2010-2011 Winter Fourthwrite

              Issue No. 40 Winter 2010/2011 Price £1/€1:50
Fourthwrite
For a Democratic Socialist Republic
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
2
come to believe that a solution lies
in replacing the reprobates with the
a ʻbetter partyʼ or possibly worse -
with the ʻright individualʼ.
Already some are mooting
the idea of electing Michael OʼLeary
to a position of power in the hope
that he could rescue the economy.
They are attracted by the thought of
a ʻTaoiseach OʼLearyʼ, arguing that
since he is managing a profitable
airline that he would be able to
return the country to profitability. For
the time being this is very much a
minority view. Yet in light of the Irish
business sectorʼs welcome for the
assault on workers announced in the
four-year economic plan, who knows
what they might support if the next
government fails (as it most surely
will) to restore the glory days of the
Celtic Tiger?
With the announcement of a
general election to be held in March,
a frantic round of canvassing will
take place. With the profound dis-taste
that the coalition has earned,
coupled with inept bungling from
Taoiseach Brian Cowen that makes
Gordon Brownʼs final days as
Labour Party Prime Minister appear
positively adroit, there is little doubt
that the next government will be
formed by Fine Gael and the Labour
Party. While the electorate may take
some satisfaction from visiting some
retribution on the miserable lot who
have so seriously damaged the
country, there is little prospect that
much will change with the installa-tion
of a new government.
The Irish Labour Party has
long abandoned any aspiration to be
anything other than a right of centre
social democratic party and in part-nership
with Fine Gael they will con-centrate
on retaining their position in
cabinet. Even before the election the
party representatives are being coy
about telling the electorate what
separates them from the Blueshirts.
The reason for their reluctance to
highlight the difference is simple -
very little separates the two parties.
With little to offer, the people will in
Fianna Fail and the Greens have
justifiably earned the anger of
the Republicʼs population for
the mess they have made of the
countryʼs economy. The latest budg-et
has seen social welfare cuts, the
minimum wage reduced, health care
diminished, cruel taxes levied upon
the poorest in society and a host of
other penalties imposed on the
unfortunate citizenry. The coalition
partners were of course aided and
abetted in this wrecking by criminally
irresponsible bankers and crooked
property speculators. Acting togeth-er,
they have reduced Ireland to a
state of dependency that we havenʼt
known since the foundation of the
26-County state. And all of this done
in order to pay for the extravagance
and gambling debts of the countryʼs
elite.
It would be very tempting to
individualise the problem and point
to a list of miscreants who have per-petrated
this outrage on the people.
A case could certainly be made for
demanding some form of retribution
from the swindlers and charlatans
who have denied so many of an
opportunity to enjoy a reasonable
standard of living on this island and
without fearing for their childrenʼs
health or their own old age. There is
no doubt that those who governed
and those who managed the econo-my
have the immediate responsibili-ty
for reducing the people of Ireland
to the distressful situation they cur-rently
find themselves in.
Nevertheless, we must be
clear that it is the economic system
over which they presided that
allowed them to inflict such devasta-tion
on the country. However under-standable
it might be to demand ret-ribution,
it would be wrong to con-centrate
solely on the personalities
(or even the political parties) who
have damaged us so severely.There
is a risk that if we view this problem
as the making of individuals as dis-tinct
from the inevitable outcome of
a deeply flawed, free market, neo-liberal
economic system, some may
EEddiittoorriiaall
Website
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Contact us at:
webmaster@fourthwrite.ie
or
PO Box 39
An Post
Monaghan Town
After the uprising of the 17th
June
The Secretary of the Writers
Union
Had leaflets distributed in the
Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence
of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it
not be easier
In that case for the govern-ment
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
A solution for
Fianna Fail?
Bertholt Brecht the poet
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
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time, lose patience with the Fine
Gael & Labour coalition. This may
be a defining moment in the devel-opment
of Ireland.
Fianna Fail is in disarray at
present and will suffer a severe
beating at the polls. Sinn Fein is
eyeing the Fianna Fail position and
appears to be preparing itself to
capture its base rather than opt for
the alternative of pushing ahead with
a deep running socialist agenda.
Gerry Adams has made it clear that
he wants to be in government in the
South. Significantly, when the Sinn
Fein Dail party emerged form
Leinster House after the general
elections was announced, they
launched an attack on the hapless
and irrelevant Green Party instead
of excoriating Fianna Fail. There
may be various explanations for this
extraordinary line of attack but its
difficult to see why Sinn Fein would
have its eye on the middle-class
seats held the Greens rather than
those held by Fianna Fail in working
class areas where Sinn Fein has tra-ditionally
done better.
The betting must be, there-fore,
that Sinn Fein is intent on mov-ing
in on Fianna Fail territory. By the
time the general election after the
next comes around, there is a real
possibility that these two parties will
occupy very similar ground and
open the way for a Sinn Fein/Fianna
Fail coalition. At such a stage we will
truly have arrived at the Tweedle
Dee and Tweedle Dum scenario in
Irish politics and at such a stage we
must deliver a radical economic
alternative or wallow in recession
indefinitely.
It is important to emphasise
that the only positive answer to our
difficulties lies in a fundamental
change to the present economic
system. We need an economy that
serves the needs of all and not the
greed of a privileged few. This mag-azine
has said it often before but it
bears repeating that Irelandʼs people
are best served by a socialist
republic and the sooner the better.
Minister in search of water
All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters
by James Joyce
All day I hear the noise of waters Making moan,
Sad as the sea-bird is when, going Forth alone,
He hears the winds cry to the water's Monotone.
The grey winds, the cold winds are blowing Where I go.
I hear the noise of many waters Far below.
All day, all night, I hear them flowing To and fro.
People in search of water
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
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After decades of conflict, it is
understandable that few in
Northern Ireland want a return
to its not so distant bloody past. It is
obvious, therefore, why such a wide
range of public figures would raise
their voices in an attempt to discour-age
the re-emergence of ‘physical-force’
republicanism. Yet there
comes a time when even the best
considered and incisive of criticism
turns into futile, even counter-pro-ductive
hectoring if unaccompanied
by a deeper insight into the ques-tion’s
source.
The community of armed
and aggressive republicans is small
and fractured, and while capable of
grabbing attention has no hope of
gathering telling momentum. For
decades, the northern state (and not
just the regime) was off-limits and
hostile to a majority of its Catholic
population. That community had
good grounds for viewing the state,
its supporters and its trappings as
inimical to them, their aspirations
and their prosperity. When Northern
Ireland proved itself violently resist-ant
to reform in the late 1960’s,
there followed a protracted republi-can
campaign to overthrow the state
and all it stood for.
It is hardly surprising, there-fore,
that after years of struggle it is
taking time for the after-shock of
conflict to die away. There are those
who refuse to recognise that any-thing
has changed and cling to an
obsession with armed insurrection
that borders on a fetish. So fixated
are they with holding on to reassur-ing
old certainties that they fail to
see their analysis is out of sync with
current concrete reality and their
support base is accordingly minute.
In spite of the publicity these fac-tions
can garner, they are isolated
and have little prospect of playing a
decisive role in deciding the future of
the region.
On the other hand, the num-ber
of discontented republicans who
are neither in armed opposition to
the state or on the other hand, will-ing
to endorse its institutions is sig-nificant
and increasing. There is a
belief in these circles that the Good
Friday Agreement is aging poorly.
The essence of a deal that involved
their making major concessions on
Partition and the Union has now
demanded not just further and deep-er
compromise on other issues
viewed by them as important but
has also created a situation where
all benefits of the new arrangement
are not universally available.
Having struggled for years
against an authoritarian system
of governance many now find that
they are still deemed as terrorists.
This is more than just a stigma. It
prevents them travelling to certain
destinations, finding employment on
occasions and under certain circum-stances,
receiving the full benefits of
citizenship. As the generation of
activists grow older this may seem
less important but their families and
neighbours are still aware of a gap
in treatment between those they see
as having striven to end an undemo-cratic
entity and those who upheld it.
In an area, moreover, where
there is no agreed interpretation on
the origin of the conflict or how it
developed, there remains great sen-sitivity
surrounding symbolism.
Issues that might appear mundane
or harmless to outsiders have signifi-cance
in areas where wounds are
not yet healed. It takes little imagi-nation
to understand that for many
of those familiar with the past either
through direct or indirect experience
would have difficulty coming to
terms with the symbols and trap-pings
of a time they so heartily
detested. Attitudes may change in
times but in the meantime it does
not help when the Loyal Orders
the number of
discontented
republicans who are
neither in armed
opposition to the state or
on the other hand, willing
to endorse its institutions,
is significant
and
increasing
‘
Discontented republicans
by Tommy McKearney
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
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deem marching as more important
than civil peace.
There is too the issue of the
Republic’s dealings with the North.
Gestures that appear necessary or
helpful or even a sign of progress in
the corridors of power in Dublin are
not always viewed as such in repub-lican
communities in the 6-Counties.
There are misgivings, for example,
when the Republic’s president pre-sides
over a passing out parade for
the PSNI. The prospect of a royal
visit to Dublin reinforces a percep-tion
that the Taoiseach and his advi-sors
are more inclined to showboat
than understanding the feelings of a
community that long felt itself isolat-ed,
abandoned and downtrodden.
In turn, this causes many northern
republicans feel that they have nei-ther
a voice nor a champion in the
South.
Ultimately though, it is the simple
downright failure of the current
Northern Ireland institutions to make
meaningful improvements that is
presenting the maximum cause for
disenchantment among people so
long conditioned to be suspicious of
the northern Irish state. Rising
unemployment, swinging cut-backs
across the public sector and reduc-tions
in all areas of the Welfare state
have diminished any remaining opti-mism
in the prospects of a ‘Peace
dividend’.
Added to this sense of despon-dency
is the ever growing reali-sation
that the Executive is clearly
unable to influence the course of
events. Stormont is a paper tiger
without the constitutional power to
tax and without the necessary con-sensus
to assert its autonomy as for
example the Scottish Assembly
might.
With their fixation on securi-ty,
both the British and Irish govern-ments
are focused on armed Irish
republicans. Both states are unlikely
to give much consideration to those
who are not threatening violent con-flict.
However, as recession contin-ues
to impact on the most margin-alised
sectors of society the number
of the disenchanted will grow and
while they may not engage in a
physical force campaign, their lack
of enthusiasm for the process
maybe more corrosive of the institu-tions
in the long run than anything
that armed groups may do.
No. Not Bono ... he’s a copper
Still not Bono but no longer a copper
Hardly a great surprise to learn that the British police are running deep
cover agents in protest movements in the UK. Recent revelations that
Mark Kennedy (aka Mark Stone) was an officer in the London
Metropolitan was a juicy story but not one liable to leave many in Ireland
dumbstruck. In a Daily Mail interview broadcast on Channel 4 on January
16, Kennedy dismissed claims that he had abandoned his orders and
changed sides. He confirmed he was tracked everywhere he went, that he
maintained regular contact (at least every two days) and that his where-abouts
were known and his activities sanctioned at the very highest level.
Interestingly from an Irish point of view was his presence at several demon-strations
and protest events in Ireland, most notably with the ‘Shell to Sea’
campaign in Co Mayo. Labour TD Michael D Higgins has written to the
Department of Justice regarding Kennedy’s activities in Ireland. “It is of
grave concern,” he told The Irish Times. “This type of activity undermines
respect for the law and it is very sinister in that it can damage good causes.”
Also of interest is the fact that, according to other sources quoted in
Irish newspapers and websites, it appears PC Kennedy was often quite
enthusiastic in his encouragement for law breaking ‘direct action’ events.
According to the law in both Britain and Ireland, it is an offense for govern-ment
agents to act as agents provocateur and this is the basis for claims
that some of those accused in the UK should now be acquitted. Whatever
happens in the short term, it’s unlikely that Mr Kennedy will be the last secret
agent - or agent provocateur.
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
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Open any news sheet or pam-phlet
published by any of the
well known international
Marxist, revolutionary socialist par-ties
which organise in Ireland or
Britain, like the S.W.P. , Militant/S.P.,
W.R.P., etc. and it would not be sur-prising
to find the following state-ment,
'The capitalist system is a
fundamentally profit-driven system
which is based upon the exploitation
of the working class'
I was pleasantly surprised to
find this statement right at the top of
the introduction to a new policy doc-ument
by the Irish Socialist
Republican party, Éirígí.
Éirígí was formed as a cam-paigning
group in 2006 and has
since registered as a political party in
the south of Ireland. The name Éirígí
is an Irish translation of the word
'rise' in the context in which it was
used by big Jim Larkin, when he
called on the workers of Ireland to
rise against their oppressors and
exploiters.
The policy document pub-lished
by Éirígí last month is entitled
'From Socialism Alone Can the
Salvation of Ireland Come', and was
put into the public domain following a
debate which was hosted in Belfast
by the newly formed student society,
'republican Congress' on the issue,
'Is the cure for Ireland's ills a 32
county Socialist Republic', in which
Éirígí's Daithí Mac An Mhaistír went
head to head with Eoin Ó Broin from
Sinn Fein. I attended the debate and
am happy to confirm that Éirígí won
it, hands down!
The document is a well writ-ten,
clear and lucid argument against
capitalism and its systemic flaws,
complete with a catalogue of statis-tics
and examples of the inequality,
poverty, oppression, death and
destruction which that system has
inflicted on the human race. We are
also treated to a mouth watering
vision of a society controlled by the
people themselves, based on the
philosophy of democratic socialism,
including an aspiration to reclaim the
common lands which were misap-propriated
in past Centuries.
The ideas put forward in this
policy document are more than just a
21st Century update of the writings
of James Connolly, because Éirígí
have put into practice a concept
which other organisations are still
struggling with, that of true participa-tive
internal democracy from the
ground up. Each issue and idea has
been debated at every level, honed
and refined and debated again so
that, in the end, the party's analysis
has as near unanimity as possible.
In a statement accompanying this
policy document Éirígí state that
the perspective 'is not just about
Éirígí taking its place in Ireland's rev-olutionary
tradition. It is also about
changing the parameters of debate
in republican Ireland and beyond.'
This perspective certainly leaves
enough room for debate, because in
some respects it is aspirational and
one important issue that is absent
from the document.
The document is aspirational
in respect of a transitional pro-gramme,
i.e. 'what is to be done',
and to be fair to this young organisa-tion,
no other revolutionary party has
produced a coherent answer to this
question in the present circum-stances.
We all know that global
capitalism is in a crisis which this
time can only end in one of two pos-sible
outcomes, socialist transforma-tion
of the World or it's annihilation.
If we are to ensure that the human
race does not go up in a mushroom
cloud, the working class needs now,
more than ever, to unite and take
power. How can we ever hope to
achieve World unity when in each
country there are several different
strands of revolutionaries, each one
doing its own thing?
In Ireland the left is growing
but not in any unified way, hampered
by our own history, our revolutionary
class has divided into several
camps, two groups of Trotskyist
socialists, the anarchists, the republi-can
socialists, the socialist republi-cans,
the militarist republicans, the
pseudo republicans. Even if all of
these groups joined forces tomorrow,
they would still face the daunting
task of winning the bulk of working-class
away from the many shades of
reaction and nationalism, green and
orange, in both parts of our country.
This policy perspective gives
hope to that unity as it shows that
Éirígí has much in common with
other internationalist socialist parties
and that the 'republican left' have
become confident enough in their
own analysis to put socialism at the
top of their agenda, and 'Socialist' in
front of 'Republican' in their descrip-tion!
One of the problems which
divides the Trotskyist groups is
that each claims to be 'The mass
Party of the Proletariat', this is a dan-ger
which Éirígí needs to be mindful
of. That title has yet to be won, and
my own view is that when the time
'The great
appear great
to us only because
we are
on our knees;
Let us rise!'
Jim Larkin
‘
Michael Craig
Michael Craig
reviews the policy
document recently
published by socialist
republican party éirígí on
its plans for socialism in
Ireland
From Socialism Alone
7
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comes, the mass party in Ireland is
more likely to born out of the many
now existing revolutionary parties,
rather than one of these becoming
dominant.
Achieving unity of the revolu-tionary
left in Ireland may require
some lateral thinking, not least in the
use of terminology, for example in
the way we use the term 'republican'.
A revolutionary socialist who lives in
a monarchy is by definition a republi-can,
as his/her aim is not to trans-form
society into a workers state yet
retain the monarchy.
Sinn fein, not too subtly,
went from referring to their communi-ty
as 'republican' in the 80's, and 're-publican/
nationalist' a few years ago,
to just 'nationalist' more recently,
even though the the ideologies rep-resented
by these terms are diamet-rically
opposite. Perhaps part of Sinn
Fein's evolution was to become
more honest about which of these
ideological caps fits them.
The big question not dealt
with in Éirígí's policy perspective is
that of the working class protestants
who consider themselves to be
British. Again no other revolutionary
party has offered a definitive answer
to this, but it is a problem which can-not
be ignored in the hope that it will
just go away. More lateral thinking
required perhaps, but it may be
worth considering why 'the men of
no property' went in the wrong direc-tion
during the half Century succeed-ing
the revolution of 1798.
In conclusion, Éirígí's
Perspective, 'From Socialism Alone
Can the Salvation of Ireland Come'
is a significant step in the right direc-tion
and a commendable contribution
to the way forward for the working
class in Ireland!
The document is a
well written, clear and
lucid argument
against capitalism
and
its systemic flaws,
‘
Michael Craig is a socialist activist working
in the Mid ulster area and is currently
organising the Union of the Unemployed
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
8
Servants of the public?
Patricia Campbell
... capital expendi-ture
on mental
health
in Northern Ireland
was considerably
less than the rest of
England, Scotland
and Wales
considering the
impact of the long
conflict here.
The Island of Ireland is crippled
with ice and snow in tandem
with the crippling collapse of
the economy. The impact of both is
felt most by the poor and vulnerable.
In Northern Ireland, we rely
heavily on public services. Sweeping
cuts to our public and social servic-es,
pay cuts and job losses are tak-ing
their toll. The snow and ice will
thaw but the hardship felt by the
people is not likely to thaw soon.
In rural areas, schools and
other vital services have closed
because the iced roads are impass-able.
Front-line community health
workers struggle to deliver life-sav-ing
care to patients in these adverse
conditions, a heightened risk that is
not recognised by government
departments that squabble over
whose responsibility it is to clear the
roads that keep people housebound
The British Government relies on
a well-paid, top-heavy adminis-tration
to implement its policies in
Northern Ireland. As front-line health
workers struggle with increased
work-loads and adverse conditions,
a leading newspaper (The Irish
News) revealed that government
bureaucrats spent an estimated
£360,000 (British sterling) of public
money on overseas training and
conferences over the past three
years.
Dr Andrew McCormick, per-manent
secretary at the Department
of Health, defended spending
£3,600 in public funds to send the
Health and Social Care Board’s
Chief Executive, John Compton, to
Kaiser Permanente in California. Dr
McCormick said,
“The focus has to be how
we secure patient safety,” and he
described this trip as “value for
money.” Value for money?
The Irish News also
revealed that senior National Health
Service (NHS) managers were jet-ting
around the world on expensive
courses. Among the far-flung desti-nations
visited by staff were
Orlando, Nashville, Nice, Paris and
Jonkoping in Sweden. During one 4-
day conference, fourteen health
administrators stayed in a 4-star
Berlin hotel. And last month, several
managers booked into a luxury
Boston hotel patronised by former
US President, Bill Clinton, and the
Dalai Lama.
Also reported, one former
NHS Boss, Pedro Delgado went on
11 trips abroad at a cost of £32k to
the public purse. According to the
report the Venezuelan-born Mr
Delgado currently lives in the US
and works as a director for the US
Institute for Health Improvement
(IHI) an international private body,
which hosted many of the interna-tional
courses. A spokes person for
the South Eastern Health and Social
Care Trust defended the public fund-ing
of Mr Delgado’s trips saying
“Ultimately this work saved lives and
contributed to better outcomes for
patients in Northern Ireland. When
contacted by the Irish News,
Delgado defended the public funding
of his trips by citing improvements
that have been made in a number of
services including mental health
services
‘
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
9
Gerry Robinson, former
head of Granada, would disagree. In
a BBC NI documentary, “Life
Matters” screened in 2009.
Robinson painted a very dim picture
for mental health services. Robinson
made the point that capital expendi-ture
on mental health in Northern
Ireland was considerably less than
the rest of England,
Scotland and
Wales consider-ing
the impact
of the long
conflict
here.
One
must
ask why Trust
managers
authorised the
use of public
funds from
under resourced
health serv-ices.
The squandering of public funds
must stop and Public sector man-agers
must be held to account.
Ireland’s gloomy weather
reflects the mood of the people. The
NHS belongs to us. Imagine how
many front-line staff could be
employed for the thousands of
pounds spent on trips and luxurious
hotels! It’s time that we took control
of our health service to make
it accountable and respon-sive
to our needs. There
would be no more
squandering of public
funds. I doubt if most
people would agree
that US medical cor-porations
offer “value
for money” or that
they can show us
how to secure patient
safety.
George Halvorson, Chairman & CEO, Kaiser Permanente
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or
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An Post
Monaghan Town
Tommy McKearney of the
Independent Workers Union
addressed a conference in Malmo,
Sweden organised by the Workers
Solidarity Movement(WSM). He
spoke to the conference about the
real origins of the Celtic Tiger and
how it had been brought about. He
then informed those present of the
detrimental impact of twenty years
of social partnership on the working
class in Ireland and how it had
robbed the trade union movement
of its ability to resist the onslaught
of the state and capital when reces-sion
came. He concluded his
address by telling the audience of
the work of the Independent
Workers Union in Ireland
IWU speak in
Sweden
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
10
On May 1st, 2003 six Scottish
Socialist Party members
were elected to Holyrood. As
from December 23rd, 2010, by far
the best-known (former) member of
the SSP, Tommy Sheridan, faces a
jail sentence for committing perjury,
following in the footsteps of Lord
Jeffrey Archer and Jonathan Aitken.
How has this sad state of
affairs come to pass, and is there
anything socialists can usefully learn
from all this? Perhaps the most
immediate lesson is the incompati-bility
of trying to build a socialist
organisation through promoting a
celebrity leader. Furthermore, this
has been highlighted, in the UK, not
only by the example of Tommy
Sheridan, but also of Derek Hatton
(CWI/Militant), Arthur Scargill
(Socialist Labour Party) Ken
Livingstone (one-time Left independ-ent)
and George Galloway
(Respect).
However, the fact that the
same mistake keeps repeating itself
shows that a significant section of
the Left in the UK is more attracted
to populist politics, than to genuine
socialist politics, where all members
are treated as equals and are
encouraged to think for themselves.
Another shortcoming has been
the failure of much of the Left in
Scotland, following from Tommy
Sheridan’s lead, to be able to deal
with sexual politics. In the face of
salacious newspaper attacks regard-ing
their sex lives, Bertie Ahern and
John Prescott, to name but two
prominent politicians, have managed
to handle the press far better. “So
what?” or, “People’s sexual lives are
a private matter”, should have been
the obvious response by any social-ist
to the News of the World accusa-tions.
Tommy could not do this
because his populist politics had led
him, at every media opportunity, to
cultivate his own celebrity image. He
portrayed himself as being part of
Scottish Left split between celebrity populist and genuine socialist politics
by Allan Armstrong ... Republican Communist Network and SSP member
Tommy Sherridan
The Sherridan perjury trial
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
11
‘the perfect family’ - Tommy, Gail
and “my little princess”, Gabrielle
(which perhaps revealingly puts
Tommy and Gail in the position of
king and queen!)
Socialists are not sexual prudes
and should defend a person’s
right to engage in any consensual
sexual activity of their choice. They
should not be drawn into the sleeze
mongering of the tabloid press,
whether it be the News of the World
or the Daily Record. However, any
socialist makes him or herself a
hostage to fortune, if they demon-strate
hypocrisy in their attitudes and
behaviour in this particular arena.
John Major’s public support for ‘fam-ily
values’, whilst personally leading
a somewhat different private life,
had already demonstrated how the
media would deal with such
hypocrisy.
The heart of Tommy’s court
case against the News of the World
was the presentation of a completely
false story, which involved the sacri-fice
of the SSP Secretary, Barbara
Scott, for doing her job, and of those
leading SSP members, including
four MSPs, Frances Curran, Colin
Fox, Rosie Kane, Carolyn Leckie,
who refused to perjure themselves
so that he could use his own political
position and celebrity status to
extract a substantial sum of money
from the News of the World for his
wife, Gail. The fruits of the politics of
populism were made starkly clear.
‘Lesser’ members had to sacrifice
themselves for the ‘great leader’.
Perjury in court is an every-day
event, which is normally
ignored. However, when it involves
elected public figures, who misuse
their position for personal gain (or to
publicly discredit and undermine
another elected representative, if
Sheridan’s accusations had been
true), then the state is much more
likely to step in. This is true whatev-er
the politics of the accused, as the
case of the Archer and Aitken, two
Tories, had already shown.
However, there was an addi-tional
reason why the state was
eager to finance this particular per-jury
case. The police investigation
would be useful cover for a massive
intelligence-gathering exercise on
the Left; whilst the ensuing court
case would provide the opportunity
to set-up a piece of political theatre,
in which socialists would publicly
tear each other to pieces. Therefore,
from the state’s point of view, the
£4M on the police investigation and
the court case was well spent.
Although there is now a deep
divide amongst the Left in
Scotland, there are still some
remaining shared political character-istics,
held at the two leadership lev-els.
In particular, neither Sheridan’s
supporters, not the majority of the
SSP leadership, have learned one
particular fundamental lesson when
it comes to the advance of principled
socialist politics.
You do not go to the bour-geois
press selling stories attacking
other socialists as both Tommy
Sheridan of Solidarity and George
McNeilage of the SSP did. Nor do
you go to courts for rulings on how
socialists conduct themselves. Such
appeals should only be made to the
democratic institutions of our class.
What chance have socialists got of
bringing about socialism in the face
of capitalist economic and state
power, if we have to run to their
courts to sort out our problems in
the here and now? This is the most
basic lesson that socialists in
Scotland need to learn.
Socialist MEP Joe Higgins has
expressed concern about the
prosecution of a former IRA
gun-runner and Sinn Féin ard
comhairle member for the attempted
murder of a UDR man 30 years ago.
Higgins has told the British
government that, while he doesn't
share the politics of Gerry
McGeough, the decision to charge
him with an offense committed dur-ing
the height of the Troubles
"seems at odds with the provisions
of the Good Friday agreement".
McGeough, from Co Tyrone,
is the first republican to be charged
with historical crimes since the 1998
agreement. He is charged with IRA
membership in 1975 and the 1981
attempted murder of UDR man
Sammy Brush. He has pleaded not
guilty.
His trial, which opened in
March, has ended but judgment has
not been delivered. Higgins also
complained that McGeough had
faced a Diplock, no-jury trial.
He told the British secretary
of state for the North, Owen
Patterson: "I would like to register
my protest at the ongoing use of
Diplock courts in Northern Ireland
which... fall far short of the best of
what is normally available."
Ex-IRA man trial 'at odds with deal',
says Higgins
Suzanne Breen, Northern Editor,
Sunday Tribune January 9, 2011
Joe Higgins
critcises trial of
Gerry
You do not
go to the
bourgeois press
selling stories
attacking other
socialists
as both
Tommy Sheridan
of Solidarity
and
George McNeilage
of the SSP did.
Nor
do you go to courts
for rulings
on how socialists
conduct themselves
ʻ
The full version of this article can be
found at:- http://thecommune.co.uk/
Gerry McGeough
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
12
Fourthwrite Winter 2009
The day after the publication of
the so-called ʻMemorandum of
Understandingʼ between the
Dublin government and the IMF/EU,
RTÉʼs Pat Kenny chose to lead his
current affairs radio show with a half
hour slot upbraiding and demonising
public sector workers. The immense-ly
wealthy Pat Kenny and the not so
intrepid reporter Ingrid Miley reeled
in horror at the discovery of a ʻdevi-ous
plotʼ by low paid public sector
workers to cause economic carnage
by availing of a long standing agree-ment
to take one half day per year
to engage in a spot of Christmas
shopping. To listen to the RTÉ pair
one would be mistaken for believing
that it was the half-day Christmas
shopping that beggared the nation
and not in fact the low tax and
deregulated financial regime
imposed by consecutive Fianna Fáil
governments, or the hundreds of bil-lions
gambled and lost by bankers
and developers, or indeed the tax
dodging by multi-national corpora-tions
and wealthy individuals.
Not satisfied that public sec-tor
workers have already taken a 15
per cent pay cut, that 27,000 will
lose their jobs over the next four
years and that pensions have been
slashed, media figures such as Pat
Kenny and his cohorts in the
Sunday Independent will not rest it
seems until public sector workers
have been driven into a state of des-titution.
Kenny, staunch defender of
the free market, who bags almost
€1 million per annum from the pub-lic
broadcaster, seemed reassured
that the IMF was here to impose a
spot of free market discipline upon
the workers and to threaten them
with further pay cuts and job losses
if they do not acquiesce.
There is a serious intent
behind the ceaseless attacks upon
public sector workers and their
unions. Advocates of the free market
are given regular and unchallenged
slots on the state broadcaster to
ceaselessly spout the message that
the economy needs to return to
ʻcompetitivenessʼ. In other words
workers must take a pay cut and
work even harder in order to
improve the rate of profit for the
bosses. By constantly belittling,
demonising and scapegoating public
sector workers and their unions, the
elite also seeks to undermine the
confidence of all workers and to
drive home their message that com-petition
is the driving force of socie-ty.
According to the free market phi-losophy
decent pay and conditions,
trade union representation and uni-versally
accessible public services
are a barrier to the free flow of com-petition,
which is after all the
lifeblood of capitalism. That this phi-losophy
provides the cornerstone of
the IMFʼs ʻMemorandum of
Understandingʼ with the Dublin gov-ernment
should not therefore be of
any great surprise. Notwithstanding
the utter devastation that this eco-nomic
system has wrought, its
incessant crises and disastrous poli-cies;
capitalism is made to seem like
the only show in town.
The capitalist vulture is now cir-cling
over the carcass of the Irish
economy ready to swoop upon our
public assets. Dressed up in the
oblique language of the technocrat,
the Memorandum of Understanding
announced the proposed sell off of
our public assets and the surrender-ing
of control over both our energy
and water supply in the following
terms: ʻany additional unplanned
revenues must be allocated to debt
reductionsʼ. In addition by 2012
there will be an independent assess-ment
of electricity and gas sectors.
In other words, profitable publicly
owned companies such as the ESB,
Bord Gáis and An Post will be priva-tised
and the public water supply
commodified in advance of its even-tual
sell off. There is an added sting
in the tail. Appalling as these pro-posals
are the fact that any monies
raised will be used to bail out the
banks represents the final sell out of
the interests of the Irish people to
the demands of a powerful elite.
Companies such as the ESB, Bord
Gáis, An Post and port companies
all provide important dividends to the
public coffers and all are of strategic
importance in the planning of our
economy.
Yet in the narrow world view
of the free marketeer where compe-tition
is worshipped publicly owned
is shorthand for ʻinefficientʼ. Await
the corporate media and establish-ment
onslaught against companies
such as the ESB and Bord Gáis as
ʻmonopolisticʼ and ʻinefficientʼ and of
the ʻneedʼ to introduce competition
into the energy market in order to
encourage investment into the econ-omy.
Meanwhile Pat Kenny will have
a field day denouncing how domes-tic
households are ʻwastingʼ water
and how ʻmarket efficienciesʼ will
train the plebs to conserve water. All
of it is absolute bollocks but it will
not stop the maniacs from flogging a
dead ideology. Indeed these so
called ʻStructural Adjustment
Programmesʼ are an essential com-ponent
in the armoury of the IMF
and have been deployed with devas-tating
effect around the globe.
Placing essential public services and
by Stewart Reddin
The IMF and the
Great Privatisation
Swindle
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
13
utilities into the hands of private cor-porations
whose sole concern is
ʻshareholder valueʼ has proven dis-astrous
for those countries subject-ed
to the IMFʼs weapons of mass
destruction. Denial of access to
water, massive increases in utility
bills to householders, job losses and
a general deterioration in service
has been the common experience of
those exposed to so-called ʻmarket
efficienciesʼ.
Indeed a review of these pro-grammes
carried out over four
years from Asia to South America
concluded that ʻadjustment policies
contributed to further impoverish-ment
and marginalization of local
populations while increasing eco-nomic
inequalityʼ. Further examples
demonstrate that privatisation has
little to do with the public interest
and everything to do with private
profit interests. In South Africa 25
per cent of the countryʼs 44 million
people had their water and electricity
disconnected after the service was
privatised, while in Mexico between
job losses and anti-trade union prac-tices,
membership of the rail workers
union fell from 90,000 to 36,000 in
the 1990s after private owners took
control.
In Britain, the privatisation of
the water service created a profit
boon for investors and company
executives. Between 1989 and 1995
there was a 106 per cent increase in
water rates and a 50 per cent
increase in service disconnections,
while company profits soared by 692
per cent and salaries for CEOs
increased by 708 per cent.
This is what the future holds for the
people of the Twenty Six Counties if
the Dublin government and IMF are
allowed proceed with this insane
plan.
The Dublin government has
already appointed Colm McCarthy,
its own personal hatchet man and
author of the infamous McCarthy
Report, to chair the ʻReview Group
on State Assets and Liabilitiesʼ. This
body while having a rather innocu-ous
sounding title has a very specif-ic
and destructive remit which is to
asset strip and sell off public compa-nies;
its terms of reference are very
specific in this regard: to consider
the potential for asset disposals in
the public sector, including commer-cial
state bodies and to draw up a
list of possible asset disposals.
The disastrous decision to
sell off Telecom Éireann in 1999 pro-vides
a salient lesson in the mad-ness
of privatisation. From being a
profitable publicly owned and strate-gically
important company, the newly
privatised Eircom was asset stripped
by a host of international venture
capitalists, shed thousands of jobs,
built up massive debt and failed to
invest in telecommunications infra-structure.
Having passed through the
hands of various corporate para-sites,
including Tony OʼReilly, the
company was acquired last January
by Singapore Technologies
Telemedia for just €140 million. To
put that figure in context, back in
1995 a Dutch and Swedish consor-tium
acquired a 20 per cent stake in
the company for £232.2 million,
which back then was considered
well below its actual value. The com-pany
currently has a crippling debt
of €3.5 billion and is seeking to
shed a further 2,000 jobs. While
companies such as the ESB and
Bord Gáis are bureaucratically run
with senior executives paid enor-mous
salaries, the answer is not to
offer these companies up to the
social cannibals of the ventures mar-kets.
Domestic and international
experience has demonstrated that
privatisation works only in the inter-ests
of the wealthy elite.
Determined resistance in Ireland
will be required to maintain
these companies in public owner-ship.
In 1985 the Bolivian govern-ment
was forced to swallow the IMF
ʻantidoteʼ of structural adjustment
programmes resulting in massive job
losses, growing unemployment and
rising prices. With little money to
invest in infrastructure and under
pressure from international agencies
to privatize public services, in
1999/2000 the Bolivian government
attempted to privatize the water sup-ply
and signed a 40 year contract
with private water company Aguas
del Tunari to supply water in
Cochabamba, the third largest urban
area in Bolivia with a population of
over one million. The contract with
the government guaranteed the
company on average 16 per cent
rate of return per year on its invest-ment
while bills to domestic users
soared by as much as 300 per cent.
Factory workers, peasants, trade
unionists, environmentalists and
community activists combined to
mount stiff resistance. While facing
the inevitable state backlash and
violence, mass actions, demonstra-tions,
blockades and occupations
were organised that finally over-turned
the privatisation deal. This
marked the first reversal of the IMFʼs
neoliberal experiment in Bolivia
since 1985.
While the coming election in
the Twenty Six Counties might
change the deckchairs in Leinster
House, driving the IMF out and
defeating the great privatisation
swindle requires a much more fun-damental
change; change that
Leinster House is incapable of deliv-ering.
Failure to resist the IMF and
the privatisation agenda will enslave
this and future generations. The
stakes are that high.
Pat Kenny, who earned €849,139 in
2006, was shocked at the level of
public setor workers’ earnings
Stewart Reddin is a member of eirigi
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
14
As the War of Independence
raged during 1920, a British
parliamentary committee pre-pared
a Bill which became law as
the Government of Ireland Act. The
Act partitioned Ireland into a 26-
County Southern Ireland with a
devolved parliament in Dublin, and a
6-County Northern Ireland with a
devolved parliament in Belfast. The
Government of Ireland Act 1920
was the British government’s formal
declaration that it rejected the con-cept
of majority all Ireland opinion.
Sinn Fein refused to accept this and
continued to support the IRA in its
military campaign for a 32-County
Irish republic.
Unionists accepted the parti-tion
Act: the six counties of north
east Ireland, what Sir Edward
Carson called the ‘six plantation
counties’, comprised the largest
area that they could control without
fear that nationalists would gain a
majority.
Under the terms of the Act a
Council of Ireland had been estab-lished
to coordinate laws North and
South with a view to the eventual
establishment of a Parliament for the
whole of Ireland. This has some-times
been interpreted that the
British wanted to facilitate a long
term evolution of an independent
united Ireland. Nothing could be fur-ther
from the truth. The purpose of
the Council of Ireland was to eventu-ally
re-unite the two Home Rule par-liaments
in Ireland into one Home
Rule parliament in a redefined Union
under the English Crown. The ulti-mate
sovereignty of the Westminster
parliament was never an issue.
The Irish Free State created
by the Treaty came into force on 6
December 1922 as a Dominion of
the British Commonwealth. The
Anglo-Irish Treaty made provision
for the continuation of the Council of
Ireland after the Irish Free State was
established. However, the Council
never met.
Ironically, the Unionists who
had fought so bitterly against Home
Rule in Ireland accepted Home Rule
for the Six-Counties. The so called
Northern Ireland parliament or
Stormont sat from June 1921 to
March 1972 when it was dissolved
by the Westminster parliament and
direct rule re-instated.
British Strategy
in Ireland
John Crawley
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
15
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The declaration by the 26-County
state of the Irish Republic in
1949 led to Britain passing The
Ireland Act 1949 which enshrined
the first legal guarantee on behalf of
the Westminster parliament that
Northern Ireland would not cease to
be part of the United Kingdom with-out
the consent of the majority of its
citizens.
The consent principle
implies that the North is a condition-al
part of the United Kingdom and
that Britain might withdraw if a
majority in the Six-Counties so wish-es.
However, a 1949 British Cabinet
document which classified Northern
Ireland ‘as a matter of first-class
strategic importance’ stated that, ‘it
seems unlikely that Britain would
ever be able to agree to Northern
Ireland leaving His Majesty’s juris-diction…
even if the people of
Northern Ireland desired it’.
Whereas previous British
pre-conditions to negotiations, such
as the Home Rule Bills of 1886,
1893 and 1914 or the Government
of Ireland Act 1920, had focussed on
the sovereignty of the English parlia-ment
and Crown, Britain would
henceforth emphasise the unionist
veto or what they called ‘the princi-ple
of consent’ to justify the legitima-cy
of their claim to sovereignty in
Ireland
In September 1972 a series of
round-table talks were held at
Darlington in an effort to find agree-ment
on the political future of the
North. From the talks the British
government produced a Green
Paper, The Future of Northern
Ireland: A Paper for Discussion. In
this paper the British government
published what it called some unal-terable
facts about the situation, and
some fundamental conditions…
which any settlement must meet.
These included:
• The principle of consent.
• The sovereignty of the United
Kingdom parliament.
• A commitment to devolution and
powersharing giving Nationalists a
share in the exercise of executive
power.
• Fairness and equality of
opportunity for all.
• Public confidence in the British
security forces.
The British also acknowledged the
need for an Irish Dimension, specifi-cally
focusing on Articles 2 and 3 of
the Dublin government’s Constitution
as stumbling blocks to stability, and
the need for greater security collabo-ration.
The British idea of mecha-nisms
for All-Ireland co-operation
first mooted in the Council of Ireland
in 1920, designed to re-unite Home
Rule Ireland under the Crown, are
now seen as vital to achieving for-mal
26-County recognition of the
legitimacy of the Unionist veto and
enhanced security collaboration with
the British state. Police primacy and
legitimisation were to become cru-cial
to British strategy so that the
IRA could be presented, not as
guerrillas fighting a foreign pres-ence,
but as terrorists attacking their
own democratic institutions.
The first serious attempt at a polit-ical
settlement which met British
pre-conditions resulted in the
Sunningdale Agreement of 1973.
The Agreement led to the establish-ment
of a power-sharing cross-com-munity
Executive, a Council of
Ireland (consisting of a Council of
Ministers with equal representation
from Belfast and Dublin) as well as a
Consultative Assembly with mem-bers
from both legislatures and a
permanent Secretariat. The Dublin
government formally recognised the
legitimacy of the Unionist veto and
agreed that this recognition would
be registered at the United Nations.
While genuine elements of
cross-border cooperation would
revolve around tourism, conserva-tion,
and aspects of animal health,
the British government had made it
very clear in their Green Paper of
1972 how they ultimately interpreted
Dublin government ‘cooperation’ -
active collaboration with British state
forces. Unionist opposition, violence
and a loyalist general strike caused
the collapse of the Agreement in
May 1974.
In April 1982, James Prior
published a white paper 'Northern
Ireland: A Framework for Devolution'
which proposed what was referred
to as partial or rolling devolution.
Assembly elections were held on 20
October 1982 in an attempt to re-establish
devolution and power-shar-ing.
The results were seen as a tri-umph
for Sinn Féin which gained 5
seats and narrowly missed winning
two more. It had gathered about a
third of the Nationalist vote.
The SDLP boycotted the
Assembly due to the absence of
an all-Ireland dimension and the
Unionists attempted to use it as a
vehicle to protest against the Anglo-
Irish agreement. As a result, the
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
16
British government abolished the
Assembly in 1986. The Anglo-Irish
Agreement of 1985 was an attempt
by the British to go over the heads
of the Nationalist and Unionist com-munities
and explore the possibility
of joint action with the Dublin gov-ernment.
Improved security cooper-ation
was the Thatcher govern-ment’s
principal aim.
Irish Taoiseach Garret
Fitzgerald, was greatly worried by
the rise in the Sinn Fein vote in the
Assembly elections and stressed the
need to end the alienation of the
nationalist community from the
British state. Joint authority was
suggested by Dublin. The Brits
would allow no form of joint authority
but were content to give Dublin a
consultative role.
The agreement established
the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental
Conference, made up of officials
from the British and Dublin govern-ments.
The conference had a per-manent
secretariat, including offi-cials
from Dublin’s Department of
Foreign Affairs, based in the Belfast
suburb of Maryfield. The presence
of Irish civil servants incensed
unionists.
The Agreement was rejected
by unionists because it gave Dublin
a consultative role in the governance
of Northern Ireland, and because
they had been excluded from the
agreement negotiations.
The Agreement was rejected
by republicans because it confirmed
Northern Ireland's status as a part of
the United Kingdom.
The Anglo-Irish Agreement of
1985 failed in its objective of
facilitating the emergence of a
devolved cross-community settle-ment.
English politicians underesti-mated
the intensity of the sectarian
dynamic and the degree of hostility
from Unionists surprised them. The
Brits believed the Agreement ring
fenced the Union and could not fully
comprehend the paranoia of
Unionists in relation to any Dublin
involvement or facilitating equality
for Catholics. The Brits knew that to
retain sovereignty in Ireland they
ultimately had to have the
Nationalist population and Dublin on
board and were frustrated as to why
Unionists simply could not see that.
The Downing Street
Declaration of 1993, agreed
between British Prime Minister John
Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert
Reynolds, set out the British precon-ditions
for talks which led to the
Good Friday Agreement.
In the weeks after the
Declaration John Major declared
himself a Unionist, denied that the
declaration would ever give Dublin a
direct role in the North, ruled out
joint authority, and set up a parlia-mentary
select committee on the
North, a strengthening of ties with
London long sought by Unionists.
Tony Blair became British
Prime Minster in May 1997. On his
first Prime Ministerial visit to the
North in 1997 Blair stated:
My agenda is not a united
Ireland…I believe in the United
Kingdom. I value the Union…This
principle of consent is and will be at
the heart of my Government's poli-cies
on Northern Ireland. It is the
key principle…A political settlement
is not a slippery slope to a united
Ireland. The government will not be
persuaders for unity.
In his recent book Tony Blair
writes that during negotiations one
must have what he called ‘an endur-ing
reference point’. . It constitutes
guidance. It also traps the parties
within it. Once they accept the
framework they can’t argue things
inconsistent with it; or if they do, the
inconsistency tells against them.
Blair’s enduring reference
point were the Framework
Documents which arose from within
the pre-determined terms of the
Downing Street Declaration which
underwrites the Unionist veto and
the necessity of an internal 6-County
settlement. Blair goes on to say that
‘peace didn’t ultimately depend on
destroying weapons but on destroy-ing
a mindset’.
It is ironic that Tony Blair
has such praise for Irish nationalist
and unionist negotiators for having
the courage to raise themselves
from entrenched positions consider-ing
the British government has main-tained
entrenched positions which it
never for a moment contemplated
negotiating. This is clear throughout
British involvement in Ireland.
Running throughout the British
narrative is the concept that it is
the Irish people who are divided and
not the British who divide them.
Britain simply and altruistically
polices them apart. Where it not for
this intrinsic fault in the Irish political
character Britain would not stand in
the way of eventual unity. It ignores
the historical fact that Britain has
been arming, training and directing
Irish unionist death squads from the
very beginning of the 20th Century.
That Irish unionism is rooted in a
planter political culture. No where
Website
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Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
17
on earth where a culture of this type
has evolved its sectarian and siege
mentalities has the planter mindset
voluntarily reliquished its sense of
superiority and supremacy while the
mother country that militarily and
financially underwrites that political
culture continues to issue it a blank
cheque.
Having said that, maintain-ing
the Orange state is not and
never has been a British strategic
objective. British policy from the very
beginning of the Troubles was to
dismantle the Orange state and
replace it with a viable political entity
which would ultimately secure the
sovereignty of Westminster and thus
safeguard the political integrity of the
United Kingdom. To do this the
British needed to defeat or neu-tralise
the IRA and bring the bulk of
Nationalists on board as responsible
stakeholders in the new institutions.
In doing so, they also had to win the
confidence of the bulk of Unionists
that they were not disengaging from
Ireland.
Britain’s principal objective for
pushing an Irish dimension was
to get the 26-County state to share
responsibility for the North, not to
share sovereignty. The British need-ed
to demonstrate to America and
the international community that
Dublin was firmly ‘on message’.
And, of course, they needed to inte-grate
the Irish government more fully
into their counter-insurgency net-work.
A key British objective has
been to engineer a situation in which
all parties to the conflict agree, or
are perceived to agree, with
London’s analysis about the nature
of the conflict. At the core is the
British refusal to recognise Ireland
as one democratic unit and the
assumption that Britain will define
the parameters of Irish democracy
and set the boundaries within which
Irish opposition to British rule must
operate.
The irony in all this is that
since the joint referendums on the
Good Friday Agreement Britain now
claims to be implementing the dem-ocratic
wishes of the Irish people of
the whole island. Few in the Irish
media and political establishment
would challenge that.
If anyone fought the long
war, it was the British.
Orange Order selects leader
... to take it into the future?
The new grand master of the Orange Order,Edward Stevenson, a dairy
farmer from Ardstraw near Strabane, Co. Tyrone,has said he will not
engage in talks with Sinn Fein, the Parades Commission nor does he
intend attending GAA matches while it continues to name its pitches after
what he described as ‘convicted terrorists’. Mr. Stevenson has not yet con-firmed
whether he intends meeting with the Dublin government or leaders of
the Roman Catholic church in Ireland (or elsewhere) but it’s a reasonable
assumption that he doesn’t have them on the shortlist for invitees to his
inauguration. In a time of great change it is instructive to learn that some
things remain the same.
L-R: Bill McKeown, Grand Treasurer, Robert Saulters, Former Grand Master,
Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure, Nelson McCausland, MLA, Edward
Stevenson, New Grand Master
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
18
During the era of globalisation
there has been a period of
increased global economic
competition and movement of capi-tal,
rapid technological advances,
restructuring of national economies
from manufacturing to services, and
privatisation of public services, and
increasing resistance to unionisation
of workplaces by employers. Trade
Union movements in many parts of
the world have been in decline in
terms of membership, bargaining
power, political power and influence,
and institutional vitality.
As revealed by a recent U.P.
SOLAIR (University of Phillipines
School of Labour and Industrial
Relations) study, unions have con-tributed
to their own decline by
confining themselves to their work-places,
limiting their concerns to
those of the immediate membership
and not the wider class, and reluc-tance
to expand membership
beyond the workplace level despite
employment arrangements changing
drastically and constantly.
There is a large number of
marginalized workers, migrants,
workers in the informal sector,
women, and the unemployed who
have little protection from exploita-tion
and abuse. Furthermore, work-ers
fear to be identified by manage-ment
as union sympathizers thus
they might be subjected to any form
of harassment by management.;
many workers today give more
weight to keeping their job than
being a union member if the latter
threatens their job security.
The U.P. SOLAIR study advocated
changes in the very identity and
purpose of unions – their member-ship
coverage and structure, goals
and functions. Revitalisation involves
a bottom-up, rank and file intensive
union renewal and recovery, a strat-egy
to maintain and expand mem-bership
and enhancement of unions’
legitimacy and influence at the work-
Union revitalisatioCocaCola dosen’t like unions Strong labor unions are critical to improve wages, working conditions and
human rights for all workers and for democracies to flourish. For workers in
Colombia and Guatemala, a strong union can also mean the difference
between life and death.
The Campaign to Stop Killer Coke originated to stop the gruesome
cycle of violence against union leaders and organizers in Colombia in
efforts to crush their union, SINALTRAINAL. Since then, violence, abuse
and exploitation leveled against Coke workers and communities have been
uncovered in other countries as well, notably China, El Salvador,
Guatemala, India, Mexico and Turkey.
For more information, go to http://killercoke.org/
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
19
http://www.kilombo.org.uk
Housman's Bookshop
5 Caledonian Road
King's Cross
London N1 9DX
0207 837 4473
Advertisement
place in particular and in society in
general.
This model involves mem-bers
rather than officers in recruit-ment
of non members, focuses on
‘like-recruits-like’ where member
recruits someone of same character-istics:
job, age, gender, and the
‘organising local’ – the union
organises another union in a
non union workplace
Under this model
the culture of organising
is part of everything the
union does and it com-mits
people and
resources to organising,
involvement in campaigns,
training and recruitment of
rank and file volunteers. By
spurring rank and file interest, it
overcomes apathy and promotes
democracy in the union so that the
organiser is not centre stage, and
becomes facilitative – to help build
the unit.
Tactics that have been used
successfully include surveys among
members on collective bargaining
proposals, having rank and file com-mittees,
distributing leaflets away
from the workplace, and holding
small group meetings during a cam-paign.
Finally, success in other
places has been found by opening
up and forging sustainable alliances
and coalitions with other
social movements local-ly
and internationally
(for information
exchange, enhanc-ing
bargaining
power, coordinative
labour action, and
mobilization for cam-paigns).
There is
much to be learned
from struggles elsewhere
and to be tried here on our own soil.
The article above is a summary of
findings from the UP SOLAIR study
referenced extensively Union
Revitalization and Social Movement
Unionism in the Philippines: A
Handbook
revitalisation A small victroy
by Brian Garvey ... Independent Workers Union
The deal on parades, done
between the DUP and Sinn
Fein at the time of the
Hillsborough Agreement, has
come undone after a series of
protests across the North.
Originally intended to assist the
DUP appease its supporters
anger about the Parades
Commission, the proposed legis-lation
was so ill-conceived that
even the PSNI criticised it. It was,
nevertheless, the combined
efforts of politically aware activists
and trade unionist that forced the
coalitions partners in Stormont
drop their plan.
If implemented, the pro-posed
legislation would have
forced the organisers of any
event of over 50 people, to give
the authorities 37 days notice of
their intentions. This would have
meant that no spontaneous
demonstration could take place if
for example the BNP decided to
stage a concert or indeed if a
racist atrocity took place. It would
also have restricted the trade
union movement’s right to picket,
making the tactic almost irrele-vant.
At its most bizarre, the legis-lation
would have allowed a mis-chief
maker object to an outdoor
barbecue if it attracted more than
50 attendees.
One of the leading oppo-nents
of the proposed legislation
was Fermanagh councillor
Bernice Swift who welcomed the
Stormont climb-down saying that
this was a small but significant
victory for common people and
common sense.
Cllr Bernice Swift ‘a small victory
for the common people’
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
20
Welcome to Wicklow - the
garden of Ireland. This
stunningly beautiful tranquil
place has giving enjoyment to
anglers, walkers and strollers since
time immemorial. But its serenity
has been shattered on occasions by
greedy landowners and land grab-bers.
In 1969 Seamus Costello ral-lied
to the plight of local people who
were being denied free access to
Brittas Bay. Seamus believed
Wicklow was Ireland in miniature
and with the same challenges. Small
hill farmers on poor land trying to
eek out a living. Fishermen being
paid a pittance for their catch while
risking their lives everytime they put
to sea. Poor and inadequate hous-ing,
unemployment and social depri-vation
and not least; the right to free
access to our beaches, mountains
and hill walks.
In 1966 he organised the
first Easter parade, to commemorate
the executed1916 leaders, to take
place in Bray in 50 years. He invited
trade union participation and James
Connolly's grandson Roddy
Connolly was the guest speaker.
Today as a trade unionist and mem-ber
of The Independent Workers
Union, I want to pay tribute to
Seamus for his exhaustive work on
behalf of the people of Wicklow.
Seamus, in my opinion, was the
most inspirational working class
leader since James Connolly.
Forty-one years later, a bat-tle
against greedy land grabbers is
raging again. An obscene barricade,
built to grab public land for a private
golf course is the ugly face of naked
greed, a blight on this beautiful land-scape.
James Connolly was con-cerned
that if we fought for national
freedom without social freedom that
any government we might have
would only be a committee to man-age
the affairs of the capitalist ruling
class. How right he was, especially
when you now consider how the
present Dublin government has
nationalised the private debts of
banks without any consultation with
the citizens who are supposed to be
sovereign in this republic. Now -
even our grandchildren will be born
in debt.
Connolly also said that most
laws would be self-serving. You’re
familiar with the term "one law for
the rich, one for the poor”. Let me
explain. You can make up your own
mind. A private individual who owns
a golf course bordering the land on
to this coastal strip (which is unreg-istered
land) erected an illegal barri-cade
across the shoreline and dis-missed
the public’s concerns as if he
were swatting flies. I have no doubt
that if he and his fellow travellers
had their way we, the people of this
county, would be corralled onto
reservations while they grab what
land remained.
The fact that he erected this
monstrous barricade in the first
This land was made for you and me
Sean Doyle tells of a campaign to open land taken form public ownership by a private
company in Co Wicklow
Activists carry laddes to climb over the barricade
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
21
place, believing that he could get
away with it, speaks volumes. That
this barricade is still here in 2010 is
a profound statement about the
rights of ordinary citizens when
faced by big property holder. Local
anglers and walkers wrote to
Wicklow County Council and raised
their objection to these barricades.
The so-called local authorities tried
to shoo us away like hens from a
farmhouse kitchen. It was then
referred to An Board Penal who car-ried
out an extensive investigation in
May 2004. A letter of 3rd Feb 2005
from the planning authority
explained the nature of this con-struction.
The board said;
1) The fences do not appear to be
necessary for the purpose of enclos-ing
the actual golf course lands.
2) It has been conveyed that the cliff
edge has been habitually used by
fishermen over the last ten years
and as such has been open to the
public.
3) The Land Search carried out by
the planning office found that the
landholding of the golf club did not
extend as far as the rocks.
Republicans in the South
Tyrone and North Armagh
area have formed a Liam
Mellows Society in order to pro-mote
the cause of a united social-ist
Irish republic. In doing so, they
intend to draw on the life and work
of the patriot Liam Mellows for
inspiration and guidance.
The society will be officially
launched at a ceremony on Friday
4th February which will be held in
the Portmor Inn, Portmor County
Armagh. The event will involve a
short address on the life and times
of the patriot and his contribution
to the promotion of the workers’
cause. This will be followed by a
concert featuring prominent folk
and protest singer Pól MacAdaim.
The Liam Mellows Society
is affiliated to the wider grouping of
1916 societies which has sprung
up in Mid Ulster over the past two
years as a result of growing disen-chantment
with the mainstream
Sinn Fein movement. The exis-tence
of the societies came to
widespread notice in October of
last year when over 1,000 people
attended a march organised by the
group in Cappagh, Co Tyrone to
commemorate two IRA volunteers -
Dessie Grew and Martin
McCaughey -who had died twenty
years earlier at the hands of the
British army.
Liam Mellows
Society
Above: Liam Mellows
4) Site boundaries shown on the
planning applications have not
shown the rocks to be in the owner-ship
of the golf club.
Yet in spite of this ruling by
the state’s official planning authority
the fence has never been removed.
This is further proof if we ever need-ed
it that big business, property
tycoons and their protection is the
function of the law of this state or
this barricade would have been
removed many years ago.
We must be realistic. The
people alone are, the defenders of
the ordinary man and woman’s right
to public property. Ordinary people
will have to fight their own battles.
With the wisdom of past liberators
and the determined resolve of the
people, wherever our rights and lib-erties
are challenged, from the fore
shore to the shop floor we must
stand together. For the moment we
will continue with our struggle until
our campaign has achieved its goal,
the removal of this monstrous barri-cade
and the restoration of public
land to the proper ownership of the
people.Remember, this land was
made for you and me.
As if the man hadn’t enough problems, some rascal has gone and hacked
into the DUP website and translated the homepage into Irish. Go h-iontach!
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
22
As the procession of "nows" in
time recede they become his-tory.
How those past "nows"
are interpreted are the subject of
much debate. There can be little
doubt however, that its a debate that
none of us can afford to be neutral
about. Each one has his own take
on events in their lives. Our interpre-tation
of history is a synthesis of
what we experience and what we
are told. Each one's story is differ-ent.
So much so that history isn't
what happened, but the story of
what happened.
There are many different
stories. Some may focus on a partic-ular
event, others may ignore it.
Stories of leaders, exalted by some,
derided by others. Each and every
story teaches a different lesson.
In modern society, the lessons of
history are chosen and delivered to
us by various mechanisms in the
education process. It would more
correct to say in a "re-education"
process, given that we are forced to
accept the lessons chosen for us, by
those who wish to perpetuate the
social political and economic order
that suits their pertinent needs. As a
result we only ever get to know the
history that embellishes the concept
of leaders and ideologies. How their
intellectual prowess has has afford-ed
us our liberty. How their control
of the productive system has afford-ed
us our daily bread. History, thus
becomes the tool of a class that per-ceives
the social order in hierarchi-cal
terms.
Therefore does not perceive
the story of the poor, the downtrod-den,
and the oppressed as legiti-mate.
Thus the history of our
oppressors is what shapes us.
We no longer can determine our
future, for our concept of it is distort-ed
by our failure to know our own
story.
And so, in the progress of
humankind, the scene is set for our
continuous failure to shed our
shackles.
"Here mothers wail for dead chil-dren,
whose fathers slave to re-erect the
alter,
upon the rubble of the alters their
fathers re-erected".
There is an old African say-ing..."
Until the lions have their histo-rians,
the hunt will always glorify the
hunter!".. and until each of us
becomes a historian, the teller of our
own stories, we will forever repeat
the cycle of building upon rubble.
Our universal quest for truth and jus-tice
is dependent upon the triumph
of the synthesis of all the stories of
all of humanity.
History is a tool, and it can
be our tool. A tool that defines our
being, in and through our awareness
of our place in time. From whence
we came, to where we are going. It
is important to understand that all
history, in the end, is local. That, in
its universal sense, allows us to
perceive the kernel of our common
being. Our universal quest for for
truth and justice is dependent upon
the triumph of the synthesis of all
the stories of all of humanity.
History, how we preserve it, how we
record, and interpret it, becomes our
tool. And depending on how that
tool is utilised, it can become a
weapon.
That weapon that can make
history our story.
History as
a weapon
by Eddie O’Neill
Herodotus regarded as the father of the study of history
Website
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Contact us at:
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Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
23
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This book analyses the underlying reasons behind the formation of
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ʻʻTommy McKearney has advanced
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Belfast
In his new book, Allan Armstrong
questions the traditional British
Left view, which sees the birth of
the 'New Unionism' in 1889 as the
'annus mirabilis' of Labour history.
Instead, he looks to the 'New
Departure' of 1879, which launched
the Irish Land League, as the key
point in a widening economic, social
and political challenge to the British
ruling class.
The example of the struggle
in Ireland contributed to the
Highland Land League's successful
electoral opposition to both Tories
and Liberals in 1885. This in turn
inspired the early setting up of the
Scottish Labour Party in 1888. It
also had a major influence on the
setting up of the (Social) Democratic
Federation in 1880/4 and the
Scottish Socialist Federation in
1888. Many activists in these organi-sations
became leaders in the 'New
Unions' after 1889. This challenge
was heralded by Michael Davitt's
work in the Land League and Irish
National League. He developed a
strategy of 'internationalism from
below' to unite workers, tenant farm-ers
and the landless in Ireland,
Scotland, Wales and England.
When Davitt's Radical Lib-
Lab and Nat-Lab alliance foundered,
James Connolly began to develop a
new socialist republican workers'
alliance to take Davitt's 'internation-alism
from below' on to a higher
political plane, after the triumph of
High Imperialism in 1895. Connolly's
formative political years were spent
in Edinburgh.
Allan Armstrong is a republi-can,
Scottish internationalist and
communist. A now retired teacher,
he was a trade union activist and
remains a member of the Scottish
Federation of Socialist Teachers. He
was also the former chair of the
Lothian Anti-Poll Tax Federation and
is currently on the International
Committee of the Scottish Socialist
Party and co-editor of Emancipation
& Liberation.
The Provisional IRA ... From Insurrection to Parliament by Tommy McKearney
Important new book
Scottish socialist and republican Allan Armstrong’s
new book identifies the challenge posed by the Irish
Land League to the British ruling class in the
19th century
Fourthwrite Winter 2010/2011
24
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Government ready to pass a vote of no confidence in the people?