We 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 24th. 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.
SIPTU organise a wide range of workers and its interesting to note
the different returns in each area. The breakdown of the Yes ballots
per sector was 85% in Health, 78% in Local Authorities, 91% in the Fire
Service, 79% in Education, and 77% in Government Departments. The
figures vary, but they are overwhelming. This illustrates that the
government and media assault on the public sector workers is back
firing.
The extent of the mood of opposition within the public sector is
shown by the fact that even the Gardai are planning to protest,
although they are banned from striking. But huge votes from the
teachers, lecturers and IMPACT members as well as the CPSU and the
Higher civil servants mean that next Tuesday not a wheel will turn, a
class be taught or a file processed except where the unions have agreed
emergency cover.
Despite the front that Lenihan and Cowen are after presenting
publically there is no doubt that they are concerned about the scope
that this strike will encompass. As we reported recently according to
the Sunday Business Post it seems that they and the trade union
leaderships are resigned to the strikes going ahead. Even if some sort
of deal is presented to ICTU before next Tuesday the trade union
leaders will be forced to assess whether in the light of the March
debacle – when they called off national strike action,- they can
justify calling of the action if all that is on offer is more talks
about talks.
The mood is much harder than it was in March and the reason for that
is the imposition of the emergency budget, the effect of the Levies,
NAMA – or bailing out the bankers and of course An Bord Snip. There’s
also all the families where one partner has lost their job and one
parent, maybe a public sector worker is trying to put food on the table
every night. As we have explained elsewhere, there’s no brick wall or
iron curtain between the workers in the private and public sector. The
truth is that it’s solely in the interests of the bosses to invent
divisions between workers.
The strike on Tuesday has to be backed up by the threat of
escalation and that means generalising the mood in the public sector
and seeking the solidarity support of workers in the private sector as
well. Capitalist Ireland is in a deep crisis, the only guarantee of
success is to keep up the pressure on the union leaderships and to
maximise the involvement of the workers. Sections of the trade union
leadership no doubt feel the need to let the workers “let off steam”.
But such is the pressure from below they could be forced to go further
than they intend. One thing’s for sure, talks about talks are not going
to stop the destruction of big chunks of public services.
