Resistance across Europe to Amsterdam, Maastricht treaties

The organisers launched an appeal to the peoples of Europe for resistance against the drive towards the single currency. All the EU governments have submitted themselves to the Maastricht strait-jacket, linked to the constraining framework of the IMF, the WTO and the NATO. They have all decided to step up privatisation measures, lay-offs, deregulation, dismantling of the public services, liquidation of agriculture.

The appeal stated: “In November 1997 in Luxembourg, all the EU governments which submitted themselves to the Maastricht and Amsterdam treaties have decided not only to implement the economic criteria but also the ‘social’ ones. Having in privatisation, dismantling of the public services, having imposed austerity plans, they want now to undo the whole system of collective contracts and bargaining, labour laws, and social protection systems. Who entitled them to do so?

“Generation after generation, the peoples have struggled to secure those rights, those norms, those guarantees. It is only to satisfy the demands of the financial markets that the governments of Europe seek to lower and lower again the cost of labour, and require from the trade unions that they become conveyor belts of their plans.”

The Paris rally arose out of the programme of action agreed in January 1998 by a European Committee formed by 320 delegates from 21 European countries who gathered in Berlin. That conference opposed the Maastricht and Amsterdam treaties, the single currency and declared its support for the “Free Union of Free and Sovereign Nations and Peoples of Europe.”

This support is similar, apart from the word “Union”, to James Connolly’s formulation, supported today by Irish Republicans, of a Europe made up of a “Free Federation of Free Peoples.” The participants in this Europe-wide resistance to Amsterdam/Maastricht called for countries to oppose ratification of the Amsterdam Treaty and the single currency project and to repeal the Maastricht accord.

The Berlin conference also denounced the secret negotiations under way this year by the 29 member-states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to agree a “Multilateral Agreement on investment” (MAI).

The MAI proposes total freedom for multinational companies to transfer their capital without control and without restriction, to jeopardise national sovereignty and to close down any firm at a moment’s notice.

The EU is part and parcel of the secret MAI negotiations, which in turn parallels other “regional” treaties such as the NAFTA and FTAA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas) in the American continent and the APEC agreement in Asia.

The agenda world-wide is that of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation which seek to redefine the nation-state as a cog in the service of private enterprise. The latter aim to take direct charge of areas of administrations formerly in the charge of the State.

One startling example of this is in Texas where the arms manufacturer Lockheed have been approached by the State authorities to take charge of running the new “welfare” system. This would be whittled down to the most basic cover, leaving the rest to private insurance schemes.

Other facets of this globalisation are the attacks on minimum wage legislation and publicly-funded education above the primary level and World Bank sponsorship of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to replace state institutions and social services.

A concerted effort is also being made to make the Geneva-based International Labour Organisation (ILO) a “specialised subsidiary of the World Trade Organisation”.

The ILO was formed in 1919 and its seven most important conventions (dating from 1930 to 1973) are important standards against exploitation of people in the areas of forced labour, trade union rights, collective bargaining, child labour, minimum age for employment and equal pay and equal rights.

The WTO aims to subvert the ILO into a body “to advise multinational businesses on the ways and means of introducing deregulation and flexibility”, according to the International Liaison Committee, who are campaigning to defend the ILO conventions at the 86th annual session in Geneva during June.

The European Committee plan to follow up on the series of protests and events by organising an International Convention Against Amsterdam/Maastricht in Paris in January 1999 to coincide with the planned introduction of the EU single currency.

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For the record

WED. MAY 5: The Balcombe Street Four – Joe O’Connell, Hugh Doherty, Eddie Butler and Harry Duggan — were transferred to Portlaoise prison from prisons in England after serving 22 months and five months each. Two other prisoners, William Quinn and Paul ‘Dingus’ Magee were also transferred from English prisons to Portlaoise.

SAT. MAY 9: Mortars were launched from the grounds of the Carlton Hotel in an attack on the RUC barracks at Belleek, Co Fermanagh. No one was injured in the attack.

A group of dissidents from the Provisionals’ military organisation, who are believed to have the same aims and objects as the 32-County Sovereignty Committee, issued a statement saying that the organisation’s ceasefire was over and military attacks would resume.

A 15-year-old nationalist youth was assaulted by a loyalist mob from the Ballycraigy Estate in Antrim town who beat him with hammers and baseball bats after he became separated from friends near Rathmore Gardens in the town.

A nationalist postman was threatened by two masked men as he delivered mail in Fitzroy Avenue in Portadown, Co Armagh.

SUN. MAY 10: A member of the RUC was hurt in clashes between nationalists and loyalists in Lurgan, Co Armagh. Two people were arrested.

FRI. MAY 14: Michael Stone, the loyalist death squad member who shot dead three people at a funeral at Miltown Cemetery in west Belfast in 1988, appeared, to rapturous applause, at a UDP meeting in Belfast.

SAT. MAY 15: The LVF loyalist death squad issued a statement saying they were calling a ‘ceasefire’.

British army bomb disposal experts were called to examine a trailer containing mortar launchers which was found burned out near Kinawley, Co Fermanagh, 500 yards from the Border.

A car-bomb was discovered close to RUC headquarters in Armagh city. The car, a Toyota Carina, contained 750lbs of explosives and was defused by a British army bomb disposal expert.

TUES. MAY 19: A bomb, thought to have been dispatched by a loyalist death squad, containing explosives in a video-tape was sent to the Dublin Tourist offices in St Andrew’s Street in Dublin.

WED. MAY 20: A caller using a recognised code word of the Continuity IRA told a Belfast newspaper that a rifle-propelled grenade had been fired at the Masonic British army base in Bishop Street, Derry at 9.30am. The Bishop Street and Magazine Street areas of Derry were saturated by Crown Forces after the attack.

A package containing a bomb was sent to a tourist office in Sligo town. The device was destroyed and no one was injured.

THURS. MAY 21: Several nationalist residents of the Oldthorne Park area near the White City, Belfast had to endure an ongoing attack on their homes from a loyalist mob using the grounds of Hazelwood school as their vantage point from where they launched stones at nationalist homes at 8.30pm. A number of windows were broken in the attack.

John Marshall, brother of Sam Marshall (31) who was shot dead by a British-backed loyalist death squad as he and two fellow Provisionals left Lurgan RUC barracks after signing a bail book in March 1990, received notice of the decision of the Armagh coroner, conveyed to him by family lawyer, Rosemary Nelson, not to hold an inquest into his death.

FRI.MAY 22: Nationalist youths launched a series of sustained attacks against the British Colonial police (RUC) in several parts of Derry city as they removed ballot boxes at the end of polling on the Stormont Agreement. The most intensified attack occurred outside the polling station at the Holy Child primary school in Creggan when youths surprised RUC members exiting the polling station with an avalanche of petrol bombs, many of the missiles were reported to have hit their targets. Other attacks reported were at the RUC leaving polling stations at the Holy Family primary school in Ballymagroarty. Trench Road primary school in the Gobnascale area and at Melmount in Strabane, County Tyrone.

British Crown Forces narrowly missed death when a bomb exploded as it was being examined by British army bomb experts on a stretch of railway line in Belfast. The device was found under a bridge at Finaghy halt on the outskirts of south Belfast at around 11pm. It exploded half an hour later as the British bomb squad were approaching the device. Minutes after the blast a man who the British colonial police (RUC) claimed was acting suspiciously was arrested at the scene. A second man was later detained.

Shortly before 6pm, three armed and masked men commandeered a bus in the Derrybeg area of Newry, took the passengers off and ordered the driver to take the bus to Newry Court House. British bomb experts carried out a controlled explosion on a device left on the bus. It was later declared to be a hoax.

Figures released by the British Northern Ireland Office revealed that over 170 people were arrested in the Occupied Six Counties during the first four months of 1998 under repressive legislation, of whom 36 were charged with an offence.

SAT. MAY 23: The results of the referendums on the Stormont Agreement were: 26 Counties ‘Yes’ 94.39%, ‘No’ 5.61%. Turnout: 56.26%; Six Counties ‘Yes’: 71.12%, ‘No’ 28.88%. Turnout: 81.10%. The result of the referendum on the Amsterdam Treaty was: ‘Yes’ 61.7%, ‘No’ 31.3%.

Two Co Louth cousins were arrested by the 26-County political police Emergency Response Unit (ERU), within 300 yards of the Border. Kieran McDonagh (36) and Paddy McDonagh (35), both with addresses in Dundalk were driving two separate cars, a BMW and a Toyota Carina on a quiet country road at Carrickaneena, Co Louth just before 5pm when they were met by a large force of 26 County police. An examination of the vehicles revealed approximately 440lbs of home-made explosives was being carried in the Toyota Carina. The BMW was said to contain 500lbs along with a booster tube packed with explosive material and a quantity of cortex detonating wire.

MON. MAY 25: The loyalists who have been picketing Harryville Catholic Church in Ballymena, Co Antrim for more than 20 months announced that the picket has been called off. TUES. MAY 26: The two arrested on May 23 — Kieran McDonagh (36) and Paddy McDonagh (35) — on the Louth/Armagh Border men appeared before the Special Court in Dublin where Paddy McDonagh could be seen showing signs of 26 police brutality—a black eye and extensive bruises to the face. They were each charged with possession of 938lbs of improvised explosive mixture, a booster tube and detonating cord with intent to endanger life. They were also charged with possession of explosives in suspicious circumstances. The men were remanded in custody until June 11.

Residents of Crossmaglen, Co Armagh claimed that a British army patrol fired a shot in the air in the Larkin’s Road district.

FRI. MAY 29: The home of a Protestant man and his Catholic fiancé at Artigarvan, near Strabane, Co Tyrone was attacked when three gunmen opened fire through a window at the rear of the house. Lee Britten and Teresa McGuinness and their two sons were in the house at Leckpatrick Gardens when they heard the shots and found one of the spent rounds lying in the cot where their two-month-old baby Dillon lay sleeping. No one was injured.

SAT. MAY 30: Eleven RUC members and at least three civilians were injured when a junior Orange parade was allowed by the British parades Commission to parade down part of the Garvaghy Road in Portadown, Co Armagh. The RUC then baton-chared local residents who were protesting and they responded by hurling petrol bombs, stones and bottles at the RUC, backed up by the British army. Crown Forces fired many plastic bullet rounds, injuring nationalist protesters and a television cameraman.

Following an initiative by GAA President Joe McDonagh at the GAA annual Congress in April, the GAA held a special conference to decided whether Rule 21, which forbids membership to the British Crown Forces of the organisation, should be retained or deleted. The conference decided against removing the rule.

SUN. MAY 31: The RUC and British army were attacked by masked men throwing petrol bombs when they went to Lurgan Golf Club, Co Armagh.

There was also a bomb alert on the Dublin-Belfast railway line near Lurgan. Services were disrupted and passengers were ferried by bus from Lurgan to Belfast.

A van was hijacked and set alight on the Newry by-pass.

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Neo-colonial Ireland

Under direct rule Dublin Castle paid scant attention to energy matters: everything was left to private initiative: the main interest being where possible to stimulate the use of English coal. As in England itself, coal-gas was preferred to electricity for public lighting and domestic use and privately-owned gas monopolies were established in Dublin and other cities. A coal-fired electricity generator was opened at the Pigeon House in Dublin in 1903.

REPUBLICAN INITIATIVES

The First Dáil showed an interest in energy matters. It was realised that countries like Sweden and Switzerland owed their prosperity in great measure to cheap hydro-electric power. A committee under Hugh Ryan was set up, with a Swiss expert, Professor Buchi, as consultant. It proposed hydro dams on the Shannon, Erne and Bann rivers, each of which had large lake areas to provide natural header reservoirs. A dam on the Liffey at Poulaphuca with an artificial lake was also recommended as a later development.

PROFESSOR McLAUGHLIN

There was a shortage of engineers in Ireland. (At the time Ireland was supposed to supply the British Empire with doctors, Scotland was to provide the engineers.)

Thomas McLaughlin had studied theoretical physics at UCD and had subsequently gone to Germany and joined the Siemens company and there trained as an electrical engineer. He was a strong supporter of the 1921 treaty and also knew personally many of the leaders of the new Free State, including the Minister for Industry and Commerce Patrick McGilligan.

In December 1923 McLaughlin approached Cosgrave with plans for a state-run generator plant on the river Shannon. He was turned down. A month later he approached again, accompanied by representatives of the Siemens company and with a well-prepared proposal.

After much lobbying the authorities set up a committee with two Swiss and two Swedish professors as advisers. They found the Shannon ideal because of a 30-metre drop over a short distance just above Limerick City and the presence of Lough Derg to act as a natural reservoir. The Erne and Bann schemes were now impractical because of Partition. The Liffey scheme was viable but costlier and should be put off until the Shannon had been fully utilised.

In answer to complaints that state construction of dams was ‘socialistic’ it was pointed out that the world’s greatest capitalist country, the United States, had no reservations about employing Army engineers to build dams on the Colorado and Tennessee rivers and that the main mover behind this was Herbert Hoover, who could hardly be called a socialist.

Finally, the committee recommended that the bid put in by Siemens be accepted. The Department of Finance would have preferred to see the job given to a British firm but it had been discovered that the British had a very poor reputation internationally as contractors. New Zealand, despite strong emotional attachment to England, had entrusted the development of its hydro-electric resources to a Swedish company.

THE SHANNON SCHEME

On 13th August 1925 the Saorstát signed a contract with Siemens AG of Berlin for the construction of a hydro-electric plant at Ardnacrusha on the Shannon at a cost £5.2 Million, with three and a half years to completion.

The price was a give-away. German devaluation after the war may explain why it was so low. Possibly also Siemens hoped to open a market for their electrical goods and regarded it as a long-term market investment.

There was furious opposition from many quarters. The two main daily newspapers, the Irish Independent and the Irish Times, both fumed at the employment of ‘Huns’ and revived wartime British propaganda about the supposed treacherous nature of Germans. In Leinster House Sir John Keane and Major Bryan Cooper, who formed a Unionist rump, railed against it. In England there were bellows of rage from the press and from all shades of political opinion.

The Electricity Supply Board was set up in 1927 to manage the electrification of the State. Various private generating stations were taken over: full compensation was paid to the (mostly Unionist) owners but there was bitter resentment at the loss of status involved. The Department of Finance bureaucrats were opposed of course. To keep them quiet they were given complete control over the ESB: a grave mistake.

The Department of Finance had no idea how to run an enterprise of any kind. Former British and Free State Army officers were appointed to most management positions on the grounds that they were ‘accustomed to giving orders’. Professor McLaughlin, who had done so much work to get it all going, was elbowed out and went to live in Spain and never set foot in Ireland again.

FRED WECKLER

The Shannon scheme did catch popular imagination. Regular excursion trains were run from Dublin so that the public could view the construction site. The artist Seán Keating made several fine paintings of the work in progress. The dam was completed in October 1929.

Among those working for Siemens on the project was Freidrich Weckler, an accountant and a native of the Rhineland. He fell in love with Ireland and when the contract was finished he decided to stay on: taking out citizenship and accepting a much-reduced salary.

After De Valera came to power the ESB was removed from civil service control and established as a semi-state corporation. Fred Weckler took over the general running of the ESB under a politically-appointed chairman.

Weckler proved an able administrator who soon got the organization running efficiently, and his methods influenced the development of Bórd na Móna, CIE, the Sugar Company and many other semi-state bodies, and were admired and imitated abroad. To give but one example, Weckler insisted that the ESB use the metric system of measurements where possible, thereby greatly enhancing efficiency.

The ex-officer managers were shunted aside and persons of ability promoted, given precise objectives and set to work.

During the Second World War, Weckler suddenly found himself the target of personal abuse from certain quarters because of his German origins. He found these insults, coming from persons he had thought to be his friends, deeply disturbing. His health broke down as a result and in 1943 he died.

ATTENTION TURNS TO TURF

The Pigeon House station in Dublin was closed down, but the demand for electricity rose so rapidly that after a couple of years it was reopened.

Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil had insisted that the Curragh Camp, which used imported coal, convert to turf. Use of turf as a fuel was urged on all government departments. This brought employment to rural areas and votes for Fianna Fáil: the coal importers who lost out had been mostly associated with the previous regime.

Private research into the utilisation of peat bogs was already going on. There was a wealthy engineer of Welsh origin, Sir John Purser-Griffith, who had retired to Ireland and had become interested in the possibilities of using turf as an energy source. He bought a bog at Turraun, County Offaly, and began the large-scale production of turf using machines imported from Germany. The turf was shipped to Dublin on the Grand Canal and found a ready market. He also produced peat-moss and began work on the design of an electricity generator. In 1936 Sir John, now over 90 years old, offered the entire undertaking to the State as a gift. The Department of Finance howled, saying it was a white elephant, but the offer was accepted and Bórd na Móna was the eventual outcome.

THE WARTIME ENERGY CRISIS

In 1940 the British government suddenly cut off all coal supplies to the Saorstát. The towns mostly depended on gas made from imported coal for lighting, heating and cooking, and in towns coal rather than turf was used as domestic fuel.

The State was fortunate to have Ardnacrusha and the beginnings of a turf industry. In the teeth of civil service obstruction, Bórd na Móna was expanded until it was producing sufficient fuel to keep the country going: and also incidentally providing much-needed employment. Trains were run successfully on turf and firewood. Professor Drumm of UCD devised a gigantic electric battery that was able to power a regular train service between Limerick and Dublin.

There was also during the war period a shortage of engineering materials which inhibited development work.

POST-WAR DEVELOPMENTS

Wartime conditions continued until the Costello coalition came to power in 1948. Energy policy immediately switched to reliance on imported coal. Bórd na Móna’s activities were drastically curtailed and thousands of workers sacked: most of them going off to England to do post-war reconstruction work. Development work on the battery train, which had attracted international interest, was terminated.

The government had assumed that England would be able and willing to supply the Saorstát’s coal requirements. In fact because of problems associated with the nationalisation of the mines, plus the demands caused by a series of exceptionally bad winters, England had no coal to spare. The only coal available on world markets was low-grade American ‘steam coal’ which turned out to be pretty nearly unburnable.

The outbreak of the Korean war in 1950 caused a minor fuel crisis due to shortage of shipping. In the 1950’s the Arigna power station, using native anthracite, and an oil-fired station at the North Wall were opened.

NUCLEAR POWER?

Demand for electricity continued to grow, and the ESB became heavily dependent on cheap oil. Wasteful use of electricity was actually encouraged. The Arab-Israeli war of 1973 led to a sharp rise in oil prices and dealt the world economy a severe blow. The Saorstát was badly caught as it now relied on cheap oil not only for electricity generation but also to fuel trains, heat schools and hospitals, produce fertiliser and for many other purposes.

The discovery of natural gas off Kinsale helped ease matters, and after 1975 oil prices began to fall off. But the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979 sparked another crisis: this time exacerbated by a rise in the value of the American dollar, in which oil is traded internationally.

A proposal was made that a nuclear power plant be constructed, and a site was even purchased at Carnsore Point. Certain politicians embraced the proposal at a suspicious level of enthusiasm, and it was assumed that the plant would be built by British contractors. Nuclear plants were known to be tricky and unreliable and potentially very dangerous and there was serious public concern.

Nuclear power stations are only economic if built on a very large scale, and a single plant would have exceeded the entire requirements of the Saorstát. Enthusiasts said that it would supply the six counties as well, and export the surplus to Britain. Already in Britain there were several such plants, mostly in Scotland and Wales, but there were strong ‘not in my back yard’ objections to the construction of any more and it became suspected that the Carnsore Point proposal was an attempt by the British to build another nuclear plant: on Irish soil at Irish expense.

Eventually the proposal was scrapped. Instead efforts were concentrated on improving efficiency of energy use, reversing the wasteful policies of the past. Attention turned again to native resources, and to such potential sources as wind power.

In most countries there is a patriotic core element in politics and the civil service. In a neo-colonial society this core is excluded. One result is an absence of long-term planning in matters of national interest. In the Saorstát a consequence of much chopping and changing and mismanagement and the tendency to install permanent solutions to temporary problems is that the ESB does have a large variety of generating plants and has built up considerable skill resources which have in recent years been marketed abroad with some success. The lesson that it is a mistake to let the State become totally dependent on any single external source of energy is slowly sinking in.

THE BALTIC EXPERIENCE

In 1918 the three Baltic states began with no generation capacity because of war damage and looting. Potential hydro-electric resources were small because all three countries are low and flat, and in any event all rivers there are frozen for four months of the year.

The main raw energy resource was bog peat and peat-fired power stations were constructed. In Estonia by 1940 there was a generating capacity of 200 Megawatts provided by three turf-fired stations, one hydroelectric plant and one station fired by native shale oil. The electrification of the railway network was begun. A peat briquette factory was built to provide an alternative to timber as domestic fuel.

Under Soviet rule (1940-1990) energy policy was centralised in Moscow and the three states integrated with Russia. When Lithuania broke away in 1991, Gorbachev cut off supplies of oil to that country. However the city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg again) defied the embargo and shipped oil to Lithuania.

At the present moment Lithuania has a massive energy headache: it depends for electricity on a single Chernobyl-era nuclear plant manned entirely by Russian technicians - whole town of them. It also still relies on Russia for all hydro-carbon fuels.

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The Balladmakers: Part 20 -- John Keegan Casey

JOHN Keegan Casey was born in Westmeath in 1846 and as a youngman became a Fenian activist. His few verses remain among the best and most beloved of those from that era. He died in 1870 as a result of ill-treatment in prison.

The Rising Of The Moon

Oh then tell me Seán O’Farrell,

Tell me why you hurry so?

“Hush, mo bhuachaill, hush and listen,”

And his cheeks were all a-glow.

“I bear orders from the Captain,

Get you ready quick and soon

For the pikes must be together

By the rising of the moon.”

Oh, then tell me, Seán O’Farrell,

Where the gathering is to be?

“In an old spot by the river

Right well known to you and me.

One word more — for signal token,

Whistle up the marching tune,

With your pike upon your shoulder,

By the rising of the moon.

Out from many a mud-wall cabin

Eyes were watching through the night,

Many a manly chest was throbbing

For the blessed warning light

Murmurs passed along the valleys

Like the Banshee’s lonely croon,

And a thousand blades were flashing

At the rising of the moon.

There beside the singing river

That dark mass of men was seen;

And above their shining weapons

Hung their own beloved green.

“Death to every foe and traitor!

Forward! Strike a marching tune,

And Hurrah, my boys, for freedom!

’Tis the rising of the moon!”

They fought well for poor old Ireland,

And full bitter was their fate

O! What glorious pride and sorrow

Fills the name of Ninety-Eight!

Yet thank God there still are beating

Hearts in manhood’s burning noon,

Who should follow in their footsteps

At the rising of the moon!

Máire My Girl

Over the dim blue hills

Strays a wild river,

Over the dim blue hills

Rests my heart ever.

Dearer and brighter than

Jewels or pearl,

Dwells she in beauty there

Máire my girl.

Down upon Claris heath

Shines the soft berry,

On the brown harvest tree

Droops the red cherry,

Sweeter than honey lips

Softer the curl

Straying a-down thy cheeks

Máire my girl.

Twas on an April eve

That I first met her;

Many an eve shall pass

Ere I forget her:

Since my young heart has been

Wrapped in a whirl

Thinking and dreaming of

Máire my girl.

Over the dim blue hills

Strays a wild river,

Over the dim blue hills

Rests my heart for ever:

Dearer and brighter than

Jewel or pearl

Dwells she in beauty there

Máire my girl.
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