Irish Marxist Review

Editor: John Molyneux Deputy Editor: Dave O’Farrell Website Editor: Memet Uludag Editorial Board: Marnie Holborow, Sinéad Kennedy, Tina MacVeigh, Paul O’Brien, Peadar O’Grady Cover Design: Daryl Southern Published: November 2016 SWP PO.Box 1648 Dublin 8 Phone: John Molyneux 085 735 6424 Email: [email protected] Website: www.irishmarxistreview.net

Irish Marxist Review is published in association with the Socialist Workers Party (Ireland), but articles express the opinions of individual authors unless otherwise stated. We welcome proposals for articles and reviews for IMR. If you have a suggestion please phone or email as above.

i Irish Marxist Review 16

Contents

Editorial 1

Equality, Democracy, Solidarity: The Politics of Abortion Melisa Halpin and Peadar O’Grady 3

Into the limelight: tax haven Ireland Kieran Allen 14

Can the European Union be reformed? Marnie Holborow 28

Secularism, Islamophobia and the politics of religion John Molyneux 41

A Socialist in Stormont An interview with Gerry Carroll MLA 52

Fianna Fáil: Past and Present Alan Byrne 57

The socialist tradition in the disability movement: Lessons for contemporary activists Ivanka Antova 65

Science, Politics and Public Policy Dave O’Farrell 70

The Starry Plough – a historical note Damian Lawlor 76

Review: Kieran Allen, The Politics of James Connolly Shaun Doherty 78

Review: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, From #Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation Conor Kennelly 80

ii Editorial: Interesting Times

‘May you live in interesting times’ is a lishment’s talk of recovery has given rise, well known Chinese curse. These are cer- not surprisingly, to workers demanding their tainly interesting times in Ireland at the mo- share. The LUAS workers led the way, fol- ment. But for socialists not completely ad- lowed by the bus workers and now, at the dicted to the quiet life these are also times time of writing, ASTI teachers. Even the with a lot to recommend them. Gardai are getting in on the act. Yes it is true that with accelerating cli- The autumn has also seen major demon- mate change and general ecological devas- strations. On September 15 about 30,000 tation, plus war, refugees and racism along took to the streets again over the water with Trump and Clinton and looming global charges, on the strong demand for abolition recession, the world shows every sign of go- not suspension, which showed that the net- ing to hell in a handcart. works built in the movement had not gone It is also true that the by now very famil- away. A week later another mass movement iar dysfunctional features of Irish society are hit the streets with the magnificent March if anything getting worse. The massive eco- for Choice heralding a huge battle to repeal nomic inequality with the rich getting ever the 8th Amendment and for a woman’s right richer just keeps on growing. The housing to choose and proving once again how much crisis intensifies, the numbers of homeless Ireland has changed. On October 19 there increase, and the Government’s attempts was a very large and militant student demo to address the issue merely shovel money over fees. There is an obvious cross-over be- into the pockets of developers and landlords. tween the student movement and the move- The hospital waiting times and waiting lists ment for choice and if this conjuncture leads lengthen. The stink of corruption and mal- to an increased engagement of students with practice in high places ranging from NAMA radical politics this will be very positive in- to An Garda Síochána grows stronger. All deed. this we know. The substantially increased parliamen- At the same time there is much that is tary representation of the radical left is an- very positive. In the Republic the minor- other big step forward. It gives serious so- ity Fine Gael government, dependent as it cialists a voice in the national political de- is on support from the Independent Alliance bate in a way that is currently exceptional and Fianna Fáil, is clearly very weak. This by international standards and so far our is seen repeatedly in their tendency to back elected representatives have done an excel- down (as over waste collection charges) or lent job of rising to this challenge. Particu- kick for touch, as over water charges and the larly important in this context has been the 8th Amendment. And their weakness is po- election of Gerry Carroll and Eamonn Mc- tentially the Left’s strength. For the govern- Cann as People Before Profit MLAs in Stor- ment’s weakness is not just a matter of seats mont. This gives visible expression to the in the Dáil and parliamentary arithmetic – idea of a socialist challenge to the two reac- it reflects an underlying political shift to the tionary states, north and south. left in Irish society, which has been devel- Another major positive is the absence oping over years. Ideologically Enda Kenny in Ireland of any significant fascist or racist and co are on the defensive. And, in a some- right organisation, any equivalent of Golden what different way, this is also the case in the Dawn, Jobbyk, Front National or UKIP. North where a new generation has emerged This does not, however, mean there is not fed up with Sinn Féin- DUP austerity, as the a serious problem with vicious state racism spectacular rise of People Before Profit has on many fronts e.g. against refugees and shown. asylum seekers and, of course, against Trav- Most importantly we see a revival in ellers. And inevitably this is reflected in a the industrial struggle as all of the estab- good deal of ‘popular’ racism at street level

1 though again it is not as yet comparable to tax-haven Ireland showing how this is not a the situation in many European countries in- series of ‘special cases’ but the essential eco- cluding England. In this context the emer- nomic strategy of the Irish ruling class and gence of United Against Racism as an active also how it is set to unravel, turning Ireland anti-racist united front with its campaign to into the weak link of European capitalism. end the cruel Direct Provision system is very Marnie Holborow examines the notion important. that the EU can be reformed by a process One symptom of this general radicalisa- of ‘critical engagement’ and finds it want- tion has been the growth of People Before ing. Alan Byrne sets Fianna Fáil’s current Profit on the ground, again north and south. attempts at a comeback as the A-team of A recent registration drive showed that it Irish capitalism in their historical context. now has over 1100 members nationwide – Our interview with Gerry Carroll MLA pro- a significant number in a country of only 6 vides a picture of how this modest young million – and over 45 branches. What PBP man has come to play such a significant role is uniquely placed to do is to ‘join the dots in the politics of the North. between the different issues and campaigns On different fronts John Molyneux looks and translate them into an all-Ireland chal- at how the concept of secularism has given lenge to the system. There is, naturally, no rise to much confusion on the international room for complacency here. This is not a left; Dave O’Farrell analyses the relation- given but an opportunity that needs to be ship between Marxism and science; Ivanka seized. Avotna revisits the issue of socialism and This issue of Irish Marxist Review ad- the politics of disability; Damian Lawlor dresses a number of these features of the offers a snapshot of the history of Con- Irish political scene. In ‘The Politics noly’s Starry Plough; Shaun Doherty re- of Abortion’ Melisa Halpin and Peadar views Kieran Allen’s recently reprinted The O’Grady offer a detailed critique of the pol- Politics of James Connolly and Conor Ken- itics of restricting abortion rights and a ro- nelly welcomes Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s bust statement of the case for a ‘Woman’s From #Black Lives Matter to Black Libera- right to choose’. On foot of the Apple fiasco tion. Kieran Allen provides a forensic dissection of - John Molyneux

2 Equality, Democracy, Solidarity: The Politics of Abor- tion

Melisa Halpin and Peadar O’Grady

The protests in Ireland and Poland, ing the Dublin march, a National ‘Women’s along with international solidarity protests, strike’ in Poland across more than a hun- against restricted access to abortion ser- dred towns and cities involving hundreds vices, have revitalised the campaign for re- of thousands of protesters resulted in the productive rights and women’s rights and shock, landslide defeat of the proposed to- sent a challenge to conservative politicians tal ban on abortion there, which had already that a new movement for women’s rights is comfortably passed the first stage in Parlia- on the political agenda. More than 30,000 ment. On October 6th the Polish Parlia- marched in Dublin on September 24th 2016 ment voted 352 to 58 against the bill includ- for the 5th annual ‘Rise and Repeal March ing 186 of the 227 right-wing, governing Law for Choice’ organised by the Abortion Rights and Justice party, who had all solidly sup- Campaign with solidarity protests in more ported the bill before the protests. Abortion than 20 cities around the world. This more has been heavily restricted in Poland since than tripled the numbers from the year be- the 1993 law restricted access for 99% of the fore, which itself had at least double the women who wanted an abortion, with more numbers from the year before that. More than 100,000 travelling to countries such as than 65 groups making up the Coalition to neighbouring Germany for abortions or tak- Repeal the 8th, including women’s rights and ing abortion pills illegally at home. The un- reproductive rights groups, civil and health expected defeat of a majority government rights advocates, trade unions and left-wing in Poland gave hope and confidence to ac- political parties, actively supported and pro- tivists in Ireland that concerted pressure on moted the march, but the size of the crowd, the smug but weak Fine Gael government its youth, enthusiasm and determination and their Fianna Fáil and Independent back- surpassed most people’s expectations. Pre- ers, could yield victory. Also encouraging dominantly young and female, on a miser- was the success over the past year of cam- able rainy day, the marchers called for a re- paigns and marches for an extension of the peal of the 8th Amendment, passed in 1983 UK 1967 Act to Northern Ireland, forcing before any of the marchers under 33 years court judgements on the injustice of restric- old was even born and before any under 51 tions on abortion there, while the ban on the had been entitled to vote. abortion law stayed in place. The March for Choice was a march de- manding a right for women to have the choice to either decide to have an abortion On October 7th the Irish Times re- or to decide to have a child. In the cente- ported: ‘Irish Times poll: Majority want nary year of the 1916 rebellion against im- repeal of Eighth Amendment’ and revealed perial tyranny, the march organisers focused that 74% were in favour of repeal with on getting rid of the effective block on abor- 18% against and 8% undecided.1 The Irish tion posed by the 8th Amendment inserted Times didn’t publish the figures excluding into the constitution in 1983, hence ‘Rise the undecideds, as they usually do to in- and Repeal’. The variety of banners, slogans dicate likely voting patterns, even though and chants on the march that day showed these are easily calculated: 80.4% for re- that something new was happening, with peal and 19.6% against, predicting a land- new perspectives, opinions and visions un- slide victory for repeal if a referendum were appreciated and largely unexpressed in the held that day. If one looks at the overall mainstream press and media. trend for 2016 by including the two earlier The next Saturday, October 4th, follow- Irish Times Ipsos/MRBI polls this year, on 1Stephen collins (2016a)

3 February 23rd2 and July 8th,3 we see sup- order to draw out negotiations and deny a port of 64% (72%) rising to 67% (76%) and clear victory to the prochoice movement is then 74% (80%) respectively for repeal (ex- of course clear, when the discussion of re- cluding undecideds in brackets) with oppo- striction could easily be had afterwards with sition to repeal falling from 25% (28%) to the severely restrictive PLDPA in place, and 21% (24%) and then 18% (20%). Despite this tactic of kicking the can down the road the evidence of overwhelming and rising sup- is a mirror image of the one taken with wa- port for repeal the paper emphasised that of ter charges. So when the right-wing politi- the 74% in favour ‘only’ 19% favoured ‘UK- cians of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil claim style Abortion’ and 55% ‘limited abortion’ this is a ‘moral issue’ we can rest assured and argued that: that there is no evidence of morality in their tactic of ducking the issue. This notion However, if the introduction of of uncertainty about winning a referendum, a strictly limited regime is op- prevalent in the mainstream media, in the posed by those who support the face of opinion poll evidence to the con- current prohibition and those trary, seemed to affect supporters of repeal who favour a liberal abortion also, with Labour’s then Minister, Aodháin regime band together a referen- O’Riordáin saying after the 2015 March for dum could be a close-run thing. Choice:

How this ‘banding together’ might occur, If [the Referendum] happened in the article, by columnist Stephen Collins the morning, it would be lost (who has been, accurately, described as a ‘de and it would be trounced and it facto government spokesman’4), did not say, would be 20 years before we can but suggested a tactic of splitting the sup- return to it...But it’ll happen, port for repeal on the basis of the planned I would imagine, quite late to- level of restriction connected to the referen- wards the end of the [next] gov- ernment because we’re nowhere dum. Neither did he explain why those who 5 favour fewer restrictions on abortion did not near winning it. in his opinion favour a ‘liberal regime’ when Labour’s role in government in intro- it had to be more liberal than the 99% re- ducing the 2013 PLDPA legislation showed striction of the current 2013 Protection of that supporters of liberalising abortion laws Life During Pregnancy Act (PLDPA) and could tolerate criminalising legislation, with certainly more liberal than the effective to- certification procedures involving up to 6 tal ban on legal abortion under the previ- doctors to access abortion services, result- ous 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. ing in 99% of women being denied access to Collins as the spokesperson for, or advisor abortion in practice. Fianna Fáil and Fine to, the government, seemed to be suggest- Gael continue to use the language of unrea- ing how the democratic will of the people sonable ‘extremes’ and a reasonable ‘middle’ to repeal the 8th amendment might be de- to muddy the waters of the debate. With feated, or at least, practically diverted along 80% of the public likely to vote for repeal it lines of internecine conflict to give cover for is unclear who this excluded middle is. Un- ongoing delay and deferral by a weak gov- explained also is why the prochoice ‘abor- ernment. However, the July poll in the tion on request’ position is extreme, as it ac- Irish Times showed that Fine Gael voters commodates both women who disagree and were overwhelmingly in favour of repealing women who agree that abortion is the best the 8th Amendment by a margin of 66% option in their personal circumstances and (73%) to 24% (27%). A tactic of deliber- is the position most in keeping with interna- ately complicating the repeal referendum in tional standards of safe medical practice. 2Stephen collins (2016b) 3Pat Leahy (2016) 4Julien Mercille (2015) 5Sorcha Pollak, Carl O’Brien (2015)

4 The antichoice position is in fact a can- only man who should have the final say in an didate for the ‘extreme’ label in that it ad- abortion decision is a pregnant transgender vocates avoiding a democratic vote on an is- man, and that view is strongly and widely sue, for fear that the opinion of each preg- supported in the new movement. nant woman might be taken into account Abortion is a healthcare issue, restric- instead of a minority conservative religious tion of abortion is a political issue and not and right-wing political ideology. Fianna an abstract ethical one. The control of Fáil and Fine Gael are happy to continue to birth control is a political issue. Control- pander to the conservative antichoice lobby ling women’s decisions about birth control while pretending to be sympathetic to im- means controlling an intimate detail of their proving access to abortion and they will do lives, possibly the most intimate. Splitting whatever they can to obscure the debate and the population as a whole and the working delay any decision so that the most restric- class in particular is a well-worn strategy tive possible outcome is obtained. It be- of the ruling class of politicians, clergy, se- comes important then to put pressure on the nior civil servants and big business. While government to hold a referendum without the ruling class are increasingly in favour preconditions and to put pressure on those of birth control they give up control of it who claim to support the Repeal the 8th only with a struggle. That struggle has re- campaign to support bills or motions to put sulted in women’s rights being advanced in the 8th Amendment to a referendum vote. many countries, but, while often acknowl- We need more democracy to win more equal- edged in court rulings or legislative changes, ity. change has always been won by mass move- ments on the streets. The Roe Vs Wade Why Repeal the 8th? ruling in the US and the 1967 Abortion Act in the UK were victories recorded in The right to choose whether or when to have official documents, but that resulted from a child is a right that has been greatly ad- decades of struggle for sex education, con- vanced and facilitated by advances in tech- traception and abortion alongside fights on a nology: barrier methods such as condoms or wide range of fronts. The ‘Liberation’ move- coils, the oral contraceptive pill, the morn- ments of the 1960s in the US were inspired ing after pill, the abortion pill and various by the black civil rights and antiwar move- early and late surgical methods. ‘As early as ments and spread questions about legitimate possible, as late as necessary’ is a rule that authority and human rights to the areas of applies to the full spectrum of forms of birth women’s rights, gay rights and the rights of control including abortion. In all other areas disabled people. Advances in civil liberties of healthcare access to treatment is ethically were not handed down gently from a benign, restricted by the consent only of the person benevolent ruling class but had to be fought undergoing the treatment, unless their ca- for over decades and with political organ- pacity to do so was in question. isation and development, coordination and The lack of equality in this denial of disagreement, but ultimately, only by strug- women’s capacity to consent is not covered gle. by any plausible suggestion as to who should In Ireland, fearing the spread of these decide instead. Restricting access to birth advances and the demise of the catholic control, including abortion, tends towards church’s stranglehold from the 1960s on- more abortions in general and later abor- wards, with the legalisation of contracep- tions in particular. As with any other treat- tion and moves to legalise divorce, conser- ments in healthcare, only the person receiv- vatives planned to take a stand on abor- ing the treatment should make the final de- tion by inserting a clause into the consti- cision and give consent and for birth con- tution that would block efforts to improve trol that is the woman who wants to avoid access to abortion. In 1982 Fianna Fáil, un- pregnancy or the woman who is pregnant der Charles Haughey, passed a bill in the and deciding if she wants to give birth. The Dáil with a wording for a new amendment

5 to the constitution. Fine Gael, under Garret Gael directly to account can help to sideline Fitzgerald, suggested an even more restric- these minority organisations and more di- tive wording that would ensure a continuing rectly address the issues of travel and abor- absolute ban on abortion, similar to the re- tion pill use. Identified barriers to travel in- cent Polish proposal, but this was defeated. clude being too young too sick or disabled, Fianna Fáil’s wording for the 8th Amend- too poor or impeded by detention in prison ment would add a new subsection to Article or the direct provision system. Barriers to 40 section 3 of the Irish constitution. The using the pill are largely the uncertainty of new Article 40.3.3 stated: support and follow up by the health service and the threat of arrest and imprisonment The State acknowledges the under the draconian PLDPA. right to life of the unborn and, Opposition by church hierarchies and with due regard to the equal Antichoice groups to abortion has not been right to life of the mother, guar- confined to the Catholic church nor has it antees in its laws to respect, been consistent in history, changing partic- and, as far as practicable, by ularly in the 19th century. For example, the its laws to defend and vindicate 1861 Act which was the relevant law in Ire- that right. land until 2013, was passed in a British Par- liament where the predominant religion was The leaders of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael not catholic but overwhelmingly protestant. and Labour, without consulting their party Furthermore, the Catholic Church teaching members, agreed the wording, and the sub- was not consistent over time either. As sequent Referendum in 1983 was passed Patsy McGarry reported: by a two-to-one majority. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael hid behind the conserva- tive Catholic hierarchy and the Pro-Life Up to [1869] Catholic teaching Amendment Campaign (PLAC) while the was that no homicide was in- forces of the Left campaigned as the Anti- volved if abortion took place be- Amendment Campaign. The pattern of fore the foetus was infused with a a coalition between conservative national- soul, known as ‘ensoulment’...In ists in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael with the 1591, Pope Gregory XIV deter- Catholic church hierarchy was heavily dam- mined it took place at 166 days aged by the scandals of corruption in the of pregnancy, almost 24 weeks.6 building and meat industries that rocked Fi- anna Fáil and the scandals of institutional abuse in residential homes and the covering up and hiding of paedophile priests that se- The change allowed the catholic church riously undermined, including for previously support laws that criminalised abortion as loyal ordinary churchgoers, any notion of murder without having to draw distinctions moral integrity, especially in the area of sex- about term limits that would have been dif- ual morality, in the catholic hierarchy. Anti- ficult to implement at the time. The modern choice groups such as the Life or Iona insti- arguments about abortion as murder and the tutes increasingly try to take the place of the need for term limits or restrictions on selec- discredited hierarchy but lack the reach of tive abortions deny both the lack of consis- the traditional church or the wealth and fun- tency in church teaching but also the fail- damentalist base of their US counterparts. ure to ethically support having an alterna- Their use in deflecting the debate from the tive source of decision-making to the woman, social and political issues of women’s rights that is, why even a consistent moral view of and their role in giving cover to the main- a church institution should be deemed supe- stream right of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is rior to the moral view of the actual woman still relevant. Calling Fianna Fáil and Fine involved. 6Patsy McGarry (2013)

6 Term limits strictive abortion regime without term lim- its would increase the number of later abor- Abortion, particularly early abortion, is one tions, but in fact, restricting access to early of the most common and safest procedures abortion is an identified cause of increasing in medicine. As modern societies increas- the number of later abortions because of the ingly reject the dogmatic and inconsistent delays caused by restrictive practices. Re- teachings of religion that abortion is the strictions including term limits will increase same as murder, opponents of a woman’s later abortions not decrease them, especially right to choose have changed tack and tried when concessions lead to encouraging anti- to argue that abortion is dangerous to the choice legal and legislative measures to bring woman concerned. False claims of greater about even more obstacles to early access risks to life or health than the alternative rather than fewer, all often in the name of choice of giving birth have been repeatedly better care for women. debunked.7 No greater risk of mental or The truism that abortions should be car- physical health problems is taken by choos- ried out ‘as early as possible, as late as nec- ing an abortion than by choosing to continue essary’ is a starting point rather than a con- a pregnancy and the antichoice movement clusion of a consideration of later abortions. just cannot get any health experts to sup- In general, ‘earliest is best’ seems an overar- port them outside of antichoice doctors or ching general rule on its own but it is not a organisations. The other more traditional practical one for several reasons. The earli- antichoice approach is to focus on the foe- est avoidance of unwanted pregnancy is ei- tus, to equate the foetus to a baby or child ther through abstinence, the rhythm method by using the prefix ‘unborn’ and to empha- or the varying forms of barrier and pharma- sise a foetus as an independent entity with cological contraception and the ‘morning af- independent rights. As pregnancy proceeds ter pill’. However, choosing between these and the foetus develops, it attains features methods depends firstly on being informed increasingly resembling a full-grown foetus, about how they work, their safety and effec- which if portrayed, especially visually, sepa- tiveness, but also in having access to them. rately from the woman carrying it, as anti- We also have to take into account the rel- choice portrayals usually do, seems to sup- ative success of each method, including our port the notion of an independent human own human failings in corect use or remem- person that might have rights of its own. bering to use them in a timely way, as well Many prochoice supporters, unfamiliar with as the brutal circumstances of rape, where later abortions, do not know how common or the need for contraception is not foreseeable. rare later abortions are, and can also easily The failings at each level is why unwanted forget the key factor in access to abortion: pregnancies will always occur and abortion who decides? The reality is that in a de- will always be required as an important and veloped health service with well-developed valuable method of birth control. abortion services such as in the UK, abor- However, the use of early alternatives to tions become rarer as pregnancy advances. later abortion (ie the morning after pill in The vast majority of abortions, in countries the first 5 days of pregnancy, safer medi- with developed health services, are accessed cal and surgical abortion techniques earlier early. In round figures: 90% happen be- in pregnancy) are also often delayed and fore 12 weeks gestation, more than 99% are missed due to lack of availability; delayed di- carried out before 20 weeks and more than agnosis of pregnancy or fetal anomaly; or a 99.9% are carried out before 24 weeks. So, change in a pregnant woman’s circumstances fewer than 1 in 1,000 abortions are carried involving social, physical or mental health out after 24 weeks and abortions after 28 factors. One study concludes: weeks are almost unheard of. Bans on abortion after 20 One antichoice argument is that a less re- weeks will disproportionately af- 7E. G. Raymond and D. A. Grimes (2012) 8Diana Foster (December 2013)

7 fect young women and women abortion, there is nothing about the circum- with limited financial resources.8 stances of late abortion that supports the notion that imposing a restriction on it will While some of these delays are avoid- improve the situation in terms of numbers able by better information and better access or outcomes. The opposite is the case. The to health services, particularly for young, argument for limits is aimed ever downward poor or otherwise vulnerable women, there with, for most antichoice activists, the aim are nevertheless several situations which will being to ban all abortions, and for many of continue to arise late in pregnancy. The late them to ban sex education, artificial contra- diagnosis of pregnancy or of fetal anoma- ception and the morning after pill too. lies as well as significant changes in social or The young rape victim in the Y case who health status are such examples. The con- was forced to give birth to an extremely pre- tradictions of the antichoice focus on later mature infant at very high risk of disability, abortions are that the restriction of access by caesarean section without her consent, to abortion increases the number of avoid- when she had consented to an abortion at 8 able late abortions and that this only causes weeks of pregnancy, is both a clear example the imposition of more suffering on an al- of how restricting access to abortion, in this ready distressed woman. It is a fact that case for a young, poor, migrant, rape vic- abortion is more common, as well as later tim, can lead to a later abortion, but also, and more complicated, where access to abor- how not honoring the decision of the woman tion is restricted. Ireland is a good example who is pregnant, at any stage of pregnancy, of this, where women present for abortions can lead to a level of barbarity that is truly later, due to delays in accessing the informa- shameful.9 tion, money and supports necessary to travel abroad or to obtain an abortion pill, and Selective Abortion these women suffer more unnecessary com- plications as a result. Women whose preg- The focus on women’s reasons for having nancy is diagnosed with a fetal anomaly of- an abortion often ignores the fact that not ten experience delays in diagnosis because of wanting to be pregnant is often based on restricted access to proper maternity and re- many factors and not just one. Forcing productive health services. It is for this rea- women to justify their decision is unique to son that antichoice arguments about viabil- abortion as a medical treatment. In her ity, fetal pain and the unpleasant nature of book: The Moral Case for Abortion, an ex- late abortion are at the very least hypocrit- cellent review of the arguments around abor- ical, given their responsibility for increasing tion care, Ann Furedi comments: their number. The argument around ‘via- bility’ also ignores the consequences of se- Any laws and regulations that vere disability, not just the likelihood of sur- insist on grounds, or specific rea- vival, that even a prospective parent has to sons, that limit when a woman struggle to consider after a spontaneous mis- can choose abortion, or when a carriage. The arguments for alternatives of doctor can perform one, under- adoption, perinatal hospices or bringing up score that a woman’s decision is the child following delivery cannot be forced not sufficient. And when manda- on women but in any case these sugges- tory regulations insist on a cer- tions ring hollow, coming as they usually do tain level of medical care, it im- from right-wing political organisations, like plies that abortion is risky, and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, that are most as- that abortion doctors cannot be sociated with systematic cuts in health, wel- trusted to base the level of care fare and childcare services. on their knowledge and ethics. While many factors can influence a No special laws or regulations woman’s decision whether or not to have an govern when a doctor can repair 9See Kitty Holland (2014) for a timeline of this travesty of healthcare

8 a hernia, or set a fractured arm; the reported impairment, rather than as the the existence of special laws for result of social discrimination against people abortion begs the question: ‘why with impairments. There are also pressures is abortion different?’10 on a pregnant woman to consider the cost of childcare and any additional or longer-term As Furedi outlines this situation of re- commitments to care that should be socially quiring a justification for a decision to con- supported but are not. A woman deciding sent to treatment, only occurs in the context to have an abortion in this context is not the of restrictive legislation which allows abor- same as a deliberate, antichoice social policy tion only when an eligible reason for it has of reducing the birth rate of infants with con- been certified by a professional, usually a genital impairments and in particular is not doctor. equivalent to eugenic policies of forced con- However, the use of information about traception, forced sterilisation or forced eu- the foetus regarding gender or impairments, thanasia where the person involved does not from scans or blood tests, to inform a deci- consent and constitutes serious assault and sion to have an abortion, has lead to con- murder respectively. Many people, following cerns that abortion access should be re- genetic counselling, whose family members stricted in these cases. Gender disparities in suffer from an inheritable condition, deliber- countries such as China have lead to calls to ately restrict their family, by contraception ban selective abortion on gender grounds as and abortion, to avoid having more affected it is usually female foetuses that are selected children. This is not eugenics and should for abortion. It is worth noting that prac- not be an argument against giving the infor- tices such as abandoning female infants and mation from medical tests or that the parent infanticide mean that restricting selective does not value the lives of their affected fam- abortion, as with restricting abortion gen- ily members. erally, will not necessarily reduce the identi- Antichoice social policies including eu- fied problem, in this case gender prejudice or genics need to be sharply distinguished from sexism. It is also the case that a state policy people using birth control methods includ- of putting pressure on parents through a sys- ing abortion to avoid giving birth to children tem of fines for having more than one child, with impairments. What selective abortion is a system that is antichoice and should also only demonstrates is that many people do be the focus of reform. not believe that a foetus is equivalent to a Similarly, for fetal anomalies, there is a human being and that abortion is not equiv- concern that having an abortion, on the ba- alent to murder. Restricting access will not sis that a foetus has a physical anomaly, is improve the situation for women, disabled disrespectful to disabled people and an ex- or otherwise. As one study noted: ample of eugenics, that is, a discredited so- The literature indicates that the cial policy, aiming to improve the health of reproductive rights of disabled a human population by selective breeding women are constrained by: the and, at its extreme, the killing of disabled assumption that disabled women people. Central to eugenic ideas is a denial are asexual; lack of reproduc- of the social causation of poverty and dis- tive health care, contraception, ability where instead individuals and their and sexuality information; and, physical make-up are blamed, in particular social resistance to reproduction their genetics and ethnicity, and targeted for and mothering among disabled eradication, that is, it is an antichoice phi- women. Disabled women are losophy. at risk for a range of undesir- Even though non-directive counselling able outcomes, including coer- should prevail in abortion services, disability cive sterilization, abortion or loss is often portrayed as something equivalent to of child custody.11 10Ann Furedi (2016), Kindle Location 1321-1325 11Virginia Kallianes and Phyllis Rubenfeld (2010)

9 Disabled women should have the right poverty, age, health, disability or detention. like any other woman to choose when or Canada stands as possibly the only coun- whether to give birth, including in the case try that has removed abortion from the of a fetus with an identified impairment, criminal law, because it was deemed an without being coerced either to give birth or unconstitutional restriction on civil liberty. to have an abortion. In selective abortion, Legislation that starts by criminalising abor- resistance to sexism and disability prejudice tion and then allowing exceptions is restric- will not be advanced by removing the right tive legislation where the proportion of abor- of a woman to access information about her tions carried out legally can range between: pregnancy and make an informed decision less than one percent (Ireland), one to two about whether to give birth or have an abor- percent (Poland) to almost 100% (UK). This tion. It is most poignant to suggest that approach both medicalises, stigmatises and the way to prevent women being pressured restricts access to abortion services.13 to adhere to a particular social prejudice is This means that the presumption that to force them to adhere to a different one. abortion is a social good and a valuable part Resolving discrimination against women or of health care and birth control is precluded, disabled people will not be advanced by re- and women have to justify their case by stricting a woman’s right to choose. As giving reasons that fit the acceptable med- with later abortions it is the same right- ical criteria. When the level of restriction wing politicians who slash budgets for dis- is high, as in Ireland this means that ‘ex- ability, mental health, maternity, childcare ceptions’ such as Fatal Fetal Abnormality or schools who will pretend to be interested (FFA), rape or incest will have to be ‘proven’ in the welfare of women or disabled people in order to be ‘certified’ with unspeakable when it comes to restricting access to abor- traumatic consequences, not to speak of un- tion. necessary delays for the women involved. In this context the question of ‘which women Legislation and the Citizens’ will be denied access?’ is worth asking. Assembly Those excluded will include those whose ex- perience meets the criteria but who do not It follows from the argument for a ‘Woman’s have the evidence to prove it? Those women Right to Choose’ that restrictive laws are un- who decide early, in the first 12 weeks to justified morally and politically. They are have an abortion because they are not in also unjustified medically as causing harm a position to have a child for various rea- through delay and diversion to unsafe ser- sons, are particularly vulnerable. Restric- vices to avoid criminalisation. Medical con- tions such as only allowing FFA or rape sensus up to World Health Organisation would exclude the vast majority of these level is that abortion is a safe procedure women, as would ‘risk to health’ as a crite- carrying less risk than childbirth and that rion of eligibility. As we have seen abortions restricting abortion leads to illegal, unsafe in the first 12 weeks constitute the vast ma- abortion and causes 5,000 deaths and 5 mil- jority of abortions (over 90% in the UK an lion disabilities globally on an annual ba- ever increasing majority of which involve the sis.12 The view that the foetus is a separate use of the abortion pills). This majority will ‘patient’ requiring separate arrangements for either be excluded and diverted elsewhere, consent is not a medical view but a political or have to rely on an argument of the ‘men- and religious one. Since the UK 1967 Act tal health risks’ of having an unwanted preg- and the 1992 amendments to the Irish Con- nancy, of being forced to give birth. Most stitution on information and travel, the risks will probably avoid the humiliation and de- of harm in Ireland from restrictive laws have lay and go online to access abortion pills and been hugely reduced and related to those carry out their abortion at home supported women unable to travel for reasons including by helplines and their GP or Emergency De- 12World Health organisation (2016) 13Ann Furedi (2016), Kindle Locations 1287-1290

10 partment in the rare event of complications sideration of the lack of medical or legislative requiring medical assistance. This is cur- justification of an alternative to a ‘Woman’s rently a powerful trend and likely to con- Right to Choose’, through a Citizens’ As- tinue and intensify. Any current legislation sembly or by other means, serves only to restricting access, such as the PLDPA 2013 delay taking action to decriminalise abor- and Regulation of Information Act 1995, tion and improve access, but also serves to need to be repealed and abortion included give cover to politicians who do not wish to with all other forms of healthcare. Criminal confront the unjustifiable control of women’s sanctions already exist for healthcare pro- decisions about their own bodies or to ad- cedures, for example for severe negligence, dress the inadequacy of healthcare provision and recourse to civil law in terms of loss or of abortion, or indeed access to good health damage short of criminal negligence. Rele- and welfare services generally. vant regulations already exist for healthcare such as arrangements for conscientious ob- jection or the ability to sanction doctors for Conclusion: Solidarity poor practice and only require to have abor- As we have seen in this discussion of the po- tion included. The only form of justifiable litical issues around abortion, the ongoing legislation is legislation to ensure funding of criminalisation of abortion is not justified services so access is real. This does not nec- in terms of safety, healthcare, civil liberty essarily require specific criminal sanctions or any consistent morality. Restriction of and could be part of a much needed cam- access to abortion is a political issue that paign to improve access to healthcare gener- only facilitates unjustifiable social control. ally such as NHS-style legislation with abor- A prochoice position of a ‘Woman’s Right tion specifically included to avoid discrimi- to Choose’ respects the decision of any indi- nation. vidual to decide whether to have an abortion However, the often missing political con- or not and should raise also the political is- text of legislation is the pressure on right- sue of access to services that facilitate either wing political forces to balance their de- decision. The choice of abortion requires ac- sire to control women and appease their so- cess to a range of reproductive health ser- cial conservative supporters with conceding vices including access to abortion, while the rights to abortion under increasing public choice to have a baby requires a range of ma- pressure. The second contextual issue is the ternal and child health and welfare services pressure on left-wing political forces to do that are sorely inadequate in Ireland today. the same. There is a responsibility on par- The antichoice position respects neither po- ties claiming a left political perspective, such sition and its political advocates in Fianna as Sinn Féin, to move on from an apologetic Fáil and Fine Gael have a track record in and often obstructive stance on abortion to opposing health and welfare services that promoting and developing a Prochoice posi- would facilitate either choice. Katha Pollitt tion. in her book Pro shows the antichoice posi- Talk of ‘better access’ or ‘medical com- tion of the US right-wing Republican Party, plexity’ in theory can give cover to restric- like Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil here, is riven tion in practice and hide political ambiguity with hypocrisy: and cowardice. There is an important dif- ference between compromise and collabora- The party that claims to care tion. Preparing legislation that is more re- about babies cuts government strictive than their party’s policy, and with- programs that benefit pregnant out membership support, is precisely what women, infants, and children, in- the Labour Party has done in preparation cluding the seriously sick and for the repeal of the 8th Amendment, with disabled children they want to restrictions that are unsupportable, and al- force women to bear. The lowances such as in the case of rape, that are party that claims people don’t practically unimplementable. Further con- need government to tell them

11 how to live thinks women can- The politics of abortion then have to not be trusted with the decision do with differing political strategies to sup- of whether or not to continue port or oppose women’s oppression, class op- a pregnancy. And of course, pression and political control under capital- the party that claims to care ism. The socialist tactic of the United Front, about ‘life’ is tightly allied with will involve solidarity, uniting on common the National Rifle Association. ground with other forces on the left such as Guns don’t kill people, pregnant women’s groups, trade unions, health and women kill people.’14 civil liberty advocates as well as other pro- choice forces, to fight for greater personal The fantastic victory of the Marriage freedom and access to services. A socialist Equality referendum in 2015 signalled a ma- strategy will also draw on the wider lessons jor change in social attitudes to sex and sex- of the fight against capitalism and its sys- uality in Ireland, and many of those who tematic exploitation and oppression of the were part of that campaign will also sup- vast majority, and the power of working port a ‘Woman’s Right to Choose’ and the class solidarity, to challenge the system as repeal of the 8th Amendment and other re- a whole: strictive legislation. However support for the fundamental importance of sexual freedom Too often activists on the left evident in LGBTQI rights does not auto- make the mistake of thinking matically transfer to support for a ‘Woman’s that you must choose between Right to Choose’. While the issue of the free- a focus on fighting oppression dom to decide when and whether to engage or ignoring oppression because in sexual relations certainly raises the issue it divides workers, and instead of the right to decide when or whether to focusing on questions of class. have a child resulting from sexual relations, However, the only way to effec- the centrality of the control of women and tively challenge oppression, and the class divisions between women in terms ultimately to destroy it, is to link of access to birth control and public services the struggle against oppression mean a more fundamental challenge to the with the struggle against capital- capitalist system. The economic advantages ism. That is why Marxists argue of birth control, for a capitalist class of large that the struggle for women’s lib- scale employers who require more women eration is not separated out from in the workplace with smaller families and the wider struggle against the planned births, is offset by the political loss capitalism system. It is also why of control entailed in allowing the freedom it is vital that we make our strug- of a ‘Woman’s Right to Choose’ as well as gles reflect women’s aspirations the prospect of encouraging further political and demands and make these de- demands and struggles for better health and mands part of the wider struggle welfare services. against capitalism.’15

References:

• Collins, Stephen (2016a), ‘IT Poll: Majority want repeal of Eighth Amendment’, Irish Times, Oct 7, 2016. http://www. irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/irish-times-poll-majority-want-repeal-of-eighth-amendment-1.2819814

• Collins, Stephen (2016b), ‘Majority for repeal of Eighth Amendment, poll shows’. Irish Times, Feb 23, 2016. http: //www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/majority-for-repeal-of-eighth-amendment-poll-shows-1.2544564

• Foster, Diana (December 2013), ‘Who Seeks Abortions at or After 20 Weeks?’, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 45 (4): 210\T1\textendash218.doi:10.1363/4521013.

• Furedi, Ann (2016), The Moral Case for Abortion, Palgrave Macmillan UK, Kindle Edition.

14Katha Pollitt (2014), p.133 15Sinéad Kennedy (2013) p.16

12 • Holland, Kitty (2014), ‘Timeline of the Y Case’, Irish Times, Oct 4, 2014. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social- affairs/timeline-of-ms-y-case-1.1951699

• Kallianes, Virginia & Phyllis Rubenfeld (2010), ‘Disabled Women and Reproductive Rights’, Disability and Society, published online 01 Jul 2010, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09687599727335

• Kennedy, Sinéad (2013) ‘Marxism and Feminism in an Age of Neoliberalism’, Irish Marxist Review, Vol 2 No7, 2013. http://www.irishmarxistreview.net/index.php/imr/article/view/79

• Leahy, Pat (2016), ‘Majority support repeal of Eighth Amendment, poll shows’. Irish Times, July 8, 2016. http: //www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/majority-support-repeal-of-eighth-amendment-poll-shows-1.2714191

• Major, Brenda; Appelbaum, Mark; Beckman, Linda; Dutton, Mary Ann; Russo, Nancy Felipe; West, Carolyn, ‘Abortion and mental health: Evaluating the evidence’. American Psychologist, Vol 64(9), Dec 2009, 863-890. http://dx.doi. org/10.1037/a0017497

• McGarry, Patsy (2013), ‘Catholic Church teaching on abortion dates from 1869’, Irish Times, July 1, 2013. http://www. irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/catholic-church-teaching-on-abortion-dates-from- 1869-1.1449517

• Mercille, Julien (2015), ‘Beware Of Pundits Crying Chaos’, Broadsheet.ie, September 28th, 2015. http://www.broadsheet. ie/2015/09/28/beware-of-pundits-crying-chaos/

• Pollak, Sorcha and Carl O’Brien (2015), ‘March for Choice hears call for abortion referendum’, Irish Times, Sept 26, 2015. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/march-for-choice-hears-call-for-abortion-referendum- 1.2366549

• Pollitt, Katha (2014), Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights, Picador. Kindle Edition

• Raymond, E.G. and D.A. Grimes (2012). ‘The comparative safety of legal, induced abortion and childbirth in the United States’. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 119( 2 Pt 1), 215– 219.

• World Health Organisation (2016), Preventing Unsafe Abortion; Fact Sheet, Updated May 2016, http://www.who.int/ mediacentre/factsheets/fs388/en/ ;accessed October 21 2016.

13 Into the limelight: tax haven Ireland

Kieran Allen

The political establishment are appeal- elled booms and painful economic crashes. ing against the EU Commission’s ruling that One indication of their relative failure was Apple should pay e13 billion to Irish tax- the manner in which Ireland became a store- payers - plus interest that will amount to house for emigration. There was a decline between an extra e5 and e6 billion. They in net outward migration in only one pe- cite the ‘reputational damage’ that might riod before the Celtic Tiger, in the years be- follow acceptance of such a ruling. There tween 1971-1979. This phase was, however, was not, however, a similar level of concern marked by a re-emergence of economic re- when the UN found that Ireland’s ban on cessions in the global economy rather than abortion in the case of fatal foetal abnor- any spectacular economic advance in Ire- mality constituted ‘cruel, inhuman and de- land. Since the economic crash of 2008, emi- grading’ treatment.1 The linking of the in- gration has returned to very high levels with terest of the Irish state to those of a global about 80,000 people leaving Ireland on an- corporation is only an accentuation of an al- nual basis. It is a testimony to the continu- ready established pattern. The state has a ing weakness of Irish capitalism. Four main long established pattern of handing over its phases in the development of Irish capital- natural resources to foreign multi-nationals. ism can be described. It scores remarkably well on the Heritage Foundation’s, ‘Freedom Index’. It comes in Phase 1: 1922- 1932 The Neo-Colonial eighth place in the world’s wish list for ne- Phase oliberal wonderlands.2 How do we explain this subservience to The first strategy of the political elite who multi-nationals? Or to put it differently, took control after the Civil War was to set why is there such a gulf between the out- Ireland up as a neo-colony of Britain. Al- look of the 26 county political elite and the though Cumann na nGaedheal originated leaders of a rebellion they claim gave rise to from a Sinn Féin movement that had advo- their state? cated protectionism, this policy was imme- Historically, the central project of the diately dropped on assuming power. Instead Irish state was promoting Griffith’s notion Southern Ireland became a food producer for of a Gaelic Manchester. The founder of Sinn the UK market, mainly exporting primary Féin was a bigot and an opponent of militant produce. Britain took 92% of all Free State trade unionism. He was a virulent opponent exports and these were overwhelming com- of British rule but his primary aim was to posed of live cattle exports. The tiny man- create an Irish capitalist republic. He argued ufacturing sector was concentrated in areas that it was ‘not capitalism but the abuse of low added value and was naturally pro- of capitalism that oppresses labour’ 3 and tected. Only 0.7% of the country’s labour this abuse came primarily from English in- force was involved in manufacturing goods fluence. Griffith’s ‘Gaelic Manchester’, how- for exports. At this stage, Ireland was ac- ever, never saw the light of day. Instead curately described by De Valera as an ‘out- what emerged was a puny, weakened ver- garden’ of Britain.4 Only the larger farmers sion of capitalism. Despite dramatic shifts in who were the main support base for Cum- strategy, the Southern elite proved unable to mann na nGaedheal stood to benefit from develop a sustainable model of accumulation the continuation of this agro-export model. that was not punctuated by long crises. In- But even this class had limited resources and stead, their society swung between debt fu- never approached the power wielded by the 1‘UN says Ireland’s abortion ban ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading” Irish Times 9 June 2016 2http://www.heritage.org/index/pdf/2016/press-releases/THF-2016-Index-Overview.pdf 3P. Yeates, Lockout: Dublin 1913, Dublin Gill and Macmillan 2000 p.354 4Dáil Debates, Vol 25, Col. 478, 12 July 1928

14 latifundia owners in Latin America. Phase 3: 1958 -2001 Foreign Direct In- vestment for industry

Phase 2: 1932 -1958 The Protectionist The third phase may be characterised as us- Phase ing Foreign Direct Investment to build an industrial base. In 1958, the Irish state did The economic crash of 1929 and the arrival an about turn and relaxed the requirement to governmental office of the Fianna Fáil for majority Irish share ownership of com- radicals produced a major switch in strat- panies. Two other landmarks followed to al- egy. Fianna Fáil wanted a return to Arthur low for a new orientation to export led de- Griffith’s original model of building up Irish velopment. In 1965, an Anglo-Ireland Free industry behind protectionist barriers. They Trade Agreement area was concluded and moved quickly to increase tariffs on im- in 1973 Ireland joined the European Eco- ported goods from 9% in 1931 to 35% by nomic Community. A range of incentives 1938. The Economic War with Britain that were put in place to attract foreign direct in- ensued put the big farmers at a consider- vestment in order to build an industrial base. able disadvantage but their social weakness Multi-national companies were offered cap- meant that they could not mount a signifi- ital grants of up to two-thirds of the cost cant challenge to Fianna Fáil - although they of fixed assets along with labour training gave considerable backing to the Blueshirt grants and relief from corporation tax on fascist movement. Sometimes Fianna Fáil’s profits derived from exports. It was thought project has been presented as a return to ro- that the influx of foreign investment would mantic traditionalism - as an effort to turn create a dynamic economy and so help ex- Ireland into an island of ‘comely maiden’s pand indigenous Irish capital. dancing at the cross roads’. However, this At first the policy appeared to yield im- misses the ambiguities of nationalism. Be- pressive results. 70% of additional employ- hind the use of a traditionalist rhetoric lay a ment created up to 1974 was in foreign firms. determined effort to modernise Ireland and In 1960 exports of merchandise contributed break from a neo-colonial model. Fianna to 27% of GDP but this figure rose to 75% Fáil’s early base amongst workers arose from in 2000. At its high point in 1980, manu- their success in pulling together a coalition facturing accounted for 248,600 jobs, nearly of native capitalists and workers to challenge a quarter of the working population. From the agro-export model. an Irish capitalist viewpoint, the drive to Initially, the strategy showed limited turn Ireland into a platform which US and signs of success. Industrial employment rose British companies used for export was ben- from 170,000 in 1931 to 227,000 in 1951. eficial. It did not saturate the home market The sectoral composition of manufactur- with cheaper goods or cause a crowding out ing broadened to include clothing, footwear, of opportunities for Irish firms. Instead, new metals and engineering - even if the size of spaces were created for servicing an expand- workplaces remained relatively small. In- ing economy and, to a much lesser extent, for dustry was, however, almost totally geared some linkages with the multi-national sec- to a small domestic market and by 1960 only tor. 1.4% of the total labour force was employed However, by 1982, an official Telesis re- in manufacturing exports.5 The limited size port warned that there was an over reliance of domestic market meant that the protec- on foreign industry as Irish capitalism was tionist strategy eventually ran aground. One not expanding as quickly as they liked. They indicator of the failure was the fact that a to- called for a reduction in the level of grants of- tal of 440,000 people left the country during fered to foreign firms and greater support for the 1950s—one in seven of the entire popu- indigenous industry. They pointed out that lation. Another change of direction was re- the foreign firms tended to operate branch quired. plans with research and development being 5E. O Malley, Industry and Economic Development, Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1989 p.68

15 conducted elsewhere. They concluded that struct an Irish industrial base ended in fail- ure. In 2001 there were 251,000 workers em- Foreign-owned industrial opera- ployed in manufacturing but today this has tions in Ireland with few ex- declined to 183,190, the lowest number in ceptions do not embody the recent decades. A number of factors were key competitive activities of the involved here. There was a global shift of in- businesses in which they par- vestment to developing countries. By 2015, ticipate, do not employ signif- for example, 55 percent of global FDI was icant numbers of skilled work- going to developing economies whereas pre- ers; and are not significantly in- viously it represented less than a third.7 Sec- tegrated into traded and skilled ond, US investment decreased substantially 6 sub-supply industries in Ireland after the 2001-2 downturn as corporations This report was a harbinger of the prob- began to hoard cash or move towards finan- lems ahead. The recessions of the 1980s led cial speculation. Thirdly, the crash of 2008 to a sharp reduction in foreign investment further accelerated the flight of foreign cap- and a new wave of mass emigration begun. ital from industry. Approximately 50,000 The IDA responded by offering even greater jobs were lost in the three years since the incentives to flagship companies such as In- crash. Moreover despite fifty years of a strat- tel in the hope of creating new clusters of for- egy designed to stimulate indigenous indus- eign capital. But even though this strategy, try, Irish industrial capital remained small, appeared to work for a period, the electron- extremely weak and geared to the more nat- ics industry - which was a particular IDA urally protected home markets. Only 3% target- eventually began to migrate to East- of Irish SMEs (small and medium size firms ern Europe where even cheaper labour was with up to 249 employees) are active in man- available. ufacturing, whereas the equivalent figure for The Irish elite, however, got lucky due to the EU is 10%. 83% of manufacturing en- developments at EU level over which they terprises employed less than 10 people and had little influence. In 1987, EU member 95% employed less than 50 people. These states signed the Single European Act and were essentially the Irish firms. the process of full integration was completed by 1992. This in turn put pressure on US Tax haven capitalism companies who wanted a platform for entry Phase 4: 2001 - present, Tax Haven into that market to find a location inside the Capitalism EU. Ireland’s offer of generous grants and tax incentives combined with a good supply It might be suggested that the failure to of an educated, relatively cheap and an En- build an industrial base did not matter be- glish speaking workforce made it a favoured cause Ireland, like the rest of Europe, was destination. The structural weakness of us- becoming a service economy. In terms of ing FDI to create an industrial base which its statistical profile, Ireland does not differ was visible in the 1980s disappeared again markedly from Britain or Denmark in hav- from view. Instead a new spurt of US in- ing 11% of the workforce employed in manu- vestment laid the basis for the first phase of facturing. However this ignores the specific the Celtic Tiger. By 1998, over 26 percent character of the service economy that devel- of all greenfield sites set up by US compa- oped in Ireland. nies in the EU were located in Ireland. The At the core of this economy was a tax amount of US capital deployed per worker shelter for global corporations. In simple was a staggering seven times the EU aver- terms, the country was marketed as a cen- age. tre for tax dodging. The key sectors of this However, this late spurt was an anomaly economy relied on tax breaks and around because the third phase of seeking to con- these was built a low level service economy. 6NESC, A Review of Industrial Policy (Telesis Report) Dublin: NESC, 1982 p.115 7UNCTAD, World Investment Report 2015, Geneva, UN Publication, 2015 p.2

16 Despite much vaunted discussion on how Ire- ily, for example, contributed to the Haughey land was moving up the value chain, the ser- benevolent fund in the hope that the trust vices sector was mainly characterised by low status of the firm - which was due for renewal productivity levels, small enterprises and - would stay in place. was geared to a domestic economy. There By the mid 1980s, these practices led to are two main reasons why the Irish elite a re-structuring of Irish capitalism around moved towards creating a tax haven. three main pillars which relied on tax dodg- First, the long history of weakness in ing. These were financial services; the multi- Irish capitalism meant that the state was national export sector; the property specula- seen as a direct helper for individual busi- tion. The prospect of building an industrial nesses. Marx defined the capitalist state as base simply disappeared. A fourth pillar the the ‘committee for managing the common food export industry grew out of the long affairs’ of the rich and by this he meant established role that Ireland played in sup- that one of its functions was to forge a com- plying primary produce. Let us look at the mon strategy for competing elite actors. The three centres of tax dodging in turn and de- Irish state performed this function but it fer consideration of the food industry to a was also viewed as a generous supporter for later stage. individual companies. The state could be prevailed upon to bend rules and to do spe- cial favours for particular business interests. a) The IFSC The extraordinary links between the Good- Given the historically close relationship be- man group of companies and the Irish polit- tween the corporate and political elite, it ical elite is one example. This company was took no stretch of the imagination to extend picked as a winner by the Irish state and re- the practice of tax dodging to the global ceived huge amount of grants and preferen- corporate world. One of the most signif- tial access to foreign markets. When it went icant moves in this direction was the cre- bankrupt, the Dáil was re-called to help res- ation of the Irish Financial Services Cen- cue it. The manner in which the state res- tre. This arose from a proposal by the busi- cued the privately owned Allied Irish Bank nessman, Dermot Desmond, to his friend, after one of its subsidiaries, the Insurance Charles Haughey. Desmond had previously Corporation of Ireland, lost e400 million is commissioned a report from the accountancy another example. In brief, the weakness of firm PWC and it was immediately accepted Irish capitalism helped to create a ‘friction- by Haughey and the Fianna Fáil party. One less relationship’ between the political and senior civil servant described how the ‘fric- corporate elites. tionless relationship between the corporate Second, this relationship reached a new and political elite moved to a higher level, intensity under the leadership of Charles Haughey. Haughey’s regime was charac- terised by blatant corruption connected to The IFSC was a success in my tax dodging. A cabal of business people view primarily because of the contributed funds to support his extravagant excellent working arrangements lifestyle from an offshore tax account known between the private and the pub- as the Ansbacher account. Tax dodging lic sector. The IFSC prod- was already common practice amongst the uct was clearly defined around wealthy as this account was opened in 1971 the favourable taxation benefits and involved the ‘great and good’ of Irish so- and the capability of an edu- ciety. The leading organiser of the account cated workforce. These factors was Haughey’s bagman, Des Traynor, who combined with the willingness of was the chairperson of Ireland largest com- the authorities to meet and dis- pany, CRH. The main reason wealthy peo- cuss the specific requirements of ple ‘invested’ in Haughey was to gain further prospective corporations made tax favours from the state. The Dunne fam- for a competitive product offer-

17 ing.8 companies to track the earnings and keep accounts for their clients.9 Dublin’s niche One of the ways the close relation- market lies in the lower level administra- ship was maintained was through the cre- tive companies and it functions essentially ation of a committee which brought together as the grunt worker for the speculative ac- bankers, financiers, the Revenue Commis- tivity conducted in London and New York. sioners and key civil servants to plan out a However as well as performing administra- centre for light regulation and significant tax tive tasks, its main attraction is ‘tax neu- dodging. trality’ and light touch regulation. The IFSC has expanded dramatically There are now 1,300 Financial Vehicles since then. Originally founded as a desig- Corporations and Special Purpose Vehicles nated, low tax zone in Dublin’s docklands, operating inside the IFSC. These are enti- it now refers to a virtual space for the export ties which have been established by banks of traded financial services. Total assets of or other financial institutions. A Financial the financial sector amounted to e3.6 tril- Vehicle Corporation is normally established lion in 2012, or 2,147 per cent of Irish GDP. for the purpose of ‘securitisation’ - bundling This puts Ireland just behind Luxemburg together loans, mortgages or rents into a and Malta in its reliance on finance as a key package which guarantees an income stream. motor of its economy. Since the economic There are 779 Financial Vehicle Corpora- crash of 2008, the IFSC’s attraction for tax tions with assets totalling e415 billion in the dodgers has grown dramatically. From 2008- IFSC, a wealth that is equivalent to twice 2014, investment funds have increased four- the size of the Irish economy. There are fold and Ireland has also moved to the centre nearly ten time as many FVCs and FVC as- of global speculation by hedge funds. Cur- sets in Ireland as there are Germany. Closely rently, for example, 40 percent of the world’s related to the FVCs are the Special Purpose hedge funds are managed in Ireland. Vehicles. These are entities set up for spe- The various forms of ‘asset management’ cific purposes -including securitisation - but, undertaken in the IFSC involve rich people crucially, they do not have to be registered. putting money into investment funds that There are 600 SPVs in the IFSC and they can be moved about the world to gain max- control e150 billion of assets. imum advantage. It represents the purest The main reason why these entities are form of capital, disconnected from any im- in the IFSC is to enjoy the tax neutral bene- mediate tie to a local unit but, through its fits of Section 110 of Tax Consolidated Acts endless movement, creating a global rate of 1997. A company has only to be officially profit. These funds are typically organised resident in Ireland and to deal in ‘qualifying through a three-fold division of labour: pro- assets’ such as shares, bonds, money mar- moters, who advertise and guarantee that kets, commodity speculation, carbon emis- the money is not misused; investment man- sions or leases. The market value of these agers, who decide where to put the money; assets must be at least e10 million to gain administrators, who carry out the low-key tax neutrality. Typically the shadow bank clerical duties associated with caring for rich needs only to make contact with an Irish tax people’s money. The investment managers planner to ensure it claims its tax breaks. are at the top of the food chain, charging a As Matheson explains, ‘no special rules or fee of 2 percent a year and taking a cut of authorisations are required in Ireland in or- 20 percent on the profits made. Typically, der for an SPV to achieve tax neutral sta- the investment managers sit in plush offices tus’.10 More broadly, the IFSC is regarded in Mayfair, London and use administrative as a clean, safe tax haven that lies inside the 8‘Memoirs of the IFSC’ in Finance Magazine no date http://www.finance-magazine.com/display_ article.php?i=2303&pi=142 9D. MacKenzie, ‘An Address in Mayfair’, London Review of Books Vol. 30, No. 23 December 2008, pp.9-12. 10Matheson, Ireland: The SPV Jurisdiction of Choice for Structured Finance Transactions Dublin: Math- eson, 2013, p.2

18 EU. Irish investment funds are virtually ex- They met under the auspices of empt from tax on their income and gains. the ‘Clearing House’, a secretive There are no ‘withholding taxes’ when the group of financial industry ex- income is distributed to non-resident share- ecutives, accountants and public holders. There is a network of tax treaties servants formed in 1987 to pro- which allow tax advantages to be retained mote Dublin as a financial hub. when the money is brought back to the in- The participants thrashed out 21 vestors’ home country. separate taxation and legal in- The IFSC presents an image of com- centives sought by the financial plying fully with EU regulations while pro- industry at the meeting which viding enough ‘flexibility’ to avoid over- took place in room 308 in the intrusive supervision. A Qualifying Investor prime minister’s office... Fund, for example, can be authorised within The lobbying was done in se- 24 hours on receipt of the paper work, cret behind closed doors, says provided the fund manager works through Nessa Childers, an Irish member an Irish accredited administrator. There of the European parliament, who are very few restrictions so that investment got minutes of the meeting using managers can borrow heavily to gamble and freedom of information laws last invest their money in under- regulated but year. ‘The bankers and hedge more risky funds. Once an investment fund fund industry got virtually ev- is listed with the Irish Stock Exchange, erything they asked for while the it can be ‘passported’ throughout the EU, public got hit with a number of meaning it can attract investors from across austerity measures.’12 the continent. The other big advantage is that state pol- The Irish state’s collusion with financial icy is shaped by financial interests, with the interest was in evidence when the EU Com- state acting as both a lobbyist for these in- mission suggested a small Financial Trans- terests inside the EU and constantly intro- actions Tax. The proposal was for a 0.1 per- ducing legislative changes to facilitate them. cent tax levy on share and bond transac- Irish policy on financial services is still effec- tions and an even smaller 0.01 percent tax on tively managed by the IFSC Clearing House derivatives. This tiny tax could have raised Group, a body made up of top public ser- significant money for the hard pressed Irish vants and representatives of the financial exchequer. The EU estimated that e500 services industry. It includes figures from million could be garnered from this tax - the Bank of America, Citibank, BNY Mellon, equivalent of what the government intended State Street and the Irish Bankers Federa- to raise with the property tax. Eleven coun- tion.11 The Clearing House Group is not tries in the EU - including France and Ger- a lobbying agency because it is officially many - agreed to go ahead with the tax but embedded in the key Department of the Ireland refused to. As soon as the EU pro- Taoiseach. It helps devise government strat- posal became known, the Department of Fi- egy and advises on tax changes that are in- nance convened a meeting of the main cor- corporated into the annual Finance Bills. In porations operating in the IFSC and asked addition, the chair of IFSC Ireland, the for- them to make their case against it. No inde- mer Taoiseach, John Bruton promotes pub- pendent research was commissioned on the lic lobbying for the IFSC. His position is impact of such a tax on Ireland. Instead the funded by the industry but the IDA pro- state used material derived from a survey vides administrative support. The power of of financial corporations to come out vehe- the IFSC Clearing House Group is indicated mently against the proposal. in this report from the Financial Times of a The reality about how the IFSC really meeting held in November 2011, works has been hidden behind a barrage of 11Written Answers, Department of the Taoiseach, 13 March 2012 12‘Great tax race: Ireland’s policies aid business more than public’ Financial Times May 1 2013

19 state propaganda that stresses its contribu- Ireland plays a minor role in this aggres- tion to the Irish economy. Its supporters sive strategy through one of its subsidiaries, claim that it contributes up to 20% of Cor- GE Capital Aviation Funding. In 2011, the poration Taxes but the official figure used Shannon based aircraft leasing finance com- by the Minister for Finance in response to pany recorded pre-tax profits of $765 mil- a Dáil question was that e630 million was lion, making it one of the most profitable paid in 2010.13 That was from a total corpo- companies in Ireland. Yet it had no employ- rate taxable income of e3.9 billion which in ees and only paid $379,000 in corporation turn was only a fraction of the vast amount profits tax to the Irish state. It used Irish of wealth that flows through the IFSC. This tax laws to claim ‘group relief’ and so paid tax, in fact, represented 16% of all corpo- only 0.5 percent tax on its profits.15 In 2014, rate taxes or only 2% of total state revenue. the top aircraft leasing firms SMBC, Pem- Compared to the reported assets of e1,165 broke Capital, AWAS Capital, GECAS and billion in domiciled funds that are invested Avolon, showed aggregate pre-tax profits of in the IFSC, this is a miniscule figure. It $650m (e572.9m) generated from revenues indicates that the centres acts as a magnet of $3.25bn. They paid just e23 million in for tax dodging. tax or just 4% of their profits.

Table 1: Employment in foreign owned en- b) The multi-national sector terprises.

Multi-national companies account for 90% 1991 2010 Foreign owned of Ireland exports and are increasingly using manufacturing 89,167 80,089 Ireland primarily as a base for tax dodging Foreign owned internationally traded services 7,398 59,110 rather than as a production centre. Goods Source: F. Barry Eveolution of FDI Intensity and services are certainly made in Ireland www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/newsevents/documents/ but these activities are tied to, and depen- seminars/FDIintensity.ppt dent on, tax dodging. Employment in manu- facturing is contracting and the multination- als only employ 80,000 manufacturing work- The manner in which the multi-nationals ers compared to 89,167 in 1991.The MNCs use Ireland as a base for tax dodging was have shifted their focus to ‘internationally illustrated in the extraordinary claim that traded services’ as Table 1 indicates. This the Irish economy had grown by 26% on an is a vague category that is used by the Cen- annual basis in 2016. One reason for this tral Statistics Office and includes such sec- statistical miracle was a practice known as tors as aircraft leasing which offers a partic- inversion whereby a US company takes over ularly dramatic example of tax dodging. a small Irish company as its headquarters for Ireland has become the leading global tax purposes. The National Treasury Man- centre for this business as Irish based multi- agement Agency recently stated that, nationals own or manage 19 percent of the world’s commercial aircraft. The biggest The reclassification of several leaser is a subsidiary of General Electric - large companies as Irish resi- a company that has an unequalled record of dent expanded the capital stock tax dodging in the US. It made profits of in 2015 by e300bn or c.40%. $14 billion in 2010 but paid no US taxes. The goods produced by the ad- Its extraordinary success, according to the ditional capital were mainly ex- New York Times, is based on ‘an aggres- ported. ...Net exports grew by sive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for 102.4% in 2015. Complicating tax breaks and innovative accounting that matters, the goods were pro- enables it to concentrate profits offshore’.14 duced through ‘contract manu- 13Dáil Eireann, Written Answers – Financial Regulation, 15 December 2011, 40673/11 14‘GE’s Strategies Let it Avoid Taxes Altogether’ New York Times 24 March 2011. 15‘Pre-tax Profits of e606 million for aviation leasing firm’ Irish Times 20 June 2012.

20 facturing’. The result of contract categories used to reduce tax on profit are manufacturing is this goods ex- allowances, losses, deductions and reliefs. port is recorded in the Irish Bal- When a company suffers losses - as many ance of Payments even though it did with the crash - they can be stored up was never produced in Ireland. and used to claim tax relief. Losses in one There is little or no employment part of company can also be used to reduce effect in Ireland from this con- taxes in other subsidiary entities. Only a tract manufacturing.16 small proportion of the losses that were writ- ten off for tax purposes were used in this More broadly, the multi-national compa- accounting period and so far more can be nies - and large Irish companies - manage used in the future. There is also a host of to dodge taxes through a variety of mech- other deductions and reliefs and this is where anisms. There is an official rate of 12.5% Ireland’s vast army of ‘tax planners’ come corporation tax which is the lowest rate in into play. Ireland’s many tax attractions are the OECD. Ireland’s rate is rivalled in Eu- made available to both the multinationals rope only by countries like Cyprus and Bul- and Irish business by planners who charge garia. This tax rate, however, only acts substantial fees. as a headline invitation to multi-nationals. When they delve deeper into matters, they There are very limited rules concerning discover - thanks to the help of Ireland’s vast transfer pricing. These refer to a practice tax planning network - that actual taxation whereby multi-nationals manipulate their is much lower than 12.5%. Table 2 illustrates internal pricing structure to make it appear how the effective rate is far lower by looking that extra profits were made in countries at the returns for 2008. that have low tax rates. Until 2009, Ireland simply had no rules and corporations could Table 2: Corporation Tax for Accounting artificially reduce prices of components used Period ending 2012 in emillion. in Irish subsidiaries so that larger profits

Profits 72,533 appeared to be made there. Limited leg- Minus allowances for losses, islation was introduced in the Finance Act plant machinery, charges, industrial buildings and of 2010 but it was designed to give legal plus rental income -11,017 cover to the existing lax practice. As De- Total Income and Gains (before deduction) 61,516 loitte put it in their tax planning pitch to Further Deductions of companies, ‘the presence of a formal trans- Taxable Income 3,673 Gross Tax Due after fer pricing regime should provide additional 12.5% standard rate 5.273 credibility for Revenue when dealing with Further Reliefs 775.8 Tax Payable 4,173 (foreign tax jurisdiction) cases’ but would Effective Rate of Tax not impose a ‘significant additional burden’ on declared profits 5.7% on multinational corporations.17 The new Source: Revenue Commissioners Statistical Report 2012 Cor- poration Tax Distribution Statistics, p 5 law is based on an OECD concept of ‘arms length’ transactions, which suggests that in- ternal company prices should appear as if they were transacted between independent In 2012, e73 billion was declared in prof- bodies. But as Michael Durst, a US trea- its but just over e4 billion was paid in tax. sury official, put it there are no ‘uncontrolled That amounts to an effective tax rate of comparables’ to check if a corporation is ma- 6 percent - which is half the official rate. nipulating internal prices.18 It is even more The table also gives some indication for how difficult to apply ‘arms length principles’ to this reduction is achieved. The four main ‘intangible’ items such as patents and royal- 16NTMA, The Irish Economy and Public Finances, http://www.ntma.ie/business-areas/funding- and-debt-management/irish-economy/ 17Deloitte, Transfer Pricing Legislation in Ireland - A New reality, Dublin: Deloitte, 2010, p.48. 18Quoted in D. Spencer, ‘Transfer Pricing: When will the OECD adjust to Reality’ Tax Justice Network 24 May 2012.

21 ties which Ireland specialises in supporting. pany receiving them is resident in another The Tax Justice Network claims that the EU state or one of the many countries Ire- only effect of new legislative changes is to land has a tax treaty with. give a boost to ‘auditing firms and law firms Up to recently, Ireland allowed compa- and economic consulting firms which derive nies to be incorporated in Ireland but not substantial income from advising and con- tax resident. They merely had to show that sulting about those (OECD) Guidelines’.19 they were effectively controlled from else- Ireland has no ‘thin capitalisation’ rules. where. They could do this by having their Companies may be funded through a vari- board of directors meet regularly in another ety of mechanisms, typically selling shares country and have regular conference calls or through borrowing. A company which with directors based in Ireland. This loop- borrows heavily will pay a large amount hole was abolished after the US senate be- of interest but one advantage is that this gan to investigate the ‘double Irish scam’ can be written off for tax purposes. Com- whereby US companies were using this to panies, therefore, often want to fund their dodge taxes. However, even though it is operations through debt in order to reduce officially abolished there is a ‘grandfather their tax bill. However, many countries have clause’ to allow companies who originally en- rules to prevent this type of tax avoidance - joyed this provision before the date of its known as thin capitalisation rules - but in abolition to continue to benefit from it until Ireland there are none. As a result, a hold- 2020. ing company with nominal share capital is in Ireland offers special tax breaks for com- a position to fund its operations by virtually panies involved in Research and Develop- unlimited borrowings and interest on these ment. These began in 2004 when a special borrowings can be deducted for tax. Mean- tax credit of 25% was available for expen- while, the directors can laugh all the way to diture on R and D but this was then ex- the bank. tended in the 2015 budget when a special There are also no ‘Controlled Foreign rate of 6.25%, known as a ‘Knowledge De- Company’ regulations that designate income velopment Box’ rate for intellectual prop- from subsidiaries of Irish registered compa- erty, was introduced. The official explana- nies as taxable in Ireland. In other countries, tion for this strategy was that it aimed to CFC rules demand that tax be paid on prof- create an information society. In reality, its of a foreign subsidiary, even if they are however, the R and D tax reliefs are tailor not distributed as dividends. The absence of made for the pharmaceutical industry and, CFC rules is marketed heavily by the Indus- with slightly more onerous paper work, for trial Development Authority when Ireland the software industry. These can claim that is pushed as a venue for holding companies. much of their products are based on ‘intan- Subsidiaries of these holding companies tend gible’ knowledge, which is patent protected to be located throughout Europe, the Mid- by showing that some research and develop- dle East and Africa. The big advantage is ment has been carried out in Ireland. The that no tax is imposed on the profits, divi- US parent company will conduct most of the dends or capital gains that flow in. research in its home country and then - at Ireland offers extraordinarily generous the final stage- transfer some additional re- support for wealthy people who want to take search work to Ireland. It can then licence their money out of Ireland. A corporation the Intellectual Property rights to an Irish can be formally incorporated in Jersey, - subsidiary and gain tax free income from it where even more lax provisions prevail - and because the Irish government has written its resident in Ireland for tax purposes. It can tax laws to help this type of activity. How- then receive streams of income from its sub- ever, the scope for manipulation is massive. sidiaries across the world and pay out huge Two hundred special audits were carried out dividends on the profits. But these divi- in 2013 and it was found ‘several multina- dends will not be taxed if the person or com- tional firms have been found to be aggres- 19Tax Justice Network, Statement on Transfer Pricing, 21 March 2012

22 sively and improperly claiming tax credits the semblance of real economic activity and for research and development to lower their an aura of greater respectability. corporation tax bills’.20 Table 3: Profits and Profitability of US The Apple case has exposed how ma- Multinationals in 2008. jor corporations also benefit from individual tax rulings from the Revenue Commission- Profit • as a • ers. When a multi-national is establishing in Before Effe- Profit Profit % of Tax ctive as a as a worker Profit Ireland or plans to expand its operations, its Profits Tax % of % of compen- per ($m) Rate sales assets sation worker representatives typically meet with the Rev- Ireland $46,337 7.3% 18.6% 117% 708% $520,640 Switzerland $16,352 11.5% 5.9% 141% 189% $200,638 enue Commissioners to get ‘Advanced Price Bermuda $8,354 4.8% 14.3% 132% 2,234% $2,610,625 Barbados $44,263 6.9% 38.0% 251% 11,218% $4,263,000 Agreements’. These are essentially under- Singapore $12,255 8.1% 4.3% 84% 227% $103,157 Five Tax standings of how transfer pricing will work Havens Total $87,561 7.9% 10.0% 119% 417% $298,334 and what will be considered to be taxable World Wide income. In the case of an Apple subsidiary, Total $408,720 35.2% 7.9% 42% 93% $40,372 a ruling meant that it paid less than 1% of Source: Martin O’ Sullivan Testimony to Committee on Ways and Means, US House of Representatives, January 20, 2011. its income on tax from 2003 onwards and Based on data from Bureau of Economic Analysis of the US this declined even further to 0.005% in 2014. Department of Commerce, Data do not include banks. In defence of these arrangements, the Irish government admitted that, ‘Ireland does not have a statutorily binding tax ruling sys- tem’.21 In other words, there are many more c) Property cases of such rulings being made. In reply Construction and property have tradition- to a Dáil question, Finance Minister Noonan ally been highly attractive for Irish capi- stated that 99 rulings were given to compa- talists. The building industry is a better- 22 nies in 2010, 128 in 2011 and 108 in 2012. protected sector than others as it is more dif- This information was only made available ficult to import cement and bulky materials because it was requested by the EU Com- than, say, washing machines or computers. mission. In general, the Irish state refuses Irish capitalists who invested in construc- to divulge any details of such rulings, citing tion were, therefore, sheltered from the full confidentiality. However, it may be assumed rigors of competition on the global markets. that other companies benefit from such ar- The property market is also more easily in- rangements as the Irish government is ap- fluenced by state intervention. The capital- pealing the EU Commission ruling on the spending programmes of the state or its tax- basis that Apple received no special treat- ation policy can quickly expand the market. ment. The state is also a major landlord and where These measures have helped to establish it decides to rent can have a major impact Ireland as one of the premier tax havens on individual property values. At a local in the world. There is now overwhelming level, decisions on land re-zoning can bring evidence that corporations are artificially about major speculative gains. Political re- declaring greater business activity and prof- lations are, therefore, a necessary part of its in Ireland purely for tax purposes. The business in this sector and the Irish wealthy table below from Martin O’Sullivan was pre- are more than adept at establishing these sented as testimony to a US hearing on tax connections. havens. It illustrates how profits per Irish Property speculation creates the possi- worker are exceptionally high and compara- bility of short-term profits and this is typi- ble to that of other tax havens, with the ex- cally the time frame that a weaker form of ception of Bermuda and Barbados. Despite capitalism prefers. Large loans can be taken the attraction of the latter, however, more from banks and can be re-paid quickly if the profits are declared in Ireland because it has market is booming. Simon Kelly, son of the 20‘Multi-nationals ‘exaggerated’ research activity to lower tax bills’ Irish Times, 3 September 2015 21‘State to ‘vigorously defend’ position as EC probes Apple’s tax deal’ Irish Independent 12/06/2014 22Dáil Debates, Vol.883 no 1 Written Answers 82-91

23 property developer Paddy Kelly, summed with Lone Star capital three times and with up the mentality, ‘when the market heated Apollo capital twice in 2013 and 2014. The up, buying meant winning: every time you government also put in place, a number of bought land, you made money. It seemed specific measures to help these funds avoid as easy as that’.23 Irish capitalists, there- tax. fore, saw property as nearly risk free with At an early stage they introduced a lim- little capital tied up in machinery over an ex- ited ‘Capital Gains Tax holiday’ which ex- tended period. The mania for property was empted any gain realised on the sale of real most evident during the Celtic Tiger years. estate purchased between 7 December 2011 In 1999, a third of all lending to Irish capital- and 31 December 2014 and held for at least ists went to property and construction but, seven years from Capital Gains Tax. Non- by 2007, this had jumped to three quarters. resident investor funds could also limit their Ireland was constructing more housing units tax liability to 20% of rental income, in addi- per head of population than anywhere else tion to enjoying the CGT holiday. Wealthy in Europe. investors in property were also encouraged And then, of course, the bubble burst. to form Qualifying Investor Alternative In- The Irish rich stood to lose billions but, for- vestment Funds (QIAIF). These were sim- tunately for them the state was there to lend ply funds that were regulated and registered a helping hand - even if it led to a housing with the authorities. A host of helpful Irish crisis. tax planners from legal and accountancy firms were on hand to do the necessary paper In order to salvage as much of their for- work. Once the QIAIFs were registered, rich tunes, as they could, FG led governments people could enjoy a tax exempt vehicle for adopted a number of measures to boost the property speculation. They did not have to property market. They cut back on social pay tax on rental income or pay capital gains housing and introduced a number of schemes tax on the profits they might make from re- to subsidise private landlords who housed sale. The only condition was that they were those in need. In addition, they resorted not Irish resident. There were no withhold- once more to the tactics of facilitating tax ing or exit taxes applying on income distri- dodging to attract in US ‘vulture funds’ to butions or redemption payments made by an buy up distressed Irish property and thus Irish QIAIF to non-Irish resident investors. help re-start a property boom. Tax relief In the word of PWC, ‘the Irish QIAIF is an - in the form of Section 23 tax breaks, the exceptionally efficient real estate holding ve- Seaside Resort Scheme, and a student ac- hicle.’24 commodation relief scheme - had tradition- ally been used by Fianna Fáil to stimu- As if this were not enough, wealthy peo- late property speculation prior to the Celtic ple could also invoke the Section 110 provi- Tiger collapse. Fine Gael, however, moved sion to write off tax by balancing their liabil- to even more dramatic reliefs to turn a prop- ities against apparent loans - often from par- erty bust into a recovery. Their strategy ent companies. They could also use a strat- was to bring foreign capital into Ireland’s egy of ‘orphan’ charitable trusts to buy up distressed property market and state official property and reduce their tax liability even and senior politicians actively engaged with further. the lords of finance. The Department of Fi- The chief economist with the Central nance met with investment fund managers Bank has estimated that the vulture funds on 65 occasions between 2013 and 2014, have bought up e300 billion of Irish assets and Enda Kenny personally held a private but only a small fraction of these are li- meeting with Blackstone in late 2011. The able for tax.25 The largest purchasers of Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, met Irish loan books have been Goldman Sachs, 23S. Kelly, Breakfast with Anglo, Dublin: Penguin Ireland, 2010, p.36. 24PWC, Irish Real Estate Investment Structures, Dublin: PWC, 2016 p.4 25‘e300 billion of assets in Irish vulture funds’ http://www.todayfm.com/300-billion-assets-in- Irish-vulture-funds

24 Cerberus, Deutsche Bank, Lone Star, Car- sition or social relations. It accepts the pa- Val and Apollo. These companies often hire rameters set by Irish state and focuses on Irish front men - often from among the very how revenue from income, indirect taxes and builders and bankers who helped trigger the excise can be divided up. However the tax 2008 crash - and tax planners from lucrative loopholes for corporate sector and the ab- accountancy and legal firms. Apollo Man- sence of a wealth tax means that Irish work- agement, for example, is a particularly in- ers are paying more tax just to maintain ba- teresting case. It is owned by the former sic services. This has become particularly Drexel Burnham Lamber banker Leon Black apparent since the Celtic Tiger crash when – one of the richest men on Wall Street but the state’s strategy was to offload the bur- it is fronted up by Brian Goggin, the former den of paying for the crash on to the mass CEO of Bank of Ireland who retired on a of the population. These were hit with ex- pension package of e626,000 a year. tra taxes to bail out banks and to protect The vulture funds have made fortunes the existing tax haven. buying up Irish distressed assets but have Workers on average income pay an extra paid virtually no tax. Goldman Sachs sub- e800 a year due to changes in tax bands. sidiary Beltany generated income of e44 The PAYE sector as a whole is contribut- million in 2014 - but paid just e250 in cor- ing e4 billion more in a Universal Social poration tax. Cerberus generated more than Charge, with half of that coming from those e140 million of revenue on its Irish assets, with incomes less than 440,000. This is on but paid less than e2,500 in tax. Cayman- top of extra user fees for water and a tax linked Mars Capital generated revenue of on the family home. Instead of accepting a e14 million in 2014 but also paid just e250. parameter of more income tax cuts versus So too did Launceston Property Finance, spending on public services - which is the a spin off from the Luxembourg-registered dominant framing in the political discourse CarVal which generated e16 million. - it would be more appropriate to examine ways in which corporations and the wealthy Unstable could pay more tax in order to cut taxes on workers and improve public services. Ireland’s role as the respectable Atlantic tax haven is detrimental for Irish society in a Tax dodging has other less obvious detri- host of ways. It helps to create an extremely mental effects on Irish society, some of which unequal society where the poorest sections are captured in the concept of a ‘financial are deprived of proper public services. The curse’ developed by Nicholas Shaxson and strategy of boosting the property market, for John Christensen.27 It leads to an over- example, has had a major impact on those supply of credit which causes the type of se- who pay exorbitant rents or who have been vere distortions evident in the Irish property rendered homeless. market during the late Celtic Tiger era. Vast Sometimes, however, the issue is posed amounts of mobile finance in search of ‘tax as: ‘do we want better public services OR re- neutrality’ can also crowd out other forms duced taxes’. The Nevin Institute, for exam- of investment by raising property prices. ple, point to Ireland’s relatively overall low Moreover by generating high salaries for a tax take as a proportion of GDP and sug- few they can distort education and train- gest that it is better to retain taxes such as ing. A culture of tax dodging reduces po- the USC because it is ‘progressive’ and will litical discourse to a debate about how best help fund public services.26 But this framing to ‘attract’ foreign investment. Every item assumes that there is a mythical ‘taxpayer’ from environmental controls to the regula- who has been cast adrift from any class po- tion of labour standards is viewed through 26Nevin Institute Opening Statement to Select Committee on Budgetary Oversight, 6 Septem- ber 2016 http://www.nerinstitute.net/blog/2016/09/13/opening-statement-to-the-budgetary- oversight-commi/ 27N. Shaxson and J. Christensen, The Finance Curse: How oversized financial centres attack democracy and corrupt economies, London: Tax Justice Network 2013

25 the prism of how it might attract or repel exchange rate).28 This represents an in- foreign investment. The local advocates for crease in the global debt to GDP ratio from the tax dodgers - the large accountancy and 246% to 286%. Significantly, these large legal firms - assume greater dominance over increases are accompanied by rising house- political debate. Typically, they shift from hold and corporate debt. Much of this debt finding tax loopholes to acting as research has been undertaken by the most advanced consultants who win tenders from govern- economies as these have been particularly ment departments to draw up reports which worried by the continuing slowdown of their restrict parameters for debate. Inside the economies.29 These in turn have the power machinery of the state, the principal advo- to exert pressure on other states that are cate for foreign investment - the Industrial deemed to be depriving them of tax revenue. Development Authority- gains more influ- This is the background to a new dis- ence and even freedom to issue pronounce- course about ‘cracking down on tax havens’. ments on behalf of its clients. The OECD has developed an agenda of de- The overall economy is increasingly at manding transparency and country by coun- the mercy of volatile capital flows. When try reporting of profit and income. The at- there is an abundance of distressed assets tack on tax havens is by no means a deter- for sale, there is an influx of capital seeking mined one and in the short term Ireland has quick profit and tax neutrality. But in a jit- continued to attract tax dodging investment. tery world market when corporations require But in the longer term, the mere fact that it a ‘flight to safety’, emerging economies suffer has begun to be named as a tax haven rep- from severe dislocations due to the outflows resents a threat to its continued existence. of capital. In Ireland’s case there is already The other major problem which Ireland a significant growth in income outflow in the faces arises from Brexit. The centrepiece of form of royalties and dividend payments as the current tax dodging strategy is to of- Table 4 illustrates. fer investors a location within the EU that has the appearance of compliance with wider Table 4: Net Factor income to the rest of EU directives but which contains enough the world (000s). loopholes for tax reduction. Behind the ap- Year Net Factor Income to the rest of World pearances lay a practice that amounted to 1995 -5,948 a game of ‘beggar thy neighbour’. Ireland 2000 -15,327 2005 -24,819 took advantage of EU membership to attract 2010 -28,457 footloose investment but sought to skive off 2015 -53,173 revenue from its larger neighbours by allow- Source: CSO National Income and Expenditure Series. ing corporations to funnel profits made in Germany, France or Italy through Ireland. As long as it was seen as a minor player on In the longer term there is an even deeper the edge of Europe, it was able to sail be- threat to the Irish tax haven. low the radar and not attract too much at- Global capitalism has entered a period tention. But in the new era after the EU of instability and stagnation. In response Commission’s Apple judgement, it will no to the crash of 2008, many of the advanced longer be able to do this. Moreover, it has economies engaged in ‘quantitative easing’ lost a major ally in the City of London and to stimulate demand and investment. This by extension, the British government, who in turn has produced a new fiscal crisis for afforded it some protection from these con- many states as governments run up large tinental pressures. debts. According to McKinsey Global In- Both these developments mean that an stitute, global government debt more than economic strategy that relies on tax dodg- doubled from $22 trillion in 2000 to $58 tril- ing is inherently unstable. Ireland is set to lion in 2014 (figures are in constant 2013 become a weak link in European capitalism. 28McKinsey Global Institute, Debt and (not Much) Global DeLeveraging, McKinsey and Company 2015 p.11 29ibid. p.26

26 27 Can the European Union be reformed?

Marnie Holborow

Can the EU be reformed? Can it be Behind closed doors made more accountable to the peoples of its It is often argued that the EU has been a member states? Last summer, in Greece counterweight to the free-for all capitalism when the government capitulated to the and global power of the US. The truth is Troika, these questions went to the heart of the EEC provided the framework for the Eu- what was wrong with the Syriza project. ropean capitalist states to pursue their in- terests in step with US hegemony. From Reforming the EU resurfaced again dur- the end of WW2, US administrations ‘ca- ing the Brexit vote in the UK. The left Re- joled, pushed, threatened and sweet-talked’ 2 main position in the Brexit referendum vote the Europeans into a union. They were turned on two arguments. Firstly, the EU, aided in their efforts by the chief-architect of however misguided it had become, could be Europe, international banker and financier, changed through pressure from within. Re- Jean Monnet, who had a ‘direct line to main and reform, in varying degrees, was the Washington’ and whose initiatives depended 3 call from the Labour Party, the Scottish Na- on US support. The US needed new mar- tionalists, the Greens the trade unions, An- kets for its goods, to recreate European cap- other Europe is Possible grouping, and oth- italism along its own free trade and feder- ers although little detail was given on what alist lines and, at the same time, secure a reform would actually mean. In Northern firm military ally to counter the communist Ireland, Sinn Féin backed the Remain cam- threat. paign loosely on this basis, although its main From the beginning, the EU was never focus was on the implications of Brexit for a union of equals. Germany and France the border. A second argument on the left provided the core axis. Germany’s indus- in England and Wales was that a remain trial machine, geared towards exports, was vote would counter the racist right, and that rapidly becoming an economic powerhouse, the EU, while having many defects, stood and European integration provided an ac- against nationalism and was therefore the ceptable face of Germany’s rise. France lesser of two evils.1 played a counterbalancing political role as the creator of the strongly centralised Eu- ropean institutions; with nuclear weapons, This article argues that believing that and originally a member of NATO, it also the EU can be changed from within or that it supplied a strong military dimension. Italy, is somehow progressive is not only an illusion the third largest European economy, be- but an obstacle to enacting radical left al- came the model for peripheral countries like ternatives. The Eurozone’s protracted eco- Spain and Greece, who would join later. nomic crisis, the EU’s neoliberal dictats, its Free movement of capital and labour would shameful and racist handling of the migrant deliver industrial development and supply crisis, its growing militarisation will all in- workers for Northern European industries, evitably lead to further clashes between the and lower Mezzogiorno unemployment into EU and its peoples. Therefore, a clear, polit- the bargain.4 ical understanding of the role the EU plays The post-war boom allowed European will be vital for the struggles ahead. unity to be built, initially, on a Keynesian 1Only a small section of the socialist left, including People before Profit in Ireland, called for a Leave vote from a left-wing, anti-racist and internationalist position, although their voice was not much heard in the mainstream media. 2Yanis Varoufakis, The Global Minotaur: America, Europe and the Future of the Global Economy, London 2015, p.75. 3Perry Anderson, The Old New World, London, 2011, p.17. 4Paul Ginsberg, A History of Contemporary Italy, London 1990, p.160.

28 economic policy regime of welfare states and Fine Gael were united in seeing the EEC as managing effective demand in pursuit of full a way out of economic backwardness. To- employment,5 which lent it the label of ‘so- gether they had the political weight then to cial Europe’. In actual fact, the creation of ensure that the referendum was carried by the EEC occurred entirely at the instigation 82% of the population and they took it for of capitalist elites and their political bureau- granted that Europe was good for Ireland. cracies, with no popular participation. The The Common Agricultural Policy did indeed founding Treaty of Rome had been brokered, ensure growth and returns for big farmers not by an elected politician, but by Beyen, and opened the way later for mega-profitable a former executive for Phillips and a direc- indigenous agribusiness. After the Delors tor of Unilever parachuted straight from the Package of 1988, Ireland - as a so-called Ob- IMF into the Dutch cabinet (the sort of tech- jective One country - became a main benefi- nocratic by-pass of democracy with which ciary of regional funds. Later, following the we in the EU today have become all too fa- Single European Act of 1986 and then the miliar). In 1975, the European Council was Maastrict Treaty of 1992, EU funding for instituted as periodical meetings of existing projects in transport was granted to mem- Heads of State. In 1979, the European Mon- ber states whose GNP per capita was less etary System came into force and decreed, than 90 per cent of the overall EU average. following the German Bundesbank regime, The result was that between 1988 and 1992 that members’ currencies should be tied to Ireland benefitted to the tune of £7.2 billion a narrow 2.5% band of fluctuation. As Perry from EU structural and cohesion funds, do- Anderson observes, voters across the states ing better than other peripheral states such were ‘neither a motor nor a break’ on de- as Greece Portugal and Spain. These sub- velopments as they were never consulted.6 sidies, according to one commentator, effec- The undemocratic and unaccountable na- tively amounted to a mini-Marshall plan for ture of the EU was there from the start. Ireland.7 There were referenda on new membership, The politicians’ enthusiasm for the EU in the seventies and then later, selectively, had little to do with notions of a social Eu- on some treaties, but by then the corporate- rope. Ireland’s position behind European led, highly bureaucratic character of the EU wide tariff barriers and its very low corpo- was structurally entrenched. rate tax regime made it the choice location for many US multinationals. US investment Corporate agenda grew dramatically in the 1980’s and 1990’s and in 1997 the IDA could claim that 26% In 1972, When Ireland joined the European of all greenfield projects established by US Economic Community - along with Denmark firms in Europe were in Ireland.8 It was on and the UK - the top-down bureaucracy of this basis that the Celtic Tiger was born this process was hidden behind the rhetoric from a combination of elements, most of of the creation of a peaceful and prosperous which were encouraged by the EU: a bur- Europe. The Irish experience of the EU, de- geoning financial services centre which at- spite it being one of the smaller, peripheral tracted investment for European banks, a states, in many ways encapsulated the cor- convenient tax haven for global finance, a porate logic and the ruinously undemocratic relatively cheap, skilled, well-educated and outcomes of the union. English-speaking workforce, a system of so- At the time of joining, Fianna Fáil and cial partnership which kept industrial peace 5Alex Callinicos, ‘The Internationalist Case against the EU’, International Socialism 148. http: //isj.org.uk/the-internationalist-case-against-the-european-union/ 6Perry Anderson, The Old New World, p.17. 7John Brennan, ‘Ireland and the European Union: Mapping Domestic Modes of Adaption and Contestation’, Dublin, 2010. http://eprints.maynoothuniversity.ie/2919/1/JOB_Ireland_and_the_ European.pdf 8Kieran Allen, The Celtic Tiger: The Myth of Social Partnership, Manchester 2000, p.26. 9Fintan O’Toole, Ship of Fools, London 2009, Kieran Allen, The Celtic Tiger pp.21-29.

29 and wage increases down, and a stable pro- Europe was managed. The recovery of profit business political climate.9 Brussels even margins was to be achieved through free gave its blessing to policies that appeared to markets and deregulation instead of through go against its official line, especially when government policies and social obligations. they encouraged big business. For exam- Central social elements of post war capi- ple, in 1998, it allowed Ireland to continue talism were gradually revoked and labour its very low level of corporation tax. This markets and social security systems altered accommodation to big business and finance in the name of ‘flexibilisation’ and global- led directly to property bubbles, the worst isation. Reagan and Thatcher may have crash since the 1930s, and the world’s most initiated the neoliberal agenda but, by the expensive banking fiasco. The Irish econ- new century, the EU, through a plethora of omy, rather than experiencing a balanced treaties, protocols, directives, was outstrip- development under the tutelage of the EU, ping the Anglo-Saxon version.14 harboured glaring social inequality and re- The first key step to the neoliberal sembled a black hole through which mainly regime was the Delors-inspired 1986 Single 10 US corporation profits literally vanished. European Act, whose convergence policies In retrospect, the Irish left’s original oppo- for the peripheral economies was driven by sition to entry to the EEC because it was the EU’s commitment to market expansion 11 a ‘bosses’ union’ and a Sinn Féin poster in the shape of the ‘four freedoms’: the free which warned that the EEC would ‘put Ire- movement of goods, the free movement and land up for sale’ ‘for short term investment establishment of services, the free movement with guarantee of profits’ and which would of workers, and the free movement of capital. be to the detriment of the Irish people now Second, there was the move to reduce sound strangely prophetic.12 public spending and state subsidies, called ‘market distortions’ under the EU Direc- A neoliberal machine torate for Competition. This paved the way for massive state sell-off across Europe, in- Under the pressure of global economic cri- cluding Ireland. EU Directives were issued sis and mounting competition from the US to promote the ‘liberalisation’ for Telecom- and Japan, the rise of unemployment and munications (1990) for railways (1991) for ‘eurosclerosis’ 13 in the eighties, the EU electricity (1996) for postal services (1997) switched from promotion of the welfare state and for gas (1998). The fate of An Post - to the liberalisation of markets. The Eu- the break-up of a vital service - was steered ropean Round table of Industrialists, who through by Irish Commissioner Charlie Mc- 15 first met in 1983 at the Paris headquar- Creevy. ters of Volvo (with Irish business represented Finally, and most crucially, the SEA laid by Michael Smurfit and Peter Sutherland) the basis for monetary union and marked the drove forward the preparations for the single beginning of the EU becoming in Wolfgang market. Its objective was to change the way Streeck’s words ‘a machine for the liberal- 10Kieran Allen, The Celtic Tiger, Chapter 2. Conor McCabe, The Financialisation of Ireland, Coulter Nagel, Ireland under Austerity, Neoliberal Crisis, Neoliberal Solutions, Manchester, 2015. 11See ‘EEC: Bosses Answer’, The Worker, No 4, 4th may 1972. http://www.clririshleftarchive.org/ workspace/documents/thework72.pdf 12Poster in 1972 anti-EEC campaign, Sinn Féin ‘For Sale by Private Treaty : Oppose the Common Market’. Dublin: Sinn Féin. http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000551244. The poster, not much heeded at the time, was issued by ‘Sinn Féin, Gardiner St’, the forerunner of the Workers Party. ‘Sinn Féin, Kevin St’ at the time became today’s Sinn Féin. 13‘Eurosclerosis’ was the term given for economic stagnation and low growth rates. 14Official EU policy documents are now stuffed full of neoliberal-speak, more so than their equivalents in the US. See Marnie Holborow, Language and Neoliberalism London 2015. 15Kieran Allen, Reasons to Vote No to the Lisbon Treaty, Dublin 2008, pp.15-16. 16Wolfgang Streeck, Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism London 2014, p.105. See chapter three for a blistering account of the conversion of the EU into a vehicle for the liberalisation of European capitalism.

30 isation of European capitalism’.16 The en- trine. The ECB’s extensive power directs gine of this machine was the European Cen- policy across the other co-institutions of the tral Bank, established in June 1999, whose EU, they too removed from democratic con- role effectively hollowed out democracy in trol. the EU. Modelled on the Bundesbank, the One of the main institutional players, ECB as stipulated in the Maastricht Treaty the European Commission, from the 1990’s of 1999, ensured that currencies in the then drove through the privatisation of the pub- European Monetary Union would be tied to- lic sector using competition law.20 The gether under a rigid fiscal lock-in system, Commission, the de facto executive of the called the Growth and Stability Pact. No union, is an unelected body composed of member state would be allowed to run an functionaries designated by national govern- annual deficit above 3% of GDP or accumu- ments and selected by the President of the late a total debt greater than 60%. The only Commission (whose present incumbent, inci- option for economies which fell behind was dentally, is Jean Claude Junker, under inves- so called internal devaluation - i.e. wage- tigation for granting sweetheart tax deals to cuts. The economy was conceived as a free Amazon and McDonalds during his time as standing market and taking precedence over prime minister of Luxembourg).21 Another everything else enacted, according to some, key institution is the Council of Ministers, what the founder of ordo-liberalism, Hayek, a configuration of meetings between depart- 17 had only dreamed of. A decade later, mental ministers of each member state, and Ireland, as we know, was treated to the whose decisions, arrived at by qualified ma- full force of the ECB when on 19 Novem- jority voting (by which the bigger countries ber 2010, its then President Jean- Claude get more votes) become law. Perry Ander- Trichet, pointed ‘a loaded gun’ at Former son describes the Council as a ‘hydra-headed Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan threat- entity in virtually constant session in Brus- ening to cut off all funding unless Ireland im- sels, whose deliberations are secret. . . sewn 18 mediately bailed out its banks. This bul- up at bureaucratic level and whose outcomes lying was repeated with even worse effects are binding on national parliaments’.22 Then in Greece three years later. there is the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg composed of judges appointed Totally unaccountable by the member states who adjudicate on the legality of the directives of the Commission. Official ‘Eurosytem’ literature plainly lays The ECJ, often understood as the upholder out the role of the ECB. It states that the of individual rights, acts also as protector of ECB has ‘a clear and unambiguous man- the ‘free market’ as the recent ECJ ruling date’ to maintain price stability’, and that that the Irish government should impose a this is now ‘an overarching objective to the 25% VAT rate on tolls levied on all state- EU as a whole’. The ECB is ‘granted owned motorways. Finally, there is the Eu- full independence from political inference in ropean Parliament, the only elective body the fulfilment of this mandate.’19 Politics of the EU and where, it is often assumed, thus becomes engulfed by neoliberal doc- all these decisions are put under democratic 17See Chapter Three, Wolfgang Streeck, Buying Time Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, London 2014. 18‘The ECB letter was a gun stuck in the ear of the Government – leading economist’, Irish Independent, 6 Nov 2014 http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/the-ecb-letter-was-a-gun-stuck-in-the- ear-of-the-government-leading-economist-30723102.html 19European Central Bank, the Monetary Policy of the ECB, Frankfurt 2011. https://www.ecb.europa. eu/pub/pdf/other/monetarypolicy2011en.pdf 20True to form, in July of this year, the Commission ruled that Ireland is signed up to the Water Framework Directive and that Irish water charges would have to be imposed. 21Simon Bowers, ‘Jean Claude Junker cannot shake off Luxembourg’s tax controversy’, The Observer, December 14, 2014 The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/14/jean-claude- juncker-luxembourg-tax-deals-controversy 22Perry Anderson, Old New World, p.22.

31 scrutiny. The reality is that the European as such, amounts to ‘a remarkable under- Parliament has no control over the budget, politicisation of the Europeanisation dimen- no real say over appointments and meet- sion’.26 The revolving door between invest- ing variously in Strasbourg, Luxemburg and ment banking and top EU positions, such Brussels, is not even deemed worthy of a per- as Mario Draghi, from Goldman Sachs to manent home. The European Parliament, ECB president or Jose Manuel Barroso from lacking any real legislative control, has been Commission President to Goldman Sachs, is described as a ‘symbolic façade’ not unlike further proof of how much the untouchable the monarchy in Britain.23 interests of finance dominate. Short of ex- In a damning account, Ruling the Void iting the institutional cage of the EU, it is the late Irish political scientist, Peter Mair, difficult to see how any one member-state lays bare the appalling democratic deficit of could ever go against the EU nor how, in EU. The institutions are made up of people its rigid institutional form, any redirecting who have risen from national governments, of policy could occur. but whose elevation to European-wide roles extends their influence but removes them Social Democracy and the EU from democratic control. Phil Hogan, Irish politician discredited at home over his im- The Labour Parties of Europe bought heav- position of Irish water charges has served, ily into the EU and its creation of a sin- since 2014, as European Commissioner for gle currency. They assumed, according to Agriculture and Rural Development, show- one account, that the EU would herald ing how EU top jobs make a handy escape ‘the advent of a kinder, gentler capitalism from the people’s verdict. Mair explains how in which the power of the multinationals ‘any opposition regarding the institutionali- would be matched by the transnational or- sation of Europe is voiced within the Euro- ganisation of labour that would recreate the pean channel where no relevant competence shared prosperity of the post-war golden lies’.24 So we may see stirring speeches in age’.27 Meanwhile, many top positions in the European Parliament but they cannot the EU have often gone to Labour Party influence the decisions taken by the EU bu- politicians. The first President of the ECB reaucratic elites. This gives rise not only to for example was Wim Duisenburg from the a serious democratic flaw at the level of the Dutch Labour Party, the present President EU but also, because EU directives are then of the European Parliament is Martin Schulz applied to member states, a filtering back from the German SPD and the aforemen- of unaccountability to the member states tioned Jose Manuel Barroso, most identified themselves. When EU policy is rejected in with taking a hard line against any relax- referenda - as, for example, in the Lisbon ing of austerity, was from the Portuguese Treaty poll in Ireland in 2008 - the EU, PPD/PSD-Social Democratic Party. with ‘notoriously meagre’ concern for elec- The EU’s adoption of neoliberal poli- toral mandates, simply asks voters to vote cies coincided almost exactly with the So- again until they get the right result.25 In the cial Democratic parties’ own neoliberal con- case of Greece, the wishes of the voters are version. The agenda was set in 1983 when trampled on by the EU machine with their the French Socialist Party government un- own government becoming its whipping boy. der Mitterand abandoned their initial Key- Mair’s verdict on the EU is that it is nesian programme, prompted by his finance has been constructed as a protected sphere, minister at the time, Jacques Delors, who safe from the demands of the voters and two years later would become President of 23Perry Anderson, Old New World, p.23. 24Peter Mair, ‘Popular Democracy and the European Union Polity’, European Governance Papers C 05- 03- 2005, p9. http://edoc.vifapol.de/opus/volltexte/2011/2455/pdf/egp_connex_C_05_03.pdf. See also Peter Mair, Ruling the Void; The Hollowing out of Western Democracy. London, 2013 25Peter Mair, Popular Democracy, p.6. 26Peter Mair, Popular Democracy, p.10. 27Larry Elliot and Dan Aitkinson, Europe isn’t working, London 2016, p.8

32 the EU Commission. New Labour under faith in the EU’s Social Chapter. But, as Tony Blair and the German SPD’s die neue they retreated into ‘social partnership’ ar- Mitte (the new centre) government from rangements, in pursuit of ‘a culture of re- 1998 dropped the emphasis on ‘a social Eu- sponsibility for performance in the labour rope’ and promoted the European Union market’, the EU became, in the words of a under ‘the four freedoms’, which did not former British trade union leader, ‘the only include the freedom for workers to go on show in town’.31 Irish trade union leaders’ strike.28 On the eve of the 1998 Euro- enthusiasm for the EU did not cool, despite pean elections, Blair and Schröder issued a the fact that employment and social policy joint ‘Third Way’ statement, calling on so- concerns became virtually absent from EU cial democrats across the continent to ac- monetary and competition policies.32 It is cept the logic of ‘modernization’ and adapt true that SIPTU withheld backing for the to changing conditions. It soon became Lisbon Treaty, first time around, but only clear, as Streeck puts it, that social democ- as a bargaining chip to persuade the Gov- racy far from reforming capitalism was being ernment to legislate for collective bargain- re-formed by capitalism itself, and had be- ing. They rushed to back Lisbon 2, claim- come neoliberalism’s chief enabler. It was ing that ratification of the Treaty had the the SPD government under Shroëder which potential to improve workers’ rights.33 introduced the Hartz IV law reforms, which In the past, much was made by the slashed workers’ wages and led to a sharp Labour Party and others about how the EU increase in German inequality, and became has been a progressive force for Ireland, par- the template for ‘structural reforms’ and EU ticularly in the area of women’s rights. This austerity today.29 forgets that the EU has been able to bend Other sections of the left also had illu- its rules to allow member states to continue sions in the European Union but for dif- along their own, sometimes conservative, so- ferent reasons. The so-called Eurocommu- cial policy path. For example, a protocol nists during the 70s and 80’s, from which was added to the 1992 Maastricht which pre- Syriza emerged, saw the EU as a means of vented Irish women from using any aspect of distancing themselves from the former east- EU law to gain information about or access ern bloc and of showing their commitment to abortion facilities. Rights in these areas to peaceful coexistence with the capitalist had to be won by Irish people themselves, west. Some in the forerunner of Syriza, mobilising on the streets over the X case in Synaspismos, were sympathetic to the Third the same year. The various EU directives Way and what was termed quaintly the ‘cos- - from the Equal Pay Directive of 1975 to mopolitan democracy’ of the EU.30 The of- the EU Gender Equality Recast Directive of ficial trade union movements, headed by the 2006 - have spectacularly failed to close to- ETUC, confronted with globalisation put its day’s gender pay gap of 16% across the EU. 28Joan Birch and George Souvlis, Interview with Wolfgang Streeck, ‘Social Democracy, Last Rounds’, Jacobin June 2016.; https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/02/wolfgang-streeck-europe- eurozone-austerity-neoliberalism-social-democracy/. Streeck’s condemnation of social democratic illusions in the social market are all the more strident in that he was once - a decision regretted by him now - an official advisor to Shroëder. 29In Germany, the wage share after the announcement of Agenda 2010 fell drastically from what was already a low level to the lowest level for more than 50 years. See Oliver Natchwey, ‘Die Linke and the Crisis of Representation’ International Socialism, 124, 2009 http://isj.org.uk/die-linke-and-the-crisis- of-class-representation/ 30See Chapter 2, Kevin Ovenden, Syriza Inside the Labyrinth, London, 2015, and also Alex Callinicos Against the Third Way, Cambridge 2001. p.99. 31Ron Todd, General Secretary of the TGWU, quoted in Elliot and Aitkenson, p.38. For ETUC preference for a partnership approach see the conclusion of the Industrial Relations in Europe Report published by the European Commission, 2014. ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=13500&langId=en 32For details see Chapter Four, Roland Erne, European Unions: Labor’s Quest for a Transnational Democ- racy, New York 2008. 33Martin Wall, ‘SIPTU backs Lisbon Treaty’, Irish Times September 3 2009. http://www.irishtimes. com/news/siptu-backs-lisbon-treaty-1.845712

33 In Ireland, women still earn 14.4% less than made - removing flags and symbols - and men, a figure that has actually risen since the document was brought back re-packaged 2010. Furthermore, EU directives on child- as the Lisbon Treaty. Ireland was the only care provision have had no impact on the country to hold a referendum on the new laissez faire, unregulated childcare situation Treaty. Then, when Ireland voted no, the in Ireland.34 Delivery of reform via the EU government, under pressure from the EU, is a long waiting game. asked the people to vote again. In the after- math of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the beginning of the financial collapse, the Voters ignored Government ensured Lisbon 2 was shunted through. Clearly EU Treaties and democ- When concrete proposals on the direction racy do not mix. of the EU are put to the vote, the Irish - like populations elsewhere - have become The anti-capitalist movement, of which less and less keen on the EU. The SEA and opposition to these treaties was part, sel- the Maastricht treaty were approved with dom targeted the EU itself. Indeed, some almost 70% of the votes cast for the Yes anti-capitalists, such as the influential au- side. By 1998, 62% voted for the Ams- tonomist Toni Negri, declared themselves in terdam Treaty. By the time of the Nice favour of a strengthened EU on the grounds (first) referendum, in 2001, while the turn- that it could counter US dominance, pro- out was only 35%, it was rejected. Then, tect the world from rampant globalisation in 2008, after a campaign in which the en- and make ‘crap nation states disappear’.37 tire Irish establishment and the EU liberal Many more saw the main battle as curb- enthusiasts rallied behind the Lisbon Treaty ing the recent excesses of globalisation - the (which both Taoiseach Brian Cowan and for- power of the corporations, tax havens, cli- eign Minister Micheál Martin had not both- mate change, erosion of workers’ rights, the ered to read) the No vote gathered 53% of war on Iraq - which were seen not as sys- the votes cast. Furthermore, rejection was temic to capitalism, but as a neoliberal dis- strongest in working class areas.35 tortion. Susan George, a leading member of Already the French in May 2005 and then the French organisation, Attac, tasked the the Dutch in July of the same year had re- movement with curbing the unfettered mar- jected an attempt to introduce an EU Con- ket and returning to the ‘progressive tradi- stitution (an ‘absolutely unreadable’ 500- tions’ of the Enlightenment which defended page document)36 which set out the dictates the common good. 38 The European So- of ‘free and undistorted’ competition, the cial Forum directed its fire on the IMF, deregulation of the labour market, and the the World Bank and the WTO passing over privatisations of public services. Its rejec- the enabling role of state institutions, seen tion, twice, sent shock waves through the EU as immoveable ‘boulders’ which had to be establishment. Some cosmetic changes were worked around.39 In the Social Movements 34See Centre for Social Educational Research report, An Accessible Childcare Model, Dublin, 2005 for how Ireland has lagged behind in this area. http://www.dit.ie/cser/media/ditcser/images/accessible- childcare.pdf 35Daniel Finn, ‘Ireland the Left and The European Union’, in Colin Coulter and Angela Nagle Ireland under Austerity, Neoliberal Crisis, Neoliberal Solutions. Manchester, 2015, p.249-50. 36Italian politician Giuliano Amato’s words, quoted in Kieran Allen, Reasons to Vote No, p.6. 37‘Oui, pour faire disparaître cette merde d’Etat-nation’ Interview with Toni Negri by Christian Losson and Vittorio De Felippis, Liberation, 13 May 2005. http://www.liberation.fr/france/2005/05/13/oui- pour-faire-disparaitre-cette-merde-d-etat-nation_519624 38Susan George, We, the Peoples of Europe, London 2008 pp.75-83 39The boulder image was one used about the state by prominent anti-capitalist Naomi Klein but it could equally apply to how many activists saw the institutions of the EU. ‘We are up against a boul- der. We can’t remove it so we try to go underneath it, to go around it and over it.’ quoted in Chris Harman, ‘Anti-capitalism, Theory and Practice’, International Socialism 2;88, Autumn 2000. https: //www.marxists.org/archive/harman/2000/xx/anticap.htm 40William F. Fisher and Thomas Ponniah, Another World is Possible, London, 2003, p.349

34 Manifesto, published in 2003, for example ing the protection of the EU’s external bor- there was no mention of the defects of the der’, ‘stemming the flows’, ‘developing sus- EU. 40 Ironically, the movement’s very ef- tainable reception capacities in the affected fective highlighting of western capital beat- regions’ and stepping up ‘implementation of ing down the global South with punitive the Return Directive’ are its priorities. 42 debt repayment conditionalities made little This directive, known by human rights ac- mention of similar emerging developments tivists as the ‘shameful directive’, abjectly in the EU. The slogan ‘Another Europe is fails to respect migrants’ dignity and human possible’, while evocatively popular, skirted rights, criminalises them, and calls for mea- round the political question of the EU. The sures, such as prolonged ‘pre-removal’ deten- depth and scale of the crisis today and the tion and a ban on re-entering the EU.43 The degree of political string pulling by the EU EU’s record on its treatment of refugees will no longer allows us such luxuries. surely go down as the dark stain of this cen- tury. It is striking that when it comes to Fortress, racist Europe refugees, EU rules, normally so strict, can Perhaps more than anything else, it has be easily bent. Last year, Germany and been the terrible spectacle of thousands of Austria unilaterally suspended the existing refugees drowning the Mediterranean which Schengen Agreement and closed its borders has showed up the moral bankruptcy of the to refugees. In direct contravention of the EU. The European Convention of Human UN 1951 Refugee Convention, the EU is pur- Rights is supposed to act as the conscience suing a policy of exclusion. Flouting the of the EU but recent events would show agreed principle of non-refoulement (i.e. for- that the principles of human rights count for bidding the return of refugees to a place nothing when it comes to the EU’s treat- where their lives would be at risk) the EU ment of refugees. 2016 has been another now returns asylum seekers and migrants to murderous year for migrants trying to reach transit countries of regions of origin before Europe. There were no less than no less than they reach countries where they could make 3,034 deaths by the end of July. In just one a claim for refugee status. Even patheti- week of that month, 39 bodies were washed cally low targets of refugees are not met or up on Libya’s shores. According to UNCR, are quietly shelved. Under the Resettlement last year a million people made the journey Programme, Ireland pledged to accept 4,000 to Europe, many of whom are unaccompa- refugees with particular emphasis on fami- nied minors.41 This appalling humanitarian lies and unaccompanied minors. As reported crisis has been met in the EU with squab- in September this year, only 300 refuges had been received in Ireland and only one bling and bargaining over numbers. The EU 44 treats these refugees as if it had no part in of whom was an unaccompanied minor. their making. The top three nations from Our Tanaiste, Frances Fitzgerald, is cruelly which maritime refugees to the EU come are oblivious to the reasons which make refugees Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea, countries flee: she refuses to improve Ireland’s dis- graceful Direct Provision system, because to that the EU has either actively participated 45 in, or supported, being bombed. The Euro- do so would act as a ‘pull factor’. pean Commission only talks of ‘strengthen- To make matters worse, the EU’s em- 41http://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2015/12/5683d0b56/million-sea-arrivals-reach-europe- 2015.html 42European Council Conclusions, October 2015, http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press- releases/2015/10/16-euco-conclusions/ 43Anneliese Baldaccini, ‘The EU Directive on Return: Principles and Protests’,Refugee Survey Quarterly (2009)28 (4): 114-138.doi: 10.1093/rsq/hdq002 44https://www.oco.ie/2016/09/ireland-has-assisted-in-relocation-of-only-one- unaccompanied-minor/ 45http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/changes-to-direct-provision-would-create-pull- factor-for-asylum-seekers-343410.html

35 brace of neoliberalism has ensured that the of profit. From the post-war ‘guest workers’, policing of migrants is a profit-making ven- from Turkey and Italy who worked the fac- ture. The EU has outsourced policing of tories and mines of Germany, Belgium and its external borders on to Frontex, a semi- the Netherlands, to the freedom of move- autonomous agency, which runs a series of ment arrangement today the EU’s major ‘push-back’ operations in the Mediterranean concern is labour shortages, not lofty princi- including the forcible removal of many of ples. Lack of available skilled labour means those who arrive in Europe or their impris- that Germany needs to add 400,000 skilled onment in detention centres. Frontex oper- immigrants to its workforce every year to ates in a secretive corporate security world maintain its economic strength. 47 Further- and this year received e114 million with an- more, it is the effects of the EU permanent other e9.5 million for deportations. Ireland austerity measures which have forced work- contributes to Frontex, financially and op- ers of newer member states to leave their erationally. Frontex sees itself as a busi- country to work in the economies of north- ness enterprise which sends its staff to mi- ern Europe. No less than 3 million Pol- grant centres in ‘migrant hotspots’, such as ish workers been forced to emigrate to work Lampedusa, where migrants are ‘debriefed’ in other countries leaving behind 400,000 in order to gain information about the peo- ‘Euro-orphans’.48 ple smugglers.46 Of course, Frontex’s focus This emptying out of populations stems on smugglers, oft echoed by the UK govern- from uneven capitalist development within ment and others, conveniently deflects from the EU. Like in mass emigration from Ire- the causes of migration - war and terror - for land to Britain in the 19th century mi- which the western powers are responsible. grant labour could be sucked into industry through the political and economic control Confronted by the EU’s hostility to that Britain had over Ireland, although no- refugees, many thousands of people have one called it ’freedom of movement’ then. done what they can to help. They have vis- Today, freedom of movement and no bor- ited refugee camps, sent clothes and provi- ders across Europe must be defended against sions to Calais welcomed refugees as they ar- racist notions of border control and against rive. On the island of Lesvos despite being state repression of migrants. We stand with ravaged by austerity and economic collapse, all those who are forced to move from one local fisherman rescue people from the sea part of Europe to another to earn a living and local people feed children arriving on the and with those who enter Europe seeking beach. These spontaneous acts of generos- refuge from war and persecution. The pri- ity, perhaps more than anything else, show ority must be to show solidarity to our fel- how wide is the gulf which now separates the low workers to assist where we can with the EU bureaucracy from the people. organisation of migrants into trade unions, The policing of the EU’s external bor- to fight against low-pay, to defend migrant der contrasts with the EU internal migration workers in our jobs and to build a strong and system, the so- called EU freedom of move- visible anti-racist movement. ment, frequently celebrated as one of the EU most progressive principles. The right Post-Brexit have focused on this aspect of the EU to whip up anti -immigrant hatred and their The Russian revolutionary Lenin described racism must be opposed. But those who politics as concentrated economics. The have an idealised notion of the EU’s freedom Brexit vote is an expression of what peo- of movement should also recognise its roots, ple have suffered since the crash of 2008 not in multiculturalism, but in the pursuit and an indication of the degree of politi- 4646 47Anthony Advincula, ‘Labor Shortage: Germany Needs More Immigrants’,New American Media January 4, 2015. http://www.alternet.org/world/labor-shortage-germany-needs-more-immigrants 48See Jan Symanski, Polish migrant worker speaking at a Lexit rally in London on 13 June 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l2ULdpyff8

36 cal uncertainty and instability that the eco- the neoliberal EU and as laying ‘the basis nomic crisis has brought in its wake. Di- for future exits around Europe on a radical visions within ruling parties and ‘the com- left basis’. Similarly, Zoe Konstantopoulou, ing together of strange bedfellows’, as noted former Syriza president of the Greek parlia- by Wolfgang Streeck, always occurs in times ment, compared the Leave vote to the ‘Oxi’ of systemic disintegration and radical uncer- referendum in July 2015 that rejected EU tainty.49 But politics has ‘its own language, austerity.54 In Ireland, People Before Profit grammar and syntax’,50 and is not always TD Brid Smith expressed a similar senti- easy to read. This has certainly been the ment when she said, welcoming the vote, the case for the politics of Brexit in Britain, but Brexit vote has shown that the EU’s recent also in Ireland, but reading its political sig- treatment of Greece and Ireland shows its nificance is important for our understanding primary concern is not the welfare of citi- of the EU. zens or refugees but the welfare of the banks 55 The vote to leave in Britain while an and the bond holders’. expression of different things, was widely The vote certainly did cause shocked recognised as being ‘a roar against the consternation among the EU elites and looks elites’, including those of the EU. The wide set to usher in a further period of uncer- ranging Ashcroft post-referendum poll found tainty for our rulers. Such a situation will that support for Brexit, in the working class see shifts and lurches from the left and the especially, reflected a fear of falling liv- right. The challenge for socialists will be ing standards, and political powerlessness in to give voice to the anger against neolib- general, but also a defence of ‘the principle eral austerity and not let it go in a right- that decisions about the UK should be taken wing racist or fascist direction. This year, in the UK’, an issue cited above the question in France while Le Pen’s Front National may of immigration.51 have been able to capitalise on the anti EU There has been much debate about feeling at the end of June, only a week ear- whether the vote was about the EU at all, lier thousands of trade unionists and social- and if it was not mainly a symptom of the ists had taken to the streets to oppose Hol- racism seething under the skin of British so- lande’s and EU- backed Work Law. Even cial life.52 I will not deal here with the dif- when the racist right is strong, their rise is fering interpretations, as they have been dis- not guaranteed and the battle is not over. cussed fully elsewhere.53 Nevertheless, from In the North of Ireland, the response to the point of view of a political understand- Brexit and the EU has been on a differ- ing of the EU, it is important to say that ent political terrain. The DUP who had the reaction to Brexit from those on the called for a Leave vote used the outcome, radical left, and others, across Europe was predictably, to reinforce their unionist stand. to welcome the vote. This approach was Sinn Féin, on the other hand, had cam- summed up by veteran campaigner against paigned for a Remain vote. The strongest EU treaties, Eric Toussaint from Belgium, vote for Remain in Northern Ireland was in who saw the Brexit vote as a rejection of Foyle, where 78% backed EU membership, 49Wolfgang Streeck, ‘The post-capitalist interregnum; the old system is dying but a new social order cannot be born’, Juncture Vol 23, Issue 2, p.68 50This description of politics was by the French Marxist Daniel Bensaïd. See his piece, ‘Leaps, Leaps, Leaps, Europe Solidaire, Sans Frontières’, https://www.marxists.org/archive/bensaid/2002/ 07/leaps.htm 51Ashcroft, Lord. 2016. How the United Kingdom voted on Thursday... and why. [online]. [Accessed 4 August 2016]. Available at http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2016/06/how-the-united-kingdom-voted- and-why/ 52Laleh Khalili ‘After Brexit: reckoning with Britain’s xenophobia and racism’. In: After Brexit: the Verso Report, London, 2016 53Charlie Kimber, ‘Why did Britain vote Leave’, International Socialism 152 Autumn 2016, pp.21-43 54Quoted in Charlie Kimber, ‘Why did Britain vote Leave’, p.24 55http://www.peoplebeforeprofit.ie/2016/06/people-before-profit-alliance-press- statement-on-brexit-vote/

37 followed by West Belfast at 74%. The Re- of the EU had not only spectacularly failed main vote won both in Northern Ireland and but had also converted the Syriza govern- Scotland with 56% and 62% respectively. ment into the worst austerity-implementers. The Irish result raised the same question as The Greek debacle had proved beyond doubt in Scotland: the problem of the union. It that the EU was an austerity cage from brought into sharp focus the injustice of the which no member state could escape. Also, six counties in Ireland being tied to the UK. Sinn Féin has been identified, in the South, After the poll, Sinn Féin’s Martin with the anti-austerity movement, and this McGuinness expressed the view that Brexit included being opposed to EU-imposed aus- represented ‘a snub’ to the Belfast Agree- terity. Alignment with the EU must have ment of 1998 and represented ‘a major set- come as a surprise for many of their sup- back’ for the political process in Northern porters in the South, all the more so that Ireland.56 Sinn Féin had opposed Brexit, ‘critical engagement’ with the EU was not but when Brexit prevailed, it created a con- elaborated on in Sinn Féin’s brief state- stitutional crisis which provided them with ments. Enlisting membership of the EU the opening to make the case for a united as a means to assert national sovereignty Ireland. They immediately called for a bor- when the EU has recently crushed economic der poll on Irish unification as not for the self-determination for its peripheral states, first time, England’s difficulty was Ireland’s conveniently brushes aside the fact that the opportunity. EU’s surveillance regime resembles a colo- nial structure itself. To take advantage of a post-Brexit situa- tion however, demanded that Sinn Féin tone down its criticisms of the EU. Sinn Féin, it Conclusion should be remembered, had been prominent In Ireland, like Britain, the capitalist class in opposing earlier EU treaties: Nice in 2001, is divided over Brexit, which has added to and Lisbon, 2008 and 2009. Their grounds the sense of crisis. Like the Remainers in for opposing the Lisbon Treaty was ‘a bad the British government and among most of deal for Ireland’, it gave ‘the EU too much the ruling elite, the Southern government power’ and reduced ‘our ability to stop de- saw Brexit as extremely risky and hoped it 57 cisions that are not in Ireland’s interests’. would not win, although their tone through- Indeed Sinn Féin is often described as Eu- out was deliberately more low key. Once rosceptic. However, coming up to the Brexit the vote happened, the minority government vote, in June 2016, Gerry Adams announced was keen to contain any sense of crisis at- that ‘Sinn Féin’s approach to the European tached to Brexit and stressed that full con- Union would be one of ‘critical engagement’. tingency plans were in place. ‘Where measures are in the interests of the The employers’ organisation, IBEC, de- Irish people, we support them. Where they clared that Irish jobs would be further un- are not, we oppose them and campaign for der threat and there would be a ‘full-blown 58 change’. currency crisis’ which would hit Irish ex- It is deeply ironic that Sinn Féin should ports ‘very hard’ and ‘things could get much say these things now. Only a year earlier worse’.59 Some sections of the Irish es- Greece’s attempts to change the direction tablishment interpreted Brexit as a diplo- 56McGuinness saw the calling of the vote as placating the ‘UKIP racists and the looney right’. Martin McGuinness, ‘Remain must mean remain: why we need an all-Ireland response to Brexit’. The Irish Times, 19 August 2016. http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/remain-must-mean-remain-why-we-need-an- all-ireland-response-to-brexit-1.2760915 57Sinn Féin, Ireland Deserves Better: an Alternative Guide to the EU, 2008. http://www.sinnfein.ie/ files/2009/LisbonAlternativeGuide.pdf 58Gerry Adams, ‘Irish Government and Fianna Fáil must respect the vote in the north’. An Phoblacht / Republican News, 29 June 2016 http://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/40575 59Fiona Redden ‘Irish jobs under imminent threat due to Brexit fallout’. The Irish Times , 2 Au- gust 2016, http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/irish-jobs-under-imminent-threat-due- to-brexit-fallout-1.2741540

38 matic and military disaster. A former of- might otherwise end up in the same place as ficer in the Irish army, and a security spe- the over confident Remain supporters in the cialist, saw Brexit as representing not only UK - bitter and without influence’62 a threat to the Good Friday Agreement but A ruling class which is split and anxious also as posing ‘profound and grave impli- about Brexit means that there will be no cer- cations for British and European security, tainty for this weak minority government, al- defence, peace and stability’. Brexit would ready under pressure from the anti-austerity place European defence in France and Ger- movement. many’s hand and leave Ireland no longer serving under Britain’s EU battlegroup, out But this is not the time to line up on a limb.60 with the Southern Irish establishment along- side the EU. Nobody wants to see the re- The more finance-orientated sections of imposition of a hard border between North the Irish ruling class were more opportunis- and South. All hard borders, including those tic. David McWilliams, for example, judg- within the EU, are against the interests of ing Brexit as representative of ‘a nasty, flag- working people. But simply arguing for a waving, petty, imperial England in a post- united Ireland within the framework of exist- imperial world’ jumped at the opening that ing institutions - whether the North-South it created for Ireland.Inc. A post-Brexit structures or under the aegis of the EU - ig- Irish International Financial Services Cen- nores what is going wrong across this island tre could take advantage of England’s ‘self- and promises little change. Austerity mea- inflicted misery’ and Dublin become the new sures under The Fresh Start Agreement have London, and ‘a magnet for global capital’. allowed poverty to increase, making North- His claim, in an outpouring of praise for ern Ireland one of the eighth poorest regions British free marketeers, was that Ireland of Northern Europe.63 Southern Ireland’s with people ‘speaking the same language refusal to close the tax loopholes for corpo- and ‘to all intents and purposes ... quasi- rations or tax the rich has denied the poor- British’ could become the antidote to the est in society a basic right to a house, to Brexit mentality, ‘a safe harbour in all this a national health service, to equal access to chaos with free, unfettered access to Eu- higher education, and has made the South a rope’.61 society with the fourth worst inequality gap Causing further disarray, the Financial in the EU, a divide that has widened with 64 Times commentator Wolfgang Műnchau, austerity imposed by the EU. has said that the Apple ruling has shown The radical left is in a unique position that Ireland is ‘a failed business model’. For in Ireland to make the case that tying our- Műnchau, Ireland’s low corporate taxes and selves to the EU offers only more austerity tax avoidance for foreign investors is unsus- and more directives to privatise our public tainable, and the combination of Brexit, the services. The miserable crumbs from the long-term loss of its business model and the recent Budget in the South has highlighted ongoing crises in the Eurozone could see Ire- how much the EU sets the rules. The small land following the UK out of the EU. ‘Those e1.3 bn ‘budgetary adjustment’ allowed to in favour of EU membership should give us by EU fiscal rules is nothing compared to some thought to what could go wrong. They the e28.5 bn which has already been spent 60Tom Clonan. ‘Thanks to Brexit, the fragile peace in Ireland is under threat’. http://www.thejournal. ie/readme/brexit-security-impact-tom-clonan-2844168-Jun2016/ 61David McWilliams, ‘Brand Britian is ours for the taking’. The Sunday Buisness Post, 3 July 2016 http://www.businesspost.ie/brand-britain-is-ours-for-the-taking 62Wolfgang Műnchau, ‘Ireland may have to consider leaving the EU’, The Irish Times Monday Octo- ber 10, 2016 http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/wolfgang-m%C3%BCnchau-ireland-may- have-to-consider-leaving-eu-1.2823535 63http://inequalitybriefing.org/graphics/briefing_43_UK_regions_poorest_North_Europe. pdf 64https://www.unicef.ie/2016/04/14/new-unicef-report-shows-growing-inequality-among- children-in-high-income-countries/

39 on the bank bail-out, on what the EU calls land must stick to the EU at any cost. This servicing ‘sovereign debt’. This debt enslave- only provides the Troika, as Greece proved, ment, which will leave us with poor and with a stick to beat countries into line. The more privatised public services for decades, socialist left should put forward its own de- is a direct result, as explained above, of the mands: a write-down of the debt, the na- EU neoliberalisation machine. tionalisation of natural resources, a reversal No one can foresee where the next clashes of privatisation, the right not to be bound will come, nor what struggles will pit us yet by the rules of the fiscal compact, regardless again against the forces that are determined of whether these are acceptable to the EU. to make the working class pay for this pro- These simple demands go against what the tracted crisis. But we do know that the EU stands for in its current form. There- EU will be on the other side. Clarity about fore we should also be in favour of a new whose interests the EU institutions serve can Europe, not one based on austerity and en- only help us in the battles ahead and put us forcement of market madness, but one based in a position to offer real alternatives. on democracy and control of capital. We have to break with the idea that Ire-

40 Secularism, Islamophobia and the politics of religion

John Molyneux

There are moments when a single flash of and ‘Get your rosaries off our ovaries!’. It lightning lights up the night sky and illumi- is there in way in which the horrible legacy nates the whole landscape below which was of the Magdalene Laundries, the Industrial previously shrouded in darkness. Such was Schools and the brutal Christian Brothers the moment when Michael Brown was shot still haunt the memories of so many of our by a US cop in Ferguson, Missouri on 9 Au- people. And it is still there in the inflated gust 2014. And such was the moment when power that the Church hierarchy still exer- photographs appeared of armed police forc- cises over our schools. ing a Muslim woman to disrobe on a French On all these issues any socialist will stand beach. It both illuminated and encapsu- full square for the principles of secularism. lated in concentrated form the whole offen- There should be a complete separation of sive against Muslims that has been waged church and state. We are for complete free- by French politicians and the French state, dom of religious belief and religious worship not just for the last year or so but for the but as a private matter. No religion should last twenty years. hold a position of power or privilege in the Of course this offensive is by no means state or be state funded. It is also proba- confined to France and has a thoroughly in- bly the case that many, though certainly not ternational character - essentially it origi- all, socialists are non-believers and while not nated in the United States and is raging wanting in any way to prohibit religion nev- in Britain, and many other places including ertheless look forward, like Karl Marx, to a Ireland. Nevertheless it does seem particu- world in which people no longer require the larly intense in France at this point in time services of the opium of the masses. and has the peculiarity of being waged in the name of ‘secularism’ and ‘the French Re- But shift the focus back in time to 1916 public’ and this ideological device has given and the Irish Revolution. How would we re- it a significant radical cover and legitimacy spond to an argument that ran as follows? and secured for it a degree of ‘left’ support ‘The 1916 Rising was led by Catholics, and acquiescence higher than is generally the in particular that well known Catholic fa- case elsewhere. This is because secularism natic Padraig Pearse. By far the majority has long been seen as a ‘value’ or ‘principle’ of the Volunteers were Catholics and even that the left, including revolutionary social- the socialist leader of the Irish Citizen Army, ists, should defend and advocate. This ar- James Connolly, was a Catholic of sorts. ticle is an examination of the relations be- Moreover, the Proclamation which consti- tween secularism, Islamophobia, racism and tuted the programme of the Rising explic- the politics of religion. itly states that it is written ‘In the name of As it happens Ireland and Irish history God’ and that ‘We place the cause of the constitutes an interesting and useful vantage Irish Republic under the protection of the point from which to start this examination. Most High God, Whose blessings we invoke upon our arms’. Therefore it is clear that The View from Ireland this was a sectarian Catholic uprising in- tent on establishing a traditionalist author- Because of the pretty much unique position itarian Catholic state and that no social- of dominance held by the Catholic Church ist should have given or should give retro- in Irish society during much of the 20th cen- spectively any support whatsoever to such tury the issue of secularism is alive and well a backward obscurantist movement domi- in Ireland today. It is there in the Repeal the nated by a religion from the middle ages. In- 8th campaign and in the slogans of the pro- deed objectively it was forces of the British choice movement: ‘Not the church and not Army, rough as they may been at times, who the state! Women should decide their fate!’ represented progress and had to be backed

41 by all those who value freedom, the enlight- over the role of the British state in this con- enment, and especially the rights of women’. flict was to stand outside and above the two The answer that I trust every socialist, irrational warring tribes and mediate be- beginning with those ardent atheists Marx, tween them, while isolating and defeating Engels, Lenin and Trotsky, would give to the evil terrorists (the IRA). this is argument would be unequivocal. It The term ‘secularism’ is not much used would be that it is manifestly a manipula- but popular hostility to religion and espe- tion and abuse of the principles of secular- cially religious fanaticism (in Britain) is skil- ism to provide a justification for imperial- fully harnessed to mask the obvious fact that ism. The 1916 Rising, regardless of the reli- this conflict is not at all about the doctrine gious affiliations of its leaders or the wording of transubstantiation or the infallibility of of its Proclamation was not fundamentally the Pope but about whether Northern Ire- about religion at all but about national lib- land should be ruled by Britain or be part eration. It was not about Catholicism ver- of the Irish Republic and that in turn is fu- sus Protestantism but about whether or not elled by systematic social, economic and po- Britain should rule Ireland. And that there- litical discrimination against the National- fore all socialists (and all democrats and pro- ist community. And while this is obscuring gressives), as opponents of imperialism and the real nature of the conflict it is simulta- defenders of the rights of oppressed nations neously legitimating the role of the British to self determination, should stand uncon- army which is actually acting to sustain the ditionally on the side of Irish freedom and sectarian state and British rule. with the Rising. Today, however, although the issues of From this point of view whether or not oppression and British rule have not gone the majority of the Irish, or the British for away the fact that the war has ended and that matter, were Catholics, Protestants, that Sinn Féin is in government with the Hindus or Jews was an entirely secondary DUP means that questions related to secu- matter and in no way the determining fac- larism like marriage equality, LGBT+ rights tor in the conflict. As to whether the en- and a woman’s right to choose come more to suing independent Ireland would be reac- the fore. tionary, oppressive to women and so on that What these examples show is that al- would be determined primarily not by the though secularism is a goal which socialists religious ideas in the heads of Padraig Pearse support the banner of secularism can be used or the other signatories but by which social to serve a number of purposes, reactionary class emerged from the struggle for indepen- as well as progressive. Therefore it is neces- dence as the class in the saddle. If the work- sary always to make a concrete assessment ing class and its leaders such as Connolly, of the concrete situation to determine the Markievicz, and Lynn had come out on top role being played by this slogan. How does then Ireland would have take its place along- it relate in the given historical circumstances side revolutionary Russia in the vanguard of to the interests of the working class and the the struggle for sexual equality and women’s struggle against oppression? liberation. Fast forward to the Troubles and the imagined dialogue above reappears with a vengeance in the British media. The conflict French secularism in perspec- between predominantly Protestant Union- tive ism and predominantly Catholic National- ism is depicted as primarily a religious con- Secularism has a long and complex his- flict with the idea that the conflict is about tory. Its origins in Europe stretch back religion being seen as evidence of Irish stu- to the beginnings of the scientific revolu- pidity and backwardness. After all hadn’t tion of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- people in ‘civilised’ Britain stopped fighting turies when Copernicus and Galileo took about religion in the 18th century? More- on the Church and ‘the spiritual dictator-

42 ship of the Church was shattered’1 Ele- the Empire also brought with it the restora- ments of it can be seen in the Dutch Re- tion of the Church. However secularism volt of 1565 - 1600 when religious toler- lived on as a republican ideal throughout ance was established in the Dutch Republic the nineteenth century and was also adopted in order to unite the Dutch people against by the working class and socialist move- Habsburg Empire based in Counter Refor- ment. In the Paris Commune of 1871 one mation Spain. It develops further among of its first decrees separated the church from the philosophers of the eighteenth century the state, appropriated all church property enlightenment (Diderot, Voltaire etc) and to public property, and excluded the prac- comes into its own with the French Revo- tice of religion from schools. In theory, the lution of 1789-94. churches were allowed to continue their re- In August 1789, shortly after the Storm- ligious activity only if they kept their doors ing of the Bastille, the Revolution abolished open for public political meetings during the the privileges of the First (the clergy) and evenings but this seems not to have been im- Second (Nobility) Estates and abolished the plemented. tithes gathered by the Church. The Dec- The Commune, of course, was crushed laration of the Rights of Man and of the after only 74 days but in 1881-2 France es- Citizen of 1789 proclaimed freedom of re- tablished a mandatory, free and secular edu- ligion throughout France. On October 10 cation system that relied on state-paid pro- the National Constituent Assembly seized fessional teachers rather than on Catholic the properties and land held by the Catholic clerics. And in 1905 a new law was passed Church and sold them off at public auctions. on the separation of church and state which In 1790 the Assembly formally subordinated remains the legal foundation of French sec- the Roman Catholic Church in France to the ularity (laicité). French government and in September 1792 What is evident from this brief overview divorce was legalised and the State took con- is that the struggle for secularism - in the sci- trol of the birth, death, and marriage regis- entific revolution, the Dutch Republic, the ters away from the Church. In 1791, Jews enlightenment and the French and Ameri- were emancipated—receiving full civic rights can Revolutions - was an integral part of as individuals but, significantly, none as a the rise of the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois group. At the height of the Revolution dur- democratic revolutions against feudalism. It ing the Jacobin period (1792-94) there was was directed, first and foremost, against the an active campaign of dechristianisation in Catholic Church which economically, politi- which religious statues and icons were de- cally and ideologically was the principle ally stroyed and an attempt was made to launch of the feudal aristocracy, absolute monarchy a kind of substitute religion in the form of and feudal reaction as a whole. The consis- a ‘Cult of Reason’. There were also riots in tently reactionary and counter revolutionary which priests were massacred. role of the Catholic Church from the days of It is should be noted that secularism also the Medicis, through to 1789 and 1848 and featured in the American Revolution with the Spanish Civil War, also turned the Euro- Thomas Jefferson writing into the American pean workers’ movement against it. In this constitution the amendment that ‘Congress respect secularism, like the bourgeois demo- shall make no law respecting an establish- cratic revolutions of which it was a part was ment of religion, or prohibiting the free ex- thoroughly progressive. ercise thereof’ as a result of which the US But this is not the end of the story. has no established or state religion to this If the bourgeois revolutions against feudal- day. ism were progressive it also the case that, In contrast to the US the reaction that from the moment of its conquest of polit- followed the French Revolution and rise to ical power, the bourgeoisie embarked on a power of Napoleon with his restoration of policy of colonial conquest and enslavement 1F.Engels, ‘Introduction to the Dialectics of Nature’, Marx/Engels, Selected Works, Vol.II, Moscow 1962, p.63.

43 of the rest of the world. Thus the Dutch colonial project was presented as a ‘civilis- Republic, within a decade of winning its in- ing mission’ (mission civilisatrice) bringing dependence from the Habsburg empire in civilisation to backward and benighted peo- what was perhaps the first war of national ples, and in this context the meaning of sec- liberation, and becoming the most progres- ularism changed profoundly. From being a sive society in Europe at the time, had es- progressive value directed against oppression tablished a colonial empire which stretched it became seen as a marker of national pride from Batavia (today’s Indonesia) in the and superiority which could be used to jus- far east to New Amsterdam (New York) tify colonialism and all the oppression it en- and Pernambuco (Brasil) in the Americas, tailed. which they naturally ran with great brutal- During the post Second World War eco- ity. Similarly the bourgeois revolutionary nomic boom, ‘les trente glorieuses’ as it was Oliver Cromwell, had no sooner cut off the known in France, there was large scale immi- head of Charles I in January 1649 than he gration from North Africa as workers were embarked in August of the same year on the sucked in to meet labour shortages in the conquest of Ireland with consequences that expanding economy. It was a process very remain legendary. Bourgeois Britain then similar to what occurred in Britain during went on to establish the global empire on the same period, with the migrant workers which the sun never set and the blood never in both cases being drawn from the former dried. colonies3. In France this inevitably meant France’s war of revolutionary defence that a high proportion of these immigrants in 1793, turned with Napoleon into a war were Muslim4. And in this situation ‘secu- of conquest, whose oppressive ferocity was larism’ became a slogan behind which racists shockingly recorded by Goya in his Disas- and racist organisations could mobilise anti- ters of War, while at the same time he in- immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment. vaded Egypt and Syria and attempted to re- store slavery in Haiti. In 1830 France de- In itself there was nothing uniquely cided to ‘share its culture’2 with Algeria by French to this. The British far right have invading it in a war of conquest that by tried repeatedly to make things like halal 1870 had reduced the Algerian population meat and the building of mosques a pre- by one third. This was the beginning of text for racist campaigns and the notion that the extensive French empire in Africa, sec- immigrants should ‘conform to our values’ ond only to Britain’s, that stretched across whatever they might be, is doubtless a seam the Maghreb to Morocco and down to Sene- mined by racists everywhere. Nevertheless gal, Mali, Congo, Madagascar and elsewhere the specificities of French history made the along with colonies in Indo-China (Vietnam, notion of ‘secularism’ well suited for this Laos, Cambodia), New Caledonia in the Pa- purpose. What made it particularly effec- cific, and in the Caribbean. This was an em- tive was that it invoked what had been a pire which lasted until after Second World progressive tradition and this gave it a pur- War and came to an end only with being chase among French liberals and sections of driven out of Vietnam by the Viet Minh in the French left, including sadly some of the 1954 and the horrendously ferocious Alge- far left, that ‘British values’ never had with rian War of 1954-62. the British left. As the British Empire was depicted as Thus, when in the late eighties the wear- ‘the White Man’s Burden’ so the French ing the hijab or headscarf by school students 2September 8 2016, the former French Prime Minister and future presidential candidate, François Fillon, said that France is not guilty because it only wanted to share its culture with its former colonies. 3Ireland, of course, does not have former colonies and did not experience anything comparable to the western European boom of the fifties and sixties. The parallel here would be what happened in the Celtic Tiger. 4The French census does not record people by religion and estimates for the number of Muslims cur- rently in France vary considerably. A recent report from the Interior Ministry puts the figure at 4.15 million (around 6.2%) compared to 2.7 million in Britain (around 4.5%).

44 became an issue, left wing teachers5 were racist and fascist right, especially the Front among those making the running in the call National. Fifth, it chimed with a wider de- for a ban and in the nineties there were actu- ployment of the feminist card by the US ally some teachers’ strikes over this question- state and others (the likes of Hilary Clin- not something which, to my knowledge, has ton) to justify imperialist interventions and occurred in other countries. wars. ‘We should invade Afghanistan to lib- The ‘progressive’ credentials of secular- erate Afghan women from the Taliban!’. ism were further augmented by throwing Unfortunately the extreme cynicism and feminism into the mix. In relation to the hypocrisy of this last point - the United hijab and other forms of the Islamic veil States has never invaded anywhere to lib- (niqab, chador, burka etc) the argument was erate women, or men for that matter, but made that this was a marker of women’s only and exclusively in pursuit of its eco- oppression imposed on Muslim women by nomic and strategic interests - has not pre- their patriarchal families and their backward vented it having a certain effect. And this misogynistic religion. It was therefore a blow effect has been particularly pernicious be- for women’s liberation to ban the hijab etc cause the invocation of the radical values of from public institutions. secularism and feminism has worked to var- iously co-opt, confuse and demobilise pre- This argument, not confined to France cisely those progressive, left and socialist but particularly potent in France, rested forces who should have been at the forefront on several errors. First it was based on of resisting the rise of racism and fascism in a one-dimensional and stereotyped view of France which, tragically, have been given a the hijab which refused to listen to what relatively easy ride. many Muslim women themselves were say- However all of this has reached the peak ing on the issue. Yes, historically the veil- it has because it has coincided with a phe- ing of women was linked to the oppression nomenon that is by neither peculiar to of women but in the world today it is also France nor French in origin - the global rise linked to Muslim identity (in the way that of Islamophobia. the ‘Afro’ hairstyle was linked to Black iden- tity in the sixties) and therefore is often adopted by Muslim women voluntarily and The Rise of Islamophobia as a statement of defiance and pride in their identity in the face of racism and exclusion. White western Europeans6 have viewed non- Second, it was based on a patronising top Europeans and people of colour with a com- down conception of emancipation in which bination of hostility and contempt for ap- the liberation of Muslim women was to be proximately five hundred years - that is since handed to them from above rather than Europe began the process of conquering and taken by those women themselves. Third, enslaving most of the rest of the world. This it violated the very simple democratic prin- means that in the larger scheme of things, as ciple that people should be allowed to wear Alex Callinicos has remarked, ‘Racism is a what they want and, indeed, that there historical novelty’7 but half a millennium is should be freedom of religious expression. nonetheless a long time in the development Fourth, it lined up progressive feminism in of our social consciousness. By comparison common cause with the growing forces of the Islamophobia is of really recent origin. I am 5Unfortunately a particularly shameful role was played in this regard by members of Lutte Ou- vriere, one of the main French Trotskyist organisations. See ‘The Islamic veil and the subjugation of women’, http://journal.lutte-ouvriere.org/2003/04/24/foulard-islamique-et-soumission-des- femmes_6495.html and Chris Harman ‘Behind the Veil’, Socialist Review 180, Nov. 1994. https: //www.marxists.org/archive/harman/1994/11/veil.html 6I am referring here to the attitudes of dominant social groups and the dominant ideology, not to all Europeans. 7Alex Callinicos, Race and Class, London 1993, p.16 8The longer Oxford English Dictionary contains a reference to the use of the word in 1923 but this was clearly a completely isolated example.

45 looking at a 1980 edition of the Concise Ox- This then gives us an indication as to ford English Dictionary - it does not contain when and how Islamophobia began to gain the word ‘Islamophobia’8 A standard socio- momentum. It was in the early to mid- logical textbook from 1990, E.Cashmore and nineties. I do not mean by this that Hunt- B.Troyna, Introduction to Race Relations, ingdon through his essay or his book started does not discuss the phenomenon and has the phenomenon or is responsible for it. no reference to the word in its index, nor Huntington was, in the words of Tariq Ali, a does Alex Callinicos’ Race and Class from ‘state intellectual’10. He was director of Har- 1993. Of course, the people who are now vard’s Centre for International Affairs and subject to Islamophobia have long been the the White House Coordinator of Security objects of racism, but it was on the basis of Planning under Jimmy Carter. This means their skin colour, nationality, ethnicity (so- that his ‘theories’ were from the outset fash- called ‘race’) and alleged culture, not their ioned to meet the needs of the US ruling adherence to Islam or their Muslim identity. class and, in so far as they were taken up and They were seen and labelled as ‘Arabs’ or propagated it was because that class and its ‘Pakis’ or ‘Asians’ or ‘wogs’ or ‘blacks’ etc. representatives in the White House, the Pen- not as Muslims. tagon and then the media deemed useful. So when, how and why - the questions This particular theory was then seized are interconnected - did Islamophobia de- upon and disseminated with great vigour velop? A commonplace view is that it and with ever growing intensity after 9/11. emerged as a response to 9/11 and an accom- Such is the global hegemony of the US bour- paniment to Bush’s ‘war on terror’. Obvi- geoisie in these matters and also the conflu- ously these were an important turning point ence of material interests of British, French and marked a definite escalation but they and European imperialism, that the notion were not the origin. Samuel P. Huntington’s of Islam and Muslims as a threat to our way book The Clash of Civilizations and the Re- of life was soon appearing not only from making of World Order was the key found- the mouths of leading political figures but ing intellectual text of Islamophobia. It was also, at least by innuendo and implication, published in 1996 and was the working up in the headlines of innumerable newspapers of an article written in 1993 and a lecture and TV news broadcasts around the world, given in 1992. In the 1993 essay he wrote: until within a matter of years it had become The most important conflicts of almost ‘common sense’. the future will occur along the But if that is when and how, what about cultural fault lines separating why? The two main background factors these civilizations from one an- were the Iranian Revolution of 1979 with its other. Why will this be the case? Islamist outcome and the collapse of Com- First, differences among civiliza- munism and end of the cold war in 1989-91. tions are not only real; they are The Iranian Revolution overthrew the Shah basic. Civilizations are differen- of Iran who, together with his regime, was a tiated from each other by his- key US ally in the Middle East and possessed tory, language, culture, tradition major oil reserves. The Islamist regime of and, most important, religion... Ayatollah Khomeini which emerged from the These differences are the prod- Revolution then gave a huge impetus to Is- uct of centuries. They will not lamist movements throughout the region. soon disappear. They are far The appeal of Islamism, or political Islam, more fundamental than differ- across the Middle East was aided by the ences among political ideologies complete failure of nationalism and commu- and political regimes.9 nism (Stalinism), which had previously been 9http://edvardas.home.mruni.eu/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/huntington.pdf 10‘State intellectuals are those who have worked for and emerged from the bowels of the US state machine: Kissinger, Brzezinski, Fukuyama and Huntington typify this breed’. Tariq Ali, The Clash of Fundamen- talisms, London 2002, p.302

46 the predominant forces, to successfully chal- values’ is Muslim homophobia. This notion lenge imperialism in the area. During the is promoted with a straight face as if belief in Cold War the West had tended to view the LGBT+ equality were a ‘traditional’ West- Islamists with indulgence as potential or ac- ern value by people who a decade or two ago tual allies in the fight against the godless would most likely have been grubby homo- communists, as in US support for forerun- phobes. And in this toxic context using sec- ners of the Taliban against the Soviet occu- ularism (with a dash of misogyny parading pation of Afghanistan. But with the Cold as feminism) as a weapon to further estrange War over and the communist threat elim- and isolate Muslims was an obvious move. inated US imperialism increasingly saw Is- lamism as the main threat to its interests, above all in the oil rich Middle East. Two Coups Noting the fact that the Islamophobic The issue of the abuse of secularism as a pit- drive began before 9/11 is important be- fall which can seriously derail the left and cause it is often presented as emerging as serve reaction is not confined to France or a response to 9/11. In reality the rise of Europe. On the contrary it has played a Islamophobia was, along with US imperial- significant role in two recent major events ism’s general record in the Middle East, one in the Middle East: the Egyptian military of the causes of the attack on the Twin Tow- coup of July 2013 and the attempted mili- ers. However it is clear that 9/11 and the tary coup in Turkey in July 2016. subsequent ‘war on terror’ with its invasion To understand how this worked it is nec- of Afghanistan and Iraq ratcheted up the essary first to dispel a false Islamophobic whole vicious cycle of war, terrorist atrocity, view of the Middle East as one vast Muslim more war, more terror and ever more racism Islamist mass. Of course it is true that the and hatred. overwhelming majority of people in the Mid- Some observations about how racism dle East, including Turkey, and across North works: first, once a group is stigmatised and Africa are Muslim by faith, much as the demonised by official society they become overwhelming majority of Irish were (until a target for all sorts of bigots and bullies. very recently) Catholic. Nevertheless there These range from the bully in playground were in the 20th century and across the re- looking for a child to intimidate to fascist gion large secularist and modernising polit- and Nazi parties trying to build on the basis ical movements of various kinds. This secu- of hatred. For fascists the ultimate enemy larist spectrum ranged from right wing bour- is the working class movement and social- geois movements and regimes that acted ism but they will use any scapegoat going as agents of or collaborators with, imperi- to help them attract support to defeat the alism, through bourgeois nationalist move- working class and the left; it can be Jews, ments and regimes that were to some degree asylum seekers, Poles, blacks, Roma - who- anti-imperialist to the Communist/Stalinist ever is being singled out by the media and left. Examples, moving round the Mediter- the establishment. Once the media identi- ranean, would include the Algerian FLN fied ‘Muslims’ as ‘the problem’ every fascist, (National Liberation Front), Nasser and big or small, leapt on the band wagon even Nasserism in Egypt, the PLO in Palestine, to the point, in many cases, of becoming pro- the Ba’ath Party in Syria and Iraq, Mo- Israel. hammed Mosaddegh (Prime Minister of Iran Second, when a racist band wagon is until overthrown by a CIA coup in 1953), the rolling it becomes a case of ‘any stick to beat various Kurdish parties such as the PKK in a dog’ - drag in any argument that lays to Turkish Kurdistan, Kemal Ataturk and Ke- hand, especially those you can use to wrong malist parties in Turkey and the Commu- foot or embarrass ideological or political op- nist Parties of Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, and ponents. Thus, for example, inserted into Turkey. the discourse of Islamophobia, is the claim The picture is complicated by the fact that a marker of Muslims ‘not sharing our that these categories were fluid and the la-

47 bels often misleading. Thus, a movement But this government, behaving rather like e.g. Kemalism, could begin as to some the Irish Labour Party and other right wing extent anti-imperialist and morph into a reformist parties, collaborated with the mil- pro- imperialist force; a bourgeois national- itary, with the state and with Egyptian cap- ist movement e.g. the Ba’ath Party of Sad- italism and did nothing at all for the mass of dam Hussein (and that of the Assad family), the people who had elected them. Indeed for could describe itself as socialist and include the majority of Egyptians things got worse socialist in its official name, without har- as the economy deteriorated and state insti- bouring the slightest intention of opposing tutions became increasingly dysfunctional. capitalism or liberating the working class11 This in turn produced a mass movement and the Communists were quite often largely against the government which culminated in middle class in terms of their entire lead- vast anti-MB demonstrations on 30 June. ing layers and pursued a policy of subordi- At this point, and it was clearly planned nating themselves to bourgeois nationalists in advance (perhaps with the aid of the such as Nasser.12 But what all these forces CIA), the military were able to take ad- had in common was a desire to ‘modernise’ vantage of the mass discontent and stage their respective nations and a perception of their coup. When the Muslim Brotherhood the Muslim masses, both peasants and work- protested against the coup in the name of ers, as a ‘backward’ obstacle to this process. democratic legitimacy and organised sit-ins This elitism towards the mass of ordinary at al-Nahda Square and Rabaa al-Adawiya people sank deep roots in large sections of Square. The military responded on August the region’s ‘left’ and ‘progressive’ forces.13 14 with a deadly massacre at Rabaa which One effect of this approach was to iso- claimed, in a few hours, somewhere between late much of the left from the religious 800 and 2000 lives. Human Rights Watch masses and consequently make it easier for called it, ‘one of the world’s largest killings the Islamists, such as the Muslim Broth- of demonstrators in a single day in recent erhood in Egypt or Erdogan’s AKP (Jus- history’14 On the basis of this the Al-Sisi tice and Development Party) in Turkey, to regime was able to consolidate its thorough- present themselves as the principle opposi- going counterrevolution and re-establish all tion to the pro-imperialist regimes and pro- the features of the Mubarak dictatorship. Western military. However where this par- The tragedy was that many political ticular chicken really came home to roost forces and individuals who had played lead- was with General Al-Sisi’s military coup of ing roles in the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 3 July 2013. now supported the anti-Muslim Brother- Because the Muslim Brotherhood were hood coup on the grounds that the military seen by the Egyptian masses as the main were a lesser evil than the Islamists. Per- opposition to the hated regime of Hosni haps the worst case of this was Hamdeen Mubarak the victory of the anti-Mubarak Sabahi, the Nasserist leader who was jailed revolution in early 2011 and the holding of seventeen times under Mubarak and who Egypt’s first real elections produced a Mus- had stood as a semi-left candidate in the lim Brotherhood government and Muslim 2012 Presidential election, coming third with Brotherhood President, Mohammed Morsi. 21% of the vote. The April 6 Youth Move- 11This was particularly the case in the era when adopting the label socialist facilitated receiving aid and or protection from the Soviet Union. 12This policy derived from the ‘stages’ theory adopted by Stalin and the Comintern in the mid-1920s and the Popular Front strategy of the 1930s. For an account of the relation between ‘Communism’ and third world nationalism see John Molyneux, What is the Real Marxist Tradition?, London 1985. See https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/molyneux/1983/07/tradition.htm 13For a discussion of these attitudes in relation to the Turkish working class see Ron Margulies, ‘What are we to do with Islam? The case of Turkey’, International Socialism 151. http://isj.org.uk/what-are- we-to-do-with-islam/ 14https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/08/12/egypt-raba-killings-likely-crimes-against- humanity.

48 ment, who were a major factor in the street parties and movements (still less academics) mobilizations in 2011, also gave partial sup- to take formal positions, nevertheless the port to the coup.15 As a result there was phenomenon I refer to was evident in terms very little effective resistance to the counter of who did not come out onto the streets and revolutionary coup. in the commentary on social media. Any- At the heart of this failure was the one on that night who posted clear anti-coup widespread tendency to see the fundamen- statements was immediately assailed by ob- tal division in society as ‘modern’ secular- jections from many sides including people of ism versus ‘backward’ Islamism, rather than ‘the left’. And this was despite the fact that the class struggle and hence to regard the the Turkish military had form - that two Muslim Brotherhood, not the military, as previous coups in 1960 and 1980 had been the main enemy. brutal and repressive in the extreme. Another position taken by many on the One argument put forward to justify fail- Egyptian left is that of the Third Square16 ure to oppose the coup is that it was a which rejects the army and the Brotherhood ‘fake coup’ staged by Erdogan himself to as both equally reactionary, both equal poles strengthen his position. Given the serious- of counterrevolution.17 But this, though ness of what occurred that night, the bomb- clearly preferable to Sabahi’s out right sup- ing of parliament and the presidential place port for the coup, is still inadequate. To and the more than two hundred people killed treat two political forces as equal poles of this can be dismissed as fanciful but the rea- counterrevolution when one is in power and son for the ‘theory’ (and the fact that it was massacring and imprisoning the other and advanced by many people with very scant when one is the main representative of the knowledge of Turkey) was clearly that it got ruling class and the embodiment of the capi- people off the hook of having actually to op- talist state and the other is a predominantly pose it. petty bourgeois opposition with a mass base Another argument was the notion that among the poor is, intentionally or not, to Erdogan was/is a fascist. This had give aid to the oppressor. Instead, in order been popular, including in certain anar- effectively to build resistance to the al-Sisi chist/autonomist circles, at the time of Gezi dictatorship it is necessary for socialists to Park and it resurfaced in relation to the defend all those suffering repression, regard- coup. This characterisation is false for many less of their religion and including the Mus- reasons. It is an instance of the tendency to 18 lim Brotherhood. call all instances of capitalist state repression The attempted coup in Turkey on 15 fascist, as in Thatcher was a fascist, Donald July raised similar issues though the out- Trump is a fascist and so on. In reality fas- come was very different. The similarity lay cism was and is a counterrevolutionary mass in the fact that many forces on the left, movement that destroys bourgeois democ- in Turkey and internationally, were reluc- racy and the working class movement (the tant to wholeheartedly or actively oppose trade unions and all the left) - destroys and the coup because they thought that the Is- eliminates not attacks and weakens. This lamist Erdogan government was as bad as is the basic distinction between Mussolini, (or perhaps worse than) rule by the secular Hitler, Jobbyk, Golden Dawn and the Front military . The whole event was over in a National on the one hand and Thatcher, matter of hours so there was little time for Trump, Bush, UKIP, Cameron, Merkel etc 15To their credit they later withdrew this but by then the worst damage had been done. 16See http://www.france24.com/en/20130729-egypt-third-square-activists-reject-army- mohammed-morsi 17This position has also been theorised internationally by Gilbert Achcar (SOAS Professor and member of the New Anti-Capitalist Party in France) in his book Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising, London 2016. 18For much fuller analyses of the Egyptian Revolution and its fate see John Molyneux, ‘Lessons from the Egyptian Revolution’ Irish Marxist Review 13, and Philip Marfleet, Egypt:Contested Revolution, London 2016.

49 on the other. Erdogan and his government to do with religion and everything to do with do not meet these criteria at all. In addition economics. In Egypt the capitalist economy calling the AKP fascist has affinities with was deteriorating and so Egyptian Islamism the Islamophobic term ‘Islamo-fascism’ used bitterly disappointed many of its support- by former leftists like Christopher Hitchens ers. In Turkey the capitalist economy ex- and Nick Cohen to justify their support for perienced an unprecedented boom and this George Bush and Tony Blair. enabled Erdogan, by means of limited but The third and superficially most plau- judicious reforms, to retain and increase its sible argument for not opposing the mili- base in the working class. If we want an tary coup is that Erdogan has been able to Irish parallel we could say Erdogan’s AKP use his victory to reinforce his own power resembled Fianna Fail in the Celtic Tiger and to extend that power in an increasingly whereas the Muslim Brotherhood was like authoritarian direction. There is no doubt Fianna Fail after the crash of 2008. that this has happened and that the crack- What both these cases demonstrate is down against those responsible for coup, the the folly of seeing secularism versus theoc- so-called Gulenists and putchist elements racy as the main dividing line in society in the Military, has extended way beyond rather than the politics of class conflict. the ranks of those who could have been in- volved: Erdogan’s Justice Minister Bekir Marxism and Religion Bozdag has himself stated that the number of arrests has reached 32,000.19 Neverthe- This article as a whole should be understood less this argument is false for two reasons: as an application to contemporary events of first because in terms of scale and severity the basic Marxist analysis of religion which this does not compare with the repression in turn is part of the general historical ma- meted out by the military. According to The terialist theory of ideology. This is not the Economist, ‘Turkey’s army has overthrown place for an exposition of this underlying no fewer than four governments since 1960. theory21. However, two points need to be The bloodiest coup came in 1980, when 50 made here by way of conclusion. people were executed, 500,000 were arrested The first is simply that people make re- and many hundreds died in jail’20 Second be- ligions not religions people. Religion as a cause progressive and left wing forces would whole and every religion in particular is a be in a much stronger position to resist this social product, a response to a real set of anti-democratic authoritarianism in so far as material circumstances and therefore as so- they clearly opposed the coup from the word ciety changes, as material conditions change go. so do religions and people’s interpretations Why then was the Turkish coup unsuc- of religious texts and doctrines. This applies cessful, while the Egyptian coup swept all equally to Christianity, Islam, Judaism and before it? Partly because the Turkish army all the rest. As Chris Harman has said: was not united but mainly because the Turk- ish masses, primarily the Turkish working The confusion often starts with class, came out onto the streets in huge num- a confusion about the power of bers immediately, on the night of 15 July, religion itself. Religious people to confront the tanks and stop the coup in see it as a historical force in its tracks. They did this at the call of Er- its own right, whether for good dogan (though not all who came out were or for evil. So too do most AKP supporters.. But the reason has little bourgeois anti-clerical and free 19See http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0928/819767-turkey-arrests/ 20‘Erdogan and his generals’, The Economist, 2/2/2013 http://www.economist.com/news/europe/ 21571147-once-all-powerful-turkish-armed-forces-are-cowed-if-not-quite-impotent-erdogan- and-his 21For my take on these matters see John Molyneux, ‘More than opium: Marxism and religion’, Interna- tional Socialism 119. (2008) and John Molyneux, The Point is to Change it: an introduction to Marxist Philosophy, London 2011.

50 thinkers. For them, fighting the point is not the theology or doctrine of the influence of religious institutions movement but the social force or forces it and obscurantist ideas is in itself represents and its role in the class struggle. the way to human liberation. This is the criterion Marxists have generally But although religious institu- applied to movements with a Christian ideol- tions and ideas clearly play a ogy from Martin Luther King and the Civil role in history, this does not hap- Rights Movement to the right wing Moral pen in separation from the rest Majority to the Easter Rising and the IRA of material reality. Religious in- and Chavez in Venezuela. It is the crite- stitutions, with their layers of rion that must be applied to Islamist move- priests and teachers, arise in a ments in their equally great variety. Hamas certain society and interact with and Hezbollah, Al Qaeda and Isis, the Mus- that society22. lim Brotherhood and the AKP cannot all be lumped together in one Islamist pot. It The second is that in determining the is necessary to make a concrete analysis of socialist and Marxist response to political each in its specific circumstances. And ex- movements with a religious colouration - of actly the same principle applies to secular- which there are a multitude - the starting ism.

22Chris Harman, ‘The Prophet and the Proletariat’, International Socialism 64 (1994) p,4-5. https: //www.marxists.org/archive/harman/1994/xx/islam.htm It should be said that this outstanding and pioneering article paved the way for many of the arguments presented here.

51 A Socialist in Stormont

An interview with Gerry Carroll MLA

Irish Marxist Review interviews Gerry I went to St John the Baptist primary Carroll of Belfast People Before Profit who, school, and then to St Mary’s Christian together with Eamonn McCann for Foyle, Brothers Grammar school. I liked my time was recently elected as an MLA in Stormont. at both. I suppose I wasn’t a star pupil. In IMR: Could you begin by telling us a fact I know I wasn’t. I was more into foot- bit about yourself and your upbringing ball and music. But I learnt enough to get etc. by, and I am very grateful for that. My only regret is I didn’t stick at learning the Irish Gerry Carroll: I was born in West Belfast language, which is a big part of West Belfast and raised in the Andersonstown area. I am since its revival in the last few decades. I the second eldest in a family of seven chil- have been going to classes in recent years to dren. My father worked as a coal man and a try and make up for it. black taxi driver when I was growing up. My mother worked in the house and later as a IMR: How did you first get involved in classroom assistant in the local school when politics? she went back to work. It was a big family, Gerry Carroll: My family were largely re- always someone to play with, and usually publican in political persuasion, and some more than one to argue with. of my relatives were in involved in Sinn I was born in 1987 and grew up at the Féin. Some still are. Had I been born tail end of the troubles. I am old enough ten years earlier maybe I would have joined to remember the British Army patrolling them. Who knows? But by the time I was a the streets, and can remember our primary teenager the radical gloss had gone off Sinn school being evacuated after a bomb scare Féin. Maybe not completely, but that was was reported. Stuff like that was just nor- the sense. This didn’t come from some sort mal, and I’m not sure I was old enough to re- of sophisticated analysis. It was just your ally comprehend it. I didn’t have any other experience. You would see them on TV in experience to compare it to. But my for- suits, and then you would see them at the mative years were after the ceasefires. I can weekend, trying move you on from street remember hundreds of cars driving up and corners. Whether or not they were part of down the Andytown Road with tricolours the establishment, they certainly felt like the when the IRA called a ceasefire. It was like establishment in the area. There was a gap a big party in the area. growing between the party and young peo- ple. Those young people who did join tended And I remember as well the excitement to be sons or daughters of Sinn Féin mem- when Bill Clinton came. The whole fam- bers. In fact if you did join, you were likely ily went into town to see him. The place to be a target for mercilessness slaggin by was packed, brimming with people. It seems your peers. strange looking back. But it was the hope that something different was on the way, I suppose the first political thing I did something better. I was ten when the was a walk out of school against the war Belfast Agreement was signed. I remem- in Iraq in 2003. We walked out of school- ber the document lying about the house, it much to the dismay of Senior Management was sent to every home. I doubt if I even - who later gave a day’s detention to every- looked through it, but you certainly heard a one who decided to take a principled stand lot about it. My generation was supposed to against the war in Iraq and walk down the be the first generation without violence. The school lane. I distinctly remember watching first generation with a future beyond prisons the TV coverage of the bombs being dropped and repression. I’m not sure I thought of it on Iraq. It filled me full of rage. that way at the time of course. But that was In 2005 I was part of organising a ‘Stu- the context. dents Against Poverty’ bus to the Make

52 Poverty History demonstration in Edin- strict bail conditions. I was barred from burgh. We organised a bus of school stu- entering the city centre under any circum- dents from across West Belfast and the wider stances and barred from attending protests city to the demonstration. I will never for- of any kind. get the powerful experience of being on a Over the next year some of the restric- protest with hundreds of thousands of peo- tions were lifted. I was allowed back into ple and the real sense that if people across the city centre and eventually allowed to at- the world stood together then fundamental tend protests again: under the proviso that change could be achieved. There was a fan- I contacted the local PSNI station to alert tastic feeling of solidarity and collectivism them of my presence. I was again arrested in the camp in Edinburgh with exciting dis- a year and half later when I was leaflet- cussions about how we can shape the world. ing in the town about unemployment rights, This experience had a lasting impact on me whereupon I was approached by two police and really helped begin to shape how I view officers who arrested me. I was on a protest the world today. they said, and had not rung the police sta- In 2008 and 2009 I was elected as the stu- tion. This was not a protest I argued, which dent’s union president for the Jordanstown it wasn’t, but I was brought back before the campus at the University of Ulster. It was a Judge again nonetheless. It was just petty lot of fun. We organised mystery bus tours harassment. and fresher’s events but also demonstrations Some of the charges were dropped, in- against Fees and tried to instil radical pol- cluding the ridiculous notion that I had itics into the student movement. It was resisted arrest. At the trial my solicitor where I really cut my teeth politically and held up the front page of the Belfast Tele- whilst it was certainly a new experience - graph. There was a photo of me being we constantly attempted to present a politi- dragged by the police from the protest by cal student’s union that was against war, for my legs, with about four other people hold- free education and opposed to racism. ing my arms and coat. I was hardly in IMR: You were banned from Belfast a position to ‘resist’ arrest. That charge City Centre for a time for being in- was dropped instantly after that photo was volved in a protest weren’t you? shown. I was convicted, however, of engag- Gerry Carroll: Yes, and it was a long le- ing in a ‘provocative act’, partly because I gal battle. I wouldn’t recommend it to any- had chanted ‘they say cut back we say fight one, nothing glamorous about it at all. The back’ on a megaphone. Ludicrous stuff. whole thing went on for about two years. IMR: When did you first stand for But we were right to have protested, and election? we were right to have taken a stand. I Gerry Carroll: I first stood in 2011 - when was arrested at a student protest at Belfast I was still banned from the city centre - in City Hall against fees on December 9th 2010. the Assembly election for West Belfast. We Hundreds of students and supporters had had been involved in local campaigns from gathered there to protest against the hike 2006; from the fight against water charges, a in tuition fees. It was a brilliant day: with campaign to protect public land at the for- hundreds of young people, from both sides mer Andersonstown Barracks site from be- of the divide, joining together to say no to a ing sold off to a private developer and cam- future of debt. paigns against parking charges. We were A botched attempt by the police to clear very energetic about the area, and our cam- the area at the end of the protest resulted in paign mainly involved young people. hundreds of people standing on the road. A People Before Profit were known around sit down protest began. The PSNI singled the community for being involved in grass- myself out for arrest (because I had a mega- roots activism for a few years. We did very phone and was therefore a ’ringleader’), and well in the election, getting 1661 votes. Not dragged me from the protest. I was held long after that Gerry Adams resigned his overnight, and released the next day under Westminster seat to move to the South. We

53 stood again, and were the only party to in- ineffectual. But people aren’t stupid and crease our vote in that election. could see past what they were doing. Our These results were much better than any- support was growing. thing left wing parties had scored in the IMR: Your election campaign for MLA North in decades. Naturally, some people this year was obviously a triumph - refused to accept its significance, arguing it what were the key factors in its suc- was a fluke or that we borrowed votes from cess? others. But we never bothered with them, Gerry Carroll: Our result was indeed a and kept doing what we were doing. fantastic triumph and it was down to a num- IMR: Tell us about getting elected as ber of factors. Firstly, we had a good team a councillor and how you operated as ethic and a lot of people who did a lot of hard a socialist in that role. work-writing the leaflets, putting up posters Gerry Carroll: We knew we had a real and knocking the doors. This was our fifth chance of taking a seat on the City Coun- election in five years so we had accumulated cil in 2014 based on our previous election a lot of experience running in elections. results and our consistent campaigning on Some quarters tried to present our vote the ground. And while much of the media as simply a ‘protest vote’. But this com- never gave our campaign the time of day, pletely missed out on the fact that we had this spurred us on we came 100 votes away a coherent argument about what could be from topping the poll in the Black Mountain done to fight against austerity. Sinn Féin Ward in West Belfast. This puzzled a lot of and the DUP argued that austerity was the establishment who thought that politics the only option, like some force of nature could only be demarcated in the North along that couldn’t be stopped. On the other Nationalist and Unionist lines. And for the hand, we argued that the Assembly where first time in decades there was a socialist complicit in austerity and doing the dirty voice in the chamber of Belfast City Coun- work of the Tories. The Assembly crafted cil. Our election came not long after the the Stormont House Agreement which lu- period of the ‘Flag Protests’. There was a dicrously argued for corporation tax to be lot of pessimism around that period but also slashed to 12.5% and £700 million to be a deep sense of frustration about the reces- borrowed to abolish 20,000 public sector sion and attacks on public services. And not workers-Thatcherite politics pure and sim- long after the protests we saw trade union ple. We argued for Stormont, instead of beg- strikes against public sector cutbacks and ging David Cameron to cut taxes for their the growth in the idea that there needed to corporate friends, to call for corporations to be an alternative to cutbacks. pay their way. We also argued that the £700 I think the election sparked a resurgence million borrowed could be used to create a in street protests and social movements in crash programme of house building which the city. We organised large scale demon- would give people homes and create jobs for strations against the slaughter of Palestini- the unemployed sparks and brickies. ans by the Israeli state, demonstrations I think we also tapped into something against racism, the war in Syria, racism and deeper. There is a growing sense of the need for equal marriage. On the council we pro- for society to take a different direction. This posed a motion which passed, calling for was encapsulated in our slogan of ‘Build- the implementation of the living wage for ing a Socialism for the 21st Century.’ We Health Workers in Belfast, a motion sup- were the local version of the Sanders, or Cor- porting striking workers, a motion creating byn phenomenon. That same mood exists in Belfast city councils first Transgender policy West Belfast as it does across Ireland. The which provided support to staff transition- election of comrades to the Dail earlier this ing and also committed the council to raise year also helped us in terms of showing that awareness of Transgender rights. Of course PBP was campaigning for an alternative vi- the larger parties sought to sideline us, to sion North and South, which could build an make it seem like they ‘deliver’ and we were all-Ireland movement based on people power

54 and capable of real change. land. And some Catholics will be for the IMR: What has been your experience border. It isn’t all determined by religion. so far in Stormont and how are you re- Things are much more pragmatic than that. sponding to the situation politically? And in that discussion we can put our own Gerry Carroll: It has definitely been a unique position, that is neither nationalist strange experience - in the sense that I have nor unionist but socialist. One that calls been involved in activism for over eleven for an Ireland that isn’t divided into two years but never did, and still don’t, see my- horrible states, nor one based on the Sinn self as a traditional politician. It is also Féin vision of corporate tax haven Ireland strange seeing people you are used to shout- where big business are given free handouts, ing at on the TV or screaming at on the and unity is a promoted as a new way to radio walk past you on a daily basis. cut the public sector through all Ireland ef- It can be frustrating at times, especially ficiency. No one is going to be won to that considering how they have stitched up the vision unfortunately. That’s why support speaking time to decrease opportunities for for a United Ireland is so low at the mo- People Before Profit to speak, and to put ment. And that’s why Sinn Féin’s strategy us to the bottom of the list, a shameful strengthens partition. act by the DUP and Sinn Féin, something So there is a difference between having a which the old Official Unionist Party would border poll and winning one. PBP look at be proud of. the national question through the prism of When we do speak, we try and act like James Connolly’s ideas. We live on a small a megaphone inside Stormont for everyone island which is divided into two–this creates outside it. Be they classroom assistants a division between workers in the North and fighting against job insecurity, same sex cou- the South. It also creates a divide between ples fighting to get marriage equality en- workers in the North. We want to see the acted, or the thousands of people who are unity of working class across Ireland, North waiting to be housed. It’s clear that Stor- and South, and an upheaval against both mont has failed ordinary people. Our job states. We believe the only way people can is to give voice to those people left behind, be convinced in large numbers of the case and the failure of the system to deal with for a United Ireland is through a grassroots people’s needs in everything we do on the movement from below, that is actually about Hill- every time we speak or present a mo- transforming their lives, not about flags or tion. For me it’s great to have two MLAs up nationality. We see the potential for this in Stormont especially someone with the ex- unity through kinds of mass movements we perience of campaigning that Eamonn has. have seen in recent years; whether the big And we have a great team around us. But in water charges movements in the South or the the end the important thing is what happens public sector strikes in the North. But we on the streets. As I said in my first speech; need a much bigger mass movement. And ‘what Stormont does, the people can undo.’ when there’s a convergence of struggles on IMR: Could you explain how you and both sides of the border, Ireland can begin People Before Profit are dealing with to be reshaped in the interests of working the issue of Irish unity and the call for class people. We are for a 32 County Social- a border poll. ist Ireland, one everyone can have a stake in, Gerry Carroll: PBP support a border poll whatever your background. on principle. We are for every exercise in IMR: PBP seems to be expanding in democracy. We think people should be al- the North as it is in the South; can you lowed to have a discussion about the bor- report on the situation at present. der in a serious way. We can’t have a Gerry Carroll: We certainly are expand- ‘not in front of the children’ approach to ing since the election results. We now have the National Question. Let people discuss seven branches across Belfast. We have had it, let them debate it. And guess what? requests to join from all parts of the North Some Protestants will be for a united Ire- since the Assembly election results. We have

55 grown in Derry too, where the party is doing We have been called Unionists, National- fantastically well. I think the platform that ists, Dissidents and everything else under we have in Stormont to put across princi- the sun. But it’s a bit like that scene in One pled, anti-capitalist politics that emphasises Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, when Jack the importance of people power, strikes a Nicholson’s character is desperately trying chord with a lot of people who are angry to escape from the asylum, while everyone about the way society is going. No doubt else looks on doing nothing and he and says there will be challenges for PBP in the com- to them; ‘But I tried didn’t I? Goddammit, ing period, and we will be attacked from at least I did that!’ That’s how I feel about all sides by all sorts of parties and forces. what we are doing as well.

56 Fianna Fáil: Past and Present

Alan Byrne

Fianna Fáil were the dominant political prompted what is usually referred to as party in Ireland from their first term in gov- a civil-war but as Kieran Allen argues in ernment in the 1930s up until their disas- an earlier issue of this journal, the Free trous 2011 election. The party managed to State in effect mounted a successful counter- enjoy large support from the working class, revolution which was thoroughly opposed to as well as court close links with the rich- the working class movement.3 The defeat est people in Irish society. Often described signalled the end of the aspirations of the as more of a ‘national movement’ than a Irish revolution and the stagnation of the party, their popular support base has now state economically. Emigration was par- plummeted. As this article goes to print, ticularly high in this period, and the state the party (officially in opposition but en- was thoroughly conservative. The Catholic abling a Fine Gael government) is polling Church fostered strong links with Cumann at 26% approval.1 How did a party which na nGaedheal, often denouncing republicans emerged from the losing side of the civil war in its sermons. come to dominate Irish political life so thor- There were distinctive class elements to oughly? This article aims to trace the his- both the pro and anti-treaty sides. The tory of the party, analyse their unique brand Cumann na nGaedheal government drew its of populist politics as well as their relation- base from large farmers, who could rely on ship with Irish capitalism and the working exports to Britain. Ideologically, they were class. close to the British establishment, having se- Fianna Fáil was founded in 1926 by Ea- cured parity with the pound, and co-opting monn DeValera following a split within the many British state institutions. The gov- Sinn Féin party, of which he was president. ernment had also presided over the victimi- The split centred around Sinn Féin’s policy sation and blacklisting of republicans during of abstention from the newly formed Free the 1920s. Sinn Féin were hostile to talk of State Dáil. In order to understand their for- class, but DeValera was astute to the feelings mation, some background analysis to the ori- of workers. The inauguration meeting of Fi- gins of the Free State is required. anna Fáil stressed the need to address the 4 The ‘War of Independence’ is often por- social and economic problems of the time. trayed as owing its victory to a clandestine Fianna Fáil, as an electoral organisation, military operation, however it was a gen- went from strength to strength following uinely popular revolution in which the work- their formation. DeValera took the Oath of ing class played a huge and crucial part.2 Allegiance, as a formality, and led the party Factory occupations and working class ac- into the Dáil having won 57 seats in the gen- tion effectively forced the British state to eral election of September 1927.5 The party cease to function in Ireland, which led to aimed to address the social problems of the negotiations resulting in the Anglo Irish time by offering improvements in wages and Treaty of 1921. Supporters of the treaty employment conditions, as well as the break split from Sinn Féin and formed Cumann up and redistribution of large farms. At the na nGaedheal, while the remainder of th same time they promoted a version of eco- party remained opposed to the treaty. This nomic nationalism whereby native industries 1http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/editorial/irish-times-ipsos-mrbi-poll-results- underpin-uneasy-stability-1.2818066 2See for example Irish Marxist Review Issue Number 14; Conor Kostick, ‘Revolution in Ireland’, (London, 1996) 3Kieran Allen, ‘The 1916 Rising: Myth and Reality’ in Irish Marxist Review Issue Number 14, (Dublin, 2015) pp.3-17 4Kieran Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour : 1926 to the Present (London, 1997) p.14 5J.J.Lee, Ireland 1912-1914 : Politics and Society, (Cambridge, 1989), p.155

57 would be built up through a system of ‘pro- payment of land annuities to Britain. In tectionism’. This was to be achieved by a se- this time a number of state companies were ries of tax breaks for native firms, while also formed including Aer Lingus, Bord na Móna, discouraging foreign investment. Much of The Irish Sugar Company and Irish Life.10 their early rhetoric was focussed on the neg- A large-scale and ambitious house-building ative impact of British industry and banks, project was undertaken to deal with the ten- rather than at capitalism itself. Allen argues ement conditions in Dublin, giving rise to that this had a large appeal in the context of housing estates such as Crumlin, Drimnagh, the 1929 crash and global economic crisis.6 Finglas and others. The dynamic between Fianna Fáil and From its inception, Fianna Fáil began to the working class bears some examination. court the approval of the Catholic Church. The Labour Party had originated in earlier The church’s attitude had varied during the syndicalist movements but had abstained war of independence, but it backed the pro- from the 1918 general election, and a a re- treaty side in the civil war. DeValera’s Fi- sult had been sidelined in Irish politics from anna Fáil attempted to appear even more the outset. This trend continued throughout fervently Catholic than Cumann na nGaed- the 1920s as union membership and strike heal had been. This was despite the fact activity fell. As the decade progressed, The that many of them, as anti-treaty Republi- Labour Party moved away from the radical cans, had been excommunicated only a few language of Connolly and embraced parlia- years earlier,.11 Fianna Fáil deputy leader mentarism and legal respectability. In this Sean T.O’Kelly made their position explicit regard they often became indistinguishable during the ’32 campaign : ‘[O]ur policy was from Fianna Fáil, arguing in 1927 for the that of Pope Pius XI’.12 The Eucharistic establishment of a native industry, for ex- Congress was held in Dublin in 1932 with ample. Allen cites the lack of Labour’s will- lavish state backing. The government built ingness to challenge capitalism as one of the a high powered radio-station in Athlone in key reasons that they were brought closer to order to transmit a papal broadcast to the Fianna Fáil, whose strategy was to reconcile congress.13 the workers movement to native capitalism.7 Fianna Fáil adhered to catholic social In a few short years, Fianna Fáil had teaching in their policies regarding the ban- become a serious political machine, enjoy- ning of contraception and the regulation of ing large success with its populist policies. dance halls, to pick two examples. The Con- The scale of their success even prompted stitution of 1937 recognised the ’special po- a ‘red scare’ from Cumann na nGaedheal, sition’ of the Catholic Church. Bryan Fan- who claimed Fianna Fáil were taking orders ning points to articles 40-44 of the Constitu- from Moscow!8 In the 1932 general elec- tion as clearly influenced by Catholic social tion, the party had secured enough seats to thought.14 DeValera invited bishop Edward form a minority government with the back- Cahill to write the preamble. Cahill desired ing of Labour.9 Now in power, Fianna Fáil that the Constitution for Ireland should be, began their policy of protectionism by im- ‘if not confessedly Catholic (which may at posing tariffs on imports, while subsidising present not be feasible), at least definitely Irish companies. They also stopped the re- and confessedly Christian.’15 The relation- 6Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.15-23 7Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.29-35 88 9Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.36-37 10Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.38-39 11Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, p.40 12John Cooney, John Charles McQuaid : Ruler of Catholic Ireland, (Dublin, 1999), p.72 13Cooney, John Charles McQuaid, p.72 14Bryan Fanning, ‘A Catholic vision of Ireland’ in Tom Inglis (ed) Are the Irish Different?, (Manchester, 2014), p.47 15Author’s emphasis.‘Fanning, A Catholic vision of Ireland’, p.47

58 ship between church and state ran both the ACA. The ACA merged with Cumann ways; catholic social teaching became en- na nGaedheal and the Centre Party to form shrined in law, while the state benefited from Fine Gael. This was another factor which a docile population under the influence of a drew Fianna Fáil and the labour movement conservative religious hierarchy.16 closer together, with the union leaders keen Allen notes that Fianna Fáil’s ‘strong to use the state machine to halt the fas- conservative edifice’ was not a barrier to cists, despite several major anti-fascist riots their efforts to appeal to the working class.17 emerging.23 They introduced the Conditions of Employ- As the decade drew to a close Fianna ment Act in 1935, which established collec- Fáil had managed to create a boom on the tive bargaining in labour disputes. This was back of their industrialisation policies. They done with the aim of curbing union mili- were able to deliver some gains for workers tancy, and creating greater reliance on the in the form of housing and employment, all state by co-opting union leadership. The while managing to co-opt both the Labour increase in industrialisation also created an party and the union leadership. They had unwanted increase in strike activity, how- also managed to woo the Catholic Hierarchy, ever.18 The Act also attempted to ban having gone from being pariahs to embrac- women from certain industries, having en- ing Catholic social teaching. The benefit of tered the workforce in large numbers owing this alliance meant that when material as- to industrialisation.19 This attempt at co- pirations for workers could not be realised, hesion between trade unions and state bod- Fianna Fáil could rely on the teachings of ies also fit neatly with one of the Catholic the Catholic Church to offer the population Church’s ideological inspirations at the time: ‘spiritual comfort.’24 corporatism. Corporatism offered a frame- Despite remaining officially neutral in work whereby employers and the state would the Second World War, The Emergency as form vocational organisations which could it was referred to had a significant impact stem the perceived extremes of both capi- upon Ireland. Sean Lemass as Minister for talism and communism,20 despite it having Supplies ramped up the protectionist poli- some influence on Salazar in Portugal and cies of the party in an attempt to make Franco in Spain. the state the largest sector of the economy The ‘Blueshirt’ movement was an at- by far, even toying with the idea of intro- tempt to muster a fascist styled response to ducing labour camps for the unemployed.25 the new government. Known formally as the Measures to ban industrial action for the Army Comrades Association (ACA), their duration of the war were mooted, but met membership was limited to ‘Christians of with resistance from the ITGWU. Fianna Irish birth’. 21 Headed by ex-Garda commis- Fáil backed down and once more attempted sioner Eoin O’Duffy, they emulated Euro- conciliation with the union leadership. The pean fascists and attacked communist meet- Labour Party managed to grow in this pe- ings around the country, with mobs inspired riod owing to the hardship suffered by work- by clerical speeches following suit.22 De- ers. Anti-communist rhetoric re-appeared Valera reacted to this activity by launching with the aim of blurring class consciousness the Public Safety Act in an attempt to ban in favour of rallying around ‘the community’. 16Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.46-47 17Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, p.47 18Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.47-49 19Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, p.58 20Fearghal McGarry, Irish Politics and the Spanish Civil War (Cork, 1999), pp.154-156 21Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.51-52 22Mike Milotte, Communism in Ireland: The pursuit of the Workers’ Republic since 1916, (Dublin, 1984), p.117 23Allen argues that it was the lack of an urban middle-class base which halted the growth of fascism. Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.53-55 24Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.62-63 25Bryce Evans, Seán Lemass – Democratic Dictator, (Cork, 2011), pp 145-148

59 In essence, the war provided cover for Fi- hierarchy. Fianna Fáil returned to power in anna Fáil to consolidate its efforts around 1951, increasing their vote by 61,000, but a 26-county framework, dropping much of still falling short of an overall majority.29 its founding rhetoric of being a 32- county The 1950s exposed the limits of Fianna republican organisation. This helped with Fáil’s protectionist strategy of building up Fianna Fáil’s professed image as a catch-all, Irish capitalism. Industrial output declined classless party.26 and, as before, promises of material improve- Ireland did not experience a post-war ment could not be met. The unions began boom, as had happened in much of Eu- to drift from their association with the party rope and elsewhere. The ending of the and efforts were made to introduce ’develop- war also posed serious problems for Fi- ment councils’ a forerunner of social partner- anna Fáil, who were no longer in a posi- ship (more of which below).30 By 1958 the tion to deliver on their earlier promise of party, now under Lemass’ leadership, began solid material improvements for the popu- to abandon protectionism in favour of the lation. These years saw an upturn in work- free market, with Ireland also making at- ers’ struggles including the Irish Women’s tempts to join the EEC. The years ‘58-‘63 Workers Union strike, as well as strikes by saw something of a boom in the building millers, the ESB, bus workers and other sec- trade, but was also met with union mili- tors. The Industrial Relations Act was in- tancy, once more with action by ESB and troduced to deal with this militancy, and bus workers. These strikes were particularly focussed around a process of ‘mediation’; a significant as they demonstrated something measure which was to set the tone for indus- of a split between the rank and file, who were trial relations in Ireland for years to come. willing to organise activity themselves, and Fianna Fáil also faced two by-elections in the union leadership. This was yet another 1947. Clann na Poblachta, a newly formed factor which brought the union leadership left-leaning organisation whose programme closer to the Fianna Fáil party. Lemass’ emulated much of the early Fianna Fáil, reaction to this was to encourage a sys- gained one of the seats in Dublin.27 Their tem of ‘social partnership’, which was some- newly elected TD, Noël Browne, recalled in what similar, but not identical, to the pol- his memoir some years later: ‘[Establish- icy of ’corporatism’ favoured by the Catholic ment politicians] had offered nothing but Church of the 1930s. The implications of unemployment, much human distress, and social partnership meant that union leaders mass emigration.[...] There were many of my would try to curb militancy in return for age with a general radical outlook who were small wage increases and a consultancy role weary of the gross incompetence of a succes- in national policy making.31 sion of civil war politicians.’28 The boom of the 60s saw Ireland’s econ- The general election of 1948 saw Fianna omy begin to move away from agriculture, Fáil ousted after an unbroken run of 16 years with the arrival of multi-nationals into the in power. They were replaced by a mixed state. These companies were attracted by coalition of Fine Gael, Clann na Poblachta, low wages and state incentives. Greater Clann na Tamhlan and National Labour (a numbers of women entered the workforce right-wing offshoot of the Labour Party). In than ever before, changing the role of the the short lifetime of this mixed-bag govern- family, which began the slow undermin- ment, they had managed to declare Ireland a ing of catholic hegemony over the following Republic, but soon fell apart over opposition decades. Access to secondary education was to the ill-fated ‘Mother and Child Scheme’ made free and provisions were introduced for by the medical profession and the Catholic the introduction of third level grants. De- 26Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.70-84 27Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.87-91 28Noël Browne, Against the Tide, (Dublin, 1986) p.97 29Lee, Ireland 1912-1985, p.319 30Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.103-104 31Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.106-115

60 spite the opportunities afforded by these de- Fáil had managed to present a more nation- velopments, workers still bore the cost of alist view than Labour in relation to North- the grants to multi-nationals through tax- ern Ireland. An anti-republican campaign ation. With an increasingly enlarging work- by the coalition, along with a rise in un- force came further militancy, with some ef- employment helped Fianna Fáil return with forts to unionise large companies being suc- a landslide victory in 1977.37 The party cessful.32 adopted a more Keynesian policy in order to It was during this time that the influ- stimulate industrialisation and employment, ence of wealthy party backers was beginning as well as continuing the social partnership 38 to carry significant sway, particularly with arrangement with the unions. The cost the formation of TACA, a group of 200 busi- of this policy led to an increase in PAYE nessmen, who were allowed direct access to tax, and was met with some of the largest ministers. The shift in the economic land- marches in the history of the state. scape of Ireland changed Fianna Fáil’s image Fianna Fáil also continued to court from a professed ’workers party’ to an explic- stronger links with the capitalist class at this itly pro-business one.33 The party were crit- time. This was embodied in the figure of icised from some of their younger members Charles J. Haughey, seen as something of for this turn towards embracing large capi- an aristocrat, who had a massive personal talists (particularly from the building trade) wealth. He had won the leadership of Fi- and thus efforts were made to keep the asso- anna Fáil in a factional struggle in 1979. The ciations more subtle. There was also some policy of Keynsianism faltered in the midst resentment about the personal wealth being of an international slump, leading Haughey amassed by one Charles J. Haughey, son-in- to hypocritically profess that the Irish were law of Lemass, and later Taoiseach.34 living beyond their means.39 The failure to The late 60’s also saw the emergence provide material gains once more saw Fi- of a civil rights movement in Northern Ire- anna Fáil slide back onto the conservatism land, aimed at ending anti-catholic discrim- of the church, however Ireland was now lib- ination.35 With the escalation of state vio- eralising somewhat and the church could not lence against protestors and the resurgence provide the disciplinary role it had in earlier of the IRA, some members of Fianna Fáil, decades. Fianna Fáil also suffered a split in including Haughey, were sacked and put on the mid-80s, with the formation of the Pro- trial for alleged importing of arms to the gressive Democrats (PDs), who would later North. Haughey was later acquitted, but return to prop up a number of Fianna Fáil this episode would serve to drive a wedge governments. Haughey resigned over a bug- between the Labour Party and Fianna Fáil, ging scandal in 1992. the former wishing for containment of the Despite a decline in Fianna Fáil sup- violence, and reacted with a view to prop- port politically, the copper-fastening of so- ping up state institutions and appealing to cial partnership had laid the ground for the 36 respectability. emergence of the ‘Celtic tiger’ boom of the Despite claiming ‘The 70’s will be So- mid 90s onwards, by restricting strike activ- cialist’, Labour entered into a coalition with ity and providing a base for the expansion Fine Gael in 1973, a pattern which would of capital.40 The Haughey years also saw repeat throughout the 70s and 80s. Fianna Fianna Fáil establish further personal links 32Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.124-131 33Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.137-138 34Diarmaid Ferriter, The Transformation of Ireland: 1900-2000, (London, 2004) pp.560-561 35For a socialist analysis of the Northern civil rights movement and subsequent ‘Troubles’ see Eamonn McCann, War and an Irish Town, (London, 1993) 36Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.129-131 37Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.149-150 38Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.151-156 39Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, p.158 40Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.172

61 with foreign multi-nationals. One such rela- close links with Ireland’s elites, and was to tionship was that of Ray Burke, Minister for be dogged by scandals over his personal fi- Energy in the late 80s, and the oil industries. nances. Ahern also presented himself as a Burke, who was later jailed for corruption, regular working class person with a passion removed royalties relating to the exploration for pints of Bass and Manchester United of oil and set up a scheme whereby oil com- Football Club. Once infamously describing panies could offset their costs against tax himself as a socialist, Ahern at one time over a 25 year period.41 drew the largest salary for a serving prime Fianna Fáil, now under Albert Reynolds minister in the world!45 once again courted the Labour Party, and Fianna Fáil formed a minority govern- despite earlier protestations about their ment with the Progressive Democrats in credibility, the labour leader Dick Spring 1997 on the back of a growing economy eventually agreed to form a coalition. Com- and rapidly expanding foreign investment menting on the pre-governmental negotia- and building trade. In this time they could tions, Brian Lenihan (Snr) wrote in his book boast about the party adopting the ’spirit of For the Record: ‘There was a shared under- the 1916 Proclamation’ throughout their 70 standing between Labour and Fianna Fáil years in existence.46 The FF/PD coalition in the 1930s when de Valera was Taoiseach. was renewed in the general election of 2002. That understanding must be recast for mod- Despite their confidence, the economy was ern times to ensure future stability in the increasingly becoming enveloped in a prop- political system. It would be a stability erty bubble. As Fintan O’Toole pointed out, based on the principled support of peo- employment in manufacturing was in serious ple sharing similar social and national val- decline in the years 2000-2006, but this was ues.’42 Reynolds himself was dogged by vari- masked by a huge increase in the numbers ous scandals, including granting of passports involved in the building trade.47 One publi- to backers of his family beef business, ques- cation makes the links between Fianna Fáil tions over the appointment of the Attorney and the building trade explicit. Republican General, as well as allegations of a cover-up Days : 75 Years of Fianna Fáil contains a in an extradition case for paedophile priest number of contributions on the party’s his- Brendan Smyth.43 The collapse of the coali- tory, as well as photocopies of archive ma- tion led Labour to form yet another alliance terial. Brazenly, the publication also in- with Fine Gael. cludes a whopping 43 paid advertisements ‘He’s the man, he’s the best, the most from property developers, estate agents, sur- skilful, the most devious and most cun- veyors and construction companies, many of ning’.44 These were the words used by whom offered their congratulations, proud Haughey to describe Bertie Ahern. A loyal associations and best wishes to the party!48 Haughey supporter since the 70s, Ahern had Despite this boom, there were serious prob- served as both Minister for Labour and Min- lems in the Irish school and health systems. ister for Justice, before assuming leadership As O’Toole points out, Fianna Fáil dropped of the party following Reynold’s exit. More all mention of alleviating poverty in their than anyone else, Ahern embodied the two 2007 election manifesto.49 sided nature of Fianna Fáil. Ahern had Ahern came under increasing fire over 41Amanda Slevin, Gas, Oil and the Irish State : Understanding the Dynamics and Conflicts of Hydrocarbon Management, (Manchester, 2016) pp.72-73 42Stephen Collins, The Power Game : Ireland Under Fianna Fáil (Dublin, 2001), p.252 43Collins, The Power Game, pp.276-292 44Charles J. Haughey, quoted in Arnold and O’Toole : textitThe End of the Party, p.24 45Fintan O’Toole, Ship of Fools : How Stupidity and Corruption Sank the Celtic Tiger, (London, 2009), p.89 46Bertie Ahern, ‘Celebrating 70 Years and Towards the New Century’, in Taking the Long View : 70 Years of Fianna Fáil, Edited by Philip Hannon and Jackie Gallagher, (Dublin, 1996), p.1 47O’Toole, Ship of Fools, pp.20-21 48Máirtín Breathneach (Ed), Republican Days: 75 Years of Fianna Fáil, (Dublin, 20 49O’Toole, Ship of Fools, pp.93-94

62 statements made to the Mahon Tribunal golf-buddy of its Director, Seán Fitzpatrick. relating to the signing of blank cheques Despite these close links, Cowen claimed to while serving as Minister for Finance. The have no prior knowledge of potential insol- Irish Times printed leaks from the tri- vency at Anglo.54 bunal which claimed Ahern received ‘dig- The subsequent years of ECB/IMF out’ money from a cabal of businessmen in bailouts, as well as austerity measures con- the early 90s while going through a marriage tributed to Fianna Fáil’s annihilation in the separation.50 Ahern attempted to brush off election of 2011, losing all but one seat in these payments as personal favours, however their heartland of Dublin. Conor McCabe a number of his benefactors were later to notes that the bailout effectively meant that be given jobs on boards of state companies. ‘[Fianna Fáil] could no longer sugarcoat its Even more astoundingly he claimed that he business-led economic policies with politi- didn’t have a bank account while serving as cal gestures and tax breaks for PRSI work- Minister for Finance.51 Ahern managed to ers.’55 Their current leader Micheál Martin weather this storm, returning to power in summed up their position : ‘I am sorry for the 2007 general election with the PDs and the mistakes we made as a party and for the somewhat surprisingly, the Green Party. In mistakes I made’. As Arnold and O’Toole little over a year, further allegations forced note, he never made explicit just what these Ahern to step down, to be replaced by serv- mistakes were. 56 ing Táiniste Brian Cowen. In the aforementioned publication Re- Fallout from the collapse of Lehman publican Days, Bertie Ahern boasted that : Brothers in the US impacted heavily on ‘Any reading of the 75-year history of Fi- the Irish property market. This led to the anna Fáil indicates the extent to which the much criticised bank guarantee of Septem- party has been a force for political progress ber 2008. Minister for Finance Brian Leni- and radical social reform. It was Fianna Fáil han Jnr met with representatives of Bank of after all which to all intents and purposes, Ireland, AIB, the Irish Central Bank, and removed the link with Britain and placed the Department of Finance and agreed to a Republican Constitution before the peo- ‘guarantee all the liabilities - the customer ple. On the social front, it was Fianna Fáil and interbank deposits, and also the vast which introduced the massive programme of majority of bonds - of the six Irish banks’.52 slum clearance and social housing. We are Irish house prices collapsed, with the average also the party which established our public family losing half of their assets. The State health service and the system of free sec- also established the National Assets Man- ondary education we enjoy today.’57 agement Agency (NAMA) in order to take This self assessment offers no insight into 53 over bad loans to developers, making the why these policies were initiated, or the ma- Irish state liable for massive private debt. terial conditions in which they were intro- Anglo Irish Bank was known for being duced. Kieran Allen has observed in his close to Fianna Fáil and property develop- book Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, that ers, and the nationalisation of its bad loans there are a number of concrete reasons for contributed enormously to the devastation their domination of Irish politics. Return- suffered by the workers of Ireland. Revela- ing to the 20s, their initial appeal was based tions over corruption at Anglo marred Brian on protectionism, and their radical social Cowen, who had previously given a speech programme made sense for workers alien- at their investors dinner, as well as being a ated by the hardship of the decade. The 50Arnold and O’Toole : The End of the Party, p.38 51Arnold and O’Toole : The End of the Party, pp.38-42 52Conor McCabe, Sins of the Father, (Dublin, 2011) p.170 53O’Toole, Ship of Fools, p.9 54Arnold and O’Toole : The End of the Party, pp.58-59 55McCabe, Sins of the Father, p.154 56Arnold and O’Toole : The End of the Party, p.221 57Breathneach, Republican Days, p.5

63 defeats of syndicalism also meant that the of seats. The Fine Gael minority govern- Labour Party was to remain a weak organ- ment is extremely weak, itself consisting of isation. Fianna Fáil successfully co-opted a shaky alliance with several independent union leadership through their philosophy TDs. The Labour party is utterly discred- of ‘social partnership’. This had the aim of ited for their hand in implementing auster- curbing union militancy. Material benefits ity on the working-class, including the hated were afforded to workers at certain times, water charges, which Fianna Fáil originally but these were generally only available when planned to introduce, but now make state- an economic boom was underway, via pro- ments opposing them. The lack of a large tection or laissez faire policies. Where ma- scale labour movement in Irish history has terial benefits could not be provided, they left Fianna Fáil in a unique position to be could rely on the Catholic church to act as able to appeal to the working-class while a ‘spiritual anti-depressant’. As the century maintaining close personal links with Irish drew on, the material benefits and increas- capitalism. The task remains for the Irish ing workforce led to the slow dismantling of left to offer a genuine alternative movement the catholic church, which could no longer of the working class, in the interests of the instil discipline upon the population.58 working class. The decline of the Fianna Fáil As this article goes to press, Fianna Fáil party helps us immensely with this task. are currently at an all time low in terms

58Allen, Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, pp.181-182

64 The socialist tradition in the disability movement: Lessons for contemporary activists

Ivanka Antova

Introduction families, carers, allies, of the self-advocates and activists, continue to be ignored, or are The Law Faculty of the University where I rendered inadequate to the neo-liberal quest am a PhD student recently built a brand for personal responsibility and efficiency. new, beautiful building. On the top floor I suggest that the disability movement of the new Law School there is a Wellbe- has been segregated to a room on the top ing room, a quiet place where staff and stu- floor of the neo-liberal society, in full view dents can enjoy the spectacular view of the of everyone on the outside, and has been city and exercise their mindfulness. Pre- put under pressure to re-examine its inter- sumably, by taking a breath of air and re- nal response to oppression, rather than the focusing their positive energy, the workers in external oppressive environment itself. To the University can somehow shift the feeling give an example with the welfare reform in of stress and discomfort that the organisa- Britain again, disabled benefit claimants are tion of their labour has created. As if the expected to adapt to the punitive cuts and root of their work related problems is some- improve their employability, as opposed to where within themselves, and not in the ex- question the harmful ideology that inspired ploitative working conditions that the insti- the reform in the first place. The fact that tution has imposed on them. the recent disability protests against the wel- The Wellbeing room is not only peaceful, fare reform have gone largely unnoticed sug- but also disability accessible, unlike many gests that the proud radical tradition of chal- sites on campus. Despite the lack of a com- lenging the hostile oppressive society that re- prehensive and proactive disability plan for sults in disability and is separate from im- the University, the good news is that dis- pairment has perhaps become old fashioned. abled staff and students can also be part of Anyone interested in disability studies or the corporate cop-out that is mindfulness. disability activism will recognise that this The glass walls of the room allow for an in- understanding of disability, disability as so- terrupted view of the otherwise inaccessible cietal oppression imposed on top of impair- environment, and also hinder the possibil- ment, is known as the radical social model ity to take your discontent further. What of disability. A group of disabled social- is higher than the top floor? And who will ists coined this controversial term and con- hear you shouting from there? sequently inspired generations of disability This glass Wellbeing room is a good scholars and activists. At a time when we metaphor for the position in which disabled are aggressively encouraged to internalise people find themselves in 2016. In the era unfairness and inequality, it is important to of human rights, disabled people are rou- recollect the Marxist tradition of the disabil- tinely treated as second class citizens by ity movement. punitive means, such as the unfair targeting of disabled benefits claimants in the context Disability movement history of the ongoing welfare reform. Despite the continuous calls for emancipation and inde- Those of us interested in the history of the pendence, institutions still hold many dis- disability movement in Britain consider the abled people captive; accessibility continues 1970s to be a key period for disability ac- to be an issue. Poverty, unemployment, and tivism and organisation. Whilst reflecting marginalisation are still seen as personal fail- on the fact that the history of the movement ures, as opposed to a failure of society to fa- as a whole predates the 1970s, the focus cilitate the substantive equality of disabled of this article is the activists and socialists people. The voices of disabled people, their who in 1972 formed the Union of the Phys-

65 ically Impaired Against Segregation (UP- them a unique organization for the British IAS) and consequently developed the radical disability movement and is the focus of this social model of disability. article. A brief overview of this period would At a time when institutionalization was reflect on the letter that Paul Hunt, a being questioned and the integration of peo- physically impaired activist, wrote to The ple with impairments was becoming more Guardian in 1972. In his letter Hunt pas- mainstream, the members of UPIAS aimed sionately critiqued the oppressive structures to offer an ever more radical understanding of society and the regimes of restrictions of the ‘true nature of [their] oppression and and isolation within institutions that segre- the radical changes necessary to overcome gated disabled people. He called upon peo- it’, calling for a ‘fight to change the con- ple with physical impairments to join forces ditions of life which oppress [them]’.4 The and tackle together the oppression that cre- work of UPIAs focused on the emancipation ates disability.1 Another prominent disabled of people with physical impairments in par- activist, Vic Finkelstein, responded to the ticular, but this emancipation was not sepa- letter and soon after a group of disabled rate from the fight for justice of other disad- Marxists joined him and Hunt to form UP- vantaged groups, such as blacks, unskilled IAS. The main aim of UPIAS was to en- workers, the elderly, the mentally handi- gage in a relentless and critical attack of the capped and the low income earners.5 Com- medicalization of disability and the plight of paring the segregation of disabled people to the disability institutions, which were seen apartheid, UPIAS argued that ‘the disabled as the ‘ultimate scrap-heaps of this society’ people’s movement involves challenging the and a ‘prisons for life’.2 social culture that denies people rights of self-determination and it’s about being part UPIAS stood out among the other dis- of the mainstream of life.’6 ability organisations that existed at the time; it was also a different group of ac- The activity of UPIAS was envisioned to tivist for the organised Left as a whole. Judy include publishing pamphlets and a Newslet- Hunt, a key member of UPIAS, recollects ter; leading campaigns on various issues; that at the time the Union was formed few building up information and advice services; comrades saw the struggle of disabled peo- and organizing various kinds of assistance ple as interlinked with the struggle of the to people with physical impairments. Al- marginalised communities against the op- though the Union eventually disintegrated, pression of capitalism. Hunt, however, ar- a number of important advances were made gues that ‘the term disability is a capitalist that continue to resonate with contemporary creation. Historically one can say that dis- disability scholars and activists. It is worth ability was used to define a category of peo- pointing out two contributions UPIAS made ple unable to work. Disability is about not to the disability movement: the pursuit of an having control over your life.’3 The UPIAS ‘objective, practical and hands on approach activists were socialists and saw their strug- towards the struggle for social change’; and gle for independence and control over their the development of the understanding that life as an intrinsic part of Left wing politics. ‘disability is created by a world designed for This particular feature of UPIAS has made able-bodies living rather than by the way our 1Judy Hunt, ‘A revolutionary group with a revolutionary message’ (2001) Greater Manchester of Disabled People’s Magazine ‘Coalition’. The article is available via the University of Leeds Disability Studies Archive, free and online. 2UPIAS Manifesto 1972, paragraph 7. 3As above No.2. 4UPIAS Manifesto 1972, paragraphs 4-5. A full text of the Manifesto is available via the University of Leeds Disability Studies Archive, free and online. 5I am using the original language and terminology of the Manifesto. 6As above No.2. 7Vic Finklestein, ‘Outside, ‘Inside Out” (1996) Coalition GMCDP April. The article is available via the University of Leeds Disability Studies Archive, free and online.

66 bodies are impaired.’7 pressed communities by critiquing ‘all the manifestations of prejudice and discrimina- 9 The socialist tradition: the ac- tion’. An example of this ethos was the fre- quent reference to the apartheid in South tivist agenda of UPIAS Africa, or to the black Americans movement This was the message of both the radical in the USA, who were also seen as ‘rejects social model of disability and the disability from ordinary life, and subject to the same 10 activism that followed the establishment of experience of devaluation by society.’ UP- UPIAS. Both theory and activism are fasci- IAS were skeptical of the traditional ‘mode’ nating and important topics and deserve an of disability activism that focused on iso- in-depth analysis. The radical social model lated issues and emphasized the special na- as a theoretical approach has had a tremen- ture of disability activism and instead ar- dous impact on disability studies as an aca- gued for a struggle for full integration that demic discipline and continues to be the would develop the strengths of the disability most accepted and used model of disability movement and would bring them into con- within contemporary scholarship. For the tact with many groups who also have an in- 11 purposes of this article, however, I will focus terest in influencing social change. on the activist agenda of UPIAS. As a dis- Connected with their socialist activism ability researcher I appreciate the strengths was the use of highly politicized language, (and weaknesses) of the social model of dis- often accused of isolating those disabled ability for the production of critical and po- people who were not interested in disabil- litically engaged research. As an activist I ity politics, but were looking for empow- have a far greater need to reflect on the rad- erment through other means, most notice- ical history of the movement, in order to be ably through the arts. An example of this able to draw conclusions about where social- political language was the use of the term ist disability activism should go next. ‘disabled’, as opposed to ‘with impairments’. It is important to point that both the At the time UPIAS was active the term activist agenda of UPIAS and their radical ‘people with disabilities’ was becoming more model of disability were considered contro- mainstream. The same term now dominates versial by many. For example, at a time the international and domestic human rights when other groups were campaigning for the documents, policy documents, academic ar- civil rights of disabled people, the UPIAS ticles and the popular media. UPIAS saw activists were increasingly concerned with the use of seemingly positive, or neutral, how the quest for anti-discrimination legis- language, such as ‘people with disabilities’ lation was overtaking the work of many dis- as a withdrawals from ‘the uncomfortable, ability organizations. As important as civil subversive position from which we act as a rights were, UPIAS ultimately saw them as living reproach to any scale of values that a ‘single-issue campaign’, or ‘pressure group puts attributes or possessions before the per- politics taking priority over grass root work’, son’.12 Although the widely accepted ‘peo- thus neglecting the general membership of ple with disabilities’ terminology claims to the disabled community, who were advocat- put the person first and the disability sec- ing for a much broader and more radical ond, Finkelstein has argued that it portrays re-organization of society.8 Instead, UPIAS disabled people as ‘tragic figures whose lives pursued a socialist agenda: to locate the are wholly dominated by difficulties and a struggle of disabled people against stigma desire to be normal’ and thus has the effect and isolation with the struggle of other op- of imposing the abled-bodied version of ideal 8As above No.8. 9Paul Hunt, ‘A Critical Condition’ in P. Hunt, Stigma: The Experiences of Disability (1966, London: Geoffrey Chapman) 10ibid. 11UPIAS, Comments on the discussion held between the Union and the Disability Alliance on 22nd Novem- ber 1975. The article is available via the University of Leeds Disability Studies Archive, free and online. 12As above No.9.

67 person as a role model or an aspiration.13 the top down’.15 Hence the long term aim Since disability was understood as a partic- of UPIAS was to inspire many disabled peo- ular form of social oppression brought about ple to be proactive in the shaping of their by unnecessary isolation and exclusion from own personal and political reality. ‘A gen- full participation, UPIAS insisted on using eral mass movement of disabled people, and the term ‘disabled people’, thus breaking the our increasing integration into normal work causal link between impairment and disabil- and other social situations, will radically im- ity and attributing the second to the harm- prove our social status as a group.’16 ful effect of a disablist segregationist envi- ronment Conclusion The socialist activist agenda of UPIAS, combined with their call for disabled peo- So what can a recollection of the social- ple to get involved in the politics of dis- ist tradition within the disability movement ability, allowed them to break away from do for the contemporary disability activist one of the stigmas associated with disabil- agenda? It was the activist group of UPIAS ity: the label of the tragic a-political and who first discussed the social construction of therefore pliable burden to society. Instead disability. It was their legacy that inspired UPIAS demanded that disabled people are the see-through wellbeing room metaphor: not only formally reconsider as equal cit- disability is not a problem that you can over- izens, but also that they have the exclu- come by changing your attitude whilst con- sive power to control their agenda, activi- fined within the walls of the institution. Dis- ties, their livelihood, identity and position ability is a problem of the capitalist soci- in society. Thus UPIAs rejected the liberal ety and theory and activism should seek to projects of charity and compassion and ex- smash its see-through walls. posed the hypocrisy of the able-bodies com- The socialist tradition of UPIAS contin- munity. ‘[The able-bodied person] admits ues to be extremely relevant to the current equality as a theory, but when you act as situation and could be used to direct and in- though you are equal then the crucial test spire the efforts of the contemporary disabil- comes. Most people are good-willed liber- ity movement: critique the oppressive en- als towards us up to this point, but not vironment; deconstruct and destabilise op- all of them survive close contact with dis- pressive processes and knowledges on dis- ability without showing some less attractive ability that are not coming from disabled traits.’14 UPIAS countered the political and people themselves; increase political con- cultural dominance of the non-disabled by sciousness and intensify disability resistance; relying on grassroots activism that would work on the grassroots level and demand eventually build the mass movement neces- nothing less that absolute control and inde- sary to achieve the radical transformation pendence. of the disablist society. When asked about The Left wing allies, be it academics or disability and culture, Finkelstein defended activist, should aim to support the forma- the concept of a disability cultured based on tion of a mass disability movement, whilst grassroots activism and mobilisation. ‘If we accepting that disabled people themselves are to make our unique cultural contribu- must be in control and avoiding tokenistic tion to society then this must come collec- interventions that go ‘no further than to doc- tively from the people, it cannot be imposed ument the poverty and deprived conditions on us by leading disabled individuals from under which disabled people [are] living.’17 13Vic Finkelstein, ‘Disabled People and Our Cultural Development’ (1987) Paper presented at the first annual meeting of the London Disability Arts Forum. The article is available via the University of Leeds Disability Studies Archive, free and online. 14ibid. 15As above No.11. 16As above No.13. 17Vic Finkelstein, ‘Researching Disability: setting the agenda for change’ (1992) National Conference 1st June 1992. The article is available via the University of Leeds Disability Studies Archive, free and online.

68 Disabled people’s struggle for fairness and and thus overcoming the disabil- equality should be a priority for the Left, ities which are imposed on top ensuring that the disabled voices are not be- of our physical impairments by ing silences and that their radicalism and the way this society is organ- passion is not being diluted. ised to exclude us. In our view, it is only the actual impairment We as a Union are not inter- which we must accept; the ad- ested in descriptions of how aw- ditional and totally unnecessary ful it is to be disabled. What problems caused by the way we we are interested in, are ways of are treated are essentially to be changing our conditions of life, overcome and not accepted.’18

18UPIAS Manifesto 1972, paragraph 14.

69 Science, Politics and Public Policy

Dave O’Farrell

However one looks at it modern science dividuals, governments and companies how- must stand as one of pinnacles of human ever they are often quite ‘woolly’ when it achievement. The fruits of scientific inquiry comes to the interactions between science and practice are so ubiquitous to us that it is and politics or political decision making. impossible - or at the least as close to impos- This is probably not surprising in that sible as to make little difference - for anyone the main goal of much of the recent writing in the modern world to conceive of any form on this topic has been around the promo- of day to day reasoning which does not rely tion of a scientific and evidence based ap- to some degree on the methods of science proach to evaluating everything from med- and scientific knowledge. Science and sci- ical treatments to government policy. The entific methods provide us with tools which critique of how exactly science is misused is enable us to evaluate the world in which we generally excellent and the reasons why are live, both the ‘natural’ world and also our often grounded in very real material condi- own societies. In many ways science offers tions such as conflicts of interest or ideologi- the ultimate source of legitimacy in modern cal grounds. Likewise many of the prescrip- society, not many would offer up a policy tions on how to better use scientific meth- or proposal without supporting it with some ods to evaluate policies - while unlikely to sort of scientific data or justification - even if produce revolutionary outcomes - seem very the data or justification is more science-like sensible. Where the analysis seems lacking 1 than science . is in how it deals with political ideology. In recent years there has been a no- The treatments vary from statements like ticeable increase in public debate about the suggestion by Henderson that ‘precisely what can be called ‘bad science’, the use what politicians think is less important than 5 of science-like language and presentation to how they think ’ - a statement that should promote theories and practices with no sci- worry anyone with a political outlook - to entific basis, biased and sensationalist sci- the superficially similar but much more sub- ence reporting in the media and the mis- tle outlook of those like Goldacre who argue use of science in formulating public debate for the use of scientific methodology in evalu- and policy. These topics have been dis- ating policy outcomes, -does the policy actu- cussed in numerous books over the last num- ally achieve it’s stated aim(s)? - while mak- ber of years such as the former Times sci- ing clear that a similar methodology cannot ence editor Mark Henderson’s The Geek answer the question of whether the underly- 6 Manifesto2, and the Guardian’s Bad Science ing ideology behind the policy is valid . columnist Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science3 and In this article I want to argue that Marx- Bad Pharma4. These books and others like ism offers an excellent framework to examine them are very welcome in highlighting many issues relating to the interactions of science episodes where science or scientific methods and ideology in society. I intend to briefly have been misrepresented or misused by in- examine what exactly science is, the scien- 1One need only look at the statements of the Catholic right in the 2015 Marriage Equality Referendum or in the current debate around abortion rights. Despite claiming a strong Catholic ethos most of these groups do not - at least in public discourse - resort to a religious claim to justify their arguments. Instead they attempt to quote scientific studies - often disingenuously. 2Mark Henderson, The Geek Manifesto, 2012, Transworld Publishers, London 3Ben Goldacer Bad Science 2008, Fourth Estate, London 4Ben Goldacre Bad Pharma, 2012, Fourth Estate, London 5Henderson p.7 6See for example a talk given by Goldacre where he answers the question of how evidence from ran- domised controlled trials deals with a policy driven by political ideology. ‘Dr Ben Goldacre on randomised controlled trials for public policy’ TEDxDHFastStream 22 June 2012 Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health, London. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzRs7cPrrfE (Question at 23mins)

70 tific roots of Marxism, why Marxists should look is a thing so simple, so ob- care about science and scientific argument, vious, so seemingly trivial, that how Marxists should approach some key sci- the mention of it may almost entific debates and make a case for the better excite derision. The kernel of use of scientific analysis both in criticizing the scientific outlook is the re- existing political policy and, as importantly, fusal to regard our own desires, in advancing our alternatives. tastes, and interests as afford- ing a key to the understanding Science - What exactly are we of the world. Stated thus baldly, this may seem no more than a talking about? trite truism. But to remember it Although most of us would feel we have an consistently in matters arousing intuitive understanding of what we mean by our passionate partisanship is by science, attempting to define ‘science’ is not no means easy, especially where a straightforward problem. Thankfully for the available evidence is uncer- the purposes of this article a strict definition tain and inconclusive7. is not a necessity, indeed given the ultimate desire to investigate the role of science and In this passage Russell highlights the ten- its interaction with ideology a rigid defini- sion between the aim of science towards a tion may in fact be more of a hindrance than dispassionate analysis and the difficulty of a help. I will confine my remarks about what actually achieving such dispassionate analy- science is to a few comments about what, in sis given our own preexisting ideas and cul- a broad sense, science is and by extension, tural preferences and biases. Others such as perhaps as importantly, what science is not. Karl Popper have also noted the unavoid- In a broad sense science refers to able cultural components of the scientific branches of study seeking to understand or method: explain phenomena of the material world. Science generally refers not only to the The belief that science proceeds knowledge gained from such study but also from observation to theory is still to the methods used to gain this knowl- so widely and so firmly held that edge - the scientific method, the processes my denial of it is often met with of systematic observation, measurement or incredulity. I have even been collection of data and the use of experiment suspected of being insincere - in the formulation, verification, falsification of denying what nobody in his and modification of hypotheses and theories. senses would doubt. But in fact This picture of science - while broadly cor- the belief that we can start with rect - can if taken too literally give a false pure observation alone, without impression of the workings of science. Sci- anything in the nature of a the- ence is not always the cold, abstract and dis- ory is absurd . . . . Observation is passionate activity which may be suggested always selective. It needs a cho- by the basic description outlined above and sen object, a definite task, an in- there has been much written by philosophers terest, a point of view, a prob- of science as well as scientists themselves on lem. And its description pre- how science and the scientific method is in- supposes a descriptive language, fluenced by society. with property words; it presup- Bertrand Russell observed this influence poses similarity and classifica- in discussing the roll of a scientific educa- tion, which in their turn pre- tion: suppose interests, points of view, The kernel of the scientific out- and problems.8 7Bertrand Russell ‘The Place of Science in a Liberal Education’ in Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays. George Allen & Unwin Ltd. London. 1963 8Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge

71 This phenomenon is also acknowledged an often erratic process where ideas and the- by many scientists themselves. The physi- ories compete to explain various phenomena cist Richard Feynman is often quoted as say- all influenced by prevailing ideologies and ing ‘The first principle is that you must not cultural assumptions. It is characterised by fool yourself, and you are the easiest person often quite abrupt ’paradigm’ shifts where to fool.’ The evolutionary biologist Stephen one theory is superseded by a new one which Jay Gould has written extensively on these although explaining the same phenomena subjects and his book The Mismeasure of does so in a radically different way - such Man - which includes a masterful critique as Einstein’s theory of relativity supersed- of the mistakes, biases and ideological influ- ing the Newtonian theory of gravitation. ences in a wide range of supposedly scientific While the examples above deal with justifications for racism - offers a concise and what are sometimes termed ’hard sciences’ insightful commentary on how exactly sci- - physics, chemistry, biology etc. - they ap- ence functions within society ply in much the same way to so called ’soft sciences’ such as sociology and the social Science, since people must do sciences in general. Indeed if the view of it, is a socially embedded activ- science given above is not how many - in- ity. It progresses by hunch, vi- cluding some scientists - think when they sion, and intuition. Much of its consider science it closely resembles the ba- change through time does not sic critique many of the same people might record a closer approach to ab- make of the social sciences. I would con- solute truth, but the alteration tend the essential difference between these of cultural contexts that influ- so called ’hard’ and ’soft’ sciences is essen- ence it so strongly. Facts are tially a combination of the inherent diffi- not pure and unsullied bits of culties in acquiring hard and easily inter- information; culture also influ- preted evidence and data from human so- ences what we see and how we ciety and the subsequent increased possibil- see it. Theories, moreover, are ity of ideological and other biases to enter not inexorable inductions from into the process. I could also go further facts. The most creative theories and suggest that in these cases where the are often imaginative visions im- available evidence is far from clear and re- posed upon facts; the source of quires significant interpretation that ideol- imagination is also strongly cul- ogy and cultural influences are a necessary tural9 component to a meaningful interpretation, Gould also notes that not all scientists the less clear and more contradictory the ev- agree with these assertions but argues that idence the more assumptions must be made they are well backed up by the evidence of and the greater the ’creativity’ required in the history of scientific development. making sense of the evidence11. Where such research stops being science and can better This argument, although still be described as ideology is of course a dif- anathema to many practicing ficult - if not intractable - problem I won’t scientists, would, I think, be ac- begin to address except to give what I feel cepted by nearly every historian is a good general starting point, namely the of science.10 principle that good scientific inquiry in these Indeed the history of science is clearly areas should fully acknowledge the biases of not simply a gradual accumulation of knowl- the researchers and be clear, in as much as edge leading to ever greater knowledge but is possible, where their ideology comes into 9Stephen Jay Gould The Mismeasure of Man, revised edition, New York : W.W. Norton 1996 p.53 10ibid. 11The same can of course be said about the ’hard’ sciences when evidence is lacking. For a brief account of the role of ideology in regard to one of Engels ventures into scientific debate in relation to human evolution see Dave O’Farrell ‘The Politics of Evolution’ Irish Marxist Review 4 http://www.irishmarxistreview. net/index.php/imr/article/view/42/45

72 the research not just in terms of the analysis derstand capitalism not simply as it appears but in the problems and questions posed in but to tease out the essence of its inner work- the research. ings - being highly critical of those ‘vulgar’ economists who concentrate merely on the outward appearance of things. The Scientific Roots of Marxism It should not astonish us, then, Marx and Engels both shared a deep interest that vulgar economy feels partic- in science. Indeed Marx expressed the view ularly at home in the estranged that science ‘underlies all knowledge’12. In outward appearances of eco- setting out their theories of socialism Marx nomic relations in which these and Engels did not simply borrow superfi- prima facie absurd and perfect cially from science and the scientific method, contradictions appear and that they set out their theory in great detail us- these relations seem the more ing all the current knowledge and evidence self-evident the more their inter- available to them from a number of fields nal relationships are concealed of not just science but also philosophy and from it, although they are under- history. Starting from their observations of standable to the popular mind. the world around them and working within But all science would be super- the framework of their materialist critique of fluous if the outward appearance Hegel’s dialectical philosophy and influenced and the essence of things directly by the history of human society they synthe- coincided.13 sised a systematic world-view which aimed Marx and Engels were similarly critical to explain not just the society in which they of those who simply took a static view of the lived but the whole development of human world and extrapolated from it or reflected society and crucially to extrapolate about their analysis backwards in time. Their gen- the future possibilities for society. Marxism eral philosophical framework of dialectical offers us not just a critique of capitalism or materialism views the world and human so- an argument for socialism, it provides a rich ciety as being in a constant state of motion framework of philosophy, in dialectical ma- with these states coming into and out of ex- terialism, and history, in historical material- istence and displaying internal contradictory ism, which enable us to understand not just tendencies or behaviours. Simply describing society as it exists today but also how our even the essence of the underlying function- society came into being, how and why it op- ing of capitalism was not sufficient for Marx erates the way it does, how it can develop and he sought to elucidate the fundamental in the future and - crucially - how we can factors of human society which could form shape that future. the basis from which these essential func- In formulating their theories Marx and tions developed - in doing so Marx, along Engels displayed much of what is valuable with Engels, had to develop not just a scien- in scientific methodology. Their methods tific framework for analysing capitalism but avoided many of the pitfalls which often ac- the whole of human history. The importance company the application of science. They placed by them on this scientific basis of ex- were keen to not simply apply a superficial planation, with general principles applicable explanation or extrapolate from a specific to any human society is apparent in Engel’s example to construct an overall explanation. speech at Marx’s grave. Marx’s methodology in Capital serves as an example of this. In setting out the function- Just as Darwin discovered the ing of a capitalist economy Marx does not law of development of organic simply describe the day to day operations nature, so Marx discovered the of capitalism, he doggedly sets out to un- law of development of human 12Quoted in the preface to F. Engels Dialectics of Nature Progress Publishers Moscow 1972 p.6 13Marx Capital Vol. III Chapter 48 https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/ch48. ht

73 history: the simple fact, hith- regards every historically devel- erto concealed by an overgrowth oped social form as in fluid move- of ideology, that mankind must ment, and therefore takes into first of all eat, drink, have shel- account its transient nature not ter and clothing, before it can less than its momentary exis- pursue politics, science, art, re- tence; because it lets nothing im- ligion, etc.; that therefore the pose upon it, and is in its essence production of the immediate ma- critical and revolutionary.15 terial means, and consequently the degree of economic develop- Broadly speaking it can be said that ment attained by a given people a scientific world-view is an essential com- or during a given epoch, form ponent to a Marxist understanding of the the foundation upon which the world. state institutions, the legal con- ceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people con- Why Marxists should be con- cerned have been evolved, and cerned with scientific debate in the light of which they must, The previous section has shown the impor- therefore, be explained, instead tance Marx and Engels placed on a scientific of vice versa, as had hitherto framework for understanding the world in been the case. their development of Marxism and such an But that is not all. Marx also understanding is just as important for Marx- discovered the special law of mo- ists today. I would argue a basic understand- tion governing the present-day ing of science and how scientific evidence is capitalist mode of production, formed is necessary not only to grasp scien- and the bourgeois society that tific aspects of debate but to help to reveal this mode of production has cre- ideology and bias masquerading as scientific ated.14 argument. In general science has penetrated so That this scientific, materialist dialectic much of our daily lives that it has almost is at the centre of Marx’s revolutionary out- become the ’language’ of modern political look and criticism of capitalism is then made debate. No mater what the policy it is more apparent. The arguments he advances for than likely presented in a science-like man- socialism are not based on a purely moral ner. Invariably some form of evidence will argument against the ‘evils’ of capitalism be advanced and it will be asserted that ei- but are grounded in a scientific analysis of ther it was the result of some policy or it the nature of human society and its devel- justifies the implementation of some policy. opment. According to Marx the dialectic Here a knowledge of science and it’s atten- dant methods can be very useful in argu- In its rational form ... is a scan- ing for a political perspective. Not only can dal and abomination to bour- a knowledge of science help us to spot bla- geoisdom and its doctrinaire pro- tant spin but also the basic - or occasionally fessors, because it includes in quite convoluted - errors made in assessing its comprehension and affirma- evidence as a justification - retrospective or tive recognition of the existing preemptive - for a particular course of ac- state of things, at the same time tion. also, the recognition of the nega- This is not intended to be an argument tion of that state, of its in- for the supremacy of scientific argument over evitable breaking up; because it ideological debate, indeed going down this 14Frederick Engels ‘Speech at the Grave of Karl Marx’ Highgate Cemetery, London. March 17, 1883 https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1883/death/burial.htm 15ibid.

74 route where ideological goals or motivations bad science! I now want to examine two ar- are sidelined almost always ends in a cul de eas of debate where I think the arguments sac. There is no ’neutral’ space free from that need to be advanced are primarily sci- ideology and if socialists are not advancing entific or political. Space constraints pre- an ideological argument for changing society clude any detailed analysis but I hope these then we are stuck arguing within the frame- examples can serve to clarify the roles of sci- work of the dominant neoliberal capitalist entific and ideological arguments. ideology. A rather depressing example of this route Biological determinism can be found in The God Species, a book by the well known environmentalist Mark In brief biological determinism can be de- Lynas. The book is ostensibly a scientific scribed as the view that ‘...all human be- analysis of the dangers of climate change haviour - hence all human society - is gov- and an outline of some of the possible so- erned by a chain of determinants that runs lutions. While the vast majority of the sci- from the gene to the individual to the sum ence in the book is quite correct (and very of the behaviors of all individuals... that well referenced) and some of the criticisms of human nature is fixed by our genes’17 It is the environmental movement are justified in a world view advanced most famously by his engagement with the science of climate Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish change Lynas, formerly quite a radical envi- Gene and ultimately seeks to offer a scien- ronmentalist, seems to have abandoned any tific justification for the way society, with all trace of a desire to change the economic sys- its inequality and injustice, is structured. tem which drives climate change. Any sort This world view has been challenged of change in how society is run is ignored in both scientifically and politically and both favour of technical solutions that fit comfort- challenges are necessary although given the ably within the capitalist framework, such ‘scientific’ nature of the arguments advanced as carbon trading schemes. These are ulti- the scientific criticisims are of great im- mately justified by asserting that portance. In Not In Our Genes, Richard Lewontin, Steven Rose and Leon Kamin of- Markets are human instruments, fer an instructive guide to making such an and can be targeted to achieve argument. Pointing out that they disagree any environmental objective if strongly with the political conclusions of bi- cleverly designed with that end ological determinism and ‘believe it is pos- in mind16 sible to create a better society than the one we live in at present’18 they continue with without any acknowledgment that such scientific arguments that ‘to show that the schemes have totally failed to halt rising world is not to be understood as biological CO2 emissions while making massive prof- determinism would have it be, and that, as its for many of those trading. a way of explaining the world, biological de- In reality the scientific element to politi- terminism is fundamentally flawed’19 cal debate is generally less important than In advancing their arguments they are the ideological element but the ability to also critical of those on the left who advo- evaluate and use the evidence in a scientific cated equally fallacious - even if more ideo- manner can be crucial to making a coherent logically palatable to those on the left who argument - it is little use outlining your po- want to change society - theories of cultural litical views and then backing them up with determinism which sought to ‘see human na- 16Mark Lynas, The God Species: How the planet can survive the age of humans, 2011, Fourth Estate, London. p.155 17R.C. Lewontin, Steven Rose, Leon J. Kamin Not in our genes: Biology, Ideology, and human nature 1984, Pantheon Books, New York. p.6 18ibid. p.9 19ibid. p.9 20ibid. p.10

75 ture as almost infinitely plastic, to deny bi- In many instances large companies such as ology and acknowledge only social construc- Monsanto have managed to turn farmers tion’20 The point that this misuse of science into near vassals who appear to exist only was so contrary to ‘actual lived experience’ to make profits for the company. that it often served to reinforce the view of If they potentials of GM crops are to be biological determinism as simply ‘common in any real sense used for the benefit of hu- sense’ is an important one. manity then a political fight to take on the power of multinational corporations is a ne- GM Crops cessity. Part of this fight may involve op- position to GM crops but as socialists we Genetically modified crops are often should be clear the opposition is directed at strongly opposed by the left. There are the companies and how they use the tech- many good political reasons for this but few nology - not the technology, or indeed the scientific ones. Despite the often repeated concept, itself. claims of the danger to human health there have been no recorded instances of any ill health effects attributable to GM foods - Science and public policy despite the fact that many people in North America have been eating large quantities of Having looked at the role of science in some GM foods for the better part of two decades. political debates it is worth considering the There are certainly health implications re- role of science in formulating public policy. lated to diet (and lifestyle) in North America Firstly it should be restated that science but these are shared across the ’developed’ cannot a priori determine if a policy is ‘good’ world and the blame must lie squarely at the or ‘bad’ - this is an ideological question. feet of the capitalist system which produces What science is very good at is determining and aggressively markets so much food with if a policy actually achieves its stated goals poor nutritional value. and this is something that socialists should The evidence on environmental impact of be very interested in. these crops is much more mixed and difficult How often have you heard a statement to make a clear judgment on. Many prop- from a Government Minister about how erties of GM crops, such as increased yields some new policy was going to improve some- and reduced requirements for artificial fer- thing or resolve some crisis? Now how of- tilisers and pesticides, could potentially be ten have you heard them revisit the policy environmentally beneficial but other proper- and decide if it actually achieved what they ties, such as resistance to glyophosate weed- claimed it would? It is fair to say that the killers like Roundup or tendencies towards evaluation of evidence for much public policy monoculture, may have negative environ- is rather poor and idea of carefully consider- mental effects. These potential problems are ing the available evidence before proposing however also shared with non GM crops in a policy is often ignored due to a ‘something capitalist agricultural production.21 must be done, this is something, therefore it The political reasons for opposing GM must be done’ approach on foot of criticism are many but can possibly be summed up from opposition groups, the media, or the in one word - Monsanto. The despicable be- public. haviour of large corporations when it comes Globally there has been an increase to GM crops includes aggressive patenting of in the use of randomised controlled trials ’their’ crops and taking legal action against (RCTs) in areas of public policy22. In the anyone found growing their crop even if it UK some very simple trials have been per- is only a case of unintentional cross pollina- formed and the previous governments Be- tion of the field with a patented GM crop. havioural Insights Team, with others, in- 21For an excellent overview of agriculture under capitalism see Martin Empson ’Food, agriculture and climate change’ International Socialism Journal 152 October 2016 22This blog post from Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science site lists a sample from 2011. http://www.badscience. net/2011/05/we-should-so-blatantly-do-more-randomised-trials-on-policy/

76 cluding Ben Goldacre, have published a doc- a given policy will be evaluated in advance ument on how government departments can significantly reduces the government’s room use trials to asses new policies and interven- for spin and obfuscation. tions23. While the trials in this report are un- Conclusion likely to make any major differences to most Scientific knowledge and a scientific frame- peoples lives many of the procedures in- work are vital for evaluating data on soci- volved would be of great benefit to socialists ety. When combined with a Marxist frame- in critiquing government policy. work and an understanding of the ideologi- While there is now a commitment from cal biases prevalent in society, a good grasp government to ’equality proof’ budget mea- of science can help to make a powerful cri- sures the information on how budget mea- tique of our society. Marxists owe it to the sures will affect people often amount to lit- great project of transforming our society to tle more than spin. Forcing governments to make every attempt to understand and ap- not only state what they want to achieve but ply these techniques in any campaign we are also how exactly they will measure the suc- involved in, anything less would be an aban- cess of their policies ahead of time would be donment of the scientific socialism of Marx a valuable tool for the left. Knowing how and Engels.

23Laura Haynes, Owain Service, Ben Goldacre, David Torgerson Test, Learn, Adapt: Developing Public Policy with Randomised Control Trials UK Cabinet Office 2012

77 The Starry Plough – a historical note

Damian Lawlor

On the 5th of April 1914 the Irish Citi- perial Hotel alongside the Tricolour already zen Army paraded their colours, the Starry flying there. I immediately agreed, and only Plough, at a meeting. The flag was un- succeeded after great difficulty as it had to like any other used in Ireland and is made be erected under fire, but up it went - ‘The up of an agricultural plough with superim- Plough and the Stars’ -and there it stayed, posed upon its structure the star constella- although only the front wall of the building tion Ursa Major (also called the Great Bear remained after the fight had concluded.’ or Plough or Big Dipper).The flag had a gilt Connolly would have been well aware edge, the background is green, the plough that the Hotel was owned by William Mar- itself is yellow and the stars are silver. tin Murphy, who was the employers’ leader The original suggestion that the ICA during the 1913 lockout. The message from should have its own flag came from Jim Connolly was clearly that in the new Irish Larkin but the actual design of the flag Republic workers would be in the ascendant is credited to Belfast artist William H. over the exploiters who lived off their sweat Megahy. At the time of designing the flag and toil. he was working as a teacher in the School After the Rising it was widely believed of Art located in Kildare Street in Dublin. that the flag had been burned along with Sean O’Casey (the then secretary of the Cit- the rest of the hotel. However it still flew izen Army) carried out research into the ori- over the front of the building and remained gins of the flag and in 1954 submitted the flying there right through till the follow- original drawing of the design to the Na- ing Saturday evening. A Lieutenant of the tional Museum. The only major difference 9th Reserve Cavalry Regiment then occupy- between this and the flag produced is that ing O’Connell Street spotted the flag flying in the drawing the flag has a blue and not a above the G.P.O. With the help of a po- green background. The identity of the per- lice officer he removed it and took it as a son who decided to change the colour is not souvenir. The National Museum acquired it known. It was produced by the Dun Emer from him in 1955. Guild. In a picture of the flag outside Croy- In 1934 it was decided to re-establish don House, Fairview in the summer of 1915 the ICA in conjunction with the launch of the flag is being carried on a pole with a red the Republican Congress. A number of the hand on the top - this is the symbol of the members of the original ICA were consulted Irish Transport and General Workers Union. and their recollections of the design of the The Imperial Hotel on O’Connell Street original flag were recorded. Some of these was probably not occupied until the Tuesday differed radically. Eventually the new Starry of the Easter Rising, when a detachment of Plough was produced but it was significantly volunteers who had previously been based altered with the agricultural plough now on Westmoreland Street were moved into missing and the background colour blue. the building. Later on in the day another Seven white stars which make up the star section of rebels was sent from the G.P.O. constellation of the Plough were kept. It to reinforce those already there and early wasn’t until 1955 when the National Mu- on Wednesday the rebels hoisted a tricolour seum managed to acquire the original and over the building. Later on during the day authenticate it that the difference in the two James Connolly sent over the Starry Plough flags was accepted. . Sean O’Casey wrote the following lines Frank Thornton tells how, ‘During the about the flag, ‘Be worthy, men, of following Insurrection I received a request from my such a banner, for this is your flag of the fu- commander-in-chief, James Connolly, to ture. Whatever may happen to me; though I erect ‘The Plough and the Stars’ on the Im- should mingle with the dust, or fall to ashes

78 in a flame, the plough will always remain there to unveil the beauty of the night, and to furrow the earth, the stars will always be a newer people, living a newer life, will sing like the sons of the morning.’

79 Review: Kieran Allen, The Politics of James Connolly

Shaun Doherty

James Connolly that he had to subordinate any socialist ambitions to the primacy of the struggle for national independence and fi- nally, the view of Austin Morgan and others who sought to repudiate his anti-imperialism and give pre-eminence to his work as a trade union organiser. Allen demonstrates beyond any dispute that Connolly’s writings, his commitment to freeing Ireland from British imperialism and his understanding of the centrality of working class, place him in the revolutionary Marxist tradition. It is in- teresting to remember that the book was first published before the 1998 Good Fri- day Agreement and the ensuing ‘peace pro- cess’ with its establishment of power-sharing in the North and before the collapse of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ and the imposition of austerity Kieran Allen, The Politics of James Connolly, Pluto Press, politics in the South. Its analysis has stood 2016. £13.00 the test of time and is even more relevant to today’s political situation. This is particu- larly true given the transformation of Sinn The timely re-publication of Kieran Al- Féin from militant republicanism to consti- lan’s The Politics of James Connolly, first tutional nationalism, which has led it to take published twenty six years ago in 1990, contradictory political positions either side should be read alongside his recent 1916: of the border. Ireland’s Revolutionary Tradition. The in- tervening years have demanded that we con- Connolly has suffered the fate of those tinue to review Connolly’s legacy and mea- who are vilified during their lifetimes as dan- sure it against changing political circum- gerous threats to the establishment only to stances. In doing so we can affirm Connolly be turned into harmless icons after their as the pre-eminent Irish revolutionary Marx- deaths. This is particularly true of the ver- ist, despite continuing attempts to appropri- sion that is happy to name railway stations ate him for a range of competing traditions. after him and to herald his role in 1916 as The thrust of Allen’s earlier political biog- a patriot. It coincides with the conserva- raphy was to challenge this appropriation of tive counter revolution of 1923 and its af- his legacy, while his more recent book chal- termath described vividly in Allen’s latter lenges prevailing assessments of the Easter book as ‘A most Conservative Country.’ It Rising and identifies it as the harbinger of is a version that seeks to either expunge the revolutionary upheavals in the years that Connolly’s Marxism or to render it harm- followed leading to partial independence in less as a form of guild socialism or mild 1921. Connolly’s role in this process was piv- social reformism. It also emphasises Con- otal. nolly’s Catholicism, even to the point of his In his introduction to the political biog- biographer Owen Dudley Edwards arguing raphy Allen identifies three competing ver- that he perceived essential interdependence sions of Connolly. Firstly, the sanitised view of socialism and Catholicism and was ‘one of of him as an Irish patriot and Catholic apol- the best and most enlightened apologist the ogist; secondly, the view epitomised in C. Catholic church has seen since the industrial Desmond Greaves The Life and Times of revolution’ (O.Dudley Edwards James Con-

80 nolly: The Mind of an Activist). This as- far to argue that Connolly ceased to be a so- sessment was clearly in tune with a country cialist in 1914 and instead threw his lot in where the social conservatism of Archbishop with militant republicanism. Charles John McQuaid had been wedded to There were weaknesses in Connolly’s the conservative nationalism of Eamon De analysis as Allen has consistently pointed Valera. out. In particular, the mistaken notion To some extent this unconvincing version that militant republicans would automati- of Connolly was effectively repudiated by the cally be drawn towards socialist politics af- Greaves’ biography. Informed by the politics ter national liberation had been achieved of the Communist Party it does give a more and as a result he failed to establish a last- detailed account of Connolly as a lifelong ing independent socialist organisation, but activist and working class organiser, but is the trajectory of Connolly’s life and polit- hamstrung by its adherence to one particu- ical commitment is a manifestation of the lar version of the stages theory of national tension between his lifelong commitment to liberation: namely that there should be an working class struggle and its centrality to alliance between the working class and pro- the fight for national liberation. He argued gressive sections of the bourgeoisie in order that an all-class alliance based on ‘nation- to fight for national liberation and that so- hood’ would fail to break the stranglehold cial demands should be postponed until after of Britain. The tension is not just theoreti- this had been achieved. This view was taken cal. The historical developments during the one stage further by Peter Beresford Ellis in last three years of his life shaped his attitude his preface to the 1985 edition of The His- considerably, but it’s worth giving a brief tory of the Irish Working Class who wrote, summary of the years prior to that. From ’In Ireland today as in previous centuries, 1898 he had been a socialist and trade union the mainspring of socialism is in the national organiser in Scotland; in 1896 he moved to struggle.’ Allen argues conclusively that far Ireland and formed the Irish Socialist Re- from Connolly subscribing to this view, in publican Party; in 1903 he moved to the US his most famous work Labour in Irish His- where he became involved with the Social- tory he had argued exactly the opposite. In ist Labour Party and subsequently became an argument that in many ways pre-figures an organiser for the International Workers of Trotsky’s theory of Permanent Revolution, the World; finally he returned to Ireland in Connolly asserts that Nationalists like Sars- 1910.In 1911 he became the organiser for the field, Grattan and O’Connell all feared the Irish Transport and General Workers Union masses more than the British rule because and then its General Secretary in 1913. The they threatened their own class position and great Dublin lock-out of that year proved to material wealth and power. As a result, they be a watershed with a ruthless employers’ of- could never deliver what they claimed to fensive against Connolly’s attempt to extend stand for and consequently ‘...only the work- the unionisation of the workers: an offensive ing class remain as the incorruptible inheri- that led to the defeat of the union. The sol- tors of the fight for freedom in Ireland.’ idarity of rank and file workers in Britain The third version of Connolly espoused was outweighed by the capitulation of their by Morgan and other apologists for the union leaderships and the TUC backed cam- British State- Bew, Patterson and Gibbon paign of scabbing. An embittered Connolly in The State in Modern Ireland - criticised described it as the ‘sordid betrayal of our him for linking working class struggle to holiest hopes.’ the struggle for independence and went so This defeat was followed in 1914 by the far as to assert that the effects of imperi- outbreak of the First World War. Connolly alism in any classical sense on Irish affairs was in the small minority of the interna- was slight. Their political motives were to tional socialist organisations in opposing the distance themselves from any resistance to war and the ITGWU campaigned against the state in Northern Ireland after the Civil conscription. He believed the war presented Rights Movement of 1968. Morgan went so revolutionaries with an opportunity, partic-

81 ularly in Ireland to strike a blow against the reference to extracts from Connolly’s writ- biggest imperial power in the world: ing to prove that his attitudes to religion were a fatal flaw. Starting thus Ireland may yet set Indeed, there is ample evidence in a torch to a European conflagra- Labour, Religion and Nationality of Con- tion that will not burn out until nolly challenging the interference of the the last throne and last capitalist church in the world of politics. In his debenture will be shrivelled on polemic against the Jesuit priest Father the funeral pyre of the last war- Kane who in his Lenten discourses had lord. railed against the socialist movement and denounced it as ‘mob rule’, Connolly ‘turned Out of the carnage of war and the defeat the words round in his mouth’ in a marvel- of the working class he became increasingly lous polemic. drawn to the idea of armed revolt against Britain in alliance with the forces of nation- There was a time stretching for alism. In order to follow this through he more than 1,000 years when the formed an alliance between his Irish Citizens mob was without power or in- Army and the National Irish Volunteers that fluence, when the entire power led to his central role in the armed uprising of the world was concentrated in of 1916. the hands of the kings, the no- Allen’s political biography gives an in- bles and the hierarchy. That was valuable and detailed account of this tra- the bleakest period of human his- jectory and at the core of it is the idea of tory... Then the mob started history and the actors in it as part of a dy- on its upward march to power-a namic process not a series of static events. power only to be realised in the The book deals in detail with all the stages socialist republic. In the course in Connolly’s political journey and whilst of its upward march the mob has recognising the towering role that Connolly transformed and humanised the had played in Irish working class history world. It has abolished religious it avoids hagiography and includes detailed persecution and imposed tolera- discussion of areas in his thought and politi- tion on bigots of all creeds; it has cal practice that merit more critical analysis. established the value of human For example, in the complex relationship life... there is not in history a that Connolly had with religion Allen dis- record of any movement for abol- tinguishes between his scathing attacks on ishing torture, preventing war, the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church and establishing popular suffrage, or his residual belief that there was no intrinsic shortening the hours of labour incompatibility between religion and social- led by the hierarchy... All hail ist politics. He felt that if the clergy con- to the mob, the incarnation of fined themselves to the sphere of religious progress. concerns and kept out of politics, socialists could deal with the latter. He concluded As a polemicist in the daily struggle for that ‘the most consistent socialist or syndi- worker’s rights Connolly did not shy away calist may be as Catholic as the Pope if he from criticising the role of the church and is so minded.’ There was a clear contradic- its representatives when they acted as ideo- tion between his commitment to a ‘materi- logues for oppression and exploitation. alist’ analysis of the world and a belief that Allen applies the same degree of balance there were aspects of nature unfathomable to his criticism of Connolly’s view of politi- to humans and these were the phenomena cal organisation and his relationship with re- that religion could address. In engaging with publicanism. The crucial factor here is to be this critical analysis, however, Allen keeps a able to see the bigger picture, to keep a sense sense of proportion and avoids the myopic of perspective. In doing so Allen is able to scholasticism of those who make selective acknowledge and affirm the crucial role that

82 Connolly played in the struggle for social- class attempt to render him a harmless fig- ism and opposition to imperial oppression. ure of the past. Today’s struggles in Ireland This is particularly important today when against austerity, women’s oppression and we celebrate the anniversary of the Easter anti-immigrant racism owe an immeasurable Rising and Allen’s 1916: Irelands Revolu- debt to the real legacy of Connolly. I would tionary Tradition provides the same level of strongly recommend everyone engaged with consistency and dispassionate analysis as his these struggles to take advantage of the re- earlier biography. In achieving that over- publication of Allen’s political biography to all perspective of Connolly’s contribution we arm themselves with the lessons of history are able to see his continuing relevance to the and Connolly’s role within it as a revolu- struggles of today and the need to continue tionary Marxist of distinction. to challenge the false narratives and ruling

83 Review: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, From #Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation

Conor Kennelly

wealth (as opposed to income) is only $6446 for African Americans while it is $91,405 for whites. Four million Black children live in poverty while 240,000 Black people lost their homes as a result of the mortgage crisis. From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liber- ation by American socialist activist and aca- demic Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is there- fore a very timely and excellent analysis of how we got to this stage but also out- lines a strategy on how the deep rooted and systemic nature of American racism can be challenged and ultimately overcome. Taylor opens with a speech given by Mar- tin Luther King only weeks before he died in which he declared that ‘I’m not sad that black Americans are rebelling; this was not Kieran Allen, From #Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation only inevitable but eminently desirable’ and , Haymarket Books, Chigago, 2016. $ 17.95 insisted that ‘America must change’. These words are as relevant today as they were 50 Eight years ago millions of people all years ago. over the world watched as America elected Apologists for the status quo in the US its first African American president. The insist that we’re living in a post-racial sup- dominant theme of Barack Obama’s cam- posedly colour-blind society and that any paign was Hope however vaguely defined. It incidents of racism are merely aberrations was especially moving to see elderly African from an essentially benign state of affairs. Americans cast their vote when only a few The image of the United States that we decades previously they had been viciously are expected to believe is of an inherently beaten up by racist police when they demon- democratic entity since its beginnings with strated for Civil Rights. the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It can only be dispiriting then to ob- This argument is used to justify American serve the current US election that pits Don- imperialism and the notion of the US as ald Trump, a vulgar openly racist and sexist the leader of the ‘Free World’ that gener- billionaire, against Hillary Clinton, an arch ously grants these liberties to the rest of the imperialist who would be at home in any world. Obama echoed this argument when European right wing party. This comes at a he stated ‘America our endless blessings be- time when the US has the largest prison pop- stow an enduring burden. But as Ameri- ulation in the world, 50 per cent of who are cans we welcome our responsibility to lead. African American and when American po- From Europe to Asia... we stand for freedom lice are killing more African Americans than for justice for dignity. These are values that were lynched during the brutal Jim Crow have guided our nation since its founding’ era. Eight years after the first Black pres- (Taylor, P.25). More recently it has been ident was elected African Americans are ac- used to reinforce the idea that if inequal- tually worse off and have seen their house- ity still exists it’s down to individual failings hold wealth decline significantly as a re- and a so-called ‘culture of poverty’. sult of the 2007 economic crash. The facts But as Taylor argues justice is not some- are simply staggering. Average household thing that is a ‘natural part of the life cycle

84 of the United States nor is it a product of tionately as spending on inner city projects evolution; it is always the outcome of strug- to lift people out of poverty were severely gle’ (Taylor, P.5). Like anywhere else the cut. democratic rights that Americans enjoy, lim- Black politicians now found themselves ited as they are, have had to be fought for having to manage reduced budgets and im- and thousands have suffered and died in that plement the very cutbacks that affected their struggle. voting base the most. Their only solution to The Civil Rights marches and the more create jobs was to rely on private sector in- militant inner city uprisings of the 50s and vestment and expensive Public Private Part- 60s resulted in the defeat of Jim Crow in the nerships. The ruling class also realized that South and a commitment to spend more on African American elected politicians could social welfare and Government programmes be quite effective in policing their commu- that improved the lives of both millions of nities. Carl Stokes, the first elected African African Americans and whites. Affirmative American mayor of a major US city (Cleve- Action measures made some headway to- land) was endorsed by President Johnson wards correcting racial inequality in employ- and received funding from the Ford Foun- ment and housing. dation. The Black movement was the catalyst The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 for other movements especially the anti-war heralded an all-out onslaught on many movement where African Americans consti- of the gains of the 1960s. Welfare was tuted a disproportionate number of those slashed while Reagan used coded racist lan- conscripted. Millions of Americans were guage with reference to mythical ‘welfare making the connection between being asked queens’ never mind that a majority of wel- to fight for democracy abroad while being fare claimants are whites. Black family in- denied the same rights at home. This is one come declined by 5% in Reagan’s first year of the reasons why the movement of the 60s in office. Instead of challenging the neo- and the Black Lives Matter movement is so liberal consensus, African American politi- important then and today. It exposes the cians adapted to the right ward drifting ideological self-image of the US as the land mainstream. The most notorious example of of the free and the American dream where this was former Martin Luther King adviser, supposedly anyone can make it. Ralph David Abernathy, who endorsed Rea- The main beneficiary of the movement gan in 1980. Reagan went further with was an emerging Black middle-class. Affir- his War on Drugs which was deliberately mative Action removed previous barriers to targeted at African American communities. promotion especially in the public sector. It Much stiffer sentences were imposed for use also manifested itself in electoral politics so of crack cocaine than were for powder co- that by 1990 there were over 7000 elected caine which tended to be mainly used by officials. middle-class whites. As the movement receded in the 1970s Bill Clinton went further with his Crime electoral politics seemed a more attractive Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. option as African Americans were in a po- This act included increased use of the death sition to run local governments in many of penalty, life sentences for non-violent of- America’s largest cities primarily through fences, 100,000 more police on the streets the mechanism of the Democratic Party. and the elimination of federal spending on But there was a price to be paid for this prison education. The act also set aside 10 compromise with the system. The turn came billion dollars for building prisons while at at a time in the early 1970s when the long the same time Clinton cut 80 billion dollars Post War boom was ending and governments in welfare spending. everywhere were adopting Neo-Liberal eco- Shamefully, the Congressional Black nomics and cutting spending while employ- Caucus supported all these retrograde mea- ers laid off thousands of workers. These cut- sures that specifically targeted African backs affected African Americans dispropor- Americans. They even repeated some of

85 the racist stereotypes about a ‘culture of hundreds of thousands of Americans on the poverty’ and instead insisted that African streets against the greed of the 1%. The American men needed to take personal re- protests had given people the confidence to sponsibility. This tendency continues today protest and also to make connections and and both Michelle and Barack Obama fre- look at the bigger picture. Small but in- quently lecture African Americans, specif- creasing numbers of whites have begun to ically young Black males that they can’t join in solidarity with African Americans on make excuses, thereby letting the system off Black Lives Matter protests. For several the hook. Taylor quotes Obama ‘We have to days and nights the city of Ferguson Mis- promote stronger role models than the gang- souri was in revolt against the racist po- banger on the corner’ (Taylor P.26). lice murder of Michael Brown as protesters Michelle Alexander quotes Obama in her stood their ground and gained confidence book The New Jim Crow (The New Press, that they could resist the violent racism New York, 2010) in a speech he gave on of the police. One of the more hearten- Father’s Day in a Chicagoan Church: ‘Too ing events of 2016, was when thousands of many fathers are AWOL. They have aban- Chicagoans put manners on Donald Trump doned their responsibilities. They’re act- and stopped him speaking at his own elec- ing like boys instead of men.’ (Alexan- tion rally. It was noticeable how mixed the der, P.178) This sanctimony comes at a protesters were as they joyously chanted ‘We time when African American men are over- stopped Trump’. More recently, large num- whelmingly represented in the prison pop- bers of Americans from all backgrounds have ulation. African Americans are urged to protested in solidarity with Colin Kaeper- finish their education while the Democratic nick, the African American footballer who Mayor of Chicago and former chief of staff refused to stand for the national anthem be- in Obama’s first Administration, Rahm Em- fore a football match as a protest against manuel, closed dozens of schools in the in- racism. ner city where the student population is Like in the sixties when the inner city majority African American. These actions uprisings connected with the anti-war move- shouldn’t surprise us and as Taylor argues, ment the Black Lives Matter protests have it is not just a matter of Black politicians the potential to gel into wider struggles exhibiting ‘whiteness’ and selling out, it is against the system as more people begin to because they now have a stake in the sys- question racial and economic inequality in tem and are expressing their class loyalties. American society. Taylor cites the example Taylor concludes her book with an as- of the successful 1970s mass postal workers sessment of the Black Lives Matter move- strike where activists were able to bring the ment and where it might lead. She ar- confidence they’d acquired from the inner gues quite forcefully that any movement for city uprisings into the work place and unite change in America has to grasp the systemic Black and white workers on the picket line. nature of American racism and put it at the Surveys since the Ferguson, Baltimore and forefront. Racism has always been central other urban protests against police brutal- to the dynamic of American capitalism so ity have shown an increased number of white therefore any struggle against either racism Americans acknowledge that African Amer- or economic injustice raises wider questions: icans are unfairly treated by the police. ‘The struggle for Black liberation then is not The other point too is that while white an abstract idea molded in isolation from the workers harbour racist ideas they do not wider phenomenon of economic exploitation benefit from racism. While African Amer- and inequality that pervades all of Ameri- icans have been disproportionately affected can society; it is intimately bound up with by the economic downturn and are at the them’. (Taylor, P 194). bottom in almost every indicator of wealth The Black Lives Matter movement and income the real income of the Ameri- emerged only a couple of years after the can working class as a whole has remained Occupy Wall Street protests that mobilised stagnant since 1970. At the same time,

86 the wealth of the 1 per cent has grown necessity that obliges white workers to op- exponentially as they have benefitted from pose racism if struggles against economic in- neo-liberal economic policies under succes- equality are to be successful. A similar anal- sive Republican and Democratic adminis- ogy can be drawn with Northern Ireland and trations. Wealth has not trickled down as the issue of sectarianism. Protestant and Reagan famously and dishonestly promised. Catholic workers have united on several oc- There are now over 540 billionaires in the casions on bread and butter issues most no- US according to Forbes. The wealthiest 400 tably in 1932 during the Belfast Outdoor Re- owned as much wealth as the bottom 60% in lief Strike. However, socialist activists who 2010 and the gap continues to widen. Ninety played a key role in the strike avoided wider nine percent of all new wealth is now going political issues such as the border and sec- to the top 1 per cent. tarianism, thereby allowing the Unionist em- In the current vacuum in American pol- ployers to whip up anti Catholic bigotry and itics a racist populist like Donald Trump is crush the fragile and temporary unity. Simi- able to appeal with some success to white lar lessons apply to the US and activists can- working class Americans (though this should not avoid the central issue of racism that not be exaggerated as studies show middle continues to divide the American working income Americans are more likely to vote for class. him than poor Americans) and manipulate From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Lib- people’s anger to direct it against oppressed eration is highly recommended for anyone minorities. While this is by no means nat- who wants to further explore the workings of ural or inevitable it is also mistaken to sug- American racism and how it plays a central gest, as Bernie Sanders once did, that people role in American society. Taylor expertly will automatically unite in economic strug- takes on several arguments as I’ve outlined gles and racism can be ignored until a later above. But it’s not just an academic study time. Any anti-capitalist movement will and indeed is highly readable and accessi- need principled socialist and anti-racist pol- ble unlike some books on the subject. It is itics if it is to move forward. also a valuable guide to strategy and action Taylor reinforces this point when she ar- that anti-racist socialists can employ in the gues that it’s not just simply a matter of struggle for a better world where racism and moral compunction but rather it is one of inequality are just a distant memory.

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