Workers Solidarity Movement

This afternoons Radio Solidarity show on Near FM will talk about the 1% Network tour of the Golden Circle heartland of Dublin 2 & 4.  If you click on the this 1% Map - you will have a guide to the walking tour .  This will prove helpful when you listen to our report on this walking tour in Radio Solidarity Program 8 - on Resistance going out this afternoon (2 Nov) at 15.30 on NEAR FM. An audio will be available for download later this week.

An issue that’s been put on the back burner since the economy has fallen through the plug hole.  We talk in Program 7 of Radio Solidarity to two women Jerrieann Sullivan and Molly Walsh who’ve been to the forefront of activism in ensuring that this issue has not disappeared off the agenda. They’ve both been involved in the recent Climate Camps amongst other campaigns and actions. 

Confirmation that a large amount of wealth remains concentrated in the hands of a tiny number of Irish people has come from an analysis of figures by Tom O’Connor, Lecturer in Economics in Cork Institute of Technology. O’Connor has analysed the figures contained in the Bank of Ireland’s ‘Wealth of the Nation’ report which stated that there were 33,000 millionaires in Ireland in 2006.  The total ‘net worth’ of these individuals (i.e. excluding the value of their principal residences and allowing for any borrowings) in 2006 was €156.21 billion.

Through a 'Freedom of information' request the pro-choice campaigning group Choice Ireland have revealed that over a thousand desperate women were denied an abortion last year because customs seized the medicine that they had ordered over the internet. In many cases these women were unable to travel to Britain because of poverty or because they were immigrants who felt unable to risk leaving Ireland lest they be refused readmission.

Zombie developers….. Vampire bankers….. Ghost estate creators….. Black holes that swallow tens of billions of Euros…. They sound like characters from a particularly eerie Hallowe’en tale of horrors. However while they might be spooky, there’s nothing fictional about this array of characters. They stalked our land during the era of the recently-departed Celtic Tiger. But now they’ve gone to ground. They’ve disappeared, they would have us believe. And if they themselves haven’t actually physically disappeared, then their wealth most definitely has.

A CSO report from 2009 revealed that Irish residents own 1251 billion euro worth of foreign stocks and bonds. Over 300 billion of this is invested in the US and 240 billion on Britain. These figures are for stocks and bonds only, they don't include other wealth that Irish residents hold abroad, for instance in the form of property. (Image: from the CSO report).

A battle is brewing between IMPACT cabin crew members and the management of Aer Lingus.  The cabin crew began a work-to-rule action yesterday against changes to rosters by the management which they see as going beyond what the “Greenfield” cost-saving plan had proposed. The IMPACT members will work on the old rosters, will not work on rest days, and will take all breaks and meals due to them. They will also decline to work the Washington/Madrid route. This route is voluntarily undertaken by cabin crew based in Ireland under Irish working conditions.

Leo Varadkar TD an influential Fine Gael politician has called for the implementation of the entire McCarthy report in the coming budget, the introduction of a water tax and the expanding the tax net to take money from low paid workers.

Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), as we’ve been led to believe by those who support them, are ways in which public bodies can share the costs and risk involved in providing public infrastructure such as roads, schools etc. with private sector companies.

But in recent days it has emerged that PPPs entered into for the construction of the M3 motorway and the Limerick tunnel are set to land  the taxpayer with a €100 million bill over the lifetime of the contracts.

The 1% Network has released a video promoting Saturdays tour of the mansions, private banks and clubs of the wealthy 1% in Dublin 2 and 4.