‘
P
"

FEATURES

By NIALL FARRELL

At the end of January ona bitterly cold and wet day, 15
year old Ann Lovett, instead of going to school, made
her way to the secluded graveyard in her local village of
Granard in the Republic of Ireland. She brought with her
a pair of scissors. Her intention was to give birth. A few
hours later, Ann Lovett and her newly born son were
dead — she of a hemorrhage and he of exposure.

The press made the most of this tragic event. These
were the very same newspapers, which had remained
silent or supported the 1983 constitutional amendment

that made abortion illegal. From then on, no matter what

the circumstances, all pregnancies would be brought to
full term. However, nowhere in the amendment was
provision made for life beyond the point of birth.

Regarding such questions the Catholic hierarchy and
its political hangers-on, who had been the instigators of
this amendment, were unusually silent. There was little
or no comment from these watchdogs of Irish morality
after the tragic deaths of Ann Lovett and her son. The
burden of the deaths was to be placed very firmly on the
shoulders of the Lovett family. Even without this
tragedy the hypocrisy is plain to see. The “‘right to life of
the unborn’’, is pontificated, the born take their chances.
A walk through the streets of Dublin illustrates this
point. 2

The river Liffey, which flows through the centre of the
Irish capital, with its many picturesque bridges is a favo-
rite spot for the beggars of all ages. Locally the Liffey is
renowned for the unpleasant odors that emanate from
between its banks, however this is perhaps a suitable
background for the distasteful sight of the beggars,
which include young boys and girls and mothers with
babies. :

The child beggars however have found a way for tem-
porary escape. In all kinds of weather, as they sit on the
bridges or quays with an outstretched hand their other
hand clutches a plastic bag full of glue. :

There are children of all ages sleeping on the streets,
some as young as eight or nine. The numbers are increas-
ing and it is the 16 to 18 year olds that are particularly
affected. The reasons are simple, as soon as young
people reach school-leaving age, the family allowance
ceases and they become a financial strain on the house-

- Dublin’s unlikely privilege: -
the poorest city in Europe |

hold. There are no jobs available and 16 to 18 year olds
are not eligible for unemployment benefits. In the past
emigration had always been the alternative, but now
with unemployment seemingly on every horizon, that is
no longer a viable proposition. Hence many wind up on
the streets, destitute.

Today, Dublin has the unlikely privilege of being
ranked the poorest capital in Europe. The poverty,
unemployment, low incomes and urban jungles have
created fertile soil for the growth of crime, vandalism
and drug peddling. Even the Irish Tourist Board has

come to admit to the social decay. They now warn all.

foreign visitors of the dangers of being robbed in Dublin
city.

But perhaps the most telling sign has been the out-
break of the ‘‘heroin bushfire’’, which has rapidly spread
throughout the poor inner-city areas of the capital. In the
inner-city, the complexes of flats that ring the city centre,
it has been a common sight to see addicts “‘fixing’’ them-
selves on the stairways.

A typical example is St. Teresa’s Gardens. This com-
plex was built back in 1951 and houses 400 families in 12
bleak slabs of grey red brick. Unemployment here has hit
60 per cent and only 5 per cent of teenagers. regularly
attend school.

Dry statistics cannot express the human anguish and
misery involved in drug addiction, they can only relate
the colossal size of the problem; it is reckoned that 10 per
cent of young people between the ages of 15 and 25, in
inner-city Dublin, are heroin addicts. Young people are
the most vulnerable and a recent survey in one area
showed that more than 50 per cent of 12 to 16 year olds
have at sometime been offered heroin. The rise in heroin
addiction has corresponded with a rise in various kinds
of crime — mugging, handbag snatching and burglary.
The junkies need money to feed their habits, which can
cost well over £80 per day. For a stolen color television,
a pusher only guarantees enough heroin for a day.

The authorities have refused to tackle the problem, so
residents from the inner-city areas have taken on the job.
Groups of ‘Concerned Parents Against Drugs’’ have
sprung up. And they have successfully managed to make
many of their areas ‘‘drug free’’. While this has had
initial successes, it isn’t a cure. When the pushers are

A woman with her infant begs on O’Connell bridge span
ning Dublin’s Liffey River.

expelled from one area they simply move their busines
to another locality. 3
The reality is, that if the drug epidemic is to be de
stroyed, the source of the problem needs to be counteret
— the poverty, unemployment and social decay
coupled with action against the dealers. As yet th
government has made no moves in either direction. Th
economic policies that are a recipe for social deprivatio!
continue to prevail. Rather than go all out to defeat th
professional criminals, the authorities are instead tryin
to introduce a draconian piece of legislation, which ha

~ major political overtones and is a basic assault on all civ

liberties. As the national youth magazine ‘‘Foliaro”’ pu
it: ‘‘It is like turning up the heat under the a container 0
liquid while at the same time battering down the lid mom
firmly to prevent it spilling out. What you get instead !
an explosion.” : a

Niall Farrell is a journalist and a leading member of th

Communist Party of Ireland.

A Farm Conference of members of the
Communist Party of Canada, held in
Saskatoon, November 10-12, issued an
appeal which faced up to the joint prob-
lems of the family farm, working farm-
ers, and industrial workers affected by
farm fortunes, all of whom are inter-
dependent.

The following is the full text of the
Saskatoon Appeal on Behalf of Working

The farm crisis:
all have a stake

porary euphoria resulting from a Tory ~
majority will soon give way to a growing —
gulf between those whose aim it is tO ~
push politics to the right and those who ~
_. will be increasingly compelled to fight for —
genuine change. Unity of the progressive ~
forces, in the first place labor/farmer un- —

ity, is therefore an urgent necessity. :
Genuine Recovery

Farmers — Labor-Farmer Unity in De-
fence of the Family Farm, Jobs and Liv-
ing Standards.

The Appeal was presented by Bruce
Magnuson, a member of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of
Canada, and approved by the confer-

ence.
* * *

SASKATOON — The crisis in agricul-
ture permeates society.

Farmers are being driven off the land,
workers in the agricultural implements
industry face indefinite and sometimes
permanent layoffs. : :

Workers in the food processing indus-
try are forced into concessions and these
same food processing monopolies are
forcing down farm gate prices.

Farmers’ returns are continually fall-
ing behind the ever increasing costs of
inputs.

Canada’s most productive farmers are
carrying debts that most of them can
never hope to repay. A study by the Fed-
eral Farm Credit Corporation, shows
that one-third of Canada’s working far-
mers with high debts and low equity in
their farms accounted for one-half of the
country’s food production in 1983. This
flatly contradicts the official propaganda
myth that those who are going out of
business or who are in sereious difficulty
tend to be poor managers and inefficient
farmers.

The problems facing working farmers
have been further aggravated by drought
on the prairies and flooding in B.C.
These calamities now require immediate
compensation for extensive damage. As
if this were not enough farmers are being
saddled with unbearable freight costs as
a result of the monopoly/government as-
sault on the Crow Rate. This will in-
crease freight costs 500 per cent by 1990.
The statutory Crow-Rate must be re-
stored.

Struggling farmers, who are fighting in
defence of their farms and against evic-
tions, such as leaders of the Canadian
Farmers’ Survival Association, are fac-
ing criminal charges while the banks and

other creditors, including foreign inves- -

tors are taking over farm land and means
of production.

Farm bankruptcies now typify the
countryside all over Canada. In Ontario
it has reached a record level of 104 in the
first eight months of 1984, out of a
Canada-wide total of 373. But these
figures show only voluntary declared
bankruptcies. The Ontario Federation of
Agriculture predicts there could be 10
times as many farmers who were fore-
closed on, or who simply sold out.

Financial disaster looms for most
working farmers. Usurious. interest
rates, low returns on produce, high costs
of fertilizers and other inputs, all this has

led to a decline in farm income and ruina-
tion of many farmers. At the same time
there is a growing concentration of land
ownership in the hands of big land-
owners. What is evident is that
capitalism threatens the continuing exis-
tence of the family farm. This is in
marked contrast with socialism where
farmers and workers have a secure fu-
ture before them.

A Common Stake

Above all the answer is to be found in
unity in action of the working class and
the working farmers, together with all
working people in the struggle for peace
and social progress, against the costly
and dangerous arms race and in the
struggle to repulse  govern-
ment/monopoly attacks on living stan-
dards. In this way it may be possible to
reverse an otherwise hopeless process of
chronic economic crisis and bring recov-
ery based on full employment and a
healthy agriculture.

The National Farmers’ Union, the
Canadian Farmers’ Survival Association
and others have called for governments
to enact a Farmers’ Creditors Arrange-
ment Act and for a moratorium on farm
debts. This deserves the full support of
organized labor across the country.

The election of a majority Tory
government in Ottawa did not resolve
the basic issues facing workers and far-
mers. These problems remain. The tem-

Workers and farmers, together with all
progressive minded people need to unite —
and win a new deal for the working
farmer and a new policy that will restore
health to our agricultural community.
healthy agricultural policy is a majot —
component of a genuine recovery, t0
save the family farm, to provide jobs an
improve living standards. As a first steP» _
the time has come to relieve the farmers —
from the onerous debt burden imposed —
on them by monopoly and governments. —
The time has come for a country-wide —
campaign to win: :

e Areturn to the statutory Crow Raté

e A moratorium on farm debts and at
end to foreclosures 3

e Interest-free government loans t0~
protect the working farmer ig

e An end to usurious interest rates —
charged by banks’ and financial
institutions 3

e A policy of 100 per cent price parity —

e Free crop insurance ol

e Expanded trade with the socialist
countries ae

e Trade with developing countries |
based on long-term credits. a

Labor/farmer unity can win these de ~
mands on behalf of working farmers 45 4”
first step toward a recovery, with jobs”
and improved living standards and 0
save the family farm. In all of the above ©
the Communist Party has a vital role 1”
play as the party of socialism in Canag@- —

6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 21, 1984