“Limerick has been the ‘oasis in the desert’ for…”

Limerick has been the ‘oasis in the desert’ for all and sundry in the city and surrounding areas, Since news of the £20 million plant first received banner headlines some four or five years ago in the local press, it has been proclaimed as ‘great news’ by local politicians and businessmen. In fact, Michael Herbert, a local Fianna Fail T.D., was awarded the Oscar for re-directing ‘the giant firm away from its initial destination, eer to his home village, Annacotty.

However, soon after construction, began, Fe-renka (which is a subsidiary of AKZO, the giant multinational concern) was to learn that the natives were not so friendly, and a spate of strikes began which was to set the trend for the years following, During this time a number of developments -have taken place, most noteworthy of which has been the scab role played by the trade union officials. They have acted as staunch allies of the bosses in every conflict. Their attitude is ‘that Ferenka is a ‘great blessing’ for workers of the area and that everybody should play their part in ensuring that these nice bosses are not upset by ‘nasty strikes’ in case they might go and leave us all jobless.

It is not surprising, therefore, to find that when the Union bureaucrat visits the plant he firstly calls on management to. see if everything is in order. He can also be expected to come to the assistance of * management in helping them to smash strikes. The most recent example of this involves a dispute concerning the hiring of two men as foremen, from outside the firm and without any previous experience. The workers were opposed to this as agreement had already been reached that vacancies should be filled as a priority from within the workforce. So pickets were placed on the plant and were supported by 99% of the 12,000 workers employed there. Needless to say, the union (1.T.G.W.U.) immediately declared it unofficial, and arch Union bureaucrat, Vincent Moran, issued an appeal to the workers to ‘please return to work’. He went on to say, as a so-called representative of the workers, ‘we have ad_ vised the workers to resume work and we would process through the rights commissioners, but they thought it could be solved by staying out’. But the workers at Ferenka have no faith in their Union officials, not to mind rights commissioneys. They see clearly the role the union leadership is playing, ie., one of working hand in glove with the bosses to stifle any militant action undertaken by the workers in defence of their rights.

As mentioned above, Ferenka is the Irish subsidiary of AZKO International, a Dutch concern, which has plants in practically every country in the Common Market.

Their only concern in coming to Ireland is not to give employment, as Moran and the local gombeen politicidns would have us believe, but to avail themselves of cheap labour and large grants (grants to Ferenka to date amount to £8 million). The wave of strikes at Ferenka has been blamed by management on ‘Maoists and Communists’, who are referred to as the ‘rotten apple amongst the good’, This over-reaction on the part of management can probably be explained by AKZO’s experience in Holland and West Germany when their chemical plants there were occupied by the workers. This action forced the AKZO trust to reverse its decision to lay off 6,500 workers in five factories in four different countries.

It is this international character which the Ferenka workers must grasp and build their demands around. One of the worst shortcomings of the Officials has been their failure to work out an overall analysis of the situation in Ireland today. Because of this they have been unable to see _ the general direction in which the struggle is evolving, and they have been unable to make any real assessment or critique of the role being played by other political forces such as the Provos, U.D.A. etc.

The most striking result of this absence of overall perspective is seen iri their inability to understand the various turning points in the struggle. This weakness has increased their isolation and permitted the Provos and now even the SDLP to outflank them.

PROS AND CONS The latest turning point in the struggle, the publication ,of Whitelaw’s White Paper, has also highlighted the | Officials’ lack of general strategy. This has been re} flected directly in their attitude towards the local : government and assembly elections, which are an integral part of Whitelaw’s initiative. Apparently. after long discussions and much soul-searching, they have decided to participate in these elections. The report of these discussions and the conclusions arrived at, contained in the June United Irishman, do not show any understanding of the role of the elections in the postWhite Paper period. The - -discussion simply centred around the general questions of electioneering. Some people seem to have objected to participation in the elections on the grounds that the proposed local government _ councils and the new Assembly were not sufficently democratic institutions. Those who wanted to participate were quite correct to point out that these objections were too abstract and insufficient. Thése arguments could be used against participation in any elections at all, since all parlimentary and local government institutions are designed specially to create the illusion of democracy. On the other hand, the pro-election advocates were equally abstract in their arguments. They ‘argued that it was necessary to participate in the elections because it would be wrong, (i) to pass up such an opportunity to get their. views across to the people, (ii) to leave the field open to middle-class politicians like the SDLP, the Nationalist Party, Alliance etc. But un‘fortunately such arguments could be used to justify participation in every election without exception. This approach is probably more dangerous than that of the ‘abstainers’, since it transforms what for socialists is merely a tactic into a principle. population). for their views. stage of the struggle.

Fi we hh Of} Elections, to socialists, are just one of the escape valves of capitalism. Théy help to create and maintain the illusion of democraey. They give the worker the. feeling that he has a say. If we look closely enough we can in fact see that the so-called ‘representative institutions’ only represent private property. Historically, of course, in order to have a yote one had to own a considerable sum of wealth. This was modified when the working class began to challenge the existance of capitalism, in-order to incorporate them into the © system, But even to this day these institutions remain.representative of property. In the Dail, for instance, 3% of T.Ds are of working class origin (whereas the working class comprises 30% of the population), and 30% are from the capitalist classsbankers, financiers, industrialists etc (whereas this group comprises only 3% of the Notwithstanding this, as long as capitalism functions normally the working class will remain under electoral illusions, and socialists who do not wish to become isolated from the working class will be forced ‘to use elections as.a platform But once capitalism looses its equilibrium and private property is forced to express its rule in an increasingly naked form, the opportunity arises for socialists to expose electoralism. It is their duty to pose alternative forms of rule such as the revolutionaries in Russia did by creating ‘Soviets and other organs of dual power. Whey capitalism is in a severe crisis—when the ruling class can no longer rule as before and when the working class refuses to live as before—it would be criminal opportunism for socialists to advocate participation in elections initiated by the ruling class. Under such circumstances such elections could only have the effect of restoring the ruling class’s influence over the workers. In short, the participation of socialists in elections is dependent not pa abstract principles which are valid for all eternity but on concrete circumstances—on the equilibrium of capitalism, on the ability. of the capitalist class to rule and on the willingness of the masses to struggle.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ELECTIONS The Officials were prevented from approaching the present election period in this way because they have no overall analysis of the struggle. They are uncertain about the meaning and outcome of ~“imperialism’s initiatives, and consequently they To make a valid judgement on the elections, it is necessary to understand the significance of the White Paper. Was it a success-or a failure? Of course it was a failure in that it did not solve the problems of the Catholic ghettos, But it was also a failure in the deeper sense that it did not even solve the problems of British imperialism, The sections on ‘power sharing’ and the ‘Irish dimension’ were so hollow that British imperialism clearly does not have any real material basis for hoping to reintegrate the €atholic minority into the Unionist Satelet or af imposing a new stability on the North. In other words the White Paper does not seriously affect the inability of British imperialism and its clients to regain control of thé situation in Ireland. It merely shows that while they cannot regain control of the situation they can find no acceptable alter, native way of ruling; it does not offer any hope to the Catholic community and offers no reasons for opting back into the statelet.

The only recourse left open to British imperialism now is political and military manoeuvring. Its new strategy has obviously been to wear down the resistance and independence of the Catholic community by, stepping up the Para brutality. They hope by this to reduce the minority to such a state that in sheer desperation it will opt to.use ‘normal political channels’ to forward its case. If that happens British imperialism knows that this will be the first step towards reintegration. ~Electoralism has a logic all of its own. Because it represents a refracted expression of capital’s rule it blunts revolutionary consciousness and initiative and begins a process of reconciliation. Participation in the elections by the Catholic community, no matter to whom their votes go, will be a victory for British imperialism’s strategy:

In the light of this the abstractness of the Officials takes on a serious reformist coloration. The two © reasons which the “participationists’ give for contesting the elections are not in the least sufficient to justify their stand, They ignore the actual conditions of the situation. Besides, it is not _ necessary to participate in the elections in order to use them. It would-be quite as easy and much more correct and principled to wage a boycott campaign around the-elections. In this way it would still be possible to put forward revolutionary politics.and expose the middle class politicians, while at the same time making no concessions to British imperialism’s strategy.

DARA McEVOY

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By LIMERICK BRANCH/RMG For many years now, the Ferenka plant outside

have no real appreciation of the concrete con- juncture—hence their abstract reasoning at every