Unity

From Unity, 25 October 2008

Crying all the way to the bank

by Lynda Walker

The continuing economic crisis of capitalism has resulted in a proliferation of experts, who have all the answers to the problem. The Belfast business news reads like a contradictory comic strip. On the one hand we are told that “we are living through a financial history of a tragic kind,” that “the move by the UK government to inject billions of pounds of capital into UK Banks was entirely sensible.” As we all know, the effect of this “injection” will be passed on to the population of the UK and N. Ireland, resulting in unemployment, cuts, and reduced social services.
     This week alone it was reported that Creagh Concrete has cut its labour force by more than ninety, and SDC Trailers, who operate in close proximity to Creagh, are to carry out redundancy consultations. In County Derry, thirty-three jobs in the Japanese-owned AVX factory are to go, and a recent Ulster Bank survey said that a quarter of companies in the North reported cutting jobs in the past month.
     A member of the Construction Industry Group claimed that up to £1 billion in government contracts was being stalled because of the Executive not meeting to make decisions. Hundreds of jobs in the construction industry will be lost before Christmas, and projects like the proposed Olympic facilities, the new national stadium and major road infrastructure improvement are being threatened.
     On the other hand we read that “business help is coming to town.” Profits are still being made, and Invest NI is helping a local company that is operating in a £30 million per annum market. We had the “big birthday bash” for Short’s centenary. Horace and Eustace Short would surely have been a little more that surprised if they had turned up at the Waterfront Hall last week. Short’s, now owned by the French-Canadian company Bombardier, has had its fair share of public money injections, without any question of accountability. We are left to wonder what “the great and the good” thought of the current crisis as they gathered over their glasses of bubbly and received star-studded entertainment. We may ask, Did any public funding go into this jamboree?
     However, not to worry: all will be saved, as George Bush has announced that he will host an international summit of world leaders to look for answers to the global crisis. But will they look in the right place? Commenting on the “crisis” that saw 14,000 investors lose $8.3 trillion from pension funds, savings plans, retirement accounts, and other investments, he said: “We’re dealing with a significant problem . . . As we make the regulatory and institutional changes necessary to avoid a repeat of the crisis, it is essential that we preserve the foundations of democratic capitalism—a commitment to free enterprise and free trade.”
     If it wasn’t so tragic it would be funny. If they could get to grips with Karl Marx’s Das Kapital they might learn how to deal with the recurring crisis of capitalism.
     Incidentally, if Karl Marx were alive today he would be laughing all the way to the bank. He would surely be a little more than surprised to know that the sale of his book has reached high proportions, especially in Deutschland, where it was reported that one shop alone had sold more of this book last month than they did all last year. Someone is looking in the right place. The call by the ICTU for mass mobilisation against this capitalist inspired crisis must be taken up.
     Finally, in the Republic, the budget last week left no doubt about who would be the beneficiaries of the capitalist crisis. The Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, announced that he wants to scrap free health care for people over seventy. Cowen said that it was unsustainable for the state to cover medical costs for every elderly person.
     There has been a public outcry against this proposed action. In addition to this there is the outrage that the Irish Family Planning Association have had to suspend their family planning services to medical card holders because the minister’s department has failed to ensure that the Health Service Executive provided adequate funding for running the service. Thus, there will be no family planning service available for the last three months of this year. In a country that exports its problem of unwanted pregnancies to other countries that is a total disgrace.
     As we go to print the full outcome of the debate in Westminster about having the 1967 Abortion Act apply to Northern Ireland has yet to be assessed. No doubt the British Government and the Irish Government can foresee that a change in the North would mean a change for those in the South, as women would be able to travel here to have an abortion, and that no doubt will be another reason not to extend the ’67 Act to N. Ireland. The withholding of this service to women in Northern Ireland is effectively discriminatory and an attack on women’s reproductive rights.

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