The Assembly Executive has only begun to implement its right-wing agenda of cuts, privatisation and business hand-outs, but has already faced stern opposition from classroom assistants, forced to take all-out strike action to defend their conditions.

Minister for Education, Caitriona Ruane’s imposition of a deal in June which would have meant a pay cut of up to 18.5%, plus an attempt to attack the role of classroom assistants by de-skilling the job, is a vicious attack on the education of children, in particular of special needs children. But classroom assistants have responded in a magnificent strike movement, which has gained huge public support, especially amongst parents of the children they provide an invaluable service for.

Classroom assistants have learnt that the most effective way of forcing management and the Executive into negotiations and a partial retreat from attacking historic terms and conditions, is to organise and take militant action. The fact that over 1,000 classroom assistants have since joined NIPSA (many from other unions) and taken to the picket lines, is further proof that workers will not accept the neo-liberal agenda from the Assembly lying down.

Displaying staggering hypocrisy, Caitriona Ruane publicly stated in Sinn Fein’s paper, Republican News, before the strike, that she ‘supported’ the classroom assistants demands. During the strike, she has attempted to portray herself as an ‘independent’ observer who wants to see the dispute settled through the unions and the education boards sitting down and talking. Yet she instructed the boards not to give anything extra unless it was permitted by her first. Ruane has also desperately excused her non-appearance at scheduled visits to schools by claiming that she would not cross a picket line because of her principles!

Classroom assistants are not the only ones to see the right-wing nature of the sectarian parties in power. The anticipated decision of the Assembly Executive to introduce additional water charges in April 2009 is also a confirmation to wide layers of people, Catholic & Protestant, that the main political parties do not represent the interest of working class people. The fact that they posed as being against water charges during the election to the Assembly in May has not been forgotten. For many, this complete sell-out will not come as a surprise. But it will cause massive anger which will strengthen the position of the We Won’t Pay Campaign who will be actively building opposition in the communities to any form of water charges.

On every issue, the Assembly parties are taking the side of the wealthy, against the interests of the working class and youth. They are all agreed in implementing Thatcherite policies of privatisation. Workplace 2010, which will see over 80 civil service buildings and estates handed over to the private sector only to be leased back at a profusely high cost, was ‘debated’ in the Assembly with not a whimper of opposition. It was enthusiastically endorsed by the Executive. While the Assembly parties lecture us that we must pay more for the water service and other public services, they are at one in supporting slashing Corporation Tax by 50% for big business.
In this context it is an abandonment of responsibility that the trade union leaders refuse to even discuss beginning to build a political alternative to the sectarian parties, which defends the common interests of workers and youth in Northern Ireland.

The Socialist Party believes workers cannot fully defend their conditions and living standards without also organising politically. The pro-capitalist programme of the Assembly needs to be met with a socialist alternative which would stand up and fight for working class people and struggle for a socialist society where peoples and the environment’s needs come before profit.

Water charges averaging £145 should be introduced in 2009 as part of the rates. That is the rotten conclusion of the first report from the Independent Water Review Panel set up by the Assembly Executive.

When the review was first launched by the Executive the We Won’t Pay Campaign, which the Socialist Party plays a key role in, was the only group to oppose it as being an unnecessary exercise, wasting £700,000 of public money. Instead the WWPC said the Executive should announce the complete abolition of water charges and reverse the creeping privatisation of the water service.

The proposals to include water charges as part of the rates is an acknowledgement that it will be impossible to avoid a mass non-payment campaign if separate water bills are sent to households next April. This was made absolutely clear to the politicians during the Assembly elections in March. It was the threat of non-payment alone which forced them to defer the bills for another 12 months. Since then this review has in reality been tasked with coming up with a way of introducing water charges which could somehow bypass a non-payment campaign. In their attempt to do this, they have been forced to postpone water charges for the third year in a row. This has saved every household an average of £678.

The parties in the Executive hope that they can get away with imposing water charges through the back door. But already people see through this. The review report correctly states that we already pay for water. They claim that on average each household pays £160 a year on water. It is proposed that this should be itemised on next years’ rates bills. The rates are also due to increase next year after a rise of 50% since 1999. But they go on to say that people should pay even more. In other words, water charges of £145 should be introduced in April 2009 on top of what we already pay in our rates which will also increase!

As well as arguing for additional water charges, the report also says Northern Ireland Water Ltd. should double its so-called ‘efficiency’ targets. The original efficiency targets were to make savings of £44million between 2006/07 and 2009/10 by sacking 514 water workers and carrying out cuts. The Independent Water Review Panel wants £88 million cuts in the water service. This would mean two-thirds of water service workers would be sacked. It is a scandal that the Northern Ireland Committee of the ICTU has welcomed the report.

By including water charges in the rates the Assembly hopes people will retreat from a position of refusing to pay. It is true that if water charges are included in the rates it does make it more complicated to organise non-payment, but far from impossible. The anger with which these proposals have been met demonstrates people’s opposition has not dissipated. While many are not surprised that the politicians lied to the people that they were against water charges before the election, many of those who took their word are now seething that they have been stabbed in the back by the MLAs.

The We Won’t Pay Campaign has organised meetings to democratically discuss the details of the Assembly’s plans to introduce water charges, where a strategy to counter their manoeuvres will be debated. While recognising that the Assembly’s inability to introduce separate water charges is a victory of sorts, the Independent Water Review Panel report should not be given any welcome, cautious or otherwise.

The new Assembly Executive has only been in charge in Northern Ireland for a few short months but its character is already clear. The Executive is engaged in a series of attacks on the living standards of working people. Unfortunately for the parties in power workers are fighting back. The result is the sharpest and most concentrated period of class struggle in Northern Ireland in many years.

The Executive, and every party in the Assembly attack working people because they accept the economic and social status quo. This means that they are setting out to impose a neo-liberal agenda from day one, in common with every other government in Europe.

Neo-liberals argue that economic measures need to be taken to increase the share of wealth that goes in profit to the bosses and to decrease the share of wealth that goes to the working class. This economic theory has been dominant throughout the capitalist world for the last thirty years.

One result is the widespread privatisation of public services. The Executive and Assembly are as enthusiastic in their desire to privatise as their predecessors in the direct rule administration. The Private Finance Initiative is being widely implemented in the education and health sectors.   Under Workplace 2010 dozens of government buildings are being sold off and will then be leased back from the private sector at exorbitant rates. The water service is being privatised piece meal as contract after contract is awarded to private companies.

Neo-liberalism means increased exploitation in the workplace. The current attacks on classroom assistants and postal workers are good examples of this. Postal workers are expected by management, backed up by New Labour, to work harder for less money.  They are treated with contempt by post office managers. No Assembly party backs the postal workers in their struggle to defend jobs, wages and conditions.  

The Assembly was riven by sharp debate on the 16 October when Edwin Poots of the DUP announced that he would not be proceeding with an Irish language act and Margaret Ritchie of the SDLP announced that she was ending funding to UDA linking community projects. MLA’s from the sectarian parties queued up to lacerate each other.

Three weeks earlier the same MLA’s sat on their hands when Dawn Purvis of the PUP moved a motion in favour of granting the demands of the classroom assistants. Only one MLA, Dawn Purvis, voted in favour of the motion. 

On the issue of water charges the Assembly parties also speak with one voice. None have supported the call for mass non-payment raised by the We Won’t Pay Campaign. Despite the promises of some of the parties at the last election water charges are on the way.  

The working class are fighting back however and the Assembly parties are very aware of this. Water charges have been postponed for three years in a row because the parties are afraid they will reap a whirlwind when they are introduced. There is mass opposition to water charges and widespread support for the idea of mass non-payment when they are introduced. This support has been mobilised primarily by the We Won’t Pay Campaign which has campaigned for four years on the issue. The campaign has distributed half a million leaflets and spoken directly to the 100,000 people who have signed its Non-payment Pledge in the process. 

Three thousand classroom assistants have made their mark on history by taking ten days of strike action in defence of their historic terms and conditions. The Assembly parties have direct control over their terms and conditions but pretend otherwise. Education Minister Caitriona Ruane in particular is playing Pontius Pilate, washing her hands of any responsibility for the attacks on the classroom assistants.

The fact that the Executive and the Assembly accept the economic and social status quo means that in the last analysis they will always come down on the side of business. It means that the working class and young people cannot rely on the Assembly to deliver but must instead rely on their own strength. Recent events demonstrate that working people intend to do just that. 

Layers of workers will begin to draw the conclusion that they have no major political party they can rely on and will conclude that they need such a party-a mass working class, anti-sectarian party that fights for workers rights and for socialism.