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Ireland: Wednesday's demonstration of the 24/7 Frontline Alliance was a lot smaller than the
big rain soaked demonstrations on Friday, but no less important in some
ways. It’s seldom a good idea to take on all of your enemies at the
same time. It’s a sign of the times when the Gards, their Sergeants,
and the Prison Officers start agitating. But this is a crisis of the
bosses making, there are savage cuts in payments and huge pressures on
the rank and file Gardai. The crisis is eroding the support for the
entire system.
5,000
people including Gardai marching in baseball caps demonstrated in
Dublin today. Gardai are constitutionally banned from striking, but the
24/7 Frontline Alliance also includes Fire fighters and Nurses, if the
Fianna Fáil can’t manage to win the support of even the Garda Sergeants
for their programme of cuts, then how are they going to manage in the
teeth of a mass movement of the working class?
The
truth of the matter is that the trade union leaders can defeat the
attempt of the government to slash wages and cut jobs and services. But
they can’t do this by relying on appealing to “Social Partnership”. The
enormous power of the working class means that the government would be
absolutely suspended in mid air if the trade union leaders genuinely
mobilised the workers for a public sector general strike on November 24th.
But there is a big risk, it is of Peter McLoone, David Begg and others
snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Recently a commentator made
the point that the trade union leaders were desperate for the
government to come and talk to them. Talk is one thing, but to say as
David Begg did recently that they would look for any compromise on wages is foolish in the extreme. That means settling for less than enough.
The
temperature is rising; the bosses are screaming for the government to
stand firm against the unions. They are after dividing the workers in
the private sector from the public, all the easier to attack both
sections of the working class. We need maximum unity of the working
class and that requires a clear and patient refutation of the bosses’
and the media’s lies. The demonstration today gives a flavour of just
how wide ranging and just how much opposition there is to these €
billions of cuts, the march today was extremely significant.
The
trade union leaders mustn’t underestimate the potential that they have
to defeat Cowen and Leninhan, but they also have to lead the movement
and not just use it as window dressing. You can’t turn the workers
movement on and off like a tap, mobilising the entire public sector
workforce and settling for nothing but a few morsels from the bosses
table will not satisfy the workers and it will embolden the bosses. The
Ten point plan is a vague and woolly document that doesn’t represent a
fighting programme for the workers movement. The argument has to be for
no wage cuts and no job losses or cuts in services. ICTU needs to be
crystal clear; Make the bosses pay!
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