Saturday, June 30, 2012


Coolock C.A.H.W.T puts pressure on           Ó Ríordáin.


On Saturday last, 23rd of June, members of the Coolock Campaign against Household & Water Taxes held a successful picket outside of Dublin North Central Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin’s office in Marino. Ó Ríordáin didn’t bother to turn up. A member of Coolock CAHWT had arranged an appointment with Ó Ríordáin to discuss their concerns about local issues, the Household Tax, & the Fine Gael & Labour introduction of Water Taxes.
                                                                             
The Ó Ríordáin office didn’t even have the decency to inform the constituent that he would be a no show. Undeterred by this the Coolock CAHWT held a successful picket outside his office, receiving encouraging support from passing motorists and shoppers, while at the same time keeping an eye out for Ó Ríordáin.

This was not the first time the Coolock CAHWT had a no show from Ó Ríordáin. He along with four other Labour & FG TDs were each sent an invitation to attend The Coolock CAHWT very well attended public meeting on the 21st April in the Kilmore Community centre, which none of the invited TDs bothered to attend. Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is on a wage of over 90,000 euro, plus God knows how many thousands of euro’s in expensive, which is provided by the Tax Payer.

The same Tax Payer which Ó Ríordáin , Labour, & Fine Gail will attempt to bully into paying on average 1,200 euro a year in Home & Water Taxes.Yet despite all this, Ó Ríordáin can’t be bothered to reply to people who he is paid, & paid very well to represent.
The continual lack of answers coming from local TDs, motivates activists even further to defeat these unjust & immoral Tax. Don’t Register, Don’t Pay.


Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Coolock Steps Up the Anti-Home Tax Campaign



21/04/12
Thursday last [April 19] saw almost eighty people attend the most recent in a series of successful anti-home tax meetings in the Kilmore community centre in Coolock on Dublin’s northside. The meeting, organised by local members of the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes, was called to discuss the next step for the campaign in the area and nationally.
Speakers on the night included Martin Farrell from éirígí and Joe Higgins from the Socialist Party. Both spoke convincingly to the assembled crowd in relation to the current status of the home tax campaign and recent developments in relation to the proposed water tax.
CAHWT meeting in Coolock
Martin Farrell spoke about the importance of keeping the campaign strong in the Coolock area. He said, “This is only stage one and there is a long way to go yet. The groundwork that has been done in building a mass boycott of the household tax must be built upon as the campaign enters its next phase, one that will probably include fines and court cases. We must remain strong and focused if we are to defeat these unfair home and water taxes.”
Many people on the night were particularly angry at the cowardice shown by the three local government TDs who refused to show up to the meeting, despite being invited by letter and email to explain their stance on the household tax.
Ciaran Heaphey
Speaking after the meeting éirígí’s Ciaran Heaphey said, “Tonight has seen yet another well attended meeting organised by the CAHWT in the Coolock area. Over the last number of months hundreds of local residents from Coolock and the surrounding areas have attended and taken part in a number of these meetings. It is clear that these meetings have paid a vital role in providing information and reassurance to people who have now joined the boycott of the home tax.
“The challenge ahead of us now is to maintain the boycott of the home tax and increase the pressure on the government to scrap it altogether. And then we need to use the state wide organisation of the CAHWT to mount an effective campaign of opposition to the introduction of domestic water taxes.”

Coolock Says No Water Tax


01/07/11
The No Water Tax campaign message was brought to the streets of Coolock last Saturday [June 25] as local éirígí activists gathered at Northside shopping centre to distribute leaflets and collect signatures for a petition against the tax.
There was a hugely positive response to the idea of building a local campaign against the proposed water and home taxes. Almost 300 people signed the petition, with many pledging that they could not and would not pay the tax.
Activists met a well of anger as local people expressed both their disgust and dismay at once again being asked to pay for the gambling debts of bankers and developers. There was strong opposition to the idea that households should be charged for their water supply and a determination amongst many not to pay this unjust tax.
One local woman contrasted the fact that bankers had got away scot free while ordinary people picked up the tab and were being burdened with job losses, pay cuts, extra taxes, and cuts to public services. Another compared the proposed new taxes with the poll tax in Britain, which hastened the end of the Thatcher’s rein of power in the early 1990s, while many remarked somewhat caustically that “they’ll be charging us for the air we breathe next”!
Speaking afterwards, Ciarán Heaphey, cathaoirleach of the local éirígí ciorcal, said, “Today marked the launch of our local campaign against the water and home taxes. Over the coming weeks and months we intend working with the local community here in Coolock to build a solid campaign of opposition to these unjust taxes.”
He continued, “Many of the people we met today rightly posed the question “why are we being asked yet again to pay for the greed of bankers and developers?” During the course of this recession hundreds of local people have lost their jobs, while those in work have been forced to pay additional taxes, including the punitive Universal Social Charge. At the same time local services are being run down or closed. This crisis is not of our making and we cannot and should not be paying for it.”
Concluding Ciarán Heaphey commented on building a campaign of opposition, “If the parasites of the IMF/EU/ECB think they can continue to suck the life out of proud working class communities such as those in Coolock, to pay the gambling debts of bankers and developers, they are gravely mistaken. Today we met hundreds of local people who expressed their determination to fight the imposition of these unjust taxes. This is tremendously encouraging as the process of building the No Water Tax campaign commences. The local éirígí ciorcál here in Coolock intends playing an active role with both the local community and our colleagues in the No Water Tax campaign in building a vigourous campaign of opposition to these unjust taxes.”

Coolock Says IMF Get Out

26/01/11

éirígí activists and supporters gathered at the Malahide Road constituency office of Fianna Fáil Dublin North Central TD Seán Haughey last Saturday [January 22] in protest at the IMF/EU deal.

The deal will see billions of euro of private banking debt being heaped upon the shoulders of working people, the dismantling and privatisation of public services and, ultimately, the impoverishment of tens of thousands of households.

Carrying a large banner which read “Take to the Streets, Before the IMF throws us into them” and bearing placards calling for Fianna Fáil and the IMF to be thrown out and for the rich to pay for their own crisis, the éirígí activists received considerable good will and support from the general public.

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Upon arrival at Haughey’s constituency office on the Malahide Road in the north of the capital, staff rushed to pull down the shutters, no doubt concerned that the TD might meet the same fate as the paint splattered Mary Harney. In the midst of the collapse of the Fianna Fáil/Green Party government and the farcical goings on in Leinster House, members of the public expressed their outrage at the establishment as it attempted to save its own skin while sacrificing working people.

The response of local people of the Malahide Road reflects the widespread public anger at the IMF deal, despite attempts by the establishment to portray the shameful deal with the global neoliberal enforcers of the IMF ‘as the only show in town’. Working class communities are only too aware of the devastating impact the IMF deal will have and the immorality of forcing them to pay for the gambling debts of bankers and property developers.

At the protest, chairperson of éirígí’s Coolock ciorcál, Ciarán Heaphey said: “Working class communities in areas like Coolock will be devastated by this deal.

“Just a few weeks ago, record numbers of patients were left to languish on trolleys in Beaumont hospital while awaiting treatment. This is but a taster of what is to come as further savage cuts in health spending are implemented this year.

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“Unemployment figures for the Coolock area now stand at over 5,000 and an increasing number of local jobs are being lost as the economy continues on a deflationary spiral. In recent years, major local employers such as Chivers and Smurfit Packaging have closed and there have been massive job losses at Cadbury and Aer Lingus, leaving hundreds of local workers jobless.

“With the worsening economic crisis, this trend has continued and we have heard from many local people about the devastation that this is causing and of the many young people who are being forced to emigrate to find work. In addition, those in work are being crippled by increased income taxes and the frankly anti-social Universal Social Charge which is squeezing workers even further, while the unemployed faced a further cut in last December’s budget.

“Back in the 1980s, this area was devastated by a drugs epidemic and mass unemployment. Seán Haughey’s Fianna Fáil party abandoned this community to the dole queues and the drug barons. It was only through the determination and hard work of local community activists that this community survived. We cannot allow this to happen again. Working class communities in places like Coolock cannot be made to pay for the greed of bankers, property developers and speculators.”

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Encouraging local people to get involved in éirígí’s campaign, Heaphey added: “Today marks the beginning of éirígí’s local campaign of public opposition to the IMF deal.

“Over the last number of weeks, our activists have distributed thousands of leaflets and put up hundreds of posters outlining our opposition to the IMF and calling on people to mobilise in opposition. We have heard the widespread anger of local people at this criminal deal with the IMF.

“The support we have received here today from members of the public and passing motorists demonstrates that working class communities will not roll over when faced with the bully boys of the IMF. Over coming months, éirígí activists in Coolock intend to play their part in building local opposition to the IMF and the right-wing agenda that is devastating working class communities.

“While the upcoming general election may change the deckchairs at Leinster House, a Fine Gael-led government will be no different to a Fianna Fáil one. It is time to take to the streets and make our voices heard.”

Workers in Struggle


10/06/12
Bord na Móna workers take strike action
Over 1,200 Bord na Móna engaged in a one-day strike on Tuesday [June 5], and set up pickets at sites in Kildare, Laois, Longford, Offaly, Roscommon and Westmeath.
Workers had been promised a 6 percent wage increase in 2009, which has yet to be achieved. In April, employers offered a 1.7 percent pay increase and a one-off payment €1,000 in place of retrospective pay, but this offer was rejected by workers.
The workers are represented by Siptu, TEEU and Unite. The unions will meet again next week to discuss further strike action.


Union to ballot water staff for strike
Siptu is to ballot around 2,500 local authority staff around the Twenty-Six Counties over plans to reform the water service.
The Department of the Environment has decided to transfer assets and duties of its members to Bord Gáis and other contractors as part of the establishment of Irish Water.
Siptu organiser Michael Wall said: “Contrary to all assurances given previously, it now seems that the Department is proceeding to put in place a transfer of assets and work, which are our members’ jobs, to an outside agency and private contractors.
“No discussions have taken place, no forum for consultation has been established and no assurances have been given to staff who have given long and professional service to the Irish public over generations.”


Strike action threatened at Bus Éireann
The National Bus and Rail Union has threatened to ballot for strike action following the unveiling of a cost-cutting plan by management at Bus Éireann.
The company is looking to make €9 million in payroll savings, by increasing employees’ working hours and reducing holiday and sick leave entitlements. The company also wants workers to accept new outsourcing arrangements as well as redeployment without compensation.
Management says it is not seeking redundancies or cuts in basic pay, but that this is dependent on workers accepting the agreement and its attack on their terms and conditions of work. But NBRU head Michael Fathery said, “Bus Éireann is in dreamland. It's not going to happen. It is part and parcel of pay and would mean a 17pc cut in wages.”
A similar proposal is also being drawn up at Dublin Bus.


Vita Cortex workers end plant occupation
Workers at Vita Cortex in Cork have ended their five-month occupation of the plant after successfully achieving their demands.
The workers began their action on December 16 when their former employers failed to provide the redundancy pay that had been agreed at the Labour Relations Court.
The 161-day sit-in ended on May 24 as the workers received news that the sums owed to them had finally begun being paid into their bank accounts.
Jim Power, who worked at Vita Cortex for 42 years, said, “We are elated. We’ve been waiting over five months for this moment to come and now it’s upon us," he said. "We hope that we have set a precedent here for other workers and when this kind of thing happens again, if they do what we did, they will achieve something so hopefully we have been some kind of inspiration.”


01/05/12
‘Surplus to requirements’ – 212 million workers unemployed worldwide
The most recent report of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) reveals the extent to which the current crisis of capitalism has affected the livelihoods of millions of people across the world. Its ‘World of Work Report 2012’ shows that global levels of unemployment are set to reach 212 million by the end of this year, up 6 million from the 2011 figure.


07/02/12
Vita Cortex Workers Keep Her Lit
Since December 16th last, the resilient workers of Vita Cortex have braved the undesirable conditions of having to squat in the cold, damp and poorly ventilated warehouse of their former employers in order to demand their just rights from millionaire boss Jack Ronan, and to expose his betrayal of the workers to the public.


25/01/12
Primark workers vote for strike action
Workers in the eight Primark stores in the Six Counties have voted overwhelmingly for strike action against attempts by management to impose a pay freeze for the second year in a row.
Around 750 people are employed in Primark stores in the statelet, and 85% of the workforce is unionised in the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw).
Usdaw Area Organiser Nicola Scarborough said: “Most of our members at Primark earn just £6.84 an hour and they are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. With prices continuing to rise and government cuts to tax credits and other benefits beginning to bite, most people simply can’t afford to accept what is effectively a pay cut for the second year running.
“There is no question of Primark being unable to afford a rise. Sales at the company continue to increase by double digits and in the past two years Primark has made profits of £644 million. It’s time for Primark to recognise the exceptional contribution its staff are making to this success.”


Vita Cortex Sit-In Enters Sixth Week
Thirty-two workers have begun their sixth week occupying the Vita Cortex manufacturing plant on Kinsale Road in Cork to obtain redundancy pay owed to them.
Some of the assets belonging to company owner Jack Ronan had been seized by NAMA. Ronan was expected to work with NAMA to identify funds that could be released to pay the redundancy package, but Ronan reneged on this, leading to the adjournment of talks at the LRC over the weekend without resolution.
SIPTU Organiser Anne Egar accusd Ronan of trying to use the Vita Cortex workers as “pawns in a cynical attempt to pressurise NAMA into resolving his financial issues with them.
“We were led to believe the agreed redundancy payments would be forthcoming through the LRC process. Now it seems the owner is using that process to advance his own financial interests.”


26,000 Job Losses Predicted for Six Counties
26,000 jobs are expected to be lost in the public sector by 2017, according to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. They warn that the Six Counties will be hit harder than any region in Britain as a result of the British government’s planned cull of the public sector.
The statement, released last Tuesday [January 17], drew immediate response from Six-County finance minister Sammy Wilson, who fumed: “If they haven't anything positive to say, then they should shut up.”
ICTU Assistant General Secretary Peter Bunting responded: “The trade unions are not interested in a pointless rhetorical bun-fight with Sammy Wilson. We are interested in the NI Executive formulating policies which are humane and evidence-based.
“It is worrying that the Finance Minister claims that ‘we actually have more jobs in the public sector than last year’... In the past year we have lost 4,000 public sector jobs in Northern Ireland, despite the wishful thinking of the Minister, and if he has a problem with that evidence, he should take it up with his own department.
“One of the great achievements of the NI Civil Service is the quality and professionalism of their research, and their willingness to make public the facts of our society and economy, despite attempts to spin the evidence in press releases and briefings by Ministers and their Special Advisors.”


13/01/12
Minihan Commends La Senza Workers
éirígí Dublin City Councillor Louise Minihan has commended workers at the La Senza store in Liffey Valley for staging a sit-in protest in support of their demand for wages and overtime owed to them.


24/11/11
Building for November 30
Twenty trade unions representing around 175,000 public sector workers in the Six Counties have voted to strike next Wednesday, November 30. They will join million of workers in Britain for what union leaders there believe will be the biggest strike action since 1926.


01/09/11
Firefighters to vote on strike action
Members of the Irish Fire and Emergency Services Association [IFESA] are to be balloted for strike action over proposed cuts to Dublin Fire Brigade.
Management at Dublin Fire Brigade wish to introduce €1.7 million in cuts to the service on top of the €3.8 million that had been agreed during the Croke Park talks.
IFESA represents over 500 firefighters and paramedics in the capital. Union chairman John Kidd said, “They are either going to take vehicles off the road or personnel. We are asking people to support their local fire and emergency services.”
The ballot will take place at an emergency general meeting on September 2.


Nurses’ union warns of bed crisis
Members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation in Beaumont Hospital have expressed concern at the level of overcrowding which exists within the hospital.
HSE cutbacks have caused 60 beds to remain closed, while patients are forced to wait in trolleys in the Emergency department.
Speaking on Tuesday [Auguust 30], Edward Mathews of INMO said: “We are calling upon the Health Service Executive to see the reality of health service cutbacks and the effect that these are having on ordinary people who are attending one of the largest hospitals in the country. Urgent action is necessary to ensure that patients who are fit to be discharged from the hospital have a long term bed where this is required.”


Union moves to save Munster newspaper
Unite has said it will develop a plan to save the Munster Express newspaper, following management’s proposal to slash 11 of the paper’s 24 jobs.
The management proposal included ‘outsourcing’ eight of the positions in the production and printing of the paper, which is based in Waterford.
Unite regional secretary Brendan Byrne said the union “will put forward proposals to maintain the newspaper in Waterford. They will require input from all those who are involved at the Munster Express, from the owners through to all staff and those who care about maintaining a strong local resource.”
“We cannot and will not allow the proposals put forward yesterday to be implemented as they would effectively kill the paper.”


18/08/11
Mass Strike Action on the Horizon in the Six Counties
As unemployment continues to grow and the Tory cuts agenda as implemented by the Stormont administration begins to bite, the two largest public sector unions in the Six Counties have declared their intention to ballot members for strike action.


27/05/11
Restaurant Workers Demonstrate to Defend Conditions
Members of the Restaurant and Catering Workers Forum held a demonstration at the Annual Irish Restaurant Awards on Wednesday. The Awards are hosted by the Restaurants Association of Ireland, which is behind an attack on the wages and conditions of workers in the industry by calling for the abolition of the Catering Employment Regulation Order.

For Community and Country, Vote No


30/05/12
For Community and Country, Vote NoIn a final rallying call, éirígí spokesperson Daithí Mac an Mháistir has urged the electorate in the Twenty Six Counties to reject Austerity and Vote No on May 31st.
Speaking from Dublin, Mac an Mháistir said, “For your community and your country, vote No on May 31st.
“The Austerity Treaty is not about creating stability or prosperity. It has been designed to make austerity permanent. Communities right across this state have come under savage attack as a result of the austerity policies of successive Dublin governments. Funding to public services such as healthcare, education and social welfare have been decimated by cutbacks inflicted under recent austerity budgets.
“Workers, their families and their communities have borne the brunt of the hardship imposed by austerity. By voting No next Thursday we can take a stand and say enough is enough!
“In recent months, people in every town and village across this state have begun to organise and build the fight back against austerity. Movements such as the Campaign Against the Household and Water Taxes have shown what is possible when the people of this country get organised.”
Mac an Mháistir continued, “At a time when Six Irish counties are under British occupation and Twenty Six Counties are under the control of the Troika, the adoption of this treaty would further undermine Irish sovereignty and democracy.
“The terms of the Austerity Treaty would mean that the people of Ireland would lose yet more control over their own economic, political and social destiny. If this treaty is passed even power will be concentrated into the hands of Europe's ruling elite.
“A No Vote is a vote in defence of Irish freedom and sovereignty. A No vote is a vote in defence of our democratic rights at a community and national level. A No Vote is a vote in defence of our public services and workers rights. And finally a No vote on May 31 will strengthen the European wide anti-austerity movement, something which will ultimately benefit the people of not only Ireland but the entire continent.