One might imagine that a group that has dedicated itself to combatting the Far Right would at the very least pay lip service to Old Left concepts such as the solidarity of the international working class, fundamental to which is the legal right to join a trade union.
That right is little observed, of course, once the Left takes power. There have never been free and independent trade unions in states run by the far left. Lenin himself derided trade unionism and the just demand for proper treatment by workers as “economism.”
In What is to be Done? Lenin dismissed the working class struggle for decent wages and conditions as a distraction from the Revolution that would be led by himself and other déclassé rich boys who had fallen out with their wealthy families. When he and his buddy Trotsky took power after the 1917 coup they quickly banned trade unions.
That tradition is observed up to the present day when Communist China enforces a ban on free trade unions, and the right to strike, through terror. This is one of the attractions, no doubt, to western corporate Capital which enjoys the “market freedoms” guaranteed to them by General Secretary Xi.
That, perhaps, may be a reason why so many of the corporate billionaire foundations are happy to throw money at the Left in the west – including our own Hope and Courage Collective, which readers will recall has established itself as a self-appointed gatekeeper to advise the state as to what opinions ought perhaps not be allowed a “platform.”
The Collective makes much of its outreach to workplaces and trade unions – as outlined in Chairperson Siobhan O’Donoghue’s latest report – and its financial statement shows that one of its main donors last year was a foundation set up by the owners of a company which closed an American plant rather than recognise the staff union.
The foundation in question is Luminate, which was created in 2018 by Pierre and Pam Omidyar of eBay. Omidyar stepped down as director of eBay in 2020 having signed over a substantial amount of shares to fund the Luminate foundation. He also remains a significant individual shareholder.
Luminate describes its mission as “to mobilise and challenge power. In particular, many young people are protesting for the first time, rallying around topics such as climate change, systemic racism, and police brutality.”
Their mission must not include the old Square Left way of challenging power through trade unions. For Pierre Omidyar made his fortune as the founder of eBay, a company which in June chose to shut down a plant at Syracuse in New York because it refused to recognise the decision of the staff there to become the first unionised group of eBay employees of whom there are 11,500 worldwide.
According to a report on the US business site Valued Added Resource, “Workers said that eBay immediately brought in increased security after the announcement and escalated threats and intimidation, with guards allegedly saying they were getting paid hourly to “beat on people.””
Such union-busting is exactly the sort of thing you would imagine that people whose own mission is to foster collective this and that and combat the For Roysh – which some on the Irish Left would have you believe would ban SIPTU given half a chance – would be completely down on. Not so it would seem.
I contacted Edel McGinley of Hope and Courage this morning noting that “Hope and Courage is currently in receipt of funding from Luminate Projects which was established by the founder of eBay Pierre Omidyar of which he is still a shareholder, and in which company Luminate has shares.”
I brought the closure of the Syracuse plant to their notice and asked them if they may perhaps consider “cancelling its funding arrangement with Luminate and the Omidyars” and “perhaps return the money received and perhaps donate it to the workers who have been laid off.”
I had received no response prior to publication.
Hope and Courage receives no income from “donations and fundraising” which does not add much to their claim that there is something they refer to as the Hope and Courage “ecosystem.” Unless of course that ecosystem of solidarity is comprised of non-union billionaires, the Rowan Trust and a number of other state funded organisations including the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, Rethink Ireland and the National Integration Fund. All of which serve to channel your money into the accounts of left liberal NGOs.
As Gript has detailed previously, this micro group has been given access to the Oireachtas in order to influence TDs on how to counter dissident opinion. During a November 2024 briefing Hate and Courage lobbyist Niamh McDonald declared that “If it wasn’t for social media these would be a bunch of lads, bigots in the pub, having a pint talking amongst each other.”
Equally it could be said that “If it wasn’t for funding from billionaire foundations and the state that Hope and Courage would be a bunch of losers sitting around a bowl of tofu arguing the toss about Trotsky and Bakunin.”
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