Workers Solidarity Movement

The markets have spoken and the verdict is that Brian Lenihan's 6 billion euro package of public sector cuts and extra taxation on ordinary workers is not going to work. The confidence in Ireland's future in the international money markets is reflected in the yields in Irish sovereign bonds. These bonds are the IOUs the government issues to borrow the money to plug the shortfall from income to spending. They vary from 2 to 14 years in duration before the money borrowed has to be repaid, the 10 year being the one most closely followed by market watchers. The yield on a bond is the interest rate the state has to pay the lenders. In these last few days increasingly urgent stories in the business pages of the papers have been warning about the dangers of increasing bond yield spreads.

The WSM is one of 108 organisations internationally that has signed a statement in support of today's general strike in the Spanish state.   Spain like Ireland is one of the countries where the capitalist crisis is hitting the working class hardest, unemployment has reached 20%, but in Spain unlike Ireland large sections of the working class are organising to resist the crisis.  Spain has a long history of militant anarchist unions, this statement was prepared by one of them, the CGT, in opposition to the partnership approach taken by most of the unions.  It's is preceeded by an analysis by Manu García, a member of another of the unions, the CNT, about the importance of today's general strike.

The erosion of a democratic structure of the Unions has lead to a greater ability by the leadership to exert control over the Union.  Where there were assemblies of workers – arguments can be had and positions taken – but thanks to over 23 years of partnership – you don’t have them in many workplaces.   So where you had functioning branch structures it was possible to explore and debate ideas over the strike process.

It is important that as many voices as possible are raised to say No to bank bailouts, No to the bailouts of wealthy property developers and No to the attacks on our living standards and cuts in public services. Above all we need to be saying No to the notion that we should all be sharing the economic pain. This is the text of Gregor Kerr's speech to the 400 or so people who took part in the Euopean week of protests against bank bailouts in Dublin, June 2010. It includes 23 photos of the protests.

A few hundred people took part in a protest last night at the Mansion house in Dublin where the Taoiseach Brian Cowen was going to dinner with the organisation of the domestic section of the capitalist class that instructs him. As various bosses and Cowen went into the venue protected by ranks of Gardai, with the riot squad on standby outside the back entrance of Anglo Irish Bank and mounted police across the road, they were jeered by the crowd with shouts of 'thieves', 'robbers' and 'scum.'

Recorded at the Dublin anarchist bookfair, three speakers look at the economy, what the real situation of the resistance is and what needs to be built and examples of what has been achieved in the unions to date. This is followed by contributions from the floor from a wide range of perspectives.

The second program of Dublin WSM's community radio show, Radio Solidarity - focusing on the Economy - was broadcast on Near FM on the 23rd of March. The Program focuses on the Irish Economy - or how we went from dancing on rivers to drowning in one. We cover a range of stories, from the Economy, NAMA, explaining it, looking at specific properties, and finally looking at a campaign that may provide a solution to this mess.

The rich remain rich and the rest of us are supposed to keep them that way. That’s why we get pay cuts, health cuts, education cuts, job cuts. It’s not as if dipping into the pockets of PAYE workers is the only way to foot bills.

Also today the ballot figures from IMPACT were released. Members voted overwhelmingly in favour of strikes "if the Government moves to impose a second public service pay cut". The vote was 86% to 14%, with a 69% turnout. This compares to a 65% vote for industrial action – just short of the two-thirds required under IMPACT’s rules – on a 53% turnout in a similar ballot last March.

The economic crisis we face in Ireland is that huge amounts of money have been lost with the collapse of the property bubble. The question is, who will pay? Will it be the crooked bankers and dodgy developers responsible for this mess, or us, the ordinary working people?