We are publishing the following letter, recently received from an activist with the Revolutionary Communists of Ireland and a reader of The Revolutionary Communist. The letter highlights the impact of austerity and the failures of the left on the working-class community of Ballymun. We welcome letters and reports from our regular readers and supporters. Submissions can be sent to revcommunistsireland@gmail.com for publication on our website or in our paper.
Ballymun has become a staple of austerity in Ireland. The last Ballymun tower was demolished in 2015, and despite the horrid conditions residents faced, that day was a sombre one for those who lived there. I was one of them.
The destruction of the flats were to signal a new stage of development and funding into the area – new housing, more jobs, and so on. But that never materialised. On the contrary, years later, the shopping centre is gone, local shops are shutting down one after the others; hairdressers, newsagents, and even pubs are closing down.
The mood in the air was put well in one of the Revolutionary Communist article from last year: apathy bordering on anger. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are despised for what they have done. However, we have seen part of the anti-establishment anger coming to surface not through the left but through reactionary, right-wing channels. This is not the fault of the working class, however.
The point is that for far too long the left have associated themselves to the establishment in such a way that the working class of Ballymun can’t put any trust in them. Take the Labour Party. On the back of the crisis of 2008 support shifted massively to Labour in Ballymun, with a staggering 43.1 percent of the vote share in 2011. But they were quick to betray the working class, entering into a coalition with Fine Gael, and providing a cover for the most brutal austerity the country had seen in decades. Is it any wonder that their vote share precipitated to just 2.6 percent by 2020? Or take Sinn Féin, who still got the highest vote share in the area at the last elections, but whose anti-establishment credentials have worn off over the last 5 years.
There needs to be a voice on the left that speaks to the anger of these workers, and their willingness to fight against the establishment. Capitalism is what has ripped all the infrastructure of Ballymun away, that raised the rents, that underfunded the area for decades. Capitalism will not and cannot fix the issues that it has created.
Only the transfer of power in society into the hands of the working class is the way forward. Only the victory of the socialist revolution, and the creation of a 32 counties workers’ state – the republic that Connolly fought for!
