Fortnight Publications Ltd.

Fostering Local Industrial InitiativeAuthor(s): Terry O'BrienSource: Fortnight, No. 133 (Sep. 24, 1976), pp. 5-6Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25545960 .

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FRIDAY 24th SEPTEMBER 1976/5

Fostering Local Industrial Initiative

Self-help is not a cure all.

Unemployment will not be ended

by self-help industries, but TERRY O'BRIEN argues that

they are a proven source of

manufacturing employment and merit greater encouragement.

Unemployment is likely to reach

70,000 before 1977. Even this figure needs to be considered against security

employment and emigration. The

former is running at between 12,000 and 20,000 while net emigration is some 1,300 per month. Hugh Logue has argued that this figures does not

take account of cross border migration and should therefore be higher.

If the immediate prospects are bad

what ofthe next two or three years? In

the past firms responded to an upturn in demand by taking on additional

workers. This process will recur

with one difference. A significant number of firms have closed

permanently during this recession. Their absence will reduce the impact on

unemployment of a re-expansion.

Northern Ireland is over-dependent on exports to Great Britain. Thus the stimulus of an upswing in world demand will register here via

increasing demand in Britain. There are time lag effects. Britain went into

recession later than the rest of Europe and is emerging later. Current pre dictions are that the strength of the

upturn in world demand will be weaker and less enduring than

anticipated. Given assumptions of

government cut-backs in expenditure it is difficult to foresee an upsurge in

demand in Britain which would be

strong enough to cause unemployment here to fall below the 34,000 mark

before 1979 unless net emigration continues to rise. This is a truly appal

ling prospect. It means that the move

ment towards peace must take place

against an economic situation

comparable with the height of the

depression in the thirties.

There are sound reasons why output should become less dependent on the

British market, especially in the case

of raw and processed foodstuffs. Mea sures are being taken to bring such diversification about but this is a long

term policy and positive employment effects would not be seen for some

time.

Flight of Firms The relative prosperity enjoyed

during the sixties in Northern Ireland

was partly due to the outside firms

which came here. World economic

conditions and the troubles have

turned the influx into a partial with

drawal. It will take a considerable

period of demonstrable peace and

harmony before reliable firms can be

tempted back in significant numbrers.

That also assumes that world

economic conditions would lead firms

to decide to move. One possibility is

that Brussels might be persuaded, as

part of regional policy, to direct all

incoming non-EEC firms (such as

Swedish, Japanese or American com

panies) to locate in specified under

developed regions. But this raises the

point as to whether the location of

foreign firms would be the best way to

solve the long-term economic prob lems of this area. For the moment the

option is not available.

In the present circumstances it

would seen that new industrial

employment must come from an

expansion of existing firms from new

enterprises based on indigenous initiative and selling to outlets only

partially dependent on the British

market.

The post-wai growth of Govern

ment intervention in the economy had some insidious effects. Whole com

munities fail to face their collective

responsibility to try to influence the

level of economic activity in their own

areas. They turn to Government for economic salvation. Short of imposing an East German type system,

government alone is patently unable to solve the problem. But government

representatives hesitate to spell out the

situation as baldly as Professor Kelly did recently in the Irish Republic.

Lessons from Spain Local communities at parish, town

and district level must be encouraged to make an attempt to initiate their own enterprises to cater for the

surplus population in those areas.

That this is possible is not an untested

hypothesis. The Mondragon workers'

co-operatives in Spain employ some

15,000 workers in 40 different estab lishments. Within Northern Ireland some twelve hundred persons are

employed in twenty seven establish

ments making transportable goods. This figure is 1,300 if the

non-transportable sector is included. Of this total figure 300 are part-time workers in the garment industry. Most of these enterprises have been

established as community ventures.

Half are co-operatives and the

expansion of employment is an

objective common to all. If local de

velopment groups were to receive the

support and encouragement they merit, a target of 1,000 new industrial

jobs could be generated annually from this source.

This could be done under the

following headings: COUNCILS

Some local district councils

interpret their powers to include the

encouragement of industrial activity. This interpretation should be confirmed and the LDCs given wider

powers of initiative. UNIONS

Irish and British based trade unions have shown a commendable willing ness to assist local groups in main

taining and expanding industrial

employment. The ATGWU has been

active in Newry and the ITGWU in Strabane. This type of support could be increased. Officials in posts of

responsibility in the trade union movement are thinking on these lines and hopefully they will be able to have their views reflected in effective policy action. But it is not simply a matter of

getting more trade union funds invested in co-op enterprises. It is a

matter of mobilising the society to work for a common wound healing goal. The striving itself would be

therapeutic. In 1957 at the height of the last

economic depression in the South the workers of Guinness started a fund to

help industrial projects around the

country. It was based on the idea that those who were lucky enough to have

jobs should make some direct effort to create employment for those who had not. It's still going. The trade unions are the appropriate body to stimulate this type of response in plants throughout the North. CAPITAL

The persons benefitting most from a new industry are those directly em

ployed. Until now workers have not been expected to contribute to the

capital of an enterprise. But many self-help groups are short of capital. In the Mondragon each worker must contribute a sum approximating to

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6/FORTNIGHT

?1,000 in our terms. But then these are

worker-owned co-operatives. Where

would a worker here get ?1,000 to risk

in a new self-help enterprise? From his

local credit union? Yes, if the credit

union had some safeguards. I mention

this to illustrate that the kind of aids

self-help groups require are more

subtle than straight government hand

outs. Provision for worker investment

loan guarantees is an example. CREDIT UNIONS

This brings the discussion to the

credit unions. The executive members

tend to be persons with a commitment

to their communities anci it is not

accidental that the same persons are

also frequently involved in self-help industrial projects. But the law cir

cumscribes the freedom of credit

unions to assist local co-operative industries directly. The institutions in

which funds can be deposited are set

out by the Registrar for friendly

societies. If local community enter

prises are to be encouraged a way has

to be found to permit the local

co-operative credit banks to give

support.

Shock and response The effect of shock in stimulating

societies to meet political and

economic challenges has been

remarked on. Prussia in 1807, mid

19th century Japan and Denmark

after 1866 are examples sometimes

cited. In each of these cases the shock was administered externally and there was decisive domestic leadership. In our society the shock originates internally and leadership is confused.

The desirability of creating our own

manufacturing employment is ac

cepted by every facet of political

thought in Northern Ireland. It is one

critically important issue which is not

divisive and which all sides can

support without compromise. In a

fractured society it is a piece of

common ground.

The Churches Individual clergymen have made a

major contribution to the self-help movement. In terms of church involve

ment the Society of Friends has par

ticipated to an extent out of all

proportion to their numbers in this

country. In the future the churches

may be able to help financially

through the Tnter-Church Emergency Fund for Ireland' but of equal

importance would be a concerted

policy to emphasise that communities

have a collective responsibility in times

of crises to play a part in meeting the

employment and other needs of their

members. In Northern Ireland Christ is a teenager on the dole.

Self-help bank What I am leading up to is the es

tablishment of a self-help bank or fund able to accept deposits from trade and credit unions and the churches and charitable trusts. Its function would.be to provide advice and finance to self-help groups to help them initiate local industry and to

guide them to the stage where the LEDU and other government agencies can meet their requirements. This

body could also negotiate with

government the type of aids most

appropriate to self-help groups.

Self-help conference Conscious of the potential of self

help generated employment the Northern Ireland Council of Social Service is holding a conference on 8th and 9th October in Portrush to discuss the problems of local development groups and how they might best be assisted.

Development groups which would like to be represented should

immediately contact:

Jonathan Stephenson, NICSS, 2 Annadale Road, Belfast BT7 3JH. Tel. 640011/2/3.

Dublin Letter

Security Problems

The latest government package which

passed through the Dail and Senate

last week with few amendments, has

enhanced the traditional law and

order image of the senior coalition

party, Fine Gael. Whether it will

effectively deal with the apparent

"emergency" with which the Republic

suddenly finds itself faced remains to

be seen. Opening debate on the

measures, Liam Cosgrave and Patrick

Cooney described them as the

government's response to events of

recent months, especially the assas

sination of the British Ambassador

and the dynamiting of a Dublin court

house. Not, one is forced to conclude, until these two recent events, have the

government felt the need to respond in a dramatic fashion to the terrorism

which had plagued this island for the

last seven years. One could further

conclude that in future those who wish

to see strong government action

against the gunmen should bypass normal methods of agitation and go out and shoot a foreign diplomat or

two to bring home to the

administration the need for activity on

their part. Naturally enough the new

legislation, which will have become

law by the time this appears in print, would have done little to prevent either incident had they been on the

statute book last spring. "These are not normal times"

quoth the government as they formally declared a State of Emergency which

enables them to bypass the Constitu

tion in the interests of public safety. But in a country born violently and

living under another declaration of

emergency for the last 27 years, violence and abnormal conditions are

in fact the norm. It is only peace,

perfect peace, that could be

considered "abnormal" in Ireland.

However, if after 1,500 deaths and

untold damage North and South, the

government has at last decided to do

something, one should, perhaps, rejoice that they have at long last

woken up to the facts of death, even if one cannot rejoice at the means they

employ to deal with the situation.

Basically the two new Acts

strengthen! the powers of the security forces, increase the penalties for IRA

membership and introduce the offence of incitement to give full opportunity for the armchair Provos to put into

practice all that they preach behind the walls of Mountjoy and Portlaoise

and, no doubt, should these measures

prove effective, behind the wire of of

the Curragh. Like all such legislation, they create

opportunities for abuse by the authorities. In effect the Republic's government is telling its citizens to trust them and that all law abiding citizens have nothing to fear. Brian Faulkner said much the same thing just before he locked up a number of innocent people (and some guilty ones)

who were lying quietly abed thinking they had nothing to worry about.

But, of course, the Republic's government are honourable men and

just because the British authorities

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