Slides from a discussion on research into capitalism in Ireland and alternaitves

2. 1. Developing alternative
models of economic
analysis and organisation
2. Actively engage in public
debates and discussions
(including on the media)
related to their research
3. Participate in
collaborative research
projects
4. Give some public lectures
5. Contribute to the
organization of lectures
or workshops with
established scholars in the
field

10. 1. Societies are relational.

11. 1. Societies are relational.
2. The endless accumulation of
capital is inherently destructive
in terms of humanity and the
environment.

12. 1. Societies are relational.
2. The endless accumulation of
capital is inherently destructive
in terms of humanity and the
environment.
3. The capitalist mode of production is a
patriarchal mode of production –
„economic man‟ saturates its conceptual
framework.

13. Two aspects of modern globalisation:
1. Concentration of capital in fewer
hands and the domination of TNCs
2. The growing role of finance capital
Visible transfers, that is, the trade in
goods, have lost their importance vis-á-
vis invisible transfers like banking
transport, insurances, tourism.
Finance transactions play the most
important role in this shift.

14. … right from its beginnings the capitalist
economy has been a world system, based
on colonialism and the marginalisation
and exploitation of peripheral countries
and agriculture. This c0lonial structure
was and is the basis for what became
known as “free trade” in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries
Due to its inner logic of permanent
growth or accumulation, capitalism has
to strive towards universality and
globalism.

15. Colonies were not only necessary to initiate the
process of capital accumulation in what has been
called the period of „primitive accumulation‟ at the
beginning of capitalism. They continue to be
necessary even today to keep the growth mechanism
going.
Therefore we talk of the need for „on-going primitive
accumulation and colonization‟.
The ever-expanding process of capital accumulation is
based on the maintenance or even re-creation of
patriarchal or sexist man-woman relations, an
asymmetric sexual division of labour within and
outside the family…
This sexual division of labour is integrated with an
international division of labour in which women are
manipulated both as „producer-housewives‟ and as
„consumer-housewives.‟

23. Closing down of Dissent - Attacks on Equality in Ireland
Equality Bodies – closed down or with reduced Budgets
 Combat Poverty Agency –closed 2008 incorporated into the Department of Social Protection
 Equality Authority – 2009 43% cut and now being merged with the Human Rights Commission
 Women’s Health Council – closed 2009
 Crisis Pregnancy Agency – closed and merged with the Health Service Executive
 Irish Human Rights Commission -Budget cuts since 2009 and merged with Equality Authority
 Equality for Women Measure - co-funded by EU Operational Programme ---budget partly transferred out
of this area and now under Dept. For Enterprise, Trade and Employment
 National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) _Closed 2009
 Gender Equality desk at the Department (Ministry) of Justice, Equality and Law Reform – Desk Closed
2009
 Gender Equality Unit – Department of Education – Closed early 2000s
 Higher Education Equality Unit – UCC -Closed and merged into Higher Education Authority (early 2000s)
 National Women’s Council of Ireland -158 member organisations- budget cuts of 15% in 2008-11 and
38% in 2012
 Traveller Education cutbacks 2011 and 2012 – all 42 Visiting teaches for Travellers removed*
 Rape Crisis Network Ireland – core Health Authority Funding removed 2011
 SAFE Ireland network of Women’s’ Refuges - core Health Authority Funding removed 2011
 People With Disabilities in Ireland's (PWDI) - funding removed 2012
 National Carers’ Strategy – abandoned 2009
Kathleen Lynch, Equality Studies UCD
School of Social Justice 23

24. Over the past thirty years, despite
their being essential to human
life, neoliberal restructuring across
the world has privatised, eroded and
demolished our shared
resources, and ushered in a ‘crisis of
social reproduction.’
‘Cuts are a Feminist Issue’, Soundings
(Dec 2011), p.73.

25. The term social reproduction encompasses
all the means by which society reproduces
its families, citizens and workers. It includes
all the labour that is necessary for a society
to reproduce itself: the biological
production of people and workers, and all
the social practices that sustain the
population – bearing children, raising
children, performing emotional
work, providing clothing and food, and
cooking and cleaning.

26. The term social reproduction encompasses
all the means by which society reproduces
its families, citizens and workers. It includes
all the labour that is necessary for a society
to reproduce itself: the biological
production of people and workers, and all
the social practices that sustain the
population – bearing children, raising
children, performing emotional
work, providing clothing and food, and
cooking and cleaning.
As a concept social reproduction has been
key to feminist social theory, because it
challenges the usual distinctions that are
made between productive and
reproductive labour, or between the labour
market and the home.

27. The term social reproduction encompasses
all the means by which society reproduces
its families, citizens and workers. It includes
all the labour that is necessary for a society
to reproduce itself: the biological
production of people and workers, and all
the social practices that sustain the
population – bearing children, raising
children, performing emotional work,
providing clothing and food, and cooking
and cleaning.
As a concept social reproduction has been
key to feminist social theory, because it
challenges the usual distinctions that are
made between productive and
reproductive labour, or between the labour
market and the home.
Labour in this sphere is often devalued
and privatised, and is typically
performed by women in their ‘double
day’ or ‘second shift’, alongside paid
wage labour. But reproductive labour
of this kind is just as central to
capitalist accumulation as are other
forms of labour, which means that
struggles over its structure and
distribution are fundamental to any
understanding of issues of power and
the relationships between labour and
capital, as well as the potential for
their transformation.
http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_co
mments/cuts_are_a_feminist_issue

28. Social Reproduction
Renewing life is a form of work, a kind of production, as
fundamental to the perpetuation of society as the production of
things.
Moreover, the social organization of that work, the set of social
relationships through which people act to get it done, has varied
widely and that variation has been central to the organization of
gender relations and gender inequality.
From this point of view, societal reproduction includes not only the
organization of production but the organization of social
reproduction, and the perpetuation of gender as well as class
relations.
Barbara Laslett and Johanna Brenner, ’ Gender and Social Reproduction: Historical
Perspectives,’ Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 15 (1989): 383

29. The difference between a subsistence
orientation and scientific omnipotence
mania is the understanding that life
neither simply regenerates itself, nor is
it an invention of engineers; rather
we, as natural beings, have to cooperate
with nature if we want life to continue.
(26)

30. 11 May 2010
Dear Chief Secretary,
I'm afraid to tell you there's no money left.
Sincerely,
Liam Byrne.
chief secretary to the Treasury.

31. “The British Government has
run out of money because all the
money was spent in the good
years.”
George Osborne, 25 February
2012

32. “So we cannot just carry on as we are. Unless we reform our
economy - rebalance demand, restructure banking, and restore the
sustainability of our public finances - we shall not only jeopardise
recovery, but also fail the next generation.”
Mervyn King,TUC Conference, 15 September 2010.

33. 5 March 2009. QE : £75
billion
10 October 2011. QE : £75
billion
2009 – 2011. corporate bond
purchase via asset purchase
facility : £375 billion
2012: Monetary Policy
Committee approve a further
£50 billion.
“So we cannot just carry on as we are. Unless we reform our
economy - rebalance demand, restructure banking, and restore the
sustainability of our public finances - we shall not only jeopardise
recovery, but also fail the next generation.”
Mervyn King,TUC Conference, 15 September 2010.

34. Long Term Refinancing Operations
(LTRO)
21 December 2011: €489.2 billion to
523 banks – 3yrs @ 1 per cent
29 February 2012: €529.5 billion to
800 banks – 3yrs @ 1 per cent

35. Long Term Refinancing Operations
(LTRO)
21 December 2011: €489.2 billion to
523 banks – 3yrs @ 1 per cent
29 February 2012: €529.5 billion to
800 banks – 3yrs @ 1 per cent
“Some banks, particularly in Spain and Italy, used
portions of those funds to buy higher-yielding bonds
issued by their governments at a time when most
investors remained skittish, and it helped reduce
government borrowing costs.
But many banks primarily used the funds to pay down
maturing debts or simply deposited the money at other
banks or with the ECB itself, even though they yield less.
The infusion fell short of some politicians' hope that it
would stimulate bank lending to customers in struggling
European economies.”
Wall Street Journal, 1 March 2012

46. The Desjardins group first managed to democratize and decentralize financial
services, making them accessible to all strata of the population and spreading them
across the Québec local communities.
The [Desjardin group] system has always managed to strike a fine balance
between financial constraints and social concerns, and between the members‟ long-
term financial security and their short-term aspirations.
The Desjardins experience suggests that its democratic procedures are partly a cost
indeed, but for an irreplaceable social function…
… successive [economic] crises… instead of threatening the existence of the
group, have in fact reinforced it and provided it with the opportunity to carry out
institutional innovation and improve its core mission of servicing its members.
… rationalist and ethics do make a difference, provided they are allowed to find
their way in the organization through the institutionalization of routines, checks
and balances, and strategic priorities.