Top from left: Minister for Rural and Community Development Michael Ring, junior minister with special responsibility for rural digital development Seán Canney and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at a press conference last week approving the next step for broadband in rural Ireland; Bryan Wall

One of the major myths of capitalism promoted by its supporters is that it encourages innovation. That the best battle it out to rise to the top of the economic system, profit, and become household names.

If that was the case then why the need for massive transfers of wealth to the private sector via the state? The reason for this is because the myth of capitalism is indeed not only a myth, but a fatal flaw in the system.

Its insatiable need for new markets and constant profit is a result of it struggling to survive. And in that struggle it has always found a willing assistant in the state. Hannah Arendt argued that the colonialist and imperialist expansion of the European powers was because of the requirements of capitalism. New markets and increased profit were needed. Therefore, the might of the state was to be used to ensure this.

The same pattern continues today. Capitalism is continuing the same search but in a world where most of the markets have been filled; there is nothing more to exploit. But, there is always the chance to return to habits of old and exploit the common people directly.

In Europe, and especially here in Ireland, banks seeking out more profit by being reckless and breaking the law had to be saved, i.e., bailed out, by the government in order to ensure their profit margins were not affected. Essentially, an upward transfer of wealth. Banks profit, developers have their debts wiped, and the general population is left with the bill.

And we see this played out again and again – history repeating itself as farce – with the cost of construction of the National Children’s Hospital reaching nearly €2 billion. The more profit the better, just as long as the right people and the right companies do the profiting.

Now we have the National Broadband Plan to contend with and yet another transfer of wealth for no other reason than the fact that a transfer of wealth has to happen.

Never mind questions about private meetings the now former Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Denis Naughten had with the head of the then last remaining bidder on the broadband contract.

This is the same group which the government has decided to award the contract to. It’s also the same company who will own the broadband system once construction is complete and before they’ve even fronted most of the bill for it.

An article in The Sunday Times yesterday revealed that the company will be paying less than €200 million into the roughly €5 billion project.

As David McWilliams points out in the Irish Times, it appears that the investment they make will in part be funded by people paying their broadband bills.

So, the company pays little up front, the taxpayer via the government foots the bill, the government hands over the infrastructure to the company which then makes the larger share of its initial investment. And this investment is at least partially funded by the taxpayer directly via their bills. Death by a thousand deals.

We should be shocked. In a country with a functioning democracy and appropriate oversight the citizens would be shocked. Instead, we are resigned to the fact that this has happened before and will happen again.

The litany of controversies during the lifespan of our state has made us complacent; a case of having seen one controversy, seen them all. And given the scale of bank debt that was laden on us, a few billion for a national broadband network seems like small change by comparison. But we should be shocked and we should be angry.

We should be angry at a system that has been set up to reward private investors at the expense of everyone else.

We should be angry at a system that allows the health system in the country to slowly deteriorate so that it eventually be completely privatised.

This same system thought it appropriate that the average person on the street should shoulder some of the massive debt belonging to banks.

Welcome to neo-liberal Ireland; everything for them and nothing for ourselves. Dare to question the system directly and you’ll be dismissed as a naysayer. Try and take it on directly and you’ll feel the full assault of the government both physically and in the media.

Being part of the so-called sinister fringe should be seen as a badge of honour. It means that you believe that basic services that people rely on every day should be in the hands of the public.

They shouldn’t be in the hands individuals and companies whose ethical horizon extends only as far as their quarterly financial statements. The idea that there are certain things that shouldn’t be exploited for a profit and could – horror of horrors – be operated at a loss for the public good is completely alien to these same individuals.

And as much as services like water and health should remain in public hands, the national broadband network remain there too. Like it or not our societies rely on the internet for basic functions. The National Broadband Plan is akin to the rural electrification scheme.

Yet here we are. Our government is willing to hand it over to a private company. You could almost say determined given that it ignored the advice of Robert Watt. Watt, the secretary general of the Department of Public Expenditure, warned “against approval of the appointment of the preferred bidder”.

His argument was that it should not go ahead on the basis of affordability, risk, and the effect on other unrelated projects given the cost. He also took the step of saying the risk was “unprecedented”.

But it will go ahead. It has to. After all, a profit has to be made somewhere – just not by us.

Bryan Wall is an independent journalist based in Cork. His column usually appears here every Monday. Read more of Bryan’s work here and follow on Twitter:  @Bryan_Wall

Rollingnews

From top: Julian Assange arrested in central London last week; Bryan Wall

The arrest of Julian Assange by the British police is a watershed in journalism. Or at least it should be. Having fled to the Ecuadoran embassy 7 years ago, he now finds himself in a prison that the British government uses for convicted murderers and terrorists.

What Assange has done to warrant this treatment is to embarrass not only governments but also very powerful people who would rather have their actions hidden away from public view.

Hilary Clinton exemplifies this. In her leaked speeches to bankers she said that change “really has to come from the industry itself”, and not from wider political or social activism. In one speech she lauded herself for the fact that she “represented and worked with so many talented” bankers.

She went so far as to say that she “did all I could to make sure they continued to prosper”. Alas, she told representatives of Goldman Sachs that “there is such a bias against people who have led successful and/or complicated lives”.

Then there’s the US military itself which is what essentially put WikiLeaks on the map. With the leak of the Collateral Murder video by Chelsea Manning, the US military’s war crimes were broadcast to everyone with internet access. An American Apache helicopter targeted civilians and journalists for having the audacity to stand around on a street in Baghdad.

Of course our own native Atlantic backwater has not escaped mention in WikiLeaks’ gigantic archive. In leaked diplomatic cables Ireland’s relationship with the US at the time of the second Iraq war is described.

The cables say that “U.S.-Irish relations remains as strong as ever” despite protests over the US military’s use of Shannon airport. So strong that it was suggested that Bertie Ahern, then Taoiseach, be asked about “his willingness to send Irish peacekeepers to Iraq under a UN mandate”.

And in yet another leaked cable it was revealed that the then American Ambassador to Ireland, Thomas Foley, thanked the then foreign affairs minister, Dermot Ahern, for his “staunch rejection” of demands to inspect US military flights passing through Shannon airport.

This rejection included a demand to “inspect aircraft landing in Ireland that are alleged to have been involved in so-called extraordinary rendition flights”.

The cable noted that Ahern “seemed quite convinced that at least three flights involving renditions had refueled at Shannon Airport before or after conducting renditions elsewhere”. In 2013 a report by the Open Society Foundation identified Ireland as one of 54 countries involved in the extraordinary rendition programme.

Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are being punished for this and this alone. It has nothing to do with skipping bail or rape accusations. Assange has embarrassed on a massive scale the political masters of the world.

The defenders of the status quo have rounded on him, declaring that he is not a journalist. This is despite the fact that what Assange and WikiLeaks do is what countless other publications have done and continue to do: They publish documents leaked to them on a regular basis. Assange must be made to pay for the transgression of embarrassing the powerful.

The lead lawyer for the New York Times had this to say:

I think the prosecution of him [Assange] would be a very, very bad precedent for publishers. From that incident, from everything I know, he’s sort of in a classic publisher’s position and I think the law would have a very hard time drawing a distinction between The New York Times and WikiLeaks.

On a similar note, The Intercept reported last year that after years of investigation, the Obama administration decided not to prosecute Assange and WikiLeaks “for publishing classified information”.  This was because it surmised that:

‘…such a prosecution would pose a severe threat to press freedom because there would be no way to prosecute Assange for publishing classified documents without also prosecuting the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian and others for doing exactly the same thing.’

And this was not an opinion lightly taken. Obama prosecuted more “whistleblowers under the 1917 Espionage Act than all former presidents combined”. Given all of this, then, the stakes are clearly high.

The attack on Assange is an attack on the press worldwide. Take a step back and think about it. An Australian citizen is arrested in Britain at the behest of the American government for leaking documents related to the US military in Iraq.

In theory, American jurisdiction does not extend past its borders. Reality, it demonstrably appears, is very different. But there is an apparent awareness of this.

In Assange’s indictment the government states that his “offense [was] begun and committed outside of the jurisdiction of any particular State or district of the United States”. It also points out regarding the leaks that the “information so obtained could be used to the injury of the United States and the advantage of any foreign nation”.

The contradiction between jurisdiction and supposed criminality is not squared. It is a given that Assange is guilty because the US government and its cheerleaders in the media say he is.

You don’t have to like Assange. You may even loathe him, as many do. But that is a separate issue to the one at play here. Press freedoms across the world are now at risk because of the ability of the US government to arrest a journalist regardless of their citizenship or location.

And it still doesn’t come as a surprise. Despite everything we like to tell ourselves we figured someone, or some government, would get to Assange eventually. His arrest wasn’t a shock so much as the imagery of him being carried out of the embassy by the British police was.

Yet it should be shocking. All of it should terrify and anger us. Fascist totalitarianism has a tendency to be insidious. How we treat whistleblowers can be used as an indicator of how our societies are faring. Daniel Ellsberg’s treatment was no different.

Chelsea Manning is yet again imprisoned. And here on our own shores we have signals of the dangerous potential that lurks.

In 2007 Jonathan Sugarman became a risk manager at UniCredit in Dublin where he witnessed massive liquidity breaches on a daily basis. He wrote a letter, which he hand-delivered to the financial regulator’s office, which outlined the scale of the breaches.

Yet, “apart from the official acknowledgment there was no reaction”. Sugarman soon resigned from his position given the scale of the transgressions and the lack of action taken by the regulator.

He would eventually have a meeting with the Central Bank in May 2011 about UniCredit. He relates that “the Central Bank officials threatened to ‘hand me over’ to the Irish Director of Public Prosecution, should I divulge any further information regarding irregularities at UniCredit Bank”. This was despite the fact that the regulator had “announced that it would consider any information offered about the affair ‘in confidence’”.

Sugarman has paid for this with the loss of his career and a lack of consequences for his former employers.

Whistleblowers and those that publish their revelations are often held up to scorn and ridicule. But their role is imperative given the structure of our societies where wealth and power are hoarded and criminality goes unpunished.

Just as the attack on Sugarman was an attack on all of us, the attack on Assange is just as much so. Different men with different causes yet the consequences of their persecution sets us down a dangerous path which we have already trodden too far.

Bryan Wall is an independent journalist based in Cork. His column usually appears here every Monday but owing to the Bank Holiday… Read more of Bryan’s work here and follow on twitter:  @Bryan_Wall

Top pic: Reuters

From top: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Dublin city centre last month; Bryan Wall

Homeless people will now be able to use their local post office as an address at which to receive mail. Standards have fallen to such a degree that the media and the rest of us celebrate this fact without a second thought.

Of course many homeless people will use the service and it will allow them to access basic services that the rest of us take for granted.

But it doesn’t even begin to scrape the surface of what needs to be done and what is really needed. Instead of investing heavily in housing and associated projects a relative pittance is given to this new project.

Meanwhile, homeless rates and rents continue to increase without fail. Both have reached truly obscene levels. And the government doesn’t seem to care.

A Sinn Féin bill that would make it illegal “to evict tenants in buy-to-let properties on the grounds that the property is being sold” has been perfunctorily blocked by the government with Fianna Fáil’s support.

AIB can sell so-called “non performing loans” to an American vulture fund and the government doesn’t even bother to blush. This is despite the fact that the government owns roughly 71% of the bank. And then there’s the bill that would stop banks from selling mortgages to vulture funds without the permission of the borrowers.

The Department of Finance can say with a straight face “we are not convinced that for the current mortgage holder this Bill would necessarily do a lot for them”. It’s not like they don’t know what happens when mortgages are sold to vulture funds.

As reported by the Washington Post, in the US city of Memphis, Cerberus, using a property company, “files for eviction at twice the rate of other rental home property managers”.

In the same article it is pointed out that:

Cerberus-owned homes in Memphis also racked up property code violations this year at a consistently higher rate than other single-family rentals in the same neighborhoods, equal to a new violation every day or two.

And it is Cerberus who just bought from AIB 2,200 loans for “mostly buy-to-let properties” for nearly €1 billion.

But this is all perfectly acceptable. This is how the system is supposed to function. People, who are supposedly citizens with inherent rights, can’t be allowed to stand in the way of profit. They also can’t be allowed to stand in the way of egotism.

Hence we have a Taoiseach whose letter to a pop star asking for an audience with her is the pinnacle of government mediocrity.

Using the headed paper of the Taoiseach’s office Leo Varadkar would rather a nice photo opportunity than actually use the same paper to achieve something that might help people. But that would be counter to free market principles and therefore it’s a non-starter.

It has been somewhat overblown, especially on social media. However, it does reinforce a point I’ve previously made here: Leo says what he means and he believes what he says.

That explains his office fighting against the freedom of information request to have the letter released. He understands propaganda and he definitely understands a propaganda disaster like the publication of a fawning letter he sent to a pop star on the same date that a national housing rally was taking place.

And there’s his defence of TDs accepting tickets to matches from the FAI. This, he says, is a non-issue. In the world of neo-liberalism the government is supposed to be chummy with big business.

Even though the FAI is a hardly the Apple or Google of the soccer world, it is a valuable sinecure for certain of its noteworthy members. And just because members of the Dáil, who are supposed to have oversight of it, receive gifts from it does not mean they will not be effective in their jobs. As we all know, politicians regularly bite the wealthy hand that feeds. Therefore, oversight of the FAI is assured against any untowardness.

So, this is the situation we find ourselves in. The homeless can remain homeless knowing that at least they’ll get their mail. And the Taoiseach can use his position to live out his fandom fantasies. How can any of this bode well for the future of the country?

With the rise of the far right and its various representatives in Ireland we are faced with challenges on two fronts: Fighting against a corrupt government enthralled to neo-liberalism and at the same time fighting a rearguard action against the extremists in our midst who are attempting to use the massive discontent in Ireland to both empower and embolden themselves even further.

This is the pattern right across Europe as the far right tries to profit from governmental malfeasance and its lack of concern for the people who voted them into power.

The left have a lot of catching up to do but there are some successes, such as the Connolly Youth Movement here in Ireland. New branches have begun appearing throughout the country, signifying that there is an appetite for a left wing movement that places activism, education, and solidarity over moral pontification. The other major left-wing parties would do well to take notice.

As for what’s next, it’s always hard to predict the future, especially when it comes to political or social issues. But one thing is certain: Unless neo-liberalism and its defenders in the Dáil can be gotten rid of once and for all then our future is one that will make dystopian fiction redundant.

Defenders of the neo-liberal faith will continue to enrich themselves while the population grows poorer and sicker. And with nowhere to live, expect homelessness to increase too. In a debt-laden society where the government puts profit above everything else, don’t expect basic social welfare services to remain in place for much longer.

But, when the inevitable comes, at least we’ll all still be able to get our mail.

Bryan Wall is an independent journalist based in Cork. His column usually appears here every Monday but owing to the Bank Holiday… Read more of Bryan’s work here and follow on twitter:  @Bryan_Wall

Rollingnews

From top: Netta Barzilai after winning the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest securing Israel the right to host this year’s competition; Ireland’s entrant Sarah McTernan; Bryan Wall

It’s hard to imagine that the Eurovision song contest would become a political issue. Of course, there is the phrase of George Orwell’s that “All issues are political issues”. But the Eurovision contest?

How seriously it is usually taken varies from country to country. Ireland’s record on it is mixed. All in all though, we usually treat it as something anodyne; a harmless distraction that comes around for one night, once a year. This time it’s different. This year the contest is being held in Israel.

For Israel, the Eurovision is an opportunity to whitewash itself as it is so often found of doing. It can present itself to the world as a liberal, western nation that likes the same things we do.

Given the reality of the situation, hosting Eurovision is a propaganda coup of exceptional proportions. And as a result, there have been calls to boycott the competition.

Charlie McGettigan, a former Irish winner of the competition, has also added their name to the list of those opposed it being held in Israel. As has Mike Murphy. RTÉ and others have decided any controversy about this can be ignored.

The result is the claim that calls for a boycott are unfair to both viewers and Ireland’s representative this year. We are given to believe that it is simply a bunch of ne’er-do-wells being difficult.

So what’s the problem?

Israel is a state unlike many others. Its status is exceptional. Its boundaries are variable depending on military necessity. It is not a state of its citizens, making it an extreme outlier compared to the rest of the world. Instead, it is the state of the Jewish people, a not so subtle or unimportant distinction.

The religious right hold a substantial amount of power both politically and socially. But probably most importantly, the state is highly militarised. And this reaches right down through all the layers of Israeli society. It is a military society par excellence.

Netta Barzilai, Israel’s entry for Eurovision last year and who won the competition is herself a military veteran. As are the majority of Israelis. This is because military service is mandatory.

But not only are the Israelis that Sarah McTernan is expected to perform for either currently in the military or former members, the majority of them believe in an Israeli-Jewish ascendency.

Most Israelis believe “crucial decisions on security matters should only be made by a Jewish majority vote”.  A majority also believe “a Jewish majority vote is essential for decisions pertaining to economy or society”.

At the same time, and unsurprisingly, the Israeli military is the most trusted institution in Israeli society. It is a modern Sparta.

This is hardly surprising given the militarisation of the state. And all of this is without taking into account the treatment of the Palestinians.

This is why Eurovision will be such a propaganda victory for Israel if the competition goes ahead. And it is also why calls for McTernan to pull out of the competition should be taken seriously.

She, along with all of the other performers, will be used to present a veneer of respectability over gross human rights violations and a state whose politics skew heavily to the right.

It’s an old tactic used by the state’s supporters. They encourage people without a deep understanding to look at how liberal and progressive Israel is compared to other countries.

It means ignoring the razing of Palestinians lands and homes, not to mention the history of their ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Israel’s founders less than 100 years ago. It means ignoring the apartheid system there.

A system that ensures that citizenship and equal rights are premised on the idea that one is not a Palestinian. And this is just the Palestinians who live within the internationally recognised borders of Israel. This doesn’t include the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Palestinian suffering at the hands of the Israeli state and society is therefore not something that should be cast aside in the name of artistic freedom or neutrality. To claim be neutral in a situation such as this is to be complicit. Justice demands, at a bare minimum, our solidarity with victims of injustice.

The Palestinian cause is deserving of our solidarity. Right now this means calling for a boycott of the Eurovision contest on these grounds.

Many Irish artists have already pledged to boycott Israel so the request of McTernan is nothing unique. Nor is it bullying, despite what others like to claim. It should be seen as part of a wider movement by which to pressure Israel into accepting the idea that Palestinians are entitled to basic fundamental rights.

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement does just this. Israel will continue to flout the rights of Palestinians so long as their Occupation and persecution is cost-free. A boycott costs the Israelis, both economically and socially. And it is working.

How else can you explain the sheer effort that the Israeli government has put in to countering the boycott? It does everything from smearing advocates of BDS to employing legions of people to promote the Israeli viewpoint online.

This Hasbara as it is known is the biggest indication that BDS terrifies the Israeli government. On top of this is also the evidence that the Israeli government has lobbied the Irish government to block the Occupied Territories Bill.

A letter, obtained via a freedom of information request, was sent from the Chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Isaac Herzog, to Simon Coveney, the minister for foreign affairs. Herzog called the bill, which if enacted would outlaw trade with Israeli settlements, anti-Semitic.

He also went so far as to say there are some “who would interpret it as an official encouragement to more hostility, and indeed more hostilities” in the region.What’s more, he said that he was “offering my help to try and prevent it” from becoming law. In closing, he told Coveney “We need to join efforts to block this Bill”.

Although the bill is unlikely to become law it already represents a victory of sorts. It shows Palestinians that people do care about them and their future, as well as their past. And it shows the Israeli government that brutality and occupation comes with a price.

For these reasons the Eurovision this year is anything but normal. It is a chance to damage the Israeli propaganda machine that tries to convince the world that the Palestinians are a free people, if they even exist at all.

We can play our part in that if we care about human dignity and rights. And so can Sarah McTernan.

Bryan Wall is an independent journalist based in Cork. His column usually appears here every Monday but owing to the Bank Holiday… Read more of Bryan’s work here and follow on twitter:  @Bryan_Wall

Previously: EU May Like This

Pics: Getty/The Irish Sun

From top: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection Regina Doherty,  Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Buisness, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphries TD  after a special cabinet meeting in The Academy in Dublin last Friday; Bryan Wall

Inequality in Ireland has become so commonplace that any reporting of it is accepted and then quickly forgotten about. We have a health service on the verge of collapse, a housing and homelessness crisis, and an elite indifferent to the needs of the many.

This is the status quo of many societies in the West. It’s no different here. It also explains the attraction that many have for the far right and its various elements. Mainstream politics has noticeably failed to bring about equality and justice.

The far right offers — or at least claims to offer — a different way of doing things; one which will bring greater justice and equality to society.

These individuals and groups are ascendant but they do not pose the threat that the mainstream political right do, at least not yet. The latter hold the economic reins. It is to them that we are beholden and to whom we all have to answer in some manner.

But do not think for a second that the reverse is also true. Political elites claim to answer to the people but this is far from accurate. In many cases they have to be forced to listen. Often this involves the use of mass movements. And on more than a few occasions it involves outright aggression.

What will it take for elites in Ireland to listen?

Will threats to their political popularity prick up their ears? Or would a mobile guillotine on a nationwide tour be more effective? The anger is palpable here, let’s not be mistaken about this.

There are literally thousands of people without a home. And there are many more who will never have a chance to own a home of their own. Insane house prices and a government with no interest in providing housing have left them without a chance of ever being able to afford one

There are even more people on hospital waiting lists. We have unemployed people being sanctioned for daring to be unemployed. Their future is being determined by a privatised welfare system intent on making profit over having any kind of humanistic ethos.

Decency be damned, a profit must be made. This is the society that the political class has created in Ireland. They operate in it as efficiently as a fish in water.

So when a report is released about lone parents and high rates of poverty it can be cast aside. The figures are clearly inaccurate; the report is missing vital context; the economy is doing well; unemployment is down. Take your pick. These lines are trotted out again and again to explain away inequality.

The report in question found that one in five lone parents was living in poverty. Leo Varadkar was quick to resort to a reliable response:

“I do not believe the report that was issued today tells the full picture.”

Varadkar can go on to claim that poverty rates have fallen not caring that a report recently issued by TASC found otherwise.

As mentioned before, it’s not that he’s a bumbling politician. He knows the facts. It’s just that they don’t matter compared to the need for business as usual. Reform, cut, privatise; that’s what really matters. Society is nothing to be concerned about.

In a Thatcherite Ireland only the individual matters to the extent that they can either make a profit or provide one for somebody else. And it’s the latter position that most of us find ourselves in.

The simple harsh reality is that successive governments have overseen a transfer of wealth to the top 1% in Ireland. TASC found that between 1975 and 2009 the top 1% of earners “almost doubled its share of national income”.

Part of this time period, they noted, “coincides with the advent of neo-liberalism, [and] the rightward shift in economic policy.”

In total, TASC found that:

“The bottom 40 percent receives about 22% of national income, while the top ten percent receives almost a quarter.”

Yet, the rate of poverty among lone parents is to be disputed. Reality only extends as far as its usefulness to an elite who are happy to oversee economic inequality. Meanwhile people have to march on the streets in order to try and force the government to do something about the homelessness and housing crisis.

Thus far marching has done nothing. And the longer that peaceful protest fails to deliver the more likely it is that someone will decide that direct action is next logical step. The logic isn’t flawed.

When a white powder was sent to Health Minister Simon Harris’s department no mention could be made of the above context. Nothing about the cervical cancer deaths, the striking nurses and midwives, the failing health service, or Harris’s general role in a right-wing government.  Of course Varadkar calling the sender or senders of the white powder “oddballs” was reported.

Actions like this, as abhorrent as they may be to a lot of people, do not take place in a vacuum. But this is what you’d think if you read the mainstream media’s reporting of the incident.

For now we find ourselves under the foot of an unjust economic system. This same system is implemented by politicians who feel perfectly content knowing that the policies in question cause mass inequality and injustice.

The future holds either more of the same or an explosion of some kind. What that explosion will be is anybody’s guess. But it is unlikely to be a revolution at the ballot box.

We are living in an era where economic stagnation is the best we will soon be able to hope for. Climate change will pound the world and much of humanity into submission. Elites will leave us to drown in the fetid waters that their very policies created. From their sanctuaries they will continue to oversee a world in which profit comes at the expense of basic decency.

Ireland is in no way immune from any of this. We have leaders here who would happily sacrifice us all if it meant even just a bit more power and a bit more profit. For them the ballot box is a valve that releases the pressure that builds up in society. They rely on it to counter any moves for real change.

Some people already realise this or soon will. There are hints of this in Ireland. Only one thing is certain: When a mass of people come to the same conclusion, all bets are off.

Bryan Wall is an independent journalist based in Cork. His column appears here every Monday. Read more of his work here and follow Bryan on twitter:  @Bryan_Wall

Rollingnews

From top: DUP Leader Arlene Foster in Dublin last Summer following a meeting with the Fianna Fáil Leadership on Brexit; Bryan Wall

Brexit was always going to be a disaster, both for Britain in general and British politics. Led by a group of people who think the days of the Empire were in fact glorious and not laden with misery and death, it’s not likely things could turn out any other way.

Boris Johnson represents nobody but his own ego. He understands world politics through the lens of privilege and historical revisionism. Jacob Rees-Mogg is no better. Privately educated, and intent on reliving the days of British prestige, he could be torn out of the pages of a Dickens novel.

Both played the part of propagandists and historical revisionists. The EU stands in the way of British democracy and freedom. Therefore, the solution is simple: Brexit.

But the solution was not simple and it was never going to be.

Cast everything else aside and focus on the issue of Northern Ireland alone. No due consideration was ever given to Ireland, let alone the north of Ireland. The latter has always been seen as a burden and the former an obstreperous former colony which should really know its place.

Ireland should either rejoin the UK, or remember its “place” and get out of the way of larger more important plans. What if there’s a hard border and a return to violence?

British interests, which are always more important and more rational given the natural intellectual superiority of the Eton-educated, must be given the appropriate leeway.

Violence was always an Irish issue and nothing to do with British occupation, obviously. Johnson and friends want a return to a world where Britain can stride the world and the lessers will bow.

It is easy to laugh and mock. But these are dangerous men with even more dangerous interpretations of history. And what’s worse, they want to return to what they believe was the height of civilisation: A Britain “free” of the EU and trivial things like the Good Friday Agreement.

Brexit is their reenactment of a delusion. In their fantasies, both men sees themselves as bastions of British enlightenment. Reality beckons, but no matter. If they remain firm in their convictions the world will surely twist and bend to meet their expectations and wants.

Meanwhile, the potential consequences for the rest of us have been clear from the start.

This is vivid in a recent interview with a volunteer in Arlene Foster’s constituency office. The woman, a former member of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), said she voted for Brexit for the simple reason that she wants the north to return to the way it was “40 years ago”.

It is the media that is making things worse, according to her; not the likes of Johnson and Rees-Mogg. She also says “I don’t even agree with the Good Friday Agreement” because the “protestant sector were done hard by”.

There will never be a united Ireland according to her. It is an independent country and she proudly tells us her grandfather “fought for this country”. Consequently, if there was any united Ireland she says she would “get my uniform back on and I would stand firmly British”.

Thus we have the threat of a return to violence alongside British calls for us to “know our place”. And that is part of the fear of the extremist unionists: That the people they gladly trampled under foot actually have some rights and a legitimate claim to call and campaign for a border poll.

Tensions, at the very least, are inevitable in such a scenario.

Did this even cross the minds of the Brexiteers? Not likely. For them Northern Ireland is a dead weight that should have been cast aside decades ago. Brexit must happen regardless of what Arlene Foster and her supporters think.

The only reason that Foster’s party has been able to dictate to Theresa May’s government is the latter’s vampire-like need for power. Foster and her party are a means to an end for May.

Foster and other unionists seem to live under the illusion that their place as part of the UK is guaranteed no matter what. The Good Friday Agreement and basic demographics prove otherwise.

But the question still remains: What exactly is going to happen?

The only certainty is that a border poll is inevitable. In a wonderfully historic irony Brexiteers, in their desire to return to the halcyon days of the British Empire, have only hastened the collapse of the United Kingdom. Within our lifetimes Irish unity is almost guaranteed.

Perhaps, then, we should be thankful to Messrs Johnson and Rees-Mogg. But in the short-term the damage they are already causing is not to be downplayed. The British economy is suffering, people are uncertain about their future, and hate crimes have risen. Only Eton could provide such wonderful statesmen.

For us, Brexit is just a look behind the curtain. We gaze and wonder at how such intentional ignorance could have gifted the world the terror that was the British Empire. Brexit also exemplifies the feeling we’ve had most of our lives.

British elites and their supporters look down on Ireland and the Irish. We’re an inconvenience off their west coast. Johnson and Rees-Mogg can pontificate all they like. Ireland isn’t going away. And neither is Irish unity.

Bryan Wall is an independent journalist based in Cork. His column appears here every Monday. Read more of his work here and follow Bryan on twitter:  @Bryan_Wall

Rollingnews

From top: Bernie Sanders in 2016; Fianna Fáil party leader Micheál Martin at the Fianna Fáil party conference at Citywest Hotel Dublin on Saturday night; Bryan Wall

Where is the Irish Bernie Sanders? This is a question that should be on all of our minds. It should be the question. Where is the change that is so badly needed in Irish society going to come from? And where is our equivalent of a political outsider with massive widespread support and appeal?

They won’t be found in the mainstream political parties, including the more left-leaning ones. Labour are traitors and the Social Democrats are dead on arrival. People before Profit and the Socialist Party have the self-defeating tendency, like many parties of the left, to put ideology above moral consistency.

Instead of actually joining with people who engage in political activism and campaigning day in, day out, they insist on entryism at all costs.

If this means denigrating and undermining campaigns that, if successful, would genuinely leave us in a better position for the foreseeable future, then so be it.  I have seen it first-hand. They paint themselves as the victims whilst victimising everyone who doesn’t adhere to their vanguardism.

As for the “big two”, expect nothing but more of the same. Crumbs for the many and lavish meals for the few. Micheál Martin can pontificate as much as he likes about Fine Gael and Leo Varadkar.

But Leo Varadkar is in the position he is in because of Fianna Fáil and Martin’s leadership of the party.

The latter’s criticisms of the government, then, are hollow; an attempt at differentiating one right-wing party from another slightly more right-wing party.

During their Ard Fheis this past weekend, Martin was clear to point out the failings of Fine Gael. He decried their “out of touch and arrogant government.”

Fine Gael, he said, are “incapable of delivering”. Its minister “are passionate about using public money to promote themselves.” Fine Gael, he went on, “simply don’t understand the pressures which people are facing every day”.

You would think then that Fianna Fáil would be on the other side of the Dáil given Martin’s comments. Alas no. “Ireland faces a genuinely historic threat from Brexit”, according to him.

This means Ireland “has to have a government in place if we are to have any chance of limit its damage.” It is for this reason Fianna Fáil “took the step of extending the confidence and supply agreement.”

According to Martin:

It’s a difficult decision for us, but it’s the right decision. And it reinforces the fact that Fianna Fáil is putting the national interest first.

At least that’s what he’d like us all to believe. Brexit is just an excuse for Fianna Fáil to stay in a holding pattern. Current polling does not favour them. And do not underestimate the lure the Taoiseach’s office has for Micheál Martin.

So with all of this in mind, where indeed would an Irish Bernie Sanders come from in the first place?

Sanders should be seen as a uniquely American phenomenon. His policies, if he ran over here, would likely place him somewhere towards the centre of the political spectrum. In America, however, he is as a radical.

This is indicative of the insanity of American politics. Our own version of Sanders would need to bypass the standard party system and not be beholden to any party’s whip. In fact, any change in Ireland must instead come at a grassroots level.

Sanders is as close to grassroots as many in America are willing to go. We, on the other hand, can and should go much further.

But this will not be easy. We have an establishment which abhors change in the form of greater democracy and openness. Any move to make for ourselves a more democratic and equal country is see as radical.

For these same people the most radical thing they are capable of is wearing brightly coloured socks. Politics for them is propaganda wing of business interests.

The scandal surrounding the bill for the children’s hospital is indicative of this. It must be built, no matter the cost.

Why? Because if it doesn’t it might not go over well with a company which has a record of acquiring government contracts and then bleeding the taxpayer dry.

These are the same reasons we were given for the bank guarantee and bailout. The banks have to be bailed out. Why? Because if we don’t it might annoy some of the government’s friends who have a lot to lose if their debts aren’t soaked up by the taxpayer.

Everybody knows what happened as a result. Massive cutbacks, the immiseration of the country, and a massive transfer of wealth.

And now, with the children’s hospital, it has been reported that already cutbacks in other areas of the health service will have to be made because of the ludicrous bill for the hospital. The government line is: Our friends have to be paid, so you have to suffer. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

The parties of the right have nothing to offer the mass of people except false promises. To the wealthy they owe their success, and return the favour in the ways expected and well-known in Irish society. As for the far right, they offer nothing but hatred mixed with ignorance of history.

It is not that they should be ignored. But the more immediate threat are the men in suits, not the men who parrot 4chan conspiracy theories. The latter only understand and fear violence. The former, more than anything, fear a truly democratic society which would hold them to account.

So, the Irish Bernie Sanders isn’t any person in particular. It is more of a movement that wants to create a better and more equal society. One where politics is not a facade to cover up the transfer of wealth from the masses to the few. We can each of us be our own version of Sanders in the sense of challenging the establishment.

That is the only way that any progress will be made in Irish society. Martin and Varadkar will continue their game of political will-they-or-won’t-they.

For anyone else who actually cares about creating a better society, they will be doing something productive. They’ll be organising, dissenting, and generally causing a ruckus. We’ll be all the better for it.

Bryan Wall is an independent journalist based in Cork. His column appears here every Monday. Read more of his work here and follow Bryan on twitter:  @Bryan_Wall

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From top: members of Masi (Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland) in Roosky yesterday; Bryan Wall

Yet another attack on a proposed direct provision centre in Roosky is indicative of the hate and fear bubbling under the surface of Irish society. It is one thing to feel upset at having a direct provision centre placed in your town or village.

The tendency seems to be that this is done without any consultation with the local population. But it is an entirely different matter to want to firebomb a building that is due to house asylum seekers. This is especially so given that the building had a number of staff in it at the time.

There has been a noticeable uptick in the far right here. Their talking heads are appearing more and more frequently on social media and their talking points are appearing more and more often in the comments sections of websites.

And, what’s more, they appear to be having some success. Anger at government idiocy and greed is being redirected by these same proliferators of hate. Some are likely only opportunists.

Climbing aboard a far-right political movement is just a ladder on the way to social and political influence; at least that’s how they see it from their optimistic point of view.

But others do indeed have nothing but contempt and hate for any person whose skin is not the appropriate shade of white. There is also an overlap in their beliefs between this racial essentialism and the idea that the world is under siege from a malign communist conspiracy.

Asylum seekers, in their minds, are the demographic foot soldiers here to wipe out the white race. Anything to the left of Mussolini is considered “Marxist” is some shape or form.

Marxism appears in scare quotes given the consistent misunderstanding, likely intentional, of Marxism and its various offshoots. Somehow, in their world, Ireland has become a dictatorship of the communist Cultural Marxists.

The same people who will tell you that Leo Varadkar and pals are planning to eliminate the native Irish by means of mass immigration are the very same people who likely think Habermas is a kind of sausage.

Often unspoken, but obvious to anyone who understands the history of Marx and Marxism, in the conspiracy theory surrounding Cultural Marxism is that it is really about anti-Semitism.

It is not simply that the Frankfurt School was just made up of neo-Marxists like Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. They were also Jewish. And with that in mind, we are simply rehashing the 19th century conspiracy theory about Jewish plans to rule the world.

Now, though, it has been updated to include anything which involves fighting for equality and offering refuge to people desperately in need of it. It has become unfashionable (thankfully) to be anti-Semitic.

More insidious forms have to be used. Hence we get the conspiracy of Cultural Marxism. The anti-Semitism is not blatant, but it is there as soon as you understand the history of Marxism.

What does this have to do with Roosky? It is the same playbook.

Insist that there is a conspiracy. One is to colonise the physical landscape of Ireland; the other a move to colonise the minds of people with Cultural Marxism. The solution is simple. Both forms of colonisation can and must be stopped. One by aggressive reeducation and the other by sheer aggression.

What happened in Moville and Roosky is a case of the latter. Any person who does not adhere to this strict dichotomy is a Marxist of some shape or form and can therefore be dealt with accordingly.

The faux Yellow Vests who have emerged here perfectly illustrated that point in the last few weeks. At one of their protests some anti-fascist activists appeared. A number of the Yellow Vest protestors, none too pleasedabout this, made it quite clear that anything anti-fascist was not welcome at their protest.

This, of course, is in keeping with their active support of Ben Gilroy and the support given them by various far-right YouTube personalities. The same personalities who believe that a single figurehead is needed for people to rally around in order to restore Ireland to

Elsewhere a spokesperson for the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI) told me that asylum seekers in direct provision are afraid.

MASI believe that it is possible that direct provision centres with asylum seekers already living there will be targeted eventually. This would seem to be the next step in the actions of the arsonists.

As MASI bluntly put it, “They might be plotting more because they are getting away with it.” MASI, of course, are correct. So far no arrests have been made and the Gardaí have not named any suspects.

In the meantime, asylum seekers will have to live in fear as the far right continues its rise throughout Europe. Anti-racism rallies, as uplifting as they may be, are ineffectual against true believers.

The people who are convinced that the world is engulfed by a conspiracy to eliminate white people will not be swayed or frightened by a rally or march. Liberals in Europe and the US have a particular disdain for anti-fascist activists, often calling them just as bad as fascists.

This, of course, is nonsense as well as being profoundly ignorant of history. Presumably these same critics of Antifa could be found in 1923 telling their contemporaries to ignore the loudmouth in the local Bavarian beer halls.

What they fail to understand is that fascism, whether it is nascent or fully formed, does not wince before a well-thought-out criticism.

In fact, it welcomes it as it offers the veneer of respectability to be able to engage in debate. After all, aren’t those who choose violence over debate clearly savages?

Fascism was not smashed with the use of harsh language. It was smashed by those willing to take on fascism directly. It is no accident that our current far right are so terrified of the spectre of anything red. It was the Red Army who largely crushed the German war machine in 1945.

Asylum seekers are a minority of a minority in this country. They want do nothing more than to live in peace. And that is impossible given both the tyranny of the direct provision system, and the fear of an upsurge of far-right violence.

The fire of the far right can only be put out by direct action Until that time has come to pass, none of should sleep peacefully.

Bryan Wall is an independent journalist based in Cork. His column appears here every Monday. Read more of his work here and follow Bryan on twitter:  @Bryan_Wall

Pic: MASI

Earlier: You’re Not From Around Here, Are You?

From top:Minister for Health Simon Harris on RTÈ 1’s Prime Time last week Eva O Callaghan, a student nurse from the Mater hospital and a member of the INMO (Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation) at the trade union’s march in Dublin city centre last Saturday; Bryan Wall

Whenever people decide that enough is enough, and that their mistreatment at the hands of governments or corporations has become too much to endure, nothing is certain. This is because what was expected can no longer be taken for granted.

The rules that people have abided by up until this point are no longer of any use. Low pay, poor conditions, and increasing amounts of overtime create a tinder box of revolutionary struggle just waiting to exploded.

Our own experience in Ireland in this regard has been somewhat muted for the majority of the state’s existence. Over the last 10 years, however, with the collapse of the social contract — which was tenuous at best — people are no longer willing to stay within the confined lanes of waiting for their salvation at the ballot box.

Unions and mass organising have become more and more important to the lives of many people. They offer a way of resisting that is more than merely voting for the opposite party in an election.

Unions especially are anathema to the powerful in society, which is why they had to be either captured by power or crushed by it. When unions do actually stand up for themselves and their members, the elite are initially flabbergasted but quickly go on the offensive.

Take the recent episode of [RTE 1’s] Prime Time which dealt with the nurse and midwife strike and the children’s hospital construction scandal. Within seconds — literally, seconds — the underlying message was made clear for everyone watching.

David McCullagh, after showing a clip of a nurse on the picket line, said:

“But what are the risks to patients posed by next week’s planned three-day strike?”

The following interview with Simon Harris was more akin to an annoying aunt nagging you for more information at Christmas than a journalist confronting a health minister over his failures and the failures of his department.

In the case of the nurses and midwives, Mr Harris was keen to reiterate the point so conveniently mentioned in the major papers last week.

He said to Miriam O’Callaghan any agreement made with the striking nurses and midwives has to be made “in the confines of the [public sector] agreement”. Otherwise “you’ll have me sitting in this seat next week asking me about a different group.”

And this is the real threat posed by the nurses and midwives. Not their calls for better pay and conditions but the threat of a leading by successful example. In any society run along capitalist lines the workers have to be pliant, underpaid, and expendable. Nothing can be allowed to threaten this.

Hence we have in the media and on Prime Time the repeating of the threat posed to the welfare of patients by those on strike. Pit worker against worker. It is a textbook example of class warfare that could have been lifted out of any 19th-century economics textbook.

One GP, Doireann O’Leary, who is sympathetic with the nurses’ and midwives’ strike told Pat Kenny that “the government’s inaction on this is inappropriate and is really very upsetting.”  The government “seem not to want to resolve this” she said.

Her opinion seems to reflect that of the general public despite the attacks on the nurses and midwives in the media over the last week. The protest in Dublin over the weekend seems to confirm this.

These attacks will likely ramp up alongside increasing obstinance on the part of the government. Their supposed alarm that any capitulation to the wishes of the nurses may lead to an onslaught of similar claims is not what they really fear. Class and worker solidarity is the real fear.

People working together to improve their conditions and society in general is what scares them. That’s because it would involve a redistribution of wealth in the wrong direction. Instead of being redistributed up — which is the only appropriate direction for any redistribution of wealth – it would be redistributed to the people at the bottom, i.e., the workers.

Swathes of money can be found for a hospital whose cost is so obscene as to put it on a par with the worst excesses of dictators and their penchant for all things gold-plated.

The true cost of the hospital was known months ago. But given that redistribution in this case was directed at the right people and companies, it is an appropriate amount of expenditure.

Ensuring that we have a properly functioning public health system with adequately paid staff is not though. If it was funded and run the way it should be then it couldn’t be slowly dismantled, sold off to the lowest bidder, and privatised.

That is the endgame here. Not saving money, or ensuring that the government doesn’t have to deal with other unions and groups asking for more crumbs from the table.

A functioning public health system cannot be allowed to function under the conditions of a neoliberal society. It has to be made as inadequate and undesirable as possible in order to turn the public against it.

Once the appropriate amount of disdain for the health system exists, in swoop the private healthcare providers who will promise to save us all from the nightmare of “socialist” health provision.

Again, this is textbook economic policy. It was carried out with aplomb in the UK with the privatisation of the rail network and it is being carried here along the same lines but in the health system.

People can get in the way of this. Hence the need to shut down the protests as soon as possible; to make people believe that the striking nurses and midwives are a risk to the health of every person who relies on the public health system.

The government portrays itself as the saviour of the health system at the same time that it is destroying it.

Are people falling for this? Not yet, but never underestimate the ability of any government to whip up the suitable amount of fear and hostility when needed. For this reason the nurses and midwives must be successful.

They deserve, at the very least, a level of pay commensurate with the vocation they undertake. And it is a vocation. A person does not work shifts of 14 hours of being constantly on their feet without love for what they do.

Don’t expect the government to sway but likewise, don’t expect the nurses, midwives, and their fellow workers to give in to the greed and apathy of our leaders.

Bryan Wall is an independent journalist based in Cork. His column appears here every Monday. Read more of his work here and follow Bryan on twitter:  @Bryan_Wall

RTÉ/Rollingnews

From top: INMO members outside the Midlands Regional Hospital, Portlaoise; Irish media coverage of the dispute last week; Bryan Wall

With nurses set to strike again later this month, the government finds itself in a difficult position.

Does it acquiesce to the wishes of the nurses and their idea that decent pay and conditions be a prerequisite for being such an integral part of healthcare?

Or does it continue down the well-worn road of ignoring the wishes and needs of the wider population in service of the greater needs of profit and market discipline?

Given the stridency of the government thus far, the latter is the likely outcome.

The status quo must hold. Workers simply asking for a fair income and decent conditions is too much. To give in now might give other workers ideas about their role in society. It might also give them ideas about the value assigned to them by the government and its lackeys.

The media of course has played its own role in all of this. Yes, the strikes are reported on. But often they have been reported on in the context of the effects on patients.

Headlines across the Irish media reflected this adherence to the government’s stance.

This playing to the emotions of people, trying to pit them against nurses is a tactic commonly used. During the water charge protests we had “sinister fringes” who would unleash anarchy. And now we have nurses who are putting the lives of patients at risk by striking.

In the Irish Independent one article led with the headline, “Hundreds of people with an intellectual disability to be affected as nurses escalate strike threat”. This “escalation” would “mean many more vulnerable people will be hit by the strike”.

RTÉ followed suit, and reported in- and out-patient surgeries would be cancelled alongside the closing of injury units and other services.

In the Irish Examiner one could find the same warnings. Not only did they report that services across the board be cancelled but that there would be other unforeseen consequences well into the future.

Opening with the point of view of a Health Service Executive (HSE) representative, the following was reported:

“The knock-on effect of cancelled procedures and appointments due to the nurses’ strike will be felt for some time, the HSE says.”

Further down the article we find out what was actually said by the HSE representative. He warned “There will be a cumulative effect which would be quite significant” if there are further strikes.

The Irish Times was also no exception. Only the disruption to patients was worthy of attention. Of note is the mention of the government’s wish to “re-engage in talks to find a resolution to the current nurses’ dispute.” No word of the sanctions mentioned by Simon Harris or SIPTU.

That honour was left to the Irish Independent who, quoting the Health Minister, wrote that “financial penalties against nurses will be considered”.

According to Harris although the government “‘isn’t in that space today’”, nonetheless, “‘The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will legally consider that in the coming days and weeks’”.

In the same piece the government line that a raise is unaffordable and beyond the realms of consideration given the imminence of Brexit was reiterated.

Also in the Irish Independent was a piece declaring that the government is “not just facing a showdown with nurses — they’ve also got the public sector union leadership breathing down their necks.” If the nurses are successful other unions will “dust[…] off their begging bowls” in a “free-for-all”.

Any idea that the nurses are financially struggling was put to rest as The Irish Times stepped into the fray to offer their own financial interpretation.

Pay for nurses is higher here than in the UK according to the piece. Ireland lags behind in entry-level pay compared to Australia and Canada but overall ranks fifth out of thirty countries in terms of pay for nurses.

In the same piece it is pointed out that the Department of Public Spending calculates the average pay of nurses to be €57,600 per annum.

It is only at the end of the article that it is revealed – almost in passing – that someone earning that amount would struggle to pay rent in parts of Dublin. Two incomes would be needed to afford a rental home. The implications of this, if not obvious, are spelled out quite clearly in the next paragraph.

Unless the high cost of housing is addressed, the author writes, “militancy will only grow, particularly among younger age groups.” It is known that hardship and economic and social unfairness, let alone inequality, breed radicalism; hence, the warning about militancy.

Regardless, the government must stand firm given the influx of “begging bowls” headed its way otherwise. What emerges in the subtext is a rehashing of Michael Noonan’s “we govern for the reasonable” worldview.

All of this is in the name of “journalistic balance”. Some people want fairness in how they are paid and treated, therefore the opposite view must be given due attention for the sake of impartiality.

This does nothing more than mask the suffering of those protesting and the unfairness of a system in which they are under-appreciated, undervalued, and underpaid. What was missing from the piece in The Irish Times was the economic context of the comparison between NHS and Irish nurses.

Nurses in Ireland being paid more compared to nurses in the UK is meaningless. Across the Irish Sea the NHS has been under attack in the shape of market reforms, i.e., privatisation.

Therefore, comparing the pay of Irish nurses to the pay of nurses in a health system that is being dismantled does not support that government’s argument that nurses here are well compensated. In fact, it does the opposite.

Only by holding the financial compensation of nursing staff here to such a low standard can the government and its apologists defend the current pay levels.

Of course the long hours nurses work are of no risk to patients. Neither is understaffing, underpay, stress, burnout, and the toll all of this takes on the mental and physical health of the nurses.

These are part of the system they signed up too. So they should just shut up and deal with it. Accept the crumbs flung their way from the economic table and be happy that they do not suffer the indignity of having to govern the country.

These are not the “missteps” of a government out of touch with the workers. This is a government that knows exactly what it is doing. In a situation like this, militancy is the only appropriate response.

And fearing this, expect an even harder government line to emerge.

Bryan Wall is an independent journalist based in Cork. His column appears here every Monday. Read more of his work here and follow Bryan on twitter:  @Bryan_Wall

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