On the Vincenty Browne To night show on TV3 (lat Monday night) in the course of a discussion on the Irish banking crisis right wing Constantin Gurdgiev claimed that the state Pension Fund set up in Irelanjd was not designed to provide pension funds for retired private and public workers. He said that it was designed to make good the pension deficit for the public worker and not for those on statutory state pensions.
Clearly once again Gurdgiev is making misleading claims. He argues that the state pension can be reduced right down to zero whereas the pensions of public workers cannot. In his tirade he forgot that public workers pensions have already been seriously reduced. This is a recorded fact that is undeniable. The point is that it would appear that the government can cut back radically on all pensions supplied by the state whether of the "public" or state kind. There is no essential difference between the two when it comes to state spending. Both public sector and state spending amount to the same thing --state spending. Yet Constantin seeks to suggest that public sector pensions are public while statutory state pensions are not. The problem with Connstantin Gurgiev is that much of the time it is difficult to understand him because of his idiosyncratic speaking manner. This, among other things, helps him get away with gross inaccuracies while appearing to be very clever. He really brought out how crass he can be on a VB To Night show in his disgusting and hysterical rant against Kieran Allen's recent book on Marxism. His vituperative and prejudiced attack indicated that the problem was not Allen's book but Gurgiev's right wing hatred of Marx. A lot of workers think he is (as with Brian Lucey and David McWilliams) on the same side as they. His right wing political philosophy needs to be accurately highlighted for the benefit of the working class. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
