March 24th edition of Socialist Worker now online

national | miscellaneous | other press Thursday March 22, 2007 16:51 by E - SWP

Selected articles published online:

PDF 1.3MB: http://www.swp.ie/socialistworker/2007/sw271/SW-271-web.pdf

Socialist Worker

‘Surge’ grows but Bush faces defeat

Four years after the George W Bush launched the conquest of Iraq, the cost in lives and misery is apparent. The authoritative medical journal The Lancet estimate of 650,000 Iraqis killed as a result of the war is widely known among those opposed to war. But other figures underline the grim reality. About two million Iraqis have fled the bloodshed in their country since 2003, mainly to Syria and Jordan. An additional 1.7 million are believed to have been displaced within Iraq.

Speed up progress on the baths

Save Our Seafront (SOS), the group that led the successful campaign to stop an 8-storey private apartment development on the site of Dun Laoghaire baths, has welcomed the recent announcement by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Co Council that it has chosen an engineering firm to carry out a feasibility study for the re-development of the Baths as a public swimming amenity. SOS say, however, they are still concerned that progress towards the redevelopment of the Baths site is too slow.

DON’T LET THE COUNCIL TAKE-AWAY OUR BINS OR OUR SERVICE!

The Campaign Against Service Charges in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown has learnt that the Council may attempt to discontinue wheelie bin collection for householders that are not paying bin taxes.

The threat comes shortly after the decision of the Council to grant a licence to private operators, PANDA, to commence a domestic waste collection service in the county. The anti-bin tax campaign has begun organising public meetings across the Dun Laoghaire area to organise resistance to the latest Council threat.

Harney to push through private hospitals before elections

Harney's plans to build for-profit private hospitals on public hospital sites will be pushed through before the elections. The Sunday Business Post reported: ‘final bids for the “co-located” hospitals are to be lodged on 30 March, with the sites being awarded on 16 April. At that point, the Health Service Executive (HSE) will have entered into a legal commitment with private hospital developers and will be unable to reverse the process, no matter who is in government after the election.’ The eight hospital sites involved are the Mid-Western Regional in Limerick, Waterford Regional Hospital, Cork University Hospital, Sligo General Hospital and St James's, Beaumont, Connolly and Tallaght Hospitals in Dublin

Beyond the sectarian headcount

The Assembly election showed that tribal politics have become even more dominant in the North.

That’s the main conclusion of most commentators from the rise in support for the DUP and Sinn Fein at the expense of the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP. There’s truth in this analysis, but it’s not the whole truth. The election, once again, had the character of selecting parties to champion the interests of each community. Thus, the party seen as the most vigorous in advancing ‘our side’ vis-a-vis ‘the other side’ was likely to do well.

Blair’s Weapons of Mass Destruction

The House of Commons have given its backing to Tony Blair's proposal to renew Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent despite a rebellion in his party ranks. The motion was passed with the support of the opposition Conservative party by a margin of 409 votes to 161, a majority of 248. The decision by Blair to seek a renewal of the submarine nuclear system flies in the face of his efforts to stop Iran, and previously North Korea, developing nuclear technology and has caused much debate and anger about the double standards of Blair’s decision in the Middle-East.

Belfast fight for housing

In recent weeks, residents in the Village area in South Belfast have taken to the roads and the streets in the struggle to get decent housing. Last week women residents rallied outside City Hall on International Women’s Day and then marched the short distance to the Housing Executive buildings where they confronted Housing Executive officers about the low levels of social housing being proposed for regeneration of the area. This came on the back of a rally and demonstration which blocked the motorway a couple of weeks earlier.

Stock Market Jitters

The fall in the stock market over the last three weeks has knocked over €6 billion off the value of Irish shares. However, with a total capitalisation of €100 billion the Irish rich have been only marginally inconvenienced. As usual, the small investor, those with SSIA’s or equity-based mortgages have been hit hardest by the collapse in the market. A typical equity based SSIA lost nearly €600 in the last three weeks. The market is always volatile and unpredictable, but in the past few years it has always managed to bounce back very quickly from any loss in value and has posted a succession of impressive gains.

The Trade in Death - The Upside-down morality of Capitalism

‘When they want to wage war hundreds of thousands of men equipped with billions of pounds worth of equipment, with everything human ingenuity can devise to conduct war, can be assembled within weeks in the desert; no cost matters. ‘When it comes to the fire-fighters its “can’t pay - won’t pay”; when it comes to jet fighters its money is no object. That’s their morality, the upside down morality of capitalism in this world.’ These were the words of Eamonn McCann, when he spoke at the London ‘Stop the War’ Demo in 2004. In his observation, McCann exposed quite plainly one of the starkest contrasts of today’s world. Recently released reports, such as one from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, show that despite increases in global poverty and a widening gap between rich and poor, global spending on arms continues to rise.

Irish Economy: Dark Clouds Are Growing

The cheery stockbroker economists who provide regular soundbites for the news media are predicting yet another successful year for the Irish economy. But their smiles are beginning to look forced. Firstly, inflation is now running at just under five percent a year. For the majority of workers this means a pay cut as the current increases under the national pay deal amount to a mere three percent. Remarkably, there has been barely a squeak out of the union leaders even though, in the past, partnership deals indexed wage increases to price rises.

International Women’s Day

The 8th March is celebrated, commemorated and recognised in most of the world as International Women’s Day. On the 8 March 1857, in New York City, women working in the textile factories, known as ‘the garment workers’ staged a protest. In a period of increasing economic and industrial expansion they were fighting for better wages and against insanely inhumane working conditions. The police attacked the protestors and the protest had to disperse. Two years later, also in March, these same women formed a union to protect themselves and to begin an organised fight for basic rights in their workplaces.

Copenhagen is burning

Some 700 hundred young people have been arrested in riots that spread throughout the city. The cause of the violent conflicts was the demolition of a building, the Ungdomshuset (Youth House). Ever since 1982 the Ungomshuset was a focal point for activists as well as a scene for music and radical cultural events. But its history as a left-wing centre stretches back to its foundation in 1897.

Somewhat like Liberty Hall in Dublin, the building was originally constructed by the trade unions to provide an organising centre. So the great demonstration against unemployment in 1918 was planned there.

Power struggles, state terror and rebellion

As the leader nears the end he becomes increasingly isolated and falls ever more under the influence of scheming advisors. The people have taken to the streets of the capital and are demanding change. His response is to send a surge of troops under his most brutal of generals to the small country which his forces have occupied for years to increase the terror there against those, of the ‘wrong’ religion, who are fighting for their freedom. No, not a play about Bush’s already lame duck presidency and the war in Iraq but a political thriller written by a German at the end of the eighteenth century about the sixteenth century power struggle between Phillip II of Spain and his son Don Carlos

Don’t Pay the Water Charges

The campaign to defeat the water charges has moved rapidly over the past few weeks with meetings being held all over Northern Ireland from the various groups which constitute the campaign. The impetus from the elections, where all reports are that the key issue was water charges, and the fact that the bills are only a few weeks away, have combined to drive the campaign forward. The key argument that people already pay for water has been won. This makes the government's case to drive through the charges very difficult and increasingly it looks impossible. All of a sudden the political parties are talking about suspending the charges for another year. This change has primarily been brought about by the level of working class anger against the imposition of the charges.