Whatever the hell we do, don't let Fine Gael get elected

national | worker & community struggles and protests | other press Tuesday February 03, 2009 12:06 by Blacbloc

Irish Examiner sews animosity between private and public sector workers

Today's Irish Examiner effectively sets out the FG stall. The IE is a firmly pro Fine Gael paper and though its editorial makes no mention of Fine Gael, it's a safe bet that it reflects current thinking at FG HQ.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminer/pages/story....1.asp

This will incense workers and genuine trades unionists:

"Today the 1,900 Dell workers; those at Tara Mines; the workers at Bausch and Lomb who have taken a 25% pay cut to try to save their jobs; the hundreds of car component workers laid off at Kostal; the tens of thousands of construction workers who have seen jobs disappear like melting snow; the Ulster Bank workers and the Waterford Crystal workers left without jobs or pensions; the thousands of others who lost jobs in small firms without fanfare or publicity; and all of those worried about pay cuts and job security will know if they are just bit players in a society where there is one law for the public service and another far more brutal one for private sector workers."

Can you believe this? This whole crisis is reduced to a standoff between unionised and non-unionised workers and public sector and private sector unions. As if public sector workers were actively seeking to exploit private sector workers. This is all of a piece with the FG-Irish Examiner editorial line in recent weeks which has revealed that the icy heart of Fine Gael is still, well, icy as ever.

It's a helluva wrench to have to say this, but given Fine Gael's response to the economic crisis we would probably, in spite of everything, be better off under Fianna Fail than those cold-hearted bastards. The notion of the worker class as little more than a pool of useful wage slaves is clearly still alive and well at FG. And while Fianna Fail have been craven to business interests and the complete dupe of IBEC (and personal beneficiaries in many, many instances) there is still an instinct for the common person in there somewhere. It ain't much on which to go but it is better than opting for a bunch of people who are effectively almost daily swearing revenge on those who are innocent of any responsibility for this crisis.

Keep Fine Gael out!