Ireland: Labour Youth, the Connolly Youth Movement, the Greens and the March 30th Strikes As we know there are indeed 40 shades of green in Ireland, but as the comrades of Labour Youth and the Connolly Youth Movement have explained in their open letter to the Green Party there is another one. The shade of green, that is, which justifies the Green Party’s ongoing support for the Fianna Fáil - which allows the latter to continue to hold a majority in the Dáil.
Ireland: As the economic crisis worsens the workers mobilise On February 21 some 200,000 workers and their families took to the streets in Dublin, to demonstrate their opposition to the government's decision to impose a pension levy on 300,000 Public sector workers. Apart from that, the most significant in recent months may have been the occupation of workers by Waterford Crystal. The class struggle is growing in Ireland and the union leaders are under pressure.
Ireland: Civil Servants strike a blow against the crisis The civil servants’ strike, the first national civil servants strike in twenty years, was rock solid. Now the task for Trade Unionists and Socialists in Ireland must be to build for March 30th; let’s turn it into a one-day general strike!
Ireland: Turn March 30th into a one-day general strike… The ICTU has called for a national strike day on March 30th because the employers in both the public and private sectors are reneging on the national wage agreement. The Irish Trade Union leaders are clearly under enormous pressure and have no doubt also been emboldened by the mood of the workers and the show of force on Saturday.
Ireland: Civil Servants fight: No pension levy! All out on the 26th! Following on from Saturday mega-demonstration in Dublin, now workers in the public sector have voted massively for strike action, starting with a strike this coming Thursday of the Civil and Public Service Union.
Dublin: 200,000 march against the crisis On Saturday a huge demonstration of 200,000 marched through the streets of Dublin, protesting over unemployment and job cuts. The development of the past period has enormously strengthened the Irish working class and now in the face of crisis it is flexing its muscles.
Ireland – bosses try to punish low paid for the crisis As the capitalist crisis continues to ravage the once mighty ‘celtic tiger’ the Irish government has stumbled across a sure fire method to stimulate economic growth and raise living standards; cut the wages of the lowest paid workers!
Ireland: Waterford Occupation, you can’t skin a tiger claw by claw… The workers at Waterford Crystal have occupied the factory in response to the threat of making 480 workers redundant. They have the full backing of working people locally. This struggle is an indication of the growing militant mood of Irish workers.
Ireland: Workers continue occupation of Waterford Crystal On the struggle at Waterford Crystal we also publish this interesting article by éirígí. Also available in Gaelic .
Ireland: IRSP calls for nationalisation of Waterford Crystal We publish the Editorial of the latest edition of The Plough, which reports on the occupation of Waterford Crystal.
Warning from Ireland: "Public service pay cuts will be considered" The Irish government is looking for €2bn worth of cuts and that means pay cuts for public sector workers.
Ireland: Grim reading. Labour must be prepared to fight. In Ireland unemployment is rising at the fastest rate since the records began in 1967. It's now standing at 295,000, having grown by 120,987 in the last year.
Ireland: Waterford Crystal and the sting in the tail from the Celtic Tiger Reports that Waterford Crystal and the Wedgwood China Company were to go into administration will add yet more gloom to the outlook for the Irish economy. [Since this article was written the factory has been occupied]
Ireland: government nationalises Anglo Irish Bank while the country faces the second worst recession in the EU The Irish economy is facing a serious downturn, with bank after bank facing crisis and unemployment shooting up. The government insists on bailing out the banks with public money desperately trying to stave off a recession. But they cannot escape the inescapable.
Dublin nationalises the risks but not the assets! We reproduce willingly this article that first appeared on the éirígí website. Faced with the current financial meltdown the author poses the choice bluntly: “Every person in Ireland has a choice to make. Do they support a ‘free’ market or do they support a free people? And if they choose a free people they need to make one more choice – to become politically active and join the struggle for a free, socialist Ireland.”
