Workers Solidarity Movement

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, Taoiseach Brian Cowen and representatives of the National Treasury Management Agency have spent the time since early Tuesday afternoon boasting about their latest “successful bond auction”. 

Thousands of protesters opposed to Pope Benedict XVI and his state visit to Britain marched through London on Saturday, slamming the Church over sex abuse, gay rights and a range of other issues. A coalition of demonstrators united under the "Protest the Pope" banner started marching at the edge of Hyde Park, where the pontiff was to later hold an open-air prayer vigil for an estimated 80,000 Roman Catholic victims.

While the dust settles and Christchurch recovers from the 7.1 earthquake, people have begun to pick up the pieces and get on with their lives. But for many working class people this is not so easy. Those most affected by ‘natural disasters’ — whether by the tsunami in the Pacific, earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and now Christchurch, NZ — are those already on the margins of despair.

Many trade union activists have known for years that “social partnership” comes at a huge price for union independence and the ability of trade unions to defend the interest of their members. The myth that government and employers on one side and workers on the other side have some form of common interest has been peddled for over twenty years.  This has resulted in a trade union movement whose leadership seems incapable of independent thought and whose membership has been browbeaten into accepting pay cuts, ‘pension levies’ and various attacks on our working conditions and living standards over the past couple of years.