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By Tony Healy (www.ireland.marxist.com)
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Friday, 04 February 2011 |
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The posters are going up on the lamp posts
and the tourists and the European lorry drivers are starting to drive
round in circles looking for road signs obliterated by the airbrushed
smiles of party hopefuls. But this is no ordinary election. The election
on February 25th will represent a snapshot of the political fallout
from the economic collapse and the farcical slide into chaos of the
Fianna Fáil/Green Party coalition. Farcical that is, except
for the calamity that the government’s policies have created for the
working class people of Ireland.
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By Fightback
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Saturday, 22 January 2011 |
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The news has just broken that Brian Cowen has resigned as Fianna Fáil
leader, but insists that he intends to fight the General Election as
Taoiseach. FF is split from top to bottom and those among the leadership
who aren't intending to resign with a fat pension in a few weeks time
are maneouvering for position.
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By Séamus Loughlin (Fightback)
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Saturday, 22 January 2011 |
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Amid scenes of confusion embattled
Taoiseach Brian Cowen finally has finally hauled up the white flag and
announced the General Election date for March 11th. His intention to get the finance bill passed through the Dáil was in serious trouble this morning after his attempt to organise
a cabinet reshuffle threatened to be the final straw for the Green
Party who despite supporting the government through thick and thin over
the past period have suddenly developed a survival instinct.
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By Fightback (Ireland)
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Tuesday, 21 December 2010 |
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Jimmy Kelly’s call for a General Strike against the cuts and austerity in the four year plan and the budget which it is to be discussed by ICTU this
week should be welcomed by all trade unionists and socialists in the
state. The scale of the measures that are being proposed and the long
term implications will have a huge effect on working people and “social
partnership” won’t stop the attacks. The cuts in the minimum wage and
the tax increases on the lowest paid workers are examples which
demonstrate that unlike the cuts directed against the public sector
workers the four year plan means that all workers are under threat.
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By Séamus Loughlin
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Friday, 03 December 2010 |
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The small print at the bottom of the EU/IMF
Bailout would be an enough to make an Asset Stripper’s hair curl. If
anyone in the state was labouring under the delusion that all this snow
meant that Santa had come early then the announcement last night of the
conditions attached to the loans would have put paid to that.
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By Fightback (Ireland)
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Tuesday, 30 November 2010 |
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100,000 marched from Wood Quay to the
GPO today (Monday) in protest against the austerity measures outlined in the
four year plan despite the cold wintery weather. A few even
demonstrated in a curagh on the Liffey – the workers navy has arrived.
Meanwhile the government are behind closed doors discussing the
bailout package with the officials.
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By Tony Healy
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Monday, 29 November 2010 |
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After weeks of dancing the seven veils,
trying to hide what they were up to, the government, the EU and the IMF
announced on prime time television today (Sunday)that they have signed up to an €85 billion bailout. The money which has 5.8% interest rate attached to it will go to recapitalise the banks( €10bn); fund the budget (€50bn) and deal with “banking contingencies” (€25bn). So in other words the whole lot is going to bail out the banks and keep the government finances going.
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By Fightback (Ireland)
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Thursday, 25 November 2010 |
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Despite some increasingly desperate
and clumsy attempts to hide the fact that they were in discussions with
the EU and the IMF over a bailout the Government was eventually forced
to admit what everyone already knew; that they were desperate to
secure a huge bailout to attempt to stabilise the Irish economy. The
announcement was met with a huge wave of anger and the thin veneer of
normality in Ireland has been ripped apart on prime time TV.
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By Fightback (Ireland)
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Thursday, 25 November 2010 |
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IRELAND: The four year plan has been announced, the
cuts have been declared and the working class, particularly the poorest
sections,
are in the firing line once again.
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By Fightback (Ireland)
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Friday, 19 November 2010 |
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News that
the Coalition are in discussions with the EU and IMF won’t come as a
shock. Reports have been circulating for days now that the EU and the
Finance Ministry have been locked in discussions and some have even
claimed that the IMF have been briefing the heavyweight financial
bourgeois press internationally in an attempt to pressurise the
coalition and the opposition parties into seeking a deal.
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By Tony Healy
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Thursday, 18 November 2010 |
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IRELAND: The Soldiers of Destiny are floundering out to sea far from
the coast of Donegal; or at least they don’t seem to be in the same
place as the voters. A report in the Irish Times today
quotes a RedC poll carried out on behalf of Paddy Power which indicates
that FF support in Donegal South West has collapsed from 51% to around
19% since 2007.
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By Declan Connolly
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Monday, 08 November 2010 |
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As we look towards this Wednesday's march of students in London, here is a report from the Irish Marxist site Fightback on how students in Ireland are fighting back against the cuts.
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By Tony Healy
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Monday, 25 October 2010 |
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NORTHERN IRELAND: The cuts
announced by the British Chancellor of the Exchequer represent around
6.9% in headline public spending cuts in the North over the next four
years. This amounts to some £4 billion in revenue spending, but there is
also a 40% reduction to come in capital spending on roads, hospitals
and other public project.
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By Fightback Editorial Board
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Thursday, 14 October 2010 |
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The Sunday Independent carried several articles in its October 10th
edition leaving absolutely no room for doubt that the knives are being
sharpened and the target is the Croke Park Agreement. Such is the venom
for the trade unions and the working class that even James Connolly was
dragged into the argument – on the side of the bosses!
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Milions of workers came out on strike in defence of their pensions. This was the biggest such action for decades. The fight goes on!
