James Petras
Introduction
Many
billions of Euros are being extracted from Europe’s vassal-debtor nations
– Spain ,
Greece , Portugal
and Ireland –and
transferred to the creditor banks, financial speculators and swindlers located
in the City of London ,
Wall Street ,
Geneva and
Frankfort . Under what has
been termed ‘austerity’ programs vast tributary payments are
amassed by ruling Conservative and Social Democratic regimes via unprecedented
savage budget cuts in salaries, public investment, social programs and
employment. The result has been a catastrophic growth in unemployment,
under-employment and casual labor reaching over 50% among young workers under
25 and between 15% and 32% of the total labor force. Wages, salaries and
pensions have been slashed between 25% and 40%. The age of retirement has been
postponed from 3 to 5 years. Labor contracts (dubbed ‘reforms’)
concentrate power exclusively in the hands of the bosses and labor contractors
who now impose work conditions reminiscent of the early 19th
century.
To
learn first-hand about the capitalist crisis and the workers’ responses,
I spent the better part of May in
Ireland and the Basque country
meeting with labor leaders, rank and file militants, unemployed workers,
political activists, academics and journalists. Numerous interviews,
observations, publications, visits to job sites and households - in cities and
villages -provide the basis for this essay.
Ireland and the Basque Country: Common
Crises and Divergence Responses
The
Irish and Spanish states, societies and economies (which includes the Basque
country pending a referendum) – have been victims of a prolonged, deep
capitalist depression devastating the living standards of millions. Unemployment
and underemployment in Ireland
reaches 35% and in the Basque country exceeds 40%, with youth unemployment
reaching 50%. Both economies have contracted over 20% and show no signs of recovery.
The governing parties have slashed public spending from 15% to 30% in a range
of social services. By bailing out banks, paying overseas creditors and
complying with the dictates of the autocratic ‘troika’ (International Monetary Fund, European Central
Bank and European Commission) the capitalist ruling class in Ireland and the
Basque region have undermined any possible investments for recovery. The
so-called ‘austerity’ program is imposed only on the workers,
employees and small businesspeople, never on the elite. The Brussels-based
‘troika’ and its
local collaborators have lowered or eliminated corporate taxes and provide
subsidies and other monetary incentives to attract multi-national corporations
and foreign finance capital.
The
incumbent bourgeois political parties, in power at the beginning of the crash,
have been replaced by new regimes which are signing additional agreements with
the ‘troika’ and
bankers. These agreements impose even deeper and more savage cuts in public
employment and further weakened workers’ rights and protection. The
employers now have arbitrary power is to hire and fire workers at a
moment’s notice, without severance pay or worse. Some contracts in
Ireland
allow employers to demand partial repayment of wages if workers are forced to
leave their jobs before the end of their contract because of employer abuse.
The Spanish economy – including the Basque country-- is subject to a
modern form of ‘tributary payments’ dictated by the ruling imperial
oligarchy in Brussels .
This oligarchy is not elected and does not represent the people they tax and
exploit. They are only accountable to the international bankers. In other
words, the European Unions has become a de
facto empire – ruled by and for the bankers based
in the City of London , Geneva ,
Frankfort and
Wall Street. Ireland
and the Basque country are ruled by collaborator vassal regimes which implement the economic pillage of their
electorate and enforce the dictates of the EU oligarchy –
including the criminalization of mass political protests.
The
similarities in socio-economic conditions between
Ireland and the Basque country in
the face of crisis, austerity and imperial domination, however, contrast with
the sharply divergent responses among the workers in the two regions due
to profoundly different political, social and economic structures, histories
and practices.
Facing the Crisis: Basque
Fight, Irish Flight
In
the face of the long-term, large-scale crisis,
Ireland has become the
‘model’ vassal state for the creditor imperial states. The leading
Irish trade union confederation and the dominant political parties – including
the Labor Party currently in the coalition with the ruling Fine Gael Party
– have signed off on a series of agreements with the
Brussels oligarchs to slash public employment
and spending. In contrast, the militant pro-independence Basque Workers
Commission, or LAB, has led seven successful general strikes with over
60% worker participation in the Basque country – including the latest on
May 30, 2013.
The class
collaborationist policies of the Irish trade unions have led to a sharp
generational break – with the older workers signing deals with the bosses
to ‘preserve’ their
jobs at the expense of job security for younger workers. Left without any
organized means for mass struggle, young Irish workers have been leaving the
country on a scale not seen since the Great Famine of the mid-19th
century: Over 300,000 have emigrated in the past 4 years, with another 75,000
expected to leave in 2013, out of a working population of 2.16 million. In the
face of this 21st century
catastrophe, the bitterness and ‘generational break’ of
the emigrating workers is expressed in the very low level of remittances sent
back ‘home’. One reason Irish unemployment rate remains at 14%
instead of 20-25% is because of the astounding overseas flight of young
workers.
In
contrast there is no such mass emigration of young workers from the Basque
country. Instead of flight, the class fight has intensified. The
struggle for national liberation has gained support among the middle class and
small business owners faced with the complete failure of the right-wing
regime in Madrid (ruled by the self-styled ‘Popular Party’ ) to stem the downward spiral. The fusion
of class and national struggle in the Basque country has militated against any
sell-out agreements signed by the ‘moderate’ trade unions, Workers
Commissions (CCOO) and the General Union of Workers (UGT). LAB, the
militant Basque Workers Commission, has vastly more influence than their number
of formally affiliated unionized workers would suggest. LAB’s capacity
to mobilize is rooted in their influence among factory delegates who are
elected in all workplaces which far exceeds all trade union membership.
Through the delegates meeting in assemblies, workers discuss and vote on the
general strike – frequently bypassing orders from central headquarters in
Madrid .
Direct democracy and grass roots militancy frees the militant Basque workers of
the centralized bureaucratic trade union structure which, in
Ireland , has imposed retrograde
‘give backs’ to the
multi-national corporations.
In
the Basque country, there is a powerful tradition of co-operatives, especially
the Mondragon industrial complex, which has created worker solidarity in
the urban-rural communities absent among Irish workers. The leading Irish
politicians and economic advisers have groveled before the multi-national
corporations, offering them the lowest tax rates, biggest and longest-term
tax exemptions and most submissive labor regulations of any country in
the European Union.
In
the Basque country, the nationalist-socialist EH Bildu- Sortu
political party, the daily newspaper Gara and the LAB provide mutual political
and ideological support during strikes, electoral contests and mass
mobilizations based on class struggle. Together they confront the
‘austerity’ programs as a united force.
In
Ireland ,
the Labor Party, supposedly linked to be trade unions, has joined the current
governing coalition. They have agreed to a new wave of cuts in social
spending, layoffs of public employees, and wage and salary reductions of 20%.
The trade union leadership may be divided on these draconian cuts yet most
still support the Labor Party. The more militant retail workers union rejects
the cuts but has no political alternative. Apart from support from the republican-nationalist
Sein Fein and smaller leftist parties – the political class offer no
clear progressive political program or strategy. The Sein Fein has made the
‘transition’ from
armed to electoral struggle. According to the latest (May 2013) polls it has
doubled its voter approval rating from under 10% to 20% due to the crisis.
However, Sein Fein is internally divided: the ‘left’ pro-socialist
wing looks to intensifying the ‘anti-austerity’ struggle while the
‘republican’ parliamentary leaders focus on unification and
downplay class struggle. As a result of its collaboration with the ‘troika’ and the new regressive tax
laws, the Labor Party is losing support and the traditional right-wing party,
Fianne Fail, which presided over the massive swindles, speculative boom and
corporate giveaways, is making an electoral comeback – and may even
return to power! This helps to explain why Irish workers have lost hope in
any positive political change and are fleeing in droves from the perpetual job
insecurity imposed by their elite: ‘Better
a plane ticket to Australia than a lifetime of debt peonage, regressive
bankruptcy laws and boss-dictated contracts approved by trade union chiefs who
draw six digit salaries’.
The
Basque country’s revolt against centralized rule from Madrid
is partly based on the fact that it is one of
Spain ’s most productive,
technologically advanced and socially progressive regions. Basque unemployment
is less then that of the rest of
Spain . Higher levels of education,
a comprehensive regional health system, especially in rural areas and a
widespread network of local elected assembles, combined with the unique
linguistic and cultural heritages has advanced the Basque Nation toward greater
political autonomy. For many this marks the Basques as a political
‘vanguard’ in the struggle to break with the neo-liberal dictates
of the EU and the decrepit regime in Madrid .
Conclusion: Political
Perspectives
If
current austerity policies and emigration trends continue,
Ireland will become a ‘hollowed
out country’ of historical monuments, tourist-filled bars and ancient
churches, devoid of its most ambitious, best trained and innovative workers: a
de-industrialized tax-haven, the Cayman
Island of the North Atlantic. No country of its size and dimensions
can remain a viable state faced with the current and continuing levels of
out-migration of its young workers.
Ireland will be remembered for its
postcards and tax holidays. Yet there is hope as the left republicans of the
Sein Fein, socialists, communists and anti-imperialist activists, join the
unemployed and underpaid workers in forming new grassroots networks. At some
point the revolving doors of Irish politicos in and out of office may finally
come to a halt. Unemployed educated angry young people may decide to stay
home, stand their ground and turn their energies toward a popular rebellion.
One consequential socialist leader summed it up: “Deep pessimism and the influence of bankrupt social
democracy and imperialist ideology within the labor movement are very strong.
As you know we can’t start a journey other than from where we are”.
The determination and conviction of Irish trade union militants is indeed a
reason to hope and believe that current flight will turn into a future fight.
In
the case of the Basque country the rising class and national mass struggle,
linked to the legacy of powerful co-operatives and solidarity based worker
assemblies, provides hope that the current reactionary regime in
Madrid can be defeated.
The ruling neo-fascist junta (the ruling party still honors the Franco
dictatorship and military) is increasingly discredited and has to resort to
greater repression. With regard to the militant Basque movements, the regime
has taken violent provocative measures: criminalizing legal mass protests,
arresting independence fighters on trumped up charges and forcefully banning
the public display of the photos of political prisoners (called
‘terrorists’ by Madrid). It is clear the government is
increasingly worried by the strength of the general strikes, the rising
electoral power of the pro-independence left – and has been trying to
provoke a ‘violent response’ as a pretext to ban the press, party
and program of the EH Bildu Sortu and LAB.
My
sense is that Madrid
will not succeed. Spain
as a centralized state is disintegrating: the neo-liberal policies have
destroyed the economic links, shattered the social bond and opened the door for
the advance of mass social movements. The bi-party system is crumbling and the
class-collaborationist policies of the traditional trade union confederations
are being challenged by a new generation of autonomous movements
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