Workers Solidarity Movement

For the second time in six months, workers at Connolly Shoes Dun Laoghaire Co. Dublin, members of the Mandate trade union, have taken to the picket line.  The strike began on Tuesday 6th April following the dismissal of two workers.

The dispute has its origin in attempts by management last September to introduce short-time working. 

The workers on strike are getting great support and solidarity from members of the public.  The leaflet being handed out by the strikers reads as follows:

INTO Conference has again had a narrow vote in relation to the Public Sector deal. After another lively and angry debate, Delegates voted by 306 votes to 248 against a section of a motion which would have had the effect of postponing the ballot on the deal until the full details of any revised teachers contract were made available.

In what is being described by RTE as a blow to the leadership, delegates at the INTO annual Congress in Galway today (Tuesday) passed a motion which declared that the Public Sector Agreement 2010 -2014  is contrary to INTO policy.  After a lively debate, it was agreed to endorse the union leadership's decision to put the deal to a ballot of the membership but the section of the motion which called for a recommendation that members reject the deal in that ballot was defeated by just 4 votes - 308 to 304.

The sacking of Eugene McDonagh by Dublin Bus management and his simultaneous suspension by the National Bus & Rail Union from its national executive shows the true face of ‘social partnership’.  Eugene has been a bus driver for 21 years and has an unblemished work record. The bosses and the senior union bureaucracy have come together to attack effective trade unionism in Harristown garage. 

The conference of the Irish National Teachers Organisation conference has split down the middle on the question of whether to accept or reject the Public Sector Agreement negotiated by the trade union bosses.  Delegates voted 304 for and 308 against an amendment which would have meant the rejection of the deal.  Delegates who oppose the deal are now meeting up to start the organisation of a No campaign in the INTO. 

A number of WSM members attended the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) commemoration of Land Day – March 30^th which has become a symbolic day of support both in Palestine and throughout the world. This marks the day when strikes were organised in many Palestinian towns in Israel back in 1976 as a reaction to the expropriation of more land by that aggressor state.

Al Jazerra have released this video that shows US Apache helicopters use a mini gun against a group of journalists & civilians in Iraq.  When a van arrives to evacuate the injured that is also shot up, killing the driver.  When US troops arrive on the scene the pilots laugh when they run over a body and then  when they are told that the injured include two children laugh again saying 'you shouldn't bring your children to a war.'  Except of course those they have killed were not in a war, they were walking down a street before being  gunned down from the sky without cause or warning.

Anarchists, along with the Rebel Hill Walkers and lots of supporters, climbed Carrantuohill in Kerry on Sunday as part of a fundraiser for Solidarity Books in Cork. Guided by the esteemed and experienced James McBarron, the large group set off shortly after 11 am. A number had to turn back for health reasons, but the majority headed on to establish ‘base camp’ under the summit at around 3.30 pm – delays and picnics were the order of the day – ahead of the final assault on the peak.

40 members of the new Anti-Water Tax Campaign from Waterford, Cork and Dublin protested outside the Green Party conference last weekend.  John Gormley and his fellow Green TDs have been leading the charge to impose this additional charge on households, pretending a regressive tax is somehow an environmental measure.