The INOU is a federation of unemployed people, groups and organisations. We have two strands of membership: (i) organisations working on unemployment as a focus or part of their work can become Affiliates and (ii) people who are unemployed can become Individual Members. In this article an Individual Member describes his experience of unemployment, articulates his concerns about how Ireland is run, and how he would like to see unemployment addressed.
I am currently working on a Community Employment Scheme. Before I got this opportunity I was unemployed and in Limbo for over one year. It was a terrible experience. The redundancy and the unfairness made me rage at every job application that I sent to employers. According to the statistics Ireland is one of the richest countries on the planet with an average wealth of €70,000 per capita. Citizens on job seekers allowance are on around €10,000 per capita. The Government is responsible for overseeing the breakdown in wealth distribution, but does it in such a way that the money in the State trickles up into the pockets of landlords and capitalists. Worse than that our national assets are privatised, and an upper crust of millionaires can aspire to becoming billionaires due to the ransacking of the commonwealth.
Unemployment is a political issue. The unemployed are at the bottom of the social ladder just above the homeless and destitute. It is incumbent upon the unemployed to become a militant body expressing its common interests through its organisation the INOU. Just as the farmers and other pressure groups protect and advance their economic interests the unemployed must be prepared to unite and protest for our own share of the economic and social goods of Ireland. This is a call to arms. The only defence of an unemployed man’s mental health is his organisation with others to fight the injustice of unemployment. We have voices that must be heard. We have the responsibility to show solidarity to one another in the common cause of furthering the lot of the unemployed together as a unity behind the INOU.
The only saving grace for me has been the state provided Community Employment (CE) Scheme opportunities. This proves that state intervention works. We need more state intervention to directly provide jobs to the unemployed. Realistically this would only occur if we had a Leftist government in Ireland. One day we need to be in power in Dáil Eireann and support the running of the country in the furtherance of the workers of Ireland. Such a Leftist government would work in service to us for a change rather than using the opportunity for the millionaires to become billionaires while the poor descend into hellish Limbo.
My mental health has suffered greatly during my period of unemployment. As well as fighting for employment opportunities I have had to fight the psychiatric system for my freedom from psychiatric state control. A better cure for mental health problems, due to an impoverished environment, is solidarity and common cause militancy in the name of a better future for all. It is time that the industrial reserve army of the proletariat unite behind the INOU in militant action to throw off the mental chains of poverty and redundancy in the name of a better day for all.
Let’s rally behind the INOU as the natural organisation to fight and express our concerns. In unity and struggle we will find peace in the face of the corporate juggernaut. The cause of one unemployed man or woman is the cause of every one of us. So, let’s combine to fight for our common goals. For State jobs at the union rate of pay for all unemployed people in Ireland. Together we can heal and win and fight our way out of socio-economic Limbo together.