Created on Wednesday, 10 February 2010 20:52 Written by Criostóir ÓDonnghaile
The problem with Irish politics in the north lies in the fact that there simply isn’t any organised party or union leadership that voices the real desires of the working class in Northern Ireland. Working people, in the absence of a real political choice will turn to what they see as most familiar and easy to understand, as a result we see the continuing blight of sectarian politics in Ireland and the relative success of the BNP in last year‘s European elections. This is due to the failure of our representatives to provide the basic, sustainable, everyday necessities such as a steady well paid job and acceptable housing that allows people to live a healthy, peaceful life. As socialists, it is our job to explain patiently the benefits of socialism to society and to encourage the established labour movements to play a more active role in the struggle for change in society. A socialist society is not some farfetched utopian delusion but an imminent reality given the proper material circumstances and leadership.
James Connolly once warned that if Britain left Ireland and the Irish people failed to establish a republic based on socialist principles, then the British would always rule us through their capitalism. How true that is today. The Irish economy has completely collapsed due to the hoards of fictitious American and European credit that created the ‘Celtic tiger’ boom which has since dried up. Strikes and factory occupations have been a regular occurrence throughout the Island, everywhere from Waterford to Belfast. Furthermore working class communities throughout Ireland are paying with their lives as a result of dismal economic and social conditions. Suicide is an ever increasing problem in Ireland, with North Belfast being among one of the worst areas in the country for suicide and drug abuse. A staggering average of 18 per 100,000 people in North and West Belfast take their lives annually. Non-coincidentally North Belfast and the Ardoyne area was one of the most harassed and terrorised communities throughout the British military occupation of Northern Ireland and now is one of the most impoverished areas in the whole of the United Kingdom. The suicide rate in Ireland has grown over 111% since 1996 and now around 700 people, male and female, take their lives every year as a direct result of drug abuse, in order to hide from the alienating and brutal competitiveness of life under capitalist society. Contrast this among the many cases of attempted suicides and self harm and the figure shoots up to around 11,700 hospital admissions in 2008.[1]
This is only the beginning of the crisis though. With predictions of a ‘double-dip’ recession and the very real prospect of a Tory government, the ostensibly stable economic situation in the north is incredibly vulnerable in reality. Furthermore with the likelihood of remorseless civil service and NHS cuts by the next government, unemployment in the north is set to rise significantly given that a large proportion of the Northern Irish workforce is employed in the public sector.
What does this mean for the working class communities who have to bear the brunt of these inevitable cuts: Unemployment and the lowering of the social wage. These are typical and necessary factors that allow the capitalist system to survive crises, where the working class pay daily to save the skin of the rich and powerful.
Without a strong organised labour movement attracting the best and most advanced elements of workers and youth, can we ever eliminate all the evils of capitalist society. There is no need for unemployment, hunger, sectarianism, racism, poverty, ill health, fuel shortage etc, to exist in the modern world. These burdens stand in the way of keeping the working people of Ireland, Protestant and Catholic, united against their real material needs. Slavery in the form of meagre wages, long hours and the threat of redundancy are all unavoidable and necessary costs of living under capitalism. Furthermore the capitalist system has been used by the ruling class in Britain to divide Irish society along sectarian lines for centuries. This was seen as necessary to keep the people of Ireland from breaking from the empire and its economic interest in the Irish labour force.
The leadership of a revolutionary socialist party answerable to the working people of Ireland would empower the masses to overthrow their oppressors and take control of the resources and industry of their land for the benefit of all its people. Parties protecting the interests of one section of society based on religion or historical traditionalism have no relevance to modern Ireland or the rest of the world. When mainstream politics is exposed in times of austerity as being merely an illusion of choice in the capitalist system, then the working people will abandon these antiquated ideas and choose a leadership and a system of organising society worthy of the human race.
As a result the socialist message must always be there for all our workers and youth in the workplace, through strong union leadership, on the picket lines and in the schools and universities. This is especially true at a time when militant republicanism can seem like an attractive and logical solution to the problems of the working class in Ireland. These groups can seem attractive to some young unemployed lads living in nationalist areas, providing a cause to give meaning to their lives. The republican dissidents mainly recruit in areas of social deprivation, knowing full well the eagerness of the impoverished to a quick solution. The fact of the matter is, yes we do need our own national sovereignty but this will be taken by the working class struggle and the working class alone. A military solution will add nothing to the power of a revolutionary movement without popular support. This support simply does not exist in reality and the people of Ireland have no desire to return to the days where individual terrorism was the only foreseeable solution. This sentiment is backed up further by the responsible leadership the trade unions took, condemning of the shooting of two young soldiers at Masserene in county Antrim last March.
The working class and the message of revolutionary socialism will always resist economic and military imperialism in Ireland and all over the world. This will be achieved not through the barrel of a gun but by our role in the production of wealth and our resolve to create a better society for our children and their children.