Ciar McCormick | Staff Writer
“I have no taste for either poverty or honest labour, so writing is the only recourse left for me.” -Hunter S. Thompson
The big day had come. The big day every Irish person experiences at least once in their life. It was the day of my debs. As I woke, school friends were collecting their dry-cleaned suits, their dates were getting their hair and makeup professionally done and fitting into expensive dresses. But rather than spending the later part of the morning and early afternoon sprucing myself and preparing for the big night, I had other plans. I first heard of the We’re Not Leaving movement the same way most people find things these days; on the internet. It seemed like an interesting idea and it would be free in so I thought I might as well go down to Liberty Hall and see what it was all about.
“Does anyone have a laptop?” an organizer asked the early attendants of the meeting, “our laptop won’t work with this projector”. Well that’s not very forward thinking of them I told myself. “Organization is essential” said the first speaker Laura McKenna of the Young Workers Network. The irony shivered through my spine as she orated to the crowd unsupported by a projector. “Our future has been robbed… we’re labeled the lost generation,” she said. Her opening speech to the crowd was extremely emotive. I waited for a statement of fact; the speech ended.
The aim of this gathering they told us was to develop a Youth Charter which intended to articulate and codify youth discontentment with the crisis in Ireland, and the government measures to address it.
The next two speakers described how the ‘We’re Not Leaving’ movement came to be. The idea was formed at Youth Block meetings. They saw it as fitting to form a group that dealt with “the unfinished business of 1913”. I wonder would Big Jim Larkin have agreed with some of the alternatively cut bohemian haircuts dotted around the theatre. The aim of this gathering they told us was to develop a Youth Charter which intended to articulate and codify youth discontentment with the crisis in Ireland, and the government measures to address it. We were told the Charter to be developed wouldn’t start with the leaders but with its members. This confused me slightly. It was Martin Luther King Jnr. who said “a leader is not a searcher for consensus but a moulder of consensus”. Were the leaders of this organization just populists looking for the most fashionable opinion among the people in attendance?
Everyone present was split into groups. I was put in Group Seven. The topic to be discussed in my group was unemployment and forced emigration. Not exactly a precise topic is it? We sat around in a circle and began by introducing ourselves. It felt like an AA meeting for the unemployed. There was a broad spectrum of people in the group; the age range was predominantly at the older scale of what one would consider young people; I was the youngest there. Two speakers were present in the group to give information before the discussion began. These speakers were Paul Murphy of the Socialist Party and Becky Jeffries who is currently doing a masters on the topic “Pathways to political activism for young people in Ireland”. They told us there are 66,000 youths unemployed in Ireland at the moment. There are 6 million unemployed in Europe. I was shocked. The youth unemployment rate in Ireland is 28%. Youth unemployment is 60% in Greece, 50% in Portugal and 40% in Spain. More than one in five people can’t find a job. Surely not, I don’t know that many unemployed people? It was stated that there is an ideological war around unemployment as it is being demonized. A result of this demonization has led to unemployment impacting on mental health according to The National Youth Council. Due to this, 10,000 people emigrate every week the CSO reported. This is higher than the OECD average.
The discussion was opened to the floor. People gave their opinion on the topics at hand, they told their stories, and they became animated. I didn’t have anything to say, I had no stories; I couldn’t contribute. People began to disagree on what principles and goals should go in the Charter, which added to the discussion. As I lay silent I found myself quietly agreeing with one member in particular. He looked like he was well educated and came from a privileged background. He wore a blazer and an open neck shirt with shiny leather shoes; I thought, ‘he must be employed? Why was he here? Why was I here?’
The speakers switched and two new representatives came to talk to us. The first was Tommy Gavin a member of We’re Not Leaving who gave a presentation on “precarious work”; he admitted his only knowledge of the topic was due to the fact he had a presentation to give on the same topic for his sociology class. I had never heard of this term before. It is an uncertain continuation of employment with very little regulatory protection. The second speaker was Derek Keane, a CWU activist who spoke about JobBridge. This was another word that was foreign to me. It is a government run scheme to provide an element of work for the unemployed. 19,000 have gone through the scheme and even though the government suggests 61.4% went on to full employment, he proposed that actually only one in five got consistent and lasting employment. Keane advised that this was a bad scheme as it highly individualises unemployment, it depresses job creation and is replacing employed workers with JobBridge candidates who work for the company for free. He said it buys into this internship culture we have at present. Someone said “A day’s pay for a day’s work”; you can’t really argue with that.
As I walked to the bar to throw another €20 note at the barman so as to continue the flow of intoxicating liquid into my system it suddenly dawned on me: I was in denial.
It came time for the group to set out and write down our proposed goals. Some of the goals presented were ridiculously ambitious I thought. Repudiation of the debt? African countries don’t get that luxury and we’re in a better position to pay back our debt than they are. Substantial investment in creating jobs? God that is vague, the government could argue they have already provided ‘substantial’ investment. People that emigrate should still retain the right to vote? Do they not have that already? Well they should. Okay that one is good.
Two-thirty came and the group broke up for lunch. I took this chance to dash for the bus and head home to attend my prior arrangement. I came home to bottles of champagne, starters bought in Marks & Spencer’s and a professionally dry cleaned tuxedo. My date arrived, we took pictures. We migrated to pre-drinks. A bigger house, is that a pool in the back garden? More bubbly and idle conversation. “Did you guys rent a stretch limo for the evening?” The hotel was the next port of call, it had four stars. More alcohol, a three course dinner. As I walked to the bar to throw another €20 note at the barman so as to continue the flow of intoxicating liquid into my system it suddenly dawned on me: I was in denial. This was a bubble built on daddy’s money, this was not the reality. And as I continued to get drunk as a pig in some hotel on the Southside, there were people gathered working hard to distil down the wants and needs of the young people of Ireland and making it into an achievable Youth Charter. They were Leaders. They were organizing the youth of Ireland. They were going to mould this country into something sustainable and beneficial for the future. It was an egalitarian idea that my drunken friends and I needed to understand and help to achieve. For a second I felt disgusted with myself for being so deluded not to realise the problems the youth of Ireland are facing. At that moment I got called by a friend, “come dance with me! Stop being dry, come on!” She took my hand and I was led off into the crowd of ignorant bliss once more.
