Their term of office will expire on the 31st of December and this will be the Dublin Government’s eighth stint at the Presidency since joining the then Common Market back in 1973. England voted to leave the European Union back in 2016 and forced, against their wishes, Scotland and the Six-Counties with them while many in the Twenty-Six Counties started, encouraged by so-called ‘Brexiteers’ like far-right MP Nigel Farage, making silly noises about us leaving in line with the UK. This would, in my view, be foolish because despite the EU being a capitalist bloc based on the principle of exploitation of the many by the few it is one of the largest trading blocs in the world and Ireland, or three-quarters of it, are better off in than out even under capitalist conditions.
Just for clarity and in case Mr Farage does not know, the Twenty-Six-Counties stopped taking orders from Westminster 104 years ago! The EU certainly strengthens European capitalism but it also gives the working-class of the member states easier communication with each other. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) represents workers at EU level representing 45 million workers acting as the primary voice of European workers in EU decision-making. Fortunately for British workers the Trades Union Congress (TUC) remain affiliated to ETUC despite the UK no longer being a member of the bloc.
The representatives of European business class interests will shortly be sitting at the table presided over by the twenty-six-county administration. Keep an eye open for some arse licking and backslapping as these self-interested capitalist brigands congratulate themselves on another successful year on the profit trail. This principle is no different to the practices of other large trading blocs such as the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) or the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) as these gangs of robber barons compete with each other dictating the futures of millions of workers. To ensure the protection of these representatives of native and overseas exploitation the Garda Siochana have requested assistance from the ‘Police Service of Northern Ireland’ PSNI (or RUC). Police services from Portugal and France will be involved in this security operation and that is just for starters. The Dail Justice Minister, Jim O’Callaghan, has already allocated €125 million for Garda overtime alone for the six-month operation which is likely to see more than a dozen high risk VIP summits. Perhaps the next time those far-right reactionaries - who blame immigration for social problems such as housing shortages - should cast an eye over these up-coming events and costs!
These European governments representing EU capitalism will continue pedalling the lie that it is the business classes which create wealth. They will occasionally point out how without these capitalist freeloaders people would not have jobs and it is they, not labour, which creates wealth. This flies in the face of the classical economists, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Karl Marx, all of whom despite a century between them agreed labour is the wealth creator, not capital, and despite being poles apart politically agreed on this aspect of economics. The reason these capitalists and their representatives try selling this myth is because they know full well that without their useless visages on stage nobody would notice their absence, they would be missed like invisible props, nothing would change in the appearance of the act, the show would go on.
The representatives of European business class interests will shortly be sitting at the table presided over by the twenty-six-county administration. Keep an eye open for some arse licking and backslapping as these self-interested capitalist brigands congratulate themselves on another successful year on the profit trail. This principle is no different to the practices of other large trading blocs such as the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) or the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) as these gangs of robber barons compete with each other dictating the futures of millions of workers. To ensure the protection of these representatives of native and overseas exploitation the Garda Siochana have requested assistance from the ‘Police Service of Northern Ireland’ PSNI (or RUC). Police services from Portugal and France will be involved in this security operation and that is just for starters. The Dail Justice Minister, Jim O’Callaghan, has already allocated €125 million for Garda overtime alone for the six-month operation which is likely to see more than a dozen high risk VIP summits. Perhaps the next time those far-right reactionaries - who blame immigration for social problems such as housing shortages - should cast an eye over these up-coming events and costs!
These European governments representing EU capitalism will continue pedalling the lie that it is the business classes which create wealth. They will occasionally point out how without these capitalist freeloaders people would not have jobs and it is they, not labour, which creates wealth. This flies in the face of the classical economists, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Karl Marx, all of whom despite a century between them agreed labour is the wealth creator, not capital, and despite being poles apart politically agreed on this aspect of economics. The reason these capitalists and their representatives try selling this myth is because they know full well that without their useless visages on stage nobody would notice their absence, they would be missed like invisible props, nothing would change in the appearance of the act, the show would go on.
If the proletariat removed their presence from the boards, strike action, the whole show would grind to a halt, the stage would be empty. Without labour nothing at all would get done which is why the employers are eager to implement Artificial Intelligence (AI)! Adam Smith in his book; The Wealth of Nations argued “a nation’s wealth comes from its annual labour, rather than its hoarded gold or silver”. David Ricardo in his work On the Principle of Political Economy added to Smiths earlier calculation by adding “labour time” to the equation, proposing that the “value of a commodity is determined by the average labour time required to produce it”. Karl Marx really summed this subject up in his work, Wage Labour and Capital chapter 2, put the icing on the cake describing “labour power” as the driving force behind wealth creation. Labour Power is the ability to work, to sell this ability to an employer as a commodity which the employer pays a monetary wage for, a wage far less than the wealth this collective ‘labour power’ has created. The representatives of EU capitalism will be sitting at Micheal Martin’s table for six months discussing countless subjects, wealth creation being one, which we will be told of only a few. When it is all over and cost an arm and a leg many in the twenty-six-county population having watched the sanitised version of events which will, no doubt, be occasionally shown by RTE look on with admiration at these wonderful people who they wrongly believe create wealth. At many of these meetings the self-deluding ‘wealth creators’, representatives of capitalist class interests, will be discussing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the cost efficiency of using these new marvels to do the work presently carried out by human workers. In other words they will discuss how many of their adoring admirers will be allowed to make a living and how many will not!
Back in nineteen-sixties Britain trade disputes were often reportedly resolved over ‘beer and sandwiches’ at Number 10 as Prime Minister, Harlod Wilson, invited the TUC round for talks. There will be no beer and sandwiches involved at the meetings presided over by the Dail government but perhaps huge banquets of at least four courses! These feasts will be paid for by the taxpayer, money which could be spent on necessary projects, and the EU leaders could have like Wilson and the TUC leaders, beer and sandwiches! Between them, the twenty-six-county government and the EU revisionists will continue to revise definitions within the political and economic circles of capitalism to benefit the bourgeoisie. It does not serve the minority class interests to tell the truth about wealth creation that it is working-class labour power which is the engine of wealth creation. The last thing the bourgeoisie need is a working-class which is conscious of the power it holds!
The €125 million is for Garda overtime only and how much more will be paid to the French and Portuguese governments for the use of their security services? The true cost of this operation will never be disclosed in case the people of the twenty-six-counties suddenly catch themselves on and stop blaming strawmen, immigration, for the societal inequalities faced by the proletariat and start looking at more realistic causes such as this obscene spectacle for the problems faced by working-class people daily. One subject which will no doubt be on the agenda will be ‘Irelands military neutrality’ and how to dump the ‘triple lock’. Now US President Donald Trump has decided the United Nations are of little or no consequence the EU and, in the case of military neutrality, the Dail government, may also now put the boot in removing the UNs mandate as a requirement of the triple lock. At the moment the triple lock requires, in order the Defence Forces can deploy more than twelve armed personnel on overseas peace keeping, firstly Government Approval. Secondly it requires Dail Approval and thirdly a United Nations Mandate is required. The government here wants to reform or dismantle the triple lock, arguing that the UN mandate requirement gives permanent Security Council members, like Russia and China, a veto over “Irelands” sovereign decisions to deploy peacekeepers. Note there is no mention of the US and UK in this explanation as they too are permanent members of the Security Council! Given the anti-Russian and anti-Putin sentiments across the EU support for this dilution of neutrality will be almost guaranteed taking into consideration the possible formation of a European Army which the EU are eager to have the Twenty-Six-Counties Armed Forces involved.
The EU is a large bloc of capitalist countries who exploit their workers to amass profits. It is no better or worse than other large trading blocs and, it could be argued, the EU is more preferable than some of its rivals. The aim here is not to be anti-EU but moreover anti global capitalism of which the EU is only one trading bloc, albeit a powerful one. A European socialist bloc would be far preferable and at least while we are inside the EU contact can be made through the ETUC with radical groups like the French CGT (Confederation Generale du Travail) to strengthen workers resistance in much the same way as European capitalism uses the bloc to strengthen the employer’s position. When the whole rotten capitalist applecart runs out of track the EU, like their north American counterparts, will be ‘hearing the death knell’ for the employers and their class. Until that time dawns we should exploit the possibilities presented by EU membership. We must use what we have and protest at the obscene waste of money on security during this term of Presidency while social needs persist.
I
Back in nineteen-sixties Britain trade disputes were often reportedly resolved over ‘beer and sandwiches’ at Number 10 as Prime Minister, Harlod Wilson, invited the TUC round for talks. There will be no beer and sandwiches involved at the meetings presided over by the Dail government but perhaps huge banquets of at least four courses! These feasts will be paid for by the taxpayer, money which could be spent on necessary projects, and the EU leaders could have like Wilson and the TUC leaders, beer and sandwiches! Between them, the twenty-six-county government and the EU revisionists will continue to revise definitions within the political and economic circles of capitalism to benefit the bourgeoisie. It does not serve the minority class interests to tell the truth about wealth creation that it is working-class labour power which is the engine of wealth creation. The last thing the bourgeoisie need is a working-class which is conscious of the power it holds!
The €125 million is for Garda overtime only and how much more will be paid to the French and Portuguese governments for the use of their security services? The true cost of this operation will never be disclosed in case the people of the twenty-six-counties suddenly catch themselves on and stop blaming strawmen, immigration, for the societal inequalities faced by the proletariat and start looking at more realistic causes such as this obscene spectacle for the problems faced by working-class people daily. One subject which will no doubt be on the agenda will be ‘Irelands military neutrality’ and how to dump the ‘triple lock’. Now US President Donald Trump has decided the United Nations are of little or no consequence the EU and, in the case of military neutrality, the Dail government, may also now put the boot in removing the UNs mandate as a requirement of the triple lock. At the moment the triple lock requires, in order the Defence Forces can deploy more than twelve armed personnel on overseas peace keeping, firstly Government Approval. Secondly it requires Dail Approval and thirdly a United Nations Mandate is required. The government here wants to reform or dismantle the triple lock, arguing that the UN mandate requirement gives permanent Security Council members, like Russia and China, a veto over “Irelands” sovereign decisions to deploy peacekeepers. Note there is no mention of the US and UK in this explanation as they too are permanent members of the Security Council! Given the anti-Russian and anti-Putin sentiments across the EU support for this dilution of neutrality will be almost guaranteed taking into consideration the possible formation of a European Army which the EU are eager to have the Twenty-Six-Counties Armed Forces involved.
The EU is a large bloc of capitalist countries who exploit their workers to amass profits. It is no better or worse than other large trading blocs and, it could be argued, the EU is more preferable than some of its rivals. The aim here is not to be anti-EU but moreover anti global capitalism of which the EU is only one trading bloc, albeit a powerful one. A European socialist bloc would be far preferable and at least while we are inside the EU contact can be made through the ETUC with radical groups like the French CGT (Confederation Generale du Travail) to strengthen workers resistance in much the same way as European capitalism uses the bloc to strengthen the employer’s position. When the whole rotten capitalist applecart runs out of track the EU, like their north American counterparts, will be ‘hearing the death knell’ for the employers and their class. Until that time dawns we should exploit the possibilities presented by EU membership. We must use what we have and protest at the obscene waste of money on security during this term of Presidency while social needs persist.
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| Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist. |
