How Will Ireland

Industry in Ireland and Irish society too have undergone radical and convulsive change over the past 15 years. Since the Anglo-iIrish Free Trade agreement of 1966 removed the few barriers protecting the weakling 26-—County economy from the dominant British economy, the re-assertlon and deepening of Imperialist domination have increased with the years, Joining the EEC in 1973 was just a milestone along this road, For the major sectors of ''our'! native gombeen capitalists, these political steps were an effort to cash jn on the post-World War II international capitalist boom. But unfortunately for them -- and of course more so for the Irish workThe second budget since the Tories ers and small farmers —- that boom was coming to an end in the carly '70s, never again to rear its lusty head, INDUSTRIALIZATION.... AT A PRICE For the imperialists, intensified exploitation of Ireland as well as of the rest of the neo-colonial world, was an important part of their efforts to maintain their profit levels as the boom ended, Many of the consequences of the industrialization policy implemented ‘by the Industrial Development Authority (IDA), under the direction of successive governments, have left deep social scars and human misery. Continuation of that policy promises more of the same, Traditional labour intensive industries have been run down under the impact of imperialist competition, causing loss of jobs, Leather and shoes, bacon, flour milling, wool, clothing and carpets -- all of these industries have suffered in this way. The newer industries brought in at enormous expense -- over 50° per cent construction and initial capitalization costs borne by the Irish taxpayers, andno, or very little, tensive. tax to be paid by the companies for the first 25 years -- tend on the -whole to be sma!l, highly mechanised (electronics, chemicals, ployment. light engineering) and capital inCAUSE OF HIGH TAXATION The financial burden which this type of industrialization places on taxpayers and most heavily on the lower paid workers, has fuelled the massive tax protests of the past two years, It has increased our indebtedness to imperialist banks and has helped to push the inflation rate to the vicinity of 20 per cent. In turn the high levels of inflation deepen the oppres-— sion of all those not powerful enough to fight back -- the old, the handicapped, the unorganised workers, the small farmers, There has also been a serious idecological blow to the organized workers! movement in the implementing of this industrialization. The sweetheart contracts between the multinationals and particularly the Transport Union, have weakened the authority of that union among workers, damaged trade union consciousness and solidarity and helped to split the trade union fiasco illustrated this.

The major selling point advanced by the |DA and the governments for their strategy of industrialization, is that it provides much needed jobs. For all their huffing and puffing this claim is at bottoma fraud, For instance by 1976 the number of jobs in the 26 Counties was the lowest since the founding of the state (1.035 million) and two years later, after the economic re—covery, the number of jobs was 1,06 million, less than the level 3 of the stagnant sixties, With even more young people coming into the labour force, since over half the population is now under 25, another ‘by-product of the IDA industrialization policy is and will be unemBut there are other ingredients and consequences of this policy which are becoming more apparent and which should alert workers to the type of future in store for them and their children under capital— ism in Ireland, AUTOMATION AND CAPITALISM Ever accelerating automation, using computers and microprocessors based on the silicon chip, should promise more pleasant work and shorter working hours if this -society genuinely sought human welfare, But under capitalism automation is used to increase the length of the dole queue and to further exploit the workforce, More dirty, dangerous and healthdestroying industries are appear—ing’ on the Irish scene -- artificial fertilizers, acrylonitrile textiles in Mayo, asbestos in Cork, the threatened nuclear station in Wexford. The Whiddy Island disaster last year put Ireland close to the top of the world league table for industrial tragedies for that year.