Monthly Archives: October 2023

Both eyes on Washington – but not a glance for Gaza

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‘Not at all surprising, but none the less disgraceful’, has been the general reaction to the shameful political manoeuvring of both Sinn Fein and the British Labour Party as they focus on protecting their own futures rather than standing firmly against the blatant breaches of international law and the humanitarian outrages forced on the population of #Gaza by the Israeli government and its US, UK and EU allies.

Fearful of offending both its American support base and the US administration, Sinn Fein has bottled open criticism of Israel’s round the clock bombing raids, the slaughter of civilians and the annihilation of Gaza’s infrastructure.

Just as its political antecedent, Fianna Fail, ducked and dived its way through political crisis at home and abroad, so Sinn Fein is set on the same pragmatic path – supporting the Palestinian people when it brings votes and popular support at home, but turning their backs on them when it risks being at odds with American foreign policy.

Phoney, spurious and insulting

Sinn Fein has not only refused to support calls for the expulsion of Israeli ambassadors from London and Dublin but has also insulted the intelligence of even its most unquestioning followers with spurious and phoney excuses about following the advice it is getting from Palestinian leaders on the ground.

This is embarrassing even by Sinn Fein’s standards. Sinn Fein of course, knows no shame and will continue to wrap itself in Palestinian flags, wave placards and talk the talk. They will do whatever it takes to maintain the illusion.

US foreign and economic policy

So too Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.  His face is also turned to Washington, but at least he is being rebuked by Labour Party members up and down the country – a sight we’ll not see from the Sinn Fein faithful. Once again principle is being sacrificed to political pragmatism and a slavish adherence to US foreign and economic policy.

The slaughter must be stopped. An immediate ceasefire, involving the withdrawal of the US and UK presence in the area, an end to financial and military support for the Israeli state from the United States and its allies, the withdrawal of sanctions, an emergency programme of humanitarian aid and the ending of the criminal siege against Gaza, must be a first step

Peace for all will never be achieved unless the root causes of the violence are addressed and peace is only possible where there is a just solution which recognises and protects the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

What Price Water?

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Decades of underfunding and under investment have left our water, sewage and drainage systems in crisis.

The current infrastructure is estimated to be 40% below capacity, new housing developments are being held back because the existing structure can’t cope with them, the growth of manufacturing businesses  is suffering the same fate and our sources of fresh water are contaminated and polluted through lack of inspections and controls.

Just like the underfunding and neglect of our NHS and other public services, the rundown of our water services is a conscious political decision designed to prepare it for privatisation. Already we are being told that direct water charges need to be introduced to pay for any upgrade and expansion.

Of course, we already pay for water and sewage services through the Regional Rate, but that will not stop the private companies, the stock market and the cheer leaders of privatisation from forcing through the sell off of water and other public utilities for private gain.

The political philosophy that drives the privatisation of public utilities agenda is fundamentally opposed to the state having any control over or input into our basic utilities. And their record is disastrous.

Take Thames Water as an example. It was one of a number of companies which were formed in 1989 to take control of water services and bring them into the clutches of the private sector.

The Conservative government of the day made it an attractive proposition. The water services were handed over debt free, they were sold well below their market value, the new companies were given monopoly status and they were given an exemption from paying taxes on profits. It was a licence to print money.

Today, Thames Water is £60 billion in debt, it has paid out over £7 billion in dividends to shareholders, it has consistently under invested in infrastructure, it has failed to maintain the water pipe system, it has repeatedly discharged raw sewage into rivers and it has reduced the workforce by almost one fifth.

The State should have an absolute responsibility to bring all public utilities under public ownership, control and accountability.

All the main parties here are quite comfortable in turning public utilities into private companies. They are also very comfortable letting Westminster take those decisions for them.

Neither have they any qualms about a society where the relentless pursuit of profit takes priority and everything is measured by its retail value alone.

Those on the left, trade unionists and other progressive forces need to be united and singular in their response to any moves to hand over our water service to financial vultures, multi-national corporations and profiteers.

We only need look at Thames Water to tell us why.

 [UNK1]

Solidarity and Support for the Palestinian People

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This weekend has witnessed the widespread revulsion of people across these islands, and across the world, against the atrocities visited by the Israeli state against the people of #Palestine. As this situation escalates, these demonstrations of solidarity expose the rift between the people and their governments.

While working men and women, of all backgrounds, understand the humanitarian calamity facing the people of #Gaza and have no difficulty calling out Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity, many states and politicians either openly espouse and support Israeli aggression or rehearse weasel words about Israel’s right to defend itself while denying the well-established Israeli violations of international law. 

Israel’s war on the Palestinians started over 75 years ago. The spectacular brutality of the apartheid Israeli state, amplified in recent days but long a constant feature of the occupation, must finally be confronted.

Bombing civilians, destroying entire neighbourhoods, driving vulnerable people from their homes and hospitals and depriving them of fuel, food, shelter and even water are criminal acts reminiscent of the Nazis.

Peace for all will never be achieved unless the root causes of the violence are addressed and peace is only possible where there is a just solution which recognises and protects the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

The people’s protests stand in stark contrast to the war-mongering of their governments.

Immediate Ceasefire and a Plan for Peace

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The brutal and unjustifiable slaughter of civilians by Israeli and Hamas forces over the weekend  is the product of  a decades long conflict.

Its roots go back more than 75 years, during which time the treatment of the Palestinian people by the Israeli state, through displacement, dispossession and the denial of rights, ill treatment and armed aggression, has constituted an enduring crime against humanity. US and European Union support for Israel’s position and policies has promoted intransigence and the escalation of tension and war.

For decades, the Palestinians have sought a just and equitable negotiated settlement and have been met with Israeli intransigence. The right to resist the occupation is enshrined in international law.

United Nations Resolutions

Now is the time for a just and lasting peace based on an immediate ceasefire and a planned settlement based on the principles of the UN Charter, United Nation Resolutions and the right of the Palestinian people to establish their own state.

Any other approach will lead to further bloodshed, destruction and the real possibility of other countries becoming directly involved in the current conflict. The massacre of innocent civilians by either side cannot be justified.

Among the pre-requisites for de-escalation and peaceful progress must be the withdrawal of  the US presence in the area, an end to  financial and military support for the Israeli state from the United States and its allies, the withdrawal of sanctions  and the ending of the criminal siege against Gaza

Now is the time for a solution. Only an immediate ceasefire and formal negotiations on the basis of the above principles will halt this slaughter.

See Workers Party Statement in full and comment from ‘Jewish Voices for Peace’:

statement-on-developments-in-palestine-and-israel-
Jewish Voice for Peace: the Root of Violence Is Oppression

World Mental Health Day: 10 October 2023

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This year’s World Mental Health Day, quite rightly, claims good  mental health as a universal human right.

One in five adults, and one in eight young people, in Northern Ireland experience mental health or emotional problems.

Support programmes, further research and policy initiatives are all important in the battle against mental ill health but tackling its root causes must take priority.

One of those root causes is poverty. It is responsible for high levels of stress due to struggling to make ends meet, overcrowded or unsafe housing and relatively poor physical health.

Lower qualifications and poorer health

More than 100,000 children here are living in poverty. Children in poverty are twice as likely to leave school with little or no qualifications. They are also more likely to suffer poor mental health and have fewer years of good physical health.

People with poor mental health have life expectation reduced by at least ten years. The disadvantages caused by poverty start before birth and grow more acute  throughout a lifetime.

Research by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has established a firm connection between mental health and poverty. The Rowntree Trust has identified a clear connection between poverty and a number of mental health problems including schizophrenia, depression and anxiety, and substance misuse.  

Other studies have highlighted negative effects on mental health caused by unemployment, low pay, insecure part time work and the lack of affordable and accessible child care.

Confronting the root causes of mental ill health, and thereby ensuring that mental health becomes a universal human right, means challenging and changing the capitalist economic system which causes, perpetuates and profits from poverty.

Poverty- from the cradle to the grave

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Research paper after research paper and report after report continues to confirm what we already know – that almost 25% of children here are living in poverty.

The most recent research by the ‘Save the Children’ organisation shows an increasing number of those children come from homes where at least one parent is working and provides mounting evidence that the current benefits system is making matters worse rather than better.

The level of support available to parents and children is inadequate, inflexible, unnecessarily complicated and removed form the realities of family life.

It is not just about improving the current system – important as that is – but about providing secure, well-paid employment, providing training  and apprenticeships, ending the use of zero hours contracts and providing affordable, accessible and flexible child care.

All of the main local parties are happy to talk and tut about it but only a socialist society can address and eradicate poverty at all levels.

Turning Protest into Class Politics

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The past two years, in particular, have seen an increased militancy among workers from almost every area of employment, enraged, frustrated and angry at their pay and conditions, the under-funding of the services they are asked to provide and at the erosion, rundown and privatisation of bedrock services like the NHS.

It has been partly a reaction to the glaring discrepancies between the heroic way in which working people kept society functioning, and kept people alive, throughout the Covid Pandemic and the corrupt, inept and profit grabbing stance evidenced in big businesses, multi-national corporations as well as in government.

Obscene and Unjustifiable

But it has also been a reaction to more than a decade of austerity, soaring inflation, low, or no, pay increases, the cost-of-living crisis, spiraling energy costs, job insecurity, a lack of public housing, the rundown and privatisation of public services and budget cuts, while all the time the profits of energy companies, banks and supermarkets rocketed to obscene and unjustifiable levels.

Working people are responding and are taking industrial action in numbers unheard of in a generation. There is a determination and an awareness that we have not seen before and it is spread across a broad base of working people and now includes groups of workers taking industrial action for the first time.

‘Labour Must Wait’?

What should the role and leadership responsibility of the Left be in this situation? Some, claiming to be on the left, have adopted a ‘labour must wait’ position while some others predict the imminent collapse of capitalism. For those on the principled Left, the realities are a lot different .

It is impossible not to be aware that while thousands of working people are prepared to go on strike for better pay, conditions and services , that the vast, vast majority of those same people will vote for either Sinn Fein the DUP or similar parties at the next given opportunity, and see no contradiction or anomaly.

Class Politics

Never has class politics been more important, more relevant or more necessary. Yet, ironically, while we have rarely witnessed such levels of sustained level anger and indignation among working people, that militancy is not translating to a class consciousness confident and determined to bring about radical and fundamental change in our society.

All too comfortably it dissolves back into support for the parties which manage and sustain the very system that has brought about the conditions that oppress them.

For those on the Left who understand that capitalism (and those who manage on its behalf), not identities, community background or national boundaries, should be at the centre of our political focus the current responsibilities are clear.

Voice, Direction and Power

The protests, the indignation and the genuine sense of disgust need to be harnessed in a principled socialist movement that will give voice, direction and power to working people.

Historically, the Left has been fragmented and unfocused. Now is the time  to re-examine its relationships with, and its responsibility to, working people. It needs to provide a political platform that sets out a clear way forward, not simply to secure a better deal, but to secure, for working people and their families, the ownership and control of society’s wealth and resources along with their futures in a socialist society.