Workers Solidarity Movement

Fintan O’Toole appears to want us to be listened to as citizens and believes that political reform is crucial. It is a natural reaction after witnessing the cronyism of Fianna Fáil in power over the last 13 years and how they’ve acted in favour of the ruling elite. The fact that I, as a taxpayer on €40,000 p.a., will pay exactly the same amount of tax as one on €300,000 p.a. puts that sharply into focus.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has announced a campaign of opposition to plans by the government to cut the pay of 4th year student nurses and midwives.  Describing the government’s plans as “devalu[ing], to the level of slave labour, the nature of the essential direct care given during this 36 week rostered placement” INMO general secretary, Liam Doran said “We will fiercely resist this attack on these young professionals which amounts to nothing more than gross exploitation.”

‘End this Corrupt Regime’   - That’s what one young man screams into a camera as thousands of people clash with cops on the streets of Cairo. Just how corrupt is this regime.  Mubarak may have started his career commanding an air force against Israel, but in the 30 years in power, he has become another champion of enterprise and the neo-liberal open economy.  Democracy occasionally held up like some beacon has constantly been promised but never really acted upon.  2011 is the year that has scheduled Presidential Elections, but obviously the Egyptian masses aren’t happy with the promises of something better to come.

As the health budget is cut, a worsening health service will predictably result in higher national morbidity and mortality. Are we prepared to allow this to occur?

The election campaign has hardly begun in earnest but already the Labour Party is in the running for the Most Ridiculous Policy Announcement award. While everyone was distracted by the Fianna Fáil/Green Party circus on Sunday last, Labour’s Education spokesperson Ruairi Quinn launched the party’s new policy on tackling Ireland’s Literacy problems ‘Reading As A Right’.

In what is clearly a concerted effort to smash their union organisation, over 170 Aer Lingus cabin crew have been ‘removed from the payroll’ by management in a dispute about rostering arrangements.

While the soap opera of who will captain Fianna Fail’s sinking ship into the election is obsessed over by the media, the publication of the Finance Bill on Friday last has shown that for some at least it’s business as usual. Having announced in his Budget speech that Section 23 property tax reliefs were to be curtailed (not abolished – just curtailed!), Minister for Finance and wannabe FF leader, Brian Lenihan, has changed his mind.

The government’s economic think-tank, the ESRI, wrote in the Irish Times in the aftermath of the budget that the measures taken over the past four years have been “strongly progressive” i.e. that they redistributed wealth from the rich to the poor. However, this is a somewhat convenient timeframe to apply and ignores the impacts of the measures announced in the 2011 budget.

Wikileaks continues to make almost daily headlines.  Aside from the various revelations, there are also two widely told stories that are supposed to help us put these leaks into context.

One year after the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti, the conditions endured by the ordinary people there are as bad, or worse, than they were before the earthquake. Of the billions of dollars promised by governments around the world to rebuild the devastated country only a fraction has reached the people of Haiti.