MEDIA HYSTERIA AS CANADIAN

HEAD OF STATE VISITS DUBLIN:

(May/Bealtaine 2011)

Never, in the history of public affairs in this country, have so many worthless clichés been showered on an unsuspecting population by so few shameless media hacks as last month, when the Head of State of Canada came to visit. Tripping over themselves to gush, whoop, tweet and twitter, slobber and simper, the Irish media luvees outdid themselves wallowing in a welter of wimpish royalist subservience not seen anywhere since the sunshine days of Louis XIV in Versailles.

Contorted Dublin accents from the nether end of the Royal Borough of Kingstown abounded as TV, Radio and “News”Papers indulged themselves in an orgy of obsequiousness and fawning apologias for our failures as a people to acknowledge the benefits of Empire disinterestedly bestowed upon us in the past and rejected 95 years ago by an inexplicable intransigence which we ought now be ashamed of. The history of Ireland was re-written on a daily basis as a parade of “expert” psychobabblers and royalist groupies were given free rein to propagandise their imperialist viewpoints across the airwaves and print media.

Now, the Queen of Canada may be a nice old lady with impeccable manners and welcome to drop in for a cup o’ tea anywhere, but, what she represents in her official capacity is a history of bloody conflict over more than a thousand years continuing up to the present day as her Royal Air Force bombs Libya on a daily basis even as she toddled around Dublin streets. No government of a supposedly neutral country, such as Ireland is officially proclaimed to be, should be inviting heads of state from countries directly and currently involved in armed conflict to come here while such conflicts are still going on.

It needs to be stated clearly that our state is in no way inferior to any other in this world in cognisance of the fact that armed force was required to affirm our people’s right to independence, democratic government and national sovereignty. The further fact that the occupation of our country for many centuries by a foreign power, which justified coercion on a regular basis to enforce its rule here with brutality and bloodshed, racism and genocidal murder, and which was not itself a democracy until 1918, the first year in centuries in which the Irish people had an opportunity to make a democratic decision on the destiny of their country, fully justifies the actions of James Connolly, founder of the Irish Labour Party, when he marched his men into the GPO in O’Connell Street in 1916 as Commandant General of the Armed Forces of the Irish People. Two years later, in the 1918 election, the expressed will of the Irish people was overwhelmingly supportive of national sovereignty and independence and complete separation from the coercive rule of the British Empire. As noted by Connolly, reactionary forces at the center of that Empire conspired to frustrate the will of the Irish people and impose, again by force and threat of “immediate and terrible war”, an unjust and regressive partition of our island which persists to the present day. This, as it continues, will define our relationship with Britain until it may be eliminated by future events.

The second official visit of the month was that of the Chief Executive of the United States of Debt, Mr Obama. In a 12-hour stopover on his way to a State visit to Britain, Mr Obama took time to visit the homestead of a remote Irish ancestor, as occupiers of the Washington White House are wont to do, coincidentally close to the time of presidential elections over there. In a rapidly produced series of photo opportunities quite clearly and cynically aimed at the Irish contingent of the American electorate, Mr Obama carried out his task with polish and aplomb and a fair amount of charm and toothy smiles. All style and no substance. Hours later,,in London, he was regaling the combined British parliamentary houses with his delight in the English heritage of his family; so much for the earlier paddywhackery. Mr Obama is the current Commander-in-Chief of military forces with the unenviable reputation of killing more people around the globe than the Nazi Reich did in WW2. He is currently involved in three major conflict zones with thousands of troops and spending billions of dollars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Yet our supposedly neutral country allows his military aircraft to land and rest at Shannon Airport and this has been going on since the start of the illegal Iraq war in 2003. Irish governments have tried to justify this shameful collaboration including the use of kidnapping and torture of so-called “enemy combatants” by the US military.

Despite a promise made by the new Fine Gael/Labour government which took office here in March, that international law would be enforced at Shannon Airport, Taoiseach Enda Kenny announced following a meeting with Mr Obama that there would be “no change” in the situation at the airport; a complete capitulation to the imperial interests of the USA. Controversy has now erupted following publication today in the “Irish Independent” of the Wikileaks cables from the US Embassy in Dublin concerning the Shannon Airport facility. The cables show a vacillating, dishonest Irish government seeking assurance from the US that they wouldn’t be caught out allowing uninspected “rendition flights” carrying torture victims of the US military to pass through Irish territory and airspace contrary to the Geneva conventions and international law on obligations of neutral states. For the first time in years, the issue was debated on RTÉ’s “Prime Time” current affairs programme where PANA international secretary, Dr Edward Horgan, a former Irish army officer, insisted that the government was in breach of its obligations under international conventions and that US military aircraft using Shannon should be inspected despite any diplomatic “assurances” from Washington, smiley Presidents or otherwise. (more articles on this later; see sidebar for link to PANA website).

GOVERNMENT WASTES €30M ON POMP AND CEREMONY

In a week when the Government announces further new taxes and cutbacks for care workers, the spending of up to €30M on these jamborees is a scandal and an outrage. The disruption, for more than a week, of normal commerce and travel in our capital city totally unjustified as these VIP’s could have been transported by helicopters to wherever they wanted to go without stopping normal street traffic and public transport.

FearFeasaMacLéinn,

Áth Cliath/Dublin,

03 Meitheamh/June 2011.

(Delay in publishing new articles due to post editor fault on Blogger, not yet fixed, but seems to work ok on this computer).

Labour Left Wing activists


need to start building



an organised alternative:

The right wing of the Labour Party won the vote in favour of coalition at the Special Party Conference last Sunday and Labour will now collaborate with an economic programme essentially similar to that of the previous Fianna Fáil and Green Party Coalition.

Despite opposition from the UNITE union and a section of the party led by the Labour Youth Chairperson and Local Councillors Cian O’Callaghan and Patrick Nulty, the majority of the Labour Party supported Labour going into coalition with Fine Gael (FG) . Around 15 percent of the delegates voted against the Programme for a National Government. While this is a clear victory for the right wing, the political and economic conditions in the state and internationally means that this could well be a high point for the right wing. The new government will be a government of crisis.

The arguments of the right wing

The arguments in favour of the Programme for a National Government followed closely the letter of the document agreed between the leaderships of FG and Labour: “The people chose our two parties to start mending the pieces of a fractured society … [in] the darkest hours in the history of our independent state.” This means, “every section of our society is facing hardship”.

It is far from clear, however, that people who voted for Labour and Fine Gael also voted for a coalition government. According to a survey by the Sunday Independent only 16 percent of those who voted for FG have their second preference to Labour candidates and 35 percent of those who voted for Labour gave their second to FG.[1]

On other hand, an oft repeated argument was that the Labour Party must put the interest of the country before the interests of the party. This dilemma is very old and the hegemonic right wing again differentiates between the cause of Labour and the cause of Ireland, leaving the cause of labour for the future. This is not accidental. The leadership, as shown in previous articles, embraces capitalism and particularly the Neoliberal tendency as opposed to Keynesianism within capitalism. The cause of labour for them is only a rhetorical device, a concession to its working class base. The extension of this position is of course that not only should Labour bury its interests, but it should also bury the interests of the working class.

A second argument was articulated before the Conference by SIPTU president Jack O’Connor. He supported and indeed encouraged a coalition government with Labour in the minority in order to soften some of the harsh measures that FG would apply if ruling on its own. He said,

“The austerity programme of the outgoing government has not worked. A growth strategy based on investment for jobs is the only way forward. That is the key issue but there are others including the protection of public services and those who depend on them.”[2]

In the end, however, SIPTU and Labour leaderships have agreed to simply support the objectives of the EU and IMF Programme: achieving fiscal stability. This means among other things that the new government will “stick to the aggregate adjustment as set out in the National Recovery Plan for the combined period 2011-2012 and that the budget for 2013 will aim at reducing the state deficit to 3% of GDP (it was 32 percent in 2010). That it is likely to bring further austerity measures. Even in taxation there are no significant differences with the previous government.

What is “realistic”?

During the election campaign the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) made clear that the outcome of the election would be a coalition with Fine Gael, although the PLP had no mandate from the party to pursue this strategy.

Opinion polls around September and October last year, however, put Labour ahead of FG and even indicated that it could be numerically possible to form a left government made up Labour, Sinn Fein (SF), and left independent TDs (including the United Left Alliance).[3]

Inside the labour party, particularly at the top, that kind of coalition was out of question. They rightly considered that the programme and goals of right wing Labour and FG were much closer. Any alternative to the IMF/EU programme of austerity was considered “fantasist”, a luxury that only could put forward be those who knew that cannot be in power in the immediate future such as SF.

That was also what the powerful media cartel and the main political parties, including the PLP, were telling Irish workers, day in day out, well before the campaign: the IMF/EU way was the only way.

In that context Enda Kenny, FG leader, openly spoke of more cuts for workers, of getting rid of thousands of public workers, privatising public assets, keeping taxes low for the rich, and introducing more labour market flexibility and “incentives” for employers. This may make the FG surge in the opinion polls during the last weeks before the election look somewhat surprising.

The powerful media cartel, employers lobby groups, the economists and the political parties of the establishment have far more power in normal times to define their version of a “realistic” response to a crisis and what constitutes a “fantasist” alternative and of course they use every opportunity to do so.

Of course politics and propaganda are not exact sciences in the same way as mathematics. The power of rumour mongering and press and media gossip doesn’t lie in its accuracy and truthfulness. Instead, their power lies in creating apocalyptic visions of the future and mobilising deep seated fears and visions of the end of the world. For the short sighted Irish bourgeoisie and their hangers on the end of the world is associated with a much more short term perspective; the loss of the power and privileges. Their campaign had a clear purpose: to root out any chance of a left unity government that could imply a move towards a break with the establishment, the IMF, the EU and, eventually, capitalism. “Realistic” in their terms means draconian budget cuts in order to comply with the IMF dictates. “Unrealistic” is to put the needs of people first. This butchery is presented as the line of least resistance; with the FG programme as the only game in town.

The Labour Party is to blame as well. It has made U-turns in relation to water charges, heavier taxation to the rich, introducing maximum wages, and has never argued against the austerity programme. It was actually shocking to see the Labour Party leader begging for votes to get labour into government as a minority partner to try and tone down its neoliberal programme as if the experience of the Green Party didn’t teach us any lessons. It was no surprise to hear speakers at the Special Conference comparing Gilmore’s position with that of the British Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.

Alternative approaches

But there’s going to be very little toning down, merely a few sops. The next few years are going to be very hard. Workers will have to learn by experience that there is no end to cuts and hardship; but given the extent of the crisis over time more and more workers will become open to an alternative that put people first. A FG-Labour government will be applying what the media cartel calls "tough measures", which will face increasing resistance unless the economy goes back soon to the old rates of growth. But that won’t happen. So this coalition could tear Labour apart.

SF has put forward a Keynesian alternative, which will turn them into the main opposition party in the Dáil. The United Left Alliance with its five TDs will also constitute a strong opposition. Their economic policy also follows the lines of a sort of left Keynesianism alternative. Since capitalists do not have any incentive to investment during a crisis, because of excess capacity, they withhold "money". The alternative is public investment. The last thing that the IMF and the EU would do is to lend money to do that. Therefore the money must be taken from the rich, by taxation, to 'put money into circulation'. In itself this does not constitutes an alternative to capitalism. Keynesianism was pushed beyond its limits before the profits crisis of the 1970s. Neither SF nor the ULA has made clear what would happen if Keynesian economic policies do not work or are boycotted by the IMF and the EU.

From the point of view of the capitalist parties, neither FG nor FF were interested in coming together to form a coalition government. It would have been far more difficult for them to apply "tough measures"; they would face a very strong opposition. Labour could have led that strong left opposition, and in the next election would have been odds on to form a full-fledged labour-led government. With Labour in power as a minority partner it will be far easier to apply "tough measures" and much easier to contain a popular reaction against them. That is how they are going to use Labour.

A Labour-led government, however, would not be enough. Britain had it for years, but “New Labour” just represented the continuation of Tories economic policies. This is what Labour leadership offers in Ireland, and that is why the first task of the left wing of the Labour Party should be to distance itself from the ideas and programme of the right wing.

The IMF/EU economic austerity programme constitutes the backbone of the agreement between the dominant neoliberal wing of the Labour Party and the neoliberal FG.

There are some particular points in the Programme for a National Government (PNG) such as the restoration of the National Minimum Wage at €8.65/H that can be supported, and any left wing activist would gladly do it, but the PNG is neoliberalism (the worst sort of capitalism) and must be rejected, whether it was voted by a majority or not in a particular moment in time. For sure Gilmore’s position in the party will not improve over the next few years; the vote at UCD last Sunday represented his big opportunity. After all, this was the best Labour vote and the biggest number of seats the party has ever achieved. In time, illusions will be dissipated and replaced by the cruel reality of attacks on workers' living standards, house repossessions, redundancies, factory and business closures and emigration also.

What are labour party members going to do when workers go on strike and protests against the government are organised and become the norm?

There will doubtless be many calls for unity within the party. But what sort of unity is the left going to be asked for? There can’t be unity on the basis of the programme of the EU and the IMF. The conditions for peace, harmony and happiness just don’t exist in Ireland. There will be enormous pressures on the Labour Party from the bourgeois and from the working class and the trade unions. There will be a growing differentiation within the party between Leinster House and the branches and within the trade unions. The Labour left needs a political programme to fight for a socialist alternative to capitalism. But alongside that the Labour left needs to get organised. Many of the Irish labour left have looked towards the work of John McDonnell and the Labour Representation Committee in Britain as a political example and some have participated in its work. There are big events on the way and without an organised left in the Labour Party it will be far harder to defend working people and fight for a socialist alternative.

---

[1] http://www.independent.ie/national-news/voter-betrayal-fglabour-to-ditch-pledges-on-economy-2567686.html

[2] http://www.siptu.ie/PressRoom/NewsReleases/2011/Name,12152,en.html

[3] http://www.fairocracy.com/general_election_2011/irish_political_opinion_polls_2007_to_2011.html

FINE GAEL: DECEPTION INC.

Today’s General Election in our Republic will not produce any revolution but, there will be significant  changes in the type of representation making up the 31^st Dáil Éireann. Against the odds, even a few years ago it would not have been thinkable, the Fianna Fáil party will be replaced by Fine Gael as the leading conservative force in Irish politics. It will be also the occasion of the election of the largest number of Left TD’s since the state was founded in 1921. Labour and other left are no longer “waiting” as described in DeValera’s dismissive phrase at that time. It is his party, Fianna Fáil, who must wait to get into government again, if ever. A Labour –Fine Gael coalition will be undoubtedly proposed but, it remains to be seen whether the party membership will support this. The opportunity arises now to confront the conservative forces in this country with the truth of their activities without the previous political scam of pretence that FG and FF were essentially different from each other.

The Fine Gael  leadership, buoyed up by public display of their arrogance in this election campaign, seek to effect a massive deception on the Irish people. Their so-called recovery “plan” is based on optimistic predictions for export growth and “green economy” developments  plus recipes for “competitiveness” not apparent in the current reality of the global financial crisis. Fine Gael proposes to invest €7bn in “infrastructure” to stimulate the economy but, has also committed itself to three more budgets of severe reductions in public spending easily offsetting their promised “investment” , never mind the €5bn interest bill on state debt for each of these years. The proposals for public financing are characterised by an absence of any intent to increase state revenues by rebalancing the taxation policy of the state towards obtaining increased revenue from accumulated wealth and assets but, instead placing the entire burden on earned incomes of both “middle class” and lower paid employees. Deficit reduction by restriction of demand will not work as has been proven by history. This one-sided operation makes the Fine Gael “Plan” about as tenable as morning mist on the Offaly bogs.

Those who think themselves as “middle class” in this country, and might be relying on Fine Gael to save their bank deposits, will soon realise that they are targets for impoverishment just like the rest further down the ladder. The 60% of farmers stated to be backing Fine Gael by the IFA will also find out that the main forces wanting to dismantle the CAP are led by Mr Kenny’s tea-party hosts in Berlin and Paris, Merkel and Sarkozy. The ideological feathers of the Fine Gael bird are definitely of the neo-liberal variety; the same damnable pseudo-religion which authored the global financial crisis. Fine Gael, openly boasting their associations with Merkel and the EPP, support the austerity hysteria being mounted by these parties across the EU being part of an agenda to abolish the very idea of a social state, undermine trade unions and workers’ rights, increase military spending and involve the EU in wars of resources across the globe.

Fine Gael proposes to abandon Ireland’s traditional neutrality in international conflicts, a concept dating back to Wolfe Tone in the 1790’s and not debated in this election due to deliberate media exclusion.  Fine Gael wants our state to join NATO, the largest criminal organisation in the world; having been responsible for the deaths of upwards of 5 million people in the past twelve years and the creation of more than 7 million refugees in continuing illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and military interventions elsewhere. NATO is also the only international organisation which advances a “first-strike” nuclear weapons policy recently confirmed by NATO leaders at their summit in Lisbon last November. Some contradiction here with public statements by Sean Barret that Fine Gael was “totally opposed” to nuclear weapons.

Fine Gael spokespeople are adept at the jargon of the Harvard Business School and other sources of the language of obfuscation. When they speak of “economy” and “debt” they leave out the proper, and objective, qualifiers ; “exploitation” and “slavery”. Economic exploitation and debt slavery are the foundations of the mode of production favoured by Fine Gael and its EU/NATO allies. This mode of production has arrived at a historic juncture where it is no longer capable of maintaining civilised life on this planet. Endless growth backed by endless consumerism are fantasies which will eventually collide with the reality of a finite Earth. This is the subject of the real debate missing from this election campaign and the general discourse of a capitalist world headed by a deluded and self-aggrandising elite. The Irish electorate need to watch very carefully a Fine Gael led government  that will determine their future and that of generations to come while at the same time being the local messenger boys of this elite.

Fine Gael’s connections with Wall Street: Sutherland and Regan:

The leading personage in this regard is Peter Sutherland; he is non-executive Chairman of Goldman Sachs International (a registered UK broker-dealer, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs(USA).

At the 1973 Irish general election, he stood as a Fine Gael candidate in the Dublin North West constituency but, was not elected. In 1981, aged 34, he became the youngest Attorney General of Ireland. He served in the two Governments led by Garret FitzGerald.

He was appointed to the European Commission in 1985 and had responsibility for competition policy and, later, also for education. He was the youngest ever European Commissioner and served in the first Delors Commission, where he played a crucial role in opening up competition across Europe, particularly the airline, telecoms, and energy sectors. Subsequently he was Director General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (now the World Trade Organisation).  Mickey Kantor, the US Trade Secretary, credited him with being the “father of globalization” and said that without him there would have been no WTO. The Uruguay round of global trade talks, concluded in 1994 with Sutherland as chair of GATT, produced the biggest trade agreement in history and established the World Trade Organisation.

Until June 2009 he was non-executive chairman of BP. Sutherland was a director of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group until he was asked to leave the board when it had to be taken over by the UK government to avoid bankruptcy. He also formerly served on the board of ABB.

He is on the steering committee of the secretive Bilderberg Group  a chairman of the Trilateral Commission currently headed by David Rockefeller and vice chairman of the European Round Table of IndustrialistsHe is a member of the Comite d'Honneur of the Institute of European Affairs, and an Honorary President of the European Movement Ireland.On 5 December 2006, he was appointed as Consultor of the Extraordinary Section of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (a financial advisor to Vatican City).

Goldman Sachs(USA) has been accused of defrauding investors by America's financial regulator, The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC alleges that Goldman failed to disclose conflicts of interest The claims concern Goldman's marketing of sub-prime mortgage investments just as the US housing market collapsed. Goldman rejected the SEC's allegations, saying that it would "vigorously" defend its reputation. News that the SEC was pressing civil fraud charges against Goldman and one of its London-based vice presidents, Fabrice Tourre, sent shares in the investment bank tumbling 12%.

The SEC states that Goldman failed to disclose "vital information" that one of its clients, Paulson & Co, helped choose which securities were packaged into the mortgage portfolio. These securities were sold to investors in 2007.  Goldman failed to disclose that Paulson, one of the world's largest hedge funds, had bet that the value of the securities would fall. The SEC stated: "Unbeknownst to investors, Paulson... which was posed to benefit if the [securities] defaulted, played a significant role in selecting which [securities] should make up the portfolio." "In sum, Goldman Sachs arranged a transaction at Paulson's request in which Paulson heavily influenced the selection of the portfolio to suit its economic interests," said the Commission.

The SEC alleges that investors in the mortgage securities, packaged into a vehicle called Abacus, lost more than $1bn (£650m) in the US housing collapse. Mr Tourre was the executive  principally behind the creation of Abacus, which agreed its deal with Paulson in April 2007, the SEC said. The Commission alleges that Mr Tourre knew the market in mortgage-backed securities was about to be hit well before this date. The SEC's court document quotes an email from Mr Tourre to a friend in January 2007: 

"More and more leverage in the system. Only potential survivor, the fabulous Fab[rice Tourre]... standing in the middle of all these complex, highly leveraged, exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstrosities!!!"

Goldman Sachs has denied any wrongdoing, saying in a brief statement: "The SEC's charges are completely unfounded in law and fact and we will vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation." The SEC indictment, it can be safely predicted, will result either in a white-wash of Goldman and its executives or, at the most, a financial slap on the wrist.

The SEC’s civil case lets senior Goldman executives off the hook. The sole individual named as defendant, alongside the bank, is a 31-year-old who was a junior trader in 2007. In 2007, Goldman CEO Blankfein, who is not named in the indictment, received, according to Reuters, $100 million in pay and stock. Paulson, exonerated by the SEC, pocketed $3.7 billion in 2007 and another $2 billion in 2008.The worst Goldman will suffer is a multi-million-dollar fine, a drop in the bucket compared to the financial giant’s profits.The Obama administration, loaded with executives from Goldman and other Wall Street firms, will do nothing to stop the banks and hedge funds from continuing their fleecing operations now and in the future, and none of those chiefly responsible will be held to account. Mr Paulson has not been charged.

Less well-known is Senator Eugene Regan:

Senator Eugene Regan is a Fine Gael senator. He is also a non-executive director at Goldman Sachs and a lawyer.

When Regan contested the general election in 2007, Garret FitzGerald - as Regan said himself -- made the "rare gesture" of endorsing his candidacy: so did Alan Dukes, now chairman of Anglo Irish Bank. Two former Fine Gael leaders, then, declaring for a relatively unknown politician. At the time Regan was a councillor in Dun Laoghaire. He was elected to that council in 2004. He personally spent €45,000 to help get himself elected to the council, four times the money that, on average, other candidates spent in his electoral area.

As a barrister, given the largesse available to those employed in the Four Goldmines, Regan could possibly afford to spend €45,000. In any event, three years later, he failed to convince voters of Dun Laoghaire to elect him to the Dail in 2007.His connections, however, helped get him elected to the Seanad shortly thereafter. His connections are  true-blue Fine Gael and law library. FitzGerald, Dukes and Sutherland.

"Peter Sutherland personally canvassed for Eugene in the local elections of 2004," Regan says on his website, showing the close relationship between the two. During his career, Regan served in the cabinet of Sutherland when Sutherland was EU Commissioner for Social Affairs and Competition. Regan is non-executive director of Goldman Sachs (Dublin and Luxembourg). In fact, he is a non-executive director of 27 separate Goldman Sachs funds, as well as retaining interest in a number of asset management companies, one of which is based in the Cayman Islands. Regan has indicated he is not contesting the next Seanad Elections; other prospects in mind if Enda Kenny becomes Taoiseach next week?

FearFeasa Mac Léinn

Áth Cliath/DUBLIN, 25 Feabhra, February, 2011.