Principles Betrayed

Following Jim Kemmy’s decision to support the governments efforts to close Tuam Sugar Plant, J oe Harrington and George McLoughlin, issued the following statement. (Also see Socialist Republic Vol. 4 No. 9). Jim Kemmy’s decision to vote for, what is in effect, the closure of the the Tuam Sugar Plant can only be described as disastrous for the people who live in that part of the west of Ireland and a betrayel of socialist principles which dictate that people are more important than profits. It becomes more obvious with each passing day that Mr Kemmy’s peculiar brand of “socialism’’ lies easy alongside the Coalition’s private enterprise ideology in which only the fittest are allowed to survive.

Even Fianna Faii, a party that makes no apology for the capitalist basis of its politics and which obviously had been aware that consideration was being given to closing Tuam, has been able to present itself as having a social conscience on the matter, while Jim Kemmy’s “pragmatism” parallels Thatcherism’s “‘if it‘s not economically viable then it has to go”’ policy.

His claim to the title ‘‘Democratic Socialist” seems rather pretentious when we see how Mr. Kemmy disregards the wishes of the working people of Tuam who marched in their thousands to protest the closure of their factory. In fact, the towns-people are altogether unimpressed by Mr. Kemmy’s talk of “alternative industry” for the area. This was conveyed to us very strongly by the Workers’ Action Committee and the Tuam people in general during a recent factfinding visit we made to the town on behalf of the Limerick magazine, _The.Bottom-Dog, The Action Committee told us that ‘‘there were already over 600 unemployed in Tuam who would be glad to avail of jobs in any ‘‘alternative industry” but the fact was that ten IDA advance factories have stood idle in rural Galway for the past two years.

One of the townspeople summed up the general feeling quite well when she said; “We could let our sugar plant go in exchange for an IDA multi-national providing a couple of hundred jobs’ only to see it skip the country on the first night-flight out of Knock.”

UNDERDEVELOPED ECONOMY But in case Mr Kemmy might accuse us of being frivolous we will confine ourselves to pointing out that Jim Kemmy’s “‘pragmatism” would also require the immediate closure of other loss-making parts of the Irish Sugar Company, beginning with its Thurles plant and, if reports from within the company are true, including a loss-making section of its Limerick subsidiary, Mattersons. In fact, using the yardstick of “economic viability”, the Sugar Company itself could be in danger because of having to carry loss-making sections like Tuam is not the basic reason for the Sugar Company’s problems and cutting off its limbs will not stall the disease.

The problems of the Irish Sugar Company cannot be separated from the problem of an undeideveloped Irish economy and tke inability of Irish capitalism to compete effectively in the International market. Clearly, Connolly’s claim that, under the private enterprise system, Irish industrialisation depends on Irish workers becoming “‘the blacklegs of Europe”’ still holds true. It is equally clear that Jrish workers are not willing to accept the blackleg tag nor are they happy to remain victims of a backward economy. The only way out of this vicious circle for workers is the drawing up by the Trade Union Movement of an economic plan based on its members needs and a struggle for its implementation using troops steeled in the fight to save existing jobs. The working class can kiss my ass, I’ve got the TD’s job at last