Home Truths

 

After a hiatus of a year, we publish a piece not exactly Cork-based, but written by a rebel in exile. Firstly in the Pale, but now further afield.

During the winter of 2017 I was evicted from my then home of seven years. Since that period, I have tried many times over to capture what I and many others who lived in my local community experienced in my own words. For a variety of reasons things never came to full fruition until now. This week an election looms large for the Irish public. This has brought all kinds of scurrying creatures out from their lairs in the hopes of securing re-election. Our current leader has never been one to shy away from the limelight (spending 100 thousand euro a month on PR* his first 18 months in his position). He recently took to the nation’s airwaves and as usual he was like some Victorian era character far removed from the lives of the majority. This isn’t a piece about those kinds of people, and I will keep my revulsion to a minimum, it was his words that inspired me to finish writing this. He spoke about his buying a home at 24 and how that was the norm for his generation. He feigned regret that it is no longer possible for Irish people to do so yet he is an active agent in maintaining the status quo of Mass Homelessness and other social maladies. This vile display helped me to share my experience as it is the kind of experience my generation has lived.

My experiences of life under the established government parties includes this one. I received the same kind of illegal eviction notice the majority of others living around me had, a vague excuse lying about the reason you have to vacate, and the clock started ticking. Like thousands of others I was faced with a choice. Stay and fight a battle stacked against you with the state itself siding with the landlords, or find somewhere new. This made me feel alone and isolated even though I had a support network around me comprised of those in similar situations and fighting back against illegal evictions. I began to experience feelings of low Self-esteem and low Self-worth. My days and nights were filled with new uncomfortable levels of Anger and Anxiety. The Stress built daily as the pit of my stomach knotted with depression and fear. Fear that this could lead me to lose my job. Fear that everything you have struggled to hold together will fall apart. Fear you will be the one on the streets. Fear of how you will be perceived by others.  I began to blame myself. I began to question what I could have done differently despite having been happy with the hard work and early mornings I was putting in up until that point. I began to suffer sleepless nights and empty days. Meals that I couldn’t taste. People ask you how you’re doing and you tell them you’re fine. You don’t tell them that you’re on the edge. You don’t tell them that you want to cry. You don’t tell them that you don’t know how much more you can take. It’s not that you feel like they don’t care but you don’t want to be a bother. You don’t see how they can help. You don’t see how anybody can help when the state itself is complicit in all of this. You know this is not down to your actions but the greed of others, but it doesn’t ease the pain or the situation. Each day this builds like a pressure cooker until you expect steam to come out of your ears until the faithful day dawns and you step into the unknown.

 

For me economic eviction led to a downsize in living space and an increase in rent. I was fortunate unlike many others and kept my precarious job in the construction industry. I was worn down after years struggling through the recession. I was tired from years fighting austerity measures. I was drained from watching the state privatise assets at a loss and trying to do likewise with our water infrastructure. Witnessing the same segments of society who brought financial and social ruin to Ireland, the bankers, landlords and corrupt politicians continuing to profit off others misery had me at my wits end.

That was December 2017, a lot has changed in my life since then but unfortunately the inept policy of the corrupt government and its servants has not. The housing crisis in Ireland continues, levels of homelessness have continued to climb having passed the 10,000 mark recently**. When we hear the word homeless most of us imagine an adult on the street. In Ireland the homeless consists of people from all walks of life, the young and the old. Children tonight are homeless in Ireland. People over sixty have recently become homeless – the last number I saw was that 200 had accessed emergency accommodation in the preceding months. I have to repeat that children and people over sixty are being made homeless in a so called first world country. This is not because they have made mistakes, this is not because they have failed to participate in society or uphold the social contract – it is because as, a government, the established Irish players have failed them. This Housing and Health crisis could be resolved, it is by choice that those in power have allowed this both to happen and to continue.

With my home in Dublin’s north inner city I was living on the wrong side of town, when the Luas arrived I was pushed to the wrong side of the tracks. The first day of public operation of the extension to the Green Line was also Day Zero for me to vacate the apartment I had called home for 7 years. Like countless others I had fallen victim to what some might call gentrification, but can be more honestly be described as social cleansing. The south-side barbarians along with others of the upper classes of Dublin’s fair city and county had been preparing for the opening of the gates for months. Soon I fear the invasion forces will have wiped out all traces of the local culture and community that had mostly survived and occasionally thrived within the confines of Dublin 1. The nasal pinch of the D4 accent threatens to wipe out the Luke Kelly Dublin lilt of the area.

From Dorset street to the I.F.S.C and from Ballybough to O’Connell Street, communities were being wiped out. The social bonds we form through our daily interactions are what comprise a community, when we lose our home, our post office, our places to socialise we most likely lose these bonds as well. 

The benefits of safer streets and easier access to transport were not to be felt by those who lived in my former community. Those who survived in spite of a system that had turned its back on them were not to reap the rewards due to them for continuing to fight for a decent life. Their reward has been financial terrorism. Fascism with a pair of chinos and a mocha-latte. They have been the victims of N.A.M.A wine lake-drinking, morally void leeches that have wagged class war upon the denizens of this and other areas for years, continually using all the dirty tricks in the State’s book to take more than they have contributed. Up and down the country lives have been lost. Mental health and Social issues which arose due to austerity conditions have killed people and the true cost in lives of the Bank Bailout numbers more than any gangland feud.  As the vulture funds have been stripping the meat from the carcass these maggots have been sucking the bones dry under a state-supported ideology that employs all means of thuggery to achieve its aims. But I digress.

One of the first places to be snuffed out for the arrival of the Luas was a pub on Parnell Street frequented by those of the traveling community not only from the capital but all parts of Ireland. Members of a community that has endured hardship whilst undeservedly being looked down upon the length and breadth of the isle, as far as I’m aware, have no place to frequent within the city centre now. A hipster watering hole now occupies the space though I doubt it extends the same welcome. Not long after that one of Irelands busiest post offices, due to it primarily serving those in receipt of social welfare, closed its doors – a petition raised by those employed and serviced there ignored.

After 140+ years of deprivation, events such as the lock outs of 1913, epidemic after epidemic, Drugs, suicide, homelessness, AIDs, gangland criminality, living conditions the upper tiers would not accept the area received a large injection of cash. Roads were resurfaced. Parks and common areas were tidied up and made safer. Alleys were cleared. Hedges pulled down so as not to provide shelter for illicit trade. All beneficial activities yet who benefited? The working poor who had struggled to live in the area? Those who had spent years living under threat of violence? The mothers, brothers, fathers and sisters who had suffered from the maladies resultant from an inadequate social health system? The migrant workers and their families who struggled for years to pay the rent? The 1400+ families in emergency accommodation in the area*? The big sweep of the North Inner City was not just of the litter but of its tenants. Only those families who had council housing and roots dating back for several generations could stand against the rising tide. Rents rocketed 100 to 150 percent in 2 years from 2015 to 2017 and while those in emergency accommodation still provide lucrative income for the greedy, mass evictions were loosed upon the rest of us.

December 2017. Tonight is my last night climbing the broad stairway, four flights of eleven steps. It is the last night I will be greeted by the window halfway, capped by a curving arch. Its 12 panes 2 ft x 1.5 ft that have grown so familiar offering me the view first enjoyed by Georgian upper crust Jacks then reallocated through time to the lower ebbs of society.  I came into this building a social outcast renting in a socially deprived area, a no go if you will. Ireland was deep in recession and this was the heart of deprivation, but when I first climbed this stairs and held the banister, when I gazed at the spindles older than Joyce and Shaw I felt security. For the first time in a few years I had a place to call my own and as years passed it became my home. In those early days all we had was the bog channels, there wasn’t a drop of internet in sight.

One evening I was watching some drivel on TV3 blaming and shaming the victims when I rose to make a cuppa tae for myself and my roommate from the house-a-fun. As I stood stirring the bainne I heard “werr on the bleedin telly”! And rightly so, there outside our front door was the reporter. The hack of him, claiming begging gangs were congregating in those walls. Families packed to the rafters drawn by the allure of choking to death by the m50 begging whilst being demonised and shunned for the benefit of slum landlords. I was used to being called a culchie as I had come from outside Dublin but this clown was calling us immigrants and using terms such as squalor yet hadn’t even bothered to leave a note when he was ‘doing his research’ to determine the make-up of the street.

When I moved in there were two cranes visible from my back window. They lay idle for years, the remnants of the construction industry crashing along with the economy. The summer of 2017 me and my one of the four other friends staying with me at the time counted 26 tenants. Why were there five people living in a two-bed apartment? Because all the work was in Dublin but none of us could afford to rent by other means so things got cosy for a bit. During this time the buzz word of the politicos was ‘recovery’. It was by no means a recovery for anybody, because the wealthy who were prospering now hadn’t ever suffered an hour due to the austerity measure implemented by their blundering, and the rest of us didn’t feel any better.

Of the many evictions in the area I have been lucky. Of the evictions in my building I have been lucky. A family on the ground floor in my building spent a considerable time between being on the streets or in emergency accommodation. A few months after we left our home’s I visited them in the latest emergency accommodation they had been shifted to for a birthday gathering. I began chatting with the landlord/proprietor who was floating about keeping an eye on things. He told me he was a former civil servant, retired. I told him I worked in the electrical construction industry and while chatting he told an anecdote of how lucky he had been when there had been a fire as he had removed the smoke alarm from the laundry room where the fire had started. I stood, aghast, as he described how if the room had not been in use he may have gotten into a “bit of bother”. I did my best to hide my revulsion as no thought was given to the lives of the children he was receiving vast sums of state money to house. He was in the process of converting the basement into more rooms and a garage at the back was soon to receive the same makeover. These are the kinds of people who benefitted from a supposed recovery. The kinds of people who hang their election posters in an area where a homeless man has just been bulldozed from his tent care not for the plight of the common person.

I no longer live in Dublin, like many others of my generation I became an economic migrant. Over the last decade let us not forget emigration levels at times were on a par with those of the famine times of the 1800’s. I made the choice to go not because I fancied life on distant shores but because faced with the birth of my first child my choice was as such. Stay in Ireland and pay a lot more money for a lower standard of living or move to mainland Europe. It was not an easy decision to make but the financial difference alone outweighed all else. Leaving Ireland for the time being has brought with it many struggles like learning a new language, but again I have been fortunate enough to be able to face such hurdles. Many others like me have not had such luck and continue to struggle day to day.

The Ragged Trousered Philantropist

*https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/labour-attacks-dysfunctional-fine-gael-coalition-at-party-launch-1.4146699

**https://www.focusireland.ie/resource-hub/about-homelessness/

There were 10,448 people homeless in the week of November 18 – 24 2019 across Ireland. This figure includes adults and children. The number of homeless families has increased by over 300% since November 2014. More than one in three people in emergency accommodation is a child..

A message from the Tamminists to the alt-right snowflakes

Our comrades in the Revolutionary Tamminist Party of Mahon were recently banned from Facebook for posting an anti-racist rant, which obviously left a fair few of the alt-right snowflakes fairly butt-hurt. So here we re-publish the original post (with some editorial tweaking), just so those cucks can come and have a read of it if ever they’re looking for something to get them going in the strange self-flagellating fetishism that they are known for. Weirdos.

A few weeks back some cowardly racist cunts decided to firebomb a hotel up the country which was earmarked for to be used as a Direct Provision Centre for asylum seekers. This is the second such attack in the past three months. We in the revolutionary Tamminist Party of Mahon would like to express our desire to fight anyone who supports this kind of action. Honest to god. Because anyone who thinks attacking poor people is a good way to get back at the pricks in Leinster House is a fucking amadán and a coward and deserves a couple of slaps with a hurley.

You’re not a patriot, you’re a bonehead. You’re not fighting for your country. you’re behaving like the Loyalist cunts who burned our countrymen out of their homes. You’re not carrying on the long tradition of resistance than us Irish are so proud of. You’re mimicking the long tradition of fascism that the Brits are known for. Yeah, Tommy Robinson probably thinks you’re sound. But the Chairman Tammy thinks you’re a cunt. Bobby Sands would have boxed the head off ya. Padraig Pearse would have been disgusted by ya. And Tom Barry would have left ya in a fucking ditch!

There is bogland all around Cork – and all over the country – where many a traitor and counter-revolutionary were laid to rest for serving the cause of imperialism. And those who carried our these attacks would have met the same ending were the ra still a formidable force today. And ’tis a fucking pity they’re not!

The small handful of people (a few thousand on an island of 6+ million) who come to this country to seek better lives for themselves are NOT to blame for ANY of your hardships. Whether they’re asylum seekers, refugees, economic migrants or whatever, who fucking cares!The VASt majority are here to build a good life for themselves while contributing society. Unlike the cunts responsible for these attacks, and the sneering fuckers who support it.

The family with three kids from Syria aren’t to blame for Tina’s untreated mental health issues. The Health Care Assistant from Nigeria isn’t to blame for John’s drug addiction. The taxi-man from kenya isn’t to blame for Daithí ending up on the streets. The fast-food worker from China isn’t to blame for Tomás and Mary being evicted out of their family home. the barber from iraq isn’t to blame for our nurses working in such shit conditions.

The bankers, their puppet politicians, the greedy landlords and the rest of their fellow elites are to blame! It’s not the blacks and the Muslims, most of those responsible are fucking white and irish! And of course their lackey knuckle-draggers that act the big boys online and creep in the shadows to carry out attacks in the name of some fake patriotism and claiming we should “look after our own”.

Look after our own? Who the fuck is that? If you’re poor and struggling, you’ve much more in common with the immigrants than the boys running the country. So who the fuck are “our own”? And who the fuck is the real enemy? Not so long ago the Irish were spat at and attacked on the streets of England – NO BLACKS NO DOGS NO IRISH! And now these new breed of so-called “nationalists” are acting exactly like those English fascists cunts who treated the Irish like shit.

Swear to god, on me grandmother’s grave, every single one of the cunts that supports these attacks is a cowardly fucker and deserves a fucking hiding and we’re calling them out. In fact, they should come out from behind their keyboards and organise a public rally. Give it plenty of advertisement and plenty of time notice, and we see how many of ye fuckers show up. Cos we’ll be waiting. Cunts.

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY TAMMINIST PARTY OF MAHON

All power to the Soviets.

Taken from ‘A night of music and musings, an event from the 7th of November, celebrating the October Revolution’ by Noel Murphy.

All Power to the Soviets – Rather than the Duma

Imagine an Ireland of Soviets. Every place electing their Local Soviet

The Local Soviet electing the Regional Soviet

and

The Regional Soviets electing the National or Supreme Soviet.

Lets look at the Cork Soviet

Imagine each factory / workplace electing its delegates:

5 from EMC – 5 from Apple – 2 from the Univeristy Hospital,

2 from Abtan, Voxpro and Merriott

2 from the army 2 from the navy 4 from the building workers 4 from the hospitality sector and so on.

This group amounting to several hundred delegates in session, having taken over the City Hall and its now defunct City Council.

The delegates agree with the motion from the Building Workers that we will start the house building and repairing programme immediatetly –

Housing for the people.

The Delegates from the army will make emergency accomodation available to any person or family in need of lodging while they wait on the completion of their new house or flat.

The delegates now agree a motion from the University hospital and Mercy Hospital workers to sort out the waiting lists. If necessary we can use the Hotel / formerly a hospital to create more spaces for out patients and accident and emergency cases.

Health for the people.

The Delegates elect their 20 most dynamic delegates to join the delegates elected from Cobh, Mallow, Midleton, Youghal, etc to repressent them on the Regional Soviet

These delegates in consultation with their colleagues on the Local Soviets plan the infrastructure programme from the County Hall where the old Council is now defunct.

Rail Electricity Roads Water Communications

Agricultural Production, Industrial Output , Computerisation

ARTS SPORTS RECREATION

We can do it better and more efficiently, as we are the workers who performed these tasks before to make profits for individuals and Corporations, now we are doing it for our people – our communities – our present and our future.

The surplus value is no longer goping to line the pockets of the super rich but now goes to the Regional Local and National Soviet funds.

Imagine the National Soviet – meeting in the Mansion House, or Liberty Hall or the Central Bank Building.

First a motion dealing with the Banks.

Unlike the powerless Dáil – afraid to take any real action – lest the Bankers use the laws that they created themselves – against their Government.

The laws that protect finance houses and banks are declared Null and VOID by the National Soviet.

The victims of the Tracker Mortgage scandal are immediately compensated. All family home eviction orders are rescinded.

Banking executives can comply or face imprisonment. Perhaps a bit of tuft cutting on the bogs or vegitable growing on cut bogs.

Justice for the People

Food for the People

The old systems disappear and are replaced by new structures, new ideas, new ways of doing things so that the labour of the workers is enjoyed by the workers in the land of Soviets.

And the Dáil talks about a constitution that puts the rights of property before the rights of the people and they talk of their bourgeoise democracy.

And now the National Soviet

overturns the law that see young people being paid less social welfare

because of their age

we rescind the law that stops the single parent allowance because the child has reached the ripe old age of 7 years

we rescind the law which gives lesser pensions to some because of different historical circumstances

And the Dáil and the Bureaucracy says you cant do this and we say, we are doing this.

And the Dáil and the Bureaucracy and their compliant media, asks but what about us

and we the people, seeing that our democracy is a true democracy give them their answer

All POWER TO THE SOVIETS.

Ava’s pain is Simon’s shame

Since 2nd of November 2016, when Vera Twomey first promised to walk from Cork to Dublin (Long march), she has captured the hearts, minds and souls of a population. An ordinary woman with an extraordinary spirit, compelled by the most natural maternal instincts to protect her daughter Ava, breaking down the bureaucratic barriers put in place by an uncompassionate, neo-liberal state, which oozes contempt for its ordinary citizens. Ms. Twomey had become increasingly disheartened, following unsuccessful attempts to acquire medicinal cannabis for her 7 year old daughter Ava, a sufferer of Dravet Syndrome. It is now 8th of March, Vera Twomey completed her walk to Dublin yesterday, following postponement of her first attempt. Being a rebel herself, Rebel City Writers find it fitting to give a timeline of Vera’s cause, outlining the facts clearly and offering a radical perspective on developments.

Dravet Syndrome is a rare form of epilepsy formed from birth that poses a variety of issues, but the most prevalent are prolonged and frequent seizures, in Ava’s case, sometimes 20 a day. Ms. Twomey explained that she had long exhausted the avenue of prescribed medications as a means of controlling Ava’s seizures, and in consultation with both paediatricians and neurologists, she had used Cannabidiol (CBD), which saw Ava’s condition improve drastically. The issue now is that further improvement requires the addition of THC with the CBD. THC is effectively the chemical in cannabis which allows you to get high, and therefore, is banned in Ireland over 0.02%, while Ava`s treatment requires around 1% or 2%. So, essentially, it is illegal for the medical professionals overseeing Ava’s treatment to prescribe her this treatment, unless there is a change in legislation. Ms. Twomey has continuously outlined this positon and the need for legislation change.

After beginning here first walk to Leinster House, Vera received a phone call from the current Health Minister, Simon Harris, urging her to halt the walk and promising to take action in relation to medicinal cannabis by January. Amidst a surge of public support and positive acknowledgement of her cause, Ms. Twomey decided to postpone her walk, but was adamant that failure to act would force her to restart her walk to Dublin. On the 9th of November, PBP/AAA TD Gino Kenny introduced the Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation bill, which was passed unopposed by the government. The bill went on to committee stage, where a request for “Expert Scientific Advice” was made by Simon Harris to the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA). The report was published on the 31/01/2017, and, although critical of the substance of scientific evidence to support the use of medical cannabis, it did offer recommendations for the regulation of medicinal cannabis, and as of today, has backed its piloted introduction for use in specific conditions, of which, on the surface, all are met by Ava.

It is worth noting the negative points in the report were largely aimed at how it could contribute to an increase in recreational use of cannabis. If they want, I am available to categorically explain to the HPRA how easily people can get access to recreational cannabis; perhaps they might sample some as part of a clinical trial. Refusing sick people medicine because some will abuse it is plainly a cop-out! People abuse prescription drugs all the time but they are not outlawed!

Following an application for medicinal cannabis by Ms. Twomey, a decision was made on the 23rd of February not to grant Ava a licence. The Department of Health stated “Until such time as the necessary legislative amendments have been made to facilitate the implementation of the Cannabis Access Programme, it remains open to the Minister to consider granting a licence to an Irish registered doctor for access to medicinal cannabis for named patients.” Time had run out on Harris’ delaying tactics and the mask had finally slipped. Ms. Twomey was left with no choice but to restart her “long march” to Dublin.

After a week of walking, and even incurring an injury in the process, Vera finally arrived in Dublin to swathes of supporters. This image of support was replicated in every county, town and village that she had passed through; large crowds, media, schools, guards of honour, marching bands, all rally in their respective areas to show Ms. Twomey that she had the support of the nation. Yesterday afternoon, as she had done every day, Vera expressed her amazement and gratitude at the level of support she received from the public. Perhaps unbeknownst to herself, she made an excellent one line observation; “the real people of Ireland care”.

This statement is undoubtedly true, the real people of Ireland do care, and we care about Ava and all the other people who are in need of medicinal cannabis. Unity and compassion are indispensable weapons in the fight against global neo-liberalism and the serfs that implement its agenda. Vera Twomey’s “long march” has amplified how much the “real people of Ireland care”, while the state reaffirms departmental lingo and cowers behind red tape. As citizens we are supposed to accept the fact that the government can call emergency sittings in the middle of the night and proceed with legislation which will saddle our children with billions of euro worth of debt, but they cannot legislate to potentially save the life of a 7 year old girl! The following can be said of homelessness, it can be said of the hospital crisis and can be said of mental health; unless you’re a market, or a potential market, you will receive no compassion from the Irish State.

Jonathan Dunne

Workers rights and Sleepless nights – An evidence based rant at the incessant bolloxology of this State

The old adage goes ‘an affront to one, an affront to all’. These weeks another veiled attack on workers’ rights and public infrastructure once again exemplified how we are all being sniped and hacked at. To an outside observer the push toward a low wage economy is clear with workers conditions of employment spiraling towards the drain. Who has pulled the plug? Those elected to safe guard the workers’ rights our forebear’s gave their lives for, those elected to provide us with social security and infrastructure as part of the social contract we all uphold in our daily lives. It is those we pay to protect us that are this nation’s biggest assailant.

The news of late has had reports of strike action, financial difficulty and Bus Éireann routes closing. What has been absent from reporting is the reason for this. The subcontractor’s from Noonan cleaning services replacing those working in the direct employ of Bus Éireann. The National Transport Authority giving transport routes to private companies that offer poor contracts and conditions to workers. The defunding by the state of the Bus service, which has been the back bone of rural and suburban Ireland, are all reasons we are now in the midst of workers taking defensive strike action. But all we are told is that the company is facing insolvency – not why. We are not told of the nearly 3 thousand workers who jobs are at risk or the families they support.

The vile maxim of neo-liberalism first notably mentioned by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations and lately brought to attention by Noam Chomsky in Requiem for the American Dream follows as such; ‘The principal architects of policy are those who own the country: the merchants, manufacturers and landlords in Smiths day. They make sure to design policy so that their own interests are most peculiarly attended to. Their interests are served by policy, however grievous the impact on others, including the people”. To quote Smith directly –“All for ourselves and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind”.

How this may be evidenced are stories such as Shane Ross refusing to perform his duties as Minister for Transport, his excuse that the state can offer no financial support. Whilst Ross is claiming empty pockets in Leinster House, T.D Pascal Donahue and his cohorts have been planning how they want to spend your money on some expansion at Dublin Airport. I ask you this, what will attract more tourism; €500 million of public transport infrastructure to view the nation, or, a new runway?

This excerpt is taken from a central bank publication;

‘National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) raised a further €1.5 billion through bond sales in the second quarter of the year, with auctions continuing to be oversubscribed. This brought the total raised to date in 2016 to €5.5 billion, and as a result the NTMA is comfortably on target to achieve its range of €6-10 billion for the year as a whole. The NTMA also cancelled a further €500 million in outstanding bonds linked to the liquidation of IBRC during this period.’

The money is there just not for the tax paying people who live and work in Ireland. The next time you hear that we don’t have money to fund Bus Éireann just remember this, *eh eh hem* HORSE RACING IRELAND RECEIVED €60 MILLION LAST YEAR FROM THE GOVERNMENT while Bus Éireann got €34 million and paid €59 million in taxes. Every year since 2011 the government has cut funding to the service.

Not satisfied with having laid the state coffers to waste and stripped her bare of assets, not appeased by the implementation of cuts to the services available to the public, not feeling one bit abashed by the public outcry and direct action the ruling class marches on in their war against ordinary people. The last decade and longer has seen relentless attacks on state assets and by proxy workers’ rights. When Board Gáis was privatised the terms of employment of workers were altered. When waste management was privatised workers were replaced by employees whose terms of employment were scandalous. “Zero hours”, a fitting name for the contract that is comparable to the schemes of a Bond villain.

State intervention only comes in the form of facilitating the shift toward an economy which serves private interests. When the Dunnes workers, Tesco workers and many others have been attacked the state has remained silent. When big business is shown to be exploiting the Irish economy the state is the first to claim this is all in our best interest.

Photo: Samboal/RollingNews.ie

How has the ruling class dealt with our housing crisis? To call it a crisis is true, but it does not explain what is happening. What is happening is that people who work are now no longer able to afford to rent a home, much less buy one. What is happening is that we have the worst problem with homelessness since the formation of the state. Our state representatives have stopped all spending on social housing and allowed private developers and vulture funds to take control of the housing market. The same housing market that brought this country to its knees is now in a worse condition than before the recession, and the reasoning we are given for this is that it’s what we need to do to recover!

Government funding for new social housing provision fell by 88.4% between 2008 and 2014 and, as a result, output of dwellings in this tenure declined by 91.5% concurrently (Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, various years; Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, various years). This happened despite the fact that ‘Social housing was a central part of overall housing supply during periods of economic growth as well as through several recessions. It also played an important role as an economic stimulus and a source of employment when labour was in oversupply as well as providing a vital source of accommodation for lower income households which was affordable because social housing rents in Ireland are linked to incomes’ (O’Connell, 2007).

There are no stops on the neo-liberal bus that the coalition and those in the civil service, economic and high end business sectors are driving. It is an express route in the eyes of Coveney and co to a gentrified, privatised, rich man’s paradise where the rights of the worker are just another fairy tale of bygone days of glory in Ireland to sell to bleedin’ tourists! We have Starbucks popping up around Jim Larkins statue on O’Connell Street, with the company paying a net of €45 tax in 2015 and not a union employee to be seen!

We have watched job losses, emigration, suicide, forced evictions, health service cuts, death’s due to hyperthermia of the elderly, gang war – the list goes on and on with suicide a continuing feature. We endured austerity and the erosion of democracy and sovereignty, and we as a people began asking questions about how we got into this mess while doing what we could to get out of it despite the best efforts of Fine Gael. We are told more lies from Leinster House, we hear of recovery and the understanding from aloft of the people’s plight. Actions speak louder than words and the actions of those in positions of control are to the contrary of what they say.

“Yes, friends, governments in capitalist society are but committees of the rich to manage the affairs of the capitalist class. ” – James Connolly

The news these past months of trouble within C.I.E and Bus Éireann had echoes of past actions of the mechanisms of the ruling class.The de-funding and push toward private health care, the sale of Aerlingus, the sale of Bord Gáis and, lest we forget, the sale giveaway of our Gas and Oil reserves. We have seen a stark advance in the interests of private equity and a shrinking of public support and service. We have seen the rights of the tax payers of the state diminished while corporate entities and vulture funds take haven here as their needs are protected.

What is happening to the workers of Bus Éireann is symptomatic of the disease that has caused all the other maladies of society mentioned within this rant and more. When I first heard the news resurface of impending woe for staff of Bus Éireann a few weeks ago I had a fair inclination as to how things were going to play out on the states side of things. To predict how neo-liberal attacks work is clearly defined by many scholars and social scientists. I have read fictional and academic material and studied the matter through media such as cinema and documentary film since silent sepia tone days. Defund, deregulate, dismantle and privatise. Following the news reports was like the script was being read, like the rules were being followed for once in a blue moon. It appears the only time our ruling class follow the rules is when shafting us, and why wouldn’t they? It works 95% of the time the world over, though this trend has decreased the last decade due to the actions of ordinary people.

Bus Éireann has been an integral part of my life and who I am. I remember with joy the trips to town that would not have been possible without the journey spent on the mysterious large vehicle full of strangers. The four seaters where people would chat sitting on musty green seats, the drivers who may not have had a uniform but nearly always wore a smile. As I got older my secondary education would not have been possible without the four trips a day on Bus Éireann wheels. My trips to and from Dublin and elsewhere for work and pleasure the last decade or so have all been facilitated by the staff of Bus Éireann and I feel that I, and most of those who were born with a silver spoon absent, owe a great debt of gratitude to the staff of Bus Éireann and the institution itself.

We are still bailing out the bankers and the debt they laid upon us without ever giving a red cent back. It is time for once that our elected representatives begun bailing out the citizens of this country. There is money in the governments purse to not only save Bus Éireann, but to reinvigorate it. It may mean directing a small sum of money out of the pockets of private interests, but I won’t lose sleep over that. It will mean using the revenue generated by the people of Ireland for the benefit of the people of Ireland and that may cause some sleepless nights for those in Dáil Éireann.

The Ragged Trousered Philathropist

Sources –

https://www.google.ie/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=labour+court+will+not+interfere+in+bus+eireann+pay

https://www.google.ie/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=labour%20court%20will%20not%20intervene%20in%20bus%20eireann%20dispute

https://www.google.ie/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=bus+eireann+insolvent

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/bus-%C3%A9ireann-may-be-insolvent-by-end-of-year-if-losses-continue-1.2950494

https://www.rte.ie/news/2017/0125/847492-bus-eireann/

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/shane-ross-on-bus-eireann-i-will-not-get-involved-in-an-industrial-dispute-1.2952419

https://www.google.ie/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=rte+to+sell+montrose

https://www.google.ie/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=rte+sells+land+for+%27funding%27

https://www.centralbank.ie/publications/Documents/QB32016%20Domestic%20Economy.pdf

https://www.google.ie/search?q=bus+eireann+insolvent&rlz=1C1DVCJ_enIE618IE618&oq=bus&aqs=chrome.4.69i57j69i65l3j69i59l2.4468j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=bus+eireann&tbm=nws

https://www.google.ie/search?q=PASCAL+DONAHOUE+NEW+RUNWAY&rlz=1C1DVCJ_enIE618IE618&oq=PASCAL+DONAHOUE+NEW+RUNWAY&aqs=chrome..69i57.11634j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

https://www.google.ie/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=rte+to+outsource

https://www.google.ie/search?q=bus+eireann&rlz=1C1DVCJ_enIE618IE618&oq=bus+eireann&aqs=chrome.0.69i59l2j0l2j69i60j0.3584j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=bus+eireann&tbm=nws

https://www.google.ie/search?q=bus+eireann&rlz=1C1DVCJ_enIE618IE618&oq=BUS+EIREANN&aqs=chrome.0.69i59l3j69i60l2.3479j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=bus+eireann&tbm=nws

https://www.google.ie/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=bus+eireann&tbm=nws

https://www.google.ie/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=n.t.a

https://www.google.ie/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=bus+eireann&tbm=nws

http://www.rte.ie/news/2017/0206/850504-irish-rail/

http://www.ucd.ie/geary/static/publications/workingpapers/gearywp201615.pdf

What Happens if Women go on Strike? Strike for Repeal: Ireland’s Abortion

An edited version of the following piece appeared in yesterday’s Evening Echo. Below we publish the unedited version in it’s entirety with the kind permission of the author, Rebel City’s very own, Rachael O’Sullivan.

A woman’s work is never done, and at €1.14 an hour, the price the Social Protection Department has put on our labour, is it worth it? Strikes for fair working conditions conjures picket lines, cars beeping in support and a general feeling that the working man has rights. He should expect certain humane and fair conditions. Sweatshops are bad; lunch breaks are good. Our history of strike action has taken us from an industrial revolution that thought a seven-day working week and child labour were acceptable, to a modern environment of paid sick leave and assault free work places. Zero hour contracts now threaten that, and yes, we will strike if we need to. It is a tool we understand and is the failsafe we use to ensure our labour remains valued and respected. That our human right to equality is enshrined in our society.

It is fitting then, that over 27 groups around Ireland have called for a national strike to force the government to hold a referendum on the 8^th amendment. Women and men around Ireland will be holding events at 12 noon on the 8^th of March. Strike for Repeal, are not calling for the government to make abortion legal. They are calling for the right for the people of Ireland to finally make a collective decision. They want the government to allow democracy. To allow the people to decide. To stop avoiding a controversial topic and to face the realities of the female population.

Abortion is one of Ireland’s most divisive subjects. Everyone has an opinion and our democracy ensures they can voice it. The fundamental problem is, should another person’s human rights be your opinion? Do you have the right to make a decision that will affect the physical, psychological, and emotional health of another human being? A decision you make for a stranger could determine their earning power, employability, socio-economic status and their ability to secure a mortgage for the rest of their adult life. Ireland has abortion. It is economic abortion shrouded in secrecy, lies and shame. Over 165,000 women from Ireland have had abortions in the UK since 2006. 65% of the UK’s non-resident abortions are from Ireland.  9-12 women a day travel to the UK to have abortions. Over 1,500 women have travelled to the Netherlands since 2006 for abortions. And just one abortion pill provider shipped 5,600 abortion pills to Ireland within a five-year period. There is no conclusive information on the annual amount of abortion pills women in Ireland are taking. These statistics do not capture the full story as they are based on the UK Department of Health’s records of women who openly recorded their address as the Rep of Ireland. This makes the voluntary inclusion of an address on a form the only method we have of tracking Irish abortion in the UK. It does not include other countries we travel to, and the real figures will show our current statistics to be a stark underestimation.

Abortion protects women. It protects us from raising a child alone, it protects us from the psychological impacts of carrying a rapist’s child, it protects us if something goes wrong during the pregnancy. Abortion is a medical procedure. It has health risks. If a woman has a rushed and unsupported procedure in the UK and returns to Ireland, can she seek medical help? If she haemorrhages internally, can she say why? If her abortion pill fails or partially aborts, can she approach her GP? Partial abortions can cause serious infections. Does she risk septicaemia or risk imprisonment? This is Ireland’s economic abortion, and its availability depends on last-minute funds to travel, or the freedom to do so. We are a country that has enshrined in our constitution, under article 40.3.3, that a foetus has equal rights to the mother. This places Irish women with the inability to determine their own health care during pregnancy and removes their right to make decisions around their health while pregnant. The James Reilly Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, states that conditions like inevitable miscarriage must become life threatening before a doctor can intervene. In the case of Savita Halappanavar this was too late. If you consider that out of 100 pregnancies, 15-20 will spontaneously abort or miscarry before seven weeks, it places a worrying number of women in Ireland at risk.

The Pro Life campaign uses slogans like, “I’m speaking for the unborn or the pre-born baby”. They are right. They do speak for them. Abortion is not a comfortable or a straightforward medical procedure. There are two people in the equation. You may wish to love them both equally, but you cannot. The question is primal in nature. It delves within our basic desires to protect children, but at what point does an unborn child have rights? And should these rights out strip the mothers? Should a woman, once pregnant, become an ‘incubator’ who allows her human rights to be put on hold for nine months? Pregnancy is a complex and life altering experience for every woman who survives it. The journey into motherhood sees your locus of control shift from yourself to your child. Your instincts for self-preservation switches to the child. Our evolution depended on this instinct and it makes abortion a last resort and complex decision for every woman who makes it. The idea that women could use it as a form of contraception, after a drunken night out, is insulting to the nature and integrity of women. It should not be used to further campaigns as it depicts women as depraved, and we are not. We make great mothers, excellent wife’s and nurturing girlfriends. It is why we accept the unpaid labour of domesticity and provide the nurturance at the heart of our society. It is why you love us. You trust our capacity for the compassion and the care we bring to your lives.

A crucial point in Ireland’s abortion debate is that women carry the responsibility of unplanned pregnancy. At what point did men become removed from the equation? Why is unplanned parenthood a female responsibility? Why do we have abandoned wife’s or single mothers? Could we create a society that reacts to abandoning a child or rape in the same way we do to cannibalism? Something depraved and physically repulsive. Or should we continue to allow our Social Welfare system to track fathers down because teaching our sons to share responsibility is complex? Is it easier to create laws than morals in our society? Ireland has abortion. The reasons we need abortions has been present in our country for generations. Our laundries made these women slaves, our anti-abortion laws make them criminals. Same solution, different generation, but the root problem remains. You may not agree with abortion, but we already have it. Voting to keep Ireland abortion free simply passes the moral baton to the UK. It is easier and will allow a feeling of sitting-room-self-righteousness.  Isolated feelings of contentment but no shared social responsibility for the nature of our actual society. The one we live in; not the utopic version we believe a law has the power to create. Suppression of Ireland’s abortions will not change Irish society; it just rebrands our laundries.

The 8th of March is International Women’s Day. In Ireland, we will see a ‘Strike for Repeal’ throughout the country. You can strike by not going to work, organising a lunchtime protest, or, by wearing black clothes or an armband. It is a solidarity protest for the hundreds of thousands of women who take time off work and travel in secret to other countries. It is time to face the question and have a referendum. I hope we start with the reality of abortion in Ireland and support women through the decriminalisation of their decisions and the medical support they require. Societies based on denial and inequality remain unhealthy and never create solutions. I want to live in a country where I can be an equal and be unafraid to become pregnant. “Motherhood or prison” is not an Ireland to be proud of. It is time for change and to see Ireland as it is, not how denial or locked, secret doors whisper or chant it could be. Accept the things you cannot change and support not criminalising the women of Ireland.

Rachael O’Sullivan

Is punching genocide supporting white supremacists wrong? – The moral dilemma of a pampered and privileged liberal society

During the past week or so you will have no doubt witnessed some of the many scenes of protest in the USA after the inauguration of Donald “Grab ’em by the Pussy” Trump as the democratically elected leader of the American Empire. You may also have seen the footage of the unofficial leader of the “alt-right” (read: Neo Nazi) movement, Richard Spencer, getting punched in the face by an anti-fascist during a television interview (twice in one day!). From this memetastic, though scrappy, sucker-punch there has been a resulting outpour of admiration/outrage from the masses for the hooded and ski-masked amateur pugilist, which has brought the wide assortment of leftists and liberals engaging in mass protests against the new POTUS to an apparent impasse, and poses a very necessary question. Is punching white nationalists who paraphrase Hitler and call for ethnic cleansing and the creation of a white-centric USA wrong? In short, HEELLLL NOO! Punch that motherfucker every opportunity you get!

Violence begets violence

It is often claimed by liberals and conservatives alike that using violence against fascists is itself a fascist act and only leads to more violence. Quite often they will refer to the words of Martin Luther King Jr, “violence begets violence”, which would seemingly add merit to their pacifist argument. However, the very nature of the Civil Rights leaders death only further proves that those driven by hatred towards their fellow human beings ultimately believe in using violence as a means to their ends. White supremacy/fascism/racism are inherently violent ideologies, in that by their nature they reduce certain human beings to a subhuman category. In turn this allows the followers of these ideologies to believe they are entitled to more rights than those that do not fit into their vision of the “master race”, and that crimes committed against their “lessers” are acceptable and should be viewed as the norm.

This way of thinking, though not an actual act of physical violence itself, is an act of indirect violence, as it fosters an environment where violence against certain people is acceptable. It is the mentality that allowed the lynching of blacks and other minorities in America to be commonplace and acceptable, even as recently as the 1981 lynching of 19 year old Michael Donald. People who no doubt lived otherwise normal lives would take their children to lynchings as family outings, such was the degree to which this racial based violence was normalised. This is where racism ultimately leads when allowed to spread, as history has shown us time and time again. To imagine that the transition into the America envisioned by Spencer and the NPI (National Policy Institute) could possibly occur without such acts of gross violence is ludicrous, and childishly naive. Therefore we have a moral obligation, a societal duty, to oppose racism by any means necessary. And if ya have to punch an unrepentant white supremacist, then by all means, knock that motherfucker out!

Fight fire with water, not fire

Though violence should be viewed as an acceptable, and ultimately necessary, tool to combat the spread of ideologies of hate, it should of course never be the first mode of intervention when dealing with someone you suspect of harbouring racist opinions. To paraphrase the revolutionary Black Panther leader, Fred Hampton, the best way to fight fire isn’t with fire, you fight fire best with water. In the same sense, you don’t fight racism with more hatred, you fight it best with solidarity. Often otherwise decent people express racist views without themselves truly subscribing to the ideology of racial supremacy, ergo, your instinct shouldn’t be to punch them in the mouth where you can otherwise reason with their good nature about their grievances.

It is natural for the downtrodden masses to seek someone to blame for their struggles and toiling, and when racists are given a platform to spew their bile it is reasonable to think that some decent folk might fall for their simplistic hate mongering. As Chairman Hampton would encourage, appeal to their humanity and respectfully offer an education on the realities of racism and how the twin evils of capitalism and imperialism rely on racial divisions to keep us all under the proverbial boot. Offer them your solidarity, don’t be an uber-leftist elite (all praise be upon them) and drive them further down the right-wing path by shouting down their honest concerns as you stick piously to the puritan teachings of whichever ideological demigod you subscribe to. In turn, they will hopefully see through the bullshit and offer their solidarity to the victims of racism instead. And if that fails, well, contact your local anti-fascists.

Richard Spencer, however, is a different kettle of fish altogether.

Children gleefully among the crowd observing the lynching of an black man

A bigger threat than Trump

Richard Spencer isn’t one of the aforementioned downtrodden toilers who can be reasoned with and deterred from his notions of racial supremacy. Richard Spencer is an indoctrinated white supremacist who actually believes that Africans and Latinos are lesser beings than Euorpeans. Richard Spencer propagates the idea of ethnic-cleansing to create a white America. He may say now that this ethnic cleansing should be peaceful, but even the most basic understanding of history – both American and European – shows that any such forced resettlement requires extreme violence. Richard Spencer is charismatic and intelligent, and appeals to a very large section of American (and global) society. Richard Spencer espouses views that are prevalent in their extreme among the subculture of right-wing message boards and forums on websites such as 4chan and Reddit, where many disgruntled white Americans are becoming radicalised in extreme right-wing and racist views. White Americans like Dylann Roof.

Richard Spencer and his ilk are a very real threat to American (and again, global) society, now that Trump’s election has given legitimacy to overt racism, Islamophobia and sexism. It would of course be foolish of me to compare Spencer’s words with the actual crimes of the Nazis, but his quick rise to prominence and growing relevance is certainly comparable to that of Adolf Hitler. Only a few days ago it was the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp by the Soviet Red Army, and the world was once more reminded never to allow such atrocities to occur again. “Never again” the liberals will cry. Well, it is in this sentiment that those promoting Nazi-like ideals should be opposed. A punch in the mouth might seem rather insignificant should Spencer’s goals ever come to fruition. Imagine if Hitler had been punched in the mouth every time he tried to spread his hatred.

 

Liberal complicity in the rise of the right

Some of the liberal types that are baying for Trump’s blood would be the very same people who are appalled at Spencer getting clocked in the mouth. In sheer irony they cheer when millionaires like Madonna talk of blowing up the White House, yet these hypocrites feign disgust when the leader of the modern day incarnation of Nazism gets his chin checked. The old adage “I may not agree with what you say, but I respect your right to say it” is their go-to catchphrase as they look down upon those with the courage to take the necessary action and stamp out the disease of racism before it spreads. This is literal liberal complicity, through ignorance one would hope, in the ongoing rise of the ideologies of hate. Only those of a pampered and privileged position would decry someone for putting a racist in their place. One would genuinely fear how these people would act were the likes of Richard Spencer ever to get into a position of real power. “Stop resisting, just do as the policeman says, and get on the train. I’ll start a petition for you”. Middle-class student types saving the world one petition at a time. Smh.

I would not dare to speak for Black, Latin and Muslim Americans, but these communities facing the very real threat of growing violence under the Trump presidency are no doubt faced with real fears and concerns when people like Spencer are given a mainstream platform to tell them that they do not belong in their own country. As the recent attack on the mosque in Quebec has shown, right-wing extremists are becoming all the more emboldened, and therefore they need to be stopped before they get out of hand. If that means a few Nazis have to get punched in the face, then so fucking be it! And if that means a few liberals have to get their feels hurt, then fuck them too! People who have lived under actual fascism and who are facing actual real violence and genocide (whether Nazi Germany or those living under the Islamofascism of ISIS today) I have no doubt would gladly jump on the opportunity to go back in time and box their future oppressors around the head before their confidence and influence is allowed to grow, without a fuck given as to what liberals might think.

So to conclude, there is absolutely no moral hypocrisy in, and nothing wrong with, punching genocide supporting white supremacists. Remember, liberalism didn’t defeat the Nazis, communists with guns did. I’ll leave ye with a short excerpt from one of Richard Spencer’s recent speeches, which was met with rousing chants of “sieg heil” from his followers.

“To be white is to be a striver, a crusader, an explorer and a conqueror… We don’t exploit other groups, they need us and not the other way around… For us as Europeans, it is only normal again when we are great again. Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!”

If you don’t find that a little bit ominous then you are part of the problem.

An Bhreathnadóir

I’m still here. Still. – A personal journey in the Irish mental health services

So I’ve just informed my psychiatrist that over the Christmas period I was getting suicidal thoughts. She doesn’t even acknowledge it, just keeps writing on her chart as if I told her I was having pains in my arm or something. There’s no compassion or basic empathy, even forced empathy. She just looks down her chart and keeps asking the same questions I’ve been asked since I was 16: What was your appetite like?; Were you socializing much?; How are things at home? She then gives the question asking will I do anything to myself in the short-term, not because she cares, but because it’s required in case the health service later gets sued for malpractice. She then says she’s upping my medication, despite me telling her I wasn’t satisfied with it so far. The idea is more drugs help. More having to swallow a big fat capsule every night which is so horrible it makes me gag doing it. She tells me we’re done for now and she’ll see me in two weeks, and then goes off to photocopy my prescription. I was in there for 15 minutes. I spent more time in the waiting room than in the room talking about how I was feeling.

I leave and go outside to read a bit while my dad comes to collect me to bring me to college. The place is a small little HSE building in one of Cork’s suburbs. Hard to get to and not on a bus route. All the staff are cold and clearly have no interest in their job. Except for the odd young person clearly fresh out of college who’re visibly losing faith quickly in their hope of helping anyone seriously. In the waiting room, there’s a gold plaque celebrating the opening of the place by a Fianna Fáíl politician during the Celtic Tiger years. It’s my second time going there. Over a year ago, I attended a few psychiatry sessions which were the same type of box-ticking interview before I eventually decided not to waste my time going there. I only went back this time as my GP said it was necessary if I wanted to improve. Can’t say I was surprised, I’ve been in enough of these sessions to know what the protocol is.

I first went to counselling when I was 15. I went to a place ran by CAMHS – Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service – on the Western Road across from UCC. It was in a rented out old building where the budget was clearly being stretched. The staff were all friendly and very hard-working, but even still, they were forced to follow a script taught to them by the HSE. It was more about keeping the HSE safe rather than helping people with mental illness. After 2 years in and out of counselling and therapy I was in a tough spot because of my age. I was getting too old for counselling with CAMHS, and they were already stretched with demand, but I hadn’t turned 18 yet so I couldn’t use adult services. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place [It must be mentioned, minors that are “sectioned” are often placed into care in the adult services due to lack of beds in the appropriate facilities – Ed.]. Eventually, I got referred onto the psychology department in a city hospital, where I went through the same checklist interviews. I received my first diagnosis of clinical depression and anxiety. Apparently, I ticked enough of the boxes. I was started on medication for the first time, and had weekly counselling for 10 weeks. I was 17 at the time and just going into my Leaving Cert Year. After the 10 weeks of counselling ended, that was it. No follow-up, nothing. It wasn’t until my first year of college that I was referred onto somewhere again. Again, on the first day, the same predictable interview. No emotion is shown, no compassion, just the same automatic questioning and jotting down the answers.

Most of the counselling I’ve attended has only been for a fixed amount of time. Just when I start to get comfortable with someone, enough to really begin going in-depth into my mental well-being, they’re sent on a course with their college, or moved to a different health department. Then someone else comes in and it starts over again, with no conclusion. I never get the chance to talk about the actual issues I’m facing. Such as the guilt I feel that every time my parents leave for work I can see the dread in their faces that they’re going to come home and I’m after doing something. That’s not something that can go on any clipboard, that’s the human side of a deeply widespread issue. I only got home that day after my appointment to see that 8 people in Cork had taken their lives that week alone. There’s an obvious crisis, but the response to it is just cold. I’m in favour of treating mental illness as a medical issue, and I couldn’t care if I got a horrible person as a counsellor, if they helped my mental well-being. But the services just aren’t there. Throughout my entire time in the mental health industry (yes, industry), I’ve never met someone else who’s gone through the same thing. It’s a purely individualized treatment.

This is the personal side of mental health services in Ireland, but it’s reflective of a broken system. It reflects a state and a system that doesn’t cherish all the children of the nation equally. It’s the result of austerity and cutbacks to healthcare so bankers could be paid off. It’s the result of a system that puts profits and money ahead of social wellbeing. A system that puts the individual on the spotlight, taking away the strength that lies in our co-operating together, as we have done for thousands of years.

Graham

The Future is Unwritten: Culture And Struggle

Culture, and specifically music, is an often neglected but hugely important factor in any struggle against an oppressive system. In modern times, we’ve largely ignored the cultural struggle. Most music today only props up the individualist consensus and is a far cry from the type of cultural organisation prominent in the 1960s. It’s hard to picture that decade without the anti-Vietnam protests, the demos for nuclear disarmament, the student protests in France which nearly brought down French capitalism, or the Civil Rights Movements by black Americans or nationalists in occupied Ireland. It’s impossible to remember that decade without the soundtrack that accompanied it though, like Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival, which put into words the drafting of poor Americans into service in Vietnam while the sons of upper-class white politicians got away with it. Or We Shall Overcome which became an anthem of civil rights, from Alabama to Derry. Even today, it’s very common to hear these songs whenever the 60’s is featured in a film or documentary.

Don’t you understand, what I’m trying to say?
And can’t you feel the fears I’m feeling today?
If the button is pushed, there’s no running away,
There’ll be no one to save with the world in a grave,
Take a look around you, boy, it’s bound to scare you, boy,
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
Ah, you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction.

– Eve of Destruction, Barry Maguire

“We Won’t Fight Another Rich Man’s War!!!” – Vietnam veterans against the War, circa 1970.

These types of songs accompanied the growth of the Hippy movement which, in America at least, challenged the conservative, Bourgeois culture, where young people were meant to be seen and not heard, where women, blacks, native Americans etc. were to know their place, and where workers were there to make profit and nothing else. The Hippies were mainly young, practiced “Free Love”, took drugs and overall gave a massive Fuck You to the establishment. Opposition to the Vietnam War was a huge part of the counter-culture and the music that came out of that struggle gave people the energy to keep the struggle going, which ended with the pulling out of US forces from Vietnam.

Although, it wasn’t without a price, the state and the establishment understood the power of the movement that was growing out from under them. Police were encouraged to be brutal to any protests, and on occasions such as the Kent State Massacre, student demonstrators were murdered. This repression would itself lead to new music. Although the Hippy Movement wasn’t perfect, largely it was led by Middle-Class students who had a very idealist view of the world. It wanted to change the world but often wanted to do it in a very liberal way. Many Hippies just wanted to smoke and get laid, rather than change the political-economic system at its core. For many, their radicalism didn’t last much longer than their university years. However, it still made an impact, while showing how music could make a political contribution. This paved the way for a no-nonsense, working-class contribution: Punk.

WARNING: Image contains materials some readers may find offensive…“the butcher’s apron, boy”

Punk came about in the aftermath of the Hippy movement, mainly in working-class England. The most influential Punk bands of the time were the Sex Pistols and The Clash. Early punk bands included the New York Dolls, the Ramones and The Damned, who all put a focus on quick, energetic songs with the emphasis put on effort rather than on the egoism prevalent in some popular Rock bands of the time, where the lead singers would frequently prefer to show off their individual talent rather than express something that would connect with everyday life.

The Sex Pistols made a huge impact on the music scene, not just in the decade, but in the century. Led by London-Irish frontman Johnny Rotten, whose mother came from Cork (Leave it to the Rebel County to have some connection!). The Sex Pistols not only made the older, conservative generations blush, they made them get a fucking heart attack. They focused on topics which were actually relevant to working-class youth. They put into music the same feeling among most young people at that time: That something just wasn’t right with the status quo. Their most famous song, God Save the Queen, made a mockery of the monarchy, at a time when youth unemployment was high but the media was fawning over Lizzie Windsor’s upcoming Jubilee celebrations.

God save the queen
The fascist regime
They made you a moron
Potential H-bomb

Don’t be told what you want
Don’t be told what you need
There’s no future, no future,
No future for you

-God Save the Queen, The Sex Pistols

Predictably, there was shock and outrage from the media that there were actual artists who were going to call out the media’s celebrations of a professional scrounger family. It is now known that the charts were fixed, despite the song reaching number 1. During a now-infamous celebratory boat-ride by the Windsor’s on the Thames in London, the Sex Pistols attempted to get their own boat to go alongside the Queen’s vessel and play their song. The outcome was predictable, the police, not finding any drug dealers or criminals anywhere seemingly, descended en masse and assaulted the band and their supporters. On another occassion, the Sex Pistols appeared on a TV chat-show, where the host appeared to look at them as a sideshow, as a sort of in-joke with the parents watching, “just look at what your kids are into!” sort of thing. The interview, helped along with alcohol, ended up with curses being focused on the interviewer. Within hours, the tabloid rags were in hysterics – “Ban this sick filth!”. Many parents had a quiet chat with their children following it, making sure they wouldn’t listen to such outrageous filth again. Most of the venues in London banned the Sex Pistols from playing, although this only boosted their popularity. The Pistols also generated controversy upon the release of their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks. They also had notable songs such as Anarchy in the UK, about exactly what the fuck kind of country they were in, and Bodies, about abortion. Nothing was off-topic for the Sex Pistols, but it couldn’t be claimed that the things they were talking about weren’t known to young people. All that and they were together only 2 years.

While the Sex Pistols could be said to have taken a sledgehammer to the status quo, The Clash could be said to have been the scalpel. Formed in 1976, The Clash focused on the experiences of those from working-class backgrounds. Lead singer Joe Strummer was a Marxist, and Paul Simonon’s father was a member of the Communist Party. Some of their songs included London Calling, which was about the fear of nuclear war after the Five-Mile Island incident in the US. Although now the actual meaning of the song is lost, it’s generally the song you hear when an American-made film features a part in England. Rock the Casbah, which was about the Middle East and Censorship, Straight to Hell which dealt in part with the children left behind by American soldiers in Vietnam. One of their songs, White Riot, was taken by some eejits to be a racist piece, when in reality, it was written after 2 of the band members got caught up in a riot by Black Londoners against police brutality. The song called on white youths to get their act together and start fighting back for their rights.

Black people gotta lot a problems
But they don’t mind throwing a brick
White people go to school
Where they teach you how to be thick

-White Riot, The Clash

While some punk bands, including the Sex Pistols, tended to take a nihilistic view of things, The Clash always encouraged people to take things into their own hands and fight back. Bankrobber had the lyrics:

Some is rich, and some is poor
That’s the way the world is
But I don’t believe in lying back
Sayin’ how bad your luck is

-Bankrobber, The Clash

The Clash even named one of their albums Sandinista!, after the Marxist government in Nicaragua, then under attack by Ronald Reagan’s Contras. The Clash practised what they preached, as well. They were one of the few internationally known bands to play in Belfast during the conflict in the north east of Ireland. Joe Strummer received death treats from Loyalists after he wore a t-shirt supporting the H-Block hunger strikers.

Similarly, Derry punk-band The Undertones wore black armbands on British TV after the death of Bobby Sands. Belfast-based Stiff Little Fingers wrote songs about ordinary life during the conflict, such as Suspect Device.

They take away our freedom
In the name of liberty
Why can’t they all just clear off
Why can’t they let us be
They make us feel indebted
For saving us from hell
And then they put us through it
It’s time the bastards fell

-Suspect Device, Stiff Little Fingers

Although much of this music was neutral in regard to the conflict, and made it look like those who were against the British presence in Ireland were as bad as the British, it still resonated with young people from both sides of the community.

Nationalist youth armed with Molotov cocktails prepared to defend Free Derry from British Occupation Forces during the Battle of the Bogside, August 1969.

Overall, it’s clear to see, just from looking at the music, why things were so rebellious in the 60s/70s. The US pulled out of Vietnam, British soldiers were being engaged on Irish streets, the Portuguese overthrew a dictator and came very close to establishing Western Europe’s first Communist government, while liberation movements in Africa, Latin America and Asia were winning struggle after struggle against imperialism in Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Nicaragua, Angola etc. The Black Panthers were fighting for liberation of black Americans, ETA had assassinated Franco’s Prime Minister in the first shots of a new liberation struggle for the Basque Country. These were revolutionary times, and revolutionary movements which had a strong cultural arsenal.

Fast forward to the 21^st Century, and we’re largely listless. Young people don’t have the same outlet in music as they did before, the same encouragement to be rebellious, take what’s your right through struggle. The songs of the anti-Vietnam war protests are too many to mention all of them, but can anyone name an anti-Iraq war song? There isn’t many. How many songs are there being written by bands nowadays about austerity, along the lines of  the Thatcher-era The Special’s Ghost Town? Rap music, for example, is very different to its origins in the 1990s. The focus is on what’s commercial and not on what gives an expression to the background to the various struggles of the day.

For an example, how many young people in Ireland have an instinctive anti-imperialism because of songs like Come out Ye Black and Tans or Seán Sabhat? “What’s keeping us from fighting back nowadays?” is often heard in protest movements. Maybe it’s the music?

And so now I’d like to say – people can change anything they want to. And that means everything in the world. People are running about following their little tracks – I am one of them. But we’ve all got to stop just following our own little mouse trail. People can do anything – this is something that I’m beginning to learn. People are out there doing bad things to each other. That’s because they’ve been dehumanised. It’s time to take the humanity back into the center of the ring and follow that for a time. Greed, it ain’t going anywhere. They should have that in a big billboard across Times Square. Without people you’re nothing. That’s my spiel.” 

–Joe Strummer

Graham

Apollo House solidarity action, Cork City 11/1/17: A few words from our man in City Hall

Empowered by the events unfolding in Dublin, activists from a wide circle of groups in Cork marched from Connolly Hall, down the road and straight into the City Hall building this morning. We did not announce our demonstration, our march or our momentary occupation because the point of this was to create a nuisance, to gather attention and show that we stand united with the residents and activists in Apollo House. Our chants, banners and march were met with huge support from regular passersby, drivers and commuters on the bus. We received signatures of solidarity and words of kindness.

The following statement was read out by one of our activists at the protest, and also released to the media –

Statement of Cork Housing Action Group

Home Sweet Home Cork

Every abandoned building is a home waiting to be made.

Austerity as a policy has been created, encouraged and used extensively in the Irish State by the Fianna Fail, Fianna Gael and Labour parties.  A byproduct of this period of austerity has seen a housing crisis of epidemic proportions in our country. This includes visible, invisible and non secure rental tenants. This triad impacts a large portion of the population and has created a culture that accepts its own insecurity.  Those affected, include the visible homeless, such as Ireland’s rough sleepers. The invisible homeless, those staying in emergency accommodation, such as hostels, b&bs, couch surfers, or those forced to live with family and friends. And the renters, people living with extortionate, uncapped rents that often dominate family budgets to the exclusion of basic needs like heat or food. Cork has over 55,000 people officially labeled as suffering from food poverty; yet our homeless figures do not reflect this reality.

We believe this is a stark indicator of the economic decisions that people and families are making in the attempt to remain housed in our current period of economic instability. We do not believe the government has exhibited enough concern or practical application of support for Cork’s visible and invisible homeless. We as a group intend to highlight this lack of motivation or competence, through the ability of normal people to stand with their neighbors in times of hardship.

Along with the remarkable and wonderful initiative ‘Home Sweet Home’, we in Cork will stand with Dublins Apollo House and Home Sweet Home Campaign with a solidarity protest.

1. Idle council buildings should be distributed to those on the housing list who will accept them. Government to divert rent-assistance funds from landlords to renovating/refurbishing houses considered unfit for living.

2. A cessation of all evictions and repossessions. No family or group of individuals should face the threat of homelessness simply because they cannot pay. Housing should create homes not just profit. We call for an amnesty to those who have faced legal problems because of eviction prevention.

3. We see that the State assures the power of the landlord, we demand that tenants are given the right of appeal of unfair rents through a mechanism in the Rental Tenancy Board. We do not accept the argument that landlords have the right to raise the rent whenever and however and reject it outright.

4. We call upon the State to take responsibility for the Housing crisis and adopt a central long term plan to accommodate the population. The market exists to generate profit and we cast this notion aside. Housing is our human right.

5. That the thousands of empty homes around the country are put on offer to those on housing lists and emergency housing, rather than left rot, collapse and fall into disrepair.

6. We believe that people who become unemployed or unable to pay their rent should be able to appeal to a government or Tenancy Representative body to have the payment of their rent frozen.

7. That the State takes the offer of the Credit Union’s assistance in construction of public and affordable housing.

The activists stayed inside the building and spoke to those around. It was interesting to see the confused and also condescending looks that some of the staff inside gave, particularly the manager who looked very flustered. “Next time let us know in advance and we’ll facilitate you” I think I heard? Perhaps he does not understand how protests work?

Apollo House has shone a light on the awful way in which the State deals with housing, be it for the homeless or the invisible homeless. Apollo House has mobilised, inspired and united a huge variety of activists and they are ready to act.

In Cork, we showed our fellow Corkonians that the spirit of Apollo House is here, with us and we’re going to channel it to do something for Cork as well. We are not going to sit idly by as homes are left empty, we are not going to stand idly by as people are thrown to the streets. This act in City Hall building is our message of resistance.

More action will follow.

Bick Marry