2009 has been a momentous year for
Socialist Appeal. The move from a magazine to a full colour tabloid format was
without a doubt the biggest step we have taken since we started publishing in
1992. Through the years we have made a number of advances but this was the one
which carried the most risks since it was dependant on us firstly raising the
funds to go ahead and then increasing the sales to make it worthwhile and cost
effective. The prize was being able to reach more people with a higher quality
paper that still had the highest quality content within it. But we need your support…

Ireland: Thousands of Nurses, teachers, civil servants, local
government workers and other hard pressed public sector workers will no doubt
shed a tear today after hearing how disappointed Mr Cowen is that they are
going to be on strike. For sure the Taoiseach wasn’t just disappointed
according to RTÉ he was indeed “deeply disappointed.”

Ireland might be out of the World Cup, but
the Irish working class is at the forefront of the struggle against the
bosses crisis. It’ll take much more than a dodgy hand ball to take the
heat out of this situation. Earlier today yet another major union voted
massively to join the public sector strikes on November 24^th. SIPTU’s 70,000 members voted by 85% in favour of participating in what is becoming more or less a de facto Public Sector General Strike.

Ireland: 65,000
teachers in the primary and secondary education, further education and
third level institutions have voted to back the strike action on 24^th
November. The action covering both academic and non academic staff
means that effectively the entire education sector will be shut down
for the day. The four unions involved INTO, TUI, ASTI and  IFUT which organises two thirds of university teachers have all returned huge votes in favour of strike action.

This year’s LRC conference took place on Saturday 14^th
November in central London.
The LRC is currently the biggest left formation in the Labour Party with over
1000 members and with affiliations from 6 national trade unions. Although it is
probably the most significant left group in the party for some 15 or more
years, it is  best viewed as an
anticipation of what is to come. Some 240 people attended this year’s
conference with about half being delegates from affiliated organisations. The
composition of the conference was in the main drawn from older lefts in the
unions and the Labour Party, but there was also a smattering of young people.