ICTU – ORGANISE STRIKE ACTION TO STOP THE WAR!
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Tuesday March 25, 2003 11:28
by Pat C
Could you manage to get along to this or spread the word. There will be a lobby of The ICTU Special Delegate Conference on Pay on Wednesday 26th March starting at 10.00am outside Liberty Hall. All the officials from the national union head offices and Delegates from around the country will be present. Could you manage to get there to leaflet delegates from 10am on, the conference starts at 10.30am.
Pass the word around. Draft leaflet below.
ICTU – ORGANISE STRIKE ACTION TO STOP THE WAR!
No one who has been watching the television images of the bombing of Baghdad
will be under any illusion that what we are witnessing is not a horrific and
barbaric attack that demeans humanity. The decision of the Irish government to
support this war through provision of overflight rights and facilitates at
Shannon airport is appalling and shameful. Against the clear wishes of the
majority of the Irish people the Irish State is now complicit in the war crimes
that flow from the blitzkrieg.
This self serving decision has been presented as one of national self interest.
The Irish people have already rejected the claim that it is somehow in their
interests that a small and poor country should be subject to the devastating
power of the most destructive military machines that the world has ever seen.
The very opposite is the case. It is in the interests of the vast majority of
our country that this war be stopped. As so often, it falls on working people
and especially their representatives in the workers movement to express their
views and take the action that will realize their aspirations.
The gathering today of delegates from the majority of Ireland’s trade union
movement is an exceptional opportunity to fulfil this role. The Irish Congress
of Trade Unions has already signalled its opposition to this war. Now is the
occasion to turn words into deeds. No bureaucratic rule book should stand in
the way of democratic debate when innocent Iraqi people are being butchered as
we meet.
At the moment ICTU claims to be in the leadership of the ant-war movement yet it
has led no campaign in the workplaces and made no call on trade union members to
take action as trade unionists.
Delegates to this conference should demand an emergency discussion on the war
and put forward an emergency resolution demanding real preparations and
organisation for strike action to demand that the government close Shannon
airport to the United States military.
Delegates should support Saturday’s national demonstration; but demonstrations
are only one step to an effective campaign. We need a commitment to real strike
action through dedication to building an anti-war movement inside the trade
union movement. This means workplace and branch committees to build the support
that will make a strike call a reality. It means Trade Councils devoting real
resources to the educational and agitational campaign that can convince members
that it is in their interests to take action. If ICTU won’t take meaningful
action then delegates themselves, however many there may be, must organise it
themselves.
We must reject the claim that this action would be illegal. George Bush and
Tony Blair have torn up the international law books and Bertie Ahern is
supporting this illegal war. As the trade union movement meets to decide on a
continuing partnership with this government it cannot be seen to be partners of
the partners who are dragging our world into barbarism. We cannot and must not
stand shoulder to shoulder with those that would support this criminal
enterprise.
Silent vigils, poorly organised, is not the response that is required. Silence
is rarely heard above the noise of war. We need loud and clear voices demanding
an end to this war. ICTU can provide this voice. If it does not ordinary
workers must push it aside and speak out as the authentic voice of Ireland’s
workers.
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Comments (24 of 24)
Jump To Comment: 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Yes folks its jobs for the boys time again! The SP have been given the nod that certain people will be given full time positions if they keep the lid on any genuine attempts at stirring up anti war strike action.
The fact that they would not even support a lobby of a delegate meeting of congress shows how they have degenerated. Their rather muted opposition to the latest wage deal is now explained.
Yes folks its jobs for the boys time again! The SP have been given the nod that certain people will be given full time positions if they keep the lid on any genuine attempts at stirring up anti war strike action.
The fact that they would not even support a lobby of a delegate meeting of congress shows how they have degenerated.
The IAWM had a meeting on Sunday. At this the SP opposed any lobby at the ICTU SDC.
Perhaps they would like to explain?
Is this strike just more SP bullshit and empty words. If not can you give us a proposed date as to when your strike will prevent the US babykillers from using Shannon?
Disguised as youths. Haddens staying away, he prefers third formers.
they are the armchair activists. Why dont you fools come out from behind your masks so we'll know what you do?
you are showing that you have less cop on thamn a six year olds.
This looks like yet another example of the SP getting fools to make personal attacks.
The question remains: WHY DID THE SP STAY AWAY FROM FROM THE LOBBY OF THE ICTU CONFERENCE?
"I was active in the PSEU for 2 years, I was the first person ever to challenge the annual ratification of Dan Murphy as General Secretary."
That's your crowning glory pat! you got up at a conference and opposed (in a half arsed manner)some bureaucrat.
YOU ARE AN ARMCHAIR ACTIVIST.
I wonder if the above posting came from an SP member who felt guilty about the SP not supporting this mornings picket of the ICTU Conference?
The SP have pushed Strike Action as the way forward, so why were they not lobbying the 400 Delegates who came from all over the South today?
I was active in the CPSU for 15 years, including 7 years on the Executive Committee. I was a delegate to the Dublin Council of Trade Unions for 10 years, spending 4 years on its executive committee.
During the second restructuring deal ballott, only the SWP and some independents (including myself) in the CPSU opposed acceptance of the deal. The SP supported the deal.
I was active in the PSEU for 2 years, I was the first person ever to challenge the annual ratification of Dan Murphy as General Secretary.I eventually decided my time would be better spent elsewhere. I remain to be convinced that I will advance the interests of the working class by looking after the problems of Middle Management.
Fair dues to those who think its worthwhile to build an activist group in the PSEU but my priorities lie elsewhere.
When the anonymous fool above has a record in the Trade Union movement to match mine , then he/she will be in a positioon to criticise me.
Pat Corcoran what the fuck would you know about Unions. You're not active in your own union. You Union has a good left wing caucus, and you're not involved in it because you are an keyboard activist.
I hope that any 'workers' who take part in this highly irresponsible action are immediately fired by their employers and then put on trial by the state for treason and put before a firing squad for execution.
How are the actions of GNAW, CWM & Eoin "ultimately futile"? These Direct Actions have already driven 3 US airlines (working for the US Military) out of Shannon.
This is actual success NOT virtual success.
"the SP has many proposals to change not only this situation, but the whole trade union movement"
So let's start hearing them....
It wouldn't, by any chance be: "build a mass revolutionary party", would it?
the trots keep claiming that the only legitimate action' at Shannon is strike action, so when are they going to stop the killers stopping off there? Why is Joe Higgins and not meeting the beloved workers there?
I appreciate your frustration at the lack of strike action at shannon. However the SP has many proposals to change not only this situation, but the whole trade union movement. It is a slow process, but periods like this when many people are becoming politicised or re-politicised can accellerate it. We need to painstakingly build a movement that can take on the establishment in a meaningfull way. Its not a quick fix but its better than the heroic but ultimately futile individual actions of the Grass roots network.
but you really shouldn't go for the ad hominem stuff. I am not having a go at you personally, since I don't have a clue who you are and I'm sure that you do many things that I would consider worthwhile and important. What I am criticising is the SP line that the only legitimate 'direct action' at Shannon is strike action when 1) acts of civil disobediance have been PROVEN to work and 2) there appears to be no prospect of a strike given the current situation and the SP have ZERO proposals as to how to change this situation. You are parroting this line so I am arguing against you.
Incidentally, if I were you I'd avoid attempts at making people justify themselves by calling them inactive "keyboard warriors". Provoking responses of wounded pride (I did this, this and that) is an easy method of information gathering by intelligence people and in an anonymous online forum like this should always be ignored.
Chekov is certainly not a keyboard warrior. He was fgace to face with the riot police and army while Joe Higgins was describing GNAW as virtual warriors.
What do you know what I have or haven't been doing?
Bloody keyboard warrior.
"Strike action = real direct action"
Hoping for somebody else to go on strike without doing anything yourself = doing nothing.
"can the pathetic swp and sp loonies stop bickering and try to convince the shannon workers they claim to love to stop helping kill iraqi kids?"
Loonies? We're not the ones alienating those very workers by tearing down fences at Shannon.
We see strike action as the way forward. Strike action = real direct action.
Now on the subject of bickering, what do you think you are doing? On a democratic forum you'd think there could be some sort of debate.
Pat C is correct once again, can the pathetic swp and sp loonies stop bickering and try to convince the shannon workers they claim to love to stop helping kill iraqi kids? Pats attempt to get ICTU/SIPTU to do the right thing is doomed to failure I fear though, they arer too gutless and corrupt to close either Shannon or the greedy low tax paying US companies here.
correct me if I am wrong but was it not Thatcher who changed British Law to illegalise key facets of the trade union movement and outlawed political strikes?
This of course put the UK in the same position as certain Eastern European states.
The remedy suggested by affiliated British trade and student unions to their European fraternal comrades has been to maintain "a minutes silence" in place of stoppage.
But to effect silence means swtiching off the machines.
I rather detested Thatcher.
and I was not alone.
and I remember the Liverpool Strikers who walked from LIverpool to London to reclaim public space in 1997.
They didn't like Thatcher either and thought direct street based action was better than a minutes silence.
hmmm..no-one liked Thatcher except Pinochet.
and maybe Garret Fitzgerald and morte obscure members of the Bilderberg commision.
I shall contact the Bilderbergers today and see if they will see about re-introducing the right to make a political work stoppage for tomorrow, in the meantime let's us presume that they and all Thatcher's friends know what we are about.
tomorrow is a global day.
for a global movement.
link to other article on this thread.
Please do not turn it into a SP/SWP battlground.
Was that you 'Brian Cahill'? Why wont you support Direct Action at Shannon?
Stop work for war, and is better than the SWP exploiting wee kids and disrupting wee kids education.