Solidarity Forever - UNITY 09.05.2020 Vol.32 No.17

Printed & Published by the Communist Party of Ireland 

For Peace, Independence and Socialism 

9.5.20 Vol. 32 No 17 (Print Day Wednesday) Online 

Solidarity forever 

ON May Day 2020 workers’ solidarity 

was spread throughout the 

world using imaginative ways to ensure 

that this historic May Day was 

marked. 

In Ireland this included a day of 

action organised by the Belfast and 

District Trades Union Council in cooperation 

with Northern Visions Television, 

(NVTV) who broadcast a series 

of programmes related to the labour 

movement. 

This included some archive footage 

of two Irish Congress of Trade Union 

May Day rallies, in 1992 and 2001. 

Both rallies featured comrades who 

are no longer with us, Lance Noakes, 

Andy Barr, Billy Ennis, John Hanna 

and others. 

NVTV also broadcast a programme 

about the Cleaners Coop in Belfast 

with Alice McClarnan speaking about 

the practical and ideological work for 

the co-op. 

Paddy Nash and Diane Greer, from 

Derry and Joe Solo, from Scarborough 

recorded labour songs specially 

for the programme, with some of the 

old favourites, Solidarity Forever, Joe 

Hill and Bread and Roses getting an 

airing. 

NVTV also did an interview with 

Francis Devine of the Irish Labour 

History Society with Ciarán Ó Brolcháin 

about a new book Left Lives 3, 

which is about past and present members 

of the Communist Party of Ireland. 

The programme also included live 

interviews with trade unionists (Adam 

By Lynda Walker 

Murray being one of them), about the 

situation that workers are facing, and 

a message of solidarity was given by 

Paddy Mackel, President of the Belfast 

Trade Council. 

In Connolly Books, Dublin, the 

Communist Party of Ireland held a 

virtual launch of the new book The 

Capitalist Illusion, by Eoghan 

O’Neill, with Eugene McCartan facilitating 

the event. 

In other parts of the world, communists 

and progressive people found 

different ways of marking the day and 

some did take to the streets. 

Of course this came and went with 

little recognition from the capitalist 

media, in spite of the entire clap trap 

about valuing frontline workers. 

The lack of recognition of workers’ 

rights and May Day makes the observation 

of journalist and writer Ravinder 

Randhawa poignant when he 

writes that he will not be clapping on 

Thursday nights because “our clapping 

gives the impression things are 

working and lets the government off 

the hook. 

“In fact it lets them join us, as if 

they’re not responsible for the perilous 

situation in which healthcare 

workers find themselves, and for the 

deaths of healthcare staff.” .(Huff 

Post) 

Whilst this is a true observation, the 

act of getting onto the streets with our 

neighbours, some of whom are nurses 

and frontline workers, is a community 

action that is welcomed and should be 

developed. Many of these workers recognise 

the government’s right-wing 

agenda. 

People are helping each other in a 

communal way this is not just for the 

new friendships but potential for future 

political action. 

We are far removed from Cuba politically 

and geographically, but the Committee 

for the Defence of the Revolution 

comes to mind, we live in hope! 

We are in an unknown situation where 

thousands of workers are being locked 

out of work without option, working 

from home (home working is not a new 

phenomena), and being sacked from 

their place of work without recourse to 

justice. 

In addition health, service and industrial 

workers are risking their health as 

they ensure essential production and 

services. 

May Day 2020 will undoubtedly remind 

us of the huge battles that lie 

ahead, because the Covid-19 pandemic 

has confronted us with the challenge of 

our lifetime, any gains that are made for 

the working class in this situation must 

be built upon.

Page 2 

Editorial 

Unity is published each week 

by the Communist Party of 

Ireland. 

PO Box 85, Belfast BT1 1SR. 

A bigger threat 

LIKE Donald Trump, the last Republican Party president, 

George W Bush, was the subject of much ridicule brought about 

by his incompetence and inabilities. 

He might have been seen as a prize clown but he certainly 

wasn't funny. Under his tutelage the invasions of Iraq and 

Afghanistan took place leading to the deaths of hundreds of 

thousands 

The present incumbent of the White House is equally a 

subject to ridicule but what can he expect when he suggests that 

ingesting disinfectant may prevent people contracting Covid-19 ? 

Obviously recognising that such comments made him look a 

bigger buffoon than normal he claimed that he was only being 

sarcastic. Just another example of his sometimes bizarre attitude 

to the crisis. 

The criticism levelled at him by the media led him to question 

whether daily press briefings were worth the effort as this same 

media failed to recognise that he was the most hardworking 

president ever. At these briefings he constantly told us what a 

tremendous, fabulous, wonderful job the US was doing in 

combating the virus and helping the world. A living example of 

someone living on another planet. 

The US is certainly leading the way but for all the wrong 

reasons with over a million people contracting the disease and 

nearly 70,000 deaths, more than the 58,000 dead in the Vietnam 

war. His “America First” policy has certainly worked in this 

instance. 

Without a smattering of evidence he, along with the morons 

around him, now claim that Covid-19 is all the fault of China. 

Even his own intelligence community question this allegation. 

This purveyor of “fake news” has obviously got his eyes on 

the 2020 presidential election so has to divert attention away 

from his own incompetency and his ability to make stupid 

comments. 

Trump and the US ruling class have the aim of global 

domination, known by the good old fashioned term imperialism. 

In that respect they are a bigger threat than Covid-19 and like 

the virus they need to be combated. 

Unity 9.5.20 

A v a i l a b l e 

through the Umiskin 

Press website 

for single copies 

and via PayPal to 

kmcginly@tcd.ie 

for the offers below. 

Special Launch 

Offers valid until 

12 May 2020 

(Ireland and UK 

only) 

*One hardback 

copy of Left Lives 3 and any other 

Umiskin Press hardback book 60 

euro (p&p included) 

*One hardback copy of Left Lives 

3 and any other Umiskin Press paperback 

book 50 euro (p&p included) 

*One paperback copy of Left Lives 

3 and any other Umiskin Press paperback 

book 40 euro (p&p included) 

umiskinpress.wordpress.com 

Communist Lives is edited by 

Francis Devine and Patrick Smylie 

and contains 20 essays. 

It is a limited edition of 100 hardback 

and 125 paperback copies. 

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Unity 9.5.20 Page 3 

May Day message by the 

Communist Party of Ireland 

“ W O R K - 

ERS of all 

c o u n t r i e s , 

unite!” has 

been the universal 

call of 

the workers’ 

m o v e m e n t 

s i n c e i t 

emerged more 

than a century 

and a half ago. 

We take this opportunity to salute 

the courage and tenacity of 

all workers battling against the 

Covid-19 pandemic. 

We offer our solidarity to 

those nations struggling to build 

socialism and independence under 

blockade. 

The imperialist powers are using 

the pandemic as an opportunity 

to intensify the pressure imposed 

upon millions of working 

people. 

The United States has stepped 

up its sanctions and blockades 

against Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, 

and Iran, ignoring appeals 

to at least suspend them 

and all hostile actions and to allow 

these countries to mobilise 

their resources to combat the 

disease. 

Yet despite the blockade Cuba 

has continued to extend the 

hand of solidarity to those struggling 

against injustice, oppression, 

and the global pandemic. 

We stand in solidarity with 

those peoples and nations that 

face a military threat and violence 

from the forces of imperialism 

and their allies. 

Those same destructive forces 

and other capitalist industries 

are ensuring that our planet is being 

ransacked and destroyed by 

the actions of transnational corporations 

in their drive to exploit the 

natural resources that belong to us 

all, for profit to enrich a few. 

Today this slogan continues to 

resonate around the world as billions 

of workers, poor and oppressed 

experience quarantine in 

the face of the global pandemic. 

The capitalist system is in crisis 

and is headed into a global depression, 

with hundreds of millions of 

workers sacked, leaving many 

without any means to support 

themselves and their families, 

while at the same time a handful 

of individuals own more wealth 

than half the world’s population. 

This injustice can no longer be 

tolerated. As never before, workers 

must organise to defend and 

advance our own interests. 

We cannot go on with “business 

as usual;” there must be no going 

back to “normal.” The political establishment, 

their ideas and institutions 

are bankrupt. 

We also know from experience 

that the ruling classes here in Ireland 

and around the world will attempt 

to make us pay a heavy 

price for the growing and deepen- 

ing structural crisis of this failing 

capitalist system. 

We need to resist them at every 

stage and at every opportunity. 

The time has long past for 

patching up this inhuman and decaying 

system. 

It is time for real, radical 

change—time to end the destruction 

of our planet and the impoverishment 

of its people, time to 

end the capitalists’ booms and 

busts, time to end global imperialist 

wars. 

It is now time for the interests 

of workers, peasants, the poor 

and oppressed to come first, a 

time for unity between women, 

men and youth, regardless of colour, 

religion, nationality, or sexual 

orientation. 

It is time for workers’ interests 

to come first and foremost in 

economic and political decisionmaking 

and to end once and for 

all the exploitation of man by 

man. 

Workers of all countries, 

unite! We have nothing to 

lose but our chains, and a 

world to win!

Page 4 

Unity 9.5.20 

Media Review 

Old reliables could become 

irrelevant 

THERE are a lot of commentators 

saying that after the present 

crisis things will never be 

the same. However that remains 

to be seen. 

In terms of Ireland, Patrick 

Murphy, writing in the Irish 

News, thinks that “the virus is 

making old reliables irrelevant. 

He writes that in times of crisis 

Irish people have historically turned 

to America abroad and the Catholic 

Church at home for economic salvation 

in this world and eternal happiness 

in the next. 

In recent years though the European 

Union has joined Ireland’s holy 

trinity of succour and support, “often 

surpassing organised religion in offering 

a new utopian interpretation 

of heaven.” 

However in the current crisis he 

believes that through inactivity or 

the wrong activity, the EU, the US 

and the Church are drifting towards 

a level of irrelevance which they 

will find difficult to reverse. 

He adds that the EU has gone 

missing, America is a basket case 

politically and economically and the 

Church is apparently on retreat. 

“Welcome to the new Ireland, 

where the old reliables are not quite 

as reliable as they used to be.” 

He believes that coronavirus has 

killed the EU’s political, economic 

and monetary union because member 

states reacted to the pandemic 

individually breaking EU rules by 

giving state aid to their own industries 

and businesses.” 

Instead of an EU-wide economic 

recovery plan, each state must now 

act alone and as there are different 

levels of national debt that means 

support for households and the unemployed 

will vary. 

As an example he states that it will 

be high in France and Germany, low 

in Italy and Spain. 

He also makes the point that whilst 

states can borrow through the European 

Stability Mechanism to fund 

their recovery the long-term debt incurred 

will cause many countries, 

probably including Ireland, to endure 

economic depression and social 

upheaval for years. 

He refers to Leo Varadkar, “once 

the darling of Brussels for opposing 

Brexit,” complaining that the EU’s 

response was “poor” and uncoordinated 

and is ignoring his plea for a 

unified economic recovery plan. 

When nationalists argued that the 

EU would stand by Varadkar for his 

anti-Brexit stance, Murphy suggested 

that the EU would ultimately 

abandon Ireland in the interests of its 

wealthy members. 

He believes that is happening now, 

stating that nationalist Ireland got it 

wrong again and that Dublin media 

commentators are remarkedly silent. 

He then refers to the US which traditionally 

has been the destination of 

Irish economic migration and more 

recently has been the major source 

of investment. 

However as he rightly states it was 

ill-prepared for the virus. 

He quotes statistics that show the 

US has less beds per population than 

Mongolia and Libya and that its economic 

inequality is greater than Mali 

and Yemen. 

Things have got worse due to the 

“madness" of Donald Trump who is 

“unable to construct a coherent sentence.” 

His failings, he adds, has turned 

the US into an economic disaster 

zone. 

This could affect any future largescale 

investment here and it goes 

without saying that the US is not so 

attractive now for anybody wishing 

to migrate. 

So if Ireland 

can expect 

little 

m a t e r i a l 

help from 

the US or 

the EU, who 

will offer it 

moral guidance 

on the 

Trump:failings 

turned US into 

economic disaster 

zone 

way ahead 

he asks. 

Traditionally this has been the 

role of the Catholic Church but as 

Murphy states, its teachings have 

largely been aimed at preparations 

for the next life, rather than handling 

this one. 

He writes that apart from advocating 

the re-opening of cemeteries, 

it has been largely silent on the 

practical challenges presented by 

the pandemic. 

To this he adds, “if it is not relevant 

in a crisis, it will not be relevant 

afterwards.” 

Apparently it has welcomed two 

new prayers written by the Pope, 

one of which seeks protection for 

those risking their lives on the virus 

frontline. 

However it has not underpinned 

these prayers by calling on governments 

to ensure PPE is available 

for all health workers. 

He also makes the point that 

when British Church leaders asked 

government not to provide bailouts 

to companies registered in tax havens 

the Catholic Church was not 

amongst the signatories. 

He concludes that while we are 

heading towards a new, post pandemic 

Ireland, it is clear that unless 

the old reliables reversed their drift 

towards irrelevance Irish society 

will seek new ones. 

They could be better or worse. 

Right now all we have is uncertainty.

Unity 9.5.20 Page 5 

Taking a Look at Life...........by Raymond O’Connell 

Age and the virus 

WHEN I took early retirement 

from teaching in 1998 I 

worked for Age Concern. 

My role was to promote a 

public debate on the policies 

required (attitudinal and fiscal) 

as the population aged and 

draft the report. 

The report was called 

Agenda for the Age. Coincidentally 

the United Nations held a 

conference in Madrid and produced 

the Madrid International 

Plan of Action on Ageing. 

It had also designated 1999 

as the Year of Older Persons 

and the first of October each 

year as the Day of Older Persons. 

It also produced a list of 

Principles for older persons under 

a number of sub-headings. 

On “Care” it said it should 

enable older people to 

“maintain or regain the optimum 

level of physical, mental 

and emotional well-being and 

prevent or delay the on-set of 

illness. 

“Institutional care” should 

provide “protection, rehabilitation 

and social and mental 

stimulation in a humane and secure 

environment.” 

In 2009 the School of Law at 

QUB published a report: Making 

Older People Equal: Reforming 

the Law on Access to 

Services in Northern Ireland.” 

On Health and Social Care it 

had this to say: “...there is a 

large body of research which reveals 

systematic discrimination 

in this area. 

“Clinically based research...has 

shown ageism in 

cancer services, coronary care 

units, prevention of vascular 

disease, mental health services 

and the management of 

strokes.” 

It also refers to upper age 

limits, negative attitudes and a 

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“general lack of priority for 

older people’s services.” 

While much of the research 

was based on English experience 

the report indicates that 

much of it applied here. 

The report lists the various 

ways and reasons why older 

people experience discrimination 

in the provision of Health 

and Social Care and that clinical 

need should determine treatment. 

Older people’s organisations 

had long railed against use of 

phrases such as “bed blocking” 

and had called for treatment for 

nursing care for illnesses such 

as dementia to be free just as it 

is for cancer and generally that 

paying for care is unacceptable. 

Since the UN conference and 

all the reports more and more of 

the Care Sector (nursing and domiciliary) 

has been privatised 

with the staff on low pay. 

All of this serves to explain 

how and why the cull of older 

people has been so significant 

during the present pandemic. 

Despite repeated denials that 

older people’s services were not 

overlooked in the initial weeks 

of the virus and the response to 

it, the reality tells a different 

story. 

In ‘traditional societies’ 

older people are seen to be the 

seat of wisdom and to be the 

custodian of custom and cultural 

mores, in capitalist society 

they are non-productive consumers 

of resources. 

In 2019 the United Nations 

theme for the day of Older persons 

was “The Journey to Age 

Equality”...it’s going to be a 

long and bumpy ride with lots 

more tragedy along the way.

Page 6 

Unity 9.5.20 

75th anniversary of the 

defeat of German fascism 

SEVENTY-FIVE years ago on 

the 9th May, people of the 

world rejoiced together as the 

news of Nazi Germany’s capitulation 

reached their ears. 

Dancing, singing and hugging 

one another, they celebrated the 

defeat of German fascism. 

More than 75 million people 

died as a result of the war 

unleashed by fascism. 

This week we celebrate the 

75th anniversary of its defeat. 

The Soviet Union lost an estimated 

26 million of its citizens 

in what the Soviet people call 

the Great Patriotic War. 

Soviet citizens came from all 

walks of life and every single 

republic within the USSR. 

Brigades of soldiers from the 

Far East fought alongside their 

Slavic Red Army counterparts 

in the name of socialism. 

Unity prevailed under the Red 

Flag as national and gender 

roles became irrelevant: all that 

mattered was that the people of 

the Soviet Union could stand 

shoulder to shoulder to throw 

back the Nazi hordes. That is 

exactly what they did. 

The damage dealt to the Soviet 

Union was on a scale never seen 

before: thousands of cities, 

towns and villages destroyed; 

roads, bridges, factories, hospitals 

and schools lay in ruins. 

During the occupation of Soviet 

lands the abuse of prisoners 

was rife, and an estimated 2 

million prisoners of war perished 

in the conditions of the 

camps. 

Civilians in the occupied territories 

were routinely murdered, 

raped and robbed by death 

squads, made up of collaborators 

from the occupied countries 

operating under the Reich Main 

Security Office under Heinrich 

Himmler. 

Can we even begin to comprehend 

the gravity of the millions 

of civilians killed, and the toll 

this took on the Soviet Union as 

a whole? 

Even the Western governments 

could not deny the fortitude 

and resilience of the Soviet 

people, though this admiration 

quickly vanished after the war 

was won, with the rapid imposition 

of the “Cold War” for encircling 

and isolating the Soviet 

Union. 

The resilience and the standing 

of the Soviet Union in the eyes 

of the people of all countries for 

its role sent real ripples of fear 

through the hearts of the ruling 

classes around the world. 

The capitalist states have expended 

much time and energy, 

and many billions of dollars and 

euros, on rewriting the history 

of the Second World War. 

They continue to use anti- 

Sovietism as a strategic approach 

to distorting the people’s 

understanding of history and of 

events such as the war. 

They well know that if you 

can control and shape people’s 

historical understanding you can 

control how they understand 

events today and act tomorrow. 

The economic system that 

gave birth to fascism is still fertile. 

Fascism is still an important 

tool in their armoury, as we witness 

in Ukraine today, and 

western governments are not 

afraid to call it forth when it 

suits their economic, political 

and strategic interests. 

We commemorate 9 May as a 

victory for humanity!

Solidarity Forever - UNITY 09.05.2020 Vol.32 No.17

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