Workers Solidarity Movement

Tragedy dressed as comedy, that’s what I am going to remember from this election.  It's funny to watch Fine Gael part with huge sums of money to some clever marketing interweb company under the title of 'social viral advertising' only to be presented with a game on their website where Enda Kenny runs around like a grinning ninja rat despatching opponents with the Fine Gael stars and the catch phrase ‘On your bike’, picking up token votes along the way. 

The 1% Don't Need to Stand In Elections - Whoever Forms The Government We'll Still Be pulling The Strings'

The election will be over, the new government will be formed. But what will have changed?
The 1% elite will still own 34% of the wealth.

10 March · 18:00 - 19:00
Location : Central Bank, Dame Street, Dublin 2

The attack on workers at the Davenport Hotel in Dublin had highlighted the greed and bullying in the hotel business.  A similar case to that at the Davenport has come to light here in Cork.  But so far fear has ruled the day.

The Clarion describes itself as one of “Cork’s premier 4 Star City Centre Hotels”.  Although it’s well able to charge for its rooms it cannot find its way to granting its workers a 29 cents  per hour pay rise.

No political party would be allowed to take power on a platform of taking their riches from the wealthy 1%.  Their huge wealth gives them political power.  The power and wealth cannot be taken from the elite through the ballot box, it can only happen by a massive social upheaval.

An Irish general election fever grips this place, where promises flow like water running off a mountain, and where the sun, the moon, and the stars are laid at the feet of the people, all for the sake of a no. 1 on the day itself.   From looking around us now you witness the desperate scramble of prospective candidates to get into power, into the Dáil, to receive their €100,000 PA salary plus expenses.  Jobs and Reform appear to be on top of the agenda, yet no one appears to be responsible for the transgressions of the past. 

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has announced a campaign of opposition to plans by the government to cut the pay of 4th year student nurses and midwives.  Describing the government’s plans as “devalu[ing], to the level of slave labour, the nature of the essential direct care given during this 36 week rostered placement” INMO general secretary, Liam Doran said “We will fiercely resist this attack on these young professionals which amounts to nothing more than gross exploitation.”

Social Justice Ireland has revealed in new research that the gap between the Rich and Poor is widening in Ireland. The gap has got significantly wider in the last twenty years so that now the top 10% of population get 25% of income, while the bottom 10% get only 2.2%.

On Friday 4th February, Alternative Community Cinema will launch their 2011 series of educational and awareness film evenings in Annagry, County Donegal. The first event which is entitled “The IMF, The Truth!” will be held in Annagry Hall and will show the film 'The Shock Doctrine'. The film is based on Naomi Klein's book of the same name and is a look at how “free market” policies have come to dominate the world through exploitation.

Fine Gael and the Labour party are engaged in a desperate attempt to pass the Fianna Fail/Green party budget into law. A budget containing billions in cuts attacking the poorest sections of Irish society. A budget they loudly opposed only a few weeks ago.

While the soap opera of who will captain Fianna Fail’s sinking ship into the election is obsessed over by the media, the publication of the Finance Bill on Friday last has shown that for some at least it’s business as usual. Having announced in his Budget speech that Section 23 property tax reliefs were to be curtailed (not abolished – just curtailed!), Minister for Finance and wannabe FF leader, Brian Lenihan, has changed his mind.