Socialist Appeal

Ireland

By Fightback (Ireland)
Monday, 23 November 2009
Ireland might be out of the World Cup, but the Irish working class is at the forefront of the struggle against the bosses crisis. It’ll take much more than a dodgy hand ball to take the heat out of this situation. Earlier today yet another major union voted massively to join the public sector strikes on November 24^th. SIPTU’s 70,000 members voted by 85% in favour of participating in what is becoming more or less a de facto Public Sector General Strike.

Huge Teachers Strike Votes roll in: all out on November 24th!

By Séamus Loughlin
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Ireland: 65,000 teachers in the primary and secondary education, further education and third level institutions have voted to back the strike action on 24^th November. The action covering both academic and non academic staff means that effectively the entire education sector will be shut down for the day. The four unions involved INTO, TUI, ASTI and IFUT which organises two thirds of university teachers have all returned huge votes in favour of strike action.

24/7 Demo: Make The Bosses Pay!

By Fightback - Ireland
Friday, 13 November 2009
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.

Ireland: 100,000+ on the streets

By Séamus Loughlin (Fighback)
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Tens of thousands of people: public sector and private sector workers and their families, unemployed workers, pensioners and students thronged the streets of eight cities in the South on Friday, November 6; while 10 further demonstrations took place in the north also. 70,000 marched into Merrion Square in Dublin, 20,000 in Cork, 10,000 in Waterford, 6,000 in Galway, 5,000 in Sligo, 5,000 in Limerick, 4,000 in Tullamore and 1,500 in Dundalk. Not bad for a Friday with a grim weather forecast.

Walking the walk …. The Lame Duck way

By Fightback Editorial Board
Wednesday, 04 November 2009
Ireland: Friday’s day of protests by the Public Sector Trade Unions is a hugely important day for the Trade Union and Labour Movement. It could mark a significant step in the struggle to turn back the Fianna Fáil and Green Party’s assault on the Public Sector and on the working class in general. But what is the background to the current impasse and can Cowen and Lenihan face down the massive opposition that will manifest itself throughout the country later this week?

IRELAND: IMPACT ballot shows huge shift in favour of strike action

By Séamus Loughlin (Fightback)

Monday, 26 October 2009

IMPACT members have voted 86% to 14% for strike action on a 69% ballot. This is a huge change from the position in March where a similar vote resulted in a 65% Yes vote on a 53% turnout. The vote in March fell just short of the 2/3 barrier that union rules lay down as the minimum threshold for official action to be sanctioned.

This marks a dramatic shift over the past 7 months. But that’s hardly a surprise given the imposition of the levy, the slash and burn budget and the threats of cuts and redundancies and the general economic chaos and political crisis that threatens public sector workers.

Ireland: Social Partnership - How much flogging can one dead horse take?

By Fightback (Ireland) Editorial Board
Friday, 23 October 2009
It might have started out as a strategy, but the ICTU leadership’s profound belief that they can wrest some concessions out of Cowen and Lenihan would be better described as an illusion or perhaps a death wish. We’ve pointed out many times that in a slump social partnership is like the partnership between a cat and a mouse. But at least in Tom and Jerry the mouse was a master of tactics.

Ireland: Wilted Greens and Lame Duck

By Séamus Loughlin (Fightback)
Monday, 12 October 2009
The Green Party in Ireland has voted overwhelmingly to support the new proposals that their leadership has negotiated with Fianna Fáil. As we explained recently, the reality is that the new programme offers nothing substantially different from what was on offer before, merely a few tiny reforms to the programme that FF set earlier. Its a cold plate of lame duck with wilted greens!

Lisbon Treaty referendum: Yes vote wins, but its cold comfort for Cowen

By Fighback (Ireland)
Monday, 05 October 2009
Ireland: The Lisbon Treaty Referendum has resulted in a victory for the Yes camp by 67.1% to 32.9%. The result was in part due to the enormous resources of the Yes campaign which had the support of big business, Robbie Keane, the Bishops, Seamus Heaney and of all the government and main opposition parties. The outcome was a dramatic reversal of the last referendum with swings of more or less 20% in many constituencies.

Northern Ireland - Sammy lets the cat out of the bag: what will the cuts mean for workers?

By Fightback Editorial Board
Monday, 28 September 2009
Northern Ireland: A recent paper on the public spending of the Stormont Executive confirms that cuts are on the way, which will hit jobs and services. How will this affect the delicate political balance set up by the Good Friday Agreement?

Lurgan: more tensions, but still no answers

By Fightback (Ireland)
Friday, 25 September 2009
Following a widescale and carefully orchestrated police operation aimed at disrupting ‘dissident republican’ activity and two nights of rioting in Lurgan, it would appear that the north of Ireland’s social peace has not been in such a fragile state since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement eleven years ago.

"Union Blues": a threat to the working class

By Séamus Loughlin
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
The stresses and strains in Irish society are increasingly obvious. As we have explained before the crisis is affecting all layers within society. More than that it is clear that the consciousness of all classes has been affected and that big events are being prepared. Séamus Loughlin from Fightback looks at the real meaning of an article published in the Sunday Business Post which reveals much about how the bosses see the current situation.

Fightback Editorial: The crisis catches up with the North

By Fightback Editorial
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
The view that Northern Ireland had escaped the troubles and that there was a future based on a booming economy has been fast turned into its opposite over the last few months. Riots in nationalist areas following the Real/Continuity IRA attacks on the police and British army as well as increased violence surrounding this year’s orange marches have displayed an increase in social and political tensions. These events were not created in a vacuum and mirror the crisis in the economy.

Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin defections: signs of the times. What do they mean for Labour in Ireland?

By Séamus Loughlin (Fightback)
Friday, 14 August 2009
Ireland: The resignation of two Fianna Fáil TDs from the party whip and the trickle of resignations of Sinn Féin councillors over the past period are both indications of the underlying issues and factors in Irish politics at the present time. Although the two parties face very different scenarios the uniting factor is the deep crisis in the Irish economy and the political situation that flows from it. The mass organisations of the working class, the trade unions and the Labour Party are also under strain, workers are looking for a way out of the current impasse

Ireland’s Crisis in Person: an eyewitness report

By Matthew Rawlings
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
We are very grateful to have received this report (first published on the Fightback site), written by a worker from Britain, which illustrates the depth of the crisis Ireland is facing and the impact it is having throughout the state, we believe that this story could be repeated thousands of times in the towns and the villages in Ireland.