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.

On 24 November 2009 250,000 public sector workers in Ireland took part in a national strike against planned pay cuts.

Many WSM members who work in the public sector played a direct part in the organisation of the strike and student members helped organise solidarity actions at the universities where strikes were happening. They also toured other picket lines to send in reports and photos. Here we present these reports and the reports sent in by members on strike who had access to smart phones with which they sent live news on the day to the WSM twitter feed

WSM press release: Anarchist organisation welcomes public sector strike and calls for further action
Anarchist organisation Workers Solidarity Movement has congratulated public sector workers who took part in today’s 24-hour work stoppage and called for further stoppages “in order to force a change of direction from the government”.

Report from the mass picket of the Department of Education (with text of INTO leaflet)
From before 8a.m. this morning, members of the Irish National Teachers Organisation were on the picket line outside the Department of Education and Science in Dublin’s Marlborough Street, alongside Special Needs Assistant colleagues, members of IMPACT, and workers based in the DES building itself, members of SIPTU, CPSU and PSEU.

Reports from Cork from the General Strike
Strikes took off across Cork city and county this morning as workers took direct action to stop the Government's attack on wages and conditions. We bring brief reports and images from three locations.

Interview with CPSU pickets in Cork
During the 24th November general strike Paul spoke to two of the 15 CPSU members picketing a workplace in Cork about the strike.

"This Is A Statement ..." Kinsale Strike Report
In Kinsale the Further Education College (FEC) and the secondary school were picketed for several hours this morning. I was unpleasantly surprised to find out that the social welfare office is privatised and so was running as normal today.

Maynooth Students come out in support of NUIM staff
Students assembled just before 12pm today in Maynooth to join lecturers and other staff at the National University of Ireland NUI Maynooth on the picket lines for a number of hours.. Solidarity pickets were placed on both North and South campuses of NUI Maynooth.

intoplacards.jpg 0.02 Mb Placards ready for the strike 0.04 Mb Solidarity poster in Maynoot university prior to strike 0.05 Mb IFUT picketeer Maynooth University 0.05 Mb INTO march through Dublin 0.06 Mb Maynooth students support strike 0.06 Mb One of the pickets in UCD 0.04 Mb The rain arrives in Maynooth 0.07 Mb Studnet support in Maynooth 0.05 Mb stuworkerfighmaynooth.jpg 0.06 Mb Someone brought sweets for the pickets in Maynooth 0.05 Mb Picket of the Dail at 7.30pm some pickets went midnight ti midnight 0.04 Mb

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is organising countrywide demonstrations for Friday 6th November in response to the government's plan to pin the costs of the economic crisis on working people.

• Press Statement: Anarchist Organisation calls for support for November 6th demonstrations
• Get Out And March on Friday But Marching Is Not Enough, Organise for a general strike

The marches all kick-off at 2.30pm.
Cork - Connolly Hall
Dublin - Parnell Square
Waterford - The Glen
Tullamore - County Hall
Limerick - The Cathedral
Sligo - The Blue Lagoon
Dundalk - The Fairgreen
Galway - probably Eyre Square but not confirmed

In Dublin the Social Solidarity Network will be meeting up at the Ambassador at 1.30 to leaflett the march and will be meeting after the march at 5pm at the Ireland Institute 27 Pearse St.
Shell 2 Sea will be meeting up to leaflet the march at 2PM across from the Savoy Cinema.

On Friday 31st July workers at Thomas Cook occupied the shop on Grafton street.

Management got a court injunction against the occupation and on Monday morning a huge force of Gardai sealed off the area, smashed their way into the shop and arrested the 28 workers inside.

The workers at Thomas Cook were fighting for a better redundancy package. To the approximately €700,000 offered by the company, the workers are demanding an added €300,000. That afternoon the High Court released the workers and negotiations were started on an improved redundancy package. The articles were written by WSM members involved in supporting the struggle of the Thomas Cook workers.

Following on from the occupation of the Waterford Glass plant in February which managed to save some of the jobs and improve redundancy conditions workers in Belfast at Visteon occupied their factor last week. With plant closures happening across the island both these occupations provide an example of workers taking direct action to preserve jobs and/or force employers to improve on redundancy conditions. Here we present reports from WSM members from these occupations and background articles.

That the very threat of a national strike was enough to force government and IBEC to change their position demonstrates the power the working class holds when we threaten to withdraw our labour. For all the media attempts to convince us we are powerless and that class struggle is a thing of the past when faced with the reality of the organised working class standing up both bosses and state were keen to avoid any confrontation that could illustrate and encourage our collective power.

On Saturday 120,000 workers marched through Dublin demanding the the public sector pay cut ('pension levy') be withdrawn, that jobs cuts be opposed and that all the other attacks on the working class be ended. Over the last couple of weeks there have been dozens of local union meetings of workers in the public sector demanding strike action to halt the cuts. The march was a chance not only to put pressure on the government but also to demand that our unions do the only thing that can halt the cuts, call a national strike.

The WSM met up to leaflet the march at 1.30 at the Parnell monument, and then joined the demonstration with a banner demanding a National Strike. Here we present reports, interviews with and photos from WSM members who took part on the demonstration and the leafletting as well as background articles on the nature of the crisis

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