Workers Solidarity Movement

On November 30th the Derry Trades Union Council have called on workers to rally in Derry's Guildhall Square at 1pm. Many Public Workers will be holding pickets outside their place of employment then marching to the Guildhall Square. 

WSM members & supporters in northern Ireland provided live coverage of the N30 Pension strikes  via our Twitter feed. Anarchists in Derry  put a banner up in the city centre in solidarity with today's strike and a WSM leaflet (below) was  distributed across the north.

The strike was part of the UK wide public sector strike against attacks on public sector pensions, attacks similar to those imposed on public sector workers in southern Ireland over the last couple of years.  They are part of a Europe wide offensive against the pensions rights of workers.

(Pic: Anarchist solidarity banner at Derry rally)

Today’s industrial action builds on the momentum from the education and healthcare strike last month and sends out the message that we mean business. Congratulations to all who have taken part and especially to those who have over the past few weeks and months built for today’s action.

We are relied on every day to run the hospitals, schools, fire service, and all other public services that society depends on to function. Today we have demonstrated that when we withdraw our labour and stand together in defence of our rights we have real strength.

Despite a concerted propaganda campaign waged by the mainstream media and the corrupt political class tens of thousands of public sector workers in Northern Ireland will be taking to the picket lines this Wednesday joining millions across the UK in the biggest single strike action since the 1926 general strike.

Anarchist organisation Workers Solidarity Movement (WSM) has welcomed Wednesday’s public sector strike and called for this to be “the start of a sustained campaign of opposition to the government’s attacks on workers and the unemployed.”

With the first massive union demonstrations against the cuts the WSM argued that only a general strike could force the government to stop targeting workers and the poor to pay for the crisis. Three years on it has become clear that such a strike will not materialize unless we rebuild mass participation at the base of the unions.

The one day public sector strike revealed just how weak our unions have become at the base. Almost none of us had been on strike and a culture had been allowed to develop in most unions where members are not expected to turn up to local meetings or AGM's unless they have a grievance. Although the organisation was often chaotic the public sector strike was just about pulled off but it was a one day symbolic action - to win we would need an indefinite strike that lasted until the government backed down. Could you organize your fellow workers in your branch to agree to, organize for and implement such a strike?

Since the start of the economic crisis the trade union movement have produced excellent analysis of government policy warning that the austerity measures being pursued “could turn Ireland into a social and economic wasteland”[1] But our movement has failed to come up with a strategy to resist the government/EU-IMF attacks. We’ve been marched around Dublin on an annual basis and listened to speeches that are more about letting off steam than planning a fightback. Our union leadership do not have either a vision of how resistance can be built or confidence in the membership to develop an alternative economic strategy.

In a statement issued after a meeting of the union’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) today (Thursday 17^th November), the Irish National Teachers Organisation has said that the INTO “is not in a position to support the JobBridge initiative” and “will be directing members not to participate in the JobBridge scheme.” The issuing of this directive is a major victory for grassroots organising within the INTO.  When JobBridge was first announced by the government during the summer, and when the Department of Education and Science issued a circular on how it would be applied in schools in September, the union leadership’s first reaction was to refuse to issue a directive.  This despite the fact that it was clear to everyone that JobBridge was simply FAS’s Work Placement Programme (WPP) by a different name.

Over the past five months, the Labour/Fine Gael coalition has rolled out its JobBridge internship scheme. This scheme sees thousands of unemployed people taking 6-9 month “work experience placements” in various jobs in exchange for €50 per week in addition to their social welfare payment.

Thousands of health and education workers took strike actionyesterday across the North in protest against Budget cuts in the public service. The 24 hour strike action, the first in over 30 years involves all health workers except doctors, and some school staff.