OscailtTHE STRIKE WAVE BEGINSAnd so, today, a group of Irish workers stand firm in front of a vicious right wing government’s bullying, harassment from the state media lie machine, the scandalous complicity of some reactionary Trade Union ‘leaders’ whose only vision is to compromise and collaborate.
Forced to defend their class interests from conscious ruling class attacks, they are the first to step forward on their own terms, in their own time, with their class dignity and power.
In 2013, this is not a defeated rabble!
But their strike action is also a thing in itself, which starkly changes the very balance of class forces in this crippled capitalist state. It is, objectively, a political action, because the Austerity Politics and anti-public service Friedmanite ethos which it confronts, is itself, a conscious politically co-ordinated strategy on the part of the ruling class.
Breaking news: Italian MP, Sgarbi denounces the Statistical Fraud on COVID-19. The speech of the Member of Parliament Vittorio Sgarbi in the session of the Italian Camera, Meeting no. 331 of Friday 24, April, 2020. Vittorio Sgarbi, denounces the closure of 60% of the businesses for 25,000 COVID-19 Deaths, of which the National Institute of Health says 96.3% died NOT of COVID-19 but of other pathologies. That means only 925 have died of the virus. 24,075 have died of other things.2013-05-13T14:44:53+00:00Indymedia Irelandimc-ireland@lists.indymedia.iehttp://www.indymedia.ie/atomfullposts?story_id=103633http://www.indymedia.ie/graphics/feedlogo.gifToo late, we say All Out Strikehttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/103633#comment2956772013-05-13T14:44:53+00:00BlakeThe private sector are already on their knees. Today and yesterday, business in ...The private sector are already on their knees. Today and yesterday, business in the cafes, pubs, shops was badly effected and the reality is that many in the private sector are holding on to their business by their finger tips.<br />
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Is it fair that the public sector - and the privileges they have of long-term employment should cause people already on the brink to suffer more.<br />
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The Gathering 2013 : If transport people strike consistently going forward: what does this do to our tourist trade? Ireland will lose out to its bread and butter source of income.Support The Bus Workers.http://www.indymedia.ie/article/103633#comment2956802013-05-13T19:45:30+00:00Richard McAleaveyIt’s illuminating to see the old Irish anti-union repertoire given a good dustin...It’s illuminating to see the old Irish anti-union repertoire given a good dusting down, as if the social and political context for the Bus Eireann strike were identical to that 10, 15, 25 or 40 years ago. Practically no-one in Ireland, aside from the libertarians whose Twitter avatar is a photo of themselves in a pinstripe suit that may or may not be their confirmation uniform, will express an opposition to unions as such. Not even William Martin Murphy was opposed to unions. No, no-one is opposed to unions; but lots of voluble people of a right-wing persuasion –but then again, in Ireland practically no-one admits to being right-wing- are opposed to each and every instance in which members of a union take actions to protect their livelihood and their rights.<br />
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So the Bus Eireann action is characterised above as an ‘insult to the workers of 1913’, for example. Even John Bruton, the Mr Potato Head of international finance, a blueshirt lumpenbourgeois who calls for more austerity and less regulation for financial institutions that suffocate public finances across Europe, all the while drawing at least one succulent public pension, is in favour of honouring the workers of 1913. He said so in a piece in the Irish Times last year. According to this reading of the Lockout, the workers were not engaged in a fight for basic survival and dignity, but so that their great-grandchildren would get the chance to take part in JobBridge before emigrating.<br />
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A lot has happened since 1913. In case anyone hadn’t noticed –and to be fair, there are a few people here who are a bit slow on the uptake- we’re living at a time when right across Europe the democratic achievements won in large part by the labour movement –welfare state provision, public health, education and transport systems, workers’ rights- are being rolled right back. And no, the ruling powers have no intention of restoring them, because the total destruction of any kind of collective solidarity sets their pulses racing with excitement. But some people are so serf-like in their identification with the holders of power and wealth that they would rather give up their own rights and dignity so that ‘the markets’ would bestow a sweet smile on them once again, and would rather attack working class people for defending their rights, than voice even the tiniest opposition to the ongoing rampage against the social, economic and labour rights of the vast majority of people living in this country and across Europe. But of course, they’re not opposed to unions in principle. No sir. Sure if Big Jim Larkin was around today he’d agree with them. Right, Jim?'