Workers Solidarity Movement

The erosion of a democratic structure of the Unions has lead to a greater ability by the leadership to exert control over the Union.  Where there were assemblies of workers – arguments can be had and positions taken – but thanks to over 23 years of partnership – you don’t have them in many workplaces.   So where you had functioning branch structures it was possible to explore and debate ideas over the strike process.

The NAMA bailout of the property speculators bank, Ango Irish Bank, is now costing the rest of us 25 billion euro.  Twenty five billion euro is a figure that is almost meaning less to almost all of us.  A worker earning the minimum wage would have to work for 1.4 million years to earn 25 billion (before tax).  The economist Ronan Lyons listed 100 things that 25 billion could have been spent on in, some flippant but others which give a real sense of just what the real cost of the 25 billion that the richest 1% have robbed off the rest of the population through NAMA is.

On Saturday (14th Aug), around 60 people from different organisations, parties and community projects plus some individual activists gathered in Kilbarack community development centre for a 2 day activist workshop. The whole event was pleasantly very well organised with a lovely lunch provided.

The 2010 Inequality Survey published by independent thinktank TASC has shown that 87% of respondents believe that wealth in Ireland is unfairly distributed.  This is up from 70% in the equivalent survey carried out in 2008. 91% of respondents believe that active steps should be taken by Government to address this inequality and reduce the income gap between low and high income earners.

The news has emerged over the weekend that 900 homes a month are being disconnected from the electricity grid because they were not able to pay their bills. (1) A further 11,000 bill payers a month are entering into  special re-payment options  because they’ve already contacted the Electricity Supply Board to say that they are having difficulty making the payment.

The newspeak word that was used in the press release by the ESB was ‘de-energizing’ customers. 

In what was described ahead of time as the most "important bond auction of the year" the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) sold 1.5 billion in bonds, a result which may steady the international markets at whose whims workers in Ireland have discovered their employment and living standards are subject to.  There was nervousness ahead of the sale due to the rise in the cost of servicing Irish debt in bond sales last week.  Meanwhile thousands of bank workers are losing their jobs.

It has been revealed that the ESB (the Electricity Supply Board, a State-owned company) has been cutting off an average of 30 people a day from the electricity supply due to their inability to pay the bills.

Climate Camp 2010- 12th to 16th of August- Victoria Bridge, County Tyrone.

This year's climate camp will take place form the 12th to the 16th of August in County Tyrone, to support the local community campaign that is in opposition to the building of a new A5 road between Dublin and Derry.
Check our more about the A5 Alliance campaign on: http://www.alternativea5alliance.com/home and http://sluggerotoole.com/2010/06/03/terror-in-tyrone-–-white-elephant-alert/ for other oposition.

For more info see http://climatecamp.ie/

Radio Solidarity - Prog. 6 - "How I came to be involved" is now available to listen to on the Near FM podcast site.

In this show, we at Radio Solidarity went out and spoke to people who are actively engaged in struggle and have a definitive idea of how to change the world for the better.

The story of Ivor and his €80,000 in expenses – is just the latest smell arising from our political houses, after the stink that wafted from there last year when John O’Donoghue ran up €126,000 in expenses in two years.    Last year we were listening to stories of €900 a night hotel rooms, airport transfers and hat rentals.