CPIR Statement: Parliamentary Opposition is Useless. Mass Demonstrations against the Budget are the only way forward.

national | anti-capitalism | press release Tuesday December 04, 2012 08:45 by CPIR - Páirtí Cummanach na Poblachta

Wednesday 5th December 2012 will see the latest in a series of budget attacks on the working class. The sequence of events is now well established.

Parliamentary Opposition is Useless. Mass Demonstrations against the Budget are the only way forward.

Wednesday 5th December 2012 will see the latest in a series of budget attacks on the working class. The sequence of events is now well established.

Those holding the nominal seat of power on behalf of the capitalist class will outline broad measures to transfer wealth from all sections of the working class into their masters' pockets. Of course, the decisions that matter have already been taken. How much wealth that needs to be transferred and the larger structural changes to the economy were determined by the EU and the IMF some time ago. All the so-called government has to do on Wednesday is to announce the detail of how it is going to be done.

The comprador class that has held power in the 26 Counties for 90 years is rubbing its hands. They they will use the opportunity to push forward cuts and taxes that they have been itching to do for some time, in the full knowledge that the people do not support these measures. Two thirds of people believe there should be a tax on wealth, two thirds of people believe that there should be no further cuts in social welfare. But we live in a democracy, so what two thirds of the people counts for nothing!

All possible steps will be taken by the government to shield the "representatives" from those they claim to represent. Members of the government parties who don't sit at cabinet don't even know what their party leaders have in store for them. The legislation will be rushed through before they get the chance to return to their constituences and face the people. In contrast the finance provisions which affect the powerful will go through a protracted period of consultation to ensure that accountants are able to find new ways to hide wealth from the people.

The sequence of "opposition" is also well-established. The opposition is a strange mix of those who were in government only a few years ago imposing similar cuts, those who sit in the north overseeing cuts there and various other groups who have not yet had their chance to sell out the Working Class. The "opposition" on Wednesday will have their tantrums inside Leinster House. Some of them, without any shame, will change their uniform and suddenly appear in the crowds outside Leinster House, as if they had nothing to do with the cuts that were just announced, as if they hadn't endorsed the political system by their presence inside the Chamber. Even more bizarrely, Union leaders from one of the government parties will appear in the crowds. These are the same Union leaders who refuse to organise workers for a general strike, or indeed any kind of industrial action or confrontation against the cuts.

What exactly are these "opposition" demanding? They are in effect demanding nothing. They are prostrating themselves before the system that they have bought into. They have put all their eggs in this one basket and only now realise that they are powerless to effect change within the system, so they are relegated to begging outside the gates of Kildare Street.

The ordinary person has known all of this for some considerable time. They know that while there are gates that separate us from them, that it doesn't matter who sits in Kildare Street or who claims to be the Taoiseach. They know that voting in this system is meaningless. They know that marching to Leinster House as law-abiding and peaceful demonstrators does nothing.

It is time to do things differently. Yes, there should be a march to Leinster House, but not like recent marches. Mass demonstrations can confront these attacks on the working class, not like last Saturday's march which walked in circles and confronted nobody except the Union leaders themselves.

Don't be fooled into thinking that this is a national parliament that we march against, it is only a forum for the political elite to bicker amongst themselves. It is time that we marched towards those gates with the intention of bringing those institutions down and replacing them with institutions created and run by the Working Class themselves. It is time that the politicians knew what facing the people really meant, just like in Greece, Spain and Italy. It is time that the Irish people discovered the power that they hold and reversed the surrender of their sovereignty to a small political elite. Not since 1916 has the Irish Working Class been as disconnected from the political system that rules over it.

On Wednesday the Communist Party of the Irish Republic urges all Irish people to join whatever demonstrations are in your area, or to organise one if none are already organised. But don't do so with any expectation that it is your voice that will bring change. No-one in power is listening. They only understand one thing! The only thing that they fear is a risen people!

Communist Party of the Irish Republic
3rd December 2012

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