Call for National Strike

by children_of_lir Sat Nov 20, 2010 14:13

I can't understand why this didn't happen earlier. All the telltale signs were there - the large number of houses put up for sale with no buyers, no mainenance for roads, hospital closures ...

Were the people in denial?

Cowen's procrastinations - borrowing time - has created widescale fear and panic. There has been a run on the banks. People are withdrawing their bank deposits. 13 Billion has been withdrawn from AIB accounts since the beginning of this year.

Peace

by Gregor Kerr - Workers Solidarity Movement - personal capacity Sat Nov 20, 2010 18:14

I wholeheartedly agree with the call for a general strike. It's clear that all of the political decisions being made at the moment - whether by the Irish government, the European Central Bank or by the International Monetary Fund - are being made to protect the wealthy elite and to ensure that ordinary people are made to suffer for the financial collapse.

Recent analysis of wealth figures by Tom O'Connor of Cork Institute of Technology showed that 33,000 millionaires in Ireland still have €121billion between them (see http://www.wsm.ie/c/irish-millionaires-assets-121-billion).

Having this concentration of wealth in their hands also means that this tiny elite wield huge political power. The challenge for those of us who believe in fairness, justice and equality is to find a way in which we can take that political power from them and use it to build a society which puts the interests of the vast majority before the interests of the tiny elite.

Clearly those who have the power are not going to give it up easily. But there are lots of us and only a few of them. And, importantly, we have the ability to organise to defeat them. The weapon in our armoury which will allow us to do that is the organisation of a general strike. They need our labour, by withdrawing it we can show where real power lies.

Clearly the ICTU cannot be relied on to call such a general strike so it's up to each of us to get stuck in in our own jobs, unions and communities to begin to build from the bottom up the type of campaign that will bring about a general strike. And in the course of building for the strike, we need to discuss with each other what type of structures we want to put in place to build a new society.

If we are in a position to pull off a general strike, why settle for the limited objective of looking for a general election which will simply result in a different set of politicians being put in place to implement the same set of policies. Why not use our sense of power to go for the ultimate prize of getting rid of leaders and led, bosses and workers, rich and poor and building a society based on equality, justice and fairness.

Of course it won't be easy but we've got to make a start

by Edward Mon Nov 22, 2010 00:03

The Irish People have been appalled at the behaviour of the Irish Government in recent years not only in destroying the Irish economy, but also in surrendering Irish sovereignty and neutrality. US military use of Shannon airport, in breach of international law, was one of the most serious indications of this. An Taoiseach's remarks in his state of the nation address thanking the United States and Britain for their support at the present time further reinforces this loss of sovereignty.
The EU simultaneous statement that the financial assistance is necessary to safeguard the Euro Zone financial stability further emphasises the reality that our government has given up Irish sovereignty to protect European financial interests, at the expense of the vast majority of Irish citizens.
The government's incompetence and insensitivity to the Irish people was further demonstrated by the PR arrangements at the press conference at the Government Press Centre. The word Government behind An Taoiseach was partly hidden by the European Union flag, and the colour scheme of the conference centre was clearly the EU blue colour scheme. If there was an Irish flag present at the Conference Centre it was not visible to RTE viewers throughout the speeches by An Taoiseach's and the Finance Minister. The European Flag was the only symbol visible throughout, immediately behind An Taoiseach. If this was a mistake, it was a deeply insulting mistake to all the people of Ireland.
The Fianna Fail led government will not resign and must be removed as soon as possible.

by anonymous Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:30

The Government are borrowing 80-100 billion from the IMF and have to cut 6 billion from public expenditure before the end of the year all will be revealed in the budget next week.
Handing sovereignty to foreigners....... the heroes of 1916 will be doing somersalts in there graves
Thats about 40,000 for every working man in the country
... a very rough estimate
..... our banks were giving out long term mortgages and paying with short term loans...... total fail. This resulted in the 'crisis'.
The governement lied all last week and said that they were not even considering it.
This governement needs to be sacked before they can finish their work, handing over Ireland on a platter.
Protest wednesday afternoon just head over there and show up and please don't leave if there are not enough protesters gathered.
Demand the governement to pack their bags and demand a stop to the IMF-loan-invation