Workers Solidarity Movement

In mid-June the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Public Services Committee voted to accept the ‘Croke Park deal’. ‘Social partnership’, presumed dead and buried when the government unilaterally imposed pay cuts on public sector workers in the December ’09 budget, was revived and given a new lease of life. But this is ‘social partnership’ with a difference. Instead of the union leadership believing that ‘partnership’ gives them some input into government policy (as they have wrongly thought for the past 20 years), all they can now offer in its defence is that this is the “least worst deal” and that “it’s better to be inside the tent than outside.”

The unions have warned that any attempt to introduce mandatory IBEC (Irish Business and Employers Confederation) recognition would endanger working conditions, pay rates and general government policy.

Recorded at the Dublin anarchist bookfair, three speakers look at the economy, what the real situation of the resistance is and what needs to be built and examples of what has been achieved in the unions to date. This is followed by contributions from the floor from a wide range of perspectives.

Connor Kostick author of Revolution in Ireland: Popular militancy 1917 to 1923 spoke at the 2010 Dublin anarchist bookfair about the wave of workplace occupations and 'soviets' as well as the general strikes that are forgotten by conventional nationalist histories of this period.

The audio is about one hour in length and was first published on indymedia.ie. 

Progressive taxation is a taxation system which seeks a higher tax rate for higher incomes.  It is a relatively common feature in the western democracies.  In Ireland however, its implementation is almost entirely nominal.

Public services are safe from the threat of a fair deal for four years. The kind of crippling cuts that were recently pushed through by ICTU, amounting to a 10% pay cut in some cases in the form of a "pension levy", are now almost certain to remain.

• For services rendered to the boss class
• For advising union members to vote in favour of the Croke Park agreement and "acknowledging its importance to the economy"
• Because "Realising the damage that further disruption could cause to Ireland's reputation abroad, he said: "If you have a long industrial campaign...the interpretation of it externally would be that the Government wasn't able to honour its commitments and consequently, the credibility of Government bonds would be very much in question,"

The anti-woman, anti-choice group Youth Defence have launched a new advertising campaign which includes targetted Facebook ads ahead of the anticipated ABC decision in the European courts.  In this case three women, known as A, B and C, are challenging Ireland’s ban on abortion in the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds that the law jeopardised their health and their well being and that travelling abroad for an abortion placed "enormous physical, emotional and financial burdens" upon them. Because the law created delays and hardships for each woman, it resulted in each of them having a later abortion, creating a greater risk to their health. 

The audio of Radio Solidarity show 4 is now online. It's all about the Media, how they shape reality to suit their needs, how they attempt to manufacture Consent, how being corporate has lead to 'Churnalism' and how the truth becomes a casualty.

Protests are to take place in Dublin, Sligo, Galway, Belfast, Derry,  Monaghan & Cork today against the act of international piracy by the Israeli military last night when they attacked a flotilla bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza . The Globe & Mail is reporting that 19 people have been killed in an attack staged last night. The flotilla of six ships called the “freedom flotilla” includes one from the Ireland called the Rachel Corrie, named after the American activist murdered by the IDF in 2003. At least 8 Irish people are on board various ships in the flotilla.