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Title: Handouts or Rights?
Author: Workers Solidarity Movement
Date: 1995
Language: en
Topics: charity, Ireland, Workers Solidarity
Source: Retrieved on 26th November 2021 from http://struggle.ws/ws95/charity45.html
Notes: Published in Workers Solidarity No. 45 — Summer 1995.

Workers Solidarity Movement

Handouts or Rights?

IRELAND IS ONE of the thirty richest countries in the world. At the same

time, 20% of the population live below the poverty line. The Combat

Poverty Agency says that “disparities are widening and will continue to

do so in the years ahead”. Yet, instead of providing money to deal

adequately with the problems of poverty, for example; drug addiction,

homelessness and unemployment, the State gives tax amnesties to the

rich, and puts up over £200 million for Larry Goodman.

The material desires of most people — for example a job and a good

standard of living, are not provided for. We have no ‘right’ to these

things. We are given a welfare system which does not provide a basic

minimum for a decent lifestyle, and we have to turn to charities to fill

in the gaps.

Charities

And the gap between what people need and what they get is big. There are

over 3,700 charities in Ireland, trying to deal with just about every

disadvantaged sector in society; from Health and Education to

Travellers, women, and children. They all do essential and valuable

work. But they are only necessary because the state is not providing

these services itself.

The ordinary citizen volunteers the time and money. Most adults in

Ireland give to charity more than once a month, amounting to roughly

£246 million donated each year. And people devote large amounts of time

as well.

Take carers, for example. According to the National Carer’s Association,

there are roughly 100,000 carers, looking after people who are severely

sick and helpless, but who are not given hospital beds. A typical carer

is a housewife looking after one of her relatives, “in many cases, on

call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week”.

Insecurity and Competition

The work that carers have to do in Ireland, with a high physical and

emotional burden, highlights one problem of leaving the voluntary sector

responsible for doing vital social work.

But aside from leaving individuals with large responsibilities there are

other problems. The voluntary sector is by its nature insecure. It is

reliant on volunteers to put in the time and money. If that time and

money is not forthcoming, then the charity folds.

Even voluntary services which receive State donations are not safe. The

“Rape Crisis Centre” in Dublin, has nearly collapsed on several

occasions due to lack of government funds.

Competition is also a problem that charities have to deal with. People

have only so much to give, so charities have to compete with each other

for donations.

National Lottery

Since the introduction of the National Lottery, donations to charities

have decreased. And the National Lottery, which gives nearly £100

million to various causes, has recently expressed fears that the new

British Lottery will take away some of its customers in Northern

Ireland.

To quote John Hynes, the Chairman of the National Lottery, “It is still

too soon to determine what long term effect the UK games will have on

our sales”. Loss of customers means less money to the charities which

are dependent on its handouts.

This has direct results. The National Lottery gives one third of its

takings to the Department of Health and Welfare. It could mean fewer

hospital beds, less money to Women’s Aid or less money to the Irish Red

Cross. Why should any of these causes suffer at the whim of the

consumer? The only way to avoid it is by guaranteeing the right to

funding for these services.

And it is ‘rights’ which is the crux of the whole problem with

charities. The existence of a charity to provide a service, means that

it is not a ‘right’ to receive such a service. The service is not

guaranteed, it could end due to lack of funds, lack of support, or it

could be out competed by another, equally deserving cause.

Rights not Charity

When we say that organisations such as the Irish Wheelchair Association

or St Vincent de Paul have a voluntary status, it is another way of

saying that we do not have the guaranteed right for such services to

exist. We should be lucky that they exist. When the National Lottery

gives money for hospital building or a grant for Libraries, we are

expected to be grateful instead of regarding it as a right.

Is this the way the state should treat our disadvantaged? Money should

be spent on eliminating poverty and providing decent jobs for all. The

reliance on the voluntary sector to provide essential services should be

eliminated. We deserve rights not charity.

Capitalism, with its “free market” and division of society into

exploiters and exploited, can not guarantee such ‘rights’. A combination

of charity and campaigning for more funding, at the expense of the rich,

can bring some small but very real improvements in the lives of the

poor. The elimination of poverty, however, requires the replacement of

the present system by one where production is organised to satisfy the

needs of the many instead of the profit lust of the few. Then mutual;

aid will do away with the need for charity.

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In 1960 the richest 20% of the world’s population owned 30% of the

wealth, today they own 60%. The annual income of the bottom 50% of the

world’s population totals £815 billion. That is exactly equal to the

amount spent each year on arms, 86% of whichare supplied by Britain, the

USA, France, Germany and Russia.