SVSocialist Voice Communist Party of Ireland

Páirtí Cumannach na hÉireann Partisan Patriotic InternationalistNumber 123 April 2015 €1.50

IN THIS ISSUEWorkers in struggle Page 2James Connolly Festival Page 2UK election Page 4Against austerity Page 5Venezuela defended Page 8Germany over all Page 9Ann Casey RIP Page 9Surveillance Page 10Socialism betrayed Page 12

The James Connolly Festival is a newdevelopment to popularise the ideas ofJames Connolly and to bring to anothergeneration of working-class activists hiscentral importance to today’s strugglesand to building the forces for a working-class way forward.The festival will show that Connolly is

more than some historical figure or a

face on a political banner and that hisideas and insights into the experience ofthe Irish working class, his profoundcontribution to theory regarding theinseparable link between the social andnational struggles and the central role ofworking people in securing both are stillas relevant as they were in his time.

continued overleaf

Building the people’s resistanceJames ConnollyFestival 2015

‘Every recommendation to the poor tobe more industrious, more thrifty, andmore temperate, implies the falsehoodthat the poor are poor because theyare idle, improvident, and drunken,and the rich rich because they are thereverse. Every homily to the workers onthe importance of our industrial capitalis intended to convey the falsehoodthat that capital was created by thepresent holders of it. The air is thickwith lying on this vital question.’George Bernard Shaw letter to William Stead, 8 June 1887

Socialist Voice 43 East Essex Street Dublin 2 (01) 6708707

by Eugene McCartan

The first James ConnollyFestival, sponsored by SocialistVoice, runs from 4 to10 May inDublin. It will be a week filledwith music, theatre, talks, films,poetry readings, andperformances by singer-songwriters, with lunchtimetheatre and film shows in theNew Theatre. For full details see the festival

programme on the facing page oronline atjamesconnollyfestival.com/schedule.One of the central political

events will be this year’s JamesConnolly Memorial Lecture, on

Saturday 9 May at 2pm in theNew Theatre, East Essex Street,to be given by the radicalCatalan nun and activist SisterTeresa Forcades.The lecture will be followed

by the formal launch of the CPI’s“Democratic Programme for the21st Century.”On Sunday 10 May the CPI’s

annual Connolly Commemorationwill take place in Arbour HillCemetery, with an oration by theCPI and the Connolly YouthMovement, together with thisyear’s guest speaker, Clare DalyTD. This event starts at 3pm and

all are welcome.

Socialist Voice page 2

Ireland

Workers instruggleAfter the magnificent one-day strike on 2 April by theworkers employed by Dunne’s Stores, the managementhave embarked on a vindictive campaign to punishselected workers for going out on strike to protect andadvance their rights.The workers’ trade union, Mandate, has received

reports from members all over the country who haveexperienced dismissal or cuts in hours, changes in jobroles, or changes in shift patterns.The assistant general secretary of Mandate, Gerry

Light, said: “Now their employer is blatantly targetingpeople with the hope of intimidating their own loyalstaff and turning them away from any future tradeunion activities . . . This behaviour by management inDunne’s Stores is deplorable and despicable and mustbe condemned by everybody.”These actions by Dunne’s management are a clear

attempt to intimidate workers and to frighten themaway from striking to defend their rights andconditions. The bosses are attempting to assert theircontrol and authority with these bullying tactics.Some workers have been dismissed, with one case

taking place less than twenty-four hours after thestrike. The local manager informed the worker that“the business isn’t there”—despite workers with lessservice (but who hadn’t been on strike) remaining inemployment.Others have had cuts to their hours, meaning a

significant reduction in income for workers and theirfamilies.Some employees who have worked in certain

departments for more than twenty years have beenmoved to other departments, where they maypotentially lose hours and suffer a change to theirestablished working patterns in the future. Manyworkers have reported changes to regular shiftpatterns that make it difficult to manage familycommitments.It is clear that Dunne’s management have been

taken by surprise by the huge support shown to theworkers by the public, and by the fact that trading onthe day of the strike was almost negligible, thanks tothe level of public support for the strike.The actions of Dunne’s management are a challenge

not just to workers in Dunne’s Stores and their unionbut to all those unions that declared their solidaritywith Mandate. It is also a challenge to the Tánaiste,Joan Burton—if we are not to assume that in joiningthe strikers on the picket line she was simply using itas a photo opportunity. She has within her grasp themeans to improve the rights of workers. It’s time forall the talk and false promises to stop and for real,meaningful anti-victimisation laws and collectivebargaining legislation to be introduced.This is a battle not just for the workers in Dunne’s

Stores but one that must be supported by all workers.For we know from experience that the bosses useevery opportunity to drive workers back and to reclaimimprovements in conditions and wages that they havebeen forced to concede.

Building the people’sresistance in Ireland

The Democratic Programme for the21st Century is a contribution to thepolitical discussion and debate thatneeds to take place in every tradeunion and every community, cultural,women’s and youth organisation aboutthe way forward and the type ofIreland that we should struggle for andbuild. We see this as a contribution tobringing some clarity to the emergingand developing struggles of workingpeople.The Communist Party of Ireland

believes that the working class, theleft and democratic forces need tomove beyond electoralism—which isnot to dismiss elections in themselvesbut rather to place them in thecontext of a wider political struggleand mobilisation by the working classat the industrial level and ofcommunity, cultural and socialstruggles.Working people need their own

strategy for shifting the balance offorces in their favour, to secure theirown economic and political interests,to challenge for economic and politicalpower.The Democratic Programme will

present a strategy for a way forwardthat places our daily struggles for the

right to join and be represented by atrade union, for the right to water, forthe right to work, to education, and toa proper health service, to be activecitizens in a more profoundlydemocratic society, rather than, as weare today, mere individual consumers,with the interests and needs ofmonopoly capitalism paramount andthe needs of working people and theenvironment treated with contempt.The Democratic Programme will also

outline the central importance ofnational sovereignty and democracy ascritical tools for building a people-centred economic and social policy,which will entail outright opposition tothe European Union and breaking freeof the controlling mechanism of theeuro zone.As the Democratic Programme

states, “the long historical struggle ofour people remains incomplete. Ourdesire to build a free and independentsovereign state has never beenrealised.”Both the James Connolly Festival

and the Democratic Programme forthe 21st Century are part of the CPI’scontinuing contribution to building thepeople’s resistance to imperialistdomination and control.

A Democratic Programme for the 21st Century

Socialist Voice

James ConnollyFestival 2015

Festival links jamesconnollyfestival.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/jamesconnollyfestival2015?ref=hl Twitter: @ConnollyFest — and to create a trend: #CONNOLLYFEST

Festival venuesNew Theatre 43 East Essex StreetJames Connolly House 43 East Essex Street James Connolly House (Red Room) 43 East Essex Street Cobblestone 77 North King Street, SmithfieldWorkman’s Club 10 Wellington Quay

Monday 4 MayNew Theatre

New Theatre

Red Room

Tuesday 5 MayNew Theatre

New Theatre

Workman’s Club

Wednesday 6 MayNew TheatreNew Theatre

Red Room

Thursday 7 MayNew TheatreNew Theatre

Red Room

Friday 8 MayNew TheatreRed Room

New Theatre

Red Room

Saturday 9 MayNew Theatre

New TheatreRed Room

Sunday 10 MayArbour Hill Military

CemeteryCobblestone

1–2:30pm

7:30–10pm

10pm till late

1–2:30pm

6–8pm

8:30pm till late

1–2:30pm 7:30–10pm

10pm till late

1–2:30pm 7–10pm

10pm till late

1–2:30pm 4–6pm 7:30–10pm

2pm

4pm 5pm till late

3pm

4pm till late

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Free

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Film show: The Republican Congress, episodes 1 and 2; introduced by Dónal O’Higgins(director) and Dónal Fallon (historian).“The Revolutionaries: 1916 and Beyond”: Songs and poems by Matt Callaghan andYvonne Moore, with Gabriel RosenstockMusic and chat

“Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Latin America”: talk by Fabio Bastidas (memberof the Unity Network of the Putumayo, a broad coalition struggling against theadvancement of mass dispossession through state terror in Colombia), followed by film.“Trade Unions: Radical or Redundant?” Leading trade unionists debate the future of thetrade union movementThe Radicals: Atilla the Stockbroker, supported by Maximum Homosapien. Followed by a night of Ska.

“Hairy Jaysus,” with Donal O’Kelly“The Socialist Voice”: Fiach Moriarty, Stephen Murphy, Sarah Clancy, Andrew Kearns,and Evelyn Campbell. Songs and poems; some of Ireland’s best artists share the stagefor a one-off performance together. Not to be missed!Music and chat

“Hairy Jaysus,” with Donal O’Kelly“Juno and the Paycock”: dramatised reading of Seán O’Casey’s play, directed by Ronan WilmotMusic and chat

“Hairy Jaysus,” with Donal O’Kelly“Women’s Liberation over the Past Hundred Years,” with Micheline Sheehy SkeffingtonMusic Night, with Mark Geary. One of Ireland’s best singer-songwriters brings his blendof original music and harmony to the stageMusic and chat

James Connolly Memorial Lecture, 2015: “Building resistance to austerity and opposingthe European Union.” Speaker: Sister Teresa Forcades.Launch of the Democratic Programme for the 21st CenturyMusic and chat; music provided by Yearning Curve (Cork), whose music engages withpolitics in a new and fresh way.

Wreath-laying at grave of James Connolly and other leaders of 1916 Rising. Guest speaker: Clare Daly TD.Music session

Socialist Voice

Britain

page 4

by Tommy McKearney

AS BRITAIN’S politicalparties began their generalelection campaigns with a

series of televised debates, twointeresting messages emergedfrom one of the widely watched,albeit less than inspiring, mediaevents.ITV’s seven-person debate

demonstrated that, for the first timesince the 1920s, British politics areno longer bipolar. Secondly, it is nowvery evident that not only is NorthernIreland not “as British as Finchley” butthat it is not considered integral toBritain’s political discourse at all.Conservative Party neo-liberalism is

wreaking havoc on the North’seconomy, and those living there knowit. People already experiencinghardship are to be furtherdisadvantaged, as public-sectoremployment is to be cut back andcentral government funding reduced infavour of subsidies for corporations.1

Thousands took to the streets inMarch to protest against the damageabout to be inflicted by the StormontHouse Agreement imposed by theLondon government; and still theirrepresentatives could not find a placein the important debate watched bymillions of voters.The governing Conservative Party

entered the television debate insistingthat the economy is not only inrecovery mode but is actually enjoyingrobust good health. The primeminister, David Cameron, told hisBritish viewers that unemployment isfalling and that growth has beenrevised upwards, and he also claimedthat living standards are rising alongwith improved consumer confidence.

Outside the broadcasting studiosCameron’s spin-doctors werereminding the public that Britishbusiness is firmly behind theConservative Party. So wonderful hasbeen the Tory management of theeconomy, in the opinion of more thana hundred of Britain’s most seniorbusiness figures, that they wrote tothe Daily Telegraph complimenting thePosh Boys on their handling of thecountry and warning God-fearingpeople about the dangers of a LabourParty victory in May.There was undoubtedly a large

measure of pre-election grandstandingin all of this. Political parties rarelyprovide a balanced or accurateaccount of their performance in officeor the broken undertakings madebeforehand. As the former Irish LabourParty minister Pat Rabbitte once said,when asked about his own party’sunfulfilled promises, “Isn’t that whatyou tend to do during an election?”It was nevertheless important that

differing views were heard on ITV, ifonly to ensure that the governingparty’s assertions did not go entirelyunchallenged. However flawed thetelevision debate was, importantissues were discussed and arguedabout and options of a sort placedbefore the public.As in the Republic, austerity and

the fall-out from it is of great concernto those governed from London.Assessing whether the economy isperforming as well as theConservatives claim is important,especially to working people. Carefullyselected statistics may appear toshow a healthy state of affairs inBritain, but all is not well, and noteverybody is as pleased with thesituation as the above-mentioned

letter-writers to the Daily Telegraph.Productivity, one of the crucial

indicators in any economy, is dismallylow in Britain. The Office for NationalStatistics has said that this measuredecreased by 0.2 per cent in the thirdquarter of the last financial year,leaving little change over the previousyear in output per hour worked and aslightly lower figure than in 2007. Inother words, Cameron and Osbornehave presided over an economy withthe weakest productivity record of anyBritish government since the SecondWorld War.The general secretary of the TUC,

Frances O’Grady, said recently thatBritain is fast becoming a low-wage,low-productivity economy. Endorsingthis view, oddly enough, was the right-wing Economist, which published asimilar warning in an article last monththat stated: “Britain’s workers are abargain, because their pay is so pitiful.Of the 15 initial members of the EU,only Greece and Portugal now havelower hourly wages.” 2

Efficiency in a modern economy isthe result not simply of sweat ordiligence but of investment in trainingand up-to-date machinery. With labourso cheap, employers (such as thosewho use the Daily Telegraph to laudDavid Cameron) simply don’t see anyreason to reinvest a greater portion oftheir profits in technology or inenhancing skills.A consequence of this is that, while

Tory fiscal policy allows business toenjoy a comfortable income, totaloutput is not increasing rapidly enoughto meet the needs of the widerpopulation and simultaneously rewardthe wealthy. The result of this neo-liberal austerity programme is thatinadequate resources are being made

Election promises. Business as usual.

1. Global TaxReclaim,“Northern IrelandCIT Bill passes UKParliament”(http://bit.ly/1Ivvkef).

2. “Bargainbasement: IfBritain cannot getmore from itslegion of cheapworkers, therecovery will stall,”Economist, 14March 2015.

page 5 Socialist Voice

economy

available to maintain public servicesand guarantee the social wage.The ramifications of austerity, its

impact and the Tory-led coalition’sdealing with the issue were central,therefore, to the television debate.Predictably, Cameron stuck to hisposition that all is well and gettingbetter, Ed Miliband for the LabourParty proposed a package that theGreen Party leader, Natalie Bennett,described as a choice between“austerity and austerity light,” andNicola Sturgeon of the ScottishNational Party suggested a Keynesianalternative.Interestingly, the leaders of the

Scottish and Welsh nationalists andthe Green Party (all women,incidentally) offered the Labour Partythe option of support in return forsoftening the austerity programme.Socialists might well have their

doubts about the efficacy of any ofthese proffered remedies, but at leastall political parties with representativeselected to the House of Commons gotan opportunity to contribute to animportant debate—all parties, that is,with the exception of those fromNorthern Ireland. Because, in spite ofhaving more members of Parliamentthan four of the seven partiesrepresented on the panel, in spite ofdemanding an opportunity to walk theBritish stage, and in spite of offering tosupport either the Labour orConservative Party in the event of ahung parliament, the DUP found itself,like Cinderella, with no invitation to theball.Britain’s three largest parties and its

television stations have offered variousconvoluted excuses for making anexception of the North’s MPs, but thehard reality is that they are not seenas intrinsically part of the politicaldialogue in Britain.Significantly, no voice was raised

among the seven participating partyleaders to say that they would nottake part in this event should itproceed without the Irish. With thishappening only six months after thethree big English parties made suchan enormous effort to preventScotland leaving the United Kingdom,it’s difficult to avoid the conclusionthat Northern Ireland is in effect being“parked in a siding” as far as Britain’spolitical elite is concerned.In such a scenario, Northern

Ireland’s politicians might do well toconsider their options while they stillhave the opportunity.

The expendablesby Nicola Lawlor

IN THE JANUARY edition of Monthly Reviewthe editors printed and commented on partof a letter they received from a reader, Elly

Leary. Referring to Capital in the Twenty-FirstCentury by Thomas Piketty, she comments:Piketty is not a Marxist—just a social democrat whowants capitalism with a human face . . . What alsostruck me about the Piketty book and analysis washow neatly its voluminous statistics backed up SamirAmin’s central thesis that this state of capitalismrequires a worldwide class of “expendables”—peoplethat the system doesn’t need and frankly, wouldrather they were not there (or die from the plague,die from lack of medical care, die from civil war,whatever) so that resources wouldn’t be wasted . . .[Yet] the expendables (surplus people) exist and aregrowing.The editors commented:A society that puts capital accumulation before allelse inevitably reduces the vast majority of thepopulation of the earth (and future generations) tomere “expendables.”This is a horrifying thought: that we are expendable—

most of us anyway—“expendable” being defined assomething of relatively little significance and thereforeliable to be abandoned or destroyed.With continuing advances in technology, and the

concentration and monopolisation of production, fewerworkers are required, meaning that more of us areexpendable. As agriculture is capitalised globally, againmore peasant and small-scale farmers are pushed intothe category of the expendable.Monthly Review has previously added up the global

reserve army of labour and estimated it as 2.4 billion—approximately 63 per cent of the global work force.*This 2.4 billion is made up of the economically inactive,the unemployed, the unpaid, and the underemployed.But is Leary right in suggesting that the system would

prefer that we die so as not to waste the scantresources actually provided to the unemployed? Isuggest not; and it’s an important point. Because infact it is this massive reserve army of labour that givescapital its power. It suppresses wages, disciplinesworkers, drives the race to the bottom, sows division,threatens organised workers, provides cannon fodder forwars, and much more.Granted that capitalism may not need 2.4 billion, or a

life expectancy of seventy-five years, but the systemcertainly needs to continually reproduce a global massof unemployed to maintain its profits and its power. AndI suggest that the crumbs thrown in the direction of theunemployed are a resource worth investing for thepower and profits they underpin.Amin’s thesis, as Leary points out, is that capitalism

requires a class of expendables. This is correct.Capitalism creates and require mass unemployment.

* John Bellamy Foster, Robert W. McChesney, and R.Jamil Jonna, “The global reserve army of labor and thenew imperialism,” Monthly Review, November 2011.

Creepingprivatisationby Kieran Crilly

THE LABOUR/FINE GAELgovernment is privatising10 per cent of Dublin Bus

and 10 per cent of Bus Éireann. This is only the beginning, as the

private sector will not be satisfied untilthese services are 100 per cent private.In Britain it was argued in 1985 that

privatisation would step up competition.In reality it has caused a monopoly,with five companies controlling almostthree-quarters of the transport market.These companies earned a bumperprofit of €500 million in 2013.Since 1995 fares have gone up by

35 per cent above inflation. Since2010 the number of miles of busroutes has been reduced by 23 percent. Two thousand routes, mainlyrural, have seen services reduced oraxed. Employment and wages havedeclined, and working conditions haveworsened. Office staffs have beendecimated as the small bus companieswere merged into the five large firms.In Ireland, a foreign company—most

probably a British one—will get thecontract, just as the Luas tram servicewas handed over to Veolia, a Frenchcompany. They will make profits bycutting out loss-making (again, mainlyrural) routes and by reducing off-peakservices in the cities. They will thenrepatriate the profits.In time they will increase fares faster

than inflation. They will also reducewages and conditions. The WorkingTime Directive will be of only limiteduse, as was shown in the Greyhoundcase. Office workers will lose their jobs,as transnationals carry only a minimumstaff here.Fine Gael is definitely on the side of

the transnationals; but it is hard tounderstand the position of the LabourParty. In July 2011 its manifesto said:“. . . together with rebalancingtransport policy to favour publictransport,” etc. Now it is privatising.SIPTU transport members fund the

Labour Party, which is adopting thispolicy that will destroy their jobs. SIPTUmembers should organise a campaign,alongside community groups, bothurban and rural, to mount opposition tothe government’s strategy. The questionof funds going to the Labour Party fromunions also needs to be looked at.

Socialist Voice page 6

solidarity

Comrades and friends

It is quite clear that we find ourselvesat a real pivotal point in the history ofthis small nation. Just as in previoustimes, whole generations of men andwomen find themselves in a strugglefor a place in our society, a placewhere one should not live in fear ofever-increasing poverty, hunger,homelessness, unemployment,precarious work, violence, and thespectre of war on our very doorstep.Sadly, these truths have shaped themen and women who went before usand will continue to shape us as wepress forward into this century.Ireland in 2015, both north and

south, has seen the continuation ofausterity policies by both governments,policies that have without questionbenefited those at the top of oursociety—policies of regressive taxation,social welfare for the wealthy andmultinational corporations, protectionby the state from the prosecution ofthose individuals who all butbankrupted this country. It cannot be adesign flaw, that it just so happensthat those most adversely affected byausterity are the poorest in society,while those that benefit most are thewealthiest in society; and this is trueright across Europe. That is why theCPI maintains the position thatausterity is working as it was designedto do: to benefit the rich at theexpense of the poor and workingmasses.We can only conclude that austerity

and the current strategy by globalmonopoly capital is to drive workersback to “ground zero” as regards theirrights, social provision, publicpensions, public health, and publiceducation.But to challenge austerity there

needs to be a deep understanding ofthe source of austerity, that is, theunjust, odious private bank debtheaped on our nation and paid for bythe impoverishment of our people andthe deporting of our children.Debt has been the weapon for

attacking the working people. Itdisciplines them into servitude; it lays

Paper presented by arepresentative of the CommunistParty of Ireland to a meeting with

republican activists in Dublin, Saturday 14 March 2015

Release Khalida Jarrar

THERE ARE now eighteen members of the electedPalestinian Legislative Council imprisoned by Israel, nineunder administrative detention without trial or charge.

Members of the council have been systematically targeted byIsraeli occupation forces.

The Khalida Jarrar Solidarity Campaign is being reactivated todemand her immediate release. Take action to support KhalidaJarrar!l Send a message to the Israeli occupation forces and demandthe immediate release of Khalida Jarrar. (See below.) It isimportant that the occupation learns that Khalida has supportersaround the world who will not be silent in the face of thisinjustice.

l Sign and share thispetition, demandingfreedom for KhalidaJarrar immediately.l Contact your TDsor member of the EUParliament. Theattack on Khalida isan attack onPalestinianparliamentarylegitimacy andpolitical expression.Parliamentarianshave a responsibilityto pressure Israel tocancel this order.l Use the campaignresources to inform

your community, parliamentarians and others about Khalida’scase.l Protest at the Israeli embassy for Khalida Jarrar. Bring postersand leaflets about her case, and hold a protest, or join a protest,with this important information. Hold a community event ordiscussion, or include Khalida’s case in your next event aboutPalestine and social justice.l Boycott, divest, and sanction. Hold Israel accountable for itsviolations of international law. Don’t buy Israeli goods, andcampaign for an end to investments in companies that profitfrom the occupation. Learn more at bdsmovement.net.

Send the following letter to the Israeli government andoccupation forces and demand her immediate release:

To Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister / Major-GeneralDani Efroni:

I write today to demand the immediate release of thePalestinian member of parliament Khalida Jarrar. A long-timeprisoners’ rights activist and political leader, she was arrested inher home in Ramallah in the early morning hours of 2 April 2015,which was stormed by dozens of soldiers while her husband waslocked in another room.

The targeting of Palestinian political leaders for arrest byIsraeli occupation forces is an obvious attempt to silence andsuppress Palestinian demands for freedom from occupation andapartheid. The arrest of Khalida Jarrar is also an attack onPalestinian women’s leadership and organising.

Thousands of people and organisations around the worldstood with Khalida Jarrar against the illegal forced transfer andexpulsion by the Israeli occupation forces last autumn, and westand with her now and demand her immediate release.

The world is watching, and we stand with Khalida against thisinjustice.

Cuban FilmFestival Saturday 25 April and Sunday 26AprilPearse Centre 27 Pearse Street,DublinAdmission free

Saturday 25 April

11:30am Esther en Alguna Parte[Esther Somewhere]1:05 p.m. Refreshments1:30 p.m. Tarde para Ramón [Toolate for Ramón]1:45 p.m. Habana Station

Sunday 26 April

2:30pm Oslo2:45pm Y Sin Embargo [AndNevertheless]7pm Eclipse7:15pm La Película de Ana [Ana’sFilm]

page 7

struggle

Socialist Voice

the biggest stress on families; and ithelps remove the militant spirit that liesat the heart of every worker. Again, forcertain there is a generalised attack onworkers across Europe, on their rights,working conditions, and wages.Precarious employment is the newmodel for businesses to follow, alongwith this relatively new “internship”culture that has swept right across theemployment sector.So, as a group—as a class—how do

we challenge the status quo?I think one place we can look for a

direct example is Greece and thedevelopments of the new SYRIZAgovernment. It matters little whetherone thought that SYRIZA wouldinevitably have surrendered to thedemands of the European Union or hadhoped they would stand up andchallenge it and defend the Greekpeople and blaze an alternativedirection from within the EU andoppose the IMF.Those who are anxious to advance

the people’s interests need to reflectmore seriously about what these pastfew months have demonstrated. One ofthe lessons must be that the treatiesgoverning the European Union have ineffect not only outlawed a radicalpeople-centred solution but haveeffectually outlawed even tameKeynesian policies, and that thecontrolling forces are determined tosolve the crisis of capitalism at theexpense of the working people.A second thing is clear: that people

can vote at the national level forwhoever they like, but this is notdecisive, as the European Union willimpose TINA (“There is no alternative”)and the economic and politicalstraitjacket of what is in the interests ofcapitalism.The debt is still the weapon of choice

to be used against the people;democracy has been trumped by theoverriding needs of the Europeanmonopolies and the big finance housesand banks.Those in Ireland who still labour

under the illusion that the EuropeanUnion can be transformed intosomething that it is not need to looklong and hard at the events of the lastfew weeks. The blocking minority that isbuilt in to the EU decision-makingprocess means that the big powers—those with real economic power andtherefore real political power—canblock anything that is not in the

interests of the monopolies and financehouses.The Irish government, once again

demonstrating its abject servilitytowards the imperialist powers, didnothing to support the Greek peopleapart from expressing a vacuoussympathy, and voted to defend theinterests of the ruling class.Those who continue to peddle the

illusion, whether here in Ireland, inGreece or in Spain, that they can solvethe people’s problems within theconfines of the European Union andcontrolling mechanisms such as theeuro are only leading our people downa blind alley. There are simply nosolutions to be found to debt orausterity within the European Union.The struggles of the Greek people

have exposed the true class nature ofthe European Union and its institutions.But they have also shown that it can beresisted—a lesson that needs to belearnt by working people throughoutEurope.The title of this talk is “Austerity: The

challenges of organising.” What wereally need to begin to question andseriously think about is who or what dowe challenge. We need to know ourenemy, or enemies. Once established,then a more meaningful and lastingprocess of organising against austeritycan be sustained and built upon.If any serious political discussion is to

be had then it needs to deal with threecentral issues:Class: politics and economics are

about class, as class divisions maintainwealth divisions.The state: The class nature of state

power for creating, enforcing andreproducing the dominant mode ofproduction, materially and ideologically.Imperialism: The triple imperialist

domination of the Irish people: byBritain in the north, the EU through allthe treaties and the currency, and theUnited States with our political andeconomic relationships and thedominant role of transnational capitalbased here in Ireland, the majoritybeing from the USA.This is the state of play in Ireland

today. Sovereignty and democracy aswe know them have been replaced by atripartite imperialist system, whereIreland lies subservient to internationalcapitalism and the laws of the market.This is quite a unique position and allthe more challenging.So what we really need to ask

ourselves, based on what I’ve just said,is that if this government was tocollapse in the morning and anothertake its place, without a fundamentaland mass opposition to the EU and theeuro, to Britain and the US, as themain political entities of capitalism,there would be no change. Greece isthe perfect example of this. Nothingdrastic would change, because thestate, and its class of industrialists,financiers, oligarchs, monarchs, land-owners and all their collaborators,would still be organised in the old way.Ireland’s industries, agriculture and

services would still be in the service ofthe EU, British and US imperialistregimes. The multinationalcorporations, partition and various legaltreaties would still bind us tointernational monopoly capitalism andits unending war on workers. We wouldstill be bound to pay back an unjustand odious debt. The Troika would stilloversee our national budgets, and theECB would still gear the euro to suitmainly Germany’s needs, to thedetriment of the Irish economy.All this means that our democracy,

sovereignty and independence wouldstill be the hollowed-out shells thatthey are. If we are to take seriously thetask of organising against austerity,then our only hope is to challenge thevery system of capitalism that createsand reproduces crisis after crisis, andits imperialist centres that condemn us.The challenge of organising againstausterity is linked to the task ofbuilding a class-conscious revolutionaryparty of working people that willchallenge and take on the imperialistsand their collaborators here at home—a party that will not capitulate to thethreats of EU, US and British capitalistdemands, as so many have done todate, and a party guided by theprinciples of Marx, Engels, and thegreatest Irish Marxist and revolutionaryleader, James Connolly.We are constantly told and led to

believe in the ideology that there is noalternative. We say there is analternative, that there has been andcan be a planned economic and socialsystem developed by the consciousefforts of working people that benefitsthe majority of the population in allareas of human life and development.For us, as communists, that alternativeis socialism.

Austerity The challenges of organising

Statement of solidarity with the Venezuelan people

Socialist Voice page 8

Venezuela

THE COMMUNIST, WORKERS’ andrevolutionary parties worldwideexpress our strong support and

firm solidarity to the Venezuelanpeople, to the Communist Party ofVenezuela and the Government ofPresident Nicolás Maduro, victims of anew interventionist escalation of USimperialism which violates the right toself-determination of the peoples.The “executive order” signed by

President Barack Hussein Obama andseconded by groups of economicpower of the US and Venezuela, whichdeclared the situation in Venezuela asupposed “unusual and extraordinarythreat to the national security andforeign policy of the United States,”represents an act of provocation andinterference that threatens thesovereignty, self-determination andpeace of the Bolivarian Republic ofVenezuela and all Latin America andthe Caribbean.We denounce these actions. In

general, they are aimed at destabilisingthe popular advances in Latin Americaand the Caribbean, especially againstthe process of change in Venezuela, inorder to restore the hegemony andgeo-strategic control of the US.Our peoples yearn to build a

sovereign and independent road of

development; on the contrary,imperialism is the developer andimplementer of coups d’état andbloody military occupations and is thegreatest violator of human rights.Venezuela, along with the peoples of

the region, has promoted all LatinAmerica and the Caribbean to be azone of peace, rejecting the use ofnuclear weapons and demanding thewithdrawal of US military bases.The US is the one that has

surrounded the Latin American andCaribbean peoples with weapons ofmass destruction: 74 US military basesaim their weapons against LatinAmerica and the Caribbean; 13 ofthese bases surround Venezuela.Billions of dollars from drug

trafficking and US finances are divertedto fund organisations such as USAIDand NED, which foster and organiseneo-fascist and destabilising groups ofdemocratic and popular governmentslike the Venezuelan.While the governments of the US

and its NATO allies favour thederegulation of employment, massivelay-offs and enfeeblement offundamental rights, leading theircitizens to the verge of misery anddeath, as a response to the crisis ofthe world capitalist system, in

Venezuela the assertion of the political,social and economic rights ofhistorically excluded majorities hasbeen promoted.Based on these paragraphs, the

undersigned communist, workers’ andrevolutionary parties, socialmovements and personalities agree tol Express our full and active solidaritywith the Venezuelan people, theCommunist Party of Venezuela and theGovernment of President NicolásMaduro, victims of a dangerousaggression by the US government;l demand the repeal of the infamousand interventionist decree signed byPresident Barack Hussein Obama;l join the joint call for a Day of GlobalAction in solidarity with Venezuela, on19 April next to be held in ourcountries;l summon the movements andorganisations that bring together andrepresent the working class and peopleso that they demonstrate their militantsolidarity with Venezuela during theactivities to be held on 1 May;l refuse in each parliament themotions and actions directed againstVenezuela and its legitimate right toself-determination.

When, thirty years later, BarackObama, declares Venezuela to be “athreat to the USA” it can only meanthat Uncle Sam wants to overthrow theVenezuelan government.Since the election of Hugo Chávez in

1998 transformed the politicalsituation in Venezuela and LatinAmerica, the USA has striven to restoreits dominion over the continent. It hassupported the Venezuelan ultra-right,during the coup d’état in 2002 andsince, in its efforts to destabilise andundermine the Bolivarian government.Last year the ultra-right organised

street violence, resulting in the deathof forty-three people. In February,Venezuelan security services uncoveredanother coup d’état plot. The Irishmedia, which takes their news from theWashington Post and the New YorkTimes would have us believe that thedeaths were the result of staterepression of peaceful demonstrationsand that there was no plot, and thatpersons convicted of violent crimes orawaiting trial are “political prisoners.”These false reports have been

endorsed by the US Senate and the EUParliament. It is on this basis that theSenate orders sanctions and thePresident issues his executive order.The threats against Venezuela have

been repudiated by UNASUR, by ALBA,and by CELAC,* representing a majorityof Latin American states, which nolonger accept the hegemony of theUSA. The Co-ordinating Bureau of theNon-Aligned Movement in the UnitedNations has joined in this call.The demonstration organised by the

Venezuela-Ireland Network will call forthe rescinding of the order declaringVenezuela to be a threat to the US, forthe ending of sanctions against officialswho were only acting according to theconstitution and laws of Venezuela,and for an end to all US interference inVenezuelan affairs.

* UNASUR is the Union of SouthAmerican States; ALBA is the BolivarianAlliance for the Peoples of OurAmerica; CELAC is the Community ofLatin American and Caribbean States.

In 1985 President Reagan declaredNicaragua “a threat to the USA” andfinanced and armed the “contras” inorder to overthrow the democraticallyelected Sandinista government.

by Tomás Mac Síomóin

THE NEO-LIBERAL forcesthat rule the EU need theSYRIZA government in

Greece to fail. They will dowhatever it takes to prevent theending of their austerity policiesin any part of the EU.These policies are operated with the

complicity of all EU neo-liberal elites,headed formally in Ireland by thecurrent coalition of Fine Gael and theLabour Party. In fact, as evidenced bythe SYRIZA-EU negotiations, a classalliance exists throughout the eurozone in which these elites impose,without popular mandate, harsh anti-social policies that cause immensehardship, particularly in countries ofthe EU periphery, such Greece,Portugal, Spain, and Ireland.But if the SYRIZA government, in

line with its announced aims, initiateda successful alternative social-democratic economic order in Greeceit would contrast with living conditionselsewhere in the euro zone. Suchcannot be allowed to happen. Greecemust toe the EU line along with therest!Ironically, the most fervent

supporters of these austericidalpolicies, promoted in the EU mainly bythe German government, have beenthe rulers of EU

peripheral countries. Carrying a bigstick for Germany, a self-alleged socialdemocrat, Joan Burton, advocated inBerlin a spot of mischievous blackmail,namely withholding the final tranche of€7 billion due from its second EU-IMFprogramme unless Greece undertakesto makes “credible progress” in“boosting its tax take and fightingcorruption,” although its government isalready working hard in this direction.SYRIZA’s sin is to dare to challenge

this deadly consensus. And, thanks tothe enormous influence the dominanteconomic and financial strata exert onmajor information outlets and media,recent weeks have seen enormouslyslanted anti-SYRIZA reporting of theGreek government’s negotiations withEU representatives. Greek negotiatorswere slagged, made fun of, referred tovariously as being “not really serious”and “demagogues” and beingsupposedly “immature,” “out ofplace,” and “not getting it” in thesophisticated administrative context inwhich they tried to make their case.Some important concessions made

to the SYRIZA negotiators, some ofwhich readers of Socialist Voice will beaware of (See “Take it down from themast,” March 2015) were eitherplayed down or ignored by capitalistmedia. These concessions may seemto be of little significance in a widercontext but are of crucial importancein a country as devastated as Greece.Regrettably, some on the left allowed

their opinions to be distorted bythis biased press offensive,referring instead toSYRIZA’s “failure.”

In the context ofthis offensive, oneclear underlyingreality is hiddenor brushed over,and that is thatthe Germangovernment isnow seen withtotal clarity asbeing thedominantcentre of theeconomic,financial andpolitical life ofthe euro zone,and it demands the

clear submission ofall the other

governments to its diktat.The publication by Greece of the

private declarations of support fromrepresentatives of governments (suchas the Italian and the French) was notfollowed by support from them at thenegotiating table; Ireland rowed indutifully, as expected. Thus the loss ofIrish sovereignty, and thecorresponding inability of Irishgovernments to rule in the bestinterests of our debt-crippled people,was yet again underlined.The Greek-EU negotiations

performed the ancillary service ofenabling the real euro zone to emerge,a new political entity ruled by the bigGerman financial interests and inwhich the interests of working peopleare of little consequence. Somecommentators even assert thatGermany has now achieved, throughfinancial manipulation, what it failed togain by military means in the SecondWorld War. In any case, the original EUhas lost whatever legitimacy andappeal it may once have claimed.In spite of the hostility of the

European neo-liberal establishment,the Greek government presented datathat demonstrates the huge damagewrought by austericidal policies in theircountry. They compared this to thevalues that Europe claims as its own—democracy, the welfare state, andsocial justice—thus revealing theegregiously hypocritical stance of thepresent EU rulers.And, in spite of the enormous bias

of European media, working peoplegauged the justice of the Greekarguments and agreed with them.Even in Germany itself the majoritythat wanted Greece expelled from theeuro zone became a minority. Thepresident of the EU Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, shedding what wereundoubtedly crocodile tears, wasforced to admit that a grave injusticehad been done to the Greek people.SYRIZA can be faulted for not having

prepared a Plan B: just telling the eurozone to stuff it and leaving it forthwith.Why didn’t they do just that? Theanswer is that they are not mandatedto do so: a majority of Greeks don’twant to leave the euro.As this unequal struggle continues,

however, popular anger with the eurozone could well change the directionSYRIZA will take.

page 9 Socialist Voice

Germany over all!eurozone

Socialist Voice page 10

Anne Casey1956–2015The Communist Party of Ireland extends its deepestsympathy on the death of Anne Casey to her husband,Colin, to her daughter, Aoife, and to her sisters andbrothers.Anne Casey was a militant working woman, educator

and activist who gave of herself to the cause of the Irishworking class. She was an internationalist and acommitted fighter against imperialism, a firm supporter ofthe heroic struggle of the Palestinian people and ofsolidarity with Cuba.Anne was born and reared in Kimmage, Dublin, in a

strong working-class family, a family that was politicallyactive, reared in a belief in the importance of trade unionsand of being active in a union. She learnt at an early agethe importance for the working class of being united andorganised to defend and to advance its own demands andinterests.She participated in a six-month strike in the viciously

anti-union company McDonald’s, winning the right to jointhe ITGWU. When the workers returned, Anne wasinformed that her job no longer existed. Her union tookher case to the Rights Commissioner and won, withcompensation.After the strike she went back to education and earned a

degree in the National College of Industrial Relations. Shethen left Ireland to study at Keele University in England,where she earned a master’s degree. She became a tutorwith the Trade Union Congress, becoming head of theTrade Union Studies Unit in Shrewsbury College. At thesame time she was active in day-to-day struggles,understanding the conditions of workers. She was not a dryacademic but rather acted and spoke to her students fromher own real experience and that of workers.Education was her passion, in particular working-class

education. She recognised that trade unions have animportant role in educating and empowering theirmembers.When Anne returned to Dublin she joined the

Communist Party of Ireland and subsequently became amember of its National Executive Committee. She wasresponsible for organising the “Introduction to Marxism”lecture series both for new members of the CPI and forthose interested in knowing more about this revolutionaryideology and weapon of struggle. She also wrote for theparty paper, Socialist Voice.Anne believed that much of trade union education was

for stifling and controlling shop stewards, teaching themhow to operate within the law rather than empoweringthem to represent their members and building work-placeorganisation and independence. She was centrally involvedin the drafting of the CPI pamphlet The Challenge for TradeUnionism, published in 2011, a stinging critique of therole and the disastrous effect of social partnership on thetrade union movement that also presented an alternativeway forward. She helped establish the Trade Union LeftForum, and was elected its first chairperson. The TULF hasbrought activists from throughout the trade unionmovement to combine political education with trade unionaction.Anne Casey was a kind and generous working-class

woman whose energy and talents will be sorely missed byour class. We dip our banners in salute.

Israeliaggressioncomes to Dublinby Dónall Ó Briain

RESIDENTS OF several areas around Dublin willhave seen posters recently advertising classes in“the world’s most effective self-defence system.”What they will not have been told is that it is theone developed for the “Israel Defence Forces”(the name used by the aggressive Israeli armedforces) for use against Palestinians.Krav Maga (meaning “contact combat”) was

founded in 1944 by Imre Lichtenfeld, a Hungarianimmigrant, in what they outrageously describe as“the land of Israel (then called Palestine).” Hehelped to train the terrorist organisations Haganaand Palmach, the latter described by Krav Maga asthe “striking force of the Hagana and forerunner ofthe special units of the IDF.”Krav Maga is known for its emphasis on

aggressiveness and brutality. It is used inoccupied Palestine by Israeli forces, “both regularand special forces,” and has been adopted also byShin Bet and Mossad (the internal and external“security” services).The international Krav Maga Federation, based

in Israel, claims branches in more than fortycountries, including Ireland. Each region has aregional director, who has the task of “spreadingthe doctrine of Krav Maga.” The organisationcultivates an ideological bond between branches,“maintaining a strong sense of family and closeties between its international members.” Itsdeclared aim is to “distribute Krav Maga to allsectors of society,” while “the strong ties betweenthe various IKMF branches exposes IKMFheadquarters to information on a daily basis, whichallows us to learn of new challenges each sectorencounters.”

page 11 Socialist Voice

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spooks

by Dónall Ó Briain

THE REVELATIONS aboutthe extent to whichWestern governments spy

on their own citizens (as well asthose of other countries) mightlead us to believe that this kindof illegality by “intelligence”agencies is a new phenomenon.Nothing could be less true.As Europe again dices with fascism

(this time sponsored and financed bythe United States, with thecollaboration of the European Union) itis useful to recall some of the eventsthat preceded the Second World Warand in particular the extent ofcollaboration between the British secretservice and fascist Germany.On 30 March 1933—two months

after Hitler became head of theGerman government, a month after theReichstag fire, and a week after aparliamentary act gave Hitler absolutepower—the deputy head of counter-intelligence at MI5, Guy Liddell, arrivedin Berlin as a guest of the Germanpolitical police (shortly afterwardsrenamed the Gestapo). For ten days,accompanied by the head of the Berlin

station of MI6, Frank Foley, he wasgiven access to the captured files ofthe Communist Party of Germany. Thetwo Englishmen were given everyfacility in copying the documents.After a dinner with the Nazi foreign

minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop,Liddell returned with his haul toLondon. There it would form part of thegrowing mountain of files oncommunists, Labour Party members,trade unionists, anti-fascists, pacifistsand others who—throughout the war

and afterwards—were spied on,shadowed, and intimidated, whosepost was opened, whose telephoneswere tapped, whose homes were

burgled, and whose employers wereurged to sack them. More unpleasantstill is the fact that the same tacticswere employed against German andother Continental refugees who fled tosanctuary (as they thought) in England.The technology has changed, and

the balance of power between theimperialist countries has shifted, sothat today it is the USA that is thecentre of illegal activity against its owncitizens and those of its satellites. Butthe principle is the same as when the

Special Branch steamed opencorrespondence and the Post Officetapped phones: the criminalising ofopposition to capitalism.

The unsavoury roots of surveillance

Eric HobsbawmBritish communisthistorian undersurveillence byMI5

Consider socialism in relation to theevils of the US capitalist economy, theeconomy I know the best. For morethan a century the US economy hasbeen dominated by giant monopolies.Monopolisation grows ever moreextreme. The dominant world powersince 1945, US imperialism is now in astate of permanent global war. The USmilitary is in action in scores ofcountries. Overseas US military basesnumber about a thousand by somereckonings. A $600 billion yearlymilitary budget pays for this.Capitalism’s boom-bust economic

cycle has become more violent inrecent decades. The recovery from the2008 crash is still weak and tentativein the United States. The unrestrictedexport of capital and jobs hasdeindustrialised many industrial areas,resulting in good union jobs inmanufacturing being replaced by low-wage service jobs, often held byundocumented immigrants, alongsidethe fabulous wealth of a tenth of 1 percent. There is homelessness formillions.Ugly political features stem from

these economic realities: a tendency to

restrict (bourgeois) democracy, forexample the US Supreme Court’sdecision to end all restriction oncorporate donations to electioncampaigns; the Republican Partycampaign to roll back the Voting RightsAct. There is the growing paralysis of

Congress, an institution that seeminglycan muster the will only to authorisetax cuts for corporations, fund newwars, and strive to make the taxsystem more regressive.Racism is an old US evil. It creates

monopoly superprofits from highunemployment rates and low wages formost Black workers. Today it is stillexpressed in police violence in Blackurban areas and the massincarceration of young Black men.The Leninist law of uneven

development operates on so manylevels. Vast regions of the US Southand West, largely non-union, are hometo the most backward forms of politicalbelief and religiosity. The politicalrepresentatives from these regions arenow dominant in Congress. We have a culture sick with gun

insanity and resultant frequent mass

shootings of innocents. The gun lobbyalways blocks reform.There is brutal treatment of

undocumented immigrants. Thepresent government deports them on agreater scale than the Bushgovernment did. The vaunted healthcare “reform” of 2010 was written bythe private insurers. We have corporatemedia degraded to mindless“infotainment.” It excludes dissentingvoices.We have a “justice” system that

operates along blatant class lines.Torture in Guantánamo and therendition “black sites”? Nobody goes toprison except a few corporals. Anaggression against Iraq based on a BigLie by top US officials? Nobody goes toprison. A trillion-dollar bail-out forbanks whose illegal, fraudulentpractices were the proximate cause ofthe crash of 2008? Nobody goes toprison. Secret NSA spying on theworld? Nobody goes to prison. Pollutionof the environment to the point oftriggering climate change? Nobodygoes to prison.A socialist economy’s superiority

should be discussed concretely. Lookat the main socialist country over mostof the twentieth century, the USSR.Bahman Azad’s fine book HeroicStruggle, Bitter Defeat summaries itsaccomplishments. In the first two five-year plans, industrial production grewat an average annual rate of 11 percent. From 1928 to 1940 theindustrial sector grew from 28 to 45per cent of the economy. Between1928 and 1937 heavy manufacturingoutput’s share of total manufacturingoutput grew from 31 to 63 per cent.The illiteracy rate dropped from 56 to

20 per cent. The number of thosecompleting secondary school andgraduates of specialised schools anduniversities jumped. Moreover, in thisperiod the state began providing freeeducation, free health services, andsocial insurance, and after 1936 thestate gave subsidies to single mothersand to mothers with many children.These accomplishments, Azad notes,were “impressive and historicallyunprecedented.”Between 1941 and 1953 the Soviet

Union defeated fascist Germany andrebuilt after the devastation of the war.By 1948 total industrial outputexceeded that of 1940, and by 1952 itwas 2½ times the 1940 figure. TheSoviet Union developed and forced theimperialist West into a “Cold War”stalemate.H See the full interview athttp://politicaleconomy.ie/?p=908.

Socialist Voice

books

page 12

SocialismbetrayedThomas Kenny, joint author of Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union interviewed

SocialismBetrayed: Behindthe Collapse ofthe Soviet UnionInternationalPublishersNew York

THE YOUNGER GENERATION needs to hear this truth. The socialist systemproved itself capable of providing sustained, rapid economic growth over sixdecades, notable technical and scientific innovations, and unprecedented

economic and social benefits to all its citizens, all the while defending itself frominvasion and other forms of military pressure, combating subversion, sabotage,and threats, and offering economic aid, technical assistance and military protectionto other nations struggling for independence and socialism.