An alternative economic agenda

By Sean Kelly

All the mainstream, well-paid media
commentators tell us ‘there is no alternative’ to their plan for bailing out
Irish capitalism.

The People Before Profit Alliance have set
out an alternative plan. Here are some key elements of the alternative economic
agenda:

• Nationalise the banks and create a state
  banking system. Organise the credit system to eliminate financial
  speculation and to support job creation. The banking system should be run
  by elected representatives of the Irish people and trained financial experts
  employed on public sector pay scales for the benefit of ordinary people.
• Consolidate and Create a State
  Construction Agency and embark on key infrastructural projects to create
  jobs and stimulate the economy. Infrastructural development projects for a
  public works programmes should include:
• A fully integrated rail and transport
  network for major cities
• A housing insulation programme to reduce
  energy usage
• National networks of state regulated,
  publicly owned or franchised crèches, care homes for the elderly, and of
  sheltered accommodation for whose who need it
• A network of primary health care centres
  with developed preventative medicine systems, thus reducing reliance on
  hospitals
• An emergency social housing and schools
  building programme to clear the decades-long waiting list for
  accommodation
• A proper re-cycling industry financed
  through direct taxation, particularly of wealth
• Develop new strategic industries,
  including:
• A generic pharmaceutical industry to
  contribute to the global replacement of ‘big Pharma’
• Pioneering forms of technology to
  support a shift to preventative medicine
• Support for agricultural co-operatives
  that pioneer the development of organic food
• Re-opening of closed factories by their
  workers to produce goods people really need
• A new, fairer tax system including a fair
  tax on all income and profits, legislation to close the tax fugitive rule
  which allows the wealthy to avoid paying taxes, a tax on all income over
  €100,000 at a surcharge rate of 70 percent, and an end to inheritance tax
  allowances on all large business and large farms
• An expanded and re-oriented public sector
  which will reclaim ESB and Eircom, reverse the cuts on the public
  transport network and other sectors, end Public-Private Partnerships,
  prevent managerialism and artificial performance targets, and democratise
  how the public sector is run
• Schemes to create the real foundations
  for a ‘knowledge economy’ by investing in education and creating new
  openings for ‘second chance’ learners
• New rules to regulate private capital
• Protection for state pensions and limits
  on how pension funds are invested
• Laws to make Ireland a genuinely
  egalitarian and multicultural society that respects human rights and
  values the contributions of all.