Five years older and deeper in
debt… So why don’t the Irish protest more?
29/9/2013 TheJournal.IE
In the last few years, there’s been a
noticeable decrease in the numbers taking to the streets to voice their anger.
We asked the experts — why are the Irish so reluctant to protest
TOMORROW MARKS THE five year
anniversary of the announcement of the bank guarantee. Just two weeks after
that blanket €440 billion guarantee of all liabilities in the banking system, we had the first of
the austerity budgets — prompting some 25,000 people (mostly students and
pensioners) to take to the streets and protest outside Leinster House.
In the intervening years, we’ve
experienced a number of large-scale trade union-led demonstrations — with over
100,000 turning out for two ‘days of action’ in 2009 and 2010. Smaller protests
— by students, farmers, carers and anti-property tax campaigners — are also, by
now, a regular feature of Irish life.
However, as the effects of
‘recession fatigue’ have taken hold in recent years, there’s been fewer and
fewer people taking to the streets. Over five thousand signed-up via social
media for a protest to ‘lock the Government out of the Dáil’ earlier this month
— but on the day, just a few hundred turned out.
Elsewhere in Europe — Iceland for instance — sustained weekly public protests led to the collapse of
governments. There’s also been massive social unrest in Turkey, Greece and Spain
– to name a few. Egypt even made time for two revolutions.
So — why don’t the Irish protest more?
Well, as you might imagine — there
are no simple answers. TheJournal.ie has been speaking with an
economist, a youth campaigner, a left-wing MEP and an expert in political and
economic geography….
THE ECONOMIST
Tom O’Connor lectures in economics and public policy at CIT and is the author
of a forthcoming book ‘The Soul of Irish Indifference’…
First of all, you know, there’s no
one factor on its own that can explain it. There’s a whole combination of
factors — but when taken together they give quite a powerful explanation.
I’ve looked at attitudes to welfare
and the welfare state and what kind of people we were before the Celtic Tiger —
and then used the statistics from that to see what way we were likely to react
during austerity. There are five or six fairly big studies done on the area, and
basically what the results show is that though Irish society does have people
who are kind-of radical, many are more self-centred, and they don’t look to the
government for solutions — they just get on with their own lives.
I’ll just give you an example: in
2006, 79 per cent of the Irish population said there should be some restriction
on immigrants, which is generally viewed as a kind of self-centred, kind of a
right-wing view. 73 per cent said that taxes should be kept low even if it
means more inequality. 70 per cent then believe that the wealthy should be
allowed pass on their own wealth without having to pay any taxes on it.
The Irish mindset
The Irish psyche, you know, really
goes back at least to the famine…
There was a class of people — a
relatively thin stratum of our society — who did well after the famine. They
realised that being totally self-centred as a class and being totally focused
on their own affluence — that that was the way to go. When they came into
independence, this class of people were modelling a type of government which
was about looking after certain sections of Irish society, and not really about
a proper welfare state.
Ordinary people in the street saw
that you had to be a ‘cute hoor’: look after yourself; go to you local
politician if you want to get planning… They saw subsequently that those people
who were well in with Fianna Fáil in the building industry did well, or that
farmers who were close to Fine Gael did well. They created over decades this
type of behaviour which was being called ‘sleveenism’ or ‘gombeenism’ or
whatever, and that has brought us to where we are — so if you want to look
after what you have, you vote. It was very easy to turn the Irish, the teachers
and all the rest of them around on Haddington Road — because you look after
what you have, and protesting doesn’t get you any money.
Trade unions
The trade union movement has been a
major factor in the maintenance of the status quo. The reality is that there is
no organisation in the country that can mobilise sufficient numbers of people
to actually protest other than the trade union movement. Protests — such as
they have been since the end of the Celtic Tiger or since the austerity started
— if they muster four or five thousand people amongst a coalition of
anti-water-charges or anti-household-tax people or whatever that would be a big
protest. That’s just too small — and what the unions have tended to do is just
flex their muscles, have one or two major rallies, show a bit of strength and
then send people home.
Ruairí McKiernan is a youth and social change campaigner, who founded the advice
website SpunOut.ie. He is also a member of the Council of State…
There’s no one easy answer as to
why we haven’t seen ongoing mass protests.
There are so many factors at play,
including many Irish people putting their faith in Fine Gael and Labour at the
last election. The unions are a traditional source of protest power but they’ve
been focused on the likes of the Croke Park agreement — whereas the left wing
parties are too small or don’t appeal to the masses for whatever reason. The
emigration of 300,000 people over the last four years is a factor, as is the
weakness of civic society organisations and their reluctance to speak out for
fear of losing funding.
Fear is at the heart of inaction,
fear that if we rock the boat we’ll be ridiculed, isolated or punished in some
way. Too often protest is seen or made to be seen as something done by hippies,
lefties or some sort of rent-a-crowd rather than as an important tactic used
for generations by people like Daniel O’Connell, James Larkin, Martin Luther
King, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Mary Robinson and Michael D Higgins
Many of our rights and freedoms are
the result of people giving up their time to campaign for the rights of all.
Our culture and education system has taught obedience and conformity and
critical thinking has been discouraged. Many Irish people feel beaten down and
a lot of the anger is being internalised and dealt with through alcohol,
depression and, sadly, through an increasing suicide rate.
As I said it’s a complex issue so
it’s not black or white.
What can we learn from experience
elsewhere?
I think the Icelandic people have
gone a long way towards upholding their dignity as people. Their protests and
movements may not have solved every problem but they have helped create major
reforms and saved their economy from complete debt slavery. They can hold their
head up high as a proud independent sovereign people.
The future
I do think Irish people are
starting to question more and more and are beginning to speak out.
I think the culture is changing
where we realise that we all need to play an active role if we are to have a
democracy that puts our interests before those of bankers and investors. Young
people who have observed the work of Wikileaks, Manning and Snowden realise
that radical change is needed. The next step has to be finding better ways of
coming together, of joining forces to work on issues of common concern. We have
to reclaim power as individuals, as communities and as a nation or we will
continue to be walked on and lied to.
It’s a huge challenge but I believe
we can do it if we choose to wake up and claim our power
I think it is explainable and quite
explainable the levels of protest in Ireland relative to Greece or Spain or
whatever.
I think there’s a number of
different factors but I think the most important factor, and its pretty
dominant I’d say, is the question of the role of the trade union leadership in
Ireland. We did have two very significant protests called by ICTU which then
went nowhere. They went into Croke Park 2 and Haddington Road which amounted to
defeat for people — for working class people who were opposed to austerity.
The key question is why there
hasn’t been leadership by those who are meant to lead, who have the
responsibility of leadership.
The end of the Celtic Tiger
Well I think there definitely was a
major shock factor [when the recession started].
It was a very big change from the
Celtic Tiger to a very significant and deep crisis. Certainly, because of the
Celtic Tiger many people would have hoped that ‘okay it’s going to be bad but
hopefully we can quickly get out of it’.
At this stage I think that the
shock factor is gone. Clearly we’re five years, five to six years really into
the crisis. The main point I’d make is that, ultimately bad leadership by the
trade union leaders will not be capable of stopping big protests happening.
People are opposed to austerity.
Is the situation likely to change?
I think the most important way it
will change is by people themselves moving to a situation of understanding that
austerity has failed from the point of view of the majority of ordinary people,
and it has worked from the point of view of the one percent in our society —
the bond holders, the rich and so on.
We’re getting to a point where the
people, the majority of people, feel the need to mobilise — I think you saw a
little glimpse of that, without very huge protests on the streets, but
nonetheless with massive participation and a certain element of protest on the
streets, in the movement against the household tax for example. You did have
fifteen/twenty thousand people protesting on a couple of occasions. I think
it’s very difficult to say right now what will be the turning point that will
mobilise a lot of people again, but I think it’s very difficult to see such a
turning point not coming. It could be around the budget or it could be
next year.
I think the Government is likely to
exit the bailout at the end of this year, but things aren’t going to get any
better and in reality we will be in a sort-of second bailout. When that becomes
clear to people, I think that can be an important turning point.
THE POLITICAL/ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
EXPERT
I think primarily it is an issue of
a lack of leadership from trade unions, left political parties and civil
society such as community groups, charities and NGOs. If we look at other
countries like Iceland, Greece and Spain, these groups have played a key role
in mobilising large numbers of people in protes
I think the model of social
partnership that dominated the way these groups interacted with the Government
and the state through the Celtic Tiger means that they are now reluctant to be
publicly critical and they have been incorporated into submission by the Irish
State. I also think that there has been a lack of alternative strategies to
austerity up until more recently, which has meant people are confused about
what to protest for. Finally I think a lot of people had an expectation that
the Labour/Fine Gael government would burn the bondholders and change things,
and the trade unions are reluctant to protest against the Labour Party in
Government.
The Iceland example
I think we can look at Iceland and
see that they have got debt forgiveness at a national and household level. Huge
numbers of people have had their mortgages written down.
That’s because they protested and
forced their government to do it. Similarly, in Greece, the country got a write
down on its debt because the Greek people would not accept austerity. We can
also learn from protest at home -from the parents who protested against the
Special Needs Assistants cuts, the people who marched to save our forests, and
the elderly who stopped their medical cards being taken away. The political
class in this country doesn’t like people protesting in large numbers and it
shows we have a power to change things if we want
Change?
I think that there is change taking
place. How can it not? Young people are facing unemployment rates of 30 per
cent and thousands are emigrating. There is no job security any more. New
public servants are on a lower wage. Rents are massively inflated again and
people can’t access mortgages. That’s not to mention the illegimate debt that
has been placed on our shoulders.
The left significantly increased
its vote in the last election, but then Labour went into government and the
opportunity of a left-led opposition was lost. Sinn Féin and the ULA are likely
to significantly increase their support in the next election. Will Sinn Féin do
what Labour have done and squander another opportunity for fundamental change
by going into Government with Fianna Fail or Fine Gael? I think young people
have to stand up and demand more radical changes to this country.
Sinn Féin
Mountmellick - Serving The Community
