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Health, education, transport:

Five Years Of Failure

Build the socialist alternative

GORDON BROWN'S much heralded budget hasn't done much to boost New Labour. A GMTV/Daily Mirror poll found 43% of people trust Blair less than than they did five years ago.

40% think things have got worse under New Labour. In a separate poll, 58% of people asked didn't expect to see any improvements in the NHS as a result of tax rises in the budget.

Ken Douglas

Brown's spending figures are based on predicted growth rates of 2% this year and 3.5% next year whereas the latest figures show the economy has virtually ground to a halt. So much for prudence, sound finance and ending boom and bust!

No extra money is to be made available to raise pay levels of nurses and other health workers; Brown warns "that the days of something for nothing are over in public services". What an insult to health workers who daily slog their guts out to keep an understaffed NHS going with inadequate resources and earning poverty wages.

Big business will be the main beneficiary of Brown's billions. The money amounts to 7.5% annual growth over the next five years - many trusts estimate that they need 6.6 % per year just to stand still.

Add to this the cost of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes and the money will soon disappear into the pockets of the fat cats.

City analysts put profit margins on a PFI hospital at more than double a typical building project!

Money will also be squandered on paying for beds in private hospitals to prop up a failing private sector, and sending patients abroad for treatment.

But it's not just on health that New Labour are seen to have failed. Polls also show that people think they have done badly on education and transport.

More than ever before working-class people need a political alternative to challenge the big business policies of New Labour and all the main parties.

The Socialist Party offers an alternative - in elections, in the workplaces, in local communities and anti-capitalist protests. Join us now and fight to build a socialist alternative.

 

 

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Fighting low pay and privatisation

Support The Postal Workers

POST OFFICE bosses have reneged on the pay agreement reached in early April with the Communication Workers' Union (CWU). They are trying to impose unacceptable conditions before they sign off the deal.

Bill Mullins, Socialist Party industrial organiser

They want the postal workers not only to carry huge bags of junk mail on their rounds but they want them to work without a break for four or more hours at a time, before going back to collect more mail.

Dave, a Brighton postal worker, told The Socialist:

"The two-year pay deal meant our minimum wage would have reached £300 per week by next year. But the bosses are demanding their pound of flesh. They want to abolish the second delivery and deny us proper meal breaks. At the moment we return to the depot after two hours.

"We have a break then continue the second delivery. Now in complete opposition to all health and safety rules, the bosses' want to stop this break and keep us out on the streets."

This is a deliberate attempt by the management to prepare the service for privatisation, they don't care about the 40,000 jobs under threat. How many managers are ready to line their own pockets by setting up delivery companies and bidding for the work? This is what happened to the railways when dozens of managers secretly negotiated to take over their bit of the system.

Ex British Rail manager Giles Fernley sold his share of the Southend to London line for £6.3 million to National Express whilst Brian Scott of Great Western made £7 million on his £40,000 investment when the company was sold to FirstGroup recently.

Many postal managers must be rubbing their hands at the prospect of doing the same thing.

Tony Blair and the government are privatisation mad. They are handing over huge tracts of the public services to private companies. Don't let them sell off the post office. The fight for decent wages without strings is part of the fight against privatisation.

• The Socialist says:
• Support the postal workers' fight for a living wage.
• For mass action to stop the privatisation of the post office.
• For a national one-day public sector strike against the privatisation of public services.

 

 

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Mass protests in France

Neither the 'Fascist' nor the 'Crook'

ON 1 MAY demonstrations and protests in France against Le Pen reached a high point with hundreds of thousands of young people and workers taking to the streets in opposition to a demonstration by Le Pen's supporters.

As soon as it was announced that the far-right Le Pen was through to the second round in the French presidential elections, thousands poured on to the streets to protest. School students and students have been out in their thousands to say "Non" to Le Pen.

Last week as many as 300,000 held demonstrations, meetings and teach-ins in at least 80 towns and cities and a further 200,000 demonstrated over the weekend of 23 and 24 April. Universities and schools have closed all over France.

Alex Rouillard of Gauche Revolutionnaire, the French section of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI), to which the Socialist Party in England and Wales is also affiliated, spoke to The Socialist about these momentous events.

"THESE DEMONSTRATIONS are important because they give confidence to hundreds of thousands of people. They show that anti-fascist traditions and energy are intact and that working-class people and young people have the ability to take things into their own hands, to get organised and to struggle.

In most towns and cities, demonstrators are calling for a vote for Chirac. "Rather the crook than the fascist" is the slogan that many are chanting.

Gauche Revolutionnaire is mobilising around the slogan "neither the fascist nor the crook". We shouldn't underestimate what Chirac would do if he won with 70% or more of the vote and we have to prepare now for the struggles to come.

Chirac is undoubtedly preparing to govern 'a la Berlusconi', the right-wing, anti-working-class prime minister of Italy, but with the excuse that he is acting as a barrier to a victory of Le Pen and the Front National (FN).

The real reason for the vote for the FN is unemployment, poverty and the fact that the working class has been abandoned by arrogant and corrupt politicians. These problems have to be tackled, and neither the 'plural left' (socialists, communists, greens), with its five years of anti-working-class politics, nor the right can do that. Only our struggles can.

By calling for a vote for Chirac, the main trade unions and 'plural left' are not preparing workers for a future Chirac offensive against them. While understanding that many will vote for Chirac, it's clear that he is sure to win in the second round and we do not want to strengthen him but prepare for future struggles.

There is a tremendous desire to discuss political ideas, especially amongst young people and we have to point the way forward. We need to increase the size and scope of the demonstrations, extend the strikes, culminating in massive protests on 1 May. This is the international day of workers unity and we have to unite against common enemies - the bosses and big business.

The challenge now is to build a mass movement which can stop capitalist policies and win victories on issues such as unemployment, privatisation, equal rights for immigrants, wage increases and decent jobs for all.

The important vote for the far left, who achieved nearly 11%, shows that it is possible to create a new party which can organise together young people, workers, and the unemployed to defend their interests and to get rid of this capitalist system.

It will encourage all those who want to struggle against capitalism and injustice.

It is very positive that the two main far-left parties LO and LCR, are coming together to discuss what to do in the parliamentary elections. But it's important that they reach out to the thousands of workers and young people who are prepared to get involved in something, although not necessarily a party at this stage.

This opportunity must not be missed. What is needed now is a left alliance on an anti-capitalist and socialist programme to prepare for the elections and organise and maintain the struggle for the future."

 

A Shift To The Far Right In Europe?

 

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Falklands/Malvinas 1982

Thatcher's War Of Saving Face

TWENTY YEARS ago in 1982, British imperialism's war with Argentina over the Falklands/Malvinas islands burst out like a sudden storm.

Roger Shrives

This minor war between two fading second or third division powers, cynically described as "two bald men fighting over a comb", only lasted ten weeks. But it killed 255 British servicemen and some 800 Argentineans.

The US State Department called the Falklands/Malvinas - isolated rocks (population 1,800 of British extraction) thousands of miles from Britain - a 150 year old "pimple on the ass". British imperialism obtained them in the 1830s and settled them as a colonial outpost to command the sea routes through the South Atlantic.

Our paper, Militant, predecessor of The Socialist, opposed Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher's war, which was fought overwhelmingly to defend British prestige and power.

A military dictatorship had seized power in Argentina in 1976. This military junta conducted a "dirty war" against the working class, creating tens of thousands of "disappeared" people who became victims of torture and murder.

Fifty years of working-class gains were largely wiped out, real wages being slashed as Milton Friedman's monetarist policies were tested out in the interests of finance capital.

But by 1982 the Argentinean junta was forcing the lid down on a head of steam. A series of general strikes had broken out. On 30 March, just three days before the attack on the Falklands/Malvinas, tens of thousands of young people and workers had defied the military in protests against unemployment, growing poverty and attacks on trade union and democratic rights.

To cut across this revolutionary class movement, junta leader Galtieri invaded the islands on 2 April whipping up support under the nationalist slogan "reclaim the Malvinas". Galtieri's plans worked for a while - 200,000 celebrated in Buenos Aires that April.

In response Thatcher immediately despatched a naval task force to oppose this. Her government knew of the junta's invasion plans 11 days before it happened. Galtieri had been rattling sabres for months with no response from the Foreign Office.

Who armed the junta

THATCHER CAME to power in Britain in 1979 with similar "neo-liberal" policies to the junta, devastating manufacturing industry and attacking its powerful and militant workforce. Thatcher and the junta were then in sympathy.

Capitalist governments in USA and Europe pushed money into civil projects such as oil exploration. They saw dictatorships in Argentina and Chile as bulwarks of capitalist stability against "subversion".

British firms sold the junta arms from day one - against the wishes of many British trade unionists. British soldiers were coming under fire from Argentinean forces firing ammunition and steering ships and planes supplied by British firms amongst others.

Thatcher stepped up these sales right up to ten days before the invasion and built trade links with the dictatorship. Arms manufacturers' shares rose rapidly with military equipment and electronic stocks doing particularly well. But Thatcher also banged the nationalist drum when Galtieri invaded.

We opposed the junta's invasion, done in the interests of financiers and capitalists who wanted control of oil and other resources and also to head off a revolutionary movement against Galtieri's regime.

But we also opposed Thatcher's task force, preparing for a war to avenge British imperialism's enormous loss of face.

Despite the 'company island' nature of the Falklands (see box), the Tories invoked the islanders as a reason for fighting. Socialists couldn't ignore the islanders' fate - the islands were being run by a veteran of the dirty war in Argentina.

"The Falkland Islanders were quite understandably opposed to Argentine sovereignty if that meant the same 'rights' for them that it meant for ordinary workers in Argentina itself", we recognised as the Task Force set sail.

But Militant commented: "Workers can give no support whatsoever to the lunatic adventure now being prepared by the Thatcher government. The trade unions could stop Thatcher dead in her tracks."

In those days, well before Blair transformed Labour into an openly capitalist party, the Left in the party was large. We said: "Labour must demand a general election in order that a Labour government can support and encourage workers' opposition in Argentina."

We opposed Thatcher's war, waged to keep up the prestige of a moth-eaten former "great power", British capitalism. The working class, whether in Britain or in Argentina, would win nothing. We opposed the Labour front bench's class collaboration - they supported Thatcher and her war against Argentina.

As an alternative to Thatcher's war, we called for international class action against the junta such as trade union blacking of trade.

Technical superiorty

AS THE war developed, there were many horrific incidents. The Argentinean cruiser Belgrano was sailing away from the islands when it was sunk by British guns. This was followed by the sinking of HMS Sheffield by Argentinean forces.

Thatcher refused all offers of mediation in the dispute. British capitalism needed to show that it was still a world power, with the military might to dominate at least minor forces.

Tory propaganda echoed Churchill's speeches during the blitz. Her talk about defending democracy against dictatorship was totally hypocritical. Thatcher's war with Argentina sent her closer to Latin America's other major dictator - Pinochet of Chile who had his own quarrels with the Argentine junta.

The technical superiority of the British forces defeated the junta. Thatcher, the most hated prime minister in Britain's history with huge job losses and service cuts, gained tremendously from what was seen as a successful conflict.

The mass unemployment and destruction of capital had led to rioting the previous year. Yet, from a terrible position in the polls, the Tories swept to a landslide victory in the 1983 general election.

US imperialism under right-wing president Reagan saw this war as a fight between two "allies" - both declining economic powers. Reagan only sided with Britain reluctantly as Britain was a more central part of US imperialism's worldwide plans rather than just in their plans for Latin America. They were afraid though what effect the war would have on Argentina.

When Argentina's forces surrendered and left the islands on 15 June, Galtieri went two days later and within a few months, a fragile 'democracy' was restored.

Yet, as we argued at the time, if one of Britain's aircraft carriers had been sunk during the task force's manoeuvres around the islands, the war could have been a lot longer and far bloodier. That could have made Thatcher extremely unpopular.

As it turned out Thatcher lasted another eight years in office when she over-reached herself trying to 'do another Falklands' and impose the poll tax (see The Socialist 5 April).

 

 

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A Shift To The Far Right In Europe?

WHAT ARE the prospects for a resurgence of far right parties in Europe following the electoral gains of Le Pen in France? ROBERT BECHERT of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI - the socialist international organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated) looks at this far right threat and explains the tasks of the socialist movement in defeating it.

LE PEN'S success in reaching the second round of the French Presidential elections has highlighted the series of electoral defeats that the so-called "centre-left" government's have recently suffered in European elections. It follows on the recent election gains for far-right or racist parties in Austria, Denmark, Italy and in the Netherlands.

In 1999, 13 of the 15 European Union (EU) states were governed by what were described as "centre-left" coalitions, the exceptions being Ireland and Spain. Now that total is down to six, and the media's attention is on what they describe as the rise of the Right and what is called "the crisis of the Left".

Naturally many workers, young people, immigrants and sections of the middle class have been shocked by Le Pen's advance, just as they were last year by the victory of the Berlusconi/Fini/Bossi alliance in Italy and, the year before that, by Haider's FP… joining the Austrian government.

Alienation

Many are asking whether the growing dissatisfaction, alienation and anger at capitalism and its social democratic and conservative 'managers', are going to benefit the extreme right.

Undoubtedly, Le Pen's advance has seized the headlines but the fact that he is in the second round must not be allowed to obscure the other significant aspect of the French election, namely the near doubling of the Trotskyist left vote to 2,973,600 (10.44%).

France illustrates that what is happening is not really a "crisis of the Left" in general. Rather, both the far right's advances and the jump in the French Trotskyists' vote are indications of the same process, a growing alienation from what is seen as the ruling elite.

This is especially directed towards the political leaders, usually careerist and often corrupt, who are seen to be indifferent to the problems and fears of the mass of the population.

Often the far right has been able to gain from this because the leaders of social democratic and communist parties, organisations that originally grew out of the working class movement, are losing their social basis and are generally being cut off from increasing parts of the working class, poor and youth.

Fundamentally, these electoral defeats are the result of disappointment and disenchantment with the policies of these so-called "Left" parties. In Spain, for example, the right-wing AP's 1996 election victory was preceded by 14 years of rule by PSOE, the 'Socialist' party.

In recent years these "Left" or "centre-left" governments, to a greater or lesser extent, have carried out fundamentally 'neo-liberal' (i.e. capitalist) policies.

Immediately after Le Pen's success a top EU diplomat was quoted as saying that "Leftwing parties have gone down the same road as the right, embracing globalisation, using populist language against growing unemployment and crime".

Partly this reflected the fundamental change in the world that took place at the start of the 1990s. The collapse of the old Stalinist regimes (dictatorships, resting on distorted planned economies) in the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe removed both a counter-weight to the power of world imperialism and appeared to undermine the idea that socialism was a viable alternative to capitalism.

Social democracy

This was re-enforced by a ferocious ideological offensive by capitalist politicians and commentators to try to eliminate from political life the very idea of striving to replace capitalism with socialism.

The result was that the leaders of most of the workers' movement made a sharp turn to the right at the same time as the neo-liberal offensive attacked living and working conditions.

In the old social democratic and communist parties most leaders worked during the 1990s to break the remaining commitments to socialism and transform their parties into bodies only seeking to help capitalism "work better". New Labour in Britain and Italy's Left Democrats are the prime examples of this.

Thus these election defeats are not defeats for socialist ideas but for parties that, while coming historically from the workers' movement, generally have broken their links with it. Their loss of votes was a reaction to their record in government, not any rejection of socialism.

In France, Jospin's loss of support was particularly marked among industrial workers and youth. Fundamentally there was a tremendous disappointment with the government he led. Jospin became prime minister after winning the 1997 general election which saw a rejection of the policies of Chirac, who had been elected president only two years previously.

The policies of Jospin's "gauche plurielle" (plural left) government had a dual character. It did carry out some reforms but these were in the framework of an acceptance of the basic character of capitalist policies in the late 1990s.

Generally, many workers did not fully benefit from the uneven economic boom of the 1990s. Cash wages may have increased, but so did the intensity of work along with insecurity.

The steady process of cutbacks in public spending meant that, for the first time, it was likely that the next generation would have worse conditions.

The increasing polarisation between rich and poor, along with the increase in the number of permanently unemployed, helped create elements of disintegration in society. Social problems, drink and drug abuse along with crime, all increased.

The exposure of widespread corruption and influence buying has added to the correct belief that the rulers do not really care about the majority, especially those who feel they are on the bottom of the pile.

Added to this there is the increasing feeling that it is more difficult to have any say in what is happening as real power moves further away, especially as a result of globalisation and the increasing role of the EU.

On top of this many countries have recently experienced sizeable population movements without the governments providing the necessary resources resulting in increased competition for jobs, housing, social services etc.

The labour movement should have fought on these issues, but it did not due to a combination of the leaders of the former workers' parties sitting in government, trade union leaders generally unwilling to struggle, and the weakness of the genuine socialists.

This created the opportunity for the Right to step in and, using a combination of populist and nationalist slogans, win elections.

Unfortunately this is not a new phenomenon. Previously, even when they still had roots within the working class, the failures of social democratic governments prepared the way for right-wing governments. Thatcher only came into power because of the 1974-79 Labour government's austerity measures.

This cycle will only be broken when a genuine workers' government mobilises the mass of the population to start the socialist transformation of society.

Naturally many British workers and young people have been horrified by Le Pen's advance as they were when Berlusconi allied with Fini (the leader of the neo-fascist National Alliance) to become Italian prime minister.

Workers' movement

However, Italy shows that electoral defeats do not mean a decisive defeat of the working-class movement. Less than one year after Berlusconi's election victory we have seen the three million strong 23 March Rome demo and 13 million staging a one-day strike on 16 April against the government - some of the biggest workers' movements in history.

Earlier in the 1990s the first Berlusconi government was forced out of office after less than nine months because of a huge wave of protests.

Similarly, Chirac's first presidential term was fatally undermined by the public sector workers' struggle a few months after his 1995 election. Within two years, Chirac lost a parliamentary election to Jospin.

While not all Right governments will face opposition so quickly, at a certain stage, workers and youth will move into action outside of the parliamentary arena to defend what has been won in the past and, increasingly, against the government.

In such situations there will be attempts to corral opposition within safe confines, ie to prevent radical socialist ideas from gaining support.

Often this will be by leaders of the trade unions and old political parties calling for "unity" against the government and/or the far right. But by this they do not mean unity in action, unity in struggle against the Right and to win the movement's demands.

Instead, they seek to manipulate workers' natural desire for unity and for solidarity into uncritical support for the leaders and policies that were responsible for allowing the Right to gain its successes.

Thus, in France, Jospin has been sacrificed as the rest of the Parti Socialiste leaders try to avoid real discussion of their responsibility for the Right's victory by concentrating on Le Pen.

In Italy, too, the majority of the social democrat leaders of the former "Olive Tree" government concentrate on attacking Berlusconi and demand unity from their Left critics in order to defeat him.

Radicalisation

However, while this strategy of the old leaders may, temporarily, dampen down discussion it is increasingly clear that it will not prevent a radicalisation developing as the records of the governments like Jospin's and the Olive Tree are discussed and an economic crisis develops.

The clearest sign of this radicalisation is the nearly three million Trotskyist votes in France. The size of this vote means that there are a sizeable section of workers and youth who are looking for a genuine socialist alternative. This could be a powerful lever in revitalising and rebuilding the workers' movement in France and setting an international example.

The two largest Trotskyist organisations in France have a responsibility of acting quickly to seize the initiative of setting in process the formation of a new workers' party in France. Such a party, especially if it has a clear socialist programme, would not only have the opportunity to build powerful support within France but would also be an international example of a new workers' party re-establishing the idea that socialism is the genuine alternative to capitalism.

Huge anti-Le Pen protests rock France

 

Mass Action And Socialism To Fight The Fascist Threat

ABSTENTIONS IN the local elections on 2 May are expected to reach a new record.

By the time The Socialist goes to the print we will know whether the collapse in votes for the mainstream capitalist parties has helped the neo-Nazi British National Party (BNP) win any council seats in England.

Naomi Byron, Youth Against Racism in Europe (YRE)

The election of a BNP councillor would provoke a huge wave of anger and revulsion which must be turned into mass action against the far right.

The BNP are not just a racist party but a fascist organisation who believe they are part of the master race and want to set up a Nazi dictatorship in Britain.

Supported financially by rich, anti-working-class reactionaries, the BNP aims to cut across any working-class unity and smash opposition to the dictatorship of big business. Any growth in BNP support is a threat to working-class people everywhere.

If the BNP win any seats, the blame will lie squarely at the door of New Labour and their Tory policies. Their pro-big business, capitalist agenda has betrayed millions of working-class people, while their racist policies and propaganda against asylum seekers were key in opening the door to a far right revival.

The Establishment in Britain - the main parties, the media, etc - who are now condemning Le Pen and the BNP, are the very ones that gave the BNP and the National Front the confidence to campaign publicly, several years after their defeat at the hands of the militant anti-racist movement.

Blunkett's "swamping" statement and the current New Labour attempts to out-BNP the BNP on asylum will only legitimise this fascist organisation and increase their support.

There is an element of truth in Le Pen's statement that his policies are no more racist than Tony Blair's. The "transit centres" for migrants posed by the Front National (FN) in France bear a grim similarity to the "reception centres" for asylum seekers proposed by New Labour.

The idea of "French first" proposed by Le Pen has found an echo in the current government proposals to exclude refugee children from mainstream schools in Britain.

The recent increase in votes for the BNP doesn't mean a shift to the right in society or that the BNP is becoming a mass force. The BNP are a tiny, isolated fascist sect that cannot be compared to the mass fascist parties that seized power in Italy in the 1920s and Germany in the 1930s, except that their ideas and ambitions are the same.

They have admitted to their own inability to build as a neo-Nazi group and are trying to copy the more "respectable" populism of Le Pen in France and Haider in Austria. However, despite their isolated and tiny forces, a BNP councillor would represent a real threat, both locally and nationally.

The challenge to the BNP has to come from the Left - socialists, trade unions and anti-racist campaigners. These are the forces that defeated the National Front (NF) in the 1970s and the BNP in the 1990s in Britain.

Now, whether or not the BNP win any seats, it is up to the Left and the new generation of young people to build a movement which can defeat the BNP and other far-right groups.

Action programme

Trade unionists and council workers should refuse to cooperate with any BNP councillor, as Tower Hamlets' council workers did when the BNP had a councillor there for eight months in the mid-1990s.

The trade union movement must call a demonstration against racism and fascism in the Greater Manchester area, (where the BNP has been most active) properly organised, stewarded and built for, to give confidence to all those who oppose the BNP and to demonstrate that it is the fascists who are weak and isolated.

Community defence campaigns, democratic and accountable, must be organised to prevent an upsurge in racist attacks as the BNP vote can give confidence to both BNP members and local racists.

Although the fascists may score some victories, the Left is making significant gains, in elections, in the trade union movement and elsewhere. In the long-term the way to cut across support for the far right is to build a strong socialist movement that can provide a genuine solution to unemployment, low pay, poverty, bad housing and all the problems working-class people face.

YRE, PO Box 858, London E11 1YG. Tel 020 8558 7947.

website: www.yre.org.uk

 

 

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Israel/Palestine: The War Of Occupation Continues

ISRAELI PRIME Minister Ariel Sharon has continued his brutal military offensive against Palestinian towns in the West Bank with an onslaught on Hebron, in which nine Palestinians were killed on the first day alone.

Judy Beishon

Israeli Defence Force (IDF) troops had just been withdrawn from three other West Bank towns, when a Palestinian shooting of four Israeli settlers near Hebron became Sharon's excuse to carry out another invasion. In any case, he had only withdrawn the IDF to the edge of the towns they had torn apart, leaving them lying in wait for re-entry at a moment's notice.

These events will further inflame Palestinian anger and the outrage of ordinary people throughout the Arab world. Saudi Arabian Prince Abdullah met with US President Bush and warned that the Middle East was heading towards a regional war unless Sharon was forced to back off.

This pressure led to a US-proposed deal between the Israeli government and Arafat, to lift the blockade of Arafat's compound in Ramallah, on the basis that six Palestinian 'terrorists' in the compound would be moved to a prison guarded by US and British soldiers.

Sharon abandoned his previous position, as until then he had insisted that the wanted men be sent for trial in Israel before lifting the blockade.

A majority in Sharon's cabinet initially rejected the proposal, calling it a retreat, especially as it came at a time when the United Nations (UN) Security Council was attempting to send investigators into the West Bank town of Jenin to look into IDF atrocities carried out there.

However, Bush gained reluctant acceptance by a majority of the cabinet to continue with the proposal, by reassuring them of his friendship to Israel, inviting Sharon to Washington, and saying that he would do his utmost to make sure that the UN investigation in Jenin would not harm Israeli interests.

Sharon's government has twice blocked the arrival of the UN team, while trying desperately to restrict its remit. This has included demanding a veto on any witnesses asked to testify and even demanding that the team should "not draw conclusions"!

These manoeuvrings will do nothing to improve the terrible situation faced by Palestinians in the occupied territories or improve security for Israeli Jews.

While attacks by the Palestinian militias have inevitably been disrupted as a result of the IDF killings of activists and the detention of over 1,200 Palestinians, there are many more young Palestinians prepared to enter into armed struggle against their occupiers. As the leader of Hamas in Tulkarem put it: "The resistance does not depend on people. It depends on feelings against Israel".

The future of the region under capitalism is therefore one of continued horror and bloodshed, which only a struggle for socialism by the workers of the region will be able to prevent.

 

 

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Socialist Challenge in Irish Election

THE SOCIALIST Party (SP), Ireland, is contesting five seats in the forthcoming general election to be held on 17 May.

The SP is confident of retaining its seat in Dublin West, held by Joe Higgins from the last general election in 1997. SP members are hoping that they can increase their representation in the Dail (Parliament) this time with the election of SP councillor Clare Daly in the Dublin North constituency.

Also standing for the SP are Lisa Maher in Dublin South, Mick Murphy in Dublin South West and Mick Barry in Cork North Central.

During the last five years the Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrats coalition government lead by Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern has presided over a series of financial and political scandals.

Joe Higgins has used his position in the Dail to expose the corruption of the political establishment that enabled top businessmen to evade taxation while the hated 'bin tax' was imposed on the working class.

Recently, Clare Daly and Joe Higgins won a high court injunction against Fingal County Council which forces the council to collect all refuse bins, regardless of whether the newly introduced bin tax is paid or not. Previously the council had said it wouldn't collect any bin from non-payers.

The government which has enjoyed rising tax revenues from an unsustainable economic boom, has passed on these benefits of the 'Tiger Economy' to the rich.

And it has continued to assist its wealthy speculator friends to make millions in profits from housing while 140,000 working class people wait in vain on public housing lists.

But workers have been fighting back against this government of the rich. Teachers and health workers have taken action over pay and conditions; Aer Lingus workers have fought privatisation; low paid Aldi workers have fought for union rights. The Socialist Party has assisted these workers in their struggles.

The government has suffered defeats in referendums over ratifying the Nice Treaty, and over abortion rights. Voters can make it three in a row by kicking out the government and voting for the Socialist Party.

If you can assist the Irish SP's general election campaign, phone 020 8988 8777.

Subscribe to Voice, Paper of the Socialist Party. 12 months for 15 Euros. Send to Socialist Party, PO Box 3434, Dublin 8.

Website: www.socialistparty.net

 

 

 

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Argentine crisis

Taking To The Streets Against The IMF

WHEN IT seemed to most Argentinians that conditions in their bankrupt country couldn't get any worse, then they did. The five-month long financial crisis and 46-month long recession that has devastated the lives of Argentina's working class and once-prosperous middle class, has deepened in the last week.

According to the Buenos Aires Herald: "With the peso sharply devalued and joblessness hovering near 24%, the country is undergoing its worst economic crisis in history. Over 40% of its 36 million residents now live under the poverty line and massive protests have become a daily feature of the country's life." The economy is expected to contract by 15% this year!

Fear of financial meltdown and a banking collapse led to panicked savers withdrawing huge quantities of cash from banks (over $100 million a day) forcing Argentina's Peronist president Edwardo Duhalde to order a nationwide bank holiday.

Meanwhile the economy minister, Remes Lenicov, returned empty handed from a meeting of International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegates in Washington. His pleas for a resumption of loans to Argentina's $141 billion debt-ridden economy was rebuffed. The IMF want further cuts in public spending by the country's regional governments. More cuts will increase unemployment, worsen health and education and cut pensions.

Lenicov proposed converting billions of frozen savings into government bonds in order to stop a drain on bank ie to force savers to take on government debt.

This provoked more street protests, strikes and occupations. "Thousands of deposit-holders banging pots and pans gathered outside a heavily guarded Congress for a second day to protest against any attempt by widely despised legislators to approve the savings-for-bonds plan. On Monday night, frightened senators had to be escorted under guard from the building." (Buenos Aires Herald, 25 April)

Needless to say, Congress kicked out Lenicov's plan and he then resigned. Another crisis of Duhalde's administration resulted in the appointment of Roberto Lavagna as the new economy minister.

To buy time in order to "mollify impatient international money lenders", as the BBC put it, the parliament passed a law denying most savers access to their bank deposits. Under the measure, only savers who mount successful challenges against existing restrictions on withdrawals will get access to their money, though the government will be able to appeal against court decisions.

However, the last time parliament passed the 'hot potato' to the Supreme Court mass protests forced the judges to throw it back to Congress in a hurry!

Months of emergency measures have failed to stem the crisis, which isn't simply the result of incompetent and corrupt politicians, but is a root and branch capitalist crisis that can only be ended when the country's working class, pulling behind it the disaffected middle classes, take control.

Only a workers' government which nationalises industry and the banks and implements an emergency plan of production to re-employ people and restore functioning services can resolve the crisis.

 

The Socialist 3 May 2002 | Top | Home | News | The Socialist 

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