Workers Solidarity Movement

The 1% Network has sharply criticised the government for claiming that a vote by Dáil Éireann to approve the IMF-ECB deal would give it ‘political legitimacy’.

AIB's timing last week was poor. Announcing that they were going to pay 40 million euro in bonuses to the very incompetents that got us into this mess on the same day as the Dáil was announcing savage cuts to unemployment and family benifits, was definitely negative PR.

In recent weeks, the signs of anger among the peoples of Europe have been increasing: a general strike in Portugal, the huge September 29 strike in Spain, demonstrations of historic proportions in Ireland, the student movement in England, the enormous protests in Italy by factory workers and students and the growing mass movement against the privatization of water and, hopefully, the beginning of a lasting movement following the mobilizations over pension reforms in France. Though the slogans may vary from one country to the next, the revolt has the same origin: the peoples' refusal to pay for a crisis they did not cause, to have to put up with austerity measures by themselves, without the capitalists having to pay.The case of Ireland is emblematic - reduced social benefits, staff cuts in the public sector and cuts to public sector workers' pay, the extension of income tax to those who do not currently pay, the lowest-paid workers. But the government is not touching corporate tax, however, one of the lowest in Europe. The Irish people are refusing to bow down and tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in late November.

Several hundred people took part in "A Spectacle Of Defiance And Hope" in Dublin Friday night to protest the way the government have cut funding to vital community services. Janice Feighery a co-ordinator at an after school computer program for young people said “Community programmes are being devastated by the cuts. Our work with young people is strangled by lack of funds."  The spectacle draws to a close the week of protests against the austerity budget.

At just after 5 p.m. Wednesday evening, 600 angry marchers took to the streets of Cork city to demonstrate their opposition to the 2011 budget and the state's IMF- and EU-designed four-year plan. Marchers assembled on Patrick's Bridge for some time before 5, and when sufficient numbers had arrived, the crowd moved up-river to the nearby Emmet Place in front of the Opera House, from where the march departed, led by the banner of the Cork Social Welfare Defenders campaign.

The government recently published a draft memorandum that will give legal effect to the negotiations between the EU/IMF and Ireland (see here). Essentially the draft details, by quarter of each year, how the government intends to implement an incredibly far-reaching austerity program to help get us back on our feet.

The former chairman of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure (otherwise known as ‘An Bord Snip Nua’), UCD economist Colm McCarthy, is currently heading another cutting group, the Review Group on State Assets, which is looking into the fire-sale of state firms.

State enterprises such as the ESB, An Post, Irish Rail, Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports, (all owned by Dublin Airport Authority) 10 port companies, the VHI, TG4, RTE, Eirgrid, CIE, Bord na Móna, Bus éireann Expressway, Bord Gáis, HRI, RTÉ, utilities (like water and refuse collection, where provided through local authorities), and Coillte are being looked at.

It has been revealed that the changes in tax credits contained in the IMF/ECB four year austerity plan will hit low paid and average paid workers far harder than the those who earn hundreds of thousands.  A worker on 36,000 a year will pay around ten times as much extra tax as a percentage of their income than a banker earning 300,000 will.  In real terms both pay exactly the same, 1860 euro.  The independent think tank TASC has produced a short report which graphically illustrates the deepening of inequality that is contained in that aspect of the four year plan.

Dublin Saturday 27th November 100,000 on ICTU march. I was there and I heard the booing.

Got back to Cork late Saturday, after an icy drive down the motorway. Visiting a friends house after coming back , relating the story from the day. "Did you boo Jack O'Connor then?" says one.

Despite freezing temperatures, an estimated one hundred thousand people were on the streets of Dublin today to take part in the ICTU demonstration against the draconian four year plan, which is raising taxes on low paid workers, slashing wages, social services and cutting social welfare.  The WSM took part in the demonstration with the 1% Network, highlighting the wealthy 1% of the population who own 34% of the wealth, and pointing out that only a general strike can force them to back down from making us pay the full costs of the crisis.