WSM welcomes Ireland's public sector strike and calls for further action

ireland / britain | workplace struggles | press release Friday November 27, 2009 17:29 by PRO - Workers Solidarity Movement wsm_ireland at yahoo dot com

Anarchist organisation Workers Solidarity Movement has congratulated public sector workers who took part in today’s 24-hour work stoppage and called for further stoppages “in order to force a change of direction from the government”.

Anarchist organisation Workers Solidarity Movement has congratulated public sector workers who took part in today’s 24-hour work stoppage and called for further stoppages “in order to force a change of direction from the government”.

“Today’s stoppage was a brave step by public sector workers,” said Gregor Kerr, WSM PRO. “At last, after months and months of being scapegoated for a financial crisis we didn’t have any part in creating, workers have found a bit of dignity and begun to stand up for ourselves.”

“The Irish Congress of Trade Unions made a major mistake when it called off the planned national stoppage on March 31st,” Kerr continued. “This simply gave the government the green light for further attacks on workers’ pay packets. Now we’ve begun to turn that tide.”

“We know of course that the government is not going to back down after one day’s strike action,” said Mr. Kerr. “That’s why workers need to get organised and build for further strike action. We need to unite public and private sector workers and shut the country down in order to demonstrate that there has to be another way. The wealthy, those who benefited from the Celtic Tiger, must be made to pay for the crisis they created.”

“We also know that we cannot rely on the leadership of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to lead the fight against the government. Union leaders have made it clear they are willing to support cuts in services, allowances, working conditions and even the lengthening of the working week. They are simply interested in getting back into so-called ‘social partnership’,” Kerr concluded. “What we need is a fightback controlled by workers on the ground, we need shop stewards and activists inside our unions to begin the work of convincing our colleagues to back an alternative based on making the rich ‘share the pain’”.

Statement Ends
Note to Editor:- Workers Solidarity Movement (WSM) is an Irish anarchist organisation with branches in Dublin, Cork and Belfast and members in several other places around the country. WSM members are actively involved in many community and trade union campaigns, and have been involved at local and workplace level in building support for the 6th November demos.

For more information (including reports from the picket lines) about the WSM visit our website http://www.wsm.ie

For confirmation and/or further comment, contact Gregor Kerr, WSM PRO on 0861501151