The Socialist (North) - Issue 155

TheSocialist MAKE PRIDE A PROTEST AGAIN! Trans rights under attack

#LE23: Sinn Féin surge, smaller parties squeezed

We need an anti-sectarian working-class alternative

openly supported policies which are detrimental to working-class communities – water charges, increasing tuition fees, welfare ‘reform’, and opposing trade union rights.

Establishment parties offer no alternative

By Amy Ferguson

THE ELECTIONS were a continuation of what we have seen before: Sinn Féin and the DUP strengthening their positions and support increasing for Alliance. These elections took place in the midst of the cost of living crisis, and threatened cutbacks in the Stormont budget (read more on page three). While the main parties in the elections offered no way forward for working-class people, the strike action and campaigns to save services

that have taken place over the past few weeks give a glimpse of the potential of real change.

The biggest story coming out of LE23 is Sinn Féín becoming the largest party. In the electoral sphere political nationalism is becoming increasingly homogenous, with Sinn Féin growing at the expense of the SDLP.

Sinn Féin’s vote increase also reflects the anger amongst many working-class Catholics at the DUP boycott of Stormont. Both because of the impact it has on public services, and because it is preventing the first nationalist First

Minister from taking office.

Unionist parties' vote share was splintered in many areas between the DUP and the TUV in particular, who saw their vote and seat number increase. However, this was the first local government election since 2005 that the DUP has not lost a seat. It came out of the election with an endorsement of its approach on the NI Protocol. This reflects the anxiety felt in many working-class Protestant areas that the protocol undermines their identity and position in the United Kingdom. Turnout also shows fewer

people voted in Protestant areas in comparison to Catholic areas. This is in part because of the right-wing and often evangelical presentation of unionist parties that cuts across young people’s enthusiasm and willingness to turn out to vote for these parties.

The Alliance Party also made significant gains. Many see them as the only anti-sectarian option on the table. But unfortunately the Alliance Party, despite presenting themselves as wishing to build a “Progressive Northern Ireland',' offers little for working-class people. Alliance have consistently and

The polarisation around Sinn Féin, DUP and to a lesser extent Alliance, was a factor in the squeeze on smaller, left wing, independent candidates including the Greens and PBP. While the main parties present themselves as the ‘champions’ of their respective communities – they are the opposite. While in Stormont together they united to attack working-class people. They implemented welfare reform and attacked public services, creating the crisis our NHS and education system faces today. The last time they could, they offered NHS workers a 3% pay rise!

If there isn’t a challenge from working-class people the cost of living crisis and cutbacks are only set to worsen. The Socialist Party stood in this election raising the urgent need to challenge the sectarian, anti-worker politics of the establishment parties. We pointed toward the actions of workers and young people on picket lines and campaigns as being the force that can achieve change. Building that fight back will require conscious and urgent action in workplaces and communities.

How can paramilitary scourge be challenged?

THEPROSPECT of consigning paramilitary violence and coercion to the history books was a key unifying hope which motivated the majority of people in Northern Ireland to back the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. A quarter of a century on, this goal is far from realised. Paramilitary groups continue to carry out sporadic attacks, but they also continue to exert day-to-day control in many of the most deprived working-class communities, and their threat is growing.

Paramilitaries are involved in drug dealing, loansharking, protection racketeering and other parasitic practices. The vast majority of working-class people wish to see the back of them. However, they are able to attract a layer of alienated young people - men, in particularwho see no other avenue to escape poverty and have a say in society. These groups also seek to legitimise their existence by ‘policing’ antisocial behaviour with violence or the threat of it, creating fresh trauma in communities already deeply scarred by the legacy of the Troubles.

The New IRA has been the most high-profile ‘dissident’ republican group in recent years, with its members implicated in the death of Lyra McKee during a riot in Derry in 2019, as well as the attack on police officer Stephen Caldwell in Omagh in February, carried out in front of children and their families. Insofar as they have a strategy, it is to provoke a reaction from the state and from loyalist forces, reigniting broader

conflict in society. The umbrella group representing the loyalist paramilitaries withdrew its support from the Good Friday Agreement in 2021 in response to the Brexit deal which put a regulatory border in the Irish sea, and the growing sense of insecurity in the Protestant community is pushing a new generation of young people into the gangs’ ranks who are likely to be more inclined to go on the offensive.

While they remain relatively isolated, these groups can grow in the context of ongoing sectarian deadlock and polarisation. The continued influence of paramilitary forces reflects the reality that, despite the promise of the Good Friday Agreement, society remains deeply divided along sectarian lines, in terms of the areas we live in and the schools we attend, but also politically. Political forces with a vested interest in

maintaining sectarian division - whether Orange or Green - can never overcome it. Neither has the promised ‘peace dividend’ ever been delivered for workingclass communities. Instead, we have suffered decades of austerity, cuts to public services, and now the capitalist cost-of-living crisis, thanks to the policies of the politicians at Westminster and Stormont. The establishment forces offer no way out.

Instead, a solution must come from the working class itself, including the trade union movement, which represents around 240,000 workers from all backgrounds. Trade union activists have historically played a key role in challenging paramilitary violence. For example, strikes and demonstrations called by trade union activists in response to a series of tit-for-tat sectarian attacks in the early 1990s gave voice to working-class opposition to the ongoing conflict and were an important factor in bringing about the first ceasefires. This tradition is still alive, with a thousand people turning out to a rally called by Omagh Trade Union Council after the attack on DCI Caldwell in February.

Mobilising the working class in opposition to paramilitary violence is crucial, but it must be linked to a broader strategy to change society and offer working-class young people the hope of a better future, addressing the underlying conditions in which sectarianism and paramilitarism can breed. That includes organising a serious and coordinated industrial fightback against poverty, inequality and for investment in public services, but also challenging the sectarian blocs and their pro-capitalist policies politically. Linked with the movements of young people against climate destruction and oppression, such a movement could unite working-class people around a programme for socialist change with the potential to fundamentally challenge the influence of paramilitarism in our communities.

The DUP, Sinn Féin and the Alliance Party strengthened their positions in this election

Despite the promise of the Good Friday Agreement, society remains deeply divided along sectarian lines

Is the NHS protected?

ported the project of slashing health under the guise of centralisation. Their ‘solutions’ have not been based upon adequately funding the NHS directly, but instead ‘restructuring it’ and shepherding in more and more privatisation measures. For instance, the DUP’s 5 Point Program proposes that the NHS could be fixed by investing £1 billion in a partnership with the private sector. Why should this money be funnelled into the hands of CEOs instead of public health? The private sector is often heralded as a means to relieve pressure on the NHS, but it does the opposite, acting as a leech on its resources.

By Adam Machmer

THE 2023/24 budget does not make for cheerful reading. Further cuts on top of cuts will be detrimental to our public services and working-class people who rely upon them. If you are looking for a silver lining, you may be tempted to say “well, at least we have our health!” And indeed, it is true - on the surface level alone - that the Department of Health is one of two departments to

receive a slight increase in funding, at 0.5%. However, such numbers are incredibly misleading.

This minuscule ‘increase’ is far from that in real terms: it does not cover the rising cost of materials, fuel and energy. Even before we consider inflation, we are still left with a funding gap of £730 million. Our services were already slashed due to inadequate funding; the SWAH in Enniskillen and Daisy Hill in Newry will now be directing emergency surgery towards Craigavon Area

Youth centre cuts reversed after protests

Hospital due to understaffing. A 0.5% token increase does not make up for it. Services aren’t the only thing being torn to unacceptable levels - health workers have long been significantly underpaid in Northern Ireland whilst also battling devastating understaffing. We have seen frequent strikes both here and in Britain as workers are being pushed to take difficult measures so that they can pay their bills, including having to rely on food banks. Even worse, as a further consequence of

budget cuts, far from increasing staffing levels, 300 student nursing places are to be slashed in Northern Ireland.

These cuts are not inevitable. There is plenty of money in a society where the food, energy and oil industries have recorded immense profits over the past year alone. However, the parties in the Executive want to avoid challenging the hoarding of this wealth to use it for the public good. Instead, over the years, they have sup-

Previous returns to Stormont did not exactly lead to a renaissance of public services, and in fact, as much harm seems to be done when the Assembly is sitting. It is the working class who have the incentive and the means to change society for the better. Saving the NHS requires taking the lead from the striking health workers. They’re not taking action on pay alone but on the question and symptoms of the NHS crisis. Trade unions should expand the strike action and call public demonstrations for a fully funded health service, using the wealth of the billionaires and kicking out the privateers.

Our Education system is in crisis

By Darragh Logue

THE NORTHERN Ireland

Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris shamelessly unveiled the Northern Ireland budget for 2023-24 indicating that overall spending would be slashed by 3.3%, representing a cut of approximately £800million. Specifically, the annual funding for education is being cut by £70 million. When taking inflation into consideration the real-term impact of this cut will be significantly deeper than the initial figure suggests. The Minister declared this Department to be an ‘overspender’. However, with schools already struggling from a lack of resources over recent years, such a description is shameless.

By Eden Burton

IN THE new Stormont budget, the Education Authority’s (EA) total grant had been eroded by 25%, significantly slashing the funding available to youth centres. Such cuts would have a devastating impact on thousands of young working-class people and their communities. Fortunately, after the huge effort by youth workers and young people in organising protests against cuts to their services, they have now been reversed.

Youth centres are a valuable resource as they provide a free and supervised social space for many young people, especially for working-class and queer youths and those most vulnerable to abuse, poverty, and crime. They are also proven to help

undermine anti-social behaviour.

Even before these cuts proposals, youth centres were already struggling due to unsustainable funding: from staff shortages to limited and damaged facilities. What youth centres need is a guaranteed yearly funding package, above current inflation to cover all of the needs of a quality public service. They also should not be left to the responsibility of the private and charity sector: instead, they should be taken into public democratic control as a vital public need and service.

Time and time again, capitalism ensures that young people’s futures are eroded and that working-class people are made to pay the price for the actions of politicians and bosses. The actions of those workers and young people show us that such attacks can be challenged.

It is working-class communities who will feel the worst impacts of these cuts. The Department for Education also announced that funding for the “Extended Schools Programme” would no longer be available. This project, launched in 2006, provided activities such as breakfast & homework clubs, sports, art and drama. The cuts to the Extended Schools Programme come on top of the ending of the Engage Programme, the Holiday Hunger Programme and the Happy Healthy Minds pilot. Funding for dedicated special educational needs (SEN) schools in Northern Ireland has also been cut in half.

University students are not being left unscathed either. Heaton-Harris has instructed officials in the Department for the Economy to investigate raising tuition fees from £4,630 per annum to £7,000, a whopping 51% increase. Uni-

versities like Queen’s University Belfast are multimillion-pound institutions that are increasingly more interested in profits over quality education. Perhaps if more money is to be found they could start by cutting their Vice Chancellor’s £315,000 salary, or dip into the £700 million in QUB’s financial reserves, instead of saddling students with even more debt.

Despite executive parties during the recent elections repeating false promises about their dedication to education, their actions in government tell a very different story. The restoration of Stormont will not be the solution to these problems. They have even admitted to their incapability of dealing with the question of radically improving the education sector; Diane Dodds said, “The problems in our budget existed when the executive and as-

sembly were fully functioning, and their restoration will not be a panacea to the challenges we face.”

However, in contradiction to the inaction of the Executive, on picket lines across the country, teachers have been taking action against ballooning class sizes, staffing shortages due to poor pay and conditions, and the fact that teachers now have to use their own money for classroom supplies. These strikes will be vital, not only on the question of staff pay and conditions but also as a means to transform the education sector as a whole. A linking up of workers in the sector, parents and students in community-based campaigns for a real wage increase and to demand a no-cuts, needs-based budget would represent an incredible force for change. It is in such campaigns that we can find the solution to the crisis in the education system.

Claims that the NHS is protected from budget cuts are false - inflation will mean a real terms cut in the budget

Community groups in Belfast protest budget cuts

Teachers are striking not just for pay but to secure our education system

Nicola Gallagher bravely exposes intimate partner abuse and the GAA’s failings

declared boldly: “I believe her!” Ordinary women and LGBTQIA+ people stepped up where the institutions had failed and Ulster Rugby was forced to remove Jackson from its roster. The fact that his career has continued with other teams demonstrates the misogyny embedded in these institutions.

A socialist feminist movement

The gains of the feminist movement have faced backlash in the current context of capitalist crisis, with people like Andrew Tate and other far-right figures being able to misdirect people’s dismay at the system towards women, queer people, and people of colour. When the article about Paddy Jackson’s recent achievements circulated on social media half of the comments lamented that he was forced off the Irish team, while the other half recalled the anger and indignation at the heart of the #IBelieveHer demonstrations five years ago. The confidence to voice open support for Paddy Jackson demonstrates the tangible effect of this backlash.

By Harper Cleves

ON 9 May, Nicola Gallagher bravely took to Facebook to speak out against her long-time abuser: her former husband, and then-manager of the Derry GAA team, Rory Gallgher. The abuse that she outlined was vicious and spanned years, including throughout her three pregnancies. Nicola’s original post was liked by over 21,000 people, was shared by over 4,000 and contains over 3,000 comments – the vast majority of which commended her bravery. While Rory Gallagher formally

stepped back from his manager position with Derry GAA on Friday, 12 May, it was not until Tuesday, 16 May, that the GAA confirmed this was a more permanent decision. This statement was released in the wake of the news that the GAA was more than likely aware of the abuse faced by Nicola yet ‘did nothing.’ Nicola’s father, Gerry Rooney, sent five emails to Derry GAA last year between the months of April and July outlining the abuse his daughter had experienced. The internal audit of the GAA has stated the email address that remained on their public website up until this month had been deactivated weeks

prior to Rooney sending the first of those five emails.

Misogyny in sport

Notwithstanding the faulty email address, it's highly implausible that neither Derry nor Fermanagh GAA knew of the violence Nicola was experiencing at the hands of Rory Gallagher. Nicola and her family claim it was an open secret within the organisation, one which prides itself on the positive role it plays in communities across the island. She has said in recent interviews that the county boards were told and that several instances of abuse took place at GAA events where others bore witness.

This is the latest of innumerable examples of how institutions systematically fail women and all survivors of abuse and harassment. Mere days after Rory Gallagher’s abusive history was made public, another infamous veteran of Ulster sports made headlines – Paddy Jackson had won an award with his London Rugby team.

Five years ago Paddy Jackson and other Ulster Rugby players faced trial for the rape of a young woman. They were found not guilty in court, but vile, misogynistic text messages sent about the complainant the morning after the assault were made public and huge demonstrations in Dublin and Belfast

National Front off our streets!

By K.D.

ON MAY 21, the streets of Portrush were soiled by the presence of a racist , anti-refugee demonstration. It was organised by the former NI leader of the neo-fascist National Front, with the aim of stoking up fears over the housing of refugees across the North Coast.

This protest, and the Facebook group “North Coast Concerned Collective” used to organise it, was rife with racist, xenophobic, homophobic, and transphobic rhetoric. Despite the arrest of one of the far-right organisers at the beginning of the demonstration, he continued to spout threats of violence and support for the neo-Nazi terrorist group Combat 18 as he was dragged away. This arrest didn’t stop the fascist posse of around 12 from hoisting National Front flags resem-

bling swastikas. . In opposition to this protest was a coalition of Portrush residents, trade unionists, climate activists, members of the Socialist Party and the Socialist Feminist group ROSA, who outnumbered the fascists by more than 3 to 1.

This protest continues the troubling trend of racist xenophobic action taken by far-right radicals. In the south of Ireland some of these have also escalated into violence. There have been arson attacks on a refugee camp in Sandwith street Dublin and attacks on a camp in Ashtown. As Socialist Party TD (Southern MP) Mick Barry pointed out after these attacks

“It is only a matter of time before the far right claims its first killing.”

The rhetoric used by far-right groups in the South and the National Front prey upon genuine concerns of housing insecurity and gender-based

However, the overwhelmingly positive response to Nicola Gallagher’s public disclosure also gives us a glimpse of the hope that still exists. For every misogynistic institution, and disaffected man who would decry the victories of #MeToo, there is a young woman or LGBTQIA+ person who reviles oppression and exploitation to their core.

There is still tremendous potential to take this revulsion to the streets and build a socialist feminist movement capable of challenging the right-wing backlash that would scapegoat women and queer people. Such a movement would also need to have the whole capitalist system in its crosshairs so that the revolting violence and gaslighting Nicola and so many others have experienced is ended once and for all.

violence. In doing so they attempt to obscure reality. The responsibility for housing shortages, shoddy accommodation and high rents/rates lies with profiteering landlords and the political establishment. The faux concerns of the far-right fall away when we see their targeted campaigns of violence against refugees who are in need of homes, many of whom are women, as well as their regressive views on traditional gender roles and women’s rights.

This wrong portrayal of refugees as the source of these deeply systemic issues is an attempt to scapegoat vulnerable groups for the failings of our current capitalist system. To effectively fight the far right we need a multi-racial, working-class, bold and active movement of young people and workers of all genders to isolate them and expose their lies.

Protest in Portrush against the far-right National Front

Derry manager Rory Gallagher was protected by GAA for years

What kind of union movement do we need?

By Paddy Meehan

THE PAST 18 months have seen strike after strike with workers from the postal service to nurses taking to the picket line across Northern Ireland and Britain. Many of these disputes have seen significant pay increases while most have seen important concessions from the bosses. However, workers are still being made to suffer the burden of inflation and many companies in tech and finance are announcing significant redundancies in the face of further economic crisis. So the question has to be asked: what kind of trade union movement will workers need to deal with existing and future attacks on our living standards?

It’s clear that bold and determined action will be required but to date the primary strategy being employed by the trade union leaders has been the ‘long dispute’. This strategy employed in the rail, communications and health strikes has been one of intermittent strike action and lobbying for talks to bring pressure to bear on employers to ‘do the right thing’. This is a misunderstanding of the main goal of the employers which is to preserve and maximise profit at the detriment of workers. Instead a programme of

struggle is needed with significant and sustained strike action to defeat the bosses, not convince them. Strikes that have won have generally been shorter and sharper with a specific target and a good knowledge of what will hurt the bosses - knowing the weak points that can stall production, effective picketing, identifying and pressurising key investors.

To do this real engagement and input is needed for workers themselves. Secret negotiations and a lack of communication from union leaders about disputes have pushed workers out of any real control of their own strikes. Instead workers themselves have the best knowledge about how their disputes could be run. Weekly or daily mass strike meetings where workers can debate and discuss the disputes and how to make them more effective would transform many of the disputes ongoing at the minute.

Trade unions are an organised example of the need for the working class to protect itself from the constant push by the bosses to lower costs through wage suppression, increased productivity and throwing workers on the scrapheap when they’re deemed surplus to requirements. Rather than a lobbying body or arbitrator, unions should be run by and accountable to

UCU: Marking boycott puts employers under pressure

By Saana Taussi

their own members. This requires real democracy through networks of reps and shop stewards which could act as forums for mass participation of workers. It is also crucial that those in elected positions in the union movement are connected to and directly accountable to their members - officials should be subject to recall and should

earn no more than the average wage of the workers they represent.

Fundamentally the power that the trade union movement holds flows from the role working class people play in keeping society going. When we withdraw our labour, as the recent upsurge in strike action has shown, we can bring society and the profits of big

business to a halt. Faced with a cost of living crisis that is slashing working class people's living standards, we urgently need a trade union movement based on building workers powerbringing striking workers together and coordinating action to be as effective as possible, utilising every tool at our disposal to win.

WORKERS

ORGANISED

in the University and College Union (UCU) are taking part in a marking boycott as part of their ongoing dispute with the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) over pay and conditions.

UCU members are demanding a pay rise in line with inflation and have rejected offers that have fallen short. They are opposing zero hour and temporary contracts, which have become normalised in universities and create precarious conditions for workers.

The marking boycott is a clear escalation in the dispute by UCU members, who have been engaged in industrial action since 2018. 145 UK higher education institutions will be affected by the boycott which could affect half a million graduations according to the UCU, as final exams and assess ments will not be marked until employers meet the worker's demands.

This is putting huge pressure on the university bosses. There are reports that, in many universities, including Queen’s staff's wages are disgracefully being deducted for engaging in the boycott. This blatant attack on the union is an attempt to drive workers further into hardship, using their liveli hoods as a bargaining chip.

These attacks must be resisted through continued action, as well as protests aimed at putting pressure on the management of universities.

Many students are understandably frustrated by the situation, with the possibility of not getting to graduate on time creating uncertainty about their futures. University workers, however, are at breaking point. 36.9% of staff are on insecure contracts, 33% of staff have to work a second job and 15% of staff have reported using food banks in the recent period to get by.

It is the unwillingness of UCEA to comply with worker’s demands that leaves students in this position. The UCU reported that in recent years UK universities have generated more money than ever, while staff expenditure has hit rock bottom. Universities have the ability to pay workers their deserved wages, and guarantee secure employment. The reason they do not is because universities function as businesses driven by profit, rather than as public institutions of education.

Students and workers need to stand in solidarity with one another, supporting the boycott and the UCU's demands for fair pay and secure employment. We also must fight against the marketisation of education, for a fully funded, public and democratically controlled education system run in the interests of workers and students.

IN MAY workers at MM Bangor took strike action, demanding an inflation-proofed pay increase. Owned by one of the biggest agricultural suppliers globally (Mayr-Melnhof Karton AG), MM Bangor paid their workers just barely above the minimum wage despite making huge profits. After 6 days of strike action that shut down production at the site, the workers won a 13% pay increase. The Socialist spoke to Tylor Crawford, Unite rep at the site, about the victory.

Can you tell us a bit about why you were on strike?

"We were on strike for a pay rise in line with inflation, with below par pay increases over the previous years it was imperative that we secured a significant increase to help ease the current economic crisis our members are feeling".

How did you and your coworkers reach the decision to take industrial action?

"We engaged in talks with the company around October/November but the same pattern from previous years started to form. We decided to meet with the members and informed them that our next option was to secret ballot for industrial action. The results were overwhelming with a 100% turnout and 95% in favour to take action."

How were you able to ensure the strike worked?

"Careful planning and managing our expectations, we wanted the strike to last as short as possible so as to less affect our members financially, however if needs be we were ready for the long haul. We knew we would be subjected to aggressive tactics with the PSNI at one stage acting as personal security

for the company. Our aim after this was to maintain the high morale and with this we were able to drive home a 13% pay rise for the workforce."

Do you have any advice for other workers taking strike action in the midst of the cost of living crisis?

"The strike is still the most effective tool a union can use. What we also noticed was the bond it created between our members. Once we returned, our members have carried this solidarity and unity forward into the workplace and have continued with their heads held high. I would advise anyone who is nearing the stage of strike action to remember that planning is key and not to worry about the short term financial effects but look forward to the long term advantages, not only with increased pay but the togetherness moving forward into future negotiations."

Health workers and teachers hold a joint rally in Belfast to save our services and demand fair pay

Interview with MM worker: ‘The strike is still the most effective tool a union can use’

Workers at MM Bangor shut down production at the site for 6 days demanding a payrise in line with inflation

THE WORKERS' movement must boldly stand up for the rights of ALL workers - inside workplaces and outside of them. Almost 50% of trans people in the UK report experiencing bullying or transphobia at work; reported transphobic hate crimes are increasing in Northern Ireland as elsewhere; and we have seen the heinous murder of teenager Brianna Ghey. Transphobic rhetoric is not just a narrative - it has real consequences for people's health and wellbeing. Open and engaging in discussions is vital for this but we do not accept "discussions" that seek to question the existence of or the legitimacy of the existence of trans people - that is simply not up for debate.

Learning from our history: unions

fighting oppression

The trade union movement has been slow to act and challenge oppression or injustice - both in and outside of workplaces. Today it is no longer controversial to say that women workers must be organised in trade unions, this was not always the case. In Britain, Women workers in the textile industry were trailblazers in the early 1800s and it was again a strike of women workers in the Bryant and May factory in Bow in 1888 that heralded the beginning of "new (trade) unionism", even in the late 1960s women workers in the Dagenham Ford factory had to fight for the TUC to seriously take on their struggle for equal pay! As recently as 2020 a report branded the GMB union as "institutionally sexist" illustrating the barri-

ers women continue to face to their full participation in the trade union movement.

The actions of trade unionists after the horrific racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, a black teenager in London, in 1993 is an example of challenging racism. This murder exposed the extent of racism including in the state. Speaking at a TUC event in 2022 Stephen Lawrence's father said: "I remember meeting a group of trade unionists near Vauxhall Bridge. The small group told me they were going to help. And they did. The action and support of Black workers and groups in trade unions immensely helped pull the national focus on our campaign. They helped in financially sustaining it. Today, I can proudly say that trade unionists were critical in pushing the campaign seeking justice for Stephen Lawrence –through their unions, workplaces and communities." This gives a glimpse of what is possible when the trade union movement takes a united and campaigning approach.

Another giant of the socialist and trade union movement, Eleanor Marx, when discussing the fight for the liberation of the working-class from the oppression and exploitation of capitalism stated that this task "will look less and less difficult in proportion as the women and especially the men learn to see what strength lies in the unification of all workers”. She was talking specifically about the entire working-class having to take on the struggle against the oppression of women but the un -

derlying principle applies to all forms of oppression and certainly to the struggle for trans liberation today: our unity and solidarity is our strength. More equality and rights for one section of working-class people does not harm another section. When we actively build that unity workers can not only challenge but eradicate injustice, exploitation and oppression. It is that future that we fight for and the union movement needs to be part of that struggle.

What the union movement can do now

It is imperative that the trade union movement learns from past mistakes and plays a more active part in challenging oppression. The trade union movement should be leading from the front, not scrambling to catch up. Steps such as the TUC taskforce against transphobia are important and motions at union conferences and branches in support of LGBTQ+ rights and trans rights in particular can be helpful steps forward. The best of the campaigning approach adopted by unions on issues of anti-racism and anti-sexism work must also be applied including mobilising trade union members to stand up against transphobia. This for example was done in May 2023 in Portrush when trade union activists were part of mobilisations against the far-right as covered elsewhere in this paper.

Building active movements inside workplaces and outside of them that unite workers of all genders is essential to fighting transphobia and this is what Socialist Party members in the trade union movement argue for and seek to achieve. If you would like to discuss this with us, get in touch today.

LGBTQpho We need to step up the fight for equali and liberation

Warning from the US – new w

By Steph Lacey

WHILE MANY countries have recently moved to decriminalise samesex unions and improve rights for LGBTQ+ people, other countries, including ones in which queer people have enjoyed more liberated lives, are in the process of implementing restrictions and bans on queerness.

One of the most striking and horrifying examples is the tirade of antiqueer laws being pushed by right-wing Republicans in the US over the past year. A record number of bills – in the hundreds – have been proposed or implemented, all of which are an attack on LGBTQ+ rights, especially trans youth. It is not surprising nor a coincidence that these bills are being implemented alongside the attacks on abortion rights following the outrageous overturning of Roe V Wade by the Supreme Court.

The bills that are being introduced all over the US include the banning of any discussion around sexual orientation or gender identity in schools; banning trans youth from playing sports or using public bathrooms; enforcing a definition of ‘woman’ and ‘man’ to exclude trans people; banning children from attending any show in which a drag queen is performing; forcing schools to out children to their parents; and most chilling and fatal of all, banning vital and lifesaving gender-affirming health care for trans youth.

Pernicious politicians

Some examples of the bills and the figures behind them include Governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, who signed such legislation into law stating: “I believe very strongly that if the Good Lord made you a boy, you are a boy, and if he made you a girl, you are a girl.” Ivey also believes doctors who perform abortions should be given 99-year prison sentences.

Another is Louisiana representative Mike Johnson, who proposed the ‘Stop the Sexualisation of Children Act’, which would prohibit funded institutions, including schools and libraries, from mentioning gender identity. He proposed a bill to protect people who discriminate against same sex married couples, and he vocally supported Trump’s 2017 executive order prohibiting immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

The Ohio bill to ban the teaching of sexual orientation or gender identity was introduced by Jean Schmidt. Schmidt also opposes abortion even in the cases of rape or incest, and has refused to rule out banning married couples from being allowed to use birth control.

Tennessee state senator Jack Johnson, who filed one of the drag-ban bills, is also anti-choice and believes public funding of abortion and abortion-supporting organisations should be prohibited. But he defended keeping the bust of the Confederate General and first Ku Klux Klan ‘Grand Wizard’ Nathan Bedford Forrest displayed on the sec-

An injury to one is an injury to all! Ann Orr writes on why the trade union movement must challenge transphobia.

Protest following the brutal murder in England of young trans person Brianna Ghey

bia : p ty

The ‘rainbow capitalism’ lie: Why LGBTQphobia is part of the system

wave of backward bills attack LGBTQ rights

By Conor Payne

AS ALWAYS, this Pride Month we will see major companies putting out Pride-themed advertising, changing their social media profiles and putting out anodyne statements about inclusivity. On one level, this is a fairly simple attempt to cash in on Pride, a tradition whose real roots are in the struggle of the LGBTQ+ community for equality. At the same time, it also reflects a deeper trend – sometimes called ‘rainbow capitalism’ –whereby LGBTQ+ rights are used to try to launder the reputation of an increasingly discredited system.

Nearly every Pride event will be packed with mega corporations and establishment politicians, many of whom only became ‘allies’ of the queer community after our movements had already succeeded in winning increased legal rights and public acceptance. Of course, the ‘freedom’ offered by rainbow capitalism doesn’t mean much for trans people who can’t access healthcare; for LGBTQ+ young people who can’t escape unsafe family situations due to the housing crisis; or to refugees who face deportation to countries where they will be persecuted for who they are.

Right-wing backlash

on the basis of equality, including gender equality, and sexual freedom. The development of class society and a propertied elite brought with it the systemic oppression of women and enforced heterosexual family structures as a means of securing a line of inheritance for accumulated wealth. With the development of capitalism, the idealised nuclear family was the sphere where women would do the unpaid domestic labour necessary for the reproduction of the system — including child rearing, cooking and care work – while in the capitalist workplace women could be exploited as a low paid section of the workforce. This is not just history – capitalism still relies on the oppression of women today. While the traditional nuclear family has been weakened in certain ways, capitalism still relies on the idea that care and domestic labour are private responsibilities rather than the concern of the whole community. The value of women’s unpaid labour is estimated at nearly $11 trillion a year globally.

We need a new movement to fight back against this wave of attacks

ond floor of the Tennessee General Assembly building in Nashville.

Resistance needed

These bills, the proponents behind them, and the ideology they are pushing are deeply backward. Under the guise of “protecting children”, what they really want to do is erase queerness. It isn’t a coincidence that the same people wanting to ban discussion around queerness in schools also oppose samesex marriage. It isn’t a coincidence that the people who want to deny bodily autonomy to trans people also want to deny it to cis women and girls. It isn’t a coincidence that the people who want to ban drag shows also want to ban Muslims. There isn’t a more effective

way to dehumanise and villainise an entire demographic of people than to push the narrative that not only should children not be around them, but children also shouldn’t know they exist. These people don’t even want gay adults to be allowed to marry, and they find the trans community so undesirable that they literally want to make their lifesaving medical care a crime. This weaponisation of public policy has been driven by extremist groups that have a long history of working to oppress the existence and rights of the queer community. But it is happening in the context of a more generalised pushback against gains that have been made in recent years, and it is finding an echo even among some of the supposedly more re-

spectable or liberal sections of the political and media establishment.

We need a new movement to fight back against this wave of attacks; one that returns to the radical traditions of the early LGBTQ movement. This means one from below based on queer people, young people and working-class people, with no reliance on the establishment, liberal or otherwise, which has never seriously fought for or defended our rights. This is urgent, and it’s a global issue. If we don’t fight against it right now, as it is happening, it will mean the next generation will have to fight the same battles we did, but more crucially, these bills will have a chain reaction that will result in the loss of life for countless queer youth.

The difference now is that under this system we are not seeing steady progress for LGBTQ+ people but the opposite – a growing right-wing backlash which targets us all, and in particular the trans community. The capitalist media, politicians and an emboldened far right are pushing a moral panic based on fear and misinformation about trans people, drag queens and the ‘indoctrination’ of children. This is part of a broader right-wing backlash which also targets migrants, the global feminist movement and the left. It's a strategy not just to reverse the achievements of movements of oppressed people, but to stabilise an increasingly crisis-ridden capitalism around an authoritarian programme.

In this context, we will see more and more the shallowness of the commitment of capitalism to LGBTQ+ rights, e.g. Target, a major retailer in the US, which has removed Pride merchandise from its shops in response to an right-wing campaign of pressure. Its not just that capitalism isn’t a route to real liberation – there are reasons why this system continually gives rise to homophobia and transphobia. They are in its DNA.

History of gender oppression

Early human societies were organised

It’s not possible to maintain a setup like this without an ideology of rigid gender norms, or without the social control of gender and sexuality. Queer people are targeted because they exist outside these idealised conceptions of masculinity and femininity and the nuclear family structure. Capitalist societies have, in general, subjected LGBTQ+ people to criminalisation, pathologisation and stigmatisation. Backward ideas about gender and sexuality have been transmitted in capitalist society by some of its key institutions, including religion, the media, the education system and the state.

Socialist struggle for liberation

In recent decades, the struggles of LGBTQ+ people themselves have won significant progressive changes, and also had a huge effect on the attitudes of ordinary working-class people, although of course homophobia and transphobia remain part of daily life even in the most ‘progressive’ capitalist countries. However, capitalism itself has not been altered fundamentally and this system in crisis is now dredging up every prejudice in order to tie working-class people into its continued rule.

It’s no surprise that many LGBTQ+ young people are convinced that to really achieve liberation we need to end this system and fight for an alternative. That alternative is a socialist society based on equality and solidarity, where wealth is taken from the hands of the capitalist elite and controlled democratically for the needs of all.

Where next for the health strikes?

utive. Union leaders need to take a leaf from the Tory playbook and bring the pressure of the working class to bear on the Assembly parties. Indeed, union members may need to bring rank and file pressure to bear on their leaders. There is huge support and goodwill towards health workers, an increasingly militant mood amongst workers and anger felt in communities. This combination of factors lays the ground for real wins, not just for health workers, but for workers across the public sector and beyond. It's incumbent on the leadership of the unions to coordinate industrial action, not just in health but across the public and private sector. Such action can be strengthened by linking health with other anti-cuts struggles and by calling public rallies and demonstrations which gives ordinary people the opportunity to express their support for both the health service and its staff.

By Eóin Dawson

WITH THE Stormont Assembly down and a pay deal agreed by a majority of Unions in England, many struggle to see a way forward for the health strikes. But with Northern Ireland now the only region with no pay

a strategy to escalate the action is needed now more than ever.

Both Unite and RCN members in England voted against the deal offered there. The RCN vote is particularly impressive given their members rejected the deal against the advice of their unions' leadership. Further action by the RCN and Unite, Junior

Doctors and other health workers is already planned. What's needed in all regions now is coordination. Many workers have been left confused by the fact that they have taken strike action on different days to their colleagues from other unions. Few are convinced that spreading the strikes over different days maximises the impact. Union

Royal Mail: Reject below-inflation deals and union busting!

By Padraig Mckee

AFTEREIGHTEEN days of

strike action, eleven months of discussions, and three national strike ballots, Royal Mail (RM) and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) leadership have presented the membership with a deal.

On pay, the offer of 10% over three years and a £500 one-time payment represents a real-term pay cut. Protections against further casualisation and ‘efficiency’ changes are minimal. The promise of no compulsory redundancies until April 2025 will come with little fanfare from workers who are facing drastically worse terms in the company's race to Amazon style conditions.

The absence of strike action following the renewed mandate in February invited the management to continue their attacks on workers' conditions and weakened the union's bargaining position, undoubtedly leading to this poor deal.

Royal Mail’s holding company International Distribution Services (IDS)

stated that with a loss of £748 million for the financial year, they cannot afford to increase wages, and have to force through ‘efficiency’ improvements to prevent insolvency. Such pleas of poverty are laughable in the context of the £1.9 billion paid out in dividends since privatisation, the reported £700,000 received by former CEO Simon Thompson after his resignation and the £758 million in profits posted in the previous financial year.

IDS should be forced to prove these claims; if IDS cannot afford to pay their workers properly, the union should organise a campaign for the renationalisation of Royal Mail, to protect against further casualisation, and job losses and maintain the service as we know it.

Throughout this dispute, management has employed intimidation tactics to break the resolve of the workforce.

Over 200 CWU reps and members were suspended or sacked on often spurious charges.

The CWU has proposed a review of the actions of Royal Mail management

which at the time of writing is in jeopardy due to management failing to even live up to their new agreement. Regardless, making the review of sacked trade unionists contingent on this agreement being accepted is blackmail. This plays into the hands of management. A rep at the Glasgow briefing to discuss the offer stated, “I’m going to vote YES for those sacked and suspended guys. I don’t like parts of the deal. But just to get these guys back”.

The answer to the inadequate pay deal, further casualisation, and unionbusting tactics of Royal Mail is not to “Vote Yes”. The strike action that brought management back to the negotiation table points the way forward for the posties. In April, Royal College of Nurses members organised to reject the insulting offer in favour of further industrial action. The same should and can be achieved in the CWU, with reps opening discussion up in every workplace, renewing the vibrancy that characterised this campaign's beginning, to reject this deal and organise for further industrial struggle.

leaders have also failed to draw on the tremendous well of public support for health workers.

It is a deeply mistaken approach for unions to pull their punches because of the lack of a functioning Assembly. The secretary of state's recent "punishment budget" is designed to put pressure on the Stormont parties to form an Exec-

The significance of a win for the NHS in Northern Ireland is hard to understate. Rather than being led by their counterparts in Britain, unions in Northern Ireland can lead by example and win more than just pay parity with the least well paid. They can begin to pull the health service back from the brink. An intense, effective campaign would also serve to unite working class people here in their common interests. Something sorely needed in the current period of deepening division and polarisation.

Survitec workers’ strike for decent pay

AROUND 160 workers at liferaft and lifejacket manufacturer

Survitec have been on strike since June 1. Following the insulting pay offer of only 6% by the company, workers organised to take action. A 100% vote for strike action on an 80% turnout is an indication of the determination. Delivery truck drivers have been convinced to not pass the picket and well organised shifts are ensuring an unwavering approach from early morning to late afternoon at the factory gate.

The company is a leading manufacturer of marine and aircraft safety equipment with packed order books.

As Neil Moore, Unite the union officer and Socialist Party member has pointed out "The cost of the pay increase sought by the workers is less than one percent of this company’s total sales. In an unprecedented inflationary period where its sales have increased by more than 130% over pre-pandemic levels – Survitec can easily afford to pay their employees.

"We're all sticking together"

Most workers we spoke to on the picket line are experiencing their first ever strike. Of course the key issue is about pay and the fight for an inflation-busting pay rise. But it is equally clear that for the workers this is also about respect and dignity at work. Taking a stand after a huge increase in workloads and pressure; bullying tactics remain unchallenged and a complete absence of thanks for those who worked on essential production during the pandemic is what workers here are doing.

From organising BBQs to bringing hand-made placards and holding impromptu conga dances to making sure that passing traffic shows support through beeping their horns - Survitec workers continue to show their resolve to maintain this strike. The sense of solidarity is evident and expressed by workers very clearly. One said "It's different this time. This time we are all sticking together".

offer,

Health workers took strike action to demand respect, fair pay and to save the NHS from collapse

US: Pride Events Cancelled We can’t back down!

By Margot Stewart (ISA - United States)

Below is an abridged article originally published on socialistalternative.org

YOUNG QUEER people in Port St. Lucie, Florida were disappointed to find out at the end of April that not only was the community’s annual Pride parade canceled, but the Pridefest street fair was restricted to ages 21 and older. To add insult to injury, the event was surrounded by blackout perimeter fencing and hired security.

These measures were taken out of fear that the event would violate Senate Bill 1438, a bill that would prosecute anyone who exposes children to “live adult performances,” particularly targeting drag shows. While the law has not yet been signed by Florida Governor DeSantis, event organizers cite the current “political climate” as their basis to back down. This likely won’t be the last Pride event to be scaled back this year in the face of a national onslaught of antiLGBTQ laws.

Giving Ground To The Right Wing

While these laws are dangerous, enforcing them upon ourselves is highly misleading to the thousands of young and working class queer people looking to fight back. This concedes to the rightwing narrative that queer life and culture are pornographic and inappropriate for young people, that they are shameful

and should only happen in private.

While the far right has been very vocal about this narrative, it is not necessarily widely accepted by ordinary people. The right will make similar attacks on any group of working people rising up for their rights. It is a serious mistake for queer organizations to back down and create space for this narrative to gain ground among broader layers of working people who could be won over. Instead, we should challenge the right-wing on any attempt to limit Pride demonstrations based on this grossly false and reactionary characterization.

Pride events create an important public space not just for self expression but for discussion, organization, and

struggle. Beating back these rightwing attacks will require us to tap into the militant history of how Pride began. If we instead surrender this tradition, the only outcome can be confusion, demoralization, and the weakening of our movement.

How Do Young Queer People Defend Ourselves?

Ultimately the queer rights movement will be safer the broader and more organized we can make it. A recent Fox News poll found that 86% of respondents consider right-wing attacks on queer youth to be a problem, and 57% identified it as “a major problem.” These figures should not be interpreted to mean that we can wait

for the far right to be quietly defeated at the ballot box, but they show that there is a real basis to link up the struggle for queer rights with broader movements of working and young people.

Queer youth searching for a way to defend our rights should look to the lessons of the militant history of the civil rights and women’s movements of the 60s and 70s, which included the first iterations of the organized queer rights movement in the US. We cannot have any faith that if we disappear from the public eye these laws will simply be defeated in the courts and legislatures. Instead, we need to fight to create the basis for mass civil disobedience and organized action in the

Climate crisis: Out of the frying pan into the fire – El Niño is on its way

By Keishia Taylor

A NEW report warns that the fast-approaching El Niño will bring unprecedented scorching temperatures globally. The next five years will almost certainly be the warmest five-year period ever recorded, according to the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a natural phenomenon that cycles between warmer El Niño and cooler La Niña phases, changing global weather patterns and causing heat waves, droughts, hurricanes and flooding. In a capitalist system that disregards human life, this spells disastrous consequences for food and water security, health and the environment.

During El Niño, the equatorial Pacific Ocean becomes up to 3°C warmer, adding up to 0.2°C to the average temperature of the Earth. Since the planet is already 1.2°C above preindustrial times, this extra heating phenomenon could (even temporarily) tip us over the 1.5°C target set in the 2015 Paris Agreement within the next year.

What can we expect?

Despite the cooling effects of an unusually-long La Niña over the last

streets as the real path to render antiLGBT laws unenforceable.

Queer youth cannot rely on NGOs and corporate Pride organizations to stand up and defend us from homophobic and transphobic laws, and certainly not without a fight. These groups have long since sold out the fighting character of Pride, turning it instead into a festival of rainbow-colored corporate interests. During the fight for marriage equality, the preeminent pro-LGBT NGO, the Human Rights Campaign came under fire from trans activists for being viciously exclusionary. They excluded trans-inclusive provisions from legislation they were pushing because it was too “controversial.”

Alternative Pride events should be democratically planned, with organizing coalitions brought together representing various groups and organizations looking to be involved. Having democratic structures will prevent organizers from making unaccountable decisions to cancel events like we’ve seen with corporate Pride.

Schools have correctly been a focal point of struggle so far, with students leading walkouts and demonstrations. These actions can be linked up with teachers’ struggle against cuts and privatizations, which are just one example of how right-wing attacks on marginalized groups are part and parcel of broader attacks on the living standards of all working people.

three years, we have seen an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. For example, dramatic wildfires have ravaged huge regions of the Amazon, Australia, California, Spain, Greece, Siberia, Lebanon, Chile, Tanzania, Algeria — the list goes on.

But as this natural climate event collides with the worsening climate effects caused by human activity, we can expect cataclysmic results. Australia, for example, is facing a dramatic swing from a rainy three-year La Niña period to one of the hottest, driest El Niño periods ever seen, heightening the risk of severe heat waves, droughts and fires. Climate experts claim that with the onset of El Niño, “the extreme weather that has rampaged across our planet in 2021 and 2022 will pale into insignificance.”

A typical El Niño causes drought in Indonesia, Australia, southern Africa, and India, intense hurricane seasons in the Pacific, colder winters in northern Europe, and widespread heat waves, causing deaths and mass displacement and sharpening poverty and food insecurity for millions of people. But as the planet’s warming due to greenhouse gas emissions continues unabated, those conditions could soon be the long-term norm, even in the cooler phases of the ENSO.

The roots of the problem

The climate crisis is quickly reaching devastating tipping points from which there will be no return. Despite hundreds of countries and large companies making net zero pledges, which in themselves are nowhere near enough and there are almost no rules

to enforce them, they are failing to meet their targets. The WMO has reported that the concentration of all three greenhouse gases hit unprecedented levels in 2021.

Recent years have seen a multitude of mass protests, youth climate strikes, the global feminist wave, and the upsurge of the labour movement in

many counties. Therein lies our hope — a united working class movement that can end the rule of the capitalist class that is laying waste to our planet. It is clearer than ever before that we need urgent action on climate change and a democratic socialist society built for human and environmental wellbeing, not profit.

Queer youth cannot rely on NGOs and corporate Pride organizations to stand up and defend us from homophobic and transphobic laws

Climate catastrophe is being fueled by capitalist drive for profit

Review: Blue Lights directed by

Gilles Bannier

Socialism 101 series #13

Reviewed by Chris Stewart

BBC One's new police drama

'Blue Lights', set in Belfast, has been renewed for a second season. The series follows three probationary response officers as they begin their careers in the PSNI.

What differentiates this show from other police dramas is its attempts to navigate the political dynamics of Northern Ireland. It avoids the case-ofthe-week format of other cop shows in favour of a longer story centring around a paramilitary drug-gang led by the fictional McIntyre family.

Much of the series focuses on the parasitical role played by paramilitaries in working class communities. In one particularly harrowing moment, a father is forced to take his son out to a prearranged kneecapping. One of the better written characters is a mother who is desperately trying to stop her son from being sucked into the drug gang. 'Blue Lights' is at its best in these moments when it is bringing such brutal realities to light.

As the series unfolds, so too does the

collusion between the British state and the drug gang itself. This is an interesting point of tension that, in the end, sadly does not live up to its potential. In general, while the setting of 'Blue Lights' can sometimes make for interesting television, at other times the show fails to deal adequately with the reality of the subject matter it attempts to touch on.

The series shows that many working class communities have zero trust for the PSNI, but the main characters are presented as heroic figures who are ultimately confused as to why this is the case.

The show presents a sanitised version of the PSNI and covers up the real role the force plays in the North. In reality, many working class and young people do not trust the PSNI due to their own experiences. Statistics from the Detail point toward 13 young people a day being stopped and searched on average. Harassment by the PSNI or the likes of stop-and-search creates distrust and suspicion. In working-class catholic communities, the memory of RUC brutality still casts a shadow over the PSNI.

Marxist journal of the Socialist Party: Socialist Alternative no.17

Includes articles on:

l One Year of War in Ukraine

l Capitalist Crisis Deepens, Fascist Threat Rises

l Extended Review: Marx in the Anthropocene by Kohei Saito

l The Good Friday Agreement 25 Years On

l Big Tech in Turmoil

l The General Strike Today

l The Toxic Ideology of the Manosphere

l Reviews of Marx’s Literary Style, The Book of Desire, Rotten Prod and It’s Okay To Be Angry About Capitalism

€4 / £4

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

In working-class protestant areas there is a growing mistrust of the PSNI due to a sense of biased policing against their community.

At a time when misconduct in the PSNI has been in the spotlight, the series fails to deal with this. In 2022 130 police officers were investigated for misconduct, including many examples of sectarian policing, sexual harassment and domestic violence.

One episode shows an example of racial profiling, resulting in the stop and search of a black school student. However this is presented as merely the doing of one "bad apple" police officer.

In reality, the problem is far more systemic, ethnic minorities are twice as likely to be stopped and searched. In general, the PSNI use stop and search to target working class people, especially young people, with thousands of children being victims of this in 2022.

'Blue Lights' is well made and often entertaining, but it ultimately fails to present a real picture of the PSNI and how it operates.

Are there any socialist countries?

Can’t we just reform capitalism?

By Eddie McCabe

You don’t have to be a revolutionary to know there’s something profoundly wrong with the world we live in, and to want to try to change it. Every day millions of people around the world engage in protests, campaigns or activism of some sort, whether on single issues or for broader social change. This activity is important, and when successful makes a real difference to people’s lives.

But at some point a vital realisation should come to those seriously engaged in consistent activism; i.e. that no problem in society exists in isolation, and therefore, while it can be alleviated it can’t be solved by a focus on that problem alone. Whether it's homelessness, disease, racism, climate change, war, or anything else; these problems are all connected in one way or another, and in fact are all symptoms of the economic and social system we live under: capitalism. And without changing that system, any reforms we do win will be either insufficient or short-lived.

No doubt it would be a lot easier if we could just reform capitalism, but revolutionaries argue for its overthrow not because we’re more radical for the sake of it but because of an understanding of how capitalism actually works. Capitalism is a system based on the private ownership of the economy – the wealth, resources, and all the human labour and machinery needed to turn them into all the things we use and consume – by a class of people (capitalists) whose privileged position is literally defined by its exploitation of another class of people (workers). This is why you simply cannot have capitalism –any form of capitalism – without inequality and injustice. And from systemic inequality and injustice comes all the rest of the crap –racism, LGBTQphobia and oppression generally.

So anyone who accepts the right of a class of people to own the economy and exploit everyone else is accepting capitalism. Now, this can be because they think all is well and this is the way it should be, which would make them a ‘reactionary’ – a supporter of the status quo. Or it could be that they just don’t think things could be any

other way, and the best we can do is curb the power of the capitalist class with state regulations that benefit workers and the poor and make things more equal, which would make them a reformist.

Either way, by accepting capitalism they are also accepting that poverty, oppression and environmental destruction will always be with us, because the elementary logic of capitalism says that profit-making for capitalists must come before all else, and as long as profits are being made everything else will be fine. But that’s patently false; hence the state of the world today.

Reformism – curbing the system's excesses – is unfortunately bound to fail because it’s an attempt to resolve the contradictions of capitalism on the basis of capitalism. No matter how radically you regulate the economy or society you cannot get capitalism to work in the interests of both workers and capitalists, because the interests of workers and capitalists are opposites, e.g. higher wages means lower profits and vice versa. As soon as you advance the interests of one you undermine the other.

This has been the experience of every left-reformist government that’s tried. Even with the best of intentions and with huge popular support for their policies, eventually they will be faced with either a violent clash with the capitalist state, or a major economic crisis. This might be the result of an investment strike – whether by capitalists engaged in vindictive retaliation, or just capitalists whose profits are really being squeezed by pro-worker policies.

Either way unemployment will rise and all the revenue the government relies on will dry up, so it won’t be able to fund the new reforms it has enacted, never mind public services more generally. It will be forced to revert to austerity and attack workers’ wages and conditions to try to restore profitability and get the capitalists to invest again. Such is the logic of the system.

That’s why we have no choice but to break with that logic, and why the change we need – to save humanity from extinction – can only be achieved through socialist revolution; to bring capitalism to an end.

Jonathan Diebold

Tax haven Ireland – government facilitates mega-profit making

Protesting too much

It is common knowledge that Ireland is a tax haven. It has been described as such by numerous economists, organisations, and studies around the world, and is backed up by reams of evidence of big corporations taking advantage of this status. It would seem no one could deny it – except perhaps the government. On at least six occasions over the past six years, Leo Varadkar has told the Dáil that, “Ireland is not a tax haven. We do not want to be perceived as a tax haven.”

Sweet deal with Apple

Meanwhile, at the end of May 2023, lawyers in the employ of the Irish government stepped into a top EU court to argue that Apple should not be forced to pay €13.5 billion owed in taxes – a result of a sweetheart deal with the Irish government that saw Apple paying 0.005% tax in 2014. In the same week, it was reported that the state would go to bat to defend Meta from being hit with a €1.2 billion fine by Irish data protection watchdogs.

Decades in the making

Ireland has been described as a tax haven in mainstream commentary since 1981. The Irish government

joined other tax havens such as Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines in opposing OECD plans for a global minimum corporation tax at the already paltry rate of 15%. The government eventually reversed its position but not before extracting several compromises on behalf of large corporations.

Top of list

Ireland is listed as a tax haven in the ten most cited academic papers on tax havens, eight of which were categorised by the European Commission as the ‘most important research on tax havens’ in 2017. In 2015, Irish tax laws helped more taxation to be avoided by large companies than every Caribbean island put together!

12.5% tax rate... on paper

On paper Ireland has a 12.5% corporate tax rate – the average in the EU and globally is over 20% –but in practice, through loopholes and deals with the government, the effective rate is far lower. One 2018 study found the effective rate to be 4%. Companies such as Deloitte, Matheson and Grant Thornton have all marketed themselves as companies that pay an effective 2.5% tax rate in this state. In 2017, tech giants Apple, Google, Facebook and Oracle paid less than 1%.

Cooking the books

In the 2010s, the state developed a new method of tax avoidance.

Economist Brian O’Boyle, co-author of Tax Haven Ireland, described it as a system where corporations can invoice impossible-to-value intellectual property items such as “software, logos or a part of their brand”, essentially making up a price for them and deducting the amount from their taxes. He explained: “They can say they have a €320 billion asset and any profits that come up to €320 billion can be written off against that investment” – one they essentially made up.

Defenders of this tax regime may argue that a big portion of Ireland’s tax revenue comes from offering its low corporation tax. Ignoring for a moment that this additional revenue is a result of ripping off the people of other countries, including many much poorer countries, the government is reliant on a form of taxation that is highly vulnerable to economic change. As one economist

recently said: “Ireland can not rely on corporation tax receipts into the future, because most of it is coming from large US companies and is at the mercy of US political change... the US tax system is almost more important in Ireland than the Irish tax system itself.”

Helping the corporate world make a killing

In 2021, the Tax Justice Network ranked Ireland 11th in its list of enablers of global corporate tax abuse. They estimate that Ireland facilitates $16 billion (€14.8bn) in taxes lost each year by other countries. By 2010, Ireland was reportedly shielding $100 billion annually in US multinational foreign profits alone, helping these corporations get rich at the expense of other state’s coffers.

South: Government policies a boon to the repulsive & dangerous agenda of the far right

camp in Sandwith Street, Dublin, on the back of a small anti-migrant protest that included local residents. Nobody was injured on the day of this disgusting event, but as Socialist Party TD Mick Barry pointed out in the Dáil, “it is only a matter of time before the far-right claims its first killing.”

Govt’s actions fueling the fire

The government can't absolve itself of its own responsibility for the protests. The state is copper-fastening institutional racism in the here and now. The government announced back in January that it would no longer provide shelter for non-Ukrainian refugees seeking international protection. This has led to a surge in on-street homelessness with 500 asylum seekers having no access to state accommodation.

By James McCabe

NOFEWER than 125 antirefugee protests have occurred in Dublin alone this year. Asylum seekers in Clare have been subject to organised intimidation, while a proposed refugee centre in Donegal was set on fire. Farright groups are ratcheting up tensions in communities with racist tropes

about supposedly “unvetted males” posing a danger to women and children.

Although small in numbers, Irish farright activists have had some success in spreading their toxic, racist and transphobic narratives through online activity and the organisation of small protests. Their xenophobic campaign took a dangerous turn when they torched a refugee

Unlike other refugees, Ukrainian migrants are being given the same access to healthcare, education and social welfare services as Irish citizens, although most are living in the same awful conditions as the 12,000+ people living in emergency accommodation. By discriminating against migrants from other parts of the world, the state is fostering the idea of deserving vs undeserving refugees, as they literally tell mainly black and brown people seeking shelter

that they must fend for themselves.

Oppose “divide & rule” narrative

Working-class and poor people are at the sharp edge of the housing crisis. Most people have internalised the narrative pushed by the media and the state for years that there is a scarcity of resources in Irish society. We should make short shrift of any arguments that frame the situation as a competition between working-class and poor people, Irish or non-Irish, settled or Traveller etc.

The mainstream narrative is of an inevitable competition between all people, which conveniently papers over the obscene amount of wealth being hoarded by Ireland’s super rich and big business. Well over €1 billion of public money will be deposited into the bank accounts of landlords and hoteliers this year. An Irish Times report found that major hotel groups have parent companies in Malta, Luxembourg and the Isle of Mann (for the purposes of tax evasion), and they are not required to publish financial reports that disclose their profit margins.

To add insult to injury, many of these large hoteliers are ending their contracts with the state this month in preparation for the tourist season taking off, resulting in what amounts to 1,300 evictions of poor people.

Strategy to defeat far right

The far-right is on the same side as property developers and hoteliers. They actually supported the lifting of the eviction ban. They have also harassed library workers in Cork and Dublin for providing LGBTQ-friendly books.

We need an active, multi-racial movement in schools, colleges, workplaces and communities to fight the far right's campaigns of harassment, bigotry and lies. There are half a million trade union members in Ireland. The union movement must mobilise its power to demand the building of public homes for all and to combat all vestiges of racism.

Tens of thousands took to the streets in February for the #IrelandForAll anti-racist protest in response to the activity of the far right. More recently, socialist and anti-racist activists in Cork distributed thousands of leaflets in working-class communities that included quotes from vaccination centre workers and library workers denouncing the far right. The leaflets also put forward demands for public housing, and dispelled racist and transphobic myths.

Our slogan in the fight against the right must be “an injury to one is an injury to all!”

Aftermath of the horrific attack on Sandwith Street where a refugee camp was burnt down

TheSocialist STOP THE CUTS Trade

Socialist

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

“punishment budget”

parental leave to two years and provide high quality early-years education.

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

• Free education and training for all. 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.

What the

Party stands for:

union movement must challenge the