The Socialist: September 2023

TheSocialist

PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY

ISSUE 156

SEPTEMBER 2023

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SHORTS & ACTIONS

The Socialist

Global Wealth Report: Unintentionally exposing a rotten system Investing in the planet’s destruction While we shouldn’t be surprised, it is remarkable how little imagination Paul Donovan, the chief economic officer of the bank UBS, has, as detailed in the new Global Wealth Report. It is his belief that “whether as a source of investment or philanthropy, private wealth will shape the opportunities that are presented by technological change. It is private wealth that will lead the funding needed to create diverse, sustainable societies”. This is beyond ridiculous. It was noted

by Oxfam that investment by 125

billionaires produced 393 million metric tons of CO2 last year. This amounts to over 3 million metric tons for each billionaire compared to the three metric tons produced by those outside the world’s wealthiest 10%.

in banking history. While in its homeland of Switzerland, 5% of all people have stated that they have gone without necessities in the last year. With similar statistics in some of the other places it operates, 11 million Britons struggling to pay bills, 23% of Irish citizens and 40% of Americans.

This wealth should be put to use for working class people.

The rich get richer As the report notes, there is wealth in the world totalling $454.4 trillion.

Within this, 56% is held in North America and Europe despite only accounting for 16% of the global population. This is due precisely to the exploitation of the poorer countries by the richer ones. It also notes that the richest 1% controls

By Enda Kelly

Take back the wealth 44.5% of that wealth. This is in comparison to the 1.2% of the wealth owned by the poorest 52.5% of the population.

Furthermore, the 1% have increased their share from 35% to 46% from 2000 to 2022.

Showcasing the continued amassing of wealth workers create by the capitalist class.

No real change UBS notes the fact that household wealth is expected to increase by over 38% up to 2027. However, what is less emphasised is that this increase will overwhelmingly benefit the ultra-wealthy. It estimates that by 2027 85 million people globally

will have wealth exceeding $1 million. At the same time this increase in overall numbers will likely have no real effect on workingclass people. According to the Euro Monitor, inflation is expected to remain at 7% in 2023 and 4.7% in 2027. The report notes that due to this any increase in wealth in real terms for working-class people would amount to less than 1%.

Managing misery Of course, UBS knows this hoarding of wealth all too well, itself reporting a record $29 billion profit this quarter through its acquisition of former rival Credit Suisse, the biggest quarterly profit

The truth is very different from the warped fantasies of Donovan and UBS. Private ownership of wealth is precisely the reason so much investment is shifting towards such things as the arms industry (over $2 trillion) and even more fossil fuels (still over $1 trillion), as opposed to the things we need like a rapid transition to a zero carbon economy, or food, jobs and housing security.

Any reliance on private markets and the whims of rich people is the surest way to lead us to climate catastrophe and unimaginable death and destruction. Instead, we need a movement to seize that wealth and democratically plan its use to provide for the needs of all people and the planet. After all we (workers) create all this wealth, they (capitalists) just appropriate it and then squander it. No more!

Why you should protest Posie Parker & ‘Let Women Speak’ in Dublin

By Ollie Bell

K

ELLIEJAY Keen-Minshull, more commonly known as Posie Parker, recently announced that she will be in Dublin on 16 September to have one of her #LetWomenSpeak events. According to her, Let Women Speak rallies are ‘free speech’ events where “anyone can turn up and anyone can speak.” Speakers are encouraged to speak about whatever they like as long as what they say is legal.

So if that’s all Posie Parker’s Let Women Speak rallies are, why have there been counter protests held in response to these events in the UK, New Zealand and Australia? And why is there a Protest Posie Parker protest being organised by Trans & Intersex Pride Dublin? What is the real idea behind these events and what does Posie Parker actually stand for?

Far-right connections

Posie Parker’s rise to fame came from being credited with coining the term ‘adult human female’ to define a woman, which she began to promote on billboards in 2018. This phrase has become associated with trans-exclusionary radical feminists as a way of reinforcing the gender binary and restricting trans people’s bodily autonomy and self-expression. Parker has made her anti-trans views quite known, as she has spoken out against trans people using public

bathrooms according to their gender, the right of trans people to be legally recongised as their gender, trans people’s participation in sports, and access to trans healthcare.

But unlike many other anti-trans figures, like JK Rowling, Posie Parker has repeatedly said she isn’t a feminist. Instead she says she is a women’s rights activist and defender of women’s sexbased rights. It would be inaccurate to even say that she is a TERF; she is more closely related to the political right wing than radical feminism.

When we look closer at Posie Parker and her ideology, we cannot ignore the links with the far-right movement.

Posie Parker is perhaps the most open of the ‘gender critical’ figures to collaborate with the far right and fascists. Her Melbourne Let Women Speak rally was notorious for allowing a neo-nazi group called National Socialist Network to show up in support with a banner that said “Destroy Paedo Freaks” and performed Nazi salutes.

Her events have been attractive to many members of the far right, including Alistair McConnachie in Glasgow (who runs A Force For Good – a fascist, Holocaust-denial group) and Britain First member Joline Bunting who spoke at her Belfast event. Many other antiLGBTQ+ and anti-abortion politicians, activists and groups have attended her rallies. She has been friendly towards far right men such as Norwegian NeoNazi Hans Jørgen Lysglimt Johansen,

Activists protest Posie Parker event in Belfast earlier this year

far-right Youtuber Jean-François Gariépy, and was interviewed by British farright, anti-feminist Carl Benjamin.

Stand up for trans rights

But apart from the company she keeps, her right-wing ideology is also reflected in what she publicly says. Most stark is her opposition to Gillick competence and young people accessing contraception and abortions, saying that “parents need to take back control of their children”. She has peddled conspiracy theories about Muslim grooming gangs, so much so that the

transphobic group ‘Women’s Place UK’ had to disinvite her as a speaker in 2018 due to her views on race and religion. Despite her objection to trans women using women’s bathrooms, she has previously called for armed men to go into women’s toilets in order to ‘protect’ cisgender women from so-called predators. Her support for men’s violence against trans people clarifying that she is anything but a supporter of women’s rights.

We can expect that her Dublin event will draw the support of the Irish far right and not feminists. With a blatant

disregard for women’s bodily autonomy and freedom of expression, Posie Parker doesn’t have women’s interests at heart but rather is using it to spread her transphobic views.

Trans & Intersex Pride Dublin’s counter demo isn’t just a rally against Posie Parker, it is a rally against fascism and the transphobic rhetoric they are currently spreading. This protest against Posie Parker has to be big, strong and loud to send a clear message to both her and the far right here that their violent, anti-trans politics aren’t welcome and will not get a foothold anywhere.

NEWS

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The Socialist

Eviction notices skyrocket – homelessness crisis deepens

By Councillor Brian McCarthy

Teacher shortage crisis reaches “emergency levels”

F

OR THE third consecutive month the number of those living in emergency accommodation broke all records; it now stands at 12,847 people, 3,829 of whom are children.

This increase of 247 from the previous month shows how rapidly this crisis is worsening, despite all the government assurances that large numbers of houses are being built.

However, that figure doesn’t even come close to showing the true scale of the crisis since it doesn’t include the people who’ve had to move in with friends or family, couch surfing, those in Direct Provision and shelters, or those forced to sleep rough. In September 2022, the Simon Community estimated as many as 290,000 people could be experiencing ‘hidden homelessness’.

Rising eviction notices

The situation will worsen over the coming months as the full impact of lifting the winter eviction ban will hit.

In the two months after the ban was lifted, 5,735 eviction notices were issued to tenants. With many of these eviction notices due to come into effect in December, families will be made homeless just weeks before Christmas.

When challenged on these latest figures, Tánaiste Micheál Martin ruled out another winter eviction ban, claiming it ‘would do more harm than good’.

He said his priority is stopping the mass exodus of private landlords from the market, potentially hinting at fi-

By Kate Relihan

Homelessness records have been consistently broken under this government

nancial incentives in the upcoming budget – for landlords!

This shows again that his priority is to represent the interests of the people profiting from this crisis. This is unsurprising given that one-third of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs are landlords, indeed Minister for Housing Daragh O’Brien once had shares in a vulture fund.

Organise from below

The experiences of the anti-water charges and Repeal campaigns showed that when organised and united a mass

movement can force through real change – despite the opposition of the establishment. A mass movement with demands for the eviction ban to be reinstated and made permanent, rents to be cut and capped at affordable levels, and a wealth tax to fund an emergency house-building scheme could achieve real change on the housing crisis. Crucially, we must bring the large construction companies into democratic public ownership, seize all the land, houses and apartments being hoarded for profit and ban vulture and cuckoo funds.

The root of the housing crisis is the reliance on the private market to house people, but the private market is a disaster as it functions entirely in the interests of landlords, developers and banks – whose only concern is how they can exploit increasingly desperate people to line their own pockets.

Instead we need to break with this capitalist system and organise the housing needs of society in a democratic and planned way. Nothing less will actually meet our needs and solve this interminable crisis for good.

Dublin City Centre: Invest in need not repression LAST MONTH it was announced that Gardaí are being given €10 million extra funding to tool up and have more armed GardaI throughout Dublin City. This follows the highlighting of some horrific attacks on tourists over the summer.

The right-wing news media has used these events to create a “moral panic” around crime to drum up sales.

Linked to this is the desire on the part of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to play the law and order card to deflect attention away from their failings. They conveniently ignore that although attacks are still far too high, the number of recorded assaults has fallen in the last year.

Systemic failure They don’t want to invest in the city, both in how it looks and in deeper systemic issues like the housing crisis, drug treatment, engaging young people and ending the deprivation that haunts the inner city in particular and many working-class communities throughout the suburbs.

The Armed Response Unit (ARU) has already killed one young person during the pandemic: they arrived quickly on the scene after an altercation and – rather than apprehending,

Ministers escorted by Gardaí through Dublin City Centre in wake of media furore over recent attacks on tourists

disarming, negotiating and arresting – in a very short time, George Nkencho was shot multiple times, including twice in the back as he tried to enter his own home. This killing of a young black man with mental health issues has been referred to the DPP. Tragedies like this will occur again as police biases about people of colour, working-class people, travellers or other minorities influence how they deal with crime. These sec-

tions of society already face a great deal of harassment by Gardaí. We need to oppose this increase in state repression.

Unequal system In a grossly unequal capitalist society, the police are not used to help ordinary people feel safe; they are used to maintain the status quo, as we saw during water charges, the Debenhams strike, and recently guarding

ATMs and preventing people from using them.

We don’t need more money for armed Gardaí – we need democratic community policing that is accountable and answerable to the communities they work in. Alongside this we need emergency investment in drug treatment, a ban on evictions, the building of public homes, and resources for schools and other vital public services.

THE CURRENT teacher shortage crisis is an indictment of our education system and has reached ‘emergency levels’, according to the INTO. The ASTI also warns of schools ‘under enormous strain’ with hundreds of teaching positions vacant ahead of the first term, with 600 primary and postprimary posts advertised as of 5 September on educationposts.ie.

A recent TUI survey found that 40% do not believe they will be in the teaching profession in ten years' time. Cuts to pay, pensions and promotional posts, lack of career progression, teacher training lengthened and made more expensive, two-tier pay scale and prevalence of temporary conditions have all helped to create this crisis. Add to this the spiralling cost of living and housing crisis whereby living in Dublin and many cities nationwide can swallow up to 80% of a teacher’s monthly salary.

Grassroots campaign launched On the foot of the complete failure of the government to act to end this crisis, parents, teachers, union activists and former Socialist Party TD and teacher Ruth Coppinger established Education Coalition Dublin West (ECDW). It aims to organise teachers, students and parents in a common battle to make sure the necessary investment is made to stop the crisis regarding teacher retention.

ECDW sent a questionnaire to all government parties, and local political representatives, to ascertain how they intend to address the teacher shortage that is crippling our constituency.

We published our findings in a four-page newsletter being distributed throughout the constituency.

This is a crucial issue for parents, which impacts every student gravely and none more than those with additional needs. Their teachers are being redeployed as absences cannot be filled. Why should the most vulnerable be thrown overboard time and time again?

ECDW says No to more students being disadvantaged while the government sits on a surplus of billions. Other areas should follow this example from Dublin West, as this is a major issue nationwide.

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ANALYSIS

The Socialist

Irish troops to train Ukrainian army – a further erosion of military neutrality Imperialist hypocrisy

By Conor Payne

L

AST MONTH it was revealed that the Defence Forces is providing weapons training and training in military tactics to the Ukrainian military. This is despite Tánaiste Micheál Martin's public statement that the training Irish troops supplied to the Ukrainian army would be confined to ‘humanitarian’ and ‘nonlethal’ areas such as demining.

There was no reference to weapons training in any public statements by the government or its ministers – a clear attempt to cover up this breach of Irish neutrality. According to The Irish Times, the full range of training being carried out by the Defence Forces is basic military skills, leadership training, drill instructor training, combat medicine, demining and explosive disposal.

New Cold War

These revelations are just the latest in a consistent campaign since the start of the Ukraine War to undermine what remains of the Irish State’s military neutrality. Much of the capitalist establishment has long regarded neutrality as an embarrassing obstacle to Ireland being able to fully take its rightful place in the ‘Western [imperialist] bloc’ built around the US and NATO. In reality, Irish neutrality has not prevented them

The Irish government is committed to growing militarisation

from aligning with the US and European imperialist powers, for example, facilitating the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through the use of Shannon Airport by US troops.

However, Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and the resulting proxy conflict between Russia and China on the one hand, and the US and NATO on the other, has occasioned an escalation of the campaign to openly break with neutrality. This has included calls for increased military and armaments spending, plans to abandon the ‘triple

lock’ which prevents Ireland from entering a war without UN-backing, and support for more Irish participation in EU military operations.

Sham forum

Over the summer, the government convened a sham “consultative forum” packed with pro-war and pro-NATO “security experts” in an attempt to put a stamp of legitimacy on the moves they want to take. This exercise had to exclude any actual democratic participation because there is still majority

support for neutrality. A poll in June showed 61% support, with only 26% supporting a change in approach.

The government will cynically justify its policy of increased militarisation by pointing to the criminality of Putin’s actions in Ukraine and using the sympathy and solidarity that exists among ordinary people. But the real significance of these actions is the precedent being for more and more active involvement in EU and NATO military projects.

The imperialist powers who invaded Iraq, who support the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and back brutal dictatorships worldwide, do not care about the Ukrainian people or their claimed values of freedom, democracy and national independence. Whatever they claim about supporting Ukraine, their aid will always come with strings attached and will be linked to their broader goals of dominating the regions in their interests.

What’s needed to defeat the invasion is a mass struggle from below by the working class of Ukraine, and the building of a mass anti-war movement worldwide, including in Russia – where the effects of the war and the policies of Putin’s regime are being increasingly felt.

The world is increasingly divided into two hostile imperialist camps, locked into conflict over natural resources, markets and spheres of influence. For the working class and oppressed of the world neither side in this new cold war represents anything positive or progressive. We must resist the attacks on military neutrality and the drive for increasing militarisation in Ireland. Across the world we need a movement to end the capitalist system, which is increasingly dragging us into war and conflict in the interests of a privileged few.

Defend libraries from far-right thuggery and intimidation

By Steph Lacey

O

VER THE last few months, farright agitators have been going into libraries and bookshops across Ireland and harassing the workers over what they claim are ‘pornographic’ books being forced on children. In reality, these books are sex education guides for queer youth if they wish to access them, and doing so would require parental permission.

Due to a lack of comprehensive sex education in our schools, teenagers, and even children, are turning to the internet for answers, which can have disastrous consequences. While sex education books have been available for decades, they have been heteronormative ones. These books give information on same-sex relationships, and therein lies the real reason the far right has taken aim.

A long history of queerphobia

The far-right agitators attacking libraries have a long history of being queerphobic. They include recording themselves taking down Pride posters and spitting on them, saying that gay people are the biggest spreaders of diseases, and calling every Pride flag a ‘groomer’ flag. They aim not to ‘protect childhood’, as they claim, but to erase queerness.

The far right are going into libraries,

video recording the workers and library users, calling them horrific names, demanding the workers take the books off the shelves, and threatening them with legal action if they do not. Unsurprisingly, even when given ample notice of the upcoming harassment of library staff, the Gardaí have either not turned up to help the staff or, in one case when they did, actually escorted the far-right goons into the library.

Noticing that the library workers were left to deal with this abuse themselves, Socialist Party members and others have organised to try to protect them. Limerick was the first city to keep the far right out of its library successfully. This was done through our members and other outraged members of the public coordinating a plan of action for when the far right arrived.

By mobilising people, countering the far right on the street, linking arms outside the library, and blocking the entrance, the far right were forced to retreat.

Counter-protest in Cork

Fearing for the staff 's safety, Cork City Library had to close its doors during a far-right rally. The only other group that ever forced the closure of Cork’s library was the Black and Tans. After seeing the successful actions against the far right in Limerick, anti-racist activists, along with Socialist Party mem-

Members of the Irish Writer’s Union and Forsa were in attendance.

Role of trade union movement

Hundreds protest against far-right in Cork in early July

bers in Cork, were inspired to do the same. On 3 September, the far right held a rally on Grand Parade, and fearing that the library would be targeted, members of the queer community and others guarded the library from 9 am until it closed at 5:30 pm.

Throughout the counter-protest, for

which the Socialist Party mobilised and participated, they chanted slogans such as “trans rights, workers' rights; same struggle, same fight” and “when workers' rights are under attack; stand up, fight back!” as well as singing renditions of ‘Bella Ciao’ (the Italian anti-fascist partisan song) and ‘Solidarity Forever.’

Forsa organised a significant demonstration in Cork in July, supporting the library workers and demanding an end to their harassment. While this demonstration was significant and welcomed, it has not stopped the harassment. The far-right have taken things to the street and have a well-documented history of not abiding by the law; legal steps will not deter them. Trade unions, particularly those representing workers on the frontline of these attacks, such as library workers, need to mobilise the power of their members in protests and walkouts against any form of intimidation by the far right.

They need to follow the example set by those who have successfully taken on the far right. Groups such as Limerick Against Fascism, Limerick AntiRacist Network and Cork Rebels for Peace organised the barriers preventing the harassment of staff. It will be more difficult for the same mobilisation in smaller, rural towns, where libraries and librarians are harassed. Trade unions must implement policies and actions to assist and protect their workers. Libraries are a haven for many people for many reasons, and working-class people, activists, and trade unions must get organised to protect them.

NORTH

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The Socialist

Strike wave in North:

How we can win real pay rises

“Without struggle there is no progress” – statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass in Belfast

By Paddy Meehan

T

HE MASSIVE strike wave that began in 2022 in the private and public sectors to fight wage suppression has entered a new and more complicated stage both in Britain and Northern Ireland. The shortcomings of the present trade union leadership can only be overcome by more developed rank-and-file organising – a powerful escalation and a broadening of action can emanate from this to force the Tory government and bosses back.

So far, transport, important manufacturing and processing workplaces have achieved significant high wage increases (although few have actually been able to get inflation-beating pay awards). In Britain, strikes are now likely again within the rail and health service amongst junior and senior doctors, with most regional disputes still unresolved in the ambulance and nursing sectors. Some disputes have dragged on with employers digging in and union leaderships unsuccessfully attempting to implement poor deals.

Co-ordinated industrial action

A fighting leadership is necessary based on members' direct involvement in their disputes – workplace meetings that take strike decisions, a targeted campaign of effective industrial action and no closed-room, secret negotiations. If this isn’t happening, workers will have real questions about how serious their leaders are to wage these struggles successfully.

Like health workers here, the Education Authority, civil service and some local council workers face the constant refrain that nothing can be done due to the lack of a Stormont Executive. This

Democratic control of strikes is crucial to winning victories

myth must be thoroughly discredited.

When pressure was put on the Secretary of State, money was found to make pay offers in the Housing Executive and the derisory offer of £552 to civil servants at the start of the year. He has plenty of decision-making power to threaten the entire population here with brutal austerity measures. There is no excuse for not giving health and public sector workers an inflation-plus pay rise.

Effective action to exert pressure

Bosses in the private and public sectors have claimed either poverty or that a myriad of legal protections and niceties tie their hands. Unions have not accepted this in these scenarios, so whether there’s a functioning local government or not, the trade union movement shouldn’t accept it here. Unions can put their demands to the Secretary of State and use strike and public protest campaigns involving service

users and supporters to exert immense pressure on the government to act.

At the same time, there is a targeted campaign to deal with previous “budget overspends”, a new cover to implement significant austerity policies in the absence and possibly on behalf of an absent Stormont Executive. Significant protests have arisen against this, including a consultation to end or restrict access to free bus passes. Pensioners, health service users, students and many more are considered targets to make significant cuts. The trade union movement must link their workplace struggles to these issues. Significant strike action linking these issues can be a new front in coordinating struggles to fight wage suppression and cuts to desperately needed public services. When we struggle collectively, these campaigns can be greater than the sum of their parts and unite workers and the general public to take on the Tories and the bosses.

Vista Therm workers under attack – union busting is disgusting!

By Anya Duxbury MEMBERS OF Unite at Vista Therm have been on strike for the past six weeks, fighting against unfair pay and unfair treatment of workers in the plant.

Initially, the management refused to negotiate pay despite some members having not received a pay rise in the last seven years. The resulting one-day strike in July saw management refusing to recognise Unite the union. Members returning to work after this strike were threatened with disciplinary action, and the union rep was suspended. Since then, three members have been fired, with many expecting to receive the same news soon.

The workforce is primarily Polish, with a few Slovakian, Ukrainian and Slovenian members. However, many of the warnings issued for absences are reportedly written exclusively in English, even though the manage-

having proof their absences were authorised.

ment is also primarily Polish. These warnings have been given as justification for firing workers despite workers

Solidarity needed We must offer solidarity to these workers. Not only is there potential for them to feel isolated from the community due to language differences.

We can show these workers that they are not alone by backing them. This single case exemplifies the significantly larger problem of workers suffering exploitation and unfair treatment by those in positions of power. If we cannot support our fellow workers through their hardships, we cannot expect them to support us through our own.

The workers at VistaTherm are realising the power they hold, seeing how the company has been reduced from six operation lines to two because of their efforts, and this is the time for us to help them continue to win back the power they deserve.

By Mara Clanahan LAST MONTH, Belfast City Council unveiled a statue commemorating legendary American Abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The statue stands near the First Presbyterian Church on Rosemary Street; a site which itself holds significance for not only hosting Douglass during his time in Belfast, but also was the base of the successful outcry against slave ships being commissioned in Belfast in the late 18th century, some 50 years before Frederick Douglass’ arrival. Douglass, a widely renowned orator, gave many speeches at the invitation of the Belfast Anti-Slavery Society.

During his travels, Douglass wrote to a friend describing the brutal poverty he’d witnessed in Dublin in the time leading to the Irish Famine. Douglass stated: “Men and women, married and single, old and young, lie down together, in much the same degradation as the American slaves. I see much here to remind me of my former condition… but that I know the cause of humanity is one the world over.”

The poverty described by Douglass, and the uncaring nature of those in power and the Church, still persist to this day. This is clearly evident in the growing class divide, the poverty experienced by too many of the working class and the stoking of anti-immigrant rhetoric that echoes when Douglass himself fled slavery and sought asylum.

6 SPECIAL FEATURE IN THE Tunisian port city of Sfax, tens of thousands of migrants from across the African continent exist in a state of suspension, writes HARPER CLEVES. Often living in makeshift migrant encampments in parks and streets, they hope to be able to save the nearly €700 necessary to take a boat across the Mediterranean into

A

SHORT distance away from many of these migrant encampments, on the outskirts of the city, new cemeteries are being constructed especially for those whose journeys fail; their bodies found washed up on shore, or discovered by the few local fishermen who have not yet sold their boats to smugglers profiting from the desperate need for passage. Their number is so great they could not be accommodated in pre-existing plots.

The migrants of Sfax are keenly aware this may be their fate also. This year alone 2,000 have already died crossing the Mediterranean. Since 2014 at least 27,800 have perished in the same waters. And yet still the mere possibility of reaching Europe has compelled some 24,000 to take this journey from Tunisia in the first four months of this year alone. These harrowing figures do not even account for the many who perish before ever reaching the port.

Why migrate?

According to a 2022 United Nations report, the primary reasons for African migration to Europe are “conflict, repressive governance, and limited economic opportunities.” Conflict and instability abound, causing many to flee home. Since 2020 there have been ten attempted or successful coups in West and Central Africa.

Such authoritarianism and violence is born out of a deep instability. The inflation and cost of living crisis experienced by so many across the globe is exacerbated in regions with a legacy of

imperialism. The climate crisis, in the form of flooding and droughts, and the rampant spread of infectious diseases such as malaria and ebola, is also causing a massive scarcity of food and resources, further spurring violent conflict and creating unrest amongst the masses.

A former student from Sudan said while speaking to a journalist: “I would cross the sea because there’s no solution here. Of course it’s dangerous but just – you know – a human being must go.”

Failure of governments and international institutions

What such brave and resilient people – seeking solace from violence and hunger – are met with by the international institutions of capitalism should incite a sorrow and rage that is a rallying cry to us all.

In the mission statement of the European Union (EU) it states that the body aims to “promote and protect democracy and universal rights in Europe and around the world.” Such lofty promises of human rights and dignity likely ring hollow to the 35-year old Sudanese man who has attempted to reach Europe by boat to seek safer shores five times, only to be intercepted each time by the EU-backed Libyan coast guard, who in his last attempt shot him in the hand and foot.

The EU has recently finalised a deal with Tunisia, which included €100 million for “border management” and “antismuggling” action. This large sum is also meant to cover “search and rescue” mis-

Thousands of refugees go through unimaginable danger and suffering to get to Europe

The So sions. However, as we can see from the previous accounts, this is probably more aptly described as “search and return” or “search and treat as criminals.” In fact, in the past year, humanitarian aid workers operating a search and rescue mission in the Mediterranean actually faced charges from Greek authorities for saving refugees.

Smiling photos of EU officials and European politicians alongside Tunisian president Kais Saied, were met with widespread criticism. President of Tunisia since 2019, Saied has been criticised for his growing authoritarianism and his so-called “democratic coup” used to consolidate his own leadership. He also has described the recent migration of black Africans to Tunisia as a “criminal plot” to change the demographics of the country. In what has been described as a ‘witch hunt’ against sub-Saharan Africans, Saied has ordered the expulsion of undocumented immigrants, banned them from public transport, kicked them out of their houses, and arrested them on the streets.

When Ylva Johansson, the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs was asked if they could trust the Tunisian government to respect migrant rights she replied: "It's not black or white”, but maintained that this would not prevent the EU from critiquing his policies. To do so would represent the utmost hypocrisy. EU treatment of refugees and migrants fleeing war, hunger, and poverty drips with the condescension, indignity and racism in action, that Saied expressed in words.

Irish journalist Sally Hayden has recently penned an article in the New York Times on this issue titled ‘Welcome to Europe, Where Mass Death has Become Normal.’ Looking closely at the EU response to this crisis, it would be fair to say that mass death has not only become normal, it has become policy.

Where now?

The callous treatment of refugees exposes the feigned benevolence of institutions like the EU. Far from being neutral arbiters, they are the protectors of wealth and power for the business owners and leaders of the Western world. Those who sit on these bodies represent the same nations that ravaged and underdeveloped Africa in the greedy pursuit of profit and power for their elites. They represent the same companies that continue to destroy the planet for profit. They represent those who impose austerity measures on the working-class and poor across Europe to line the pockets of the rich.

The capitalists and their representatives in the EU and in governments across Europe are just as unwilling to invest in the social spending needed to accommodate migrants from around the world as they were to construct the infrastructure necessary to sustain life when colonising Africa. Scapegoating the African migrant for the current underfunded services across Europe allows them to maintain the status quo.

A united movement of workers of all races and nations against our common oppressors has the potential to rebuild a world on our terms; sustainable, peaceful and based on the needs of the many, rather than the greed for the few. Socialist change is essential to answer not only to the current crisis of mass displacement and EU mismanagement, but the crises that fuel these issues in the first place.n

Europe’s Ra

MASS D MEDIT

Climate change and the globa

By Haritha Olaganathan TYPHOON FLOODS in July forced the evacuation of 300,000 people in the northern islands of the Philippines, while in early September 900,000 have been evacuated in southern China as Typhoon Saola sets to be one of the region’s fiercest storms in a decade. Only weeks ago, temperatures in parts of China raged well above 40°C for days straight.

Similarly dramatic fluctuations play out the world over. In Ireland, June broke national records as the hottest month ever, only to be followed by the wettest ever in July according to Met Éireann. Increased heat leads to increased evaporation, more moisture, and consequently more rainfall and superstorms. Where six to eight floods per month were reported in China in the summer of 2011, last year 212 were reported across July and August alone.

Heat, lightning, wildfires Meanwhile the shrivelling of Canada in dry heat this summer spurred easily the worst-ever wildfire season on record, with fires smoky enough to discolour Irish skies at dawn and dusk. The number of wildfires deemed ‘out of control’ remains in the high hundreds, burning through entire communities. They leave a terrible trail of destruction – ruinous for air quality and human health, all the while, like floods, destroying both natural habitats and lands carefully laboured upon and cultivated for decades.

Blame for the increase in wildfires, especially in Europe, is often disgracefully planted upon migrants. The only fire injected here is undisguised racism, as the science highlights not arson or accidents, but the considerable increase in dry-lightning strikes in recent years, which is but a glimpse of what’s to come.

In Evros, Greece, asylum seekers as young as ten years old were killed by the fires, unable to escape. The dualmouthed “sadness” of the Greek state while emphasising “dangers of irregular immigration” hung like a hot-iron threat. Clearly, it’s fundamentally racist and divisive ruling classes who get to choose who gets to live through natural disaster.

Anti-refugee forces Wildfires, earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons – when will we reach the end of this torrent of record-breaking extremes? Unfortunately, with the current cabal of ‘world leaders’ in control, we won’t. There is no more calm before the oncoming crisis, it will only become increasingly impossible to ignore.

As the heat of El Niño sets to kick in over the coming months and years, climate deniers audaciously take up seats in global parliaments. Of course climate denial goes hand in hand with far-right ideology, which also thrives on utilising the refugee crisis to stoke division, blaming traumatised refugees and other migrants for the problems in society. Unfortunately, notwithstand-

SPECIAL FEATURE

ocialist

7

The revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx & the struggle for socialism today

acist Refugee Policy

DEATH ON THE TERRANEAN

al refugee crisis

A fraction of the world’s 108 million-plus displaced people ever makes it to Europe or any wealthy state, 70% reside in neighbouring states

ing how unhinged these forces and their politics are, we’ve witnessed too often how they can gain influence.

So consider the 1.2 billion people expected to be climate refugees in 2050, and the effect this will have on politics around the world. Not only can the vicious and abhorrent forces of the far right utilise this crisis of mass displacement for its own ends, it can push all of the main capitalist parties even further to the right. We’ve already seen evidence of this in Ireland and around Europe – where the full brutality of the EU’s policy on refugees, namely ‘Fortress Europe’, is largely hidden, out-

sourced to authoritarian regimes in North Africa and the Middle East. We can’t allow this future come to pass.

Climate struggle must be anti-racist As things stand, the climate crisis will result in the more mass death and deterioration of human health and quality of life – pandemics, destitution, starvation, rises in human trafficking and violence at borders – such is the nature of capitalism. But it is nature of working-class people, especially when organised and united in struggle, to be disgusted by, and deeply reject, any such horror. Even if largely latent, this is already evident

by those fighting for their lives in the Mediterranean, by youth agitation for strikes for climate, by community actions opposing racism and war.

There are radical reforms for the reorganising of society that must be demanded today, but one thing is clear there is no pruning the profit system which is the very seedling of the climate crisis. If your heart cries in anger for those most affected, there is no time for passivity – we need action on a serious, revolutionary basis to tap into the massive potential for these interlocking crises to be the catalyst for thoroughgoing socialist change.

By Ann-Katrin Orr THE COMMUNIST Manifesto, written 175 years ago, remains as relevant as ever. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, then aged 29 and 27 respectively, penned this text that contains not only their core analysis of capitalism but also a call to working-class people around the world to unite – lose their chains and win the world. Everyone should read the Manifesto.

Marx identified the inbuilt exploitation and inequality of the capitalist system; exposing that while workers create all wealth in society, we don’t own or control what we produce. Figures from 2022's ‘Wealth Inequality Report’ illustrate this clearly. It found that the poorest 50% of the world's population have 2% of its wealth, while the wealthiest 10% account for 76%! Yet, this wealth is not created by the top 10% and even less by the top 1%. Since Marx's time, the inequality stitched into capitalism's DNA has only intensified.

Capitalism = exploitation, oppression & destruction Marx also identified the destructive nature of capitalism and how different aspects connected and overlapped.

Writing in Capital, he looked at how "all progress in capitalist agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the worker, but of robbing the soil" – that capitalist production places no value on the natural world and sees natural resources as "free" components to be used and exploited at will in the pursuit of profit. The reckless nature of capitalism is becoming more exposed as modern economic production continues to force the planet into further extreme weather patterns that are having ever more extreme consequences on food production, water supplies and social sustainability.

Estimates suggest that by 2050 there could be 1.2 billion climate change-related refugees. This problem will not be solved by individual measures such as the often heralded switch to electric cars. Only with a complete reorganisation of the economy can we stop corporations from treating the planet's oceans as their waste ground, polluting our air and depleting our natural resources and biodiversity. That reorganisation cannot stop at increased regulation, which has repeatedly demonstrated its ineffectiveness at curbing corporate greed. We have to take large com-

panies out of private hands and into public ownership and run them democratically.

Marx analysed the world around him with incredible sharpness but also foresight. This was due to his ability to understand minute details fully but always in their complete context. He also understood how things change over time and that while change is ongoing, it is not linear. Crucially, his analysis illustrated, then as it does today, that this different way of organising society, namely on a socialist basis, is not simply theoretically or morally superior – but is in fact a plain necessity, as otherwise capitalism's inbuilt contradictions will result in society being pushed backwards. The relevance of this as we face political crises, economic and military conflicts, pushback on the hard-won rights in many countries and climate chaos is evident.

We have a world to win Marx left a legacy that is rich in insight and inspiration. Most importantly, he developed a method, which is not about repeating slogans or demands by rote but about analysing each situation to its fullest. It is about understanding all issues in their contexts and interconnections, and recognising that these are shaped by the fundamental class divide that exists in society between those who own the economic resources and an obscene amount of wealth on the one side, and the vast majority of the world's population – the working class and poor masses, must sell their ability to work to survive.

Marx's legacy also includes one further vital component: the understanding that another world is possible. If united and organised, the working class has the power to break free from the constraints of the capitalist system and create a different society: a society in which collective ownership and democratic control of the economy allow us to plan the production and distribution of goods to meet the immediate, medium and long-term needs of both people and the planet; a world that does not rely on exploitation and oppression; and therefore makes possible real liberation for all humanity.

In short, this means a socialist world. One of Marx’s most famous quotes encapsulates the essence of his ideas as ultimately a call to action: "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it."

8

INTERNATIONAL

The Socialist

Imperialism’s devastating role in West Africa:

Oppose war and capitalism!

By Chris Stewart

O

VER THE past three years a wave of military coups has hit the Sahel, the region where the southern boundary of the Sahara gives way to sub-Saharan Africa. These coups have occurred in former colonies of France such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Chad, and more recently Niger. Gabon in Central Africa has now also followed suit.

Since 2011 this region has been a warzone. The fallout of imperialist interventions in North Africa unleashed armed extremist groups in the Sahel, exacerbating ethnic conflicts in a region where climate change and desertification is putting pressure on land and resources.

France has used this as an excuse to build a large military presence in the region, seeking to protect its own imperialist interests, but has been unable to achieve victory. The new military coup leaders have demanded that French troops leave immediately, and have sought to forge stronger links with Russia and China, signalling a wider process of geopolitical realignment in the region.

A blow to French imperialism

France has kept a strong grip over its former colonies into the 21st century through political manipulation, military intervention and financial control. For example, the French treasury maintains control over the currencies of fourteen Western and Central African countries.

This arrangement gives French corporations a privileged position to plunder the immense natural wealth of the region; extracting gold, uranium, fossil fuels etc, while the vast majority of people are condemned to live in poverty.

This extractivist regime is held in place by corrupt leaders who act as pup-

pets of French imperialism. In the recent past, France has also deployed special forces in the region explicitly to protect the interests of its mining companies. The recent coups are a significant blow to the interests and prestige of French capitalism, which is dependent upon this parasitic relationship with Africa. In 2008 former French President Jacques Chirac said: "Without Africa, France will slide down into the rank of a third world power".

“La France doit partir”

These developments in part reflect an intense hatred of French imperialism that has been bubbling under the surface for years and now finds open expression in mass anti-France protests across the Sahel. This sentiment has intensified due to the economic crisis in the region. High levels of unemployment and the devastating impact of inflation (particularly in food and energy) have brought a sharp downturn in living standards for ordinary people.

In the absence of an independent working class organisation that could lead a struggle against poverty and inequality, the military leaders are filling the void. At this stage they are forced to base themselves on a popular movement against neo-colonialism. For now the coup leaders have significant support – for example in Niger one study suggests 78% of people support the coup.

In reality however the top layers of the new military regimes have themselves profited off the same system of exploitation for years. The short experience of the coups in Mali and Burkina Faso have shown these coup-leaders are unwilling and unable to address the root of the poverty plaguing the region: profiteering and looting by big corporations. In Mali, the military regime has even openly attacked striking workers.

Guinea is one of many former French colonies to be rocked by military coups in the last year Another front in New Cold War

the Sahel through the Wagner private military company, has spent its time in the region enriching itself by plundering goldmines in Mali.

The desire of workers and young people to free themselves of the poverty and violence wrought by capitalism cannot be realised by replacing the role of one set of imperialists for another.

Under conditions of a global capitalist crisis, the imperialist powers are intensifying their efforts in the new scramble to exploit Africa’s resources and markets. The established powers of the US, France, Britain and Germany now find themselves facing competition from Chinese imperialism - which has become Africa’s biggest trading partner and has set up factories across the continent to exploit the labour power of African workers.

The turn of the coup leaders towards Russia reflects the wider geopolitical shifts taking place in the world today as two rival imperialist blocs coalesce around the US and China. However, there should be no illusions that Russia, nor China for that matter, represent a real alternative. They are intervening on the continent purely in pursuit of their own imperialist interests. Russia for example, which has a military presence in

Workers everywhere must oppose invasion

In response to the Niger coup, the Economic Community of West African states (ECOWAS) threatened to invade the country if the coup leaders did not step aside. With military leaders in Mali and Burkina Faso pledging their support to the coup in Niger, it seemed like a wider war in the region – one that would draw in France, Russia and possibly even the US and China – was inevitable.

Since then, however, mass protests of workers and young people against inva-

sion have exploded across the region.

Splits within leading ECOWAS states such as Nigeria have emerged over this question, reflecting the fears of the ruling class that war could ignite a wider social explosion that could spread across Africa.

While the outbreak of war has been stalled, the pernicious role of the competing imperialist blocs in the region means that conflict cannot be ruled out.

ISA members in the region are engaged in the urgent task of building a movement of workers and youth to oppose the threat of war.

Such a movement is the only force that can stop a disastrous conflict from emerging. Workers and young people entering the arena of struggle can lay the basis for a powerful revolutionary force to emerge that could challenge capitalism and the plunder of imperialism.

Such a force could quickly spread across Africa, inspiring workers worldwide.

United States: Writer’s strike takes on Hollywood billionaires

By David Rhoades, Socialist Alternative iUS HOLLYWOOD HAS been shut down by strike action taken by the writers union, the Writers Guild of America.

The studio bosses – who extract tens of billions of dollars from film and TV labour every year – planned to starve the writers out, with one unnamed studio executive telling the media that “the endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.”

Coordinated action In response, SAG-AFTRA, a union of 160,000 film and TV actors, joined the WGA in their action – giving the strike a decisive new advantage in shutting down studio production. As actors joined protests and denounced corporate greed, the atmosphere was jubi-

lant – picket lines at Netflix, Paramount, Warner Bros, Disney, and elsewhere were larger than they’d ever been. All current and future productions have been halted by the strike.

SAG members, 87% of whom don’t make the $26,000 required annually to qualify for healthcare benefits, rightly saw the WGA strike as their struggle too. Most of SAG’s demands mirror WGA’s: minimum wage increases of 11%, 4%, and 4% over the next three years, 2% of revenue generated by streaming shows, and protections from generative AI being used to cut worker’s incomes.

The current strike is challenging the exploitative method of production that the big streaming companies are built around. Because the united action of the unions has shut down both ends of the production pipeline, studios are faced with months of stagnant investments as long as the strike

The writers’ strike has been ongoing since May

persists. This position of strength for the strike is only possible if the WGA and SAG act as one; that means refus-

ing any offer from the studios until the memberships of both unions approve of their respective terms.

Workers striking back In reality, there’s nothing uniquely greedy or evil about studio executives that you wouldn’t find in any boardroom or corporate office. Capitalism coerces all workers into selling their labour, from delivery drivers and health workers, to background actors and staff writers. It is no wonder why the WGA has received support from teachers unions, Teamster UPS drivers, nurses, hotel workers and so on.

Our shared coercion under capitalism is why all workers share a common interest, and it also shows an important truth: employers need workers to keep making a profit.

The recent wave of industrial action in the US and around the world shows that working-class people have immense power to fight in our own interests.

WORKPLACE

9

The Socialist

A Europe-wide workers’ rights scandal

Slave-like working conditions on Irish shores

By Michael O’Brien THE DISCONTENT among Irish fishing vessel owners regarding the quota allocated to foreign-flagged vessels operating in Irish waters under the Common Fisheries Policy gets a wide airing in the Irish media and social media. However, of far less concern to them and the authorities in Ireland is the often slave-like conditions of predominantly Indonesian fishers working on those same vessels flagged to other EU member states.

Numerous cases have come to light this year: In January, the Irish Navy detained two Spanish-owned German-flagged vessels, the Ortegal Tres and Persosa Dos. The skippers of both vessels have since been charged for dozens of fisheries and maritime offences. However, they face no charges for the scandalous pay and conditions of the Indonesian crew.

In the case of the Persosa Dos, the German flag state authorities had on file false contracts claiming that the fishers were on €2,000 per month. The reality was that the fishers themselves were issued with contracts that had them on half that amount.

Low hours, low pay

In the case of the Ortegal Tres, the fishers were on €800 per month for an 80-hour week. In both instances, the question was posed as to why they were not on the German minimum wage of €13 per hour. This became the topic of a half-hour-long ‘Prime Time Investigates’ style documentary broad-

cast on German national TV, culminating in the journalist confronting politicians in the Bundestag as to why exemptions to the minimum wage laws are being permitted on Germanflagged fishing vessels.

In June, a contract of an Indonesian fisher working on a Portuguese-owned Belgian-flagged vessel, the O.136 Aegir, fishing exclusively in Irish waters came to light after it docked in Dunmore East, Co Waterford. Rather than being paid the Belgian minimum salary of €1,955 per month, he was instead on €760.

The Belgian labour inspectorate agrees that this is illegal but cannot commit to ensuring the fisher and his crewmates are properly paid because the boat has only ever docked in Belgium once and may not do so again for the foreseeable.

By Martina Stafford

Unbearable conditions of work

In July, a number of Indonesian fishers working on a French-owned and flagged vessel, the Yannick, jumped ship in Dingle, Co Kerry, unable to endure the onboard conditions. In one case, this included not being paid for the first three months on board and not being permitted to obtain medical attention when he suffered a hand injury.

Again, the matter is with the French authorities.

In all of the above instances, the fishers testified to the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) having had massive fees illegally extracted from them by the crewing agents in Indonesia, leaving them in debt bondage at the start of their contracts.

Irish state: No inclination to act

If a comprehensive inspection of all vessels fishing in Irish waters were performed, multiples of the above cases would be uncovered. However, neither the Irish authorities, such as the Workplace Relations Commission and Marine Survey Office, nor their equivalents in the flag states across Europe have the inclination or systems in place to do this or adequately respond to the type of abuses described here.

What remedies have been achieved have primarily depended on the ITF, its affiliated unions, but most importantly, the informal solidarity networks among the Indonesian fishing diaspora, including those Indonesians who work

on Irish flagged vessels who have practically aided their compatriots, including putting them in touch with the ITF. Trade union action needed

This is a Europe-wide scandal, with other cases of Indonesians being paid €500 to €600 per month on Italianowned and flagged vessels in the Mediterranean being taken up by the ITF’s local affiliate there.

A bigger commitment from the official trade union movement in Europe to organise migrant fishers is needed to eliminate modern slavery on our shores, as the national and EU authorities are clearly not up to it.

Murphy 4: Gloves are off in fight against victimisation The Socialist spoke to a Unite Construction Branch Activist about the ramping up of a campaign to win reinstatement for four sacked construction workers.

"September marks exactly one year since four Unite members, including a shop steward, were sacked by Murphy International from their jobs in the Aughinish Alumina plant in Limerick.

"We've been campaigning for a year and putting the company under pressure. Now the gloves are off, and the full resources of Unite are being put at the disposal of the campaign to win.

And make no mistake – we won't rest until the four members have their jobs back, are properly compensated, and receive a public apology.

Zero tolerance for union busting "Every member of Unite can expect full support and defence from Unite, but we have a "zero-tolerance" approach towards attacks on our shop stewards.

If employers can victimise shop stew-

All workers and trade unions must support the Murphy 4

ards and workplace reps, then the unions’ days are numbered.

"So the stakes are high. The cost of living crisis is still eroding workers' living standards while massive profits are being made by big business. The industrial relations machinery of the state is

Cork community will fight to “bitter end” to defend vital services and jobs

only delivering peanuts, if anything at all. It's inevitable that there will be a more generalised fightback from workers, and that's what the employers fear.

Unite is currently progressing pay claims across every sector of the economy.

"Our reps and shop stewards are the

frontline of that fightback, and we have to protect them. That's why the campaign of the Murphy 4 is so important. We encourage all activists and trade unionists to get behind this campaign and support it every day they can!”

A WEEK before the Before 5 Family Centre on the Northside of Cork City was due to return after the summer break, staff and parents were informed by board members of the Centre’s immediate closure via a text message!

What incredible disrespect to be shown to those who provide and depend on such crucial resources.

The Centre has been providing essential services to the community for five decades. The 14 staff whose jobs have been terminated are all women, some of whom have worked there for decades.

A campaign was quickly organised, and on the morning of the second protest planned to take place at the gates of the Centre, attended by 200 local people, it was announced that the Centre would re-open.

However, the new providers are only guaranteeing the return of the preschool and creche.

While this is welcome news, we still don’t know what will happen to those depending on the other essential services, nor to the workers providing these services. Community action must continue to demand that all of the jobs and services are maintained.

Community spirit, fighting spirit The services offered at the Centre include a preschool, a creche, a homework club, play therapy and adult yoga and art classes. Children with additional needs are facilitated at the Centre, while play therapy is affordably accessed for those who qualify for it. The wider issue of course is that affordable, not-forprofit services that are for the needs of communities and funded by the state will always be under threat in a system that prioritises profit and greed above everything else.

Lilian Hanover, who has worked at Before 5 for the past 28 years said, “this is a community centre and it belongs to the community, and we are going to fight to the bitter end, we are not going to let this close, we cannot let this close.”

This is the fighting spirit that all communities need to display to force the government to guarantee childcare and preschool facilities with no entry fees and decent pay and conditions for workers. Decisions made about these services should be in the hands of service users, workers and the communities themselves.

10

The Socialist

Review: Not On Our Watch written by Louise Mathews

Reviewed by Isidora Durán Stewart

T

HE REGINA Coeli women’s hostel occupation in West Belfast was an inspiring example of workers taking democratic control of a vital service when it was needed most. Kabosh Theatre Company’s interpretation of this struggle, Not on Our Watch, will hopefully reach more people, inspiring others to take a stand for what they believe in.

The Covid crisis led to governments bringing in emergency legislation in the form of restrictions on public movement, resulting in mass layoffs and workplace closures. Many employers engaged in this not because they were suddenly poverty-stricken, but to maximise profitability at the expense of their workers. This was the case for Regina Coeli, a Legion of Mary-owned hostel for vulnerable women in West Belfast.

Restrictions prohibited room sharing, and many residents, women with mental health and addiction issues, and survivors of abuse and trafficking were evicted by management to mixed-gender hostels, and if they objected, homelessness. These changes were followed by management callously announcing the closure of the building due to ‘structural issues’ and dismissal of the workers two days before they were eligible for redundancy, meaning eviction for the remaining residents and

Socialist Alternative no.18 Includes articles on: l 25 years on: Has the Good Friday Agreement delivered? l Sinn Féin, PBP & the question of a left government l Anti-oppression struggles & the revolutionary process l What does ChatGPT mean for workers? l 75 years since the founding of the NHS l Germany 1923: Lessons of the lost revolution l Reviews of The Myth of Normal, Close To Home and The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality

€4 / £4 Get a copy from any Socialist Party member or order online or subscribe at: socialistparty.ie

Socialism 101 series #15 Why capitalism is bad for our mental health

instant unemployment for the workers.

The actions of a supposedly ‘charitable’ religious organisation aligned it with the most parasitical landlords and bosses in society.

Unlike the Legion of Mary, who were rarely on-site nor showed much interest in the residents, the workers who were there every day knew how necessary Regina Coeli was as the only women’s hostel in the North. In the face of management’s threats and to protect the remaining residents, the women staged a ‘work-in’, refusing to leave the building while continuing with their vital work inside.

The determination of the workers is palpably evoked in Not on our Watch.

Three actors, Bernadette Brown, Catriona McFeely and Rachael McCabe, represent three fictionalised workers in place of the six who occupied the hostel, as well as some of the hostel residents, city councillors and union representatives, including Socialist Party member Susan Fitzgerald of Unite the Union who represented the workers throughout their occupation.

The cast’s humanistic depiction of the workers is compelling, from their disgust at the reckless actions of the Legion of Mary to their concern for the well-being of the residents (drawn from their own experiences of homelessness, addiction and abuse) to their doubt when faced with intimidation by

Marxist journal of the Socialist Party:

REVIEW & THEORY

management and ultimately to the political clarity they reach by consequence of their struggle. Their dialogue is punctuated by one of them breaking into song and the others following – a lighthearted detour from their tactical discussions but one that only reaffirms their unity in struggle.

Not on Our Watch is most poignant when the workers link up their fight with others. Mentioning the murder of Aisling Murphy in the South, the rates of domestic violence, mental health and addiction issues in the North, and the support they receive from the East Belfast Harland and Wolff workers (who had staged an occupation in 2019), the workers begin to recognise their occupation as part of a much bigger fight against gender-based violence, against church-state collusion, and sectarianism.

This is a political play in every sense of the word. Not only does it tell a story, it consciously serves as a call to action. It ends with the actors telling the audience that Northern Ireland is the most dangerous place in Europe for women, with 18 being murdered since the beginning of 2020. Director Paula McFetridge echoes this in her closing words, saying that her aspirations for the production are that it inspires audiences to consider themselves as activists in the fight against all of the issues raised by this struggle.

S CIAalternati LIST ve Marxist Journal of the Socialist Party Issue 18 l Summer 2023 l €4 / £4

“A PillAr of Strength”

Anti-Oppression Struggles and the Revolutionary Process

Reflections on Marxism & Oppression

INSIDE

l Sinn Féin, PBP & the Question l What Does ChatGPT Mean l Germany 1923: Lessons of

of a Left Government in Ireland for Workers? the Lost Revolution

By Manus Lenihan IT IS often said that capitalism is ‘just human nature.’ How strange, then, that so many day-to-day things under capitalism rub raw against our natures. After all, we are not biologically programmed to enjoy paying two-thirds of our wages on rent and insurance, being weighed down with debts and bills, having no free time, or listening to the on-hold muzak of corporate helplines.

Mental health problems, from depression and anxiety to psychosis, do not have simple causes or explanations. But we can trace a lot of mental health problems to the fact that our society is set up to maximise profits rather than human welfare.

In the words of Gabor Maté, capitalism is a ‘toxic culture’ – a petri dish where living things cannot thrive, and nobody is really ‘normal’ or healthy. The late Sinéad O’Connor once quoted the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, who said that, ‘It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.’

Some sources of stress under capitalism are obvious. The boomand-bust cycle is written into the DNA of capitalist economies, and causes massive damage at every turn; booms lead to spikes in addiction issues, and crashes lead to widespread suicide. And boom or bust, most people are stuck working long hours for poor pay, with very little autonomy or control.

The indirect effects are even worse. To justify the unfairness of capitalism, we have a whole complex of legends and false promises which set people up for mental health problems. People are told they are worthless if they don’t have a certain amount of wealth, own certain cars or clothes, and look or behave a certain way. Usually this is heavily gendered and racialised, playing up all kinds of bigotry and oppression.

This is more obvious than ever today. Skilled tech workers are tasked with figuring out how to ‘maximise engagement,’ i.e. to convince people to waste their time looking at ads. Advertising and social media algorithms seek out the lowest common denominator and pump it for profits. It’s no surprise that creeps, con artists and conspiracy theorists are flourishing like never before.

In recent decades talk has become widespread of a ‘mental health crisis’ or a ‘mental health epidemic.’ Capitalism is not equipped even to contain this problem, much less heal it. That demands a well-resourced public health system. But healthcare is always under threat from privatisation and cutbacks. And within health services, mental health is neglected – probably because you might be able to drive a forklift or stack a shelf while suffering from depression, but you can't with a broken arm.

The extremely valuable social services and workers’ rights which do exist came about historically due to strikes and political struggles. And this points to one source of healing: organising alongside others to struggle for a better future for all.

Right now, we can only speculate as to how much of our mental health crisis can be traced back to capitalism, and how much may be simply a part of being human. But socialism would tackle the crisis at both ends – healing its effects by giving adequate resources to mental healthcare, but also going right to the source of the misery by healing class division. If the massive wealth of society was invested into social services, shorter pay and better hours, instead of the latest tech bro fad, or the latest trivial or harmful whim of the rich, we would exist in a nurturing and healing culture.

ANALYSIS

11

The Socialist

#ContigoJenni

Give sexism the red card

By Myriam Poizat

O

N 20 August, social media was flooded with the Women’s World Cup. It should have been with the brilliant victory of the Spanish football team (La Roja) in the final.

Instead, depicted everywhere was the image of Luis Rubiales forcing his lips onto midfielder Jenni Hermoso – degrading her, in a space of seconds, from her apotheosis as world champion to an excruciating moment of absolute powerlessness. And this for the whole world to see.

Spanish Football: breaking the silence on sexism

This only comes two years after Nevenka: Breaking the Silence, a 2021 documentary that highlighted the culture of fear, sexism and rampant homophobia under Ignacio Quedera, the coach of the Spanish team for over 27 years. This proves that the so-called ‘incident’ was not an isolated occurrence but part of systemic and deeply rooted culture of rampant misogyny in the RFEF. Other cases of allegations in Argentina, Afghanistan, Zambia, Australia, Barbados, Canada, Colombia, Comoros, Ecuador, Gabon, Haiti, Malawi, Mongolia, Netherlands, Sierra Leone, United Kingdom, United

States, Venezuela, Zimbabwe (at least!) are sending a clear message: the Spanish players have become the world champions despite being abused and mistreated by their own support team for decades. The idea that male players would be subject to similar treatment is simply unimaginable when they are, in fact, pampered – even when they have been credibly accused of serious crimes such as abuse and assault.

In the face of systemic efforts to enfeeble La Roja, the resilience and skill possessed by this team is unmatched.

The women’s game is often wrongly subject to much sexist derision on the supposed grounds that the game is not as skilled as the men’s. But imagine how this team and the women’s game could flourish even further with a fraction of the support that the men’s game receives instead of being consistently undermined?

The right-wing backlash hasn’t spared sports

As Susan Wrack concluded in her Guardian article, ‘Football Must Look at How Individuals Such as Luis Rubiales Acquire Absolute Power’: “these organisations must look beyond the one man, at the culture of the sport as well as having an introspective look at how these individuals can acquire absolute power.”

This starts with digging at the roots of Rubiales support from a section of the football establishment. From his mother’s hunger strike over Rubiales’ suspension from FIFA, to Rubiales’ fanbase’s support, and more particularly the standing ovation from the RFEF after he claimed being a victim of a “fake feminist manhunt” and the threats of retaliation against striking football players – all these show how deep systemic misogyny runs in society like capitalism and the incentive for those at the head of the sports federations to continue right-wing attacks on the inspiringly defiant #MeToo and #NiUnaMenos movements. Reflecting the patriarchal nature of the capitalist system it exists in, misogyny is rife across the board in the sporting world.

Give Rubiales the Red Card – strike out!

But polarisation equally means an intensified response to the right-wing backlash and a groundswell of support from women football players, athletes, and everyday people who refuse to accept abuse.

Luis Rubiales’ uncle’s statement against his nephew and in support of Hermoso; the 81 players that have refused to represent their country in a game until Rubiales is removed from his position in the RFEF; the 121

Above: Protest against Rubiales in Madroid. Inset: The assault seen around the world

teams representing ECU’s (European Clubs Union) call on Rubiales to resign from his post; the 11 coaches and technical staff in the Spanish team that have resigned in support with Jenni Hermoso; the Lioness and other groups and athletes across genders sending solidarity to Jenni Hermoso; these are all snippets of powerful solidarity that should be deepened, activated in struggle and or-

ganised – including in player strike action.

The right-wing anti-feminist, antitrans backlash, exemplified by every one of Rubiales supporters, is unfortunately not confined to the sporting world. Inherent in the capitalist system and crisis today – let’s fight back everywhere with socialist feminism and show the patriarchal capitalist system the red card once and for all!

RTE scandal: The murky world of slush funds and barter accounts hypocritical pearl-clutching and grandstanding from their politicians has been laughable.

They will also likely look to more job and pay cuts among ordinary, long-suffering RTÉ workers to balance the books in the face of plummeting licence fee payments while protecting the six-figure salaries and jobs of the culpable upper management and the “stars”. Billionaire owners of private media competitors will also be licking their lips looking for more of the licence fee money for themselves and, down the line, perhaps even looking to buy up pieces of a partially privatised RTÉ.

By Padraig O’Flynn

Y

ET ANOTHER report (the fifth, at last count) sparked by recent scandals at RTÉ was published recently. It’s an interim report, with a more extensive version to follow in a month or so, along with an expected price tag of around €300,000 from accountancy firm Mazars.

Mazars are best known for working for Donald Trump and his companies until he and his tax returns became untrustworthy… last year. While the ‘there are no winners in this situation’ cliché has been wheeled out regularly by journalists covering the scandal, it’s certainly not the case for some of the big names in the accounting / legal / consultancy fields with a knack for securing lucrative government contracts.

What kind of public broadcaster?

What is a barter account?

This report delves into what’s known as a barter account (or, more accurately, three separate barter accounts) operated by RTÉ. As the name suggests, a barter account involves the exchange of goods and services (although often also involving cash) between two parties using an intermediary barter media agency.

In this case, three different UK-based agencies were used, and the report indicates they took a commission of over €1.1 million on gross sales of €7.4 million (ad revenue) between 2017 and 2022. Of these sales €1.2 million was spent on goods and services "outside RTÉ's standard purchasing and pro-

This scandal showed how the tops of RTE are closely aliged with the corporate world

curement processes". Mazars couldn’t identify any benefit to RTÉ in using the barter media agencies to make purchases, rather than simply cashing in the available trade credit balance.

Although barter accounts are a pretty common occurrence in advertising and media, the commercial benefit to their use by RTÉ appears dubious given the extravagant spending on fine dining, five-star hotels, VIP tickets to an Ed Sheeran concert (almost €14,000) at home and the 2019 Rugby World Cup (an incredible quarter of a

million) abroad, and, of course, €5,000 on flip-flops.

Put bluntly, a significant reason for using the barter accounts seems to be as off-the-books slush funds to pay for jollies for RTÉ management and the corporate clients they were chasing for advertising revenue. Another use of them was to hide the infamous €150,000 secret payments to Ryan Tubridy.

No to privatisation

Numerous bad-faith actors will seek

to benefit from this scandal and push a self-serving agenda of privatisation and increased commercialisation, not least the political establishment.

This is despite another causative factor of this crisis: Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael stuffing the upper echelons of RTÉ with their cronies since its inception.

Given both parties’ history of corruption and financial irregularity from top to bottom (which makes this saga look like a Teddy bear’s picnic), is it any wonder it’s come to this? To see the

Socialists oppose all regressive taxes and charges, including the TV licence (and the long-threatened broadcasting charge). We favour funding and creating genuine public broadcasting through progressive taxation and salary caps to end obscene pay packets of the top brass and the “stars”.

The organisation should be democratised by replacing the discredited management with a decision-making body of ordinary RTÉ workers and representatives of the general public, artists, documentary-makers, etc. In a media world dominated by billionairecontrolled private media (on- and offline) and right-wing governments taking tighter control of state media (from the UK to Russia), workingclass-led alternatives have never been more vital.

TheSocialist

PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY

ISSUE 156

SEPTEMBER 2023

THE CLIMATE CHOICE:

IT’S CAPITALISM OR THE PLANET. We can’t have both.

What the Socialist Party stands for: “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 century all testify to this truth, but the climate emergency gives added urgency to its meaning. That’s why the Socialist Party stands for revolutionary socialist change, and why we are organising to bring it about. We support every 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-employment. For guaranteed hours with permanent contracts for all workers.

• A four-day work week with no loss of pay.

• Reduce the pension age to 60. A guaranteed decent pension for all.

• No layoffs. Open up the books and take large job shedding companies into public ownership, under democratic workers’ control 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 levels. Reinstate the eviction ban.

• For a major programme to build public homes. Take the big construction companies into public ownership. Seize vacant properties and unused land being hoarded for profit.

• Provide culturally appropriate accommodation for Travellers.

• Nationalise the banks and repudiate the odious debt. Reduce mortgage payments to affordable levels.

Public services • End church control of schools and hospitals – full separation of church and state.

• For a major public works programme to build public schools, hospitals and childcare facilities.

• For a one-tier, national health service free at the point of use. Bring all private hospitals, nursing homes and pharmaceutical companies into public ownership.

• Free publicly-run childcare scheme for

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every community. Extend fully-paid parental leave to two years and provide high quality early-years education.

• For 24-hour free counselling services and education programmes to begin to tackle the mental health crisis.

• Free education and training for all. Abolish the Leaving Cert system and provide a Third-level place for all who want one, with a living grant for all students. Build affordable, accessible student accommodation.

Environment • For substantial investment in an expanded, reliable and free public transport system.

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

• For a just transition to a zero carbon economy, with no job losses or regressive carbon taxes.

• Take the fossil fuel companies, big agribusinesses and corporations into democratic public ownership to stop the destruction of our planet for profit.

Equal rights for all • Oppose all forms of racism, sexism, homophobia 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-based violence, abuse and harassment in all its forms.

• For a socialist feminist movement that unites the whole working class in the struggle against oppression.

For workers’ unity in Ireland • For the unity of the working class, Protestant and Catholic, North and South, in opposition to all forms of sectarianism, paramilitarism and state repression.

• For a socialist Ireland, with no coercion and the rights of minorities guaranteed, as part of a free, equal and voluntary socialist federation of Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales, as part of a socialist Europe.

End the rule of the billionaires • Take the wealth off the 1%. For real progressive taxation on incomes, assets and profits to fund public services.

• Stop tax avoidance and evasion by the wealthy.

• Double corporation tax. End corporate welfare policies.

• No to all forms of privatisation in health, education, transport, housing, energy, sanitation, water and broadband provision.

For socialist change • Capitalism produces inequality, environmental destruction and war. We need an international 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 militarisation. US military out of Shannon.

• No to corporate “free trade” agreements.

No to the bosses’ EU and “Fortress Europe”.

• Build a new mass party that organises workers and young people in struggle against all injustices and for a socialist alternative. 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, industry, services, agriculture and big tech – into public ownership under the democratic control of the working class.

• Replace the capitalist market with a democratic socialist plan of the economy based on the interests of the overwhelming majority of people and the environment.

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