Paul Dillon at the recent launch of Campaign for Labour Policies in Dublin
Austerity is neither
inevitable, or new:
By Paul Dillon:
Austerity
is neither inevitable, accidental nor natural, or new. It is in fact a return
to a very old policy, from before the vote was won, before the trade unions
made the giant gains we still enjoy today: austerity is the policy of using the
state to protect those at the top, limiting the share of the economy going to workers pay and the public purse. It must be understood that
austerity did not fall from the sky 6 years ago when Brain Lenihan, then Fianna Fail
finance Minister, introduced the first austerity budget and implied it would be
all over before we knew it, and the we were told, laughably now, not to talk
down the economy. If austerity is about, and it is about, the transfer of
resources upwards, then this trend became well entrenched during the
"Celtic Tiger" years. In 1987,
workers share of the national income was 52%, capitals 48%. By 1998, workers
share was 42% and Capital's share was 58%.
And
the consequence of this was widening inequality. At the height of the boom,
Ireland ranked second to bottom in the OECD league table for poverty and
inequality. Contrary to all lies, myths, Ireland's spending on social
protection was half the EU average at the height of the apparent boom. Alongside
this, trade union density and power fell rapidly during the Celtic years,
meaning that by the time the crisis arrived, the labour movement was severely
weakened. Trade union membership was 55% of the workforce in 1980, 38% by 1988
and 30% by 2010. And all this occurred in an international context where the
share of the economy going to employers, over workers or the public purse has
increased hugely. The high amounts of debt which so many of us carry, is a
consequence of this decline in ordinary peoples share, and of course the debt
which so many people have, is a huge contributory factor in holding back
resistance to the effects of the crisis.
Alternatives
A
massive job creation programme needs to run in tandem with an attempt provide
for the social needs of our people -we need to stop slashing the public sector
-we need to take leash off public enterprises -and we need to start talking
about co-operatives and worker controlled industry. There are endless bailouts
for banks and those who speculated with them, but none for workers or
communities. Why couldn’t the state, in the case of Waterford Crystal, have bailed
out the workers, buying the patent for Waterford crystal, handing it over to
the workers in Waterford who could run the place with blindfolds on, as an
alternative? An investment strategy is the alternative to the cuts:24 billion
steep since the crisis began. But, we ought to be very clear; when we demand
investment and jobs, we must distance ourselves from those employments, in
private and public sector, which downgrade terms, conditions, for young workers,
and displace long term better paid jobs. The nurses unions boycott of 2,000
nursing positions, on much poorer pay terms and conditions than these workers
deserves, has resulted in just a handful of applications. This has been a tremendous
show of solidarity, driven from the grassroots up by young nurse, making the
scheme unworkable. The Health Minister has said he wants to extend a cut price
programme for other health workers, and that is why it is essential that the
nurses maintain this boycott and win. They deserve our full support.
Privatisation
In the name of austerity, huge chunks of our
public services are being outsourced and privatised. Nowhere is this clearer
than in the area of healthcare. The programme for Government between Fine Gael and
Labour, allows for the full privatisation of care for the elderly. Other areas
will be up for grabs, like administration in the HSE. Coupled to this, we are
to move to full on private health insurance, where a handful of global
multinationals will compete to make profit, subsidised massively by the public
purse.The home help workers know what this is about, when they experienced the
cut in wages, of 25% when care services were outsourced. The most disadvantaged
communities in the state know what this is about, as they await the provision
of primary care, while the state enters into partnerships with developers who
can no longer profit from housing, but who are now being subsidised to build
primary care centres where they can profit most.
This
health system -private, for profit, outsourced- will be more expensive. That’s
the experience in the United States, where more public money is spent per head
than anywhere else in the world, the experience also in this Dutch model
Ireland is to follow, where health spending has gone up, when private insurance
came to dominate. State subsidies for drugs and private insurers who profit
from illness, should be replaced with a system that invests in prevention and
treating everybody equally. We may be bottom of the league at so many things,
but we are top of the tables when it comes to which state pays out most for
drugs and medicines. In almost every other sphere, pubic services invested in by
us for decades, are up for grabs. Look at CIE: where, if the Minister for
Transport gets his way, private companies are to be offered routes on our
public network, and where more public bus routes will be privatised.
The
pattern is always the same: starve services of investment, thrash the public
sector trough the mass media, weaken the unions internally, privatise the
services, followed by huge paycheque for CEOs and investors, and inevitably, as
we have seen in Britain with the privatisation of their trains, a poorer
service, a more dangerous service. The privatisation of Telecom Éireann reveals
what privatisation means. Eircom was worth, in today’s money, €8.4 billion at
the time of its privatisation and was debt free. By early 2012, it was on its
way into examinership, with net debts of almost €4 billion. It had shed all but
5,500 of its 13,000 jobs, and we have one of the worst broadband systems in Europe.The alternative
voices on this and on other public services have hardly been heard. But
austerity inevitably means privatised public services-there is obvious huge
public support for decent health and education services, which austerity can no
provide, and that’s a further opening for the space for the alternative
argument.
Democracy
What
austerity does to democracy is that it hollows it out. The list of social
rights that have been lost during this austerity period is long: The right to
dental care funded by PRSI payments, the right to state funded masters for
students on grants, then there are labour rights that have been reduced. In
each of the areas where social rights have been lost, citizens are forced to
rely on the market, where we become consumers with rights depending only on how
much we spend, rather than citizens. This transfer of provision has been
accompanied by a transfer of democratic responsibility into group and bodies
which we cannot elect and cannot remove. The national roads authority, NAMA,
the HSE all operate beyond any accountability, despite the fact that they
control vast public resources.
Austerity
clashes with these seeking tom advance democratic demands. The demand for more
democracy not less as a response to privatisation, mass consumerism will
invariable bring clashes with those who seek to restrict democratic rights. As
we fight austerity we must nail a few lies and mistruths, which have been
peddled constantly as this crisis has developed. Yes, there are the resources
in Ireland to introduce a wealth tax. The top 1% of adults own over 125
billion. A French style wealth tax would bring in 500 million a year, according
to the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, himself.
Economy
Yes,
there are enough resources off our coast to provide an enormous economic
dividend; 750 billion worth, according to SIPTU. Is there a better example of
the neo-liberal mess we are in than the situation regarding our natural
resources? In 1975, licensing terms which allowed for a 50% State
holding,royalties and a 50% tax on profits accruing from an oil or gas find and
development. In 1987 royalties and state participation were abolished by Fianna Fail and in
1992 the corporate tax rate was reduced from 50% to 25%.
Yes,
the debt that we all carry, must be thrown off our backs, and there are
mechanisms to do that, which will, of course, clash with the interests of our own
banks and wealthy individuals, and the Government's move last week, put belt and
braces on their liabilities. Mobilising for these demands for jobs, public
services and democratic rights will invariably cause clashes with power and
established interests that exist. The previous Government and this Government,
including the Labour Party, are committed to austerity. The space for an
alternative to the policy of this government and the last is vast, when you consider
that the aspirations of people can’t be satisfied by austerity.
But,
we ought to be fully honest. The phrase "austerity isn’t working" isn't the whole
truth- it is working for those for whom
it is designed to work. Every cent of the bogus bank debt will be repayed. The
top 10% of citizens in Ireland have enjoyed an increase in their income
during the crisis. The major corporations, aided by our tax haven status boom,
like TESCO's, returns profits like never before, while tagging the workers who
make this possible.
None
of the things which people desire -full
employment, decent health and education- can be provided by austerity or those
who support austerity. That is where the space lies. But, this will require an
upsurge in organisation, politicisation and solidarity. And if the
establishment has returned to an old policy of austerity, it is worth saying,
maybe we should return to an old policy which could be made very modern again.
When Connolly wrote letters overseas to unions seeking support during 1913, the
letters were headed with the slogan "each for all, all for each". There cannot be
meaningful social action without an increase in solidarity between people, and
it is up to us to make Connolly’s message resonate now, as an alternative way
of dealing with one another, more strongly than ever.
