Profits Cause Crisis

MOANS AND GROANS The employers claim that Irish wage rates are going through the ceiling and damaging the domestic and international competitiveness of Irish industry They argue that since 1979 wages have increased 2% times by comparison with other EEC countries. As a result, Irish commodities are finding it difficult to hold their share of the European market. They quote as evidence the fact CHVH & PERSIE SRRWIEES a STAE ASSOCIATION Irish workers face the toughest wage negotiations for more than twenty years. Last July, the official publication of the Confederation of Irish Industry demgovernment has also given general endorsement to these proposals.

that the price of Irish exports went up by 10% last year compared with a 5% increase for goods produced in Germany and Benelux countries.

Needless to say, the employers are none too happy about all this. They claim that in order to keep the price rise in export commodities to 10% they had to absorb substantial losses.

Moreover, they cannot continue to Workers refuse to sept Eales miata and fight on fora living wage. will be facing total collapse accomployment. As the Confederation of Irish Industry put it, ‘there has pay increases for those in sheltered employment and the jobs of those who must face international competition’.

LIES AND STATISTICS to convince workers that they are greedy and selfish fools. It is true, certainly, that industry is in serious do this indefinitely. Soon industry panied inevitably by massive unemseldom been a starker choice between of these crises. Of course, these are selective arguments difficulty. Socialists have always held market. that the contradictions and inefficiency of capitalism leads to repeated crises. The full facts, and not just those picked to suit the employers, : throw revealing light on the real cause When employers talk about a 244 times increase in Irish wages compared with European countries they leave out a vital factor. Ireland has consistently had one of the highest inflation rates in the EEC. When inflation is allowed for it happens that real wages actually decreased by 30%. In Europe the decline in workers’ wages was not nearly so drastic. Wage rates rose by 38% since ‘79 whereas in the four major countries inflation rose by only 32%. It is clear therefore that the . competitive advantage gained by Irish industry during the 70’s has not been seriously eroded. In fact, ina recent survey, the Economic and Social Research Institute has confirmed that Irish exports have more or less maintained their share of the European PROFITS: THE REAL CAUSE The employers do not scruple to whip up a campaign of hysteria based on lies. The reality is that despite a sharp decline in real wages Irish capitalism still finds itself in considerable difficulty. In fact, it would be more correct to say that it is precisely because of the decline in workers’ earnings that Irish industry is crisis-ridden. The attack on workers’ wages, which has intensified over the past three years has occurred in conjunction with a systematic ‘rationalisation’ at factory level. Labour-intensive production fy: been replaced by capital-intensive tec niques. This is true even for those in dustries which were already capitalintensive.

This development has had two impor tant effects. Firstly, it has led to growing unemployment. Contrary to the propaganda of the employers, low wages in the Irish context go han in hand with high rates of job loss. In security of employment: has become the chief restraint on workers’ incom: Secondly, the fact that Irish industry now employs less labour to produce more output, means that it is increasingly difficult to maintain an adequat profit rate. Since the exploitation of labour is the usual source of profit, the level of labour exploitation must be raised intensively.

IRISH THATCHERISM The industrial crisis in Ireland is, as elsewhere in Europe, basically a crisis of profitability. The onslaught again: wage incomes, despite variations, particular to Ireland, is fundamentally th same as in Europe. The rehabilitatior of capitalist profitability through intensive labour exploitation and mass unemployment is the Thatcherite aim of the Coalition and the employers. There is no room for compromise wit such an aim. The era in which reforimist compromises were possible is; long since gone. Either the workers fight tooth and nail to defend their living standards or they will go down to defeat ... and abject poverty.

----- pull-quotes -----

OFFICIAL =~. DISPUTE _

anded ‘a prolonged pay pause’. Now the National Economic and Social Coun- cil has come out in favour of an 18 month total wage freeze. The Coalition