Establishing a political narrative

This is an article i have recently received from a Sinn Féin supporter. It is clearly part of the ongoing debate that is going on in the party at the present time. For me this debate is crucial and will decide what the future holds for Sinn Féin.

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There has been much discussion about the political direction Sinn Fein should follow. Those discussions have been renewed following the recent elections. This site is itself a forum for such debate and there have been posts on the need to be more left wing, to remove ourselves from centrist govt. etc. Over on other sites more hostile posters have questioned whether the party has lost its connection with the working class to more radical left groupings.

How do we answer such a question. One possible answer is we tack left to meet the challenge from that quarter. However to my mind there is also different aspect to the question. Its an aspect that would remain the same whether we were to tack left of PBP/SWP and the SP; it would remain the same even if we went straight to the center. I am talking about the word connection. The connection with the voters is that set of beliefs, assumptions, that sense of trust they have for and awareness of our party.

Connection might as easily be described as whats our message, whats our story or narrative, what are we communicating to the voters and whats their set of assumptions about us. That’s not a left wing right wing thing. It cant be answered with we need to be more left wing or more right wing but its a question of how successful are we in making voters understand our political vision and representing their wishes.

I believe that the recent elections have demonstrated that we have not yet communicated our vision to the voters successfully but rather have allowed others to instead paint a picture in the mind of voters of who Sinn Fein are. I believe that as a party we have not yet challenged that perception aggressively enough.


Before I focus on Sinn Fein’s narrative I’d like to briefly discuss other narratives which might give an idea of what I am concentrating on.

Obama - His campaign was built about the narrative of change and captured the desires of Americans for a step change in society. It also neutered his critics who tried to paint him as inexperienced. Similar to

Gordon Brown - he tried to position himself as the man who was orchestrating the global response to the depression.

The Tories say they are change, willing to make the cuts and do what needs doing

The Liberal Democrats counter that narrative by saying that Labour and the Tories are the same and only the Liberals are free of the political corruption scandals. Only they can reform westminister.

Here in the south of Ireland each party has a narrative or story its trying to communicate to voters and a counter story being told by its opponents or just something that’s associated with the party. Sometimes a counter story is told by the party against its own interests- think of John Gormley standing fastly with Fianna Fail in photo ops but then saying the greens are doing their own thing. Think of Fianna Fail’s message in 2007 that they were the only safe pair of hands and how successful that message was. Also think of how the opposition failed to counter that story and lost (luckily)

Stories and counter-stories.

No matter how just, right or good a message is it generally wont sell itself. It might do if it were the only show in town but its not. There are alternative viewpoints that its competing with and everyone else is explaining why your viewpoint is wrong and theirs is right. Some people even misread your view point and label you incorrectly. So having a clear message or political narrative with which can explain who you are and what you are about is important.

A voter needs to be able to sum your party up in a few words and you need to ensure those few words are positive, actually true, and really speak to a segment in society that has a genuine need. I think its necessary to stress this is not talking about spin - the art of lying. Its rather about ensuring you get to tell people who you are and what you are about and what your opponents are about rather than having them do it for you.

At this point in time the party is pretty much painted into a box in the mind of the southern electorate as a pre-dominantly northern ran and orientated republican party that's pro-workers but that has no decent economic policy or understanding of economic policy and who are electorally stalled and irrelevant to the debate. All the points I marked as counter-stories put out about Sinn Fein in the above table are the most commonly held beliefs about the party. Although about 7-8% of the electorate is hearing our message and connecting with it etc we are seeing, again unfortunately, that we are failing to connect with the next 7-8% of the voters that we need to be at 15% (which is not at all beyond possibility in the medium term).

Making that connection

So why aren’t we at 15% at the moment. Well surely several reasons but I believe that a key one is Sinn Fein’s inability to phrase, or word, its message so that a larger segment of regular people associate with the Sinn Fein message and feel that it represents them and their concerns in a way that they themselves might express it ie it makes a connection with them in the words of ordinary people.

No party can entirely control its message because of the prevalence of others pushing counter stories. To that end the behaviour of certain media outlets etc. who attack Sinn Fein has to be accepted as a fact and cannot be used as a reason for our loss of momentum.

We have been strongly focussed on refuting the counter stories about us by proving our economic/policy credentials via proposals and submissions and via thoughtful and weighted contributions on the Lisbon debate . We have established our southern relevance with a strong cadre of southern based party figures. We have demonstrated our ability to do the real work in govt. by constructively working in the Dail.

However such was the weight of negative propaganda that all we have succeeded in doing is standing still. Now we need to reevaluate the message so that we can grow to 15%.

I believe that Sinn Fein needs to:

(a) go back to basics as Toireasa Ferris said re community work.

(b) Continue to prove our economic/policy credibility with good work but push the message in a more insistant fashion, and in a more passionate manner. I have noted that some SF reps doing TV work are very sober and serious, getting across the message that we are a serious party with a firm grasp of the issue. That’s good but does that mean we don’t make any emotional connection with the voters.

c) We need to start taking some harder, more controversial positions. I don’t mean populist or jam for everybody positions but rather lets push the boat out a bit with costed and economically proofed proposals. People don’t know what our positions are on issues. Lets change that. The Fgers have the health reform, labour their no vote last sept etc. Whats our angle? Dail reform became a big theme for a few days. Can we be the party of reform - god knows people want institutional reform in this state.

(d) What ever words or ideas become central to our message lets not develop that message for our own consumption. This is 2009 and if our way of expressing ourselves is not the way ordinary working class people are expressing themselves then lets stop trying to change the people and instead change how we express ourselves. Our principles remain the same but we instead talk using the language of the office and the factory and the dole queue, not in language drawn from books and journals.

(e) People who are members, or like myself, only supporters, should be conscious that we can play a key part in advancing the SF message. We, with the leadership, are the key players in convincing a broader segment of society that we are capable, competent and relevant to their needs.

f) Finally once we establish a message we should not deviate from it over the short term. Don’t side track but repeat it and keep on it and then repeat it until it’s established.

In the Spirit of James Connolly / In the Spirit of Malcolm X

Over the past weeks and months the leadership of Sinn Féin have been launching a campaign to bring the debate on a United Ireland to an international audience. There have been forums in New York, San Francisco, London and Liverpool. More have been planned and it is part of a programme to gain support from all around the world for Sinn Féin's strategy to achieve a United Ireland.

Below is a piece submitted by Tom Shelly who is a socialist supporter of Sinn Féin in the US in which he discusses how Sinn Féin should build support for Irish Unity within America. I would like to thank Tom for his contribution and I would encourage anybody else who wishes to write a piece to just send it to me in a comment and I will post it.
　
　
　
In the Spirit of James Connolly

This will be a summary of an article on my blog which is called "In The Spirit Of Malcolm X." I decided to go with Connolly for this since he spent several years organizing unions in America. Going back to Malcolm X, what prompted me to name the article that way was the following quote:

"I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation... It is incorrect to classify the revolt of the Negro as simply a racial conflict of Black against white, or as a purely American problem. Rather we are today seeing a global rebellion of the oppressed against the oppressor, the exploited against the exploiter."(Malcolm X Speaks, pp. 232-233) January, 1965.
The article is about how SF and its American allies try to generate support for SF’s agenda in America. I feel that they are making a mistake by focusing so much on Irish-America. They should focus more on generating support from people of all ethnic backgrounds who are interested in.

**Anti-imperialism (the situation that nationalists have experienced needs to be frequently and consistently portrayed as part of a global rebellion which in recent decades has included the Palestinians, East Timor, Apartheid S. Africa, Chiapas, Native America, etc.)

**Social justice (it makes sense to explain to people that sectarianism is similar to racism and anti-semitism and kind of similar to homophobia, and people who are against those forms of bigotry should show some interest in helping to combat sectarianism in the North)

**economic justice (explaining where the political centers of the nationalist and unionist communities are (center-left and center-right respectively) and the working-class nature of the nationalist community and explaining that uniting Ireland will strengthen liberal, progressive, left and working-class movements should attract support)


There’s a lot more people of all ethnicities that feel passionately about those issues from a liberal-left perspective than there are Irish-Americans already involved or likely to get involved and SF is going generate almost zero support from non-Irish-Americans to the right of center. SF can probably quadruple the amount of support their cause in America has, and all of that growth will go to SF, although a small percentage of old supporters might start supporting some other group in protest.

For this to happen SF will need to start behaving in America the way they do in Ireland. We should see Adams and other figures in the leadership being invited to speak at more events with a progressive audience- for example, pro-Palestinian events, pro-labor events. Wherever possible, SF should make this happen (they probably have some allies who could get them invited) and then it will just grow from there. They’ll have to make it very clear where their politics actually are, especially at the beginning of this process, and that should involve changing the way they talk about generating support in America, adding the appropriate links to Irish Northern Aid web-sites (that will affect what visitors think of INA and might involve some link exchanges and will encourage INA members to reach out on an individual level to liberal-progressive-left groups), attending the alternative, inclusive St. Patrick’s Day event in Queens, NY, that sort of thing (the Queens parade is a good way for SF to get it’s foot in the door, it will signal that they want a different relationship with America, and LGBT groups will respond positively and members of those groups have connections with other liberal-progressive-left groups).


This will have an effect on present and future generations of a segment of Irish-America and would see that group become more liberal-progressive-left, which will mean fewer people voting for the GOP and more people voting for the Democrats, and SF and their agenda will do better with more Democrats elected to federal office.I think that’s about it for a summary.

Two points about how this is relevant to this blog:

1) When people in Dublin went with Higgins instead of McDonald, that’s because they wanted the solid socialist in these bad economic times. Part of people thinking SF might not be solid socialists is their record in America. The SP, about 10 years ago, said that SF is left-wing in the South, right-wing in America, and in between in the North. The North’s a separate discussion, but SF could respond to that by being left-wing in America.

2) The approach I’m recommending might firm up the left-wing commitment of some people in SF who are a little too flexible, and nudge other members towards the left.

So, in summary of the summary, SF and it’s agenda will benefit greatly by focusing on people in America with the right politics instead of the right genealogy.

The article is at http://devlin-mcaliskey.blogspot.com/2009/05/in-spirit-of-malcolm-x.html

The really hard stuff

Over the course of the past while I've posted a piece about racist attacks within the loyalist working class and I asked how can Sinn féin reach out to the unionist working class and attempt to get our message over in person.

I was asked to followed that up with the editorial from An phoblacht on the issue of the racist attacks. I personally found the views in that editorial as very weak as they seemed to see no role for Sinn Féin in dealing with the problem and seemed to suggest that unionism must deal with the issue of racist violence.
My post on Sunday was highlighting the main points Gerry Adams made in his report ‘Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, April 2009" following his recent visit to the area.

In reading this report I cannot help but be fully aware that the situation in the North is not truley one of real peace, and the events that occur at this time of year highlight that very clearly. There exists massive underlying tensions and hostilities and these are at there most obvious in working class areas.

This raises an age old question, is there any way to bridge the divides within the working class and can Sinn Féin play a role in that.

In reading the Adams report a number of points stand out for me;

1. Dialogue has to be a central tenet of any attempt to make peace; to achieve justice, stability, security and peace.

2. There are two ways to end conflict. Either one side convincingly beats the other or all of those involved engage in the more difficult and challenging process of peace making.


3. Peace making is conducted by and between enemies not between friends.
4. This required a serious, good faith effort to engage between political opponents.
5. But in the end it is for Palestinians and Israelis to make the peace.

These three posts I mentioned earlier are to me central in looking at how Sinn Féin needs to move forward in the North. For me if we in Sinn Féin are serious about trying to break out of the sectarian divide that exists in the north then we really have to follow the ideas laid out above. Sinn Féin must reach out to the loyalist working class and continuously try to show that republicanism respects them and offers them something of value. Clearly reaching out to the loyalist working class is not going to be an easy thing to do, but it must be done.
It will be very easy for Sinn Féin to accept its role as being that of "Defenders and representatives of the Catholic community". Indeed some people say that is what Sinn Féin has become. However, there are people within the party who show that this is not the case.
Below is a section of a piece written by Niall Ó Donnghaile, the Sinn Féin representative for East Belfast, and it is this type of action and leadership that Sinn Fein must be involved in if we are to attempt to bridge the gap to the loyalist working class.


I return to the issue of leadership; a number of months back I received a phone call very like the one I got yesterday. On that occasion it was from Joe O'Donnell, a friend and comrade, himself a former Sinn féin rep for this area. Joe has been involved in sterling cross community work with countless representatives throughout East Belfast but particularly with the East Belfast Mission.

Joe informed me that morning that the memorial garden on the Newtonards Road in rememberance of the men killed on 27th June 1970 had been attacked and vandalised with paint. There and then Joe and I took the decision that we needed to stand with the people at the bottom of the Newtonards Road, understanding completely we probably wouldn't be very welcome, and tell them very clearly that those attacking the memorial were not Republican, they weren't motivated by Republicanism and they certainly weren't representative of the Short Strand Community.

So we headed off, now joined by well known community stalwart and activist Bernie McCrory of the Short Strand Community Forum. As we headed to the junction of Bryson Street and the Newtonards Road we collectively took a very deep breath; this was unprecedented, no one had ever crossed this particular line in such an open and public way.

I recall seeing the scores of people, many understandably upset, some relatives of the victims openly weeping, I saw numerous TV crews and photographers who immediately began snapping our pictures. I noticed a number of senior political and church representative who I had met with on numerous occasions before, head away from us as opposed to meeting us in the same fashion they had on other occasions; that was particularly disappointing.

I was approach by a young woman and told to 'get the f**k back over to your own side of the road'. I informed her I was here to condemn what had happened and that we needed to maintain the links so tentatively built up over a difficult period, that that was best for everyone.

A number of ordinary residents understood this, they didn't hide their anger though, and to be fair we didn't expect them to. Many of the relatives told us what was on their minds but again, we understood they needed an outlet, and here we were, three faces from the Short Strand right beside the damaged memorial.

The fact remains that the people who carried that attack out have no political, social or even cultural motivation; they most certainly aren't representative of the people in the Short Strand who know very well the pain and suffering that comes with loss and therefore the respect which must be shown to the dead.

Another sad fact which remains is that during that difficult Sunday morning, those same leaders I mentioned earlier disappeared; they faded into the background or they weren't even present. They allowed us to stand alone to explain the process that we have collectively engaged in to try and bring some sort of peace to the people living along the 'interface' in that part of Belfast.
Once again when I took a walk round to Saint Matthews yesterday morning I did so alone, while a very clear opportunity existed for the leaders within Unionism and Loyalism to take the chance and stand against this attack, that chance was missed, for whatever reason I am not sure.
What remains certain throughout is that the work and engagement will continue, we will continue to meet and address our shared issues, we will continue to sit down and secure a better standard of living for the people who live in what is classed as the 9th most socio-economically deprived ward in the north of Ireland.

However we must also lead and stand up to those who would attempt to tarnish our respective communities, stand up to those so called 'leaders' whose word and deed create the space and the mentality for attacks on Catholic Churches.

I look forward to quieter times ahead, as I write I am aware that the day isn't over yet.
Wherever sectarianism or anti community activity rears its ugly head we must all, collectively have the courage to face it down.

Posted by Niall Ó Donnghaile at 05:23

The Gerry Adams view of the way forward for the Isrealie Palestine conflict.

In April Gerry Adams led a Sinn Féin delegation to Palestine/Isreal and in late June they released their report ‘Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, April 2009 – A Report’. Below are some of the main points in the report.


Whilst I do not wish to deflect from the Palestinian cause, I find it impossible to read without thinking of the steps taken to bring about the current settlement in the north and I ask myself where would we be now if Sinn Féin had not gone down the path it did and Adams had not led the process in the way he did.

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EXTRACTS FROM "ISREAL, THE GAZA STRIP AND THE WEST BANK, APRIL 2009"



It is obvious that the political conditions for ongoing violence and poverty and instability still dominate the situation.

These must be tackled effectively if a peace settlement is to have any potential for success.


It was also clear from the scores of Israeli and Palestinian citizens that the Sinn Féin delegation met that there is a deep desire for peace.
This desire must be turned into reality.

I believe that dialogue is key to this.
The Sinn Féin peace strategy helped create the conditions for the Irish peace process, which has transformed political conditions in Ireland.

While no two conflicts are the same there are nonetheless broad principles which can be helpful in all conflict resolution processes.

Sinn Féin's position is that the integrity of all democratic mandates should be respected and accepted. And, clearly, any attempt to achieve peace must involve dialogue between opponents and enemies.


Sinn Féin's view of the situation.

In brief this included the following opinions:
_ The situation had deteriorated since my first visit in September 2006.
_ Israelis and Palestinians are destined to share the same piece of ground and to live side by side.
_ Everyone deserves and requires justice, stability, security and peace.
_ A two-state solution holds out the best prospect to secure these objectives.
_ Dialogue is central to this.
_ There should be a complete cessation of all hostilities and freedom of
movement for everyone.

What is needed:
_ The firing of rockets should cease.
_ The building of Separation Wall should stop as a first step towards its demolition.
_ The building of Settlements should stop.


GAZA

Over a three week period from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009 it is reported that:
_ Over 1400 people were killed including more than 400 children and over a hundred women.
_ Casualties were in the region of 5,000 including 1,800 children and almost 800 women.

The resultant suffering past and present, especially within a population of which 60% are under 18 years of age, can only store up a festering resentment which will fuel further conflict in the absence of a political settlement.

What is needed:
_ The siege of the Gaza strip should end.
_ International aid on an appropriately large scale should immediately be injected into the area to relieve suffering, restore essential services and kick start the reconstruction of the area.
_ All armed actions or threats of armed action should cease.


Several Palestinians, supporters of the peace process route, mature in both age and political experience told me that they feel as angry now as they did when they were teenagers.

They find, in themselves and their contemporaries, a hardening of attitudes.
Others voice the opinion that generations coming up, unless there is a peace settlement, will make Al Qaeda, in retrospect, looking like moderates.
Conclusions
During my two brief visits to the region and in my conversations with all of those I met I believe that there is a widespread desire for peace among Israelis and Palestinians.

The opinion polls consistently reflect this.

Dialogue has to be a central tenet of any attempt to make peace; to achieve justice, stability, security and peace.

Refusing to engage in dialogue; demonising opponents; treating them as non citizens; stripping them of their rights and entitlements, of their self esteem and integrity as human beings; engaging in censorship and vilification, makes war easier and peace harder.
It is a policy that guarantees a perpetuation of the cycle of conflict.

The international experience is clear.

There are two ways to end conflict. Either one side convincingly beats the other or all of those involved engage in the more difficult and challenging process of peace making.
61 years after the emergence of the Israeli state and the partition of Palestine, and with the increasing sophistication of the weapons of war on all sides, it is clear that no wall - however high -can provide permanent peace or security.

A political settlement is required and this is only possible if there is a recognition and acceptance of democratic mandates of all of the participants.

Peace making is conducted by and between enemies not between friends.


That means that a necessary element of a conflict resolution process in the Middle East, which hopes to achieve a successful outcome, must be an acceptance of inclusive dialogue based on equality and respect.

This required a serious, good faith effort to engage between political opponents.

And this will require determination and commitment to stick with it through all of the inevitable arguments and differences and crises that will emerge.

For Palestinians this means uniting in the national interest by agreeing a truly national political platform involving all of the Palestinian parties.
Fail to do this and the age old tactic of divide and rule will weaken the Palestinian ability to achieve their rights through negotiation.

Party political interests need to be subsumed in the national and democratic cause.

For the Israelis the challenge is equally daunting.

Israel is a major regional and world power.

It has the ability to continue to pursue and implement policies which foster division and conflict, or it can take dramatic decisions for peace.

For both a two-State solution appears to hold out the greatest prospect for an acceptable and durable solution.

Such a settlement would also greatly enhance Israel's standing with its neighbours.

The Arab League peace, which includes a proposal to normalise relationships with Israel, could be a watershed moment in the effort to bring stability to that region.

The recent positions set out by President Obama, and the appointment of Senator George Mitchell, are welcome developments. The United States of America has a particular role to play and is certainly the most influential international player on the Israeli authorities.


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The wider international community also has an important role to play also, especially Egypt, Jordan and Syria, Saudi Arabia, the wider Arab world, the Government of Iran and the European Union, Turkey, China and the United Nations and Russia.

All can and must provide encouragement, incentives, persuasions, economic and other aid as appropriate and the application without fear or favour of internationally agreed laws and standards.

But in the end it is for Palestinians and Israelis to make the peace.

And that means the renewed commitment to agreements and understandings already reached as the basis to resume timetabled negotiations, for an overall settlement, which includes a timetable for Implementation.


IMMEDIATE STEPS
_ All armed actions and acts of violence should cease.
_ An inclusive process of negotiations should commence in which all democratic mandates are respected, clear objectives are set, and there is a fixed timeframe.
_ The building of the Separation Wall should stop as a first step which would see its demolition.
_ The siege of the Gaza Strip should end.
_ An immediate and intensive programme of reconstruction and economic development must commence.
_ The ongoing Israeli colonisation of the West Bank and the building of settlements should stop.
_ The occupation of the West Bank and the denial of freedom of movement to Palestinians in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, and between the West Bank and Gaza, should end as part of the process to decolonise the West Bank.
_ Mutual and expeditious co-operation between Palestinians and Israelis to enhance public safety and security should commence.
_ United Nations Resolutions and International Law should be enforced.

An Phoblacht - Sending out the right message

I'm glad to see this week's edition of An Phoblacht has two pieces supporting workers in the current economic crisis. For me this is a core message that Sinn Féin needs to be shouting out loudly.

The first article is entitled

Recession no excuse for employers to line pockets with money owed to electricians

Unions to resist attempts to drive down wages and conditions



The article is in clear support of the the electricans and their stance in fighting for what they are owed and how this is just the latest attempt to attack the pay and conditions of ordinary workers.

The article states, "The reason why this dispute has taken on such importance for the trade union movement is that it represents another step in a concerted attempt by employers to dismantle agreed structures and mechanism for setting wages in specific sectors of the economy. It follows an attempt last year by the Irish Hotels Federation to challenge the right of Joint Labour Committees and the Labour Court to set minimum wages and the employment conditions for workers in the hotel sector.This dispute arose as a consequence of a challenge by the a section of employers to a registered employment agreement (REA) on electricians pay, agreed by workers and employers. That employers’ action in refusing to pay the agreed increase would, if carried out by unions, have been described as ‘wild cat action’ with serious consequences for any unions involved. The action by the TEEU is a direct response to employers’ refusal to negotiate, despite a recommendation from the Labour Court that they should do so."

In addition there is a further article in An Phoblacht entitled.

McGuinness tells ICTU conference – workers cannot be asked to pay price for crisis not of their making

This article outlines points made when the Joint First Minister (stupid feckin title to be using) made at the ICTU conference in Tralee.

In the article it states.
McGuiness told delegates that his concern about the economic downturn was the effects it has inflicted on the lives of ordinary people throughout Ireland: “Effects which you as trade unionists, and myself as a political representative, are all too painfully aware. The recession cannot, and must not, be used as an excuse to drive down terms and conditions of employment for ordinary workers. Ordinary workers cannot be asked to pay the heaviest price for a crisis that is not of their making.“It is their lives and futures and indeed that of their children and grandchildren that we must focus on improving. And while we work to address the employment and banking crisis we must ensure that the most vulnerable in our society continue to be protected”.

The above two articles push the message that I feel Sinn Féin need to be fully behind. Namely Sinn Féin is a party that supports the interests of the working people of this country and that Sinn Féin will stand with the trade union movement in ensuring that it is not just working people that have to pay for the current economic crisis.

Sinn Féin supporters the workers! Or do we?

The media in the south today have been full of the industrial action taken by electricians who are members of the TEEU. The constant message seems to be how greedy and stupid these men are in taking such action at a time like this. Yet we all know that people do not go on strike for nothing and clearly the electricians have grievances that need to be addressed.

All day I have waited for Sinn Féin to issue a statement attacking the media response and showing our support of the workers, but none has yet appeared. I have waited for the leadership to say that the electricans have a right to protect their pay and working conditions, that workers need to fight back against the attacks on them by the government and employers etc. None of this is rocket science, but rather what any left wing party should say.

The Socialist Party have a long piece on their website saying why the electricians should be supported. The SWP have a large piece as well, but where is the Sinn Féin statement?

If we cannot even get off our arses and support the electricans in a natioanal strike, then is it any suprise that other left wing parties made gains at the last elections and we did not.

Anyway for those who wish to know why the electricans are striking below is a leaflet distributed to members of the TEEU explaining what is happening and asking workers to support the current strike action.


CALL TO ACTION
National Strike
Implementation Date - Monday 6th July 2009
BACKGROUND
The last pay increase applied to contracting electricians was on the 1st April 2007 - € 21.49. This increase is based on the rates of pay in 16 companies employing maintenance electricians’ using an arrears reference period from 1st September 2005 to 1st September 2006. The net effect of this is that the current rate of pay for contracting electricians is up to 4 years behind everyone else in the Irish economy.

The TEEU’s attempts to have the agreed rate of €22.5 4 (4.9% increase) applied from the 1st April 2008 were frustrated by some employers using the law courts; this has since been resolved in favour of the TEEU. However, since then the employer bodies ECA & AEC I have refused to apply the
agreed pay terms.

The increase due under the agreement from the 1st April 2009 is * €1.44 per hour giving a new hourly rate of €23.98(6.37 % increase) but the employers have again refused to implement the terms of our
agreement.

WHY STRIKE NOW, IS IT JUST ABOUT PAY?
NO. The employer bodies are pursuing a 10% pay cut in the 1st of April 2007 rate of €21.49 and if they were to succeed this would reduce the rate to €19.34 and would equate to a pay reduction of 21.2 7 % in real terms.

IS THAT AS BAD AS IT GETS ?
NO. The employer bodies are pursuing significant changes to our agreement that include:
Analogue agreement: The abolition of the existing analoguesystem.

Qualified Electricians: Employing people in the industry to do electricians’ work and who do not have qualifications that satisfy the employer, will be paid 25 % less than the agreed electricians’ rate.

Travel Time: Travelling time and bus fares to be abolished.

Overtime: No overtime will be paid until after 39hrs have been worked in a week.

Shift Pay: A major reduction in shift pay.
Country Money:
● Hours of work may be altered at the employers’ discretion.
● The employer could exercise the option of renting accommodation.
● Visiting home allowance to be abolished.
Tools: Members to supply significant amount of own tools:
● Cordless Drill & 2 batteries
● Digital Multimeter
● Compensation for loss of tools partially abolished.
* The rate and percentage specified is our calculations that were submitted to the ENJIC and they are not yet agreed .
Apprentices:
● Rates to be reduced to: 2nd Year – 40%, 3rd Year – 60%, 4th Year – 70%
● No pay increase if an exam is failed.
● Pay reduced by 10% if transport is provided and used outside of working hours.
Spare time working: Workers found to be engaged in nixers, foxers or homers etc would be liable to immediate dismissal.
Mobile phones: Mobile phones may not be used for calls or texts during working hours without prior agreement. Infringements would carry a penalty of a deduction of 15 minutes pay.

Future basis of the Agreement: The current three signatories to the agreement would have their names removed i.e. the TEEU, AECI & ECA and each electrician will be required to sign an individual contract of employment.

WHAT IS THE UNION DOING ABOUT ALL THIS?
The union has already balloted its members for official strike action; we have been to the Labour Court which recommended that the employers sit down with the union to negotiate an appropriate pay increase in the current economic climate, which the employers have refused to do.
While we do nothing, the employers are attempting to undercut each other by putting pressure on our members to either take a pay cut or work a number of hours each week without wages. This foolish tactic by them is to undercut compliant companies, drive down wages in the industry and this can have only one result; reducing wages down to the national minimum wage and destroying the competiveness of the industry.
The union is calling on all contracting electricians to back the call to action on the 6th July 2009. It is only by united action that our agreement can be retained into the future and restored for any members who have so far been affected by cuts of any description.

WHAT NEXT?
The TEEU is engaged with the employer bodies at the Electrical National Joint Industrial Council (ENJIC) pursuing a resolution of the current dispute. The employers need to get the message, not just from the union’s negotiating team but from every member on every site that they are in breach of our Registered Employment Agreement and that it must and will be restored .
For further information please attend at your next branch meeting
_________________
Eamon Devoy
General Secretary Designate.
June 4, 2009.

It's all about the economy, stupid!

One of the things Sinn Féin has been criticised for has been its lack of understanding of economic issues and in truth our politics have focused on matters other than the economy and as a result we have been open to such criticism.

To me the leadership have attempted to deal with these attacks by putting forward moderate economic proposals, trying at all times to sound "reasonable" and falling in line with what other major parties are proposing. This in my opinion led to Sinn Féin failing to benefit from the shift to the left that happened in the recent local and European elections in the South.

However, there there is a growing socialist/social democratic economic analysis of the present situation and we on the left need to grow in our understanding of that analysis and use it to push for the changes we wish to see in Ireland. Sinn Féin members need to be able to be able to counter the arguments put forward that there is no alternative to the economic cuts and deflation that lies at the core of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and even Labour Party thinking. In order to do this we need to increase our understanding of economics.

Personally I have for a while now been trying to do this and an excellent source of information has been Michael Taft. He has a site called notes from the front about progressive economics. He has consistently argued the case against the government's economic policies and he has shown where they are taking us to.

Michael is a member of the Labour Party and works for UNITE and is on the left in terms of his thinking.

If anybody else has a site they would recommend then please let me know.

Below is an article from Michael Taft on An Bord Snip.

Histories At Dawn: June 30th The Recession Diaries

History is such a malleable thing. It can be twisted this way and that to support or oppose any contemporary position. Take An Bord Snip Nua – this is a grand thing altogether. How do we know this? Because, sure, its predecessor was such an outstanding success. Yes, it brought pain but it set the groundwork for the Celtic Tiger economy. So goes the history; if we gird our loins, cut and hack away, we too can replicate this outstanding success. Suffer a couple of years of fiscal pain, and economic paradise awaits.

But history is not so straight-forward and certainly not so reductionist. Was it really the case that the ‘cutbacks’ endured under Mac the Knife (Finance Minister Ray McSharry) were (a) successful and (b) set the preconditions for the growth explosion in the mid-1990s? Let’s take a look at some provocative facts for clearly there is a lot of myth making about that period – a period that ran from 1987 to 1989, encompassing three budgets.

First, how much was cut? In nominal terms, public expenditure wasn’t cut – it increased. During the three budgets, total expenditure increased. Current expenditure increased. Even excluding interest payments, current expenditure increased by over 5 percent. The main target of the knife was that ol’ standby – capital expenditure. Cutting investment is the easiest option. It doesn’t take away from what people already have – it only defers something we don’t have. This started a period of long-term chronic under-investment in our economic base.

But that’s only Irish public expenditure. Don’t forget – this was ‘begging bowl’ days, when Ireland was one of the poorer performing economies in the EU. So what about public expenditure in Ireland? Between 1987 and 1989 we received over £1 billion under the EU Social and Regional Development Funds - a substantial 38 percent increase in the previous three years under the hapless Fine Gael/Labour government. Now, £1 billion might not sound much but were we to receive the same proportional amount it would come to nearly €6 billion over the next three years. That would subsidise a lot of cuts, but it’s doubtful if the EU today would play ball.

Second, there is much talk about how the minority Fianna Fail government brought down the public spending/GNP ratio. In 1986 public expenditure amounted to 54.7 percent of GNP (if you think that’s because we had some kind of super-Nordic government, remember – it was largely due to interest payments and social welfare). By 1989, spending was brought down to 45.1 percent. But this was only the continuation of a trend that was already in place since 1983 when expenditure was over 62 percent of GNP.

But there was one thing that saved Fianna Fail’s bacon. The numbers on the Live Register started to fall. Was that because all this fiscal contraction started producing jobs? Hardly. Between 1986 and 1992, the economy was generating an average of only 14,000 new net jobs, and while unemployment didn’t rise it didn’t fall either. Between 1988 (the first year of the ILO calculation) and 1993, unemployment fell by less than 1% leaving nearly 16 percent still unemployed. So what happened here?

Yes, you guessed it: emigration. Between 1987 and 1989 over 100,000 emigrated. While not all of these would have been of working age, it’s a fair bet most were – the overwhelming majority. The numbers emigrating amounted to 8 percent of the entire labour force in 1989. To put this in perspective, we’d need over 180,000 to leave over the next three years to reach this level.

Emigrants are great. You don’t have to pay them any dole. They reduce demand on social services. They don’t end up clogging our jails. It’s a great solution, and it certainly gave the Government at the time a real dig out. Expansionary fiscal contraction? Try expansionary demographic contraction.

There is no question about the impact of some of the cuts during that period. But, as always, there were choices. Fianna Fail did choose – they chose to abolish the Land Tax – just as they abolished the Wealth Tax a decade earlier. When it came to patients being moved out of closed hospital wards or the IFA, Fianna Fail certainly knew whose side it was on.

Whatever about our ‘historians’ today, what did contemporaries think of this policy? They couldn’t ditch it fast enough. First to go was Mac the Knife himself – kicked upstairs to the EU Commission. During the 1989 election campaign – resulting from a lost vote on a non-economic private member’s bill – Charles Haughey apologised on an RTE phone-in show for not realising the damage being done to cutbacks in the health services (what’s new?). The election result put the seal on Fianna Fail’s historical anti-coalitionism, and for the first time they entered cabinet with another party – the right-wing PDs. What happened then? More of th same? Don't you believe it.

The Fianna Fail/PD government went on a spending spree. In the very first budget spending cuts were reversed – and how; public spending rose by 7 percent. In the three budgets under this government, spending increased by over a quarter while capital spending increased by a third.

And then there was that EU dosh. It really started flooding in – over £2.2 billion in the three year period. This was more than double the amount received in the previous three year period. Public expenditure in Ireland leaped and bounded ever upwards.

And this was done against a pretty bleak fiscal situation. While spending was being increased, the debt/GDP ratio was over 85%, though falling; interest payments on the debt soaked up a quarter of tax revenue and over 7% of GDP (compare that to payments in 2008 which made up only 1 percent of GDP). Still, they kept spending.
And then the 1993 devaluation – which made our exports cheaper.

And then the fruits of years of work by the IDA – the multinationals swept in, bringing mega-growth.

And the direct state investment into the high-tech domestic sector.
We never hear that narrative – one that poses spending, investment and public policy as the driving force in the emerging economic boom. Rather, all we get is a selective and reductionist recitation of history, skewered to fit a set of pre-conceived policies.

And just remember, when you read reports of today’s Bord Snip proposing cuts in social welfare, that throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, social welfare increased every year. And public sector workers received pay increases.
History has much to teach us.

http://notesonthefront.typepad.com/politicaleconomy/2009/06/history-is-such-a-malleable-thing-it-can-be-twisted-this-way-and-that-to-support-or-oppose-any-contemporary-position-take-a.html