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The Sunday Independent carried several articles in its October 10^th
edition leaving absolutely no room for doubt that the knives are being
sharpened and the target is the Croke Park Agreement. Such is the venom
for the trade unions and the working class that even James Connolly was
dragged into the argument – on the side of the bosses!

PRESS RELEASE: Jerry Hicks,
grassroots candidate for the position of Unite General Secretary, says Unite
must reject the Con Dem Government’s plans to slash Civil Servant
redundancy payments.

The
last few days have seen a flurry of activity, the AIB bill has been
presented, the polls show Labour miles ahead of both Fianna Fáil and
Fine Gael. The economy is faltering and there is a four year budget
plan on the way, although it is unlikely to be delivered to Leinster
House via a cement lorry. But what are the prospects for the main
parties and how do the trade union struggles over the last two years
fit into the equation?  

IRELAND: It
was announced last week that the cost of bailing out AIB has reached
€29.5 billion, which might in fact be €34 billion; and that the total
cost of the bailout could be €46 billion, some 32% of Gross Domestic  Product . The implications of this are a recipe for class struggle and massive turbulence within the state.

Sacked Polish workers gathered yesterday at the gates at Siemens new power
station at
Uskmouth near Newport to meet with representative of the GMB union. The
workers
were sacked by management of Durmar Ltd, the lowest link in a chain of
contractors and sub contractors. It is rumoured that the workers have
been replaced with other workers by Isocore, an Austrian contractor
that sub-contracted the
work to Durmar, who employed workers to lag pipe work on this project.

As part of his campaign for General Secretary of UNITE Jerry Hicks
will be addressing a series of public meetings and visiting a number of
workplaces across Ireland in the coming week (beginning the 27th
September).

The following letter from a Unite member in Yorkshire shows the
increasing understanding of many union activists and stewards about the
need to have a leadership which both understands what the bosses are
really up to and knows what the movement must do in response.

As soon as Mervyn King, Governor of the
Bank of England, was introduced at the TUC in Manchester, Bob Crow and the rest
of the RMT delegation walked out in protest. “It is like a gathering of
Christians inviting the Devil round for Christmas dinner”, commented Brother
Crow. “The bankers are obviously on hard times these days, so he must have come
along to pass around the hat.”

As the TUC meets in Manchester and calls are made for united concerted
action to fight the coalition cuts, Jerry Hicks, the Left candidate for the General
Secretary position in Unite, has issued a press statement on fighting
the cuts

This year’s meeting of the TUC in Manchester could be the most
important for years. In the face of a vicious attack on the living
standards of the working class by the new coalition government, workers
will be looking to the trade union movement for a way of fighting back.
Jeremy Dear, General secretary of the NUJ and TUC General Council
member, looks at the issues to be dealt with on next week’s conference
agenda.

Symptoms are the physical signs of an underlying problem. At the moment
the Irish economy has a series of symptoms which would send the average
doctor fleeing to the hills. But according to Brian Lenihan everything
is stable and the economy is fine thank you very much. Of course Mr
Lenihan’s analysis was designed for the press and to settle the nerves
of the international speculators. The role of the press being to
present the public face the government wants to portray to the middle
class and the working class. But now after only a few days, the Irish
government faces more problems as the interest rates they have to pay
on their Government Bonds hits record highs. Lenihan’s claims have been
proven as worthless.

IRELAND: Minister of
Finance Brian Lenihan claimed last night that the economy hasn’t stalled and
that in spite of a lot of evidence to the contrary it has stabilised. Economic
indicators which had appeared to indicate some economic growth now seem to have
fizzled out. Given Lenihan’s track record it’s no surprise that many will be
sceptical about his claims, especially when the figures seem to demonstrate the
opposite.