Month: December 2009
“Child Benefit keeps us off the breadline for one week in every month”
A SURVEY by the National Women’s Council of Ireland entitled "The Importance of Child Benefit for Parents" in which 66.6% of respondents said that child benefit is a critical part of the family income.
Christmas bonus, “Santa always gets me stuff”
the Socialist spoke to ROBERT KEANE, an unemployed construction worker from Blarney, Co Cork, about the cancellation of the Christmas bonus and the threat of cuts to the basic rate of social welfare.
Paul strike – respect the pickets!
Workers employed by Paul Construction started picketing four of their sites on 2 December. Over thirty workers had previously sat in on the St Vincents’ Hospital site on the previous Monday. They agreed to give up their sit in when the company began talks with the workers’ union SIPTU.
Indonesia – Tamil refugees – EYEWITNESS REPORT
Socialist Party (CWI Australia) National Organiser Anthony Main is currently in Indonesia. He visited the 254 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees currently moored at the port in Merak. Below he reports on the discussions that took place during his visit and on the conditions faced on board the ship.
When the Wall came down 20th anniversary of a failed revolution
EYEWITNESS INTERVIEW
Ann Katrin Orr spoke to René Henze for the Socialist about the movement that led to the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the effects of reunification and reintroduction of capitalism in East Germany. René was born and lives in Eastern Germany, he was 26 and part of the left opposition in the GDR when the Berlin Wall collapsed and has been a socialist and an activist since the early 1980s. He is a member of the SAV (CWI in Germany).
Joe Higgins MEP Calls on rank and file union members to reject sell out deal
"The union leaders had no mandate from their memberships to offer up compulsory unpaid leave of 12 to 14 days on top of cutbacks in overtime and unsocial hours premia and allowances arising from legitimate out of pocket expenses and additional educational qualifications".
Reject ICTU’s Sell Out Deal
A press release from Joe Higgins, Socialist Party MEP responding to the cancellation of tomorrow's day of industrial action by the ICTU leadership and their promotion of a deal with the government based on enforcing unpaid leave on public sector workers.
Rank and file trade unionists must reject this sell out deal and organise to replace the weak union leadership with one who will seriously fight government policy.
19 year old jailed for consensual sex
THE LACK of justice in the judicial system has been exposed through the draconian sentence given to a 19 year old man for having consensual sex with his 16 year old girlfriend.
Central Bank strike
Faced with an attack on their terms and conditions, staff at the Central Bank and the Financial Services Authority have joined the growing list of workers forced to take industrial action to defend their working conditions.
