Workers Need to resist this government

Political statement 22 March 2010

The National Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Ireland at its regular meeting
welcomed the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Executive.

Communist Party of Ireland
Political statement
22 March 2010
The National Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Ireland at its regular meeting
welcomed the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Executive. The
CPI acknowledges that this is an important step forward while rejecting the lack of
transparency and political exclusion in reaching this agreement. It calls on all democratic
forces to unite and to work for a strong Bill of Rights, one that is comprehensive in covering
such areas as the right to work, to housing, to food, to education, to health, to full equality
between women and men, and respect for language and cultural diversity. It must also
recognise the right of women to have control over all aspects of reproduction, including abortion.
It must have real teeth so as to outlaw all forms of discrimination based on gender, race,
sexual orientation, or religion.

The party also restates its demand for the full transfer of fiscal powers to the Assembly and
Executive. This is essential for developing the necessary economic and social policies that
would begin to build an all-Ireland economic recovery strategy that is both sustainable and
environmentally responsible. Such a strategy would allow for the maximum concentration of
capital resources and investment priorities, which would begin the difficult but necessary
process of overcoming the legacy of two failed political and economic entities.

The CPI acknowledges that while the country is experiencing a severe economic crisis,
one resulting from the systemic cyclical nature of the capitalist system itself, the economic
crisis has not yet translated into a political crisis for the system. The development of a strategy
for building the necessary forces to mount a challenge to this system is the task before the 24th
National Congress of our party later this year. Irish communists reiterate their long-held view
that it is not the job of workers’ organisations to find solutions to the problems of the dominant
economic and political forces in our country.

The CPI calls for the building of a fight back by workers throughout the country, which is
necessary to counter the co-ordinated and intensifying attacks on workers’ rights, terms and
conditions demanded and pursued by both the Irish and British governments and the European
Union. The EU Commission is exploiting the crisis to further expand its domination and control
over the economic policies of the member-states. This is reflected in its demanding more and
deeper cuts and tighter controls on public spending, which will have most effect on workers,
the unemployed, and poor families. This must be resisted by all means at our disposal.

Despite the many-sided attacks on working people by government and employers, workers
have shown some signs of resistance and courage in the face of the barrage of hostile attacks
from the establishment media. We again express our solidarity with those involved in struggle
to defend themselves and point to the example of the Green Isle workers, the Aer Lingus cabin
crew workers and public-service workers for their courage in standing up and defending
themselves. These are small but hopeful signs of the potential for building resistance.
We Irish communists also express our full solidarity with the workers in British Airways as
they engage in industrial action to defend themselves and their livelihoods.

The CPI calls on the trade union movement to develop its own alternative economic and
social programme, one that reflects the needs of working people throughout the whole of
Ireland. The trade union movement needs to grasp this central fact in order to develop a
campaign for a different Ireland. It needs to begin a counter-offensive and to explain to workers
that the Government and employers’ strategy is to ensure that the small elite clique–the
Golden Circle–will remain in control, that the threatened cuts are intended to maintain the
status quo, and that an unequal and unjust Ireland will not work.

The militant struggle of the Greek workers has shown that when workers have a clear
alternative and consistent and militant leadership they will engage in the necessary actions.
No amount of appeals to the correctness or justice of one’s position or demands, or better
“public relations,” will advance the interests of working people. The trade union movement’s
alternative must be backed up, using its organised power to put workers’ issues to the top of
the political agenda. Workers’ organisations need to have their own world view, their own
economic and social priorities for a different Ireland. They need to be as clear in their
alternative strategy and in fighting for it as the Government and the bosses are in pursuing their
selfish interests.

The CPI acknowledges the recent statement by twenty-four economists and researchers
that criticises the present economic and social strategy of the Government and that calls for a
change of direction as an important contribution to building confidence among people about
the possibility of an alternative direction for our country. Some of the ideas expressed are in
line with our own publication An Economy for the Common Good, whose central thrust is a
radical transformative strategy for the whole of the country. We again assert that the
establishment of a state bank and a state development corporation, under democratic control,
are the necessary building-blocks for beginning to overcome the consequences of the present
crisis of the capitalist system.

No solution is to be found in retreating back into talks about the dead-end process of
“social partnership.” That strategy has left the trade unions powerless and mere managers of
Government policies. Workers will win or advance little if disunited and prepared to see each other’s terms and conditions eroded. It is only the employers and their Government that can benefit. What is needed now is to rebuild the unity of all workers, to rebuild unity between public and private sector workers.

The CPI once again calls on all left and progressive forces to unite to build the people’s
fight back. Communists will play their part in helping to build the necessary forces for
organising and mounting that resistance.

The continuing revelations about child abuse by a large number of Catholic clergy is an
appalling indictment of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. The CPI expresses its profound
sympathy and solidarity with the many victims. It is clear that the Catholic Church as an
institution has attempted over many decades, as a deliberate policy, to cover up this
widespread abuse. This policy of covering up such crimes and bullying the victims was not the
policy of the Irish Catholic hierarchy alone but was one instituted and enforced from the
Vatican itself. We support the call by the many victims for the prosecution of all those
responsible both for the abuse and for the cover-up.

The institutional Catholic Church was for many decades one of the central pillars of the
political establishment in the South. It used its power to browbeat and bully the people, not
only its own church members but anyone who challenged its authority or that of the political
establishment. The institutional church was a central element of the political and ideological
control over the people, using its tight control over education and its content as the means of
achieving this. In addition, the establishment allowed the church to control whole swathes of
social and cultural life and many social services.

The institutional church as a vehicle for the ideological conditioning of the people is now
severely damaged. Pressure must now be built for the removal of the church from any control
or say in education and for the establishment of a locally controlled and democratically
accountable education system. We reiterate our call for the complete separation of church and
state.

Communist Party of Ireland
Páirtí Cumannach na hÉireann
James Connolly House · 43 East Essex Street · Dublin 2
www.communistpartyofireland.ie | (01) 6708707