December 2019 – Unite for a Real Alternative

The question keeps popping up within media circles, in various forms – ‘why is Jeremy Corbyn so unpopular?’

I could make an argument that the presumption in the question is unsound. After all the British Labour Party has had its greatest level of membership ever during Corbyn’s leadership, at times his meetings have taken on the size and sound of mass rallies, and young people in particular seem inspired by this aged Marxist in a way which is extraordinary to see. Yet it is certainly the case that all this is happening against a constant background of vicious and dishonest attack, blatant media bias, and personal vilification so intense and sustained that even some people that I would have thought would have had more sense on the left here in Ireland have descended to ‘Corbyn bashing’.

Then of course we have the liberal commentariat. In Britain they are called ‘Blairites’, or ‘Red Tory’s’ to give them a more incisive name. To understand them remember that Margaret Thatcher herself, when asked once what her greatest achievement was, answered ‘Tony Blair’. They are those who have effectively given up on a radical reform of society, of a re-distribution of wealth downwards from rich to poor, of just taxation and of improved and increased public services, and instead believe that the best the working class can achieve is a compromise with neoliberal greed and inequality. They use the words ‘compromise’ a lot as if neoliberals are into compromise. They talk about ‘holding the centre’ as if the centre hasn’t already moved to the extreme right, and they measure public opinion by what people text into TV and radio shows on the ideological sect that passes for media these days. Oh, and they carry a White flag, ready to wave to their masters whenever challenged.

Faced with such times and circumstances a win for a Corbyn led Labour in today’s UK general election would be extraordinary. But to me, who has taken some stick in my time myself, the most extraordinary thing is this – that Jeremy Corbyn is still standing after everything that has been thrown at him and is in with a fighting chance on denying Johnson’s toxic dishonest, selfish and greedy agenda a majority Government (or even better)! I take my hat off to the man.

Jeremy Corbyn has never voted for, let alone started, a war. He has never made a person homeless. He has never closed a public service. He leads a humble, some would say frugal, life. Unlike his opponent he is not a liar, he doesn’t threaten people, he doesn’t hide from robust and difficult debate and he doesn’t try to manipulate tragedy and murder victims for political gain as Boris Johnson did recently. He is a decent, humble and deeply compassionate human being. Any country should feel privileged to have the potential to be led by such a man in a Profession littered with liars, crooks, narcissists, sociopaths and even psychopaths.

But Corbyn does something very rare in politics today. He speaks truth to power, and he promises reform. Here’s a wee secret, power doesn’t much appreciate the truth, and the rich and powerful certainly don’t want reform and change. They are doing very well thank you very much, and the media outlets that they own and control know it. Corbyn threatens their hegemony, so much so that they would prefer an uncouth buffoon and renowned liar in power that will do their bidding, that they can put in their pocket like a possession.

I am not going to dignify the disgusting slurs peddled as fact about Corbyn and anti-semitism. Just remember this though while you are looking and failing to find any race of religion that Corbyn has ever attacked, this man of principle would be the first every British Prime Minister to have a pro-Palestine position and has promised to stop selling arms to Israel – arms that they use for their ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. In a world where Zionists consider standing with the oppressed children of Palestine enough to damn you as anti-semitic, it’s not hard to see why the powerful ‘Israel Lobby’ so dread Prime Minister Corbyn. Shame on them.

As I write this, polls are narrowing, but probably not quickly enough. A Labour/SNP coalition is still possible, highly desirable, but maybe unlikely. Is there a Labour surge that the unreliable polls are missing? We’ll know soon enough.

But I am certain of this – in an era of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and President Donald Trump, in a world which has swung inexorably to the right and where greed is now is considered not only good but great, finding a person with human traits of empathy, social justice, equality and dignity and putting them into high office would dramatically buck recent trends.

It would be an immensely positive turn, a necessary change #ForTheManyNotTheFew, a precious moment of fight back for decency.

Brendan Ogle

Senior Officer – Unite Republic of Ireland

IN THIS REGARD IT IS OUR GOVERNMENT WHO ARE ‘EXTREMISTS’

Did you know that 5% of renters pay 75% of their total income to their landlord? This is one, just one, of an extraordinary array of statistics linked to our housing and homeless emergency.

This week we had an emergency debate on a vote of no confidence in the Minister responsible for that emergency, Eoghan Murphy. Just days before we had four by-elections where barely one quarter of the electorate bothered turning up, so four new TD’S took part in the debate. I watched Tuesday’s debate live. Amid all the theatrics and finger pointing this much was clear: the Government believe the free market is the only way to provide housing, even on public land. They are wedded to that ideology, see nothing at all wrong with it, and even think it’s ‘caring’. The Government’s definition of ‘caring’ is best encapsulated by Minister Regina O’Doherty who thinks it is ‘caring’ to refuse to award a 10c increase (yes 10 cents, it’s not a misprint) to our lowest minimum wages workers in a city where apartments costing €300,000 are described by Government as ‘affordable’.

That position is not caring. Rather it is an extremist position lacking in compassion or compromise.

I have just come from the launch of the ‘Jesuit Centre for Faith & Justice (JCFJ)’ strategic plan for 2019-2023. I am not a religious person but I like to think I am a compassionate one, and the Jesuit’s do fantastic work here in the areas of social justice and inequality. They are not extremists. They are realists in social and economic terms. Their plan focuses in on the three key areas of Housing, Climate Action and Penal Reform and their champion is Fr. Peter McVerry. In his address earlier he made reference to the report being a ‘critique without fear of losing Government funding because we don’t get any.’ This was more than just a quip, and everybody present knew it.

Yesterday the Chief Executive of the ‘Peter McVerry Trust’, which does rely on substantial Government funding, made what I still consider to be ill-advised comments about the political debate the previous night, basically saying that changing the Housing Minister would have been pointless. When Apollo House was order to be closed by the High Court in January 2017 the same Trust, and Dublin City Council too, swore affidavits in Court that there were enough beds in Dublin City then for all homeless people. Those oaths looked ridiculous then, and they look even more ridiculous now. They were simply untrue. But what sort of extremist Government requires such unquestioning compliance from emergency service providers like these in order to ensure the provision of essential funding streams for our most vulnerable?

Of course citizens shouldn’t require ‘charity’ or emergency services for a roof over their heads. That notion in itself is the manifestation of Fine Gaels’ extreme political ideology. Basic decency, fairness and the concept of ‘society’ should be enough. One of this morning’s speakers was JCFJ’S Kevin Hargaden who noted that ‘it has been decades since the wealthy have carried such a light load’ and that it was as a result of this fact that ‘social services have been devastated’.

Kevin also pointed out what should be obvious but is often lost in the cascade of extremist and divisive Government policies, and the clamour of their apologists in the ideological sect that is Irish media – ‘poverty is not a natural disaster’. Indeed it is not. Everything we see on our streets now, that we witness every day, is the result of a political choice. We are a rich country, a very rich country. Yet our streets are strewn with human suffering, degradation and economic isolation. It’s brutal in its contempt for ordinary people.

I learned this morning too that 75% of the occupants of our prisons are suffering from addiction, and of course there are only a small number of assistance programmes available. Where they exist they only do so to save Government blushes, as opposed to any sincere effort to stop the anesthesia of those who our Government are content to abandon to the fringes of ‘recovery Ireland’.

EXTREMISM

We now live in a country where those who believe a roof over their heads is a human right and social need, where those who want a living wage, who seek tax justice, who expect a health service that provides services based on need as opposed to wealth are treated as the ‘extremists’. And yet a Government that is presiding over the worst housing emergency since the famine, that allows employment abuses that are so bad some go back to the days of slavery (I have the records and real life testimonies in my office) and which is wilfully stealing our children’s youth and hopes for basic needs to be met in the future claim to be, and are allowed get away with describing themselves as ‘holding the centre’.

No.

They are not. They are the extremists. They and their bullying, arrogant greed, their selfish pandering to their rich paymasters, their recklessness with our taxes and their non-collection of much more, their sociopathy which is now bordering on psychopathy, and their careless delusion of compassion. The carnage which is now the lived experience of far too many is a result of Government extremism. But enough from me. Peter McVerry, in the best letter I have ever seen printed in The Irish Times, sums up the extremism best:

‘Sir, – I attended court with a young homeless boy who had been charged with theft of a bottle of orange, value $1.

Another homeless man was charged with theft of four bars of chocolate, value €3.

Another homeless man was charged with theft of tow packets of Silk Cut cigarettes.

A TD, on his way to, or from, his full-time, very well paid job in Brussels, stops by at Dail Eireann to sign in, so that he can collect his full €51,600 expenses for his attendance in the Dail. – Yours, etc.

Fr PETER Mc Verry SJ

Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice’

About Unite for a Real Alternative

Unite Trade Union will produce a political blog/commentary which will be regularly updated and published on our social media and related platforms in the Republic of Ireland. Blog posts can be emailed to you on application. In the neoliberal era Unite believe it is critical that modern Trade Unionism fights for members and their communities inside, and outside, the workplace. The factors that impact on our members lives do not stop when they leave work, or end at what used to be referred to as ‘the factory gate’. Most posts are written by Brendan Ogle, Unite’s Senior Officer in the Republic of Ireland.