Sociology:Kieran Allen has done the Irish public a great service by writing this righteous and angry book. In the consumerist and debt-driven fog of Celtic Tiger culture, people rarely stop and think about what kind of socio-political processes led us to where we are.
It is only when some of the global firms announce some job losses that worry-lines appear on the brow of the newsreader. Only then do Joe and Jill Public appear to be really interested in the ordinary everyday lives of working people.
Concern has been expressed at least since the early 1980s about the Irish economy's high level of dependence upon trans-national corporations (TNCs), most notably with the publication of the Telesis Report in 1982. We have known for many years now about TNCs' high rate of profit repatriation or "capital flight", calculated at 10 per cent of total GNP way back in 1989. We also know about their ability to make or break local communities. In the 1980s and 1990s, some of us highlighted how crucial cheap female labour was in attracting TNC investment; others zoomed in on the "sweetheart deals" struck between the global firms and the unions, preventing any unseemly conduct among workers; and others stressed how IDA incentives favoured TNCs at the expense of indigenous industry.
In such critical sociological and economic literature, a common critique of TNCs is that they are "footloose", moving around the world at will in order to exploit what resources are locally available and to maximise their profits. Allen challenges this idea, stressing how deeply embedded they are in local networks of power and how much it actually costs them to move. His argument, which we also saw in his previous book, The Celtic Tiger, is that this vulnerability actually adds greater weight to workers' resistance. He thus seeks to undermine what he terms "the myth of invincibility", arguing that the economic giants have a rarely-acknowledged Achilles heel.
ALLEN'S RED-HOT research brings us right up to date, seeking to set an agenda for the 21st century. He goes straight for the jugular, attacking the sycophantic relationship between the Irish State and big business. He condemns this State as being more than willing to sacrifice human welfare and social justice to the needs and dictates of TNCs. He says that what we have now is a "'managed-democracy' where periodic elections are used to legitimate decisions already made". He integrates the outrage of the exploitation of the Gama workers and the case of the Rossport Five into this picture. He addresses how large corporations and advocates of the neo-liberal agenda are invading many spheres of public life: schools, universities, hospitals, the environment. He claims that "economists [ are] akin to a new priesthood and speak with all the certainty once used about the spiritual realm". His is the work of a socialist warrior, unafraid to name names where he sees fit. He also argues that organised labour has been in a Rip Van Winkle sleep for decades, leaving the way clear for neo-liberals to change the country almost beyond recognition.
ALLEN ADVOCATES A politics of the possible. He highlights instances of "people power", like at Carnsore Point and Rossport, where people have sought to defend their localities from harm. He advocates the development of a new left party that builds upon these diverse experiences and creates a new political agenda that challenges corporate power. It is difficult to share in his optimism. It can be notoriously tricky to convert a local struggle that is based on the principle Not In My Back Yard to a wider one based on the axiom Not In Anybody's Back Yard. Such social movement activity is necessarily scattered and localised, and with our cash-rich, time-poor lifestyles, there is no guarantee of the commitment necessary for political success.
One major gripe is with the publisher rather than the author. The copy-editing leaves a lot to be desired, with nine obvious errors in the introduction alone. This does the author no favours. Neither does the cover illustration of a Shell to Sea protest. This might prevent some people from even opening the book, if they are sceptical about this particular campaign.
This intensely radical analysis deserves to be discussed by all of the major players in Irish public life, not just by the usual suspects on the political left. Even if one does not agree with all of Allen's arguments, if there was a genuine media engagement with his work, the quality of public debate would be very much enhanced. I would give my left arm to hear a head-to-head between Allen and some of the main representatives of Bertie Inc. Sadly, I suspect it won't happen any time soon.
Ethel Crowley is a sociologist at University College Cork. Her last book, Land Matters: Power Struggles in Rural Ireland, was published by Lilliput Press in 2006
The Corporate Takeover of Ireland By Kieran Allen Irish Academic Press, 274pp. €19.95