The "An Bord Snip" report has outlined a menu of vicious cuts and job losses aimed at working people and the unemployed. The government’s plan to slash the living standards of workers and the unemployed and destroy our health and education services must be opposed.
The severe downturn in 2008-09 made the world economy into an experimental workshop. But neither extreme austerity or trillions to the banks has led to a solid recovery. Now there is growing concern among politicians and economists.
With hundreds of thousands of people in negative equity and struggling to pay their mortgages, the issue of revaluing peoples mortgages, or 'debt forgiveness' as the government have tried to brand it, has come up. Here Joe Higgins TD looks at the issues involved from a socialist perspective.
According to some Greek protesters Ireland is not like Greece - one banner on a demonstration read, “This is not Ireland, we will fight”. Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan, says the same but from a different stand point. He keeps repeating that Ireland is not like Greece in the hope that such an economic collapse won't happen here, precisely because he is afraid of a similar revolt of the Irish working class.