Unions Should Organise Mass Campaign to Stop McCreevy's Cuts

by Stephen Boyd

WORKING CLASS people are outraged by "hatchet man" McCreevy's vicious cuts announced on 14 November in the book of estimates. Ahern and Harney lied through their teeth to get re-elected. They told people there would be no cuts "whatsoever - secret or otherwise".

On 25 April at the launch of Fianna Fail's election manifesto, Ahern said "We will extend medical card eligibility to over 200,000 extra people with clear priority being given to families with children". This election lie was exposed as a sick joke by McCreevy's decision to break this promise and condemn people, some with incomes as low as €130 a week to have to continue to pay up to €45 to see a GP.

This government's agenda has been clearly exposed. On the same day as the budgets for health and education were slashed, McCreevy told big business and the multinational corporations that the government was still committed to cutting their taxes to 12.5%. What more proof is needed that Fianna Fail and the PDs are a government for the rich?

What has been the opposition's response. Aside from melodramatic condemnation of the government's plans, all that Enda Kenny and Pat Rabbitte have really said is that the government have been spending money recklessly over the last few years and that they should have cut spending sooner!

There is massive political anger at the government's deceit. This anger will grow once the cuts become a reality in the form of reduced services and increasing charges. Working class people must organise to fight back against these attacks. It is absolutely disgusting that the right wing leadership of ICTU and all of the major unions are still involved in negotiations on a new social partnership deal. How can these bureaucrats keep a straight face and claim that Ahern, McCreevy and Harney are the partners of working class people?

The unions should be organising campaigns against these cutbacks, mobilising the 500,000 members and their families in a mass movement to force the thieves and liars in Leinster House to reverse these vicious cuts. As a first step the unions should organise a nation-wide token work stoppage and protests at the Dail and around the country on Budget Day.

The situation is set to get worse. The decline in the economy continues unabated - recession is possible in 2003. The government are sending out a clear message - they will pursue an economic agenda that makes working class people pay for their economic mess.
We need an alternative to the failed establishment parties. Workers need to get organised to reclaim their unions and to fight for the establishment of a new party that represents the interests of working class people.

North: Stand by the Firefighters

by Peter Hadden

FIREFIGHTERS ARE fighting for a just wage for the highly skilled and dangerous job they do. But the idea of paying people a proper rate is too much for Tony Blair. Never mind that he awarded himself a 40% pay rise, he has threatened to use the army, police and emergency powers to resist the firefighters' claim.

Blair wants to make an example of the FBU so that he can then face down other public sector workers who are opposed to his policy of low pay and privatisation of services.

Blair's beef with the FBU is that they have managed to maintain reasonable working conditions that have been eroded in other parts of the public sector. The watch system not only means an efficient service, it also promotes solidarity among people who work closely together. Blair wants flexible shifts and greater variety of pay and conditions to break this solidarity.

Fire station managers are promoted from the ranks. Blair wants to bring in private sector managers, people who know nothing about fighting fires but are good at forcing workers to accept low pay and poor conditions.

Blair's attack on firefighters is part of the broad assault being carried out on public sector workers. Social security staff here have recently been forced to strike over management imposed changes in the opening hours of offices. Now management are coming back with another list of demands.

Whole areas of the public sector are being handed over to private companies, not to make the services more efficient, but to make a profit by clamping down on wages and conditions.
But a fight back is beginning. Post Office workers, who could face up to 40,000 job losses if privatisation goes ahead, have balloted for strike action over the proposal to hand cash delivery workers over to Securicor. The result was a massive yes vote for action and Securicor have pulled out of the deal for the time being at least.

If the firefighters are defeated, it will give a green light for Blair to step up his attacks. But a victory would show other workers that determined action can defend conditions and end poverty wages.

The firefighters must not be isolated. Other workers must be prepared to take solidarity action if the government attempts to use its emergency powers to sack any firefighter or to seize any of the assets of the FBU. The firefighters are fighting for us all and we must make sure that they win.

A victory in this dispute should be followed by a one day strike of all public sector workers to defend public services, oppose privatisation and improve pay.

The other lesson of this dispute is that it is time for the FBU and all other unions to sever their links with New Labour. New Labour is a big business party like the Tories. The unions must immediately set about building an alternative - a party that will uphold the interests of the working class by fighting for socialist policies.

Bush Leads US to War & Recession

by Tom Crean & Alan Jones

THE REPUBLICAN victory in the recent US elections has encouraged George Dubya Bush to step up his war mongering. Meanwhile, the US economy is moving towards a recession. TOM CREAN and ALAN JONES, members of Socialist Alternative, the American sister organisation of the Socialist Party, report from New York on recent developments in American society.

Even as UN weapons inspectors prepare to head back to Iraq after Saddam Hussein agreed to comply with the latest Security Council resolution, the US war machine is gearing up for invasion. Recent reports indicate that Bush has decided on a plan involving the deployment of between 200,000 and 250,000 troops. Heavy equipment is already being moved to the Middle East and a forward base has been established in Kuwait.

There are many factors at work in the drive to war. The right wing of the Republican Party which dominates the White House is obsessed with Iraq and wants to "finish the job" left over from the 1991 Gulf War.

War for oil?

But in a broader sense, Bush and co. want to redraw the strategic balance of the Middle East by occupying the region's second largest oil producing country. This war will not be simply about oil but it is impossible to separate the question of controlling this vital resource from the aim of reasserting imperialist domination in the wake of 9/11.

Of course, it must be stressed that war is not inevitable. The US faces massive opposition abroad - and increasingly at home - not just from ordinary people but from sections of the ruling class who see an invasion of Iraq as potentially destabilizing the entire Middle East. They particularly fear mass upheaval and the overthrow of regimes from Pakistan to Egypt by right wing Islamic fundamentalists. In reality, if the US goes to war, it is heading into a quagmire. Even if they manage to topple Saddam with relatively few casualties (by no means a certainty), they will be forced to occupy Iraq for the forseeable future and face potentially huge complications.

Division in US society

Despite Bush's victory in the recent mid-term Congressional elections the road to war domestically has certainly not been smooth. A poll in the New York Times at the beginning of October showed that while a majority of 67% support Bush's general campaign to "disarm" Iraq - figures that are significantly lower than the support for the war against Afghanistan - a majority also said they feared a long and costly war. 60% said they expected an invasion of Iraq to develop into a wider war in the Middle East and 50% said they thought it would increase the chances of more terrorist attacks in the United States. A majority said they did not want the US to act without the support of its allies and when it was posed more bluntly that "Iraq presents such a clear danger to American interests that the US needs to act now even without the support of its allies" only 29% agreed!

Anti-war movement

Apart from general disquiet, recent weeks have also witnessed the emergence of a potentially very powerful anti-war movement. On 26 October, a demonstration estimated at between 100,000 to 200,000 marched in Washington D.C. Tens of thousands of others marched in San Francisco and other cities across the country. The Washington demonstration was the largest anti-war protest in the US since the Vietnam War.

Young people have played a key role both in the national protests but also in the hundreds of local protests, especially on college campuses. But it is also very important that a number of unions and labor councils have adopted antiwar resolutions despite the continued support of John Sweeney and the leadership of the AFL-CIO for the "war on terrorism". The Washington State Labor Council, the first state labor council to oppose the drive to war, also called for the repeal of the US Patriot Act and other "anti-terrorism" legislation that was used to round up hundreds of Middle Eastern immigrants after 9/11 and hold them indefinitely without charge. Socialists including supporters of Socialist Alternative, the American section of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI), played a crucial role, alongside other rank and file activists, in getting the Washington resolution passed.

Meanwhile, the recent convention of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers Union (UE) overwhelmingly passed a resolution stating, "An invasion of Iraq is not in the interests of workers. As in the Vietnam War, working people will be forced to pay for this war with our lives and our pocketbooks."

But what is most remarkable is that this movement which is already more powerful than the movement against the Gulf War a decade ago has emerged only a year after the 9/11 tragedy. In reality, the patriotic mood whipped up by the ruling class after 9/11 only temporarily cut across an ongoing process of disillusionment with the American establishment among large sections of the population.

But now, the US is barely emerging out of one recession before lurching toward another with the prospect of further mass layoffs. There is also massive anger at the scale of corporate corruption which has been revealed since the Enron scandal broke last year. At a local level, there is the prospect of serious cutbacks in social services. People are asking where the money is supposed to come from to pay for Bush's adventures in the Middle East. 9/11 led to an outpouring of patriotism which benefited Bush but it also shattered Americans' feelings of security. The question is whether ordinary people here - or anywhere else on the planet - are more "secure" after a year of the "war on terrorism". The answer is that the US ruling class couldn't care less about the security and well-being of ordinary people. They claim to be defending the population against terrorism but in reality they defend the interests and profits of the big corporations.

Turning point

American society is at a turning point. In the next period there is the prospect of huge movements by workers and youth against war, cutbacks and the corporate domination of politics. The recent lockout of dockers on the West Coast was only one indication of what could be in store. Socialists have a key role to play in making sure that this time the opportunity is not lost to create a real political challenge to the ruling class. Ultimately only a mass movement which directly challenges capitalist rule in the US and around the world can remove once and for all the basis for exploitation, poverty and wars of imperialist domination.

A choice of "stupid white men"

In the November elections, Republicans won back control of the Senate and increased their majority in the House of Representatives. That's going against a tradition dating back to the beginning of the 20th century that wants the presidential party losing votes in the midterm elections.

But, the Republican victory should not be interpreted as a "landslide victory" nor does it represent a turn of the mood in the country to the right. All the polls showed extreme anxiety of the population about the economy, unemployment, corporate scandals, healthcare and terrorism, while 40% of those asked said the country is headed in the wrong direction.
The Republican victory in the Senate was the result of the swing of a mere 50,000 votes in three states. That was mainly due to the ability of the Republicans to energize their base of support to turn out and vote and the vigorous campaigning of the President in key contests. That cannot be said about the Democrats.

For the one-third of the eligible voters that bothered to cast ballots, the choices were either the war and tax-cut policies of Bush and the Republicans or the policies of (slightly more cautious and multi-lateral) war and "we-have-no-objection-to-tax-cuts-for-the-rich" of the Democratic Party.

Concerns about the economy had led to a drop in Bush's popularity in the polls-which posed a danger for the Republicans in the November elections. He started to beat the war drums in order to whip up patriotism and mobilize his electoral base. Unchallenged by the media and the timid Democratic Party leadership, the Republicans were able to re-position themselves as the party that would fight "corporate corruption" and send CEOs "to jail." Suddenly they were even in favor of cheaper prescription drugs for the elderly.

The 2002 November Elections provided more evidence of the fact that the Democratic Party can not provide even nominal opposition to the policies of Bush and the Republican right-wing circus. It's also further proof that workers and young people need a new, radical political alternative in order to challenge Bush's policies.

There is a deep reason why the Democratic Party has ended up in the position that it is in: Challenging Bush and the Republican policies could ignite the huge class anger and political polarization that exists in the country with a mass movement on the streets. This would be dangerous for the future of the two-party system, with far-reaching consequences for politics in this country.

We in Socialist Alternative campaign to build broad left coalitions that can bring together the struggles against war, budget cuts, democratic and trade union rights, environment, globalization, racism, sweatshops and against Bush and his "permanent war" plans around the globe. These campaigns should have a fighting program, organizing regular meetings of the activists from different sections of the movement and organizing joint campaigns. There should be conferences of activists to launch these coalitions and campaigns in each city with democratically-elected coordinating committees.

We reject the idea that the Democratic party can become an effective opposition to Bush because it also is a party of capitalism and a servant of big business. Out of the movement against Bush's policies, the conditions could be created to run independent workers' and anti-corporate candidates in a number of cities in a short period of time. We can use the elections to build a mass, militant movement that can defeat Bush and the Republicans as well as lay the basis for a mass political party based on the working class, the unions, community, immigrant and youth organizations and the struggle to protect and clean the environment.

Economy: 1,000,000 jobs at risk

After months of denying that there was any possibility of a "double dip" recession, the corporate media is becoming increasingly gloomy as the promised recovery fails to materialize.

Even the announcement that the US economy grew at an annual rate of 3.1% in the third quarter, didn't change the more pessimistic tone because the reported growth was concentrated in July and August. In fact, the economy shuddered to a halt again in September. Projections for fourth quarter growth are 1% or less.

It appears consumer spending - which sustained the artificial boom of the late 90s and remained strong even during last year's recession - is finally faltering. Measures of consumer confidence have fallen sharply recently.

The other factor which sustained consumer spending is the "bubble" in the real estate market which replaced the Wall Street stock market bubble. But the signs are this bubble will burst soon as well. The increasing anxiety of the bosses is reflected in the decision of the Federal Reserve to bring the benchmark interest rate down to 1.25%, the lowest level in over 40 years.

Socialists are not surprised by these developments. Justice, the paper of Socialist Alternative, has insisted over the past year that the problems of the US economy go far beyond the impact of 9/11 or simply working off the "exuberance" of the late 90s. Capitalism is inherently a boom and bust system and the notion that globalization and new technology would change that was always a pipe dream. The truth is that superprofits of the 90s were based far more on increasing the exploitation of working people here and abroad than any real breakthrough in productive capacity.

It is now admitted that productivity gains over the past few years were greatly exaggerated but it turns out that profits were also seriously overstated by many corporations as part of the attempt to keep investors buying their stock. According to a recent article in Business Week, "...the aftertax profit rate on corporate investment peaked in 1997. It likely stands at only 5.2% today, no higher than it was a decade ago and well below the long-term historical average" (4 November).

This crisis of profitability has been a key factor driving the mass layoffs of the past two years, especially in manufacturing. Unemployment now stands at 5.6% and initial unemployment claims are hovering over 400,000. But as the bosses seek to restore profitability by cutting costs, far worse is on the horizon. Business Week goes on to estimate that, "in order to boost operating profits by 12% during the next year, companies in the S&P 500 may have to cut some 900,000 jobs or 4% of their workforce."

This is the insane "logic" of a system driven by profit. 5.6% unemployment just isn't enough to force down "high labor costs" (i.e. wages). For that you need the terror of truly mass unemployment. But if another million working people lose their jobs and the incomes of those with jobs are driven down, consumer demand will slump and a far sharper recession will result.

But even this is not the worst of the news because it is now becoming increasingly evident, as we have repeatedly warned, that the danger of deflation - a general decline in prices which was last seen in the US in the 1930s - is fast becoming a reality. The massive overcapacity in the global economy and slumping demand has led to a decline in prices from China to Switzerland. While declining prices may sound like a consumer's dream, deflation also increases the real value of debt, a potential disaster in the US with such massive levels of individual and corporate indebtedness. Deflation will also make it harder for companies to generate profits and thus lead to long term stagnation as has happened to Japan in the 1990s.

A few years ago, everything the capitalists touched seemed to turn to gold. Now everything they touch turns to crap. It's time for the rest of us to decide once and for all to put an end to the madness of the "free market" and replace it with a rationally planned, democratically controlled socialist economy.

McCreevy's Cuts: Vicious Attack on Workers

by Stephen Boyd

THE 4 December Budget will represent a declaration of war on working class people in this country. This is the clear truth that emerges from the Book of Estimates, announced by Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy on 14 November.

McCreevy's axe is to be taken to all government departments.

Even health spending, due to rise by 6% next year, faces real cuts given that medical inflation currently runs at 10%. It is claimed this will mean the closure of hospital beds in 2003. Already, it means that promises to extend the medical card to 200,000 people living on low income have been shelved.

Some of the most vicious cuts come in the housing sector with the abolition of the €3,610 first-time house buyers' grant and the €60m cut in local authority/ shared housing budgets. This cut will mean a huge leap in the numbers on local authority housing lists - already choc-a-bloc with 50,000 individuals, couples, and families (well over 100,000 people in all).
Third level and further education is to be axed by 2% (6% if you factor in inflation). This is likely to herald increases in charges and/or the return of student fees. Capitation grants to run schools are to be frozen, meaning real cuts.

The Budget will bring a series of price hikes - service charges will increase sharply, CIE fares go up 9% and people who need €900 a year or more on prescription drugs will face an extra €120 a year drugs charges.

The Budget will also see the state putting the National Development Plan effectively on hold. Luas will be delayed. The Dublin metro will be delayed and 23 major road projects will be put on hold in 2003, which is now threatening to be renamed "the year of the traffic jam."
The National Development Plan aimed to provide the infrastructure for a 21st century "Celtic Tiger" economy. Swingeing cutbacks threaten to undermine this totally and leave the country with massive bottlenecks.

The government's assault on working class people will not be limited to cutbacks and price hikes. Privatisation is clearly moving up the agenda now. Price hikes in sectors like CIE are part and parcel of "fattening up" state companies for sell-off to big business.

The estimates are based on the government reaching spending targets by the end of the year which many economists believe will not be met. Moreover, the estimates are not based on the presumption of a sharp downturn. The first scenario is very possible and the second very likely and they could combine to make the cuts even deeper.

McCreevy's drastic cuts could serve to deflate the economy and push it headlong into a spiral of decline.

One thing is certain - the government are set to alienate scores of thousands of people who voted for it last May and radicalised anti-government opinion is about to be boosted big time in Irish society.

One law for them

The government plans to give big business tax cuts that will save them hundreds of millions of euro at the same time that public services will be savaged.

McCreevy announced on 14 November that corporation tax will be cut next year to 12.5%.
This move denies the state hundreds of millions in tax revenues, which could be used to maintain public services.

Meanwhile, the government has no problem increasing spending on an item that will be of interest to activists on the left - the budget for the secret service is due to rise next year by a massive 85%!

Where the axe will fall

* Abolition of €3,610 first-time house buyers' grant

* Axing of plans to extend the medical card to 200,000 people living on low incomes

* Big hikes in service charges

* €60m cut in local authority/social housing budgets at a time when 50,000 individuals, couples and families are on local authority housing lists

* 5,000 Community Employment scheme jobs cut

* €120 a year extra charges for people who need to spend €75 or more a month on prescription drugs

* Fare increases of 9% on CIE

* A freeze on capitation grants for running schools

* A 63% cut in spending on the Anti-Racism Awareness Campaign

* A 44% cut in allocation for the Status of People with Disabilities

Unions must reject social partnership

The headline in the Irish Mirror on 15 Nov was "Enemy of the People" alongside a picture of Charlie McCreevy. The Headline in the Irish Star was "Screwed by Liars" alongside photos of McCreevy, Ahern and Harney.

The big business media hasn't turned radical, its just that they are in tune with the mood of the people and know what headlines are going sell papers.

Its totally pathetic to see trade union 'leaders' pursuing talks on another 'social partnership' deal with all this talk going on. If even the big business media are describing these people as "liars" and "enemies of the people", hoe the hell can the union leaders keep a straigh face and describe these people as our "social partners"?

Editorial: Put the System on Trial!

by Kevin McLoughlin

AT THE same time that the "Celtic Tiger" was roaring and Ireland was joining the elite of rich nations, tribunal after tribunal was being established to investigate the rip-off and abuse of working class people by the state, politicians and the church.

The issues under investigation in the tribunals go to the very heart of how southern Irish society is run. Without the Celtic Tiger, it is quite possible that the capitalist establishment would have been savaged by a mass movement demanding an end to their abuse of power.
We've had the Beef Tribunal and two Tribunals, including Lindsay, into the operations of the blood transfusion board. Currently the Moriarity Tribunal is investigating Haughey and Lowry; Flood is investigating corruption in planning matters in Dublin; Bermingham is investigating the sexual abuse by the clergy in Ferns and Morris is investigating the Gardai in Donegal.

The terms of reference of these Tribunals, on specific people or areas, is designed to limit the scope of investigation and therefore the damage. Testimony given to a tribunal cannot be used again in criminal proceedings. A new type of amnesty! The so-called pillars of our society, political leaders, the church hierarchy and the tops of the police are doing everything in their power to hold back the truth and to avoid their responsibility for destroying the lives of thosands of working class people.

If these Tribunals got to the truth, they would expose a cabal of big business, politicians, the church hierarhy and the state organising to develop their own priviledged position by trampling on the rights of working class people. Desception and lies have been the tools of their trade. Has this ended? Quite the opposite. The cynical lies during the election campaign and now the savage cuts being implemented illustrate this.

The abuse of power, a lack of democracy and corruption is part and parcel of the establishment in this country and the capitalist system they represent. It is not a question of being satisfied with a few fall guys posssibly going to prison, the system should be put on trial by working class people and then found guilty.

Editorial: Blair Declares War on Firefighters

TONY BLAIR is attempting to do to the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) what Thatcher did to the miners. Blair even went so far as to call the FBU leaders "Scargillites". Blair and his "new" sidekick John Reid are aiming to smash the FBU as a warning to all workers and in particular, public sector workers that their so-called modernisation and privatisation agenda will be implemented regardless of public opinion.

A Labour government spokesperson stated "It's now a question of who blinks first, us or the FBU. And it won't be us. This is an absolutely critical test for us, both economically and politically. Industrial relations have always been Labour's Achilles heel. But not this time" (Financial Times, 15 November 2002).

Government ministers have stated that no weapon will be ruled out if the planned series of eight-day strikes go ahead. The government has said that they are prepared to order troops to cross the picket lines and seek a High Court injunction to ban the strikes.

Management at London Underground have been told that the government will give its full support if they take disciplinary action against drivers who refused to work during the first 48 hour strike because of fears over safety.

Downing Street's support for disciplinary action against Tube workers has led to the RMT transport union calling for a ballot of its 8,000 members on industrial action.

The FBU demand for a 40% pay rise or £30k now, was met firstly by a derisory 4% offer from local government employers, this was followed up by the Bain Report's 11% pay offer with major strings attached. The Bain Report is in reality a recipe for the destruction of the fire service as we currently know it.

The day after the Bain Report was published, the Financial Times in its editorial urged the government to give the firefighters an ultimatum: "accept new terms and conditions or think about alternative careers." It called on Blair to use the draconian powers of New Labour's Employment Relations Act 1999 and sack all strikers after eight weeks. "The possibility of dismissal helps to concentrate minds wonderfully", it commented.

Blair's threat to seize the firefighters' equipment is futile given that it would take up to three months to train soldiers to use the fire engines. However, this strike is, in effect, also an occupation and if the military were to take possession of fire stations and the equipment it could turn into a lockout. The FBU should organise a plan of resistance to prevent the crossing of picket lines including if necessary an appeal to other workers to show solidarity on pickets to prevent such an occupation taking place.

Sources from the military have said any orders for troops to cross picket lines to seize equipment would strain the morale of soldiers who feel a strong bond with firefighters. If Blair attempts to get the army to cross the picket lines, then the FBU should make a direct appeal to rank and file soldiers to refuse to be used as strike breakers and scabs.
Blair seems determined to do whatever it takes to make an example of the firefighters. The outcome of this dispute will be a turning point for the entire public sector in the coming period.

The FBU must not stand alone in this battle. The massive public support must be mobilised to put pressure on the government to back down. The rest of the trade union movement must stand firm with the firefighters. Where lack of fire cover means unsafe conditions, workers should follow the lead of the London Tube workers and refuse to continue to work. If this strike escalates, then mass trade union action should be organised including solidarity strike action.

Tony "Thatcher" Blair and New Labour are once again showing that they are completely committed to defending the interests of the ruling class. Hundreds of firefighters have decided to stop paying the political levy to the Labour Party. It is time for the unions to cut the links with Labour and set about building a new party of the working class committed to socialist policies.

All trade unionists and workers should stand shoulder to shoulder with the firefighters in their battle against Blair on the basis that "an injury to one is an injury to all". Victory to the FBU!

No War For Oil: Stop the War Machine

by Cillian Gillespie

THE GREEN light for a war against Iraq was given on 8 November after the US- inspired weapons inspection resolution on the UN Security Council was passed unanimously.

It is quite possible that US imperialism could launch its war for oil and prestige within the next month, using a supposed breach of the UN resolution on the part of Saddam Hussein as a pretext to attack Iraq. At this very moment, US troops are being mobilised to the Middle East.

The idea that this war is being waged because of the brutality of the regime of Saddam Hussein is laughable. The fact is that successive US and British governments have supported and armed some of the most brutal dictatorships that exist in our world including that of Saddam himself.

This war will mean further death and destruction for the Iraqi people. In the last Gulf War, despite the use of so called "smart bombs'', up to 150,000 civilians were killed as a result of intense bombing by the major imperialist powers. Over the past decade, a further million civilians have died as a result of the brutal sanctions imposed by the UN against Iraq.

This barbaric war will undoubtedly be met with opposition across the globe. This was illustrated the day after the resolution was passed when over a million workers and young people marched in an anti-war demonstration in Florence. Significantly, 100,000 marched in Washington against the war in a demonstration led by striking dockers. The disgust felt by the working class internationally against this war is undoubtedly linked to a growing questioning of the capitalist system itself. This is particularly the case amongst young people.

In Ireland, the Irish government voting for Bush and Blair's resolution on the UN Security Council exposed the myth that the Irish capitalist establishment is neutral in this war. They have also allowed US warplanes to refuel in Shannon despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of Irish people are opposed to a war.

7 December in Dublin will give workers and young people the chance to show their opposition to the war and vent their anger at Ahern's government for supporting this war for oil. Socialist Youth and Youth Against the War will be building for this demonstration in the coming weeks.

We are also seeking to organise young people in schools and colleges in building the anti -war movement. Young people have a crucial role to play in opposing this imperialist war.
Socialist Youth is not only opposed to this war. We are also opposed to the system that creates war. As a result, the fight against a new war is undoubtedly linked to the fight against the madness of the capitalist system itself. We are fighting for a socialist world in which war and poverty are consigned to the rubbish heap of history. Join us today!

Derry Anti-War Protest

On 3rd October, the Derry Anti-War Coalition held a protest against the war. 100 people turned up. The biggest contingent was from Socialist Youth and the Socialist Party. 20 people, mostly schools students attending their first ever protest, joined the SY contingent. Although the protest was short it kept the momentum of the anti-war movement going in Derry. Derry Socialist Youth along with SY in other areas, will be mobilising for the anti-war protest in Belfast on 7th December.

North: Pay the Firefighters

by Ian Beard, FBU Rep, Whitla Street station, Belfast

FIREFIGHTERS ARE completely solid behind the claim for a decent pay rise without strings, nowhere more so than in Northern Ireland. 96.7% of Northern Ireland's FBU members voted for strike action.

The first two-day strike was completely solid and the non stop hooting of car horns at the picket lines showed massive public support. When FBU leader Andy Gilchrist spoke in Belfast's Transport House there was an electric mood among the more than 500 firefighters who crammed into the hall to hear him.

Friefighters are angry that having made the case for a professional wage for a professional job, Tony Blair has counter attacked with an attempt to erode conditions and introduce so-called "reforms" that would lead to a worse service.

It is now recognised that we carry out a skilled and dangerous job that involves not just fighting fires, but dealing with transport accidents, chemical spillages and other potential disasters. We work long and unsocial hours with 15 hour night shifts yet get no overtime, shift or unsocial hours allowance.

Yet George Bain came up with only 4% for this year on condition that we accept his strings. We are not opposed to change and real reform that would lead to an improved service.
But Bain is about smashing the power of the FBU, not giving the public better fire protection. He wants flexible shifts so that there is less solidarity among our members. He wants mixed full time and retained crews even though this could mean slower responses as we wait for part timers to arrive.

He wants to bring in outside managers from the private sector, people who are good at attacking workers' rights but, like George Bain, know nothing about firefighting. While talking about the number of people applying to be firefighters he wants us to work overtime, even to work as retained firefighters, in our time off, all of which would mean less jobs for which to apply.

No firefighter wants to strike but we have been left with no option. We are fighting, not just for a decent wage but to protect the service from Bain and Blair's so-called reforms. It is the government who are threatening to escalate this dispute, asking the army to cross picket lines to take the red fire engines and even threatening to use the law to sack us for striking.
If the army do use our fire engines, this will just make matters worse. They are not trained to use the equipment but we will have no appliances to use if there are life threatening emergencies to which we want to respond despite the strike.

Blair wants to make an example of the FBU and then go on to hold down wages and attack conditions for other public sector workers. We are absolutely determined that he will not succeed. We will continue with our action until such times as we have an acceptable offer that guarantees us a professional rate for the job.

We are appealing to other trade unions and to workers generally to stand by us. If we win, it will be a victory for every worker and could be the start of a struggle for decent wages and conditions for all.

The New Labour Party Leadership

by Joe Higgins

WHY DID the Labour Party select as its new leadership Pat Rabbitte and Liz McManus, two former members of Democratic Left which merged with the Labour Party only a few years ago? "Was it a takeover or a surrender?" I asked jokingly in the Dail when party leaders were congratulating the pair.

"Surrender", would be the correct answer. Desperation even. Rabbitte and McManus had a very clean cut win despite the fact that the big majority of the voters were from "old Labour." Clearly the party membership, such as it is, felt that another five years under Brendan Howlin the former Deputy Leader would be as lack-lustre as the last five under Ruairi Quinn. They felt that Rabbitte was the most effective and capable candidate and in this they were correct. But will that make a fundamental difference in propelling the Labour Party to a decisive position in Irish politics?

The reality is that personality will not be the decisive factor. The Labour Party languished at around 12% support because of its craven political opportunism. This was never more obvious than in the lead up to the General Election last June.

Ruairi Quinn's objective was to get into Government no matter what. He thought that this would fall into his lap since he expected the outgoing Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrat Government would lose support leaving Fianna Fail needing Labour. Otherwise, Fine Gael would have sufficient support to form a coalition with Labour. So Labour straddled the fence, careful not to attack any of its potential partners too hard.

The Labour Party long ceased to even pretend to stand for a radically different society from the openly capitalist parties. It embraces the capitalist market-place and the role of the multinational corporations and confines its political ambition to managing these forces in the same way as Fianna Fail, Fine Gael or the Progressive Democrats.

Pat Rabbitte will keep the Labour Party on this track. He may continue to adopt a position of stated hostility to Fianna Fail and try to have an "alternative government" on offer for the next election involving Fine Gael, the Green Party and some others. But "coalitionism" will be the basic electoral strategy. This strategy will mean that the Labour Party will not appeal to an important stratum of the working class and the youth who seek an alternative to establishment politics. This was obvious in the recent General Election with strong support for Sinn Fein, the Greens, the Socialist Party and various independents.

The new government's onslaught of cuts in services and its strategy to make working people pay for the onset of economic downturn will intensify anger against Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats and also intensify the desire for a left alternative.

Undoubtedly the question of building a mass political alternative to the political establishment including Labour will come to the fore as a key issue. The Socialist Party is committed to playing a key role in bringing a new party of the working class into being - a party in which different shades of opinion among the genuine Left will be able to freely participate. But the timing of such an initiative is crucial. Launching something which is merely a shell for existing groups and a few individuals and calling it a "workers' party" would be a fiction and damaging.

A decisive new political force will arise out of a growing political consciousness which in turn arises out of struggles by workers, communities, students and youth against an offloading of the crisis onto their shoulders. Against this background, new forces come into political activity and this is what will make the fundamental difference.

Cityjet Handling - Solidarity Action Can Defeat Anti-Union Bosses

by a Dublin airport worker

THE STRIKE at Cityjet Handling in Dublin Airport is entering its fourth month. In all of that time, the company has not lifted a finger to resolve the dispute. Yet at the same time, it was willing to spend four days in the High Court, at a cost of tens of thousands to take out an injunction against striking workers and other airport shop-stewards to prevent action taking place.

The background to the dispute lies in the company's low pay, anti-union agenda. Established in 2000, Cityjet Handling entered Dublin Airport to win 30% of the ground handling business. To do this they have been relying on low pay and doing everything to keep the union out.

Low pay

Through cheap labour they began underbidding for contracts. Paying their staff on average 30% less than the airport average for such employment, with practically no shift pay, an insulting sick leave scheme and the most appalling working conditions, they could use these workers to underbid the unionised companies.

Determined work by a number of individuals saw a majority of workers sign up to SIPTU, in order to address their pay and conditions, but the company refused to recognise the union or deal with the issues. The resolve of these workers has been an inspiration for all who have had the privilege of assisting them. It is now imperative that other airport workers make a stand on this issue.

Implications for all airport workers

Cityjet Handling management have clearly no intention of settling this dispute. They have adopted the stubborn attitude of Ryanair and clearly decided that if they hold out long enough they will starve the strikers into giving up.

This dispute has far reaching implications for other airport workers. Already the low pay anti-union mantle of Cityjet Handling is being copied by others. Pay freezes and massive changes in work practises are being demanded by other companies. Relatively good jobs are being undermined and standards being dragged down to a new low.

Solidarity action

Many workers are correctly critical of the hesitancy of SIPTU to organise effective solidarity action. In the last few weeks, official action to black everything touched by Cityjet Handling has being going on. This has inconvenienced UPS, Aer Arann, Air France and Cityjet, but it needs to be stepped up.

The legacy of years of bad leadership by the union at the airport is being felt. Every company has been involved in industrial action and those who argued for united action vilified and slandered. A battle needs to be waged to redevelop the union and the ideas of basic trade unionism. A heavy price is being paid for the Ryanair debacle. However, using criticisms of SIPTU, no matter how justified, as an excuse for inactivity cannot continue.

Already a number of strikers and shop-stewards from other airport companies have been brought to court and jailed for a number of hours for organising solidarity action as part of this dispute. That determination must be supported by others. Over the coming weeks the action will be stepped up. It is up to all workers in the airport to make a stand in support of the Cityjet Handling strikers. Otherwise they will be next.

Bin Tax Set to Rise - They'll Try and Squeeze Us Dry

by Diarmuid Naessens

CHARLIE McCREEVY is determined to make PAYE workers and the most vunerable in society pay for the economic crisis that is unfolding.

The media coverage of the government cutbacks has not featured that the Book of Estimates gives local authorities no increase at all in their funding from central government. The estimates give local authorities €420 million. Effectively, when allowing for inflation this means a cutback of nearly 5%.

This cut will affect the funding of all local authority services. By law local authorities are not allowed to borrow, therefore services and jobs will be cut or local charges will be increased. Fine Gael has even predicted that the bin charges could be set to double. Any pretence that the bin charges are to fund the refuse collection service will be effectively dropped.

In the next year, people will see clearly that these local charges have nothing whatsoever to do with reducing household waste and protecting the environment. These charges are simply another form of taxation, almost like a poll tax.

Local authority services are already under funded and under strain. The flooding in Dublin was largely due to the inability of the local authorities to properly service the drainage system due to a lack of funding.

Non-payment of the bin charges is growing. This is clearly shown by Dublin Corporation sending out 40,000 threatening letters to non-payers. The first attempts by Dublin Corporation to prosecute people for non-payment failed as the anti-bin charges campaign was able to kick the cases into touch by getting them sent to the High Court for legal clarification.

The campaigns against the bin charges have built up a legal defence fund and are currently spreading the message around local communities that non payment is the only way to defeat this double tax.

It is now essential that this campaign is built in every community. A successful campaign of mass non-payment of the bin charges will be our best defence against the government and the right wing parties in the local councils introducing a whole new range of local charges.

North: NHS Under Attack - Action Needed to Stop Closures

by Ciaran Mulholland

THE NHS in Northern Ireland is under immense pressure. Recurring bed crises leave dozens of patients lying on trolleys for hours or even days at a time. Waiting lists are longer here than in any other area of the NHS. More than 60,000 are currently on the official waiting lists with thousands more not even counted even though they have been referred to hospital.

Across the North, local communities fear that their acute hospitals are on a hit list. If the Hayes Report is implemented, the Tyrone County in Omagh, the Mid-Ulster in Magherafelt, the Mater, Whiteabbey and the Downe in Downpatrick will lose their acute status over the next few years.

With the collapse of the Executive, the health service is now in the hands of a direct rule minister. All the indications are that the new minister intends to take this opportunity to accelerate changes that have been planned for some time. The minister can blame the local politicians, claiming that he is merely implementing plans drawn up by the Assembly and the Executive. The local politicians will blame Westminster claiming that they would not have closed a single hospital if they had been in power.

The reality is that the main parties and the New Labour government have no fundamental disagreements on the future of our health service. Local politicians will oppose the closure of their local hospital but in reality this means supporting the closure of others. This is most clearly seen in Fermanagh and Tyrone where rival campaigns, involving all the main parties, are competing to have a new hospital sited in their area. Only one area can win this competition, and as a result either Enniskillen or Omagh will lose its acute facilities. None of the main parties supports the idea of both hospitals remaining open.

Neither do the local parties and New Labour disagree on the on-going privatisation of our health service. Under the Hayes plan, new facilities will be built under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). Private companies will build hospitals and then lease them to the NHS at exorbitant rates.

In this way the private companies involved will make up to 22% profit a year. This profit comes directly from the public purse and is created by cutting beds, jobs and wages. Despite the obvious bed shortage locally, Hayes proposes cutting a further 500 to 1,200 beds over the next few years. Again the main local parties do not oppose this proposal.
The trade unions and genuine local hospital campaigns must ensure that the suspension of devolution is not exploited by the department of health to get their way on hospital closures. We simply cannot rely on the main Assembly parties to protect our service. We must mobilise quickly as the government may move quickly. An energetic campaign involving pickets, rallies and demonstrations will make the department stop in their tracks.

If necessary strike action and occupations should be considered. The tactic of occupation was successfully used to save a number of London hospitals in the 1970s. A hospital cannot be closed if staff and patients refuse to move and if management are prevented from moving equipment.

The issue of health cutbacks can also be taken onto the electoral plane. At the last local elections, Raymond Blaney gained a seat on Down District Council on a Save the Downe ticket despite fierce opposition from the main parties, especially the SDLP. Two other candidates performed well though they did not win seats.

In England, retired hospital consultant Richard Taylor won a Westminster seat at the last general election with an overwhelming majority. His victory was the culmination of a campaign to save Kidderminster Hospital. Indeed the Kidderminster campaigners have now won a majority on the local council. At the last general election in the South, seven candidates won parliamentary seats on health tickets.

Ultimately, we require a mass broad based socialist party in Northern Ireland that brings together the best anti-sectarian community, socialist and trade union activists. Such a party cannot be wished into existence and ultimately will be built on the back of big events and mass campaigns.

It is possible however for local campaigning groups and trade union branches to challenge the established political parties at the next Assembly elections. Militant campaigns around the issue of health cutbacks could provide the platform from which to launch such a challenge.

Morris Tribunal: Garda Corruption Exposed

by Michael Murphy

THE MORRIS Tribunal set up to investigate the Gardai in Donegal opened at the start of November. The Tribunal was set up to investigate a series of complaints against the gardai, including threats of extortion and hoax telephone calls, allegations of harassment of the McBrearty family and complaints that some guards may have been involved in hoax explosives and bomb making equipment finds.

The events being investigated by the Tribunal stem from the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron, who was found dead on a roadside in October 1996, and subsequently the circumstances surrounding the arrest and detention of Frank McBrearty jnr., who allegedly confessed to the killing of Richie Barron while in Garda custody. It is now generally accepted that Richie Barron was killed in a hit and run accident on the night in question.

However the Tribunal is a sham - the main people at the centre of the controversy, the Mc Brearty family, are not represented at the Tribunal because they cannot afford legal representation and they also believe that the terms of reference of the Tribunal are too narrow.

Indeed the investigators appointed by the Tribunal to investigate the criminal activity of the guards are an ex-guard, Michael Finn, and a member of the Canadian Mounted Police.
Michael Finn played a key role in the wrongful conviction of Nicky Kelly for the Sallins Mail train robbery in 1976 and it was also alleged that he had assaulted Kelly while he was in custody.

This Tribunal comes at a time when public confidence in the guards is at an all time low. It comes not long after the investigation into the shooting dead of John Carthy in Abbeylara in April 2000 by the emergency response unit of the guards. Serious questions about the behaviour of the guards in the run up to his death still remain to be answered.

Many ordinary people were outraged and shocked by the images of the actions of the guards in May of this year when they went on the rampage battering anti capitalist and environmental protesters off Dame Street in Dublin. A number of guards are awaiting charges for their participation in these events.

The Socialist Party believes there should be a full public independent inquiry into the events in Donegal and no members of the Gardai past or present should be involved in that inquiry in an investigative capacity. The McBrearty family and all of those victimised by the gardai in Donegal deserve justice.

North: End Low Pay - Sweatshops & Slavery

Call Centres: 21st Century Sweatshops

by John Quigley

CONDITIONS IN Northern Irish call centres, which have become known as the sweatshops of the 21st century, are becoming worse according to employment registers data services. Workers in call centres are now working longer hours in worse contidions.

One call centre in Derry which has not given workers a pay rise in five years has come up with a novel idea to attract new workers - pay them more than the people they already employ. This company can only get away with this because they actively discourage workers from joining a union and most workers only last three months with the company, the biggest majority of them leaving due to stress. Northern Ireland has been sold to the companies which use call centre services as cost effective, with attractive grants, low rents and with rates of pay which are 11% lower than in Britain and 18% lower than the Republic.

The call centre companies must be raking it in! We need a campaign by the unions to force these centres to pay a decent wage and get rid of the Dickensian work conditions.

Worker speaks out

by Aaron Smyth

"THE CALL centre where I work is a small building in a residential area of Belfast that doesn't even have the company name on the door. It lacks any kitchen or cafeteria facilities but manages to cram nearly 40 employees into its two small rooms of cubicles each night. The total space of the call centre office is about the size of a small two bedroom flat.

"The employees engage in what is called 'market research'. They are meant to make outbound calls to people all over the UK and Ireland to interview them on various views about products and advertising. The company uses 'random digit dialling' which means that people who are 'X-directory' can be contacted, which is an illegal practice in all regards. The company has developed a repuatation so severe and harsh that it has been forced to change its name on at least three occassions in the last year. It often does not even use its real name but fabricated ones to get people to answer the survey questions.

"Becasue all the employees are part-time, the company offers no sick-pay or other benefits. Employees are expected to be one the phone 100% of their working time and are judged completely on productivity. On one ocassion, a young woman was callously told by a supervisors that she could not go home sick with a sore throat because she may have been, "on the drink and not really sick". On another ocassion, the supervisor simply said he could fill all the seats up in another day if people did not meet their productivity standards. The turnover rate is so high that one employee commented that he sees a new face each might that he works there."

Spotlight on Slavery

by Terry McDonagh

"WE'RE JUST white slaves." This was the comment of the Lithuanian workers on the BBC Spotlight exposure of the savage exploitation of illegal labour in the mushroom industry and on farms in South Armagh, Lisburn and other areas. The illegal workers are sent by the Eastern European mafia in the hope that they will earn enough money to be able to support their families at home. Some are mothers of very young children who are so desperate they are prepared to separate from their families to get money to clothe and feed them.

Instead, they are delivered into to the clutches of ruthless exploiters who don't give a damn about them, their families or the suffering they are going through. Images from the programme stick in the mind - the mushroom grower who complained that the illegal workers "come and go like flies" as opposed to the Portuguese workers he employed. They stay because "we've got them by the balls, we keep their permits and their passports".

Or the woman who was prepared to house people in an unheated barn but who took offence when the two undercover Lithuanian journalists who had posed as illegal workers went to her large farmhouse to tell her they were leaving.

Activists in the labour movement might have been surprised to see Erskine Holmes, formerly of the Northen Ireland Labour Party and the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, involved in providing accommodation, "no questions asked" to Lithuanians and other "slaves". During the 1970s Holmes was one of the people involved in the witch hunting and expulsion of the Socialist Party, then called Militant, from the NILP.

East European workers can expect to earn wages as low as £1.10 an hour. They find themselves caught in a finacial trap, unable to earn enogh to pay off the cost of their journey.

The mushrooms end up in Tesco, Spar and other shops. They should be blacked until such times as the industry pays its workers proper wages and provides decent conditions. The one way to guarantee this is to take the industry into public ownership. As for the owners, maybe they could be sent as guest workers to Lithuania!

Full marks to Spotlight for uncovering this scandal. But it is only the tip of the low pay iceberg...

Belfast, European City of Junkets

Not everyone endures exploitation. Certainly not the politicians. With the Assembly suspended, the redundant MLAs still collect a £29,000 retainer for doing nothing. And Belfast City councillors - from all parties - cooperate in their bid to have Belfastrecognised as the European city of junkets.

An £80,000 bill for foreign trips over ten months is not bad going. Councillors agree that trips to LAs Vegas, Cannes, Barcelona, Boston, Belgium, Copenhagen, China and elsewhere are "essential".

With abill of £2,690 to send nine councillors to Dublin, the idea or north/south economic development takes on a whole new meaning. That's nothing to the £813 is cost to send five councillors fifty miles to Newry.

The End Low Pay Campaign is fighting for a £6 minimum wage for all, with the current youth exemptions abolished. It is time we had a political party whose representatives are prepared to do more than end low pay for themselves.

Scrooge of the Year Competition 2002

Nominations for 'Scrooge of the year 2002' are now open. The End Low Pay Campaign will be back on the streets in the weeks leading up to Christmas asking workers to nominate their employers for this not so prestigious title.

This is the fourth year that the competition has been run an