Workers Solidarity Movement

A crowd of about 100 people gathered in the local GAA club in Cabra last Wednesday night (1^st Feb) and the message was simple and clear, we’re not registering, we are not paying.

PEOPLE HAVE got so used to the health cuts over the last ten years that they just accept them as their lot. The situation on hospital waiting lists for public patients is now so farcical that people are being offered appointments two years away. The waiting list for tonsils operations in Crumlin Children's Hospital is now two years long. Tell them that the child is missing a lot of school because of tonsillitis and produce doctors letters to that effect and you will get an appointment in 15 months!

Over 100 people took part in a picket at City Hall in Dublin last night to protest the Household tax.  The protest was timed to  coincide with a motion opposing the household tax proposed by Cllrs Louise Minihan, Cieran Perry, Pat Dunne and Brid Smith.

Rossport Solidarity Camp reports that Shell has begun the work on the Landfall Valve Installation at Glengad beach where the off-shore pipe coming from the Corrib gasfield will be connected to the onshore pipe in the tunnel that is being dug under the estuary.

Cork city and county Anti-Household Tax Campaign rounded off an excellent eight days' work by holding protests in Ballincollig and outside Cork's City Hall this Friday to coincide with taoiseach Enda Kenny's visit to the south. Following on from the massively successful public meeting in the city last Thursday 26^th January, 200 people spent well over 2 hours noisily picketing a Chamber of Commerce banquet at City Hall yesterday evening to let Mr. Kenny know the depth of opposition to the Household Tax in the city. Earlier in the day, another 50 people picketed the Oriel House hotel in the commuter belt town of Ballincollig, where he attended another gathering of business people.

On Tuesday January 31^st 2011 a public meeting took place in the Hotel Keadeen in Newbridge, Co. Kildare. The meeting was organised by the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes and with around 200 local people in attendance, many having to stand at the back and sides, the meeting was a great start for the local campaign. The video below was recorded just before 8pm when the meeting was scheduled to commence and does not capture the people that continued to file into the hall after it was taken.

Between 30 and 40 people attended a Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes (CAHWT) public meeting in Shankill, South Dublin on Thursday 2nd February. The meeting was chaired by Richard Boyd Barrett (People Before Profit/ULA TD) and was addressed by Cllr. Hugh Lewis (People Before Profit) and Gregor Kerr (Workers Solidarity Movement).

Hugh outlined the political arguments against the household tax, arguing that it was unfair and immoral and that the tax should be opposed by refusing to register and refusing to pay.

On a chilly 1st February evening, in Fine Gael’s heartland of Castlebar, over 140 people turned out for the first public meeting of the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes (CAHWT) in Mayo. Although the meeting was scheduled for 7:30, by 7:15 the room in the Welcome Inn was quietly filling up, much to the surprise of those of us who had been there to organise things since 7:00.

On Saturday the 4th of February, there is a protest against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) legislation being implemented. People will meet at 1:00pm at the Gardens of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin.

Primark workers in eight stores across Northern Ireland are set to strike over pay and conditions, setting a precendent for private sector workers. Despite a pay freeze the company has made a staggering 644 million in profit in the last two years.  The Union of Shop and Distributive Allied workers (USDAW) represent around 85 percent of the Primark workforce in Northern Ireland and that fact that 93% of its members voted for strike action sends a clear message to management that enough is enough.