(Militant No. 694, 6 April 1984, p. 10)
By Peter Taaffe
The capitalist media now has a conscious policy of playing down workers‘ struggles abroad for fear of encouraging similar movements in Britain.
They have ignored the colossal ferment taking place in Southern Ireland, for example, which can exercise an enormous effect on workers‘ struggles in Britain, as became clear to me on my recent visit.
Under the stewardship of the effete Irish capitalists, the country has been brought to the brink of ruin. Right from its inception as an independent state in 1921/22 Southern Irish capitalism has been dependent on Britain. Most of its markets and inward investments were British.
Now Britain has been partly replaced by American, Japanese and German capital. During the long economic upswing which Ireland benefited from late-from 1960-’73 – the fundamental weaknesses of the Irish economy could be hidden.
But now its frailty is exposed by the recent world recession. There has been a collapse of industry which dwarfs even that of Britain. As in the North the number of unemployed, now standing at 216,000 exceeds those employed in manufacturing industry!
Closure of Fords
The latest casualty is the virtual closure of the Ford plant in Cork which has existed in the area for 67 years. In fact it is the oldest Ford plant established outside America, itself. From 5,000 jobs in the plant 10 years ago a mere 230 will be employed at the end of the present closure programme. Already one in five of the labour force is on the dole in Cork.
Ireland’s ruling class sees no way out for itself except by savage reductions in the living standards of the working class. It has amassed foreign debts of £5,000 million. The total deficit including the National Debt and foreign debts is an incredible 12,000-13,000 million Irish pounds, equalling the Gross Domestic Product of the country. Servicing the debt, the payment of interest, equals the amount received in PAYE each year!
State expenditure has swollen from 35% of Gross National Product 10 years ago to 66% last year! This colossal explosion of state spending has a number of causes.
On one hand private industry was incapable, even during the upswing, of developing the Irish economy or providing jobs. The state sector had to fulfil this task. Thus out of a labour force of 1,200,000 something like 200,000 are employed in the state sector.
At the same time the economic downswing internationally has choked off the safety valve of mass emigration which existed for the Irish economy in the past. The millions of „surplus hands“ can no longer find an escape route to America, Canada, Australia or Britain.
Like Reagan, Thatcher and their counterparts around the world, the Irish capitalists are engaged in a policy of savage deflation i.e. cuts in living standards. However in Ireland the vehicle for this policy is the coalition government between one of the main capitalist parties, Fine Gael and leaders of the Irish Labour Party.
The coalition’s disastrous role answers those like Hobsbawm in Britain who have suggested some kind of coalition between Labour and the Social Democrats in the future. By this device the Irish ruling class calculate that they can secure their aims of cutting workers‘ living standards and at the same time discrediting the workers‘ organisations.
Such are the cuts carried out by the government that there has been a tremendous upsurge of workers‘ strikes, occupations and protests. The Irish capitalists are putting relentless pressure on the coalition to carry through further savage cuts in welfare spending in particular. Thus Barry Desmond, a Labour minister in the coalition recently announced the withdrawal of medical cards for students!
The students occupied the Labour headquarters and organised strikes and demonstrations. This in turn provoked the intervention of the police and the jailing of a student leader.
Dick Spring, Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Irish Labour Party has criticised the unions and proposed they forego wage increases to „help the unemployed“. The cost of living in Ireland is at least 20-25% above that of Britain. A pint of Guinness costs £1.16 in Dublin! The collapse of the Irish economy has of course brought in its wake horrendous conditions in the inner-city areas, particularly in the Dublin area.
This has been reflected in the staggering increase in drug addiction in the city of Dublin. The Irish police have been unable to deal with the drug pushers who prey upon and scar the lives of tens of thousands of young Dubliners from working class families.
In some parts of Dublin heroin addiction is more severe than in the worst ghettoes in America. This in turn has led to a quite magnificent movement by workers to rid the area of pushers. When I was in Dublin a demonstration of 5,000 „concerned parents against drug pushers“ marched to the Irish Parliament, the Dail.
What the police and the state have been powerless to achieve, spontaneous action by the workers has done. They have cleared the pushers out of some important estates which were notorious in the past. At the same time crime and other social diseases which go with drug pushing and addiction have been eliminated. This has not pleased the powers that be.
Parents have been denounced as „vigilantes“ by various ministers. Shamefully this has included some Labour leaders. The Irish Labour Party Youth section has greeted the initiative of the workers and pointed to its significance for the movement of the Irish working class.
If Labour would have maintained its independence on a class programme then it would now be in an absolutely impregnable position. However, there is mass disillusionment amongst traditional Labour supporters with the leaders of the party and its role in coalition.
This could be seen in the recent Central Dublin by-election where Labour came fourth behind both the Workers‘ Party (formerly Official Sinn Fein) and also Provisional Sinn Fein! It got a mere 6% of the vote compared to 19% in the 1969 general election. Thus Labour has been reduced to the level of its share of the vote in the 1930s. Recent opinion polls have shown that „over 70% of Labour voters are disillusioned by the behaviour of the party in government.“ (Irish Times, 17 January, 1984).
The coalition itself is extremely unstable and could fall at any time. Such was the discontent with the participation of Labour in coalition that a Labour minister Frank Clusky was forced to resign last year. In defence of their role Dick Spring Labour Leader has declared, „I would be the first to recognise that we are not going to achieve socialism. But neither do I believe that we will achieve socialism by refusing to serve in government until we can form our own.“
This „serving in government“ (a capitalist government)-has involved presiding over a huge increase in unemployed, occupations and even hunger strikes by workers in protest at factory closures and also attacks on welfare spending. The most recent opinion polls show a big increase in support for Fianna Fáil.
It is in this situation that the Labour leaders decided to attack the Marxist wing of the Irish Labour Party, represented by the supporters of Militant Irish Monthly. The great majority of the party rank and file are implacably opposed to any purge of the Marxists. A witchhunt would throw the Labour Party in Southern Ireland into turmoil. It could even cripple the Labour Party in many parts of the country.
However, even if action were taken, this would not mean the end of the Marxist wing of the Labour Party. Nor would it mean the end of the Irish Labour Party as some of the sectarians on the outskirts of the labour movement imagine. The present Labour leadership, it is true, is leading the party to disaster. The disillusionment is such that it is not excluded that even some of the major unions will – wrongly – disaffiliate from the Labour Party.
The Republic’s second largest union, the Federated Workers‘ Union of Ireland, is discussing disaffiliation. Similar moves are afoot within the Irish Transport and General Workers‘ Union, the third largest union in the country. Matt Merrigan recently sent out a circular to union branches in which he says that the Labour Party „has by its repeated failures in conservative governments made itself almost irrelevant to the political needs of unions and working people.
Disaffiliation threat
„In June 1984 the branches of this union will be given an opportunity to recommend disaffiliation until the party regains its Connolly socialist origins and principles.“.
For the trade unions to disaffiliate would be entirely wrong. Their opposition to coalition is well founded. However, it is necessary to change the position of the party using the power of the unions to effect a change in the policies. The Irish Labour leaders must be compelled to withdraw from the disastrous coalition government.
In France after 20 years of coalition government, the Socialist Party was reduced to a rump; it received only 4% of the vote in the presidential elections in 1971. However big events there compelled the former Catholic union the CFDT and tens of thousands of workers to move into the party and begin its transformation.
The right wing Irish Labour Party leaders could possibly reduce it to a shell. But momentous events will force the unions to move in and transform the Labour Party.
One thing is clear; Irish capitalism offers no way forward for the working class. A recent report from an Irish semi-government agency explained that „private industry“ offered no prospect of jobs to prevent a huge rise in unemployment. They said that only state industry and higher taxes were capable of solving the problems which Ireland now faces.
However, on the basis of capitalism such a solution is entirely ruled out. The Irish capitalists are hell bent on forcing big reductions in jobs in the state sector. „State industry“ does however offer a solution but only on the basis of a socialist planned economy. This would involve the nationalisation with minimum compensation on the basis of proven need of the monopolies.
Setback for right
The leaders of the Irish Labour Party have made a major retreat in their campaign against supporters of Militant Irish Monthly.
At the party’s Administrative Council,(National Executive) on 22 March they put forward a resolution calling for the expulsion of anyone associated with Militant Irish Monthly. They hoped this would be passed and put to conference in April.
But 50 to 60 resolutions against the witch hunt were before the AC meeting and the obvious opposition forced the leaders to amend their plans. Now the new AC elected at the April conference will set up a sub-committee to „look into“ the question.
This major victory for the Marxists and anti-coalition forces in the party shows the increased acceptance of the role of Marxism. But Labour Party members are aware that while Labour is in coalition there will be renewed attempts to take organisational methods against Militant, as the real unstated reasons for the right-wing’s attempted purge has been Militant’s consistent opposition to coalition.
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