Eleanor McEvoy - Precious Little on MUZU.
“Shake your beads out
Join your hands
That still won’t make you right
Those so-called sinners that you’re praying for
Are standing by your side”
(eleanor mcevoy © 1994 Blue Dandelion Publishing)
Final election appeal of Joe Higgins - a fighter for workers, young people and the unemployed.
Joe Higgins is standing for the Dublin Constituency in the Euro Elections to be held on Friday, June 5th, to give people throughout Dublin an opportunity to strike a real blow against this governments attacks on working people.
Joe is well known as a fighter for working people for the last thirty years, and as being the real opposition when in the Dail from 1997 to 2007. Now more than ever we need to elect fighters like Joe.
Two key reasons to vote Joe Higgins No. 1
- Wipe out Fianna Fail, & strike a blow against the entire political establishment
- Elect a a real fighter for working people - a workers’ MEP on a workers’ wage who will lead the fightback
For more check out:
http://www.joehiggins.eu/ideas
On 10th November 2008, it will be exactly two years since the cruel assassination of Nadarajah Raviraj, a Tamil politician and human rights activist. No one has been brought to justice for his murder. In the spirit of citizens’ journalism, unionblackcolombo remembers his friend.
thanks to http://pact.lk for the link.
After tonight the next Leviathan is:
“Moral Money: The Future of Capitalism?” hosted by David McWilliams
Wednesday December 10th, 8pm, The Button Factory.
Tickets €15 + booking fee from Tickets.ie
Back in January Socialist Party local representative in Malahide-Howth Brian Greene battled to save the zoning of the old Edros site in Howth as the County Manager and the local councillors tried to push through a material contravention and allow for the building of 60+ apartments on amenity lands. The developer & council succeeded and granted planning permission despite the objections of locals & the socialist party councillors on the council. The despicable material contravention was supported by all the main parties including the 3 local councillors David Healy (GP) Joan Maher (FG) Michael J Cosgrave
(FG).
Brian Greene Socialist Party
Nine months later (29/09) An Bord Pleanala REFUSED the permission that was granted by Fingal County Council. The Board agreed with their inspectors report, and numerous local objections and the Socialist Party position re material contravention.
The report from the board and local objections mention the run down state of the disused site and queries why the council has FAILED to act using its power under the Derelict Sites Act 1990 to force the owner to clean the site. Neither the community of Howth nor the Board are fooled by planned dereliction. The report also disagrees with the material contravention, ruling that the Open Space zoning that the site enjoys must not be built on along the lines of the planning application it refused. The inspector says in the report “In my opinion a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) would receive strong support, given that use for recreation / open space / amenity purposes is in accordance with the zoning objectives in the adopted Development Plan”. This material contravention and wholesale destruction of a community amenity in Howth has been led by the current & out going county managers and local councillors. Questions will be asked to the Manager in the coming weeks about this.
Residents of Howth must seize this opportunity to reclaim this site which was gifted to them, only to be sold to a developer by the council after the sports centre ran into difficulties. 100’s of Howth
residents had paid into the scheme over the years and all the benefits were returning to a local property developer. I will be calling on Fingal to CPO this land back from the developer at current zoning values and putting in place some of the excellent community facilities at the site that were suggested in a previous survey the community undertook.
Older Edros articles by brian greene / local press [article 1] [article 2] [article 3]
march 2003 protest at the Edros site
‘Meltdown Monday’ confirms capitalist anarchy
End workers’ misery through genuine nationalisation and democratic socialist planning
The world economy, already in turmoil from the credit crunch, was swept further into an abyss by the thunderbolt news that the US congress had rejected` a ‘blank cheque’ $700 billion bailout of failing banks. US government leaders and treasury chiefs had dramatically warned of dire consequences if the package was not passed, so the congress vote was followed by US stocks going into freefall, with shock reverberations worldwide.
The capitalist economic gurus of the world reeled in astonishment and were unable to predict what it would mean and what would come next. “Panic grips world’s markets” headlined the Guardian; “World of pain” was on the front of the Mirror, “Sell! Sell! Sell!” screamed the Independent and “Blackest Monday” was the verdict of the Sun.
Banks are now viewed universally as unsafe and the entire global economy is tobogganing towards recession. Jeremy Warner, writing in the Independent, quoted the old saying: “It’s always darkest just before the dawn”, adding that “dawn has again been postponed”, and in a thinly veiled warning he quoted a perversion of the above old saying: “It is always darkest before it is completely black”.
The US congress members who rejected the package are in the main the ones who face difficulties being re-elected. Fearful of their own prospects, they were forced to reflect the outrage of ordinary American people at having their taxes handed to the greedy ‘Fraud Street’ fat cats – this was a major revolt of ‘Main Street’ against Wall Street.
The Wall Street ‘bank robbers’ have enriched themselves many times over at the expense of working class and middle class people. Yet they now expect those same people, who are struggling in many cases to buy food and keep a roof over their head, to keep them living in luxury and to rescue the economy from the consequences of their excesses. There is widespread abhorrence and aversion to wealthy wheeler-dealer financiers and their instruments: hedge funds, private equity, futures markets and so on.
The emergency rescue plan concocted by Treasury secretary Hank Paulson and backed by George Bush, was for the $700 billion to be used to buy ‘troubled assets’ from anyone at any price. If eventually implemented in some form, it will mean the American working people funding the largest corporate bailout in American history, with the money being dished out by the least trusted administration in US history to benefit the richest in society.
George Bush’s remnants of authority have now completely vanished as he has proved obviously impotent and incompetent in front of the financial hurricane that is rapidly descending. Previously damaged in the US and worldwide by his horrifying war on Iraq, the current economic turmoil is in many ways even more terrifying to ordinary people worldwide.
To push the huge $700 billion bailout package through the US congress, its promoters argued that the state would not end up losing the money; it would merely be investing it in sorting out the financial system, with returns gained at a later stage. But this was far from convincing. The American people could foresee an escalating state debt that would lead to further cuts in welfare and services, at the same time as facing growing unemployment and cuts in living standards as a result of the recession.
A few concessions were made in an attempt to make the package more palatable. These included a staggered release of the money, the setting up of an ‘oversight board’, and placing restrictions on executive pay in banks being assisted. But these crumbs were not enough to win over the rebel congress members.
Ironically, at present, it is not the Socialist that is at the forefront of implanting the word socialism in people’s minds; inadvertently it is right wing politicians who are raising the spectre of socialism in clumsy attempts to ward people away from it. For instance Texas congressman Jeb Hensarling condemned the Paulson rescue plan as “the road to socialism”. Financial Times commentator Chrystia Freeland pointed out that: “Socialism is probably stretching it”, but noted that it is part of “the end of a long era of US laisser-faire capitalism and the beginning of a period of government intervention and reregulation”.
The failure of the Paulson package does not reverse that trend. In the weeks before the congress rejected it, billions of dollars had already been committed to failed financial institutions, ending 25 years of bowing down to free markets and reduced government intervention and regulation. As stock markets crashed downwards in response to the congress vote, US government chiefs had no other choice than to start cobbling together a new package of public money to try to stave off economic meltdown.
On the same day as the shock rejection in the US congress, banks were being bailed out in seven countries of the world. In Europe, the financial institution Fortis was given £8.8 billion by the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments, action described as ‘partial nationalisation’ by the Financial Times. This is the largest bailout yet of a European financial institution in the current turmoil. Fortis is Belgium’s biggest private sector employer, it handles the bank accounts of half the population and has assets that are several times the size of Belgium’s gross domestic product.
In the UK, the nationalisation of Northern Rock bank has been followed by nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley bank (B&B), with the government taking on its £42 billion worth of toxic mortgages. Outrageously and almost unbelievably, the government has immediately ‘sold’ B&B’s £21 billion worth of savers’ deposits, 197 branches and 141 agency outlets, to Spanish company Santander, that has paid just £612 million to exploit these assets. The £21 billion of deposits handed over to Santander consists of around £4 billion cash in B&B’s accounts that it had not loaned out, plus around £17 billion of British taxpayers’ money in the form of loans and guarantees – money that may never come back. The nationalisations of Northern Rock and B&B have given every British taxpayer an extra burden equivalent to a £5,500 debt.
The global crisis of the major banks has led leading proponents of deregulation to completely change their tune. Many are now saying that voluntary regulation by private financial institutions does not work and so state regulation is necessary. Even the managing director of the International Monetary Fund has called for greater regulation of financial institutions and markets, a considerable departure from the ‘liberalisation’ enforcement carried out by the IMF for a long period of time.
Right wing French president Nicolas Sarkozy has called for a world summit to rebuild “regulated capitalism” and has condemned the “law of the jungle”, while German finance minister, Peer Steinbruck, said: “We must civilise financial markets”.
It is true that deregulation has a lot to answer for. At the Tory party conference, shadow chancellor George Osborne berated Gordon Brown for presiding over an economy based on debt, saying it is a credit financed variant of “casino capitalism”. But guilty as Brown clearly is, the Tories are equally blameworthy; the high debt levels of today go back to the 1980s era of Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher and her deregulation of the finance markets along with Reagan and Clinton in the US. In the UK, past encouragement of ‘friendly’ mutually owned building societies to demutualise, becoming aggressive banks driving for shareholder profit, has played a large part in the downfall of companies like Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley.
But the calls for regulation are like asking the bank robbers’ gangs to keep a check on the bank robbers. What is urgently needed is popular control of the major banks and finance houses, not ‘oversight’ by unelected quangos and elected capitalist politicians, whose allegiance is to big business. The books of major US banks have been opened up to the US congress, what about opening them up to all American people?
The same goes for Britain; let there be trade union and mass scrutiny of the books of banks like B&B, and the decisions be taken out of the hands of capitalist politicians, so that bank workers’ and other workers’ jobs can be saved and mortgage holders threatened with repossession can keep their homes.
If the trade union leaders were doing their job properly, they would spearhead the setting up of popular committees to examine the real state of affairs in collapsing companies, and also the taking of whatever action is necessary to safeguard workers’ interests. The multinational corporations that are forcing us to pay ever higher energy and food prices should also be subjected to mass scrutiny, through the creation of popular committees - if the trade union leaders do not act to organise such bodies, then others will have to step in to do so.
Major companies that increase the price of basic necessities and/or sack their employees should be immediately taken into full public ownership, with working class participation in controlling and managing them so that their anti-working class policies can be reversed. Compensation to shareholders should only be paid on the basis of proven need.
Such measures would form part of a transformation to a completely different way of organising society – that of genuine socialism. Capitalism is openly proving that it is a system with inbuilt crises. Whether it is deregulated or regulated, booms and slumps are inevitable. As well as the steps mentioned above, many others would be necessary, including working class control over the import and export of capital. Socialism would not only end economic cycles of boom and slump for ever, but would also open the door to a rapid elimination of poverty, and a lifting of the living standards of the entire population.
Socialist Party Update Brickfield plans halted (for now)
Following the successful public meeting of Save Our Park in mid July the following has transpired.
* Fingal County Council is (for now) not proceeding with plans to build 170 units on Brickfield.
* Na Dubh Ghall GAA have been given the permission they were seeking to site Dressing Room Containers on the site of the abandoned council depot beside the school.
* Following the recent flooding of the East Coast the Minister for the Environment has promised to bring forward legislation to prevent development on flood plains. Fingal County Council acknowledge that Seagrange Park including Brickfield is on a flood plain.
This is an excellent gain for the community. Its a win win situation for Baldoyle & Bayside. Na Dubh Ghall GAA get a permanent siting for changing rooms and the disused depot will get a community use that
will assist its security needs within the park. Its great to see one of Dublin’s fastest growing clubs finally get facilities so close to where the club holds its training sessions.
The Socialist Party welcome this move by Fingal County Council and also the news that the Malahide Howth Area Committee is not pursuing the proposed rezoning / housing development at the Brickfield site which is zoned open space. (Northside People 23rd July)
Community and sporting use of amenity lands must take precedence over infill development where according to CSO figures 46,000 houses remain unoccupied in the Dublin area.
Protection of the flood plain is paramount. The fact that building on flood plains has been common practice despite warnings shows that the planning laws serve the developers not the community. Vigilance is still required as this is not the first time we have had to deal with this issue nor may this be the last.
issued by: Brian Greene, Socialist Party Dublin North East
