Socialism 2006 mp3 of Dave McWilliams -V- Joe Higgans

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Friday October 27, 2006 13:17

by Cian - Socialist Party & Socialist Youth

info at socialistparty dot net

Limerick

086-8064801

NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE: Mp3 of the Clash of the Titans

Last weekend the Socialist Party in Ireland held Socialism 2006, a weekend of debate and discussion, in Dublin. The event got off to a magnificent start on the Friday night as 280 people packed a room to hear Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins debate with well known economist, journalist and author, David McWilliams on ‘Is there an alternative to the capitalist market?’.

NOW THE MP3 IS AVAILABLE AT: www.SocialistParty.net/Socialism2006a.mp3

In his opening contribution Joe Higgins focused on what the catastrophic consequences of the capitalist market has meant for young people trying to buy a house in Ireland as house prices have skyrocketed over the past ten years. Joe pointed out that the blame for this crisis lay with land speculators and building companies. He gave the example of a business consortium that bought 11 acres of land in south county Dublin recently for €32 million and sold it on €85 million two years later!

Joe also talked about the recent privatisation of the state’s national airline Aer Lingus which has been effectively handed over to the anti-union low pay airline, Ryanair. At the same time he also argued for a socialist alternative to the privatisation agenda through public services that under democratic workers control and management.

In his opening remarks David McWilliams argued for a more humane version of the capitalist system. He gave the example of the recent Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, a banker and financier who had set up a bank in Bangladesh to provide loans for its poor. He also argued that Ireland and other European countries were ‘mixed economies’ because certain sectors of the economy were run by the state and therefore it was an overstatement to say that we were a fully capitalist society. When the discussion was opened up to the floor a lively debate took place which dealt with issues such as the ‘race to the bottom’ and the precarious future for the Irish economy as the property market comes up against increasing difficulties.

The following day saw two debates and discussions take place. In the morning Socialist Party member Stephen Boyd debated with Colm Breathnach, a representative from the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and member of the Irish Socialist Network on how the conflict could be ended in Israel/Palestine. In the debate Stephen gave a background to the conflict in the region and argued the need for a socialist solution as well the crucial role the Palestinian and Israeli working class could play in achieving this. Colm argued that he did believe in a socialist solution to the conflict in the Middle East but believed we needed ‘to deal with things as they are not how we would like them to be’. Consequently he placed a question mark over whether the working class in this region could be won to such a programme.

The weekend finished off with a rally on the need for new parties for the working class. Lucy Redler reported on the recent development and successes of the left formation in Germany, the WASG and the role that the German section of the CWI is playing in building this. Philip Stott, a member of the CWI in Scotland talked on the recent formation of Solidarity-Scotland’s Movement for Socialism after socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan successfully took on the Murdoch owned News of the World paper. Philip also dealt with the lessons of the Scottish Socialist Party and the need to build revolutionary parties while at the same building broader parties of the working class. Socialist Party councillor Clare Daly argued that the Socialist Party believed that there was a real lack of political representation for workers in the south of Ireland and that a new party of the working class was needed.

This was shown by the recent ‘Bertiegate’ scandal when it was revealed that the Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern received €90,000 from his friends in big business. In this incident the major ‘opposition’ parties failed to point out the real issue of this scandal, that being the close links between big business and the political establishment in Ireland. Clare went on to say that a left formation was likely to emerge as a result of more generalised struggle within society and therefore the conditions was the creation for such a party did not exist yet. Peter Hadden, member of the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party talked of the recent St.Andrews ‘agreement’ and the need for a political alternative for Protestant and Catholic workers to the sectarian parties in Northern Ireland.

All in all the weekend was a great success with 20 people expressing an interest in joining the Socialist Party.

[Article written by Cillian Gillespie]

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Comments (2 of 2)

Microloans a polite fiction?

by Nano Loan

Fri Oct 27, 2006 18:03

In his opening remarks David McWilliams argued for a more humane version of the capitalist system. He gave the example of the recent Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, a banker and financier who had set up a bank in Bangladesh to provide loans for its poor.

Microloans are apparently not all they're cracked up to be:
"The trouble is that microloans don't make any sort of a macro-difference. They have helped some poor women, no doubt about it. But in their own way they're a register of defeat. Back in the early 1970s there were huge plans afoot to change the entire relationship of the Third to the First World, to speed Third World economies towards decent living standards for the many, not just the few. At the United Nations radical economists were hard at work drafting plans for a New World Economic Order. All that went out the window and here are the caring classes thirty years later, hailing microloans."

Opinion

by Seán Ryan

Fri Oct 27, 2006 21:36

Was at the debate. Enjoyed Joe's talk. He put forward a tough and polished argument and went a bit over the time allowed - he got a good natured slagging over this.

David McWilliams didn't impress me. In fairness, he didn't have an easy subject to defend. He started his talk by telling the audience about a non-capitalist banking system as described above. To me this was a cop-out and it avoided having to take part in a debate. This seemed to be Mr. Williams approach for the whole of what he had to say. I'm no fan of the capitalist system, but I've heard better arguments made by school children. This was a pity, as David McWilliams doesn't strike me as a man that's stuck for either ideas or words. I suppose what I'm trying to get across is that I'd have enjoyed a debate that would have made Joe dig a little deeper and have to fight a little harder. I think Mr. McWilliams' performance was a bit of a disservice to Joe. Joe would probably have kicked arse regardless as to McWilliams performance, this was more like a clay pidgeon shoot than a fight.

All said, it was like watching Joe perform in the Dáil where he pretty much makes his opponents look stupid too. I think we need to see a lot more of Joe and what he has to say, but we need to see and hear it in the mainstream media. This may present a bit of a problem as the msm for the most part doesn't like to give a platform to folks that they cannot rip out from under them.

Keep up the good work Joe et al.

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Socialism 2006 mp3 of Dave McWilliams -V- Joe Higgans

Comments (2 of 2)