January 2011
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news
THE SOCIALIST
United Left Alliance launched across the country Hundreds sign up to new political force By Kevin McLoughlin INCE ITS public launch at the end of November, the United Left Alliance has been very warmly received and it’s potential to have a major impact in the coming general election has been clearly indicated. More than 350 attended the launch rally in Dublin on 29 November, with 180 of those signing up to become activists of the ULA. On 10 January, 100 of those attended a follow up organising meeting in Dublin. On Wednesday 12 January, more than 200 people packed into the Metropole Hotel for the launch of the ULA in Cork. The meeting was excellent and the mood was strong. 108 new activists were signed up on the night and the ULA has clearly strengthened the left in Cork. Between now and the middle of February, nearly another twenty local launch meetings for the ULA will take place. A number will take place in the different constituencies in Dublin but the ULA will also be launched throughout the country, including Laois, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Clonmel, Limerick. Hopefully new areas will be added to this list as the ULA is the only force that is offering a real left alternative to the capitalist establishment and the Labour and Sinn Fein. The United Left Alliance is in discussions with left activists in Waterford, Galway and Sligo, amongst others. These are key areas that any new force that takes itself seriously would want to get organised in as soon as possible. We would encourage all to sign up to the principled position contained in the ULA’s programme and pledge. The ULA rejects the capitalist
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Cllr Joan Collins, Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett, Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins & Cllr Seamus Healy
Socialist Party candidates for the upcoming General Election JOE HIGGINS MEP
Cllr MICK BARRY
Dublin West
Cork North Central
Cllr CLARE DALY
MICK MURPHY
CIAN PRENDIVILLE
BRIAN GREENE
Dublin South West
Limerick City
Dublin North East
Dublin North market and the policy of austerity cuts at national and local authority level. The ULA stands for the democratic public ownership of the wealth and resources so that the economy can be planned for the interests of working people not profit. The ULA stands against the political and economic corruption
ROB CONNOLLY Dublin Mid West
and profiteering that caused the crisis. If more credible groups and candidates commit themselves to the principled stand of the ULA, the bigger the impact that the ULA can have. In turn each individual group and candidate will be given increased significance by their
CONOR MAC LIAM Carlow / Kilkenny
association with the United Left Alliance’s challenge. Just before Christmas the Socialist Party was contacted by a large group of Labour members from the Laois constituency who had become disgusted by the undemocratic manoeuvrings of the party leadership regarding candi-
date selection. After serious discussions, this group have now adopted a position far to the left of Labour and have now resigned from the party and endorsed the ULA’s programme and pledge and will now stand as part of the ULA in the general election. If the ULA can mount credible challenges in more than half of the Dail constituencies, it can be seen as a serious response to the IMF/EU austerity and as a real opportunity for ordinary people to use the election to build a new left and ultimately a new party that represents them, something that is sorely needed. To have successful local launches, which help develop the name profile and momentum of the ULA and strengthen the chances of our candidates, is a top priority. On top of the members of the Socialist Party, PBPA and the Workers and Unemployed Action Group (South Tipperary), the ULA should also target to sign up 1,000 new activists by its Convention in Dublin on 19 February. At this point the ULA is primarily an electoral alliance, but all volunteers must be encouraged to be fully active and have their say. At its meetings, including the Convention, the ULA must encourage fraternal debate on issues and politics. Within the ULA, the Socialist Party will advocate that the ULA should adopt a socialist outlook as the only way of defeating capitalist oppression. Every new activist should be encouraged to recruit their friends, family and workmates so the ULA can grow quickly and maximise its chances. Getting a number of TDs elected, who could act as a focal point for a left and socialist opposition to the capitalist crisis and the likely government of Labour and Fine Gael and for struggle against the austerity attacks, would be a major victory.
Patients will die as health crisis worsens By Conor Payne HE NEW year saw the worsening of the crisis in the health service as record numbers of patients were forced to wait on trolleys in A&E departments. On 5 January, the number of patients on trolleys around the country reached 569. In 2006, when there were 495 people on trolleys, Mary Harney declared it a “national emergency”. The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine warned that “It is now well-established that boarding hospital inpatients in emergency departments results in increased numbers of deaths among this group of ill patients, compared to similar patients who are admitted to a hospital ward in a timely fashion”. The attempts to explain the crisis as being caused by the rise in Swine Flu and the Winter Vomiting
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Bug ignore the reality that the public health service is critically underfunded and is being cut back further as part of the government vicious austerity policies. Even during the economic boom, Ireland only spent 90% of the EU average on health and the losses of the health cuts of the 1980s were never recovered. In the '80s there were 18,000 beds - now there are
only 9,500. The government has already implemented huge cuts and a recruitment freeze, crippling the health service further and now plans another €1.4 billion of cuts by 2014. The underfunding of our health service has been a deliberate ideological choice of this government, as part of their policy of increased privatisation of the health service.
Unfortunately, the opposition parties plan to continue with the same agenda of privatisation and cutbacks. Fine Gael's “Reinventing Government” document proposes to hand over the health service wholesale to private companies. And both Fine Gael and Labour are committed to the IMF's four year austerity plan which will inevitably mean even less resources and less doctors and nurses. Meanwhile, the VHI's announcement of increases as high as 45% for their customers underlined how highlighted the insanity of the twotier health service. The price hike will particularly hit older customers who need access to health care the most. This is the logic of for-profit healthcare- the only way profit is made is by blocking access to care and the less older customers covered, the better for the purpose of profit maximisation. The increase comes after VHI had had a public spat with private
hospitals, succeeding in forcing a 3% cut in costs on the hospitals. This is madness- instead of a rational use of resources to provide healthcare for all we have different wings of the for-profit health industry fighting to avoid as much cost as possible. Private health insurance is a parasite on the health service- 50% of people pay for it but it provides only 10% of the total cost of healthcare in Ireland. There would be no need for this racket if we did not have a deliberately underfunded and neglected public health service. Instead of a recruitment freeze at a time of mass unemployment, there should be jobs created in the public health service for the thousands of nurses who are unable to find work in Ireland. The alternative to the chaos of the current situation is a fully funded free public health service, paid for by taxing the rich and providing health care to all who need it.