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Communist Party of IrelandPáirtí Cumannach na hÉireann

Partisan Patriotic InternationalistNumber 179 January 2020 €1.50www.commmunistpartyofirerland.ie

Page 2 Class warPage 4 European Union

Page 5 CPI on the danger of warPage 6 Ireland

Page 8 War against Russia0 Saving the planet

Page 10 Mental healthPage 12 Cuban realities

Page 14 German sculpter Ernst BarlachPage 14 Books/Letter

Socialist Voice

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“. . . We are going to maintain themilitary bases necessary for the complete

protection of our interests and of worldpeace. Bases which our military expertsdeem to be essential for our protection,

and which are not now in our possession,we will acquire.”—Harry Truman

(president of the United States), radio broadcast, 9 August 1945.

Pictured above as a First World Warartilleryman

Forward to a new decade Eugene McCartan on the struggle to rebuild in the new decade page 2

THE NEW DECADE

2 Socialist Voice January 2020

AS WE ENTER a new decade, thereal living conditions of workingpeople continue to decline; profits

are up, which means exploitation isintensifying; large numbers of workingfamilies rely on family incomesupplement—the state’s subsidy onbehalf of low-pay employers—to survive.

One in ten workers earns only thenational minimum wage (€9.80 per hour,going up to €10.10 per hour inFebruary). Nearly a quarter earn less thanthe “living wage” (€11.90 per hour).

The exploitation of workers, anddisproportionately part-time, immigrant,female and young workers, is mostintense in the accommodation industry.Food service workers experience thelowest average hourly earnings (€12.70),as this is the least unionised sector,

followed by those in the arts,entertainment, recreation, and otherservices (€16.71). There is also a trendtowards low pay in the public sector.

While within the European Union ingeneral the unemployment rate hasdropped, this masks a growing level ofpoverty, particularly among low-paidworkers. Governments took full advantageof the economic crisis to roll back hard-won social gains, while “social safetynets” were attacked and havesubsequently not kept pace with the costof living and new employment structures.There are growing signs of a new crisiswithin the capitalist system.

In the EU in 2017, 9½ per cent ofworkers lived in a household that was atrisk of poverty (earning less than 60 percent of the national median income). The

situation for workers in the United Statesis even more precarious, with a quarterearning less than two-thirds of thecountry’s median earnings in 2017, and18 per cent of the people at risk ofpoverty in 2018, despite an officialunemployment rate of only 4 per centthat year. Some estimates put a figure of$6 billion paid in government foodassistance to workers who are in full-timeemployment.

Britain claims to have virtually fullemployment; but after decades ofausterity policies by both Conservativeand Labour governments the incidence ofrough sleeping rose by 165 per centbetween 2010 and 2018, and thecountry has 2,000 food banks—compared with 29 before the latest crisis.The minimum wage is insufficient, as it isusually set at a rate to support oneperson, not enough to support a single-wage family. It is designed to supportsomeone with a full-time job, and intoday’s world of work such jobs arediminishing.

In Spain, 91 per cent of employmentcontracts in the first half of 2018 weretemporary, with 38 per cent lasting lessthan one month. In the United States,half of all new jobs created wereeliminated within the first year.

In the EU, 16 per cent of those ontemporary contracts and 15½ per cent of

The timehas comeJIMMY DORAN

THE WORKING CLASS is underattack in a class war that we arelosing.There was a time when one

average worker could earn enough toprovide a family with the basicnecessities of food and shelter and afew luxuries. This, of course, did notcome easy: the pay and conditionsnecessary for achieving this were foughthard for by workers and their unions overmany long years of struggle. The rulingclass was forced to compromise, andsome gains were made.

For the past forty years these gainshave been under sustained attack by

capitalism in a series of policy changesthat have resulted in the balance ofpower being almost entirely on the sideof capital and away from workers.

The main weapon used is business.Capitalism has now reached its highestform, imperialism, as Lenin predicted. Asmall number of transnationalcorporations control the world economy.This gives them tremendous influenceand the power to control governmentpolicy. They can stimulate or decimatethe economy of a country or region atwill.

Their influence over economic policyhas led to a raft of anti-workerlegislation, such as the IndustrialRelations Act (1990) in Ireland andsimilar legislation all round the capitalistworld, designed to restrict and controlworkers and trade unions.

All these anti-worker laws must beabolished in order to return power to

workers and give them the weaponsneeded for fighting back againstinequality and injustice.

State-owned businesses have beenprivatised, public services have beenslashed, and taxes on workers haveincreased. Where workers are regulated,business has been deregulated. Whereprofits have soared, wages havecollapsed. Where services wereprivatised they were stripped back tomaximise profits, a life of luxury for thenew owners and hospital trolleys andwaiting-lists for the users.

This is how capitalism works: moreprofits means a reduced cost of labourand resources, or, in the words of theGovernment, we have to become “morecompetitive”: that means reducingcosts, wages, and of course taxes onbusiness.

These changes went into overdriveafter the defeat of the Soviet Union, as

In the EU in 2017, 9½ per cent of workers lived in a householdthat was at risk of poverty (earning less than 60 per cent of thenational median income).

those in part-time employment areamong the working poor. So much for“social Europe”!

A recent report revealed that the self-employed are at even higher risk, with 22per cent in working poverty. Many are“independent contractors,” which is oftena way for companies to use their workerswithout having to put them on the booksas employees and having to provide theaccompanying benefits (sickness, holidaypay, or pensions).

In Ireland, one in five renters isspending 40 per cent of their income onrent, one in ten is spending 60 per cent,and one in twenty is spending 75 percent.

12½ per cent of the population of the26 Counties, or 611,982 people, wereliving in substandard conditions in 2017.In Greece, where EU-imposed austerityhas devastated working people, they canspend up to 72 per cent of monthlyincome on housing.

The cost of child care for workingparents in Ireland is over a fifth of theirmonthly net pay—four times theproportion paid by families in Sweden.

Financially, the level of difficulty inmaking ends meet is still higher inIreland, as well as in Croatia, France,Greece, Italy, Slovakia, and Spain, than itwas before the economic crisis in 2007.Simply put, there are too many weeks in

the month for the wage to cover.We need a more radical trade union

response to the growing exploitation ofworkers. The old ways of doing thingshave clearly failed. The movement mustbecome more radical or become evenmore redundant in the eyes of hundredsof thousands of workers.

What is clearly needed is to organisethe majority of workers who areunorganised and to reorganise thosealready organised. We need to abandonthe “service model” of how workers arenow organised and rebuild grass-rootsorganising. It has been done in the past;and life teaches us that there are nosolutions to the problems workers facewithout being better organised than thebosses.

The first step would be the repeal ofall anti-worker laws in the whole country.In the 26 Counties this requires therepeal of the Industrial Relations Act(1990). Workers must have the right tojoin a union, and have that rightrecognised by their bosses, in that aunion must be allowed to represent itsmembers against their bosses.

We need to build a vibrant Workers’Rights Campaign throughout the tradeunion movement and among theunorganised. Low pay and poor termsand working conditions undermine allworkers and only strengthen the hands

both of private employers and of thestate as an employer.

Around the world we see tens ofmillions of workers mobilising to changetheir material conditions—in Chile,Lebanon, Iraq, France, India, Britain, andIreland. Workers have had enough of thedecades of austerity. But so far we havenot been able to provide a clear path tothe destination where these strugglesneed to go.

As the Italian communist AntonioGramsci wrote, “the crisis consistsprecisely in the fact that the old is dyingand the new cannot be born; in thisinterregnum a great variety of morbidsymptoms appear.” This is veryappropriate to the situation beingexperienced today not only here in Irelandbut throughout the capitalist world.

The capitalist system has passed itshistorical sell-by date. It is poisoning ourplanet and poisoning human relations bypromoting fascism, racism, sexism, andhomophobia.

Make the next decade a decade ofrebuilding and the rebirth of a moremilitant working-class movement, amore militant and thereby morerelevant trade union movement, and astronger and more militant worldcommunist movement.

And we start at home by building astronger Communist Party of Ireland. H

Socialist Voice January 2020 3

capitalism didn’t have to compete anymore with the socialist world.

For working families to survive, bothparents now have to work, often inmultiple jobs, so as to provide food andshelter for the family. Ordinary workingpeople have little interest in theaccumulation of vast sums of money orwealth: all they want is a happy, healthylife for themselves, their families andcommunities, with a bit of leisure time.

Capitalism, on the other hand, hasone obsession: the accumulation andcontrol of all the wealth and resources ofthe world.

As a result of the bosses taking moreand more from the wealth created byworkers, we have now got to a stagewhere even two workers’ wages can nolonger support a family. Poverty wages,high rents, increased taxes and theslashing of public services in housing,health, education and transport have

made it impossible for workers to surviveas they used to without accumulatingdebt. This is unsustainable.

Just as capitalism has destroyed theplanet and we now face a catastrophictipping-point in our climate, workers andtheir families have reached an economictipping-point as a result of capitalism,where our ability to provide the basicrequirements of life is becomingimpossible.

The time has come to fight back, totip the balance of power towards themajority of people, the working class,and not a tiny elite. Our best weapon isthe trade union movement, which haswon so many gains for the working classin the past.

Only the organised working class hasthe strength and the numbers to leadthis battle to save our people and ourplanet from the greed of capitalism. Achange of government will make no

difference: we have to change thesystem. We need a people’sgovernment, whereby all decisions are inthe interest of all the citizens, not theglobal corporations.

Private health only benefits a smallnumber of people who can afford it andan even smaller number of people whomake all the profits from it. On the otherhand, public health benefits everyone.The same goes for housing, education—the entire economy in fact: an economyfor the common good, owned, controlledand managed in the interest of all.

Who needs twenty brands ofsausages or fifty types of perfume whenthere are ten thousand homeless, amillion on hospital waiting-lists, and somany people living in poverty?Economics has to change by makingpeople and the planet the priority, notthe accumulation of wealth by a tinyelite. H

NICOLA LAWLOR

Socialist Voice hasarguably been themost unwavering ofEnglish-languagesocialist periodicalsin its analysis andexposition of the EUas an inter-statestructure ofmonopoly capital,under Germanhegemony.

IN THE DECEMBER issue EugeneMcCartan outlined the role played bythe EU, and in particular Germany, in

burdening working people and familiesin Ireland with 42 per cent of allEuropean banking debt during thecrisis, for which we are still payingtoday. That article also highlighted the“fiscal brakes” the European Unionapplies from the European FiscalCompact, which leave public servicesin Ireland permanently under-fundedand are a further set of handcuffs, leg-cuffs, straitjacket and gag on anyGovernment elected in Ireland, whetherprogressive or not.

This is a further reminder—as if weneeded it (but sometimes it feels thatsome “leftists” do)—of why thequestion of the European Union isunavoidable to anyone with anambition to strive for a socialist Irelandand a socialist world.

The actually existing European UnionWhen dealing with the question of the EUit is important to look at what it actuallyis, not what its propaganda (of whichthere is no short supply) says it is, or—what is more common on theleft—people want it to be.

The European Union is a set of inter-state institutions designed to legallymaximise the freedom of movement ofcapital, goods, services, and labour. It isthe embodiment of capitalist reproductionand accumulation, monopoly-financecapitalism in more recent times (M–C–M’and M–M’ , in Marx’s terms). These fourfreedoms are freedoms for capitalism tomaximise profits and reproduce itself.They are embedded and backed up bymany treaties (Maastricht, Rome, Lisbon,and the Fiscal Compact). They areextended and imposed by legislation fromthe unelected EU Commission and givenforce by the Council of Ministers(indirectly elected, that is, elected orappointed in their own member-state).

These laws are interpreted and appliedby the—again unelected—EuropeanCourt of Justice, and take priority in mostareas over domestic law. Its foreign policyand its pooled army are unaccountable topeople.

To rebuild and secure a position in thenew world order (US and USSR) after theSecond World War, Germany and France,underpinned by US financial and militarysupport, were willing to cede somesovereignty in order to create theseinstitutions over time. States that join theEU, or single market, cede somesovereignty; but the bigger the state theless it has to cede.

So for Germany, it essentially waswilling to cede some sovereignty in returnfor having hegemony over Europe, aEurope that was strong enough to be partof what Samir Amin calls the triad ofimperialism: the United States, theEuropean Union, and Japan.

To suggest that it is somehow possibleto reform such an institution, to rewritethe treaties and create a democratic legaland executive structure over a differentand dispersed grouping of peoples livingin extremely uneven economic andpolitical conditions, is utopian in theextreme. To seek to redefine the singlemarket, customs union and economic

POLITICS

The unavoidablequestion of theEuropean Union


We are in the midst of a system crisis on many levels:environmental, political, ideological, and economic.


and monetary union to take dueconsideration of uneven development andthe creditor-debtor dynamic of economiesin Europe is naïve beyond belief.

It is far more practical and moreachievable to recognise the EU for what itactually is and to accept that breaking upthe EU is actually a better route towardsbuilding socialism throughout the worldthan seeking to reform it towardssocialism.

A transformative strategy for socialismThe Communist Party has called for, andintegrated in its work, a strategictransformative approach to fighting forsocialism. This can be loosely describedas making demands on such issues aswater (constitutional amendment) andhousing (build public housing), whichseek to expose the contradictionsbetween the popular demand or right andthe capitalist system, the state, and theEU.

In addition, transformative demandsshould seek to rebalance power towardslabour and working people and away fromcapital and its cronies. In that sense theyare not merely reforms: they are, if youwill, “revolutionary reforms,” which leadon to a path to socialism rather than anicer capitalism.

So in the area of workers’ rights,rather than calling for an increase in theminimum wage of, say, €2—which isgood but doesn’t rebalance power—wecall for repeal of the Industrial RelationsAct (1990) and for the right of access toorganise workers. The former is aquantitative change; the latter is aqualitative change.

Pursuing this strategy, an actualstrategy of moving towards socialism, willinevitably bring any government intoconflict with both the Irish state and theEU and its laws and courts. It willinevitably break EU fiscal, monetary andcompetition laws, to name a few. Trulytackling climate change meanschallenging corporate activity and powerin a way that EU laws simply will not allow.

We must be honest and open aboutthis strategy. It does not mean calling forIreland to leave the EU, as we have to beconscious of the subjective conditionsthat exist and the general levels ofpolitical class-consciousness, which are

extremely low at the present time inIreland. But a demand for nationalisationor public investment, for example, shouldmake clear the conflict with the EU andthe possibility that leaving it will berequired in order to implement aprogramme of rights and welfare for thepeople of Ireland. This places an exit fromthe EU in a very real context and for realpopular reasons, as opposed to anabstract and unpopular demand in and ofitself.

The long revolution and internationalismWe are in the midst of a system crisis onmany levels: environmental, political,ideological, and economic. Yet capitalismpersists and will continue down its pathof horror and destruction, leaving ourchildren and grandchildren in a very realdystopia. Samir Amin has pointed to theglobal south as the weak link in the chainof imperialism, to paraphrase Lenin; andhe suggests that workers in the globalnorth need to give priority to solidarityand support for a revolution in the globalsouth against imperialism andenvironmental destruction, as they facethe harshest and most extremeconsequences of actions emanating fromhere.

We need to fight against the Irishstate and the EU in their destructiveactions against the global south andpeople here. A continuation of capitalismin the global north, in whatever form(social-democratic, neo-liberal, or neo-fascist), will continue to do harm to thepeople in the global south.

This is going to be a long revolution,which, because of uneven development,will have stops and starts and bursts indifferent parts of the world at differenttimes. We need to be prepared tosupport and build alliances with workers,the poor and oppressed all over the worldin our common struggle, even ifsometimes we cannot understand or seethe full facts.

The long revolution will not always beclear and clean—just like our ownhistory—but we must be part of it or elsewe obstruct it. The system crisisdemands a united international responsethat leads us on a path to socialism,which inevitably means the breaking upof the EU. H

The blood ofthousands is ontheir handsStatement by theCommunist Party of Ireland4 January 2020

THE COMMUNIST PARTY of Irelandexpresses its solidarity with theworking people of both Iraq and

Iran at this extremely critical moment inthe life of their nations.

The actions of US imperialism in theMiddle East and most recently in Iraqare driving the world to the brink of apossible global nuclear conflict with themurder of General Soleimani inBaghdad. For nearly two centuries theimperial powers, including the UnitedStates, Britain, France, and Germany,have given the world nothing butcontinuous wars, genocide, andbarbarism. It is time to endimperialism’s reign of terror.

The silence of the Irish governmenton the murder of Soleimani by the USregime is not surprising. No doubt someof the thousands of extra troops sent bythe US regime to the Middle East thathave passed, and are now passing,through Shannon Airport will leave a fewdollars in their greasy tills.

Ireland’s neutrality has beencompletely undermined by the Irishruling class and its slavish crony media.All the establishment parties, includingFine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party,and the Green Party, have supportedthe use of Shannon Airport by the USmilitary, thereby contributing to theundermining of neutrality, and by theiractions have supported US and NATOwars. The blood of thousands ofwomen, men and children killed by USand NATO forces in the many illegalwars in the Middle East is on theirhands. H

NATION


TOMMY MCKEARNEY

WE ARE RARELY forced to agreewith Leo Varadkar, but it isdifficult to find fault with his

observation that the political tectonicplates in Northern Ireland are shifting. Inthe light of recent general electionresults, it is safe to say that not only isunionism’s majority eroding but its once-solid political monolith is fracturing. In aregion long known for “not an inch”politics, these are important changes.

Not only did nationalists andunionists win an equal number of seatsin the British House of Commons butthree of Belfast’s four constituenciesreturned non-unionist MPs. No matterhow this is spun, losing control of Ulsterunionism’s birthplace is hugelysignificant. Moreover, when a strong DUPcandidate lost the overwhelminglyunionist North Down constituency toAlliance, a new chapter was beingwritten. Unionist hegemony isdiminishing as divisions emerge betweenintractable hardliners and a morepragmatic element amenable tonegotiation.

Of course in the flawed British first-past-the-post electoral system, resultscan sometimes be deceptive. Unionism,after all, still retains an overall majority inthe Six Counties, and will continue to doso for some time. Nevertheless the latestelection shows an inexorable trend,demanding measured evaluation.

Whoever else may be indifferent to a

DÓNALL Ó BRIAIN

THE FIRST requirement in a debate isthat everyone agree on the meaningof the words they use; otherwise the

exercise is pointless and can onlygenerate more heat than light.

Nowhere is this more evident than inthe debates about nationalism. Isnationalism a progressive or areactionary ideology? Was Connolly anationalist? Is the CPI nationalist? Or arethere different kinds of nationalism,

according to particular circumstances?Various distinctions are made in order tojustify one point or another, andfrequently according to whether theagenda is to defend Connolly (or the CPI)or to undermine them.

If we attempt to define this term byreference to various authorities, all wediscover is more confusion. One thing wemight do is go back to the beginning andtry to detect a pattern.

The first interesting thing we discoveris that the term “nationalism” is not very

old: in fact it dates only from the middleof the nineteenth century, when it wasused as a synonym for patriotism. Thesecond interesting discovery is that atfirst it was applied mainly to Ireland.

About the year 1885 the British pressbegan to apply the term “nationalism” tothe Irish Party (the loose grouping of Irishmembers of the British Parliament who,in one way or another, supported thedemand for what was called “homerule”) and especially to the policies ofCharles Stewart Parnell, its most

Nationalism: Progressive or reactionary?

What type of united Ireland do they want?

The British ruling class has made it clear in word and deed thatit has little or no interest in maintaining its present relationshipwith Northern Ireland


new reality on the ground, we can besure that the ruling class in Ireland andBritain most certainly are not. We canalso be certain that they are alreadyplanning for that eventuality, and areundoubtedly co-operating closely on theproject.

Britain’s and Ireland’s ruling classesshare one overriding ambition, and thatis to retain their power, influence, andwealth. Whatever other differences theymay have are set aside if or when theirauthority is vulnerable to challenge.Rapid or unmanaged change to theconstitutional position in Ireland isviewed as a major threat to the statusquo. From their point of view, the risk ofviolence is disturbing but comes secondto their determination to remain incontrol.

So, as the outcome of the countbecame clear, the establishment northand south responded. Initial reaction wasto divert attention from the constitutionalissue with calls for the restoration ofdevolved institutions at Stormont. By wayof adding authenticity to these calls,Julian Smith, secretary of state forNorthern Ireland, claimed that a workingAssembly and Executive were needed toaddress the dire state of the North’shealth service. With the Royal College ofNursing planning the first strike in itshistory, this Tory MP seemed to have apoint.

His case would have been moreconvincing, though, had it not been thata few months earlier the British

Parliament had ignored the StormontAssembly and passed legislation dealingwith abortion and same-sex marriage.

However, it wasn’t long before thenational question re-emerged. On thisoccasion, however, it had an addeddimension, in that hard-line unionismfeared not only the removal of partitionbut also the imposition of customsclearance regulations in the Irish Sea.The air was soon filled with talk of borderpolls and the break-up of the UnitedKingdom.

And at that point a wide range of Irishconservatism also stood up to be heard,decrying any notion of even addressingthe central constitutional issue.

The list of nay-sayers is impressive. Inspite of feeling the “tectonic plates,”Varadkar dismissed the notion of unity asdivisive. He was joined shortly thereafterby his old colleague in the austeritycoalition Éamon Ryan of the Green Party.Colin Eastwood of the SDLP has alreadyreserved a special place in Hell for suchtalk. Not to be outdone either were thetwo Martins, Micheál of Fianna Fáil andÉamon, Roman Catholic archbishop ofArmagh, joining the do-nothing chorus.

The establishment here and in Britaincan, nevertheless, only stall this processfor so long but not indefinitely. The Britishruling class has made it clear in wordand deed that it has little or no interestin maintaining its present relationshipwith Northern Ireland. As a politicalentity, the North is in permanentdeadlock, while economically the area is

floundering. Compounding all this isinescapable evidence of changingdemographics. All of which makeschange inevitable.

The issue will then become one ofwhat type of united Ireland will emerge.We know what the right-wingestablishment north and south want, andit will be an Ireland offering little benefitto working people. Unity will bepresented by Irish capitalism as awonderland where we are embeddedwithin the European Union, enthusiasticparticipants in NATO, and host (or inreality hostage) to a phalanx of Americantransnational corporations andinternational financiers.

To ensure that we are not presentedwith such a fait accompli, the left mustrise to the challenge and recognise thisas an issue we cannot afford to ignoreand a reality that will not go away. It isimperative that this question is notabandoned to conservatives and pro-imperialist free-marketeers.

With support from socialistrepublicans and communists, the PeadarO’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum isorganising a Left for Unity campaign thataims to highlight these issues and assistin the work towards achieving the goal ofa workers’ republic. The campaignwelcomes support and contributions fromthroughout the left. Our opponents areprepared, and so must we be. H

Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum

prominent and in many ways its mostprogressive member. It meant essentiallythose who wanted nationalindependence—in some form or other—for Ireland.

The term proved useful and came tobe widely used; but gradually themeaning began to drift—something thatconstantly happens with words. Inparticular, it began to be applied not onlyto those who simply wanted nationalindependence for their own country butalso to those who claimed that theircountry was superior to others—whatwas originally known as chauvinism—andso to justify their dominion over othercountries. This was particularly

noticeable in relation to England andeven more so, later, to the US.

This usage reached its peak in themiddle of the twentieth century, whennational pride and feelings of superioritywere combined with—and used as ajustification for—German fascism.

The result is that there are now twodistinct phenomena that go under thename “nationalism”; and attempts toseparate them would seem to beimpossible. Worse still is the deliberateuse made today of this confusion bythose whose agenda is to underminedemands by colonial and neo-colonialcountries for their nationalindependence. This finds expression in

such phrases as “Look at whatnationalism did in the twentieth century,”in which an attempt is made to equatethe demand for national independence in(say) Ireland with German fascism. Thisand similar expressions are acommonplace today among the mediaand the academic establishment, andhave even found their way intoschoolbooks.

What can we conclude? A term thatis used for completely distinctphenomena is simply no longer usable.Writers and speakers cannot simplyclaim that their particular usage is thecorrect one but must find other ways ofexpressing themselves. H

INTERNATIONAL


NIALL FARRELL

LAST MONTH the US governmentannounced that its military budgetfor 2020 will be a colossal $738

billion.The US military is one of the largest

polluters in history, consuming moreliquid fuels and emitting more climate-changing gases than mostmedium-sized countries. But only aminority of environmental campaignsor peace groups focus on war andmilitarism.

This horrendous pollutant is simplyexempt from climate treaties, such asKyoto. Ignored by governments andNGOs, it won’t be ignored by theenvironment and the climate. Howcould it be? As Judith Deutsch writesin a recent article on “Counterpunch,”“the B-52H Bomber holds 47,975gallons of fuel and still requires mid-airrefueling. The F-15 [fighter plane] uses25 gallons/minute or 1580gallons/hour.”

NATO’s summit declaration inLondon on 4 December announced areview of its war capabilities but alsomentioned, for the first time in anofficial document, “China’s growinginfluence and international policy.” Thelanguage towards China is morecautious than towards Russia. Butboth the reorientation of NATO andChina’s growing power are expressionsof historical upheavals.

The coming decade will seedramatic change. China’s economicoutput will surpass that of the UnitedStates. In many technical areas Chinais already the vanguard. In mediainterviews NATO’s secretary-general,Jens Stoltenberg, did not state thatChina is the enemy, but it soon will be.

However, when it comes to militaryspending, China’s military budget isestimated at $250 billion, Russia’s at$60 billion. While huge, these remainsignificantly less than NATO’sexpenditure of $1 trillion.

As the following table shows, the

No limit to servilityAISLING JOYCE

THERE APPEARS to be simply nodepth to which the establishmentwill not sink to show what faithful

servants they are to imperialism and inparticular to British imperialism.

The Irish people endured centuriesof colonial and imperialist domination.They endured mass starvation, violentoppression, the destruction of our

language and culture; but wecontinued to resist. We alsoexperienced those Irish whocollaborated with our oppressors, anddealt with them accordingly.

The latest quisling approach by theFine Gael government is the intention,for the first time, to hold acommemoration on 17 January forthose members of the Royal IrishConstabulary and the DublinMetropolitan Police who were killed inour War of Independence defendingthe British empire.

The minister for justice, CharlieFlanagan, stated that the reason forthis commemoration was that “they

were doing what police officers do. Asthey saw it, they were protectingcommunities from harm. They weremaintaining the rule of law”—thuspresenting the war for our country’sindependence as some sort of minorsquabble and the actions of a smalldisgruntled group.

Who were the collaborators whomade up the RIC and DMP? What werethey protecting the people from?Whose laws where they upholding?

During the War of Independence,Ireland was under martial law, withsummary executions of both ordinarycitizens and those who had taken uparms against British occupation. The

Rehearsing apossible waragainst Russia

NATO needs a bogeyman to justify its militarisation, and Putin is at present the culprit


EU too is embracing militarism withgusto; and Ireland has agreed tocontribute up to 2 per cent of its GDPyearly—that’s €6 billion!—through itsmembership of PESCO.

2004–06: €65 million2014–20: €6,585 million2021–27: €43,995 million

NATO needs a bogeyman to justifyits militarisation, and Putin is atpresent the culprit. Russia’s retakingof the Crimea is the great crime. Noreference is made to the $5 billioninvested by the CIA in carrying out afascist coup in Ukraine; forgotten ishow the West broke the agreementmade between Reagan and Gorbachevthat after German unification NATOwould not expand east of the old GDRborders.

Nothing less than Russia’s totalsurrender will satisfy the NATO powers.Conciliation will not suffice. It wastherefore wise, for strategic andhistorical reasons, for Moscow toreclaim Crimea. Besides, it isoverwhelmingly Russian.

With sycophantic Western media,NATO doesn’t need to justify therecent manoeuvres in Poland andneighbouring states, nor the navalexercises in the Baltic, nor thestationing of US and German tankbattalions permanently in Lithuania.

And as we prepare for the 75thanniversary of the defeat of German

fascism by the Red Army and its allieson 8 May, don’t expect a journalisticeyebrow in the West to be raised atNATO’s manoeuvre “Defender 2020,”which will see 38,000 soldiers andtheir equipment congregate onRussia’s border.

While this is officially a US exercise,NATO states are rehearsing the marchtowards a possible joint war againstRussia. Soldiers from a total ofeighteen countries are activelyinvolved. The preparations have longbeen under way, and the first troopmovements are expected in February.

20,000 American soldiers willreceive war material from four specialwarehouses: in the Netherlands, inBelgium, and two in Germany. Thesewarehouses contain tanks, howitzersand armoured troop transporters—intotal, 13,000 pieces of equipment,which are to move eastwards towardsthe Russian border.

Rest assured that Shannon andAldergrove airports will play their part.

Its impact on international relationscan only be detrimental. And themoving of a massive war machineacross Europe will inevitably havedevastating consequences for theclimate.

It is essential that we seek toprevent Ireland being involved in thesecatastrophic developments. H

LEFT: PESCO in preparation: Comingsoon to a street near you

Irish people had no “rights” to beprotected. After the appointment ofField-Marshal John French as governor-general in May 1918 our peopleexperienced a new level of barbarityand oppression, inflicted on them by anew type of military administration inIreland.

As a recent letter by Dr BrianMurphy to the national papers put it:“Following a proclamation of LordFrench, on May 16th, 1918, the policewere responsible for arresting andimprisoning without trial hundreds ofSinn Féin activists and sympathisers. . . Lord Wimborne, the former lordlieutenant wrote in the Times of

London, on May 25th, 1919, that:‘popular leaders were incarcerated anda military regime was established.’”

The RIC was an integral part of theBritish state’s oppressive apparatus. Inthe first Dáil Éireann on 10 April 1919it was reported that the RIC “are noordinary civil force, as in othercountries. The RIC, unlike any policeforce in the world, is a military bodyarmed with rifle and bayonet andrevolver as well as baton . . . They arespies in our midst.”

The letter goes on to quote Prof.Eoin MacNeill, who declared that “thepolice force in Ireland are a force ofspies. The police in Ireland are a force

of traitors, and the police in Ireland area force of perjurers.” He concludedthat “you should take such measuresas will make police government in thiscountry by the enemy impossible.”

On 17 January 1920 the followingadvertisement appeared in the Britishpress seeking members for theproposed RIC Special Reserve—laterknown as the Black and Tans—madeup of demobbed soldiers just backfrom the war in Europe: “Do you wanta job? You can join the R.I.C. today.”

This proposal is an appallingaffront to all those who fought andthose who died in the struggle for ourfreedom. H

REALITY


Onlysocialismcan savethe planetGRAHAM HARRINGTON

THE SOVIET UNION put a massiveemphasis on forest preservation andset up zapovedniki (nature reserves),

set aside for scientific research. By the1930s enough new forests had beencreated to cover an area the size ofMexico.

The country was also home, by the1980s, to one of the largest conservationsocieties in the world, the All-RussianConservation Society, set up in 1924.Established under Lenin, it declinedunder Stalin but was renewed in thepost-war period and by the 1980s hadsucceeded in having Soviet policies

changed to reflect the growing awarenessof people about climate change. Somuch for there being no democracy inthe USSR!

The post-war period saw the launch ofthe Great Stalin Plan for theTransformation of Nature, which at thatpoint was the largest afforestation plan inhistory, planning for 15 million acres ofnew forests. It was—and this is a pointworth emphasising—“the world’s firstexplicit attempt to reverse human-induced climate change.”

The plan was discontinued, but itsambition is worth remembering. Forcontext, the period in which it wasdiscontinued is known to ecologists asthe Great Acceleration, when the amountof carbon emissions and pollution beganto skyrocket, along with consumerism,nuclear testing, and military pollution.

The massive potential of theecological movement in the Soviet Unionwas cut short by the counter-revolutionsin 1989. Had socialism not beenoverthrown, who knows where we wouldbe now?

After the events of 1989–91 socialistCuba lost 85 per cent of its trade andentered what they call the Special Period,the era in the 1990s when Cubansocialism faced its greatest challenges.

After the revolution in 1959, Cubahad been forced to move closer to theSoviet sphere of influence. The Cubaneconomy had been built on the back ofsugar exports to the United States (thinkof Ireland and cattle exports to Britain).After the nationalisation of Americancompanies, Cuba began to export sugarto the Soviet Union and eastern Europeinstead, in return for oil and food imports.It was these ideas that led Cuba fromsurvival to sustainability. The people wereforced to defend socialism with theminimum of food, energy imports, andcrippling sanctions, without any aid.

In response to the breakdown of thetransport system, the state importedmore than a million bicycles from China,and also produced hundreds ofthousands itself. A re-localisation policymeant that schools and hospitals wouldalways be sited in communities. Despite

Mentalhealth undercapitalismRAYMOND Ó DUBHGHAILL

IT IS NOT in the interests of capitaliststo resolve crises: it is in their intereststo make money from them. Too often

we find that the interests of profit and theinterests of the people are irreconcilable.With mental health it is no different.

The capitalist media are happy toallow endless empty talk about mentalhealth crises, precisely because thereexists an effective means of commodifyingmental illness and turning a profit from it.For example, we are unlikely to encounterfront-page headlines calling for action toresolve crises in poverty, illiteracy, racistbigotry, sexual violence, etc.—notbecause these are not significantproblems in our society but because,among other things, there is no easy wayfor them to be exploited for ready profit.

However, mental health provides,firstly, a fertile ground for the productionand sale of a range of relatedcommodities and, secondly, for thecommensurate spread of bourgeoisideology, under the guise of depoliticised“self-care” (in other words, “Your mentalhealth is your problem, not ours! Buysome scented candles.”)

Mental health and illness undercapitalismThe dominant view of mental health seeksto understand human beings essentiallyas individuals with more or less definedand consistent personal qualities, eachcontaining a brain that is subject toinfluence by intrinsic chemical factors,which in turn may cause illness. Thesocial component is almost completelyignored.

It is no accident that this alienatedview of humans as selfish and self-contained individuals is precisely thetheory of humanity that underpinscapitalist ideology.

Under capitalism, someone exhibitingwhat would be considered a healthymental state might be able to walk briskly

past a dozen homeless people on freezingDublin streets without sparing a thought,on their way to work repossessing homesfor a company that buys up bad debtsfrom the banks, where in turn they will lie,cheat and steal to ensure that they getpromoted above their colleagues and treattheir “inferiors” with practised disdain.

This sort of manifestly sick behaviour iscalled having ambition and a healthy workethic under capitalism. So, what solutionscan that same system offer to treatingmental illness?

Depression and SSRIsTake selective serotonin re-uptakeinhibitors (SSRIs) as an example. Theseare the most commonly prescribedpharmacological treatment for depressionon the market, with such trade names asProzac, Zoloft, Celexa, and Lexapro. InIreland, studies have shown that theprescribing of antidepressants has risenannually since 2009,1 to a point wherebetween 10 and 12 per cent of Irishadults are now being prescribedantidepressants of some kind by theirdoctors.2

However, the efficacy of these drugs

The capitalist media are happy to allow endless empty talk aboutmental health crises, precisely because there exists an effectivemeans of commodifying mental illness and turning a profitit.


the cutting of the food ration in theSpecial Period, not a single health clinicor school was shut down. This not onlyreinforced the collective ethos that is oneof the main strengths behind the Cubanhealth system but was also practical, inthat it reduced the total distance peoplehad to travel.

The collective farm system wascompletely overhauled, with more than60 per cent of the inefficient state farmsbeing broken up and given over to worker-owned co-operatives. The small averagesize allows for the use of animals, such asoxen, instead of tractors. The largelyregulated market price that does existmeans that animals are fed much lessthan they are here. 90 per cent of theproduce is organic, with limits on the useof pesticides and genetically modifiedorganisms.

A point worth highlighting is the statusof the agricultural workers themselves.Traditionally in Latin America theagricultural labourer is among the mostexploited in society, with adisproportionate number of them black or

indigenous. However, in Cuba theagricultural workers—who were the mainbase of the revolution in its formativeyears—are often university-educated, arepaid well, and are members of a tradeunion, which means that, along with theemphasis on local public utilities, Cuba isprobably the only place in the world wherethe standard of living is higher in thecountryside than in the towns.

During the Special Period people wereforced to grow their own food in the cities,usually in old, derelict areas. The stateestablished a department to facilitate thismovement and to provide education,seeds, tools, etc. And the movementgrew, with schools, work-places,apartment blocks and all institutionstending to have their own little plot nextdoor for their food. Not only is thispractical, it also develops a collectiveresponsibility among people. Today morethan 60 per cent of all fruit andvegetables grown in Havana is grown inurban plots.

These policies have allowed Cuba tobecome the world’s most sustainable

country, according to the UN’s HumanDevelopment Index. The changes to theconstitution in 2018, which wereendorsed by 86 per cent of theelectorate, included a pledge againstclimate change, the first example of aconstitution to do so.

Fundamentally, the climate emergencycan only be solved by the peoplethemselves. It can not be solved with a“green capitalism,” which is morecapitalist than it is green. The problem ismonopoly capitalism itself; and suchbroad ideologies as “eco-socialism,”much like “democratic socialism,” withtheir promise of a so-called Green NewDeal, serve only to pull the wool overpeople’s eyes. The Nordic countries havebeen just as much a disaster for theenvironment; Norway is the seventh-worstsource of carbon dioxide emissions.

The reality is that socialism, past andpresent, provides the solution. Theclimate struggle will be proved by historyto be this generation’s Battle ofStalingrad; and we all know who won thefirst one. H

has been questioned by scientists fordecades, with meta-studies concludingthat they are no more effective thanplacebos in treating depression.3 Thesedrugs have serious potential side effects,such as nausea, headache, stomachache, loss of sexual function, suicidalthoughts, etc.

If they are not proved to treat theproblem for which they are prescribed,why do we continue to do so? The simpleanswer is that there is a multi-billionpharmaceutical industry that requires it.The pursuit of profit trumps the welfare ofthe people every time.

Cognitive behavioural therapyIn terms of psychotherapy, perhaps themost popular form of treatment fordepression and anxiety at the moment iscognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Thistypically takes place over a short period,say eight sessions over a period of amonth or two. In this way it is very cost-effective compared with more long-termtherapeutic or counselling methods.

In fact many insurance companiesand employers will only pay for CBT if anemployee is suffering from depression.

The stated goal for them is getting youback to work as quickly as possible.

However, it is not only its relativecheapness that appeals to those withpower: CBT also relies on a logic thatplaces the ultimate responsibility for thesufferers’ mental state on the sufferersthemselves. This is done by “emotionalregulation,” or trying to adapt one’spsychological responses to a distressingsituation.4

Indeed CBT goes further and asks,“How did you contribute to the sufferingyou are now experiencing?” It goeswithout saying that this is aninappropriate way to deal with thesuffering of many people, especiallythose who have experienced trauma.“Therapy didn’t work for you? Well, that’ssimply your fault!”

Again, the “one size fits all” approachto treating mental disorders wins out.And why? Because it is more profitable.

The communist responseHow then do we respond? Ascommunists, our tasks are as follows:(1) to challenge the establishedparadigm of mental illness and health

under capitalism, to promote positivehuman relations, not exploitative ones;(2) to highlight the social and economicfactors that contribute to mental disorderas it is now understood, and worktowards ending these;(3) to fight for a world in which theinterests of the people come first andforemost, where their health and dignityare no longer at the mercy of capitalistprofiteers.

Notes1 “HSE prescriptions for antidepressantsand anxiety medications up by two thirdssince 2009,” The Journal, 1 August2018 (https://tinyurl.com/vs6yaoa).2 Martin Wall, “Ten per cent of Irishadults are being prescribedantidepressants,” Irish Times, 5 April1918 (https://tinyurl.com/rfelrzk).3 Jacob Stegenga, “Do antidepressantswork?” Aeon, 5 March 2019(https://tinyurl.com/yy6cv4ed).4 Åsa Jansson, “From self-help to CBT:Regulating emotion in a (neo)liberalworld,” History of Emotions Blog, 11December 2017(https://tinyurl.com/wx9ubp3).

SOLIDARITY


JAVIER DOMÍNGUEZ

On 1 January 2020 we celebratedthe sixty-first anniversary of thetriumph of the first socialist

revolution in the Western Hemisphere.Sixty-one years after that historic eventCubans, and the friends of Cuba in theworld, recognise the greatness of thatevent, which made the peoples of theworld fix their eyes on that smallCaribbean island that was beginning toweave its heroic epic of justice anddignity for its people.

The Cubans of my generation receivedthe revolutionary triumph of January asthe best gift of the “Three Wise Men,” asdescribed by the award-winning Cubanwriter Senel Paz, recalling those festivitiesin which all the Cuban children of thattime, immersed in our childhood dreams,wrote long letters to the Three Wise Menon 6 January, asking them to bring us themost diverse toys. These letters wereplaced in our shoes, and we went to bedearly, not forgetting to put out dry grass

for the loaded and hungry camelscarrying the Magic across the land.

When we woke up the following day,the luckiest of us, from the long list wehad made, found that there were onlyone of these little Magic gifts. Others—the poorest—had none, even though theyhad behaved well.

It was one of the first lessons ofinequality that pre-revolutionary capitalistsociety gave to those of us who began tolive: the humble could not have Magic,nor could they have dreams.

In 1981 Fidel Castro said: “I thinkthat if we had liquidated Batista in 1953,imperialism would have crushed us,because between 1953 and 1959 therewas a very important change in thecorrelation of forces in the world. And theSoviet state was relatively weak at thetime. And it must be seen that we weredecisively helped by the Soviet state,which in 1953 would not have been ableto do so . . .”

Later he added: “We were doing ourshow little by little. All these aggressions

accelerated the revolutionary process.Were they the cause? No, it would be amistake. I do not pretend that aggressionis the cause of socialism in Cuba. This isfalse. In Cuba we were going to buildsocialism as orderly as possible, within areasonable period of time, with the leastamount of trauma and problems; but theaggression of imperialism accelerated therevolutionary process.”

The hegemonic, aggressive andintolerant policy of the United Stateshelped to forge in the people an anti-imperialist consciousness that did notexist. It helped to speed up and refine theprocess; in spite of the imperialists, itwas a forge of revolutionaryconsciousness and patriotism.

The triumph of January 1959 beganthe end of the neo-colonial domination ofthe United States in Cuba. There weremany imperial challenges, but the menand women at the head of theRevolution, united closely with thepeople, were determined to face them.

On 8 January, Fidel predicted: “Let usnot deceive ourselves by believing thateverything will be easy in the future;perhaps it will be more difficult.Imperialism was not prepared to allow asocial revolution in Cuba. Imperial controlwas of such magnitude that any measureof popular profit would clash with itsinterests and those of the Creoleoligarchy. With the signing of the AgrarianReform Act of 17 May 1959 the UnitedStates immediately regarded the Cubanproblem as a matter of national securityand the overthrow of revolutionary poweras a vital element of its foreign policy.”

This policy of aggression has notchanged. After a brief détente during thelast two years of the presidency of BarackObama, diplomatic relations broken since3 January 1961 were restored. Inaddition, twenty-two agreements ofmutual interest were signed, and therewas an increase in the number of visitorsfrom the United States, to more than600,000 per year, following the relaxingof the requirements for visiting Cuba(known as “people-to-people exchange”).

With the arrival of Donald Trump in2016 there was a resounding change inthat policy. The aggressive language ofthe Cold War was resumed, thepossibilities of travel to Cuba for

Cuba: A living,developing revolution

The triumph of January 1959 began the end of the neo-colonial domination of the United States in Cuba.


American citizens were reduced, and theconsulate at the US embassy in Havanawas closed. Cubans were forced to travelto third countries to obtain a visa fortravel to the United States, and theblockade was tightened with theactivation of Title 3 of the Helms-BurtonAct, allowing the establishment of claimsagainst Cuba and against foreigncompanies in Cuba in the Americancourts for “trafficking” nationalisedAmerican property during the period ofthe Revolution.

The Trump government has instigated187 measures against Cuba, includingthe attempt to cut the supply of oil to thecountry and threatening and finingshipping companies transporting oil. As aresult, Cuba has had to operate on halfthe fuel needed, with the consequenteffect on the daily life and the economicdevelopment of the country.

Challenges and threatsIn Cuba there is no longer theeffervescence that accompanies thevictory of revolutionary processes. Eventhe viability of socialism, as an economicand social model, is in doubt, thanks tothe failure of “real socialism” in theSoviet Union and the rest of theEuropean socialist camp, which hasgenerated apathy in certain sections ordoctrinal differences within therevolutionary ranks themselves.

There is a period of uncertainty,expressed in the problems of governancethat appear throughout the world,regardless of the political basis ofgovernments; and although this does nothappen in Cuba with the same intensity,the Cuban people are not exempt fromthese influences.

The political landscape has alsochanged. Cubans are no longer ignorant,nor are they a protected people whosegoals were summed up in access towork, education, public health and socialassistance but in continuing to makeprogress by assuming theseachievements as conquered rights thatthey aspire to preserve but insufficient forthe aspirations of many people today.Under these conditions, political goalsbecome less urgent, and it is moredifficult to reach consensus.

There are no simplistic responses to

these concerns; old dogmas and worn-out slogans have to be replaced with amore sophisticated approach.

It is not surprising that young peopleespecially, with life expectationssupported by their own humandevelopment generated by theRevolution, relate their existentialmotivations more to individual self-improvement than to collective projectsthat, though perceived as just, do notmeet all their aspirations. This apparentcontradiction between the individual andthe collective, largely resolved by theRevolution in its beginnings, appearstoday as a “crisis of human developmentachieved” and is expressed in the realitythat Cuba produces human capital thatthe national labour sector cannot fullyabsorb, and explains the increase inemigration and the distortions of thedomestic labour sector.

Such contradictions have only onedefinitive solution: in economicdevelopment; so the purpose ofconsolidating a “prosperous andsustainable” socialism is indispensablefor articulating the political consensus.And this must be done in the difficultconditions imposed by the country’sinsertion into the capitalist world market.

The development of any economy isnot enough. It is more thandemonstrated that economic growthalone does not generate the general well-being, much less the social and politicalstability, of countries but needs to equip itwith a collective sense that will guide itsprogress towards the common good andthus confront the irrationality ofconsumerism. This is the function ofpolitics and ideological work but also ofeconomic logic itself.

In the singular possibility ofconsciously articulating populardemocracy towards these objectives, witha full sense of personal freedomassociated with respect and care forothers, lies the fundamental differencebetween socialism and capitalism in thepresent circumstances; and in this liesthe main strength of Cuba.

Older party militants note withconcern that a not inconsiderablenumber of young people are notinterested in being a member of theCommunist Party of Cuba. This trend will

have to be reversed in the short term, asthere is a risk that the party will becomea party of old people, withoutgenerational replacement.

The corruption that affects manysectors of our daily life is a phenomenonthat concerns the citizenry and theleadership of the country. The CommunistParty organisations are working hard toeradicate it or at least reduce it tomanageable levels.

Personally, I think this is a moredangerous threat than US aggression,and that it can destroy the Cubanrevolutionary process. The experience ofthe fall of the USSR is something thatalerts us.

In 2005 Fidel Castro asked anaudience in Havana University: “Do youbelieve the Cuban Revolution can bedestroyed?” The auditorium answeredwith a resounding No! He corrected themby responding: “Yes, by the same peoplewho made it: ourselves.”

We are not naïve; we are aware of themany threats that are hanging over Cuba,from inside and outside. Unity will be thekey to victorious emergence. This unityhas led us from victory to victory, from thedefeat of the invasion of Playa Girón tothe internationalist missions in Africa.

Sixty-one years after the triumph ofthe Revolution, the figure of Fidel is huge,and the heroism of the Cuban peoplereminds us of those Spartan warriorswhose motto was “With the shield or onthe shield.” This has been and will alwaysbe the case, with the shield defendingthe Revolution and, if it is necessary, tofall fighting on the shield. That spirit mustbe brought to the present and futuregenerations of Cubans, immersed in thestubbornness of resistance and the hopethat a better world is possible. H

PICTURE: Don Quixote: a popularexample of public art in Havana

Javier Domínguez, a former combatant ofthe Cuban internationalist mission toAngola, worked for the Cuban Institute forFriendship with the Peoples (ICAP),generating international solidarity. Hevisited Ireland twice in the mid-1990s,working with the Cuba Support Group. Helives in Havana.

ART


JENNY FARRELL

ERNST BARLACH was born nearHamburg 150 years ago, on 2January 1870. He was the most

important German sculptor of thetwentieth century. Bertolt Brecht saidabout his work: “His genius, meaning,ingenious craftsmanship, beauty withoutembellishment, stature withoutoverstretching, harmony withoutsmoothness, vitality without brutalitymake Barlach’s sculpturesmasterpieces.”

Barlach (above left) was educated inHamburg and Dresden and also studiedin Paris. A trip to Russia in 1906 was adecisive moment in his artisticdevelopment. The sense of communityamong the ordinary people thereimpressed him deeply, but also theirsadness and a threatening silence afterthe failed revolution of 1905.

In 1910 Barlach settled in thenorthern town of Güstrow. Systematicslander of his art began even beforeHitler took power. In Güstrow he createdmuch of his work that the fascistsremoved and partly destroyed after 1933.In 1937 the “Commission for Degenerate

Art” confiscated his works exhibited inGerman museums, including thememorial for the victims of war inMagdeburg Cathedral.

He wrote to his brother Hans followingthis event: “I will not be able to work forthe foreseeable future . . . I won’t goabroad, I feel like an emigrant in myhomeland—and worse than a real one,because all the wolves are howling at meand behind me.” In this year before hisdeath he created masterpieces such asFreezing Old Woman and Laughing OldWoman, testimonies to his courage, histerror, and his humour.

Ernst Barlach died on 24 October1938 and was buried in the town of hischildhood, Ratzeburg.

Barlach’s independent sculptural styleis sparse, weighty, expressing bothserenity and tension. His masterfulwoodcuts strongly influenced KätheKollwitz and Gerhard Marcks as well assculptors of younger generations.

Barlach’s lithograph Mass Grave(1915) was not deemed safe forprinting until much later, in a very smalledition. His lithograph From a ModernDance of Death depicts the murderousgrimace of war.

His large-format woodcuts of 1919express social degradation as a directresult of the dehumanisation caused bywar. They include Death of a Child,Robbers of the Cross and Coffin, andGood Samaritans. These works movedKäthe Kollwitz so deeply that she tried herhand at woodcutting, creating her famousmemorial sheet for Karl Liebknecht.

In January 1952 Brecht recorded his“Notes on the Barlach Exhibition” at theGerman Academy of Arts. He wroteabout Russian Beggar Woman with aBowl (1906): “A powerful person withhard confidence, from whom no thanksfor alms may be expected. She seemsimmune to the hypocritical assertions ofa corrupt society that one can achievesomething by diligence and makingoneself useful.”(Above centre and right)

In The Melon Cutter (bronze, 1907),Brecht praises “a work which created aneater from the people with great sensualpower. He has seated himself exactly asit is best suited for this very activity, andhe does not lose himself in his work.”

Brecht likes Three Singing Women(wood carving, 1911 opposite) “becausethe combination of power and singing ispleasant to me.”

The most important Germansculptor of the twentieth century

Barlach’s independent sculptural style is sparse, weighty,expressing both serenity and tension.


Song is represented differently in thesculpture The Singing Man (bronze,1928). Brecht finds this man “bold, in afree posture, clearly working on hissinging. He sings alone, but apparentlyhas an audience. Barlach’s humourdesires him to be a little vain, but nomore than is compatible with the practiceof art.”

In Dancing Old Woman (tinted plaster,1920 above) Brecht praises the “humour,which is extremely rare in Germansculpture. The grandeur with which theold woman lifts her skirt to dare anotherlittle dance! Her gaze is directed upwards:She delves in her memory for the rightstep.”

The Kiss, Groups 1 and 2 (bronze,

1921) are “of great interest” to Brecht,“because the sculptor . . . achieved agreater intimacy by roughening thematerial, i.e. by actually coarsening it. Thework is a pleasing departure from thesweet, genderless Cupid and Psychefigurines in the drawing rooms of the pettybourgeoisie.”

The year they were made is particularlysignificant for the sculptures from 1933onwards. There is The Book Reader(bronze, 1936). A man sits bent over,holding a book in his heavy hands. “Hereads with curiosity, confidently, critically.He is clearly looking for solutions tourgent problems in the book . . . I like TheBook Reader better than Rodin’s famousThinker, which only shows the difficulty of

thinking. Barlach’s sculpture is morerealistic, more concrete, not symbolic.”

Freezing Old Woman (teak, 1937)finds Brecht’s interest because thiscrouching “maid or small farming woman,so visibly physically and mentallyabandoned by society,” could not “protecther hands from the cold.” Brechtcontinues: “It is as if her job is to freeze,and she shows no anger. But the sculptorshows anger, far more anger than pity.”

In his commentary on Seated OldWoman (bronze, 1933) Brecht refers tohow “masterfully the clothing is designed. . . One tiny detail makes it completelyrealistic: the woollen scarf . . . The oldwoman sits upright, she is thinking . . . Ican imagine a worker nudging Barlach’sold woman with his elbow: Take power!You have everything that you need.”

From 1937 comes Laughing OldWoman (wood). Brecht enjoys itsirresistible cheerfulness and points outthat this was the year in which Barlach’sworks were banned from Germanmuseums as degenerate. “Her laughter islike singing, it has loosened the entirebody, making it almost look young.”

All these sculptures have their realismin common. They point to the essentialand express Barlach’s love of people, hishumanism. Brecht concludes: “Barlachwrites: ‘It is probably the case that theartist knows more than he can say.’ Butperhaps it is so that Barlach can say morethan he knows.” H


LetterSolidarity withLatin AmericaA chara,As the content of last month’sSocialist Voice will show, there is anurgent need for solidarity withLatin America. The existence ofmass struggles by a risen peoplein Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Haiti,Puerto Rico and so on, as well asthe existence of socialist Cuba, areunfortunately at odds with thedesire of US imperialism toenforce its domination in LatinAmerica, as events in Bolivia show.Unfortunately, it has to be faced

up to that social democracy, nomatter how well-meaning or evenpopular, cannot solve the problemsfaced by the people. It is thereforeof the utmost importance that anti-imperialists in Ireland find someway to come together to bring intobeing a class-based movement forsolidarity with the people of LatinAmerica, which can present analternative view to the prevailingliberal human rights discourse,which conveniently manages to linkup with the demands of DonaldTrump’s State Department.

Graham HarringtonCork

Join the fight for socialismSend me information on the Communist Party of Ireland

name

address

post code

email

phone

send to CPI 43 East Essex Street Dublin DO2 XH96 or CPI PO Box 85 Belfast BT1 1SR

BOOKS

A valuable sourcefor young activistsJIMMY DORAN

Mick O’Reilly, From Lucifer to Lazarus: ALife on the Left (Dublin: Lilliput Press,2019)

Mick O’Reilly’s recently launched book isa must-read for all young activists, as itrecords how many of the gains achievedand then taken for granted were wonthrough hard struggle and tough battles,fought by brave and willing members ofthe working class.

It records many battles over the lastfifty-odd years and describes thestrategies, methods and planning that arenow in danger of being forgotten as aresult of “social partnership,” bad ortreacherous leadership, and thefacilitating of anti-worker legislation, suchas the Industrial Relations Act (1990), bythe trade union movement.

This book is a mine of information,particularly for young activists who havelittle experience of the struggles of thepast and the methods used. There isadvice for shop stewards on how tonegotiate effectively and on how to be aneffective political activist, and for unionmembers and leaders on the importanceof self-criticism, on why we must remaintrue to our politics, and the importance ofeducation. (There is even advice on asuccessful marriage.)

Most if not all of the disputes thatMick recounts would be illegal today;indeed many of the actions he and his

comrades were involved in were illegal atthe time, but this did not stop them fromfighting for what was right.

He deals with a plethora of disputesand struggles in a very efficient manner,getting to the point quickly—the battle,strategy, methods, and result—in anhonest, witty and page-turning manner,never boring or repetitive.

It is an honest book, often self-critical,and gives a great insight into the tradeunion movement and life as part of theworking class of Dublin, Belfast, andbeyond. It is an easy read, moving frombattle to battle, on to life as acommunist, then from family stories towitty recollections, at a pace as fast ashe was willing to down tools, hit thebricks, and place a picket.

He doesn’t dwell on his sacking fromthe ATGWU; he deals with it towards theend of the book, but it doesn’t dominateit, as there is a lot more to Mick’s lifethan that particular episode.

Mick is a lifelong communist, andthough he left the party back in 1975 (ashe disagreed with the CPI’s backing ofthe Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakiain 1968 and went more Euro-communistover time) he has remained a friend andsupporter of the party to this day. Thereare a lot of interesting anecdotes from histime as a CPI member, which comradeswill enjoy. He never hid or hides hispolitics, something that has cost himdearly over the years.

A valuable training manual for thenext generation of activists. H

partisan patriotic internationalist number 179 january 2020 h hh€¦ · partisan patriotic...

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