Protecting the Fat Cats
19/10/09

The revised programme for government in the Twenty-Six Counties was supported by an overwhelming majority of Green Party members when put to a vote at that party’s recent special conference.

Green Party members dutifully signed up to a programme that rehashes much of the original programme agreed over two years ago but which offers nothing to the thousands who have lost their jobs over the last 12 months and face losing their homes.

The truth is the Greens need this government to serve out its full term; otherwise they face the same fate as Fianna Fáil’s former junior coalition partners, the Progressive Democrats. Green Party members signed up for a deal that might offer their party a temporary stay of execution, but which condemns workers and their communities deeper into poverty.

The programme is strong on aspiration and short on detail. According to the opening lines of the agreement: “this is an unparalleled programme of reform in all areas of Government activity – in politics, economics and across our society. We will return this economy to a position of sustainable recovery. Never again will we find ourselves overly reliant on one sector or stream of revenue.”

Fine words, but they are utterly meaningless. If the Dublin government did not intend to once again attach our future to the vagary of the property market why, then, is €54 billion of tax-payers’ money being pumped into NAMA?

That there exists in the Twenty-Six Counties a deluded, deceitful and utterly incompetent government was reaffirmed just days after the publication of this document when minister of finance Brian Lenihan, with a straight face, announced in Leinster House that NAMA will, in fact, turn a profit of €5 billion.

Loans being taken on by NAMA include the former site of the Irish Glass Bottle factory in Ringsend, Dublin, bought at the height of the property madness by Bernard McNamara, a former Fianna Fáil councillor and a regular at Fianna Fáil’s annual Galway tent jamboree, for €413 million. Last week, it was valued at €60 million, representing an 85 per cent drop in value. In these circumstances, it is difficult to see how Lenihan came to his conclusion.

That such a vast sum of tax-payers’ money is being gambled on the property market suggests that, far from learning any lessons of the Celtic Tiger property-fest, the Twenty-Six County government is intent on hitching the future of the economy inextricably to the private property market.

In relation to taxation, the programme states that “taxation will be simpler, fairer and have a redistributive effect”. There is no detail as to how it will, in future, be fairer and redistributive.

After all, Dublin government spokespeople have been at pains to emphasise that the focus of the forthcoming December budget will be cuts to public services rather than an increase in taxes. This programme confirms that position and will obviously be of some comfort to the coalition’s allies in IBEC.

Indeed, egalitarian speak of redistribution of wealth is nullified just a couple of pages later. The business class will be content to read that their interests are being protected with a guarantee that the shockingly low level of taxation will be maintained: “the multinational community will continue to be incentivised to intensify innovative, high-value activity and technological convergence which will provide quality jobs. We recognise the vital role played by low taxes in our economic success. We guarantee that the 12.5% rate of corporation tax will remain.”

So, while the ordinary tax payer and those reliant on public services are left wondering how they will cope come December when Lenihan intends taking a hatchet to the public sector, the business class is given absolute guarantees about taxation rates. At a Dublin Chamber of Commerce event last Thursday [October 15], Lenihan was the main guest and used the occasion to send a message to the wider public that further pain lies ahead. There is little comfort to be taken from his assertion that “we are all in this together”.

Another guest speaker at the Chamber of Commerce dinner was tax exile Denis O’Brien, a man who certainly won’t be making any contribution to the common good. O’Brien bemoaned the media treatment of Dublin government ministers who had been exposed for their profligate use of tax-payers’ money.

The resignation of John O’Donoghue upset the cosy boys’ network that has existed for so long in Leinster House; it made O’Brien a tad queasy; it was, he suggested, like “witnessing human hare coursing”. That government ministers have been belatedly held to account for their extravagant expenses offends O’Brien’s sensibilities. Considering the fact that he pays no income tax in the Twenty-Six County state, it is little wonder he’s not too bothered how it is spent.

O’Brien also likes to avail of the 12.5 per cent corporate tax on offer in the Twenty-Six Counties. His aircraft leasing company, Aergo, which has a head office address in Dublin but actually operates in Johannesburg, Chile and Nairobi, last week filed after-tax profits of US$15 million (€10 million; £9.1 million). Essentially, Aergo is a shelf company.

The purpose of this little arrangement is so that he can avail of the ridiculously low level of corporation tax in the Twenty-Six Counties. Tax on profits in the United States is set at 35 per cent; this is almost three times the 12.5 per cent rate in the Twenty-Six Counties.

O’Brien is not alone in his astounding arrogance; it seems to be a particular trait amongst Ireland’s ruling class. The CEO of the Health Service Executive, Brendan Drumm, pocketed a bonus of €70,000 (£63,775), which is almost twice the average wage. He is paid an annual salary in excess of €300,000 (£273,355). Meanwhile, the health service remains chronically under-funded and beds in Crumlin Children’s hospital are being closed.

Prior to their elevation to the lofty heights of government, the Greens used to be stringent in the condemnation of the inequalities in the Twenty-Six Counties. Those inequalities were a direct result of the low tax system in the state. One doesn’t have to be an economist to figure out that low taxes mean less money for public services. Low tax on profits, coupled with ‘wage restraint’ for workers, means greater wealth inequality.

Over the course of the Celtic Tiger, company profits far outstripped any rise in wages. Public spending in Twenty-Six Counties lagged far behind other EU states. In 2007, public spending was just 26 per cent of GDP; the United States, a country hardly renowned for its comprehensive provision of services, has, over the last 20 years, spent between 34 and 38 per cent. Bizarrely, the ‘new’ Programme for Government “recognises the vital role played by low taxes in our economic success”. Those who benefited from the low tax regime are the same people who are benefiting from the NAMA bail out and fat cat tax exiles such as Denis O’Brien.

Another proposal cooked up by the Fianna Fáil/Green alliance is the imposition of domestic water charges. This is simply another form of regressive taxation that does absolutely nothing to preserve water. Domestic users account for just 10 per cent of total water usage in the Twenty-Six Counties and leakage from old pipes continues to be a considerable problem. While the Greens are proposing to install water meters in every house in the state, the failure of their Fianna Fáil partners to insist on the installation of dual flush toilets during the house building frenzy means huge water wastage.

Households in the Twenty-Six Counties already pay for the provision of essential services such as water and sanitation through income tax. Imposing an additional domestic water charge further places the tax burden upon those least able to pay. The Water Services Act 2007 already makes provision for the private sector in the delivery of water services. During the course of the debate on the Act, the then minister of the environment Dick Roche denied that the long-term purpose of the Act was to facilitate the introduction of domestic water charges: “I stress that the Bill before the House does not provide for or facilitate the re-introduction of domestic water charges,” he said.

During the course of the debate Roche had his George Bush Snr ‘read my lips’ moment when he asserted, “I repeat that the Bill is not a Trojan horse for domestic charges.” We have learned to treat the promises of Fianna Fáil Ministers with the contempt they deserve. It is likely that the long term plan is to privatise the service. For all of these reasons, attempts to impose water charges must be vigorously opposed.

The ‘new’ programme for government is simply more of the same. Workers are being forced to take the burden so that people like Denis O’Brien can continue to live in their tax exile status and avail of low corporate taxation. Trade unions have called a day of action for November 6. A maximum turn-out is essential. Enough is enough.

Free the Miami 5
15/10/09

A contingent of 15 éirígí activists were among those who gathered at the US embassy in Dublin on Monday [October 12] to call for the release of the Miami 5.

The five Cuban patriots have been unjustly imprisoned in the USA since 2001 as a result of their activities in disrupting right-wing terrorist plots against Cuba.

Speaking at the demonstration, éirígí spokesperson Daithí Mac an Mháistír extended solidarity greetings from the party to Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González, who are doing four life sentences and 75 years collectively.

Daithí said: “The Miami 5 are guilty of no crime, other than that of protecting their country from a terrorist attack, they should be released immediately and be allowed to return to Cuba.

“We are all aware of the hypocrisy and lies surrounding the charges they were convicted of 11 years ago. What we need to keep in mind is the real reason why the US administration has persecuted them as it has. It is the very same reason that the US has persecuted their homeland for the last 50 years.

“Cubans themselves are their own most eloquent and passionate defenders. The words of Frank Josué Solar Cabrales epitomises the magnitude of what the Miami 5 were intent on defending when they embarked upon their mission. He wrote of how: ‘the spirit of a whole epoch palpitates in the Cuban Revolution. Much of the destiny of humanity will depend in forthcoming years on the outcome of the Cuban Revolution. Today, capitalist prehistory not only signifies backwardness, servitude, and abysmal inequalities. Its levels of consumption, wastefulness, of irrational exploitation of natural resources, of aggression against the environment, have brought us all to a point which has put the very survival of the human species in danger’.

“What is at stake with the advance or backward movement of this revolutionary process is something as serious as our very own existence.”



Daithí continued: “The very permanence of the Cuban Revolution signifies an enormous impulse to those who rebel, to those who confront domination, to revolutionary struggles across the globe, to the dream of making this world of ours better.

“The dream of making this world of ours better, and of defending that idea from those who would want to bomb it out of existence, is the real reason why the Miami 5 continue to languish in US prisons. In this context, their incarceration must be understood as a crime of epic proportions against the very notion of justice.

“The ethics and morality at the very heart of the Cuban revolution have already absolved the Miami 5. Let us hope it is not too long before the land of supposed liberty and justice finds it within itself to do likewise.”

Lisbon – Illusion & Reality
12/10/09

An indication of the power of the corporate state in the Twenty-Six Counties was revealed over the course of the Lisbon Treaty referendum campaign.

The Treaty was passed at the second time of asking with 67 per cent in favour, while 33 per cent voted against, representing a 20 per cent swing from 2008 when 53 per cent of the electorate rejected Lisbon 1.

Just two constituencies voted No to the Treaty; Donegal North East and Donegal South West. All 12 Dublin constituencies returned a Yes vote, with Dún Laoghaire and Dublin South voting 81 per cent in favour. The highest No vote in the capital was recorded in Dublin North West, which was divided 55-45 per cent in favour. Tally returns indicated a strong No vote in working class areas of the city. Once again, workers’ rights were prominent amongst the issues of concern to voters, particularly in working class communities.

With a budget of over €5 million (£4.7 million); four of the five political parties in Leinster House backing the Treaty; a heavily biased media; the public support and finances of the business class; a Referendum Commission that dispensed with any semblance of impartiality; a trade union leadership that was content to play the government tune and a Yes campaign that served on the one hand to tap into genuine fears about job prospects and, on the other, to proclaim Lisbon’s powers of economic recovery; it was not all that surprising the Treaty was carried with a comfortable majority.

Given that the ‘right’ result was delivered, the Dublin government will have no difficulty accepting this particular referendum result. In matters pertaining to the European Union, democracy only counts when the people agree with the establishment. A year ago, we were told that the people didn’t have sufficient information on the Treaty and could not possibly have made an informed decision. It is unclear, given that, during the course of the campaign, the Yes side wanted to discuss just about everything else bar what was actually in the Treaty, how much better informed voters were this time around. The Yes campaign had a simple but effective message: ‘Vote for this, or the country sinks’.

Throughout the course of the campaign, there was a mood of both fear and anger amongst voters. Anger at being asked to vote for a second time on a Treaty soundly rejected just a year ago and anger at government bailouts to bankers and developers while nothing is done to protect or create jobs. However, coupled with this anger was genuine fear in relation to the jobs catastrophe. In May 2008, during the first Lisbon Treaty campaign, there were 205,900 people in the Twenty-Six Counties on the live register. In just over 12 months, an additional 224,000 people have lost their jobs as unemployment soared to 429,400. A steady diet of news stories predicting economic collapse in the event of a No vote and the wallpapering of streets with posters hailing ‘Yes for Recovery and Yes to Jobs’ convinced many to swing from the No to the Yes side.

Since the announcement of the result of the Lisbon Treaty, the posters proclaiming that a Yes vote would create jobs and put the Twenty-Six County state on the road to economic recovery have been disappearing fast; almost as quickly as announcements of savage job cuts have been landing on news desks around the country.

In a seven-day period after the Lisbon result was declared, over 1,000 jobs cuts were announced in different sectors across the state: 670 jobs at Aer Lingus; 200 jobs at Linen Supply; 60 jobs at Moffat Engineering in Dundalk; 30 jobs at Condron Concrete in Tullamore; 65 jobs at GE Money in Shannon and Dublin and 80 jobs at Tecnotree telecommunications company in Clare. Meanwhile, O’Brien’s sandwich chain, with 800 employees, has gone into liquidation.

Serious questions must be asked in relation to the timing of the announcement of job losses at Aer Lingus. The Dublin government holds a 25 per cent stake in the company. Public acknowledgement of such massive jobs losses could have seriously undermined the government’s case during the referendum campaign and put the SIPTU leadership under pressure to withdraw their support. The sight of the vulture-like Michael O’Leary, who put €500,000 (£468,000) of Ryanair’s money into supporting the Yes campaign, waiting in the wings to pick over the carcass of Aer Lingus may have been too much for many workers to stomach.

The role of the trade union leadership in securing a Yes vote, thereby saving the Dublin government from collapse, was shameful. Jack O’Connor, president of SIPTU, addressed delegates at the union’s annual conference last week and denounced the Thatcherite policies of the coalition government as they slash their way through the public services while simultaneously conferring largesse upon the banks.

Of course, O’Connor is correct in his critique of government policy; however, a flick through the admittedly dense and at times complex Lisbon Treaty would have enlightened him that this was not a document written in the interests of workers or in defence of public services. The question is why did he and the leadership of the trade union movement offer the government a life line and call on workers to support a treaty that gives a legal framework to the race to the bottom? The fig leaf of the charter of fundamental rights was erroneously offered as evidence of the protection workers would receive in a post-Lisbon world. SIPTU members locked out of their jobs at Dublin Port for the last three months and still awaiting the leadership of their union to initiate a campaign of support can take little comfort.

In the course of his address to SIPTU delegates, O’Connor also took the opportunity to castigate social partnership as a ‘myth’. While, again, his analysis is correct, it has come a little late.

For the last 20 years, social partnership was treated by the Dublin government and the trade union leadership as the Holy Grail. To criticise social partnership was considered sacrilege.

Social partnership was premised on tax cuts in return for ‘wage restraint’ and an input from trade unions and other social partners into social and economic policy issues. Over the course of the ‘Celtic Tiger’, profits soared at a rate that far outstripped wage increases. Public spending lagged well behind most other EU states. Significant sections of the public service were privatised while banks and developers dictated economic policy. While all of this was happening, the trade union leadership was telling workers that ‘partnership’ was the ‘only show in town’. Meanwhile, trade union leaders got their ample posteriors appointed onto state boards.

What exactly they were doing on these state boards is not entirely clear. A case in point is the role of IMPACT general secretary Peter McLoone, who was appointed chair of the board of FÁS in 2006. He had former SIPTU president Des Geraghty there for company. Neither of them cried foul as the FÁS board presided over a regime that allowed senior executives to use tax-payers’ money like it was their personal bank account. They were equally silent when its director general Rody Molloy was rewarded with a pension worth €111,000 (£104,000) a year, a tax-free lump sum of €333,732 (£312,020), and a taxable ex-gratia payment of €111,243 (£104,106). He also got to keep the company car. It seems that, for some within the trade union leadership, the lines have become blurred as to whose interests they are supposed to represent.

During the course of the referendum campaign, ICTU general secretary and Central Bank director David Begg stood shoulder to shoulder with Peter Sutherland, chairman of BP and Goldman Sachs, Jim O’Hara, CEO of Intel, and Harry Crosbie, one of the state’s biggest property speculators, as ‘patrons’ of the ‘Ireland for Europe’ group. This is the organisation that was jointly headed by former Progressive Democrat TD Pat Cox and Ireland’s chief Europhile Brigid Laffan.

One would find it difficult to select such a quintessential bunch of Thatcherites than this lot. They formed part of what has been erroneously described as ‘civil society’ groups. The media gave the impression that these supposedly non-political civil society groups were akin to the local parish committee banding together to engage in the democratic process. There aren’t too many parish committees that could rustle up €1 million (£935,000) as ‘Ireland for Europe’ did to engage in the ‘democratic process’.

Another of the mythical civil society groups that emerged during the campaign was ‘Women for Europe’, headed by Olive Braiden, who was one of Fianna Fáil’s 1994 EU Parliament candidates and who has spent most of her life in government appointed jobs.

This ‘independent civic minded’ group listed its campaign headquarters as 84-86 Lower Baggot Street. This, co-incidentally enough, is home to the employers’ group.

Fianna Fáil also played a role in the establishment and running of ‘We Belong’, which was fronted by the party’s former press director Olivia Buckley. Not to be outdone, Earnest Enda’s Baby Blueshirts were well represented in the Generation Yes outfit, which claimed “not only will we argue for a ‘yes’ vote, but we will explain clearly and simply, what exactly the Treaty does”. It went on to argue that the Lisbon Treaty would ensure an end to human trafficking. By not accepting Lisbon, we apparently would be guilty of standing by and doing nothing. A particularly mortifying element of its campaign was the sight of young women sporting t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan ‘We only kiss boys who vote Yes’.

Big business interests played their part too.

IBEC plastered the state with posters. ‘Yes to Jobs’ they proclaimed. Curiously enough, there weren’t too many job cuts announced during the course of the campaign. Less than a week after a Yes vote was secured, normal service has resumed and over a thousand workers have been told they no longer have jobs.

Ryanair and Intel, both of whom refuse to recognise trade unions, ploughed €1 million (£935,000) into the campaign. IBEC were also keen for employers to ensure that companies facilitated workers in exercising the franchise and sent a memo to companies suggesting they be ‘flexible’ in their approach on polling day. Emails were sent to workers reminding them of the ‘benefits’ of voting Yes. Within two days of the passing of the referendum, IBEC hopped out a press statement calling for the suspension of the state wide wage agreement reached last year and looking for a pay freeze until 2011.

So the referendum has been lost, the European Union elite hurtles on to its capitalist dreamland and, soon, Tony Blair, a ‘man of peace’ according to Brian Cowen, will be president of the EU. The people of Iraq and Afghanistan would undoubtedly beg to differ. Not surprisingly, Cowen neglected to mention during the course of the campaign that he intended giving Blair his full backing for president. Either way, the people of Europe will have no say in who is elevated to this powerful position that has a central input into EU foreign policy. It is unclear whether the Czech president will sign the Treaty as recommended by that country’s constitutional court.

What is absolutely clear is that the passage of the Lisbon Treaty will deliver neither jobs nor economic recovery. It will offer nothing to those currently being thrown on to the dole queue. It will give no protection to the Dublin Port workers or the Coca Cola workers locked out of their employment.

What it will do is speed up the process of privatisation of public services and diminish our ability to decide our own economic future. However, with the passage of Lisbon the corporate state has won but a short-term victory. A third of the electorate stood firm in the face of the lies and threats of the Yes campaign.

Given that the majority of the establishment parties supported the Treaty, that is a significant proportion of the population that lacks a political voice. Major battles lie ahead over the coming months. The working class faces an onslaught over coming months as government and bosses seek to drive home its perceived advantage in getting Lisbon through. The trade union leadership has failed to defend the interests of the working class preferring instead to embrace the political establishment. What is required is the building of a new movement of progressive forces comprising republicans and socialists ready to take on the battle and provide the alternative.

How The North-West Was Won

A photo essay of éirígí Tir Chonaill's sucessful anti-Lisbon 2 campaign in County Donegal.

An Earagail

An Clochán Liath

Árainn Mhór


Carraig Airt


Dobhar


Ailt an Chorráin


Carraig Airt


An Clochán Liath


Ucht Mín


Árainn Mhór

Dobhar


An Clochán Liath

An Clochán Liath

An Tearmann

Lisbon Passed, Democracy Damaged


When the ruling class in the Twenty-Six Counties wants something bad enough it will do pretty much anything to get it. This is one of the main lessons to be taken out of Saturday’s result on the second Lisbon referendum.

For working people in Ireland and around Europe the result was, frankly, not a good one. On a turnout of 58 per cent of the Twenty-Six County electorate, the Lisbon Treaty was passed with a Yes vote of 67 per cent.

After ripping up the result of the first Lisbon referendum because they didn’t like the result, the Twenty-Six County government, the official ‘opposition’, IBEC, the state and corporate media, all the main churches and, shamefully, most of the trade union hierarchy spent months and million of euros spreading fear and peddling lies. Who said class was dead?

Those who run the Twenty-Six Counties in the interests of the rich removed the mask of political pluralism and gave public opinion both barrels. Even the leaders of the main universities in the Twenty-Six Counties warned students and staff that voting No would impact negatively on ERASMUS programmes. It was one of those rare moments where the vested interests of those who are really in charge stood naked for all to see.

Yet, despite the fear-mongering and the threats from the business class, 33 per cent of those who voted, 504,606 people, stood firm and voted No. On top of that figure there is the 42 per cent of the electorate who didn’t cast a vote. How many of those hundreds of thousands of working people concluded there was no point voting No to Lisbon 2 because of what happened to Lisbon 1?



Those who did vote No again, concentrated in the working class, the exploited, the neglected and the ignored, provide the potential for a radical grassroots movement for revolutionary change in Irish society. Those Irish citizens who were denied the right to vote – the people in the occupied Six Counties – provide equal potential for the building of such a movement.

Speaking on TV3 after the result was confirmed, Fianna Fáil’s Conor Lenihan feigned great offence at the suggestion that his party, Fine Gael and the Labour Party collectively represent the interests of the ruling class in the Twenty-Six Counties. In their strenuous efforts to get the Lisbon Treaty passed, however, Mr Lenihan and his ‘opponents’ may just have confirmed that fact in the public mind, once and for all.

Despite the Lisbon result, things are slowly changing in Irish society and it’s not the sort of change that, when it comes to fruition, will suit the agendas of Fianna Fáil, IBEC & Co.

Donegal refuses to be bullied on Lisbon


Tír Chonaill éirígí spokesperson Micheál Cholm MacGiolla Easbuig has expressed his disappointment at the Lisbon Treaty referendum result. He has, however, congratulated the people of Donegal for refusing to be bullied and for once again rejecting the Treaty, just as they did last year.



MacGiolla Easbuig said: "This result is a bad day for workers, both here in Ireland and throughout the European Union (EU). At the heart of the Lisbon Treaty are the very policies that led this state into the current economic recession which has resulted in unemployment levels sky-rocketing, essential health and education services being slashed and workers living standards plummeting as their wages are cut."

He added: "Contrary to the yes campaigns claims, a yes vote will not create jobs and will not protect workers rights. We will now see a continuation of those failed and discredited neo-liberal capitalist policies that created this economic ruin. Lisbon puts the interests of business above the rights of workers and will accelerate a race to the bottom in terms of workers pay and conditions."




He continued: "The people of Donegal are to be commended once again for refusing to be bullied and for refusing to believe the false propaganda from the yes campaign. This result is a particular blow for an already under pressure Tanaiste Mary Coughlan who has failed once again to get a yes vote in her own constituency."

Commenting on Fine Gael and Labour support for the Treaty, MacGiolla Easbuig said: "Despite these parties' claims to be the 'opposition' and to offer an alternative to Fianna Fáil, this referendum campaign has exposed that lie. By supporting Lisbon they have signed up to supporting more of the very policies that led us into this economic crisis, to mass unemployment, wage reductions and savage cutbacks in health and education. When it comes to the big issues facing the Irish people such as the economy, Fine Gael and Labour have shown that they are no different to Fianna Fáil."



"If Lisbon had been defeated, the Fianna Fáil led administration would have collapsed and NAMA could not have been created. By their support for Lisbon, Fine Gael and Labour have rescued Fianna Fáil and propped up this administration and have now ensured that the bail-out of the banks and developers by NAMA at tax-payers expense will now proceed. The administration's plans to impose savage cutbacks in health, education and social welfare as recommended by the McCarthy report have now also been given the green light by the so-called opposition of Fine Gael and Labour."


He concluded: "As the people of this country cry out for an alternative to Fianna Fáil, the reality is that Fine Gael and Labour have shown themselves clearly to be no alternative to them. Instead they merely offer more of the very same discredited right-wing economic policies, based on greed before need and which puts the rights of big business before the rights and living standards of workers, that led to the recession in the first place."