2067 lines
79 KiB
Plaintext
2067 lines
79 KiB
Plaintext
WORKERS SOLIDARITY NO 40.
|
|
|
|
Irish Anarchist Paper
|
|
|
|
electronic addition
|
|
Winter 1993
|
|
|
|
CONTENTS
|
|
|
|
Part 1. (This mailing)
|
|
For starters an overview of our recent activity
|
|
Thats capitalism Funny and tragic facts
|
|
Turn the anger into action Job losses at Aer Lingus
|
|
1913 lockout replayed at Pat the Baker strike news
|
|
Interview with pat the Baker Striker
|
|
Bigots send in sherrif Anti-choice bigots
|
|
Low wages don't mean more jobs.
|
|
New law aids pimps and protection rackets
|
|
|
|
Part 2
|
|
Very profitable slaughter The arms trade
|
|
Legal limits or the limits of the law
|
|
Japenese government is doing alright
|
|
Catholic church seeks state aid for child abuse
|
|
Cuba socialist paradise or Castro's fiefdom
|
|
Australian workers banned from job creation
|
|
The myth of the student radical
|
|
|
|
Part 3
|
|
How to change the unions rank and file
|
|
Anarchisms greatest hits review
|
|
Remembering the Lockout review
|
|
Landless struggle in Brazil
|
|
Nepal strike ends in victory
|
|
Japenese/U.S. workers banned from solidarity action
|
|
USSR coup, Anarchists banned
|
|
|
|
==========================
|
|
|
|
FOR STARTERS
|
|
|
|
WHEN IT WAS learnt that nazi historian and organiser
|
|
David Irving was to visit Ireland the WSM joined
|
|
with other anti-fascists in a broad Stop Irving
|
|
Campaign. Such was the strength of opposition to
|
|
his proposed visit that all four separate
|
|
invitations to him were cancelled. We produced a
|
|
pamphlet, Stop the Nazi, which explained Irving's
|
|
background as an organiser for fascism and why
|
|
anarchists would deny him a platform from which to
|
|
recruit for nazi terror gangs. A few copies are
|
|
still available for 30p.
|
|
|
|
During the summer we helped the "Pat the Baker"
|
|
strikers to organise a support group. This
|
|
attracted SIPTU members, people in other unions,
|
|
unemployed and students. Each week this group is
|
|
leafletting between six and twelve supermarkets
|
|
urging shoppers to boycott 'Pat the Baker' products.
|
|
It has also helped raise cash for the strikers and
|
|
arranged a feeder march to join the 1913 pageant in
|
|
August.
|
|
|
|
Also during the summer we debated with
|
|
representatives of the Anarchist Communist
|
|
Federation and the Direct Action Movement from
|
|
Britain at a summer camp hosted by the Belfast and
|
|
Bangor-based 'Organise!' group. Useful discussions
|
|
were had on trade union work, nationalism and ways
|
|
to organise.
|
|
|
|
While many anarchist organisations and publishing
|
|
houses do a good job of reprinting the 'classics',
|
|
there is a shortage of cheap pamphlets addressing
|
|
current issues. As a small contribution towards
|
|
redressing the balance we have published Kevin
|
|
Doyle's Parliament or Democracy. This explains why
|
|
anarchists don't vote for governments. If democracy
|
|
really means those affected by decisions having a
|
|
say in making those decisions, then the choice is
|
|
Parliament or Democracy.
|
|
|
|
August marked the anniversary of the 1913 Dublin
|
|
Lockout. Eighty years ago four hundred employers of
|
|
the city - led by Irish Independent, Irish Catholic
|
|
and Dublin United Tramways owner - William Martin
|
|
Murphy set out to smash the unions. The ITGWU was
|
|
recruiting the unskilled in their thousands and
|
|
winning claims through sympathetic strikes and
|
|
blacking.
|
|
|
|
It is important to reject the common fallacy that
|
|
change "just happens". Determined to reclaim our
|
|
working class history and to mark this historic
|
|
occasion a commemoration committee was formed. Its
|
|
brief was to remind people that the improvements we
|
|
enjoy today were won through struggle and
|
|
solidarity. Composed of a handful of anarchists and
|
|
socialists, including members of the Workers
|
|
Solidarity Movement, it drew up an impressive list
|
|
of events and won the formal support of several
|
|
major unions.
|
|
|
|
These events included three public meetings,
|
|
publication of a pamphlet, a walking tour of sites
|
|
connected with lockout, an exhibition in an inner
|
|
city community centre, and a radio show (on local
|
|
station Anna Livia FM). Some were well organised,
|
|
some not so well prepared. This reflected the small
|
|
number of people involved in the organisation of the
|
|
events, for while there was a lot of verbal support
|
|
for this initiative there was a shortage of willing
|
|
workers.
|
|
|
|
Very noticeable was the almost complete media
|
|
blackout of the events. Only the pageant was
|
|
covered. Everything else was ignored. The bosses'
|
|
media were not in a hurry to give publicity to
|
|
workers' struggles. No surprise there. Just one
|
|
further reminder of how the "free press" has the
|
|
limits of its freedom set by its millionaire owners.
|
|
|
|
==============================
|
|
|
|
THAT'S CAPITALISM
|
|
|
|
The latest firm to claim it can't pay the last phase
|
|
of the PESP on time is Albert Reynolds C+D Petfoods.
|
|
It must be awful to be a poverty stricken
|
|
millionaire Taoisheach!
|
|
|
|
*****
|
|
|
|
In the six counties, supposedly an "integral part of
|
|
the United Kingdom", average income has dropped from
|
|
83% to just 70% of the British average.
|
|
|
|
*****
|
|
|
|
60% of Reagan's cabinet were millionaires or near
|
|
millionaires. This rose to 71% under George Bush.
|
|
But Clinton, the great hope of the liberals, has
|
|
seen to it that 77% of his nominees are millionaires
|
|
or within spitting distance.
|
|
|
|
*****
|
|
|
|
After all the promises of job creation in return for
|
|
votes and PESP agreements, there are now more people
|
|
unemployed in the 26 counties who have been on the
|
|
dole for over three years than the total
|
|
unemployment figure for 1971.
|
|
|
|
*****
|
|
|
|
The British government plans to sell off Belfast
|
|
International Airport at Aldergrove. Millions of
|
|
pounds in EC grants were given for its
|
|
modernisation, and now all this will go to
|
|
capitalist privateers at a knock down price.
|
|
|
|
*****
|
|
|
|
Allied Irish Bank have announced that they will soon
|
|
be putting up bank charges because their "margins
|
|
are nder pressure". Their idea of being "under
|
|
pressure" is a strange one as they also announced
|
|
increased profits of #139 million for the first half
|
|
of 1993, an increase of 42% in six months.
|
|
|
|
*****
|
|
|
|
While the bosses' organisation IBEC moans about
|
|
"excessive" public sector wages the OECD has
|
|
reported that the pay of clerical assistants in the
|
|
civil service dropped from 60% of the average
|
|
industrial wage in 1981 to 50% in 1991. Some earn
|
|
so little they qualify for the Family Income
|
|
Supplement.
|
|
|
|
=========================
|
|
|
|
As the government look for more privatisation,
|
|
pay cuts and job losses at Aer Lingus...
|
|
|
|
TURN THE ANGER INTO ACTION
|
|
|
|
THE CAHILL PLAN is a devastating attack on workers'
|
|
conditions in Aer Lingus and its subsidiaries.
|
|
Unlike Digital, where #4 million was promised to try
|
|
and save 800 jobs, the government are offering Aer
|
|
Lingus #175 million in return for 1,500
|
|
redundancies.
|
|
|
|
Those who keep their jobs will get no pay rise for
|
|
the next two years, losing out immediately on a
|
|
5.25% rise due under the PESP. In Aer Lingus #34
|
|
million will be cut from payroll costs. Overtime
|
|
will be virtually abolished. Shift pay will be
|
|
dramatically cut.
|
|
|
|
TEAM Aer Lingus are facing #14 million in cutbacks.
|
|
The Shannon stopover is going to be phased out
|
|
costing thousands of jobs in the West of Ireland.
|
|
|
|
DARE TO FIGHT - DARE TO WIN
|
|
|
|
Attacks like these can be fought against. Already
|
|
TEAM Aer Lingus have had an impressive victory.
|
|
When 300 TEAM workers were temporarily laid off,
|
|
workers fought back by blocking the highway, holding
|
|
pickets and public meetings. In the end all 300
|
|
workers were reinstated.
|
|
|
|
What this shows is that direct action does work.
|
|
But more than protests and road blocks will be
|
|
needed to reverse the Cahill Plan. What will be
|
|
needed is industrial action effective enough to make
|
|
the State think twice about imposing their cuts.
|
|
|
|
All out strike action, closing down Dublin, Shannon
|
|
and Cork airports would do just that. The loss of
|
|
business and tourism would cost the state and
|
|
employers millions of pounds in a short space of
|
|
time. If the strike lasted long enough it would be
|
|
cheaper for the State to get rid of the Cahill Plan
|
|
completely rather than go on losing a fortune.
|
|
|
|
Strike action, if it was supported by enough Aer
|
|
Lingus workers and went on long enough would
|
|
succeed, the problem is how to get there.
|
|
|
|
FROM ANGER TO ACTION
|
|
|
|
There is no point in looking to the union officials
|
|
to provide the lead. The Aer Lingus unions are
|
|
already negotiating with management on where exactly
|
|
the cuts should be.
|
|
|
|
The workers themselves must provide the lead, acting
|
|
on their own initiative to save their own jobs.
|
|
This is not as impossible as may first seem. The
|
|
workers already closed down Dublin Airport for two
|
|
hours on Saturday 17th July while having a union
|
|
meeting. There is clearly deep anger and resentment
|
|
within the company and in North County Dublin which
|
|
will feel the redundancies most.
|
|
|
|
The anger and resentment must be converted in to
|
|
action as soon as possible. A good start would be
|
|
to get SIPTU to organise a major national
|
|
demonstration in support of the Aer Lingus workers.
|
|
With a large show of support the Aer Lingus workers
|
|
may gain the confidence to take matters further. To
|
|
gain more confidence and experience a campaign of
|
|
protests and stoppages could begin with the eventual
|
|
aim of an all-out strike. In this way the
|
|
government can be defeated.
|
|
|
|
Whether Labour is in power or not the State will put
|
|
the interests of the ruling class first. The Aer
|
|
Lingus workers have the power, if they choose to use
|
|
it, to move towards redressing the balance of
|
|
inequality.
|
|
|
|
Andrew Blackmore
|
|
|
|
=======================
|
|
|
|
On strike since March 28th for
|
|
the right to join a union.
|
|
|
|
1913 LOCKOUT REPLAYED AT PAT THE BAKER
|
|
|
|
LAST MARCH twenty five workers at Pat the Baker's
|
|
Cherry Orchard plant in west Dublin joined SIPTU.
|
|
They wanted to improve their lousy pay and
|
|
conditions. The company, owned by Pat Higgins and
|
|
based in the Longford town of Granard, responded by
|
|
sacking them.
|
|
|
|
A bitter battle has gone on ever since. Management
|
|
has used all the tricks at its disposal including
|
|
employing two public relations firms to vilify the
|
|
strikers, 24 hour video filming of the picket, and
|
|
the invention of a "works committee" for Cherry
|
|
Orchard. SIPTU has responded with an expensive
|
|
publicity campaign. A newsletter, Breadline News,
|
|
have been delivered to homes all over the country.
|
|
Tens of thousands of leaflets and stickers have been
|
|
printed.
|
|
|
|
However, this kind of response has had very little
|
|
effect. Despite what many union officials think,
|
|
publicity alone, without wider industrial action,
|
|
does not win disputes. The 1990 Industrial
|
|
Relations Act is crippling the workers' ability to
|
|
strike back at management.
|
|
|
|
NO SUPPORT ALLOWED
|
|
|
|
It forbids secondary picketing, lays down long
|
|
procedures for getting blacking (which include
|
|
giving seven days to the employer so that he or she
|
|
can make alternative arrangements), and even bans
|
|
having supporters on the picket line.
|
|
|
|
It must be obvious to everyone who has taken any
|
|
interest in this strike that the SIPTU leadership is
|
|
using the excuse of the Act to avoid taking any
|
|
effective action to win. Only after six months did
|
|
they begin to ballot members to black Pat the Baker
|
|
bread in the five Midlands supermarkets which are
|
|
organised by SIPTU. This should have been the one
|
|
of the first things done, not one of the last.
|
|
|
|
As this article is written the number on strike has
|
|
been reduced to fourteen. Financial hardship and
|
|
demoralisation caused by lack of action from the
|
|
union has led to the others moving on in search of
|
|
jobs elsewhere. The fourteen strikers who have
|
|
stuck it out since the Spring have to survive on #36
|
|
a week strike pay plus whatever donations arrive
|
|
when rank & file union members take up collections
|
|
in their jobs.
|
|
|
|
POVERTY AND PERKS IN SIPTU
|
|
|
|
Workers on strike for this length of time and
|
|
fighting for union recognition should now have their
|
|
full wages paid by the union. SIPTU can well afford
|
|
it. #1 million is taken in every three weeks in
|
|
members subscriptions. The three general officers
|
|
are believed (union members are not allowed to know
|
|
the exact figure) to earn at least #90,000 annually
|
|
in salary and expenses.
|
|
|
|
Above all, SIPTU could have made a stand early in
|
|
the dispute and broken the Industrial Relations
|
|
Act's prohibition of effective picketing and
|
|
blacking of tainted goods. If the biggest union in
|
|
the country won't do it in a recognition dispute,
|
|
what hope is there that a smaller union will? It is
|
|
beyond doubt that if the union had its funds seized
|
|
by the courts for breaking the Act that enough trade
|
|
unionists would answer a call to take immediate
|
|
action and force the state to back off.
|
|
|
|
A support group exists in Dublin to help the
|
|
strikers and has been active in leafletting
|
|
Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices supermarkets asking
|
|
shoppers to boycott Pat the Baker bread. Similar
|
|
support groups are needed in other cities and towns,
|
|
especially in County Longford.
|
|
|
|
BREAKING OUR UNIONS OR BRREAKING THE ACT?
|
|
|
|
The strikers have visited the Granard plant to try
|
|
to talk to the workers there. They were beaten up
|
|
by supporters of Frank Sheridan's "works committee",
|
|
a gang of thugs paid by the boss to break the union.
|
|
The workforce there is afraid. They remember that
|
|
two years ago twenty six joined the union and all of
|
|
them were fired. However a victory in Cherry
|
|
Orchard can turn things around and provide the
|
|
confidence to unionise.
|
|
|
|
When the Industrial Relations Act was introduced,
|
|
organisations like Trade Union Fightback and the
|
|
Workers Solidarity Movement were dismissed as
|
|
alarmists. Now even 'moderate' union officials are
|
|
making noises about the restrictions the Act places
|
|
on what used to be normal trade union practices. In
|
|
the run up to a new PESP, however, the possibility
|
|
that these people will make any serious attempt to
|
|
get rid of the Act is remote.
|
|
|
|
Pat Higgins is not some giant multinational. He is
|
|
a gombeen boss with a #3 million a year turnover and
|
|
a profit of #300,000. He could have been brought to
|
|
his knees within a few weeks if the traditional
|
|
methods of industrial action had been used.
|
|
Secondary pickets (on Pat the Baker suppliers and
|
|
customers), blacking and openly seeking support from
|
|
other trade unions; these were the teeth drawn by
|
|
the Act.
|
|
|
|
If we don't want every tin pot dictator running a
|
|
small business believing he can smash unions with
|
|
impunity we have to make a decision. Do we meekly
|
|
surrender and live with the Act? Do we wait for the
|
|
Dail to amend it (and remember that means trusting
|
|
the same people who brought in the Act)? Or do we
|
|
break it? Anarchists prefer to break the Act than
|
|
see our unions broken.
|
|
|
|
=======================
|
|
|
|
paid #5 if you abuse a picket
|
|
|
|
INTERVIEW WITH PAT THE BAKER STRIKER
|
|
|
|
As the "Pat the Baker" dispute entered its 18th week
|
|
Workers Solidarity interviewed Noel Forbes of the
|
|
strike committee on the August 3rd.
|
|
|
|
WORKERS SOLIDARITY: Can you tell us how long the
|
|
dispute has been on and how many are out?
|
|
NOEL FORBES: This is the 18th week of the dispute.
|
|
Twenty five workers went on strike and that's down
|
|
to fifteen today. Three went back almost straight
|
|
away and have been sacked since. The rest - a few
|
|
got jobs and the rest took redundancy.
|
|
|
|
What are the main issues in this dispute?
|
|
It's about recognition - union recognition. The way
|
|
the company acts you'd think it was a crime to join
|
|
a union. Look at the surveillance cameras over
|
|
there - there are three outside here and more inside
|
|
the plant. The canteen was bugged before we came
|
|
out on strike. He (Pat Higgins, the owner) is
|
|
spending a security firms and now has two P.R. firms
|
|
working for him. We find it very hard to get
|
|
publicity. His P.R. firms are making out its not a
|
|
union/management dispute at all but a dispute
|
|
between workers. This is a total lie.
|
|
|
|
Tell us about the works committee who say they
|
|
represent the workers.
|
|
This is a made up thing by Frank Sheridan who works
|
|
in Granard (the company's H.Q.). Neither Sheridan
|
|
nor the works committee were ever seen in Cherry
|
|
Orchard by John (the striker who worked longest for
|
|
Pat the Baker in Dublin - 7 years) until the strike
|
|
started. They're just a made up job, they don't
|
|
represent anyone properly.
|
|
|
|
Tell us about the situation in Granard.
|
|
Well, there's 120 people working there, not 400 like
|
|
Higgins claims. There's maybe 40 more in depots in
|
|
Limerick, Cork and Cavan. The rest in sub-contract
|
|
work. We have two letters from workers in Granard
|
|
waiting to join the union. But the workers there
|
|
are afraid of Sheridan and his thugs. We went up
|
|
there to picket the place four weeks ago - six of
|
|
us. We were beaten up, spat on, threatened, abused
|
|
- all by Sheridan's gang and locals paid #5 a day to
|
|
abuse the pickets. The Gardai helped us out in the
|
|
end. The parish priest denounced us as communists
|
|
off the pulpit on Sunday. They knew too much about
|
|
us personally and about the SIPTU official in
|
|
Mullingar too. It was ridiculous carry-on - the
|
|
personnel manager and his wife and daughter spiting
|
|
at the pickets.
|
|
|
|
Have you managed to effect production here with the
|
|
strike?
|
|
Oh yes. It's down 15 - 20 %. Hospitals, the fire
|
|
brigade, some supermarkets have all cancelled. They
|
|
are using the plant here as a depot. They are
|
|
wrapping the bread somewhere in Rathmines now -
|
|
we're are trying to find out where.
|
|
|
|
Do you think the workers in Granard will ever come
|
|
out in support?
|
|
No, they're too scared. Two years ago 26 workers
|
|
joined SIPTU in Granard. There are only two of them
|
|
still in the job. Frank Sheridan, chairman of the
|
|
works committee has been with Pat the Baker for ten
|
|
years. He's getting well paid to run the works
|
|
committee farce.
|
|
|
|
SIPTU have done a good leafleting and publicity
|
|
campaign but what more would you like them to do?
|
|
Well, the Industrial Relations Act is the the
|
|
problem. We have to get the bread blacked by the
|
|
supermarket workers. That's what we want to see.
|
|
One supermarket has voted to black it but we need
|
|
lots more. The lads are getting fed up now. We're
|
|
only on #36 a week strike pay. One of the lads is
|
|
about to loose his house over the strike. Four of
|
|
them have given the union until the end of the month
|
|
to get some serious blacking done or they will jack
|
|
it in too. I mean we appreciate all the support
|
|
we're getting but it is not enough to win the
|
|
dispute without blacking.
|
|
|
|
Thanks for talking to us. Best of luck and we will
|
|
be continuing to leaflet Quinnsworth in Rathmines
|
|
every Saturday 12 -2pm about the strike.
|
|
Thanks very much, one of the strikers will be there
|
|
with you.
|
|
|
|
A support group in Dublin works with the
|
|
strikers - leafletting supermarkets,
|
|
organising collections and publicising
|
|
their struggle.
|
|
Get involved. It meets every Tuesday at
|
|
8pm in the Ha'penny Bridge Inn (top floor),
|
|
Wellington Quay.
|
|
|
|
=============================
|
|
|
|
Student unions ordered to fund
|
|
SPUC's anti-choice case.
|
|
|
|
BIGOTS SEND FOR SHERRIF
|
|
|
|
THE FIGHT between SPUC and the student unions over
|
|
the provision of abortion information has entered a
|
|
new phase. SPUC's solicitors, are now seeking costs
|
|
from the student unions for the earlier stages of
|
|
the case. This is despite the fact that the legal
|
|
case is ongoing. In fact this is the first time in
|
|
the history of the Irish state that one party has
|
|
been awarded legal costs over the other while the
|
|
case is still being disputed. Talk about
|
|
impartiality!
|
|
|
|
What this means is that SPUC will be able to use
|
|
this money to fight the later stages of the case, as
|
|
well as providing resources for its other anti-
|
|
choice agendas, while the student unions will be
|
|
left stuck for cash if not financially insolvent.
|
|
All this for fighting for a woman's right to choose.
|
|
|
|
The sheriff has been called in to collect the amount
|
|
involved, #29,000. At the time of writing he has
|
|
sent several final notices and even made
|
|
appointments to collect the money. The last one of
|
|
these was on August 30th at the Union of Students of
|
|
Ireland (USI). Having been given 24 hours notice
|
|
the students assembled journalists and photographers
|
|
to cover the story. That morning USI received a
|
|
phone call asking if they had any assets of value in
|
|
their office. When they replied that they had not
|
|
the sheriff said he wasn't coming.
|
|
|
|
RELUCTANT STATE?
|
|
|
|
This would seem to indicate a reluctance on the part
|
|
of the state authorities to test the public climate.
|
|
Nonetheless the students response to all of this has
|
|
unfortunately been quite weak. Given the current
|
|
weakness of the student movement it is possible that
|
|
they will decide to pay the money involved. In the
|
|
absence of a large campaign of support, not to pay
|
|
the money would inevitably mean the loss of the
|
|
student unions through the legal liquidation
|
|
process.
|
|
|
|
However they have not decided to fight in any
|
|
meaningful political manner. The "X" case was
|
|
successfully fought by spreading the campaign to as
|
|
wide a number of people as possible. The students
|
|
appear to be concentrating their efforts on raising
|
|
money through reliable but narrow channels.
|
|
|
|
The three student unions involved have combined to
|
|
set up a student trust with the sponsorship of noted
|
|
liberals like Nuala O'Faolain and David Norris.
|
|
While these individuals can be quite good at raising
|
|
money within certain sectors, e.g. university
|
|
lecturers, they do not see any necessarily to spread
|
|
the political campaign to the widest number of
|
|
people.
|
|
|
|
COURTS OR CAMPAIGN?
|
|
|
|
With many trade unions supporting a woman's right to
|
|
information, arguably the most effective way to do
|
|
this is to work on trade union involvement. This
|
|
can be done by providing a model motion for union
|
|
meetings, putting posters on union noticeboards
|
|
pledging support to the students, asking union
|
|
executives to distribute information packs to
|
|
members. In this way political support and money
|
|
can be raised to support the students and to
|
|
solidify support for a woman's right to information
|
|
when the government brings in its legislation next
|
|
year.
|
|
|
|
After all a majority of the country's population
|
|
voted for a woman's right to have information and to
|
|
utilise that information by travelling abroad for an
|
|
abortion in last November's referendum. SPUC is
|
|
seeking to penalise organisations for fighting for
|
|
these rights. The courts are unlikely to be
|
|
responsive to polite liberal appeals, having imposed
|
|
the costs in the first place. More recently they
|
|
refused to lift the injunction on the Well Woman
|
|
Centre and Open Door Counselling which prohibits
|
|
these organisations from providing information.
|
|
|
|
The more support the students gather now against
|
|
this penalty for providing information, the stronger
|
|
the pressure will be on the government to provide a
|
|
broad framework for the provision of information.
|
|
|
|
Emma Slevin
|
|
|
|
Contributions may be sent to the 'Student Support
|
|
Trust', A/c 8827 1085, AIB Bank (sort code 93-10-
|
|
55), 10/11 Lower O'Connell Street, Dublin 1.
|
|
|
|
==========================
|
|
|
|
European Commision report
|
|
|
|
LOW WAGES DON'T MEAN MORE JOBS
|
|
|
|
According to the European Commission's latest
|
|
employment report, Ireland has the third lowest
|
|
manufacturing employment costs for the bosses.
|
|
Despite all the whining about the indirect costs of
|
|
employing extra workers, Ireland has the 4th lowest
|
|
indirect costs - only slightly above Britain,
|
|
Portugal, Greece and Denmark.
|
|
|
|
The figures also demonstrate how there is little
|
|
link between accepting wage freezes and employment.
|
|
The countries with the highest wages are also those
|
|
with the lowest unemployment. The countries with
|
|
the highest unemployment are also those with the
|
|
lowest wages. The bosses tell us accepting wage
|
|
freezes will help create jobs. This is crap. It
|
|
will, however, give them even larger profits. Once
|
|
again there is no common cause between the bosses
|
|
and the workers.
|
|
|
|
=========================
|
|
|
|
NEW LAW AIDS PIMPS
|
|
AND PROTECTION RACKETS
|
|
|
|
IT IS IRONIC that the Act to decriminalise
|
|
homosexuality also contained provisions for
|
|
increased victimisation of a marginalised group.
|
|
|
|
Tagged on to the end of the Criminal Law (Sexual
|
|
Offences) Act 1993 were further restrictions on
|
|
prostitution. Under the new act, prostitutes are
|
|
now liable to fines of up to #1,000 and up to six
|
|
months in prison. In addition anybody caught
|
|
soliciting sex from prostitutes or believed to be
|
|
"kerb-crawling" face fines of up to #500.
|
|
|
|
Most political parties raised no objections to this
|
|
attack on prostitutes' right to earn a living.
|
|
They wanted to decriminalise homosexuality with the
|
|
least fuss possible. Governments since 1988 had
|
|
promised - but failed to deliver - compliance with
|
|
the European Court of Human Right's decision in the
|
|
case taken against the State by David Norris.
|
|
|
|
FIVE YEARS ON
|
|
|
|
The Court had insisted on the decriminalisation of
|
|
homosexual acts between consenting adults. Five
|
|
years later the government was finally going to do
|
|
something about it and politicians did not want to
|
|
rock the boat on this sensitive issue.
|
|
|
|
The Council for the Status of Women welcomed the
|
|
proposed legislation without raising a single
|
|
objection to the sections on prostitution. These
|
|
restrictions will cause further victimisation and
|
|
hardship for women working as prostitutes but as
|
|
suspected, the Council is only concerned with the
|
|
status of some women.
|
|
|
|
The Minister for Justice argues that these
|
|
restrictions will "provide further protection
|
|
against the exploitation of people who feel they
|
|
have no choice but to prostitute themselves". In
|
|
fact, they will have the opposite effect.
|
|
|
|
PIMPS AND PROTECTION RACKETS
|
|
|
|
In the past, prostitutes could sometimes call on the
|
|
police for protection. Under the new act, if a
|
|
prostitute calls on the police to protect her from
|
|
attack, she is liable for prosecution herself. A
|
|
possible outcome of this is an increase in pimps and
|
|
protection rackets.
|
|
|
|
The increased fines means prostitutes will have to
|
|
work longer hours in order to cover the cost of
|
|
fines. The increased penalties for keeping a
|
|
brothel means that more prostitutes will be forced
|
|
to work on the streets rather than in the safer
|
|
conditions of a massage parlour.
|
|
|
|
As anarchists we are against all forms of
|
|
exploitation. But restrictions on prostitution
|
|
will not make it any less exploitative. Rather they
|
|
will make it harder for a marginalised group of
|
|
workers to make a living.
|
|
|
|
We believe that prostitutes have a right to earn a
|
|
living. They have a right to working conditions
|
|
where they can feel safe and work without fear of
|
|
victimisation from the police, pimps or anybody
|
|
else.
|
|
|
|
Kathleen O'Kelly
|
|
|
|
|
|
The arms trade, the "free market"...
|
|
VERY PROFITABLE SLAUGHTER
|
|
|
|
AS THE UN is currently claiming to be trying to
|
|
bring peace to Somalia by disarming the 'Warlords" a
|
|
recent US congressional study reported in the July
|
|
issue of the US magazine Financial Review makes
|
|
interesting reading. It shows that the people who
|
|
pumped arms into Somalia in the 1980's are still
|
|
pumping arms into the third world in the 1990's.
|
|
|
|
The United States remained the biggest arms supplier
|
|
to the third world in 1992, increasing its share of
|
|
the market to 57% from 49% in 1991, according to the
|
|
US Congressional study. For all the scare mongering
|
|
about Russian arms exports they only comprise 5.4%,
|
|
of the world trade with arms deals in 1992 of US$1.3
|
|
billion. The US total is however US$13.6 billion..
|
|
|
|
At the moment the west is trying to build a fear of
|
|
third world nations acquiring weapons as a way of
|
|
maintaining social peace at home. For years we were
|
|
kept in line through the use of the cold war. Now
|
|
instead of Russia, North Korea and Iraq are supposed
|
|
to be big threats. States which fulfil the wishes
|
|
of the Western bosses get armed regardless of their
|
|
record on democracy or human rights. Yet the bosses
|
|
tell us that they are against arming undemocratic
|
|
states.
|
|
|
|
Two of the top three recipients of US arms exports
|
|
were Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Both of these
|
|
countries are amongst the most undemocratic on the
|
|
planet with despotic rulers and viscous anti-women
|
|
legislation which even bans women from driving cars.
|
|
Both have been highlighted by human rights
|
|
organisations like Amnesty International as
|
|
routinely making use of torture against political
|
|
opponents.
|
|
|
|
The rest of the top ten is not surprisingly composed
|
|
of other states claiming to be bringing peace to the
|
|
world. In order these are France, the second
|
|
largest arms supplier in 1992 (US$3.8 billion),
|
|
Britain (US$2.4 billion), Russia (US$1.3 billion),
|
|
Germany (US$700 million), Spain (US$600 million),
|
|
Italy (US$400 million), Israel (US$300 million),
|
|
Iran (US$200 million) and China (US$100 million).
|
|
That's all the permanent members of the United
|
|
Nations security council in the Top Ten dealers of
|
|
death list.
|
|
|
|
The West and the UN can not be part of the solution
|
|
to any of the words problems. They are the police
|
|
for the bosses' profit margins. From the former
|
|
Yugoslavia to Somalia they have no progressive role
|
|
to play.
|
|
|
|
=========================
|
|
|
|
LEGAL LIMITS OR THE LIMITS OF THE LAW
|
|
|
|
For those who put their faith in good laws to stop
|
|
racism, sexism, etc; a cautionary tale from
|
|
Minneapolis, USA. These events occurred in the
|
|
course of an abortion clinic defence campaign.
|
|
|
|
A group of 'pro-choicers' was tailing Operation
|
|
Rescue for several hours to find out what clinic or
|
|
doctor's home they were going to hit - standard
|
|
practice for 'pro-choice' groups when OR plans a
|
|
hit. The bigots spotted them, so they pulled into a
|
|
police station and got them busted. For what? For
|
|
violating an "anti-stalking" law designed to stop
|
|
bigots who tail & harass clinic doctors. Later
|
|
outside the clinic pro-choice activists were
|
|
threatened with arrest for wearing masks, by
|
|
invoking an old anti-Ku Klux Klan law that prohibits
|
|
hiding your face. The masks were to frustrate
|
|
Operation Rescue attempts to video tape them and a
|
|
protection against the tear gas being fired by the
|
|
police.
|
|
|
|
===================
|
|
|
|
JAPANESE GOVERNMENT IS DOING ALRIGHT
|
|
|
|
A recent survey of Japan's 749 lawmakers in both
|
|
houses of the legislature showed, as in all other
|
|
countries, Japan's rulers come from the rich. Those
|
|
from the Liberal Democratic Party own an average
|
|
$1.2 million in personal wealth. Parliamentarians
|
|
from Komeito (Clean Government Party) held average
|
|
assets of $508,000, followed by $440,000 of those
|
|
from the Democratic Socialist Party (SDP), and the
|
|
$404,000 of those from the Social Democratic Party
|
|
(SDP). Assets held under the names of spouses and
|
|
family members, jewellery, precious metals and gold,
|
|
did not have to be declared. Parliamentarians in
|
|
both houses own an average $835,000 of personal
|
|
assets but the list was topped by Takashi Sasagawa
|
|
with $40 million.
|
|
|
|
============================
|
|
|
|
CATHOLIC CHURCH SEEKS STATE AID FOR CHILD ABUSE!
|
|
|
|
THE CATHOLIC Church is looking for payment in return
|
|
for sexually abusing children! Right up to the
|
|
1960s young children from Catholic orphanages in
|
|
Britain and the six counties were shipped out to
|
|
Australia. There the boys, some as young as eight
|
|
years, were used as almost slave labour by Catholic
|
|
farmers and the Church itself. Girls were sent into
|
|
domestic service in the homes of rich Church
|
|
members.
|
|
|
|
In Western Australia the Christian Brothers are
|
|
facing over 50 compensation claims by former child
|
|
migrants who say they were sexually abused while in
|
|
Church care. In July, in the Western Australian
|
|
newspaper, the Christian Brothers admitted that
|
|
"physical and sexual abuse took place". But rather
|
|
than face up to their responsibilities, the Catholic
|
|
Church asked the government to help fund
|
|
compensation claims. They wanted taxpayers -
|
|
Catholic and those of all other and no religions -
|
|
to pay for their crimes.
|
|
|
|
This is an amazing display of arrogance from one of
|
|
the richest institutions in the world. The Western
|
|
Australian provincial government thought so too, and
|
|
turned down their plea. With the victims of sexual
|
|
abuse at the hands of clerics telling their stories
|
|
all over the world, will we see Archbishop Cathal
|
|
Daly getting out the collection can and asking us to
|
|
pay for the crimes of his child molesters?
|
|
|
|
========================
|
|
|
|
CUBA
|
|
socialist paradise or Castro's fiefdom
|
|
|
|
"..the major event of the twentieth century has been
|
|
the abandonment of the values of liberty on the part
|
|
of the revolutionary movement, the weakening of
|
|
Libertarian Socialism, vis-a-vis Caesarist and
|
|
militaristic Socialism. Since then, a great hope
|
|
has disappeared from the world to be replaced by a
|
|
deep sense of emptiness in the hearts of all who
|
|
yearn for Freedom...."
|
|
('Neither Victims nor Executioners' by Albert Camus)
|
|
|
|
AS CAMUS SAYS, a deep sense of emptiness is felt by
|
|
all those who wish for a revolution leading to the
|
|
creation of a society which is classless and truly
|
|
socialist. As the history of the 20th century has
|
|
unfolded we have witnessed the repeated failure of
|
|
vanguards and leaders to create the society for
|
|
which the true-hearted revolutionaries have fought
|
|
and died. Not so long ago most of the left held up
|
|
the Soviet Union as an example of Socialism or
|
|
something with some socialist features.
|
|
|
|
As the Eastern Bloc crumbled and the true horrors of
|
|
sick states like Ceaucescu's Romania were exposed
|
|
Cuba became the new Mecca for the left. What we
|
|
find there is unfortunate and there is little to
|
|
inspire us in the country which has had Fidel Castro
|
|
at the wheel of power for over 30 years.
|
|
|
|
Cuba, about 90 miles off the coast of North America,
|
|
is the largest of the Caribbean islands. The social
|
|
services are in a far better condition than they are
|
|
in other Latin American countries. Virtually every
|
|
Cuban under the age of 30 can read and write. But
|
|
the cost of these benefits is high for the working
|
|
class who have never been in the saddle of power in
|
|
Cuba. This is not their role as the doting Father
|
|
looks after their interests. While the figures
|
|
about literacy and health are good there are a
|
|
number of statistics which aren't so impressive.
|
|
|
|
One Cuban in every 340 is in prison. There are 400
|
|
political prisoners. Around 50% of the Cuban male
|
|
population are known to the police or have criminal
|
|
records. The Cuban police force regularly carry
|
|
revolvers, tear gas and electric truncheons. The
|
|
crime rate itself is very low, so the equipment of
|
|
the police and the jail population would seem to
|
|
indicate a state that is repressive in it's dealings
|
|
with the people.
|
|
|
|
BATISTA
|
|
|
|
To understand how Cuba functions now, why it
|
|
developed the way it did and why socialism was never
|
|
on Castro's menu, we must look at the origins and
|
|
path of the revolution. Fulgencio Batista y
|
|
Zaldivar had taken control of Cuba in a military
|
|
coup called the 'sergeants revolt' on September 4th
|
|
1933. He promoted himself to the position of
|
|
Commander in Chief of the armed forces and
|
|
comfortably ruled through a host of puppet
|
|
presidents.
|
|
|
|
Batista contested and lost the presidency 1944,
|
|
after which he exited to Florida with millions from
|
|
the small country's coffers. He returned to power
|
|
in a coup d'etat in 1952, three months prior to the
|
|
presidential elections.
|
|
|
|
An interesting point to note is the cordial
|
|
relationship between Batista and the Cuban Communist
|
|
Party. They were allowed to function openly and
|
|
supported Batista's candidates in the 1940
|
|
elections. As their reward they got control of the
|
|
state controlled trade union, the Cuban
|
|
Confederation of Labour (CTC-Confederacion de
|
|
Trabajadores de Cuba). The First Secretary General
|
|
was Lazaro Pena, a post he would later hold under
|
|
Fidel Castro.
|
|
|
|
The 26th of July Movement was born out of an attack
|
|
on the Moncada military barracks in 1953. The
|
|
attack, though brave, was bungled and failed. The
|
|
movement really grew during the subsequent trial
|
|
where Castro successfully gave the impression of the
|
|
July Movement as being nationalists who would no
|
|
longer be restrained.
|
|
|
|
The political aspirations of the movement extended
|
|
no further than "total and definitive social
|
|
justice" and "absolute and reverent respect" for the
|
|
1940 constitution. Incidentally the attack on the
|
|
barracks was condemned by the Cuban Communist Party
|
|
who defined their role as being to "unmask the
|
|
putschists and adventurous activists as being
|
|
against the interests of the people".1
|
|
|
|
SIERRA MAESTRA YEARS
|
|
|
|
The July 26th Movement grew in prestige from the
|
|
trial of the Moncada attackers. Two years later,
|
|
after the movement had been in exile in Mexico where
|
|
Castro met the young Che Guevara, they returned on
|
|
the "Granma" pleasure cruiser in December 1956. The
|
|
80 strong insurrection failed in the Oriente region
|
|
and they retreated to the Sierra Maestra mountains.
|
|
It is here according to the folklore historians,
|
|
whom Castro had later appointed, that the
|
|
discussions of Marx and Lenin took place into the
|
|
long hours amongst the revolutionaries around the
|
|
camp fires.
|
|
|
|
Castro had been a follower of the Partido Ortodoxo
|
|
which was a nationalist organisation who put their
|
|
faith in the 1940 constitution. Now, according to
|
|
re-written history he became a Marxist-Leninist.
|
|
Che Guevara's story of this time is more
|
|
enlightening, they "...had neither ideological
|
|
awareness nor 'esprit de corp'.... "2. Castro goes
|
|
on to contradict this history of his own making by
|
|
saying that "the proclamation of socialism during
|
|
the period of instructional struggle would not have
|
|
been understood"3.
|
|
|
|
In 1958, a year prior to the revolution, Castro said
|
|
"true, the extension of government ownership to
|
|
certain power companies - US owned - was a point of
|
|
our earliest programmes; but we have currently
|
|
suspended all planning on this matter."4 What the
|
|
26th July Movement was seeking was
|
|
"industrialisation at the fastest possible rate.
|
|
For this purpose, foreign investment will always be
|
|
welcome and secure here."5
|
|
|
|
THE REVOLUTION
|
|
|
|
By 1958 the Batista troops had retreated to their
|
|
barracks. The rebels stepped up their attacks.
|
|
There was broad popular support for the 26th July
|
|
Movement, and mass strikes and demonstrations
|
|
followed. (Che Guevara said that the Batista regime
|
|
collapsed under the weight of it's own corruption.)
|
|
Many who weren't in the July movement lost their
|
|
lives, yet they seem to be forgotten in the process
|
|
of deification which has taken place around Castro.
|
|
|
|
There was the raid on the Mantanzans garrison in
|
|
which all the young members of the radical
|
|
nationalist Autentico Party lost their lives in
|
|
1956. Then there was the attempted assassination of
|
|
Batista in 1957 by the Revolutionary Student
|
|
Directorate. All of them were massacred.
|
|
|
|
It is important to remember that the Cuban
|
|
revolution was the work of a few armed insurgents.
|
|
It was the work of a few hundred armed guerrillas in
|
|
the Sierra Maestra mountains and various other
|
|
rebels. The working class supported the rebels but
|
|
it was a passive support that did not extend beyond
|
|
strikes and demonstrations when the dictatorship was
|
|
close to crumbling. "The emancipation of the
|
|
working class is the task of the workers" and
|
|
unfortunately in Cuba true emancipation was not to
|
|
follow the revolution.
|
|
|
|
YESTERDAY'S NATIONALISM - TODAY'S SOCIALISM
|
|
|
|
Following the toppling of Batista the first cabinet
|
|
contained a judge, a lawyer, the head of the Havana
|
|
Bar Association, a member of the Orthodox Party, and
|
|
the ex-president of the national bank. (Within 14
|
|
months all of these disappeared to the USA and
|
|
became 'contras'.) The 1940 constitution was
|
|
reinstalled. The first office set up was the
|
|
National Tourist Board. All this would not seem to
|
|
indicate a very socialist revolution had taken
|
|
place.
|
|
|
|
In April 1959 Castro went to America to visit and
|
|
talk with vice president Richard Nixon about
|
|
securing a development loan. Castro made assurances
|
|
to the White House about protection of American
|
|
interests but he stood firm on Cuban sovereignty.
|
|
However, even the demands for very limited economic
|
|
control were against US interests and therefore Cuba
|
|
was portrayed as part of the "world communist
|
|
conspiracy". The imperialist USA set out to smash
|
|
small independent Cuba.
|
|
|
|
The Americans had wanted Batista to capitulate to a
|
|
caretaker government before Castro could come to
|
|
power. They were never really prepared to do
|
|
business with the man. The further down a road one
|
|
travels the less options one is faced with. Castro
|
|
had reached a 'T' junction. The first road would
|
|
have been to concede sovereignty to the Americans
|
|
and keep a section of the old ruling class on his
|
|
side. The second road was to industrialise the
|
|
country, using the confiscated wealth of the ruling
|
|
class.
|
|
|
|
Cuba was going "Socialista". In October 1959 Che
|
|
Guevara becomes head of the National Bank. In
|
|
February 1960 a new agreement is reached to supply
|
|
sugar to the USSR. In July of the same year Castro
|
|
nationalises American owned sugar companies and oil
|
|
refineries. By the end of the year few foreign
|
|
industries are not nationalised. Castro had made a
|
|
decision, America had refused to budge an inch and
|
|
now it was time to side with the other major power.
|
|
So began the myth of the July Movement always being
|
|
Marxist. As the plaque reads at Havana's main
|
|
cemetery "What the imperialists cannot forgive is us
|
|
having made a socialist revolution under the very
|
|
noses of the United States."
|
|
|
|
CUBA : CASTRO'S PLAYGROUND
|
|
|
|
It comes as no surprise to learn that Castro chose
|
|
to call himself a Marxist-Leninist. "I am a
|
|
Marxist-Leninist and will remain one until the last
|
|
day of my life" said Castro in 1961. This is a
|
|
good political philosophy to adhere to if one
|
|
intends to remain in power for 30 years and never
|
|
release the reins of control to the working class.
|
|
|
|
How does Cuba function? On this Caribbean island
|
|
you have a ruling class composed of the bureaucracy
|
|
which came from the July 26th Movement. You have
|
|
the remnants of the Stalinist Partido Socialista
|
|
(Cuban Communist Party) who saw the Revolution and
|
|
the nationalisation that followed as a means to
|
|
strengthen their positions.
|
|
|
|
To the Cuban Communists their own survival is
|
|
paramount, principles were abandoned as unhealthy a
|
|
long time ago. Then you have the professionals such
|
|
as academics, scientists and management. They have
|
|
fewer privileges than their counterparts in the
|
|
'West' but are rewarded with praise and prizes as
|
|
long as they remain uncritical. The ruling class is
|
|
bonded together by a fear of the working class.
|
|
|
|
Castro is the cement which holds Cuban society
|
|
together. As Che Guevara wrote "It is true that the
|
|
mass follows it's leaders, especially Fidel Castro,
|
|
without hesitation but the degree to which he has
|
|
earned such confidence is due precisely to the
|
|
consummate interpretation of the peoples' desires
|
|
and aspirations."6 This is the cult of Castro's
|
|
personality which cannot be underestimated, he is
|
|
the consummate master of telling the people what
|
|
they wish to hear. As rumblings of discontent come
|
|
from the working class about the bureaucrats, they
|
|
still look to the father figure of Fidel to deal
|
|
with the nasty bureaucrats.
|
|
|
|
The 'internationalist' policy of armed support for
|
|
nationalist regimes in Africa and the scientific
|
|
work all gives credence to the popular story of one
|
|
little island standing strong against the wicked
|
|
winds of imperialism. The economy of Cuba has been
|
|
distorted for years so that it is like looking at
|
|
something at the bottom of a pond. The funds from
|
|
Russia are drying up. The Cuban cigars are partly
|
|
filled from Bulgarian tobacco. There is little to
|
|
be said when you find out that there have been sugar
|
|
shortages in a country where about 50% of the
|
|
economy is based on this crop.
|
|
|
|
The embargo is blamed for everything covering vast
|
|
areas of inefficiency. Trading has been going on
|
|
with the USA for years through a series of front
|
|
companies. When the squeeze had to be put on in the
|
|
1980's Castro, "El Lider Maximo", came up with the
|
|
process of 'rectification'. This ingenious plan
|
|
involved going back to the past and digging up the
|
|
immortal legend of Che Guevara and returning to a
|
|
'high moral socialism'.
|
|
|
|
Castro came up with such perils of wisdom as
|
|
"Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of
|
|
rectification has been to persuade the workers to
|
|
give up the excessively high wages stemming from
|
|
implementation of outdated norms, or erroneous
|
|
criteria". When one distils the true meaning from
|
|
such pedantic language, we get the old maxim, work
|
|
harder and ask for less. The words of a leader who
|
|
is prepared to squeeze the working class more rather
|
|
than attack the inequalities of the society which he
|
|
helped create.
|
|
|
|
WHAT NOW?
|
|
|
|
The Cuban regime is called many things as people try
|
|
and categorise it, and excuse it for its policies
|
|
and glaring faults. The working class did not
|
|
create the revolution and they have been crippled
|
|
since Castro and his cohorts installed a new
|
|
bureaucracy. The aspirations of the workers are low
|
|
and so is their confidence. However, as you can
|
|
ascertain from the steps preceding and following the
|
|
revolution Castro did not set out to even create
|
|
'socialism on one island'.
|
|
|
|
Recognising that Cuba is not 'socialist' does not
|
|
mean, however, that anarchists and socialists ignore
|
|
the U.S. blockade of the island. This attempt to
|
|
starve the island of even medical supplies is yet
|
|
one more attack on the working class. The
|
|
Washington government are happy to sqeeze the
|
|
ordinary people of Cuba in the hope that the
|
|
resultant discontent will lead to Castro's
|
|
overthrow.
|
|
|
|
The American ruling class hate his regime, not
|
|
because it is some sort of 'socialist' paradise but
|
|
because its very existence challenges Washington's
|
|
political monopoly in Central and South America.
|
|
Their hope is to replace Castro with a government
|
|
obedient to their wishes, like those of Guatemala or
|
|
El Salvador.
|
|
|
|
The revolution was nationalist inspired and Castro
|
|
adopted the political ideology of Leninism to suit
|
|
his needs after his courtship of American investment
|
|
had failed. The working class in Cuba need to unite
|
|
and fight the ruling class who reap the rewards from
|
|
their island. Those who see something inspirational
|
|
in the way Cuba functions today are those blinkered
|
|
to the possibility of the only true socialist
|
|
society, one where freedom and equality are central.
|
|
|
|
Dermot Sreenan
|
|
|
|
Notes
|
|
*. All statistics quoted in the remainder of this
|
|
paragraph are taken from Analysis, Winter 1991-1992.
|
|
1. Daily Worker (Paper of the U.S. Communist
|
|
Party), August 10th 1953
|
|
2. Castro's Revolution (New York 1964) p.35.
|
|
3. Granma (Cuban paper) 28th December 1975.
|
|
4. Cuba, an American Tragedy (R. Sheer & M.
|
|
Zeitlin) Penguin 1964. p. 61.
|
|
5. Cuba, an American Tragedy (R. Sheer & M.
|
|
Zeitlin) Penguin 1964. p. 63.
|
|
6. Venceremos, the speeches and writings of Che
|
|
Guevara, London 1968 p.388.
|
|
|
|
|
|
===============================
|
|
|
|
THE MYTH OF THE STUDENT RADICAL
|
|
|
|
THERE IS a commonly held idea that universities are
|
|
some sort of "red nucleus", a hotbed of activism and
|
|
socialism. The fact is that students come from many
|
|
different backgrounds and classes, although mainly
|
|
'middle' and upper class. There is no underlying
|
|
political or economic interest that unites or could
|
|
unite all students.
|
|
|
|
You would think that poor housing, low grants and
|
|
student poverty would have everybody flocking to
|
|
become socialists but surprisingly these are
|
|
tolerated by many students because of the promise of
|
|
wealth at the end. In reality therefore only a
|
|
small fraction of the student population ever become
|
|
active in the "student politics".
|
|
|
|
This happens most commonly through student unions.
|
|
The largest part of any student union's work lies in
|
|
welfare and provision of student services. In many
|
|
student unions much more time is spent arguing about
|
|
control of the student bar than on any political
|
|
issue.
|
|
|
|
THE POLITICS OF PHOTOCOPYING!
|
|
|
|
The candidates who win elections are often the ones
|
|
who promise an increase in student services like
|
|
photocopiers. In the last decade the only
|
|
politicised part of the students unions' ongoing
|
|
work has been fighting the increasing cuts in
|
|
education being made by government. The only
|
|
notable exception was the campaign for abortion
|
|
information.
|
|
|
|
The way these campaigns are fought is important. If
|
|
the campaign is fought only through full-time
|
|
student officers writing letters to the press and
|
|
lobbying ministers then the majority of students
|
|
remain uninvolved and often uninterested. While the
|
|
cuts are making an impact on their lives they do not
|
|
see how, practically, they can stop them. This type
|
|
of campaign is good for a full time official looking
|
|
for credibility with the minister but not very good
|
|
for winning improvements.
|
|
|
|
The kind of tactics which win are the kind of
|
|
tactics which get students involved. The only way a
|
|
student union can show the government that it means
|
|
business is to show that it has most of the the
|
|
student body behind it. This means tactics like
|
|
occupations, sit-ins and marches. These cannot be
|
|
just for show but must be part of a well organised
|
|
and co-ordinated campaign. As anarchists we would
|
|
argue that structures must be democratic, with
|
|
decisions being made by everybody involved.
|
|
|
|
GETTING ACTIVE
|
|
|
|
The value of campaigns like this must not be
|
|
underestimated. While fighting only on a student
|
|
issue may seem quite narrow, it does teach the value
|
|
of struggle and the empowerment of taking control
|
|
over an issue that affects your life... in short
|
|
Anarchism. Trinity College Students Union won,
|
|
through an occupation, an extra library earlier this
|
|
year. If they had relied on representatives sitting
|
|
on the College Board they would still be waiting.
|
|
|
|
While the student movement can be a way for students
|
|
to learn the need for struggle, it is only through
|
|
building links with the working class that the
|
|
potential for a proper class struggle movement is
|
|
created. The best known example is what happened in
|
|
Paris in 1968 with students joining workers in
|
|
struggle.
|
|
|
|
Closer to home, the fight for abortion information
|
|
did involve Irish students in something happening
|
|
outside the four walls of their colleges. If, when
|
|
the summer dole was abolished, students had fought
|
|
its the loss in terms of the broader issue of
|
|
unemployment and joined forces with the Irish
|
|
National Organisation of the Unemployed and the
|
|
trade unions, then this would have been a small step
|
|
in the right direction.
|
|
|
|
It is not enough for students who have become
|
|
politicised to sit around and talk all day in
|
|
socialist discussion groups. It is only through
|
|
getting involved in struggles both inside and
|
|
outside the colleges that students can really make a
|
|
contribution to the class struggle.
|
|
|
|
CATHERINE BYRNE
|
|
|
|
========================
|
|
Lack of democracy.....'social partnership'
|
|
bureaucracy....demoralisation
|
|
|
|
HOW MUCH CHANGE CAN WE
|
|
ACHIEVE WITHIN THE UNIONS,
|
|
...HOW DO WE DO IT?
|
|
|
|
|
|
STRONG workforces like Aer Lingus stand to be
|
|
decimated. Strong unions like SIPTU are humbled by
|
|
a minor union busting boss like Pat the Baker. Job
|
|
losses mount while top union officials earn top
|
|
salaries. Cynicism and demoralisation are found
|
|
among trade unionists in almost every job and union
|
|
branch. Everyone knows that big changes are needed
|
|
in our unions, but what changes?
|
|
|
|
There is a great potential power in the trade union
|
|
movement. According to the Department of Industrial
|
|
Relations in University College Dublin (DUES Data
|
|
Series on Trade Unions in Ireland) 54.6% of
|
|
employees in Ireland are trade union members. This
|
|
means that throughout the public sector and in most
|
|
private sector employments which are not just small
|
|
family businesses most workers are in a union. Of
|
|
course this potential is not being used.
|
|
|
|
US AND THEM
|
|
|
|
To join a trade union implies, although it may not
|
|
be clearly thought out, that we have different
|
|
interests to those of the boss. It further
|
|
recognises that to look after our own interests we
|
|
have to get together with other workers. This is the
|
|
beginning of class consciousness, an understanding
|
|
that our interests are different to to those of our
|
|
employers.
|
|
|
|
In 1990 over 350 shop stewards and union Activists
|
|
sponsored the unofficial Trade Unionists &
|
|
Unemployed Against the Programme grouping which
|
|
campaigned for a NO vote to the PESP. Over 100
|
|
regularly attended TUUAP meetings in the main towns
|
|
and cities. Many of these had long records as
|
|
militants fighting against centralised bargaining,
|
|
for more democracy in our unions and for solidarity
|
|
with workers n struggle.
|
|
|
|
Given the small numbers involved in taking the anti-
|
|
PESP arguments into jobs where there was no TUUAP
|
|
contact, leafleting, postering and organising public
|
|
meetings, TUUAP did very well. Where there were
|
|
TUUAP contacts explaining the case against the PESP
|
|
the vote almost inevitably went against it.
|
|
|
|
Even in SIPTU 33,244 'NO' votes were won against the
|
|
57,103 in favour. Unions that turned in majority
|
|
'NO' votes included the ATGWU, MSF, IDATU, IMETU
|
|
(now part of IMPACT) and the FUGE. While TUUAP can
|
|
not claim the credit for all of this, it is
|
|
indisputable that it made a significant
|
|
contribution.
|
|
|
|
'TRADE UNION FIGHTBACK'
|
|
|
|
After the ballot TUUAP became a lot less visible but
|
|
did not disappear. It had organised almost solely
|
|
on the single issue of the PESP. Once the vote was
|
|
in most supporters did not much point in going to
|
|
meetings. With another PESP-type deal being put
|
|
forward TUUAP has relaunched itself as Trade Union
|
|
Fightback. It is continuing to make the case
|
|
against 'social partnership' between government,
|
|
employers and unions.
|
|
|
|
It is also taking up the issue of the lack of
|
|
democracy and membership involvement in our unions,
|
|
and is hoping to be able to do a lot more solidarity
|
|
work with workers who are in struggle. Although the
|
|
number of activists in most unions is declining, due
|
|
to most decisions being taken at a national level
|
|
and a bureaucratic control that takes the initiative
|
|
away from the rank & file, there is still a layer of
|
|
people who are prepared to fight against both the
|
|
bosses and bureaucracy. The question is how do we
|
|
organise? What are we up against in our unions and
|
|
what can we do about it?
|
|
|
|
Anarchists have always said that workers organised
|
|
on the job have tremendous power. This is a power
|
|
that can and should be used to win day-to-day
|
|
improvements. It is also the power that can
|
|
overthrow capitalism, replacing it with genuine
|
|
socialism and liberty.
|
|
|
|
DIRECT ACTION
|
|
|
|
Anarchists have also said that even a small amount
|
|
of direct action is better than a lot of
|
|
conciliation, arbitration and mediation. This is
|
|
action that is taken collectively by workers and
|
|
which remains under their direct control. It is no
|
|
exaggeration to say that there is a grave shortage
|
|
of direct action at the moment!
|
|
|
|
Trade unions were set up to defend workers under
|
|
capitalism, to stop he bosses having a completely
|
|
free hand in setting wages and conditions. They
|
|
organise workers to get the best possible deal (at
|
|
least that's the idea) under the present system.
|
|
Their goal is to get the best price for heir
|
|
members' ability to work, the highest possible
|
|
wages. It is not to get rid of exploitation and the
|
|
wages system.
|
|
|
|
Their preferred method is negotiation rather than
|
|
struggle. This is not to say that trade unionists
|
|
are naturally conservative or meek. It merely shows
|
|
how the ideas of capitalism are reflected inside our
|
|
unions. Part of this is that here must a division
|
|
into leaders and led, order-givers and order-takers.
|
|
|
|
The initiative is very much with the full-time
|
|
officials, many of whom are not even elected but
|
|
enjoy considerable power and influence. Most of
|
|
these see their union work s a career.
|
|
|
|
IT'S A DIFFERENT LIFESTYLE
|
|
|
|
Most of them have jobs for life. They are paid more
|
|
than people they are supposed to represent. SIPTU's
|
|
Billy Atley gets about #90,000 per year in salary
|
|
and expenses, the exact figure is kept a secret from
|
|
the members. The vast majority are unresponsive to
|
|
the needs of their members.
|
|
|
|
They live a different lifestyle, often being found
|
|
alongside employers and senior civil servants on
|
|
commissions and the boards of semi-state companies.
|
|
Quite a number never even had an ordinary job but
|
|
came straight from student politics.
|
|
|
|
A few worth mentioning are Kieran Mulvey, ex-General
|
|
Secretary of ASTI and now head of the Labour
|
|
Relations Commission; Pat Rabbitte and Eamonn
|
|
Gilmore, ex-SIPTU officials now Democratic Left TDs.
|
|
Another is SIPTUs National Nursing Officer, Pat
|
|
Brady. All of these went straight from the Union of
|
|
Students in Ireland (USI) to full-time jobs as union
|
|
officials. A problem with this is that they have no
|
|
direct experience of the daily realities
|
|
experienced by their members.
|
|
|
|
No matter what ideas they have at the beginning they
|
|
quickly have to accept that their career is that of
|
|
an arbitrator, a smart talker, a fixer. What is
|
|
important to them is proving their skill as smart
|
|
negotiators, not helping their members to fight for
|
|
their demands.
|
|
|
|
IT'S NOT OUR PICKET!
|
|
|
|
They have narrow sectoral interests, only looking
|
|
after their own sector regardless of the general
|
|
interests of workers. That is why we saw SIPTU
|
|
officials telling their members to pass the NBRU
|
|
pickets in the rail strike last April.
|
|
|
|
These people rarely lead strikes. Instead they will
|
|
have you 'making submissions' to the Labour
|
|
Relations Commission, to 'impartial mediators', and
|
|
to every other other talking shop they can find.
|
|
They seem thrive on almost endless negotiation,
|
|
aimed at finding a 'reasonable settlement. Some
|
|
negotiations go on, literally, for years.
|
|
|
|
They see taking any form of industrial action as
|
|
very much a last resort and are very quick to
|
|
condemn unofficial action (i.e. action that hasn't
|
|
been sanctioned by them). The 'correct procedures'
|
|
and negotiation machinery are vitally important to
|
|
them. Confidence among the members at workplace
|
|
level rarely merits even a second thought. The
|
|
official believes it is his or her negotiation skill
|
|
that wins concessions from the boss. The activity
|
|
of the rank & file is seen, at best, as secondary.
|
|
|
|
MAKING THE MEMBERS OBEY
|
|
|
|
Once a deal has been struck the official has to see
|
|
that the members stick to it. The continued
|
|
existence of the negotiation machinery depend on an
|
|
element of trust. If the employer can't be sure
|
|
that the union official can ensure that the members
|
|
adhere to the deal, why should any boss enter
|
|
negotiations? The union official's career depends
|
|
on being able to make the members comply with
|
|
agreements.
|
|
|
|
The result is a cautious, conservative bureaucracy
|
|
at the top of the unions that seeks more and more
|
|
control over the members, and opposes any
|
|
independent organisation among the rank & file.
|
|
This does not mean that these people will never give
|
|
a lot of support to struggles. While they don't
|
|
exactly make a habit of it they are capable of
|
|
leading and supporting strikes when the negotiation
|
|
machinery is brought into question. This is why,
|
|
for instance, SIPTU's leaders were prepared to spend
|
|
a small fortune explaining the case of the "Pat the
|
|
Baker" strikers who very bravely fought for union
|
|
recognition.
|
|
|
|
However, in many strikes even verbal support is slow
|
|
in coming, if it comes at all. With the PESP and
|
|
the anti-strike provisions of the 1990 Industrial
|
|
Relations Act (which was agreed as part of the PNR
|
|
and hailed by ICTU's Kevin Duffy as leaving us
|
|
"better off") we are seeing even less support for
|
|
strikers.
|
|
|
|
WHAT WAY FORWARD?
|
|
|
|
So, how can activists inside the unions organise to
|
|
combat the authority of the officials and bring
|
|
together workers who take their trade unionism
|
|
seriously? Three options can be put forward. Let's
|
|
take a look at them.
|
|
|
|
1. Building Broad Lefts. These are groups within
|
|
individual unions whose main purpose is to elect a
|
|
"left wing" leadership, though as part of this thy
|
|
will also try to generate support for workers in
|
|
struggle. Sometimes they also argue for officials
|
|
to get no more than the average wage of their
|
|
members and to have to stand for regular re-
|
|
election.
|
|
|
|
It is correct to raise demands like these and it can
|
|
be useful to support candidates who are more
|
|
responsive to the needs of the membership. In
|
|
circumstances where we feel there is a value in this
|
|
anarchists can and do support such candidates. A
|
|
problem arises, however, when electing leaders
|
|
becomes more important than winning support for rule
|
|
changes which wold allow for more participation and
|
|
democracy.
|
|
|
|
WHO NEEDS LEADERS?
|
|
|
|
As the Broad Left idea concentrates on leadership we
|
|
must start off by asking if leaders are a good
|
|
thing, and are they necessary. These are not two
|
|
separate questions since if leaders are necessary
|
|
they must also be good. Here we are not talking of
|
|
a 'leadership of ideas', of those whose ideas are
|
|
accepted because they make sense to the rest of us.
|
|
We are talking about the leadership which divides us
|
|
into leaders and led, the leader being the man or
|
|
woman who - as a representative - has acquired
|
|
combined administrative and decision making powers.
|
|
|
|
As such he or she sees no need for any high level of
|
|
debate or activity among the rank & file. Indeed,
|
|
from the point of view of the average official, such
|
|
thought and action - by encouraging questioning and
|
|
criticism - is an obstacle to 'normal' trade
|
|
unionism. Leadership implies almost absolute power
|
|
held by the leader. All leaders become corrupt to
|
|
some degree despite their own good intentions.
|
|
Nobody was ever good enough, brave enough or strong
|
|
enough to have such power as real leadership
|
|
implies.
|
|
|
|
The power of initiative, the sense of collective
|
|
responsibility, the self-respect that comes from
|
|
making decisions is taken from the members and given
|
|
to the leader. Most of the members are reduced to
|
|
inactivity and passivity. Attendance at meetings,
|
|
participation in internal union life, and even basic
|
|
identification with the union, declines as power
|
|
shifts from the workplace and the branch.
|
|
|
|
Of course not all advocates of the Broad Left
|
|
strategy see things this way. Though constantly
|
|
proclaiming the need for a "fighting leadership"
|
|
they also look for more internal democracy and
|
|
activity. In reality, however, the main task is
|
|
still seen as getting Broad Left supporters elected
|
|
to positions of influence. The rank & file are to
|
|
elect a new leadership who will then bring about
|
|
change from the top. That's he theory anyway.
|
|
|
|
RANK & FILISM
|
|
|
|
2. The Rank & File Movement. This is a strategy
|
|
for organising within the union to win more
|
|
democracy, more struggle against the bosses and more
|
|
involvement by the membership. Its attitude is best
|
|
summed up by the slogan "with the officials when
|
|
possible, without them when necessary". Where there
|
|
have been large rank & file movements they have
|
|
always been based on combative workers who find the
|
|
union bureaucracy is an obstacle in their way. They
|
|
are hen forced to ignore the instructions of the
|
|
bureaucracy and disobey them if their struggle is to
|
|
be won.
|
|
|
|
This can start with problems about spreading
|
|
strikes, refusing to get sucked into endless rounds
|
|
of mediation, or being denied official sanction for
|
|
a strike. The point is that large rank & file
|
|
groupings are created when workers are fighting the
|
|
bosses, are confident, and then find the union
|
|
officials are trying to sabotage their struggle.
|
|
The need for independent organisation within the
|
|
union is then posed. Struggle creates genuine rank
|
|
& file movements, not the other way around.
|
|
|
|
At a time when most workers are on the defensive and
|
|
lacking in confidence, any attempt to create such
|
|
groups will attract only small numbers of activists.
|
|
This is not to decry such attempts (where they arise
|
|
from a genuine desire to take on the bosses and
|
|
bureaucrats) but to warn against setting any
|
|
unrealistic goals at this time.
|
|
|
|
GETTING TOGETHER
|
|
|
|
3. Building a Solidarity Network. We have to face
|
|
the fact that mass unemployment, growing poverty and
|
|
two decades of centralised wage bargaining have left
|
|
many good union activists demoralised. They are
|
|
doubtful about the possibility of fighting back
|
|
against the Larry Goodmans and Billy Atleys.
|
|
Another PESP certainly won't improve matters.
|
|
|
|
But all is not doom and gloom. They are militants
|
|
who want to fight back. The 1990 TUUAP campaign
|
|
and, more recently, the support for the "Pat the
|
|
Baker" and Nolans strikers are signs of this. There
|
|
is a need for a structure to bring these people
|
|
together, a visible network that can attract other
|
|
activists. Trade Union Fightback, which is not
|
|
under the control of any political party, could
|
|
become this.
|
|
|
|
It wants to break down the isolation that makes us
|
|
weak, to combat 'social partnership' deals, to
|
|
support all resistance to job losses and cutbacks,
|
|
to fight for more democracy in our unions, and to
|
|
organise solidarity with workers in struggle. It
|
|
could, if it gets enough support, produce a magazine
|
|
with factual information on disputes, wage deals,
|
|
the behaviour of union leaders. It could also be a
|
|
forum for debating different ideas for changing our
|
|
unions.
|
|
|
|
A network such as this would allow us to pool our
|
|
efforts while at the same time discussing the
|
|
different strategies for putting trade union power
|
|
where it should be - in the workplace. It is a
|
|
moderate proposal but one which could provide a
|
|
springboard for real rank & file organisation. The
|
|
conditions for it will reappear, now is as good a
|
|
time as any to start making preparations.
|
|
|
|
======================
|
|
|
|
Review
|
|
|
|
ANARCHISM'S GREATEST HITS
|
|
|
|
WHAT IS ANARCHISM? AN INTRODUCTION edited by Donald
|
|
Rooum. (Freedom Press). #1.95
|
|
|
|
FREEDOM PRESS is an anarchist publishing house in
|
|
Britain. They also hold meetings and run a shop in
|
|
Angel Alley, Whitechapel, London. Books such as
|
|
'Anarchy' by Malatesta; Kropotkins's 'The State, its
|
|
Historic Role'; Vernon Richards 'Lessons of the
|
|
Spanish Revolution', among others have been produced
|
|
by Freedom over the years.
|
|
|
|
'What Is Anarchism? An Introduction' is their latest
|
|
offering. The booklet begins with a long
|
|
introduction by Donald Rooum, best known for his
|
|
'Wildcat' cartoons. He writes under the headings
|
|
'What Anarchists believe', 'How Anarchists differ',
|
|
'What Anarchists do' which were lifted from Nicholas
|
|
Walter's 1969 pamphlet 'About Anarchism'. Donald
|
|
gives us a theoretical introduction to some
|
|
anarchist basics. His writing style is very clear
|
|
and the points he makes are easy to understand.
|
|
|
|
The rest of the pamphlet is given over to the
|
|
Freedom Press equivalent of a K-Tel greatest hits
|
|
album. Old essays resurface, this time with a new
|
|
cover. Over twenty short works by the old (mainly
|
|
dead) favourites; Malatesta, Kropotkin, Godwin and
|
|
Woodcock, etc, writing on topics from the meaning of
|
|
the word 'Anarchy' to 'Is Anarchy possible?'
|
|
|
|
The secret of reading this pamphlet is to understand
|
|
where it comes from. The anarchism of Freedom Press
|
|
is intellectual and almost entirely theoretical.
|
|
They are not involved in the activities that most
|
|
anarchists in the world take part in; trade unions,
|
|
campaigns, etc.
|
|
|
|
This emphasis on theory is reflected in the
|
|
pamphlet. In the introduction names of groups are
|
|
not mentioned. Facts and figures are rare. In
|
|
theory there is nothing wrong with theory. But
|
|
unless you link your ideas up with day to day
|
|
struggle it is very hard to see the relevance, if
|
|
any, of those ideas. Secondly they do not further
|
|
the class struggle by encouraging action which
|
|
should be the whole point of getting involved in the
|
|
first place.
|
|
|
|
500,000 ANARCHISTS!
|
|
|
|
Donald claims on page 20 that there could be half a
|
|
million anarchists in Britain. It is interesting to
|
|
see how he got this estimate. At some of the anti-
|
|
nuclear marches in the late 50's and early 60's
|
|
about one in forty marched behind anarchist banners.
|
|
Donald claims that "it seems fair to extrapolate
|
|
from this that anarchists numbered more than one in
|
|
forty of all those in favour of nuclear disarmament,
|
|
perhaps one per cent of the total population".
|
|
|
|
Another method is to use the numbers not voting in a
|
|
general election. "There are many reasons for
|
|
refusing to vote, but it seems a conservative
|
|
estimate that one in seven of the refusers, or more
|
|
than one per cent of the population, refuse to vote
|
|
for the anarchist reason that "it only encourages
|
|
them".
|
|
|
|
"If it is correct that the anarchists are between
|
|
one and two per cent of the adult population, then
|
|
there are about half a million of them; a small
|
|
minority, but not a minuscule minority".
|
|
|
|
There is no reason to take these "estimates"
|
|
seriously. Even if they were true, these
|
|
"undercover" anarchists are politically useless.
|
|
They are sitting on their backsides watching TV or
|
|
thinking anarchist thoughts at the football match.
|
|
They are certainly not agitating, educating and
|
|
organising.
|
|
|
|
HOMOGENISED ANARCHISTS
|
|
|
|
Donald also gives a homogenous view of anarchism,
|
|
"Anarchists believe this. . .anarchists believe
|
|
that". In fact as he says on the cover he means "I
|
|
believe this. . ." or at most, "Freedom Press and I
|
|
believe this. . ."
|
|
|
|
"The differences which most often causes anarchists
|
|
to separate into different groups is a difference,
|
|
not of political opinion, but of presentational
|
|
style" Page 13
|
|
|
|
Anarchists are made out to be essentially one happy
|
|
family, but squabbling over trivia. Freedom Press
|
|
has one set of anarchist ideas. There are other
|
|
strands of anarchism such as anarcho-syndicalism or
|
|
anarcho-communism and there are clear political
|
|
differences between them. That is why we are in
|
|
different groups.
|
|
|
|
In fighting the Poll Tax differences between groups
|
|
were clear. Freedom held a number of discussion
|
|
meetings and in the end could not decide whether or
|
|
not the Poll Tax was bad.
|
|
|
|
Other groups such as the Anarchist Workers Group and
|
|
the Direct Action Movement got involved in anti-poll
|
|
tax groups in the unions and in the community. To
|
|
say that this is only a difference of presentation
|
|
only trivialises the politics involved.
|
|
|
|
PERSPECTIVES AWRY
|
|
|
|
Any short introduction to anarchism must contain
|
|
generalities but too many important facts are left
|
|
out. Under "How anarchists differ" there is no
|
|
mention of the anarcho-communist strand of
|
|
anarchism.
|
|
|
|
The relevance of Makhno's 'Platform of the
|
|
Libertarian Communists' written from the
|
|
experiences of anarchists in the Russian revolution
|
|
is not mentioned. Nor are the 'Friends of Durruti'
|
|
in the Spanish revolution.
|
|
|
|
The only mention to communism is "Some anarchists
|
|
are communist in the strict sense, maintaining that
|
|
all goods should be held in common". Apart from
|
|
being a pathetically small reference it is also
|
|
wrong. Anarcho-communists do not want to hold all
|
|
goods common. I do not want to share my toothbrush
|
|
or razor with anyone. Likewise I have no desire to
|
|
wear a communal set of underpants.
|
|
|
|
We are communists because we believe that the means
|
|
of production should by controlled by the working
|
|
class and not by some rich elite. It is only in
|
|
this way that we can eliminate the exploitation of
|
|
the working class and have the basis for an
|
|
anarchist society.
|
|
|
|
The reference to anarcho-syndicalists is roughly the
|
|
same length as the reference to Individualists.
|
|
Anarcho-syndicalists have a long and rich history
|
|
and have played by far the most significant role,
|
|
going by numbers, of any strand of anarchism.
|
|
|
|
In the Spanish revolution the anarcho-syndicalist
|
|
National Confederation of Workers (CNT) numbered up
|
|
to two million and led the fight against Franco.
|
|
The militant Industrial Workers of the World were
|
|
among the first to unionise unskilled, black and
|
|
low paid workers in the USA. To give them the same
|
|
space as Individualists who have played a relatively
|
|
insignificant role in history is to loose all sense
|
|
of perspective.
|
|
|
|
WHAT IS NEEDED
|
|
|
|
Today, for the first time ever, the two other
|
|
strands of socialism, Leninism and Labourism, have
|
|
been completely discredited. The only socialist
|
|
current with any credibility is anarchism, which
|
|
throughout its existence has contained the most
|
|
advanced political ideas of the socialist movement.
|
|
|
|
Now the potential for growth in anarchist numbers
|
|
and influence is very real. Anarchist groups are
|
|
organising, campaigning and growing. Groups are
|
|
forming throughout the old Eastern Bloc but notably
|
|
in Russia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, the Czech
|
|
Republic and the Ukraine. Already existing
|
|
anarchist groups are growing in Ireland, France,
|
|
Spain, USA, Peru, Uruguay and elsewhere.
|
|
|
|
In Britain this is not happening. All the groups
|
|
appear to be shrinking, splitting or disbanding.
|
|
The pamphlet is a sad reflection of this. We should
|
|
be getting stimulating pamphlets, written by
|
|
activists, debating, urging us into action and
|
|
realistically assessing the future.
|
|
|
|
'What is Anarchism? An Introduction' rehashes and
|
|
reprints articles which could have been written any
|
|
time this century. It is a good read and of
|
|
historical interest but nothing more. What is
|
|
needed are the ideas, the organisations and the
|
|
activists. Hopefully we will see a resurgence of
|
|
this sort of anarchism in Britain in the near
|
|
future.
|
|
|
|
Andrew Blackmore
|
|
|
|
=======================
|
|
|
|
Review
|
|
|
|
REMEMBERING THE LOCKOUT
|
|
|
|
THIS SUMMER the Workers Solidarity Movement was
|
|
involved with other activists in organising events
|
|
to commemorate the 1913 Dublin lockout. The lockout
|
|
happened when the bosses got together to try and
|
|
smash the ITGWU, workers who were members of this
|
|
union were locked out. The workers held out for a
|
|
year, fighting the combined forces of the bosses,
|
|
the church and the cops. In the course of which
|
|
they set up one of the first armed workers defense
|
|
forces, the Citizen army.
|
|
|
|
One part of the commemoration was the production of
|
|
a pamphlet called Lockout. This pamphlet ties
|
|
together the events of then and now with articles by
|
|
trade unionists on the Industrial Relations Act,
|
|
poverty in Dublin to-day, the national plans between
|
|
the bosses and the unions and of course a piece on
|
|
to-days lockout at the Pat the Baker plant in Cherry
|
|
Orchard. There are also two historical articles
|
|
looking at nationalist politics at the time and the
|
|
formation of the Irish Citizen Army.
|
|
|
|
Lockout available from the WSM Bookservice, P. O.
|
|
Box 1528, Dublin 8 for #2.
|
|
|
|
====================
|
|
|
|
LANDLESS USE ANARCHIST METHODS
|
|
TO IMPROVE THEIR LIVING STANDARDS
|
|
|
|
BRAZIL is the world's fourth largest food exporter.
|
|
Yet 40 million of its 155 million people go hungry,
|
|
even in good times. Millions of peasants are
|
|
landless; while American, Japanese and European
|
|
multinationals control 36 million hectares of prime
|
|
farmland.
|
|
|
|
The Movement of Landless of Brazil (MST) has been
|
|
organising landless rural workers to seize large
|
|
estates and work them themselves. One such
|
|
occupation lasted for more than two years and
|
|
involved 600 families.
|
|
|
|
Some 1,400 families are camping on lands in the
|
|
state Rio Grand do Sul, while there are another 30
|
|
encampments in the state of Parama. The landless
|
|
share the work necessary to run these camps.
|
|
Hygiene, education and food producation are all
|
|
organised co-operatively. Decisions are taken after
|
|
discussion at general assembles, which in turn take
|
|
place after discussion in smaller groups.
|
|
|
|
Of course, the authorities don't sit around with
|
|
their arms crossed - police regularly attempt
|
|
evictions and more than 100 activists have been
|
|
assassinated since 1991. But this hasn't ended the
|
|
occupations because, as a government study admitted,
|
|
participants have seen their purchasing power
|
|
double, while infant mortality has fallen well below
|
|
the national average.
|
|
|
|
============================
|
|
|
|
LONGEST EVER STRIKE IN NEPAL ENDS IN VICTORY
|
|
|
|
WORKERS at the Nepal Battery Company, a subsidiary
|
|
of Union Carbide, returned to work at the end of the
|
|
summer after winning 15 of their 16 demands. The
|
|
222 day strike was longest in the history of the
|
|
Nepalese trade union movement. The dispute was for
|
|
sick pay, protective clothing, health & safety
|
|
standards, life insurance and against intimidation
|
|
of union activists.
|
|
|
|
Anarcho-syndicalist unions and anarchist
|
|
organisations were among the organisations from all
|
|
over the world who aided the struggle. Messages of
|
|
support and donations arrived from India, Hong Kong,
|
|
Japan, Australia, Germany, the Ukraine, Britain,
|
|
Sweden, Spain and France. The Workers Solidarity
|
|
Movement also expressed its support.
|
|
|
|
The NIWU union and the GEFONT trade union congress
|
|
wrote to the Workers Solidarity Movement with their
|
|
greetings and thanks. The victory "was possible
|
|
because of our militant solidarity and solidarity
|
|
support from our comrades abroad".
|
|
|
|
======================
|
|
|
|
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MADE ILLEGAL
|
|
IN THE GOOD OL' USA
|
|
|
|
Solidarity is illegal, and so is internationalism.
|
|
That was the ruling of a US federal court when it
|
|
issued an injunction barring the International
|
|
Longshoremens Associations (dockers union) from
|
|
asking unions in Japan for help in dealing with two
|
|
non-union companies. The companies load citrus
|
|
fruit in several Florida ports, and the ILA hoped
|
|
that Jap[anese dockers would refuse to unload the
|
|
ships when they arrived there.
|
|
|
|
The ILA argued that the courts have no authority
|
|
over the actions of unions outside the United
|
|
States. The court - surprise, surprise - took the
|
|
bosses side and ruled that the ILA's request for
|
|
help from Japanese workers amounted to an illegal
|
|
secondary boycott.
|
|
Source:Libertarian Labour Review
|
|
|
|
=======================
|
|
|
|
After the Russian bosses finish
|
|
fighting over the spoils of power
|
|
|
|
ANARCHISTS BANNED
|
|
|
|
As we go to press the 'coup' in Moscow has just
|
|
ended, although the question of whose coup it was
|
|
still seems open. In any case it was no more than
|
|
an argument between two equally undemocratic wings
|
|
of the ruling class. It was clear that whoever won
|
|
it would be the workers that lost, as the victors
|
|
would use the events to clamp down on some of the
|
|
democratic gains won over the last few years.
|
|
Yeltsin won and sure enough he has began the process
|
|
of eroding these gains.
|
|
|
|
According to news received from Moscow Yeltsin has
|
|
moved against all his opponents, whether or not they
|
|
were connected with or supporting parliament. It is
|
|
reported that
|
|
"On October 4th it was announced that the Ministry
|
|
of Justice (sic!) declared illegal a broad variety
|
|
of "pro-communist and nationalist organisations"
|
|
that supported the parliament, including the fascist
|
|
Russian National Unity and the social-democratic
|
|
Party of Labour. The list of organisations was kind
|
|
of weird since there was nothing about the Civic
|
|
Union (the association of entrepreneurs and
|
|
industrial managers) which supported parliament and
|
|
declared it's loyalty to Rutskoi, but the
|
|
Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists was in the
|
|
list together with "pro-communist and nationalist
|
|
organisations" though it declared that it supports
|
|
neither Yeltsin nor Rutskoi and instead called upon
|
|
people to stop work and create popular organisations
|
|
from below."
|
|
|
|
The severe beating that Boris Kagalitsky underwent
|
|
when he was arrested shows how serious such a ban
|
|
could be. Kagalitsky is a social democrat well
|
|
known in the West and it was probably only the rapid
|
|
response of the Western left to his arrest that
|
|
resulted in his quick release. The Confederation of
|
|
Anarcho-Syndicalists is the largest of the Russian
|
|
anarchist organisations. Its banning represents a
|
|
serious threat. As of the time of writing no
|
|
further reports have been received of suppression
|
|
against Russian anarchists but when they are
|
|
received anarchists will need to organise
|
|
demonstrations and messages of protest in support of
|
|
them rapidly. If you want to get involved in
|
|
organising such activity write to the WSM today.
|
|
|
|
============================
|
|
|
|
Permission to reprint granted if source cited.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Workers Solidarity is the publication of the Workers
|
|
Solidarity Movement, an Irish anarchist
|
|
organisation.
|
|
|
|
Aer mail printed subscriptions can be obtained at
|
|
the following rates
|
|
|
|
Ireland #5.00 for 9 issues.
|
|
Britain stg#5.00 for 6 issues
|
|
W. Europe stg#5.00 for 5 issues.
|
|
E. Europe $1.00 for 4 issues.
|
|
Rest of world $10 for 4 issues.
|
|
|
|
A free copy of either Anarchism and Ireland or
|
|
Ireland and British Imperialism is sent with the
|
|
first issue.
|
|
|
|
Smail Workers Solidarity, P.O. Box 1528,
|
|
Dublin, Ireland.
|