Eaten Bread

“Eaten Bread is soon forgotten” is an old saying which is popular in Ireland and probably in Britain and other English speaking countries.  It is generally used as a chastisement to someone who was given money or a charitable gift to chide them for asking for more.  But if you think about it, eaten bread in the real sense as a food, is quite rightly soon forgotten because once it is consumed the person becomes hungry again.    Take the case of Greece at the moment and the ongoing crisis about the need for a second “bailout” for the Greek economy from the EU and IMF.  The “benefactors” are demanding that the Greek people take another round of the most vicious austerity in more than 70 years.  The fact that it is the European project and the Euro which is in reality being bailed out is not mentioned.  The message is that the Greeks, and the Irish, were profilgate and took too much from tthe table of plenty when times were good.  But the facts do not bear this out.

“We all partied” is the message being given out by governments.  It is the companion-piece to “we’re all in this together”.  Well we are NOT all in this together. I do not see much sign of poverty or suffering among the elites that run Europe.  Despite high-profile pay cuts for government ministers and a well publicised referendum on cutting judges pay in Ireland, the ‘great and the good’  have continued to party.  Just last weekend as I sat out looking at the beauty of Cork Harbour  I noticed that the number of speedboats and yachts has not fallen significantly.  One new cabin cruiser passed me by, it’s bronzed passengers parading themselves to ensure they were seen.    The vessel was well over 50ft (15m) in length and would have cost in the region of €300,000 to buy, possibly a lot more.  Jealous?  Me?   No way, I love boats and the sea but I would much prefer a small punt to splash about in or something more practical.  The point is that there are a sizeable number of people in Ireland, and no doubt in Greece too, who have barely been touched by the recession.  The same people are the investing and speculating class.  These are the bondholders that our government keeps talking about burning but the only heat they will feel will be an Adriatic holiday or the heated swimming pool in their Spanish villa.   These people are not worried about hospital cutbacks or pay cuts (they’re the ones grumbling about having to pay the minimum wage to their workers).

The reality is that the elite class of Europe – the bankers, stockbrokers, speculators, developers and their pliant politicians and servile media who serve their masters first and then themselves, are waging a war against the people who make up the majority of Europe’s population – the workers and the poor.  They do so through a policy of “divide and conquer”.  They set private sector workers against public sector workers, they set immigrants against natives, they create illusions of class difference among workers so that many workers who are slightly better off are sold the lie that they are middle class.   And when all else fails they use nationalism with the images of slovenly Greeks and profligate Irish portrayed to German, French and British workers.
In a sense we are all in this together – but only if “we” means the working class – the ordinary people of Europe and excludes the real spongers at the top, the people who have create the crisis.   Although the slogan “Workers of the world, unite!” was first written over 150 years ago it is more relevant than ever.