New government, same old policies€¦ · tax cuts for the wealthy and professional classes; deeper...

Communist Party of IrelandPáirtí Cumannach na hÉireann

Partisan Patriotic InternationalistNumber 185 July 2020 €1.50

www.commmunistparty.ie

Page 2 Social partnershipPage 4 The EU and Covid-19Page 6 The US and Ireland

Page 8 Economic analysis June 2 Gadfly and WaspPage 14 Poetry: PowerPage 15 Cuban leter

Page 16 CPI statement

Socialist Voice

H

H HH

HHH

“The continent [Africa] may be a blot,but it is not a blot upon ourconscience. The problem is not thatwe were once in charge, but that weare not in charge any more . . . Thebest fate for Africa would be if the oldcolonial powers, or their citizens,scrambled once again in herdirection, on the understanding thatthis time they will not be asked tofeel guilty.”Boris Johnson MP, Spectator (London), 2002

SVSocialist Voice

43 East Essex Street Dublin D02 XH96 (01) 6708707

ISSN 0791-5217

j/7G@7I1\URQPPX/ Zpzw

New government,same old policiesBut the policies will be the same: to give priority to the interests of the market and big business, both national and transnational; tax cuts for the wealthy and professional classes; deeper involvement in EU military strategies and adventurismEugene McCartan Page 2

Page 16 Communist Party of Ireland statement

JIMMY DORAN

“Social partnership” is anti-democratic, because a small group ofinsiders make the deal. This is thenpackaged and sold to workers as thebest deal possible at this time, giventhe present circumstances.

Social partnership comes onto thehorizon as a result of political,employment and economic crisis, inorder to reduce workers’ expectations,demands and aspirations and to lay the

ground for the introduction of austerity.The trade union movement must

reject this strategy.To be clear, I am not condemning the

entire trade union movement. There aremany within the movement fightingagainst this strategy. Some comradesinferred that in last month’s SocialistVoice I was condemning the entire tradeunion movement in the North for nottaking an anti-imperialist stance. Thiswas not the intention, as many unionsdo.

Social partnership agreements arenot binding on the government: it is freeto treat them as advisory, while unionsdepend on the state to introducelegislation in the spirit of the agreement,which rarely happens.

The ultimate goal of socialpartnership is the demobilisation ofunion resistance in employers’ interests.Unions exchange wage moderation andindustrial peace for an expectation ofpolicy and institutional influence. Theamount of influence is debatable. Somelegislative regulations protecting workerswere negotiated under social partnershipbut ultimately had to be passed by thegovernment. Not all were: for example,legislation on migrant workers waspromised but never implemented.

Trade unions always fearedlegislation on employment, but socialpartnership actually accelerated it. Ofcourse the crowning glory of socialpartnership was the Industrial RelationsAct (1990), which in effect stripped allpower from unions and workers,transferring it to employers and thejudiciary. The trade union movement washoodwinked by Bertie Ahern, thenminister for labour, who was seen as theworkers’ friend, with guarantees,promises and assurances that it was inworkers’ best interest to get thislegislation through, as it would inevitably

POLITICS

2 Socialist Voice July 2020

EUGENE MCCARTAN

SO, AFTER months of shadow-boxing and pretend negotiations,three parties—Fianna Fáil, Fine

Gael, and the Green Party—haveeventually tied the knot and will set uphouse together. They have been leadingthe public on a merry dance, in thepretence that they had worked hard to“overcome major obstacles,” etc. Thepress dutifully recorded the “tensions”and “difficulties” over the last fewmonths.

Finally, all the parties involvedshowed great “maturity,” and in the“national interest” Fianna Fáil and FineGael set aside their historicaldifferences, stepped up to the mark,and formed a government, with the

Green Party giving the pretence that thiswas a new departure and a completebreak from the past.

But the policies will be the same: togive priority to the interests of themarket and big business, both nationaland transnational; tax cuts for thewealthy and professional classes;deeper involvement in EU militarystrategies and adventurism, andShannon Airport still used as a staging-post for US and NATO wars ofaggression.

There will be a further erosion ofworkers’ rights, while precariousemployment and zero-hour contractswill remain central factors in the lives ofhundreds of thousands of workers,mainly young people and women.

While there may be a brief

honeymoon period to get this three-party coalition bedded in, there will belittle change in direction on economicand social policies. The Green Party willprovide the political cover and agreenwash to mask further attacks onworkers and their families.

The building of additional “social andaffordable” housing is no different fromwhat was proposed by the outgoingsingle-party government of Fine Gael.The priority will be to strengthen theposition of private builders and propertyspeculators, and private and corporatelandlords. The provision of publichousing at an affordable rent will neverbe allowed to compete with private rentspeculation.

Public lands will be given away, onthe promise that a small number of

Social partnership?No, thanks

New government, same old policies

‘What will decidedly change the political conditions and force the necessary deepeconomic and social change is for working people to mobilise to advance ourown interests.’

Socialist Voice July 2020 3

social and affordable homes will bebuilt. The situation is made worse by therecent decision by AIB not to approvemortgages or take into considerationincome derived from welfare paymentsand to actively reject someone whoseemployment they consider precarious.This can only be overcome by a massivesubsidy from the state in relation to whoqualifies for “affordable housing,” sofacilitating a huge transfer of publicwealth to banks and builders.

The same will happen in the sphereof public health. There will be much talkof increased and more targetedinvestment in the public system; but inreality the provision of private healthand private health insurance will be thecornerstone of state policy. The statewill push more public patients throughthe private health system, payingexorbitant premiums to corporatemedical interests.

The treatment of all the nurses and

doctors who returned home from abroadto help during the covid crisis and werethen told to stand down shows that thegovernment has little interest inexpanding the public health system.

The same goes for the “greenagenda” and a reduction in carbonemission: these are all aspirational andwill be put off until the next government.The powerful corporate farming interestsand the agrifood industries still decideagricultural policy—certainly not familyfarmers. They may well be thrown underthe bus as a sacrifice to keep the GreenParty on board.

The strategy since the outcome ofthe last general election has been tocontrol and corral the people’s desirefor change into safe blind alleys andinstitutional control.

Now is the time for people to beginto mobilise, to push forward theiragenda and not allow the powerfuleconomic and hence political forces to

decide the future of our country.Working people voted for changethrough the ballot box; it cannot berealised by simply allowing political andeconomic struggle to be mediatedthrough state institutions.

What will decidedly change thepolitical conditions and force thenecessary deep economic and socialchange is for working people to mobiliseto advance our own interests.

The challenge for the left and thetrade union movement is to mobilisethe people on clear goals: on universalpublic housing built by a nationalbuilding company, a single-tier,universally free public health system, astrategy for creating jobs, and thecontrol of capital to ensure targetedinvestment to meet the people’s needsand not for profit or speculativepurposes.

Time to put working people first! H

lead to better pay and conditions, whenemployment relations would improveimmensely as a result of it. Yes,employment relations improvedimmensely—but for employers—as aresult of the 1990 act.

The trade union movement had beensoftened up and became far too cosyaround Government Buildings, believingtheir own bluster that they had influenceon social policy. During this period theworking class suffered devastating cutsto the social wage; the building of publichousing was abandoned to the privatesector; charges were introduced for thedysfunctional health service, on itsknees as a result of continuous cuts. Atthe same time tax breaks were given toemployers, speculators and investors asworkers were robbed to pay Peter, Pauland every gombeen businessperson inthe largest transfer of wealth to theruling elite since the foundation of thestate.

As a result of social partnership,union density collapsed. Strikes becamea thing of the past, leading to ageneration of union reps without anyexperience of collective bargaining orcollective action.

As time went on, social partnershipbecame more and more bureaucratic,with working groups, task forces,reviews, and committees, leading to

avoidance, postponement, and lack ofdecision-making on contentious issues.Employers did not have to implementregulations, and many did not.

The private sector has almostcomplete autonomy to pursue corporatestrategies, while employers are free todetermine the form, structure andorganisation of any internal collectivebargaining unit.

The main achievement of socialpartnership was a victory for theemployers in gaining pay restraint andindustrial peace. The cherry on the piewas a plethora of anti-union legislation,not least the Industrial Relations Act.The government succeeded in loweringworkers’ expectations, enabling them toimpose austerity policies at will. In thepublic sector, “workplace partnership”has been used in a managerial mannerto drive through a predetermined reformagenda.

The reliance of the trade unionmovement, particularly the largerunions, on social partnership as astrategy has over time engendered areluctance to embrace and in somecases a fear of alternative strategies.

Social partnership created anunnatural division between the publicand private sectors, and this wasencouraged by the government,employers, and media. The Croke Park

Agreement then divided the publicsector unions. Social partnership has leftthe trade union movement a paleshadow of its former self: broken,demoralised, with falling union densityand a serious lack of experience incollective action, leading to afundamental lack of confidence.

The employers’ side, on the otherhand, has grown in confidence asincreasingly, and successfully, they turnto the courts to stop workers fromstriking. The anti-union legislation hasled to many victories over unions, givingemployers the confidence to nowengage in aggressive union-bustingtactics.

The legal environment isextraordinarily hostile to workers and tounions. Workplace partnership is non-existent, as the balance of power hasshifted from workers to employers.

Social partnership has devastatedthe trade union movement; but stillmany within it are wedded to thisparadigm. There has been a class waron workers’ rights for thirty years, andworkers are losing hands down.

Social partnership is classbetrayal. Unions must becomeradical or they will becomeredundant and ultimatelydefeated.H

PANDEMIC


Standingup fortenantsEILÍS NÍ MHÁRTAIN

The Community Action Tenants’Union (CATU) is Ireland’s onlyunion organised within the

community you are living in—in thesame way that a trade union branch isbased within a workplace. CATU

members come together to combat notonly issues concerning tenancy butanything that affects the wholecommunity, such as the removal of alocal playground, repossession of ahome by a bank, or the privatisation ofpublic land for housing.

“We want to take the basic ideas ofmembership, collective direct action,and grassroots democracy from wherepeople work to where they live”(www.CATUireland.org).

What is “collective direct action”?Instead of trying to resist an evictionalone by individually pleading with thelandlord, the entire local membershipwould resist the eviction as a group or

collectively. This fight would be publiclyvisible and is intended to directly affectthe target—a tactic otherwise known asdirect action—instead of the traditional,more polite avenues some campaignstake, such as signing a petition orwriting a letter to a politician. CATUmembers are a physical presence indelivering this message to the target.

CATU is the only dues-payingmembership-based community andtenants’ union for Ireland. Membershipis open to council and private tenants,home-owners, mortgage-holders, andpeople forced to live in direct provisionor emergency accommodation, and anyother form of precarious

TOMMY MCKEARNEY

WRITING IN THE Irish Times on17 April, the Spanish academicJavier Cercas described the

EU’s response to the covid-19pandemic as having been slow, stingy,and fearful. It is a view shared by many,especially those in southern Europe.Indeed the Italian prime minister,Giuseppe Conte, went so far as tosuggest that the response was soinadequate that it posed a questionover the bloc’s future.

Such sentiments are hardlysurprising, given the fact that in thoseearly days China and Cuba provided

more practical assistance to hard-hitItaly than any of their EU neighbours.

Worried by mounting criticism, theEU Commission made a belated, almostbegrudging attempt to address theissue. It did so not by convertingindustry for the manufacture of personalprotective equipment and safeaccommodation for the elderly but byoffering incentives to the private sector,and promising an economic recoveryfund. Even at that, and five monthsafter the first cases were identified onthe Continent, the nature of therecovery fund and its introduction is stillcausing dissent among member-states.The response, nevertheless, neatly

captures the essence of the EuropeanUnion, an organisation designed topromote and safeguard the interests ofcapital, regardless of the need of themasses.

Two factors in particular assist EUpower-brokers in maintaining influenceover the southern part of Ireland, evenas we experience an acute health crisis.In the first instance, too many peoplehave been led to believe thateconomics is an esoteric and difficult-to-grasp science. This misconception,coupled with the self-interest of ournative comprador bourgeoisie,supported intellectually and politically bycentrist social democrats, helps thesystem continue.

Just as in mediaeval Europe, whenthe clergy held sway, thanks in largepart to widespread illiteracy, modernEurope’s rulers depend on misleadingthe populace into believing that theyalone are able to understand andmanage the workings of the economy. Awell-practised routine is to speak gravelyof seemingly huge sums. The EuropeanUnion’s promise of a covid-19 recoveryfund of €750 billion is a good exampleof this and how it is playing out in thiscountry.

However, let’s just put this intocontext. The promised fund is less than5½ per cent of the European Union’sGDP for 2019.* Moreover, only aportion (66 per cent) of the amount willbe available as grants and the restdistributed as loans, to be repaid. Atpresent, Ireland has been promised €3billion, or 0.4 per cent of the total

The EU and Covid-19

‘... in 2010 the Republic was forced by the European Union to pay 42 per cent ofthe total cost of the European banking crisis, at a cost of close to €9,000 perperson in the state. Solidarity, how are you?’


accommodation, which includes thenearly 486,000 adults still living withparents.* Membership contribution ispaid monthly and is calculated on whatyour hourly wage is, or whatever youcan afford. Membership is not open tolandlords.

But why a membership-basedorganisation? Paying dues gives everymember an equal vote in thisdemocratic union, and it is the basiclevel of involvement in the union.Membership subscriptions pay for suchmaterials as leaflets, banners, andtraining costs needed for campaigning,and this keeps the union independent;so there is no reliance on funding from

the government or city councils, whichwe are usually fighting against.

Membership contributions canultimately give enough stability to paypeople for the extensive work it takes torun a union, thus reducing burn-out byvolunteers, and recognises theextensive work that is needed to keepan organisation functioning.

Unlike many campaign groups, CATUis not a service-provider or a charity, noris it an advocacy group that is going tospeak on behalf of the oppressed. Everymember is involved in the struggle tofight oppression. This means there areno “saviours”; unlike NGOs, it avoidsthe power dynamic that further

institutionalises and disempowersoppressed groups. Instead, thoseaffected are empowered to fight back,with their community beside them.CATU merely provides the training, toolsand organisation to collectivise thecommunity to join and support theirfight—because it is only our strength innumbers that will fight off the enormouspower of wealthy landlords,corporations, and government.

If you are serious about gettingorganised, join CATU to fight for whatyou and your community want andneed and, importantly, win!H

*2016 census (https://tinyurl.com/yaokvzqv).

amount. Even if the Dublin governmentwere to have this doubled it would stillbe less than 1 per cent of what isavailable. Bear in mind that the Irishrestaurant sector alone is asking for€1.8 billion to stave off majorredundancies.

In passing, we might also remindourselves that in 2010 the Republicwas forced by the European Union topay 42 per cent of the total cost of theEuropean banking crisis, at a cost ofclose to €9,000 per person in thestate. Solidarity, how are you?

What, therefore, are we to make ofassurances from the Irish Troika ofVaradkar, Martin and Ryan that therewill be no return to austerity? It isdifficult to see how they intend torestore the economy to a pre-pandemicstatus, which itself was far from ideal.Every indicator is pointing to a recessionof alarming proportions. The touristindustry is not going to recover any timesoon. Agriculture will be affecteddetrimentally by a Tory Brexit asJohnston and Cummings strivefrantically to appease US tradenegotiators by accepting cheap,dubiously produced poultry and beef.Every service outlet, from dentist tohairdresser, will have increased viruspreventive costs to meet from arestricted number of customers. Add tothis the cost of additional pandemic-related social welfare payments, nowrunning at more than €30 billion, andyou get the picture.

The only area where there is areasonable prospect of raising the

revenue required to rejuvenate theeconomy is from taxing largetransnational corporations andespecially those in the high-tech andpharmaceutical sectors. Yet this is onepath that Fine Gael has set its facefirmly against, putting it even to theright of the neo-liberal EU Commission.RTE recently reported that Leo Vardkarwill resist the EU’s mooted proposal tointroduce a digital tax, tax for largecorporations, and a one-off tax fortransnationals.

Of course austerity is not inevitable,but it would require an entirely differenteconomic system from that presidedover by our Leinster House Troika andas evidenced by their proposedprogramme for government. The fact isthat, notwithstanding the fatuous talk ofaddressing housing, health, and childcare, there will be no significantimprovement in these areas for workingpeople. This so-called economicrecovery is predicated on a low-wageeconomy, reinforced by unemploymentand a depressing of the social wage. Aswith all other crises in the past, workingpeople will be expected to pay for thispandemic with poorly paid employment,cutbacks in public services, andreduced expenditure on social andphysical infrastructure.

Adherence to EU regulations will becited as a convenient explanation forretaining or even expanding the privatesector. Membership of the EuropeanUnion entails submitting to stringentneoliberal economics, demanding free-market dominance throughout society.

We are now familiar with this in areasonce the prerogative of the state;electricity, telecommunications, publictransport and tolled roads are nowprofit-making investments for thewealthy. The same applies to housing,health, child care, and nursing homesfor the elderly.

While this harsh economic regime iswelcomed by Ireland’s ruthless andgreedy bourgeoisie, it raises a questionover the political trajectory of our socialdemocrats—not that we should confineour definition of social democrat to theparty led by Róisín Shortall TD: it appliesto all those parties committed toremaining within the ideological,political and economic parametersdictated by the European Union, inother words those parties that remainwedded to the capitalist mode ofproduction, albeit with some tinkering atthe edges.

So, for all their demands for change,their programmes will change nothing ofsignificance, as, in the words of Lenin,they are “loth to cast off the dear oldsoiled shirt” they have worn for so long.

There is a programme that will bringabout change that allows us to pay for apeople’s recovery from covid-19 andother setbacks. We’ve known about itfor a long time; and it’s called socialism.After all, it is well past time to cast offthe soiled shirt and to put on cleanlinen and tell us which side you’re on.H

*Eurostat, “Which EU countries had thehighest GDP in 2019?”(https://tinyurl.com/yajs8mpg).

SEÁN Ó MAOLTUILE

MAINSTREAM CULTURE andpolitics is invested in the ideathat the age of nationalism has

ended. Liberals proclaim that the worldeconomy has been thoroughlyglobalised, and therefore nations are nolonger of importance. Yet, as usual,reality serves to upset the declarationsand pronouncements of liberalcommentators.

The question of nationality andnationhood has not ceased to be ofimmense importance. Two recent

momentous events indicate thisenduring significance: Ireland’s recentelection in the South and the currentuprising in the United States.

In the United States these attacksfrom below on the imperialist, neoliberalestablishment emerged from a drearyfoundation of high unemployment,worsening working conditions, risingliving costs, crumbling public services,and much else that characterises thedownward spiral of recent decades. Yetwhat ignited these assaults was morethan just these economic considerations:the question of nationality was the spark

that lit the prairie fire.African-Americans are an oppressed

nation within the white supremacistUnited States. This is a settler-colonialcountry, its wealth and power built onthe exploitation and murder of Africansand indigenous peoples. This materialfoundation has not changed. Brutalexploitation lives on in content whilemerely its form has altered. A glance atstatistics relating to oppressednationalities in prisons, police brutality,economic deprivation and much elsebesides will reveal that there has beenno revolutionary transformation awayfrom this foundation of a settler-colonialimperialist project. As a result, therevolutionary struggle of oppressednationalities has proved to be the crucialstruggle throughout American history.

The African-American communistHarry Haywood (1898–1985) dedicatedhis life to placing the black nationalliberation struggle at the centre ofrevolutionary politics. He wrote that“such a [national] movement wouldinevitably culminate in the demand forpolitical power . . . The Black liberationstruggle would be, as it had alwaysbeen, a spark, a catalyst pushing forwardthe whole working-class and people’sstruggle in the U.S.” And indeed themurder of George Floyd has served asthe spark for upheaval throughout theUnited States, the kick that pushed thestrangled masses into action.

NATIONAL LIBERATION


DECLAN MCKENNA

“By sowing chaos [abroad], they’vegot chaos at home. Everything they’vebeen embedding into the world’sconsciousness—they’re reaping itnow.” Maria Zakharova, RussianForeign Ministry spokesperson, oncurrent events in the United States.

“The child who is not embraced by thevillage will burn it down to feel itswarmth.” African proverb

“Thanks to [China, Russia, Cuba, Iran,the World Health Organization and theUnited Nations] who have all donatedsupplies recently. Genuine

humanitarian aid is arriving to ourcountry to attend to the health of ourpeople. Thank God Venezuela hassome true friends in the world. Wearen’t alone!” Nicolás Maduro,president of Venezuela

“United States’ gross national debt hasexceeded $26 trillion.” US Treasury Department• The “richest,” most powerful countryin the world is in debt to the tune of$26 million million!

“The Democratic Party [in the UnitedStates] exists to co-opt and killauthentic change movements.”Headline on RT

“Lives don’t seem to matter in Yemen. . . Arab lives in Syria haven’tmattered to more than a handful ofpeople . . . When black people hunglike strange fruit from Libyan treesfollowing the UK/US/French invasion ofthe country and the sodomising with abayonet of its leader, liberals likeHillary Clinton and David Cameronlaughed—literally, in Clinton’s case.”George Galloway

“If we are not careful it will become acultural revolution disconnected fromthe political and economic revolutionand [serve] the interests of the richand powerful.”George Galloway

Who said that?

The US and Ireland

‘... the working class of Ireland have no interest in playing the role of servant toimperial masters—in fact it’s entirely at odds with their material interests.’


This year the Irish politicalestablishment in the South wasirreparably shaken. The shock victory ofSinn Féin was a historic blow to the irongrip Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have heldover the Irish state for a century.

The significance of the recent RIC (orBlack and Tans) commemorationscandal cannot be underestimated inaccounting for Sinn Féin’s success. Thisinvitation to “grow up,” to forgive andforget the brutality of British imperialism,sent waves of righteous indignationthroughout the country. Theestablishment has advised us to forgetairy-fairy notions of “nationhood” or“unity”: we should be solely concernedwith making money and buying a houseor two. We’re a cog in a global system,doing our small part to help Americanbillionaires become trillionaires.

Yet the people of Ireland have taken atentative step in rejecting the philosophythat the Southern statelet was builtupon: subservience to imperialism. Theruling class of Ireland, like most rulingclasses, has been preoccupied withrejecting a fundamental law of reality,that change is the only constant, andintend to keep the country divided andbeholden to British, American andEuropean interests for ever.

But the working class of Ireland haveno interest in playing the role of servantto imperial masters—in fact it’s entirelyat odds with their material interests.

Republicanism is the inevitablemanifestation of this contradiction, and ithas served as the radical philosophy ofall broad-based revolutionary struggles inthis country for many centuries. For now,Sinn Féin represent this longing fornational sovereignty, even if far moreradical politics will be necessary in orderto achieve it. Attacks on our republicantradition (equating it with the far-right,terrorism, etc.) and attempts to glossover our colonisation represent theSouthern ruling class’s attempt toundermine this burgeoning trend andhold stagnant the forward movement ofhistory. The people of Ireland will not befooled.

But why do I speak of these twoissues together? Because they areinseparably linked. The striving fornational liberation has ever been thegreatest enemy of imperialism, whetherthat’s in Ireland or with the Black nationin the United States. American capitalfeeds off the whole world, and a weak,divided Irish working class is easier toexploit and steal from than is adisempowered and brutalised Blackworking class.

The same forces that strangledGeorge Floyd to death have strangledthe entire world for centuries. We mustnot look down in pity at our comradesacross the pond: we must recognise ourshared struggle and fight together alongsuch lines. The outpouring of support for

George Floyd on a global scale is anindication of this understanding.

The uprising in America is not asingle-issue affair: it is an attack at theheart of a global system of exploitation—“a clarion call to all oppressed peoplesthroughout the world to rise up anddefeat imperialism.” The liberalestablishment believed it had smotheredthe desire for national liberation, but itsnecessity for the working class isasserting itself once more. The bestservice we could offer the colonisedAfrican-American nation is to build anindependent socialist republic thatstands firmly in solidarity with them,rather than aiding and abetting theiroppression at every turn—rather thanlaundering their oppressors’ profits andrefuelling their warplanes. Likewise thevictory of the Black liberation strugglewould spell the end of the US empireand its exploitation of our country.

As ever, “patriotism is appliedinternationalism.” The Irish people arecoming to recognise this reality.H

Sources and further reading(all available at cym.ie/education)James Connolly, Socialism and NationalismHarry Haywood, “We Have Taken the First Stepon a Long March”Ho Chi Minh, The Path Which Led Me toLeninismLiu Shaoqi, Internationalism and NationalismMao Zedong, Quotations from Mao Zedong,chap. 18: “Patriotism and internationalism”Huey P. Newton, Functional Definition of Politics

“Venezuela will have its elections. Wedo not care about the EuropeanUnion.” Nicolás Maduro, presidentof Venezuela

“Something that has taught Cubansto recognize divisive and subversivemaneuvers, a key component ofhostile US policy toward Cuba, is theshameless way they use, anddiscard, individuals, whenever itserves their purpose—be it a specificperson or a council of several, whotake the lead on the ground in theirunrelenting attacks.” GranmaInternational

“I thought this situation would forcethe world to act in a different wayand be more human. But I haverealised I was wrong. The rich are

getting more rich and the poor morepoor. I certainly admire the effort ofthe [Cuban] government to try toguarantee food for all the people butit is difficult when they don’t haveenough resources.”Javier Domínguez, contributor toSocialist Voice, on the situation inCuba and the continuing inequality inthe world

“It’s common for smaller countriessuch as Ireland who come onto theUN Security Council to work withcountries of similar values to try toget resolutions passed which aresustainable over a period of time.”The Journal, on Ireland’s election tothe UN Security Council.• “Similar values”—only time will tellwhat that means.

“Trump talks tough on Venezuela,but admires thugs and dictators likeNicolás Maduro. As President, I willstand with the Venezuelan peopleand for democracy.”The hopeless US presidentialcandidate Joe Biden, attackingDonald Trump for even consideringthe possibility of meeting theVenezuelan president

“We strongly support yourcommitment to combating foreigndiktat and any attempts at blatantinterference in the domestic affairsof a sovereign state, opposing anyattempts at a forced regimechange.”Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreignminister, to Jorge Arreaza,Venezuelan foreign ministerH

CAPITALISM


EWAN MACDONALD

WE ARE in the first moments ofan economic crisis moreserious than anything

experienced in living memory. The WorldBank’s “baseline forecast” envisages a“5.2 percent contraction in global GDPin 2020—the deepest global recessionin eight decades.”¹ Even that assumeswe are living through the mostoptimistic scenario.

It is necessary to be aware ofcurrent proposals to solve the unfoldingeconomic crisis, proposals that areadvocated by leading institutions ofinternational capital: the International

Monetary Fund, the Organisation forEconomic Co-operation andDevelopment, the World Bank, and theEuropean Central Bank. The proposalsoffered by these institutions outline thecontours of a strategy that will bepursued over the coming years toattack the gains of workers, alreadyeroded since the last recession.

It is also important to consider therole of the European Union and theeuro zone, particularly when thepandemic has bolstered support for theformer and the mechanisms of thelatter will most probably be responsiblefor overseeing the proposals we nowturn to.

The proposed solutionsAs mentioned before in SocialistVoice, covid-19 is merely a catalystfor an economic crisis that was longoverdue. High rates of corporate debtand historically low rates of profitwere driving the global economicsystem towards a long-overduerecession. Capitalism—an economicsystem that moves in recurring cyclesof boom and bust—is the underlyingproblem; the pandemic has simplyaccelerated contradictions late in theprocess of unfolding.

The IMF, OECD, World Bank andECB offer solutions to the crisis bybreaking up recommendations into two

Economic Update July 2020

Abandoned factory, Detroit

‘The intention to attack labour is couched in terms of the reallocation of resourcesto sectors that will be successful after the pandemic.’


periods. The first considers the presentand extends into the medium term,where governments struggle to containthe pandemic; the second periodconsiders the long-term effects oncethe virus has been brought undercontrol.

This is where the serious attacks willbe launched. None of these proposalscan address the underlying problemscreated by the capitalist mode ofproduction, the very system that hasbrought us to this breaking-point.

Policy proposals for the firstphase: Containing the spread ofcovid-19There appears to be broad consensusthat the right course of action duringthe initial stages of the pandemic isto expand both the monetary supplyand national debt. This is advocatedas necessary to support capital and,to a lesser extent, labour. Here inIreland a recent publication by theParliamentary Budget Officeexemplifies this position:

The COVID-19 virus outbreak andthe dramatic economicrestrictions will have a significanteffect on the public finances.Given the unprecedented scale ofbusiness closures to prevent thespread of the COVID-19pandemic, extra spending will beneeded to help mitigate theimpacts on individuals affected.This additional spending willresult in a budget deficit in2020. Lower tax receipts (e.g.income tax, VAT and excise) willresult in an even larger deficit.This will cause debt levels to riseand depending on the durationand scale of the COVID-19pandemic, this could be by asubstantial amount.²

This issue of higher debt lays thefoundations for implementing“structural reform” in the secondphase. It is quite clear from the abovethat the cost of the immediate crisis willbe paid for through increases innational debt. The average person willbe expected to pick up the bill forplacing capitalist enterprises on lifesupport as workers are laid off. Theworkers are being forced to accept lay-offs and lower wages while the bosses

have their assets protected with cheaploans funded at the expense of thepublic purse.

The idea of nationalising distressedbusinesses, or even the moderateproposal of seeking equity in return foraid, is beyond the imagination of thepoliticians managing this crisis. Theywould rather write blank cheques nowand force their payment on the peopletomorrow.

Second phase: re-opening of the economyAusterityThere is broad consensus that fiscalsupport deemed necessary during thepreceding period should slowly berescinded. The OECD is not in favourof a harsh and immediate austerityshock, as “an excessively quick fiscalconsolidation could stifle growthexcessively, as some OECD countriesexperienced after the global financialcrisis.”³ The IMF is in agreement,arguing that, “where fiscal spacepermits, as targeted fiscal support isunwound, it can be replaced withpublic investment to accelerate therecovery and expanded social safetynet spending to protect the mostvulnerable.”4

It is important to note that these arenot calls to end austerity: they arestatements of intent to impose a moregradual form of austerity. As in the caseof the IMF statement, it is hard toimagine “fiscal space” for countriesbeset by mass unemployment, reducedtax receipts, and the burden ofsignificant debts accumulated over thepreceding period. The pandemic isbeing presented by the OECD as anopportunity to recalibrate economies tothe needs of international capital—which leads us to the next point.

Attacks on labourThe intention to attack labour iscouched in terms of the reallocationof resources to sectors that will besuccessful after the pandemic. TheIMF argues that “policymakers shouldalso address factors that can impedethis reallocation, including barriers toentry that favor incumbents at theexpense of potential entrants andlabor market rigidities that deter firmsfrom hiring.”5 It is not just theunemployed who are going to suffer

but those who are in employment.The pandemic provides the perfect

opportunity for implementing “structuralreform” of the labour market. Manycountries are already experiencing highrates of unemployment, a favourablecondition for capital to launch attackson organised labour. The World Bankrecommends that in advancedeconomies “social safety nets,including enhanced unemploymentbenefits, need to be designed to beflexible, efficiently administered, andwell-targeted,”6 a polite bureaucraticway of stating that one should not seekto undermine the benefits of a reservearmy of labour.

A body of desperate, disorganisedworkers deprived of social supports isthe goal. Without rapid and immediateorganisation, implementing theseattacks will be child’s play.

Socialisation of private debtsThe issue of who will shoulder theburden of paying for the crisis shouldnot be a mystery to anybody wholived through the last recession. Theburden will largely fall on the worker.Socialisation of private debt is clearlyadvocated, with the IMF stating that“easing reallocation will also involveactions to repair balance sheets andaddress debt overhangs—factors thathave slowed past recoveries fromdeep recessions.”7

The OECD also acknowledges theneed for increased taxes to pay for thedebts accumulated throughout thepandemic, and even makes pleasantnoises about increasing rates oftaxation on capital. We witness themilquetoast proposal that“multinational enterprises pay aminimum tax [which] would strengthenrevenue raising capacity and could beseen to contribute to fair burdensharing.”8 The fact that these proposalsare even being floated is indicative ofthe seriousness of the crisis—whichbrings us to the question of the EU.

Renewed legitimacy of the EULevels of support for the EU haverisen significantly, despite its poorresponse to the pandemic, Irelandbeing the most supportive of EUmembership.9

Continued overleaf

SOLIDARITY


Continued

A recent report by Eurobarometerechoes this strong support fromIreland, even when “a majority ofrespondents are dissatisfied with thesolidarity shown between EUMember States in fighting theCoronavirus pandemic . . . (57%)share this feeling ofdissatisfaction.”10

Regardless, people continue toplace, or misplace, their faith in theEU, as more than two-thirds ofrespondents (69%) want “the EU [to]have more competences to deal withcrises such as the Coronaviruspandemic.”¹¹ Further, 66 per cent¹² ofIrish respondents are satisfied withmeasures taken by the EU to fight thepandemic. Far from tarnishing thelegitimacy of the EU, the current crisisseems to have generated furthersupport for integration.

On the other hand, we can seethat signs of disillusionment within theeuro zone are contingent upon

people’s worsening economicsituation.12 Low levels of trust in theEuropean Monetary Union and ECB“hinge to a large extent on citizens’perceptions of their personal financialsituation and the overall economicsituation,” two factors that seem likelyto worsen significantly over the comingyears.¹³

This presents a contradiction. Onthe one hand we have the desire ofIrish and EU citizens to see increasedlevels of integration, which, it isbelieved, will help improve their livesin the face of crises like the presentone. On the other hand we have theeconomic policies that member-states of the euro zone are legallybound to during crises, policies thatworsen the lives of working peoplethrough the imposition of austerityand attacks on labour. Though theserules have been loosened during thecurrent phase to put large sectors ofthe capitalist system into hibernation,we see that this will not persist intothe future.

The need to organiseEconomic disillusionment presentsopportunities as well as threats. It isno coincidence that support for thefar right has increased throughoutEurope since the 2008 crisis. Whenthe hegemonic ideology of liberalismloses its legitimacy and, moreimportantly, its monopoly over theidea that it is the only system to co-ordinate peace, progress, andprosperity, a front is opened up foreither radical change or a period ofdeep reaction.

Without an organised left capable ofarticulating a vision of a future beyondthe capitalist mode of production, theground is ceded to the forces ofxenophobic, racist and reactionarynationalism that scapegoat thestructural problems of capitalism onimmigrants and minorities.

The capitalist class co-ordinates itsstrategy brazenly at the internationallevel, prescribing how the world will bereshaped after the pandemic. It seeks toplay the working people of the world

MADARA KUPCEAND DÓNAL Ó COISDEALBHA

ACENTRAL GOAL of socialism is totransition into an economy withoutcommodity production for profit. A

socialist economy would co-operativelycreate goods and services for their usevalues rather than their exchangevalues, with production planned by the

producers themselves.The question that we want to ask

readers to consider is, How do weempirically assess the capacity of agiven economy to move beyondcapitalism?

Firstly, we can say that the extent towhich an economy can create usevalues, from raw materials to thefinished goods and services, ultimately

represents how advanced its forces ofproduction are, and hence how capableit is of transcending capitalism as asystem and moving to socialism. This iswhy, for example, a country that hoststhe facilities of transnationalcorporations might appear to haveadvanced means of production, butdoes not in fact have the ability tonationalise a TNC and continue toproduce use values, because the TNCsspatially disperse their productionprocesses among multiple countries.

An additional issue arises from theneed for essential imports, whichnecessitates the development ofindustries to produce goods forinternational exchange to gain access tohard currencies. In the 1980s, when thepurchasing power of the US dollar fell,the effective purchasing power of abarrel of Soviet crude oil fell in unison.This became an area of strategicweakness for the socialist blocthroughout the 1980s, ultimatelyundermining its long-standing policy ofself-reliance and entrenching adependence on Western imports andloans.

Fast forward to 2017, and twoChinese billionaires (Liu Qiangdong, CEO

Measuring theproduction of use values

Workers of the Soligorsk potashplant, USSR 1968

‘Can a socialist economy of domestically produced use values operate in parallelwith an economy of international commodity trade without the latterundermining the former?’


against each other so as to increaseproductivity, as the World Bank advises:

The negative outlook aheadmeans that, after addressing theimmediate health crisis,countries need to makeproductivity-enhancing reforms apriority. These include facilitatinginvestment in human and physicalcapital, as well as in researchand development; encouragingreallocation of resources towardmore productive sectors;fostering technology adoptionand innovation; and promoting agrowth-friendly macro-economicand institutional environment. [p.171]14

This unfolding crisis necessitates aresponse to three lines of attack that willbe mounted at the national and theEuropean level against working people inIreland and throughout Europe. Thecapitalist class are not hiding theirintentions, so there is little excuse to be

unprepared for this crisis as it unfolds.These three lines of attack are ones weare familiar with from the last recession:(1) the imposition of austerity,(2) the transfer of private debts to thepublic purse, and(3) “structural reform” in its manyguises, particularly in the context ofattacks on organised labour.

Our response, now more than ever,must be based on international co-ordination. Our solution must be as clearas it is radical: the international systemof capitalism must be abolished, infavour of building an economic systemthat plans, organises and produces onthe basis of the needs of the many, noton the desire to accumulate profits for afew.H

References1. World Bank, Global Economic

Prospects, June2020/(https://tinyurl.com/y9fol33l).

2. Parliamentary Budget Office, “NationalDebt: An Overview” (Houses of theOireachtas, April 2020), p. 20.

3. OECD, OECD Economic Outlook, vol.

2020, issue 1: Preliminary Version(OECD, 2020), p. 50(https://tinyurl.com/y8c75van).

4. IMF, “World Economic Update, June2020” (International Monetary Fund,June 2020).

5. Ibid.6 World Bank, Global Economic

Prospects, June 2020, p. 48.7 IMF, “World Economic Update, June

2020.”8 OECD, OECD Economic Outlook, vol.

2020, issue 1, p. 52.9 Luke McGee, “Four years after Brexit,

support for the EU surges in Britain,”CNN (https://tinyurl.com/y958o4b3),n.d.

10 Julien Zalc and Robin Maillard,“Uncertainty/EU/Hope: Public Opinion inTimes of Covid-19,” A Public OpinionMonitoring Study, ed. PhilippShulmeister (Brussels: Directorate-General for Communication of theEuropean Parliament, 2020), p. 8.

11 Ibid., p. 8.12 Ibid., p. 28.13 Stephanie Bergbauer et al., “Citizens’

attitudes towards the ECB, the euro andEconomic and Monetary Union,” ECBEconomic Bulletin 2020, no. 4 (June2020).

14 Global Economic Prospects, June 2020.

of the e-commerce giant JD.com, andJack Ma, chairman of the Alibaba onlineretail group) proposed that China wasreaching the required level of productiveforces and technical capability to movebeyond markets, money and capitalismto a direct-allocation economy, where allfirms are socially owned.

In reality, even such a modernsocialist economy, with minimal relianceon foreign powers, would require someimported products, while some domesticproduction for market exchange wouldbe needed to support this.

The question then becomes, Can asocialist economy of domesticallyproduced use values operate in parallelwith an economy of internationalcommodity trade without the latterundermining the former? Is thissustainable in a world dominated byimperialism? After all, imperialist (OECD)countries benefit from massive value-transfer subsidies from the labour of thebillions-strong working class of the globalSouth by means of the TNCs and theirhundreds of thousands of subsidiaries.

This ability to take advantage ofvastly different rates of exploitationallows imperialist countries to capturesurplus value and build their service-

based economies upon that platform.These are subsidies that are notavailable to socialist countries.

We believe that, in place of GDP,socialist planners need a framework formeasuring the production of use values,both at the national level and among thebloc of states that are seeking todevelop to socialism. Such a measurecould be based on a greatly expanded(and modified) version of Maslow’s“hierarchy of needs.”

The internet, input-output tables,individual product identification codesand mass data storage allow for whatwas technically impossible for socialistgovernments of the twentieth century:the ability to precisely detail whichspecific goods and services are used inwhich value chains, sector by sector.Within each value chain they cancategorise which goods and services areimports, which are produced entirelywithin their own economy, which aredomestically produced but dependenton foreign imports (and precisely how),and which are produced for foreignmarkets.

Using such a framework, it wouldthen become clear which countries arerelatively poorly or well positioned to

move beyond a commodity-productioneconomy, which in turn would inform anysocialist plan of which goods andservices have to be brought into therealm of domestic production as amatter of priority.

A realistic representation ofeconomic capacity is required, from themost critical value chains for socialreproduction (energy, food, water,medical supplies, etc.) to requirementsfor transport, education and publicservices, the provision of social andeducational activities, and finallyprovision for meeting individual demandfor different types of non-essential goodsand services, which—contrary toneoclassical economics, and as provedbrilliantly by Anwar Shaikh in his bookCapitalism (2016)—can be derived byplanners from analysis of aggregatebehaviour.

The covid-19 emergency hasrevealed which goods and services arerequired for a basic level of socialreproduction and which ones are lesscritical. It is time that socialists matchedwhat is commonly observed with a clearempirical framework, and explained howsocialist economies of the future candecommodify economic and social life.H

BOOKS


JENNY FARRELL

Ethel Voynich, The Gadfly (1897)

LIAM MELLOWS read this novel while awaiting hisexecution, along with the other condemned menimprisoned by the Irish Free State during the Civil War

(1922–23) for opposing the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which gaveIreland dominion status within the British Empire, rather thanestablishing an independent Irish republic.

His fellow-prisoner Peadar O’Donnell wrote: “It is a curiousfact, which many of the Mountjoy prisoners must be easily ableto recall, that it was around the days that the Gadfly was beingwidely read in ‘C’ wing; it is a tale of Italian revolution with aghastly execution scene . . . MacKelvey . . . picking up theGadfly . . . saying once more: ‘God, I hope they don’t mess upany of our lads this way.’ MacKelvey was to remember theGadfly next morning.”

What was this book, so widely read by Republicans inIreland, and the labour movement in Britain, in its own day?

Its author, Ethel Boole, was born 11 May 1864 in Co. Cork,the youngest of five daughters of the renowned mathematicianGeorge Boole and Mary Boole, a psychologist and philosopher.Ethel’s father died shortly after her birth, and her mother tookthe family to London, returning to Ireland regularly duringEthel’s childhood. It was on one of these visits to Ireland thatshe first read about Giuseppe Mazzini, leader of the ItalianRisorgimento movement.

This novel of revolution was published in 1897 andachieved cult status in the Soviet Union and China, sellingmillions of copies. Two film versions were made in the SovietUnion, one silent (1928), the other (1955) with a score byDmitri Shostakovich.

Ethel Voynich was closely associated with revolutionarycircles in Berlin, Russia, and London, where she married aPolish revolutionary, Wilfrid Voynich. From her experiences andcircle of comrades she drew the stuff from which the novel ismade. It is set in 1840s Italy at the time of its popularrebellion, the Risorgimento, against Austrian domination.

The novel’s main characters belong to Mazzini’sunderground party, Young Italy, active in the national liberationmovement. A thrilling plot roots the reader’s sympathy with theauthor’s. It is understandable how this book captured theimagination of readers who sympathise with movementsagainst oppression and domination. “Several of them belongedto the Mazzinian party and would have been satisfied withnothing less than a democratic Republic and a United Italy.” Itis obvious why the anti-Treaty prisoners, captured during theCivil War, identified with the characters in the book.

Reflecting historical fact, the novel criticises sharply theCatholic Church’s active opposition to the movement for aunited Italy, expressed in a father-and-son conflict that deepensthe import: an Italian reluctantly willing to sacrifice his son andthe cause of freedom, and Italy’s future, for the sake ofreligion. The author leaves no doubt regarding her ownstance—in fact the novel’s declared atheism must havecontributed to its being banned by the Irish state in 1947.

The spirit of revolution is not limited to members of the

Young Italy movement. It has covert support throughout thepopulation, evidenced in many scenes in the novel. Ordinarypeople help the movement smuggle arms across borders,come to their personal aid; even prison warders back them. Infact in the scene referred to by MacKelvey the firing squad tryto protect their secret hero.

So, at the end of the nineteenth century, at a time ofinternational suffrage movements, we see evolving a new typeof novel, one whose hero and heroine are revolutionaries andpart of a revolutionary group. The central female character,Gemma Warren, is a woman who the movement respectshighly. She is inspired not only by Voynich’s own experience butalso by other women revolutionaries around the author.Gemma is not merely an emancipated woman: she is also arevolutionary woman, at the centre of the movement.

In this way she goes beyond the literary heroines of the latenineteenth century and anticipates the proletarian women thatGorky would write about. Voynich brings the revolutionary groupnot only as central to the novel’s plot but as a necessary partof this group, a new type of woman.

Given Voynich’s internationalism and experience, it isbewildering to find racist sentiments expressed towards SouthAmericans and black people. This racism also affects theportrayal of women of colour. It seems that Voynich’s novel didnot find much resonance in Cuba and other Latin Americancountries, nor in Africa, all waging heroic liberation struggles.Surprisingly, critics have not drawn attention to this aspect;instead, if they dislike it it is due to its unashamed atheism, sounusual for its time, or for its partisanship for a revolutionarymovement.

Ethel worked with the Quakers as a social worker in thepoor districts of London during the First World War, then leftEngland for good about 1920, when she joined her husband inNew York. There is no further information about active politicalwork. Wilfrid died in 1930. Ethel returned to music, composingmusical works, including the Epitaph in Ballad Form, dedicatedto Roger Casement.

Soviet literati in 1955 discovered that Ethel was still alive inNew York, aged ninety-one. This caused a sensation in theSoviet Union and also resulted in the payment of royalties.Ethel continued to live quietly with her companion, Anne Nill,who had once managed Wilfrid’s New York book business.

Ethel Voynich died sixty years ago, on 27 July 1960, agedninety-six.H

An Irishwoman’s novel of revolutionaries

‘... we see evolving a new type of novel, one whose hero andheroine are revolutionaries and part of a revolutionary group.’

The United States was intent on destroying Cuba, at a time whenits economy was in trouble.


GRAHAM HARRINGTON

THE FILM Wasp Network has recently arrived on Netflix.It tells the story of the heroes known as the Cuban Fivewho successfully infiltrated anti-communist terrorist

groups in Miami.The Wasp Network (La Red Avispa) was a creation of

Cuban intelligence to thwart the efforts of such groups asAlpha 66 and the F4 Commandos. These groups weremade up of Cuban émigrés living in Miami who had left thecountry after the revolution had triumphed, as well as thosewho foolishly believed they would have a better life undercapitalism in the United States. US policy still preventsthose migrants from returning to Cuba once they have seenhomelessness and unemployment for the first time.

The film’s first half is somewhat confusing, in that itportrays the intelligence agents as actual counter-revolutionaries, until revealing their true role. No spoilerthere for anyone who is familiar with the case of the CubanFive, but it may be confusing for someone who isn’t. It doessucceed, however, in showing the commitment the agentshad.

One of the film’s greatest strengths is that it honestlyshows the reality of the so-called “freedom fighters,” whowere in reality little more than cowardly gangsters andmercenaries, more interested in pointless destruction anddrug-trafficking than in Cuban politics. What is not shown,however, is the role of the CIA in creating and sustaining

these groups; instead they are presented as beingindependent actors. For instance, the head of the groupBrothers to the Rescue, José Basulto, who appearsregularly in the film, was a CIA operative and not somemisguided humanitarian.

Brothers to the Rescue shot to worldwide attention in1996 after two of their planes were shot down over Cubanair space, an event portrayed excellently in the film. Theyhad been involved in dropping propaganda leaflets overHavana and, according to the agent who infiltrated them,were planning offensive actions against Cuba, with thebombing of hotels by terrorist groups beginning not longafter the shooting down of the planes.

The Clinton government used the incident to pass theCuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act (Helms-BurtonAct) and the Cuban Democracy Act (Torricelli Act), whichfurther tightened the blockade around Cuba. What shouldbe kept in mind about the shooting down of the planes,and the infiltration of the groups in Miami, is the context:Cuba no longer had the support of the USSR and othersocialist states. The United States was intent on destroyingCuba, at a time when its economy was in trouble. Cubawas fully justified in taking defensive actions againstprovocative acts.

Not long after the arrests of the Five the Miami rabblekidnapped six-year-old Elián González, leading to an intensestalemate that resulted in Fidel Castro proclaiming thatCuba was involved in a “Battle of Ideas.”

The film occasionally includes a bit of anti-communism,though much less than expected for a mainstream work.Given the way this fits in with the general tone of the film,which portrays the Five sympathetically, it can only bepresumed that this was forced into the film in an attempt toallow it to be made. Not that it helped much, given that theMiami rabble are already calling Wasp Network communistpropaganda, much as they did for Steven Soderbergh’sChe.

Without giving anything away, the film’s ending couldhave been managed a bit better, given that the trial andsubsequent treatment of the Five is treated very quickly anddoes not include, for instance, the journalists who werepaid by the CIA to write articles demanding lengthy prisonsentences. The case of the Five is presented as a sort ofniche topic for audiences, rather than a case that ignitedthe passion of the Cuban people and attracted solidarityfrom all over the world.

Anti-Cuban terrorism claimed the lives of 3,500 peopleover a period of thirty or so years. This is almost the samenumber of deaths in a similar length of time during therecent conflict in the north of Ireland, to put things intoperspective. The film’s strength is that it portrays thecampaign honestly, and audiences can understand why theCuban state was forced to infiltrate the groups responsible.

Wasp Network generally deals with its characters andtheir families—with wives portrayed by Penélope Cruz andthe Cuban actor Ana de Armas—and manages to show thesacrifices the Five made out of what Che Guevara describedas the revolutionary’s sense of love—for their family andtheir country.H

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81000201

The Wasp NetworkFILM

CULTURE


THE RECENT demonstrations that began in Minnesotafollowing the murder of George Floyd by a white cop arenot only a continuation of the past seven years of the

Black Lives Matter movement but of decades of struggle byblack people against a racist police force, which functions touphold a white supremacist system in the United States forthe benefit of the ruling class. The poem “Power” by AudreLorde was written in 1978 and gives voice to the writer’sfeelings of anger, dispossession and hopelessness in theface of such a barbarous society. The poem itself is based ona true event: in 1973 a white cop in New York shot ten-year-old Clifford Glover, murdering him as he fled with hisstepfather. Lorde’s words expose the prejudicial nature ofpolicing in America, which has remained wholly unchangedin the four decades since they were written. The increasedmilitarisation of police forces to oppress black communitiesis required to maintain the hegemony of the capitalist order;and unless the violence of this system is met with equal andgreater forces of united class struggle, all will continue todwell in hopelessness.—Ciara Ní Mhaoilfhinn

The difference between poetry and rhetoricis being ready to killyourselfinstead of your children.

I am trapped on a desert of raw gunshot woundsand a dead child dragging his shattered blackface off the edge of my sleepblood from his punctured cheeks and shouldersis the only liquid for milesand my stomachchurns at the imagined taste whilemy mouth splits into dry lipswithout loyalty or reasonthirsting for the wetness of his bloodas it sinks into the whitenessof the desert where I am lostwithout imagery or magictrying to make power out of hatred and destructiontrying to heal my dying son with kissesonly the sun will bleach his bones quicker.

A policeman who shot down a ten year old in Queensstood over the boy with his cop shoes in childish bloodand a voice said “Die you little motherfucker” andthere are tapes to prove it. At his trialthis policeman said in his own defense“I didn’t notice the size nor nothing elseonly the color”. Andthere are tapes to prove that, too.

Today that 37 year old white manwith 13 years of police forcingwas set freeby eleven white men who said they were satisfiedjustice had been doneand one Black Woman who said“They convinced me” meaningthey had dragged her 4′10″ black Woman’s frameover the hot coalsof four centuries of white male approvaluntil she let gothe first real power she ever hadand lined her own womb with cementto make a graveyard for our children.

I have not been able to touch the destructionwithin me.But unless I learn to usethe difference between poetry and rhetoricmy power too will run corrupt as poisonous moldor lie limp and useless as an unconnected wireand one day I will take my teenaged plugand connect it to the nearest socketraping an 85 year old white womanwho is somebody’s motherand as I beat her senseless and set a torch to her beda Greek chorus will be singing in 3/4 time“Poor thing. She never hurt a soul. What beasts they are.”

Wikimedia

POWERAudre Lorde


Letter from the president of Cubato the secretary-general of the United Nations

Havana, June 26, 2020Year 62 of theRevolution

His Excellency Mr. Antonio GutérresUnited NationsSecretary-General New York

Your Excellency:Seventy-five years after the member states of thisorganization signed the United Nations Charter, strictadherence to its purposes and principles, to internationallaw and the preservation of multilateralism are moreimportant than ever.

We are facing multiple crises as a result of the COVID-19pandemic, with devastating effects, visible in all spheres ofsociety, expected to last and aggravate pending globalchallenges.

The international panorama is increasingly complex.Conflicts and the arms race are proliferating. Non-conventionalwars for the purpose of domination, acts of aggression,unilateral coercive measures, the manipulation andpoliticization of human rights and disrespect for the self-determination of peoples are intensifying. Multilateralism isattacked, international agreements ignored and the role oforganizations such as the UN and the World HealthOrganization is discounted.

At the same time, the current unjust internationaleconomic order deepens inequality and underdevelopment;while increasing poverty, hunger, marginalization and limitedaccess to essential services, such as health care.

The moment and common sense demand that theinternational community set aside political differences andseek joint solutions to global problems through internationalcooperation.

It is the duty of all to keep the commitments we madewhen we signed the UN Charter, which continues to be anenduring, universal and indispensable basis for promoting ajust, democratic and equitable international order thatresponds to the demands of the peoples of the world forpeace, development and justice, and contributes to meetingthe Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.

I take advantage of the opportunity to reiterate, to yourExcellency, the assurance of my highest consideration andesteem.

Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez

LETTERAll-Ireland health serviceDear Comrades,May I request a little of your column space to commenton an article in the Socialist Voice dated the 2nd of June2020 relating to an all-Ireland Health Service. Whileagreeing that underfunding and privatisation is damaginghealth services in both parts of our country I have somedifficulties with the article’s approach.While the concept of an island health service is certainlylaudable, sensible and maybe even achievable, dismissingthe trade union movement and 215,000 organisedworkers in Northern Ireland as unionist-dominated andnostalgic is a very simplistic analysis and will not build thenecessary unity to win the argument for either an Island-wide health service or the socialist Ireland it is suggestedwill bring it about.

Assuming the writer, Comrade Doran, believes broadagreement and consent is still a prerequisite for his proposals,a divisive article like this doesn’t help. This statistically heavyarticle doesn’t do anything to persuade the masses that eitheroption is a viable one for the foreseeable future. I for one willbe continuing with local trade unionists and the community (ofall political hues) to defend the NHS as the best option forlocal workers at this time. I am neither nostalgic or unionist.

Yours sincerely,Jim QuinnHonorary Member, Fermanagh Council of Trades Unions

CONNOLLYBOOKS

43 East Essex Street, Dublin between Temple Bar and Parliament Street.

Tuesday to Saturday 10.00 to 17.30www.connollybooks.org

THE FORMATION of the three-partycoalition government in Dublin, andtheir agreement on a “programme

for government,” is a case of more of thesame—a continuation of the same oldpolices that favour the rich and powerful,policies that are pro-business and full ofpious aspirations and wishful thinkingregarding the growing globalenvironmental crisis.

This is a programme that will providelittle for workers, either in the short or thelong term, as can be seen from the factthat workers’ rights do not featureanywhere in this proposed programme. Itis a deal to ensure the political stability ofa failing system and of the main partiesthat have been in government for nearlya century.

In February, working people voted fora change of direction, for a change ofsocial and economic policies in relationto the two-tier health system and tohousing policy, which has given priority tothe interests of the market and acontinuation of the dominance andpriority given to private builders andspeculators.

The Communist Party of Ireland callson trade unions, people’s organisationsand all progressives to organisemaximum parliamentary andextraparliamentary pressure to ensurethat the change voted for in February isrespected. The all-Ireland “No GoingBack” post-pandemic proposals of theICTU must be developed, strengthened,and campaigned on.

The record of all three parties,including the leadership of the GreenParty, shows that they cannot be trusted.

While giving the appearance of threedistinctly different parties, their agreedprogramme for government is based onone economic strategy: to make workerspay for the deepening crisis of thesystem, with the Green Party leadershipproviding the cover of appearing to bedifferent.

In relation to public housing, the CPIcalls on working people to resist thepossible imposition, as outlined in theagreed programme, of “social housing,”which gives profits to private builders andspeculators, instead of public housing,which removes the profit element bybeing built directly by local authorities.Workers need to resist the imposition ofthe “cost-rental model,” which links rentsto the cost of building and maintainingthe property, rather than differentialrents, which link rent to income.

Their agreed programme will continuethe practice of selling state-owned publichousing to tenants, as well as the sellingof of public lands, taking assets directlyfrom the state and transferring them toprivate hands.

The covid-19 pandemic has exposedthe two-tier health system, which this“programme “ does not challenge;instead it makes vague proposals for asingle-tier health system. They should beintroducing a fully funded public healthservice and working towards andplanning for an all-Ireland, fully fundedhealth service, as demanded byincreasing numbers of people andorganisations, including the ICTU.

Those in the Green Party who aregenuinely concerned about theenvironment were asked to buy this deal

on the grounds of proposed carbon taxesfor tackling the environmental crisis.Experience shows that this is for makingthe working class pay for pollution,instead of the real polluters: bigbusiness. To the many sincere GreenParty activists we say this “programmefor government” is not the way forward tofinding a just and lasting solution to theglobal environmental crisis that is nowthreatening our planet and life itself. Itwas a welcome development that anumber of members within the GreenParty actively spoke out and campaignedagainst this deal and against going intocoalition with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.That opposition will be vindicated in thecoming years.

The two-year stimulus offered by thegovernment to balance the booksfollowing the covid-19 crisis is designedto stabilise the system and promote theinterests, both national and international,of capital, rather than to protect workingpeople. It is for buying time for theestablishment to prepare the ground fora renewed wave of austerity and attackson workers’ rights, terms, and conditionsof employment.

Given present conditions, there aregrave dangers for the working-classmovement, as the strategy withingovernments and employers’organisations, in collaboration withleading elements within the trade unionleadership, is to re-establish some formof reheated “social partnership”—astrategy of offering a few crumbs fromthe table, for softening up the workingclass to lower their expectations, so thatthey accept the austerity policies that willinevitably follow.

To the many sincere Green Partyactivists we say, This “programme forgovernment” is not the way forwardtowards finding a just and lasting solutionto the global environmental crisis that isnow threatening our planet life itself.Now is the time for clear, independentpolitical mobilisation and action byworking people throughout the country.We need to build a people’s movement,a movement linking the demands andneeds of workers and environmentaliststo challenge this decaying system. H

16 Socialist Voice May 2020

Join the fight for socialismSend me information on the Communist Party of Ireland

name

address

post code

email phone

send to CPI 43 East Essex Street Dublin DO2 XH96 or CPI PO Box 85 Belfast BT1 1SR

New “Programme for Government”: a new three-party government with the same old policies

Statement by the National Executive Committee, Communist Party of Ireland 11 June 2020

New government, same old policies€¦ · tax cuts for the wealthy and professional classes; deeper...

Documents

Transcript of New government, same old policies€¦ · tax cuts for the wealthy and professional classes; deeper...