Socialist View, No. 8

This joins other materials from the Socialist Party in the Archive (many thanks to Joan Collins for donating this to the Archive). And this is the first Socialist View added to the Archive. There are a wide range of articles. Ciaran Mulholland discusses the Peace Process, Kevin McLoughlin writes about The Dublin water charges struggle, Padraig Mulholland and Brian Booth talk about NIPSA elections, Ciaran Mulholland assesses New Labour in power, Eleanor Rogers reviews No Logo by Naomi Klein amongst other pieces.

The piece on the Peace Process argues;

What working class people require is a mass working class party that can win the support of both Catholic and Protestant workers and which takes independent, socialist positions on the key political issues. Such a party does not exist at present and will only be created through mass struggles and the pressure of events.

Kevin McLoughlin’s piece on the Water Charges Struggle argues:

Non-payment had to be the basis of the campaign. It was a way for every person to participate in the campaign and it linked thousands of people in united action. It was the nub of the issue, they want your money so you have to refuse to give it to them. We argued strongly that without non-pay­ment there was no campaign. Mass non­payment had to be established and then maintained, regardless of the conse­quences. However, it is one thing to state that and it is another thing to be able to withstand the attacks and intim­idation that the councils would then unleash on residents. Crucially it was the capability of the campaign to stop disconnections and to defend people in the courts that gave enormous confi­dence to thousands of people to contin­ue not to pay: A mood developed that whatever the councils threw at us could be dealt with. If the council’s attacks had succeeded, non-payment would have been undermined and the cam­paign could have crumbled to defeat.

And makes the point:

One aspect of the campaign which assumes even more than during the water charges battle is the need to build strong links with council workers generally and the bin workers in particular.

Eleanor Rogers review of No Logo concludes:

…despite its flaws, NoLogo is a good study of many of the roots of the anti-globalisation move­ment and it foreshadows some of the debates within the movement so well that it is hard to believe it was written and researched before the Battle of Seattle in 1999. It contains a lively col­lection of examples of youth rebellion and statistics and information about the corporations they are rebelling against. For any budding young anti­capitalist activist wanting to arm them­selves with basic material and ideas for campaigns, or for anyone wanting to understand this movement better it is therefore an invaluable source.

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