As we enter an unprecedented December of public sector industrial action, significant swathes of the mainstream media have sought to portray RMT leader Mick Lynch as ‘Mick the Grinch’. Their attempts to vilify Mr Lynch and by consequence the public sector workers who have voted for such action by popular ballot is symptomatic of a country engaged in a power struggle. This struggle has pitted millionaires, media moguls, hedge fund managers and bankers against everyday workers who in the face of the largest inflationary increase in 40 years have demanded a pay increase, so that their wages rise in line with inflation to cover essential daily costs.
In the face of public sector demands, the current Conservative government often states that there simply is not enough public finance to cover such wage increases for public sector workers, and that to do so would only perpetuate the current inflationary turmoil. However, it is rarely cited that there was enough public finances for a £37 billion test-and-trace system that failed to adequately function, there was enough money for former prime minister Liz Truss to table a £45bn tax break for the most wealthy in society and as Mick Lynch has regularly referenced, following every strike-day, there remains enough finance for indemnified private rail companies to receive their £30m compensation. So, why when public sector workers ask for an increase in line with inflation, there is never enough finance?
As ‘Austerity 2.0’ emerges as the Chancellor’s new de-facto economic policy, we should remember that austerity is and has always been a political choice, not a necessity. The reality is that over the past decade the economy has become vastly more imbalanced, with the profits of private corporations growing while workers continue to suffer real term pay decreases due to inflation. This is not an ideological argument around the economy it is the simple reality. It is not acceptable that while frontline workers kept the country running through the pandemic, others watched their profits sky rocket. A clap on a Thursday night simply does not cut it. Fast forward to the present day, I find it simply perverse that those same public sector workers are now being criticised for requesting moderate wage increases, while we have seen little coverage or any equivalent vexed reaction to the government’s failure to reverse the immoral decision to remove the cap on banker’s bonuses.
For it is evident that during the past decade elements of the mainstream media have proffered the public a series of bogeymen designed to distract society from the current economic reality. Foremost, it is immigrants accused of taking employment opportunities away from the indigenous population. Currently, it is ‘Mick the Grinch’ and public sector workers who are being accused of ruining Christmas through strikes. Nevertheless, the public should be acutely aware that neither of these groups are liable for our current economic woes. In the coming weeks, it is imperative that all of us support public sector workers at this difficult time. For it is the rail workers, post workers, doctors, pharmacists, nurses, paramedics and firefighters that remain the backbone of our country, not the ultra-elite in Westminster or the City of London.
DANIEL GRAHAM
Belfast BT7
Calculations on Irish unity
Whenever the thorny issue of Irish unification rears its head many of our political elite and opinion formers set about disparaging the southern electorate for what they term our frivolous and unrealistic aspiration to unity which offers no concession whatsoever to the British identity of the unionist population. The Northern Ireland state was set up to perpetuate domination of one community by another on a sectarian basis. This sectarianism predated state formation. The system was threatened by the prospect of universal franchise and majority rule. So as to subvert democracy, unionists created the ‘Home Rule is Rome Rule’ bogeyman. A sectarian state with a ‘Protestant parliament for a Protestant people’, incapable of reform, was the result. A tradition of pork barrel corruption lay beneath the Orange state’s surface.
In Northern Ireland a minority section of the population suffered 50 years of oppression in various, well-documented forms from the ‘British identity’. It began with an attempt at ethnic cleansing; thousands being put out of their jobs and homes during 1920-22. The dominant, contrived, majority justified the discrimination that maintained its privileged position. In 1955 Thomas Wilson, economic adviser to the Stormont government, explained that Catholics were made to feel inferior because “they often were inferior”.
In 1960 the ruling Unionist Party debated whether Catholics could join and concluded – no. Ian Paisley articulated nakedly sectarian views unionists had promoted which led to the forced resignation of Northern Ireland prime minister Terence O’Neill in 1969 when he looked favourably on the political accommodation of Catholics.
A sectarian force policed this sectarian system.
There is clear evidence that some Northern Ireland security forces operated beyond democratic political control. This also is well documented. Northern nationalists did not require knowledge of what happened in 1916 to sustain hostility to the northern state. Their lived experience was justification enough. I suspect many southern nationalists today share that view, a view that in no small measure is reflected in their calculations on Irish unity.
TOM COOPER
Dublin 2
Dignity and diplomacy
Throughout his term as taoiseach Micheál Martin brought stateliness and dignity to that high office, a leader in diplomatic principle, and should talks of Irish unity materialise this tactful man has shown his ability to appreciate the delicacy of the situation, and say the most fitting thing without causing offence. It is disappointing to see him go.
It is equally disappointing that he is followed by the inconstant Leo Varadkar, who during his previous term as taoiseach uttered absurd comments such as banning UK aircraft from Irish airspace; Northern Ireland is on the road to perdition and terrorism would return in the event of an unsuccessful backstop, compounded by adopting Sinn Féin’s war cry that nationalists would never be left behind. Should a process of getting together ever begin it must be former taoiseach Martin who comes to the negotiating table, not the present incumbent.
WILSON BURGESS
Derry City
