Communist Party of the Irish Republic Statement on Enda Kenny, European of the Year

national | anti-capitalism | press release Monday October 29, 2012 13:07 by CPIR - Páirtí Cummanach na Poblachta

Statement on the naming of Enda Kenny as European of the Year, by German Publishers.

Enda Kenny has jumped into European super-celeb status. He was on the cover of Time Magazine recently, being hailed as an example for all European leaders to follow. Now he has been voted as "European of the Year," and winner of the "Golden Victoria" award by the Verband Deutscher Zeitschriftenverleger, the association which represents the German publishing industry. So, what has Enda Kenny been doing that's so pleasing to the ruling classes of Europe and the USA, i.e. the owners of these publications?

The answer is very simple. Mr. Kenny has been doing anything, absolutely anything, that the ruling classes feel is necessary to maintain their wealth and privilege. What is almost amazing to these plutocratic overlords, and most welcome to them, is that Kenny has been able to peddle the outrageous lie to the Irish, in the 26 counties, that by protecting the wealth and privilege of the super rich, and by forcing the most vulnerable sections of the population to bear the cost of this protection, that "we" will be rewarded for being good children and doing what our betters ask of us - eventually.

The 26 county statelet could, so easily, be another Greece or Spain. It is a matter of extreme pride to the Irish comprador class, and to their cowardly footmen in the bourgeois media, that the Irish have knuckled down and taken their medicine - with hardly a grumble. Yes, it's true that, unlike in Greece, civil servants are still being paid at the end of every month. Does that mean that "we" are in a better position than Greece? Not at all. The only reason that pay cheques are still arriving is that Kenny & Co. have been able to inflict savage austerity on the most vulnerable, and, thus, keep the flow of borrowed money coming in from the IMF. But, borrowed money it is, and the devil will have his bargain.

And this is not just some "Leftist" cant. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) released a report, Survey of Income and Living Conditions for 2010, confirming that in that year, the poorest 10% of the population saw their incomes slashed by over 25%, while the richest 10% of the population actually increased their wealth by almost 10%. Make no mistake, Enda Kenny is making the poorest and most vulnerable pay for this crisis - no wonder the ruling class loves him.

Emigration has long been the main weapon of the Irish comprador class for the eradication of Irish people, "surplus" to it's labour needs. In effect, the liquidation of those sections of the population that might just get uppedy. The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has stated that "substantially" more than one in 10 Irish men aged 20 to 30 have emigrated since the failure of capitalism in 2008.

Slavery has been reintroduced, in the form of the "Jobsbridge" scheme, which sees companies enjoying unpaid labour from 5,000 desperate people already. The scheme is deemed to be a marvelous success. This is on top of the coercive measures brought in against the unemployed in the "Tús" scheme and the new "Intreo" service, which is a thinly veiled attack on the unemployed, blaming them for their own predicament, despite the fact that capitalism is structurally unable provide jobs for everyone. Meanwhile Community Employment funding is slashed and effectively removed from the reach of lone parents and the disabled.

Kenny and Fine Gael are busy putting up posters telling us that child protection begins with their referendum. No it doesn't. Child protection begins with a dry house and food to eat. 700,000 Irish people are on the breadline, living in poverty - 200,000 of these are children. Recently, a child collapsed in a Cork school from malnutrition.

The biggest lie that Kenny has been able to spin is that private enterprise will "solve" this crisis for Ireland. Thus, we have non stop propaganda, particularly from RTÉ, about the greatness of Irish entrepreneurship. Reality, however, is very different. Irish business is weak and underdeveloped. During the boom, Irish industry was practically frozen out of financial markets. In 2006, there was only 196 million euro available, as venture capital, to Irish industry, including state sources. In the same year, 13 billion euro was borrowed and splashed out on property speculation by Irish nationals - 9 million of that on buying foreign property. Today, the vast bulk of Irish businesses employ less than 20 people, and have no plans to enter foreign markets. To imagine that these weak and underdeveloped businesses can seriously confront the depth of the crisis we now face is pure delusion. But, it is delusion with a very particular motivation, i.e. the smashing of the public sector, and the exclusion of the Irish people from all forms of democratic control over our economic activity.

We are subjected to a monthly barrage of propaganda, telling us that "Irish" exports have risen - yet again. Plenty of feel good factor in those figures. In reality, these figures usually represent US corporations laundering even more of their profits through the 26 counties. That means a higher tax take, certainly, but it is a very long way from what an increase in Irish exports would really mean. It is, in effect, a form of economic diarrhoea. We know that. Foreign banks and investors know that. But, still, the propaganda circus must keep turning.

What we need is public industry and services. We are an underdeveloped, colonized, country. No amount of jolly-juice propaganda will change that fact. There is no possibility of the bourgeois classes of such a country accumulating enough capital to build a national industrial and services base. And, when they do get a windfall of cheap credit, as happened after the founding of the euro, they gamble it all away in infantile get-rich-quick schemes. Such psychotic behaviour must be ended, and a genuine national plan put in place.

We now hear that the Gardaí are shopping abroad for a million rounds of ammunition - the same number of bullets that was on the Eksund. But, the Gardaí do not intend to use these bullets on foreign occupation forces - but on the Irish people, if we dare to get uppedy.

Enjoy your moment of celebrity, Mr. Kenny, while it lasts. But, never forget, there is a specter haunting Europe...