July Political Statement from CPI

The National Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Ireland at its meeting in July discussed the political and economic situation in the context of events now unfolding within the European Union resulting from the imposition of the new memorandum on the Greek working class. The meeting also stressed the importance of building working-class resistance within Ireland and throughout the EU. 
     In relation to events in recent weeks the CPI once again expressed its solidarity with the Greek working class and the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), whose principled stance regarding the nature of the forces contained within the SYRIZA party and government has been vindicated, showing that SYRIZA’s strategy could only lead to the present situation. It is clear that the KKE’s steadfast opposition to the European Union and to the previous memorandums has played a central role in the resistance of the Greek people. The KKE has offered clear and unambiguous leadership to the Greek working class; it has also been vindicated in its opposition to the referendum, showing that the choice offered between Yes and No was a false choice to fool the people. 
     The dominant opportunist forces within SYRIZA never had the will to consistently oppose the European Union. They peddled the illusion that somehow they could talk reasonably to the “institutions” and appeal to their better nature. Most importantly, they showed no political understanding of the class nature of the European Union and the economic and political forces it was established to promote and protect. Their generating of false hopes and their inevitable abject surrender have left the Greek people even worse off than before. 
     The role of the Irish government at the meetings of heads of government and meetings of finance ministers exposed their slavish commitment to the European Union and showed that this state is a client state of the EU. No semblance of sovereignty or independence is left. 
     What lies exposed is the bankruptcy of social democracy in its various guises, both new and old. Current events lay bare the illusions of those who believe they can somehow transform or reform the actually existing EU into something else. The real economic and political driving force at the heart of the EU—monopoly capitalism, in particular finance capital—is exposed for what it is. Those not still labouring under the illusion that the EU is some benign force are beginning to question its legitimacy. This questioning of its legitimacy can only grow in the coming period; next they must question its invincibility. 
     The attitude of the EU are not the action of brutish individuals but real class power brought to bear against the Greek people, to send a clear message to other European workers, particularly those in the heavily indebted countries, that there is no other way, and that no way will be tolerated other than what European monopoly capitalism demands, that the debt and the euro itself are the straitjacket and disciplining mechanism for imposing political and economic control and conformity to the will of the dominant economic powers. 
     The recent announcement by the Irish government that it will institute tax cuts in the next budget is nothing more than a re-election ploy to placate the business and professional sectors. Its aim is to revive the illusion of permanent upward mobility for those same interest groups. 
     With the completion of the privatisation of Aer Lingus, the final piece of the jigsaw is the selling of the government’s share, marking the continuation of the strategy of privatising important and strategic public companies and assets. 
     There will be no increase in spending on the collapsing health service or on education. More than 17 per cent of all tax revenue now goes to service the national debt, now almost €8 billion a year—a debt that does not belong to the people. 
     Regarding the struggle against water charges, the party reaffirms its support for non-payment and for the broadly based Right2Water campaign, and welcomes the fact that nearly 60 per cent of the people have not paid. The party again reiterates its call for the intensification and reinvigoration of the grass-roots struggle, both in opposition to the installing of water meters and in the non-payment campaign, as essential for ending water charges and ensuring a constitutional amendment that will enshrine the public ownership of this valuable resource. This would be a significant defeat for the Irish establishment and the European Union. 
     The party also welcomes the decision by the delegates to the ICTU delegate conference to oppose water charges and to support the demand for a constitutional amendment on the public ownership of water. The purpose of the setting up of Irish Water as a separate company was to enable the ultimate privatisation of water. Only a constitutional amendment can prevent this. 
     The ICTU must now translate a paper resolution into concrete action and support for the R2W campaign and must support the communities that have sustained the campaign thus far. The party also calls on activists not to be distracted from the central task of defeating water charges by the electoral ambitions of different groupings or parties and opportunist individuals. The party also welcomes the adoption of a resolution opposing TTIP, which also also needs to be translated into a vigorous public campaign of opposition and the education of workers regarding the dangers posed by TTIP. 
     The recent budget presented by the British Conservative government and the announced £12 billion package of cuts in welfare spending will hit working people, the working poor and the unemployed hard in the North. It will have a disproportionately higher impact because of the reliance on welfare benefits. These spending cuts will be a blow against an already peripheral regional economy, with adverse effects on consumer spending and on retail industry. 
     The CPI draws attention to the fact that working people who are employed but live in social housing will see their rents increase to the level pertaining in the private sector, with those receiving sickness benefit having their benefits reduced to the equivalent payment made in the jobseeker’s allowance. 
     Another example of the peripheral and precarious nature of the dependent economy is the fact that approximately 18 per cent of households in the North receive child tax credits, compared with 13 per cent in Britain. The Northern economy has a higher proportion of young people, and the new “youth obligation” and the removal of grants for students from low-income families will have a disproportionate effect on working-class youth. These renewed attacks on social welfare are coupled with and linked to the new anti-union laws recently proposed by the British government. The party expresses its solidarity with the British working class and with trade unions in the North of Ireland, which will also be greatly affected by these anti-worker laws. The party also reiterates its long-held position of opposition to sectarianism and condemns the violence surrounding this year’s Twelfth of July marches. It again calls on all paramilitaries to cease their activities and desist in their efforts to reignite their failed military strategy. 
     It is clear from events both here in Ireland and throughout Europe that there is a need to build the people’s resistance, north and south. The struggle against imperialism in all its forms and its domination of our people has to be built throughout the country. 
     The deepening economic crisis of imperialism is beginning to expose its real nature, and more and more people are now beginning to question the system itself. This presents new challenges and demands for those forces committed to radical economic, political and social change. Working people need to develop a clear strategy for defending themselves against the onslaught on their conditions, for going over to the offensive and bringing this moribund oppressive system to a close.

Statement on the EU attempts to crush the Greek working class

The European Union has exposed its essential class nature in its attitude to the Greek people. After months of arm-twisting, bullying and blackmail it has imposed even more draconian austerity on the working people of Greece.

The stance taken by the Irish government was only to be expected, as it long ago surrendered all pretence of defending Irish national and political sovereignty and the interests of our people. They have accepted their role as gatekeepers and willing collaborators in defending the interests of the EU above those of the people. They never fought for the interests of the Irish people, so why would one expect them to champion the interests of the Greek people regarding debt and austerity?
Developments within the European Union confirm the stand taken by the Communist Party of Ireland over many decades regarding the various treaties, the EU’s essential class nature and whose interests it serves.

The humiliation of the Greek people is designed to send a very clear message to workers throughout Europe: that criticism or alternative economic and social policies will be defeated. This is for the purpose of reinforcing the mantra of “TINA”: that there is no alternative to the dominant interests of the monopolies and big business. It is clear that no matter who working people vote for, or how many referendums they have, there is only one economic, political and social policy allowed within the European Union.

The CPI has consistently challenged the illusions deliberately nurtured and fostered by both the EU and its supporters among the Irish economic and political establishment, also including elements within the trade union leadership, all the main political parties, and, unfortunately, sections of the political left.

The reformist illusions of SYRIZA have come unstuck on the nature of the European Union and the real, existing class interests at the heart of the EU. Equally—as we have consistently pointed out—debt was and is being used as the main weapon against the people, creating the pretext for a massive assault on workers’ rights and conditions, not only here in Ireland but throughout Europe, to justify a massive transfer of public wealth to both domestic and global monopolies, resulting from the privatisation of public companies and assets.

The dominant elements within SYRIZA have accepted plans for a high level of domestic economic supervision by the bail-out monitors of the Troika, including the IMF, as well as an “overhaul” of public administration supervised by the EU Commission.

It is clear even at this early stage that the SYRIZA government has surrendered many of its “red-line” demands and agreed to accept draconian measures in a renewed assault on workers, including attacks on pensions and an increase in VAT by Wednesday 15 July, as a precondition for starting negotiations over a third bail-out package—yet to be defined or agreed—that may total between €82 and €86 billion over three years. And another “red line” has been crossed: contrary to Greek demands, the IMF will be involved in the third bail-out.

In addition, Greece will have to transfer more than €50 billion in public assets to a “trust fund” before they are privatised, including the national electricity service, ports and harbours, and many other vital public assets.

SYRIZA has also agreed to even more ambitious market “reforms,” abandoning its pledge to reverse previous attacks on workers’ rights or what the establishment calls “labour market reforms,” notably on collective bargaining. This is the culmination of the disarming of the working class.

Half the proceeds of the sale of public companies (€25 billion) will be used for recapitalising banks, and a quarter each (€12½ billion) will go to debt repayments and investment; in other words, the people’s wealth is to be squandered in the interests of the rich and powerful.

Reformist parties such as SYRIZA, the SPD in Germany, the British Labour Party, the French, Spanish and Portuguese “Socialist Parties,” the Irish Labour Party and other such political formations throughout Europe have facilitated this continuing assault on workers, siding with their own ruling class, in alliance with the EU, against workers. These reformist parties are the conduit for securing the interests of those same dominant economic and political forces within the workers’ movement. These political groupings have increasingly become essential mechanisms of control over workers and their organisations.

We express our solidarity with the Greek working class and with the Communist Party of Greece, who we are sure will mobilise the class-conscious workers of Greece to resist these new chains of slavery and exploitation. It is the duty of Irish workers—and all workers—to show solidarity and find common cause in the struggle against these renewed attacks on Greek workers, which will soon come to all the workers of Europe.

Many on the left, both in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe, continue to sow the illusion that there is somehow a “pain-free” way out of the crisis, that the straitjacket of the euro and continued membership of the EU itself provide the best or even the only way to prevent the further suffering of the people. In reality the EU is doing precisely what it was designed to do: to protect the interests of European big business and monopolies.

There is clearly a need for an open and honest dialogue among those forces that claim to hold the interests of workers as central to their political ideas and goals. Central to that dialogue is genuine debate about the nature of the European Union.

National democracy and sovereignty are not optional extras but are vital necessities in creating the conditions for radical transformative economic, political and social strategy, a strategy that puts the people first. A strategy that strengthens the power of labour and weakens the power of capital.

Upcoming CPI event

KKE Statement on referendum results

On the 5th of July 2015, a referendum was held in Greece. The question posed was whether the citizens agreed or not with the proposed agreement, tabled by the EU-IMF-ECB, that will continue the anti-people measures worth 8 billion euros.

The governmental majority of SYRIZA-ANEL rejected the proposal of the KKE for the government’s draft agreement to also be placed before the judgment of the Greek people in the referendum together with the issue of abolishing all the anti-people laws that have been passed in recent years and the issue of disengaging from the EU. At the same time, the coalition government explained that the NO in the referendum is interpreted by the government as approval for its own proposed agreement with the EU-IMF-ECB, which inside 47+8 pages also includes harsh antiworker-antipeople measures, worth about 8 billion euros.

In these conditions, the KKE called on the workers to turn their backs on the false dilemma which was being posed in the referendum, using all appropriate means. The forces of the KKE outside the election centres handed out its own ballot paper to the voters which said:

NO TO THE PROPOSAL OF THE EU-IMF-ECB

NO TO THE PROPOSAL OF THE GOVERNMENT

DISENGAGEMENT FROM THE EU, WITH THE PEOPLE IN POWER

Of course, it was understood that this ballot paper would be counted as a spoiled ballot, but together with the blank ballot papers and the abstention it constitutes a political current that disputes the choices of the SYRIZA-ANEL government and also of the imperialist organizations, with whom the government is negotiating for the needs of capital in Greece.

It should be noted that together with the parties of the coalition government (SYRIZA-ANEL) fascist Golden Dawn also took a position in favour of the NO,, as well as other small nationalist and ultra-left groups, like ANTARSYA.

On the other side, the rightwing opposition ND, social-democratic PASOK that governed until January 2015, together with POTAMI, KIDHSO (the party of the former Prime Minister G. Papandreou) and other smaller bourgeois political forces  took a position in favour of a YES which they stated would be interpreted as being consent to “staying in the EU at all costs”.

In his first statements after the announcement of the result, D. Koutsoumpas, the GS of the CC of the KKE saluted the thousands of people who responded to the call of the KKE and did not submit to the blackmailing dilemmas i.e. those that cast the ballot proposed by the KKE into the ballot box, a proposal which the government refused to put to the vote in the Parliament, depriving the people of the right to cast it in a mass way into the ballot box.

He noted that in relation to the dubious question of the snap referendum, a section of the people was able to overcome the entrapment and deception and gave a first response, with the spoiled ballot, and also with the blank ballot, while some chose abstention from this process.

The GS addressed himself in particular to those who chose NO, believing that in this way they could stop austerity, that they can answer the anti-people measures and memoranda in this way. He called on them not to be complacent and not to consent to the government’s effort to transform this NO into a YES to new anti-people agreements. He stressed that the KKE extends its hand to them for the struggles against the deterioration of their lives that will begin the day after the referendum.

The KKE issued a similar militant call to those who chose YES under pressure from the big employers, due to fear about closed banks and fear of the consequences for their salaries, pensions and small savings.

The KKE notes that the negotiations promised by Mr Tsipras, based on his proposal, will inevitably lead to a new worse memorandum.

The situation highlights the necessity of the movement and our people adopting the proposal of the KKE for a pro-people way out of the crisis in a mass and determined way. The KKE will be in the frontline of all the struggles of our people in the following period, strengthening, from tomorrow, the anti-monopoly anti-capitalist line of struggle, the rallying around the KKE.

Communities Say No to Water Wage Theft

Water is a human right: Not a commodity

On the final night of the Dail before our politicians take their summer 
holidays at our expense, Communities Against Water Charges are calling a 
mass demonstration on Kildare Street, Dublin 2. The Government are 
trying to ram through legislation which will frighten and scare people 
into paying their water charges…but it won’t work. We know that they 
can’t take action until after the next general election, and by that 
time, we’ll have already beaten water charges and will be making sure 
this is the last summer holiday these TD’s get at our expense.

Come along at 6pm on Wednesday, 15th July and say goodbye to our crony TD’s.

The power of the people is greater than the people in power…and we’ll 
prove it on July 15th.

https://www.facebook.com/events/128856367447454/

Organised by: Communities Against Water Charges

Cork solidarity with Greece rally, words from the Connolly Youth Movement.

The political character of the Troika in Greece, phantom like, has donned the same uniform of the colonial empires of old, casting to the wind all doubts and apprehensions about its true nature. The much-vaunted myth and propaganda of the European Union as a fraternal brotherhood of nations has been well and truly laid to rest, and even its most delusional adherents now find themselves bereft of recourse. The bellicose, exploitative actions we have been witnessing since the beginning of the recession, the bullying and manipulation, have shed light on a framework of control that a prescient few have recognised since its inception.

The posture and methods of the Greek Ruling class mirror the gombeen men and robber barons of colonial Ireland, where the capitalists and the land owners were propped up precariously by a foreign power in order to ensure that the bottom line continued to be extracted from the country, a national bourgeoisie which only sought to champion the interests of the whole nation when its own financial and political security was at risk, and even then tentatively.

The same principles of colonialism have existed, in different forms, for centuries, and what we are observing in Greece is merely its latest incarnation. Caught between a rock and a hard place, the ruling class of Greece has been attempting to placate the international hierarchy of capital one hand, while preventing the rise of radical politics and revolutionary activity at home on the other. Their policy of austerity and servility has exposed them to the latter and alienated the working class.

Syriza has capitalised on the aspirations of the working class and society’s desperation for a solution, and has risen to power on a mandate of representing Greece’s interests in opposition of the Troika’s. Despite this, the offensive of the IMF, European Central Bank and European Union has been relentless, and Syriza has been forced into a position where they have no options remaining to them other than to capitulate or take on a revolutionary character.

The Greek Communist party, which has voluntarily remained independent of the ruling government in Greece, has been a strong exponent of a repudiation of the debt in Greece as the only solution which can provide a future for its people, and the Communist Party of Ireland strongly advocates this policy in tandem.

The debt both countries face has been foisted upon us as a result of the irresponsible borrowing practices and underhanded dealings of the most privileged of society. People who, from the cradle, have neither known want nor fear of poverty. The socialisation of debt carried out by their cronies in successive governments has given the the opportunity to avoid losing their lavish lifestyle despite personal culpability, and has enabled their puppetmasters in Europe to retain a return on investment and enhance their own already considerable personal wealth.

In this untouchable sphere of profound opulence, the level of wealth is growing and growing. In repulsive contrast, working class people are being pushed into deprivation and poverty. Away from this surreal world of unaccountability and excess, cuts are having tangible and debilitating effects on the lives of ordinary people. Suicide rates are rising and more young people are opting out of higher education and living at home. We all only have one life, and the options and privileges available to working people are shrinking yearly, all in order to fill the pockets of bankholders and speculators. It is an illegitimate, odious debt. The only honourable course of action open to the Greek people is to reject it.  

As peripheral nations, Ireland and Greece are going through experiences which mirror each other, and we have a unique knowledge of the struggle the Greek people are facing from our own experience as a colony and an exploited people, both outside and within the European Union. The decision made today will reflect the discontent felt by the Greek people, and I believe it will show an exuberant spirit worthy of admiration and respect. And we certainly owe the Greek people our admiration when they are taking a step which the Irish people have failed to take in facing down one of the most powerful institutions in the world. 

If we allow the impoverishment of ourselves and our loved ones for the enrichment of sociopathic aristocrats hundreds of miles away, if we allow our lives to fade away in ignominy and in stolen hours, it is a capitulation that will follow us for the rest of our lives, it is a surrender that will haunt us when we exhale our dying breaths – not just that we failed future generations, not just that we failed an abstract ideological principle – but that we failed ourselves.  If not us, then who?

Fergal Twomey, National Chairperson of the Connolly Youth Movement.

We do not choose the anti-people measures of the EU, IMF and government

The KKE held on the 2^nd of July its central rally before the referendum on the 5^th of July.

Dimitris Koutsoumpas, the GS of the CC of the KKE, spoke at the mass rally and stressed amongst other things:

“Our people are being called on to take part in a referendum with a YES or a NO, which are only different in terms of appearance.

Both the YES and the NO mean the acceptance of a new memorandum of anti-people measures, perhaps the worst that we have seen up to now.

Both the YES and NO will lead the people to new torments and tragedies.

Both the YES and the NO mean anti-worker, anti-people measures.

The referendum is an alibi for a new memorandum-agreement at the expense of the Greek people.

The KKE calls on the Greek people to reject all the blackmail, to cast its proposal into the ballot box and say:

WE DO NOT CHOOSE ANTI-PEOPLE MEASURES-WE DO NOT CHOOSE A NEW MEMORANDUM-WE CANCEL OUT THE FALSE DILEMMAS.

WE SAY NO TO THE PROPOSAL OF THE EU-IMF-ECB AND TO ANY COMPROMISE PROPOSAL OF THE GOVERNMENT, BECAUSE THEY WILL ALL BANKRUPT THE PEOPLE.

WE DEMAND DISENGAGEMENT FROM THE PREDATORY ALLIANCE OF THE EU WITH THE PEOPLE TRULY HOLDING THE REINS OF POWER.

The people must cast a ballot paper into the ballot box which can not be misinterpreted. The following ballot must be cast which says  : “NO to the proposal of the EU-ECB-IMF. NO to the proposal of the government. Disengagement from the EU, with the people holding the reins of power.” Even if they say that it is a spoiled ballot.”