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Court ruling on REAs poses need for organising drive by union movement
The striking down by the Supreme Court of the REAs will be seen by employers and sub contractors as a signal for a savage attack on the wages and conditions of workers. The trade union movement should immediately declare that any such attacks will be met by all out action and must now go on the offensive to ensure that wages and conditions provided for by the REAs remain intact.
Croke Park – No deal, no sell-outs, no cuts!
The resounding rejection of Croke Park II by public sector workers presents an important opportunity for working class people to challenge and defeat the austerity agenda.
Stability Programme Update proves austerity is for bondholder’s benefit
The release of the latest estimates from the Department of Finance in the Stability Programme Update illustrates in cold figures in whose interests austerity is being implemented. The figures prove that society and the economy are being destroyed so that the bondholders will be repaid.
Euro crisis engulfs Cyprus
The troika’s bail-out package is an economic and social disaster for the people of Cyprus. How was prosperity so suddenly transformed into penury?
Trade union movement must act against sectarianism
The fall-out from the controversy around the flying of the union flag at Belfast City Hall brought into sharp relief the deep, sectarian divisions which remain a reality of life in Northern Ireland. Tensions were decisively heightened and feelings have been hardened in both communities.
EU-US Free Trade Agreement: Race to the bottom of the Atlantic
A lot of ink has been spilt in the mainstream media, praising the role a free trade agreement between the EU and the US could play in pulling the two economies out of the crisis they are engulfed in. Richard Bruton outdid himself in the Sunday Business Post on 14 April 2013, claiming “abolishing restrictions in the EU’s services sector alone could boost EU GDP by 2.6%.” Three days later a press release from him claimed that the whole deal could boost EU GDP by a mere 0.5%!
Croke Park II – No vote puts government & Troika on the ropes
Speaking following the 'No' vote on the Croke Park II deal Paul Murphy MEP commented: I warmly welcome the decisive No votes from SIPTU, the INMO and the INTO announced this afternoon, which alongside the No votes from several other unions have killed off Croke Park II and has knocked the government and the troika onto the ropes.
Behind the stock market surge
In the first week of March share prices surged on the New York Stock Exchange followed by other major exchanges. Does this signify a revival of the global capitalist economy? The Financial Times was quick to note that "little of investors’ exuberance is reflected in core economic data… The US and the UK ended the year stagnant; the eurozone and Japan in renewed recession; the emerging world slowing down". (Stock Markets Defy Economic Woes, 6 March)
Left wins majority on General Council of North’s largest union
In a highly significant development the Broad Left grouping has won 20 out of 25 seats in recent elections to the General Council of the Northern Ireland Public Sector Alliance (NIPSA), Northern Ireland’s largest union. Nine of the Broad Left’s seats were won by Socialist Party members.
Still no justice for the Ballymurphy 11
The families of the eleven civilians who were shot and killed by the British army in the Ballymurphy Massacre in 1972 continue to campaign for justice. The workers movement has a duty to support their quest and to strive to ensure that the state is exposed for its crimes over the course of the Troubles.
