December 2009

Thursday's Public Sector Strike March and Rally

Date:

Strike Day
Thursday 3rd December
Protest Rally
Assemble at Department of Education & Science, Marlborough St. at 10:30a.m.
March to Dáil Éireann, leaving Marlborough St. at 11:30a.m.

Dublin: Budget day: "Show You're Angry; Make Lots of Noise"

Date:

The Budget is going to be a massive attack on ordinary working people and the poor across Ireland. Lets show our anger in huge number outside the Dail on Dec 9th as they waffle within. The Social Solidarity Network is joining the protests that day at 5pm to demand "Reverse the Cuts Make the Rich Pay" and "Tax the Greedy Not the Needy".

WSM member on RTE arguing for strike on 24th

Date:

WSM member Gregor Kerr was on Liveline prior to the 24th November strike. This is an audio recording of what he said and the responses it drew from other callers,

Reflections on the 24th of November

Date:

On the 24th of November something extraordinary happened. Some 250,000 workers acted together in a day-long strike against the public sector wage cuts planned by the government. The vast majority of these workers had never gone on strike before, yet across almost all workplaces the strike involved 90% or more of those working.

Budget day protests at the Dail

Date:

The Dublin Council of Trade Unions called a lunchtime protest for Budget day on Wednesday 9th December to "set down a marker that the fight to reverse government policy to solve the crisis on the backs of the lower paid workers and those on social welfare will continue". This was part of a sequence of protests that went on through the whole day.

What happened to the Dec 3rd strike and what are ICTU up to?

Date:

The cancellation of the December 3rd strike is a blow to the developing movement against the cuts on the scale of the cancellation of the March 30th strike at the start of the year. The so called compromise ICTU have been negotiating for is a further blow, it seems designed to drive a wedge between workers and fails to answer the main problem public sector workers have, the inability to take further cuts. But the strike that did happen on 24th November has brought 250,000 workers into their first experience of the power we collectively hold and points towards an alternative

Hundreds of Maynooth students deliver petition against Bertie Aherns appointment.

Date:

Today, Wednesday the second of December, almost 300 NUI Maynooth students showed up to deliver a petition against the appointment of Bertie Ahern T.D as an Honorary Professor by the University. Campaigners decided to call on those who had signed the 1,000+ petition to help deliver it, and the turnout surpassed all expectations.

SSN: “Show You’re Angry. Make Lots of Noise”

Date:

Campaigning Group Social Solidarity Network (SSN) has called on people to come to the Dáil on Budget Day this Wednesday at 5:00p.m. to show their anger at “government attacks on ordinary working people and the poor across Ireland.”

Live coverage from WSM of Budget day protests

Date:

Wednesday 9th December saw the greatest budget attack on workers in Ireland in a couple of decades with services and pay being slashed. Many unions and other organisations called protests outside the Dail from the early morning to the late evening. WSM members took part in these protests throughout the day and provided live updates, photos and video from them via our twitter account which you can view or listen to in this article.

Press Statement: Anarchist Organisation calls on workers to organise to “get rid of ICTU traitors”

Date:

Anarchist Organisation Workers Solidarity Movement (WSM) has described the leaders of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Public Services Committee as “traitors who have connived with government to attack the wages and conditions of trade union members”, and has called on workers in all unions to unite and organise to “reclaim ownership of the trade unions and get rid of the traitors”.

Interviews from the 24th November picket lines

Date:

This audio consists of 10 brief interviews with public sector strikers made during the national strike on 24th November 2009. Picketers at various locations across Dublin talk of what the strike is about, the effects of the cuts and how their unions organised for the strike.

The 420 Billion giveaway: How Ireland is losing its valuable natural resources

Date:

This page 'rescues' the text of the Shell to Sea information pack 'The 420 Billion giveaway: How Ireland is losing its valuable natural resources' on Ireland’s offshore oil and gas and the Corrib Gas controversy, prepared by Dublin Shell to Sea November 2009.

COP15 the protests and the arrests in Copenhagen

Date:

This audio interview, conducted by mobile phone on Monday evening, covers the protests at the COP15 summit in Copenhagen.
Ronan who was a member of WSM in Ireland has been living in Denmark for a year and a half and is involved in a new Libertarian Socialist group and the local infoshop in the autonomous Youth House.