Campaign against spending cuts proposed

national | miscellaneous | news report

Thursday November 21, 2002 20:13

by Finghin - Socialist Party

Ireland.com news report (21-11-02, 18:03 )

A protest campaign against the Government's programme of cutbacks in public expenditure was launched in Dublin today.

The aim of the campaign is to pressurise the Government into reinstating the first time buyers grant in conjunction with measures to control speculation in building land, to extend the medical card scheme as had been planned and to reverse the cuts in all crucial areas including schools and transport.

The campaign was launched by Socialist Party TD Mr Joe Higgins; Independent TD Mr Tony Gregory; Mr Seamus Healy (Tipperary Workers and Unemployed Action Group) and Councillor Ms Clare Daly (shop steward in Dublin Airport).

They called for a protest march on Budget Day, December 4th, to give people the chance to voice their anger at the Government cutbacks. People are asked to meet during at 1pm at the Central Bank Plaza before proceeding to Dáil Eireann.

According to the campaign's press release the cuts are not necessary and come from decisions by Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats "to shift an enormous amount of wealth to big business, speculators and the very wealthy."

"Now at the first hint of economic slowdown, working people are being penalised," it concluded.

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Comments (14 of 14)

oh justin me laddo

by hunter - pfln

Sat Nov 23, 2002 20:04

Justin, are you gonna answer my post above? this is the secomnd time i raised these questions, and you havent answered me yet. the last thread was removed, so ill give u the benefit of the doubt on that one.
.... times a tickin'

Of course the SWP can get involved

by Finghin

Sat Nov 23, 2002 20:01

Of course the SWP can join the protests and get involved. But for a campaign to be in any way effective it must involve ordinary people that are not as yet involved in a political party. This campaign needs the backing of ordinary workers and communities.

Shinners and c-c-c-cuts?

Fri Nov 22, 2002 20:38

Justin, What cuts indeed?

hmmmmmm, well for starteres, there was the issue of the term time workers dispute up north. Minister 'curly' McGuinness rejected the calim of term term workers to a wage over the school holidays. hmmmmm. i do believe he is not ideologically opposed to the privatisation of schools either. is this true?

then there is the issue of Ms de Bruin and her closure of a maternity(?) ward in a protestant area, and correct me if im wrong here but was not the net result of this that a similar ward in a catholic area could thus stay open? to quote ms de bruin herself:

"I have to be realistic because resources are tight and my fight for more resources is well documented... for me 'resources permitting' is not a get-out clause but a statement that there are limitations to what can be achieved"
- is it just me or could that be any FF/FG/UP/Lab/SDLP politician's quote?

would this also form the basis of your southern policy if you were to caolesce with the Beast? Labour must wait eh?

And of course there is the 'incident' in Sligo few years back, where SF voted in the bin tax in order to obtain a the mayor's seat for councillor McManus. The justification for this was some bullshit about democracy, and the abolition of the council and how that would affect sinn fein votes in the area. So votes are more important than a principled stand against the rip off of workers in this country? hmmmmmmm, again sounding very like the auld establishment there.

now i'm not saying that the shinners or anyone else who is opposed to the estimated cut-backs and attacks on living statndards should not be involved in this campaign or alliance or whatever its called, but you asked a question and i gave you some answers.

Did they ask the SWP to join in?

by Rose

Fri Nov 22, 2002 17:34

They'd be very stupid to ask the SWP.
Stop bitching. Joe Higgins is doing a good job.

You've got to hand it to them...The SP have a great sense of humout.

by Apreciator

Fri Nov 22, 2002 17:27

Good Hoax lads

Eh?

by Justin Moran - Sinn Fein

Fri Nov 22, 2002 17:19

maigh_nuad at yahoo dot com

What cuts do we support?

You've gotta represent something

by the way

Fri Nov 22, 2002 13:57

From what I can see the SWP, WSM, WP represent absolutly nothing among working people. Why should they be involved?

SF and Labour are capitalist parties, they support cuts!

Come on Finghin, tell us?

by Alan

Fri Nov 22, 2002 13:51

How come you invited only 'Independent' TDs and not the SWP, Sinn Fein, WP, etc, etc. 'fraid they'd cramp Uncle Joe's style?

it is obvious from

by pat c

Fri Nov 22, 2002 11:17

the content that this is intended to be a broad campaign & should not be used as an occasion for sectarian sniping.

we need a coordinated fightback, this should include the swp, wsm etc. (if they want to get involved.)

below see a mail on mccreevy being economical with the truth.

"Subject: McCreevey on inequality

I don't know how many people heard the Minister stating on the radio
the other day that Brian Nolan had shown that there had been a
decrease in income inequality in Ireland in recent years.

In fact, I have learnt from Brian, his conference presentation stated that
there was a decrease in the inequality of gross earnings by employees
in 2000 as compared with data for 1987, 1994 and 1997. The
presentation did not refer to net incomes at all, and in particular it
excludes social welfare income and unearned income.

An interesting lesson in not believing everything you hear on radio,
even when someone is quoting research by egalitarians.

All the best,
John
--
John Baker
Politics Department Equality Studies Centre Institute for the
www.ucd.ie/~politics www.ucd.ie/~esc Study of Social
Change

www.ucd.ie/issc
+353-1-716 4618"

THIS IS FIGHT CLUB

by Fucked - fucked

Fri Nov 22, 2002 11:13

YOU'VE GOT HOMEWORK TO DO

Did you ask the SWP to join in?

by Curious

Fri Nov 22, 2002 00:01

by Can I come as ansbacher man?

Thu Nov 21, 2002 22:59

These are not just SP issues

Thu Nov 21, 2002 20:32

These are not just SP issues, do you think that only the SP can campaign on issues that are effected by the cuts? these are issues that will effect every working person in the country and should involve as many workers as possible.

Obviously to launch real opposition to these cuts and this government it requires a campaign that would reach wider layers of workers than just those that support the SP. It would be extremly arrogant of the SP to think that we could launch a national campaign ourselves.

The article above is from the Irish Time website, I saw it there and thought it would be of interest to people reading indymedia so I reposted it. I wasn't told to do it by anyone. I added the link because it might be of interested.

Here we go again...

by Popular Front

Thu Nov 21, 2002 20:18

Why bother? Why not do a Socialist Party campaign?

Joe Higgins and Clare Daly say things in accordance with their manifesto, and call for a campaign thats about SP issues.

Then Finghin pops up on Indymedia to advertise it, complete with helpful link to the SP website.

Why are you not able to do a campaign without setting up another campaign? Is the brand getting stale?

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Campaign against spending cuts proposed

Comments (14 of 14)