even though the latter kills nearly one million children every year. The markets will never drive politicians or scientists or anyone else for that matter to do the right thing.

After studying politics and history at third level for almost three years I have only become more convinced that capitalism cannot be reformed. Until we move to a society where economic power and not just political power is democratised, these injustices will never be fully eliminated and millions will suffer as a result.

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July/August 2010

THE SOCIALIST

By Ray McLoughlin, TEEU Executive (personal capacity) HERE HAVE been two important cases in the High Court and Labour Court recently that highlight the difficulties facing workers in the construction industry and the inadequacies of the trade union leaders.

The High Court has ruled against a case taken by a number of employers over the validity of the Registered Employment Agreement that covers the electrical contracting industry. This case was taken by a small number of contractors that are outside the main employer bodies who were objecting to a pay claim that came before the Labour Court in 2008.

The judgment does have important legal significance for the many other REAs in existence, covering many other sectors of the Irish economy.

Notwithstanding the legal significance of this decision, the situation on the sites is the most immediate concern of the electricians in the construction industry that are members of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU). Last summer saw a week long strike of thousands of contracting electricians, supported by the majority of fellow construction workers, which brought all major construction sites to a halt. Follow on negotiations saw an agreed

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Electricians’ strike stopped the pay cut - an example to all workers.

phased increase of 4.9%, but the employers have reneged on this

and the Labour Court has not ratified the deal. Consequently few, if

any, employers have paid this.

Historically, there has not been a significant regular presence of union officials on sites. “Deduction at source” agreements with employers have meant that unions were able to collect subscriptions without showing up on site. The TEEU has, in fact, reduced its full time presence on sites. Faced with financial difficulties because of falling memberships, the union has cut at the bottom levels. Against the background of the continued attacks of the employers on the basic pay and conditions of members, union officials’ wages should be cut drastically to the levels of the workers they represent and all available resources should be concentrated on fighting these attacks on the ground.

Also in June, the Labour Court recommended a 7.5% cut in the rates of all other construction workers. This resulted from an attempt by the bosses’ organisation, the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), to get a reduction of 20% in the rates. They based their arguments on a spurious assertion that this would allow greater competition for southern Irish companies with companies from outside the state. Even the Labour Court has already said that such companies should be obliged to meet locally agreed wage rates and conditions.

As previously reported in The Socialist, some of the “leaders” of

unions in the Construction Industry Committee have been prepared to negotiate wage decreases, without any discussions or reference to the members.

Some now bleat that the employers have “set a trap” for the unions in that, if the workers vote against the recommendation the employers will use that pretext to walk away from the REA. This is tantamount to calling for a yes vote for this wage cut. Such treachery is based on the union bureaucracy trying to safeguard the deduction at source agreements. This effectively would guarantee them their continued good wages and defined benefit pensions while the workers they purport to represent face drastic wage cuts, dole queues and scandalously low pensions. What use is an REA if it can’t be enforced and only leads to attacks on workers?

This recommendation will probably be voted on in late August or in September. It should be voted against. All construction workers know only too well the problems that exist in their industry. Against a background of massive redundancies, many employers have already enforced unofficial cuts.

The employers need to be fought at a national level, but also from site to site. If we concede these measures to the employers now they will come back for more and, if and when, there is any upswing we will not regain lost ground.

Luxurious all-expenses paid trips AIB & Bank of Ireland job SIPTU/HSE training fund scandal

By Michael O’Brien HE INVESTIGATION being carried out by the HSE into the misuse of some of the €60 million fund negotiated

by SIPTU for the upskilling of non-medical staff in the health service show us again the extent to which leading trade union officials have integrated themselves with the establishment.

It is entirely legitimate for the trade union movement to campaign for public resources for the education and training of members, particularly those whose needs might include literacy, English language skills and essential life skills like computer courses.

However, stories have emanated from the HSE that over €2 million found its way into a SIPTU named account that has been spent on unaccounted for foreign trips to the US, Australia, Hong Kong and beyond involving union officials and Department of Health and HSE officials. If these allegations are true then this is a major scandal as it seems that trade union officials have been using money allocated for training workers as a “slush fund” to finance de facto luxurious “holidays” for themselves and senior management at the HSE and Department of Health.

This investigation comes after the clearing out from the Board of FÁS of all trade union representa-

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McLoone was on the FÁS board when Rody Molloy was dipping into the honey pot.

tives like Peter McLoone, who alongside IBEC and government representatives and their spouses were living high on the hog.

The presence of high-ranking trade union officials on state boards and a situation where they end up travelling the world with employer and government representatives is where the policy of Social Partnership has taken them.

The argument goes that the presence of union leaders on the boards of state bodies and the general hobnobbing and jet setting that goes on means workers gain influence at the top of society. This is nonsense when you consider that ICTU General Secretary David Begg has sat on the board of Aer Lingus when privatisation and countless attacks on jobs and working conditions has taken place and also on the board of the

Central Bank when the crookery and mismanagement in the financial sector which exacerbated the scale of the crisis in this country.

Rather than obtaining influence in the interests of workers, these trade union leaders went fully “native” among the representatives of the bosses whose system has brought us mass unemployment and savage wage cuts.

This illusion of influence is now being perpetrated in the North where Sinn Féin Minister Conor Murphy has appointed ICTU Assistant General Secretary Peter Bunting to the Board of Northern Ireland Water where privatisation and water charges are on the agenda.

Many of the very senior trade union officials are now part of the establishment cartel that uses its position to gain access to significant perks and extra financial allowances - they have their “snouts in the trough” and are milking the system for all they can get.

Another of the many reasons why most of them should be cleared out. This is why the Socialist Party calls for the election of all full time trade union officials and for them to be paid the average wage of the members they represent. Make them accountable to the members not the government and the bosses!

Michael is the former Regional Co-ordinator of SIPTU/FAS Union Learning Initiative

massacre can be resisted

By Oisín Kelly, IBOA member (personal capacity) IB AND Bank of Ireland management are making plans to axe 2,000 jobs.

Workers on modest pay that had nothing to do with the crisis are to pay the price for the decisions of senior bankers and government.

Already, workers in these banks have had pension entitlements cut and have seen hundreds of job losses through non-renewal of contracts and not filling vacancies. It is now crucial that a serious campaign is mounted by the unions to resist all redundancies.

These two banks received €7 billion from the taxpayer for recapitalisation and are likely to come back for more. The bail-outs did not give any comfort to bank workers. In fact, the Irish government and the EU have been to the fore in demanding job cuts, wage and pension cuts and a reduction in terms and conditions.

The job losses sharply contrasts with the multi-million payouts senior management enriched themselves with.

Former AIB CEO Eugene Sheehy is on a pension of over €600,000 a year. The current CEO Colm Doherty got €833,000 last year.

BoI CEO Richie Boucher gets a

A

IBOA General Secretary, Larry Broderick. Get off the phone and start representing your members!

€625,000 salary - cut down from last year’s €3 million.

A militant response from the unions can force the banks and the government to retreat. The Irish Bank Officials’ Association (IBOA) have put forward opposition to lay-offs and the firesale of assets such as First Trust and New Ireland.

However the IBOA are putting too much emphasis on “agreed processes” they have with the banks. This is not an effective strategy as AIB and BoI have no respect for “agreed processes” or talks. There needs to be an active mobilisation of union members that may include industrial action to protect jobs.

workplace news south

Reject 7.5% pay cut in construction sector

10

July/August 2010

international

THE SOCIALIST

Basque general strike shows workers’ strength All out on 29 September to defeat the attacks!

AGAINST A backdrop of a deepening crisis and a new wave of struggles, a general strike took place on 29 June in the Basque country. This strike came during a week of strike action by Madrid’s Metro workers, who in a militant display of determined action, defied the government’s attempts to shackle the effectiveness of their strike, by imposing a decree requiring workers to maintain 50% of services during their strike.

This dispute, in response to which, the government threatened to send the army to break the strike, combined with a whole number of strikes, in the postal and transport sectors, as well as a public sector general strike on 8 June, which saw 2 million take to the streets, gives a glimpse into the period of class battles which lies ahead in Spain.

This action has been sparked off by the launching of an austerity offensive by the Zapatero government, with across-theboard reductions in public sector pay, and attacks on child benefit, combined with a hike in VAT, which will hit the poorest hard, in a country devastated by one of Europe’s deepest crises, with over 4 million (around 20%) of the workforce unemployed, and over 43% of youths out of work.

The angry and militant response of the Spanish working class to these attacks is set to shake Spanish capitalism to its foundations, with a colossal general strike, encompassing the whole Spanish state, public and private sectors, called for 29 September. Below we publish a report of the Basque general strike, written by a member of the CWI, the international organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated, in Vittoria, the Basque country.

By John Hird, CWI, Euskadi (Basque country) HE STRIKE was in protest at the PSOE government’s proposed austerity programme which includes cuts in salaries for civil servants, attacks on pension rights and a rolling back of worker’s rights.

PSOE want to make it easier for employers to sack workers and cut back drastically on the 45 days per year redundancy pay.

This is a direct attack on the Spanish working class and a challenge to the unions and their leaders. When the proposals were published, there was shock and anger amongst the workers as the two main unions CC.OO and UGT had been negotiating with the government. Calls for a General Strike immediately were heard and CC.OO and UGT held joint talks to fix a date. When they came up with 29 September for a state-wide general strike, some workers expressed disappointment expressed in the phrase: ’It’s now or never!’

Meanwhile in Euskadi, the two

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leading Basque unions, ELA and LAB, immediately and correctly called for a General Strike on 29 June in Euskadi and Navarra.

Normally there is no co-operation between Basque unions and unions in the rest of the Spanish state but CC.OO (workers’ commissions) held a quick and intense debate in all their locals in Euskadi, and voted by 91% to support the strike.

The UGT which has been traditionally closer to PSOE refused to support the strike.

Despite the political differences between Basque and Spanish unions this development has to be seen as a step forward for the working class, entering into a period of struggle against unprecedented attacks against the workers of all sectors and nationalities.

However, there are still major political disagreements between unions in the Basque Country and confusion as to the best way forward.

At a CCOO pre-strike meeting of workers in education in Gasteiz some of these differences were expressed. Older activists, who prefaced their contributions by stating they were “anti-Basque nationalist”, asked why we were supporting the strike? Others said

there would be little support for the strike in their workplaces. The CC.OO officials argued that it was a matter of pride, and that a response had to be given to Zapatero and that it would be wrong to “allow the Basque unions to take the initiative.”

However, another contribution to the meeting, which underlined the importance of united action in Euskadi, despite our differences, was well received as were points which stressed that this is just the beginning of the fightback.

On 29 June as with all strikes there was a battle of statistics. The Basque Government and bosses’ associations claimed it was a failure while the unions saw it as a success. The strike was not 100% solid (organisers later claimed 80% participation), but did serve as a show of strength by the unions and served notice that workers are prepared to fight. The strike was somewhat less successful in the public sector, mainly because civil servants have already had two strikes recently and there may be a feeling among some that they have already lost, as the government took 5% from their pay packets at the end of last month.

Pickets were out in all the Basque capitals, Gasteiz, Bilbao and Donosti, early in the morning of 29 June. The strike was actually more successful amongst industrial workers and in transport, which shows that the traditionally militant sectors of the Basque working class are moving into action. Even the government admitted that energy consumption in industry was down 31% on strike day.

As usual, the press tried to play up “violence” in the strike, but for an action of such proportions there was little trouble. Only three people were arrested, although the Ertzaintza (Basque police) were heavy handed and provocative.

They had pickets up against the walls while searching them in Bilbao and they charged a few lines. In Gasteiz they beat up and arrested a long time CC.OO activist. This caused a lot of anger against the Ertzaintza.

The CC.OO’s support for the general strike has been entirely positive and must be built upon in the future. The march in Gasteiz was large and lively and workers turned up with their families to protest.

However, unfortunately, in Gasteiz alone there were three separate marches. At one point a CGT (small anarcho-syndicalist union) demo marched near to the CCOO demo and there was little or no mutual recognition.

As in the rest of the Basque Country, the Basque unions’ demos, called by ELA and LAB, in Gasteiz were several times larger than the CC.OO demos, more militant and made up in the main of much younger forces.

The general strike in Euskadi is the first stirring in the battle to defeat PSOE’s anti-working class policies. Our next general strike will be in the whole of the Spanish state on 29 September. The CWI is working to pull together activists who want a fighting socialist programme which can defeat these attacks. Watch this space!

Hong Kong: Youth protest for HK$33 minimum wage

By Chinaworker.info journalist K$19.70 (€2.00) an hour!

That’s the scandalously low hourly wage paid to young workers at some outlets of Cafe de Coral, one of Hong Kong’s major fast-food chains.

Other fast-food restaurants such as KFC and McDonald’s also pay rock bottom rates and this has to change.

This was the message of a protest action organised by Socialist Action (CWI in Hong Kong) against Cafe de Coral management at one of their busiest branches, in Sai Yeung Choi Street in Monglok.

Our protest was covered in around ten newspapers, including Apple Daily, Mingpao, Orient Daily, Sun, AM730, HKheadline and Metro, and

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also featured on TV news and Commercial radio Chants of “$33 minimum wage, no compromise!” echoed across the busy pedestrian shopping street, along with, “young workers join a union – unions should get militant.”

The action on 4 July targeted Cafe de Coral because its Chairman, Michael Chan Yue Kwong, serves on the government’s Provisional Minimum Wage Commission, which within days will announce the level at which Hong Kong’s first statutory minimum wage will be set. This says a lot about Hong Kong politics – that bosses in low-pay branches such as fast food are empowered by the government to set the level of the minimum wage, ostensibly to place a limit on their own abuses.

Hong Kong, with the world’s highest per capita income, has a

huge and growing army of “working poor”. Half a million workers – around one in five of the workforce

– are paid less than HK$5,000 (€510) per month.

Trade unions in Hong Kong are demanding a HK$33 hourly minimum. Socialists support this, as an absolute minimum, pointing out that even this is not enough. As the decision on the minimum wage is only days away, and bosses’ lobby groups are pushing for a measly HK$24 rate, we believe pressure must be stepped up to achieve at least HK$33, no compromise!

Socialist Action has raised the demand that union leaders should call a one-day citywide strike of “grassroots” (i.e. low-paid) workers to put more muscle into this demand.

Around 20 youth took part in the protest at Cafe de Coral, with Legislative Council member “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung and the

League of Social Democrats also lending support. There was evident sympathy from passers by, many who crowded round to listen to speeches and sign petitions. After half an hour, the protest, led by “Long Hair” and followed by dozens of journalists and several TV crews, threaded its way up to the first floor restaurant, where it took centre stage in front of the service counter. Leaflets were handed out to overwhelmingly sympathetic diners and speeches and slogans echoed around the cafeteria. Socialist action vowed to continue the protests next week, to keep the pressure upon the government and capitalists.

Watch the protest on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=L_oRy2Q_cVs&feature=player_embedded

11

July/August 2010

THE SOCIALIST

FEATURE

By Laura Fitzgerald T IS as enraging as it is heartbreaking, and we will not relent until this leak is contained, until the waters and shores are cleaned up, and until the people unjustly victimised by this manmade disaster are made whole”. These words of US President Obama on the ongoing catastrophe that is the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico won’t get him off the hook.

The words are equally as hollow as any uttered by Bush about the human tragedy he presided over after Hurricane Katrina devastated the same region five years ago, where the working class and poor disproportionately suffered and died. Obama’s record speaks for itself – three weeks before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Obama administration revealed plans to open up vast areas in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling for the first time.

Obama’s subsequent backtrack on this can’t hide the reality that administration after administration in the US, both Republican and Democrat, have ably facilitated the oil magnates, as well as furthering deregulation of industry of all hues. For example, a cursory examination of the exponential growth of the sub-prime mortgage industry exposes the fact that it began in the mid 1990s, under the nose of the Clinton administration, as “light”, read “lack of”, regulation was heralded.

That’s not to say that an attempt

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to regulate the likes of BP would have wielded much success. Time and again, BP has shown the unscrupulous nature of private corporations. When the oil spill first occurred BP denied it had happened. Subsequently they tried to pass it off as a small spill.

Later they denied that “plumes” of oil were emanating from the site of the catastrophe, trying to downplay the scale of the disaster. They even tried to prevent scientists from using the most up to date technology to measure the scale of the damage. The injury that the spill has and is inflicting on both the wildlife and broader eco-system of the region is immeasurable, not to mention the human cost for

workers and poor of the Gulf Coast, particularly those directly and indirectly employed by marine-activity in the area. This, as well as the deaths of 11 workers on the oil rig, can be directly attributed to the profiteering of BP. For example, it was recommended

by BP’s contractors, that they use 21 pieces of equipment called “centralisers” at the oil rig. BP used one. A BP project co-ordinator said in an email in reference to this decision, “But who cares, it’s done, end of story, will probably be fine and we’ll get a good cement job.” Furthermore, BP saved about $118,000 by not having a scan done that checks if there are any faults in the cementing. Little won-

der that this is a company that made a profit of $14 billion in 2009!

BP’s actions are utterly reprehensible and unspeakably perilous. We simply cannot afford to wreak havoc on the precious natural world in the fashion of profiteers of BP’s ilk. Obama’s support amongst US workers has justifiably waned in the course of the economic crisis and thankfully, his hypocritical attempts to vilify the ‘foreign’ BP company, have failed to exonerated him. His hypocrisy lies in the fact that US multinationals, like Exxon Mobile for example, play a similar role in countries that they operate in. In fact, Exxon Mobile as well as Shell and other oil companies, are directly responsible for the startling fact that in the Niger Delta in Africa, more oil is spilled per year than has been spilled in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. This is a contributing factor in life expectancy in rural communities of the region dipping as low as little over 40 years of age. We cannot afford to let the profit-worshippers destroy the planet and human lives. BP should be taken into public ownership. We need an international working class movement to nationalise major corporations under the control and management of workers. We need major investment and planning for a wholesale shift to renewable energy. In order to preserve our planet for future generations, we need to put an end to the undemocratic profit-system in which CEOs of multinationals like BP can act with impunity and wreak havoc over the environment and the lives of workers and poor.

Britain: Workers & poor hit hardest by blitzkreig Budget

By Ciaran Mulholland HE NEW ConservativeLiberal Democrat government in Britain has launched the most savage programme of cuts of any government in decades.

In his emergency budget speech on 22 June Chancellor George Osborne described the cuts he was delivering as "ensuring everyone, across the income scale makes a contribution to helping our country reduce its debts". This claim is a lie.

The cuts fall hardest on the poorest and the young, and deliberately so.

The ideology of this government dictates that the working class should pay for the crisis of the system.

The emergency budget was only one in a series of announcements of cuts in the last number of months.

The Comprehensive Spending Review in the autumn will result in even more cuts, with some departments facing the prospect of up 40% less to spend.

The result of the budget will be that the real incomes of working people will fall over the next few

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years-perhaps by up to 10% over the next three years (depending on inflation).

For many a much sharper reduction in income looms as they will lose their jobs: the Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that the budget will lead directly to 600,000 job losses in the public sector and 700,000 job losses in the private sector as a knock-on effect.

VAT, a tax which hits the working class hardest, will rise from 17.5% to 20% in January 2011. The pay of most public sector workers has been frozen for two years.

Child benefit has been frozen for three years. In addition from April 2011 pregnant women will no longer get the “Health in Pregnancy” payment of £190 and the “Sure Start” maternity grant of £500 will only be for the first child, not any subsequent children. The “baby element” of child tax credits, which was an additional payment worth about £10 a week for a year, has also been abolished.

The maximum income at which a household can get “tax credits” has been reduced from £50,000 a year

before tax to £40,000 from April 2011 and will be reduced to £30,000 by 2012. This cap will affect many ordinary couples, who work full time and earn average wages, but who face steep nursery costs.

Benefits and tax credits will no longer be up-rated by the retail price index, one measure of inflation, but instead by the alternative measure, the consumer price index, shaving about 1% a year from payments.

The government recognises that domestic demand will be weak because workers will lack the money to buy goods and hopes that the economy will grow as exports expand. As commentator Larry Elliot puts it however: "The Germans, the Greeks, the Irish and the Spanish - not to mention Japan, the US and the fast growing emerging nations of China - all see their economic future in the same way.

Just how every country in the world can enjoy export-led growth has not yet been explained." (The Guardian 28 June 2010) The risk is not just of economic stagnation but of a new recession.

The economist Paul Krugman has warned of the risk of tipping the world into a Great Depression the price for which would be paid by "tens of millions of unemployed workers, many of whom will go jobless for years, and some will never work again." (The Guardian 29 June 2010).

Northern Ireland is heavily dependent on public spending and will be especially badly hit in the next period. £128 million is to go now from the Northern Ireland budget and perhaps £1 billion will be cut over the next five years. The cuts are already falling heavily and resistance has begun. A spirited local campaign was initiated when the Mid-Ulster Hospital casualty department was closed and parents and trade unionists worked together when cuts were made to summer schemes for children with disabilities in June. These campaigns are an indication of the anger, and fear, of working people. The sheer scale of the onslaught may have a stunning effect, leading to a “get your head down” approach amongst some workers, but it is more likely

that there will be local opposition and this may spark a more widespread and generalised fight back.

Bob Crow, General Secretary of the RMT transport union recognizes this and has called for a "sustained campaign of generalised strikes across both the public and private sectors and community direct action to defend public services." Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the PCS, has called for "joint union action and campaigning in communities" to stop the cuts.

Crow has also argued for "the trade unions to form alliances with community groups, campaigns and pensioners' organisations in the biggest show of united resistance since the success of the anti-poll tax movement."

A mass national demonstration against the attacks of the Con-Dem government is a necessary and urgent first step. Properly built for, such a demonstration would express the opposition of millions to the attacks. It would build confidence in struggle and prepare the way for a 24-hour public sector strike.

international & britain

Lust for profits caused BP oil disaster

WHAT WE STAND FOR Workers’ rights

PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY

ISSUE 55

JULY/AUGUST 2010

$1 billion 3-day summit

G20 betrays commitments to world’s poor

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

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

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

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

Housing n Nationalise the developers’ empty residential properties and use them to eliminate the housing waiting lists.

Privatisation

By Eddie McCabe HE LATEST G20 summit in Toronto scandalously cost an estimated $1 billion! An incredible sum of money and an even more incredible slap in the face for the unseen, unheard victims of the economic crisis - the millions of unemployed, homeless and poor.

The G8 were also forced to admit that they were failing - miserably – to meet their commitments to doubling

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aid to the world’s poor, particularly to Africa.

The G8 had promised in 2005 that it would increase annual development assistance to the world's poor by $50 billion per year, with $25 billion going to Africa. Those figures, adjusted for inflation should be $60 billion and $30 billion respectively. Falling far short, total aid has only increased by roughly $40 billion with only $15 billion going to Africa.

The summit did pledge $224 million in development grants for agriculture

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in Bangladesh, Rwanda, Haiti, Togo, and Sierra Leone. This highly generous sum amounts to about one fifth of what was spent on security for the summit!

And what exactly did we get from the G20 for $1 billion dollars? A radical plan of action to deal with the banks and financial institutions that created this crisis? No. A cutting edge solution to third world hunger or climate change? No. Agreement on how the rich and powerful can make sure the working class pays for their mess?

Not quite.

While there is of course agreement on the fundamentals of who should pay, (In fact, at the G20 there was a chance for ministers to receive advice from “an exclusive group of high-profile business leaders from around the world” – the B20. A clear indication of whose interests are being represented) stark divisions are emerging, particularly between Germany and the other European powers on the one hand and the US on the other.

The Obama administration is wary of the European style austerity measures, for a number of reasons e.g. such savage cuts could lead to low growth or recession in Europe which would jeopardise US export markets, but

also because Obama faces midterm elections in November and in reality requires not cuts but a new stimulus package to stave off defeat.

However the outcome of the summit saw the European agenda prevail, with the final communiqué calling for governments to slash their deficits in half by 2013. In the US for example this would mean a massive cut of $781 billion. With absolutely no intention of looking to multinational corporations or banks for this money the idea is for the working class to foot the bill.

Whether this will be through tax increases or cuts in public spending or both, it will mean a monstrous assault on living standards worldwide.

In reality, this is the only solution capitalism can provide us with. What is needed is a continuation and an escalation of the movements taking place across the globe in response to the crisis. Workers and young people in the US, Europe, China and beyond have been resisting the attacks and displaying their potential power in the process. A political alternative must be built alongside these movements in every country to lead the workers in struggle beyond the misery of capitalism, beyond the rule of big business and their puppets in the G20.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Socialism n Capitalism is the cause of poverty, inequality, environmental destruction and war. We need an international struggle against this system and its effects. The working class can build a socialist world in which the resources of the planet are used to satisfy the needs of the mass of the people not the thirst for profit of a tiny minority of super rich. n Take all major industry, banks and financial institutions into public ownership and place them under the democratic control and management of working class people. n For the working class to democratically plan the economy to provide for the needs of all, and to protect our environment. n For the building of a mass political party capable of uniting the working class in the struggle for socialism in Ireland. n For a socialist Ireland as part of a free and voluntary socialist federation of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland.