LookLeft Two

Generation Bail Out?

Progressive News, Views and SolutionsSummer 2010

Solutions to the Job's crisis outlined by Micheal Taft

The Future of Irish Trade Unionism

Fergus Whelan on Ireland's First Generation of Republicans

Unite Leader Jimmy Kelly speaks out

Tasc – Mapping the Golden Circle

Sean Garland; Defeating Sectarianism

and Racism

€2/ £1.50

€2/ £1.50

lookleft.indd SEND TO PRINT.indd 1 26/05/2010 00:27:34

2

lookleft is an editorial collective

Published by the Workers’ Party48 Great George’s Street,Dublin 1

web: www.lookleftonline.orge-mail: [email protected]

Printed in Co.Meath

PhotographersPaula GeraghtyMicheal GallagherFergus McNallySarah McGregorCaroline Murray

DesignersKilian McMahonBrian Whelan

ISSN 2009 3179

Editorial

3-5 News

6-7 InterviewUnite’s Jimmy Kelly speaks out

9, 18, 19 Forum Sean Garland, Free Education for Everyone,Progressive Unionist Party

10-11 Where now for the Unions?Aidan Regan calls for Organising Unions

12-15 Generation BailoutThe threat to Irelands youth from unemployment and emigration

20 -24 Tradition and Culture

CONTENTS

Generation Bail Out?

Progressive News, Views and SolutionsSummer 2010

Solutions to the Job's crisis outlined by Micheal Taff

The Future of Irish Trade Unionism

Fergus Whelan on Ireland's First Generation of Republicans

Unite Leader Jimmy Kelly speaks out

Tasc – Mapping the Golden Circle

Sean Garland; Defeating Sectarianism

and Racism

€2/ £1.50

You Make the FutureClass politics are back. In real-

ity they had never gone away but during the years of an economic boom based on speculative fan-tasy rather than real production, this truth was shrouded.

Now the stark choices have returned. How will we build a real productive economy? Who will pay for the wilful social and economic destruction wrought in recent years? Those who created the disaster or the working class?

Although our island is po-litically divided the election of a Tory government in Westminster has ensured that workers and the young, north and south, face the same elite onslaught. For them unemployment is a price worth paying, by others, in an attempt to salvage their failed economic system.

In the south Fianna Fail has re-turned to the lessons learnt from past masters – make the working class pay with the future of their children, once more forced on to the dole or into emigration.

For them, youth emigration removes a troublesome problem. For ordinary people it breaks up families, for the economy it removes its future engine.

When the elites wanted more money poured into their specu-lative stock markets the future problem of too many pension-ers and not enough workers was hyped up. Now they do nothing to create jobs, more concerned with bailing out the bank bond-holders, in some cases their finan-ciers, than creating the conditions for future economic growth.

In Northern Ireland syco-phantic tribal bosses fawn over Tory leader David Cameron, an individual who oozes the conceit and belligerence of his privileged background. In the south too, some have called for negotiation with those that put their party’s interest above that of the people.

While they negotiate Fianna Fail’s co-conspirators and finan-ciers asset strip the country. This must end now.

All must be done to see both governments out of office at the first opportunity. In the longer term the ground work must be laid to unite the working class so that the same self serving cliques will never again achieve political power.

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In the period 2005-2007, a network of 39 people (among them the infamous former boss of Anglo Irish bank Sean Fitzpatrick) held positions in 33 of the 40 top private companies and state-owned bodies. Between them, these 39 are referred to as the Director Network in TASC’s report held a total of 93 directorships in the forty enterprises.

TASC director and co-author of the report Paula Clancy said; “It is vital for the future that the public interest be rigorously safe-guarded in state-owned bodies and private companies which play key roles in the Irish economy. This can only be achieved by strengthening the rules and regulations gov-erning how business is conducted.”

Mapping the Golden Circle is perhaps the most important investigation yet into the go-ings on during the Celtic Tiger years and can be downloaded in full at www.tascnet.ie

That a small clique dominated the board rooms of both major private and state enter-prises during the Celtic Tiger years is a now a proven fact thanks to exhaustive research by progressive think tank Tasc.

In the report “Mapping the Golden Circle”, TASC has revealed the extent of the network across 40 of Ireland’s top private companies and state-owned bodies in the period 2005 to 2007. It also uncovers the massive dispro-portionate pay raises top executives at these companies paid themselves in the final years of the ‘boom.’

The 40 companies studied in this report are household names and include Bord Gais, the Central Bank, AIB, Smurfit, Anglo Irish Bank, Ryanair and Aer Lingus. The total number of directors involved in managing these companies was 572.

Mapping the Golden CircleFrancis Donohoe

The right to peaceful protest is under at-tack in Northern Ireland with draft legislation published by the First Minister and Deputy First Minister which seeks to outlaw public demonstrations unless the police are given 37 days notice.

If the “The Draft Public Assemblies, Parades and Protests Bill” becomes law, all gatherings involving 50 or more people, which take place in any “public space” will require the organizers to give the police 37 days prior notice.

“Public space” is defined as “any road or footway or any other place, apart from a building to which the public or a section of the public has access”. This definition would include the grounds or entrances to work-places, schools, hospitals, government and council offices.

Workers’ Party spokesperson Paddy Lynn described the Bill as a blatant attack on the

citizens’ right to free assembly and attempts to negate one of the signal victories of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Campaign”.

Lynn added; “It is not accidental that the legislation is being proposed now. The Assembly has announced that hundreds of millions of pounds worth of cuts are going to be made to our public sector. The purpose of the law is a cynical attempt by the two main parties in the Assembly, to thwart any possible opposition to the destruction of the public sector and the sacking of thousands of workers.”

Download the draft Bill at

www.indirect.gov.uk/public-assemblies-parades-and-protests-in-northern-ire-land-2.pdf

DUP and Sinn Fein attack the right to protest Francis Donohoe

Dublin Northside priest Fr Peter McVerry told a conference organised by the Bar Council that his community felt the structure of society, including the legal system, was against them.

He backed up his statement with a fairly unequivocal set of statistics. In a recent 10-year period there had been 3,183 prosecutions for welfare fraud, worth €43 million. This had led to 48 people being jailed for 12 years in total, he said.

Yet in the same period there were only 39 prosecutions for tax evasion worth €2.25 billion. These led to six people being jailed for a total of 3¾ years.

Right to Work Campaign

A broad range of community and left wing groups have come together to challenge the govern-ment’s right wing agenda and demand that job creation is put first in plans to revive the econo-my. The campaign has begun by organising weekly Tuesday night protests outside the Dail.

Workers Party member Sean Boland is a member of the campaign’s protest organising committee. If you wish to help the struggle for economic justice contact Sean on [email protected] or the campaign at [email protected]

Senator David Norris has

called on the rules that govern Presidential nominations to be changed to allow him to run for the office as an independent leftwing candidate in next year’s election. Currently the law de-mands you have to be nominated by 20 Oireachtas members or 4 county/city councils, unless you are a former President in which case you can nominate yourself.

Among those endorsing the campaign is WP treasurer Sean Garland.

Sign the petition calling on Sen Norris to be allowed run at; www.petitiononline.com/dn4p2011/petition.html

Let David Norris run for President

There's One Law for the Rich...

Removing Religion from the Classroom

News

shows that 67 percent of employed teachers teach religion willingly while only 24 were uncomfortable with teaching it. Further-more, the survey seen 34 percent of teachers agreed with a State takeover of schools and another 47 percent said the Catholic Church should renounce their control over a number of its schools.

The proposal, which was supposed to be debated during the last weekend in April at IFUT’s annual delegate conference, was never fully discussed, and the decision on the proposal was referred. IFUT’s general secretary, Mike Jennings told Lookleft, that the proposal will most likely be discussed further at the next ADC in Autumn, where the board will vote for or against the pro-posal. If the motion is passed, it could cause a huge change on the Church’s dominance over the curriculum in state schools.

Late in April, IFUT, the union represent-ing university lecturers, put forward a pro-posal for the removal of compulsory religion courses from teacher trainee colleges. The aim of the proposal is to abolish religious courses in teacher training, replacing it with an ethics module, leaving religious modules optional for student teachers. The proposal has surfaced to deal with the ever growing secular and multi-cultural society Ireland has become.

At present, all trainees must study denom-inational-specific religious courses, the ma-jority of which are Roman Catholic, regard-less of their own personal beliefs. Primary school teachers, specifically, are required to implement these teachings in class as part of the school ethos and daily teaching.

A recent survey carried out by INTO,

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News

The issue of serving TDs’ re-ceiving pensions for their time as ministers, while still working, has been the subject of much debate recently. With eventually those still working as TDs’ indicating that they would return their pen-sions after a media onslaught.

As usual, the intent of those in the political establishment has been to protect their own and to preserve their status as the highest paid politicians in Europe. We have had the ludicrous situation where politicians claimed that their pensions where so miniscule that they would make no differ-ence to the overall economic cli-mate, these were pensions which equalled or were more than the state pension.

This greed does not confine it-self to current TDs it extends itself right across senior establishment personnel who believe that they have a right and entitlement to be paid for the rest of their lives for doing a job for a number of years, a job for which they were grossly overpaid in the first place.

Is it right in any society that a person who served seven years as president is entitled to receive from the Irish people over six times the average industrial wage per year for the rest of they’re life, while the holder pursues other highly paid jobs around the world?

Peter Sutherland, the current head of Goldman Sachs Interna-tional (whose US parent company is being investigated in the US for fraud involving billions of dollars) and a former head of AIB receives one and a half times the average industrial wage for the short pe-riod of time he spent as Attorney General. Most recently Sutherland was in Ireland to hold a meeting of the Trilateral Commission which comprises the ultimate global financial elite, among them Henry Kissinger, a man wanted for war crimes by the French and Spanish judiciary.

In total €8,444,172 was paid to 251 Oireachtas pensioners and €11,000,000 was paid in ministe-

rial pensions, lump sums and severance payments to senior members of the establishment elite last year.

In order to ensure that Fianna Fail TDs did not lose out on any changes to pensions during his period as Minister for Finance Cowen amended the law. One of the main beneficeries was Frank Fahey, who according to the Dail register owns 18 properties includ-ing a French country house, whose pension increased from €36,000 to €60,000.

As Cork Workers’ Party Councilor Ted Tynan has pointed out the treatment of these ‘pensioners’ is in stark contrast to ordinary workers whose state pen-sions are now under treat from the Fianna Fail/Green government

Tynan said; “The Pen-sion is a meagre enough payment and does not even make ends meet for people, particularly during winter when they have to spend a large part of their pension on fuel in order to keep warm.”

He added; “Minister for ‘social protection’ Eamon Ó Cuiv, a grand-son of Éamon De Valera, should know how dan-gerous it is to try and cut the pension - after all his grandfather got elected Taoiseach for the first time after a predeces-sor, Ernest Blythe took a shilling off the Old Age Pension. Blythe later lost his seat. Mr. Ó Cuiv should worry about his if he does the same.”

Old age pensions cut while the elite look after themselvesMalachy Steenson

PENSIONS BREAKDOWN


5

The success of the Alliance Par-ty’s Naomi Long in defeating DUP leader Peter Robinson in the Belfast East Westminster election, can make a significant impact. It came only days after the Northern Ieland conference of the ICTU voiced seri-ous disquiet at the continuing policy of heaping praise on the Stormont Executive and Assembly.

Rank and file trade unionists, who are battling to save jobs and frontline services, are only too aware of Robinson’s failure to counter these cuts in his role as First Mininster.

Even with the growing crticsism of Robinson’s leadership his defeat was still undoubtably the surprise story of the election. Robinson was badly hurt by the Westminister expenses scandal, the huge salaries himself and his wife were drawing down and crucially the revelations of his shadowy dealings with local property developers.

Long, a hard working MLA also benefitted from the decision of Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey to stand in South Antrim rather than East Belfast, where he also failed to win a seat.

These are serious times for Unionism as we face into what will be a bitterly fought Assembly election next May. For the first time in their history the Ulster Unionists are not represented at Westminister. Robinson may well regret his justi-fication for standing in the West-minister election when he stated that it was essential that the leader

of Unionism be represented in the British parliment. Well he isn’t there, so what are we to make of his future as leader of the DUP? Reg Empey has already announced that he is to make way for a new leader of the Ulster Unionists and don’t be sur-prised if Robinson goes too.

Unionists look on in horror at the prospect of Sinn Fein,already the biggest single party in Northern Ireland, winning the biggest number of seats at next years Assembly elections and capturing the First Minister’s job.

A formal coming together between the two unionist parties is a step too far, but there is real pressure for greater coopera-tion between them to stop Sinn Fein. This would be made all the easier with the ending of the UUP’s disastrous coalition with the Tories and a new leadership in the two parties.

All this points to what will be a nakedly sectarian election next year as both tribal camps seek to capture the First Minister’s job. That said apart from the admittedly significant defeat of Robinson, the DUP did well in this election and successfully saw off the challenge from Jim Allister’s Traditional Unionist Voice, who are bitterly opposed to the present Stormont arrangements.

Sinn Fein too contiuned their upward path and the SDLP, who admirably rejected the offer of a nationalist pact with Sinn Fein also held their 3 seats quite easily. The Alliance Party, who stood in all 18 constituencies and with the strong showing of Naomi Long upped their vote to 6.2% overall. The Green Party will be disappointed with their showing particu-larly in North Down where they have a sitting MLA, where their vote fell by two thirds.

Veteran campaigner and SWP member, Eamon McCann stood in the Foyle constituency in the West-minster elections as a People Before Profit Alliance candidate.

McCann’s campaign was launched amid poetry and song, with its own campaign song by Paddy Nash and the Happy Enchi-ladas declaring a new manifesto for an alternative Ulster “put the people before the profit, put the need before the greed, and we’ll find a new direction beyond the Orange and the Green”.

I was among the activists from around the country that found their way to Derry to support Eamon’s campaign.

I leafleted the Brandywell with a new bunch of very friendly people

who seemed to know everyone on the street. That evening we canvassed the Loyalist working class Caw Estate and Nelson Drive where we received a warm response. People Before Profit were the only party in Derry which canvassed on both sides of the secterian divide.

The turnout was down 12.5% so the final count of 2,936 or 7.8% of the total poll was a very good result for a first run by PBPA. This is double the vote for Eamonn McCann from when he stood before as a SEA (Socialist and Environ-mentalist Alliance) candidate. This bodes quite well for the looming Assembly elections.

If you want to catch a bit of the buzz download the campaign song for free on-line at - paddynash.co.uk/web/music.asp

NewsHere's to you Mr RobinsonThe defeat of DUP leader Peter Robinson provided a main talking point of the recent Westminster elections but with Tory cuts com-ing down the line John Lowry sees an opportunity, and a need, for the Left to come together and provide real representation for the Northern Irish working class

People Before Profit in DerryPaula Geraghty

So in terms of the upcoming Stormont Assembly elections it is very much as you were with no real change in the balance of forces. Despite vocal dissident nationalists and unionists, the Stormont arrange-ment seems secure and under no real threat. But there is no room for complacencey.

The election of the Tories in Brit-ain will herald a whole raft of public spending cuts, €6 billion in this year alone, and Northern Ireland will not be spared the axe. Working class people in the North are in for a hard time and the Sormont Parties can-not be relied upon to protect their interests.

Remember they are already only waiting, as Finance Minister Sammy Wilson revealed during the election campaign, for the right moment to introduce water charges. Already we have had the decision to close major services at the Magher-afelt and Whiteabbey hospitals with the loss of jobs and badly needed hospital services. People in Mid Ul-ster and South Tyrone, now without any hospital services in the region, are asking what is the use of having 2 MPs both SF, and 12 MLAs of all the main assembly parties if they cannot prevent this sorry state of affairs.

What is needed before the next Assembly elections is a serious effort by the left in Northern Ireland to put in place a socialist electoral force which will show that unionist and nationalist parties are just as culpable as the Tories. There is a constituency for a socialist alterna-tive. The working class are in for a hard time. Will the left stand idly by?

All this points to what will be a nakedly sectarian election next year as both tribal camps seek to capture the First Minister’s job’


6

immy Kelly is standing in the Unite canteen on Middle Abbey Street, looking out on a dull morning, a cup of tea in a

union mug in his hand.When we meet, news reports

are all but confirming the end of a Labour government in Britain, an election campaign lost by Labour but fought with union money. Unite union money.

Kelly’s views on 13 years of New Labour echo the mixed senti-ments felt by Trade Unionists who actively canvassed for the party.

‘Our Union fought very hard for a Labour victory, but we’ve also, as a Union, made it clear publicly over the years of what we thought was lacking in the Labour govern-ment. They had a house majority that would have allowed them to do things for working people which they just didn’t do. You can’t just blame Thatcher as they kept many of the anti - union laws brought in by her, on the statute books.’

Despite his criticisms of the Blair and Brown administrations speak-ing before the Conservative/ Liberal Democrat collation was formed, Kelly voiced his fears that an Eton led Westminster would have drastic consequences for workers in the north of Ireland and British workers in general.

‘There will be big negatives for workers to bear with a Conserva-tive led government. They will, as promised, interfere with the public sector and attack public services in Northern Ireland.’

Another aspect of David Cam-eron’s new government that doesn’t sit well with Kelly is the sectarian politics practiced by the Tories in their campaigning in Northern Ireland.

It seems strange to begin an interview with a union leader, conducted yards from Dublin’s O’Connell Street, by talking about the implications of the British gen-

eral election. Kelly though holds an almost unique position in the world of Trade Unionism in that his brief takes in both sides of an interna-tional border.

In the morning he may be talking about Mary Harney’s latest plans for the Republic’s health system while a few hours, and miles up the road, later, his thought pattern will have to completely change as he deals with Stormont or London government policy.

‘It’s not easy’, says Kelly.

‘There’s no point pretending that it’s easy. When I drive back to Belfast you arrive in a different set up. You’ve got to represent people who vote on both sides of the divide.’

Kelly mentions the word divide a lot when he talk’s about the north but only once does he mean the sectarian definition.

‘The divide people may think is between Unionist and Republican/Nationalist but the real divide is between workers and bosses and that’s the only divide I am interested in. The divide shouldn’t be Catholic and Protestant, but that’s easier said than done.’

Kelly’s realises his views may seem like naive sound bites and is at pains to emphasise he doesn’t want

to be seen to be down playing the complexities of Northern Ireland. ‘There are people who have been in Northern Ireland decades longer than me. I don’t want to come across as someone with all the answers’ he says.

While he may not have all the answers he can point to real examples of cross border and cross community working class solidarity, examples that Kelly hopes can be built on.

‘I was proud to stand in the can-teen in Visteon car plant in Belfast’ recalls Kelly. Their occupation took place at the same time as the Wa-terford Crystal occupation. The day we were in Belfast in that canteen there were workers from Waterford Crystal up to put a cheque into the fund for the Visteon fight back and on a day like that it doesn’t matter what religion you are, what you’re fighting for is working class people.’

Kelly doesn’t just represent the working class, he comes from it too. At age 15 he left school and joined Waterford Crystal as an apprentice, he would spend the next 3 decades of his life working at the world renowned plant.

At the time of his joining Wa-terford Crystal, Kelly recalls how in terms of wages and conditions it was the best employer in the south east.

‘Those favourable conditions had to be fought for and sustained; they didn’t fall from the sky,’says Kelly. ‘The good news was that it was an industry that was growing ,there were people being taken on particularly every week as cutters or blowers as the market in America was growing by the day. We (the workers) were able to take advan-tage of that, but it didn’t happen overnight and it wasn’t easy.’

When the young Kelly arrived for his first day’s work at the plant he was immediately signed up to the Union, Waterford Crystal being a ‘closed shop’.

In the middle of a period of his-tory which is seeing daily attacks on worker’s rights you would be forgiven for thinking that workers were inundating the various unions with membership forms. The 20% union membership in the private sector though, tells a different story.

‘Maybe some people don’t want to admit it, but 20% and below is the sort of density you’re looking at in the private sector. Sweeping those facts under the carpet doesn’t do anything. We need to dedicate resources to rise that graph’, says Kelly.

While these figures may be replicated in many other countries this doesn’t offer the Irish Trade Unionist any consolation. ‘It may be the same across Europe and while that’s no consolation it does show

Interview

Jimmy KellyUNITE came into being in 2007 through the merger of existing trade unions. It is the biggest union in Britain with over 2 million mem-bers, it's Irish region membership numbers 60,000 north and south, under the leadership of Regional Secretary Jimmy Kelly, who Kevin Brannigan interviewed for Look Left

Jimmy Kelly - Unite

'Maybe some peo-

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mit it, but 20% and

below is the sort of

density you’re look-ing at in the

private sector’


7

that it’s not a case that everyone else is doing it right and that Ireland is doing it wrong.’

While Unite fight to increase Trade Union membership he be-lieves that all Trade Unions should be looking to build the movement rather than just their own member-ship figures.’ There’s no point in simply moving the deck chairs around’, says Kelly, when broached on the topic of unions “poaching”, each other’s members.

Before being elected to his position of regional secretary Kelly held membership in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) a member-ship he has since had to give up due to the SWP’s policy on not having elected union members within their ranks. It’s a position he respects with no objections. I’m the regional secretary of Unite and we’re affili-ated with the Irish Labour party so I accept that there could be some conflict of interests if I was still in the SWP.’

Looking to the current struggle Kelly muses that there is now a 2 year time period – if the government doesn’t fall before that – in which the Irish left should be building for

Everyone on the left sees the need for unity, or at least the benefits of left Co-operation, a strategy that broadens campaigns on the political, social and eco-nomic issues of the day.

It can be an effective strategy that can elect socialists into Dail Eireann, the E.U. Parliment or onto the National Executive of SIPTU and UNITE.

Some just fly the slogan of left unity to discredit small left wing parties; others use it in an attempt to embarrass the Labour Party away from another discredited coalition government with Fine Gael.

Recently Sinn Fein called for a broad left alliance within the Dail comprising of themselves, Labour, the Greens and other pro-gressive independents. They have also rejected accusations by yet another breakaway group Eirigi, that they have abandoned all their principles and are now a reform-ist group, a Fianna Fail (Mark 2).

In the late 1980s when the Workers’ Party gained seven seats in the Dail, Sinn Fein accused them of becoming just another social democratic group, a La-

bour Party (Mark 2). In the past the Green Party

gained a radical image whilst many of it’s member maintained it had no ideological baggage, but they are now regularly accused by the Labour Party of abandon-ing many of their core principles by supporting a discredited government.

There are many positives and many historical successes gained by left unity but sometimes they are overshadowed by the negatives. Fear that our ideology and our principals may become diluted or corrupted. The fear that careerists and cult personalities may highjack the work of the ideologically motivated activists on the ground, is not fully appre-ciated by the electorate. Perhaps it is this fear of the corrupting nature of power itself that holds us all back.

The Republican Congress in 1934 (covered in the last edition of LookLeft) was a very brave attempt to marry republican and socialist activists around issues. This attempt was repeated in the 1960s and 70s with the Housing Action Committees, the Resource Protection Campaign, the Anti Apartheid Campaign, the Anti War Movement, CND, the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement, and others.

In Northern Ireland repub-licans, socialists and trade unionists campaigned under the slogans, “workers unite” and

“sectarianism kills workers” and these campaigns led to the Peace Train in the late 1980s.

The broad left developed the May Day Committee in the early 70s, encouraging a campaigning Dublin Council of Trade Unions (DCTU) who provided the lead-ership for the Tax Marches in 1979/80. Remember the slogans ‘Tax the Greedy Not the Needy’ and ‘People before Profit’. In the early 1990s the DCTU formed an alliance with inner city commu-nities (ICON) called the Dublin Citywide Campaign on the Drugs Crisis which led to the National Drugs Strategy and the setting up of Local Drug Task Forces.

This year’s May Day March organised by the DCTU was a very low key event livened up by a radical speech by the former NUM leader Arthur Scargil, who asked ‘where is the leadership of the Irish trade union movement today and what are they doing to defend workers’? One week later people marched along the same street to the Dail and listened to community activists venting their anger on this corrupt government and the bail out of bankers and property speculators.

The struggle continues, and in pursuing our aims the Left must not be reticence in building broad support outside and inside the Dail.

*Tom Crilly is a Workers Party activist in the Ringsend area of Dublin.

a left led Government in the next election.

‘We (the unions) should be more political but you can’t ignore the fact that there has been 20 years of part-nership. The Movement hasn’t been politicising its members enough and we need to now be saying that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are not acceptable to working people in Ireland. The Trade Union movement should be taking a stronger more po-litical stance on that and we should be looking at the possibilities of a left led Government that includes Labour in it but a Labour Party that doesn’t take an elitist position.

‘I’m saying things that I know other Trade Union leaders won’t agree with, but that’s not going to stop me from arguing in favour of a left wing government rather than a coalition that sees Labour tagged onto one of the right wing parties.’

There’s a knock on the canteen door and a delegation enters. Trench coated and sporting beards they must be Trade Unionists. I depart, after his meeting Jimmy will depart too and head north to continue his double life.

The Left needs to get beyond name calling and towards unityTom Crilly

Kelly on the picket line

’The fear that careerists and cult personalities may highjack the work of the ideologically motivated activists on the ground’


8

Despite its grand claims before the vote, the BNP never came close to winning any seats in the recent British General Election. In their number one target constituency, Barking in London, wannabe-furher Nick Griffin was crushed by sitting Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who took over 50% of the vote. Griffin was humiliated, pushed into third place by the Tories. In their flagship local government area, Barking and Dagenham, instead of taking control of the council as they had hoped, the BNP’s twelve councillors were wiped out as Labour took all 51 seats. Overall, the BNP lost all but two of twenty eight councillors up for re-election. These poor results reflected both the hard work on the ground by their opponents and the party’s internal problems.

The BNP’s electoral campaign began in disarray. At the end of March, a memo sent out from BNP headquarters revealed that the party’s director of publicity, Mark Collett, and national organiser and

national elections officer, Eddy Butler, had been removed from their positions for conspiring against Griffin. Collett, who was acquit-ted of race hate charges along with Griffin in 2006, is most notorious for being the “star” of a documen-tary entitled Young, Nazi and Proud. He was arrested after Griffin told police that Collett had threatened to kill him. The BNP’s violent streak also surfaced in footage of their London organiser and his thugs punching and kicking two young British Asian men while canvass-ing. The BNP campaign was also hampered by difficulty finding candidates to stand, even in Barking and Dagenham, and two days be-fore the election, the BNP website, Twitter and Facebook pages were pulled down by their administrator in another internal row.

The grassroots anti-fascist Hope Not Hate campaign mobilised over a thousand volunteers against the BNP, who delivered leaflets and got people out to vote. In the words of

AFA is dedicated to confronting fascism, both physically and politi-cally, in whatever guise it might take. From the self-styled street fighter boneheads of the Celtic Wolves, to the ultra catholic, anti immigrant Irish nationalists based around the now defunct Hibernian magazine, to the parliamentary racist failures of the Immigration Control Platform to the ‘one man and his dog’ autonomous national-ist, graphic design enthusiasts of Folk Advance - AFA will counter the activities of these or any similar groups using a variety of tactics.

As expected, the group’s work is diverse. Small-scale activities involve the removing of racist graffiti and stickers, leafleting an area where there has been a case of fascist activity and organising ben-efit gigs. More substantial projects include getting involved in football related anti racist initiatives, writing and producing a magazine called No Quarter and mobilising large numbers to physically confront neo-Nazis when the time calls.

A wide range of people from various political backgrounds sup-port AFA. Anarchists, socialists, Irish republicans and anti – racist punks, skinheads and football fans are all involved. It is open to all individuals who support the group’s aims and methods.

Thankfully Ireland’s far right groups are small, inactive and fragmented. To illustrate, some Irish fascists try to make links with British nationalist groups; others want to have nothing to do with them and lend critical support to the Irish Republican struggle. Similarly some Irish fascists see recent east-ern European immigrants as their fellow white brothers while others just simply view them as foreigners and play the ‘Ireland for the Irish’ card as usual.

The limited growth of far right groups in Ireland, even through years of mass immigration on a scale never seen before, can also be attributed to the hard work of AFA. Time and time again, the group has successfully confronted and shut down race hate outfits. In the 1990s, Dublin neo Nazi skinheads who attached themselves to Blood & Honour and then tried to set up a Dublin GAA football firm were repeatedly driven off the streets by the newly formed AFA. In the last few years, AFA has directly

challenged the activities of the Im-migration Control Platform (ICP), the Celtic Wolves and members of Stormfront Ireland.

Last October saw one of the most important events in recent anti fascist history in Ireland. AFA successfully disrupted the birth-day celebrations of David Kalo, a Czech neo Nazi organiser who up to recently was living in Dublin. Up to 80 neo-Nazis from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland were expected to travel to a B&B in Kerry to listen to the musical de-lights of bands Conflict 88 (Czech Republic), Juden Mord (transla-tion: “Jewish Death”) (Slovakia) and Death Varan (Slovakia). AFA contacted the media and proprietors of the B&B, which resulted in the cancelling of the gig. Most of the travelling party decided not to trav-el to Ireland. Those who did were greeted by a ‘welcoming party’ of anti – fascists on the Dublin quays on the Sunday evening.

AFA continues to do excellent work in combating organised rac-ism in Ireland. Without them, there are no doubts that hate attacks on immigrants; homosexuals and left wing activists would be more fre-quent. AFA counter fascist groups before they get large and fearless enough to do so.

'Get Out and Stay Out' British Voters Tell BNP

Hope Not Hate’s Nick Knowles, “We played a major part in a highly successful campaign. The BNP is divided and defeated and the results in Barking & Dagenham and Stoke-on-Trent will have an impact on both the fascists and our own campaign in the months to come.” Margaret Hodge, in her victory speech, said “The message of Bark-ing to the BNP is clear: get out and stay out. You are not wanted here and your vile politics have no place in British democracy.” Griffin was forced to agree, blaming his defeat on people actually turning out to vote. Despite taking over 500,000 votes, his party has suffered a seri-ous setback, and there will be no let up in the progressive campaign against it.

Internal plots and a wipe-out at the polls has left the British National Party in tatters, Ultan Gillen reports

The stab in the back theory - Collett and Griffin

The activities and politics of Anti - Fascist Action (AFA) Ireland are as relevant now as they were 18 years ago when the organisation was founded, writes Bernard O’Reilly.

’The BNP’s violent streak also surfaced in footage of their London organiser and his thugs punching and kicking two young British Asian men while canvassing’

The limited growth of far

right groups in Ireland, even

through years of mass im-

migration on a scale never

seen before, can also be attrib-

uted to the hard work of AFA


9

It’s a long way from Ireland to Azerbaijan, yet at a seminar of communist and workers parties held in Brussels on march 26th 2010 saw women from twenty four countries give voice to their struggle in terms of employment, working conditions, health, educa-tion, services and politics.

While there have been many advances in the equality struggle, it was stressed that in the year of the 100th anniversary of international women’s day we must again reas-sert the crucial role communist and workers parties play in the struggle for women’s equality and freedom. It is still important for the women’s movement of today and the work-ing class women of Ireland to feel part of that struggle.

Women’s position under the capitalist crisis was addressed by all participants; the need to stand by women, especially those who experience greater pressure due to personal and family difficulties was stressed. The need to attract working men and women to the organised class struggle was also highlighted.

Every participant spoke of the historical origins of the radical women’s struggle The Work-ers Party of Ireland contribution articulated the writings of James Connolly, an inspirational figure in the history of “Irish Socialism”.

It was Connolly who wrote in his seminal work The Re-Conquest of Ireland;

“In Ireland the women’s cause is felt by all labour and women as their cause, the labour cause has no more earnest and whole-hearted supporters than the militant women….. The worker is the slave of the capitalist society and the female worker is the slave of that slave.”

It is vital that the Workers’ Party and other progressives continue to address the rights of women. In this the year of the 100th anniver-sary of the declaration of March 8th as “International women’s day” let us stand together against the double oppression of women, not by waving pink balloons but by organising within our communities, work places, homes and beyond to defeat our marginalization.

Collectively, we can make a difference. The Workers’ Party stands solely in the interests of the working class.

And by that we mean all workers, unemployed, employed or retired. We are 100% committed to a democratic, secular, socialist programme. Against the odds the Workers Party has

never wavered in our dedication to these goals.So if you really want to make a difference then it’s time

you joined the Workers Party in the struggle to build a new fairer country.

Over the decades the Workers Party has built up an un-rivalled collection of publications on the struggle to build a

democratic, secular, socialist Ireland. This library of pamphlets is an unrivalled resource for progressive political activists and

copies of these publications are available to purchase from party offices.

To learn more about the Workers Party contact;

Email: [email protected]://www.workerspartyireland.net

A road well travelledSandra Condron

Forum

Sectarianism and it’s near relations racism and xenophobic nationalism, are menaces princi-pally because they poison relations between members of different traditions; stultify the creation of a decent society for all citizens; and lend spurious justification to odious practices, including murder.

In identifying these menaces the ambition is not to obliterate cul-tural differences between citizens. Cultural plurality is an undeni-able feature of human experience, love of one’s culture is an entirely appropriate emotion. The prob-lem arises when this love takes extravagant and exclusive forms, which deny our common humanity and work against the possibility of members of the same society shar-ing a common citizenship.

Sectarianism and racism involve intolerant attitudes and actions that exaggerate and exploit our differences. It creates antagonistic divisions in its extreme preoccupa-tion with its own religious/cultural political interests and sense of superiority.

Citizenship is the political cate-gory that provides the best antidote to sectarianism and racism.

Thinking of ourselves as free and equal citizens enables us to ap-preciate what we share in common despite our differences. It encour-ages us to cooperate for the sake of creating and sustaining a society we can all share and participate in. Its inclinations are inclusive rather than exclusive; it fosters respect of difference; and it emphasizes our mutual indebtedness.

Unfortunately in Northern Ireland there has not been enough done to supplement the insti-tutional and structural changes introduced through the auspices of the Good Friday Agreement to bring about the transformation of sectarian attitudes. An unhelpful tendency has developed that at-tempts to reify traditional sectari-anism as “culture.”

The point is if sectarianism is culture then it is a malign culture: one whose beliefs, attitudes and practices must be scrutinised and challenged.

There are practical steps that

Sectarianism and Racism must be defeated.The establishment of the Tomas MacGiolla Centre for Citizenship and Reconciliation will help the direct confrontation of the related problems of sectarianism and racism, writes Sean Garland.

can be immediately undertaken to op-pose sectarianism and racism in the name of citizenship. These include speaking out against sectarian attacks and practices, conducting an advertis-ing campaign to promote civic values, advocating the benefits of dialogue, supporting all positive initiatives in the workplace, in trade unions, in sporting organisations and so on.

In order to aid these efforts to create an inclusive concept of citizenship in Ireland, and honour a man who dedicat-ed his life to confronting sectarianism, I’m pleased to support the establishment of the Tomas MacGiolla Centre for Citi-zenship and Reconciliation.

Key to this new body’s objectives will be the cultivation of common ground among citizens and the encour-agement of respect of cultural, religious and political difference.

In order to achieve this a number of strategies will be adopted including the development of programmes of public education, the facilitation of intercultural dialogue and the hosting of conferences which will seek to promote transnational debate on problems of citizenship and reconciliation in divided societies.

Tomas MacGiolla Centre for Citizen-ship and Reconciliation

Chairman; Rev Chris Hudson MBE Secretary; Ultan Gillen

Keep updated on the Tomas MacGio-lla Centre for Citizenship and Reconcili-ation at www.lookleftonline.org

WP Head office (South)48 North Great George’s Street, Dublin 1Telephone: (01) 8733 916Fax: (01) 874 8702International: +353-1-8733916

WP Head office (North)6 Springfield RoadBelfast, BT12 7AG

Telephone: (028) 90 328 663Fax: (028) 90 333 475

Educate, Agitate, Organise


10

What is social partnership?

Social partnership, in Ireland, means different things to dif-

ferent people. To some it is a mode of governance, a form of policy making, an industrial relations process or a glorified pay bargain. In practice, it contains an element of all of these. But, for the purpose of this article, I use social partnership to refer to a system of centralised wage bargaining that involves a series of trade offs for the economic actors’ involved. For trade unions, it is a po-litical strategy that on the one hand gives them direct access to cabinet government (sometimes influential but predominately consultative) whilst simultaneously negotiating national income agreements with employers and government.

Prior to the first social part-nership agreement in 1987 there was a period of free for all wage bargaining (at enterprise level). In this period, trade unions negotiated wage increases of up to 70 percent. However, take home pay decreased by almost 5 percent. This was due to excessive forms of PAYE taxation. Unemployment was soaring and the public finances were in a mess. When Fianna Fáil entered govern-ment in 1987 they offered unions a deal that would involve wage restraint (2 percent over three years) in return for a reduction in income tax, as well as active measures to create employment (trade unions were haemorrhaging members). This led to the first national partner-ship agreement; the programme for national recovery.

This was the beginning of 23 years of national wage agreements covering the unionised sectors of the economy.

What is trade union density?

Trade union density is the number of workers who are

members of a trade union as a percentage of the overall workforce. Across the western world trade union density has been in decline. In Ireland, despite an increase in mem-bership since 1980, overall trade union density has fallen sharply. It peaked around 1980 at 62 percent of the workforce. The preceding

period (1970’s) is often described as the golden age of trade unionism in all European countries. Trade union power, given the organisation of manufacturing industry, was at its peak. This gave trade unions sig-nificant bargaining power with both employers and government.

Throughout the 1980s’ trade union density averaged around 52 percent. But, membership declined steadily through the recessionary period. In 1998 trade union density had dropped to around 45 percent. But, membership had increased to 540,000.

This decline in density can be attributed to the rapidly changing structure and expansion of the Irish labour market. New foreign owned firms were being set up (with the US firms explicitly non-union), employment in the services industry grew at a rapid pace and there was a huge growth in managerial occupa-tions. By 2005 trade union density was hovering around 40 percent. It is currently estimated to be around 35 percent. Tackling this decline in density and organising workers is the most significant challenge facing the trade union movement.

Why does it matter?

Trade union density in a volunta-rist industrial relations system

is massively important as it reflects the extent of workers covered by collective bargaining. Collective bargaining is the percentage of the workforce covered by negotiated trade union wage agreements. Those who are not covered by collec-tive bargaining have their pay and working conditions set by the ebb and flow of free market competition. But, perhaps more importantly, the fewer workers in a union, the less power trade unions have to influ-ence the public policy agenda. Trade union density is a reflection of the power base of labour in its relation-ship to capital.

Decreasing density diminishes public support for trade union activ-ity as workers begin to see organised representation in the labour market as less and less important. Currently, collective bargaining coverage in Ireland is 44 percent. Only 44 per-cent of workers are directly covered by national partnership agreements.

The remainder are decided by employers in response to market competition. This can often lead to higher wage increases, particu-larly in higher skilled occupations. It individualises the employment relationship, the antithesis of collec-tive organisation, which, arguably, induces more solidarity amongst workers.

In countries such as the Neth-erlands, trade union density is less than 35 percent. However, collec-tive bargaining coverage is legally extended to all workers in the econo-my. Thus, even if a worker is not a member of a union they still benefit from trade union representation. In the Netherlands and Belgium trade unions co-manage social insurance funds. Workers have an interest in trade unions that goes beyond increasing disposable income.

What are the main challenges for trade unions in 2010?

When commentators refer to the collapse of social partnership

they generally refer to the unprec-edented withdrawal of IBEC and government from the national pay agreement. For the first time since 1987 there is no national pay agree-ment in place. This has exposed the immediate short term problem facing trade unions; how to col-lectively bargain at enterprise level over pay and conditions. 23 years of centralised pay bargaining has, arguably, disconnected trade union members and trade union officials from the process of wage negotia-tions. Reconnecting with firm level trade union activity is the first chal-lenge facing trade union leaders in the absence of a national agreement. But, it is a challenging opportunity.

The second challenge is related to trade union autonomy. The reduc-tion at source of membership fees (SER) creates a dependency for trade unions upon the employer. The government used this as a threat against public sector unions when they balloted for strike action against pay cuts. If it was removed it would have completely undermined the source of revenue that trade unions have come to depend upon. It limits their strategic autonomy in negotiat-ing with their employer. In Sweden, and in some German Unions, there

The End Of the Partnership The Future of Trade Unionism in Ireland

'Tackling this decline in density and organising workers is the most significant challenge facing the trade union movement.'


11

The End Of the Partnership The Future of Trade Unionism in Ireland

AIDAN REGAN

was a strategic decision to not opt for this type of membership fee structure. They never wanted to be in a situation where the employer could use it as a bargaining card. If the Irish government withdrew the SER system many public sector unions would have lost members in the process and the necessary revenue to stay afloat.

The third and long term chal-lenge for the trade union move-ment is to organise and increase their bargaining coverage. Given the gravity of the challenge, some American unions have begun dedicating 30 percent of their ex-penditure to organising. The absence of a partnership pay agreement provides an opportunity to make this a strategic priority. It frees up time and resources for ICTU to refocus their raison d’être. A collective fund whereby each trade union affili-ated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) would designate at least 15 percent of its expenditure (but could vary according to size and income) should provide the necessary resources to turn organis-ing into a tactical campaign.

What is the future – the organising union?

In politics, the absence of a clear collective strategy is a recipe for

failure. The same logic applies to the trade union movement. Trade unions will continue to want access to the policy making apparatus of govern-ment. They will continue to struggle for social and economic justice. In this regard they will adopt whatever collective strategies available to that end. But, strategic capacity requires strengthening the position of labour in its relationship to capital. The only way to do this is to organise and increase trade union density. Making this a priority should be the overarching strategic objective of trade unions in the coming years. It requires a move away from simply servicing the interests of their mem-bers to actively engaging in political activity. The first step in this regard is to rapidly improve and popularise an alternative political economic analysis on the type of society the Irish labour movement envisages for the 21st century.

ames Connolly was shot 94 years ago, not simply because he was one of the leaders of the 1916 Rising, but because

throughout his life he was an implacable opponent of capitalism. When it looked like the British would leave Connolly to die as a result of his wounds, the leaders of Dublin’s business elite began bay-ing for his blood, and newspapers such as William Martin Murphy’s Irish Independent demanded that James Connolly be shot. Even on the verge of his death Con-nolly was a threat to them and they wanted to make sure he was eliminated. However, like Joe Hill before him, Connolly did not die - he went on to organise and we must do the work that he left us behind to do.

Far too much lip service has been paid to the memory of James Connolly, both by politicians who despise his socialist politics and by trade unionists who pay homage to Connolly’s name, but refuse to live by his principles.

Connolly’s teachings are as rel-evant today as when he was alive. His socialism is ageless and we as socialists and trade unionists must strive to ensure that his legacy is kept alive in Ireland today and in the future. Connolly would never

have accepted the dictum from the bourgeoisie that “labour must wait”. Labour has waited in vain for 90 years. Now, as capitalism is in deep crisis, the Left has the opportunity to fulfil Connolly’s dream. We call on the entire Left in Ireland, including the Labour Party and the ICTU, to come together to sweep this inept government out of the Oireachtas and, for the first time in our history, install a left-led administration.

On the 12 May 1916 James Connolly was executed by fir-ing squad in Kilmainham Jail, Dublin. Seriously wounded during the Easter Rising he was tied to a chair to face his executioners. Workers Party President Michael Finnegan believes the Citizens' Army leader's legacy is vitally impor-tant today.

J

Connolly's message is vital today

Teachings are as relevant today as when he was alive.

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A coalition of individuals, par-ties and communities have come together to demand a right to work for all. Job creation should be the priority not the bailing out of banks and speculators. The policy of seeking to economically force young people to emigrate must be defeated. ‘Enough is enough.’

The Right to Work campaign is supported by the Unite trade union. To keep up to date on upcoming Right to Work events and protests Join LOOK LEFT Magazine on FACEBOOK or look out for posters

Right to Work Campaign


12

There are three main elements to the Irish Government’s deci-sion to slash welfare support for under-25s. It is trying to appease the international credit rating agencies, who are demanding that the Republic undertakes severe cuts in public spending if it wants to avoid a junk rating. It is try-ing to stimulate emigration, the traditional ‘solution’ to economic problems in the South. And it is trying to push down on wages, and by extension the minimum wage rate, in an economy where 30 per cent of income earners receive less than €15,000 a year.

The cuts are designed to shift the burden of the economic crisis away from its instigators – the all-too-familiar bankers and property developers – and firmly onto the shoulders of ordinary households. The Government’s strategy shows that class still remains at the heart of Irish economic and social life. It also tells us that, in cutting public spending and praying for emigra-tion, this Government doesn’t know its economics from its elbow. In a country the size of the Repub-lic, emigration does not save the state money: all it does is shrink the economy even further.

There is a long tradition in Ire-land not only of emigration but of governments actively encouraging emigration as an economic policy. In October 1987, the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Lenihan, was asked by Newsweek whether emigration was a defeat for the Irish republic. “We shouldn’t be pessimistic or defeatist about it,” replied Lenihan, “we should be proud of it. After all, we can’t all live on a small island.”

These sentiments were echoed by in February of this year when theTánaiste and Minister for En-terprise, Mary Coughlin, told the BBC programme, HardTalk: “The type of people who have left, some

of them find they want to enjoy themselves and that’s what young people are entitled to do.”

The same month Coughlan’s personal trainer, 53-year-old Eddie Coyle from Donegal, announced that he was emigrating to Spain as the recession had caused a serious downturn in his business.

The lack of touch with reality on the part of the Minister was stunning, and as one Irish emigrant said in the Irish Times: “Emigra-tion... is as much an instrument of Government policy now as (in the 1960s), and as in the 19th century. Those of us who leave provide the safety-valve that allows the rotten shower in power to avoid hav-ing to create a more just and fair society. Emigration does not help to balance the books, but it may keep the edge off protest. When the Government talks of emigra-tion as a safety-valve, this is what it means.”

In March 2010 there were 84,991 people under 25 on the live register. If every one of them was to up and leave the country tonight, the economic activity generated by 85,000 people would also disappear. The “savings” to the live register would be slowly wiped out by depressed demand for goods and services. It took nearly 40 years but the realisation that emigration merely serves to shrink your economy became the corner-stone of the 1958 Programme for Economic Development, overturn-ing Free State mantra and instigat-ing the first real economic growth since partition.

Those lessons have been completely lost. Today, the Fianna Fáil/Green coalition believes that the economy is essentially a pot of money, into which the Government dips to pay for services. It is a view which is repeated constantly by virtually all the mainstream media. We are bombarded with unsubstan-

tiated opinions that to cut back on public services is a “no-brainer”, and that we cannot afford the social services we require.

Indeed, in the recent run-up to the British general election, the idea that Northern Ireland’s econ-omy needed to cut back on public spending in order to be “com-petitive” was thrown about with as much gusto as rice at a Whitsun wedding. In the times of recession, our national pot of money shrinks, the argument goes, and as a result the Government needs to either cut back on spending or increase its borrowing. This is, after all, the way we manage our households. When there is less money com-ing in, we learn to do without. We tighten our belts, economize, and stop living beyond our means. Then, when the crisis passes, and money starts flowing again, we can let the buckle out and breathe a little more easily.

But the income and expenditure of a single household has little in common with the complex rela-tionships and interactions of the millions of buyers, sellers, produc-ers, consumers, lenders, borrowers, importers and exporters which make up a national economy.

First of all, the Government does not receive a wage for doing a job. Rather, its funds are based on the level of economic activity taking place within its jurisdiction. It takes a percentage from all sales, wages, profits and interest via taxa-tion, and then uses that income as the bedrock of its yearly budget. The health, or otherwise, of that economic activity is taken into ac-

Generation Bailout?The youth of Ireland are once again paying for the failings of the eliteAnother generation of Irish youth is facing a tough decision, to stay and at-tempt to reform a failing state or succumb to the crony capitalist clique and accept emigration or unemployment. Below Conor McCabe examines the eco-nomic lunacy which puts the intrests of bank bondholders before a nation’s young, while Unite economist Micheal Taft outlines possible left solutions and Justin O’Hagan reports on the spread of the failed cutbacks agenda to North-ern Ireland.

Conor McCabe

’There is a long tradition in Ireland not only of emigration but of governments actively encouraging emigration as an economic policy ’


13

nesses that with the right stimulus packages could have kept at least ticking over. What is truly amazing at this time is that even though this crisis is the result of finance capi-tal, it’s finance capital that’s getting to dictate terms to the rest of us. The Irish Government could side with producers and retailers, stop the hemorrhaging in jobs, but instead it’s going with finance and land speculators and to such an extent that it has handed them the keys of the country via NAMA and handed us reduced services, a slashed safety-net, and emigration for our children. But the policies to sustain NAMA will damage the possibilities of significant job cre-ation. The insanity of the path that Fianna Fáil and the Greens have sent us down is matched only by the insanity that got us here in the first place. Youth emigration won’t save us. Draconian cuts in public expenditure won’t save us. And appeasing the volatile and schizo-phrenic international financial markets, I’m afraid, won’t save us. There are ways out of this. One thing is certain, though: we need change. And fast.

count when the Government goes in search of additional funding via the international finance markets.

Let’s say my income is based on my weekly wage. It matters little to my individual pay packet if my neighbours are unemployed or earning €100,000 a year. My income comes from my employer. However, if my income is based on taxing my neighbours’ earnings, then whether they are working or not greatly affects my income.

In other words, if my income is dependent on the income of others, then I cannot ‘sit out’ a recession. It is in my interest to do what I can to get my neighbours back to work, as an increase in their economic activity benefits my situation.

This is the polar opposite of everything the Irish Government has done since the bank guarantee fiasco of September 2008. Instead it was launched what can only be described as a class war on the vast majority of the working (and non-working) population. In 2006, the most recent figures available, the top four per cent of those eligible for tax earned between them more than the bottom 54 per cent put together. In other words, the 83,000 people in the Republic who each earned €100,000 or more that year had a collective income greater than that of the 1.2 million people who each earned €27,000 or less the same year. Those who earned €200,000 or more that year – 0.8 per cent of those with taxable incomes – ended up collectively with more money after tax than the 654,000 people at the bottom of the income league who each ended up

with €15,000 or less. The burden to carry the present

crisis, however, has bypassed the top earners who dodged a tax hike in the December budget, in lieu of public sector workers who have seen a collective 15 per cent cut in wages, the unemployed who received a five per cent cut in al-lowance, and young unemployed adults who have seen their allow-ances cut by up to 50 per cent.

There’s part of a joke I’ve heard which summarizes the Russian Military Handbook for Gener-als as containing simply one line: ‘retreat to your capital and wait for the winter snow to arrive.’ In many ways, this is the response of a banker to an economic crisis. Sit on the money, use it to buy up your competitors, then start lend-ing again but on your terms. In contrast, merchants and industrial-ists need not only money to make things, they need consumers with money to buy the stuff they make and have. They can’t afford the banker’s waiting and consolidation game.

A lot of Irish businesses have gone under in the past two years, and more are going to go under over the next few years - busi-

Generation Bailout?

'The burden to carry the

present cri-sis, has by-

passed the top earners who

dodged a tax hike in the December

budget'


14

Generation Bailout?

If, as Keynes said last century, ‘you look after unemployment the budget will look after itself’,

then no wonder the Government has found itself in a fiscal crisis.

Not only has it failed to look after unemployment, it has actively contributed to it through self-defeating deflationary policies. We are paying for it now - we will be paying for it years to come. The Live Register only tells us part of the story. A better figure to track is ‘employment’, because the Irish labour market suffers from consid-erable ‘leakage’, or emigration. In 2008 and 2009, employment fell by 251,000 - a quarter of a million jobs lost 2010 hasn’t started any better. Already the Government is estimating a further 65,000 jobs will be lost. Redundancies in the first three months came to nearly 18,000, while management consultancies are predicting even higher level of business insolvencies than last year. By the year’s end, over 300,000 jobs will be gone.

European comparisons make for depressing reading. Irish employ-ment will decline by nearly 15 per cent over the three years 2008 to 2010. In the Eurozone, the fall was only 3 per cent. If employment had only fallen by the Eurozone aver-age, there would be nearly a quarter of a million more people at work here by the end of the year. This is the true cost of the Government’s savage deflationary policies.

One could go on and on in similar statistical vein (for instance, at optimistic growth rates, we don’t return to our pre-recession level of employment until 2017, a decade-long jobs recession). But the econo-my is drowning and it’s of little help to continually describe the colour of the water. Are there measures that can turn this dismal situation around? Yes. Can we afford to do something about unemployment? We can’t afford not to.

The Government would have us to believe that employment must wait on the resolution of the fiscal crisis. They have it backwards. Imagine if early and urgent action

had been taken to protect employ-ment levels in order to keep job losses to the Eurozone average. How much more tax revenue would 200,000 people at work create? How many more businesses would still be in business due to mainte-nance of domestic demand? How much would the Government have saved on unemployment costs? Addressing employment is the key to addressing the fiscal crisis, not the other way around.Let’s canvas three areas.

First, our degraded physical infrastructure is one of the biggest impediments to future productiv-ity, competitiveness and growth. Everything from rail, seaport and public transport, electricity and telecommunications, water & waste and green technology: the Global Competitive Index ranks our infra-structure as one of the worst in the industrialised world. To upgrade and modernise is an investment in future growth.

This is investment we have to undertake, regardless of the reces-sion. What better time than now, especially when procurement costs are falling? ICTU has proposed a new public enterprise model - involving a single holding company for all public enterprises with the capability of creating new ones - capable of delivering an investment programme. Not only does this model limit Exchequer exposure - public enterprises has an excellent

track record of attracting investment on the international debt markets - it has the capability of creating thou-sands of jobs. For every €1billion capital investment, we can expect to create over 5,000 jobs – directly and down-stream. A substantial multi-year investment programme could result in thousands of jobs and would pay for itself over the medium-term - the ESRI estimates that such investment creates a return of 15 per cent annually, something private sector companies would jump at.

Second, given that nearly half of the job losses have been in the construction sector, there is an op-portunity to employ those skills in creating green wealth. In particular, upgrading buildings to the lowest carbon-efficiency possible. This would reduce energy consumption (and, so, fossil-fuel imports) while freeing up money for households and businesses to increase non-energy consumer spending. An imaginative approach could put thousands to work with no cost to the state. Investment could come via the National Pension Reserve Fund with a charge placed on every build-ing equal to the cost of the upgrade, thus maintaining the Fund’s asset base. Therefore, the work would be free up-front with the charge paid off over years linked to income or profits. If this were initially rolled out in towns/cities outside Dublin, where the construction collapse was particularly severe, the multipli-ers resulting from this investment would be even more positive.

Third, it is absolutely essential to prevent long-term youth unem-ployment. Research has shown

Putting Jobs Creation FirstIf the state can become the bail-out of last resort for failed financial institutions, it can become the employer of last resort for young people, according to Micheal Taff.

The economy is drown-ing and it’s of little help to continu-ally de-scribe the colour of the water’


15

Generation Bailout?

that an extended period of jobless-ness in youth creates endemic and persistent problems throughout a young person’s lifetime. Extended long-term unemployment affects job prospects and wage levels for years - it can lead to malnutrition, illness, mental stress, and depres-sion; poor physical health and life expectancy; reduce work experi-ence and skill development; create welfare-dependency and higher than average crime rates; in short, long-term unemployment is a social disaster happening today, tomorrow and for years to come.

If the state can become the bail-out of last resort for failed financial institutions, it can become the employer of last resort for young people. The state should guaran-tee that no young person will go without work for longer than six months. It can do this through job placements in the public, private

and community sectors. It can combine this with personalised up-skilling and return to education – operated through established and competent delivery vehicles like an enhanced VEC. And it should do this at a living wage-rates above the low-pay threshold - this could help combat employers’ exploitation of unemployment to drive down wages in otherwise healthy firms. The cost of this programme would be a fraction of the Anglo-Irish bail-out and would create real economic and social returns – the least of which would be to maintain demand today while preventing higher social costs in the future.

These are just three measures. There are many more. The trade union movement, political parties, social and community organisa-tions have all come forward with thoughtful and innovative proposals to create employment. There isn’t a lack of ideas or enthusiasm. Nor is

there a lack of resources.What there is, however, is a

monumental lack of will on the part of this Government that is wedded to failed economic models and prescriptions. That is why it is imperative that progressives put aside old divisions and cooperate in building the economic and political alternative this country needs so badly. But let’s be clear: without the one, there cannot be another; the economic and political is inextrica-bly intertwined.

In short, fighting unemployment is not just a matter of getting the economics right; its about getting the politics right as well -- work-ing in cooperation within the trade union movement and social organisations, working with political activists who are determined to be serious and constructive. If we start doing this now, we’ll be that one bit closer to our goals.

The number of people claiming unemployment benefit in North-ern Ireland fell by 200 in April to 55,400 after more than two years of increases. Hardly a cause for cel-ebration. In the past two and a half years 32,000 jobs have been lost in Northern Ireland, including 10,000 in construction. Nearly 38% of the local unemployed are classified as long-term unemployed. In addition, 16% of 18-24 year olds are unem-ployed, compared to an overall rate of 6%. On top of this, around 50,000 working-age people in Northern Ireland’s “economically inactive” population would like to work but have given up trying. Consequently, the real unemployment rate is closer to12%.

What is the response of the local parties to this social crisis? In the wake of the recent election all parties have been keen to tell us that they will defend tooth and nail the block-grant – the Assembly’s funding from the UK Treasury. But the truth is that all parties to the Stormont Coalition have already been working on cut-ting back social services. Recently the Stormont executive has pushed through £350m of public expendi-ture cuts for the financial year begin-ning in April. These will be followed by around £700m in the 3 years to 2014. Recent hospital closures in

Whiteabbey and Mid-Ulster are among the first steps in this pro-cess. Because politicians, under the advice of mainstream economists, are unwilling to make cutbacks in infrastructure development, public sector jobs and pensions will face the biggest threat from our represen-tatives in Stormont. There will be further reductions in health, social service, housing, education and local authority spending if these proposals are not resisted. All this, to pay for the excesses of the global banking system.

As well as working together in pushing through public sector cut-backs, all parties in the Stormont Co-alition are united in their desire to see the introduction of a lower corpora-tion tax rate here. The new Secretary of State, Thatcherite Owen Patterson is keen, “that we do publish a paper on the mechanics of possibly devolv-ing corporation tax to the devolved institutions here.’’ The hope is that a lower rate of corporation tax will entice foreign investment into North-ern Ireland but as Secretary of Derry Trades Council, Liam Gallagher, has noted, “It will create another loop-hole for corporations to avoid paying tax and make shareholders richer. The whole concept of a cohesive fair society which cares for the less well off is predicated on the principle of a fair taxation system based on ability to pay.”

Moreover, in order to comply with EU competition law, a lower rate of tax here would have to be paid for out of the Block Grant. It is estimated that initially this will amount to £200 million a year, which will be funded by yet more cutbacks in the Stormont Budget.

In relation to taxes, a recent report by the TUC shows that £25 billion is annually lost due to tax avoidance and evasion in the UK. This is made up of £13 billion. From tax avoid-ance by individuals and £12 billion p.a. from the 700 largest corpora-tions (Missing Billions). A socially concerned government, would do everything in its power to claw back this money rather than imposing cutbacks on working people.

Economists agree that cutbacks will put less money into the Northern Ireland economy, which in turn will lead to further job losses. According to Ulster Bank economist Richard Ramsey there may be dark times ahead with “a secondary surge” in construction-related job losses over the next 12-18 months. Mr Ramsey explained: “This will be linked to cuts in capital investment, which is likely to bear the brunt of the forthcoming public expenditure cuts. ...Quite simply, the steeper the cuts the sharper the rise in construction-related unemployment. ...We still expect the unemployment register to swell to around 62,500 later this year with the services sector, notably retail, vulnerable to job losses in the coming months.”

The alternative to this crumbling economy would be to develop the economy by government spending in areas of social need. They aren’t hard to find. The money put into the economy through job creation would have the virtuous effect of stimulating the economy. This is an approach that none of the Stormont parties has signed up to.

Cut Backs For Us Tax Breaks For ThemThe Tory election victory in Britain and Stormont's economic consensus in support of the cut back agenda threatens the future of Northern Ireland's youth while pandering to the multi-nationals cor-porations, Justin O'Hagan reports.

The alternative to this crumbling economy would be to develop the economy by government spending in areas of social need’


16

A number of Dublin working class communities have united to fight council plans to close public swimming pools that are a vital leisure and fitness resource in their areas.

Dublin City Council is due to close three public Swimming pools at Coolock, Crumlin and Sean Mc-Dermott Street in the north inner city in the late summer.

The City manager John Tierney has cited the government’s need to find €3 billion ‘savings’ by the end of 2010 as the reason the pools a threat-ened. Tierney initially stated that the council would continue to seek ways of keeping the amenities open but that the €600,000 the council had found to run the pools for the first half of this year would only last until the end of the summer.

Dates have now been set to close the pools with the Sean Mac Dermott street pool scheduled to end opera-tion on August 27.

In response community activ-ists have moblised, Joe Mooney of the “Save Our Swimming Pools” campaign in the north inner city stated: “ This pool has been here

since the 1970’s, and has served the community well. Since the 1980s we have seen major housing schemes demolished and rebuilt and huge unemployment due to the closure of the docks. The heroin crisis has also devastated this area but through all this, the swimming pool was always a shining light in our community - something positive amongst the deprivation while there was little else around. “

In the coming weeks, a series of public meetings will be held in the areas surrounding the pools. The purpose of these meetings will be to inform residents of the proposed closures and the efforts to date to prevent them. A build up of support for future protests and new ideas for campaigning will also be sought from the meetings.

Save Our Swimming Pools spokesperson Sian Muldowney: “We are determined to keep our pool open, and we are prepared to work hard to make it a success. We really need Dublin City Council to respond in a positive manner, and start to work with the community and not against us. In the year that Dublin

is the European Capital of Sport it is shameful that we are even in this predicament “.

Independent Dublin city council-lor Cieran Perry said the working-class communities in which the pools are located had few enough leisure facilities without taking these re-sources away. He added that the cost of keeping the pools open would be minimal as local people were willing to manage them.

Save Our Swimming PoolsFrancis Donohoe

Teachers Union of Ireland and Dublin Council of Trade Unions member Finbar Ge-aney states why he opposes the public service agreement 2010-2014 proposals.

Tuesday March 30th will be remembered as the bleakest day in the history of the Irish trade union movement. In the early hours of the morning of that day the paid officials of the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions emerged from talks with the Government to declare that they had sacrificed the jobs, wages and working conditions of workers throughout the public service. In return for their total ca-pitulation they won nothing. They agreed to savings of €1.5 billion at an immense cost to their members. On that same day the Government announced that they would provide the moribund Anglo Irish Bank with €18 billion (bringing their to-tal to €22 billion).Other banks such as Allied Irish Bank, Irish Nation-wide and Bank of Ireland would between them receive a further €13 billion.

This most recent Government onslaught began in September 2008 with the Government’s

decision to save their friends who had been gambling in banking, property speculation and financial products; they introduced a ‘bank guarantee’ drawn from public funds. Then came an emergency Budget with a levy of one to two percent was on all incomes, Child Allowance was abolished for many and was reduced for all, the Pupil/Teacher ratio in schools was raised and employment of Special Needs and Special Language teachers was cut (thus losing up to two thousand jobs). A mass demonstration of opposition was held in Dublin. A one-day general strike was called in March but this was cancelled when the Government invited the leaders of ICTU to enter talks. Then without any concern for the union negotiators the Government introduced in April of last year further swinging cuts in pubic service pay of between five and eight percent; they dressed-up this cut as a ‘pension levy’. A mass demonstration was called to give vent to the anger of ordinary trade union members. Up to one hundred thousand turned out across the country. The response of the union leaders was to seek further talks. A one-day general strike to express

total opposition to the pay cuts was called on December 1st 2009. The response was massive; firemen, nurses, local authority workers, teachers, civil servants and oth-ers came out in a huge show of strength and solidarity. But before the day was out the leader of the Public Services Committee of the ICTU Peter McLoone declared on the national media that pay cuts were inevitable.

In effect these union negotiators have become agents of Govern-ment policy. The cosy arrangement that union officials have had with the Government over the past two decades has removed them from any understanding of the real needs of the rank and file union members. Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have been trying to transform the trade union movement into an arm of government, and the coterie of general secretaries has succumbed.

But the fight to transform the trade unions has already begun.

This article is an edited version. Finbar Geaney’s full article can be viewed on lookleftonline.org

No Deal

’The cosy arrangement that union officials have had with the Government over the past two decades has removed them from any understanding of the real needs of the rank and file union members’


17

Europe

Acropolis Now? The Untold Story

The full incorporation of the Defence Forces into foreign military alliances has come a step closer with the announcement that Irish troops are to participate in “warfare training” as part of the EU Nordic Battle-group set-up.

Troops based at Collins Barrack’s in Cork are to travel to Sweden next October to take part in the miltray excercises. Cork Work-ers Party Councillor Ted Tynan said he was appalled to learn that Swedish Brigadier General Jan Stephan Andersson had been in Collins Barracks at the end of March to inspect the troops who will be under his com-

mand next Autumn.“We were told on numerous

occasions”, said Tynan, “in both the Nice and Lisbon Treaty referen-dums, that the EU Battlegroups were about humanitarian missions and crisis management through the so-called Petersberg Tasks. We had it rammed down our throats that Irish neutrality was not at stake. Now we learn that Irish troops are to undertake warfare training and we have the spectre of a foreign military commander inspecting Irish troops on Irish soil in Cork City”

Tynan added; “Quite clearly the

“They say the only way of sal-vaging our economy is more auster-ity, but that’s a total lie.” Nicolaos Danizis, a 60-year-old shipyard worker protesting at the Greek parliament, cut straight through all the propaganda from the Greek government, the EU, the IMF, and the right-wing media.

This is the same lie that we in Ireland have been told every day for nearly two years. It is a lie we will be hearing for years to come from governments in both Dublin and London as they attack public services, jobs and wages. And like in Ireland, the Greek so-called austerity measures are intended to bail out bankers, speculators, and corrupt politicians at the expense of ordinary people.

The details of the price demand-ed from the people of Greece by the EU, the IMF, the banks, and the international financial speculators are horrific. In the words of the Observer newspaper, the measures “will wipe out almost every right won by workers over the past 30 years.”

Greek public sector workers, since the 1940s, have received fourteen months’ payments instead of twelve because their wages are so low; pensioners, whether they receive public or private sector pensions, receive the same. The government will abolish the thir-teenth and fourteenth payments to both workers and pensioners. Mil-lions of people will lose one Euro in seven from their income on the basis of this measure alone.

There are other cuts aimed at

the low paid, the unemployed, the sick, young people and pensioners – in short, cuts targeting the most vulnerable in society. The pensions system is being overhauled, with the age of retirement increased and pensions cut. VAT is the most unfair type of taxation, hitting the poor much harder than those with high incomes because it targets the basic ne-cessities. Greek VAT, which was increased only two months ago, is to increase further, from 21% to 23%.

Unemployment and other benefits will be cut, and spending on public services such as hospitals and schools will be drastically reduced. Wages are being frozen for three years, and thousands will be sacked from the public sector and local government. The Greek elite are also taking the opportunity to remove collective bargaining rights won after decades of hard struggle. As one Greek political commentator noted, “Greece is go-ing to become a much poorer place; schools will be poorer, hospitals will be poorer, people will be poorer.”

The measures are a comprehensive attack on the Greek working class. They attack the living standards of Greek workers, the rights of workers to fight for better conditions, and the rights of the Greek people to determine their own future. The Greek working class is fighting back. Already, there have been sev-eral general strikes, and protests in 75 Greek cities. Unprecedented numbers have been mobilised against the so-called bailout plan.

The central force in opposing these cuts, which are being implemented by the social

democratic PASOK government, is the KKE, the Greek Communist Party. As Greece’s oldest func-tioning political movement the KKE has grown out of generations of working class struggle, and has deep roots in both the cities and the countryside. Founded in 1918 the KKE helped build Greece’s strong socialist tradition, with its culture of mass demonstrations in support of the demands of ordi-nary people.

It was only the interference of the British Empire in the Greek civil war that followed World War II that prevented a KKE led revolution. The KKE has con-tinued to work hard whatever the circumstances, the party’s present leadership first becoming politi-cally active when it was an under-ground organistion opposing the CIA-backed fascist military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 until 1974.

Currently the third largest party in the Greek Parliament, with 21 seats, and has two MEPs who are members of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left. This political base is built on decades of activity in local communi-ties, trade unions, in workplaces, in schools and in universities throughout Greece.

The May 5 burning of a branch of a bank which resulted in the deaths of three people, including a pregnant woman, allowed the me-dia to remove their focus from the real story of the Greek protests, the central role of an organized and disciplined revolutionary political party.

The Greek working class is on the front line of the international struggle provoked by the current crisis. As the 100,000 demonstra-tors brought onto the streets of Athens by the KKE on May 15th chanted, “The winner must be the people”.

Ultan Gillen focuses on the role Europe's strongest communist party plays in the Greek workers uprising against the bankers' agenda

Irish people have been lied to once again and the integration of our defence forces into the EU / NATO structures goes on at pace while the myth of a neutral Ireland continues to be portrayed by the present Fian-na Fáil / Green Party government. Their denials about Irish military entanglement in an emerging EU superpower are farcical. The lives of Irish troops and our national sovereignty and security are being put at risk by this government.”

Defence Forces being drawn into EU Army

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KKE millitants occoupy the Acropolis


18

The ‘Student Movement’ in Ireland is a funny one. It tends to find itself in a stagnant state and with its banners well and truly under the stairs for three to four years at a time. Then, as if like clockwork, a wise Minister of Education will come forward with the idea of third level fees and once more students will be loaded onto mini buses to parade from the Garden of Remembrance to the front of Dail Éireann.

The last threatened implemen-tation of fees created a scenario where the left found itself in a position where there was a dire need for a grassroots, left cam-paign. This campaign, Free Edu-cation for Everyone (FEE) began in University College Dublin but spread to other institutions. In NUI Maynooth, even after the threat of third level fees had been removed from the table, dozens of students stood behind the FEE banner on the picket lines (and in the pouring rain) with staff at the University during the Irish Congress of Trade Unions day of action last November. Stu-dents then, can clearly organise on matters other than ‘Me Féin’ anti-fees demonstrations, as the success of our campaign in NUI Maynooth has shown.

The laughable appointment of Bertie Ahern T.D as an ‘Honor-ary Adjunct Professor’ by the University led to the sort of action you would expect rational people to take in any institution that deemed such a man worthy of praise. As political activists, we made sure there was much more than ‘fees’ at the heart of our campaign against the appoint-ment. The Corrib Gas debacle, the culture of corruption within Fianna Fail and the economic mess Bertie and his party are responsible for featured in the campaign from day one.

A petition of well over 1,000 signatures was delivered to the office of the University President by a rally of several hundred stu-dents and staff. This action was grassroots, and was not endorsed by the Student Union, after Union Council voted against oppos-ing the appointment. What we witnessed in NUI Maynooth was the sight of hundreds of students taking action for themselves,

speaking up for themselves and organising democratically among themselves.

The campaign against Ahern gained massive media attention, ranging from the front page of The Irish Times to a feature piece on the George Hook radio pro-gramme . The University insisted to a local media publication that Bertie would deliver an inaugu-ral lecture and that it would be publicly advertised.

Of course, we all know what will follow. Either Bertie will arrive, sunglasses and all, during the summer break to an empty campus, or that ‘public notice’ will go up an hour or so before-hand. Still, whether or not the ac-tual event is opposed on the day, the farcical nature of it has been exposed. The Irish Daily Mail for example highlighted the fact that the academic who proposed Bertie for the position is himself a Fianna Fail member, and had attended a Fianna Fail Ard Fheis in the presence of Bertie and his sort before proposing him for the role. Another case of ‘jobs for the boys.’

Of course we can not get hung up on Bertie. Considerable blocks of NUI Maynooth students on ICTU demonstrations, the fantastic sight of students holding the picket lines , the presence of left wing activists pushing a solid political line at Union Council level and the new links built with staff and Unions on campus are all a sign we’re moving in the right direction.

The slogan ‘Pages not Wages’ used by Trinity College Student Union during a recent library sit in was a fine example of what we must avoid in our movement. We can not alienate the work-ers within our communities, nor can we turn a blind eye to the world beyond our campus walls. Students, on a grassroots level, must become active. It’s not about ticking boxes in a Student Union election once a year, but rather remaining active and vocal throughout the year, and helping to create the society we want to see.

Amazingly, after the media mockery that followed the decision to ‘honour’ Bertie Ahern T.D, early in May the University administration landed themselves in it once more. An email to each and every student in Maynooth urged them to vote Bill Cullen’s book for the Irish Book of the Decade Awards. The same Bill Cullen who used the soapbox RTE provided for him on Frontline recently to belittle the young people of Ireland as lazy and almost allergic to work .Needless to say, the email was respond-ed to by dozens of Maynooth students angered at the very idea of supporting Bill Cullen, a “friend of the Univer-sity” in his efforts.

Free Education for Everyone (FEE) activist Donal Fallon reports on the success of NUI Maynooth students in organizing to oppose Fianna Fail cor-ruption and support the unions.

Another Maynooth own goal

Forum

A detailed account of the

events that took place in Gaza

between August 2005

and the end of the Israeli

massacre in 2009.

Gaza A Backgroundto the Conflict by Daniel Finn

Cost: €2. Available from the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign www.ipsc.ie


19

Not all Unionists are conserva-tives - why are the parties? The Progressive Unionist Party emerged from decades of under and mis-representation of the Unionist Working Class by those traditional Unionist Parties. These parties claim to represent the Unionist/Loyalist working class, but their policies work in direct opposition to this claim.

The Progressive Unionist Party is a labour orientated party, com-mitted to achieving a new Northern Ireland, free from the mismanaged and stale politics of the past. The PUP are committed to develop an anti sectarian and pluralist Northern Ireland.

The PUP offers a progressive, alternative approach for Northern Ireland’s future and is a left of centre Unionist party with a social conscience - we break the mould!

But what is Progressive Union-ism? Perhaps the best definition comes from the late PUP activist and thinker Billy Mitchell as de-scribed by Dr Aaron Edwards.

“Billy Mitchell once wrote that he couldn’t imagine a better way to describe what progressive loyalism was all about than a group of peo-ple coming together in a commu-nity comprised of responsible men and women’ who are: (a) working without fear; (b) who are working in comradeship; (c) who are work-ing for common ends; (d) who are working to develop their full stature and realise their full potential; (e) who are working to ensure that every citizen has adequate time, scope and opportunity for pleasure and social enjoyment. This was the ethical framework underpinning Billy’s idea of a truly democratic socialist society and it is a perhaps an ideal that genuine democrats can find some empathy with.”

Many people cannot or refuse to see past the PUP as somehow an extension of the UVF but we are much more (and not even that). The Progressive Unionist Party evolved from those members of the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando who wished to explore a political and peaceful future for Northern Ireland. The Progressive Unionist Party has an historical link to the UVF/RHC constituency and continues to influ-ence, where possible Loyalists who are prepared to progress along the path towards a normal society. Our present and future is about agitating

for change and creating policies which better serve the people of Northern Ireland, policies which address disadvantage, tackle pov-erty, create a more equitable educa-tion system and provide equality of opportunity for all.

All PUP policies and positions are based on five core principles which we believe reflect the prin-ciples of democratic socialism.

Empowerment:- Party policy must empower ordinary people in their endeavours to reach their full potential as human beings.

Participative Democracy:- With-in the party every member has the right to contribute to the formula-tion of policy and seek election to offices. Outside of the party the PUP must assist community and voluntary groups to identify their needs and to achieve them through the political process. Policy must be based on the real identified needs of local communities.

Community Ownership:- Com-munities and individuals own their own needs and consequently they must own the process of meeting those needs and the benefits gained through participation in the process. The PUP is a servant of the people - we neither own the needs, the pro-cess nor any beneficial outcomes - we are facilitators and advocates for change.

Equality and Social Justice:- Equality will mean the removal of both privilege and deprivations so that access is truly open to all. Democratic socialism calls not just for equality of opportunity, but also for equality of outcomes. Equality is the fuel that drives people into democratic relationships and will be the power behind a thriving anti-sectarian process of participative democracy.

Mutuality:- Mutuality is about working together to preserve the things that we cherish in common and to achieve the things that we desire in common.

Progressive Unionism is about recognising the mistakes of the past, highlighting the problems of the present and working co-oper-atively and pragmatically to find progressive solutions.

We in the PUP will carry on the legacy of those who have gone before us Billy Mitchell, Billy Mc-Caughey, David Ervine and count-

Conservatism feeds of public cynicism towards politics, Fingal Labour party councillor Patrick Nulty led opposition to yet another junket trip by his fellow public representatives, here he outlines why.

At a recent meeting of Fingal County Council I raised a formal objection to councillors attending a housing conference in Brazil scheduled for November 2010. The convention at council meetings had been that such events would be simply nodded through without any debate or discussion.

Councillors voted by thirteen votes to eight to sanction the trip. Those who were in favour of al-lowing councillors to attend this conference were all six Fine Gael councillors, two independents, three Fianna Failers and a couple of Labour councillors.

The opposition to attendance at this conference came overwhelm-ingly from the left. Four Labour Party councillors, three from the Socialist Party and one lone soldier of destiny.

Those who choose to attend this conference will do so at the taxpayers expense. Such a situation cannot be tolerated. As a local councillor for an area where one in four young people under twenty-five are unemployed and where communities are being refused funding for various vital projects it is incredulous that Fingal County Council would sanction attendance at a conference in Brazil.

It is vital that left wing pub-lic representatives who seek a mandate from the electorate lead by example and make every effort to ensure that public money is used efficiently, equitably and for so-cially useful purposes. This is even more critical when working people are bearing the brunt of govern-ment cutbacks.

One of the key tasks for the left is to challenge the cynicism the sometimes pervades the main-stream media about politics that “they’re all the same”. Politics at its best is about ideas, values and action. Taking a stand on the issue of Councillor’s conference trips is important because it shows that the political consensus can be challenged.

Does Unionism have a left foot?Stewart Finn outlines the democratic social-ist concepts which underpin the policies of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP)

Ending business as usual

A Belfast mural of the late David Ervine

less others; upholding their strong social conscience and moral fibre which underpins the social and po-litical philosophy of our vision for a peaceful and inclusive Northern Ireland for everyone.

Stewart Finn is the PUP candi-date for Victoria Ward East Belfast for next year’s local elections.

'The PUP are com-mitted to develop an anti sectar-ian and pluralist Northern Ireland'’

Cost: €2. Available from the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign www.ipsc.ie


20

Irish republicanism came into being in the late 18th century with the building of the United

Irishmen movement. At the core of this revolutionary organisation were the Dissenter, or Unitar-ian, communities of Dublin and Belfast.

The Dublin Unitarian Church was the cradle of the Dublin Society of United Irishmen which was founded in October 1791. The cradle of the Belfast United Irish-men was its sister congregation which still meets at Rosemary St in Belfast.

William Drennan the founder of the Dublin Society of United Irishmen was a member of the Dublin congregation. He was the son of Rev. Thomas Drennan of Rosemary St and was born in the manse there in 1751. Drennan was an accomplished poet he first called our country ‘The Emerald Isle’. In researching the Unitarian’s republican tradition I have drawn upon Drennan’s correspondence and precious documents such as the marriage certificate of United Irishman leader Robert Emmet’s sister, Mary Anne.

Although the Emmet family where themselves members of the Established (Anglican) Church of Ireland Mary Anne Emmet mar-ried Robert Holmes in the Dublin Unitarian Church (then located at Great Strand St) on 21st September 1799. Robert Holmes was a radical lawyer and long standing member of the congregation. Mary Anne Emmet unusually for women of her time was a political writer. She is believed to have published two pamphlets condemning the Act of Union.

The marriage certificate names five people that we can be certain were present at the wedding. With the happy couple were their wit-nesses Robert Emmet senior Robert Emmet junior, John Patten and the presiding minister Rev. John Moody.

The wedding was a secret affair Holmes was known by his fellow lawyers to have been in sympathy with the 1798 rebellion. He was being shunned on the legal circuit and was finding it difficult to get work. If it was widely known that he was marrying into Dublin’s most notorious republican family his legal career would have suf-fered further damage.

There was another reason for the secrecy. Robert Emmet junior had had to abandon his brilliant academic career in Trinity college the previous year when Lord Clare summoned him to account for his treasonable activities there. Since then Robert had been in hiding and six months before the wedding a warrant had been issued for his arrest. Emmet was now in the revolutionary underground where he was to remain until his capture and execution four years later.

It is hard to overstate the degree of fear that was stalking Ireland when this wedding was taking place. The rebellion in Wexford, Wicklow, Kildare, Antrim and Down had been crushed with great severity. The fighting was over but the government’s reign of terror was in full swing.

A renegade former member of the Dublin Unitarian Church Robert Stewart – the infamous Vis-count Castlereagh - was directing the Governments terror campaign against the defeated rebels. Fol-lowing the rebellion Castlereagh hunted down guilty and innocent alike, executing many. No less than four Unitarian Ministers died as his victims.

The third witness to the wed-ding was John Patten a close friend of Robert Emmet and a long stand-ing member of the Dublin Unitar-ian congregation. John Patten lived in the Emmet’s home at St Stephens Green and participated in secret political meetings there with Robert prior to 1798 and after the

failed rebellion undertook missions on behave of the United Irishmen.

Less than three years after the wedding, in the aftermath of Robert Emmet’s own failed 1803 rebellion in Dublin, John Patten and Robert Holmes were arrested on suspicion of involvement and lodged in Kilmainham gaol. The authorities believed that John Patten could give them useful information if they could break his spirit. They engaged in a cynical piece of psychological barbarity to achieve this end. After they took Robert Emmet out to be publically mutilated and executed they moved John Patten into Emmet’s cell and he was forced to use the same bed-ding as his murdered friend. Patten was made of stern stuff however, in spite of many offers of freedom in return for information he told them nothing. Though charged with no crime John Patten spent three years in Jail.

The Dublin Unitarian Church documents also hold indications of the resentment which many felt at the behaviour of William Plunkett, the prosecutor at Robert Em-met’s trial. Plunkett’s father was a Unitarian minister and Plunkett himself had defended republican rebels when they were sentenced to death for rebellion in 1798. By the time Emmet came to trial Plunkett had changed sides and was anxious to please his new masters in Dublin Castle.

When Plunkett rose to sum up for the prosecution he gratuitously berated and insulted Emmet before the inevitable verdict and death sentence. He sneered at Emmet’s provisional government of ‘the bricklayer, the baker and the old clothes man’. His invective an-noyed Emmet and for the only time during the trial his resolute demeanour was shaken.

These are names that every man and woman ought to knowDrawing on documents discovered in the ar-chives of the Dublin Unitarian Church - that traces its history back to the Dissenter commu-nity - Fergus Whelan provides an insight into the largely forgotten history of Ireland's first generation of radical republicans.

Tradition

Fergus Whelan – author and trade union activist

The marriage certificate of Mary Anne Emmet and Robert Holmes 1799

'He sneered at Emmet’s provisional goverment of the bricklayer, the baker and the old clothes man'’


21

Plunkett with the sarcasm and arrogant conceit so common to members of his profession observed that Emmet’s officer Michael Quigley the hero and successful rebel captain of ‘98 ‘had abandoned the lowly trade of the bricklayer to become the framer of constitutions and the subvertor of empires’. I am a bricklayer and the trade has run in the Whelan family for genera-tions. Two hundred and six years on Plunkett’s crass arrogance still offends me. For Plunkett and his Tory masters the worse crime of the United Irishmen had been to suggest that working men have as much a stake in human freedom and political liberty as their so called betters.

The Dublin Unitarians today who are interested in politics are peace campaigners, supporters of human rights and social justice, they support gays and lesbian rights and are anti racist, liberal, and tolerant. The old Unitarians were anti sectarian democrats. They espoused absolute liberty of conscience in religious matters. They welcomed the American and French Revolutions because they believed people should be free citizens rather than the subjects of a tyrant. They fought against the slave trade and I believe the first published attack on Slavery was written by the great Francis Hutchison Professor of Philoso-phy at Glasgow but for ten years a member of the Dublin Unitarian Congregation

Typical of the old Unitarian clergy was the martyr for liberty in Scotland Rev. Thomas Fysh Palmer who died in the penal colonies because he distributed Tom Paine’s Rights of Man to weavers in Dundee. The Rev Palmer and his fellow martyr Thomas Muir of Hunters Hill had been good friends of DUC congregation member Archibald Hamilton Rowan.

Rowan went to Scotland to support them at their trial in 1793. The contemporary Scottish folk singer Dick Gaughan captured why what happened at the end

of the eighteenth century should matter to us today when he sang of Muir and the Rev Palmer.

“These are names that every man and woman ought to know When you’re called for jury service when your name is drawn by lot When you vote in an election when you freely voice your thought Don’t take these things for granted for dearly were they bought Remember Thomas Muir of Hunters Hill”

The Protestant Dissenters of 18th century Dublin and Belfast sought civil and religious liberty, an end to arbitrary power and the dawn of liberty for humankind.

That is why they established the Society of United Irishmen.

The Protestant Dissenters of Dublin these days prefer the term Unitarian. But the Dublin Dissent-ers remain proud of their radical egalitarian and democratic history, their association with the United Irishmen and with ‘Bold Robert Emmet’ and his family.

Notorious democrats and the heretics of virtue

“I am a slave to no sectAnd from bigotry freeI follow what conscience dictates to me”

“United and be Free” United Irish song This is an examination of

the influence of Radical Prot-estant Dissent in the Society of United Irishmen. This influence is explained by reference to the involvement of Protestant Dis-senters in the broader democratic and revolutionary movement of the Anglophone world of the late Eighteenth Century. The Society of United Irishmen which was established in 1791, disintegrated with the execution of Robert Em-met and his comrades in 1803. The leading United Irishmen regarded their struggle as part of a move-ment for reform and democracy which swept Ireland, America and mainland Britain including Scot-land for thirty years from 1774 to 1803. The forces of Republican Democracy triumphed in America, were militarily defeated in Ireland in 1798, and were politically de-

feated and suppressed in England and Scotland by the mid 1790s .

The early leadership of the revolution in America included Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Amongst the leading radical reformers in England were Dr Richard Price, Dr Joseph Priestly, John Jebb, William Godwin and Mary Wool-stonecroft. Prominent amongst the Scottish radicals were Thomas Muir and Thomas Palmer.

The leadership of the Society of United Irishmen included Ar-chibald Hamilton Rowan, William Drennan, Oliver Bond Samuel Neilson, Henry Joy McCracken and Jemmy Hope.

All of these prominent radi-cals shared a common religious background. They were connected with the liberal wing of Protes-tant Dissent that today would be described as Unitarianism and or Non-subscribing Presbyterianism.

Other leading United Irish-men such as Arthur O’Conner, the Emmett brothers and Thomas Russell were strongly influenced by political writings of the Unitar-ians in particular the prolific Price and Priestley. The great advocate of liberty and democracy the most influential writer of his generation Tom Paine was in his turn greatly influenced by his friends Benja-min Franklin and Dr Price. Many of this generation’s hopes ended when Robert Emmett’s co-con-spirator the unfortunate Colonel Despard was beheaded in front of thousands of sullen, dejected working class democrats in Lon-don in1803. Millenarian dreams of the age of virtue were shat-tered. The blaze that was to “lay despotism in ashes, and warm and illuminate Europe” had been extin-guished. However the principles of liberty and democracy, con-ceived in Protestant Dissent and reared by the Society of United Irishmen had been adopted by the emerging industrial proletariat.

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22

Remembering the Citizens' Army'Easter Monday 2010 saw a plaque unveiled in Dublin in memory of Sean Connolly, an Irish Citizen Army captain, and Molly O'Reilly, who raised the green flag over Liberty Hall at the start of the 1916 Rising. James Connolly Heron outlines the importance of such memorials in protecting Dublin's revolutionary heritage'

Tradition

The importance of placing plaques at locations and on build-ings cannot be underestimated, especially in inner-city Dublin, an area directly linked through its buildings and its people to the struggle for independence.

Many locations directly linked to the Easter Rising have been lost to us over the years, many that are still with us are unmarked.

It was the removal of the 1916 plaque on Moore Street that direct-ly led to the commencement of the campaign to save 16 Moore Street - the site of the Irish Republic’s forces’ final headquarters during Easter 1916 - from demolition.

The National Graves Associa-tion founded the Save 16 Moore Street Committee and as a direct result of campaigners’ efforts, number 14 to 17 Moore Street were declared protected buildings.

2010 marks the ‘Save 16 Moore Street’ campaign’s 10th anniver-sary. From a position where the en-tire street was set to be demolished, campaigners have managed to have numbers 14 to 17 designated as a 1916 national monument. The designation should, but does not, guarantee the preservation of the monument.

In late March, An Bord Pleanála approved a planning application that will lead to the demolition of Moore Street and the invasion of the boundary of the national monu-ment. Buildings and the street and laneways directly associated with the withdrawal by the Republican forces from the GPO will be lost or altered beyond recognition - with-out public debate.

The fact that state bodies are party to this planning proposal is deeply disturbing. City manage-ment, city planners, officials in the Department of Heritage, Environ-ment and Local Government – all public servants – are now party to the proposed demolition of a national monument.

This is despite the stated posi-tion of former Fianna Fáil Environ-ment Minister Dick Roche that the State “must use every protective weapon in its statutory arsenal to protect a building of such immense historical significance”.

Current Environment Minister John Gormley has stated that he

would consider all development proposals concerning Moore Street “with a view at all times to ensuring that the national monument is pre-served for the future, and if possible, enhanced”.

The campaign has widespread support and continues to call for the national monument in its entirety to be preserved in honour of the men and women of 1916. We seek to en-sure that the site of their last stand is not destroyed in the interests of mere commercial profit.

It is sadly ironic that the proposed developer Joe O’Reilly - a named member of the ‘Golden Circle’ linked to the Anglo Irish Bank scan-dal is seeking permission to demol-ish a National Monument where a golden generation of men and women made their last stand for an Irish Republic committed to justice and equality for all.

*The author’s great grandfather, ICA leader James Connolly, led republican forces in Dublin during Easter week 1916.

Sean Connolly Born in 1883 into a Fenian

family in Dublin, Connolly was an Irish teacher and a founder member of the Na Fianna GAA club. As an Abbey Theatre actor, he knew many of the leading figures of the cultural revival, including W.B. Yeates and Lady Gregory.

At the time of the Rising, he was living with his wife Christina Swanzy and three children in Phil-ipsburgh Avenue.

He joined the Citizen Army, a defence force for workers, upon its formation in 1913. In 1914, James Connolly reorganized the army into a revolutionary organization and Seán Connolly was appointed a captain.

At the start of Easter Week 1916, Seán Connolly led the ICA attack on City Hall but was fatally wounded by a British sniper. His four brothers and one sister also saw action with the ICA during Easter Week. Only his wife and youngest child were present when he was laid to rest in Glasnevin Cemetery, most of the rest of the family had been imprisoned or were on the run.

The plaque was unveiled at 58/59 Lower Seán McDermott Street, where the house of Captain Seán Connolly once stood.

Young Molly O’Reilly was given the honour of hoisting the starry plough above Liberty Hall by Commandant James Connolly to mark the start of the ICA’s upris-ing. In The History of the Irish Citizen Army, by R.M. Fox, it is recorded:

In front of the hall itself, the Citizen Army cleared a space and formed up on three sides of the square. Inside this square was the women’s section, the boys scouts’ corps under Captain W. Carpenter, and the Fintan Lalor Pipe Band. Captain C. Poole and a Colour Guard of sixteen men escorted the colour bearer, Miss Molly O’ Reil-ly of the Women Workers’ Union who was also a member of the Citi-zen Army. ….. “I noticed,” said a member of the Colour Guard, “that some men, old and middle-aged, and a great number of women were crying, and I knew then that this was not in vain and that they all realised what was meant by the hoisting of the flag.”

Molly O'Reilly’'We seek to ensure that the site of their last stand is not destroyed in the interests of mere commercial profit'’


23

CultureLove Music Hate Racism

(LMHR) is a music-oriented cam-paign by the Anti-Nazi League and Unite Against Fascism in the UK. The campaign involves concerts aimed at spreading an anti-racist message. It follows in the tradition of the 1970s Rock Against Racism (RAR) campaign.

LMHR was set up in 2002 in response to the increased support for the far right British National Party (BNP). The first big LMHR concert was a festival in Man-chester’s Platt fields, headlined by Doves and Ms. Dynamite. The organisation believes that modern music is influenced by many cultures and traditions, and that it can be used to bring different kinds of people together. Most LMHR concerts include several music genres.

We’re quite lucky in Ireland not to have an organised racist or fascist party such as the BNP or groups like the English Defence League (EDL). That is mainly thanks to left wing groups and the likes of AFA and campaign-ing journalists who hound out and shine a spotlight on certain characters who have attempted to

create hate groups.It is also important to have the

attitude ‘’prevention is better than cure’’ and the decision was made in 2009 to launch Love Music Hate Racism in Ireland and oper-ate it in the same vein as the UK organisation.

There had been LMHR gigs in Cork, Dublin and Galway over the last few years but there was never an attempt at putting together a network of events and a national Love Music Hate Racism cam-paign that would organise events regularly around the country.

On 23 July 2009 Love Music Hate Racism launched its sight and awareness campaign with an evening of live music and Djs at the Twisted Pepper in Dublin. The main aims of the first year of LMHR were to push the ‘’brand’’, and to build the groups reputa-tion in Dublin. Also, they wanted to show people that there was support for anyone who wished to put on their own LMHR event in other parts of the country , with help and support from the main group in Dublin. This resulted in successful gigs in Galway and Sligo, and even got the ball roll-ing on events outside Dublin city

in places like Clondalkin. Every organisation has to start

somewhere, and this time last year the group was unknown. Now its fanbase has grown to 5000+ nationwide with the music industry recognising it as a re-spectable group of individuals try-ing to create a national musically orientated anti-racism movement.

The Sweeney Mongrel(formerly Le Cirk) on Dame St is the home of LoveMu-sic HateRacism in Dublin, and the next gigs coming up are the 29th May, 18th June and Love Music Hate Racism’s 1st birthday 16th July.

The success of LMHR does not negate the need for a grassroots anti-racism network in this coun-try, a national campaign that can work alongside of LMHR. Music events do have a way of getting a message across, but there are issues out there that need to be addressed in more ways than holding a gig.

In the near future LMHR Ire-land aims to have regular events up and running in Galway, Cork, Limerick and Waterford.

Anyone wishing to get in-volved with LoveMusic HateRa-cism contact [email protected]

Love Music Hate Racism

56 years after its first per-formance in the 50 seater Pike Theatre, The New Theatre: Dublin (66 seater) will honour the spirit of Brendan Behan by once again staging a huge theatrical work in a small intimate space.

The play is set in Mountjoy Jail on the day and night before the unnamed Quare Fellow is to be hanged for murdering his brother. Brendan Behan had spent time in the same jail for his IRA activities.

The play had a huge impact on its premiere at The Pike Theatre but Ireland of the 1950s was not ready or mature enough to em-brace a working class Republican playwright writing about hanging, which was still a judicial sentence in Ireland at that time. It could not get a run in one of the bigger Dublin theatres and it was not until Joan Littlewood directed the show in 1956 in her theatre in London, and it’s following transfer to the West End for a six month run, did Ireland and the world wake up to the genius of Brendan Behan.

The Quare Fellow by Brendan BehanThe New Theatre

DetailsJul 9th - Aug 7thPreviews: 9th, 10th, 12th July @8pm Tickets: €15, €10 (concs) Director: Ronan Wilmot The Cast: P.J. Brady, Declan J. Connaughton, Mick Fitzgerald, Luke Hayden, James Kelly, Cormac McDonagh, Rua O’Donnachu, Jer O’Leary, Fionn Ó Loingsigh, Conor O’Riordan, Ben Reynolds, Michael Shanley, Seamus WhelanAddress:The New Theatre, 43 East Essex Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2

Telephone +353 (0)1 670 [email protected]

Molly O'Reilly Exchange Dublin is a collective arts space set up in the summer of 2009 by some interested, motivated stu-dents and others who wanted to take it upon themselves to provide what they felt Dublin lacked. Since then, Exchange has been a protean endeavour, encompassing everything from film screenings and gallery runs for art-ists to knitting groups and the space’s most popular night to date, Milk and Cookies, a storytelling night with the novel appeal of actually providing free milk and cookies amongst other things. The space is all-ages and aims to have a non-condescending approach to younger people who want to get involved, though its use as a venue for all-ages gigs has been up in the air since a frankly justi-fied noise complaint during a set by Los Angeles’ loud-est band, No Age. Many projects call for involvement from volunteers, but the key thing to bear in mind with Exchange is that it is totally open and unhierarchical. From the moment you show up, you essentially have the same pulling power as the crustiest of crusties. It is the best response to complaints that nothing good happens in Dublin, and the perfect place to play out any unortho-dox ideas you might have; if not that, then it’s at least a place to drink tea and meet cool people. Drop by.

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24

This season’s all island Setanta Cup, ended with Pat Fenlon pick-ing up his fifth title as Bohemians manager with his side overcoming Dublin rivals St.Patricks Athletic at Tallaght Stadium.

The 2009/’10 Setanta Cup was the fifth instalment of the cross border competition and the fourth year in a row in which a team from the League of Ireland has won the competition, Linfield being the first and only Irish League team to have claimed the trophy, winning in the Cups inaugural year of 2005.

This ‘southern’, dominance of the competition has, over the years, threatened the very existence of the competition with Linfield being the most vocal of the Irish League teams in their threats to pull out of the competition. The Belfast club citing the supposed advantage League of Ireland teams have had over their northern counterparts with the latter stages of the Cup being played at the end of the Irish League season.

While such a withdrawal would spell disaster for the legitimacy of the Cup, it has never been followed through on.

Before a ball had been kicked in this seasons Cup, the financial meltdown of Setanta in Britain seriously threatened the competi-tions future as it looked as though the Setanta Cup was about to go the way of previous cross border challenge cups such as the Tyler Cup which ran from 1978 – ’80 and the Texaco Cup which lasted for two tournaments between 1973 and ’75.

This latest cross border com-petition has bucked a tradition of failure and is scheduled in again for season 2011 with the Cup now set to run from February through to May as a knockout tournament involving six teams from either side of the border.

If the Setanta Cup had gone the way of its predecessors, it would have been for solely financial reasons rather than security related ones, as the much hyped expected re-run of the disturbances wit-nessed around Phisborough and inner city Dublin when Glasgow Rangers came to town in 1984 never materialised with the visit of Linfield to Dublin 7 in mid April.

Trouble though did flare during Bohemians group stage draw with Glentoran in March, with Gardai

batoning Glentoran fans in the Dalymount Shed End during the game.

Speaking after the event Glen-toran Director and Belfast City Councillor, Jim Rodgers said it was not the first occasion that Irish League fans had experienced trou-ble in the Republic. “I would have to point the finger at the policing, which left a lot to be desired,” he said. “We’ve seen it before with Linfield fans. Instead of operating a sensible policing policy, they go at it like a bull in a china shop, it doesn’t help community rela-tions. “The Garda Siochana need specialist training in how to handle crowds. We see it with Trade Union demonstrations down south, they seem to overreact.”

While tribalism remains present in the stands in the form of chant-ing and emblems on flags, the last five years has also seen fans from opposite sides of the border pre-sented with opportunities to enter areas they once would have never dared venture.

Followers of Linfield have drank in the bars of Dalymount Park, Drogheda supporters have forged links with Portadown sup-porters while during this season’s Coleraine v Bohemians game, Bohs fans, bored with the on field fare, took the opportunity to spend the second half drinking in the Coleraine social club.

The success of the Setanta Cup should be measured not in terms of on field wins and losses but the above stories of supporter interac-tions.

While Platinum One’s attempts to forge an all island league seem to have lost momentum, the Se-tanta Cup has proven that the scare stories of supporter violence are unfounded and has also created the forum in which to start seriously discussing how an all island league can be negotiated in conjunction with the two footballing associa-tions’ and the governing bodies UEFA and FIFA rather than a corporate driven initiative.

Kevin Brannigan reports

IMO issue Govthealth warning

Clockwise from top left: John Douglas (MANDATE), Eric Fleming (SIPTU), Eugene McGlone (UNITE),Patricia King (SIPTU), Tom Geraghty (PSEU), David Begg (ICTU), Jack O’Connor (SIPTU, ICTU) andLiam Doran (INMO) voice support for UNISON’s A Million Voices campaign in defence of public services

In perfect UNISON....

IRISH Medical Organisation chief ProfessorSean Tierney has called for a public debateon universal health coverage and warnedthat Ireland – with the development of pri-vate hospitals and private health insurance– may be veering towards a US rather thanEuropean healthcare model.

Addressing delegates at the IMOʼs annualconference in Killarney on April 8, Mr Tier-ney said: “I would warn against any attemptby the State to try and use the private healthsystem to shore up an under-funded publichealth services.

“Privatisation in the area of health hasbeen proved to be a failed ideology acrossthe world and can only ever benefit the bet-ter off.

“While we acknowledge the role of privatemedicine in Ireland and the part it hasplayed in the provision of some services,private medicine is not and cannot be a sub-stitute for a publically funded system.

“Neither is there a case for selling off ourpublic health services to private entrepre-neurs, as some people now advocate.”

LEN McCluskey – hotly tipped to be the firstsole head of UNITE – was in Northern Irelandrecently on a three-day visit to some of the re-gion’s manufacturers.

A former Liverpool docker, he was the chiefnegotiator in the recent British Airways dispute,and is a leading contender to become generalsecretary of the union.

During his visit, Mr McClusky said he wantedto hammer home the message that having astrong manufacturing base was of vital impor-tantce.

He said: “Manufacturing is something govern-ment needs to support in order to ensure thatwe have good public services.”

Mr McCluskey also voiced his support forNorthern Ireland’s public sector workers, who,he said, were baring the brunt of governmentspending cuts.He added: “It needs to be made

clear that public-sector debt was not caused bypublic sector workers but by spivs and bankers.”

When dubbed “an agitator who relished in-dustrial disputes” by the local press, he hit back:“My history shows that my career has not beenabout destroying industry – but if I’m accused ofbeing an agitator in defence of working peopleand better wages, then I plead guilty.”

Mr McCluskey also explained to local UNITEmembers that the union would be endorsing theLabour Party in the General Election “despitethe obvious disappointments of the past 13years”.

He added: “We know the Tories will attackworking people and the trade unions.

“Despite David Cameron’s touchy-feely ap-proach, the Tories still represent the elite andthe corporate giants.”

UNITE front-runner visits NorthLen McClusky (front row, third from right) during his recent three-day visit to Northern Ireland

Picture: UNITE

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The Setanta Cup continues to lead the way in bringing together football fans from across the island.

If you have a news story, struggle or opinion that needs highlight-ing contact the LookLeft edito-rial team at

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’'Bohs fans, bored with the on field fare, took the oppotunity to spend the second half drinking in the Coleraine social club.'’


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