November December 2022

TheSocialist

record 11,000 people homeless end the unending crisis: Build puBlic homes noW!

By Jonathan Diebold

FIFA Corruption and the Qatar World Cup

An abysmal record on human rights

this year ’s fifa World cup yet again takes place under the shadow of controversy it’s taking place in Qatar, a small yet extremely wealthy countr y and one of the world’s last remaining absolute monarchies. Qatar ’s wealth comes from its vast reser ves of oil and natural gas it is one of the most unequal societies in the world, with an abysmal track record in terms of rights of workers, women, lGbtQ+ people, and migrants, and democratic and human rights in general

Migrant worker deaths

in the course of construction for the World cup alone, it ’s been repor ted that 6,500 workers have died however the Qatari regime is tight lipped on the issue and the figure could be higher like other states in the region, Qatar operates a system known as ‘Kafala’ (‘sponsorship’), whereby migrant workers are brought in to the countr y and are totally beholden to their employers under slave like conditions for little, if any, pay this has proven to be an extremely profitable system the vast majority of people in Qatar at any given time are temporar y workers brought in under this system 2 2 million migrant workers in a countr y with only 313,000 citizens

State led LGBTQ phobia

homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, under threat of death one lGbtQ australian football player already has expressed concerns for his well being should he travel there, and many fans also feel trepidation many more are outraged that such an event would be held in a countr y which commits such atrocities at all one Qatari World cup ambassador just this month described homosexuality as “damage of the mind” and “forbidden ”

Enshrined misogyny

the regime is also repressive in terms of women's rights one fifa worker was forced to leave the

countr y after being investigated for having sex outside of marriage Punishments for such an offense include flagellation Women in Qatar must obtain permission from male guardians for a variety of things, including leaving the countr y under the age of 25, working for the government (where the majority of Qatari women are employed), and so on Domestic violence is not illegal

Buying media whitewashes

the World cup being held in Qatar is a huge propaganda victor y for the Qatari political establishment it allows a hugely repressive regime to present itself as a modern countr y on the world

stage already think pieces are rolling out giving credit to the World cup for minor reforms of the Kafala system this is no accident the government has offered expensive junkets to press and ans alike in exchange for positive coverage in media or online an effor t which amounts to the whitewashing of repression and modern slaver y.

FIFA’s woeful record

this is not the first World cup to be marred with controversy most recently, 2018’s cup took place in russia this in the context of the russian occupation of crimea, attacks on lGbtQ+ rights, violence against protestors, and more the day the cup opened also marked a massive offensive on pension rights in russia in the games

before that, in brazil, again construction was marked with abuses of workers’ rights and frequent accidents and deaths on the construction site

Profits before footballers and fans ’

Why does fifa choose to host games in countries such as Qatar? the answer is: money. this year ’s games are the most expensive in histor y, with $220 billion being spent millions were paid in bribes to officials by both Qatar, and russia before them, to secure hosting rights fifa’s revenue for 2019 2022 is expected to exceed $6 5 billion in spite of the pandemic football is being run not in the interests of fans, nor of players or of workers, but of profit

“Mourn the dead, fight like hell for the living” Transgender Day of remembrance 2022

by river arches

TRANS DAY of Remembrance is a day when we mour n the death of our trans siblings around the world W ith 375 trans people murdered in 2021, it was the dead liest year on record But it also must be a day when we remind ourselves of our str uggle as a community and empower ourselves to stand up and say, enough is enough.

Conservative establishment

O ur struggle is one that is pitted firmly against the conser vative political estab lishment in Ireland one that contin ues to stand over the unacceptable continuation of single sex Catholic in fluenced public schools; one that al lowed trans people to be exc luded in the recent census; and has presided over the egregious scenar io in which now Ireland has been deemed as having the worst trans healthcare in the EU Facing discr imination in seeking jobs and housing, a situation exacer bated by the cost of living crisis, large swathes of trans young people, espe ciall y trans women are increasingl y given no option but to do sex work This also relates to the failure of the

state to provide trans healthcare, with little option but to travel abroad at great expense

The exploitative sex industr y profits from perpetuating the exotification and the fetishisation of trans bodies In so many countries in the wor ld, inc luding in Ireland where some sex workers have been convicted for brothel keeping, trans sex workers face harassment and criminalisation from the state

Transphobic forces

Right wing politic al and religious forces, as well as TERFs and the LGB Alliance, pedd le transphobic rhetoric, spreading anti trans propaganda, de monising the entire communit y and creating a false narrative that trans peo ple are dangerous

The actual truth is that the trans community is always the one lef t be hind, along with intersex people Inter sex children are still being mutilated and there is no legislation protecting them This is the result of the constant negli gence of the state towards the trans and intersex community We must remem ber that victories such as that of Repeal of the 8th or Marriage Equality were fought for, not given W hy should we be

on our knees constantly begging for the state to finally give us what we deser ve? Instead, we need to demand our rights

Struggle for liberation

We need to demand a free and accessi ble, consent based model of trans healthc are, accessible loc all y via GPs rather than the paternalistic, gatekeep

ing failed model This is the only way to protect working c lass trans people For years we have mentioned trans gender healthcare, trans liberation and trans r ights in our protests, but we chant the same chants demands the same demands and end up with empty words or empty promises Under capi talism, a sy stem of permanent cr isis,

even when we win our gains are under threat W hen the sy stem denies your there will be no trans liberation or any liberation of any kind

The radical change we need can only be won through struggle by the trans community as part of a working c lass struggle for socialist transformation of society

Trans and I ntersex Pride D ublin is hosting an event on S aturday 19 November at 2pm outside Dáil Éireann

record 11,000 in emergency accommodation Govt housing policy in total shambles

by Peter mcGregor

T H E HO USI NG

and homeless

ness crisis in Ireland is a defining leg ac y of the c yc le of F ine Gael and F ianna Fail go ver nments, and the var ious par ties that have propped them up Official statistics show there are nearly 11,000 homeless people ac cessing emergenc y accommodation, which is the sharp tip of the iceberg of the overall crisis, that includes tens of thousands on housing waiting lists and thousands more without secure accommodation.

Unbearable costs

And for those with accommodation costs are r idiculousl y high Interest rates are now 2% higher than before the summer, with the difference ex ceeding €2,000 annually on repayments on a trac ker mor tgage of around €200,000

For renters, the average cost is now over €1,500 per month 50% higher than Celtic T iger levels In D ublin, av erage rent is now over €2,000! S ome landlords are now ‘providing’ a bunk on a bunk bed at €650

This crisis is affecting almost ever y one in one way or another, yet the gov

ernment is continuing with business as usual

Student accommodation

For many students getting accommo dation just isn’t possible and for others it ’ s a choice between pay ing €6,000 €10,000 a year or living in a room with no access to it on the weekends One student in Gal way was forced to live out of her car as there was no accom modation available

Just 19% of the pur pose built stu dent accommodation is public l y owned, the other 81% is owned pr i vatel y by vulture funds or individual land lords, who are making a killing by charging outrageously high rents

Build public homes!

In Berlin last year a referendum deliv ered an important blow to cor porate land lords and showed what ’ s possible when working class people get organ ised In total, 56 4% voted to demand that 240,000 apartments purchased by vulture funds be taken into public own ership and used for public housing It ’ s that type of working class people power approach that we need in here too

The resources and capacit y exist to solve this crisis, but the F ine Gael, F i

anna Fáil, Green Party government is ne ver going to make it happen They caused the crisis and have only made it worse They want to let the market hand le it with minimal inter vention from the state, but this has c lear l y failed

The only solution is to make housing a r ight, not a commodit y The state

must invest in an urgent and expansive programme of building social and af fordable housing; ban vulture funds and nationalise all the units they own; im plement real rent controls; and take the big construction companies into public ownership to build the public homes we need quickly, safely and up to proper standards

Stop the evictions at Tathony House!

by manus lenihan

BACK I N October, refugees from U kraine and other countr ies had to sleep in D ublin air por t bec ause there wasn’t a bed for them anywhere in the state. People who had just es caped from war were queuing outside the Capuc hin day cent re f or f ood T he ‘solut ion’ ar r ived at? Prefabs in ar my bar racks!

S ix months ago go ver nment plans supposed l y anticipated 100 200,000 Ukrainian refugees But at 50,000 plus, the sy stem is already bursting at the seams Ever yone understands that this is a huge, unprecedented eff or t But eight months into the war, this effort is still not being pursued in a ser ious way It ’ s a mess And it ’ s one that the go ver nment par ties, and L abour, are directl y responsible f or due to their housing policies over decades, but par ticular l y in the last ten years Thou sands had already been languishing in emergency accommodation and tens of thousands on housing waiting lists for years bef ore the R ussian invasion These par ties have proven utter l y in c apable of dealing with the housing emergenc y the latest scandal is un fortunately not unexpected

Racism and hypocrisy

There is a disgusting double standard in the treatment of refugees Those from outside Europe are segregated for years in Direct Provision centres with out r ights or incomes In the e yes of

the state and the media, it seems there are ‘Good Refugees’ and ‘ Bad Refugees ’ The state has taken in 50,000 of one (U kr ainian refugees) and only 15,000 of the other (‘Interna tional Protection’) Yemeni, Syrian and Ethiopian people come from warzones just as real, just as br utal, as that of U kraine L et the government and the online trolls tr y come up with all kinds of far fetched justific ations; the issue is obviously race

Meanwhile, homelessness continues to rise It ’ s a triple shame on Irish cap italism the failure to find beds and/or homes for Ukrainians fleeing a horrific eight month long war, the shameful treatment of refugees generally, and the

mass shor tage of housing that work ing c lass people can afford

Housing crisis

The government ’ s failures in housing have created a degree of resentment toward refugees, inc luding Ukrainians But refugees are not in any way to blame The housing cr isis has been getting worse since 2013 Anyway, refugees are people like anyone else, with the desire to work and to con tribute to societ y

In a diff erent way, howe ver, these problems are linked If you don’t build public housing for decades, this is what you get You c an have compassionate treatment of refugees and the home

less, or you can have the money grub bing, pr ivatising c apitalist approac h You can’t have both

Right to housing, right to asylum Pro viding f or al l refugees equal l y would require first of all an end to all racist immigration controls, such as the polic y of ‘ For tress Europe ’ which has c laimed thousands of lives those tr agic al l y drowned in the Mediter ranean Respecting the right to asylum and the r ight to a home would mean building public accommodation on a massive scale, undercutting the inflated market

The problem is that those in power are obsessed with market solutions O ur ruling c lass is determined that no roof can be placed over anyone ’ s head until vulture funds, de velopers and land lords all take their cut

Regarding both housing and refugees, people are growing angr y with the go ver nment and its piece meal, makeshif t approach one pan ic ked impro visation af ter another W hene ver the market fails, the go v er nment tr ies to plug the gaps with massive piles of public money handed over to private operators One in four hotel rooms is now paid f or by the state

The homeless, those pay ing high rents and mor tgages, and refugees from all countries have a common in terest in calling for one simple thing: a genuine polic y of housing f or al l, through the building of public accom modation

by rober t cosgrave

L A S T M O N T H, 100 residents of Tathony House an apar tment building in Kilmainham, Dublin 8 were served eviction notices as the landlord planned to sell up Such mass evic tions were meant to be impossible with the intro duc tion of the “ Tyrrelstown Amendment” six years ago brought in after Tyrrelstown ten ants, assisted by Socialist Par ty local reps, were able to fight an attempt at their eviction to facili tate the sale of their homes to a vulture fund.

the landlord is attempting to claim an exemption on the basis that selling the building with the tenants in situ would mean “undue hardship” for him a hear t of stone would break for this millionaire landlord for the tenants, who may as well throw him into the poor house, they have the privilege of returning to the rental market and a housing crisis which, far from showing any signs of abating, is worsening almost by the day

The right

to

resist this type of behaviour from land lords is all too familiar to renters across the state, and will intensify as the housing crisis goes from very bad to even worse. for the landlord class, however, this crisis has been anything but the tenants in tathony house should fight this eviction by all means, including if necessary refusing to leave when the eviction notice is up as well as doing all that is needed to defend the residents of tathony house and any and all other tenants fighting against landlord greed, there is an urgent need to build a national mass movement based on the con sistent activity of working class people to overcome the housing crisis

and to truly overcome this crisis, the root problem the commodifi cation of housing, a basic right re quired by all needs to be tackled Previous mass struggles in the south, from repeal to Water charges, prove that when working class people organise themselves with clear demands and tactics, they can win real victories.

shameful treatment of Ukrainian refugees build public homes for all

Housing movement must force change from below

Uk rainian refugees: Suffering more because of government ’s housing polic y

COP27 took place in Egypt as the climate crisis worsens and it grows increasingly clear that the Paris Agreement 2030 targets will not be met, writes M I C K B A R RY T D. In Oc tober, the World Meteorological Organisation ( WMO) repor ted that there are now record levels of all three greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane) in the atmosphere.

LA S T Y E A R saw the big gest year on year jump in methane concen t r a t i o n i n 4 0 ye a r s . T h e g ro w t h r a t e for c ar bon dioxide concentration was g reater last year than the average o ver the last dec ade

Wor ld Meteorologic al O rganiz ation ( W M O ) S e c re t a r y G e n e r a l Pro f e s s o r Petteri Taalas said: "The continuing rise in concentration of the main heat trap ping gases, inc luding the record accel eration in methane le vels, shows we are headed in the w rong direction "

The WMO also re vealed that tem peratures have increased at double the global average rate in Europe over the l a s t 3 0 ye a r s E u ro p e a n t e m p e r a t u re s i n c re a s e d by 0 5 C e ac h d e c ad e f rom 1991 2021

Impact on Global South

C l i m a t e c r i s i s e ve n t s d i re c t l y a f f e c t e d half a million people in Europe last year a n d c a u s e d $ 5 0 b i l l i on o f e c on om i c damage The most terrifying impacts of c limate change are seen, however, in the Global S outh

In Pakistan, more than 1,500 people have been killed in floods this year and t e n s o f m i l l i on s d i s p l ac e d f rom t h e i r homes In the Horn of Afr ic a, millions a re c u r re n t l y s t a r v i n g f rom e x t re m e drought D e s p i t e t h i s , a CO P h e l d i n a n Afr ic an countr y is likel y to see the c ap italist governments of the Global North resisting attempts to organise serious fi nancial compensation for loss and dam age in such nations

In the af termath of R ussia's imper i alist invasion of U kraine, capitalist gov e r n m e n t s a re o r g a n i s i n g a n e w a r m s r ac e i n t h e n a m e o f " d e f e n c e " M o re t h a n $ 2 t r i l l i on w i l l b e s p e n t on t h i s arms race this year

Huge financial firepower that could b e u s e d t o c om b a t t h e c l i m a t e e m e r genc y is being wasted instead on mili tar isation Instead of taking a decisive t u r n t ow a rd s i nve s t m e n t i n g re e n e n e r g y, t h e s e s a m e go ve r n m e n t s a re i n vok i n g " e n e r g y s e c u r i t y " t o j u s t i f y increased investment in fossil fuels

Fo r a l l t h e s e re a s on s a n d m o re i t i s increasingly c lear that the Paris Climate A g re e m e n t t a r ge t o f l i m i t i n g g l o b a l temperature increases to 1 5C by 2030 will not be met

Anti capitalism

In fact, the United Nations has warned that the wor ld is on trac k for tempera t u re i n c re a s e s o f 2 5 C t h i s c e n t u r y which equates to c limate c atastrophe

I t i s a ve r y we l c om e d e ve l o pm e n t that Greta Thunberg used the launch of her ne w book in October to place re sponsibilit y for the c limate cr isis at the d o o r o f c a p i t a l i s m a n d t o c a l l f o r i t s over throw

Greta said that c apitalism is " an ex treme sy stem built on the exploitation of people and the planet It is a sy stem defined by colonialism, imperialism and oppression and genocide "

G re t a ' s j o u r n e y f rom s c h o o l s t r i k e r and c limate c ampaigner to suppor t for the antic apitalist lef t is a jour ne y that c a n b e, a n d h o p e f u l l y w i l l b e, u n d e r taken by many others in Generation Z Many questions arise for those taking this journey :

l W hat is the alternative to c apital ism?

l H ow t o go f rom w h e re we a re t o d ay t o m o u n t i n g a c h a l l e n ge t o t h e sy stem?

l W hat programme can take the c li mate movement for ward now?

T h e S o c i a l i s t Pa r t y a n d o u r c o thinkers in Inter national S ocialist Al t e r n a t i ve b e l i e ve t h a t t h e i n t e re s t s o f t h e c l i m a t e a n d t h e i n t e re s t s o f t h e working c lass are indivisible This was s e e n i n G e r m a ny t h i s s u m m e r w h e re pressure from below resulted in a pro g re s s i ve c o s t o f l i v i n g m e a s u re ( ve r y cheap public transpor t) and a 1 8 mil lion tonnes reduction in c ar bon emis sions

Free public transpor t should now be i m p l e m e n t e d a l l ye a r ro u n d i n e ve r y countr y in Europe In Br itain, the rail workers union is c ampaigning f or the renationalisation of the rail way s which is a prerequisite for free public transport in that countr y

Socialist transformation needed

A massive programme of public invest m e n t i n g re e n e n e r g y i s n e c e s s a r y s o t h a t f o s s i l f u e l s c a n b e l e f t i n t h e g ro u n d B u t s u c h a p ro g r a m m e c o u l d c re a t e t e n s o f m i l l i on s o f we l l p a i d

COP27 in Egypt: Greenwashing a dictatorship

The Egyptian dic tatorship, which organised a militar y coup in 2013, is attempting to organise a publicity coup and to greenwash the regime by hosting COP27 There are 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt Envi ronmental organisations which criticise the regime are routinely ha rassed and spied upon Now they are being filtered out of COP27 attendance.

unionised jobs wor ldwide too

A four day working week would raise h o u r l y w a ge r a t e s a n d c re a t e m o re leisure time f or workers while signifi c a n t l y re d u c i n g e n e r g y c on s u m p t i on M a s s i ve we a l t h t a xe s c o u l d f u n d f re e public tr anspor t, a f our day week and green jobs But at the same time, such taxes would reduce the number of pr i vate jets, pr ivate swimming pools, Mc Mansions and other luxur y goods that are deeply injurious to the environment

T h e c a p i t a l i s t e s t a b l i s h m e n t wo u l d fight to the bitter end to pre vent such a p ro g r a m m e f rom b e i n g i m p l e m e n t e d , h owe ve r C a p i t a l i s t o p p o s i t i on c o u l d on l y b e o ve rc om e by d e s t roy i n g i t s p owe r b a s e s i n t h e e c on om y a n d t h e state machine

No trust in this system

That means the nationalisation of the big cor porations and financial institu tions, seizure of billionaire wealth, the sac king of the top brass in the militar y, t h e p o l i c e, t h e j u d i c i a r y a n d t h e c i v i l ser vice with the creation of a ne w state d e m o c r a t i c a l l y c on t ro l l e d f rom b e l ow by ordinar y, working c lass people

T h i s i s t h e o u t l i n e o f a d e m o c r a t i c s o c i a l i s t s o c i e t y w h i c h wo u l d p u t t h e environment before profit The cor po r ations and the go ver nments that wil l dominate COP27 are par t of the prob lem, not the solution

Any progress that is made in Eg y pt will be marginal at best at a time when m a s s i ve s t r i d e s f o r w a rd a re n e e d e d Only a str uggle by c limate campaigners and the international working c lass for a ne w wor ld c an show a way out of the cr isis

cop27: cheap t while capital

economic turmoil means the er

by Daniel Devlin

IN T H E last number of weeks job losses and hir ing freezes have been announced across the Big Tech sector Meta, Twitter and Str ipe, to name just three, have axed thousands of jobs an enor mous blow to the workers con cer ned T hese companies have been the g reat success stor y for capitalism over the last decade and a half, becom ing both monopolistic g iants and household names

So why are they shedding jobs now? Are these announcements a proverbial canar y in the mine as far as the living standards and jobs of working class peo ple are concerned? The International Monetar y Fund (IMF) in an annual re port published in October presented a gloomy picture of the wor ld economy All the big capitalist countries and blocs are facing further economic slowdown, including China, which played a crucial role in maintaining economic growth over the last number of decades Coming on top of a major inflation and cost of living crisis this will mean further miser y for workers and poor people globally

Fueling precarious growth

The problems confronting Big Tech speak to the wider malaise confronting capitalism internationally, flowing from a number of varied and interconnected factors The most immediate and press ing issue is the ending of the era of cheap money through low interest rates

that the c apitalist c lass enjoyed since “the Great Recession” in 2008 2009 In general, this was a vital tool for capital ism to generate growth, albeit superfi cially, in that period

The wor ld ’ s central banks, par ticu larly in the advanced capitalist countries, slashed interest rates to near zero, or in some c ases below z ero This was con nected with a polic y of Q uantitative Easing (QE) in which trillions of dol lars and euros pr inted by these banks found their way into the hands of the super rich to engage in massive specu lation in property, stocks and shares

Cheap money acted as a lubricant for the capitalist class to squeeze out enor mous profits, and the value of their assets surged At the same time, in a stark illus tration of the parasitism at the heart of the system, big businesses used this source of cash to buy back shares in their own companies and in turn drive up their stock prices, resulting in bigger dividends to their super rich shareholders

In 2010 Mark Zuckerberg ’ s and Jeff Bezos’s fortunes amounted to $6 9 bil lion and $12 6 billion respectivel y, by 2021 at their peak they had sur passed $140 billion and $200 billion!

Elon Musk bec ame a billionaire in 2012, and by 2021 his wealth was valued at over $300 billion!

Growing inequality

W hile the value of the assets of the ultra wealthy mushroomed, living stan dards for the working c lass major it y

stagnated or dec lined Unsur pr isingl y, precious little QE money found its way into investments to improve public ser v ices or infrastructure, or living standards generally, or into measures to tackle the existential threat of c limate change Howe ver, for some working c lass people, the low interest rates of the 2010s acted as respite at a time of aus terity and stagnating wages In Britain, while wages grew on average by 33% a dec ade from 1970 to 2007, they have stagnated in the last decade Now many are faced with rising mortgage rates at a time of rising prices generally, putting a major squeeze on living standards

Attack on living standards

Capitalist commentators and represen tatives justify the rise in interest rates as a means to combat rising inflation rates However, like inflation, these measures are part of a c lass war offensive by the big bankers and bosses against workers to boost profits at our expense

They hope to provoke a shor t lived and controlled recession However, they are far from being in control of this cri sis, it is likely to be far more severe than they expect A recent repor t by the United Nations found that a 1% rise in interest rates by the Federal Reser ve will result in a corresponding fall of 0 8% in economic output for wealthier countries and a 0 5% fall for poorer countries

Per versely, mass unemployment flow ing from such a recession will be a wel come de velopment for them It will

talk & empty promises, lism burns the planet

ra of cheap money is at an end

Ukraine: Crisis for Russian imperialism as war enters new stage

allow them to attempt to dr ive down wages and conditions by putting fear into workers, thus weakening their bar gaining power, which has grown in the post pandemic period as illustrated by important strike waves in countries like

This is no episodic crisis; it is the lat est stage in the long term decay of the capitalist system The economic crisis is onl y one of the manifestations of this decay, along with war, ecological catas

trophe and the resurgence of the far right We need to get organised now, to defend our livelihoods, our r ights and our futures That means organising for a socialist alternative to the chaos of capitalism

by Darragh o'Dwyer

WHEN THE Ukrainian army took back vast swathes of territory in a surprise Kharkiv offensive in Sep tember, a new phase of the war began Previously Putin was sitting tight, hoping to grind Ukrainian forces down militarily and exert pressure on the west through sever ing gas supplies to Europe the dynamic has now shifted alongside the rapid advances in Kharkiv, russian troops in Kherson have been pushed back 20 30 km and Kremlin installed officials have an nounced an “organised, gradual dis placement ” of citizens from four towns in the region Do these breakthroughs mean the war is closer to an end? or are we facing the prospect of fur ther escalation, up to and including the use of nuclear weapons?

Kerch Bridge and Russian airstrikes the destruction of par ts of the Kerch bridge which connects russia to crimea was a real blow for Putin retri bution came in the form of air strikes targeting infrastructure in a number of cities including Kyiv, the first time since the war ’s beginning that the capital was under attack Such callous attacks illustrate that Putin’s onslaught is not yet exhausted however, these are really acts of desperation as prob lems pile up for Putin’s war hundreds of thousands of men of fighting age and their families repor t edly dashed to flee russia through air por ts and land borders; a new wave of anti war protests erupted, and there were repor ts of recruitment centres torched by molotov cocktails Joining an already undersupplied and under fed militar y, significant numbers of conscripts mobilised against their will could add to the sense of demoralisation within the russian army, rather than turn the tide of the war in Putin’s favour

Putin’s isolation the internal turmoil that Putin faces is mirrored and compounded by increas ing isolation on the world stage, even amongst russia’s allies the russian led cSto militar y alliance, established as a supposed counter weight to Nato, verges on disintegration as ar menia threatens to leave likewise, some point to potential cracks in the no limits partnership of Xi and Putin but despite the inevitable contradictions within the russia and china alliance, they remain pressed in a bloc against an emboldened uS im perialism and its western allies massive militar y aid flowing in from

the uS and Nato is not sent in the in terests of ordinar y ukrainians, but to rebuff russian imperialism and send a message to chinese imperialism

War hawks and nuclear weapons the russian war hawks have also be come more vocal in pushing for esca lation, making open criticisms of what they see as a weak approach to wag ing the war Putin himself has threat ened the use of tactical nuclear weapons Whereas at the war ’s begin ning Putin made similar remarks, he did so from a position of apparent strength, now he is on the defensive, backed into a corner with his options running out Never theless, if he were to make good on his threats, he would risk provoking a significant rupture in the china par tnership, or, even more dangerous for the regime, a mass movement against war and nuclear weapons for that reason, he seems to have opted for other forms of escala tion for now.

Resistance and solidarity international Socialist alternative (iSa) opposes all imperialist powers and the dangerous militar y build up currently taking place We call for an interna tional movement of the working class and oppressed to resist the slide into fur ther conflict therefore, alongside implacable opposition to the invasion of ukraine and the demand for the im mediate withdrawal of russian troops, we oppose Nato and uS imperialism’s inter vention in ukraine, including arms deliveries

While Western imperialist arms are decisive to the war currently being fought by the ukrainian army, this is not the only way which russian impe rialism’s invasion can be resisted al ready, the fact that ordinar y ukrainians are motivated to volunteer to defend their homes has been a cru cial factor throughout the war

this willingness to resist needs to be harnessed into a movement led by the ukrainian working class to repel the occupation, both with arms in hand, but also through mobilising the full power of the masses through strikes and protests Such a movement could appeal to russian soldiers to refuse to fight, and spur on the mass movement to bring down Putin’s regime.

crucially this movement must be in dependent of Western imperialism and the pro capitalist Zelensky regime to do so would require adopt ing a socialist program and waging a struggle against the capitalist system itself, building a global movement against imperialism, war and climate destruction

Britain and the United States

The IMF’s annual repor t has forecast economic slowdown for all the major economies

review: all Quiet on the western front directed by edward Berger

by thomas carmichael

AGAI NST A backdrop of an im perialist war of agg ression in Eu rope and g rowing geopolitic al tensions bet ween super powers that threaten to spill over into conflict far dead lier and more destr uctive than any yet seen in the 21st centur y, the cur rent per iod makes fer tile g round for director Edward Berger ’ s fresh adaption of Er ich Mar ia Remarque’s c lassic anti war novel.

We open with naïve teenager Paul and his friends, newly graduated from school, whipped into a nationalistic fer vour along with the rest of their schoolmates by their reactionar y schoolmaster, practically tripping over themselves in their excited rush to en list in the German army in ear ly 1917 The harrowing opening sequence has already given us, the viewer, a taste of the horror they are unknowingly com mitting themselves to, as we see hun dreds of bloodied and tattered uniforms stripped from the dead at the front, washed, mended and sent bac k along the line to be redistributed to the fresh lambs for the slaughter

F inally arriving at the trenches, the first grim task assigned to the enthusi astic ne w recr uits is the collection of dog tags from the bodies of their dead

comrades Shortly thereaf ter, they have their first encounter with enemy shelling and from this point onwards their lives resemble a downward spiral of blood, mud, trauma and death as they encounter machine gun and rifle fire, bar bed wire, tanks, poison gas, flamethrowers and all the other myriad horrors of war, all in the name of hope fully c laiming a few hundred yards of wasteland from the enemy

Meanwhile t wo subplots, one f ol lowing a German politician negotiat ing f or peace with the Frenc h high command and the other a right wing German general bemoaning what “ so cial democr ats” are doing to his beloved Father land as he wines and dines lavishl y from the saf et y of an abandoned manor house behind the front lines drive home the sheer and barbaric futilit y that the horrors of the main plot were being carried out in aid of

Berger pulls absolutel y no punches in this depiction of not only the unbri d led horror of the trenches but also the criminality and barbarism of the ruling c lass in starting and propagating it As our protagonists are ordered from one devastating battle to the next as if they were nothing but pawns on a chess board, we see the French generals re fusing to agree to a cessation of hostil

ities to save lives on both sides while armistice negotiations are ongoing W hile the film does not give an ex plicitly socialist analysis of this being a war for capitalist domination of markets and the expansion of imperialist spheres of influence, in which the working c lasses of the belligerent nations were played off against each other for the benefit of their respective ruling classes; it does however leave no room for doubt that it was a conflict in which those at the bottom of society were sacrificed in vast numbers by those at the top in the name of nothing that was really worth fighting for at the end of the day

All this is at no point c learer than at the ver y end of the film when the reac tionar y German general, af ter giving a speech with echoes of the ideas and rhetoric that would soon take root in German societ y and give way to the rise of fascism, sends his men on a fu tile, last ditch attempt to claim one last line of trenches from the enemy, even though the armistice has been signed and the hostilities are due to end in a mere fif teen minutes Making for a de vastating and infur iating c limatic moment for the audience to sit with, and r uminate that the lessons of that pointless, cr iminal chapter in human histor y are sad ly no less relevant today than they were at that 11th hour

Socialism 101 series #9

by harper cleves

I N E A R LY November Elon Musk purchased Twitter. Within a week of his ascendanc y, he had arbitrarily laid off over half of his staff interna tionally by email

This is far from the first time workers have been unceremoniously sacked; the tenacious former Debenhams workers were also dismissed over email in 2020, and this past March P&O ferries fired 800 employees via video message.

In today ’s world, examples of bad bosses abound, but surely they ’re not all bad?

Karl Marx wrote of the bourgeoisie; the super wealthy elite that owns the companies with the machiner y and resources that allow for the mass production of most of the world's wealth, and the proletariat; the masses who need to work in order to sur vive, and whose work actually produces the wealth

The relationship between these two groups, Marx argued, is inherently exploitative The bosses have to compete, and continually increase profits, which are directly accrued from the unpaid labour of the workers So every increase in wages means less profit for the bosses It is for this reason we hear some of the draconian stories about Amazon workers peeing in water bottles in order to keep up with the high yield demands set by Amazon management: the more wages, benefits and ‘down time’ for the employees, the less money for those at the top.

Even so, many people will have had bosses that were a good deal nicer (and a lot less wealthy) than the Elon Musks and Jeff Bezos of the world. Family restaurants who let staff eat for free, nonprofits with casual Fridays and weekly employee check ins, even big corporations with generous salaries and other benefits This begs the question, can bosses be good?

On an individual basis, of course, bosses can have nice personality traits. CEOs and small business owners alike might love their mothers and be nice to animals.

But capitalism is not simply a conglomeration of individuals acting completely independently and according to their own morals

It is a system, composed of interdependent par ts in which each human is shaped and guided by their social position. Under capitalism, individuals in their roles as bosses and cer tainly those considered to be successful are not compelled by their workers’ well being, but rather by the logic of the markets

Hence, even workers with relatively cushy, high paying tech jobs have been dumped as soon as their multi billion dollar companies see their profits squeezed

Many bosses are not billionaires or millionaires Small businesses often struggle under this system. Capitalism favours the already wealthy. It is not enough to simply set up a business; the resources to compete are also needed: money to adver tise, money to improve technology, money to expand a small franchise to new locations Big businesses tr y to dominate markets and ver y often squeeze smaller competitors out, until only a well resourced few are left.

In this environment, even the seemingly kindest small business owner will feel the pressure to cut costs to maintain some semblance of profit Pay cuts and layoffs are almost always the first por t of call In all situations, then, the fundamental divide seems to be this: bosses vs workers.

Malcolm X once said, “Show me a capitalist and I'll show you a bloodsucker ” Regardless of how pleasant or otherwise bosses may be as people, as bosses they can only exist by exploiting, i e by systematically appropriating the products of other people's work

The 3,311 billionaires who have amassed $11 8 trillion between them did so by denying billions of workers the fruits of their labour

But these workers have the numbers and means by organising and striking together to halt the profits of the capitalists, and take away their power By doing so, workers could get the wages, conditions and security they really need But to create lasting equality we need to go fur ther, and reorganise society for socialist change.

As Karl Marx said, ‘workers have a world to win’. We could add: one without bloodsucking bosses

are all workers exploited? are there no good bosses?

Brazil: far right Bolsonaro defeated in deeply polarised election

by mark Johnson

OF millions of working c lass people across Brazil breathed a sigh of relief with the news of the defeat of president Jair Bol sonaro His viciously r ight wing ad ministration was like a foot on the neck of all workers and poor people, but especially women, immig rants, black, indigenous and LGBTQ folk

TENS

A constant feeling of threat hung over their lives for the past four years, as repression, corruption and attacks on rights were rampant At the same time economic hardship has intensified with the enormous increase in the cost of living, especiall y energ y and food Near ly 20 million go hungr y ever y day

Moreover, with his reckless, anti sci ence policies, Bolsonaro oversaw the deaths of over 680,000 people from Covid 19, and stepped up the cor po rate destruction of the Amazon

Bolsonaro’s base

And yet the election, won by L uiz In ác i o L u l a d a S i l v a , w a s e x t re m e l y c l o s e B o l s on a ro h a s s t ron g b a s e s o f s u p p o r t a m on g s t t h e we a l t hy a n d u p p e r m i d d l e c l a s s e s , a n d a m on g s t f a r m e r s , r a n c h e r s , l o g g i n g a n d a g r i businesses who saw increased profits due to his remo val of environmental p ro t e c t i on s a n d e ro d i n g wo rk e r s ’ r ights The religious r ight, especial l y e vangelic als whic h have seen signifi c a n t a n d r a p i d g row t h i n B r a z i l i n

the past dec ade, was the hear t of his c ampaign

It was a c ampaign that used e ver y rotten method from spreading fake ne ws, to intimidation, to br iber y, to even using the federal police to conduct blatant attempts at voter suppression in areas where Lula was ahead

Lula’s weak approach

Lula’s victor y was much more a rejec tion of Bolsonaro than an endorsement of himself or his party (the P T) or poli cies O ver the last four years, while

Brazil had signific ant str uggles and strikes, Lula had a mainly electoral ori entation to remove Bolsonaro, which sought to demobilise str uggles and redirect their focus to the elections At the same time, Lula, who will be pres ident for a third time, attempted to show himself as a statesman and a safe alternative for big business He sought alliances with traditional r ight wing parties and figures, making neoliberal Geraldo Alc kmin his vice president, and even sought support from Michel Temer who had orchestrated a sof t

coup against the last P T government led by Dilma Rousseff

All of which meant that his program lef t little to inspire, other than that he was not Bolsonaro This explains how Bolsonaro, who was racked by constant scandals, could catch up to within 2% of the vote

Bolsonaro supporters did ver y well in the S enate election, howe ver, which means Lula is now likely to widen his alliance with e ven more conser vative parties and thus further water down his already limited program

Left and worker’s movement need to rebuild

L ula will unfor tunatel y disappoint by n o t ad d re s s i n g t h e d e e p e n i n g s o c i a l c r i s i s w i t h t h e k i n d o f r ad i c a l p ro gramme that ’ s necessar y This will in turn create the space for Bolsonaro, or Bolsonar ism, to make gains and come bac k

T h e l e f t p a r t y P S O L ( S o c i a l i s m and Liber t y Par t y) on paper did well in these elections, increasing its num ber of deputies to five Federal and 12 S tate, which is positive, but it made a signific ant mistake by not r unning its own presidential c andidate in the first round, instead announcing long in ad vance that it would fully endorse Lula T h i s m e a n t t h a t L u l a w a s u n d e r n o pressure to adopt any of PSOL’s pro gramme, and in the national tele vised d e b a t e s n o c l e a r l e f t a r g u m e n t s t h a t could really take up Bolsonaro and the sy stem he represents were on offer Lula's victor y and the defeat of Bol sonaro is a victor y for the working class and those fighting oppression, but as of writing Bolsonaro supporters are in the streets blocking roads and an event like the US Januar y 6th assault on the capi tol building is entirely possible

That's why the workers’ movement needs to organise and mobilise in the streets to stop Bolsonaro in his plans, to f orce L ula to prosecute Bolsonaro a n d h i s s u p p o r t e r s , a n d i m p l e m e n t measures to address the social cr isis

North & britain: interview with nurse after vote for strike action

Members of the Royal College of Nurses (RCN) in the Nor th and Britain have voted for strike ac tion over pay They will soon be joined by other unions balloting their members in health The Socialist spoke to Socialist Par ty member and RCN ac tivist, Pat Lawlor, about these impor tant strike ballots.

First of all, what do these ballots represent? in truth, the ballots themselves do not convey the ex tent of anger, frus tration, and disrespec t we feel we have been treated with over the last decade or more health workers were initially disorientated and de moralised when we were thrown into the pandemic completely un derprepared We were put at physical risk by our employers and unfor tu nately, many health workers paid the ultimate price with their lives the faux suppor t and pretend hero wor ship by clapping, grinning politicians in Westminster and Stormont who have themselves implemented sys tematic cuts in pay, staffing, terms and conditions, and ser vices, have only cr ystalised and sharpened our anger the health strike of 2019/20, which brought out the rcN for the first time in its 103 year histor y, was seen as a par tial vic tor y winning

pay parity with england this strike is keenly remembered as unfinished business, as coviD 19 cut across the remaining issues of staffing shor t ages and the crisis in ser vices all these issues have been exacerbated in the last two years across the whole

of britain on top of the ‘cost of greed crisis’ by big business and the rich, whose inflationar y demand for prof its is pushing nurses into pover ty. however, the ongoing strikes and re cent pay wins by public and private sec tor workers are emboldening

health workers to ac t We are likely to see another historic event with the rcN carr ying out its first uK wide strike in its 106 year histor y

The ballots are primarily on pay what are the other issues at stake for workers across the NHS? for nurses, pay, staffing and ser vices are interlinked i t is not a coincidence that poor pay and the lowest levels of recruitment are running together the evidence is clear, nursing vacan cies are at a record high there are now over 2,000 vacan cies across Nor thern ireland and ap proximately 47,000 unfilled NhS nursing roles across britain thou sands of burned out, underpaid nurses have lef t our profession in the past 12 months i have consoled col leagues in tears, unable to provide basic nursing care, completely over whelmed with anxiety and stress, who would rather resign than spend one more day at work the latest ucaS figures showed a 7% drop in applicants accepted on to nursing courses compared to last year although nursing graduates ini tially earn above the median wage, within 10 years their earnings fall below the median in comparison to similar workers such as teachers or firefighters Poor pay and career pro gression are not attrac tive to new

people think ing of entering the pro fession

Without enough nurses across our NhS, waiting lists will continue to grow, wards will lie empty, and high quality patient care and safety in hospitals and community ser vices will continue to deteriorate

How can young people, patients, and working class people gener ally who don’t work in the health and social care sec tor suppor t NHS workers?

the easy answer is get involved!

Suppor t any protests, demonstra tions and strikes the NhS we are fighting for is your health ser vice i t provides the safety net of a public owned universal healthcare ser vice, as well as the se curity of public sec tor jobs and ca reers with trade union pay, terms, and conditions

We would encourage you to talk to your family and friends and send messages of suppor t to health work ers on strike if you belong to a union, ask your union and branch to formally suppor t strikes, and raise these issues in your school forums and university student unions our NhS is a fundamental plank of a progressive, equal and fair society for all, it is essential we all join the battle to defend it

Lula defeated B olsonaro by just 2 million votes

TheSocialist WE STAND WITH SURVIVORS

Sexism, misogyny, transphobia violence & victim blaming =

“ The day has passed for patching up the capitalist system; it must go ” James Connolly was right. The immense social, political and economic crises that dominate life in the 21st centur y all testify to this truth, but the climate emergenc y gives added urgenc y to its meaning That’s why the Socialist Par ty stands for revolutionar y socialist change, and why we are organising to bring it about We suppor t ever y right and reform that can improve life for working class people, while fighting for what’s needed. We say: if capitalism can’t afford to provide for our needs then we can’t afford capitalism.

Workplace

• All workers need double digit wage rises

For a €17 an hour minimum wage

End precarity and bogus self employ ment For guaranteed hours with perma nent contracts for all workers

• A four day work week with no loss of pay

Reduce the pension age to 60 A guaran teed decent pension for all

• No layoffs Open up the books and take large job shedding companies into public ownership, under democratic workers’ con trol and management, with compensation paid only on the basis of proven need

Repeal the Industrial Relations Act For the

right to organise and effective action

• For a fighting trade union movement that organises the unorganised and mobilises the power of its membership All officials should be elected, subject to recall and live on the wages of the workers they represent

Housing

Reduce and freeze rents at affordable lev els Ban evictions

• For a major programme to build public homes Take the big construction compa nies into public ownership Seize vacant proper ties and unused land being hoarded for profit

Provide culturally appropriate accommo dation for Travellers

Nationalise the banks and repudiate the odious debt Reduce mor tgage payments to affordable levels

Public services

End church control of schools and hospi tals full separation of church and state

For a major public works programme to build public schools, hospitals and child care facilities

• For a one tier, national health ser vice free at the point of use Bring all private hospi tals, nursing homes and pharmaceutical companies into public ownership

Free publicly run childcare scheme for

socialisT parTy

ever y community Extend fully paid parental leave to two years and provide high quality early years education

• For 24 hour free counselling ser vices and education programmes to begin to tackle the mental health crisis

Free education and training for all Abolish the Leaving Cer t system and provide a Third level place for all who want one, with a living grant for all students Build afford able, accessible student accommodation

Environment

For substantial investment in an ex panded, reliable and free public transpor t system

• End the reliance on fossil fuels keep them in the ground For extensive state in vestment in renewable energy, retrofitting homes and public buildings, and green jobs

• For a just transition to a zero carbon econ omy, with no job losses or regressive car bon taxes

Take the fossil fuel companies big agribusinesses and corporations into dem ocratic public ownership to stop the de struction of our planet for profit

Equal rights for all

• Oppose all forms of racism, sexism, homo phobia and transphobia

• For LGBTQ inclusive, consent based sex education in schools Fully fund trans healthcare

• Reduce the voting age to 16

Defend the right to asylum End Direct Provision Abolish all racist immigration laws

• Black lives matter! Oppose far right division

• Fight to end gender violence, abuse and harassment in all its forms

• For a socialist feminist movement that unites the whole working class in the strug gle against oppression

For workers’ unity in Ireland

• For the unity of the working class, Protes tant and Catholic, Nor th and South, in op position to all forms of sectarianism, paramilitarism and state repression

For a socialist Ireland, with no coercion and the rights of minorities guaranteed, as par t of a free, equal and voluntar y socialist federation of Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales as par t of a socialist Europe

End the rule of the billionaires

• Take the wealth off the 1% For real pro gressive taxation on incomes, assets and profits to fund public ser vices

• Stop tax avoidance and evasion by the wealthy

ROS A

Socia list Fem in ist Movem ent

• Double corporation tax End corporate welfare policies

• No to all forms of privatisation in health, education, transpor t, housing, energy, sani tation, water and broadband provision

For socialist change

• Capitalism produces inequality, environ mental destruction and war We need an in ternational struggle against this system

• Solidarity with the struggles of workers and oppressed peoples internationally

• Oppose all imperialist powers, wars and occupations No to NATO and EU militarisa tion US militar y out of Shannon

No to corporate “free trade” agreements

No to the bosses’ EU and “For tress Europe” Build a new mass par ty that organises workers and young people in struggle against all injustices and for a socialist alter native For a working class movement to bring about a left, socialist government that breaks with capitalism

• Take the key sectors of the economy the monopolies in banking industr y ser v ices, agriculture and big tech into public ownership under the democratic control of the working class

• Replace the capitalist market with a dem ocratic socialist plan of the economy based on the interests of the over whelming ma jority of people and the environment