``Greedy bastards'' make poor poorer
By Sean Marlow
British Trade Union leader, John Edmunds, enraged the Man Utd
press earlier this week when he said that bosses, who awarded
themselves £50,000 increases while denying their workers fair
pay, were ``greedy bastards''. It's not only in post-Thatcher,
privatised Britain that the rich are grabbing a large slice of
the available wealth.
According to the UN Human Development Report 1998, the wealth of
the world's 225 richest people is equal to the annual income of
half the world's population. £12 billion is spent on pet food in
Europe and the US while £9 billion would provide basic health and
nutrition for ALL the world's poor. Now, there's a real scandal
for Ken Starr to investigate.
Ireland has its own share of scandals. The UN Human Poverty Index
ranks the 26 Counties 16th out of the 17 western industrial
states. The UK was 15th and of course the 6 Counties is the
poorest ``region of the UK''.
Interestingly, bottom of the poverty league was that bastion of
free-market capitalism, the USA, while poverty was lowest in
Sweden which has had a relatively egalitarian system for many
years.
The disgraceful level of poverty in our booming economy, with a
predicted £900 million budget surplus this year, is an indictment
of Irish politicians, Trade Union leaders and media. Fianna Fáil
and PD ministers weakly tried to defend themselves by stating
that the UN figures were from 1995. But research done by the
Conference Of Religious in Ireland has shown that each budget
since 1995 was widened the gap between rich and poor. Now, after
rewarding their rich contributers by repeatedly reducing
Corporation Tax and slashing Capital Gains Tax from 40% to 20%,
the FF/PD government is targeting the unemployed by threatening
to withdraw the dole from anyone who does not accept a (maybe
unsuitable) training scheme or a (usually underpaid) job offer.
Unfortunately, our Trade Union leaders have gone along with this
increase in inequality and poverty by signing up to Programmes
with so-called ``social partners'' in right-wing governments and
big business.
The performance of the media on this issue has been disgraceful.
They rabbit on about the Celtic Tiger while ignoring the searing
poverty suffered by people from Ballymun to Ballymurphy. As a
would-be PRO, I am often amazed at how the media can give blanket
coverage to the most bland statement from Gerry Adams about
``moving the peace process forward'' yet ignore his detailed,
informative response to the UN report on poverty, published only
in An Phoblacht.
A good example of how the media dismisses the victims of poverty
was RTE's Questions & Answers this week. John Bowman allowed
Finance Minister, Charlie McCreevey, to waffle and blather on and
on, scoring cheap political points off Labour's Roisín Shortall
(which wasn't hard as Labour's record on poverty is just as bad
as FF's) and ignoring the original question about his
responsibility for the high level of poverty. Bowman wouldn't
even allow a comment from a handicapped woman and her carer in
the audience.
Luckily, though, when Bowman was trying to wrap up the programme,
the two courageous women forced him into extra time and attacked
McCreevey for reneging on a promise to provide funding for
services for the handicapped.
There are valuable lessons here for republican activists, north
and south. The fact that the media and political establishment
ignores Ireland's growing inequality and poverty means they have
no real answers to the causes of many of our society's problems.
So hospital waiting lists get longer, more people are priced out
of the housing market, teacher numbers are being cut and drug
abuse and anti-social behaviour are getting worse.
In the north, there will be the usual calls for Sinn Fein to
``behave responsibly'' in the new Assembly. But Irish republicans
can not be put in the position of accepting responsibility for
closing hospitals and schools because of British government
cutbacks. Instead, we should link up with community and Trade
Union activists (maybe through the Civic Forum) in opposing
attacks on working people.
In the south, the demise of DL and WP and the continuing
right-wing shift by Labour means there is only one party left to
fight on behalf of the 30% affected by poverty. But Sinn Fein
needs to campaign actively for a massive transfer of our
considerable wealth from the greedy to the needy.
The most effective way to achieve this is by means of a Wealth
Tax, especially on property and non-productive wealth.
Republicans must also campaign for firm regulation of the banks
to enforce reinvestment in productive, job-creating activities,
taxation of the huge profits taken out by multinationals,
tackling of tax evasion with at least the same gusto used to
harass those on Social Welfare.
Finally, rather than being so dependent on the Fruit of the Looms
of this world, we should ensure that local communities are
empowered (and funded) to generate long-term sustainable jobs,
especially in new growth areas like computer software,
audio-video production and multi-media.
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