The view
that the North had escaped the troubles and that there was a
future based on a booming economy has been fast turned into its
opposite over the last few months. Riots in nationalist areas following
the Real/Continuity IRA attacks on the police and British army as well
as increased violence surrounding this year’s orange marches have
displayed an increase in social and political tensions. These events
were not created in a vacuum and mirror the crisis in the economy. It
was revealed this week that unemployment reached 51 000 in July.
(Belfast Telegraph 12/8/09)
Basket case economy
This
is a huge number of people given the six counties only has a population
of less than two million. It represents an increase of almost 24 000
from the figures last year that is to say a near doubling in the number
of workers without a job! In spite of the
claims about the boom following the troubles the truth of the matter is
that the north remains a basket case economy. In
2006 economists estimated that 63% of the GDP of the north’s economy
was based on public spending whilst a third of its workforce was
directly employed in the public service. This was over double the
proportion it was in the south and far more than anywhere else in the
UK. During the same period real wealth producing
industries were decimated, it is estimated that around 100 000 jobs in
manufacturing were lost, including the famous Harland and Wolff’s
shipyard in Belfast. (Management Today 23/3/06)
Since
the Good Friday Agreement the north has become a playground of
investment for house builders and speculators as well as a hive of low
paid casual service sector jobs, with employers attracted by the low
wage levels compared to the south or Britain. The economic boom was
hailed as the product of ‘the politics of cooperation’ and was meant to
provide the stability necessary to prevent further outbreaks of
violence or division along sectarian lines. The reality was not so
rosy. Unemployment figures were lower than in Britain but the rate of
claimants of incapacity benefit was 74% higher and old manufacturing
jobs were replaced by low paid service sector jobs that left workers
unsure what hours they would be working from one week to the next or if
they would be able to pay the bills at the end of the month. At the
same time the so called ‘peace walls’ which divide nationalist and
unionist areas grew higher and higher whilst the number of sectarian
murders continued to rise year on year.
Credit mirage
Yet
in spite of this it is true that the Good Friday Agreement was partly
based on the rising living standards that working people. Flowing from
this was a legitimate desire to end the violence of the troubles and to
be able to get on with living their lives and being able to enjoy their
relatively increased wealth. Despite the fact this was often a mirage
based on credit or the result of both halves of a couple working
increased hours of work in increasingly stressful forms of employment
it played an important role in the ending of the troubles and the
relative social peace which has followed since. Following the events of
recent months it is clear this is now over.
Even
this paltry best that capitalism could offer during the boom period is
too much for the bosses to give now. Unemployment looks set to continue
rising as more firms are set to lay worker’s off and public spending is
set to be cut to pay off the huge debts that the government tallied in
bailing out the bankers. This leaves wide open the question as to what
their plans for the already pitiful level of unemployment benefits are.
Peanuts
Neither
side of the sectarian parties can find any meaningful answer to the
crisis of unemployment. This was displayed in the reaction of the
executive to the announcement that joblessness was now affecting more
than 50 000 people. Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster rushed to
announce that they were making all of £15million available to
businesses to get through the hard times stating: "It
is imperative that Northern Ireland businesses hold on to their key
skilled employees, so that they will be able to take advantage of
improved economic conditions when they arrive." (Belfast Telegraph 12/8/09)
Fiddling
whilst Rome burns! This amounts to next to nothing in real terms. The
solution to the crisis is more of the same; further bail outs for the
bosses, and this time on a pathetically lower level! This only
demonstrates the impasse that the executive has found itself at
following this crisis. Although Foster is a DUP minister we should not
hold out any better for Sinn Fein who have already lost three
councillors in the south in the last few months, with one dissenter
citing their failure to deliver on their supposed socialist and
Republican ideology. Foster speaks for a coalition executive which
includes Sinn Fein who have made no efforts to counter her.
The
way forward in the battle against job losses has been shown in the
struggle of the Visteon workers who occupied their factory in protest
at its closure. In the south the move towards occupation was first seen
in the occupation of Waterford Chrystal and this month in the
occupation by the Thomas Cook workers in Dublin and 4Home workers in
Michelstown, county Cork. The occupation at
Visteon was a success in forcing the hand of the employer and winning
proper redundancy payments for the workers. Yet ultimately the jobs
were still lost.
Only struggle can deliver
A
political solution is necessary to the problems of unemployment. Jimmy
Kelly, the Unite regional secretary for Ireland has called for a mass
job creation scheme for socially useful community jobs stating that any
jobs “should
be aimed at those who are finding it particularly hard to find work
during the recession, such as the long-term jobless and young people”.
(Belfast Telegraph 12/8/09) Whilst Kelly is right to make the call for
a program of government investment in jobs in itself this is not
enough. A workplace closed must not only be a workplace occupied it
must also be nationalised under the control of the workers so jobs can
be saved and the workers skills made use of for socially useful
purposes. This will not become a reality in and of itself only the
struggle of the Irish worker’s can deliver this.
The
working class in the north needs a party of its own. The various
nationalist and unionist parties have had long enough to demonstrate
their incapacity to deliver. Only a party based on the exiting
organisations, the trade unions and under the control of the workers
and fighting for their interests could provide the solution to
unemployment which ultimately is a necessary part of capitalism itself.
Only under socialism will a decent and secure job for all workers
become a reality.
