Suchergebnisse

Money is power. It shapes our world in ways that can leave the mind reeling. Indeed, the bank crisis and subsequent recession made clear the influence that it has over our lives. Yet despite this, money remains an opaque and abstract space, with its own language and gatekeepers to knowledge. As citizens we are required to support the profit-seeking strategies of banks and other financial institutions but we are not supposed to question those strategies, the logic that underpins them, nor the unequal power relations that envelop its world. This book seeks to do precisely that. It explains and questions the world of money, and does so in an Irish context. It then puts forward ways for progressives to come together and work for a better and more inclusive Ireland -- one where the money system works for public cohesion over private accumulation. It will argue that money is a social technology, one that underpins a complex system of social relations, and the ownership and control of that technology gives those who hold it enormous social, economic and political power. It will show that there is a class in Ireland that has carved out a niche for itself within that system at a national and international level, and that class is deeply embedded in the institutions of the State. It will put forward alternatives that involve facing up to both the deep economic class divisions within Irish society and the gendered nature of economic inequality, as well as working collectively to transform the institutions and ideas which sustain and reproduce those divisions. Dr Conor McCabe is a research associate with UCD Equality Studies Centre. He has written extensively on Irish finance and is involved in activist education, working with political, trade union, and community groups in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

non-peer-reviewed ; In this paper we outline the features of an emergent resistance in Ireland. We examine its stunted development in the context of the period of speculative expansion known as the 'Celtic Tiger'. We draw attention to the speculative nature of the Irish boom period, to the character of the subsequent crash, to the conditions that have enabled the financial interest to effectively close ranks, transferring private debt to the general population. Whilst acknowledging the apparently low level of resistance to all of this, we reject the notion that the population has meekly accepted all of the related cuts and impositions. We show that the apparent submission to the austerity agenda is quite deceptive, that forms of resistance are emerging everywhere, not least in education, and that these represent the potential for the development of a mass movement against austerity in the years ahead. Amidst relentless attacks on services, and on the living standards of the population, we trace the development of several different forms of resistance that have emerged, along with the continuing efforts to pull its various strands together to produce something worthy of the Irish working class.