The view
that Northern Ireland had escaped the troubles and that there was a
future based on a booming economy has been fast turned into its
opposite over the last few months. Riots in nationalist areas following
the Real/Continuity IRA attacks on the police and British army as well
as increased violence surrounding this year’s orange marches have
displayed an increase in social and political tensions. These events
were not created in a vacuum and mirror the crisis in the economy.

Four members of Unison were recently banned from
holding office after two years of investigations and hearings. They had been
accused of giving “racist offence to members” after using a cartoon of the
Three Wise Monkeys in a leaflet distributed at 2007 Unison conference which
criticised the “ruling out of order” of resolutions relating to pay and
accountability of full-time union officials and financing the Labour Party.

On the 20^th July, around 25
workers at the Vestas wind-turbine blades plant in Newport,
Isle of Wight moved to occupy offices in
protest at the planned closure of the site and the possible loss of 625 jobs. 18
days later, on 7^th August, the Vestas workers ended the factory
occupation after a court order authorised bailiffs to remove the occupiers.

From this week action
short of a strike has begun with the object of achieving equal pay for Council
women workers in Edingburgh, but not by cutting the men’s wages. The Council see this as an
opportunity to start to make their employees pay for the recession by reducing
jobs and pay, but also adding extra duties onto those still employed.  The Refuse Collection workers are the first
to be under attack.

Ireland: The resignation of
two Fianna Fáil TDs from the party whip and the trickle of resignations
of Sinn Féin councillors over the past period are both indications of
the underlying issues and factors in Irish politics at the present
time. Although the two parties face very different scenarios the
uniting factor is the deep crisis in the Irish economy and the
political situation that flows from it. The mass organisations of the
working class, the trade unions and the Labour Party are also under
strain, workers are looking for a way out of the current impasse

In 1987
the Government and civil service unions agreed a compensation scheme
which set out the exit terms provided to civil servants whose contracts
are terminated by their Department. But, over 20 years on, the Prime
Minister announced in March this year his intention to fundamentally
‘reform’ these severance schemes to reduce the cost to the tax payer.The new proposals are an outrageous attempt to cut people’s jobs on the cheap when many are worried about job security.

 
We
are very grateful to have received this report (first published on the Fightback site), written by a worker
from Britain, which illustrates the depth of the crisis Ireland is facing
and the impact it is having throughout the state, we believe that this
story could be repeated thousands of times in the towns and the
villages in Ireland.   

One new feature which will be appearing in the tabloid format Socialist Appeal will be a letters page. So why not drop us a line!

Socialist Appeal Number 176 (August 2009) is now out. Click here to order now