Socialist Party (Ireland) Struggle, Democracy, Socialism

As the political crisis of the establishment deepens and support for the Left rises, the question of a Left government will increasingly be posed. Paul Murphy, Anti Austerity Alliance TD, asks what such a government would do.

It is now nine weeks since Greyhound workers were treated in the style of William Martin Murphy by their employer, Michael Buckley. They arrived to work – were presented with new contracts, including pay cut of up to 35% and a change to a whole series of other working conditions and were instructed to sign or they were not working. After refusing to sign, they were escorted off the premises by security. Agency workers immediately began doing their jobs. This is 1913 in 2014.

Not just individuals, but also the political and legal system that allowed banks and speculators engage in unbridled profiteering on homes and property, and the media that glorified them, that should be in the dock.

Technical Paper Author, Seamus Coffey has previously estimated ‘implicit corporate tax rate’ as 8%. Paper itself admits ‘implicit tax rate’ of 5.9% in 2012

Troika report being cynically used by pro austerity MEPs to give false hope of a retrospective bank deal.

Paul Williams in the Irish Independent has been playing defence for the Gardai and in particular Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan, since the GSOC bugging scandal broke. The Irish Independent has published article after article designed to deflect attention from the bugging of GSOC and to put pressure on the GSOC Chairman, Simon O’Brien. This transparent attempt to shield the Gardai from scrutiny reached laughable proportions this morning with the story on the front page of the Irish Independent by Paul Williams.

The government’s real response to unemployment is two-pronged: forced emigration and using mass unemployment to try to drive down wages and conditions.

In recent and current industrial battles the crisis in pension funds has been centre stage. Between the nine commercial semi state companies in Ireland there is a deficit in the schemes totalling €3 billion, half of which is concentrated in one company alone, the ESB.

Advance Pitstop have today advertised on JobBridge for 28 interns to work as ‘sales fitters’ in their branches across the country. These are 28 jobs which could be filled by any one of the hundreds of thousands of people on the dole queue as the only requirement is for a driving licence. Even at minimum wage rates, the company will ...

The approach on Middle East trade mission puts Ireland’s trade policy firmly in the camp the fundamentalist free trade hawks.