Tipping the Balance

Wouldn't it be something to believe that voting actually matters?  We have all heard it - 'If voting changed anything, they'd ban it..' Or some variation of that.

Certainly the vote received by Fine Gael and Labour at the last Leinster House elections did no more than allow those parties to carry on as their predecessors in Fianna Fail.  Said predecessors are carrying on in the same vein even though they lost. But sin scéal eile.

Does casting a NO vote in the current referendum matter then?  This time it does.

The recent elections in France and Greece have created a space into which - with a few additional 'events' - we could see the first glimmer of hope in the long war resistance against the neoliberalist onslaught of all remaining remnants of political. economic and social protections for ordinary people.

On such 'event' that could help tip the balance in favour of the anti-austerity bloc that is emerging would be the people of Ireland voting against the Austerity Treaty.  We should not underestimate the psychological impact of this among the plain people of Europe.  This would be seen - not as an act of politicians and political parties - but an exercise in electoral democracy.  It could also give Hollende at al some useful ammunition in the battle that will have to be joined at governmental level.

Of course, the political parties here in Ireland have a huge role in all of this.  The progressive parties lined up against the Treaty are performing well in debates and in the marshaling of activists for the campaign.  The national media remains firmly pro-treaty, so to speak.  However, the local and regional media (if the local papers such as the Galway Advertiser are anything to go by) are wide open and are editorialising against the treaty.

In among all of the tactical priorities that parties have to deal with at this time, they should give some consideration to elevating the importance of this vote to one where it could tip the balance of the argument internationally.  We cannot win this war on our own - those days are gone - but we could be the determining factor in this battle.  It would do no harm in majoring on this.

Austerity To Crush The Labour Movement

The crisis that has brought us to the dire economic situation we face today is not one caused by a few rogue bankers or reckless policy decisions made by successive Finance Ministers.

The Elephant in the room that most media commentators and virtually all politicians choose to ignore is ideology.  The austerity measures laid down by the Troika continue in the vein laid out under the neoliberal revival of the 1980’s and 90’s.  An ideological shift away from the broad Social Democracy of the post war period, with all of the cooperative involvement of public and private sectors that entailed. 

Fine Gael - already keen advocates of conservatism and neoliberalism - have been given free hand to continue this political and economic trend, assisted by and not hindered by the medicine proscribed by the IMF, ECB et al.  The Public Sector, essential State utilities and much of the NGO sector is now fair game for a shift towards private ownership and rich pickings for a very small percentage of people.

The very concept of the ‘free’ provision of Education and Health services has always been an anathema to supporters of neoliberalism.  Now, in the wake of the best example of the failure of this untrammelled capitalism since the 1930’s, this selfish ideology is looking to grab victory from the jaws of defeat.  Under the guise of austerity, the rolling back of democratic control of essential public services accessible to all is being accelerated.  More than this, the very exercise of policy making and the setting of Budgets by  national government is to be subject to the approval of neoliberal ideologues at the centre of the European Commission.

The Irish Labour Party, if they are in the tradition of Social Democracy/Democratic Socialism should have no truck with this.  The Gilmour leadership may not want to admit defeat by leaving this coalition, but in effect that could be their best chance of ensuring that the party survives.

Congress and the Unions have a huge responsibility if they too are to be relevent into the future.  Picture a post referendum scenario where the government can shrug its collective shoulders and point to a pre-agreed budget - agreed by neoliberals in far away chambers and approved by Goldman Sachs and others.  'Sorry David (Begg) and Jack (O Connor), but what can we do?'

There may be a time for the leadership and the ILP and Trade Union movement to be measured and 'responsible'.  Now is not that time.  Congress is sitting on the fence with regard to the impending referendum.  If that treaty passes, the neoliberal dream of killing off the unions, rolling back democratic control and bringing workers back to a cowed and compliant level will allow the 'flexibility' required to hammer home the dominance of capital over labour

The potential for democracy was far stronger fifty years ago than it is today.  Austerity is taking us back decades, as it is designed to do. 

The Vincent Wood Store

The Vincent Wood Store

We Need To talk About Tax

With apologies to Lional Shriver

'A nation's tax system is often a reflection of its communal values or/and the values of those in power. To create a system of taxation, a nation must make choices regarding the distribution of the tax burden—who will pay taxes and how much they will pay—and how the taxes collected will be spent. In democratic nations where the public elects those in charge of establishing the tax system, these choices reflect the type of community that the public and/or government wishes to create. In countries where the public does not have a significant amount of influence over the system of taxation, that system may be more of a reflection on the values of those in power'.
(Wikepedia)

This is not an academic post. I think that we often write for ourselves and fellow travellers on  these pages and this is not about stating the bleedin obvious to people who already have a far more articulate and informed method of relaying this message.

I have been following the debate on various sites in relation to the Claiming Our Future/Siobhan O Donaghue piece on taxing the wealthy. Leaving aside the usual suspects coming from the Right, the commentary from 'civilians' as I might call them for these purposes, tells me that 30 years of Thatcherism and uniform commentary from most media outlets has had the desired effect of conditioning people on the issue of taxation.

Neoliberalism has decreed that taxes equal theft. Of course they mean taxes on income, wealth and property. Indirect taxes are ok as long as they aid business. VAT disproportionately effects those on low or average incomes. Allowing the rich to keep their 'own' money by cutting or abolishing direct taxes gives an obvious outcome. Reducing direct taxes for the rest of us allows us to spend on services that were once provided through said taxes (usually through the public sector) on, well , whatever we want really. Sometimes it is on health and education services ( provided by the private sector, needless to say) to give us an advantage over our fellow citizens, or else on other consumables and/or services and service products provided by...you guessed it.

The debate about specific tax proposals is an important one. Points are well made and arguments effectively put within the paradigm that we are in. That must go on. However, given the amount of deliberately fostered misunderstanding about the rationale of taxation and the role of the public/state sector, what is needed is a long war strategy - one that begins to address the basics again - a process of conditioning if you like.

Those who come on to scorn the notion of a wealth tax need to be challenged on the basics as well as the specifics. All of this with an eye to spectators.

Vigilante Man

Woody Guthrie "Vigilante Man"

www.youtube.com

Woody Guthrie "Vigilante Man." From the 1975 documentary: "Brother Can You Spare a Dime." Footage from Bonus Riots of 1932, San Francisko General Strike 193...

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Barbarity or Civiliation

I have no choice but to be agitated.  I have to agitate.  I am troubled.

My dad often used to say that we (his children) would have much more leisure time then people of his generation.  He believed that technological developments would take the strain, so to speak.  He also had the reasonable expectation that the life chances of working class people would continue to flourish, as he had noted from the end of the second world war.

Like most people who grew up in the East End of London he voted Labour.  He was a rank and file Union man in common with his fellow Dockworkers and he could measure and illustrate how his quality of life, working conditions and access to leisure was way ahead of that of his own father.

My dad was in his sixties when Thatcher came to power.  The London Docks had had their day and the baby boomers (including my elder siblings) were established in white collar professions – the first generation of working class people to reach these lofty heights.  Many of these baby boomers saw Thatcherism as an opportunity to advance further upwards, alas.  Now in their sixties themselves with mortgages paid for and pensions matured, the insular among them (far too many) are closeted from the nightmare that many others are having to cope with.

Of course, many others were forced from manufacturing, mining, agriculture and fisheries and never worked again or had part time or yellow pack work.

Still and all, my dad remained somewhat optimistic that things would get better.  After all, he could remember the 1930’s and had come through a terrible war, seen how non-union labour was dealt with in the Docks and seen the effects of poverty on the health of family, friends and neighbours.

He was even happy to see Tony Blair elected in 1997, though his optimism was sorely tested and then crushed by the jettisoning of all semblence of socialism from Labour in the following decade.  Still he had seen people fight for better conditions and win.

I want to be able to impart that kind of optimism to my children.  I want to be able to say that their lives will be free from conflict and stress and that the future will be civilised and not barbaric.

Its been hard to build up the optimism these past 20 years, dominated by the self interest and individualism  of Thatcherism and the erosion of all that was gained by ordinary working people.

With the current crisis in capitalism, there is a glimmer of hope.  If enough people are agitated and agitate (in whatever way they can) then we can get back onto the collective track of moving forward. That begins with a mindset of course.

It requires that we are of a mind to invisage a future free from the barbarism of untrammelled market controlled capitalism.  It means that we stand with those who are under threat from the agents of the privilaged - the 1% in the current lexicon - That we either join with or use (and I know that we understand that 'use' is a positive here) the various occupations that are mushrooming, to demand a shift from the political and economic paradigm that has set back the hopes and dreams of those who struggled for us.

Its not a time to sit on the fence.  Its a time to tell stories, to inform or remind people of all that those who came before us had achieved and hoped to achieve.  Its a time to understand that many people have been conditioned to see no alternative. Indeed, for many of these people, the language that us lefties use is strange and our sometimes sectarian behavior is a barrier to understanding, let alone participation. 

I wish that I could get on with lots of other things, but I am agitated and I have to do something. 

A Key Moment

A concerted effort is being made to close down the Occupations in the US. No doubt this has given reactionary forces the green light to start the process wherever they can. Expect more stories of local business's trade being adversely effected or random criminal acts. After the initial first few weeks when there was little media attention, the growth in understanding and support for this overt challange to neoliberalism has made an impact. This is the reaction.

Above all else the Occupy movement has given progressive political activists and supporters an opportunity to move beyond simple oppostion to the existing political and economic system towards advocating a complete change - not a tweak to stabilise capitalism so we can move on in much the same way.

It would be a criminal waste if the progressive left could not share some of the burden currently carried by the occupiers, work together in a broad non-sectarian way and act to consign Thatcherism to the dustbin of history. Inside the Dail, Assembly and council chambers lay a space that can be occupied by progressive politicians standing (sitting or camping) causing disruption, walking out, whatever it takes to draw attention to the denial of basic democracy that has blighted us for many years.

This is a time for radicalism. A time to create a crisis to meet the crisis. Proceedure and protocal are not the answer. Putting forward parliamentary motions to address this or that issue within the existing paradigm seems meagre and not a little daft in the face of such an opportunity to challange injustice and put forward an alternative based on what brought all of us activists into politics in the first place.