By Laura Fitzgerald Predictions of a “summer of discontent” abound with industrial action looming in a number of sectors, both public and private. The state faces industrial disputes and possible strikes in the public sector with teachers, nurses, psychiatric nurses, midwives, Gardaí, as well as bus and rail workers with Irish Rail, Bus Éireann, and Dublin Bus. In the private ...

By Terry Murphy In the last eight years there has been an ongoing attack on the pay and conditions of workers across all sectors, and an undermining of collective bargaining rights. A recent article by John Douglas, General Secretary of the Mandate trade union has highlighted the effect that this trend has had on Ireland’s 50,000 bar workers. At one ...

AAA TD and Socialist Party member Paul Murphy on the Luas strike.

By Ciaran Mulholland Tory Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to hold an “in-out” referendum on the European Union (EU) in Britain and Northern Ireland by the end of 2017. His preference is to hold the referendum in 2016 if possible, depending on the outcome of negotiations with the other 27 countries in the EU. It is clear that he ...

By Paddy Meehan Sepp Blatter’s decision to resign as FIFA President didn’t come as a result of the horrifying conditions migrant workers face in building the new stadiums in Qatar, but as a final attempt to save the corrupt elite at the top of the federation. A number of the voting members of the selection committee for the 2018 and ...

By Manus Lenihan Imagine if working class people in Ireland forced the government to abolish water charges and bring the water services under public control again. Imagine if, in the meantime, various multinational corporations had come in and taken over parts of the water services for themselves. Protecting corporate profits Under the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), these companies ...

· Taoiseach on €3,500 a week preaching to the working poor · A Living Wage of €11.45 should be the minimum wage