Protests against the price of fuel have gripped Ireland for over a week now. While the US/Israeli war on Iran is the principal cause of the price hikes, the main target for the protestors has been the Irish government which has been woefully slow in addressing the worsening cost of living crisis facing the country. It is of course necessary to condemn the barbarism of the imperialists which caused the crisis in the first place as well as the actions of their friends in the Irish government!
The protests have been organised by road haulage firms, agricultural contractors and farmers and have caused significant disruption on motorways, town and city centres as lorries and tractors blockade or go slow. The Whitegate oil refinery in Cork, the oil tanker docks at the Port of Galway and O’Connell Street in Dublin were among the targets whose barricades have now been dismantled by the state with threats to bring in the army.
The Fianna Fail/Fine Gael government has tried to diffuse the campaign with the paltry gesture of a €505 million package which will reduce petrol and diesel by 10c per litre, further 2.4c per litre reduction for green diesel and carbon tax deferral. This had been preceded by a smaller inadequate package of ‘supports’ last month.
The government has been negotiating with official groups like the Irish Road Haulage Association and the Irish Farmers Association who accepted the offer. But these groups had not organised the protests. In fact the movement developed spontaneously through social media. Protests are ongoing though increasingly fragmented.
A number of far right activists like Christopher Duffy, one of the chief spokespersons, John Dallon, James Geoghegan and Tom McDonnell are involved. Some of these are conveying an anti-migrant agenda, there is racist abuse and intimidation of left wing protestors, for example of People before Profit (PbP) elected representatives in Dublin. There is also the rich irony of such Trump lovers speaking out against fuel price rises caused by his war!
The fuel blockades have tapped into rising discontent about the cost of living crisis, and prompted a number of street demonstrations against rising fuel prices in small towns and cities across Ireland. The social base of the movement is predominantly petty-bourgeois/small business owners, and this no doubt helps explain the prominence of some far right figures. The influence of the far right in an embryonic movement against the cost of living crisis must be denounced and rooted out at the earliest opportunity. This means fighting to bring the organised working class into action around demands that improve living standards for all.
The trade unions
Trade unions need to be at the centre stage in building industrial action to protect workers. As Unite’s secretary Susan Fitzgerald says, ‘mobilising organised workers is the only way of ensuring that workers are protected from the impact of this crisis’. Unite is consulting shop stewards on ‘how best to use our industrial muscle’. This is a step in the right direction. At a press conference called by Ireland’s largest socialist organisation, PbP, Richard Boyd Barrett TD also called for ‘robust tactics’ and ‘industrial action’ to confront the government.
Good, but we need practical measures! Every union should be put on a war footing. Where there is inertia and union bureaucrats dragging their heels, as in most places, then elected reps and rank and file members should take the initiative and organise meetings at work and in the trade union branches to discuss action. This would be the best route to putting pressure on the leadership of the unions to act.
The perspective must be to build councils of action at workplace level reaching out to the community. Any new movement should have the fullest workers’ democracy with mass meetings and strike committees to hold the leadership accountable and decide on action. This of course is quite unlike what you have in the current movement, where there are no democratic structures or elected leaders — as one of its reactionary leaders John Dallon says, ‘nobody knows what the plan is’!
Action programme
If we are to succeed in building an effective working class based campaign out of the fuel protests and relate to the widespread anger, then we need to fight for an action programme that puts the protection of our class above the needs of the bosses and profiteers. Such a programme should include the demand for caps on electricity, gas, petrol, diesel and a massive reduction in the price of heating oil. We can pay for this by taxing the rich and the profits of big energy and fuel companies.
- For a free public transport system as part of a plan to reduce use of fossil fuels.
- Trade unions must also address the cost of living as a whole and draw up action plans for significant pay rises.
- Open the books of price gouging companies to expose the cut throat profiteering.
- No attacks on the right to protest, no gardai or army to break up protests. Organise picket and protest defence squads.
Socialists should also put the case for nationalisation of the energy sector under workers control as part of a fight for a workers’ planned economy where the anarchy of the market and imperialist war is finally replaced by a socialist state.
