From Unity, 21 February 2009

Why “sorry” isn’t enough

by John Pinkerton

Last week saw bankers held to account by elected representatives on both sides of the Atlantic. Whilst the bankers were quick, if slightly uncomfortable, in giving their apologies, the difference it made seemed slight. Members of the American Congress had a go at bonus pay-outs and “golden parachutes” for those at the top of the banks being bailed out by the US taxpayer.
     But having your pay “slashed” from over $16 million to a mere $2 million odd, the likely effect on the Bank of America’s top man, hardly seemed eye-watering.
     Meanwhile in the UK, faced with further glitters amongst the moneylenders over the hastily constructed “superbank” Lloyds-HSBO, New Labour stuck to propping up the system. Despite unease all the way up to the Cabinet room, the government position remains as the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, put it over the weekend: “to do whatever is necessary to maintain the stability of the financial system.”
     Defence of “the system” was also how the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, in his recent Mullingar speech explained the Government’s bail-out of the bankers—apparently however corrupt and incompetent they are proved to be. Fianna Fáil is not pursuing “some sort of a sectional-interest priority” (i.e. standing by its cronies) but ensuring “the very stability of the system, which is a prerequisite for the wider economy to operate.” Similarly, the assault on the public sector is “not merely to achieve an internal budgetary efficiency” but also to ensure “external confidence, for those who are providing the borrowings on international markets.” The system again—and the global system this time.
     Just as New Labour constantly parroted the US Republican lie that with globalisation there was no alternative to the casino economics of neo-liberalism, Cowen insists that in trying to deal with this latest “bust” in the “boom-and-bust“ cycle of capitalism “there aren’t any options.” Well, that is not how everyone sees it.
     As the Irish Times TNS/MRBI poll published at the weekend showed, there is a clear division over the Government’s approach, with workers, women and young people refusing to accept the bailing out of the banks and the attack on the public sector while the wealthy are prepared to take (or, more accurately, have others take) the medicine.
     Given the mounting political anger, it is no surprise that both Fine Gael and the Labour Party see the possibility of a serious three-horse race at the next elections in June. But, as even the Labour Party leader, Éamonn Gilmore, has noted, there is “a more fundamental shift in Irish politics than switching allegiances from one party to another.”
     In Ireland, as in the UK, the parties that run the system are captured within it. The bankers and even the politicians may say “sorry,” but the system stays the same. Bringing together broad democratic political forces behind an alternative economic and social strategy that not only embraces the whole of Ireland but is also part of the struggle for global social justice is the only way to build the alternative system that is needed so urgently.

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