The Bulletin of Socialist Youth - Anti-Sectarian, Anti-Austerity, Anti-Capitalist Oct/Nov 2014

THE RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH!THE RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH!THE WAGES ARE TOO DAMN LOW!THE WAGES ARE TOO DAMN LOW!

WRITTEN BY SEAN BOYLEAND TYLER MCNALLYChef / Call Centre WorkerSouth Belfast Socialist Youth

After years of failed aus-terity politics, rising infla-tion, increasing rates ofunemployment, precari-ous low paid work andwith an election justaround the corner: themain establishment par-ties in Westminster havebeen forced to deal withthe crisis of an ever in-creasing rise in the costof living and the need toincrease the minimumwage to meet risingcosts, some of which,such as Energy are in-creasing by as much as35% as big business con-tinues to squeeze moremoney from us to feedtheir greed!

Not content with drivingpeople’s living conditionsand services into theground, the ConservativeParty has said they wantthe minimum wage to goup to £7 by 2020! ‘RedEd’ Milliband’s LabourParty have decided tocall for an increase to £8an hour by 2020. Thisshows just how out oftouch these Politiciansare in their quest to keepbig business interestshappy whilst forcing us topay for their crisis andtheir recovery with lowpaid jobs.

Here in Northern Ireland,our Stormont Politiciansare busy going on foreigntrips to drum up invest-ment and offering very lu-crative tax subsidies tobusinesses that do de-cide to invest in Northern

Ireland, but the jobs thatare being brought hereare vastly outnumberedby the growing number ofpeople being forced ontothe Dole queues. There isalso the added problemof companies simplyleaving NI when the sub-sidy money dries up. In-vest NI once offered theCall Centre company‘Stream’ subsidies tobring jobs to Derry in-stead of Belfast, theyvery quickly chucked thepeople they employedback onto the dole queueafter Invest NI ended thesubsidy and Streammoved back to Belfast.

These companies alsopay poverty wages andoften have employeesworking on Zero Hourscontracts, not knowinghow they’ll be able to pay

their bills for the month!

Socialist Youth cam-paigns for real jobs, andby real jobs we meanjobs that pay a minimumof at least £10 per hour,we know that the bills,the grocery shops, therent will not wait. Unlikethe establishment par-ties who think we canlumber on until 2020, wedemand that our mini-mum wage is increasedto £10 now! Because £7or £8 isn’t enough now,and certainly will not beenough in 2020."

ALSO INSIDE: CAPITALISM IN SPORT, ABORTION PILL TRAIN, TRANSRIGHTS: PROPER SEX EDUCATION, IRAQ, EBOLA OUTBREAK & MORE!!!

WAGES

we demand a we demand a ££1010an hour minimum wagean hour minimum wage!!

JOIN IN THE FIGHT FOR#10NOW!

Text ‘10Now’ + yourName & Postcode to07941841092 for moreinfo and to get involved!

BY ENDA BOYLEUniversity of Ulster StudentColeraine Socialist PartyFor the people of the West Africaepidemics and infestations arenothing new, however the speedand ferocity of with which the cur-rent outbreak of Ebola has spreadhuman misery and suffering is stillenough to create headlinesthroughout the world. Indeed fig-ures from the World Health Organ-isation (WHO) suggest that therehave been over 5,000 deaths fromthe disease, the same organisa-tion also estimates that by thetime this current outbreak isbrought under control the worldcould see as many as 20,000 peo-ple infected.

Given the fact that that the Ebolavirus is nothing new anyone wouldbe forgiven for asking why wehave not developed a vaccine tocombat this known killer. The an-swer of course is that it is not inthe interest of the large pharma-ceutical companies to do so. In aneconomic system where profit isking and the lives of those whocannot pay are forfeited. WHO hasshortlisted eight drugs and twovaccines which might cure or pre-vent Ebola; despite the evidenthuman need for this medicineclinical trials and developmentshave been frustratingly slow.

At the time of writing only 1 vac-cine has been developed by Glax-oSmithKline a U.S drugscompany. It is telling that this in-dustry titan only began trials as itwas buying up Swiss VaccineCompany Okairos AG, the trialswill be funded using state fundsand the charity Welcome Trust.

The Ebola outbreaks in WestAfrica have been allowed to de-velop into this global crisis be-cause of free market economics,a system that allows the desiresof profiteers to rule over the needsof people, even in times of crisis.A Socialist Society, ran by ordinarypeople with their own interests atheart which organised resourceson the basis of need would beable to more effectively researchdisease and combat outbreaks forthe good of all and not just busi-

EBOLA VIRUS:crisis of capitalism

BY DERBHLA MCDERMOTT

School StudentWest Belfast Socialist Youth

“As a young person living in today’s so-ciety, it comes as no surprise that Iwould seek an alternative to the sec-tarian, stagnant system that Stormontoffers us.Almost 1 in 4 young people are outsideeducation, training or employment andas we’ve seen ruthless cuts to the vitalEducation Maintenance Allowance; itbecomes apparent that our needs as ageneration are simply not on their listof priorities.Joining Socialist Youth has given methe opportunity to particpate in stalls,discussions and demonstrations whichare enabling young people to havetheir own voice heard on the issueswhich matter to us. This is a rare thingfor our generation as our needs are sooften brushed aside by politicians whoare only concerned with green and or-ange politics. If you are fed up with theinequality of this capitalist system, getinvolved today!”

BY SEÁN BURNS School StudentSouth Belfast Socialist Youth

Sectarian squabbling in Stormonthas reached fever pitch. The DUPare proclaiming that they are out to“Stop Sinn Fein’s cuts” while SinnFein are arguing they are out to“Stop Tory Cuts” with attacks onDUP support for welfare cuts as“anti-welfare state”. This is one ofthe rare occasions where both par-ties are correct. They are both im-plementing cuts and we shouldstop both of their cuts but neitherparty has offered a coherent strat-egy to do so.

Recent articles in An Phoblacht,Statements and votes from SinnFein are showing that Sinn Fein isattempting to posture themselvesas a left-wing party that is opposed to Austerity. They have launched a campaign of “Stop Tory Cuts” and

have currently blocked Welfare re-form in the Assembly Executive.

In reality, their opposition to auster-ity in the North has been more talkthan action. Sinn Féin are a part ofan Executive that has agreed to re-duce budgets by almost £78m orthe potential loss of 6,000 jobswhich Sinn Fein have not opposed.Another example are the job lossesin libraries implemented by Carál Ní Chuilín who is cutting libraryservices funding by 4.4%!

Where opposition has been shownit has been tokenistic at best. No vi-able strategy to defeat the cuts hasbeen put forward as is the case ofWelfare Reform where cuts wheresimply implemented in other areasand it was knocked down the line!

With the DUP there is a similarstory. The attempt at painting cutsin other services as a direct resultof Sinn Fein's “irresponsibility”around welfare is a complete farce.

Along with Sinn Fein, they agreed an austerity budget in 2011 wherearound £4bn cuts were to be imple-mented. The DUP are openly pro-austerity and have no qualms withviciously attacking the lives ofworking class people with cut aftercut.

The parties up in Stormont haveproven time and time again thatthey are incapable of delivering adecent future for working classyoung people. What we need is anew anti-sectarian movement ofyoung people alongside the tradeunions; a movement of the 99%,that can deal a blow to thehypocrisy of the establishment andbuild a Socialist Alternative to themisery of austerity.

Cast of Seasme Street pose with theMuppets...

A full version of this article is nowavailable on www.socialistpartyni.net

WHY I JOINED

BY DEAN FOXSchool StudentLisburn Socialist YouthCapitalist competition affects everykind of human activity. In the processof turning sport into profit, humanbodies have become commodities.Sport has become totally integratedinto a framework of inter state ri-valry, class relations and most of allcapitalist production.

Since the professionalization andmass takeover of English football bythe one percent clubs in the premierleague have become like the facto-ries of the bourgeoisie, churning outtalent for maximum profit. Transferspending reached a record £835 mil-lion in summer, and the new TV dealis worth 70% more than the previous.In the 1990/91 season, fans paid £4for a ticket to stand in the Stretfordend of old Trafford. Now it costs over£40 due to seating development, astrategy of the owners to increaseticket prices.

Even the Windsor park and Case-ment developments serve only to fur-ther alienate the working class byincreasing stadium capacity so notonly more tickets can be sold but ata more hefty price tag. Working classyoung fans are being priced out ofthe games we love. In short most sta-diums may have evolved leavingracist and hooligan bigotry in thepast, however a new economic big-otry has emerged and revenues con-tinue to increase. Television dealsmean a large profit can still be maderegardless of ticket prices but own-ers are driven by greed, and the par-asitic need for increased profitmargins. The sad thing is that, moneyearned is concentrated in the hands

of the club itself and most goes to-wards player’s and chairmen’s outra-geous wages - not into the club.

We can see similar processes begin-ning in GAA with excellence centresand shirt sponsorship deals signify-ing capitalism entering what re-mains an amateur sport. Howeversuch is the nature of the capitalistsociety in which we live that playerschoose the sport with the highestsalary when it comes to it. Somehowsome think the solution to the situa-tion is to professionalize the GAA tocure the mass drought of playerssome clubs face. Rugby, soccer or in-deed Australian rules offer a more ‘fi-nancially sound alternative’ to GAA.

Although we would only be preparingourselves for the same processes wehave seen take place in soccer. Formany there is the belief that the loveof the game will suffice, but thesetoo are damaged when we realisethat elite counties like Dublin havesponsorship deals which bring in £4million for them per year. This goestowards preparing the team, like in2011 when Dublin put £2 million to-wards winning the Sam Maguire. It isclear that this puts them at a largeadvantage, and the smaller teams ata disadvantage as it is capital whichhas allowed the elite teams to pushon further. Dublin are not alone inthis, Cork have signed a £1 milliondeal with chill insurance and Kerry adeal with Kerry Group for the sameamount. The same goes for hurlingwhere Tipperary spent £1.2 millionpreparing the team to stop Kilkennyon their charge for 5 All Ireland titlesin a row. Dublin now also have a freeboots deal with boot maker Adidas,so players needs are catered foragain unlike smaller counties whodon’t have the profit margin neededto boast such a deal. The GAA itselfboasts multi million Euro deals withthe likes of Etihad airways. Eircom,Supervalu and AIB. This has lead to acommercial revenue of £17.5 millionand a total revenue of £53 million,with the question remaining howlong will it stay here with profession-alization and yet more capitalismlooming?

One thing in both sports is that dis-crimination is rife with the most re-cent example the alleged racialabuse of Norwich player CameronJerome. Should we expect more froman organisation with a leader quotedas saying ‘racist abuse can be forgot-ten with a handshake’ and that ho-mosexuals travelling to Qatar in2022 for the world cup should refrainfrom sexual activities. (Sepp Blatter)Hardly words of acceptance, eventolerance.

In GAA homophobia has become aproblem with the few openly gayplayers in the game such as DonalOg Cusack claiming they faced ver-bal abuse on the pitch. We need tostop turning a blind aye to this behav-iour. If that means kicking some outof the game then so be it.

What can we do? Well we the fanscan force change. The atmosphere atgames has been killed due to dis-persed seating and ticketing makingit harder for groups to sit together. Ifclubs spend the money to make it sostanding sections are perfectly safe.The games need elected governingbodies of fans instead of a figure-head such as in the GAA who earns£100,000 a year.

Prices should be held to a maximum.Grounds should be owned jointly bythe supporters and community.Policing at grounds should be con-trolled by and monitored by fans. Thetens of millions brought in by clubsand boards should be replanted intograssroots and lower leagues as wellas the banning of both discriminatoryand fascist supporters from ourgrounds. In short we need to kick bigbusiness out of sport in general. Thegames which were founded by theworking class are now ruled by theone percent and we must changethis fact.

KICK CAPITALISM OUT OF SPORT! FILM REVIEW:PRIDE!BY ROBERT SHARKEYCouncil Worker East Belfast Socialist YouthPride tells the story of how a groupof left wing and Socialist youngpeople within London’s Gay com-munity gave support to a Welsh vil-lage during the miners’ strike.

The miners’ Strike was a yearlongindustrial dispute against thePrime Ministers MargaretThatcher’s attempt to privatise theBritish Coal Industry. The strike it-self was a historic struggle by theMineworkers that has been de-scribed before as a “Civil war with-out guns”. Although the strikeultimately ended in defeat for theminers it is still a very importantevent today.

It is very easy to see how the eventsof the miners’ strike directly lead tothe state of society today. Wherethe “Con-dem” government is ableto implement significant austeritywith no strong determined opposi-tion. Thatcher’s economic policy ofNeo-Liberalism (Privatisation andreduced state spending) is very def-initely the cause of the economicstagnation and constant recessionthat exist today.

The film itself is excellent and I rec-ommend everyone goes to see it(and not just because one of thelead character’s in the plot is from here!). The films centraltheme is of solidarity. The maincharacters understood that the Gaycommunity was equally oppressedunder Thatcher’s Government asthe miners were.

The film ends with a show of soli-darity from the Welsh miners whoin their thousands attended the1985 London Gay Pride March.

BY COURTNEY ROBINSONPresident of Belfast Met Students’ UnionEast Belfast Socialist Youth

Two years after the tragic death of Savita Halap-panavar, a woman who died after being denied a po-tentially life saving abortion; Pro Choice Activists fromDublin decided to re enact the Abortion Pill Train of1971 by collecting pills ordered through Women onWeb in Belfast and taking the train back to Dublin.The Activists, including Ruth Coppinger TD imbibedthe pills in front of supporters and media in Dublin todemonstrate how safe, non surgical abortions arebeing denied to women in Ireland and to demand therepeal of wretched 8th Amendment from the IrishConstitution which has denied women in Ireland safe,legal access to Abortion services for decades.

The UK is the destination for many women whochoose to obtain abortion services, often at great costas regardless of whether you live in the North orSouth; Abortion services are not available to you onthe NHS. In 1967, Abortion became legal in the UKwith the passing of the 1967 Abortion act, but the actwas never extended to Northern Ireland because oneof the very few things the Sectarian dinosaurs in Stor-mont can agree on besides Austerity, is denyingWomen reproductive rights.

If we are to have the right to choose in Ireland, bothNorth and South; we must fight for the right to chooseby demanding that Stormont joins this century and ex-tends the ‘67 Act’ to Northern Ireland and that theequally prehistoric government in the South calls areferendum to repeal the 8th amendment and allowswomen free, safe and legal access to Abortion. Wehave the right to not be treated like vessels or incuba-tors and we need to make that right known.

#abortionpilltrainWOMEN DEMAND ACCESS TO FREE, SAFE,LEGAL ABORTION NORTH & SOUTH

BY PETER KANESchool Student

West Belfast Socialist Youth

Up until a few years ago, my understanding of what itmeant to be transgender was based solely on outrageousexagerations in sitcom episodes. Any basic discussionof the trans issues are completely omitted from theschool curriculum, despite numerous pupils coming outas transgender and far more feeling distress about theirgender.

During puberty young people are bombarded by fixed ex-pectations. Boys are taught that they will begin to feelmanlier and are expected to act masculine - looking upto sporting figures, whereras girls are told they will be-come curvy and are fed images of airbrushed celebs andskinny models as an ideal body mage.

No matter whether you go to a Catholic, State or Inte-grated school, sex education is hetero-centric and gen-der-normative - controlled heavily by religious ministerswho impose the gay blood ban, block equal marriage andrefuse basic rights to women or directly by the CatholicChurch - the world’s leading provider of homophobia andtransphobia. Equality of access to vital – often lifesaving– information on sex and relationships is a basic rightand should be enshrined in all school curriculums.

In a recent NI survey, 42% of trans people questioned feltunable to live permanently in their preferred gender rolebecause they were worried it may threaten their employ-ment status. This is an alarming reflection of the divisivenature of capitalist society which profits off unhealthybody norms and in keeping working class people dividedthrough whatever means necessary in order to preservetheir system of the 1%. We are ‘educated’ into acceptingthis as the norm. This emphasises the need for a realstruggle for a fair society in which people will not be op-pressed for having the courage to feel comfortable intheir own skin.

start the fight for trans rights...proper sex education in all schools!

Interested in our ideas? want more information?

Follow Us On: ft (socyouthni)Website: www.socialistpartyni.net

We hold regular meetings in Belfast and Derry that allow us to discuss international & local affairs, take a socialist analysis ofhistorical events and ongoing youth struggles. Clear ideas are essential if we are to build, especially in the difficult circum-stances of Northern Ireland where the problems of capitalism are aggravated by sectarian division among the working class.

For more information about meetings Text your Name + Postcode to 079 4184 1092

BY GARY McCORKINDALESchool StudentNorth Belfast Socialist Youth

The situation in modern Iraq isvery complex. Iraq has beencontinually shaped and inter-fered with by western imperial-ist powers. The very existence ofthe modern state of Iraq is dueto western powers effectivelydrawing up the borders in themiddle east for strategic inter-ests after WW1 and the fall ofthe Ottoman Empire.

Arguably the biggest influenceon modern Iraq has been US im-perialism with the support ofother western powers. The lastfour American presidents haveheaded governments whichhave had direct interference inIraqi affairs for imperialist rea-sons fuelled by greed, this wasclearly seen after the initial in-vasion of the second Iraq warwhen coalition forces of Amer

ica & Britain quickly secured theministry of oil in Baghdad.

The idea that America invadedIraq in 2003 in order to ‘spreaddemocracy’ has no basis. Par-ties which opposed the warwere not able to stand in elec-tions and the Western backedGovernment made a consciouseffort to lean on the Shia major-ity in order to solidify their powerthrough divde and rule. This in-evitably led to the oppression ofthe large Sunni minority in Iraq.It was this sectarian divisioncreated by the government andwestern imperialism that gavebirth to ISIS.

ISIS play up to Sunni grievancesin order to whip up support fortheir barbaric ideas and meth-ods but it must be clear thatthey do not have the support ofthe majority of the Sunni popu-lation and what little supportthat they do have is very smalland sparse. It must not be forgotthat Islamic fundamentalistshave been funded by westernpowers for many years to fightthe Assad regime in Syria andnow these very powers who

funded them are dropping thou-sands of bombs on Iraq in orderto fight them.

While the western powers maykill some jihadists it is esti-mated that for every one ISIScombatant killed in the currentbombing campaign, there are atleast fourteen civilians killed,this is an outrageous numberand it will only increase tensionsin Iraq and stengthen the ex-tremists.

Frederick Engels once said “So-cialism or Barbarism”. Iraqproves that Engels is right, Cap-italism and Imperialism can onlyproduce barbarism, its only out-come is violence, death and de-struction. The only solution tothe current situation is the com-ing together of working classpeople in Iraq and the wider re-gion in opposition to Imperial-ism and organised in their owninterests. Only a united workers'movement can successfullychallenge the Capitalist failuresof war, occupation & poverty.

More on the international situa-tion and more detailed articleson Iraq & ISIS can be found onwww.socialistworld.net

IRAQ: SOCIALISM OR BARBARISM?

Cartoon by M

ichael Donaghy, O

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cialist Youth

SICK OF THEPOLITICIANS?Today, it isn't 'politics' that's the problem, but pre-cisely the lack of "clear lines" in mainstream pol-itics. Class lines.

The Assembly parties as well as Labour, the Toriesand Lib Dems have all gone further than evenThatcher dared to go in attacking the living stan-dards of working class people, and UKIP will dotoo, given a chance.

Mass confidence in 'politics' will only be restoredby a mass party with a socialist programme thatgenuinely represents the interests of the over-whelming majority in society - working people,pensioners, benefit claimants, students - demo-cratically run by those whose interests it serves.

anti-sectarian, anti-austerity, anti-capitalist?JOIN US TODAY!

ft Find Us: SocYouthNIText: ‘JoinSY’, your name & postcode to 079 4184 1092Or On Our Website: www.socialistpartyni.net

Socialist Youth is an anti-capitalist or-ganisation run by and for young peoplesick of the fact that we are not repre-

sented anywhere. From fighting against sexism & for women’srights, organising against racist attacks,naming/shaming zero-hour contract employ-ers, opposing wars, resisting education cutsand showing solidarity to workers fightingback; Socialist Youth is active across theNorth. Socialist Youth does not have the backing ofbig business and rich donors (we campaignagainst them!). We rely on donations from ourmembers and supporters in order to cam-paign and print material.

How would a socialist economy work? How would a socialist democracy work? Wouldn’t a bureaucratic elitejust take over? Wouldn’t it be easier to reform capitalism? Socialism sounds great on paper, but is it realistic?

find answers to all these questions: www.socialistpartyni.net/FAQs

We have members from across thedivide and actively oppose sectar-ianism. In 2012 we organised the

March for a Future along the Shankhill andFalls uniting young people to fight againstboth austerity and sectarianism.We’ve also led protests in opposition to ed-ucation cuts, including an occupation of theDepartment for Employment and Learningas well as a protest inside Stormont - inter-rupting business.

We stand for real Socialism, whichmeans running society for all peo-ples’ needs and not for the profit of

the few. So much anger exists at the way theworld is run that the potential to build a social-ist movement for young people at the momentis massive. However, we cannot do this alone.If you are disgusted by the massive inequalityof capitalism, if you are against the rise inracism and sectarianism gripping our society,if you are for a world free from exploitation,then get active in Socialist Youth!