The Socialist North - Issue 152

TheSocialist

PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY

ISSUE 152

MARCH 2023

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2

OMAGH ATTACK

The Socialist

No going back!

Working-class and young people can unite to defeat paramilitary violence and sectarianism tions provide fertile ground for paramilitarism to grow.

In the 90’s, in response to sectarian attacks the trade union movement organised a 20,000-strong rally at Belfast City Hall in protest.

N

EWS BROKE (22/02/23) of the attempted killing of a police officer in Omagh. He was shot multiple times by masked gunmen after a youth football coaching session. Early reports suggest this was likely an attack carried out by the dissident republican “New IRA”. Such attacks are a scourge on working-class people's lives and a blatant attempt to inflame sectarian tensions.

Community in shock The brutal nature of this attack; carried out in front of children, young people and parents at a sports complex, has undoubtedly sent shockwaves through Omagh, a town that has suffered many atrocities and is still impacted by the Omagh bomb in 1998. It is a chilling reminder of the potential for a resurgence of sectarian violence on the streets of Northern Ireland. The callous nature of this attack put at risk the lives of young people in the vicinity, some of whom could easily have been killed. Additionally, the trauma from witnessing such an attack can have lifelong consequences,

not just on those directly affected but on entire communities. To have public spaces such as leisure or sports centres, meant to be safe places for young people and others, threatened in this way is despicable.

In our schools, colleges, workplaces and communities, we must now respond to this escalation. In recent weeks, working-class people have united on picket and joined protests in towns and cities across the North, calling for fair pay and standing in defence of public services.

We have stood against transphobia, homophobia and misogyny in our thousands at protests and vigils in Lurgan, Belfast and Derry - most recently following the brutal murders of Natalie McNally and Brianna Ghey. Young people from both communities are to the fore of these struggles. Now we must unite against sectarianism and say: "No going back!" Omagh Trade Union Council called a protest. This was opportunity to take all of the anger and outrage we feel at oppression, exploitation and sectarianism, which are all part and parcel of the capitalist system, and

build a movement to push back against those who seek to drag us back.

No going back Attacks such as this are an attempt by paramilitary organisations to drag our society back to sectarian conflict. Working-class people were forced to endure gross state repression and sectarian attacks and violence during the Troubles.

Dissident republicans aim to provoke a backlash from the state and the loyalist paramilitaries, hoping that a re-ignition of open sectarian conflict and increased repression in Catholic communities will create an environment in which they can grow and prosper. Some loyalist paramilitaries seek the same outcome.

The withdrawal of support for the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) by the loyalist paramilitaries over the Brexit protocol crisis, and the warnings that already a younger generation of loyalists have been recruited and are barely being held back from a return to sectarian violence, illustrates the real dangers in this situation.

As we approach the 25th anniversary of the GFA the limitations of the "peace process" are becoming more apparent: communities remain deeply divided, the promised peace dividend has not been delivered, paramilitaries continue to operate on both sides and the political establishment relies on the continuation of sectarian division. Instead of bringing the communities together and overcoming the conflict of national identity, the GFA has served to institutionalise sectarianism. There are more ‘peace walls’ now than during the Troubles. In the Catholic community a sense of alienation is increasing from the NI state and Britain and feel a continuation of a denial of their rights, made worse by

Brexit. Likewise the Protestant community fear there is a drift towards a united Ireland, where they fear they would be discriminated against and that the Protocol is the breaking of the link with Britain. Now, given the deep economic, social and political crises here and internationally the conflict of national aspirations is becoming more acute. This underlines why there is an urgent need to build united movements that can fundamentally transform our society, eradicating the basis for division, exploitation and oppression.

Stormont is culpable The politicians in Stormont have condemned the attack. They even released a joint statement. But such words are empty while they bear responsibility for ensuring the maintenance of the economic and social conditions required for the growth of these organisations. It is not a coincidence that the dissident republicans are able to grow in the most hard pressed working-class Catholic areas. These are workingclass areas that have been left behind by the peace process. Derry City and Strabane Council reported the lowest employment rate (61.6%) and the highest inactivity rate (34.1%) in NI. This is mirrored in Protestant working-class areas, which also rank high in terms of unemployment and deprivation, and it is in areas like this that the loyalist paramilitaries have attracted younger people to their ranks. This is not accidental but a product of the Executive's capitalist, pro-austerity politics. The reliance of the Stormont parties on sectarian division is clear.

They have refused to fund integrated education and openly beat the sectarian drum when required. These condi-

Only working class can challenge sectarianism Only working-class and young people, united across the sectarian divide, have the power to challenge these organisations. The dissident groups have little support. Their desire to bring a return to sectarian violence means that they are treated with disdain by most workingclass people. In the aftermath of the killing of Lyra McKee - a young journalist - in 2019, many thousands of young people took to the streets to demonstrate their disgust. Vigils organised by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) attracted significant crowds of working-class and young people, bringing an immense pressure to bear on Saoradh (the political wing of the New IRA), which temporarily drove them back. They called off their Easter Monday parade in Derry and other dissident republican groups even openly criticised the New IRA and called on it to end its armed campaign.

In the 1990s, a series of strikes and large demonstrations against sectarian killings and bombings played a key role in forcing the paramilitaries on both sides to declare ceasefires. When postal worker Danny McColgan was shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries in 2001, it was the mass action by postal workers and the wider working class which succeeded in forcing loyalist and republican paramilitaries to lift the threats against workers. Over 100,000 workers demonstrated on January 18th 2001 in one of the biggest ever protests seen in Northern Ireland.

At a time when thousands of workers in Northern Ireland are striking for better pay, we stand united on the picket line. Such unity must be expanded to show our opposition to sectarian attacks. So far the response of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has been meek. They have condemned the shooting and correctly point to the power of workers on recent picket lines.

They should now organise seriously to mobilise the power of their 250,000 members, Protestant, Catholic and other, to isolate and undercut sectarian forces. Working-class people and the trade unions are the most powerful force in society and have the capacity to push back the forces of sectarianism.

We must do so on the streets but also, crucially, politically. The politicians in Stormont bear responsibility for the sectarian division in our society. We must begin to build a mass workingclass political party that challenges them. A united political voice for all working people, with a programme to end poverty and to provide decent jobs. Such a party would be capable of overcoming the sectarian division which blights the lives of workingclass people through a united struggle for a socialist future, and once and for all consigning the past to the past.

ANALYSIS

3

The Socialist

Hyper exploitation and profiteering:

The reality of fast fashion

By Saana Taussi

‘F

ASTFASHION’ is a form of clothing production which is based on releasing the highest number of clothing collections each year as possible, at the lowest price possible. This business model became popularised since the 1980s and practically all affordable, mass-producing clothing brands, such as H&M, Zara, Primark, Adidas and Shein work with this logic.

The ‘more with less’ premise has naturally resulted in all garment labour being outsourced into countries and areas with lower wages, less legislation to protect workers, and fewer unions, enforcing human rights violations. An atrocious level of exploitation is enabled within this globalised industry. The Fashion Transparency Index published by Fashion Revolution reveals that although some of the 250 biggest fast fashion companies publish policies about forced labour, child labour and living wage requirements, they have no explanation for how these policies are implemented.More recently, Adidas workers in El Salvador reported being locked into factories and forced to work up to 25-hour shifts, while forced labour has been found in Tesco

clothing production. The exploitation and violation that the industry enforces was most infamously seen in the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse, where 1134 workers died. Workers had warned for days that the building was unsound but the management ordered garment workers to their usual posts inside, threatening their jobs and pay if they refused. Rescuers dug through the rubble for brand labels to identify which brands were tied to the case, as there was no official information available.

The shaping of the industry in this direction is a result of the nature of capitalism. Capitalism needs infinite growth no matter the price to people and the planet. The requirement for infinite growth is especially irrational when it comes to clothes, as there are only so many clothes one can wear at a given time. A culture of overconsumption has been created to ignore this fact, which is reflected in the fact that we own 60% more clothes than we did 15 years ago, but with half a life span for the clothes.

The international division between the producers and consumers results in a market where us in the West overconsume products that are often made in the neo-colonial world. In order to satisfy this lust for profit, capitalism

In 2019 over 200,000 Bangladeshi textile workers went on strike for higher pay and better conditions.

turns to the hyper-exploitation of workers, particularly women workers in the neo-colonial world.

What makes the industry more devious is that fashion brands exploit any positive opposition to sexism, racism and oppression that young people have. For example, in the past years several brands have made clothes featuring feminist and anti-racist slogans.

In reality, those clothes are being made mostly by women of colour earning

less than a living wage in hazardous conditions, while the brands reap the benefits of virtue-signalling.

Instead of attempting to purchase statement clothing items, we need to challenge the international web of exploitation capitalism enforces. We cannot control what we do not own.

So long as the Fashion industry and others like it are controlled by the billionaires they will seek to maximise their profit margins no matter the

human or environmental cost. To ever have ‘ethical’ consumption we need to organise to consciously overthrow capitalism and take the fashion industry into public hands. We must remove the profit motive from fashion and plan the production of clothes to meet the needs of the world's population and planet. Doing so would allow us to build a world where all people have a right to a living-wage and freedom from all exploitation.

Is the cost of living crisis ending?

Inflation falling will slow price rises but will not bring them down.

By Daragh Logue

R

ISING RENT, soaring energy bills and skyrocketing grocery costs – for many, the cost of living crisis has been a severe cause of financial and psychological stress. According to capitalist economists previous recession fears were exaggerated, and that inflationary pressures are subsiding. So, it is worth asking, is the cost of living crisis finally coming to an end?

The cost of living crisis as we know it emerged from the Covid-19 pan-

demic, but the trends that gave way to it rest further in the past. After the 2008 financial crisis, the Conservative government elected in 2010 enacted several “austerity budgets” – attacking public sector pay, the health service, education, and benefits among other services that working class people fought for. This led to a massive drop off in living standards; life expectancy flatlining for the first time ever, child poverty on the rise, and a national health service in crisis.

Once the pandemic began in 2020, the government was forced to act to

stave off a near societal collapse, introducing furlough schemes, greater funding for the NHS and cheap lines of household & business credit. The idea was to keep the economy on life support, until such times as people could safely return to work.

As the pandemic showed the most subtle signs of easing, the government began pulling its support schemes.

However, the first inklings of the cost of living crisis were beginning to take hold; inflation would begin to become a problem. According to Eurostat, domestic energy costs rose nearly 60% in the last half of 2021, and this would only be the start of an inflation crisis that would encapsulate all consumer goods. While the war in Ukraine has undoubtedly been a catalyst for inflation, driving up prices of gas and food, it is not the only factor. With energy giants like BP reporting more than double their profits in 2023 – raking in £23 billion – rampant profiteering is playing a major role. A Unite report in the inflation spiral illustrated that the jump in UK wide company profits is responsible for 58.7% of inflation we experienced.

To combat inflation, the Bank of England has seen fit to raise interest rates to levels not seen since the 1990s.

In their logic, this has a dual effect; encouraging saving in deposit accounts, and also increasing the price of getting

a loan, both things that attempt to cool off demand and therefore price rises in the economy. However, it is hard not to see the class element to this.This policy has a direct impact on people’s daily lives and tends to impact the working class and poor the hardest. Due to poverty wages, many working-class people are forced to rely on credit just to make ends meet. Raising interest rates increases the price of debt and will make it unsustainable for many.

After 2021, many sectors were having labour shortages, and workers across the board were demanding pay increases. Labour shortages in key sectors gave us the power to demand higher pay rises without fear of layoffs or redundancies. With a rising labour force, from the point of view of Capitalism, it made sense to raise interest rates to force debt-laden businesses out of the market; making more workers unemployed and adding to the pool that would take a job for less pay, just to get employed again.

This isn’t to even mention the housing crisis that exists in large cities in the UK and Ireland. House prices are at an all time high, with the UK average now sitting at £296,000. Additionally, rental increases for 2021-2022 are put at just below 30%. It is clear that some of this is landlords cashing in on the general feeling of everything becoming more expensive, but it is also reflective of

mortgage costs increasing as a result of rising interest rates.

Signs of inflation falling will bring little comfort. This will slow price rises but will not bring them down. Real wages aren't expected to return to early 2022 levels until the end of 2027 meaning there will be little alleviating of the cost of living unless workers win serious pay rises.

The very forces that got us to this point: financialisation, austerity and greed, are all products of Capitalism seeking to increase profits. The underlying root causes of this crisis have not gone away, and it is safe to say that the period of war, industrial struggle and economic downturn that lies ahead of us will lead to a greater intensity of attacks on the working class. This is the harsh reality of capitalism. They cannot end the cost of living crisis because to do so would mean challenging the profits of the billionaires. Food and energy are at the epicentre of the current inflationary crisis. These and other key sectors should be brought into public ownership immediately. Rather than being run in a top-down manner like private companies by faceless bureaucrats, they should be run democratically by elected representatives of those who work in these sectors and the wider working class in order to ensure efficiency and to ensure they function to meet society’s needs.

4

HOUSING

The Socialist

Do we need landlords? Belfast Rental Crisis:

By Chris Stewart IT IS no wonder that so many young people today have a burning hatred for landlords. Thousands of people are forced to seek emergency homeless accommodation, and yet private landlords are raking in huge profits.

"Won't somebody think of the poor landlords?!"

And yet, the media is full of nauseating pro-landlord propaganda. As interest rates have increased they have focused on the "crisis" facing landlords. Conveniently they tend to forget that most landlords won't hesitate to pass these increases on to their tenants in the form of rent hikes.

Instead, they want us to shed a tear for the poor landlord who will have the tough task of throwing people out on the street when they don't pay up!

Landlords are desperate to paint themselves as the good guys. The Residents Landlords Association, for example, argue that they provide an essential service for their renters.

Without their generosity, they argue, there would be mass homelessness!

This is delusional. In reality, landlords create homelessness by hoarding housing stock which creates scarcity in access to housing. This drives up prices and allows landlords to dictate terms to renters who have no other choice. In fact, one of the leading causes of homelessness is eviction due to rent increases.

This crisis has been fuelled by decades of housing policies that aimed to limit the amount of social housing and turn housing itself into an investment. Thatcher’s “Right to Buy” scheme, continued by successive governments, sold off social housing and facilitated huge rises in the price of housing. This has left entire generations totally reliant on

rack-renting private landlords.

It seems like everybody who rents has a story of a nightmare landlord and the alienating conditions they have been forced to live in. Some will be all too familiar to workers and young people: unsafe levels of damp, a lack of basic amenities, fear of inevitable rent hikes, stolen deposits, a slew of dodgy fees, living rooms carved up to make spare bedrooms, etc.

What do landlords even do?

Landlords provide nothing productive or valuable to society. While most of us have to work to survive, landlords do nothing but extract wealth from the hard earned wages of their tenants.

Under this system, the wealthiest in society can use their property to increase their wealth. Many young people today will never be able to afford to buy a house themselves, but in their lifetimes they will pay huge amounts towards the third, tenth or even one hundredth house owned by their private landlord.

The profits of landlords are fundamentally at odds with the interests of the majority in society. And yet the Stormont parties have consistently shown themselves to be incapable of doing anything for renters. The Housing Executive, a public body, gives millions in handouts to private landlords while refusing to address a complete lack of social housing. This is because the main parties are attached by a thousand strings to the landlords and big property developers. In fact, 1 in 5 MLAs are landlords themselves.

We do not have to accept this as a fact of life. We can build a movement of renters, workers and young people to fight against the landlords, big business and their allies in Stormont, to demand housing for need not profit!

Homes for people not profit!

Our homes and lives should never be in the hands of crony capitalists

By Roise McCann

W

HEN CONSTRUC TION begins in Belfast we know what to expect; more vast soulless spaces in the form of ridiculously priced apartments, uber-luxurious, unaffordable student accommodation or high rise touristtrap hotels. Capitalist multinational developers are making a killing; hoarding derelict buildings and land for speculation while Northern Ireland faces the deepest housing crisis in decades.

Private renting has become a luck of the draw as renters struggle amidst steep competition for increasingly unaffordable, too often low quality prop-

erties. ONS figures show that rent prices jumped by 8.4% in 2022, more than any region in the UK. The average private renter pays £845, significantly more than half of a full-time worker’s monthly minimum wage salary.

The social housing system offers no alternative. Around 44,000 people are currently on the Housing Executive’s waiting list. Only 835 social housing units were built in the last year and a report published last year claimed that the housing waiting list could take up to 50 years to clear.

Housing crisis deepens This Christmas period saw 4,000 children in emergency accommodation in

Northern Ireland. Women’s refuge centres are full and more working people are faced with housing insecurity than in decades before. Issues of gender based violence, mental health and addiction continue to mount. Cuts to funding essential services to address these issues meant they were at breaking point prior to the pandemic and cost of living crisis, and now are almost entirely broken.

It’s from these crises that dodgy capitalist property developers and investors are reporting sky high profits.

The firm Killultagh Holdings boasted of profits last year of £93m. With faceless and predatory private entities such as these, calls for a return of the Stormont Executive to step in and do something are understandable. However, all the sectarian parties in Stormont have for years done what they can to ensure Northern Ireland is a hot spot for foreign investment and endless grey developments for years to come and high profits from housing.

Our homes and lives should never be in the hands of crony capitalists and market speculation. Housing is a right. We urgently need rent reductions and freezes in Northern Ireland.

This must be coupled with a major programme of investment into building and renovating social housing. Vacant properties and land hoarded by private developers must be taken into public hands and converted to social housing. The big construction companies who priortise construction projects for their own profits must be nationalised under the control of working-class people as a whole and their resources used to assist in tackling this crisis.

Victory for Unite’s “Get Me Home Safely” Campaign

By Corey Finnegan

T

HE STARK rise in gendered violence, coupled with Stormont and Westminster’s continued cuts to the funding of safe and reliable public transport options has made initiatives such as Unite’s “Get Me Home Safely” campaign not only welcomed, but necessary, for workers struggling to find a safe way home at night.

Over the past couple of decades, the number of local bus services around the UK which have seen their bus schedules severely reduced or cut entirely is in the order of thousands. This continuous intensification of austerity measures on public services around the UK and Northern Ireland has quite literally left workers out in the cold, with many completely unsure as to how they are able to safely make it home after their shifts. Some workers are forced to rely on the generosity of family and friends in order to secure safe transport, meanwhile others face the prospect of an unsafe journey on foot at night.

The “Get Me Home Safely” campaign aims to put pressure on employ-

Unite Hospitality activists protesting for the right to get home safe

ers to improve workers’ access to late night transport that is not only safe and reliable, but free. As of December 2022, Unite’s successful initiative has managed to secure the backing of eight local councils, with workers in Glasgow being the most recent to see the benefits of this campaign. The Glasgow City Council motion, won by the determination and continued action of Unite union workers, calls not only for an extension of the duty of care of licensed employers to provide safe and

free transport after late-night shifts but also for the extension (and in some councils, introduction) of late-night public transport routes.

Further cuts to public transport services must, and can only be, resisted by an organised worker’s movement demanding an end to the running down and privitasation of these vital services.

This is necessary for all workers, but especially for female and non-binary workers, to remain safe going to and from work.

NEWS

5

The Socialist

Can we save our NHS?

Health workers have engaged in historic strike action for fair pay but also in defence of the NHS.

By Niall Dooris

T

HE NHS is in its greatest crisis since its creation. Staff shortages, budget cuts and outsourcing to private companies for decades has left it overwhelmed. Obscene waiting times, hospital beds in corridors, ambulances queuing outside hospitals waiting to be relieved of patients and rural areas deprived of emergency services are all now com-

mon occurrences across the UK. The human cost has been countless avoidable deaths and a traumatised workforce.

This is why it has been necessary for health workers to go on strike, not just for a fair pay rise but to fight to save the NHS from collapse. An inflation busting pay rise would be an important first step in solving the massive problem of staff shortages. According to the Tories and the media this is unaffordable and

would cause inflation to spiral, despite the fact that it is actually gigantic profits driving inflation.Shell alone more than doubled its profits last year making £32 Billion from the cost of living crisis. It is this wealth hoarded at the top of society that could be used to fund transformative change of the NHS. Kick out the profiteers!

Tories often speak of the need for “radical reform” which in practice means

further privatisation of the NHS. The Tories have shown in practice that they have systematically starved the NHS and capitalised on this to emphasise the need for privatisation. This process began under the Thatcher government, continued by Tony Blair’s New Labour government and accelerated by recent Tory governments. For example, from 2010-2019 a £23.5 billion hole was left in the NHS budget due to austerity measures and new spending since then has dwarfed the actual amount needed.

This left the service overwhelmed due to its lack of resources and provided the pretext to outsource certain areas of work to private companies like Virgin Health, owned by the billionaire Richard Branson.

According to The London School of Economics 25% of the NHS budget was spent on private outsourcing in 2019. This hasn’t resulted in greater efficiency or quality of care, research from ‘The Lancet’ suggests that there has been an increase in avoidable mortality the more private investment has been added. This left the NHS woefully unprepared for the pandemic which led to thousands of unavoidable deaths and further devastated the service. These

$200 billion profits for fuel giants as the planet burns — We need a socialist plan to tackle climate change

By Lucy Marron

L

AST YEAR was witness to weather extremes across the globe. In Pakistan, 1,700 people were killed and 32 million displaced as a result of extreme flooding. The Horn of Africa had the longest and most severe drought on record, escalating mass food insecurity in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. Wildfire emissions in Europe reached a 15-year high, with a record-breaking 700,000 hectares burned.

Amidst this devastation, five fossil fuel companies alone made record profits: a combined $200 billion. This constitutes a sum 20 times larger than the proposed budget for the US’ Inflation Reduction Act. While working class people cannot afford to heat their homes, the profiteers have made a mint.

The Russia-Ukraine war has increased coal demand by 1.2% due to the sanctions imposed on major coal and gas exporter, Russia. The coal industry has taken advantage of this disruption to the global supply chain by hiking their prices. The answer of countries across Europe and Asia to this has been to reopen coal plants. The reopening of an abandoned hamlet in Lützerath, Germany to mine for lignite, the dirtiest form of coal, was met with resistance and indignation, drawing crowds of 35,000 in protest.

Capitalism is killing the planet Despite the target of net-zero by 2050, polluting power plants are kept alive, deals to import natural gas are signed,

outsourced areas of the service need to be taken out of the hands of the profiteers and placed back under public control if this crisis is to be tackled.

Save our NHS It has been deliberate policies that have created this crisis, it is not the publicly owned universal nature of the NHS but the erosion of this in favour of private profit that makes it ineffective. The NHS remains popular because working class people recognise that they don’t want a healthcare system like the US where people are left financially crippled when they need a major operation. The NHS is not impossible to save as Tory rhetoric would have you believe. Fair pay rises and proper investment funded by taxing the wealthiest in society would go a long way to solving the crisis. But where this investment goes should be taken out of the hands of capitalist politicians or bureaucratic managers and put in control of those who understand the service the best, the workers.

The necessary fight to achieve this has already begun on the picket lines, the struggle must be coordinated and determined if it hopes to succeed.

Why I joined the Socialist Party

By Lewis Hunter

Oil giants are setting aside hundreds of billions of dollars to boost output.

and oil giants ADNOC and Aramco are setting aside hundreds of billions of dollars to boost output. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, heralded as the most significant climate legislation in US history, offers funding for drilling permits, subsidises the manufacture of electric vehicles, and salvation for the very creators and profiteers of the climate crisis.

While the US Act increases royalty rates charged to drillers, it prohibits public land being leased for renewables unless it also leases land for oil and gas development.

Despite the supposed turbocharging of the ‘green transition’ symbolised by the US Inflation Reduction Act and the EU’s draft ‘Green Deal Industrial Plan’, according to The Economist, ‘develop-

ers at the top of the green supply chain are not making much money.’ Herein lies the reality of capitalism: the climate crisis cannot and will not be solved in a system which prioritises profit over the planet.

System change not climate change!

Global recession, war, a cost-of-living crisis, inter-imperialist conflict, climate devastation… The permacrises of capitalism will continue as conflict and contradiction sharpen.

It is the working-class, the largest and most powerful force in society that can guarantee the future of humanity through the eradication of capitalism.

If we are to prevent full-scale climate catastrophe, energy companies must be

nationalised, key sectors of the economy must be brought into public ownership, and a democratically planned socialist economy is needed which would ensure a sustainable future without forsaking living conditions or necessities. Socialist production, freed from private control and the reckless pursuit of profit, could create skilled, green jobs, and concentrate resources to accelerate the climate revolution and bring about a zero-carbon economy. If this is to happen, the climate movement must take up working class, anticapitalist demands, and build their forces in workplaces and schools. Capitalism is parasitic, and it will continue to feed, and continue to destroy the planet unless it is destroyed.

I JOINED the Socialist Party late last year after meeting Socialist Party members outside Queen's University protesting the morality police in Iran who had murdered Mahsa Amini for not wearing her hijab correctly and were repressing the movement of Iranian women, workers and young people against them.

After finding out more about the party and how the party prides itself on its anti-sectarian politics that takes the best interests of both sides of the working class divide this was welcoming. It is an issue I had with the major parties that they were sectarian and only focused on one side of their community rather than both.

When researching more into the topic it became clear to me that there was a serious divide in the lives of those in parliament and those of the working class, this became more evident with the response of one MP declaring that nurses using food banks were simply just “bad at budgeting”. The realisation that capitalism only benefits those with money and neglects the working class with things such as austerity and anti-worker sentiment led me to joining the Socialist Party as I believe that socialism puts the best interests of the working class first, while capitalism is only to serve the ultra-rich elites.

6 SPECIAL FEATURE: SOCIALIST FEMINISM "‘I’m no danger to women’: Antrim man spared jail over rape fantasies" read a headline in the Belfast Telegraph on February 15 2023. The article reported that a man had just been handed 150 hours of community service by a court in Northern Ireland.

He had taken images from two women's social media pages and uploaded these onto a website that shares rape fantasies. He had posted the images together with details of what he wanted to do to the women and asked for comments from other users of the site.

HE QUOTE in the headline is equally breathtaking as it is illuminating. Illuminating because it encapsulates the reality of online misogyny by its infuriating belittling of the impact of such ideas and online behaviour.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that even among very young school children, Andrew Tate is a major reference point. This is backed up for example by a survey organised by an Ulster University student in recent months found that of the 231 participants, the majority of whom were aged between 21 and 24, a staggering 43% agreed with "some of Tate's content" while 12 individuals stated they totally agreed with his views. Recognising that his harmful content is gaining an echo in large part because of the deep uncertainty of the present period only underlines that ideas spread by figures like Andrew Tate must be exposed and challenged. The strongest way to do this is to build united movements of solidarity and struggle.

The potential for this has been illustrated by vigils and protest in the aftermath of murders and also the actions for example

by Metro workers in Bilbao (Basque Country) who organised protests inside and outside their workplace last year after a colleague reported an incident of sexual harassment.

galistic approach to justify transphobia.

While the majority of perpetrators of sexual violence are men, it is a myth to say that a woman cannot be a perpetrator.

In law (across the UK and in Ireland) a formal distinction is indeed made between rape and other forms of penetrative sexual assault. The fundamental issue however is the absence of consent, not the gender identity of the perpetrator! Such lines of argument not only reinforce harmful myths about gender violence but also reflect an approach by which the recognition of someone's gender or correct use of pronouns and names is contingent on their behaviour or character in some way. Recognising someone's gender in no way detracts from our condemnation of anyone who perpetrates gender violence, domestic abuse, sexual assault or harassment. And in any case, trans people are far more likely to experience sexual violence than to be the perpetrators of it and according to the Human Rights Campaign around 50% of transgender people experience sexual violence at some stage in their life. Views such as those expressed by Kate Forbes are part of the very context in which gender violence can thrive - creating difference and gendered power dynamics which lay the basis for men's violence against women. Gender essentialist ideas and transphobia are part of what we need to challenge in order to be able to end gender violence.

"Family values" and misogynistic double standards One of the images of the abortion rights struggle North and South were the handmaid's costumes. They were used as a symbol to highlight that women were being controlled by society and to express explicit opposition to this denial of bodily autonomy that sees women as vessels and not human beings in their own right. Fast forward to 2022/2023 and we see the huge onslaught on abortion rights with the overturning of Roe v Wade in the US and a marked increase in messages in the press and by the political establishment that is about a return to "family values".

Kate Forbes, one of the candidates to replace Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the SNP and Scotland's First Minister, when asked about her attitude to children outside of marriage stated that this would be something she would personally avoid.

She added: "In terms of my faith, my faith would say that sex is for marriage and that's the approach that I would practise."

She is an opponent of the changes proposed under the Gender Recognition Reform in Scotland, ostensibly based on the provisions for people aged 16 - 18. In the same interview to Sky News she stated "A rapist cannot be a woman and therefore my straight answer would be that Isla Bryson [a transgender woman recently convicted of the raping two women] is a man." This is nothing but the use of a le-

A conscious backlash against wave of feminist struggle Recent shocking developments in the South also underline the connection between misogynistic tropes and the use of racism by the establishment and the far right. As covered on page 11, racist thugs are using distorted fears about gender violence as attempts to justify their actions and garner support. The idea that "our women" need to be protected against "unvetted males" is often repeated. The reality is very different with the vast majority of perpetrators of gender violence and sexual abuse being known to the victim / survivor. This was underlined by figures published in February 2023 by the Central Statistics Office in the South showing that 83% of reported suspects of sexual offences are known to the victim.

Transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, racism and other such divisive messaging have real consequences. They lay the basis for the attacks we have seen in the South recently, the homophobic murders that took place in Sligo last year, the murder of

By Ann Orr

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teenager Brianna Ghey in January and the significant rise in femicides. The man arrested for Natalie McNally's murder is reported to have meticulously planned the brutal and horrendous attack, creating an alibi by faking a live stream of him playing a video game during the time of the murder. A 14-year-old boy murdered Urantsetseg Tserendorj in Dublin in January 2021 by stabbing her in the neck.

The two teenagers charged with Brianna Ghey's murder are 15 years old. In France a recent report by the High Authority on Equality stated that "discrimination, violence and harassment" had reached "alarming proportions''. Of the participants who were 18 to 24, 22% reported having experienced psychological control or excessive jealousy by a male partner.

15% also said they had been beaten by a partner or ex-partner. Furthermore 22% said they had been sexually assaulted or raped. Young people must therefore be central to the campaigns against sexism, racism and LGBTQ+ phobia.

"Woman, Life, Freedom" - the rallying cry of a new generation Events in Iran in the last year have shown that movements against gender violence and oppression can not only unite working-class people of all genders but have the ability to quickly broaden and take aim at the entire system. This is essential because our fight is not just to ensure that anyone impacted by gender violence or LGBTQ+ phobia or racism can seek help and support. While this is an important part of what we fight for and that includes fighting for service provision and expansion such as the promise, not yet delivered by Stormont parties, to open an enhanced and expanded service for women who are homeless after the closure of the Regina Coeli hostel in 2022.

Our fight is also for more than that: it is to eradicate the very foundations on which racism, misogyny and LGBTQ+ phobia spread.

“Woman, Life, Freedom” is the chant that captures this sentiment so succinctly and it is applicable all over the world. It encapsulates that our struggle is for our very lives. We do not simply want to exist - we want to be able to exist and thrive in full freedom: in a society in which each individual can live the way they want without fear of abuse, assault and violence. That is only possible on the basis of challenging the very foundations of this capitalist system. We take our inspiration from the mass movement in Iran which brought people of all genders together in a struggle against state violence, against violence against women and against the entire brutal regime. We also take inspiration from the mass movements that have shaken the establishment around the world, from BLM to abortion rights struggles in Latin America and here. Clara Zetkin, revolutionary socialist who over 100 years ago first proposed International Women's Day, called on workingclass people regardless of their gender to fight hand-in-hand to challenge the entire capitalist system.

Her message remains vital in 2023 as we fight for a world in which we can finally throw out the protest placards that state "I can't believe we're still protesting this s***".

The So

FIGHT MISOGYN RACISM WITH Read more about Iran

Working- class women on the frontline of cost of living crisis IN 2020 research conducted by the Women’s Regional Consortium (WRC) described women as “shock absorbers” of ten years of Tory austerity and welfare cuts. Now, working class and poor women are the shock absorbers of the cataclysmic cost of living crisis. Working class women with low incomes are bearing the brunt of this crisis, and are at the forefront of a fightback against it.

Women are more likely to be employed in part-time work due to caring responsibilities. This, coupled with the fact that women head 91% of single parent households means that they are more likely to be partially or fully reliant on benefits. A five week wait for Universal Credit payments is cited by WRC research as a key reason that many women in Northern Ireland are borrowing more than men, from banks and family members to loan sharks, including paramilitaries. As food prices have reached a forty year high, many women are now relying on foodbanks to feed themselves and their families, with many going without meals in order to afford other basic necessities.

An alarming two-thirds (66%) of survivors told Women’s Aid that abusers are now using the cost of living increase as a tool for coercive control. Increasingly, gender based violence is also contributing to housing insecurity

for victims and survivors. Alternative accommodation for many is inaccessible, whether that be because of unaffordable private rent prices, oversubscribed shelters and hostels or growing waiting lists for social housing.

Frontline workers in majority female sectors like healthcare and teaching are now facing the reality of paying for the post-pandemic economic crisis.

Staff are still subsidising a percentage of petrol costs while the price of fuel is at an all-time high; meaning workers are paying for the necessary care to their patients from their own pockets.

A NASUWT survey of women teachers found that 67% of female teachers are worried about the impact of a belowinflation teachers’ pay award on their ability to meet their everyday living costs, with 36% saying they are struggling to make ends meet on a daily or weekly basis.

Working-class women are bearing the brunt of this crisis but they are also on the frontline of fighting against it.

The strike action by majority women workforces in health and education has shown the power we have.

Through organised and coordinated strike action and solidarity that the working class can mount a genuine alternative to systemic poverty, oppression and exploitation exacerbated by this crisis.

SPECIAL FEATURE:SOCIALIST FEMINISM

ocialist

NY, TRANSPHOBIA AND SOCIALIST FEMINISM

7

Build a socialist feminist movement - Join ROSA!

ROSA organised protests on the anniversary of Savita’s death

By Eva Martin, ROSA Organiser

#IWD #M8 Remember Brianna Ghey: mobilise to end violence against trans people

By Callum Robinson WITH THE horror of the recent killing of a teenager, Brianna Ghey, it is important to recognise that this violence has not occurred in a vacuum. It is linked to the rise of transphobic ideas which are taking root in society. Trans people have become a target of the “culture war” of the far right and the political establishment. This is resulting in violent physical attacks as well as more structural violence such as denial of access to life-saving health care and denial of identity.

End the Tories war on Trans people Since the beginning of 2023, the UK Conservative government has moved to block the Scottish Gender Recognition Bill (GRA) through the use of the section 35 order (for the first time). The Tories’ decision to block GRA reforms emboldened anti-trans discrimination and violence and shored up their reactionary base.

They have attempted to impose limits on sex education surrounding trans and non-binary people and expressed contempt for the use of gender-neutral inclusive language.

The dehumanising and demonising rhetoric of the Tory party drives the antitrans actions performed in the world, on the streets and in homes. The capitalist establishment is inciting violence against a vulnerable minority group. This is gravely reflected in statistics showing

Belfast vigil in the aftermath of Brianna Ghey’s murder.

that between 2020 and 2021 there was a 16% rise in reported transphobic hate crimes and these are only those which have been reported.

As global capitalism is plunged further into crisis, hate and discriminative violence are on the rise. Capitalism relies on and is characterised by its rigid social order and pre-designated gender roles which it profits from. Oxfam’s research showed that the system saves 10.8 trillion dollars a year from women and girls’ unpaid work. Why would a system driven by profit ever try to fight the very ideas that feed it exactly what it needs? Trans people are a perceived threat to this exploitative order because trans and nonbinary people challenge the rigid gender binary imposed by the capitalist system These past years have shown that there is no minority group, except for the rich, which the current system is beyond scapegoating and exploiting. But this

shows an important lesson, that all exploitation and oppression have a root cause and that all of us impacted by them have a united struggle. Through solidarity amongst workers of all gender identities, sexual orientations, ethnicities etc, meaningful change can be won. The working class is immensely strong if united.

Despite the seemingly endless cruelty and vitriol which caused the death of Brianna and many more people like her, all is not dark. Today, one in four people in Britain is close to a trans person and more agree (46%) than disagree (32%) that a trans man is a man and a trans woman is a woman. There has been an outpouring of grief over Brianna’s murder, shared by so many who want for a better world and true liberation from oppression. We will not be divided and we must fight to prevent more deaths. Not one more.

A QUICK snapshot of media coverage in the last years tells a dark tale of femicide, gender violence and LGBTQ-phobic hate crimes. Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old trans girl from England brutally murdered by two other teenagers; Natalie McNally murdered in her own home; a 17year-old male teenager sentenced for stabbing and killing a woman walking home from work in Dublin three years ago; rates of sexual assault and domestic abuse through the roof; stalking; huge increase in viral misogyny and image-based abuse. Gender violence here and internationally sky-rocketed during the pandemic. Now, the economic crisis, uncertainty and the cost-ofliving fuel it further.

We are witnessing a backlash against #MeToo as well-financed online influencers like Andrew Tate target young men, seeking to normalise sexist attitudes and violence against women by pushing a dangerous narrative that women are objects to be controlled by men. Millions of boys and young men are being targeted online via “the manosphere”; an enormous collection of websites, blogs, and forums promoting toxic masculinity, male entitlement, and opposition to gender equality.

A feminism of struggle The most important drivers of change are strong and active social movements — being active in and building campaigns will literally save lives, push back the alt-right misogynists and challenge backwards attitudes generally. If not for the protests and demonstrations in the aftermath of Sarah Everard’s murder Wayne Couzens would not have been convicted to the fullest extent. The uncovering of the Met Police’s rampant misogyny would not have been carried out fully without the pressure from protests and demonstrations. ROSA was part of this movement, organising demonstrations in the aftermath of her murder. Despite intimidation from the state issuing fines against ROSA organisers we continued to protest.

Rights were never granted freely from above. Winning abortion rights North and South of Ireland was won by struggle from below. Young women were an important driver of this change. Many thousands took to the streets demanding the repeal of the 8th Amendment in the South and the decriminalisation of abortion in the North. ROSA played a key role in this struggle. Utilising tactics of civil disobedience ROSA engaged in a series of extremely high-profile actions that made available and created awareness of abortion pills, which are entirely safe and can be self-administered. These included an abortion pill train and buses travelling the country - effectively making the law unworkable. The pressure brought to bear was too much for the establishment and they relented The #MeToo movement challenged misogynistic attitudes in society and exposed high profile abusers like Harvey Weinstein who were previously thought to be untouchable. At every level #MeToo gave confidence to challenge sexism and misogyny. We urgently need to build movements now to tackle gender violence and the current growth of misogyny both online and in the streets.

A feminism that is anti-capitalist Capitalism relies on oppression, sexism and misogyny at such a fundamental level.

ROSA is an anti-capitalist, socialist-feminist organisation. We understand that a system built to maximise the profits of the super-rich, that creates homelessness, requires low pay, exploitation and is the root cause of environmental degradation everywhere, is the enemy of freedom and equality. Feminising the ruling elite will not achieve our liberation – we must tear down the whole system which necessitates inequality and repression.

Getting active urgently and building campaigns will not only help force governments to make moves on key issues essential to tackling gender violence including proper social housing and funding public services – it will also push back against the rise of reactionary forces and the far right, and will literally save lives.

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INTERNATIONAL

The Socialist

Who’s profiting off the Ukraine War?

In the 20 year war and occupation of Afghanistan, the U.S. government spent $14 trillion.

Below we publish an abridged article from international socialist alternative. You can read the full version at internationalsocialist.net

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NTERNATIONAL SOCIAL IST Alternative opposed Russia’s brutal invasion and we continue to oppose it. The war for ordinary Ukrainians is about fighting to defend their homes and towns. However, for U.S. and European imperialism it is being used as a proxy war against Russia and more widely as a warning against its ally China. The struggle of the Ukrainian people against occupation has essentially been hijacked by Western imperialism for whom the interests and rights of ordinary Ukrainians are not a serious consideration.

Eastern Ukraine has not only become

one of the deadliest places in the world, but it has increasingly become a hot spot for the big military contractors to try out their new weaponry. Russian imperialism’s weaponry, often outdated, is up against the state of the art armaments of the U.S. and the EU who between them have allocated $100 billion in total “aid” of all sorts for Ukraine. U.S. strategists believe this is worth every penny as the war has strengthened NATO and the position of U.S. imperialism without having to put U.S. soldiers into combat.

War Profits and the Big Money Drop The scientists and CEOs at the U.S.’ big five military contractors (Boeing, Raytheon, Northrup, General Dynamics, and Lockheed Martin) are busy developing lethal missiles that can do more strategic damage at longer ranges than

their imperialist counterparts in Russian and China. Over a third of the Pentagon’s budget goes to these big five companies, and they are billions of dollars richer as a result of this relationship.

In the 20 year war and occupation of Afghanistan, the U.S. government spent $14 trillion. (That’s 14 thousand billion dollars…)

U.S Republicans and Democrats United Making the world friendly for U.S. business interests through the use of its military is generally a bipartisan affair.

The latest $858 billion military budget passed the Senate in December by a margin of 83–11. Nothing unites both parties like military spending. Despite the trend towards polarization in Congress, no National Defense Au-

thorization Act (NDAA) proposed by a President has been rejected by Congress since 1981. Big business and its two parties have their eyes on Ukraine and Taiwan as hot spots in the New Cold War with China. Wars and potential wars elsewhere are getting less attention and money.

Both parties play up anti-Chinese fear and ramp up the New Cold War and, while some hard-right Republicans have expressed opposition to funding Ukraine based on a different view of U.S. “national interests,” the vast majority in Congress are for funding the proxy war to the hilt.

They don’t make a big fuss about this unity because both parties want to appear like existential enemies to their base, but fundamentally they are united around the idea that military spending is good for business. And America is all about business.

This New “Cold” War is another dead end that will only turn millions of working people into refugees or cannon fodder for the bigger imperialist and capitalist regimes involved.

For working people in Ukraine to win real national freedom and not be just a pawn in this inter-imperialist conflict requires building an independent working class force and making a class appeal to Russian soldiers who overwhelmingly don’t want to in Ukraine. Our task here in the west is to build an independent working class force that fights all imperialism, especially “our own.”

US: Tyre Nichols’ murder

We need mass protests to end racist policing Below we publish an abridged article from Socialist Alternative US. You can read the full version at socialistalternative.org

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ICHOLS, A 29 year old father, was stopped on January 7 for reckless driving by the SCORPION Unit, a specialized unit of the Memphis Police department that carries out “hot spot” policing. Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis said the department has not been able to substantiate whether the reckless driving stop was warranted. That night, Nichols was hospitalized in critical condition with broken bones and liver failure. He died three days later.

The officers have been charged with kidnapping, official misconduct, official oppression, and second degree murder.

As of this writing, they are out on $250,000 bail, and four of the five will remain free during the trial. There are also concerning reports paramedics failed to intervene that need to be explained. While this time they have been prosecuted (undoubtedly because of the legacy of mass protests following George Floyd), we need to keep up the pressure for a total transformation of policing in the U.S. The footage of Tyre Nichols’ murder provides grisly detail to the basic reality that racist police brutality continues to have deadly consequences for Black and brown people in this country. The fact

that the officers were Black doesn’t change this. The entire SCORPION unit, of which these officers were a part, is designed to trick poor Black and brown people into committing crimes (often of self defense).

The circumstances that led to Nichols’ murder were set in motion long in advance, and the underlying reasons for his death need to be addressed. We can’t let the political establishment claim that this is about a few bad apples. The entire structure of policing in the U.S. has this brutality as its logical consequence. Police forces operate with neartotal impunity, they are armed to the teeth with military grade weaponry, and the crimes that they’re tasked with “preventing” are in most cases crimes of poverty.

We need mass protests on the scale of the response to the murder of George Floyd. This time, the movement needs a set of demands that can address police brutality, and deal with politicians who offer thoughts, prayers, and big promises, only to betray the movement later.

We need mass, non-violent, multiracial protests across the country that disrupt business-as-usual. We need an immediate purge of the police of all cops with a record of racism and excessive force in the community. Put policing under the control of democratically elected civilian boards with power over hiring and firing policies, reviewing

We need an independent movement rooted in working class Black communities

budget priorities, and to subpoena.

As the crisis of racist police violence continues to escalate, it is only a matter of time before a movement revives in the streets. However, it will be crucial to bring forward the lessons of the George Floyd rebellion in order to win against a system of racist police brutality. During the movement in 2020, Democrats in Congress and in city governments spoke out of both sides of their mouths — pledging support to the movement while kettling protesters and raising police budgets. These same leaders may send out the National Guard to suppress protests of Nichols’ murder.

We need an independent movement rooted in working class Black communities, not the Democratic Party and NGO’s. We need real planning meetings where working class Black people can democratically shape the movement

and its demands. Black workers are at the forefront of a resurging labor movement, and unions need to play a role in building a sustained, multi-racial, working class fight back against racism and inequality.

We need to put policing in the control of democratically-elected civilian review boards with real power to hire, fire, and subpoena. These should also have the power to set department priorities, and decommission all violent terror squads like the SCORPION Unit. We need to tax billionaires and corporations to win a massive investment in housing, jobs and social programs. With working people — and particularly Black and brown working class communities and youth — at the helm, ordinary people can build a movement to put an end to bloody practices like hot-spot policing, and racist police violence as a whole

Millions protest pension reform in France

By Anya Duxbury IN RESPONSE to Macron’s proposal to increase the pension age from 61 to 64, 2.5 million people in 260 towns and cities across France protested in February. The eight main trade unions in France (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC, Unsa, Solidaires, FSU) have come together to coordinate strike action, the first time such mobilisations have been seen since 2010.

There is immense potential for a wide-scale general strike movement to happen.

ISA members in France report that the mood of the workers is combative and determined, and the workers are increasingly naming the entire political and ruling elite as their enemy. For example, electricity workers organised in the CGT have threatened to cut off electricity to billionaires and politicians, to show them what it’s like to experience energy poverty. At the same time they have refused to cut off energy for those who cannot afford to pay and have put hospitals and other services on cheaper energy rates. These actions have a huge impact on the profits of big business and increase the effectiveness of strike action. Responding to criticisms of this action, a French trade union leader replied “it’s not legal, but it’s moral”.

The workers movement here can learn much from the strikes in France. The last few months have seen nurses, the Housing Executive, universities and many more out on strike in Northern Ireland, and it is simple to see the coordination of these strikes as the next logical step to creating a more cohesive and effective movement.

The success of February's mobilisations provides a powerful springboard for the French working class to build towards a general strike, showing what is really necessary to fight against the horror and inequality of capitalist society. Without coordinating the strikes and building the strongest movement, individual battles will be fought, maybe even won, but the system that oppresses all of us will remain the same.

INDUSTRIAL

9

The Socialist

No sell out deals, keep up the strike momentum

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N A shock move, following three days of strikes by workers at every university across Britain and Northern Ireland, the University and College Union (UCU) called off a further seven days of strikes. Other higher education unions followed suit, just hours before tens of thousands of university staff were due to take action alongside workers in health & education.

This strike was called off unilaterally

by UCU leader Jo Grady, seemingly without receiving any concrete offer on pay, pensions or conditions, and without any consultation with the members who have stood on picket lines for nine days already in this dispute.

This was soon followed by the announcement by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) that they would suspend their planned 48-hour strike across England in early-March to pursue “intensive talks” with the government.

Bosses’ feet to the fire – don’t back down These retreats come as both unions had the upper hand in their fights, with members preparing to escalate and push their employers’ feet further into the fire for a win. This would have been strengthened by the beginning of further coordination of strikes across the public sector in March demanded by strikers. There is huge public support behind workers in health and education in particular.

Outrageously, Grady and UCU headquarters have tried to portray the undemocratic “pause” in strike action as some sort of victory. It is obvious to

most across our movement, never mind leading union negotiators, that unilaterally calling off action is a mistake and weakens rather than strengthens a dispute.

This has been demonstrated, most recently amongst BT/Openreach workers in the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) who were left disappointed following the suspension of their action for which the CWU leadership recommended a sub-standard deal negotiated with little input from members. The membership reluctantly accepted this deal seeing no alternative.

Workers across the private sector have seen that many bosses will only be brought to heel with the threat of significant disruption, this has been the experience in many manufacturing workplaces across the North with above inflationary pay deals only being agreed after workers take strike action.

Democracy prevents sell-outs, escalation secures wins As union leaders crumble under pressure from bosses and we face further attacks on the right to strike by the government. It is up to members to ensure there are no capitulations to bosses’ attempts to disrupt the momentum behind the growing number of pay disputes and that our strikes are not sold out.

No decisions should be made without the full consultation of members, that is a given. However, the past weeks have demonstrated that we must go much further than this. Socialist Party members in the unions fight for all full time officials and reps to be elected and sub-

Voices from the picket line #1: Striking NASWUT Teacher WITH THE strike wave only intensifying in recent months, the National Association of Schoolmasters /Union of Women Teachers (NASWUT) have taken half day strike action in Northern Ireland.

They are demanding a 12% pay award for their members in 2022/2023. To find out more about this strike, The Socialist spoke to Aisling, an English teacher of 7 years and Socialist Party member.

There is huge public support behind the strike action taking place. All workers are facing the same issues, low pay, soaring bills and rising rents/mortgages. The experience of the covid lockdowns, and having to effectively home school children was a real eye opener about the work teachers do. We asked Aisling about her views on public support and she agreed, saying; “I think that the majority of the public understand the need to strike.”

In many disputes union leaders have not sufficiently built support or given confidence to workers that they can win. The education unions started their action by only calling a half day strike with no clear follow up or direction. Such limited action does not inspire confidence among workers that they can win. Aisling spoke about the

lack of confidence in this strategy; she said “from my personal perspective, members are willing to take the half day strike, but there is a lack of picketing happening or much enthusiasm behind the whole action”. A serious strategy to win in education requires a plan of escalating action combined with coordination with other workers, not a lackluster half day of action. Aisling spoke about the need for this approach saying; “I think…civil servants and such need to strike too to make more of an impact.”

A key lesson from the disputes that have happened is the need for a fighting strategy. Socialist Party members in trade unions fight for industrial strategies that will win and crucially for members to have full control over their disputes.

Outrageously, Grady and UCU headquarters have tried to portray the undemocratic “pause” in strike action as some sort of victory.

ject to recall, that disputes are locally controlled by elected strike committees and in the case of large, national disputes that members are not simply consulted with but are involved in decision-making from the bottom up with mass local workplace meetings which feed directly back to their chosen negotiators. Members are the union. Members should control it. Where union leaderships engage in bad strategies or sell out deals, we can organise to stop it.

Further planned coordinated strike action on 16 March must be the start of a serious strategy of escalation across the public and private sector.

But this cannot be left solely in the

hands of the trade union leadership.

Workers across all unions must come together to demand coordinated strike action across sectors. This together with a strategy beyond “a day here and there” strikes will ensure that action is as effective as possible.

Strike action has to create a crisis for the government and employers, otherwise it won’t be effective and will result in watered down deals. As larger workplaces move into action, smaller workplaces could time their actions for the same day and benefit from increased media coverage and the potential solidarity of tens of thousands of workers.

We cannot wait for this to be called

from above, pressure must come from workers across all unions for our leaders to call such action.

Coordination must result in a 24 hour general strike – a powerful mobilisation that would challenge the employers and politicians alike whether they be in Stormont or Westminster. We must reject any sell-out of disputes and force those who would do so out of the way.

The money is there, it can always be found for the rich in times of crisis.

After years of pay suppression, pandemic working conditions and attacks on our employment terms we must be prepared to go on the offensive for our fair share.

Housing Executive workers enter sixth month of strike action

The striking NIHE workers have shown inspiring resolve in their strike.

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AINTENANCE WORKERS for the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) have entered their sixth month of strike action in their battle for an above-inflation pay increase.

In January the workers were offered a totally inadequate one-off payment of £1,000 for those earning up to £32,000 and £500 to those on higher grades, as well as a one pay point uplift for workers on the lowest wages. This would have left a majority of workers facing a

real term pay cut and was overwhelmingly rejected by 99.5% of the striking workers (on a turnout of 93.4%).

This offer was particularly insulting to the workers who keep the Housing Executive afloat and worked tirelessly and thanklessly throughout the coronavirus pandemic, given that NIHE has reserves of some £300 million!

Recently NIHE announced a 7% increase in rents, which will only pile more pressure upon households already faced with the cost of living crisis. This

will only force more people into poverty and homelessness.

The argument of NIHE is that rents must go up, but workers wages must go down. But while they are launching this attack on the standard of living of their staff, NIHE has paid private landlords more than £25 million in the last five years and continues to outsource contracts to private companies at an increased fee of some 20-30% while their own workers are paid considerably less for the same work. No wonder so many staff are leaving for the private sector, which will only result in the stripping down of this vital public service.

The striking NIHE workers have shown inspiring resolve in their strike.

It is necessary to escalate the action in response to upper management’s inaction, including by coordinating strike action with other unions that organise workers in NIHE. These workers stood with health and education workers at the Workers Demand Better rally at city hall on a day of coordinated strike action. This must be built on with further coordinated action, bringing together striking workers across all sectors. This is how we can build the strongest strike action to win an inflation-busting pay rise and to fight creeping privatisation.

10

The Socialist

Review: Not on our watch

ANALYSIS & THEORY

Socialism 101 series #10 Doesn’t capitalism incentivise hard work because people are motivated by money?

The occupation of the Regina Coeli Shelter for Women lasted for 12 weeks starting in mid-January 2022

By Gerry Malone

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HE PLAY “not on our watch” produced by Kabosh with support from Unite The Union brings to life the story of the workers of the Regina Coeli Hostel’s struggle to save the service. In this dispute activists from the Socialist Party and ROSA participated and supported the workers every step of the way. Most notably Susan Fitzgerald, Unite’s Regional Coordinating Officer and Socialist Party member who dedicated an immense amount of time and effort to assist the workforce in saving the service.

Unite alongside the workforce organised the “Women Demand Better” rally in Belfast to link this struggle to the wider struggle of working-class women. Unfortunately the hostel was not stopped from closing. The service was supposedly guaranteed, with promises of a new women’s only hostel being opened in May of 2022 from Sinn Féin’s Minister for Communities,Deirdre Hargey. At the time of writing this has not been fully followed through with. The fight for the full implementation of this service continues.

The occupation of the Regina Coeli Shelter for Women for 12 weeks starting in mid-January 2022 should be celebrated as an important moment in class struggle by and for women in these islands and further afield. It was a gulder of outrage by the workers and

residents which other workers and their unions and the wider community could not fail to hear. The undoubted courage of the workers and residents was magnified and bolstered by the support it inspired from many quarters. Workers and their representatives came from every corner. Their union, Unite, fought with the owners/employers alongside this small group of workers and the residents to defend jobs and save the service.

There is an irony in the fact that the owners were the Legion of Mary, an organisation that celebrates the role of Mary in the Christian story. No insult is intended to any believer, but it was the Legion of Mary who chose to close a hostel which had become the safe haven for vulnerable women trying to piece their lives together. Those who administered the property and could dispense of it as they wished were not prepared to accept the viable solution that was offered – the handing over of the building to the Housing Executive and the public provision of an essential service, fully staffed and resourced And so, to the play; The intensity of the events experienced first hand by workers and residents is recreated with energy and passion and, of course, with outrage.

And yes, the play sparkles with humour and also wonderful unexpected outbursts of singing. The wide range of characters played by these actors was a tribute to their skills and always felt like

Marxist journal of the Socialist Party:

Socialist Alternative no.15 Includes articles on: l Resisting the right-wing backlash – building a movement for LGBTQ liberation l Imperialism & war – outgrowth of global capitalist competition l The CWI & socialist feminism – redressing a checkered history l North: From ‘historic election’ to new crisis at Stormont l Organising the unorganised – lessons from workers past and present l Universal basic income – what do socialists say? l ‘War against Bolshevism’ – civil war in Ireland, 1922-23 l Reviews of Derry Girls, Over the Bridge, An Cailin Ciuin’ and A Spectre, Haunting

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

an authentic reflection of the women involved. Your heart’s eye could see them. You felt their anxieties and uncertainties. You felt the weight of their past traumas and present struggles.

You could see the residents through the workers’ eyes. You could understand too that they were all women who needed the safe space these women workers provided for them.

You could see the workers through the residents’ eyes. They understood that the workers’ struggle to keep their jobs and continue to serve them was inseparable from their own struggle to find their place in the world.

Their common courage shines through this performance and we see as if under a microscope the constituent elements of workers’ struggle, open and full communication with one another, a collective commitment to one another in a common goal, an appeal for assistance to organised labour, We see too how seemingly hopeless situations can change in the blink of an eye when the class stirs from its slumber and those individual feelings of sympathy and empathy are transformed in the alchemy of class consciousness.

The title of the play is more than a declaration of individual defiance – Not on My Watch! It is a clarion call not only to those consciously involved in class struggle but also to the wider class. It is a challenge to make the “My” into “Our” watch

By Eddie McCabe THE WORLDVIEW of every mainstream economist and right-wing politician is predicated on the belief that people are motivated primarily by money, and therefore, to them an economy that’s not based on profit-making is inconceivable.

Of course, in a capitalist economy if you don’t have money you don’t live, so it’s true that that incentive is always there. But is the pursuit of more money what drives people to do all the things they do? Well, no.

People do all kinds of wonderful and not-so-wonderful things, to which they dedicate their limited time, for reasons other than money.

The fact that capitalism means investment only in areas where profit can be made, however, means most people involved in things like art, music, science, politics, and sport have no choice but to pursue these interests without financial assistance.

In fact, millions of people work in jobs they have little interest in just to make enough money to get by, and develop their passions in what spare time they have left.

Even still, there are countless examples of people who devote their lives to projects or causes for little or no monetary return. Obvious examples include figures like Fr Peter McVerry or Greta Thunberg. The main reward for these people is that they are in their own way helping people or the environment.

Similarly, non-profit institutions like Wikipedia — the fourth most visited website in the world — show what can be produced by (mostly) volunteers.

But it goes deeper. Recent studies (commissioned not by socialists, but the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston) suggest that money is a good motivator when it comes to straightforward, mechanical tasks, and offering monetary rewards for such work results in higher productivity — but

that’s where it ends. When it comes to more complicated work that requires skills and creativity, monetary rewards no longer produce the same results, and if anything has a negative impact.

Once people don’t have to worry about money, they can begin to focus their energies, talents, and abilities.

What actually motivates people in the workplace are three other factors: autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

That means 1) having some control over their working lives, 2) developing their skills to the fullest potential, and 3) doing meaningful things that make a difference.

Life for most workers under capitalism is 40-odd mind-numbing hours of drudgery under the dictatorship of a manager, with anxiety about job security and financial woes to boot. Only a lucky minority ever experiences autonomy, mastery, or purpose in their jobs.

As far as innovation goes, there’s a very real disincentive under capitalism to find more efficient ways of working, because it won’t mean better pay or less work — it will eventually mean fewer jobs for workers.

Just think of the breakthroughs we’d have made if things were the other way around. Think of the potential we would unleash if people’s basic needs — hunger, shelter, security — were guaranteed and they didn’t have to worry about merely surviving, which is what most people’s money today is spent on.

In a socialist economy, based on public ownership and democratic planning of the wealth, resources, and industry in society under workers’ control, the alienation of work under capitalism could be eradicated.

The necessary menial work could be shared out to allow everyone to pursue lives — with considerably more leisure time — and work in which they can contribute to the collective advancement of society, as well as themselves as individuals.

NEWS

11

The Socialist

Omagh bomb inquiry:

Relatives deserve truth and justice

By Daniel Waldron, Omagh Socialist Party

O

N 2 February, Tory secretary of state Chris Heaton-Harris announced that an ‘independent’ statutory inquiry is to be launched into security forces’ handling of the 1998 Omagh bombing.

This comes after years of campaigning by the victims and their relatives, which resulted in a High Court ruling in 2021 calling for such an inquiry to be established.

The huge car bomb attack killed 29 people and injured many others. It was the single deadliest incident during the course of the Troubles, and its impact is still felt by many today. The bombing was particularly shocking as it came less than three months after the ratification of the Good Friday Agreement, which many hoped would consign such atrocities to the history books.

The attack was carried out by ‘dissident’ republicans connected to the Real IRA. Confused warnings led to police evacuating the wrong area and moving people towards the vehicle containing the device. The bombers’ motivation was to derail the nascent ‘peace process’. It backfired spectacularly, further isolating those forces which opposed the Good Friday Agreement and creating the pretext for new anti-terror laws.

The aftermath of the bomb devastated Omagh for years to come.

Numerous allegations have been made that security forces had intelligence which could have prevented the bombing, but that this information was not shared in a timely and effective manner. Informants working for MI5 and the Garda special branch have alleged that they made their handlers aware that a major bombing was imminent, and that Omagh had even been identified as a potential target.

A BBC Panorama investigation presented evidence that British security agency GCHQ were monitoring the

bombers’ phone calls as the device was being brought across the border from Louth. Criticisms have also been made of the RUC (now PSNI) response, both before and after the bombing. No one has been convicted of the attack, although victims’ families did successfully win a civil action settlement against four individuals.

Understandably, the announcement of the inquiry has been welcomed by many victims and their families. There is already reason, however, to doubt the transparency of this investigation.

Heaton-Harris has stated that it will not be fully open to the public and media, but that this will be at the discretion of the appointed chairperson. This creates a mechanism whereby the state can intervene to keep embarrassing or nefarious details under wraps. The British capitalist state - like its Southern counterpart - has a long history of engineering whitewash inquiries into its activities, not least the 1972 Widgery report into Bloody Sunday.

While ordinary people will welcome any step towards truth and justice for

the victims of the Omagh bombing, the announcement of this inquiry smacks of hypocrisy from the British government in the context of its proposed so-called Legacy & Reconciliation Bill. This legislation aims to effectively ban fresh legal actions and inquiries relating to state and paramilitary atrocities committed during the Troubles, granting de facto immunity to those involved. This has been rejected by victims’ groups across the board. The bill is primarily an attempt by the British state to bury the reality of its own role in the Troubles, including collusion with paramilitary forces.

None of the forces involved in the Troubles - neither the paramilitaries, the Orange and Green politicians, nor the British and Irish states - want a real accounting with the past, and they cannot be relied upon to deliver truth, justice, or reconciliation. Only forces representing the interests of all victims and of the wider working-class could achieve this. As part of the struggle to overcome sectarian division and the rotten capitalist system in which it is rooted, this could take the form of a genuine truth-and-reconciliation commission, made up of anti-sectarian trade union activists, human rights campaigners, and those with a track record of fighting for the interests of all victims of the Troubles.

South: We won’t be divided: No to the racist poison of the far-right – homes & services for all It is welcome that several trade unions have backed today’s protest.

There are 500,000 trade union members in this state, and they make up the most powerful force that can be mobilised as part of the anti-racist and anti-fascist resistance.

Text of the Socialist Party leaflet for the large anti-far right demo in Dublin on saturday 18th February The emergence of far-right protests and the spreading of racist lies about vulnerable refugees is a dangerous threat to our society – that we must mobilise against.

The horrific attack by racist thugs on a camp of migrants in Ashtown, Dublin 15, at the end of January was an example of what happens when their poisonous ideas gain a foothold.

The far-right threat: – The far right wants to blame refugees and migrants for the housing crisis created by the greed of corporate landlords and developers, and the policies of successive governments. There’s enough land and resources to provide everyone with decent housing, and it could be done if profiteering was eliminated.

– By referring to “unvetted males” the far right is playing on a disgusting racist stereotype of men of colour being sexual predators. They want to play on real fears around gender-based violence – but 83% of sexual offences last year involved a reported suspect known to the victim.

– The far-right promotes misogynistic ideas that legitimise men’s violence against women. They opposed the campaigns for abortion rights in 2018 and marriage equality in 2015. Their racism goes hand in hand with homophobia and transphobia – we won’t accept turn-

The far right wants to blame refugees and migrants for the housing crisis created by the greed of corporate landlords and developers

ing back the clock on LGBTQ+ rights.

A racist government of the rich We need to build a united, multiracial, multi-gendered, working-class movement of struggle and solidarity against these forces and their vile ideas. It must also be a movement that takes on this government of the superrich and big business – it has created the fertile soil for the far-right to grow. Just look at their record: – There are over 11,600 people living in emergency accommodation.

And this is just the tip of the housing

crisis iceberg. They continue to force asylum seekers to live in the inhumane system of Direct Provision.

– Leo Varadkar has talked of having a “firm and hard” policy when it comes to refugees. Last month, they announced that refugees arriving here would be denied accommodation by the state, and 130 people were deported. They are firm supporters of the EU’s racist “Fortress Europe” policy, which has left thousands of migrants to drown in the Mediterranean.

– These racist policies and this racist rhetoric have legitimised the far

right’s main talking points.

Workers – unite against division We need an anti-racist movement organised in our workplaces and communities that combats the lies of the far right with solutions to the real problems in our society – and those responsible for it, including the richest 1% who own 27% of the wealth (€232 billion). On housing, this means demanding a permanent ban on evictions; the slashing and freezing of rents at affordable levels; and a major house-building programme on public land.

“You can’t have capitalism without racism”–Malcolm X Capitalism today means multiple permanent crises. This system is killing our planet for profit; it is fuelling wars for imperialist domination; it is creating billionaires by impoverishing billions of people; and it is built on brutal exploitation and oppression. All of this is forcing millions more refugees to flee their homes.

Historically, capitalism has always relied on racism to justify its crimes – from slavery to colonialism – and to divide working-class people. Globally, the system’s decay has thrown up obnoxious far-right and racist figures like Trump in the US and Bolsonaro in Brazil, while far-right parties have taken power in Italy and Hungary and made significant electoral gains in France and Sweden.

We need to break with this system urgently, and fight for a democratic socialist society built on solidarity and cooperation, not division and competition. This means taking society’s wealth and resources into democratic public ownership and planning their use to meet the needs of all people and the planet.

TheSocialist

PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY

ISSUE 152

MARCH 2023

Working-class and young people can unite to defeat paramilitary violence and sectarianism

What the Socialist Party stands for: The immense social, political, economic and ecological crises reflect a capitalist system in perpetual crisis. 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 • Workers need real pay rises. Permanently link all wages to the rate of inflation by law, alongside pay rises to compensate for real pay lost over the last decade of austerity.

• For an immediate increase in the minimum wage to £15 and the removal of all youth exemptions.

• End precarity including ban zero-hour contracts, end bogus self-employment and the reliance on agency staff in the private and public sector. Fight 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 decent guaranteed 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 all anti-trade union laws. For the

right to organise and carry out 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 to an affordable level. Ban evictions.

• For a major programme to expand housing executive stock.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 reduce mortgage payments to affordable levels.

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

• Defend the NHS: stop and reverse all privatisation and cancel PFI debts. Extend the NHS by taking pharmaceutical companies into democratic public ownership and fully fund mental health services.

• Free publicly-run childcare scheme for every community. Extend fully-paid parental leave to two years and provide high quality early-years education.

JOIN THE SOCIALIST PARTY

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

• Free education and training for all. For a fully integrated, non-gender segregated, comprehensive and secular education system and the right to a third-level place for all who want one, with a living grant for all students.

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 an 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. Shut down

detention centres. Abolish all racist immigration laws.

• Black lives matter! Oppose far-right division and organise against racist or LGBTQphobic attacks.

• For fully publicly funded refuge centers for victims of gender-based violence.

• 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 struggle against oppression.

For workers’ unity • No hardening of borders – north-south or in the Irish Sea. • For the unity of the working class, Protestant and Catholic, North and South, in opposition to all forms of sectarianism, paramilitarism and state repression.

• Build a new party that can unite workingclass people across the sectarian divide in the spirit of solidarity, compromise and mutual respect.

• 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.

• Renationalise all privitised services in health, education, transport, postal, 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.

• No to a Tory Brexit— oppose all corporate“free trade” agreements and fight for a socialist alternative to the bosses' EU. • Build a new mass party that organises workers and young people in the 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 for the economy based on the interests of the overwhelming majority of people and the environment.

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