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Socialism 2006 mp3 of Dave McWilliams -V- Joe Higgans
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Friday October 27, 2006 13:17 by Cian - Socialist Party & Socialist Youth info at socialistparty dot net Limerick 086-8064801
NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE: Mp3 of the Clash of the Titans Last weekend the Socialist Party in Ireland held Socialism 2006, a weekend of debate and discussion, in Dublin. The event got off to a magnificent start on the Friday night as 280 people packed a room to hear Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins debate with well known economist, journalist and author, David McWilliams on ‘Is there an alternative to the capitalist market?’. In his opening contribution Joe Higgins focused on what the catastrophic consequences of the capitalist market has meant for young people trying to buy a house in Ireland as house prices have skyrocketed over the past ten years. Joe pointed out that the blame for this crisis lay with land speculators and building companies. He gave the example of a business consortium that bought 11 acres of land in south county Dublin recently for €32 million and sold it on €85 million two years later! |
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Jump To Comment: 1 2In his opening remarks David McWilliams argued for a more humane version of the capitalist system. He gave the example of the recent Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, a banker and financier who had set up a bank in Bangladesh to provide loans for its poor.
Microloans are apparently not all they're cracked up to be:
"The trouble is that microloans don't make any sort of a macro-difference. They have helped some poor women, no doubt about it. But in their own way they're a register of defeat. Back in the early 1970s there were huge plans afoot to change the entire relationship of the Third to the First World, to speed Third World economies towards decent living standards for the many, not just the few. At the United Nations radical economists were hard at work drafting plans for a New World Economic Order. All that went out the window and here are the caring classes thirty years later, hailing microloans."
Was at the debate. Enjoyed Joe's talk. He put forward a tough and polished argument and went a bit over the time allowed - he got a good natured slagging over this.
David McWilliams didn't impress me. In fairness, he didn't have an easy subject to defend. He started his talk by telling the audience about a non-capitalist banking system as described above. To me this was a cop-out and it avoided having to take part in a debate. This seemed to be Mr. Williams approach for the whole of what he had to say. I'm no fan of the capitalist system, but I've heard better arguments made by school children. This was a pity, as David McWilliams doesn't strike me as a man that's stuck for either ideas or words. I suppose what I'm trying to get across is that I'd have enjoyed a debate that would have made Joe dig a little deeper and have to fight a little harder. I think Mr. McWilliams' performance was a bit of a disservice to Joe. Joe would probably have kicked arse regardless as to McWilliams performance, this was more like a clay pidgeon shoot than a fight.
All said, it was like watching Joe perform in the Dáil where he pretty much makes his opponents look stupid too. I think we need to see a lot more of Joe and what he has to say, but we need to see and hear it in the mainstream media. This may present a bit of a problem as the msm for the most part doesn't like to give a platform to folks that they cannot rip out from under them.
Keep up the good work Joe et al.