Workers Solidarity Movement

This article was written prior to the big ICTU anti-cuts demonstration of November 2010 and in the afterfath of a large anti-student fees demonstration where a two thousand strong militant breakaway was attacked by Gardaí.

An article headlined "Gardaí on alert for Dublin protest" published this evening on the Irish Times website is a clear attempt by the political establishment to divide protesters and create an atmosphere of fear amongst those attending.

Garda Chief Supt Michael O'Sullivan is quoted as saying “there are individuals and groups who seek to exploit such events for their own ends”. This is a globally recognised police tactic of trying to divide the movement into "good" and "bad" protesters. This follows weeks on from disturbances at the national student march where Gardaí in riot gear launched an unprovoked attack on demonstrators.

Recently bond holders in Anglo Irish Banks agreed to a voluntary reduction to 20% of face value on 2017 junior bonds.  This morning the ISDA Determiniation Comittee (International Swaps and Derivatives Association) announced that this constituted a restructuring credit event, triggering CDSs (Credit Default Swaps) on Anglo Irish Bank.  Restructuring credit events trigger what is known as the "Small Bang Protocol" for CDSs which cover some events which are not complete defaults.

The 1% Network has called on all workers to attend the march organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on Saturday morning next to “show their opposition to the anti-people policies of the Irish government, the European Central Bank and the IMF”.

While the state continues to be rocked by the result of devastating effects of 10 years of rampant capitalism crashing the focus has been conveniently been shifted from the serious problems within our health service. A common belief is that before things get better they must get worse and under the 4 year plan they are about to get a lot worse. In the case of a health service this couldn’t be further from the truth. The obvious result of a worsening health service is higher national morbidity and mortality. Are we prepared to allow this to occur?

In this program, Podcast available here on Near podcast site, we bring your a report from the Walking tour undertaken by the 1% network through the Golden Circle in Dublin 2,4.  A map is contained here.

With the IMF in Ireland, a WSM member has written a song of 'welcome', a recording of which and the lyrics of which are below.  For international readers "céad míle fáilte" means "A Hundred Thousand Welcomes" and is a traditional greeting now strongly associated with the tourist industry.  You can read WSM articles about the IMF intervention and the economic crash that led to it in our Capitalist Crisis article listing.

Céad míle fáilte - To the IMF 
We hope we meet you on the streets - To fight you to the death. 
And we know how you got here - Back room deal and open arms 
As you try to suck the life from us - With your structural reforms

The only way to stop cuts is to stand up now

I was disappointed to read that the editorial of this paper (Belfast Telegraph November 11) has pinned the blame of the student riots in London on ‘anarchist elements’. Firstly this assumption is based on a misguided view that students are incapable of acting in there own interests and underestimates the genuine anger and frustration out there.

The government is to launch an all out attack on the living standards of the working class. The four year plan outlines a cut in the minimum wage, water charges, a household tax, a 5% cut in welfare payments, taxing of low wage workers, an €1000 increase in college fees, and cutting of 20,000 jobs.

Technical, Engineering & Electrical Union (TEEU) call for a campaign of civil disobedience. Union members overwhelmingly endorsed the emergency motion at their conference this morning.