March 2021 €1.50

Communist Party of Ireland Páirtí Cumannach na hÉireann Partisan Patriotic Internationalist Number 192 February 2021 Socialist Voice €1.5www.commmunistparty.ie Number 193 March 2021 €1.50 Page 2 Unity H Page 4 Consumerism H Page 6 Health, work and neoliberalism H Page 8 EU militarisation Page 10 Marx, Gamestop, capitalism H H Page 12 Irish agricuture Page 14 In defence of China Page 18 Imperialism Page 20 Wages robbery H H Page 22 Rosa Luxemburg Page 24 International Working Women’s Day Long live International SV Working Women’s Day Socialist Voice 43 East Essex Street Page 24 Dublin D02 XH96 (01) 6708707 ISSN 0791-5217 j/7G@7I1\URQPPX/ Zpzs CLASS POLITICS Workers of the world, unite! JIMMY DORAN then claiming that the public sector is the centre of the dispute threatening inefficient, costs too much, and provides workers with pay cuts. US DRIVERS in London went on a poor service. The workers’ union, Unite, has strike last month against pay cuts Ironically, they handed over the accused RATP of using the pandemic as Bthat a number of “private bus running of large sections of London a “convenient smokescreen” with which operators” tried to impose. However, all Transport to the French state-owned to attempt to implement pay policies is not as it seems. public transport company Régie that could result in some of their drivers The British government has privatised Autonome des Transports Parisiens losing up to £2,500 a year. much of the public transport system as (RATP), which is owned entirely by the Covid-19 is not the only they push ahead with their neoliberal French government. It operates three bus smokescreen that RATP is using, as pay agenda. They followed the usual companies on the London bus network: cuts on the workers on London buses method: slashing funds for public London United, London Sovereign, and will be indirectly subsidising public transport, running down the service, Quality Line. These companies were at transport in France. RATP would not A bitter legacy can only produce bitter fruit Statement by the Communist Party of Ireland 28 February 2021 HE SCENES In Dublin city centre Yes, people are frustrated by “austerity,” low wages, precarious yesterday [Saturday 27 February] quarantines and restrictions. But the work, overcrowding, growing waiting- Tshould come as no surprise to answer does not lie in the politics of lists for public housing, extortionate anyone. The reactions to the violence reaction, or with those who peddle rents, and the two-tier health system— of the state were as could be hate and division, nor with the one the crumbling public health expected, as were the weasel words of demigods of the right who are system, the other the bright, shiny one condemnation by establishment exploiting those genuine fears and with no queues, the private one. politicians. frustrations. Working people have listened to the Working people are frustrated with We need to respect each other and endless droning of the television and their everyday lived experience, their to protect each other from this radio pundits promising bread shattered and unfulfilled dreams. The pandemic, not because the tomorrow while our lives are filled with covid pandemic has only brought that establishment tells us but because we broken promises by the establishment frustration out into the open, with the need to do it in our own interests. political parties and the failed pain and anger that lie beneath. We have suffered decades of institutions that control our lives. They 2 Socialist Voice March 2021 ‘If an injury to one is truly an injury to all, workers must unite in solidarity with these overexploited workers, be they meat-packers or Deliveroo drivers’ attempt to slash bus workers’ pay in but it has most certainly exposed them. narrative about illegal immigrants France; the French bus workers wouldn’t Poverty wages are endemic in our abusing work permits, etc. stand for it. This must not be ignored. economy. In February the taoiseach, The media remain silent when Working-class solidarity and trade unions Mícheál Martin, faced an angry Dáil workers fight back against government are the unrustable weapons of our class. when it was revealed that two thousand austerity, be it yellow vests in France, And borders must not be used as low-paid workers had travelled from farmers in India, or students in Greece. smokescreens for exploitation. Brazil to work in meat factories in the Of course there’s wall-to-wall coverage On the left we have many great previous weeks. His reply was that these of demonstrations in Hong Kong when slogans, but words are meaningless low-paid workers were essential to the the enemies of Western capital are in unless we put them into action. Workers economy! the crosshairs. of the world are under attack through This is Ireland in 2021. The head of We’ve seen the crass nature of the globalisation. Globalisation by capital is the government admits that the capitalist system throughout the health relentless in cutting pay and working economy depends on low-paid workers, pandemic. Britain abandoned its citizens conditions around the world. Workers while in order to protect the meat to the virus, resulting in one of the must also act globally in the interest of barons’ profits the state allowed public highest death rates from covid in the our class. health to be put at extreme risk by world, with more than 120,000 dead Workers of the world must unite to allowing thousands to travel from areas already. The people who died were defeat the attacks on our class. If bus in the world with some of the worst considered dispensable, as many were workers in London are under attack by mutations of the coronavirus and the old and considered a burden on the RATP, workers in Paris should come out highest rates of infection. state. Those young enough to work in solidarity, and in every other town, If an injury to one is truly an injury to would be replaced easily with the reserve district or country where RATP uses flags all, workers must unite in solidarity with army of labour. Britain moved quickly in of convenience for exploiting workers, or these overexploited workers, be they introducing vaccines, but this was not they will be the next for cuts. meat-packers or Deliveroo drivers. Of out of concern for the citizens: it was in Workers in the “gig economy” in course the state has made it illegal to order to reopen the economy as quickly France, the Netherlands, Belgium, have solidarity action to demand as possible. Ireland chose the EU Spain and Britain have had victories sickness pay and better conditions for directive to stick to using only EU- recently in their working conditions and these workers. The 1990 Industrial manufactured vaccines, in the interests employment status in national courts. Relations Act has made class solidarity of Big Pharma. Deliveroo workers in Ireland have had illegal. If we are to win this class war, a number of strikes recently. These Transnational corporations have used workers must organise at home and workers have made some progress, multiple locations for years to stop mass internationally and fight back against the but they are still among the lowest- action, confining disputes to localised capitalist class. It is essential for workers paid and most precarious workers in resistance, which is easily controlled with in Ireland to fight to get all anti-union existence. Gig economy workers need similar anti-worker legislation around the legislation abolished, north and south, to join up the dots and link up with world. The mainstream media, owned and to build class solidarity. their fellow exploited workers around and controlled by big business, attack We have nothing to lose but our the globe. Globalisation can work two striking workers locally as being greedy chains, and a world to gain. H ways; as it stands it is only working for and not caring about customers, and capital. emphasise the negative effect on the LEFT KOLKATA: A million Indian communists Covid did not cause poverty wages, economy of their actions, creating a and their allies assemble in solidarity with the farmers hear the same establishment voices exploitation, a system geared to grind Your anger is just, but your target and slick PR spin that tomorrow will be out ever-increasing profits and grind should be the system, not people with better, that the interests of working down those who make those profits: a different skin colour, or who come people will soon be dealt with but that workers. from some other country. there are “other priorities” at the The answer lies in radical economic We wear our masks to protect each moment. But they know this tomorrow and political change, with investment other. We trust vaccinations because never comes—just the same old same in public housing, public health, public we know that they have saved tens of old. schools. Investment in real jobs with millions of lives and eliminated Yesterday’s events are the result of decent pay and working conditions, dreadful diseases all over the globe. that bitter legacy, which can only constitutionally guaranteed, is the Yes, we should be wary of produce bitter fruit. priority of society and a people’s corporate-controlled science and The solution to the many problems government. medicine, but not science and facing working people lies in their own Working people should not be led medicine per se. hands. It is the economic and political down a barren cul-de-sac by false Tomorrow will not change unless we system that imposes itself upon us that promises from cynical right-wing make it happen together, a radical, is at the core of all our problems, from forces, who are offering nothing beyond fundamental change.

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