East Belfast Riots: Only united working class action can prevent further attacks

I would ask all visitors to read and engage with this detailed Socialist Party statement analysing causes and consequences of recent rioting in East Belfast. It is essential to see the need for anti-sectarian working class unity to defeat the Stormont-Tory cuts.

"The rioting in east Belfast on Monday 20^th and Tuesday 21^st June –  the worst in recent years - did not appear from a blue sky. Throughout the Troubles, the interface between the Catholic Short Strand and Protestant Lower Newtownards Road  has been the scene of sporadic sectarian violence emanating from both communities. In recent months, there has been an increasing  number of attacks on homes in both areas and this has ratcheted up sectarian tensions.  The weekend of the 18^th and 19^th June was particularly tense, with attacks on homes in both communities intensifying and a young Protestant woman being hit by a brick thrown from the Short Strand. The UVF used this incident to organise hundreds of young people from across east Belfast to join them in an orchestrated attack on the Short Strand.

"There is little doubt that the UVF carried out the attack for its own cynical reasons. It has been angered by the Historical Enquiry Team’s continued investigation into its role in sectarian atrocities during the Troubles. Like the rioting in Rathcoole last year, this was an attempt to flex its muscles and send a warning to the state to back off. Internal tensions in the UVF and attempts by the UVF in East Belfast to establish its independence from the UVF Shankill Road leadership may also have been factors leading up to the riots. On Wednesday 22^nd June, UVF members were among those stewarding the area to prevent clashes between young people following a series of talks. Obviously, they felt their point had been made. The UVF certainly did not bring the attacks on the Short Strand to an end because of any concern for either community.

Building Cross-Community Campaigns after the election

I would like to use this opportunity to thank all those who supported my recent and unsuccessful election campaign to Fermanagh District Council for the Enniskillen Ward. It was a great effort which brought together activists from across the county with support from Socialists from across Northern Ireland and as far away as Limerick and Dublin.

The mainstream parties were successful in preventing this election being fought on the issues and obscured the extent and seriousness of the coming cuts public services; an onslaught that will be deeper than anything experienced since 1924. Instead, they chose to fight this election on the same-old grounds of sectarian identity politics leading to an increased polarisation in the vote which resulted in more support for the DUP and Sinn Fein across the county with a loss of support for the UUP and SDLP.

Indeed, this campaign was fought against the backdrop of the 'tribal' headcount that characterised the previous Westminster run-off between Michelle Gildernew (Sinn Féin) and Rodney Connor (United Unionist). The tensions boiled over at the Assembly count in Omagh in the behaviour of unionists and republicans culminating in Tom Elliott, the leader of the UUP, calling heckling members of Sinn Féin 'scum' from the podium and referring to the tricolour as a 'foreign flag'.

Fighting for Every Vote

In that cauldron of sectarian hatred, it was never going to be easy to offer a radical, anti-sectarian alternative. We were fighting the campaign without a social base and without any immediate connection with local communities.

Despite and possibly because of this we fought the hardest campaign of any party in Enniskillen - a fact remarked upon by many of our opponents (both the DUP and Sinn Féin 'upped' their game in response to our campaign).

We knocked thousands of doors across Enniskillen and unlike any election campaign for the past 40 years we canvassed every estate in the town and all the outlying village centres. We canvassed in every area regardless of whether a union flag or a tricolour was hanging from the lamp-post and for the most part we were met with an open, honest engagement and received a positive response.

Unlike every other party who campaigned on the basis of 'maximising OUR representation', at every door we brought an inherently political message. We engaged people on what was happening. We discussed how we could challenge the right-wing agenda that will see local public services devastated in our County at a time when the private sector economy here is on life-support.

At times, it was not easy as we were bringing a very different message to that propounded by all the other parties. We stood openly and unashamedly as socialists and spoke to people about the possibility of democratising the ownership and control of the economy as a way to pay for public services.

On many doors we struggled to gain a hearing from households who were simply sick of the lies of politicians who 'tell you anything' to get a vote every four years. On one memorable door one of our canvassers was told that if he was a 'Banker or a Politician' he should go away - this was not the only occasion but reflected many people's understanding of the empty promises of a political class who were implementing cuts to pay for the banking crisis.

We also struggled through our perceived novelty and our lack of a base in the town. We don't run constituency services and were relying on people grasping the seriousness of the crisis facing us and agreeing with our position of 'fighting back' on a cross-community basis at a time when our political opponents tell us that there is 'no alternative' to the Tory-Stormont cuts.

Results and Prospects

Turnout in Enniskillen was poor as usual with turnout in the more deprived areas falling to below 50%. As such, the 248 who gave us a number one preference vote was a respectable beginning to our work in the county. After the votes of other candidates such as the Green Party Alliance and another independent were redistributed we stood at 280 votes but this was not enough to catch up with the lowest polling Sinn Féin candidate (on 375) and we lost out.

In addition to this vote, we have built the rudiments of a party branch in Enniskillen and this will be critical in developing grassroots and cross-community politics in the County. We have made many contacts with nurses and workers in many estates around the town.

We look forward to further engaging with these contacts we made over the course of the campaign. The Socialist Party will increase our activity in Fermanagh as we grow stronger. The campaign  for the next council election starts here.

We remain steadfast and committed to the building of cross-community opposition to defend public services and demand a scheme of public works which will create local employment and develop the productive capacity of our society (in public ownership).

Given the sectarian divisions, there is massive alienation of a large section of people from the political process and politicians, in particular. We recognise that we have work to do to make the case for people to get registered and vote for a fighting alternative. We also need to build the Stop the Cuts Alliance locally involving the layer of advanced workers we have encountered in our campaign. That is the task facing the Socialist Party in Fermanagh in the months and years to come.

Cuts to Acute Hospital will threaten Public Services in Enniskillen

The decision to cut the number of beds at the new acute hospital in Enniskillen to 269 rather than the original planned 315 which has been recently reported is a severe threat to the quality and nature of health provision in Enniskillen.

The loss of 43 beds will result in a further 50 nursing posts disappearing, impacting an economy already reeling from a collapse in private sector demand. The Western Health Trust is celebrating this “significant saving in nursing costs” and states that further savings will be made ‘by applying enhanced working efficiencies and the development of new roles’ – in plain language, that means nurses will be further pressurised and forced to cover for inadequate staffing levels.

The new hospital is being built through the expensive and wasteful private finance initiative or PFI; at dozens of other hospitals the use of PFI schemes has resulted directly in the loss of beds and nursing posts as the banks seek to maximise their profits. 

There is widespread concern that the new hospital will be more than suitable for outright privatisation in the future - its location along the border would make a large private hospital in Enniskillen highly lucrative for investors.

I believe that the hospital should be built with public money and be kept under full public control both now and in the future. 

The Assembly parties are implementing these Tory cuts instead of standing up for our communities and our public services. We need to build a campaign across all communities and stand with local nurses, doctors and other health service staff in defending public health provision.

Just as with the cuts to education, the home help service and special needs provision in this town, we need to build campaigns to force those in power to reverse course. That is the Socialist Party’s agenda in this election and will be my agenda as a member of Fermanagh District Council.

Donal O’Cofaigh to run for Socialist Party in Enniskillen

In September 2009, I resigned my council seat and left Sinn Féin to join the Socialist Party in protest at what I described as their ‘overseeing the long-term administration of senior civil servants and their right-wing agenda’.

At the time I said that:

“Change can only come about if working, unemployed and young people themselves organise to challenge the status quo. We have seen the power of effective local campaigns in fighting against health cutbacks and against the imposition of water charges. The sad truth is if we are waiting for change to come at the hands of any of the mainstream parties, then we will wait a long time indeed. Working people must organise themselves against cuts and to defend jobs.”

I remain convinced of that as much today as I did then. We must build cross-community campaigns to defeat the cuts and have no illusions about any of the parties. This council election is important in building an effective opposition to the cuts tsunami. History teaches us that the extent and depth of the cuts imposed will be determined by the strength of our campaigns against them.

Defending Public Services

All of the mainstream parties are keen that people do not find out the just how bad the cuts will be before the election so that they can implement them all the more effectively in the four years before the next elections - but people can see through that.

If I am elected I will be 100% committed to supporting grassroots campaigns and working with the local Trades Council, community and voluntary groups to fight the cuts affecting our communities, public sector workers; to reverse the cuts to benefits, the imposition of stealth taxes such as water rates; and demanding a much-needed public works programme for the county that would create jobs for the unemployed and yield improvements to our social, economic and environmental infrastructure.

Vote to Fight the Cuts!

Assembly Cuts Agenda will Devastate Fermanagh

This is a full, unedited version of the letter that was submitted to both the Fermanagh Herald and Impartial Reporter (and which has been published in both).

Northern Ireland Ministers - Agreed on Need for Devastating Cuts

The cuts outlined in the draft Executive Budget and agreed by all the Assembly Parties will devastate Fermanagh and have particularly severe consequences for deprived communities, those who have lost their jobs or forced to work part-time. Yet the same politicians who have signed off on these cuts will feel no qualms about canvassing the communities that these cuts target in the weeks to come.

The Assembly parties realise that their cuts are simply unjustifiable and that is why this draft budget fails to identify what specific actions will be necessary to deliver it. They are trying to get through these elections before people know what is happening.

There is an alternative to these cuts. The Assembly could agree a ‘needs-based’ budget and work with the Stop the Cuts Campaign, local communities and the trade union movement to build opposition to the neo-Thatcherite agenda. There is plenty of wealth in society – it is estimated that £120 billion escapes the tax net through avoidance, evasion and loopholes. Billions are wasted year on year on nuclear deterrents and invading countries like Iraq and Afghanistan; billions more have been paid to bankers, bondholders and property speculators. Yet when it comes to basic services for ordinary people they tell us that the money is not there.

Martin McGuinness shares a joke with David Camerson

A QUB Professor has estimated that these cuts will result in 38,000 job losses across the north. How is this supposed to help improve our economy and improve fiscal receipts? They will undermine not just the public sector but suck the lifeblood from small businesses and the private sector. These cuts only benefit the financial speculators and spivs of the stock-market.

These cuts will devastate the economy of Fermanagh which is already on the precipice. Across Fermanagh, communities face mass youth emigration, those who remain face a stagnant labour market and ever decreasing benefits. The viability of our schools will be ‘reviewed’ once again and more young students will be excluded from higher education. Our elderly will face even greater hardships as they struggle to obtain care services, being pushed to expensive private sector provision. Despite the denials of the Health Trust, these cuts are a sword of Damocles hanging over the public-sector status of the new Southwest Hospital. All our politicians can offer is verbal opposition to cuts while they administrate them in reality regardless of the cost.

Instead of implementing Tory cuts, our politicians should be building opposition to them alongside the community. We need to unite all those affected by these cuts not fall back to the politics of sectarian division. If history teaches us anything it is that only when people are united and campaign effectively that real change can be achieved. One has only to look at the inspirational protests in Egypt to see what real democracy looks like.

Irish Workers Protesting Cuts

We can fight and win against these cuts. Part of that is working to build a wider opposition bringing together trade unionists, community activists and those directly affected by the cuts; another part is to use these elections to elect genuine campaigners to fight the Assembly parties’ cuts, not implement them.

Statement confirming my candidacy for local elections in Enniskillen

The Socialist Party will be fighting both council and assembly elections next year and the party has agreed that I should stand in the next council elections in Enniskillen.

In doing this our aim is to provide an uncompromising voice on behalf of local working class people in the chambers of power. The current political representation in Fermanagh is weak, ineffectual and often is simply absent. There’s a need for change, many people see today that government represents the interests of an international class of financial speculators at the expense of our own working class. But no-one appears to be fighting for this county and there’s certainly not anyone representing the working class areas of Enniskillen. Fermanagh is at the back of every queue for every decision and that was before the latest onslaught of cuts.

There’s a cosy-consensus at the heart of local government and our MLAs feel under no pressure to deliver. Every election it is the same thing, all the parties play at divisive politics but when they are elected they are as one in agreeing the cuts. Although that won’t stop them from making sure that they have their photos taken at the front-row of every protest against the same cuts.

Take the new Southwest Hospital. Such was the lack of political oversight that local doctors and businessmen had to come out to publicise what was happening; there was not a word from the local council. The reality is that as they do nothing, core services are being run down so that the new hospital will struggle to maintain its acute level status. We need to build a wider campaign for the hospital services we deserve and to safeguard local jobs and working conditions.

There is a jobs crisis in this county. Our unemployment is almost 12% higher than it was last year yet no-one is doing anything about it. Our politicians seem content to wring their hands and hope that ASDA and TESCO solve the problem. We need to be pressing for an emergency scheme of public works to provide meaningful and productive employment for local people rather than forcing them onto the dole. It’s not as if our schools don’t need leaking roofs fixed, pensioners’ houses don’t need insulation or our roads don’t need resurfaced – yet construction workers languish on the dole while those who caused the crisis reward themselves with bonuses of approximately £7 billion for this year alone. As one of the worst affected areas, Fermanagh should be leading a campaign to demand such a scheme.

A recently reported in the Impartial Reporter a leaked Department of Education report indicated that 47% (that’s just under one in every two) of primary schools and 81% of secondary schools in this county are on a secret ‘closure list’ yet our politicians have done nothing about it. We need to link campaigns together across the sectarian divide to save all our schools not allow them to be picked off one by one.

If I am elected I will use this position to expose what is really happening and the cosy-consensus that exists in the townhall, the decisions are made in private; all that needs brought into the light of day and opened to public scrutiny.

I guarantee my total support to all community campaigns against the closures, sell-offs and privatisations. We need to build a mass, cross-community opposition involving trade unions, local communities, the young and the old. History teaches us that only when workers get organised and make their campaigns political that change happens – we need to build that in Fermanagh.”

I am asking all those who agree with this alternative agenda to get involved in my campaign.

If you have an issue to raise or want to help our please contact me on my mobile at 07889087906.

Joe Higgins: political representative of the working class

Joe Higgins walks out over Rehn's insistence on the confidentiality of discussion

Written by Socialist Party Reporter

Tuesday, 23 November 2010 13:00

Socialist Party MEP, Joe Higgins, refused to participate in a meeting between Irish MEPs and the Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn. MEP Higgins left the meeting after Mr Rehn stated he would only share essential information if all the MEPs agreed not to disclose the contents. Joe Higgins said after leaving the meeting "After a week in which the Irish people were persistently misled and lied to it was outrageous to suggest that elected representatives could not share with those who elected them what Commissioner Rehn had to say "As far as I am concerned commissioner Rehn and the IMF are acting as agents for the predatory international banks and the speculators who gambled billions in private deals with property developers and bankers in Ireland and now want the Irish working class to pay for these gambles which went wrong. "I was therefore not going to participate in any secret discussion behind the backs of working people and the unemployed. "It is essential that there is a major mobilisation of people power and worker power to stop the disastrous austerity programme beginning next Saturday at the National Protest organised by ICTU."

From:

The Socialist Alternative to the Cuts!

By Cllr Mick Barry, Cork

The capitalist media say that there is no alternative to the thrust of the economic policies being advanced by the government, the EU and the IMF.  This is completely untrue. There is an alternative - a socialist alternative. Here socialistparty.net puts it forward in the form of a ten-point programme.

 

Shut down Anglo Irish Bank

The bailout of Anglo Irish Bank is set to cost the taxpayer between €29.3 billion and €34.3 billion according to the Government and up to €40 billion according to some economists. The bank should be closed down immediately and the losses should be taken by bondholders, private banks who lent to Anglo and wealthy depositors.  The same applies to the Irish Nationwide Building Society.

 

Nationalise the banks under the democratic control of working people

AIB, Bank of Ireland and other banks should be nationalised.  The banks should be amalgamated into one state bank with jobs guaranteed and employment provided for Anglo and INBS staff.  The boards should be sacked.  A new board under the democratic control of working people should be established including elected representatives from the workplace and representatives elected from society as a whole.

End the bank bailouts which could end up costing as much as €90 billion -  redirect this investment to job creation and protecting social services.    Bondholders and private lenders from the banking world should be given no guarantee of repayment.  The bank should gear its resources and future profits towards reducing mortgages (all mortgages should be brought in line with current house valuations), defending jobs and providing cheap credit to small business and individuals.

 

For an emergency programme of socially useful public works

Under capitalism schools are unbuilt, communities are left without centres, health, sport and youth facilities and masses of homes are uninsulated at the same time as huge numbers of construction workers languish on the dole.  End this contradiction by launching a socially useful programme of public works to employ construction workers at trade union rates of pay.

 

For a 35 hour week without loss of pay

It makes no sense to have people working 39 hours a week plus overtime at the same time that 450,000 people are on the dole.  Cut the working week to 35 hours without loss in pay and share out the work among the unemployed.  This would create 165,000 jobs.  It costs an average of €20,000 per annum in dole payments and lost income tax revenue to keep a person unemployed for a year.  Measures which take a quarter of a million people off the dole could save the taxpayer up to €5 billion and this money should be used to finance the emergency programme of socially useful public works.

 

For a progressive tax system

33,000 Irish millionaires own €133 billion wealth.  The taxation system should be changed, not by bringing the lowest paid into the tax net, but by forcing this elite to pay their fair share.  A hefty wealth tax should be introduced; tax loopholes for the rich abolished and corporation tax significantly increased.  No to property tax on the family home and to water charges.

 

Abolish sky-high pay rates

The Taoiseach is paid €228,000 per annum. A government minister is paid €191,000 per annum. A Supreme Court judge is paid €257,872 per annum.  These sky-high wages and others should be abolished along with perks such as the ministerial car fleet.  This should be done, not to “set an example” to encourage ordinary people to accept austerity, but to strike a blow at a viciously unequal capitalist society.

 

Reverse the cuts

Not only are massive cutbacks an assault on the “social wage”, striking hardest at working people and the poor, they are also severely deflationary with the potential to cripple the economy as pointed out recently by the ESRI.   Every €1 billion in cuts is estimated to shave €500 million off economic growth for the following year.  Use the new tax revenues accruing from the introduction of a progressive tax system to stop the flow of cutbacks and reverse all the cuts of recent years.

 

No to privatisation

The author of the An Bord Snip Nua report, right-wing economist Colm McCarthy, has been put in charge of a review of state assets and this is, no doubt, a prelude to proposals for privatisation on a massive scale.  It makes no sense whatsoever to privatise when the private sector is responsible for the crisis in the first place. We need more nurses, teachers, doctors andsocial workers. Public sector employment should be increased not cut!

 

End the rule of the market

Capitalism has failed spectacularly - 450,000 on the dole, a banking disaster and €15 billion in cuts on the way.  If capitalism cannot afford to provide jobs, decent living standards, decent social services and a future then the working class cannot afford capitalism.  This system needs to be ended.  Nationalise the banks, the building industry and all the major companies which dominate the economy under the democratic control of working people and use their profits to meet the needs of the people.

 

For a socialist plan of production, in Ireland and internationally

Gear the economy towards meeting the needs of ordinary people not the superprofits of the capitalist elite.  Match unused resources with social need  -  e.g. finishing “ghost estates” to tackle massive social housing waiting lists.  Instead of bailing out banks use state funding and state industry to end unemployment.

End the rule of capitalism internationally and the power of unelected financial “markets” to bully millions of people, and entire countries.  For a socialist Europe instead of a capitalist European Union.  Instead of the anarchy of the market with its catastrophic rollercoaster of boom and slump, plan the world economy rationally to end poverty, starvation, mass unemployment and vicious social inequality.

Carried from http://socialistparty.net/theory/547-the-socialist-alternative

Sinn Féin’s ‘Alternative’

Sinn Féin recently published its plan for the cuts which offered a few populist measures as window-dressing e.g. a marginal pay-cut for MLAs, reduced use of business consultants and slashing bonuses to hospital consultants but aside from these few positive policies, the document masked the party’s 180˚ u-turn on its previous opposition to the cuts:

 “We fundamentally disagree with the Tory government’s slash and burn approach to the economic crisis, but we are nevertheless forced to deal with the consequences of its approach.”

Sinn Féin plans to quietly administrate the cuts, safeguard business interests and slash workers wages hoping that big businesses will eventually be attracted to set up here and exploit local workers. Meanwhile, they will make a big play of their ‘opposition’ locally and hope to prevent any political fallout.

Regressive Taxes

The document proposes a number of regressive taxes e.g. on plastic bags (raising £4 million) and on mobile phone masts. The latter will simply result in phone companies ‘passing on’ the costs to consumers and in rural areas masts may be removed altogether as they will not be ‘profitable’.

Instead of shilly-shallying around the telecoms giants, the industry should be nationalised and democratised to ensure all profits are either reinvested in improving local infrastructure or to supporting other public services.

A Financial Services Mentality

The party has adopted the mindset of financial capitalism, their vision is for “financial engineering instruments...to help regions and cities meet their investment needs"!

They propose a bank bond to pay for private sector investment. This policy will guarantee massive profits for the bankers at the very time when working people are demanding that they be nationalised and run in the interests of the people.

The party also proposes the privatisation of future Housing Executive rent payments through creating a ‘special financial vehicle’ to ‘take advantage’ of accounting rules that allow a ‘body outside government to borrow’. The party appears to have forgotten that this was precisely why the 1990s Tory government implemented this ‘off-balance sheet’ accounting rule in the first place. Since then it has been instrumental in driving the widespread use of PFI with the aim of creating lucrative returns for speculators – something Sinn Féin appear to have no problem with.

But the speculators who lend money to the Executive will require annual payments for inflation, interest, so-called risk, as well as their profits. Surely a better deal would be secured if new social housing was simply paid for with increased taxation?

Lower Taxes for Big Business

Sinn Fein’s talks up their demand for ‘fiscal powers...to tackle the fiscal crisis. Without the necessary tools we are simply reduced to redistributing a smaller pot of money’. But before you assume that the party is seeking to increase the burden of tax to help protect public services you might notice this hidden sentence:

“The Tory party has articulated a public position around designating the north as an enterprise zone with the ability to vary [read lower] corporation tax rates. Sinn Fein believes that the British government should implement these proposals as part of a Budget Settlement.”

Far from using fiscal powers to protect the public services and workers from the devastation of the cuts, Sinn Féin seeks to lower business taxes even further!! The cost: £500 million a year to be paid for by further cuts and more stealth taxes.

It is an irony of history that after 30 years of divisive and fruitless struggle, Sinn Féin in government content themselves to implementing cuts that Margaret Thatcher could only have dreamed about.

Socialists must seek to build a cross-community opposition to the cuts involving workers and those affected in the wider community – that’s the only real alternative to the Tories in Westminster and in Stormont.

Public Meeting on how to fight the cuts - Belfast

PUBLIC MEETING

 

HOW WE CAN FIGHT THE CUTS

 

8pm Thursday 28 October

 

Speakers:

CARMEL GATES Nipsa General Council (personal capacity)

PAT LAWLOR Unite Royal Victoria Hospital (personal capacity) 

GARY MULCAHY Socialist Party

 

ALL WELCOME

Fighting the Cuts - Article by Gary Mulcahy

The savage cuts to be announced by the Tory / Lib Dem coalition government in the Comprehensive Spending Review on 20th October have dominated the media and conversations in workplaces, communities and homes. For socialists and trade union activists, the question of how to fight the cuts is of upmost importance.

The scale of the cuts will be devastating for public sector workers, for communities who need these services and for workers in the private sector which relies heavily on public sector spending in Northern Ireland. The overall impact of the cuts will be to plunge the economy in the North deeper into recession, representing a general assault on the working class and also the middle class.

Full story at:
http://socialistpartyni.net/campaigns/fight-the-cuts/462-how-to-fight-the-cuts



Stop WELB cuts to our Children's Education!

Like most other Governmental bodies, the WELB have placed a moratorium on the recruitment of staff as a means to met the stringent efficiency gains agreed by the Stormont parties in their three-year comprehensive spending review (May 2008- April 2011). The impact of this has been to place an ever greater burden on those staff remaining on to provide front-line services.

The WELB’s ban on recruitment has now impacted on music tuition for children attending local primary schools across Fermanagh. Following on from two tutors taking maternity leave, a third tutor in the county has been made redundant in a decision which clearly is geared towards running down this service in the future. As a result there is now no tutor to provide lessons to children anywhere in the county – this decision has undermined a longstanding commitment to musical education at primary school level.