Writes Eoin O’Murchu
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s determination to reorientate trade and commercial relations between the US and the rest of the world, particularly Europe, has sent shock waves through the economic and political establishments North and South. In the South, the smug certainty that reliance on foreign direct in- vestment (FDI) was the bedrock of economic stability has been shattered by the impending crisis that Trump’s specific singling out of Ireland as a location for US pharmaceutical companies has emphasised. US companies have significant investments in Ireland, and SIPTU Deputy General Secretary Greg Ennis has pointed out that 210,000 jobs could be at risk as a result of new US tariffs and other pressure on US companies to relocate their investments to the US. SIPTU is calling for a taskforce, between unions, employer groups and government departments, to plan a coherent response to the new economic situation. This is sensible, but not enough.
So far, the government is clinging to the belief that the problem can be overcome through negotiations, and that Ireland’s response should be to row behind the EU in advancing our interests. This is a doomed strategy for two reasons: firstly, Ireland is a minor player in the EU hierarchy and will have little influence in shaping what- ever the EU puts forward, first among which will be the defence of the German car industry. Secondly, it is clear that the Trump team have a very negative attitude to the EU. Rowing in behind the EU will ensure that Ireland’s voice is not heard at all. Far better would be to advance our own exceptional case, based on the strong contribution that Irish Ameri- cans have made to the US over the years, and to lobby Irish America in general to speak up for our interests. More fundamentally, we have to accept that the old economic model of relying on foreign direct invest- ment is coming to an end. This will not happen overnight, and existing investments would be difficult to withdraw from Ireland, but future investments are certain to be cut significantly.
The EU will not be an alternative source of job creation for us, as each of the major member states is facing increasing economic recession and is desperate to defend its own jobs. Our only alternative is to do what we should have been doing during the breathing space that FI gave us, namely building up an indigenous industrial and job creating base. Let’s face it too? Private enterprise cannot and will not generate the scale of investment needed. Only the state can do that. And it is workers’ who will pay the price of capitalism’s failure. Nor is the North exempt from this negative impact. Starmer’s delusion that Britain can leverage a special relationship with the United States, while it tries to undermine trump’s end the Ukraine war strategy, will leave Britain with massively increased ‘defence’ expenditure on weapons of war at the cost of investment and so- cial services.
These costs will be borne especially in the North which is the most poverty stricken of all areas of the so-called United Kingdom. Once again, it is workers, the unemployed, the disabled and the pensioners who will pay the cost of capitalism’s failure. What we need, North and South, is a new economic model with the state, controlled by the people North and South, and not subject to the whims of profit-makers and profit-takers, which will centralise investment resources and use them for the social needs of the Irish people. Expecting British capitalism or European capitalism to put the people first is beyond delusion. With hundreds of thousands of jobs at stake, and with social welfare payments coming under increasing pressure downwards, we must push for more than a taskforce.
We need a new economic model – a socialist one.