Get Up, Stand Up

Abstract

REPORT □ IRELAND Get Up, Stand Up Social partnership was a direct response to an economic crisis, while a similar crisis 22 years latersees it being unilaterally jettisoned MACDARA DOYLE isacommunications official with the ICTU Social served andwas Partnership Ireland formally well laid is for dead. to 22 rest years The on9 system is December. no more that servedIreland wellfor22 yearsis no more andwasformally laidtorest on9 December. On thatday,theIrishFinanceMinister - Brian Lenihan - deliveredhis annual Budget and announcedcuts in unemployment benefitand otherwelfare rates,cutsin publicsectorpay of between5 and 15 percent and,crucially, no new taxesfor thewealthy. If,as Minister Lenihan has previously contended ,Ireland is in'economic wartime' thenhisgovernment has unilaterally chosento direct itsfire exclusively at theunemployed, working families andpublicsector workers. Prior to thebudgetary announcements, unions had warnedthatanyattempt to shift theentire burdenof 'fiscaladjustment' ontothepoor and publicsector workers wouldresult ina 'sustained campaignof opposition'. Thatis whatwillnow happen. Frompartnership to confrontation Itis grimly ironic to notethatthesocialpartnershipsystem was summoned intobeingin1987,in direct response toa severeeconomiccrisis, while a similar crisis 22yearslater sees itbeingunilaterallyjettisoned . Thecontrast isstark andexplained bytheoverwhelming dominance oftheright andcentre right, inIrish politics andsociety today. Thus,in 1987government choseto respondto the thencrisisby creating an agreed,coherent nationalplatform. The resulting deal between unions, employers andgovernment was calledthe Programme forNationalRecovery.It sounded ridiculously ambitious. Yet,bytheearly1990s, the first signsofthecoming boomwereevident. And unlikeitsmorerecent counterpart, theboom of the1990swas genuine, solidly rootedinthereal economy anddelivering wagesgainsandmassive job creation. In 2009,Government has responded byspurningconsensus , sabotaging a potential agreement andchoosing thepathofconfrontation. Irish Congress of Trade Unions General Secretary DavidBeggslammed therecent budget as "themostright wing" inthehistory ofthestate. Indeed,theonlyother occasionon whichan Irish government has cutwelfare benefits occurred in 1924,intheearlylifeofthestate.Itis still talked abouttoday. Congress President JackO'Connor (also headof thecountry's largest union,SIPTU)said thatthe FiannaFailparty, themajority partners intherulingcoalition , had"severed itscontract with workingpeople and emerged as unashamed champions oftherich." FiannaFail(gaelicforSoldiers ofDestiny) is a relentlessly populistparty thathas alwaysmanaged to maintain an electoralbase in working classdistricts. Thatis now largely dissipated and theparty has moveddecisively to theright over thelast12months. Whilethesavagecutsannounced on December 9 were greeteddomestically with shock and anger,therewere plauditsfromthe usual suspects ,internationally: the FinancialTimes,the Wall Street Journal and the European Commission. Theutterly discredited ratings agencieswerealso supportive. Itisperhaps a mark ofthedysfunctional nature ofthemodern, liberal democracy that itisthelatteraudiencethatcarries mostweight and is itto thisgallerythatgovernments consistently play. Citizens comesecond. The unioncampaign At the timeof writing, Ireland'spublic sector unionsweremeeting to agreetheprecisedetails oftheir campaign ofopposition, one that is likely to be prolongedand escalateas necessary. In addition tothat 'direct action' there willalmost certainly be a nationalcampaignof opposition to government policy, runbyCongress. Underpinning that campaign willbe widespread unionangerthatGovernment - at thebehestof business- killeda deal thatcouldhaveavoided thecuts.Just fivedaysbefore theausterity measureswere announced,government and senior unionofficials hadallbutsignedoff on an agreementthat wouldhavedelivered a majortransformation ofhowtheIrish publicsector works, along witha schemeforshort-term working acrossthe sector. Thedealwouldhavedelivered permanent savings inpublicspending ofthelevelsought by thegovernment. However, theTaoiseach(primeminister) Brian Cowenbuckledunderpressure from a number of backbenchers and businessrepresentatives and walkedawayfrom thedeal.Theiragendawas to use the'fiscal adjustment' processto drivedown wagesacrosstheentire economy. On 21February, between120,000-150,000 people took to the streets of Dublinas partof a National Day ofAction organised byCongress. It was thelargest demonstration seen inthecapital insome30years. It was organised in opposition to government handling of therecessionand in support of an alternative plan,Thereisa Better, Fairer Way, proposedbyCongress . The 10PointPlanforNational Recovery called fora SocialSolidarity Pactas a responseto the unfolding economiccrisis, in reality a seriesof inter-related crisesresulting from thecollapseof theproperty bubbleandalmost certain corruption in partsof the bankingsector.A statement on behalf of the Congress Executive Council INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 6 Volume 16Issue 52009 explainedthepurposeof the plan: 'It was our hope thatitcouldform thebasisfora medium term (national) agreement totakesociety through thecrisis anddo so ina fair way,witheverybody contributing tothenecessary economic adjustment inaccordance with their means'. Thus,whileitrecognised thatpublicspending wouldfallandtaxeswouldbe raised, itwas clear that thegreatest burden shouldfallon thosewho had profited so handsomely duringthe boom years: 'YouMadetheMost, You PaytheMost', ran one ofthecampaign slogans.Itis estimated that up to€70billion inprofits weregenerated during the2002-2008 property boom - and notall of it waslostonthestock market, as hasbeenclaimed. TheCongress planalso contained proposalsto dealwiththegrowing joblesscrisis: at thatstage there werefears thatunemployment couldreach 17percent, as job losseshitrecord levels.In the intervening months the rateof increaseslowed anditnowstands at12.5percent. Butthat still represents a doublingof unemployment in just12 months. A keyelement oftheevolving campaign was to combat whatwas...