How can we unite the Working Class?

This weekend (Saturday May 24th 2014) the left made big gains in the Local Elections.  I congratulate all the genuine left councillors who have been elected, and most importantly the people who helped in their election campaign, putting up posters, dropping leaflets etc. I noticed that for a lot of Left candidates running around the country the numbers of people actually helping was not that big at all. In a lot of cases a small group of people campaigned for endless hours to make it happen.



Then came the actual elections itself. The National overall turnout was around 48%, but in some places the turnout was 40% or lower (In parts of Ballyfermot I'm informed the turnout was about 33% for example).  There is a lot of angry people out there, but there is also a hell of a lot of helpless despondency.  The people are mistakenly believing the ECB and IMF cannot be challenged, they are far too powerful beasts that we have no choice but to bow down to, no matter how much it disgusts us. Also the media's onslaught has helped the Establishments drive to further the reach of the Mé Fein society.  I'm sure ye have all heard the stories from your parents or Aunts and Uncles, who would remaniss about the local festivals and other things the local community got up to in their day, the friendship and help offered by neighbours that you sadly don't see in many places today.  If you were out of Onions, and in the middle of making a stew, no need to dash to The Spar in your car back then, you just knocked into Mr's o'Toole next door, who gave you an extra one more than you had asked for, for luck.  Ads from Alone asking people to go check on their elderly neighbours were not seen back then, there simply was no need for them.  The vast majority of people were simply happy to have a working car to drive to work in, and a TV to watch The Late Late Show on. Most didn't care what year the car was, or how many inches the Television set was. 
Back when I was a kid I could count on my hand the amount of families I knew were both the Husband and Wife worked. Most often it was out of choice and not necessity. Times were hard then too, don't get me wrong, but not hard enough that they couldn't make ends meet on one income with a bit of ingenuity and co-operation between neighbours.  Nowadays it is near impossible for 90% of families to get by on just one income. The media are telling folks to forget about your neighbours, and others, and just focus on your family and yourself. This is purposely done. The less areas that have residents associations, and community link ups, organising events for local kids etc, the less chance there is of these same areas also joining together when something that causes anger happens EG cuts in the local school/Community Centre etc.

So we have a situation were a lot of people refuse to get involved in any sort of active resistance, collectively sighing that there's no point, as the ECB/IMF, and the government are too powerful, and will screw us anyways. I was out canvassing during the elections and was struck by the amount of people who simply did not answer their door when you knocked. They had no interest whatsoever in engaging with you on the pressing issues to find out where you stood, as they had the attitude of "They're all the same every one of them". This is patently not true, but Given the betrayal by Labour and the rotten Trades Union Bureaucracy, this sentiment runs deep, and it will take an enormous effort  to try and convince them otherwise.

The what about those folk who HAVE got active and involved in campaigns over the last period. As is evident if you listen to Liveline or other such shows, there are many peopl who helped canvass and leaflet for Labour Candidates at the 2011 General Election are disgusted at what has happened, and sadly have now said they will never get involved with any kind of political activity in the past. 

Another problem surrounding fresh people getting involved in campaigns is how at times some groups will lead them up the path. Some groups constantly hop from what they sweat IS the next big thing, to, when it does not come to pass, to the next thing that they swear IS it, no really this time this IS going to be bog, and off hopping they go again.  And very often via this in a conscious attempt to get people to work more fervently for the cause than they might otherwise have, they start filling them, often with quite, if not very unrealistic expectations. Thus the people concerned are buoyed up, and in abated expectation they wait for the promised land to arrive. But more often than not it does not, and they come back down with  mighty thump, like a drug addict a few hours after his latest fix.  And this has lead over the years to scores of people, who may have been active in a campaign on this issue for that essentially becoming resolutely demoralised, crashing out of activism, and on many cases never batting so much as an eyelid.  But if the groups concerned were more honest, Defenders of this type of approach from their particular group, oft argue that if they were actually more honest with people, made it clear that there was as much chance of it failing, as it was of succeeding, sure people would automatically think negatively and draw back and drop out. To me this is nonsense. I have talked to people who were involved in the CAHWT but have now pulled back, an were not involved in any election campaigns etc. Most of them were of the opinion that they were led up a hill and essentially dropped from a height. They felt that they were going to meetings to discuss things that were already decided on, and thought they were simply treated like circus animals. If these people are genuinely given a chance to have give an active input, I think more would stick around for the longer term than is currently the case.

The arguments to-ing and fro-ing at the CAHWT  National Steering Committees (NSC's) made independent activists feel like they were being isolated and their voices drowned out. There were times when raging arguments took place at the NSC's that were necessary and vital, as some crucial things had to be pushed through, or in some cases opposed as it would be very detrimental to the cause in hand.  But also a lot of times arguments raged that were completely avoidable and were merely what I call factional point scoring (EG the SWP trying to get one over the SP on some largely irrelevant point, that lead to blazing, but nonsensical arguing that pissed off many sitting and listening in the Teachers Club).  The fact that the two main political parties involved in the CAHWT placed such importance to, and spent quite a bit of time behind closed doors before NSC's discussing who the days chairperson was to be, and how they would have to frame their interventions as a result, is a stark case in point.  The myriad of independent activists present couldn't, and didn't give a fiddlers who chaired it. What they wanted was the various groups to be upfront and honest, and a true reading of the current situation to be given out. This was not always the case.

I will use an Architectural analogy to describe it more - It is pointed out various architects that there is an open space that is ripe for development. Instead of the Architects coming together, standing around a blank canvas and working together to fill in the designs for structure they wish to build, we have 7 or 8 different plans scattered haphazardly over a table. Each of the 7-8 Architects is doggedly arguing their plan is THE best one, and have no intention of listening to, or paying any heed to others plans. Yet there are bits from each one, had they been taken out and merged together would be brilliant. Thus long after the process has started, the space still lies idle with a mass of weeds  growing wild. The members of the Residents Association who were asked to liase with the Architects have grown pissed off, and have walked away from the whole process/

  Regarding the Working Class I've read many an inspiring story from the times of the 1913 Lockout, of the City Sheriff, and a gaggle of Dublin metropolitan Policemen converging on a Tenement to forcibly evict a poor family behind on their rent, who were brutally, and rightly beaten back by a determined force of angry Mothers, willing to sue use whatever force they had to keep a roof over that families head. (Though very often you couldn't even call it a roof, with all the leaks of rain and sewerage, and rats scurrying through holes etc.)   People. if asked to get involved in something want it to be fully and simply explained to them what they are being asked to do, what the aims of the campaign are, and what they are set to gain from their actions.  We can talk all we like about uniting the Left parties, but unless we have the bedrock of upon which we base ourselves, the working class, we haven't a hope of really achieving things. We've seen some great protests against cuts to local hospitals. But these campaigns are localised and in a few cases classed themselves as "Non Political" even though what they were doing, at it's very core, was political. I've heard spokespersons from some of these campaigns on the radio and TV, and horrifically their attitude simply was "Our hospital is far more important one that that one in X, so cut them and not us".  Imagine had these hospitals united in a real and sustained way. when cuts were proposed initially, imagine if Monaghan, Navan, Cavan and Naas had joined alliances, and suddenly then Government TD's saw that there was this big force in 3 counties which had the momentum to cause a lot of trouble for them. Money would have been found to keep many services intact etc.  But back then a lot of these campaigns were merely Labour Party fronts, and they were merely interested in gaining political capital from it, and didn't really care a jot what happened to the hospitals, once they got elected off the back of it. (Wexford and Sligo Hospital campaigns, and to an extent protests around Tallaght Hospital come to mind) this was also the case in other campaigns at the time too. Due to the ongoing fragmentation and sectarianism of the left, the forces in those areas, even if small, had they united on a common platform, and genuinely worked together, could have provided a strong bulwark against the scheming on the Labour Party.  Instead many people who came around those campaigns, joined protests, were rightly angered when the same Labour people later stood back as their local hospital was decimated.  Many of these people have a very negative attitude to politics and parties now, in many cases it is deeply ingrained and won't change anytime soon.

There are growing calls from people on the left for a ULA Mark II.  There should be a process of genuine dialogue amongst the left regarding the possible eventual mass formation and it's composition.  Sadly I feel that any endeavours that will be entered into in the next period, may like the ULA, be mere vehicles used by various left parties to enhance their electoral prospects. And then when the elections over, and they've managed to get more of their people elected via this new umbrella, will once again resort to the usual sectarian one-upmanship factionalism.  There are quite a few independent activists who really bought into the idea of the ULA, who have been badly burnt by what they witnessed and experienced within the ULA.  If a new alliance i to be launched it should not merely be the usual behind closed doors of a few political parties who then announce on Facebook etc that this group has been setup. What should happen is that once the various political parties agree that a new alliance should be setup, meetings should be held in various counties, with left activists invited along to discuss and debate how this new alliance should be shaped, what program it would adopt etc.  Thus individual areas would setup their own branches of the alliance, and send delegates to a formal founding conference, in Dublin, bringing with them motions from their branches with motions on various things etc. There must be NO veto's, and everyone should feel they are truly a piece of the jigsaw that makes up the whole thing, and that they have the power to effect change in the organisation/alliance, and are not left feeling they are merely spouting hot air at meetings, while the biggest political groupings decide and implement things over their heads.

Another measure I would love to see is the setting up of a dedicated and professionally operated Internet Channel. This website could show live streaming video from protests around the country (And internationally) and also stream meetings up and down the country. It could also stream from important meeting around the country.  but vitally and most importantly of all, it would have a de facto news Channel, reporting on the REAL news of the day, with in depth reports shown on it too.  Between the Unions, and political parties, I'm sure the money can be got to produce something of an excellent quality that would receive a massive regular audience, and be a vital counter balance to the propaganda of the mainstream media.

So if a new alliance that had genuine roots, a genuine strong platform,  and managed to get lots more people out voting again, who's to say in 2019 we can't at least double the number of genuine lefts elected to councils in 2019?

 

Banks to give us all a stress test

Jack looks at his watch, it's 15.40.  His friends are meeting down the field in 20 minutes to play football. If he does not get there by then, chances are he won't get picked, and will be out of the game. but Jack ha s a big problem. He still has to do his Maths homework, and then his homework is complete.  So Jack rushes his Maths homework to be in time for the match.  When's he's finished he quietly puts his book and maths copy away. He knows his sums are bound to be wrong, but doesn't want his ever watchful Mother to know. So he shouts "See ya later mam going to the field", and makes a run for the door. But just as he has his hand on the look a booming voice echoes "Err, where do yuo think YOU are going? You haven't shown me your Maths homework yet".  his heart sinks, he knows what's coming next. Having seen all his figures, his mother will make him redo them til they are right, an will sit at the table beside him to make sure he takes his time. why couldn't it have been his dad at the door? He'd have mere asked him had he got his phone with him, and wit an affirmative reply, waved him on.  But no his Mother is a stickler for these kinds of things. she wants to make sure everything is done correctly. 

This in a way describes the various strands that makes up the economic officialdom, and economic commentators in the EU.  Some, like France are like Jack fear the consequences if the full extent of the problem was uncovered. they are the child who fears the consequences of not being at the match in time, of having to explain to his mates exactly why he wasn't there on time.  Whereas Germany and Finland  would be in the group who wish to see everything  in detail, and often complain to the teacher in the school about other parents not checking their kids homework and the like, and in her view dragging her child back with them.  "Why won't the school take actions to force the other parents to properly oversee their kids homework, and general educational development outside of school hours? She would thunder"  It's not as easy as that" the teacher would explain. the teacher knows some of the other parents are unable to read or write, while some lack basic skills in arithmetic. 

The teacher feels said parent does not need to know this fact, and would not tell her.  Had she told Jack's mother, she would have caused a right old ruckus, and who knows where it would all end.  But in the back of the teachers mind, se is half full of dread. A special extraordinary meeting of the Parents Committee is taking place in a few weeks, orchestrated by Jack's Mother, and she is determined to raise the issue once more in front of a myriad of parents, and it's likely some of the parents present will back her up, and demand straight answers from the principal.   The teachers and principal tried in vain to get her to call a halt to her campaign, but no matter how many fudges they offered, she was having none of it.  Some of the parents on the night will be found out, as lacking numeracy and literary skills, and this will cause not just embarrassment, but serious problems all round.  Will some parents they seek to pull their kids out of the school, and home school them? 

The banks here are just like Jack.  They have put out statements claiming everything is fine and dandy their end, but refuse to provide any solid tangible evidence to back these assertions up.  surely if everything was indeed fine and dandy, surely they would go out of their way to prove just that, opening the books for  all to see and so forth. But the more they divert and spin, the more I, and many economists and the like start top stress.  The question here is not whether or not there will be holes in the banks balance sheets, but how big they will be.  If there was found to be enormous holes in the Irish banks that needed a lot more capital to fill them in, it would have the capacity to derail and economic upturn that this country is, and could face in the future.  The country is very fragile as it is, and as we have seen in previous years, it does not take much at all for freefall to commence. 

 It is primarily Germany and Finland who are going hell for leather for full stress tests on the banks.  It appears clear to me that Michael Noonan,. and some of his other counterparts are desperately seeking another fudge to get them out of this mess for another while.  Yup the plane may only have one engine in operation but look! it's still flying! but this time around, the box could be empty, with al the fudge used up already, and the Germans refusing to go to the shop and buy another box.

 Another thing that worries me is all the recent bond sales the NTMA has engaged in.  Yes, it has brought much needed finance into our economy, and helped us overcome some hurdles. But what I'd love to know is, what terms and conditions were these bonds bought with?  For example, if the banks were to be found with huge gaping holes, and this dragged the whole Irish economy with it, with the binds crashing, what happens then?  Will the bondholders  be forced to walk away badly burnt, or  will we the taxpayer, via another de facto bailout, be forced to pony up and cover their losses yet again?

It's going to be a very nervous 2014 for sure!

 

 

RECESSION AND THE BANKS

In the mind 1990’s in the 2000’s, the German Economy was going from strength to strength. But due to the problems that occurred when Germany became reunified, many people began to hoard their savings, and weren’t spending per head as folks in other countries were.  Also with Many big German companies making big profits, they could afford to expand, build bigger factories and the like using it’s own money, and not needing bank loans and so forth.  So where were the German banks to make extra money? They decided to lend money to the likes of Bank of Ireland, Santander in Spain and so forth at a 3% interest rate, who in turn lent it to their customers at 6-7% rates. At this stage these banks in Italy, Ireland Spain Portugal, Greece were paying back the instalments due on those loans, plus the interest as agreed.  But the German banks (surprise surprise) were greedy. They wanted to make more profit, but had no more spare money to lend the PIIGS. 

Along came China and most particularly Japan. Japan suffered a horrendous economic crash after a phenomenal bubble burst in the last 80’s-early 90’s.  ( EG In 1987 a site of land close to the Emperors Palace in Tokyo of about 5 acres was valued at the same value as 30% of the land of the state of California. Madness!)   Things were picking up in Japan, and the country was seeing some signs of growth.  But despite this, nobody was spending, never mind taking out bank loans. The Japanese were essentially hoarding their money like possessed squirrels. So the Japanese banks had all these masses of cash, as did the Chinese and their balance sheets were at bursting point.  So along came AAA+ rated country Germany, who’s economy and banks were safer than houses, looking to see if they would be willing to lend to them. It was a no brainer. Sure Germany did not become such a strong economic powerhouse out of nowhere, they were prudent, and conservative in their economic policies, and shied away from reckless stuff that other countries might engage in. There was no safer pair of hands to place that money into.  So off they went lending German and French banks a pile of money.  But the banks the money was then lent onto, in Ireland, Portugal and Greece etc, were in reality far from safe, and shook more than the hands of a person with advanced Parkinson’s.  These banks were constantly taking risks to bump up their balance sheets throwing previous safeguards out the window, and kept driving their loan books at 100 miles an hour regardless of what road lay ahead. Per head of population, the biggest bank to fall in the entire world, by a long mile was Anglo Irish bank!

So the big recession hit. These banks started to miss their payment dates, and didn’t look like they’d be making any new repayments anytime soon.  The German banks were meeting their repayments to the Japanese and the Chinese, but this was essentially using their own reserves, and not merely a case of skimming the top off money handed to them by AIB or Banco Espanol de Credito., and handed the rest to Tokyo or Beijing. IE AIB could hand over €275M, which would be the amount borrowed + 3%.  The Germans, who would have initially borrowed it at 1.5% interest, would take 1.5% of that, and hand the rest to the Japs or Chinese.  So The German government was able to do some deals with the banks related to money loaned out to the PIIGS, that was 110% owned by German banks.  For the sake of the overall German economy, it was deemed better to pump liquidity in the banks there, to enable to cover some “hits”. So Deutsche Bank could agree to cut 30% off a loan owed by a Portuguese bank, take a bit of a “hit” on it itself, and the German Government and/or the ECB reimbursing them part of the 30% now written off.  But it was a different matter to the stuff borrowed from China and Japan.  They were simply told “You borrowed this money at 1-1.5% interest rates off us, so long as you pay us back the money, in full + the 1.5% in the timescale agreed, we don’t care what you do with Greece or Ireland”.  So this became a hot topic in Germany. If a German bank agreed to write off 30% of a loan given to a bank in Greece, that in return originated in Tokyo, the German bank would have to pay the full 100% amount, including the 30% haircut out of it’s own pocket to the Japanese bank.  (In fact the institution with the vast bulk of savings accounts in Japan, far outweighing the banks, is the State owned Post Office! People lost all faith in the banks and wouldn’t touch them no matter what. It lent a lot of Money to other nations, specifically Germany.) “The German banks acted responsibly, they didn’t engage in the mad stuff the others were doing, they broke the rules, we strictly played by them, why the hell should we give them any special treatment?” was a widespread sentiment in Germany.  Hence we have a situation were these is a phenomenal massive pile of debt currently fenced off by the ESM/ECB. The fence is bulging, and the debt pile could burst infecting everything in it’s path. The Capitalist Establishment know this, but are unable to come up with a solution with a Capitalist Framework, that won’t cause widespread anarchy all over Europe.

Many countries, particularly, Canada, Australia, and the likes of Sweden benefitted massively from China’s sporadic growth, and insatiable hunger for their natural resources.  Steel factories doubled in size, thousands more workers were hired at mines, with all this extra product going to China.  But alas, it is all starting to come crashing down.  These Chinese Economy, in real terms has slowed significantly.  The Government is pumping ever larger amounts of money into the economy in a desperate attempt t create artificial growth. Cities have been built in Northern China that can accommodate hundreds of thousands, but only a couple of thousand live there. There are now more than 6.5m Apartment Lying Idle in China, with no sign of them being sold anytime soon! There are huge warehouses at the docks stuffed to bursting points with goods that cannot be shipped, as none else wants them.  This has lead to a massive slowdown in demand from China for stuff like minerals and steel and the like.  Hence this has meant a lot less money coming into the Australian economy for example, and a slowdown in job growth, and mining companies have laid off staff.  House prices if Australia have rocketed too, and are now much dearer then here. So with less jobs available, the country has, naturally tightened up it’s work visa system.  So Irish people, and quite a few of them at that, have ended up homeless in Australia, because they are unable to get a job, as they are not now qualified enough in their chosen skill to get a visa. Wheras in the past they would.  Yes most people planning to go over would secure their visa in advance, but some (stupidly in my book) went over technically as tourists & only applied for the work visa after a few weeks spent sightseeing etc. They didn’t get it, the cost of living is now higher than here, and many are now homeless.

So over the next while Canada and Australia enter recession, and the issuing of work visas for both countries stops, meaning the thousands of people who currently leave Ireland to work in either country now cannot do so.  So instead of working their asses off in Toronto or Adelaide, and sending money home to keep their families going, they are stuck here, trying to get by on smaller dole payments, mortgage reliefs etc. It gets harder and harder to afford the bare essentials.  They look at their kids shivering in bed because they cannot afford to put the heating on in the middle of winter. They can’t even afford to take the kids to their grandparents in Donegal for a few days during the summer, be it by car or bus.  Holidays spent in Spain and France are but a long distant memory.  There is no sight of a job coming up anytime soon, and the future just seems bleaker and bleaker. 

Sadly, many more people will opt to take their own lives.  But others, thankfully will realise their back are well and truly to the wall, and the only option is to fightback. The only sad thing is, that it will take a good while before this really comes into fruition.  Many people at the moment are full of demoralised anger.  They are pissed off with things, but just walk on with their heads down snarling to themselves. The left forces will definitely make some gains in the Local Elections next May, but will it be in anyway as successful as some of the left wing forces are predicting? The evidence at present says no, but I really and truly live in hope, and will do my bit to try and make it happen!

The Kim Dynasty - North Korea from it's inception to now..

Did you know that when Kim Il Sung was born in a poor hut high up in the mountains hundreds of thousands of Swallows flew above the sky, and his Grandfather proclaimed that this baby was set for greatness.  Actually his Father was a Presbyterian Minister, and Kim Il Sung sang in the choir. His family were actually Middle Class, in equivalent terms they were like a family living in Rathgar, not humongously wealthy by any stretch, but they led a more than comfortable lifestyle.  He also went to School and achieved good grades. Only about 10% of Koreans attended school at this time.

Did you know that the year Kim Jong Il was born, it was the harshest winter in Korea for over 100 years. The snow covered some houses. However, when whilst in the middle of a battle with the murderous Japanese Imperialist dogs, his Mother gave birth on the foot of Mount Peaktu, the sun appeared, melting the snow away in mid winter, the birds flew about, animals came out of hibernation and grazed on the grasses and a triple rainbow appeared. 

In truth Kim Jong Il was actually born in a Soviet Army camp near Khaborovsk, which bordered China, and was a fair distance from North Korea. In 1920, the young Kim Il sung and family fled to Manchuria, and then in 1940 he and wife joined a band of other Korean Exiles and fled to the Soviet Union after Manchuria was overridden and essentially occupied by the Japanese. When the Soviets liberated the Northern Half of Korea, and the tanks drove through Pyongyang, Kim was still in Russia.  The Soviet commanders initially had problems communicating and fraternalising with the locals. The Russians of Korean Descent they had brought with them were deeply mistrusted by the locals, especially as these Korean Russians had little understanding of the traditions and nuances of the people they now mingled with, and tried to help their Soviet Generals gain control over. 

The first de facto leader of what became North Korea, was the famous Linguist, University professor, and politician Kim Tu Bong.  He was a very popular figure, but had little gra for the Stalinists and their modus operandi.  He very quickly snipped the strings on his arms, and began to make speeches and behave in a way that oft made the Soviets aghast.  In a desperate attempt to put some order on proceedings, they framed Kim Tu Bong on flimsy charges and arrested him.  But this left a desperate need to find someone to replace him as the de facto head of the Korean Peoples Assembly, and in a  way that really was sort of like an  eenie-meeny-miney-mo process, Kim Il Sung was picked. But the Soviets did not realise just how cunning and deceptive a man they had picked. They quickly had to rewrite history to make him seem a lot more heroic than he was. “So in truth he and others killed 6 Japanese soldiers, and nicked about 20 rifles from an observation post? Lets scribble that out, and say it was 100 soldiers, and a whole array of munitions that they grabbed, with Kim il sung killing the bulk of them.”

There were essentially 4 main factions in North Korea at the time – 1, The Soviet Koreans, Soviet Citizens of Korean extraction.  2. The Ya’nans, Chinese of Korean origin, whose parents or Grandparents were born in Korea, but who had moved or fled to China,  3. The Domestics.  Those members of the Communist Party of Korea who operated as an underground resistance force under Japanese occupation.  The leaders of this grouping were mostly based in Seoul. When the Soviets liberated the Northern Half of Korea, many fled North. Others who had stuck around in the Southern part were executed by the Blood thirsty Synghman Rhee dictatorship, that executed many people to ensure a strong grip on power. 4. The last group were the Nationalists of whom Kim Tu Bing was seen as their leading light. There were generally right wing persons whose families were quite wealthy, and held various positions of wealth and power before and in some cases during the Japanese occupation from 1911 til the Soviets and US forces pushed them out.

 

Syngman Rhee was the first ruler of what became South Korea.  He was a US puppet.  It is worth noting that South Declared itself a separate state before the North did. At this point Kim Il Sung harboured genuine ambitions that Korea would soon be reunited once again, albeit under his rule.  Many who had been in authoritive positions and collaborated with the Japanese occupiers, were kept in their posts by Rhee’s South Korean administration.  This caused immense anger in Southern Korea at the time.  Rhee was a US born He was born in Korea but moved to the US and was educated there, and attended various Universities and gained a number of degrees and doctorates. Whilst there his accent apparently morphed into a US accent.  Thus when he came back and spoke at rallies etc, some people found it hard to understand what he was saying, and were also wary of him due to his accent. 

NB. Korea was a country with a rich and varied past. It was said, in the 1700;s and before, if a foreigner was unlucky to stray into Korea, he would be killed almost on the spot, with many cannibalised.  The Koreans were a very inward looking population who had a massive distrust of foreigners. 

So Kim slowly and cunningly played a slow game of political dominoes.  He firstly placed some of the lead persons of the Yan’an and Domestics groups into his inner circle, and used them to direct their peoples into helping to purge the Nationalist group from any positions of influence and power they may have had.  Once they were out of the picture, he then rounded on the Yanan’s, andt then the Domestics.  He elft the Soviet Koreans well alone (Well until the mid 70’s anyways) as he knew not to overplay his hand visa vis the Soviets,  

On June 25^th 1950, the Two Korea’s went to war.  Kim Il Sung was itching to do battle for sometime, but only moved after receiving assurances of a military nature from Stalin.  EG The Soviet Airforce would be used to help the North Koreans overcome the South.  This never happened.  Whilst the US and British forces forced the North Koreans back as far as the banks of the mighty Yalu River (And for a time the North Korean leadership fled to Manchuria, the Soviets stood still.  It took a massive intervention by Chinese troops to force back the US and British commandeered South Korean Troops, and a stalemate ensued on the 37^th Parallel. After truce talks, China, USSR, USA, and North Korea signed a peace treaty, but the South Refused to be a signatory. Hence the  two states are still technically at war. 

Til the day he died Kim Il Sung remained very bitter by what he saw as his ‘betrayal’ by Stalin.  But he badly needed the economic support of his neighbour, so fiercely bit his lip and danced to the tune of whomever was offering the most gifts at that time, be it China or USSR.   Up until 1972, officially, the Capital of North Korea was Seoul! But Pyongyang was then designated the Capital officially in that year.

One of the first major programs Kim il Sung sought to initiate was the mass collectivisation of farming.  The North Korean army and implementation officials from the various departments of the state met very hostile responses almost everywhere they went. There were many examples of Soldiers and officials being ran out of villages, whereupon they would have to return a few days later with a much bigger force to violently quell any dissent.  Many farmers preferred to burn crops and slaughter animals rather than hand them over to the state.  Initially the state tried to effectively implement a produce tax, ie the farmer would have to hand 60-70% of his crops/animals to the state, and was allowed to sell the remaining 30-40% at local state sanctioned markets, were prices were fixed. But by the Mid 60’s the regime implemented the collectivised farming model in full. Many huge industrial factories were also built in North Korea.

In fact, up until the mid to late 60’s the GDP per Capita Ratio in North Korea far surpassed that of the South.  By 1970, the South had caught up with the North, and signs were it would surpass it. In desperation North Korea sought huge loans from Western banks to further develop it’s economy.  But it spent a fortune buying in industrial machinery, for example, that it’s workers hadn’t an iota as to how to work them, or even had huge machines delivered that were too big and powerful to be fitted and operated inside any North Korean factories.  Thus scores of very expensive machinery and the like lay in storage gathering rust. Also due to very bad planning money was wasted on badly constructed infrastructure projects.  Many apartment complexes were built, but toilets would not flush due to badly designed piping/sewerage systems, Electricity supply was not enough to meet the full needs of the cities, and domestic supply was oft cut off for a time in order to ensure the factories and hospitals had an unfettered supply.  Pyongyang became the first Stalinist state to officially enter into a default.  The North Korean economy went into a tailspin, and it was blacklisted by the Western Financial conglomerates, and the value of it’s exports plummeted almost overnight too. 

Yes there was Central planning in North Korea, but just like the Soviet states you could in no way characterise it was being democratic.  If an order came from above, you got on and did it, regardless of whether you KNEW it to be correct or not. There are numerous examples of people being arrested and sent away for merely pointing out to his Factory head etc, that a there was serious flaws in a design his boss and drawn up, with the employee explaining a better solution to the design and so forth.  People were oft put into position of influence in factories simply due to their loyalty to the regime, in a lot of cases with no proper know how as to what the factory manufactured.  This was also quite evident in planning too, when officials with no knowledge of the subject matter, would often make disastrous decisions, that simply could not, and were not questioned/ countermandered.  Thus you had yields for crops that were far lower than the Western average, goods manufactured in factories that were of a very poor quality and the like.

In the USSR we had at first Leninism, then Stalinism. In China we had Moaism, in Yugoslavia what was known as Titoism, and in North Korea they developed their own ideology based around the cult of the leader, Jucheism. The first known reference to Juche as a domestic, North Korean ideology was an anti-Soviet speech given by Kim Il-sung on December 28, 1955. Titled "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work".  Kim realised that whilst both China and the USSR got pissed off with him from time to time, neither wanted to fall out with him and see him side firmly with the other (Or more importantly for South Korean Capitalism to gain a foothold in the state), so both continued to indulge him.  The official North Korean Calender was switched to the Juchean Calender, where day 1 was Kim il Sung’s Birth date.  As well as being an attempt at further tightening his grasp on power, it was also a way of the regime trying to proclaim (or pretend) that it was powerful too, and that it also had an ideological ferment that should be feted and praised around the world, like many groups did of Stalinism or Maoism.  Large sums of money were spent setting up Juche learning centres, in other Third world countries, especially in Africa.  But in reality many of these persons in Africa who claimed to be adherents of Jucheism and were given money to supposedly spread it’s influence across Africa, were little more than charlatans, who spent most of the money either on themselves, or furthering the reach of their own organisation, who’s actual ideals and policies were in truth anything but like those espoused by Pyongyang.

Even to this day each village, and area in the cities have their own Minomin.  These persons are supposed to conduct an audit of their area every night. Are the Family next door in? If not, where are those not present? Oh look, they have a visitor from elsewhere. Have they got their identity papers with them, and their authorisation letter allowing them to be here?  Also have the family been reading the Juche texts as required, and are the portraits of the Two Kim’s properly positioned and polished?  Right that’s my check list filled in, and additional information added in were necessary.  I’m off to the police station to hand in my report as required.

There are also many detention camps in North Korea, were many people have been worked to their deaths, if not tortured to death before then.  These make many goods for sale in China, and some also make very fine suits for sale in Japan. For example, a Japansese trader could buy suits from these camps, and easily sell them at 20 times that amount in a store in Tokyo.  Many Chinese businessmen are nw dealing with the North Koreans too, as they can get goods produced there at far lower prices than it would be to have them made in a Chinese factory.  It is getting to the sickening stage now, were people are being sent to these camps on ever flimsier charges as they simply need more “workers” to keep up with the illegal supply and demand.  Obviously those places are kept far from the tourists eye when they visit North Korea on an organised trip.

Kim il Sung passed away in 1994, amid scenes of crazy mournful adoration across all of North Korea.  Many people genuinely believed he was a demi god who would rule forever and so forth.  His son then took over the reigns.  He was a recluse who was rarely seen in public, loved to drink good Cognac, and the company of pretty women.  In fact in each of the handful of mansions across North Korea that the leader resided in had a harem of young pretty women in them. If of an evening he got bored, he would ring for one or more of the girls to be sent to his chambers. In fact there were “scouts” who used to travel around the country visiting various secondary schools to source these women for the leaders pleasure.  Once one was identified, she would be soon whisked away to be trained in etiquette and manners etc, before being placed in one of the mansions.  Once she reached her early 30’s she would then be released from duties, and placed in a nice apartment in Pyongyang, with a huge monthly payment by North Korean terms, on the agreement that she would never seek to contact her family again, or tell anyone of her recent “duties”.  In Korean society, especially North Korean society, it is a cherished norm of parents that their son or daughter would still be a virgin at marriage. So if word of Kim’s trysts became public knowledge, it would likely cause outrage.

Kim Jong Il passed away on the 17^th December 2011, and was succeeded in power by his third song Kim Jong Un.  One of Kim’s other 3 sons now lives in Macau, loves gambling, and has at times spoken out publicly against the regime, which angered his father enormously. Then the other of the 3 was arrested in Japan after travelling there on a false passport.  It was said he had planned to visit Disneyland in Tokyo, and was found with quite a bit of money on his person  This also annoyed his father somewhat.  The elite in Pyongyang live in a sealed off gates part in a fine houses, with shops that sell imported goods smuggled into the country from Japan and elsewhere.  Many are truly oblivious to the suffering that people all over North Korea, outside Pyongyang are suffering. 

Make no doubt about it Kim Yong Nam is a stooge. His Auntie, Kim il Sung’s daughter, and the military top brass call the shots. In a nod and a wink way, they’ve told him – “Leave the politicking to us, and we’ll leave you and your fancy wife alone to live your life of luxury”.  So as peoples living standards continue to plummet, many especially older persons begin to (secretly in their own minds) question the way country is being run. They genuinely thought Kim il Sung was the real deal, but are not sure about his successors. How do you maintain a grip on your people?  Why ratchet up the fear doctrine, claim that barbarous forces are intent on invading and killing one and all.  They also keep pushing mountains of propaganda painting South Korea and the United States as in a far worse predicament that they are in – As bad as things are now, you wouldn’t like to be in the position they’re in, trust me!  Did you hear that the US population are so poor, that millions are forced to live on the streets and eat snow, and drink cups of hot snow (Snow mixed with boiling water) as food supplies are reserved only for the rich elite in the US?  No, no! That video clip of people queuing at a van really IS people queuing for a cup of hot snow, (as the North Korean voiceover person claims) NOT coffee...

North Korea has long harboured ambitions to be a nuclear power, as Kim il Sung saw this as a guaranteed way of ensuring South Korea or Japan would never think of invading etc, once they knew the North could use nuclear weapons in response.   Thus the North Koreans asked the USSR, and then Russia, what the going rate was to receive Nuclear materials, and have their own personnel trained in the area of Nuclear science, and then handed over the cheque.  It is estimates that about 4 years ago, The main Nuclear reactor in North Korea, Yongbong, was repaired and retrofitted by Russian contractors for a considerable sum, while many died due to an unprecedented famine.

On 9^th October 2006 North Korea detonated what is now known, was a very small nuclear device.  This was merely seen as a tool of brinkmanship, trying to send a signal to the outside world that they were not bluffing, when they claimed to have nuclear capabilities.    On July 4^th 2009, US Independence Day, North Korea fired of 2 missiles, thought to be scud missiles, with a range of up to 400 KM into the Sea of Japan.  This evoked worldwide condemnation, and further sanctions were imposed on the hermit kingdom.  These rockets had no GPS devices on them, which most countries would have put onto their rockets, as they didn’t have the capability to develop such a system. Thus they had no real control over the rockets, and they could have landed anywhere. A big question now is as to whether or not North Korea have the ability to attach nuclear warheads to conventional missiles, and thus could be in a position to target Japan, South Korea, or the US dependency of Guam with such weapons.  The view of most analysts is that they have not, and that despite all it’s rhetoric North Korea really hasn’t the ability to carry out it’s threats, so we shouldn’t be too worried about them.  On the other hand, others are of the opinion that we don’t REALLY know what’s going on inside North Korea vis a vis it’s military and nuclear capabilities. It has the 4^th largest standing army in the world. 

Whilst they may not have the ability to send nuclear missiles to Japan or the West coast of the USA, they might very well have the ability to nuke Seoul for example. The North Korean TV, the official newspaper Radong Signum are ratcheting up the rhetoric, will the regime now have no choice but to do something, be it launch another missile or otherwise to justify all the rhetoric?  Surely if it does a total climbdown, and ends up doing nothing, this would lead it with a lot of explaining to do amongst it’s own people? So whilst mad men in Colorado are busy buying goods at Wal Mart to store in their bunker, as they convince themselves that Obama being re-elected is going to lead to a nuclear attack on San Francisco by North Korea, many South Koreans go about their business as normal, as they’ve heard it all before, and have long stopped caring or being afraid.  So when will all the talking stop, and some if any action be taken by the North Korean Military? Only time will tell. 

   

Telling porkies re debt Reduction deal..

I predicted what  happened yesterday in Brussels, in a letter I wrote to the Tallaght Echo last November!

Dear Sir/Madame

A lot of our Government ministers and backbench TD's are attempting to pull the wool over peoples eyes at an unprecedented level. They have taken stretching the limits and definitions of the English language to a level surpassing even that of James Joyce himself. I am talking particularly about the talks between the ECB/IMF and the government.

Michael Noonan, and our own TD for Dublin South West, Brian Hayes in particular, have been resolutely parroting the line that we WILL be getting a debt reduction deal, and that it WILL be very beneficial for Ireland in the long run; so people should bite their lips, accept what it thrown at them in the budget, as it will aide their job of guaranteeing a better path for this country to get it's way out of recession

But the simple truth is, they are lying to the people of this state on a grand scale. We will NOT be getting a "debt reduction deal, that will benefit this country in the long run". The very best we can hope for is a lengthening of the payment terms (I.E. in a way it's like extending the term of your mortgage from 25 to 30 years). Though the yearly repayments will come down per se, we will end up paying MORE than the country is at present, due to interest on the debt. We will merely be paying back the same amount as currently, plus more, but over a longer timeframe than is currently the case.

This debt is totally unsustainable, we cannot implement a full repayment schedule AND grow our economy out of recession at the same time. Burn the bondholders, and spend the money instead on essential things like, developing new college campuses, building much needed new schools and public transport systems, reopen closed hospital wards etc. Think of all the jobs this would create.

Ask yourself this - Why, if the government are so certain of getting a debt reduction deal, are they still planning to go full steam ahead with the savage austerity plan they have set out? Surely if we were definitely getting a debt reduction deal, the budget would be changed, and cuts and tax rises would be lowered to take account of this?
These have not been changed, as the Government knows damn well we will not not be getting a debt reduction deal, and that we the ordinary Irish taxpayer, is going to have to pay a bigger price in the long run, if they get their way, to ensure the greedy bondholders, and property developers continue to live in obscene luxury. This while many families cannot afford to provide 3 basic meals a day for their kids, as they go to bed freezing due to living in a substandard dwelling they paid way over the odds for.

I call on the Irish people to rise up off their armchairs, and start taking action! Take to the streets, refuse to pay property/water taxes, FORCE THIS GOVERNMENT TO BURN THE BONDHOLDERS ONCE AND FOR ALL! There is a budget day demonstration starting at 17.00, outside The Dail. I urge everyone to turn up and show the government just how angry we are with their policies.

Yours etc,

Sean Heffernan,
Dominic's Parish.

Time for a re-Think???

A real bug bear of mine relates to so called “Think Tanks” and a lot of “agencies” that are employed at the expense of the state to supposedly improve things for you and I, Mr & Mrs ordinary Joe Soap.  But they don’t!  I was prompted to write about this, after hearing of another report from some think tank, which basically went beyond stating the bleedin’ obvious, of which details of it I heard on the news.  For a start, many of the people involved in heading up such organisation are paid ludicrously obscene salaries, with, in many cases, just as obscene expenses scales to boot.  I’m involved in my local community Centre, and also the Youth Club, that operated within the falls of the building.

 They are the ones who rabbit on night and day about “inclusiveness” or “Empowering people” But after enduring another bout of their “flipchart diplomacy”,  You mentally find yourself tied to a chair with black tape on your mouth, as the meeting /consultation draws to a close.   These people have mastered the art of ASSUMING what people need/want, without actually asking them;  And they then dump some strategy onto their shoulders, and expect them to follow it to the letter without so much as a blinking of the eye.  

But you see, they have their masters degrees in UCD and Trinity, and sure haven’t they studied Socioogy for 4 years, and thus have the imprimatur to foist things on us, because clearly we don’t know anything, and need to be spoonfed, as we don’t have any fancy letters after our names!

Many good honest people who want to volunteer in their communities have been ground down and totally worn out, slowly but surely by the red tape, and the rigid top down, looking down on us ordinary plebs, attitude many agencies adopt. (Can someone find me an agency/Think Tank that even meets 80% of their “mission statement”? – Nope.. I thought so!) They get involved in a group or groups in a voluntary capacity, bundling with energy and ideas.  But they soon become aware of the constant Merry go round of so called consultations and meetings, were they are asked for their opinion, and duly give it.  But they soon realise the farcical nature of the process, and that, no matter what ideas they bring to the table, they will either fall totally on deaf, uninterested ears at the top, or else they will be quietly forgotten about, only to re-surface sometime later, with some head honcho in the agency/Think Tank claiming the idea totally as his/her own. 

And what of those god awful think tanks?  I’m a 31 yr old who is from a solid working class background, and lives in a part of Dublin, that has been classed as an area of Social depravation.  Though it must be said, that my upbringing, and the area I lived in, was to an extent quite different to that of people who had to live 40 mins walk from me, in large swathes of council housing, with little or no services, or supports in the 80’s.  And while that situation has technically improved since then, it is still miles off were it needs to be. (And now is heading back to a level even lower than that seen in the 80’s, but to the massive cutbacks across the board)  I’m just waiting to pick up The Guardian someday soon, to read of a study that cost £250,000 to conduct, where the think Tank Claimed it was trying to find out why so many Everton fans hate Wayne Rooney! It sounds kinda far fetched, but you wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out a study like that, WAS being carried out as I typed!  (Reminds me of the $1M study once done in American by scientists/academics, who were studying why Native American Indians didn’t like being studied by scientists/academics – I kid you not!)

If you were to spend hours looking at websites and the like to find information on the myriad of agencies and Think Tanks that are out there, you’ll soon be struck at fact that there is 4 different groups, basically claiming to do the same thing.  Each one trying to out topdog the other, with the people they are supposed to be helping, taking a back seat, and largely ignored, until they become useful tools to exploit at the Agencies whim.  

If a mass cull was to descend on these agencies/think tanks, just think of all the money saved by the state, never mind the amount of trees too, as their useless reports after useless reports will be no more.

Imagine they were replaced by one central funding group, who alone was responsible for handing out money to voluntary groups etc, instead of 20 different groups fighting for the spoils out of one pot.  

Imagine this funding provider had very limited criteria, eg, nothing unlawful could be done with the money doled out etc;  BUT that, in the main, the community groups/organisations themselves would have the freedom to decide THEMSELVES, with genuine consultation with their fellow inhabitants, as to what the money would be spent on.  There would be a lot more people thus volunteering to help out in their parish, feeling confident and with quite a spring in their step, as they know the valuable effort they are putting in, would be properly recognised and valued, and they would also be a genuine stakeholder, and have a full and authoritive say on how things are done and so forth.  

There would then be more groups and local services in place.  And thus, more people, be they old or young would be able to play sports, act on stage in local theatre productions, or even just meet in a room with others of a like minded interest to drink tea, and have a sing along.  The possibilities would be endless. 

But sadly, so long as these agencies and Think Tanks continue in their modus operandi, sucking their lifeblood out of communities, the isolation, and fragmentation of so

Another poem from moi

THE WORLDS BIGGEST BANK ROBBER

Oh I am the leader of the IMF, the ringleader of the Worlds biggest theft. 

I’ll lend the Africans some money today, but charge them interest they can never repay.  Their leaders will build grand palaces of gold, whilst many of their citizens die before their one year old. 

The finest banquets they will serve, whilst most of the people struggle and starve. 

Their wives will go on shopping sprees in New York, while many are unable to find work. 

The finest of fashions they will buy, as over their dead babies, many mothers cry. 

For the price of a handbag from Christian Dior, they could have saved a hundred kids, maybe more. 

A $3,000 fur coat her treat for today, whilst many children just whittle away. 

I’ll give him some money to build an army, maybe 3 or 4, so he can quell any opposition by the score. 

Any students dare protest against his rule, he’ll have them all shot by the back of the school. 

If any of their parents dare protest in vain, he’ll do the same to them again.

 An open grave full of human debris, a lesson for all the others to see. 

‘This is what happens to those who start protesting, tis better to walk away and thus say nothing’.  

As sure as the summers sun, and winter snows, the foreign debt just grows and grows.  The flow of repayments always get higher, whilst the conditions for the poor get dire and dire. 

What do I care how leaders spend their money, in so brazen a fashion to be considered funny. 

Just think of the Apartment view pf the Hudson River, that playing piper to African rulers can deliver. 

They can spend it on BMW’s Mercs and other perks, So long as the oil is in US hands, we’re happy to support any of their plans. 

‘Our Children are dying!’ the people will cry, but you don’t see me crying, I’m jumping for joy! 

Their leader’s just bought another little toy, in a private jet round the world he will fly.  He bought by borrowing some more millions, whilst upping the taxes on his minions.  One less loaf a month they’ll be able to afford, while he increases his financial horde.   

In some bank in Geneva lie his ill gotten gains, he’ll murder some more to keep his hands on the reigns. 

And yes you’ll all be happy to know, that the debt repayments continue to flow...