MASSACRE AT SEA: ISRAELI

STATE TERROR

LAUNCHES MURDEROUS

ATTACK ON

PEACEFUL GAZA

AID FLOTILLA!

In the early hours of Monday morning, 31/05/10, the peaceful flotilla of civilian ships heading for Gaza with food, medical supplies and construction supplies for the people of the besieged territory, was brutally attacked from the air by Israeli assault troops fully armed and intent on violent seizure of the vessel they boarded, the Turkish passenger ferry “Mavi Marmara”. The attack occurred at least 60 miles west of the Israeli coast well outside any territorial waters claimed by Israel. Not unexpectedly, the passengers on board put up determined physical resistance to the Israeli terror troops with all means to hand and succeeded in disarming some of the Israeli pirates for a time. The Israeli pirates replied with shocking munitions fire with fatal consequences for at least 10 and maybe more of the civilian passengers and injury to several others. The ship was eventually seized at gunpoint and taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod. Five other ships accompanying the “Mavi Marmara” were also detained and brought to Ashdod. Over 600 people were kidnapped by force and detained by the Zionist terror state in gross violation of all the norms of international law and human rights conventions.

World-wide condemnation has followed this outrageous act of violent piracy on the high seas by the Zionist terrorists and massive public protests have occurred instantaneously in a number of countries. In Dublin yesterday afternoon, 4000 people gathered outside the General Post Office in O’Connell Street (Symbolic building of the Irish struggle for independence from Britain) to protest against Israeli murder and piracy and the illegal detention of the participants in the Gaza Aid flotilla including several Irish citizens. The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Councillor Emer Costello arrived to join the protest and was welcomed with acclaim.The protest later moved to outside the Israeli Embassy at Ballsbridge, south of the city centre and a further protest was carried out there with wide representation of political parties and ngo’s; the Lord Mayor(Irish Labour Party), the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Committee, Socialist Worker’s Party, Sinn Féin, Éirigí, Peaceand Neutrality Alliance(PANA), Irish Anti-War Movement, Ireland Burma Solidarity, Afri.

The Israeli Ambassador in Dublin was called to the Irish Foreign Ministry by the Minister, Mícheál Martin, and an explanation demanded from the Israeli Government as to their illegal actions and the detention of Irish citizens who were part of the Gaza flotilla. In a calculated snub, officials closed the main doors of the Ministry on St Stephen’s Green, requiring the Israeli Ambassador to use an

entrance at the rere of the building for his meeting with the Minister. In hundreds of messages to the Minister and to the Irish broadcasting media, the Irish people have expressed deep anger at the piratical actions of the Zionist state and demanded immediate action by the Irish Government to insist on the observance of international law and the immediate release, unharmed, of all people illegally detained by the Zionist state military and its agencies. Further demonstrations are expected to be organised in the coming days. Today, 01/06/10, the Irish Foreign Minister issued another statement demanding the release of the Irish and international hostages held by Israel and later in the Dáil(Ireland’s Parliament), the Irish Taoiseach(Prime Minster) Brian Cowen made a stark statement that “if any harm comes to any of our citizens there will be extremely serious consequences”. This statement marks the most serious breach in diplomatic relations between Ireland and Israel in the history of both states.

Meanwhile, the Irish/Malaysian aid ship the "Rachel Corrie" which travelled from Ireland is still on its way to Gaza, undeterred and unintimidated by Israeli threats and state terror bullying. The "Rachel Corrie" is massively supported by the Irish people and Government and will not be turning back. The ship is expected to arrive early on Wednesday.

FearFeasa Mac Léinn

Áth Cliath/DUBLIN, 01 Meitheamh/June, 2010.

The beginnings of a protest movement? Under heavy Gardaí surveillance, including a helicopter, a crowd of over 1500 filled up Molesworth St, opposite the Dáil's gates on the 18th May. It was the second protest, after the 11th of May (see post below), organised by the Right to Work Campaign (RWC), sponsored by the union UNITE, and with the support of all the left groups with presence in Dublin, including SF. There were also two banners of the Labour party, although this party is not officially supporting the protest. Previously a couple of hundreds of the so-called Anticapitalist Block had marched from Stephens Green harassed by Gardaí, who seemed to be trying to provoke clashes. (videos: 1, 2) Media campaign During the week previous to the protest, the Irish media engaged in a scare mongering campaign about the almost “certainty” of violent incidents that would take place during the protest. The independent group newspapers displayed the most vicious attacks. The Evening Herald, for example, on the 17th published an article titled, “Riot squad gear up for violent protest at Dail”, where they said things like: Suited-up members of the unit will be at the Dail gates should protesters attempt to storm the building for the second week running ... The threat of violence tonight was exacerbated by a notice on the SWP website saying they "must escalate the action"... A source told the Herald the Public Order Unit would be deployed "to safeguard the welfare of the public"... Less than 24 hours after the riotous scenes at Leinster House, gardai from the Public Order Unit were in specialist training behind closed doors. At the end of meeting on the 18th of May, Gardaí also tried to push protesters in order to provoke clashes but apart from the Gards pushing and obstructing protesters nothing happened. That was enough, however, for RTE news to publish in their webside hours later that, Towards the end of the main rally, minor scuffles broke out between some protesters and the gardaí. Earlier, there were minor scuffles with gardaí when éirígí commenced a march past Anglo Irish Bank. All the fuss about “violence” started in the media after the protest of the 11th of May, when barely two dozens of demonstrators tried to get into the Dáil and the police stopped them (video). It was nothing significant in the context of the protest, but the media wanted to capitalise on that small incident and draw comparisons with Greece. The following Saturday Éirígí stayed a protest on its own at the the headquarters of the Anglo Irish bank, not the first they have organised, but unlike in other occasions this time Gardaí was generously displayed, arrested seven protesters and triggered some minor incidents (video). The aim of the state and the media in these very early stages of a protest movement in Ireland is to criminalise it and to discredit it in order to avoid any further escalation that could suppose a threat to the plans of imposing significant cutbacks to workers. They probably think, “Better now when they are small”. We should not be surprised, any time there has been a strike or a threat of a strike, the emphasis of the media and the political establishment has been on the negative effects that strikes can have on the nation and its economy. That is the kind of “public opinion” that they try to create in order to facilitate their way to get out of the crisis, that is, to return to old rates of profits no matter how many casualties they provoke among the working class. The reasons behind the protests In this Ireland is no different from what is happening in Greece, Spain or Portugal, and from what is very likely to happen in the rest of Europe. To save the Euro and profits, EU governments must reduce deficits and apply drastic budget “adjustments”, including cutbacks in essential services to workers. However, except in Greece, these attacks on workers incomes and living standards have not provoked a large protest or strike movements anywhere in Europe, no yet. Clearly there is a wide spread feeling of anger and increasing political radicalisation, but it has yet to materialise. One of the reasons in Ireland is that union leaders in have been holding back a general strike in the public sector for over a year, threatening the government with strikes from time to time in order to minimise losses for the workers in government unilateral deals. But each time there is a new deal, it is worse than the previous one. All in all, union and labour leader are afraid of strikes and do not believe that workers can win them. They also fear “public opinion” as the action at the passport office showed. So, they prefer to wait for better times: “if the economic situation improves and if the labour party gets to office, maybe then we can get back what we lost”, they reason. But we won't go back to the boom times of the Celtic Tiger. For the next 5 to 10 years, at least, we can only expect sluggish recovery and tough budgets. We can see that even social democratic governments are applying IMF medicine. The slogan now is, “reduce deficit”. The media campaign, of course, did not mention why people were out in the street to protest last Tuesday. The RWC is trying to mobilise on the basis of the injustice of bailing out with billions the corrupt Irish banking systems while workers are paying for it. Which way will protests develop? A number of around 1500 people protesting at the Dáil two weeks in a row is a sign that changes in consciousness are starting to take place. There is an accumulated anger among the lower and middle ranks of public sector workers who had seen their incomes reduced and expect worsening working conditions. Cutbacks in the public sector are also directly affecting the majority of the population in terms of cuts in education and health services. In the private sector, wage cuts and worsening of working conditions have gone quite far already, but high levels of unemployment and low levels of union density have generally obstructed and contained collective action. Union and labour leader have also contributed to keep “social peace”. But anger at cutbacks and lower living standards cannot be contained forever, particularly if the economy is not likely to go back to previous rates of growth. On the other hand, events in Ireland are closely connected to events in other European countries. If the protest movement increases in Greece and spread to other countries, it will also have an effect in Ireland. The question, however, is not “if” but rather “when” there will be a labour upsurge, when 1500 will turn into 20 or 50 thousand, or more, when a new cycle of protests and strikes will begin. History knows of cycles of protests and strikes, labour upsurges and general changes in consciousness, which are related, although not mechanically, to economic cycles. It is also a sign that the Labour party conference last month in Galway mandated the party to start campaigning against the December budget cuts in public sector. However, it is a fact that the Labour parliamentary group and the party apparatus will not do it. In the mass organisations of the labour movement we will also see in the near future protest movements to get rid of the strait jacket imposed by the union and labour leaders who acquired some bad habits, particularly a dangerous reliance on “social partnership” and ruled labour organisations during the 20 odd years of “social peace”. In the next period workers will face two options: either we go the IMF way or we take the Venezuelan path. There is not a third or a middle way.

PHOTO: FFML


THOUSANDS MARCH IN
DUBLIN PROTEST

Several thousand protesters marched to the gates of Dáil Éireann in Dublin last night where speakers on the platform in Molesworth Street condemned Government policy of Bank bail-outs and deliberate impoverishment of wage workers with cutback in wages and pensions and in vital public services such as health and education all to pay for the shameless delinquency of the banking and property speculator class who have crashed the Irish economy with their reckless gambling.

When some of the crowd tried to enter the front precinct of Leinster House some of the few Gardaí on duty drew batons and attacked the crowd in front of the gate injuring several men and women. Only strong appeals from the platform speakers restored calm and prevented a serious outbreak of violence. There was no aggression from the crowd, the gates of Leinster House were open and people were entitled to enter and demand to see public representatives inside. The police had advance warning of the proposed march from over a week ago and if they did not want anyone entering they could well have closed the gates before the protest arrived. Some questions arise, therefore, from the behaviour of the police. Was there intention to provoke trouble and try to discredit the protest? If they were so concerned about security why did they leave the gates open as several thousand marchers approached slowly up Molesworth Street? The presence of one police inspector who is known to produce a baton with alacrity on previous occasions here is significant.

TV coverage of the demonstration was broadcast live on Sky News and later on Irish TV3 channel but, was ignored by Irish national public broadcaster RTÉ. However, RTÉ radio news bulletins today carried a story stating that Gardaí were “investigating” the incident where “IOO protesters tried to gain access to the Dáil premises from a crowd of 500”. This is an outrageous lie; no more than 20 people tried to enter the open gates to talk to TD’s inside. The crowd in Molesworth Street numbered more than 2000 at that stage. This is typical of the editorial bias in RTÉ against any political dissent since the beginning of the economic crisis last year. What will they say next week if 20,000 people turn up?

With anger mounting in the country as the affects of the first round of cutbacks bites hard there will be increasing levels of protest throughout the state, not just in Dublin, and this rotten Government should realise its days are numbered and resign and call an early election. The people are quite clear in their demands; "We will not wait, we want elections now, we will not pay for Banker bail-outs"

FearFeasa Mac Léinn

Áth Cliath/DUBLIN, 12 Bealtaine/May, 2010.

ANOTHER ATTACK ON IRISH

WORKERS: RETIREMENT AGE

TO RISE TO 68!

This week the Irish government has announced another anti-worker measure. This time it is a new pension scheme that tries to increase the age of retirement to 68. A historical achievement of the working class could be taken back. Workers also will be signed up to a pension plan, non state-guaranteed, and administered by the private sector pension industry, which will get the money through the PRSI system. The new scheme plans as well to bring public sector workers in line with workers in the private sector.

The plan is that those who are 62 now won’t retire until they are 66 (2014), and those who are 49 or younger won’t retire until they are 68 (2029). The government will get rid of the impediments to retire after 65 and will rise accordingly the age to quality for a state pension. At the moment around 50 percent of workers depends on getting only a state pension. The government expect that between 65-70 percent of workers will participate in a mandatory pension scheme, although they will be allowed to opt out, on top of the state pension.

Workers will have to contribute to this scheme with 4 percent of their wages, employers 2 percent and the State another 2 percent. A worker earning €20,000 a year will have to contribute towards the scheme with €10 per week. The state will to try and keep state pensions at the present level, 35% average industrial wages, that is what they say. On the other hand, the public service pension scheme will be changed for new entrants from this year. Pensions will be based on career average earnings rather than final salary. Yet, the government will not guarantee any returns from the mandatory scheme.

The reaction of labour leaders has focussed on the hand out to the private pension sector. Jack O’Connor, SIPTU General President, said that the mandatory pension scheme “amounted to nothing more than a device to camouflage an assault on the State old age pension provision and another handout to the private financial services industry” (SIPTU website). Davig Begg, ICTU General Secretary, has made a similar point:

Firstly, they propose to force people to hand over a portion of their wages to the private Pension Industry in order to facilitate gambling and stock market speculation. Given that Irish pension funds - and therefore those who manage them - have been the worst performing in the developed world, this is like a reward for incompetence. It is also worth noting that the some of the blame for our current financial crisis lies squarely with the foolish investment decisions made by private pension funds ... and yet Government proposes to give them even more money. This is wrong. The second major failing relates to the absence of any initiative to protect people when a scheme gets into …

THE DEMOGRAPHIC MYTH

Jack O’Connor and David Begg are correct. The hand out to private pension funds, given the role of financial capital in the triggering of the present crisis, is one of the most glaring faults in the new scheme. Even the right wing Olwyn Enright, Fine Gael spokesperson for social and family affairs, has said that the plan is “a massive gift to the pension industry.” There have been, however, no comments on the basic framework and assumptions of the new pension scheme. The government has argued that spending on public pensions would increase from 5.5 percent of GDP at present to almost 15 percent in 2050. The media has echoed government “concerns” by popularising and refining that basic argument. An Irish Time editorial, 4th March, for example, argued,

The demographic projections underline the problem’s scale. In future there will be far fewer in the workforce to support those of pensionable age. Today six people of working age support every one aged over 65, but by mid-century there will be two people in the active age group for every one in retirement. For taxpayers that would be an unsustainable burden.

A labour party statement, 3rd March (www.labour.ie) fully agrees with that argument. Roisin Shortall TD, Labour spokesperson on Social and Family Affairs, argues that,

Everyone acknowledges that the extension of the retirement age is inevitable given the changes in the demographic structure of our population and the fact that people are generally living considerably longer than when pensions were first introduced.

Pat McArdle, Irish Times economist analyst (4th March), describes further how the Old Age Pension was introduced around 100 years ago in Ireland at the age of 70, when life expectancy was 50. He then thinks that the Government is not going far enough and that the retirement age should be risen “at least” to 70. Roisin Shorthall can’t go that far. She argues that the proposed lead-time for rising the retirement age is too short. Once the basic framework is accepted, however, the game is played according to the rules dictated by others, and all is reduced to bargaining on secondary aspects of the new pension scheme.

The government is at present desperate to reduce public deficit and the “pension burden”. It is just one more area to “reform”, the latest for the moment. The commitment to keep public pensions at present levels sounds like many other broken promises. It is also clear that this is a move towards privatisation. For those who still want to retire at 65 the only means will be returns from the private pension funds. The new field to make huge profits is large, 50 percent of the workforce.

After bailing out bankers, the government now offer a new succulent gift. Employers have immediately announced that they are not willing to contribute to this mandatory pension scheme and that if they are forced to do it will be by reducing wages. That is, workers will have to pay for their pensions. They will have to save and contribute to funds for others to gamble with that are not guaranteed either.

TRANSFER OF WEALTH AND POWER TO CAPITALISTS

But the worst aspect of this new antiworkers measure is the lie of the demographic myth and the burden. First off all, Ireland is the country with the lowest contribution, measured as percentage of GDP, to pensions in Europe. In 2002, 8 years ago, pensions represented 14.9 percent of GDP in Italy, 14.6 percent in Austria, 13.4% in Germany. At the bottom was Iceland, with a mere 6.7 percent. That was in 2002 (Eurostats). In 2008 pensions represented just 5.5 percent of GDP in Ireland, and only by 2050 the Irish government estimates that we will reach 2002 proportions in other countries like Italy or Austria.

Second, productivity per worker has increased every year at an average of 3.5 percent since 1960 while GDP has grown at a yearly average of 4 percent. Bourgeois economist don’t include all productivity increases in the productivity of labour since they consider that capital is productive, but still that figure tells how increases in productivity per worker greatly outweigh the 0.2 percent increase in GDP expending in pensions till 2050.

Third, wages should not contribute at all to any new pension scheme because in the last two decades there has been a huge transfer of wealth (and power) from the workers to the capitalists. That can be seen in the decreasing share of wages in the Irish economy as percentage of GDP:

1960-70) 77.9
1971-80) 75.9
1980-90) 71.2
1991-00) 62.3
2001-07) 54.0
(Source, K. Allen, 2009, page 26, Ireland’s Economic Crash)

Huge amounts of surplus value, which are generated by wage-labour, which have been gambled by those who are supposed to manage future private pension funds, are increasingly transfer to capitalists. Surplus value is created by labour every year, every month, every day, every hour... and it is distributed in a diminishing proportion for wages. It is there where we have to make the point. Let's not swallow the myth of the demographic crisis. Wages must not pay for pensions.

Finally, to increase the age to retire will also imply that fewer will work longer and contribute to increase unemployment rates. The Irish labour movement should reject the whole pension scheme and include that rejection within a broader fightback against wage and social welfare cuts, and unemployment. The government has shown with hard facts its will to bail out corrupt bankers and developers and make workers pay for a crisis they have not provoked. The labour movement has an alternative: capitalists must pay.