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.

But how can workers in the private sector fight back effectively under the current conditions? In strongly unionised large and medium sized companies most workers earn above the minimum wage, because the union and the workers have fought for better. In the smaller factories, shops and offices it’s far easier for the bosses to keep wages down and to put on the poor mouth to justify it. That means that it’s precisely these type of industries where the cuts in the minimum wage and the increase in taxes will bite most. Foremost in the firing line will be women and part time workers also. But the logic of the capitalist system means that with the economy still limping out of recession together with an assault on public sector workers, all workers will be in the firing line. That’s why the idea of a General Strike is so important. It draws together all workers in a united struggle. Workers across the whole of Europe have been involved in similar action, because they face similar problems. Ultimately capitralism is to be blame and we are all being forced to pay for  a crisis which is not of our making.

The private sector bosses have made great play of opposing the Croke Park Deal, for the reason that the public sector workers were being “protected”. But what irks them perhaps more than anything else is that the cuts in the wages of public sector workers would give them a green light to attack workers in the private sector also.

The bourgeois press spent most of late 2009 and early 2010 lambasting public sector workers and trying to pillory them in the press. There was one clear reason for this, to sow division between workers in the private sector and the public sector. There is another important reason behind that also. If the government can get away with slashing wages in the public sector then it makes it much easier for the private sector bosses to do exactly the same thing.

Here’s what Jack O’Connor of SIPTU said on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland show in July 2009 in relation to the TEEU strike:

“If this pay-cutting agenda, which is being driven by the kindergarten economics of those who until very recently were cheer-leading the credit-led property boom, establishes itself in this country they will do it to workers right across the country.”

And again in a SIPTU Press release at the time:

“The electricians have only served strike notice having exhausted every possible alternative procedure against a background of the declared intention of the employers to implement a pay cut of the order of ten per cent and detrimentally alter other conditions of employment, all of which are in contravention of the Registered Employment Agreement for the industry.

“Ultimately the electricians must be supported by all workers because the employers’ objective of cutting pay and tearing up agreements reflects the primary aim of the wealthy elite in our society, which is, above all else, to preserve their own assets and privileged position. Their shallow analysis of the crisis therefore sees attacks on workers living standards as the best way of repairing the damage done to our economy by the array of speculators, developers and their cronies.” (SIPTU support for electricians in tomorrow’s national strike)

What Jack O’Connor said at the time was absolutely correct, especially when he argued that the Electricians must be supported by all workers. The truth is that now 18 months later the situation has moved on apace. The crisis in the state means that the policy of “Social Partnership” has achieved nothing. Workers in Ireland have been lead up the hill and down again by the ICTU leaders over the past period, but the power of the movement has been used primarily to bring the government to the negotiating table. Strikes and protests were called and then called off. You can’t treat the membership like a tap that can be turned on and off at will. The weakness of the trade union tops eventually lead to a certain tiredness in the movement which explains in part why the Croke Park deal was accepted in the first place.

The vacillation and confusion of the trade union leaders has been obvious and this is a major factor in the situation. The ICTU leaders in particular have demonstrated that they have absolutely no confidence in the members or in their own capacity to galvanise a movement. This despite the fact that the Irish workers have demonstrated time and again that they are ready to fight to defend their jobs and conditions.

The call from the Irish Regional Secretary of Unite which is a major union in the private sector, indicates two things. In the first case, it shows that there is a lot of pressure inside the movement for action. But secondly it demonstrates the need for a focus for that discontent.

Jimmy Kelly’s call seems however to have fallen on stony ground at least among the trade union leaders whose attitude is likely to be negative or even hostile when they meet this week. As Jack O’Connor commented the hopes of the Trade union leaders is for a new government who will try and renegotiate the EU/IMF deal. But, under the economic conditions that a new government will face it’s likely that the movement will be forced into struggle whether the trade union leaders like it or not. Under these conditions Jimmy Kelly’s words will gain a greater significance, within the trade union movement and among the working class as a whole.