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.
