In the run up to the General Election:
Build the Socialist Alternative

TEN YEARS of the 'Celtic Tiger'. The country has never had it better, according to politicians and the media. An the figures are there to prove it; yearly growth of 10% and more, Ireland was easily the fastest growing economy in Europe.

But now the boom is ending, and it is already clear who will be made to pay the bill: jobs are cut, wages are held back and the government is cutting back in spending on essential services. There were 20,000 more people on the live register at the end of January 2002 than there were in September 2001. Combine that with the agenda of privatisation of our services like rubbish collection, public transport, etc. - and running a decent service and maximising profits is a contradiction in terms.

As we are going into a General Election, FF, FG, the PDs and Labour are lobbying for ouyr votes. Yet these are the very parties who weren't able to deliver for working class people during the boom, leave alone will they defend our interests in this worsening economic climate.

The Socialist Party wants to build an alternative for working class people in Ireland. Join us and help build a new movement for socialist change.

The Socialist Party - A Difference in Politics

Joe Higgins, Socialist Party TD

Joe stands out as a TD who has principles and is prepared to stand over them, who is in touch with working people and their needs, and who has fulfilled his election promise to live on the wages of an ordinary worker. Joe Higgins may well be the only socialist voice in the Dail, but he is not alone, and he is not an independent TD. Joe Higgins is a public representative of the Socialist Party. We are building a new party to represent and fight for working class people.

Clare Daly, Socialist Party Councillor

Clare is in with a real chance to win a second seat for the party in Dublin North. Now is the time to help us build a working class party fighting for a socialist alternative!

The Socialist Party is also standing Mick Barry in Cork North Central, Lisa Maher in Dublin Sputh and Mick Murphy in Dublin South West - candisates with a proven record of fighting for ordinary people's rights.

What Did Ten Years of the 'Celtic Tiger' Deliver?

A housing crisis. A health service in tatters that even today is bnot brought up to the standard of the 1980's / Lack of funding in education. Traffic jams in every town in the country and the most underfunded public transport system in Europe.

At the end of the biggest economic boom in Irish history, ordinary people are still facing the same problems. And for a section of the population, the 'Celtic Tiger' never even existed: the 15,000 victims of the heroin crisis in Dublin, the hundreds of people who have no home to go to at the end of the day...

There is no doubt multinational companies, business people and the political elite benefited from the boom. But working class people ended up getting, at best, the crumbs off the table. The reality is that this boom, not only in Ireland but internationally, was based on increased productivity, longer working hours and wage restraint - in other words - increased exploitation of thepeople who produce the wealth. The bosses squeezed more out of us, which meant that their profits went up, and then squandered the money. If that was the rule of big business in a period of unprecedented growth, what will the future hold?

Politics in the Pockest of Big Business

The political establishment in this country is part and parcel of the deal. The present state of services like health and housing are there to prove the incompetence and political bankruptcy of the 'statesmen' in FF and their counterparts in FG and the PDs. On top of that there are the many scandals, which touch all the traditional "pillars of authority" - apart from the ongoning corruption saga, womens' health, childrens' safety, sexual abuse within the Church institutions.

Liam Lawlor is now used as a scapegoat and a pariah by the political establishment, but he is the product of the very system all of these parties set in train and/or colluded with. All these parties are in the pockets of big business. Challenging the rule of big business means getting rid of them as well.

Both the Greens and Sinn Fein present themselves as different. But when it comes to getting into government, both are prepared to share the bed with the parties that sold out working class people in this country. Sinn Fein has stated that they are prepared to prop-up a FF-led government, and the Greens will do anything to be part of a 'rainbow coalition' - ie propping up FG and Labour. You only have to look across the border to see the result of such a sell-out. Regardless of their rhetoric, Sinn Fein in the north is responsible for hospital closures, education cut backs, low pay and the introduction of the infamous Private Finance Initiative - ie privatisation - throughout the north. Where the Greens have gone into government around Europe, they have ditched their 'alternative' politics at record speed and settled in the cosy political life. Both parties accept the logic of the capitalist system - profit before people.

We Need an Alternative

Labour and the trade union tops have become part of the same system. Labour has completely turned into a copy of FF and FG - a lacky of big business. The sell out of the union bureaucracy over the past 15 years has been crucial in cutting across workers' struggles and have helped the establishment. The role of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) over the past number of years has in reality been one of scabbing on disputes and using every trick they could think of to divert the anger and determination of genuine trade union activists. The economic situation we are facing now is more grave than before and these so-calles leaders have less authority than ever before. If necessary, workers and youth will bypass these people in order to fight the attacks from the system.

Joe Higgins, the Socialist Party TD for Dublin West, has been described in the media as "the real opposition" in the Dail. The Socialist Party doesn't believe that a coalition with nay of the present parties will deliver for working class people. We want to build a working class alternative in this country that represents people, not just in the Dail, but in the day-to-day struggles that trade unionists, community groups and young people are involved in. We as a new party made our politics relevant to working class people in the communities and in the unions. The roots we build amongst working class activists are invaluable to win future struggles. It is clear that there is a huge contradiction between the needs and aspirations of ordinary people and what all the political parties represent. The need to build a genuine, working calss alternative is pressing.

Ireland and the World: Struggle is Back on the Agenda

Ordinary people in Ireland are not on their own in the attacks they are facing. On a world sclae, the economic, social and political situation s more unstable now than ever since World War Two. Capitalism has always delivered economic booms and slumps. A market economy is based on the principle that those who have money can get what they want - it is a system that inevitably breeds inequality. Look, for instance, at a service like health, where the demand is bigger than what the service supplies: it is ordinary people who are waiting on trolleys in hospital wards, while the rich have their own private clinics with first rate care.

More than ever, capitalism's survival is now based on maximising profits, and depressing the living standards of ordinary people is an essential ingredient in that. The turmoil that the world economy is now entering wil be severe and of a drawn out character. A recession will threaten the capitalists' profits, and the only solution from their point of view is to further attack working conditions and living standards - the introduction of Third World conditions into developed capitalist countries. Child povery, malnutrition, falling life expectancy, housing conditions akin to shanty towns, and all the social problems that flow from that are today a reality of every major city in Europe. There is no easy way out, and the ruling class will try to make working class people pay for a recession.

The massive fight back in Argentina, where after four years of a shrinking economy people are tired of paying the bill, show the might of the masses once they take to the streets. Five presidents had to come and go in a period of two weeks. Argentina was the 7th largest economy in the world, a capitalist country with a developed industrial base and the best living standards in Latin America. The mass revolt there put class struggle clearly back on the agenda and showed the desire for an alternative, not just economically but also politically.

Such fight backs will be forced on working class people across the world. Ireland will not escapr these developments, and movements will develop here to defend our living standards. Building a political working class alternative that can take these struggles forward and has proposals on how society can be organised on a different basis, a basis where peoples' needs come before company profits, is now crucial to prepare for the future.

Resources are There to Take Society Forward

More than ever before, the economic resources are there to solve the major problems working class people are facing in Irealnd and internationally. But to redirect these resources in that way, and not in the interest of a tiny minority, will require a radical challenge to capitalism's vested interests. Public ownership of banks, financial institutions and major corporations would free the funds and the material to invest in vital infrastructure like public transport, health and housing.

As the situation opens up and people move into action, the need for the political independence of the working class will be apparent, not just on a national level but also internationally. The huge social inequality and economic injustice is the result of a system in which multi-national corporations not only get free reign to destroy the environment and exploit workers as they like, they are actually helped by institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (funded by our tax money) who force countries to open up their economies and sell their services to these sharks!

This economic imperialism is matched politically. The arrogance of the US as 'policemen of the world', at random bombing ordinary people out of their houses, imposing embargoes that kill thousands of children, has done nothing to solve the problems of the workers and poor around the world. What it has done is maintain a world order that keeps the world safe for US big business.

The problems that ordinary people in Ireland are facing are similar to those working class people face around the world. They are the consequence of the same international system. The anti-capitalist movement is a start of a fight back on the same level. Young people played a crucial role in developing this movement that questions the very basis this capitalist system is organised on and exposes the fact that capitalism equals exploitation for the overwhelming majority of the world's population. But the potential for anti-capitalism doesn't stop there. This movement is only one representation of an anger and disgust that exists in the workplaces and in communities about the glaring inequality that this system creates, both on a local, national and international scale.

The Alternative

Argentina shows that struggle develops people's understanding of the forces we are up against and the alternatives that need to be developed. It is working class people who produce the wealth, who drive society forward. They are the most progressive section in society. By consequence they have the right to take the means of production under public control.

The Socialist Party stands for the election of a socialist government, as a reflection and closely tied in with the struggles that are happening on the ground - where people are taking control of resources out of the hands of the privilidged few for the good of society as a whole. We stand for an economy based on planning and co-operation. Corporations should be publicly owned. The boards should be directly elected by workers and consumers. Elected officials should be paid the same wage as the people they represent and should be subject to recall to make them democractically accountable. Powerful posts should be rotated on a regular basis. The wealth of the world should then be used to improve the lives of ordinary people. A reduction in the working week would allow people to fully particiapte in the running of society.

A socialist society would have nothing in common with the vicious dictatorial regimes of Stalinism. Instead there should be a massive increase in democratic rights and civil liberties. Through struggle, people get a sense of their power. If private ownership of wealth and power are the cause of the problem, inevitably the need to break with capitalism and establishing the democratic ownership wealth and power by the majority in a socialist society will come back on the agenda.

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A MEMBER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY

The Socialist Party is a campaigning party. Our members fight on issues in their local communities and in the trade unions. As a party we also campaign on national issues, such as our successful campaign 'naming and shaming' low pay bosses and demanding a living wage of €7.60 in 1999-2000, and international issues, such as the campaign against the Nice treaty or the war in Afghanistan. We are active north and south and are part of the Committee for a Workers' International, an international socialist organisation with members in over 35 countries.

Local branches of the party meet on a weekly or forthnightly basis bringing members together to organise the campaigning work and discuss political topics, thereby developing the policies and campaigns of the party. The highest body of the party is the national conference, organised yearly, at which delegates of all branches decide on the priorities for the party over the coming year. A national committee is elected at conference to oversee the implementation of decisions during the year.

We do not accept any money from big business, we rely upon regluar subscriptions frm members and the support we get for our campaigns amongst working class people.

Committee for a Workers' International
The CWI is the socialist international organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated. The CWI is organised in over 35 countries and works to unite the working class and oppressed peoples against global capitalism and to fight for a socialist society. For more info visit the website:
www.worldsocialist-cwi.org

Socialist Youth

Socialist Youth is an organisation run for young people by young people, it is open to all young people who are sick of the fact that we are not represented anywhere. We fight on a number of issues, such as racism, low pay, sexism, sectarianism, student fees and environmental destruction.

We are a part of the struggle against capitalism and the dictatorship of the big multi-nationals worldwide. We stand for real socialism, which mean srunning society for all peoples' needs and not for the profit of the few. We are the youth wing of the Socialist Party, and our TD Joe Higgins has continuously fought on the issues that affect young people. The aim of Socialist Youth is to organise young people in the fight to change society. Join today. Ring 087 6684616 to get involved.