The great lock out in 1913—14 was “an appren-ticeship in brutality, a hardening of the heart ofthe Irish employing class” (Connolly). The cur-rent attack on Irish workers by the state seesthe ruling class re-enacting that brutalitythrough its continuous austerity measures beinghurled at workers, their families, the unem-ployed, and community organisations.

For the last three years we have been activewitnesses to this. There is not a household oran individual unaffected—some worse thanothers—unless you are in the “fat cat” bracket.

The consequence of the triumph of thebankers and their fellow-travellers has led thecountry to an economic crisis, which has almostdestroyed our existence as an independent,

sovereign state. Now, self-interest furnished bygreed is not unusual in a capitalist state: whatis unusually was the previous Government’sresponse. They accepted liability for the debtsof private speculators. The second staggeringblow to the Irish people is that the presentGovernment is continuing with this policy.These policies are not in working people’sinterest: the poor, the marginalised, theunemployed are the scapegoats.

Let us put the debt and the presenteconomic and political policies into context. Thedecision to continue to pay the speculators hasresulted in Ireland carrying 42 per cent of theentire euro-zone bank debt. Now that isoverwhelming: to put it in context, every man,woman and child pays €9,000 of bad bank debt,compared with €192 per capita in other euro-zone states. (These figures were supplied byMichael Taft of Unite.)

Connolly understood that the working classneeded fighting, militant trade unions todefend their interests, given the irreconcilabledivisions between workers and a capitalistclass that sought to brutally maximise profitsat its expense. But trade unions are only onepart of the representative coin. It is politicalparties that make the decisions that affect allcitizens. The question is, are trade unioninterests being represented by present LabourParty policy?

We must build onConnolly’s legacy But it is our time, our fight, our history in the making. Take to the streets with pride, and march behind your trade union banner on 9 February

Number 98 February 2013 €1

Inside this issueCPI calls for support for the ICTUdemonstration page 2The ICTU’s “better, fairer debt” strategypage 22013: the continuing of the greatscattering page 3‘Social Europe’ for the EU’S privilegedpage 4Rarefied Davos air fosters elite illusionspage 5More on monopolies globally page 6Democracy and the crisis Part 1 page 7Is Ireland a tax haven? page 8Another imperialist intervention in Africapage 10Slanted media attack Caribbean socialismpage 11FILM Red westerns page 12

Socialist Voice3 East Essex Street · Dublin 2(01) 6708707www.communistpartyofireland.ie

We have long advocated a strategy forthe organised trade union movementwhereby it would not only take the leadin the struggle against austerity but takea central role in opposition to thesocialised corporate debt.

The signs coming from the ICTU arenot good. The demonstration planned forthe 9th, while very important, can onlybe the first step towards a much morefocused and sustained strategy. Theyhave not presented any clear demands,given no direction to members aboutwhat they should be demanding. Theyhave reduced organising workers to anexpensive PR campaign costing €340,000of members’ money for half a dozen one-off demos.

The fact that no leading trade unionofficer was to speak on the platform atthe Dublin demonstration shows a clearabdication of responsibility. The reasongiven is that they wanted one clearmessage for the media on the day, andthey didn’t want to be booed, as theyhave been at previous demonstrations,particularly in the pre-budgetdemonstration organised last December

by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions.Very few of our esteemed leaders cut

their teeth in the rough-and-tumble ofgeneral meetings of members, of branchand section committees, never mindstrike committees. There they wouldhave experienced the sharpness ofdebate and arguments that would havemade the few boos from a few hecklersseem pretty tame.

No, the real reason is that they didn’twant any critical voices from theplatform. They did not imposecensorship: rather they cover theircomplete capitulation under the guise ofnot confusing the message or havingtheir message lost because of a few boos.And one suspects the fundamental reasonis that they didn’t want any criticalwords directed at the Labour Party ingovernment: no demands for non-payment or calls for repudiation of thedebt to be articulated.

The demonstrations have been calledto back up the Government’s negotiatingon the promissory notes, not oppositionto the socialised corporate debt imposedon the people by the EU and the Irish

establishment. The Government’sposition is to pay the debt, onlyextending the repayments over a longerperiod.

The ICTU in effect has reduced itsdemands to a “better, fairer debt.” Theyare still following the logic of “socialpartnership.” If we back you up in regardto the debt, you give us something inCroke Park II. We will deliver andmanage our members’ expectations.

The ICTU has no policy on the debtother than the one the Government givesit. Its overpaid advisers have nothing tooffer, neither have those employed as“economists” within the trade unionmovement anything to say that is not a“better, fairer debt” strategy. They areco-ordinating their efforts with theGovernment to ensure the passing ofCroke Park II.

If there is to be another Croke Parkdeal it will lead to the destruction oftrade union organisations in the publicsector, just as “social partnership”destroyed trade union organisation inthe private sector. [EMC]

CPI backs the ICTUdemonstrationTake a stand—but make it your stand. TheICTU leadership has called for majordemonstrations on Saturday 9 February.Demonstrations are taking place in Dublin,Waterford, Cork, Sligo, and Limerick. Themain theme of the demonstrations is therestructuring the bank debt. The CPIsupports that call to rally.

The ICTU slogan is “Lift the burden:jobs, not debt.” It is arguing that the €64billion bank debt is unsustainable andmust be restructured.

While we do not agree with the ICTU’seconomic analysis of dealing with thecrisis, we do call on all people to supportthe demonstration.

There are several flaws in the ICTU’sstrategy, not least the fact that it appearsto have given up on any notion ofnational sovereignty. It argues that weneed to convince the European Unionthat Ireland needs a deal on the bankdebt, and that the trade union movementneeds to support the Government inmaking this case.

Now, while some people may thinkthere is some merit in this argument, thedifficulty with this is that we are lettingthe Government off the hook. This is flawnumber 1.

page 2 SOCIALIST VOICE

The ICTU would appear to haveconveniently forgotten that itwas this Government that

introduced the horrific budget inDecember 2012.

This was a budget that attacked thepoorest and the most vulnerabledisproportionately (a lot of trade unionists andtheir families are suffering), while leaving thewealthy relatively unscathed. And theGovernment called this a “fair budget.”

The Government had choices, just as theyhad choices when they were elected andinstead of pursuing a policy of blindcompliance and deference to the Europeanbanking institutions they could have chosen adifferent road and could have repudiated thebank debt.

The real reason for not taking a differentapproach is that we have a neo-liberalGovernment, pursuing neo-liberal policies,and these policies are in the interests ofcapitalists and not of the people as a whole.

We cannot pay the €3.1 billion promissorynote, and we should not pay it. It is not a debtowed by trade unionists, communityorganisations, or the unemployed. It is a debtbelonging to speculators.

The ICTU wants trade unionists todemonstrate against European bankers that

are crippling Ireland. Good. But this is wherethe problem becomes evident. The Europeanbankers are crippling Ireland on behalf ofbankers as a whole, and these include our ownbankers at home. Flaw number 3, which isprobably the biggest mistake of all for thetrade union movement, is the notion thatrallying around the Government on this willsave the Croke Park deal—or, which is muchthe same thing, make Croke Park mark IImore bearable. This is a delusion. TheGovernment’s policy towards the labourmarket and the public sector will not alter ifthe terms of the bank debt are modified.There are two reasons for this. The first isthat the Labour Party has no traction on FineGael’s determination to privatise, marketiseand disassemble the public sector, in theinterests of private investors and providers.The second is that bank debt relief will haveno short-term effect on the gap between whatthe Government borrows and what it spends.The coalition—including the Labour Party—isin thrall to the neo-liberal solution to thisproblem: austerity, austerity, austerity.

So when we take a stand—make it yourstand:n No to bank debt.n No to austerity.n No to the austerity Government.

Who is responsible foreconomic policy?

The ICTU’s ‘better, fairer debt’ strategy

SOCIALIST VOICE page 3

The economic crisis continues to take aheavy toll on working people across theboard, while the spoofing fromGovernment ministers, in particularfrom the Labour Party, continues to talkup the “recovery” under way. The mix ofGovernment policies is working, and theicing on the cake will be a deal on thebank promissory note.

The recent reports from the Central Bankand the ESRI have both revised their growthforecasts downwards for 2013, and neithersees any improvement in the job situation.

The ESRI is predicting that employmentwill remain unchanged, at about 1.83 million,and will rise by 7,000 during 2014. Growth inemployment has been focused on the privatesector, in particular in the exportingtransnational sectors.

The Government, Central Bank and ESRIfigures are all predicated on a growth ofexports into the extremely sluggish economiesof the European Union, Britain, and theUnited States.

The EU, the British government and theObama government in the United States areencouraging the same argument: that growthin employment will come about throughincreased exports. So if they are all exporting,who will be importing?

At the same time the state is promotingearly retirement from the public sector. Morejobs will be lost in the public sector than canbe replaced in the private sector. So it is aspiral downwards in regard to jobs and joblosses.

There are 429,000 people registered asunemployed who sign on at Social Welfareoffices—despite the fact that the minister for

“social protection,” Joan Burton, claims thatthe figure is 324,000.

There are an additional 83,400 people onback-to-work and community schemes.Putting these figures together, we have morethan half a million people looking for andneeding work.

The Government’s great initiative for thisyear was the “Gathering”—an appeal to theIrish people who were forced to leave thecountry to look for work, generation aftergeneration, to come home for their holidays, tospend money and boost the economy, while atthe same time emigration denudes the townsand villages of our youth and young families.Those who can walk are being pushed ontoevery available plane out of the country. Thisis clearly seen in the fact that unemploymentin the 25–30 bracket has gone down, becauseof the mass emigration of our youth.

The population of the Republic grew by341,900 between 2006 and 2011; but therewere 48,900 fewer between 20 to 24 in 2011than there were in 2006, 12,300 fewerbetween 25 and 29, and 9,900 fewer between15 and 19. The great Scattering grows apace.

The economic and social policy of thisGovernment is to drive the greatest possiblenumber of people, in particular our youth, outof the country as quickly as possible. This hasalways been their answer to their failure tocreate a sustainable economic base.

What is clear is that capitalism itselfcannot create stability, nor the tens ofthousands of jobs required. Stability and jobcreation will be achieved only with theestablishment of a planned economy and asociety organised to meet the needs of thepeople and the environment. [EMC]

2013: the continuing ofthe great scattering

Introducing Marxism‘The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways: the point, however, is to change.’Karl Marx

11-00am - 12-30pmSaturday 9 February: Why Class MattersThemes: Classes and class struggle; Historical Materialism.

Saturday 23 February: The State, Democracy and Social RevolutionThemes: A look at the state we're in. What constitutes the state?

Saturday 9 March: Economics: Neutral Science or Arena of Struggle?Themes: The labour theory of value and its relevance today

Further details: www.communistpartyofireland.ie

James Stewart 1934—2013 The Communist Party of Irelandexpresses its deepest sympathy with thefamily of Jimmy Stewart: with his wife,Edwina, also a life long member andactivist of the CPI, and his two daughters,Helen and Moya, with all hisgrandchildren and extended family.

Jimmy Stewart was a former generalsecretary and former national chairperson ofthe CPI. For more than three decades heworked full- time for the party. Along withSeán Murray he drafted the party programme,Ireland’s Path to Socialism, in 1963, outliningthe political strategy and tactics of the CPI,which contributed to the emergence of theNorthern Ireland Civil Right Association in themid-1960s and the resulting mass mobilisationof working people for democratic demands.

He played a prominent role in the reunitingof the two parties, the Irish Workers’ Party inthe South and the Communist Party, NorthernIreland, in the North, to form one united all-Ireland communist movement.

A full account of the role and activities ofJimmy Stewart can be found atwww.communistpartyofireland.ie .pictured above in the Kremlin at the 70thanniversary celebrations of the Russian

Get the latest news and information . . .

l Connolly Youth Movement: www.cym.iel Cuba Support Group: www.cubasupport.coml International Brigades CommemorationCommittee:homepage.ntlworld.com/e-mckinley/ibcc.htmll Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign:www.ipsc.iel James Connolly Education Trust:www.iol.ie/~sob/jcetl Latin America Solidarity Centre: www.lasc.iel Peace and Neutrality Alliance: www.pana.iel People’s Movement: www.people.iel Progressive Film Club:www.progressivefilmclub.iel Repudiate the Debt Campaign:www.nodebt.iel Trade Union Left Forum:www.tuleftforum.com

page 4 SOCIALIST VOICE

Within the European Union Commission,Andor László’s is not a powerful voice.He isn’t listened to in the same way as,for example, “Supercommissioner” (andSuper-budget-fetishist) Olli Rehn. Yetoccasionally Andor, EU Commissionerfor Social Affairs and Employment, has amessage that even the Commission has tolisten to.

The statistics are alarming. In the EU theunemployment rate has reached 10.4 per cent,which is an increase of 0.9 percentage pointssince 2011. In the euro zone the figure is evenhigher, at 11.6 per cent.

What this means is that more than one inevery nine people in the potential work forceis without a job. Among those between theages of 15 and 24 the rate is as high as 22.8per cent.

An entire generation is threatened byexclusion from the labour market and the lossof any future. The growth of poverty is equallyspectacular, with one in four menaced bypoverty. Work is no guarantee that you won’tfind yourself poor, with one in twelveemployed people living below the povertyline—proving that new jobs often don’tprovide a living wage.

What is demonstrated by Andor’s report isthat a different course must be followed if wesee social provision not as a luxury but as a

necessity for a humane society and a shock-resistant economy. That demands a completereversal of the present policies of the EUCommission and leaders of member-stategovernments, who continue to stick strictly tothe 3 per cent norm.

‘An entire generation isthreatened by exclusionfrom the labour marketand the loss of anyfuture’

In addition to budgetary goals we shouldbe establishing goals for employment and forthe fight against poverty, and these should bemore than vague criteria but rather definite,well-defined and measurable objectives.

But Eurocrats would not be Eurocrats ifthey didn’t immediately deduce from this thatBrussels must have more power.

And how would they use that power?Recent revelations about the misuse of EUsubsidies proves once again that differentpriorities prevail in the EU.

There is a good case for having

transnational corporations disqualified fromreceiving EU subsidies designed to contributeto the development of poorer regions and for atightening up of the rules governing suchsubsidies. Agriculture subsidies are beingpaid to golf clubs and to the British royalfamily. Now, for the umpteenth time, it hasbeen shown that money meant to helpunemployed people in poor member-states isbeing spent on luxury courses for themanagerial staff of profit-makingcorporations, such as Unilever, Pepsi,Mercedes-Benz, and Deutsche Bank.

European Union subsidies are notsupposed to be used to beef up the profits ofbig firms, and the European rules should banthis.

The European Court of Auditors has stillnever been able to approve a budget, for themost part because of inadequate monitoringin the member-states. The Court of Auditorsalso has justifiable concerns over theeffectiveness of the funds.

In the continuing negotiations on the EU’smulti-annual budget, governments are quiterightly trying to have national contributionslowered; but questions of monitoring andcontrol continue to be a side issue. Even worsethan handing over too much cash to Brusselsis seeing it badly spent and used to enrich theprofits of wealthy transnationals. [COM]

‘Social Europe’ for the European Union’sprivileged elite

SOCIALIST VOICE page 5

The 2,600 members of the globalelite convened at their exclu-sive retreat in Davos,

Switzerland, once again set about“improving the state of the world.” Acolumnist in the Financial Timesdescribed it as the most optimisticmeeting since 2007.

In a certain respect, the cautioushopefulness of the 2013 meeting was perhapsjustified, as it was only a year ago that theretreat was pre-empted by warnings of alooming period of “evil” and the potential“collapse of the financial system” from no lessthan George Soros.

Yet one year later, while optimism gains afoothold among the world’s elite, the evil doledout by global capitalism continues unabated.

According to a recent report by theInternational Labour Organization, “thenumber of unemployed worldwide rose by 4.2million in 2012 to over 197 million.” And, asthe report goes on to warn, globalunemployment could increase even further in2013.

Global youth unemployment, meanwhile,remains particularly dire. According to the ILOreport, nearly 74 million people between theages of 15 and 24 are unemployed. “Some 35per cent of unemployed youth in advancedeconomies have been out of a job for sixmonths or longer,” the report states. “As aconsequence, increasing numbers of youngpeople are getting discouraged and leaving thelabour market.”

And for those now languishing in the globalreserve army of labour, the forecasts formeagre growth offer little hope of a reprieve.According to the latest World EconomicOutlook by the International Monetary Fund,global growth is predicted to reach 3½ per centin 2013. That is a downward revision of 0.1 percent from the fund’s October outlook. But it ismuch worse for the advanced economies.

The IMF predicts that the euro area willcontract by 0.2 per cent in 2013, withcontractions in Italy and Spain of 1 and 1½ percent, respectively. In France, where youthunemployment is already over 25 per cent,growth is projected to register a measly 0.3 percent.

In Britain it is the spectre of a triple-diprecession that looms, after a contraction of 0.3per cent was seen in the last quarter of 2012.As the Guardian reports, “the economyremains 3.5% below its peak in 2007 and is notexpected to regain its previous level for at leastanother two years, making it the longestrecovery in 100 years.”

Growth in the United States, meanwhile, isprojected by the IMF to come in at 2 per cent—a downward revision of 0.1 per cent from theOctober outlook. And all this as equality in the

United States continues to worsen. A report bythe influential US Economic Policy Institutereveals that real annual wages of the top 1 percent of earners grew by 8.2 per cent from 2009to 2011, while the real annual wages of thebottom 90 per cent continued to decline,eroding by 1.2 per cent between 2009 and2011.

One important cause of the rapid wage andincome growth of the highest earners—particularly the top 1 per cent—is the sharpincrease in corporate CEOs’ pay. Another isthe expansion of the financial sector and theincreased pay, relative to other workers, ofthose in the this sector.

Other factors contributing to the generalincrease in wage inequality include policydecisions (of omission as well as commission),such as those concerning globalisation, theminimum wage, collective bargaining rights,industry deregulation, and unemployment.

But even the bleak outlook for the world’sadvanced economies may be too optimistic. Asthe IMF cautions, “downside risks remainsignificant, including prolonged stagnation inthe euro area and excessive short-term fiscaltightening in the United States.”

Indeed, as the Economist warns, “you mightthink that six years after the global financialcrisis first broke, the downturn would be wellbehind us and the economy would be hummingalong. Instead, huge swaths of the world seemto be embarking on a Japanese-styleexperiment with long-term stagnation.”

This is precisely what the Marxist scholarsJohn Bellamy Foster and Robert McChesneyargue in their latest book, The Endless Crisis.Showing that the globalised system ofmonopoly-finance capital is characterised by adangerous stagnation-financialisation trap,Foster and McChesney argue that it is in factstagnation that is now the norm—not growth.And this stagnant reality has left greaterfinancialisation as the only acceptable remedyfor the global elite.

“Yet,” they write, “rather than overcomingthe stagnation problem, this renewedfinancialisation will only serve at best to putoff the problem, while piling on furthercontradictions, setting the stage for even biggershocks in the future.”

Of course, working out how to put off theproblem, while piling on further contradictions,is where the World Economic Forum comes in.After all, despite the pretentious claims of“improving the state of the world,” Davos isreally little more than a posh mountain retreatheld for global elites hell-bent on preservingtheir own privileged class positions.

And, in this sense, the growing talk of an“economic recovery” is the by-product of aworld suspended in an illusion cultivatedannually high up in the Swiss Alps.

Rarefied Davos air fosters elite illusions

Poverty and wealth in FranceThe crisis of the system is hitting workerseven in the heartland of the European Union.Workers, pensioners and the sick are allpaying a heavy price.

According to a recent survey, almost aquarter of French people have little or nothingleft to live on at the end of the month. These“nouveaux pauvres” are students, singleparents, casual workers, and the elderly.

With the rise in fixed expenses, such asrent, public transport, electricity, and health,French people on small salaries are havingdifficulty making ends meet. Between 12 and15 million of them, who live just above thepoverty line (€954 per month), are strugglingby the end of the month.• The minimum wage of approximately €1,100a month is no longer enough to make endsmeet.• 2.2 million workers have to combine severaljobs in order to survive.• The average state pension of France’s 15million pensioners is only €1,200.• Unemployment reached 3 million for thefirst time in more than ten years.

The “Restos du Cœur,” the charity createdby the late French actor and comedianColuche, has seen a 25 per cent increase indemand for food in the space of three years.For many French people the crisis is so severethat they are no longer ashamed to askcharities for help.

And at the other end of the scale are someof the wealthiest French people:

The truth behind the myth of ‘socialEurope’

The president of the European Central Bank,Mario Draghi, declared to the Wall StreetJournal a year ago that “the European socialmodel has already gone.”

The reality is that the “European socialmodel,” which claimed that European “socialpartners”—trade unions and big business—were “all in it together,” was always anaspirational myth rather than a reality.

Cost of the Bank Bailout

A recent Eurostat study showed that Ireland,and Irish people, have paid the highest cost ofthe Bank Bailouts in Europe.

Ireland has paid 42% (€41 billion) of thetotal European Bank Bailout that is 25% ofIrish GDP. This compares to the €40 billionGermany has paid which is just 1.5% of itsGDP.

The bailout has cost Irish people €9,000per person compared to Germany’s €491 perperson and compared to an EU average of€192 per person.

What is important, however, to rememberis that the Irish bailout was ultimately payingback loans made to Irish financial institutionsby our ‘partners’ in Germany, Britain, France,Belgium and Holland. The Irish Guaranteewas a guarantee we would pay them back.

page 6 SOCIALIST VOICE

Socialist Voice over the last fewyears has tried to refute themyth of a highly competitive

capitalist system that innovates tocreate jobs and passes cost reduc-tions on to consumers, exposing it asa highly monopolised system inwhich production, wealth and ulti-mately power increasingly reside inthe hands of fewer and fewer compa-nies, institutions and individuals,with grave consequences for workingpeople in employment, democracyand the environment and for human-ity.

The fact that this is a monopoly systemmatters both in analysing the crisis today andin seeking to expose the weaknesses of thesystem and to present an ideological challengeto it, rather than promoting the restoration ofgrowth and profitability—i.e. savingcapitalism—as many on the “left” appear to bedoing.

Monopoly capitalism is driving thepauperisation of working people in a globalrace to the bottom as production becomeshighly internationalised and automated. Theconcentration of wealth under monopolycapitalism has increased the political powerand control of a tiny global elite, to thedetriment of national democracies. It hasconsistently prevented any serious orsignificant steps being taken to redressenvironmental destruction, as the largestpolluters are those that profit from itsdestruction. It is driving peasant communitiesoff the land, creating horrendous slums andunemployment, as land is increasinglymonopolised for single-commodity production.

The anarchy of production and theincreasing disconnection between productionand consumption create global instability andalmost constant overproduction. The growth offinance as an outlet for surplus accumulatedcapital, and the high concentration of thiscapital in the hands of a few players, adds tothis instability and gives rise to speculativebubbles that grossly distort and ultimatelydestroy local economies.

Billions starve while food is dumped.Billions stand idle where teachers and nursesare needed. Hundreds of millions are homelesswhile vacant houses are boarded up. Hundreds

of millions die from preventable disease whilemedicines are withheld.

This is monopoly capitalism today:disgusting and wasteful, serving the needs ofonly a few.

Let’s take a look at a selection of globalsectors and who the controlling powers are.

In the world of news and information, thelargest companies are GE, News Corp., Disney,Viacom, Time-Warner, and CBS, which controlabout 90 per cent of the market in the UnitedStates. News Corp. owns the biggest-sellingnewspapers in three continents, but theymaintain their separate brands to provide theillusion of choice. So, for example, GE ownsComcast, NBC, Universal Pictures, and FocusFeatures; News Corp. owns Fox, the WallStreet Journal, the New York Times and,closer to home, the Times (London) and theSun. It also has a large shareholding in BSkyBand is attempting to purchase Sky’s sports“rival,” ESPN.

‘Monopoly capitalism isdriving thepauperisation ofworking people’

Disney owns ABC, Miramax, Pixar, andMarvel. Viacom owns MTV, Nick Jnr, CMT,and Paramount. Time-Warner owns CNN,HBO, Time, and Warner Brothers. CBS ownsNFL.com, Smithsonian, Showtime, 60 Minutes,and Jeopardy.

In Ireland, of course, we have IndependentNews and Media, controlled by the O’Reillyfamily and Denis O’Brien, which owns theEvening Herald, Irish Independent, SundayIndependent, Sunday World, and Irish DailyStar, as well as fourteen regional titles.

Denis O’Brien’s Communicorp Group alsoowns Today FM and 98FM, Newstalk, Spin1038, and Spin South-West, as well as aboutforty other radio stations in Europe.

In accountancy in the late 1980s there wereabout eight global firms; by 2002, andfollowing the collapse of Arthur Anderson aspart of the fall-out of the Enron “creativeaccounts” fraud, this has been reduced to four.The “Big four,” as they are called, are Ernst

and Young, KPMG, Price-Waterhouse Cooper,and Deloitte. Their combined income grewfrom $89 billion in 2007 to $103 billion in2011.

Tobacco production is dominated by ChinaNational Tobacco, Philip Morris International,and British-American Tobacco, whosecombined market share is about 70 per cent ofglobal production. The four “ABCD” firms—ADM, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus—dominate the global trade in grain, along withthe global commodities trader Glencore andthe Marubeni group. Together they account forabout 90 per cent of the world’s grain trade.

In the area of new technology thesmartphone market is dominated by twocompanies, with 85 per cent of sales in 2012going to Android (Google) and iOS (Apple).

It is rarely that these companies are everpenalised for monopoly practices, such asprice-fixing and agreed division of markets,which they engage in constantly; butsometimes they are caught out and token finesare imposed. The technology companiesPhilips, LG and Panasonic were fined about€1½ billion by the EU Commission forengaging in a ten-year cartel, with regularmeetings between the companies to agreeprices in the region of 60 per cent abovemarket value. Microsoft reached an out-of-court settlement with the US government formonopoly practices, including takingadvantage of its near-monopoly position andprice-fixing; it faced similar charges in the EUand was fined for it. Naturally, Americanpoliticians jumped to its defence, describing itas an assault by Europeon successful Americanbusinesses.

American Movil, the biggest mobile networkin Latin America, was fined $1 billion in aMexican court for price-fixing on call charges.And Intel was fined $1½ billion by the EU forblocking tactics used in trying to destroy asmaller competitor.

These are only some of the few successfulcases, where the abuse is so outrageous thatthe authorities must act. But the practices aresystemic and part of monopoly production andaccumulation, particularly as the samecompanies struggle to find new avenues ofgrowth, with ripping off existing consumers innew and clever ways the easier growthstrategy. [NL]

More on monopolies globally

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SOCIALIST VOICE page 7

Connolly BooksDublin’s oldest radical bookshopThis is the place for H Irish history H politics H Marxist classics H philosophy H feminismH trade union affairs H environmental issues H progressive literature H radical periodicals

Connolly Books is named after James Connolly, Ireland’s socialist pioneer and martyr

Connolly Books is in East Essex Street, between Temple Bar and Parliament Street

The importance of democracy as a centralpart of any progressive programme,whether socialist or republican, at thepresent time cannot be overstated. It isvital that Marxists remain committed todemocracy in its real sense and advanceit as one component of the way forwardfor society out of the crisis in capitalism.

All around us we can see evidence of theerosion of even the limited scope of bourgeoisdemocracy, as the capitalist system and itsideologues want to be free of more of theconstraints on their actions. At the same timethe political and ideological bankruptcy ofmuch of social democracy, republicanism andthe left in Ireland has led to a collapse in thearticulation of a principled and coherentalternative to the status quo.

To quickly illustrate these claims, first lookat the way the establishment has attacked theidea that the people can and should participatein making the decisions about how society isorganised. Since the first referendum on theLisbon Treaty they have argued that the needfor referendums on changes in the EuropeanUnion is both inefficient and undermineselected representatives; that giving balanced

media coverage to the different sides in areferendum is unfair and inappropriate; andthat the people always concentrate on issuesthat are not contained in the proposals underconsideration.

The capitalist state in Ireland would clearlybe very happy to dissolve the people, thoughperhaps not so enthusiastic about electinganother..

‘bourgeois democracy isneither real democracynor a possible vehiclefor revolutionarychange’

Secondly, the complete capitulation of theLabour Party and its trade union supporters tothe agenda of capitalism and imperialism canbe seen in the actions and programme of thepresent Government. The Labour leadershipboasts that it is willing to make the “hard”decisions and that the EU-IMF programmemust be implemented so that the country can

“return to the markets.” Obviously, they cansee no alternative to capitalism andimperialism; unfortunately, they are not alone.

While Sinn Féin has opposed the austerityprogramme of the Government and argued fora greater share of the resulting burden to beshouldered by the better off, it too sees noalternative to capitalism: just witness itsargument that increased tax on higher incomescan be justified during the crisis but might beunfair at other times, or its acceptance that theEU-IMF targets are essentially correct, it isonly how they are achieved and over how longthat is in question.

Nor has the United Left Alliance or any ofthe independent left in the Dáil offered anyway forward: to an extent they have beentrapped in the parliamentary game, discussingbudgets and economic and fiscal policy withinthe terms of bourgeois democracy. While it isnecessary to engage with the establishmentdiscourse—this is part of the battle of ideas,the propaganda war—this is not enough.Proposing alternative sources of tax anddemanding more investment to create jobsremains firmly within the capitalist status quounless it is accompanied by demands thatchallenge capitalism’s organisation of theeconomy and society. They might produce asomewhat fairer distribution of wealth(certainly not a fair distribution), but any suchgains will inevitably be subjected to the classstruggle that is a continuing feature of classsociety.

At a time when political understanding andideology is at a very low level, the demand fordemocracy can be both a realistic approach andone that challenges the nature of the capitalistsystem. We know that bourgeois democracy isneither real democracy nor a possible vehiclefor revolutionary change. But our criticism of itshould be tempered by our understanding ofthe material conditions of class struggle inwhich it emerged in the modern era and inwhich it continues to exist.

The breaking free from earlier feudal andaristocratic forms of social control wasnecessary for the development of capitalism—and it was progressive in its context. Bourgeoisdemocracy has been called formal democracy orpolitical democracy by academics. It essentiallyprovides for a procedural equality in thepolitical process of decision-making withoutallowing any of the content of equality.

Part of the reason for this is that bourgeoisdemocracy is confined to the political sphereand does not address the crucial social andeconomic spheres. As a system, modernrepresentative democracy is not designed togive the people (the citizens) control over thedecisions that affect their lives and shapesociety. Most modern theorists of democracythink this is a good thing: like ourestablishment politicians and commentators,they do not believe that the people are capableof making the decisions that govern their lives,nor do they think that this would be desirable.[FC]

■ Part 2 will be published in March

Democracy and the crisisPart 1

page 8 SOCIALIST VOICE

Since the global economic crisishit in late 2007, a whole host ofcommentators have been trying

to unveil the root causes behind thecrash. One such area of study, empha-sised somewhat of late in left circles,especially with the introduction of thenew publication Irish Left Review, isthat of tax havens.

It is difficult to find an accepted definition ofa tax haven, as the categorisation of the havenis usually fashioned by the criteria of the study.In general, though, we can think of a tax havenas an entity such as a country that tailors itstax laws and regulatory procedures so as todraw capital from abroad, away from otherjurisdictions, by way of avoidance of tax andregulation, with maximum secrecy.

To understand the emergence and continuedvibrancy of tax-haven jurisdictions, somethought on their function in the global economicarena is worthy of consideration.

Individuals, companies or transnationalcorporations doing business in the globaleconomy have a duty to pay taxes in theircountry of residence. However, a company mayhave subsidiaries in numerous countries, withtax on its earnings paid at those countries’ rates.In such circumstances there might be thesituation of double taxation, where the earningsin country B are taxed first in country B andthen again in the home country, A.

Obviously, companies and the countries inwhich they legally reside have taken steps toavoid such a scenario, in the form of tax treaties,for example.

‘Ireland “hosts over half of the world’s top 50banks and half of thetop 20 insurancecompanies’

The other side of the coin is that there is agrowing incentive for those residents andcompanies to avail of double non-taxation,“income escaping tax altogether solely as aresult of crossing borders,” of which “theprimary target has been countries whichintentionally exempt capital from tax in oneway or another—in other words, tax havens”(Rosenzweig, 2010).

In this sense it can be demonstrated thatcountries that use tax laws to attract foreigninvestment are a result of the rules of theinternational tax regime, set up and dominatedby the interests of the G7 and the United Statesin particular: in other words, tax laws aredesigned and implemented by the capitalistclass in the interests of the capitalist class.

The deindustrialisation of many of the long-established capitalist countries has been one ofthe major factors in driving competition on taxpolicy. It is this tax competition that hasgenerated the incentive for countries to widentheir tax base by competing for foreign

Is Ireland a tax haven?Can the term ‘tax haven’be justly applied toIreland today?

SOCIALIST VOICE page 9

investment through such instruments as tax-free policies, “secrecy in various forms,avoidance of financial regulation, avoidance ofcriminal laws, [and] escape from other rules ofsociety such as inheritance or corporategovernance rules” (www.tackletaxhavens.com).

In other words, wealthy individuals orcorporations—in short, monopoly capitalism—will try to avoid paying taxes so long as thereare ways and means by which they caninfluence, manipulate or exploit the tax system.The private owners of industry don’t even wantto accept the dues they owe to its citizens in acapitalist system.

Countries that need foreign investment tomeet their minimum revenue requirements willtherefore take advantage of the high demandfor both low tax and low regulation.Jurisdictions do this by competing in variousfields, where they can, for example, employ taxrates that are less than the average in a certaingeographical area, or “offer tax exonerationscreated in the development of exportindustries” (Maneal, 2010), both of which arerelevant to Ireland.

The typical image of a tax haven is of asmall island country, such as the Bahamas orthe Cayman Islands. However, some recentstudies find that tax havens are flourishing inrich developed countries that offer differenttypes of incentive for foreign investment to setup in their jurisdiction.

One such study (Rosenzweig, 2010) thattries to explain the phenomenon of taxcompetition and tax havens contends that it isdue to (1) a capital neutrality paradox (“asbarriers to capital crossing borders are reduced,the ability to attract capital through taxcompetition increases”) and (2) punishmentparadoxes (“punishing countries which engagein tax competition as a result of the incentivesof the capital neutrality paradox willnecessarily be counterproductive”) that havedriven tax havens to more and more developedcountries, offering different degrees to which anentity can avoid paying tax. Rosenzweig (2010,p. 961) gives a realistic scenario in which thepunishment paradox leads to countriesengaging in tax competition:

Apply a similar analysis to a world withover one hundred countries, with theprogression moving from Bermuda, Jersey, andMauritius in the lowest tier, to Liechtensteinand Morocco in the next tier, and Austria,Ireland, and the Netherlands in the third tier.As nations punished Bermuda, Jersey, andMauritius, the incentive would shift toLiechtenstein and Morocco, and if nations thenpunished them the incentive would shift toAustria, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

So, rather than a decrease in the number oftax havens, as one would hope (seeing that taxavoidance can be very damaging to aneconomy), there has on the contrary been anincrease of various degrees in the number.

Whether it be a Cayman Islands style or anIrish style of tax haven depends on thepolitical, economic and social values prevalentin the country. We may think of tax havens,therefore, as having differing tiers or ranks, inwhich individuals or companies can avail of

their services to suit their purpose—in otherwords, with different jurisdictions specialisingin certain types of tax avoidance.

There are two major indicators, closelylinked, that would consider Ireland as being atax haven. The first is its low corporation tax,relative to other European states, of 12½ percent. The other is the presence of the IrishFinancial Service Centre.

Ireland has undergone major shifts in itseconomic policies, starting from a protectionisteconomy in the 1930s and 40s to what is now afully open economy, which had its beginnings inthe late 1950s with the introduction of exportsprofits tax relief in 1956, bringing about thefirst low foreign tax law.

This basically allowed the Government toset different rates of corporate tax for foreignand domestic industries. When Ireland joinedthe EEC in 1973 the differential tax rate wasconsidered discriminatory, and so the countryhad to adjust its tax policies, though the fullimplementation of a 12½ per cent tax on alltrading companies was not introduced until2003 (www.secrecyjurisdictions.com).

The very reason for this low tax rate is inline with the literature on tax havens discussedso far, in that Ireland made use of its sovereignability to set its tax rates at a lower level thanthe average in its geographical area to attractforeign investment.

Lower corporate tax rates, however, are onlyone side of the question of being considered atax haven. There are much cheaper countries(in terms of labour costs) and countries withlower taxes, in which manufacturing companiescan set up operations; so having the lowcorporate tax rate to attract manufacturingbusiness could not serve as a long-term solutionto maintaining the required tax base.

In the light of this, the development of theIFSC from 1987, under the direction of thecorrupt Taoiseach Charles Haughey and hisconsortium of investors, business links, andwealthy individuals, can be much betterunderstood as a move by the Irish state toappease monopoly capitalism and attractforeign investment by the other carrot, that is,“regulation havens in combination withmaximum secrecy” (Troost and Liebert, 2009).

As argued by Troost and Liebert, “since theEU’s new Eastern European Member Stateswere also courting investors with low tax rates,Ireland had to come up with fresh concessionsand built up the IFSC into a veritable shadowbanking system.” (Shadow banks behave likebanks, in that they borrow money and lend iton, at a profit; but they don’t take deposits fromordinary customers, and they fall outside theregulation system.) The Irish regulatoryauthority holds that it has no responsibility forinvestigating companies whose main place ofbusiness is outside Ireland.

The scale on which investment has grown inthe shadow banking system has “quadrupledbetween 2000 and 2006 to nearly €1.6 trillion—more than ten times as much as other forms offoreign direct investment in Ireland” (Troostand Liebert, 2009). And Ireland “hosts over halfof the world’s top 50 banks and half of the top20 insurance companies; in 2008 it hosted

about 8,000 funds handling €1.6 trillion ofassets; the Irish Stock Exchange hosts about aquarter of international bonds”(www.secrecyjurisdictions.com).

Can the term “tax haven” be justly appliedto Ireland today? As we have seen, comparingIreland to the Cayman Islands is too simplisticand isn’t reflective of the intricate globalcapitalist system. Therefore, when Ireland istaken out of isolation and into the globalmechanism it plays no small role in the plagueof global tax avoidance. Ireland is ranked 31stof 71 countries in the financial secrecy index. Itcan be rightly labelled a tax haven.

If we are to conclude that Ireland is a taxhaven, a fundamental problem arises in tryingto tackle the practices of tax and regulatoryavoidance. Because of the role foreigninvestment plays in the Irish economy, withouta vibrant indigenous manufacturing base thestate, in its present form, is totally subservientto the very policies that make it a tax haven!

One has to ask oneself if the type ofpoliticians and political parties that dominatethe political spectrum have either the desire orthe will to really tackle the monopolies and thescourge of tax avoidance. Even as recently as2012 it has been shown that very profitabletransnational corporations pay only a smallfraction of the prescribed 12½ per cent, whilethe Irish working class and its allies are hithardest with house taxes and water charges,being strangled and stripped of their services,their welfare and their public companies andslowly but surely losing all meaning of thewords “sovereignty” and “democracy.”

Tax avoidance is not a new phenomenon,but its scale is global and tiered, with Irelandplaced as an integral cog in monopolycapitalism’s wheel. The benefactors are theowners of the monopolies and their allies, whilethose who lose out are ordinary working people.

It’s not just a matter of tax justice: tacklingtax havens is a class issue, confronting head onthe owners of capital and their allies. If ourpresent political parties are unwilling to tacklethem, they need to be replaced with class-oriented parties and organised labour. Classwarfare has many battlefronts, and global taxhavens is just one such front. The need todevelop class-consciousness and build a strongclass-oriented party, such as the CPI, is asimportant now as it was a hundred years ago.[EON]

ReferencesManeal, Adrian Constantin, “The tax havens,between measures of economic stimulation andmeasures against tax evasion,” Bulletin of theTransilvania University of Braşov, Series VII:Social Sciences, Law, vol. 3 (52), 2010.Rosenzweig, Adam H., “Why are there taxhavens?” William and Mary Law Review, vol.52, issue 3 (December 2010), p. 923–996.Troost, Axel, and Liebert, Nicola, “Trillionsdown the drain of tax havens and shadowbanks,” Blätter für Deutsche undInternationale Politik, 3, 2009. (Available online at

page 10 SOCIALIST VOICE

International

Imperialism has once struck inAfrica. After Libya, now it is theturn of Mali. On 11 January,

France launched an aerial attack onthe country and had moved 2,500 ofits ground troops for action. The pur-ported motive is to save the countryfrom Islamist fundamentalists.Already reports of civilian casualtiesare pouring out. According to the UNHigh Commission for Refugees, near-ly 230,000 Malians were displacedinternally, and an additional 144,500were already refugees in neighbour-ing countries.

This is not all. The recent hostage crisis,which led to the death of citizens of manycountries in Algeria, shows that the crisis inMali is going to have repercussions for theentire Sahel-Sahara region.

The crisis in Mali began with the militarycoup in March 2012, just a month before theelections were to take place. The events thatfollowed rapidly plunged the country into adeep crisis—political, economic, and military.In April the Tuareg-led National Movement forthe Liberation of Azawad (NMLA) declared theindependence of the northern part of thecountry. Within a few months they had lostcontrol to three groups of Islamicfundamentalists. It was to “prevent” the“takeover” of the entire country by theseIslamist groups that France moved in. Or sothey claim.

President Hollande said the threat of aradical Islamic takeover was so imminent thathe had no choice but to intervene—to save notjust Mali but all of western Africa and, theFrench now imply, Europe as well. The publicrelations machinery of the Western countriesdish out the usual reasons for militaryintervention: “jihadists,” “threat to democracy,”“wipe out terrorism from the surface of theearth,” and “potential threat to European long-term security.”

Historically, France used its control of Malito ensure its hegemony over other colonialpossessions in Africa. The statement by the“socialist” president Hollande that “the age ofwhat was once called ‘Françafrique’ is over”reeks of hypocrisy.

Mali is crucial to the Africa Command ofthe US Army, created in 2008, and to thePentagon’s general “Middle East-NorthernAfrica” (MENA) outlook. Mali borders Algeria,Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Senegal, the IvoryCoast. and Guinea. And Mali is rich in naturalresources, with gold, uranium, bauxite, iron,manganese, tin, and copper. Studies point toplenty of unexplored oil in northern Mali.

The United States has been militarilyinvolved through the training of the Malian

army since 2001. In 2005 it established theTrans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership,comprising eleven African “partner” countries:Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Morocco,Tunisia, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger,Nigeria, and Senegal. Every year it conductsjoint military exercises in the region.

Incidentally, Captain Amadou HayaSanogo, who led the coup, was trained by theUnited States and was closely associated withAfrica Command. More recently, in June 2012,the United States came out with a NationalSecurity Strategy in Africa, with the usual guffabout “strengthening democratic institutions,”encouraging “economic growth, trade andinvestment,” “advancing peace and security,”and “promoting opportunity and development.”

Not to be left behind, the European Unionand, more importantly, France have an activeinterest in this region. The uranium depositsin Mali and the uranium mines inneighbouring Niger are of particular interest toFrance, which generates 78 per cent of itselectricity from nuclear energy.

In September 2011 the EU came out withits own version of “Strategy for Security andDevelopment in the Sahel.” This concludedthat “improving security and development inSahel has an obvious and direct impact onprotecting European citizens and interests andon the EU internal security situation.”

‘Historically, Franceused its control of Malito ensure its hegemonyover other colonialpossessions in Africa’

The active participation of China in theregion is also a matter of growing concern toboth the United States and the EU. TheChinese presence in the continent is increasingby the day, and Africa now provides a third ofthe energy needs of China. During this periodof global crisis, naturally the control of regionsrich in natural resources and markets assumesenhanced significance.

The domestic situation in Mali provided afertile ground for fundamentalist forces to takeroot. The global economic crisis had seriouslyaffected the country. Employment fell, withmany companies in the services sector closingor laying off workers. Most branches of theeconomy, with the exception of the miningindustry, are in bad shape because of thecrisis. The growing numbers of unemployed,falling wages and increasing prices of foodgrains and essentials created discontent among

the people.The fundamentalists took advantage of this

situation. It is a known fact that the SalafistGroup for Call and Combat, as it was knownuntil it was renamed AQIM in 2007, grew outof Algeria’s Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and iscontrolled by Algeria’s security and intelligenceservices.

The collapse of the Libyan government andthe defeat of Gadaffi led to a widespreadavailability of arms.

France is losing ground in many westAfrican countries. In recent elections inSenegal a president from the centre-left waselected, defeating the French stooge. The onlyconsolation for France is Côte d’Ivoire, where itstaged a militarily intervention two years ago.

In Mali too the progressive forces aregaining ground, which is worrying to the localelite and their international masters. A seriesof protests and strikes were organised by theworkers and students in the capital city,Bamako.

All these developments are viewed as a realthreat to French hegemony in this region, soFrance acted to take back power before thesituation spirals out of control.

With the pretext of Islamic fundamentalismnow available, France has moved to assumecontrol over this resource-rich region. TheUnited States, Canada and the major countriesin Europe are helping the French withfinancial assistance, in training the Malianarmy, and in the transporting of troops.

The plan would seem to be to have theactual fighting on the ground done largely bysoldiers from the Economic Community ofWestern African States. What they will befighting, however, is not only the Islamicfundamentalists but also the Tuaregnationalists (though the NMLA had welcomedthe French troops), who have been consistentlyfighting for their right to self-determination.

Already reports indicate that widespreadatrocities were being committed againstTuareg people and people of other minorities.

Mali is nearly twice the size of France orAfghanistan. Its terrain is varied. A prolongedguerrilla war would have devastating effectson the area, which would not be confined toMali, as was witnessed recently in Algeria. Theentire Sahel-Sahara region will be affected,and many fear that this might lead to theBalkanisation of the region.

It was only after the Second World Warthat many countries in Africa secured freedomfrom the colonial yoke. But the colonialists leftthese lands with boundaries that disregardedthe nationalities inhabiting them. Nowimperialism is re-entering the region, usingconflicts that stem from these artificialboundaries. [COM]

Another imperialist intervention in Africa

SOCIALIST VOICE page 11

Western media reporting has convincedmost people outside Cuba and Venezuelathat these countries are run bydictatorships that have ruined them. ButCubans and Venezuelans have access tomore information about their owncountries than foreigners who rely onviciously slanted media. So they keep re-electing the politicians who haveimproved their lives—much to theannoyance of the major capitalist mediaand their sponsors.

The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez,fighting for his life, has recently been thetarget of hate-filled journalism from some ofthe more influential publications on both sidesof the Atlantic.

An edition of El País, Spain’s mainnewspaper, influential also in Latin America,printed a grotesque front-page picture of afigure they claimed was Chávez, lying on hisback in a hospital bed, with tubes hanging outof his mouth. The picture was of somebodyelse, taken in 2008. It had to withdraw thisedition from the stands and apologisepublicly—but not to Chávez or his family, as ElPaís hates Chávez as much as it hates Cubandemocracy. (Its Cuban reports come from thejaundiced pen of Yoanni Sánchez, a well-knowndissident.)

An article in the New York Times claimedthat Venezuela had “dwindling productivity”and “an enormous foreign debt load.” In fact,under Chávez real GDP per capita, mostlydriven by growth in productivity, expanded by24 per cent from 2004. In the twenty previous

years, before Chávez, real GDP per person fell.As for the “enormous foreign debt load,”

Venezuela’s foreign public debt is about 28 percent of GDP, and the interest on it is about 2per cent of GDP. If this is “enormous,” have alook at the corresponding figures for Ireland!

So you can say almost anything you wantabout Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia,so long as it is bad, and it usually goesunquestioned. Statistics and data count fornothing when the mass media are presentingtheir ugly picture. Irish commentators oftenparrot such misleading propaganda, whichthen becomes solid fact, as we know to our cost,in the mind of the general public.

In the 28 January issue of the New Yorker(“Slumlord: What has Hugo Chávez wrought inVenezuela?”) we read that “the poorestVenezuelans are marginally better off thesedays.” Marginally? From 2004 to 2011 extremepoverty was slashed by about two-thirds.Poverty (measured by cash income) wasreduced by about a half. This doesn’t count theaccess to health care that millions now have, orthe doubling of university enrolment—withfree tuition for many.

Access to public pensions tripled.Unemployment is half of what it was whenChávez took office. Venezuela’s reduction inpoverty, growth in real income and other basicdata of the Chávez era are accepted byinternational statistics agencies, such as thoseof the World Bank and the United Nations. Butlet’s not allow universally agreed statistics getin the way of socialism-bashing!

This article is illustrated by grim

photographs of depressed-looking people ingrim surroundings, though internationalsurveys find Venezuelans to be among thehappiest people in Latin America and in theworld.

The rant goes on: “After nearly ageneration, Chávez leaves his countrymen withmany unanswered questions, but only onecertainty: the revolution that he tried to bringabout never really took place. It began withChávez, and with him, most likely it will end.”

What universe does that malicious hack livein? Even Chávez’s opponent in the Octoberpresidential election, Henrique Capriles, wasforced to promise voters that he would preserveand actually expand the Chávez-era socialschemes that had increased people’s access tohealth care and education. And after Chávezbeat him by a wide margin of 11 percentagepoints, Chávez’s party increased its share ofgovernorships from fifteen to twenty of thetwenty-three provinces, though Chávez himselfwas not even in the country.

Venezuela will not regress, as the majorityof Venezuelans have become used to sharing inthe country’s oil wealth through governmentschemes and higher levels of employment andincome in the private sector. Being savvy, theykeep re-electing their president and his party.

Why is a democratically elected president soviciously attacked, even when fighting for hisown life? It is because, like Cuba, he has thetemerity to show that socialism offers a viableand eco-friendly alternative to a neo-liberalcapitalist regimen that impoverishes themasses as it ravages the planet. [TMS]

Slanted media attackCaribbean socialism

Opinion

page 12 SOCIALIST VOICE

21st-Century Anti-ImperialismAndrew Murray’James Connolly Memorial Lecture, 2010 €2.50 (£2.10)

An Economy for the Common Good:Strategy for a New Direction. Analysis of the economic crisis and a

strategy for an alternative economy. €4.50

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FILMS

Red westernsWe all know well the classic Americanwestern, the story of the strapping andurbane frontiersman slaying the uncouthand uncivilised natives. We have all beenfed this brand of inaccurate andchauvinistic film-making almost sincebirth. These “cowboy and Injins” filmshave made such a cultural impact thatthere is a dangerous chance of them beingtaken, by the uninformed viewer, ashistorical fact.

Luckily, most of us know the truthregarding the “Old West”: the brutal coloniserscarrying out genocide against the NativeAmericans, using everything from swords tobiological warfare.

Within the propaganda-filled cocoon thatwas the American western film industry, aworld of pink waistcoats, John Wayne,chivalrous heroes, and good holy men, therewas no place for the truth. And Americanstudios were not the only ones to producewesterns: Europe was well known for its abilityto make such films, Italy in particular having athriving western film industry.

There were others, though. Such countriesas the German Democratic Republic (EastGermany), Yugoslavia and the USSR alsoproduced westerns.

These westerns, however, had little incommon with their Yankee counterparts.Instead of painting the invading colonists asproud heroes they portrayed the bestialextermination of the native people and theviolent theft of their lands. The films from theGerman Democratic Republic especially standout. These films, produced by Deutsche FilmAG or DEFA, notably made the NativeAmerican the protagonist. They showed thegenocide carried out against the native people,displaying the savage acts of ethnic cleansingand land seizure. The films were well written,beautifully shot, and, most importantly, toldthe story of resistance against the barbarous

US army and the imperial white settlers.These films were produced from the 1960s

onwards and acted as a counterbalance to theAmerican westerns. The East German filmswere incredibly popular in socialist countries.The Sons of the Great Bear, released in 1966,sold tens of millions of tickets in the first fewmonths after its release. It tells the story of theDakota Indians struggle to hold on to gold ithas discovered on its lands. The ruthless whitesettlers will do anything to take it from them.This tragic story perfectly represents the realstruggle of the native people to hold on to theirlands and the property found on them.

Other popular titles would follow. Suchfilms as Apaches and Chingachook joined TheSons of the Great Bear and many other titles toform a revolutionary collection of East Germanwesterns. More than anything else they stroveto expose the true nature of the “Old West.”They turned the traditional western on its headand sought to expose the festering truth frombehind the gentle colours and clichéd plots ofthe American western.

These films were big hits in socialist andprogressive countries, where the people werewell educated about the horrors of thatmalignancy that is colonialism. Their creatorslooked beyond the money-making business thatis the traditional film industry and insteadtried to produce art that would tell a righteousstory. They produced art that would expose thesuffering of native people in North Americaand show the true brutality of colonialism,whether in Latin America, Africa, or Oceania.

These films never did make it in the West.Their content would not have sat well with thecolonising states. The war crimes and crimesagainst humanity that they portrayed wouldhave not coexisted peacefully with the mythsthe United States has spread regarding thiseventful piece of its history.

The films are hard to get, but they areavailable. They should be watched, becausethey offer a more realistic experience. Thesewonderful tributes to East German cinemaserve a purpose. Like so many things in theenigmatic United States, one must look fromoutside for any shred of truth. These filmsprovide much of that truth and are, as theHollywood Reporter put it, “westerns with atwist.” [AF]

Women and the European Union (2009) by Deirdre Uí Bhrógáin €2.50