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2 February 2015

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Anti-austerity campaigners should aim at winning next general election on a common platform, says trade union leader

SENIOR Sinn Féin figures have welcomed a call at the weekend by SIPTU President Jack O'Connor for discussions amongst groups and individuals to develop anti-austerity groups leadng to possibly the first-ever Left of Centre government in the history of the Southern state.

The statement by the leader of Ireland's biggest trade union at the Jim Larkin Commemoration in Dublin on 31 January followed a renewed call by Sinn Féin in AN PHOBLACHT for the opening of formal discussions between republicans, progressive independents, the trades union movement, grassroots community organisations, and others on the anti-austerity Left in Ireland, North and South.

2015 SYRIZA Kearney

The Sinn Féin call from Declan Kearney comes in the February edition of AN PHOBLACHT in a series of articles on 'Building an Alternative' by figures inside and outside Sinn Féin, including Jack O'Connor and other prominent trade union leaders such as John Douglas, Peter Bunting, Jimmy Kelly and David Begg

Sinn Féin National Chairperson Declan Kearney said that SIPTU President Jack O'Connor's public support for developing an agreed platform by organisations and individuals on the anti-austerity Left is to be welcomed.

Kearney, candidate to become Member of Parliament for South Antrim in May's Westminster elections, said:

“There is an obvious need for a democratic, inclusive and politically non-sectarian discussion among all those genuinely committed to opposing austerity and supporting equality, social solidarity and the protection of citizens' welfare.

“Those who recognise the need for an alternative political and economic vision and strategy across the island have a responsibility to discuss how that can be brought forward.

“Sinn Féin is committed to working with others in good faith to explore how progressives in Ireland can maximise co-operation to bring about the change which is needed.”

He said this would be based upon democratic control of the economy, sustainable investment policies to stimulate growth, protection of public services and creating employment.

“Building support for an agreed, united Ireland is an essential part of that process.”

Declan Kearney continued:

“Austerity and partition have failed all sections of Irish society. The dominance of Irish and British conservative elites, North and South must be ended. The result of their time in power has been growing inequalities, division, sectarianism, and racism.

“Sinn Féin believes serious discussion on the anti-austerity Left is now required to develop a new economic and political vision for a real Republic, and on the alliances to bring it about. This moment should indeed be seized. It is the way forward.”

Sinn Féin Senator David Cullinane (Workers' Rights and Trade Union Engagement) welcomed the SIPTU leader's comments, especially on the need for a Left-led government and the need to address the wages and conditions of workers.

SIPTU leader backs debt conference

Larkin's grave

In his speech at Glasnevin Cemetery to mark the anniversary of the death of James Larkin in 1947, SIPTU President Jack O'Connor said that Irish trade unionists hailed “the dramatic victory of SYRIZA in Greece, which signals the beginning of the end of the nightmare of the one-sided austerity experiment, which has bedevilled the peoples of Europe and threatens the future of the democratic system itself”.

The trade union leader endorsed the call by SYRIZA and Sinn Féin for a debt conference, one which has been rejected by the Fine Gael/Labour Government.

He said SYRIZA is promoting “a sophisticated formula for the warehousing of debt by the European Central Bank which is being crudely misrepresented as a simplistic demand that their liabilities be written off” but which would facilitate the release of hundreds of billions of euro “to ramp up the Juncker Plan to the level demanded by the European Trade Union Congress in their imaginative call for another 'Marshall Plan'.

“This is the civilised sustainable alternative to the barbarically brutal assault on organised labour and essential public services which is inherent in the one-sided austerity formula and which continues to be driven by Germany and those at the top of the financial system in the creditor countries.”

 “Dramatic possibilities”

The trade union leader said that “dramatic possibilities” are now opening up here in Ireland as we approach the centenary of the 1916 Rising.

“At this extraordinary juncture, history is presenting a ‘once in a century’ opportunity to reassert the egalitarian ideals of the 1916 Proclamation which were suffocated in the counter-revolution which followed the foundation of the state.

“It is incumbent upon all of us – social democrats, Left republicans and independent socialists who are inspired by the egalitarian ideals of Jim Larkin and James Connolly – to set aside sectarian divisions and develop a political project aimed at winning the next general election on a common platform. Let’s call it ‘Charter 2016’.”

He said such an initiative presents a “most difficult and challenging intellectual and political task” because the voters who will decide the outcome of the next general election will want to “know what we are for, as distinct simply from what we are against – we have to be able to answer the question comprehensively”.

Nurses 2015

Nurses protest in January at severe and unsafe overcrowding in hospital Emergency Departments across the state

He argued that activists “have to face up to the reality that it will not be possible to rebuild our public health service, eradicate housing waiting lists, develop a proper pension provision for all who work in the private sector and all the other aspects of public provision which characterise a civilised society while simultaneously abolishing Property Tax, eliminating water charges and removing the burden of the Universal Social Charge on low to middle-income families all in one go”.

Jack O'Connor continued:

“We have to develop clear, coherent priorities around egalitarian concepts of public provision underpinned by fair taxation and sustainable economic growth. Moreover, we have to be able to demonstrate the capacity to provide stable government and an economic and industrial policy that recognises the reality of globalisation and the key role that foreign direct investment must continue to play here for a long time to come. However, what the first Left of Centre government in the history of the state could do is to reassert the interests of the common good, shifting the balance decisively in favour of working people and those who depend most on public services.

“All this calls for a level of intellectual engagement around policy formation free of the restrictions of sectarian party political interests. 

“It is not enough for any party or individual on the Left to do well in the election. The inevitable corollary of that is that the political Right will win and reassert absolute hegemony over policy formation, thus reinstating the order of things that has led us to our third major economic collapse in 60 years, rendering us uniquely as the only country in Europe with a lower population than it had in the pre-Famine 1840s.

“Our recent history provides a salutary lesson on the consequences of allowing the Right an absolute monopoly of power.

“We know what happened following the 1997 general election when the virulently neo-liberal so-called Progressive Democrats grabbed the balance of power. The ensuing years saw the privatisation of our key strategic telecoms company, Eircom, the selling off of our three state banks, the promotion of policies to transfer wealth upwards, and the dismantlement of financial regulation – resulting in the ensuing credit-led property bubble and catastrophic collapse.

“We must never let it happen again. We must set aside petty sectarian differences and seize the moment. This is the challenge presented by the legacy of Jim Larkin, James Connolly and all of their heroic comrades. More importantly, it is the challenge presented by the interests of civil society and the primacy of the common good today and for the future.”

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