Workers Solidarity Movement

On the 24th of November something extraordinary happened. Some 250,000 workers acted together in a day-long strike against the public sector wage cuts planned by the government. The vast majority of these workers had never gone on strike before, yet across almost all workplaces the strike involved 90% or more of those working.

Students assembled just before 12pm today in Maynooth to join lecturers and other staff at the National University of Ireland NUI Maynooth on the picket lines for a number of hours.. Solidarity pickets were placed on both North and South campuses of NUI Maynooth.

From before 8a.m. this morning, members of the Irish National Teachers Organisation were on the picket line outside the Department of Education and Science in Dublin’s Marlborough Street, alongside Special Needs Assistant colleagues, members of IMPACT, and workers based in the DES building itself, members of SIPTU, CPSU and PSEU.

Strikes took off across Cork city and county this morning as workers took direct action to stop the Government's attack on wages and conditions.

Thomas Cooke workers refused to go quietly when they were tossed onto the dole. Cooks had made £400m profit in 2008 and their boss, Manny Fontela-Novoa, took home €7 million. This was not a failing business.

On Friday 31st July workers at Thomas Cook occupied the shop on Grafton street. Management got a court injunction against the occupation and on Monday morning a huge force of Gardai sealed off the area, smashed their way into the shop and arrested the 28 workers inside.

We are using the WSM twitter account to provide you with live updates from WSM members involved in this struggle and to let you know of developments and new information as soon as we become aware of them.

SIPTU members at the MTL depot in Dublin Port have been on strike since the beginning of July, resisting forced redundancies and pay cuts. The company shipped in scabs from the North and Britain on day one to steal the dockers’ jobs, and also got a High Court injunction preventing effective picketing. We will be using the WSM twitter account to provide live updates from the struggle.

The occupation of the Visteon motor parts factory in Belfast ended on May 3rd when the company gave in and agreed pay extra compensation of between six month’s and nearly two year’s money to the workforce for the loss of their jobs.

People often pose the question, what can a strike achieve? The WSM policy on trade unions states the following: “What is anarchism? When we get down to basics, it is workers collectively running a free society. Instead of taking orders from the boss and serving his/her mad rush for profit at any cost, it is about working together for the common good.

Over 200 people marched today from Andersonstown to the factory in Finaghy for a rally, which was addressed by Unite Shop Stewards Charlie Maxwell and John McGuire, including representatives from the SDLP and Sinn Fein.