Communist Party of Ireland Páirtí Cumannach na hÉireann Partisan Patriotic Internationalist Number 187 September 2020 €1.50 Socialist Voice www.commmunistparty.ie H H H Page 2 Neo liberal social contract ends Page 4 Covid, Care homes and schools Page 6 Power to the working people H H Page 8 Capitalism and small farms Page 10 Student housing struggles Page 12 Venezuela and Covid H H Page 12 The IRA and the Nazis Page 14 A voice raised against war Page 16 Respect Belarusian sovereignty

“COVID-19 has exposed the lie that free markets can deliver health care for all, the fiction that unpaid care work isn’t work, the delusion that we live in a post-racist world. We are all floating on the same sea, but some are in super-yachts and others clinging to drifting debris.” António Guterres , The global coronavirus Covid-19 is not the cause of the secretary-general pandemic has exposed crisis in capitalism: it has exposed the of the United Nations the crass nature of the effects of underfunding and the creeping 18 July 2020 capitalist system argues privatisation of public health, housing, Jimmy Doran . education, and transport, the race to the bottom, the withdrawal by the state from n the early days, the so-called the provision of public services, and the developed world hijacked, stole and environmental catastrophe. Idiverted entire shipments of personal Workers’ share of what they produce protective equipment. The US purchased has been falling since the 1970s. To the entire global stock of the important achieve this, anti-union legislation and SV covid-19 drug Remdesivir; more than a union-bashing tactics have been thousand people on the British liner adopted globally to restrict the power of Socialist Voice Braemar were abandoned on the high labour. With the balance of power now 43 East Essex Street Dublin seas, blocked for weeks from tipped firmly towards capital, workers D02 XH96 (01) 6708707 disembarking at ports in the Caribbean would need a law degree to go on strike. after an outbreak of covid-19 among the And the final decision is made by the ISSN 0791-5217 passengers and crew. Cuba alone courts, as employers take out stepped in and officially welcomed the injunctions to stop strikes. vessel to dock and helped to get all the passengers home safely. Continued on page 2 j/7G@7I1\URQPPX/ Z‘zy PANDEMIC

Capitalism is the virus Journalists are now mainly freelance— This has led to a decline in workers’ or, to put it another way, no permanent struggle as unions are forced to contract, surviving from day to day. The compromise rather than go on strike. It media may not be able to tell us what to has led to a generation of trade think, but they can tell us what to think unionists with little or no practical about. experience of struggle. Union density is Despite workers suffering wage at a record low point, facilitating a race stagnation and an ever-decreasing share to the bottom in terms and conditions. of the wealth we produce—contrasted Precarious employment, temporary with the flooding up of wealth to the contracts, minimum-hour contracts, the point where eight men have gig economy, bogus self-employment, accumulated more wealth than the atrocious working conditions, low pay poorest 50 per cent of humanity—the and high rents are forcing workers to membership of trade unions is still accept what they can get, the crumbs declining. The ruling class has divided from the table, just in order to survive. us, using every manner and means: We are up against a formidable race, religion, sexual orientation, status, enemy in capitalism, as this class job, address, dress—you name it: they controls the narrative in the news and use it against us to keep us apart. the mass media, which are owned and Opportunist politicians repeat the you vote for us we’ll change controlled by the ruling class. If a mantra that “unions are useless, they everything”—only to be abandoned by journalist questions or probes too much are all on big salaries, are in league with the same people when they themselves they won’t be in a job for long. the government and employers.” But “if are voted into a well-paid job, to side The end of the neoliberal social contract

DÓNAL Ó C OISDEALBHA

STRANGE THING happened in OECD countries between the A1970s and 2008: economic growth rates that looked poor on paper compared with the 1950s and 60s seemed to be boosted dramatically by a massive subsidy, somehow hidden from all national accounts statistics. That subsidy, it turns out, was cheap labour and rapid automation in the manufacturing centres of the Global South. What western governments discovered was that, as long as imported goods of all kinds could continue getting Service employment, productivity growth, and GDP growth in OECD cheaper, year after year, a lower and countries, 1970–2002 lower profit-wage share going to labour could be sustained without any fall in the amid apparently falling domestic growth of the core capitalist countries, and real purchasing power of workers in their rates they had such boosts to their hence, even as their productive capability home countries. coffers that they could maintain aspects became more advanced, they had to Indeed it became a virtuous cycle for of their welfare states even as they keep repressing their workers’ wages, “core” capitalist countries. Consider how looted their own public domain by sacrificing domestic development for states tax imports and then tax their privatising public services and assets. “labour market competitiveness.” Firms domestic circulation, along with taxing of So it was that two global economies in the capitalist core formed a separate all the services that wouldn’t exist were created during this period, not one. layer of competing companies, without the imports (retail, marketing, Businesses in the Global South had to dependent on but not in direct finance, consultancy, training, etc.). compete among themselves to produce competition with their counterparts in the What these governments found was that low-cost goods for sale to the economies Global South.

2 Socialist Voice September 2020 We are up against a formidable enemy in capitalism, as this class controls the narrative in the news and the mass media, which are owned and controlled by the ruling class. with employers and prop up the But there is no point in merely income we can fight for more, without establishment. joining: members have to play an active fear of the bailiff or starvation—fight to This is not unique to Ireland: it’s the role, or the bureaucrats will continue to win back the social wage, universal same throughout the “developed world,” take the easy option. There is an old public health, housing, and education. from America to Europe and beyond. It’s saying that says a union is like a The two-tier health system is not an accident: it has been in wheelbarrow: only as good as the person symbolic of the two tier-society in Ireland development and planning since neo- pushing it. It’s time to organise and fight today. During the pandemic, front-line liberalism was launched in the 1970s as back—start pushing against the race to workers have been the backbone of the capitalism’s method of slashing labour’s the bottom. Nothing is ever won without fight to defeat the virus. We have power share of what we produce, and clawing a fight. in our numbers. The golf dinner event back concessions in public services We must mobilise to have the exposed the contempt the ruling elite achieved after the Second World War. Industrial Relations Act and all anti-union have for ordinary working people. We have been betrayed time and legislation abolished, to win the right to The Gardaí have been given power to time again by weak leaders and union recognition, the right to union shut down house parties but not meat treacherous politicians. Trade unions access, and collective bargaining rights. factories. They partied, while we are the members. You are the union . This will give us power and the cocooned. There are still nearly 800,000 members. means to fight and bring an end to The game is up. It’s not a change of Yes, many have become soft and precarious employment, to win proper government we demand, it’s a complete conformist. That needs to change. But pay and conditions, to give us decency change of system, so we all share the rather than moaning about it, all workers and dignity in our lives, in a world where fruits of our labour. We must organise need to join a union. If union density is everyone can reach their full potential and end the system that allows a to increase above 50 per cent this alone and nobody is left behind. handful of people on earth to rule all of would make us stronger. With more security and certainty of humanity. H

The problem with capitalism, materialised—a development originally to raise the rate of domestic however, is that you eventually run out of analysed by Robert Brenner, and exploitation, i.e. find ways to make other people’s surplus value. It comes belatedly and obliquely recognised by labour cheaper at home in order to down to the central problem, which Marx mainstream economists under the make up for the reducing gains from identified about 170 years ago: the name of secular stagnation or automation that characterised the era of falling profit rate. The exchange value of Japanification. globalisation. goods is determined by their cost of It turned out that you can have a In many ways it is shocking how little production; and when this falls below a significant economic expansion based the left and trade union movement here certain level (because of automation) on paying other people a lot less to do in Ireland has reacted to the hundreds of the internal regulating mechanism of the much of the labour that your economy thousands of permanent work positions system—the profit motive—breaks would otherwise have to undertake itself. domestically that have quite suddenly down, making further private investment In such a situation you can even pay become part-time, temporary work, in automation nonsensical. your workers in their low-value-creating agency work, banded-hours contracts, The investment therefore tends to service jobs the full value of their labour, independent contracts, and so on. After flow into the service sector instead, or even more than its full value! Such all the hard-fought industrial struggles of which is incapable of sustaining profit workers can think of themselves as no the twentieth century it is startling that a growth (growth in extraction of surplus longer being in the proletariat at all, so company like Uber or Deliveroo can value from labour) in the way that well does the system appear to work for simply say, “We don’t have employees, offshoring and automating the factories them. As long as the surplus value is we have riders”; and so those workers, of the twentieth century once did. In fact extracted somewhere else, by apparently in one stroke, have no labour protection. where services do achieve, or aim to unrelated people doing unrelated jobs The truth is that the “gig economy” is achieve, that kind of growth it is only half a world away, the system can simply capitalism in its standard form, through monopolistic control over remain profitable. within its regulatory framework, markets: think of Amazon, Airbnb, The “industrial overcapacity” operating normally; the new profits have Google, Facebook, or Uber—the very identified by Benanav is at the root of to come from somewhere. The era of definition of competitive capitalist what we have come to know as the “gig globalisation was one of brutal market economies breaking down. economy.” The tap that allows for a exploitation, but it was only happening in As Aaron Benanav of Humboldt constant stream of surplus value to other places. As we enter the post-covid University, Berlin, put it in non-Marxist make its way to the economies that era, with globalisation in headlong language: Charles Maier of Harvard University retreat, the “gig economy,” now standing The real cause of the persistently low called the “Empire of Consumption” has at about 10 per cent of Irish demand for labour is the progressive not been turned off, but the flow has employment, and growing, will start to slowdown of economic growth since been slowing for twelve years now. simply become known as “the the 1970s, as industrial overcapacity Where, then, to find the profits that economy.” In the 2020s the class spread around the world, and no both private business and the capitalist struggle is back on, but so far only one alternative growth engine state rely upon? The only viable option is class has been launching offensives. H Socialist Voice September 2020 3 PANDEMIC

Figures from around Europe suggest that up to half of all deaths attributed to covid-19 have been in care homes. 4 In the south of Ireland that figure is over 56 per cent, 5 accounting for 985 deaths up to 19 August, 6 while in the north of Ireland that figure is 349, or 41 per cent of deaths. 7 In contrast, there are approximately 48,000 nursing-home residents in Ireland (north and south), 8 accounting for 0.7 per cent of the population. That is equivalent to 0.7 per cent of the total population of the country but approximately 50 per cent of the deaths. Indeed at the height of restrictions it was reported that 500 patients were moved from hospitals into care homes in the south of Ireland. 9 And at the end of July the entire board of the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA), the body that deals with care- home inspections in the Six Counties, resigned, citing in part their inability to accept the government’s decision to Covid, care homes reduce inspections of facilities. 10 A report in July stated that a fifth of some 32,000 care-home residents in the 26-county and direct provision state were covid-positive, 11 a pattern repeated in the Six Counties. RAYMOND Ó D UBHGHAILL Covid-19 and care homes No doubt there will be the usual limp The treatment of people living in care inquiry at the end of all this; but the OVID-19 CONTINUES to wreak its homes since the spread of covid-19, evidence points towards, at the very ill-effects round the globe. Here in resulting in hundreds of deaths so far in least, brutal negligence on the part of CIreland, as in many capitalist this country alone, should be nothing those tasked with protecting the elderly countries, the most vulnerable in society short of a national scandal. The and vulnerable. have been hardest hit by the virus. disaster follows a pattern that we can In addition to the scandal of the see repeated in neighbouring states. Direct provision meat-processing plants in the midlands, In Britain it has been reported that the In April this year there were 7,400 which saw the pro-business, anti-worker NHS instructed care homes to place people living in “direct provision” in 26-county government “lock down” the blanket “Do not resuscitate” orders on all Ireland. 12 This is a system whereby populations of Cos. Kildare, Laois and residents during covid-19 restrictions 2. those seeking asylum are detained in Offaly before they would countenance This in part contributed to 26,500 prison-like conditions and given less 1 shutting down any factory, there are the “excess deaths” in these settings from than €40 a week with which to feed shameful but perhaps less publicised early March to 7 August when compared themselves, with the vast majority cases of care homes, direct provision with the 2015–19 average; and of these barred from seeking employment. 13 This and homelessness to examine. about 15,500 were covid-19 deaths. 3 grotesque and inhumane system,

Schools should JIMMY DORAN five and fourteen caught covid-19. More than forty schools in Germany were reopen when it’s OVID-19 did not cause forced to close two weeks after safe to do so overcrowding in schools, but it has reopening because of multiple Cexposed it. Schools are reopening outbreaks, with a thousand children with up to thirty people in a confined forced to isolate. space for extended periods. There are There were thirty outbreaks in almost a million children, teenagers and schools in England—70 children and teachers in four thousand schools. 128 staff members. In America there In the two weeks before reopening, have been almost half a million cases more than a hundred children between among children since the pandemic

4 Socialist Voice September 2020 Figures from around Europe suggest that up to half of all deaths attributed to covid-19 have been in care homes.

for review of staff terms,” RTE News , 19 whereby centres are run by private hoteliers and other purveyors of short- August 2020 organisations but funded by the state, term accommodation to house those in (https://tinyurl.com/y3mgjwpr). makes multi-million annual profits for need than to pursue a solution to the 7 Gerry Moriarty, “Northern Ireland says big business while costing the state problem. total coronavirus-linked deaths now 855,” Irish Times , 7 August 2020 more than €1.3 billion since its If the bourgeois state cannot protect 14 (https://tinyurl.com/y3kzywzk). inception. its vulnerable, what right has it to 8 Health Information and Quality Authority, Notably, inspections of direct-provision govern? None, certainly. However, we HIQA News Updates, 21 July 2020 centres have been entirely paused during must recognise that capitalists do not (https://tinyurl.com/yxce2lgf); “Up to the pandemic 15 —this despite the see these issues in such terms. In crisis, 16,000 Northern Ireland nursing home residents at risk from coronavirus,” Irish intolerable conditions faced by those they merely see opportunity. Examiner , 8 April 2020 living in centres, some of whom were Perfectly rational capitalist policies of (https://tinyurl.com/y2zwf4oh). moved to go on hunger strike in protest enriching big business on the back of a 9 Trevor Quinn, “Coronavirus: Over 500 at the end of July. 16 By August there had crisis are misunderstood as “irrational” or hospital patients transferred to nursing been a total of 284 confirmed cases of “failing,” when they are anything but! The homes during height of pandemic,” 17 Dublin Live , 1 June 2020 covid-19 in direct-provision centres, Irish state is governed in the interests of (https://tinyurl.com/y4rbvoql). equivalent to approximately 1 in every 25 capital, in all its hateful, racist, unequal 10 Gerry Moriarty, “Entire board of North’s people living in centres testing positive for and amoral glory. The sooner we perceive care home watchdog body resigns in the virus. Compare that with 1 in every this reality in its simple clarity the sooner covid-19 row,” Irish Times , 22 June 2020 (https://tinyurl.com/y4lfkxqq). 175 for the wider population. Figures like we can go about our necessary task, of 11 Maresa Fagan, “Call for review of almost this are no accident. building socialism. H 1,000 covid-19 nursing home deaths,” Calls for the shameful system to be Irish Examiner , 23 July 2020 abolished have increased in recent Notes (https://tinyurl.com/y2g8eez8). months; however, the Government’s 1 Paul Hosford and Maresa Fagan, 12 Bulelani Mfaco, “I live in direct provision. “400,000 people ‘must adhere to rules’ It’s a devastating system—and it has commitments in this regard amount to as Midlands goes back into lockdown,” thrown away millions,” Irish Times, 4 little more than re-branding direct Irish Examine r, 8 August 2020 July 2020 (https://tinyurl.com/y2qlgztx). provision as a “non-profit-led” system. (https://tinyurl.com/yy8hoo9t). 13 Citizens’ Information Board, “Services It has frequently been pointed out that 2 Sarah Knapton, “NHS asked care and entitlements for people seeking homes to place ‘Do not resuscitate’ asylum” (https://tinyurl.com/y2q4n65e). covid-19 did not cause the contradictions orders on all residents at height of 14 Shane Phelan, “Businesses making in capitalist society, it merely exposed pandemic,” Telegraph (London), 23 millions from direct provision as state them. With direct provision this seems August 2020 pays €1.26bn to run centres,” Irish abundantly clear . (https://tinyurl.com/y3xqs8lq). Independent , 28 May 2020 3 Veena Raleigh, “ Deaths from covid-19 (https://tinyurl.com/yxdj8psj). (coronavirus): How are they counted and 15 “Inspections of direct provision centres Deaths of homeless people what do they show?” King’s Fund paused during pandemic,” Irish Legal The covid pandemic has also seen an (London), 19 August 2020 News , 25 August 2020 unprecedented rise in deaths among (https://tinyurl.com/yyswcmhx). (https://tinyurl.com/yxrerg3p). homeless people, with ten homeless 4 Adelina Comas-Herrera, Joseba 16 Rachael O’Connor, “Asylum seekers at Zalakaín, Charles Litwin, Amy T. Hsu, Kerry direct provision centre begin people dying in Dublin alone in Elizabeth Lemmon, David Henderson, hunger strike against ‘inhumane July.[18] Irish society continues to reap and José-Luis Fernández, “Mortality conditions,’” Irish Post , 29 July 2020 the bitter fruits of a housing system run associated with covid-19 outbreaks in (https://tinyurl.com/yxq3kj48). for the benefit of developers and care homes: Early international 17 Fintan Walsh, “Chief medical officer: landlords. evidence,” International Long-Term Care Covid-19 ‘outbreak’ at Limerick direct Policy Network, 26 June 2020 provision centre,” Limerick Leader , 24 The fact of thousands of vacant units (https://tinyurl.com/rgq7747). August 2020 and houses standing empty while people 5 “Major nursing homes report calls for (https://tinyurl.com/y3h8xvf6). die without food or shelter in the streets review of staff working conditions in 18 Conor Hunt, “Ten people who were illustrates the sick inequality at the heart wake of covid-19 crisis,” thejournal.ie , homeless died in Dublin last month,” 19 August 2020 RTE News, 7 August 2020 of the capitalist system. The government (https://tinyurl.com/yycmbp72). (https://tinyurl.com/yxlj6ff4). would prefer to pay a premium to 6 Conor Hunt, “Nursing homes report calls began. We have already had a number safe place of work. management one. of clusters in creches. The Department of Education If outbreaks are inevitable in schools, Teachers and pupils do not have constantly spins as if it is asserting why are standards not brought up to the magical immunity. Ireland’s unique authority, but it never does. Medmark, highest level, instead of the watered- school system depends on the private the teachers’ occupational health down version recommended for “voluntary” schools to operate as if they company, contracted by the department schools? Are schools to be the next are a state body. Response from the to adjudicate on staff illness, are covid hot spot? various boards of management differs: encouraging teachers with underlying Teachers and pupils are walking into some will get it right, many won’t; but, health issues to return to work, a potential disaster, despite the as public servants, teachers deserve a overruling the teachers’ own medical warnings. Schools must not open until it national standard and have a right to a advice and allowing the decision to be a is safe to do so. H Socialist Voice September 2020 5 UTOPIAS

Power to the working people

TOMMY MCKEARNEY WEN THOUGHT he could make his humane project universal by Robert Owen , the Oappealing for support to the good nineteenth-century nature of wealthy capitalists. It hardly needs stating that his best efforts failed philanthropist, was by any outright. standard a decent sort of Yes, you may well snigger at his bloke. He believed naïveté. So too did Karl Marx, who workers should be treated described it as utopian socialism. compassionately and that Nevertheless Owen’s underlying they deserved a assumption that it is possible to use moral argument to persuade the ruling reasonable standard of class to surrender its position of wealth living. In fact he went a and power still retains purchase in many to improve the situation. There is also in step further and left-of-centre circles, including influential Ireland a particularly insidious, almost attempted to build ideal elements within organised labour. subliminal fear that to go beyond a societies in different No matter how hopeless the strategy, certain line risks stoking the fires of countries, including one it is easy to understand why this Owenite insurrection. After all, our greatest labour view prevails in contemporary society. In leader was shot for doing just that. at Ralahine (Rathlaheen) the first instance, there is a persistent Consequently, we are caught in the in Ireland. problem with inertia. Faced with a host of type of deadlock that has so many obstacles, many ask what can be done fulminating powerlessly at flagrant gross

LYNDA WALKER that we discuss policy internally not DISCUSSION on a public platform. Articles 1 and 2, “Health of a At our last congress the political Defend the NHS Nation” (June and August) violate resolution called for “A National Health democratic centralism. Both are Service for the whole of Ireland. This public attacks on CPI policy. I wrote means a restructuring of the health a 2,500-word article criticising the service in the South and a defence of inadequacy of article 1; article 2 is the NHS in the North” and “All the no better. Between congresses and more important that we work to unite coming up to congress it is protocol our people in Northern Ireland and

6 Socialist Voice September 2020 ‘. . . notwithstanding the understandable fury of the population, there is no constitutional provision to facilitate censure or removal of the governing coalition or to subject their performance to scrutiny by general election. . . ’ misconduct during the infamous Galway health service free and universally exercised by the current ruling caste golfing beano. Though the event has accessible to all at the point of entry. rather than a vehicle on which to build a been aired and analysed exhaustively, Elsewhere there is the scandal of parliamentary career. let’s just remind ourselves of two crucial meat plants where, in spite of well- Progress depends on promoting the factors. documented risks to the health of the widest participation and overcoming In the first place there is the fact that industry’s work force, insufficient steps political sectarianism. Organisational this was not a solitary TD, regardless of have been taken to ensure adequate maturity is essential. It is pointless, for position, acting badly: it was a inspection to enforce health and safety example, to blame trade union officials representative cross-section of the Irish obligations. Compounding this is the for lack of action if members don’t ruling caste, including judges, widespread use of bogus self- participate actively at branch level. It’s broadcasters, bankers, and business employment practices, done in order to equally futile to criticise the labour people, all at an event organised by gain access to cheap labour compelled movement if workers do not unionise. senior members of the government party. from economic necessity to tolerate There is an alternative to building Secondly, and notwithstanding the harsh working conditions and, all too working-class counter-power and it’s not understandable fury of the population, often, cramped, virus-conducive living attractive. At its most wretched we would there is no constitutional provision to arrangements. see the rise of the far right exploiting the facilitate censure or removal of the All of this, don’t forget, is taking place despair and disenchantment so evident governing coalition or to subject their in the context of an approaching last month at the “no masks” rally in performance to scrutiny by general economic recession exacerbated by the Dublin. At best there would be further election. If they hold together, we will be impact of coronavirus. 1 There is, quite misery arising from re-running social stuck with them until 2025. Moreover, as simply, an urgent need to identify and partnership or the “class cuddle,” as three opposition parties can testify, it’s promote a strategy that will allow working recently described in the Morning Star — not even possible to force the Dáil to people to overcome this potentially a worrying prospect of either living with convene if the decides against ruinous situation. the far right or watching as good people doing so. It is imperative, therefore, to resist fall among Fabians. Hardly surprising, then, that an EU through developing structures capable of Nevertheless, there is no irresistible commissioner and a High Court judge felt altering the balance of power. If this force taking us in either of these they could simply dig their heels in and seems to be a purely theoretical directions. We can and must do better. It contemptuously ignore demands to aspiration, it need not be. In brief, would be necessary as a first step to resign. As with the old utopian Owen, it working people can tap in to the convene a series of conversations would appear that the only option we are unrealised strength that exists within the identifying how to proceed. Thereafter, to be left with is to appeal humbly to the class and exercise it in their favour. the difficult but eminently doable work ruling class for it to behave better. It is possible to do so, because the needs to begin. It is, quite simply, very It is important to understand, structures already exist, albeit not at much in our class’s interest to do so. 2 As however, that this dilemma does not only present being utilised for this specific Connolly said, “when questions of ‘class’ arise on rare and dramatically publicised purpose. We have the trade union interests are eliminated from public occasions. This is the essential nature of movement, with members in every part controversy a victory is thereby gained for the system of government under which of the country. There are trades councils, the possessing, conservative class, we live. As James Connolly wrote, community organisations and dedicated whose only hope of security lies in such “governments in capitalist society are but political activists throughout this land. We elimination.” H committees of the rich to manage the saw this powerful force mobilised during affairs of the capitalist class.” the Right2Water protest movement, so Notes Hence the near impossibility of don’t say it can’t be done. Nor, indeed, 1 See “Bankruptcy ‘a growth industry’ in US amid mounting distress,” Financial changing the stance of this “government as mentioned above, is there any Times (London), 22 August 2020. of the ruling class” on a range of issues shortage of issues on which to organise. 2 James Connolly, Labour in Irish History affecting daily the lives of working However, to succeed there needs to (1910). people. In spite of dire need, no be a broad acceptance that any such meaningful attempt is being made to movement is designed to create a IMAGE Top Left: New Harmony (uncompleted Owenite model housing) address the housing crisis, nor is there a countervailing working-class power base, Lower left: Robert Owen by William Henry serious effort under way to provide a something to challenge the influence Brooke (1772–1860) Wikimedia Commons beyond on the basis of a programme struggles of the left, trade unionists the These collective struggles involve against austerity, against the women’s movement and others who revolutionaries who want a destruction of the NHS.” have attacked and won fights for civil transformative change in the social The author uses contradictory facts rights, public housing, and women’s order, as well as reformists who just and statistics showing “the failed socio- rights, against higher unemployment want a better capitalism. Some don’t economic development as a result of rates, lower wages, the EU, British distinguish between the former and British Rule” and states that many on Army, internment, and sectarianism. the latter, and today they might call the left fail to deal with the problem. Past Unity’s are in the National Library, Connolly “reformist” when he Unity, the weekly paper of the Dublin; Linen Hall Library, Belfast; Marx demanded school meals and the Old Communist Party of Ireland records Memorial Library, London. Age Pension Act. H Socialist Voice September 2020 7 Capitalist agriculture and the culling of small farms

EWAN MAC DONALD AND GRAEME POWER which shows the general decline in the number of farms in the 26 Counties . APITAL ACCUMULATION is one outcome of the The amount of arable land in use for crops and pasture irrational motor that drives our economic system. This has fluctuated since records began, in 1850, between Cis no less true for the agricultural sector than it is for approximately 5 and 4 million hectares, with the figures for industry. As capitalist production advances over time we 2013 best approximating the older data, with 4.9 million witness a greater and greater accumulation of capital in hectares of agricultural land in use.² We can correctly infer fewer and fewer hands. that the decrease in farm numbers has little to do with a Let’s consider land, for example. Marx discusses terre- decrease in farming; instead it represents a tendency for capital, or “earth capital,” as land that capital has been the inner logic of capitalist production to consolidate capital expended on in some manner for the purpose of acting as in the hands of fewer and fewer actors. part of the means of production: Some larger farmers reading this might be unconcerned Capital may be fixed in the land, incorporated in it either about the fate of their smaller neighbours. After all, if you in a transitory manner, as through improvements of a own a large farm you are in a better position to avail of chemical nature, fertilisation, etc., or more permanently, economies of scale. Fixed costs, such as machinery and as in drainage canals, irrigation works, leveling, farm buildings, are cheaper per unit of output with large-scale buildings, etc. Elsewhere I have called the capital thus production, giving them a competitive edge over their applied to land la terre-capital. It belongs to the category compatriots. Yet farming isn’t a national affair, and even the of fixed capital.¹ most secure farmer would do well to consider recent history Land functions like any other form of fixed capital. With and reflect on the current trajectory for agriculture within constant use in the absence of investment to maintain it it the EU. If this persists, it is unlikely that even the most degrades to the point of uselessness. Thinking of land as a efficient Irish farms will be able to compete with large form of fixed capital, we can see how land has followed the German, French and Polish competitors organising general pattern of capital consolidation, as seen in fig. 1, agriculture on an industrial scale .

8 Socialist Voice September 2020 While the Irish farmer may overwhelmingly own their own land, the surpluses that they produce are ultimately claimed by the factory-owners and the banks.

With a consolidation of fixed capital—dead labour, in Marx’s terms—there tends to be at the same time a decrease in variable capital, or living labour. This can be clearly seen in figs. 2 and 3, which demonstrate the decline in farm labour since 1912. The family has tended to be the main social unit for agricultural production, even as far back as 1912, when 70 per cent of all labour was done by the family. As time has progressed, the portion of agricultural labour done by the family has only increased, to the point where in 2016 almost 94 per cent of all farm labour is carried out by the family. It should be noted that the sudden increase in total labour hours observed from 1984 onwards stems in part from the novel idea that women’s agricultural labour should be recorded. The two data sources are not exactly commensurable, but they both point towards the same Fig. 1: General decline in number of farms conclusion. As time passes, technology develops, capital Source: CSO, 1860–1980, Farming since the famine. 2013–2016 and FSA01: consolidation occurs, and fewer and fewer hours of living Number of Farms by Farm Size, Region and Year. labour are required in the process of production. In a rational economic system this would be an excellent outcome. After all, who wouldn’t like to work less? Unfortunately we know that the efficiencies associated with capital accumulation and technological improvement benefit neither the farmer nor the worker under capitalism. The farmer faces the choice of either drinking from the poisoned chalice of productivity bought with debt or deciding to become uncompetitive and ultimately reliant on subsidies (and the good graces of technocrats in the EU) for the greater part of their income. As always, we must ask who benefits from the consolidation that occurs under the existing economic system. Is it the farmer, who must work harder and adopt the risks and costs of acquiring more fixed capital in the form of land and machinery to remain competitive? No, it is the factory-owner, the mill and the bank that profit from the farmer’s increased productivity. There is nothing mystical or natural about how our Fig. 2: Decline in males engaged in farm work, economic system works: it adheres to general laws of 1912–1979 development, which have held true for hundreds of years. The Source: CSO, “Farming since the Famine, 1847–1996.” conclusions one arrives at from understanding them are not pleasant for the majority of farmers or citizens. The famous Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata had a well-known saying, La tierra es de quien la trabaja [The land belongs to those who work it]. While the Irish farmer may overwhelmingly own their own land, the surpluses that they produce are ultimately claimed by the factory-owners and the banks. It is in all our interests to have an agricultural sector that remunerates those who labour in the fields, as well as the factories and offices, to the full extent of their labour.

Notes 1 Karl Marx, Capital , vol. 3 (1894), Marxists.org (https://tinyurl.com/y2eay5jt). 2 Teagasc, Agriculture in Ireland (2017) (https://tinyurl.com/y6ptrjcq).

IMAGE: Part of Diego Rivera's "History of Mexico" mural at the National Palace in Mexico City. The cropped portion features the images of Emiliano Zapata (left with sombrero), Felipe Carrillo Puerto (center), and Fig. 3: Agricultural labour inputs, 1984–2016 José Guadalupe Rodríquez (right with sombrero) behind banner featuring Source: Compiled from CSO Statistical Yearbooks and Farm Structure Surveys the Zapatista slogan, Tierra y Libertad (Land and Liberty). Wikimedia Commons

Socialist Voice September 2020 9 NORTH Housing crisis for students

In 2019 there were some people have been on the list for which he talked about the past, 37,859 applicants on the several decades. In 2019 more than present and future of the Housing social housing list in the two hundred people died while on the Executive. A researcher, trade unionist homeless register. and activist who has carried out north of Ireland. 26,387 There is at present a huge shortage extensive research into the housing of those were deemed to of social housing. In 2017 only 7,680 crisis for the Northern Ireland Public be in priority need of households were allocated a social Service Alliance, Prof. Smith argues home, the highest number of those that the building of new houses under housing, described as being 958 in the North Belfast a fully funded housing executive would housing stress; 74 per constituency. To help deal with this be essential for providing secure and cent of those were shortage the Department of decent homes as well as generating Communities vowed to give priority to jobs. considered officially the supply of new social homes in their While the building of new housing homeless. budget of £144 million. This should would be ideal, it is very hard to do so Belfast branch of the have increased the number of homes without the support of the government. by 1,850 in 2019. However, by July Many people argue that if Stormont Connolly Youth 2019 the number of households in was operating the crisis would Movement priority need was the highest on record. somehow be dealt with. This is Despite this new record, between 2018 obviously a nonsensical idea when you HESE GRIM statistics are and 2019 fewer than a thousand new consider that the housing crisis existed compounded by the fact that at houses were built by the Housing long before Stormont collapsed. Tpresent there are about 19,000 Executive. At this rate it would take A clear example of Stormont’s vacant premises in the North, with more than a decade to house even incompetence in dealing with the Belfast having the highest number, those considered homeless. needs of the working class can be 3,213—maybe not enough to solve the Adding to the housing shortage is found in its decision to drop a plan for housing crisis but surely enough to the “right to buy” scheme. Introduced social housing on the site of Mackie’s make use of and put some sort of dint in 1979, this provides tenants and textile factory in West Belfast—one of in it. housing associations with the right to the highest areas of need, with five So why aren’t these properties buy council houses at a discount. This homelessness hostels within a few used, and how are we dealing with the allows investors to buy up council miles of the site itself. Instead there is housing crisis? Why does it even exist? houses through deferred transaction now a plan for private developments on As is characteristic of capitalism, agreements. In 2018–19 the Housing the site adjacent to Mackie’s. basic human needs are viewed as a Executive sold 449 houses, and by We also face a unique situation in source of profit, housing being no March 2019 more than 123,600 had the North, where we still, to an extent, exception. In 1971 the Housing been removed from the social housing live in a segregated society. Many Executive was set up, taking the power stock since the scheme began. nationalists won’t or simply can’t live in of allocation away from local authorities In 2013 a survey showed that a predominantly unionist areas, and vice to help deal with sectarian third of “right to buy” houses were now versa. So up crops the problem of discrimination in housing. For a while it owned by private landlords; so it is no “Where do we build houses, and who was considered an international leader surprise that in June 2020 Sinn Féin, will live there?” in public housing; in recent times it is the DUP and the Alliance Party blocked The Girdwood housing plan provides far from that. an amendment that would abolish the an example of this problem. This was a At the beginning of 2019, 3,943 “right to buy” scheme. plan to build sixty houses on the site of homeless people had been on the Although it is obvious that not a former British army barracks. It had priority housing list for more than five enough use is being made of existing been delayed for years because of years. The Housing Executive is vacant properties, and that the buying disagreements over the housing required to provide temporary housing up of social housing is even further allocation between nationalists and to homeless applicants until permanent worsening the housing crisis, the unionists. This disagreement in itself housing is available. The temporary importance of building new houses ignores the fact that housing is not housing that is provided is substandard, should also be kept in mind. only required by the nationalist and and people are forced to live there for The chief executive of the Simon unionist communities but also by far too long. In 2017–18 the average Community (NI), Jim Dennison, pointed immigrants and refugees; so where do stay in temporary accommodation was out that “we must not fall into the they fit in? The plan was then to create 282 days, and in 2018 the average belief that the buildings needed to end two separate blocks of housing, even waiting time to be offered social homelessness already exist.” Prof. though 95 per cent of newly built housing was just over a year. However, Stewart Smyth echoed the importance housing in North Belfast was needed the Housing Executive confirmed that of new housing in a recent lecture in by Catholics.

10 Socialist Voice September 2020 We also face a unique situation in the North, where we still, to an extent, live in a segregated society

Another question now arises: What of 2019, the socialist republican group projects, and the housing struggle have people been doing to combat the Lasair Dhearg consulted members of moved mainly into the Student housing crisis? the CYM, the IRSP and Saoradh about Renters’ Group, a tenants’ union In Belfast the housing struggle has forming a tenants’ union and pressure based in Queen’s University Students’ centred on a small number of political group in West Belfast. The group was Union set up by a Lasair Dhearg activists. In the autumn of 2018, structured horizontally to avoid what member Ciarán O’Brien alongside CYM ACORN (the Association of Community was dubbed “bureaucracy” and “single- members and independent student Organisations for Reform Now) South group control,” which inevitably left it activists. Belfast was launched. The group was with a lack of accountability and The Student Renters’ Group has made up largely of student activists, structure that was desperately needed been effective in becoming a source of with People Before Profit being heavily after the experiences with ACORN. This information for tenants, with on-line involved. A number of quick victories group was successful in pressuring social groups used more effectively. against letting agents’ fees were won, letting agencies in the area through Door-to-door calling was once again with many agencies conceding to threatening pickets to repeal illegal employed, but this time over a much demands with just the threat of a picket fees, and the group began to explore longer period. There are at present on their premises. These victories building the union itself. more than four hundred members in resulted, for a short while at least, in The Beechmount and Mid-Falls the Student Renters Support Forum. eleven agencies no longer charging areas of West Belfast were decided on The covid-19 crisis has halted all illegal letting fees. as the targets for the summer, with activity as students returned to family While there is a large student rental door-to-door calling both to recruit and homes. The Student Renters’ Group sector in the area, the careerism that is to get an idea of the housing issues in mainly dealt with advice and support endemic among student activists led to the area. This came and went, with for student tenants in gaining access the demise of the movement. All little success. People in the areas were to support funds and liaison with local operations of the tenants’ union ceased either long-term house-owners, didn’t representatives, such as Gerry Carroll, once a council election was called and know their landlords, or were content to propose protections for student the organiser (a member of People with their living situation. This raises the renters, such as a rent holiday and Before Profit) stood for election in the question of why this area was chosen. being let out of leases early. area—once again showing how It was a result of the lack of structure The Student Renters’ Group will electoral politics smothers rather than and accountability that came with the continue in the new academic year, emboldens working-class movements group’s horizontal structure. with talks continuing about building a and power. The group began to decline after branch of the Community Action Several months later, in the summer Lasair Dhearg moved into new Tenants’ Union (CATU) in Belfast. H CONNOLLY BOOKS Connolly Books is named after James Connolly, Ireland’s socialist pioneer and martyr H Irish history H politics H Marxist classics H feminism H environmental issues H progressive literature H trade union affairs H philosophy H radical periodicals

43 East Essex Street, Dublin between Temple Bar and Parliament Street. Tuesday to Saturday 10.00 to 17.30 www.connollybooks.org Join the fight for socialism Join the Communist Party

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Socialist Voice September 2020 11 SOLIDARITY

Venezuela’s fight against Covid

PAUL DOBSON system on the scale of Brazil, Ecuador, when the first cases popped up and in Peru or, most recently, Bolivia has been which only priority shops are allowed to OW CAN it be that Venezuela, a observed so far. open, such as pharmacies and food country that is so terribly battered For corporate media that prop up shops. Inter-state travel was restricted, Hby an imperialist blockade, nearly imperialist pretensions in the region this schools and public events closed, and a decade of underinvestment, frequent is unacceptable and spits in the face of international borders shut. The use of examples of bad decision-making, wide- their regime-change rhetoric, forcing policing to handle quarantines is, reaching corruption and technical brain them to twist, distort and decontextualise however, commonplace around the drain, in addition to recent neo-liberal the reality once again so that it may fit globe, including many European and anti-worker economic policies, their pre-established script. countries; and by singling out including privatisation and asset- We see the New York Times (19 Venezuela the New York Times only stripping, is managing to keep covid-19 August 2020, reprinted in the Irish exposes its hidden defamation agenda. rates significantly lower than its regional Times , among other media) dress up Another attack it throws against partners? many standard global counter- Venezuela concerns the construction of While community transmission pandemic measures to further their makeshift camps on the border, as well rates—which are largely caused by the shareholders’ and financiers’ infamous as the implementation of obligatory 14- return of more than 70,000 migrants political goals. day quarantine and the crackdown on who found themselves unemployed and One of the criticisms the New York illegal crossings void of sanitary without social coverage as the pandemic Times makes of Venezuela is that the controls, all of which are necessary battered the continent—have driven up police and National Guard are charged measures and similar to those applied daily case counts to about 1,000, no with implementing its nationwide by other countries, hardly worthy of the collapse of the Venezuelan health quarantine, which began on 17 March, Orwellian overtures used.

BRIAN HANLEY

HISTORY N JULY 1940, after the fall of France and with a German invasion of Britain Iseeming imminent, the IRA leadership explained their attitude to the war in a The IRA public statement. In it they made it clear that if German forces arrived in Ireland and the they would come “as friends and liberators of the Irish people.” This was because, the IRA asserted, the “Third Nazis Reich” was the “guardian and energizing force of European policy” and was committed to the construction of a “free

12 Socialist Voice September 2020 No collapse of the Venezuelan health system on the scale of Brazil, Ecuador, Peru or, most recently, Bolivia has been observed so far.

The New York Times also suggests worth of gold commandeered by the For Venezuela’s upper classes, heavy-handedness in dealing with Bank of England, was blocked by the most of these problems are solved by those who break quarantine measures British government in a cruel throwing money at them, using and put the collective health at risk. expression of global piracy. specially assigned dollar-priced fuel While a handful of cases have been Venezuela is therefore reliant on stations, private water tankers, reported, the common treatment for donations from the Pan-American personal satellite connections, and quarantine-breakers is a two-hour Health Organization, the World Health even private electricity generators. police video on social responsibility Organization and the United Nations, It is the poorest who are forced to before being sent home—a far cry as well as commercial exchanges with choose between poverty and their from the sky-high fines applied in those governments willing to defy the health, frequently breaking quarantine Britain or the mass arrests in other United States, including China, Turkey, to work, shop, or use overcrowded countries, and certainly not deserving Russia, and Iran, as well as sizeable public transport, where infection is rife. of the term “dictatorial.” delegations of Cuban doctors, which Equally, it is the working class who are Other measures the New York have all helped alleviate the pandemic. forced to make do with the minute Times fails to mention include the But deteriorating material amounts of soap or disinfectant they regular disinfecting of streets and conditions in the country, for which a can afford in the current crisis of crowded sites, strict sanitary controls combination of causes exists, including Venezuelan capitalism, with its on public transport, and the use of external imperialist meddling and rampant inflationary impact and controlled quarantine environments in internal inefficiency and corruption, are decreasing real wages. local hospitals and state-financed increasingly undermining these efforts. Venezuela’s popular masses have hotels for those infected, not unlike Virtual schooling, for example, has demonstrated their elevated levels of similar measures applied at the later all but failed, because of collapsed social discipline and collective stages of the Spanish or British telecommunications networks and organisation time and again, but it is pandemics. regular power failures, leaving a whole the class division and the impact of However, there are a host of other generation without education, largely increasingly neo-liberal government real problems that Venezuelans face in thanks to a lack of public investment policies on the people that will fighting the pandemic, which are in these important areas. ultimately determine the national largely overlooked by the mainstream Equally, government promises to infection rate. It is the effectiveness media as their pre-written and largely cover the wages of small and medium- (or not) of the government’s socio- stale disconnected storytelling takes sized businesses have largely economic agenda that will allow centre stage. evaporated, and direct bonus schemes Venezuelans to stay at home or force With Washington’s unilateral have only alleviated the economic them out into the streets. coercive measures limiting Venezuela’s situation without providing any Finally, it is the building of a access to international bank accounts, structural solutions. popular correlation of forces that could credit lines, and foreign assets, as well Water and fuel shortages caused by apply enough pressure on the state to as threatening punitive measures a deteriorated infrastructure and a lack guarantee effective collective against any public or private entity of repair parts or prime materials, as protection during the pandemic, and trading with the country, Venezuela has well as increasing poverty and not the balderdash printed by the New struggled to purchase enough medical malnutrition caused by a profound York Times , that is the principal supplies, including PCR tests, face economic contraction, have also challenge for Venezuelans today. H masks and gloves, for its population of exasperated day-to-day problems and 30 million people. Even a UN-brokered mean that any large-scale covid LEFT: a UN-brokered scheme, which would scheme, which would have resulted in outbreak will have a devastating have resulted in medical supplies reaching Venezuela in exchange for the country’s $1 medical supplies reaching Venezuela in impact, especially given the fragile billion worth of gold commandeered by the exchange for the country’s $1 billion health service. Bank of England, and progressive Europe.” Connolly [could] seriously entertain the Furthermore, the Nazi “theory of the Indeed the IRA stressed that the notion that the issue in this war is for a superior race” and “doctrine of Germans desired “neither territory” nor free and progressive Europe?” While overlordship” made it clear what their “economic penetration” in Ireland, only recognising the hypocrisy of British real attitude to “subject nations” would the “freedom of civilized nations from the imperialism, Murray argued that the IRA’s be. intolerable yoke of Britain.” As evidence statement betrayed a “total This debate remains relevant, as the of this they pointed to “Herr Hitler and misunderstanding of the issues at stake recurring controversies over the memorial Signor Mussolini’s” recent success in in this war” and that their stance aligned to the IRA leader Seán Russell illustrate. installing a “Catholic government” in them with the “slayers of Republicanism Russell, who had led the IRA from 1938, Spain, against—they claimed—British and nationhood on the Continent [and] died in August 1940 on board a German opposition. with the governing autocracies of Italy, U-boat, returning from discussions with Responding to the statement in Irish Spain and Germany, against the Nazi leaders about aid for his Workers’ Weekly, Seán Murray asked revolutionary movements of these organisation . whether “any follower of Pearse or countries.” Continued overleaf

Socialist Voice September 2020 13 BOOKS

A voice raised against war

JENNY FARRELL HE FIRST WORLD WAR was will continue, no matter what. However, described as “the war that will end the Great War gave birth to an anti-war Erich Maria Remarque, Twar,” so great was the horror of literature hitherto unknown. All Quiet on the Western this new, diabolical stage of industrial Mainstream cultural life in the annihilation. We know today that, twenty-first century largely ignores Front (1928) without seriously addressing the wars, nor has it embraced twentieth- causes of war, or the greed for new century anti-war cultural heritage. Yet markets and spheres of power, wars anybody who reads the novels and The IRA and to, or indeed the political context in mixing with former Blueshirts in a which the statue to Russell (above) variety of pro-German organisations. the Nazis was unveiled. Throughout the war fascist groups, This summer his monument in The reality was that Russell’s notably Ailtirí na hAiséirghe, made Fairview Pa rk (which also accession to leadership of the IRA determined efforts to influence the commemorates all the republican marked a move to the right by the IRA, with some success. Indeed the dead of the 1940s) was vandalised, organisation. While Russell was notorious speech by the Aiséirghe allegedly by anti-fascists. This notably uninterested in political supporter Oliver J. Flanagan TD, in occurred shortly after the statue had debate, under his tutelage men with which he praised Nazi policy towards been criticised by Fine Gael’s Leo pro-Nazi views, such as James the Jews, was part of an attack by him Varadkar. Many republicans responded O’Donovan, gained prominence within on government moves against the IRA. by closing ranks, suggesting that the IRA. Republicans were quick to The IRA’s own rhetoric in that Russell only sought foreign aid in the remind Fine Gael of its fascist history, period went beyond simply hoping for tradition of Tone and Casement and but there seemed little awareness a British defeat and echoed Nazi was in no sense a Nazi “collaborator.” among them that during 1940 IRA themes, particularly anti-Semitism. The opportunism of Fine Gael leaders had themselves been keen to After 1945, despite the realities of aside, there seemed little willingness enlist the aid of the former Blueshirt Nazi rule being laid bare, there was to examine what exactly the IRA’s leader Eoin O’Duffy. little desire to reflect on this. Hence, relationship with the Nazis amounted By that year republicans were in 1951 the unveiling of the

14 Socialist Voice September 2020 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is arguably the most famous anti-war novel of all time. poetry, listens to the music, watches solidarity among those who need to than a year recovering and was not the plays, looks at the paintings or support each other, and this extends to sent back to the front. hears the songs of those who lived the soldiers in the “enemy” trench. In May 1933 Remarque left through the horrors of the First and They understand instinctively that the Germany for Switzerland, having had to Second World Wars cannot fail to be enemy is a victim of the same powers flee overnight after being warned by a profoundly shocked and motivated to as they are. friend that he was in danger. His really put an end to war. Perhaps that In a memorable scene, the central German citizenship was revoked, and is why these works of art are as good character is caught in a shell hole he never returned to live in Germany. as absent from mainstream culture. along with the French soldier he has He left Switzerland for the United All Quiet on the Western Front by just killed. He asks, “Why do they never States on the eve of the Second World Erich Maria Remarque is arguably the tell us that you are poor devils like us, War and became a naturalised US most famous anti-war novel of all time. that your mothers are just as anxious citizen in 1947. Published in 1928, it was one of the as ours, and that we have the same In 1943 the Nazis arrested greatest book successes of the first fear of death, and the same dying and Remarque’s youngest sister, Elfriede half of the twentieth century. The the same agony—Forgive me, Scholz. She and her husband had picture it paints, the inhuman reality of comrade, how could you be my stayed in Germany with their two war, reflected the experiences of enemy?” children. She was found guilty of millions of soldiers. Remarque’s unvarnished portrayal “unpatriotic” views and was beheaded At the heart of the story is a group of the war hit a nerve with the public. It on 16 December 1943. Remarque of young soldiers who go from school became an immediate best-seller in only discovered what happened to her straight onto the battlefield. Their Germany and internationally. In the after the war, and dedicated his novel dehumanising by adapting to 1920s it was translated into twenty-six The Spark of Life (1952) to her. industrialised slaughter becomes the languages; today there are editions in German publishers omitted the turning-point in their lives. They ask fifty languages, with an estimated dedication, as Remarque was still questions about who is responsible for circulation of between 20 and 40 considered a traitor by many Germans. the war, but have no answers. While million copies. The title has become Although he was repatriated as a the novel never reveals the imperialist synonymous with the senselessness of German citizen after the war, he interests of the world war, it war, the senseless of ordinary people remained isolated from German nevertheless condemns the powers dying in the interests of profit and cultural life and died in Switzerland that criminally abused Remarque’s power. fifty years ago, on 25 September generation. What holds them together Remarque was born into a Catholic 1970. is their camaraderie, a humanity they working-class family in Osnabrück in All Quiet on the Western Front has preserve. June 1898. When world war broke out lost none of its power. It is an Ten years after the publication of in 1914 he was sixteen. Like so many, outstandingly sensitive depiction of the this novel the idea of camaraderie was he fell victim to the jingoist effect that murderous warfare has on to be exploited by the German fascists propaganda and joined the Youth the human psyche. We still need for their new war plans. However, in Corps, a militaristic cadet organisation. books like this. H Remarque’s book this comradeship has Aged eighteen in November 1916, he nothing to do with “leader” and was conscripted. Shortly after seeing IMAGE: Scene from All Quiet on the “followers” in aggressive militarist action on the western front he was Western Front . 1930. USA. Directed interest. Rather, it is a sense of wounded in July 1917 and spent more by Lewis Milestone. monument to Russell was 1917, and the Comintern was pledged the intensely anti-communist accompanied by commentary that to support uprisings against colonial atmosphere of the day. Yet, in celebrated his time in Nazi Germany. rule. The Nazis made no such claims contrast, his being feted by the Nazi An account in the United Irishman to anti-imperialism. Indeed until the leadership was considered described in detail Russell’s late 1930s the republican press had unproblematic and indeed presented interaction with leading Nazis. It even denounced the Nazis precisely as a measure of his importance. claimed that the IRA leader and his because of their reactionary politics, Raising these issues is not a organisation had been given a An Phoblacht condemning the matter of retrospective moralism. As significant role in “Operation Sealion,” Luftwaffe’s bombing of Guernica, for Seán Murray’s article illustrates, they the planned invasion of Britain. example. were the subject of debate at the Many of Russell’s contemporary Russell and his allies chose to time. Russell himself may not have defenders note that since he had ignore all of this. Indeed Russell’s cared very much what the Nazis stood visited the USSR in 1925 to seek opponents within the IRA alleged that for, but seeking an alliance with them Soviet aid but was not a communist his leadership bid was supported by had potentially disastrous his visit to Berlin should be judged in funding from Nazi sources. Russell’s consequences. Republicans might do the same light. The political context visit to the USSR went unmentioned well to discuss what exactly welcoming was very different however. during the unveiling of his statue in the Germans as “liberators” might Republicans had been broadly 1951, presumably because it would have meant, and how, and why, the sympathetic to the after have been politically embarrassing in IRA had ended up in that position. H Socialist Voice September 2020 15 SOLIDARITY Respect Belarusian sovereignty! large pro-government, pro-sovereignty protests, many of which are far greater than anything that has been whipped up by the reactionary opposition. The Belarusian people have much to fear from the experiences of their neighbours and from the array of forces that are orchestrating trouble. Indeed few countries have beaten the war drums in recent weeks with more fervour than the Baltic states. Given that their foreign policy amounts to letting NATO use their territory as a military base from which to co-ordinate the Pentagon’s schemes, it is not surprising. The fact that the opposition candidate, , has retreated to Lithuania since losing the in August is no coincidence. The Baltic states have all adopted the euro in the last ten years, but not before implementing EU Central Bank rules that led to wages being slashed and public services being cut. Not surprisingly, the dictatorship of capital in these countries has made use of fascism to carry out its bidding. Anti-communism, anti-Semitism and the rehabilitation of Nazi collaborationists are central elements of the prevailing reactionary ideology, as in Ukraine. In contrast, the material conditions for a significant fascist movement have not yet DORIAN Ó S EANÁIN developed in ; but the sight of red-and-white flags (left) dominating opposition rallies shows that anti-communism and T’S A FAMILIAR story: Western imperialist forces are historical revisionism motivate many among the “democratic orchestrating another coup in a sovereign state while the opposition.” The red-and-white flag was used by an anti- Ibourgeois media in Ireland bombard us with sympathetic Bolshevik government declared in 1918, which was ultimately coverage of anti-government protesters and the “democratic powerless. In addition, the Belarusian Soviet Republic suffered opposition,” whose ranks are brimming with the most vicious the highest number of deaths as a proportion of population reactionaries. during the Great Patriotic War. Behind the scenes, the United States and the European Delegitimising the Belarusian election and the status of capitalist powers are providing considerable resources to the Lukashenko as president of Belarus have been the central fifth-columnists. The parallels with the coup of 2014 that has messages communicated by the bourgeois media over the last devastated Ukraine ever since are undeniable. Almost thirty few weeks. As usual, workers in Ireland and elsewhere are years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the NATO war being fed a line that is coming straight from the US State machine plans to intervene and clear the way for foreign Department. capital to wreak havoc in Belarus, as it has done everywhere That Lukashenko has shortcomings is not remotely the else in eastern Europe since the days of the Warsaw Treaty. point. Each time a coup is being planned by the imperialist Despite the economic collapse brought about by the powers their opponent is inevitably labelled a “dictator.” Just counter-revolution of the 1990s, Belarus avoided the fate of as in Syria, Ukraine, and Venezuela, the question boils down many other former socialist states by retaining state-run to this: Are you objectively siding with the anti-imperialist industry and the social safety net. Instead of the country’s forces—or with the imperialist ones? There is no “third way,” resources being sold to the highest bidder, President as many leftists try to argue, whereby one can condemn both Lukashenko’s programme ensured that Belarus kept sides equally and sit on the fence. substantial control over its own affairs. The response from communist and workers’ parties has Contrast this with Boris Yeltsin’s presidency in Russia, been clear: Respect Belarusian sovereignty! Reject the EU-US- where mass privatisation and a collapse in living standards NATO intervention in Belarus! H marked the aftermath of the Soviet era. Russia has since drifted out of the American orbit, much to Washington’s References chagrin. Installing a puppet regime in Belarus would complete 1 Roger Harris, “Belarus’s options in the midst of a color the military occupation of Russia’s western border. revolution,” Marxism-Leninism Today , 24 August 2020 Of course the present is not without (https://tinyurl.com/y3u323kj). fault. It is clear that thousands of Belarusian workers have 2 “Latvia joins the euro,” Socialist Voice, January 2014. grievances, which have led them to take to the streets in 3 “Belarus’ white and red flag: A symbol of Nazi collaborationists protest. However, the government still commands the support and counterrevolution,” In Defense of Communism , 20 August 2020 (https://tinyurl.com/y2yrqqka). of most of the people. More importantly, 4 “Belarus: Statements-reactions by communist and workers’ appreciate that their country’s sovereignty is under threat. parties,” In Defense of Communism Not surprisingly, the Western media refuse to report on (https://tinyurl.com/yybrrwom).

16 Socialist Voice September 2020