Interview with Irish revolutionist: 'Holding fast to socialist ideas pays off in the end'

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Joe Harrington (behind children) and neighbors celebrating election Last July, Joe Harrington, candidate of People's Democracy, the Irish section of the Fourth International, was elected to the city council in Limerick, a city of 80,000 in the Republic of Ireland.

While on vacation in Ireland last September, I took a train trip from Dublin to Limerick to talk to this revolutionary socialist councilman.

I didn't have his address. I expected to find it in the directory. No luck. Harrington, like many Irish workers, doesn't have a telephone. However, within a few minutes, I found a young cab driver who knew Harrington. "Every worker in town knows about Joe," said the driver. "He's one of us. He'd go to jail for us."

Joe Harrington's campaign literature takes up local issues-from taxes to the problem of wandering horses—but broadens out to the issue of women's rights and international questions like apartheid and Nicaragua. It is a socialist program.

"Soak the Rich," a 25-pence campaign pamphlet was a best-seller.

In a pamphlet addressed to Irish youth, Harrington says: "This system isn't working. All it means for young Irish workers is an endless cycle of un -employment, repression, poverty, and futility. It's a rotten mess, but the capitalists and their politicians keep it going because they're the ones who benefit from it.

"But things don't have to be always like this. People's Democracy is a revolutionary socialist organization pledged to working for an end of this rotten set up. Basing ourselves on opposition to British rule in the North, on support for workers' struggles all over Ireland, and on support for the demands of women and youth, we're working to build an anti-imperialist party of the Irish working class, committed to fight for a Socialist Republic."

Joe Harrington's record is an impressive one. He was a union organizer in Shannon for the Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU). He edited a union newspaper from 1974 to 1980 and headed up the Limerick H-Block/Armagh Com - mittee. He is presently a driver for the Mid Western Health Board, an ITGWU shop steward, and a delegate to the Limerick Council of Trade Unions.

Following are Harrington's answers to some of my questions:

Asher Harer: How do you explain your vote?

Joe Harrington: This is probably one of the most working-class areas in the country. I've been working here for about eight years. I did the work and got to be well known. But I was not elected as a personality—as many are.

We offered a solution to working-class problems: that people should organize themselves and campaign on their own behalf. Prior to and during the election we were active in a major campaign against increased local taxes—taxes on services.

Harer: The cabbie who brought me here mentioned a water tax.

Harrington: That was the principal one. We were fighting a tax of 50 pounds per year on each household in addition to the regular water bill—a 10 to 20 percent tax increase for the average family! And we are already paying for such services through national taxes.

Harer: Double taxation?

Harrington: Yes, And there was a massive opposition—led by tenants' and residents' associations. We saw it as an opportunity to organize people to fight on their own behalf. We came into the leadership of the movement in the course of the campaign.

Thousands came out into the streets in protest. And hundreds came down to the Town Hall every time the tax came up for a vote. We occupied the council chambers four times and prevented the council from passing the water tax.

Harer: Does the new city council have a majority against the water tax?

Harrington: Yes, most of the old council was thrown out...Now, it might seem this issue is not so important. But if the government can impose this tax they can bring in more local taxes—on refuse collection, on all local services, hospitals, etc. If they get away with this tax, the flood gates would be open. And then they'd be able to raise the taxes every year.

Harer: Do working people pay most of the taxes, as in the United States?

Harrington: Probably more-some -thing like 90 percent. Business pays about 7 percent. There have been massive protest movements against the tax situation here in Ireland. About three years ago, in Dublin, a quarter of a million came out. Irish workers are getting angry and fighting back.

Harer: Conditions in Ireland seem to be terrible. Worse than in England or Scotland.

Harrington: They are. There is massive unemployment and Limerick is one of the worst areas. Up until 10-15 years ago, Limerick had a strong native industry—but when Ireland joined the European Economic Community in 1972, tariffs were removed. Irish industries couldn't compete.

The multinational corporations moved in, seeking cheap labor, just like they do in Mexico or Taiwan. They set up industries with huge grants from the Irish government-machinery practically paid for, training of workers paid for, and taxfree for a number of years. The multinationals fight the unions and, if profits aren't up to expectations, close down and move to some other poor country.

Harer: Besides, don't they take the profits out?

Harrington: Oh, they do. Last year, a quarter of a billion pounds were taken out of Ireland-that we know of. And a very large part of the government's budget goes to service the national debt. Ireland has a huge national debt, just like the South American countries. That's where our taxes go, to the big banks.

Harer: What do you think we Americans can learn from your election campaign?

Harrington: Well, we were working for years, campaigning. We came under a lot of pressure from other tendencies, advising us to get involved with "pressure groups," just go out and do a lot of local work. They said we should "keep our heads down," keep politics out of it—"until you get elected—then you can do all the things you want to to do."

We resisted this pressure. We put forth our own program. We always insisted that working people should organize and fight in their own behalf.

Now we are in a better position to give leadership to the developing mass move -ment. Now people are listening, even to our ideas on fighting apartheid and defending Nicaragua, and we are calling for a referendum on divorce [which is illegal in Catholic Ireland—A.H.].

Yes, I say that holding fast to our program, our socialist ideas, pays off in the end.