2013 will be an important year for the socialist and workers’ movement in Ireland as we celebrate the courageous sacrifice displayed by the Dublin working class in their battle against the bosses in the 1913 lockout.

On the surface it looks like the talks for an extension of the Croke Park deal are in troubled waters. With the walk out of the Garda rank and file association and the nurses trade union threatening to walk with the 24 / 7 frontline alliance.

On RTE radio's This Week Programme today the general secretary of ICTU David Begg voiced support for the property tax about to be levied on homeowners. The property tax will be the biggest austerity measure of all and if fully implemented along with water charges will see bills approaching €1,000 in a few short years.

Next Saturday's ICTU demonstrations should call for a repudiation of the debt and name the date for day of strike action to take on austerity agenda

The planned Property Tax is a new low for this Labour / Fine Gael government. It amounts to straightforward robbery of working class people, as well as a huge attack on people’s civil liberties.

The Socialist Party has ended its membership of the ULA. We do so with regret as we initiated the negotiations that led to the ULA and are genuine in our preparedness to work with others on the left in a respectful, democratic and principled fashion.

Joan Burton’s announcement that a universal pension scheme will be established for private sector workers on the surface can be seen to be a step in dealing with the crisis many workers without pensions will face on retirement.

2013 has started with the government and the capitalist media going on a propaganda offensive to give the impression that there is a real recovery in the Irish economy.

Almost one in four young people in the European Union are currently unemployed. In Greece this figure hits 57%, in Spain 56%, in Ireland it is 29%. In total 5.5 million young people are unemployed across Europe and emigration is rife, with people leaving Ireland in numbers not seen since the Famine. In the face of this crisis the European Union has no solution to offer, its latest proposal a ‘Youth Guarantee’ is nothing more than wishful thinking.

The disgracefully nominal amounts of corporation tax being paid by some of the largest multinationals (MNCs) based in Ireland have come to the forefront of the news in recent months. The right-wing rag The Irish Independent even has had to adopt headlines such as “Google chief: 'I'm proud of tax we pay – it's called capitalism” such has been the incredibleness of the figures.