They didn’t share the wealth - Why should we share the pain?

national | consumer issues | feature

Saturday February 28, 2009 09:25

by Workers Solidarity - WSM

wsm_ireland at yahoo dot com

It's time to fight back, not cut back.

There is no money left in Ireland. At least that’s what you might think after listening to Brian Cowen, Enda Kenny, IBEC and the parade of capitalist economists and pundits who parrot this nonsense. Yes, we are heading into a deep recession but guess who is expected to pay the cost?

Related Links:
• Workers Solidarity Movement Website - www.wsm.ie
• Irish Congress of Trade Unions - www.ictu.ie
• Workers Issues on Indymedia.ie.
• Workers Solidarity Movement articles on Indymedia.ie
• Michael Taft's, from Notes on the Front - The Recession Diaries, proposal Towards a New Economic Narrative

Indymedia Reporters Group:
Mick Burke and the Indymedia Collective are trying to set up a dedicated reporters group to report on the (potential) strike on March 30th. Read about it here.

Don't just sit there, contact someone:
If you feel strongly about this, why not contact some/all politicians - Contact.ie

The Government has no problem finding money to bail out bankers and speculators, it’s only when cash is needed for special-needs teachers, the sick, or to improve run-down schools and hospitals that nothing can be found. The attack on pay and pensions is a class struggle by employers and the government against working people.

It may sound old-fashioned to talk of class struggle, but what else do you call it when one class wants to preserve its wealth at the expense of the other class? When private sector workers see 90% of pension funds they paid into for years going down the tube, Brian Goggin of Bank of Ireland thinks he is hard done by because he will “take home less than €2 million” this year.

We had a financial regulator, Patrick Neary, who waltzed off with a golden handshake of €600,000 and a pension of €140,000 per year. That pension alone is the equivalent of what four workers and their families on the average industrial wage live on. And what did Neary do to deserve this, apart from turning a blind eye to massive financial ‘irregularities’ in the banking industry?

Workers in the public service are told to suffer a €1.4 billion cut in wages, those on €35,000 will see their pay cut by €43 a week. Yet the wealthiest 1%, with €87 billion in assets, pay nothing at all. To add insult to injury the government has torn up the Public Sector Pay Agreement, denying 260,000 workers their small but agreed pay increases.

At the same time billionaire businessman Sean Quinn can lose €1 billion and say it’s no problem “you win some, you lose some”. When you have an annual income of €500 million that’s very true!

IBEC’s aim is to reduce Irish wage rates and to make us think that a reasonable pension in old age is a privilege rather than a right. The attack on the public sector is just the start. Private sector wages are being driven down too. Even the Minimum Wage of €8.65 an hour is criticised as too high by Fianna Fáil ministers like Billy Kelleher, who ‘earns’ a cool €139,266 before expenses (and that’s after his 10% cut - and after the 65% pay rise TDs have received in the last four years).

Their goal is to subject working people to a Thatcher-style defeat. They want wholesale wage cuts across the economy. If we don’t fight back they will keep coming back to take more out of our pay packets, close down more of our services and give our children a lower standard of living than we had. The rich are good at looking after their class interests – we should take the same attitude. They didn’t share the wealth in the Celtic Tiger years, why should we share the pain today?

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Comments (9 of 9)

whose the crisis?

by precarious

Fri Feb 27, 2009 15:23

yep, we should shout it loudly: we are not gonna pay YOUR crisis

sorry, i forgot to say

by precarious again

Fri Feb 27, 2009 15:25

why don't we start doing it from the mayday?

Truth will out.

by Margaret

Sun Mar 01, 2009 00:04

Noel Dempsey should not blame the global recession for all our problems.YOUR party gave away our biggest asset,our national natural resources,our gas and oil.Have the courage minister to undo that deal,put our country first,then and only then will you begin to crawl out of this mess with some dignity.The citizens of this country deserve better.

Meet the new boss, same as tha old boss

by lulu

Sun Mar 01, 2009 08:47

Absolutely right about the rotten Corrib Gas deal, Margaret; they were not only corrupt, but clueless, & treacherous to 'their own' people. Nationalism or patriotism mean nothing to people who have sold out to international capitalism, greed, & power.

Gas and Guzzlers

by Mark C - Contact.ie

Sun Mar 01, 2009 10:21

Spot on about the Corrib Gas field. If the government can nationalise the bank(s), why can't the same be done for the gas?

I can't imagine there's much time left for Fianna Fáil.

It's quite a Freudian slip, that when you want to go to Fianna Fáil's website, you have to type in FiannaFail.ie - fail indeed. Goodbye, Fianna Fail.

Goodbye Fianna Fail - RIP

WHAT WE NEED

by Bohemian Poet

Sun Mar 01, 2009 17:01

We need to educate to formulate a calculation for the loss
Corruption beyond comparison a perception of the cost
The wasted Celtic Tiger years a complacent slippery trail
The politics of backhand Jim the birth of Fianna fail

We need freedom from the bigots a state without a church
Equal shares amongst us all let no man stand in lurch
The ideals of the proclamation written in widows tears
Those dreams and aspirations ignored for all those years

We need honesty to understand integrity to trust
Transparency of bureaucracy laws for fair and just
The strength to grow organically take pride in ancestral guile
Forget the bulls of Lisbon We are the Emerald Isle

We need to speculate to accumulate some sense from Leinster house
The traps have failed the cupboards bare no crumbs left for the mouse
A helicopter trip for the party whip cannot beat them into line
Their course has run their day has come their failures marked in time

We need equity in entity a voice with choice explained
No more the fault of lame excuse or global pressures blamed
For tightened belts or bank bail outs indeed these times are hard
No justification for their ignorance or denial of medical card

We need answers now and solutions quick before the sun goes down
Where have all the credits gone, from the growth years Mr Cowen?
On flights to those exotic places with Saint Patrick upon your back
Enjoy the trip this one last time for your surely for the sack!..

We need accountable Dail Eirean a move to get things done
A change of heart and sentiment from Bantry to Ballymun
The renewal of our heritage a centre from Athlone
From the inward out to the out within our ancestral spirit home

After thought: Now is the time of opportunity for change Not more of the same

Some more links to sites on the economic crisis

by D_D

Mon Mar 02, 2009 18:11

As well as

http://notesonthefront.typepad.com/

(already noted above) there is a new Irish social democratic site on the economic crisis from TASC:

progressive-economy@tasc

The page below features a video from the WSM, 'The Credit Crunch Explained'. Also on that page are other videos explaining or analysing the crisis:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3044250975123459329

Other radical sites on The Crisis are:

http://sites.google.com/site/radicalperspectivesonthecr...isis/

and

http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/economic-crisis/i....html

and

www.marxsite.com

and

www.internationalviewpoint.org

and

www.isj.org.uk

capitalist crisis

by mick burke

Sat Mar 21, 2009 14:07

mickburke at fastmail dot fm

It's good to see that the WSM has been postering around town (Dublin) for the March 30 strike. A very good poster at that, but where are all the other left groups' posters? The employers and the state do indeed intend to impose a defeat ,but the depth of the current financial crisis means that it will have to be a much worse defeat than anything that Thatcher imposed on Britain in the eighties . The idea of class struggle will sound less and less old-fashioned as this year goes on - whether people like it or not .

Finnegans wake up call

by Silas Marner - bankers club , St Stephens Green

Mon Mar 23, 2009 20:05

OLD Ratso ''Reposess your home if you cant make the interest payments Michael Finnegan'' is accused of legging it with 8ml euro '

But thats ok 'they say' ,as, 'if he had been investing the 8ml euro with the banks it would be worthless by now ',

Worthless nasty little goatee bearded little excuse for a human being ,is Finnegan .

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They didn’t share the wealth - Why should we share the pain?

Comments (9 of 9)