The Economy

The experience of seven years of austerity has removed any doubt about the real relationship between states and markets. The market is a ruthless place where people sustain grievous injuries. It is the responsibility of the state to protect its citizens from the ravages of markets. For a very long time the reality of the market-state relationship was cloaked in a rhetorical language aimed at disguising the real nature of the relationship from workers. When the hope of long-term employment is taken away, it is sold as a flexible labour market, one that offers the perpetual opportunity to reinvent ourselves. When state provision for retirement is taken away, it is to give us the freedom to plan our old age. People are constantly forced to make choices decisions we must make alone, often without adequate information. This is not freedom; it is a form of slavery. Conference vows to fight back. It hereby instructs the incoming Executive Council to lead a campaign for a new type of political economy in both parts of Ireland, a campaign which puts decent wages, decent work, full employment and quality public services at the centre of a vision for a New Ireland.