| From Unity, 5 June 2010 |
Anti-people governments changing lives for the worseby John MalloyIn May 2010 the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions called on the ICTU to develop a “People’s Charter.” Unity at this time described such an effort as an “attempt to engage with civil society and to unite people around political, social and economic issues affecting their everyday lives, and to use this charter as a vehicle to effect change in the mindsets of the political representatives by highlighting to them that the majority of people in Northern Ireland want them to set aside [narrow, traditional issues] . . . concentrate on making lives better for all the people.”This debate offers a direct opposition to those who have recently proposed revisiting the dead-end one-note politics of “one big” Unionist or Nationalist party. Such moves would achieve for working people what they previously achieved—absolutely nothing—and would merely distract from dealing with the economic tsunami that faces us. The need for an alternative approach, moving towards outlining an alternative economic and social strategy, has been re-emphasised this week by the hints from Stormont and Westminster of the economic “anti-people” charter by which we will be governed. Locally, this has seen Sammy Wilson threaten every Government department with cuts and warning that in addition to this assault, water charges are inevitable. Similarly, prior to the budget on 22 June the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, who heads a 23-person Cabinet that includes 18 millionaires, has also threatened “painful” cuts that will affect “our whole way of life.” His use of “our,” of course, illuminates the big lie of the Con-Dem coalition that “we’re all in this together.” buoyed by a general election fought on the cross-party consensus that cuts were essential, with the only issue the timing of their implementation, this represents a “national” expression of a global trend. It is a statement of resistance from a ruling class at war with the society that rescued them from the logic of their own “fight to the death” ideology. As recently as last weekend, for example, as reported in the Morning Star, “Leaders of the wealthy G20 group of countries ditched plans . . . for a tax on financial businesses that would have helped towards the cost of failures in the banking sector . . . pledged to force massive spending cuts on countries that will shift the burden of the financial sector’s failings onto the people who can least afford it and applauded the massive cuts being forced on once sovereign nations by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.” While NIC-ICTU’s demands for a People’s Charter are modest, they provide a necessary challenge to the return of the old lie that “there is no alternative.” Taking inspiration from the refusal of workers throughout Europe (exemplified by recent mass mobilisations in Greece, Hungary and Portugal) to accept passively the fate decreed for them by the European Central Bank, progressive elements within the labour movement can also offer to change lives, but in contrast to the “change” offered by a millionaire butcher, this would be for the many, not the few. |
| Home page > Publications > Unity > Anti-people governments changing lives for the worse |
| Baile > Foilseacháin > Unity > Anti-people governments changing lives for the worse |