plAtfoRM tRAde union left foRuM
Debating the way forward
10
the vast amounts of unproductive capital currently in circulation globally. In order to advance this agenda, there was drive to commodify all social relationships from waste collection and water supply to health services. This process was being championed by the media as one aimed at providing better quality services with the interests of public service workers presented as being at odds with those of the population at large. Whitston argued that the trade union movement must take a holistic approach when campaigning against privatisation – the battle could not be won by only making calls to sectional interests based on protecting workers’ pay and conditions. “A coalition of interests opposed to privatisation must be built at the higher political level, based on the need to expand democratic control,” Whitston said. This argument should be linked with a clear explanation of the wider neo-liberal agenda of “driving down the share of national in-
come going to labour so as to increase the share going to capital”. He added that across Western Europe, trade unions and labour parties were, to a large degree, hamstrung in presenting this wider political case against the privatisation agenda due to their acceptance of the neo-liberal economic model in recent decades. Whitston pointed out that this had “left them with nothing much to say when things went wrong”. The forum’s second presentation, on the ESB and the threat posed to the state enterprise from privatisation, was delivered by TEEU national organiser Jimmy Nolan. He outlined the initial creation of the ESB as a state enterprise aimed at furthering the Irish state’s economic development by bringing electrification to all parts of the country. The setting up of the state company had been undertaken by rightwing governments who accepted that private capital was unwilling to invest in such socially beneficial projects. But recent years have seen an erosion of government support for
this crucial state enterprise with moves to undermine the ESB and place it on the road to privatisation. These included the introduction of price controls on electricity which ensured the ESB charged more than private companies which were being encouraged into a newly-established “electricity supply market”. Nolan said he was extremely worried for the future of the ESB as a state enterprise despite the overriding economic arguments for its staying within democratic control. The presentations were followed by a lively debate during which the forum decided to support the publication of a pamphlet on combating the privatisation agenda for distribution within the trade union movement Forum member Tom Redmond said: “The forum aims to examine issues not from the point of view of a sectional interest but from the wider viewpoint of what the trade union movement can do to assist in beneficial social change. “It is understood that the working class has a central role in shaping Irish society, apart from
defending the immediate living standards of its members. “As a catalyst for change, it accepts that an analysis of the factors instrumental in governing society has to be done from a class viewpoint.” He added: “The March meeting of Trade Union Left Forum will discuss the structural causes of the crisis of capitalism and the resultant debt and austerity. The Trade Union Left Forum is an open space where active trade unionists are welcome to put forward ideas, topics for discussion, and suggestions for activities related to the discuss.” For more information contact the Trade Union Left Forum at tuleft@gmail.com
Picture: TWU
THE Trade Union Left Forum was set up in September 2011 by trade unionists concerned with reinvigorating debate on the movement’s strategic direction. The group held its second meeting at the TEEU’s Dublin offices in late January. The meeting focused on the threat posed by the neo-liberal privatisation agenda and how the trade union movement could successfully combat it. In his presentation to the forum, Colm Whitston, a senior lecturer in industrial relations at the National College of Ireland, outlined the arguments behind the current wave of privatisation which he described as “only one important part of the neo-liberal agenda.” Whitston said the current economic turmoil in Europe and the US was, in reality, a classic capitalist crisis brought about by the over production of capital rather than due to "un-competiveness" or any of the other explanations proposed by the right-wing media. The push to privatise public enterprises was an attempt by capitalist forces to find new areas to park
sHopflooR
y March 2012