textfiles/politics/SPUNK/sp000391.txt

	Workers Solidarity No. 42
	 Irish Anarchist Paper




              Net addition

                           PCW
       Singnificant minority say NO to union leaders

AS EXPECTED the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Special 
Conference voted to accept the Programme for 
Competitiveness and Work, by 256 to 76. Unions opposed 
included the ATGWU, TEEU, MSF, NUJ and the FUGE which 
represents low paid messengers and cleaners in the 
civil service. 

The vote in favour is a setback for militant trade 
unionism. The PCW is about pay restraint, job losses 
and promotion of a fictitious 'partnership' between 
workers, bosses and government. It is a continuation of 
the PNR and PESP which hammered the low paid, 
unemployed and growing numbers of poor. 

A campaign against the deal was mounted by Trade 
Union Fightback, an alliance of rank & file shop 
stewards and activists. Sadly the current level of 
demoralisation among union members meant that their 
campaign was a pale shadow of the one waged against the 
PESP in 1991. TUF has since disbanded. However if there 
was a drop in the numbers campaigning there was no 
noticeable drop in the numbers opposed to such deals.

Within the largest union, SIPTU, 29,308 (32%) voted 
against in a turnout of about 50%. In most jobs where 
even one individual made the arguments for a 'no' vote 
they were usually successful in winning over the 
majority. This was done in a situation where the union 
literature carried only pro-PCW propaganda. In the best 
tradition of SIPTU style 'democracy' the Branch 
Secretaries were prohibited by head office from sending 
out circulars to members notifying them when Branch 
Committees decided to recommend against but the 
National Executive was allowed to put their 
recommendation actually on the ballot paper!

In Trinity College the shop stewards, representing 
440 manual & clerical staff, countered the Executive by 
affixing their own "10 reasons to vote no" to each 
ballot paper. Here the vote against was 5.6:1. Similar 
tactics were used in several CPSU branches. 
We have to face the fact that mass unemployment, 
mounting poverty and over two decades of centralised 
wage bargaining have left many good union activists 
demoralised. They are doubtful about the possibility of 
fighting back against the bosses and bureaucrats. The 
vote on the PCW hasn't helped. 

Rather than get depressed at the failure of TUF we 
should be aware that large rank & file groupings are 
created when workers are fighting the bosses, are 
confident, and then find the union officials are trying 
to sabotage their struggle. The need for independent 
organisation within the union is then posed. Struggle 
creates genuine rank & file movements, not the other 
around. 

At a time when workers are on the defensive and 
lacking in confidence any attempt to create such groups 
will attract only small numbers of activists. This is 
not to decry such attempts (where they arise from a 
genuine desire to take on the officials) but to warn 
against any unrealistic goals at this stage. 

However all is not bad news. There are activists who 
want to fight back. Lately we have seen the COLT 
campaign to get the unions to fight C45s in the 
construction industry, the anger at threatened pay cuts 
and redundancies in Irish Rail and the marathon strike 
at Nolan Transport for union recognition. The struggle 
is far from over.

            Don't vote...it only encourages them

THERE ARE so many parachutes in the sky we can no 
longer see the sun. They are dropping 'personalities' 
into the June Euro-election. All the major parties in 
the 26 counties have selected 'names' to run for them. 
Fianna Fail got Olive Braiden from the Rape Crisis 
Centre; Labour got RTE's Orla Guerin; Fine Gael got the 
Ranchers' leader, Alan Gillis.

None had been members of these parties until literally 
days before their selection. Olive Braiden had 
previously been out canvassing for Mary Robinson (an 
ex-member of Labour) and Frances Fitzgerald of Fine 
Gael. Now she is going for the hat trick with Albert's 
gang. Orla Guerin has had no known involvement in party 
politics. Alan Gillis was too busy pleading for rich 
farmers to be given yet more EC money to find time to 
join a party.

Yet they all ended up as party candidates. The only 
reason they were asked to run was that they are well 
known. Not because their politics are well known, not 
because they even have any known political commitment - 
but simply because their names are well known. 

FORGET THE POLITICS... JUST GET THE IMAGE RIGHT

Braiden is supposed to give Fianna Fail a more 
'liberal' image in Dublin [while they run Catholic 
bigots like Eamonn O'Cuiv for a Galway Dail seat]. 
Lane's job is to hold on to the big farmer vote that 
Fine Gael has enjoyed since the 1930's. And Guerin is 
helping Labour to build a new image, the 'modern' party 
that put Mary Robinson into the Phoenix Park. 
Democratic Left didn't want to be left out either. 

They are running Pat 'triple mandate' Rabbitte because 
their opinion polls suggested he would get a higher 
vote than sitting MEP Des Geraghty. With all of them it 
is a case of personality being a damn sight more 
important than policies. 

All of this shows the contempt that the parties 
treat the voters with. There will be little time given 
over to discussing manifestoes or policies. There will 
be a lot of time given over to what are no more than 
personality contests. Maybe the Workers Party should 
try to recapture a few of their old votes by standing 
down Tomas McGiolla and getting Bono or Gay Byrne to 
run instead. Or Sinn Fein could ask one of the Wolfe 
Tones, and the Progressive Democrats could fly in Clint 
Eastwood. 

Anarchists are not taking part in this charade, we 
are not be calling for a vote for anyone. Not this 
time, not ever. It is because we are democrats that we 
do not take part in parliamentary elections. Sounds 
odd? The key question is what do we mean by democracy?

WHO HAS THE POWER?

The right to the vote was part of the hard won 
struggles of workers (and suffragettes!) over the last 
couple of hundred years. Obviously it is preferable to 
live in a parliamentary democracy rather than a 
dictatorship. Even the most flawed democracies are 
forced to concede rights that dictatorships do not, 
such as relative independence for trade unions, the 
right to limited demonstrations, a certain amount of 
free speech, etc. 

However the real purpose of parliament is not to 
ensure the country is run according to the wishes of 
all the people, cherishing all their views equally. 
Parliament instead provides a democratic facade beyond 
which the real business of managing capitalism goes on. 
A seemingly endless series of business scandals, 
from BCCI to Goodman, gives us some idea how the real 
decisions are made in the boardrooms rather than the 
debating chambers. In the unlikely event of a 
government getting elected which goes "too far" in the 
eyes of the bosses they are quick to use any means 
necessary to remove it.

The best known example of this is perhaps the 
removal of the democratically elected Allende 
government in Chile in 1970. They had attempted to 
bring in a limited package of reforms and nationalise 
some of the larger American industries. The result was 
a military coup backed by the CIA in 1973. 

WHO WANTS A BOSS?

Anarchists do not believe the sort of change we want 
can come about through the good actions of a few 
individuals. We have always argued that the liberation 
of the working class can only be achieved through the 
action of the working class. 

This idea is obviously the complete opposite to the 
parliamentary idea. We do not seek a few leaders, good, 
bad or indifferent to sort out the mess that is 
capitalism. Indeed we argue constantly against any 
ideas that make it seem such elites are necessary. 
Voting for rulers (whether you do so "critically" or 
any other way) is supporting the idea that society 
should be divided into rulers and ruled. We want to end 
that division just as much as we want to end the 
division into bosses and workers. 

The alternative we support is anarchism, where 
society is organised to benefit the many and not just 
the profiteering few. It is an alternative where anyone 
effected by a decision will be able to have a say in 
making that decision. Power will come from the bottom 
up. A system of workplace and community councils, 
federated nationally and eventually internationally, 
will ensure that this is done in an organised, 
efficient and truly democratic way.

Alan MacSimoin

Letter

Dear Comrades,
One minute to midnight on Friday 15th April and the 
rail strike is averted. SIPTU left it to the last 
minute leaving the company sweating it out. The unions 
never had problems with negotiations. The strike notice 
was only served after the company suspended workers for 
not accepting new training arrangements which they were 
being forced to take or face being suspended. The 
company had repeatedly refused to enter negotiations 
because this productivity deal had been on the table 
for three years.

The mass media could not hide from this one. It was 
to be the first national rail strike in over 40 years. 
But they hid the facts about the dispute and 
concentrated on one single issue - claims that the 
drivers earn up to #20,000 a year. A similar claim like 
this was used against workers in the Waterford Glass 
dispute. It attempted to portray the drivers as 
privileged workers and thus divert public support from 
their cause. They failed to mention the 70-80 hours 
work per week or spending 4-5 hours on a train with no 
toilet facilities often endured by the drivers.

If the productivity deal goes ahead drivers will be 
asked to operate trains without guards, in other words 
do two peoples' jobs. The guards will be re-deployed to 
other depots and most likely do other jobs than their 
own. Drivers could lose their mileage allowance which 
they earn for long distance runs and also work a five 
out of seven day week. Saturday and Sunday would become 
ordinary days and overtime lost.

On Friday at lunch time the company organised, 
against their will, 17 temporary Draftsmen and 
Engineers to go down to Rosslare to be used to man the 
port, tying up boats, erecting the gang plank, and 
collecting tickets. None of the staff had been trained 
to do these duties. The company were prepared to put 
passengers safety at risk in order to maintain profits. 
Fortunately this did not go ahead. In the short term 
the workers have won and the company are on the run. 
Watch this dispute closely. It may develop into massive 
strike action. 

TEEU member, 
Iarnrod Eireann

>Since this letter was written there have, of course, 
been further developments. For the moment the 
leadership of SIPTU, which went over the heads of the 
union's own Rail Council, managed to head off strike 
action. No surprise that Attley, Browne & co. behaved 
like agents of management! How far rail workers can be 
pushed before they fight back is the question.

              Prepare to Sink the service charges

THEY WANT us to pay twice! When domestic rates were 
abolished the government increased PAYE and VAT to make 
up the difference. Now they are putting the screws on 
again. They tried it with the water rates but came up 
against massive resistance. Tens of thousands refused 
to pay. When peoples water was cut off local campaigns 
and sympathetic plumbers turned it back on. In 
Waterford a gang of contractors who were cutting off 
non-payers were held hostage by residents and Waterford 
Glass workers in the Fr Paddy Browne Road area. The 
upshot was that a lot of people never paid a penny and 
in Limerick, Waterford and Dublin the local authorites 
had to abolish water rates. 

Now the politicians have decided to have another go. 
Each local authority has levied a service charge for 
this year. The one exception is Dublin Corporation 
which plans to do it next year. They can be stopped 
just like happened to the Poll Tax in Britain. See page 
10. look at how that tax was defeated.

The Poll Tax Rebellion by Danny Burns. AK Press. #4.95 
(available from WSM Book Service)

IN THE LAST issue of Workers Solidarity we discussed 
the proposed introduction of service charges in Dublin. 
We pointed out how they were a grossly unfair form of 
double taxation on ordinary PAYE workers. How can they 
be resisted? A refusal to pay campaign in Waterford, 
Dublin and Limerick beat the water rates in the 1980s 
we believe a don't pay, don't collect campaign can do 
so again. Conor Mc Loughlin examines a new book on how 
the Poll Tax was beaten in the UK.

This book was completed by Danny Burns in January 1992. 
He was secretary of the Avon federation of Anti-Poll 
Tax Unions and co-ordinated the campaign in the South 
West. He was also one of the three non-aligned (i.e. 
non-party members) on the executive of the All Britain 
Federation. The book is a history of the growth of the 
non-payment campaign which involved thousands through 
the Anti-Poll Tax Unions (APTUs). 

It is a refreshing change from your typical history 
book in that the events are seen mainly through the 
eyes of the people directly involved. It is written as 
a story beginning with the growth of local APTUs and 
moving on to courthouse disruption, bailiff resistance 
and leading to the Trafalgar Square riot and the 
eventual defeat of the Poll Tax.

In total 17 million people in Britain did not pay their 
Poll Tax. Some would argue that this was purely passive 
and that most of the non-payment was "can't pay" rather 
then "won't pay." This book clearly illustrates how 
thousands, perhaps millions were very Actively involved 
in the fight against the Poll Tax. 

The tax was first greeted in Scotland then Britain by 
the formation of local APTUs. By November 1989 there 
were 1000. Most groups started small but many built up 
memberships of 500 and more. This was a campaign which 
drew in thousands who had never been involved in 
politics before.

NEW TACTICS

This meant that new tactics and approaches were needed 
to get people involved. For example in Easton in 
Bristol the local union was built on a door to door 
basis. Firstly a group of 5 or 6 friends got together 
and organised a public meeting to see if there was any 
interest at all. 50 people turned up and some joined.

The next stage was to drop a window poster into around 
2000 households. Posters appeared in about 100 windows. 
These were then approached directly and asked to join 
the group. They then carried out a local survey. This 
was not really a scientific poll more of a pretext to 
sound out local feeling.

In the end the union had about 300 members. It 
attempted to keep people in touch by having street reps 
and a local news-letter. This was useful as it informed 
people that they were not alone and that non-payers 
were all around them. Using these tactics APTUs 
succeeded in changing non-payment from a passive 
individual act to an active collective one in many 
cases.

MOTIVATION

They also recognised the vital role of confidence 
building and political motivation. The first priority 
was to convince people to fight. The second to convince 
them that they could win. The aim in most APTUs was to 
make all the members feel that they were an active and 
important part of what was happening. Networks of kids 
kept an eye out for bailiffs and sheriffs. Pensioners 
and parents working at home organised telephone trees 
and were ready to assemble at a moments notice to 
defend houses from sheriffs and bailiffs.

In fact bailiff busting became a high art. So much so 
that many debt collecting firms went bust. In Edinburgh 
a group called scum busters were equiped with squads of 
cars and CB radios. Several minicab companies in London 
performed a similar service. Poindings (whereby a 
sheriff can value and remove goods) were resisted by 
crowds of hundreds in Scotland (they didn't have the 
power to do it in Wales and England). Bailiffs' houses 
were picketed and sheriffs offices occupied.

The movement was built from the grass roots up. It was 
based closely on already existing community networks. 
Capitalism has broken up many traditional communities 
and created in their place vast estates. However in 
some cases this has back-fired on them. For example in 
Mayfield (sounding not totally unlike it's namesake in 
Cork);

"Our area is mostly made up of housing schemes. There 
isn't a big shopping area. It was a mining community 
but then they closed down the pits so there's a high 
unemployment rate in this area. The centre of Mayfield 
is the labour club, everything goes on there. It's a 
built up area there's not a lot of play for the kids. 
There's a small community centre, nothing else around 
here. But we pay high bus fares if we go in to town". 
(Chris Mayers, Mayfield APTU)

Necessity had built up community links. People met in 
shopping centres, outside schools, at laundries, 
football matches etc. As APTUs worked on new links or 
tapped into already existing one there were some 
changes in perception. "The barriers of age, sex and 
race began to crumble. Ali, the local Asian shopkeeper, 
allowed us to stick a huge notice board in his shop 
window. The local launderette took leaflets. Some 
people became noticeably healthier. Mary Mc Innes, one 
of the oldest members of the Prestonfield group, who 
occasionally needed a ventilator to breathe, and at 
first needed a lift to meetings, literally ran up the 
street to be at Paul Smarts house before the sheriff 
officers". (Bob Goupillot, Prestonfield Community 
Resistance.)

Some on the left argued for non-collection of the tax 
to be fought for within the unions. However NALGO (the 
local government workers' union) which was won to a 
non-payment policy refused to lift a finger to 
implement it. Those union members who tried to organise 
workplace campaigns met with hostility from the 
leadership. The book devotes only a mere two pages in a 
section on wage arrestment (to pay tax arrears) to the 
idea of non-collection.

We believe that non-collection of service charges could 
and should be fought for within IMPACT and the CPSU - 
the unions concerned with collection in Ireland. If 
workers can be won over to this idea then they are 
making a very fundamental statement against the state's 
right to collect a new tax. They are questioning who 
runs society and in whose interests.

However given the present state of the unions, the low 
level of activism on the ground (after years of 
national wage deals) and the stranglehold of the 
bureaucracy this won't be an easy battle. In fact the 
current policy of both IMPACT and the CPSU supports the 
introduction of a head tax to improve local services 
and increase employment. They have bought in totally to 
the "partnership" myth.

In 1986/1987 there was a major debate within the LGPSU 
(now a part of IMPACT ) about hospital charges. The 
national conference voted for non- collection but the 
executive found this unacceptable and held several 
repeat votes until it swung in their favour. This shows 
that a major union could be won to non-payment but any 
measure which broke the law would face hostility and 
non-co-operation from the bureaucracy.

THE WORKERS STRIKE BACK

The huge anti-Poll Tax demonstrations of 200,000 in 
London and 50,000 in Glasgow was in many respects the 
turning point in the Anti-Poll-Tax battle. The rioting 
which broke out involved thousands in a spontaneous 
outburst of class anger. 542 police officers were 
wounded, thousands of demonstrators were injured as 
police charged with horses and drove vans at 
demonstrators.

The "Militant" dominated national executive of the All 
British Federation of APTUs proved they were totally 
out of touch with reality. Tommy Sherridan claimed that 
those "embroiled in running battles had nothing to do 
with our protest" (post-march press conference)

Steve Nally (on ITN April first) announced "we are 
going to hold our own internal inquiry which will go 
public and if necessary name names". However the first 
opinion poll after the riots showed one third of people 
felt the fightback against the police was justified. 

Norman Tebbit (from his own class point of view) proved 
more perceptive "if you tell people to break the law by 
not paying the tax, you're not far off telling them to 
break other laws as well". Within weeks of March 31st 
the number of APTUs had trebled.

Overall a great read. I would only have one or two 
minor quibbles. At one stage the point is made that the 
strength of the APTUs was their tactical diversity 
which is very true. However he continues that 
firebombing Poll Tax offices could be included in this 
list claiming "the activities of those who were not 
prepared to break the law were not undermined by the 
actions of the few who chose to throw firebombs."

This isn't exactly the point though. After all non-
payment was breaking the law. The problem with isolated 
and "glamorous" pieces of action like petrol bombings 
is that they are entirely individualistic. They tend to 
alienate many involved in the boring hum-drum activism 
that adds up to a popular fightback. Sometimes such 
tactics may be justified in the face of all other 
avenues of struggle being closed by the state. Here 
though they served more as a distraction from the real 
campaign.

Another problem is given the secrecy of this type of 
action it could not be democratically planned and 
agreed by most of the members of a particular APTU so 
it is not fair to claim to "represent" anyone in these 
actions.

This aside the book is a well written and highly 
readable account of the struggle against the Poll Tax. 
It enscribes the writing in large clear letters on the 
wall for anyone wishing to fight our own "service 
charges". The only way to defeat a community based 
household tax is by mass community and workplace 
resistance.


                        Find Out More

The world's wealth is produced by us - the working 
class. We ought to enjoy the benefits.
The Workers Solidarity Movement is an anarchist 
organisation that fights for a 32 county Workers' 
Republic.

We stand for a socialism that is based on freedom 
and real democracy, a society based on workplace and 
community councils.

This kind of socialism has nothing to do with the 
state capitalism that was practiced in Russia, and 
still is in China, Cuba and other police states.

We oppose coercive authority, and hold that the only 
limit on freedom of the individual should be that they 
don't encroach on the freedom of others.

*****
As part of our fight for anarchism we are involved in 
the struggles for higher wages, for trade union 
democracy, for womens rights, for jobs. 

We oppose all divisions in the working class. We 
fight against all attempts to set Protestant against 
Catholic, men against women, skilled against unskilled, 
old against young, hetrosexual against homosexual.
We are opposed to the British state's presence and 
to partition. We defend peoples' right to fight back. 
But we are not nationalists, we do not merely want to 
get rid of the border. We want to unite our class and 
create a totally knew Ireland.

*****
 I want more information about the Workers Solidarity 
Movement.

NAME



ADDRESS




Return to WSM, P.O. Box 1528, Dublin 8.



This is the second part of the latest issue of Workers Solidarity, 
produced by the Irish anarchist group, the Workers Solidarity 
Movement.  We are changing the format for this posting to 
two parts consisting of short articles and then posting longer
 related articles separately.  They should arrive on this 
list/newsgroup over the next few days.  Some lists/
newsgroups will only get postings relevant to them.  To
get other parts reply to this address with a request or
watch out for them on alt.society.anarchy between the
13th and 24th of June.


The parts and their contents are.

Workers Solidarity 42 (Editorial and shorts) 1/6    

   For starters
   That's Capitalism
   Stake your claim to cash
   PLC students demand grants
   Telethon - A hypocritical sham
   If the cops don't like you
   French show how to fight... and win!
   Bosnia, Rwanda and UN intervention.

Workers Solidarity 42 (More shorts) 2/6    <-This mailing

   Significant minority say NO to union leaders
   Don't vote...it only encourages them
   Letter
   Prepare to Sink the service charges
   Find Out More

WS 42 Gay Pride 3/6

   Loud and Proud
   The reasons Emmet Stagg should resign

WS 42  Ireland, Sinn Fein and the peace talks. 4/6

   Yes to peace

WS 42 Year of the Family 5/6

   Parents, puritans and poverty
   Gas masks and pantyhose

WS 42 Evolution and revolution 6/6
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Workers Solidarity Movement can be contacted at 
     PO Box 1528, Dublin 8, Ireland

Some of our material is available via the Spunk press electronic archive

             by FTP to etext.archive.umich.edu or 141.211.164.18
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in the directory /pub/Politics/Spunk/texts/groups/WSM