THE STRIKE WAVE BEGINS

national | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis

Monday May 13, 2013 01:36

by Frank Hayes

And so, today, a group of Irish workers stand firm in front of a vicious right wing government’s bullying, harassment from the state media lie machine, the scandalous complicity of some reactionary Trade Union ‘leaders’ whose only vision is to compromise and collaborate.

Forced to defend their class interests from conscious ruling class attacks, they are the first to step forward on their own terms, in their own time, with their class dignity and power.

In 2013, this is not a defeated rabble!

But their strike action is also a thing in itself, which starkly changes the very balance of class forces in this crippled capitalist state. It is, objectively, a political action, because the Austerity Politics and anti-public service Friedmanite ethos which it confronts, is itself, a conscious politically co-ordinated strategy on the part of the ruling class.

While some TU leaders, to their great credit, are well aware of this, understand, and are up for the fight, there are also those who cannot remove the self-imposed blinkers which allowed them capitulate to the whole Bertie agenda of partnership for poverty. Some of these ladies and gentlemen have discarded the core working class values built out of generations of class struggle.

And some have even ‘professionalised’ the role of ‘the TU Official’ directly in line with ruling class needs, now operating as policemen for their capitalist masters. This is, of course, an act of class betrayal.

It is now clear that the Quisling Labour/FG Coalition follow the instructions of the Troika on a day to day basis.
And the Troika have embarked on a global class war.

So workers class leaders must accurately anticipate the ruling class plans and strategies as their systemic global crisis deepens. First and foremost, this requires elaborating the most correct possible understanding of the motion of the global money crisis driving the whole process.
It is of the greatest importance that, while spontaneous trade union consciousness is respected for what it is, the political consciousness of worker’s political leadership is not restricted just to that level. Political leadership, grasping the unresolvable contradiction of the systemic crisis, must now act to bring a living consciousness of this reality into its class.

This places a sharp responsibility on activists, particularly those in the trade union groups of all working class political parties and tendencies, as they prepare responses to the coming strike wave, no less than to the Austerity agenda and the sharpening money/banking crisis driving it.

Repudiating the systemic debt of the private profiteers marks a beginning of a defensive process. Workers have overwhelmingly rejected Croke Park 2.

They now sense that it’s just one more step along a road which leads to the complete smashing of their rights and conditions, the already planned ruthless destruction of their social landscape. And they have said no to this anti-social vision emphatically.

Facing this conflict, workers will need leaders who are, not just up to the fight, but are determined to follow its logic, whatever it takes to stop the erosion of a civilised life – and to take back the comforts which the bankster gangsters, the corporate capitalists have already stolen.

That means removing the compromisers and cowards who have chosen to grovel before the Troika and its local hit-men. It means replacing them with a class conscious and unyielding leadership which will go the political distance necessary to create a society fit for all, and not just the moneyed few.

Those willing for this task are now stepping forward. The careerist professional class of collaborators and betrayers must now change their ways, or step out of the way. And if they won’t budge, they should be thrown out by their members.

No war has ever been won where the generals are in the pay of for the other side. And the class war, long declared, and now being fought by the corporate ruling class, is no different from any other conflict in this regard.

The only sustainable solution to the global crash and its consequences, is the political fight to end the mayhem of the crippled capitalist system. And Mother History has shown us how this democratic work must be done.

The formation of Peoples Assemblies, or Citizens Forums, call them what you prefer, will enable the emergence of a real democracy through which we can explore how to replace the destructive profit motive with a co-operative planned approach which put people and their needs first. And how to defend our jobs, transport system, health service – all the needs capitalism cannot deliver.

As capitalism crumbles, it’s time for fresh thinking, and a little working class moral courage.