Rabbitte Welcomes Westport Councillor To Labour Party

by Labour Man - Labour Mon Apr 03, 2006 23:18

Slide show of Photographs of Mayo Men at the 2006 Labour Conference at the Helix
By clicking on the link below you can see the quick slide show of the Mayo men at the Labour Party Conference in Dublin last weekend.

Two of Labour's front bench are Mayo Men.

Leader Pat Rabbitte TD
Whip Emmet Stagg TD

Then there was Dail Candidate for Mayo
Harry Barrett

And the newest recruit to the party
Cllr Keith Martin

by Dan Dangler - Caucus of Cosmic Absurdists Tue Apr 04, 2006 12:30

this wouldn't be the same mighty mayo labour party that equivocated over support for teh shell to sea campign, and then only got and board at the last minute so you could get your faces on tv now would it.
Thanks for the pics, you're all gorgeous

by anarchaeologist - Shell to Sea Dublin Tue Apr 04, 2006 14:18

This is what you get when you try to folow the above link. Says it all really. The LP continue to be a bad link in the chain of opposition to the Corrib gas project.

Will it take the election to get their arses off the fence?

by guydebordisdead Tue Apr 04, 2006 14:22

This is just a crappy election stunt, please don't exploit real struggle like this guys. Get involved on the ground and then we might begin to think you're not so bad, bringing someone to your conference and sticking loads of pictures up doesn't mean shite.

by pat c Wed Apr 05, 2006 18:52

Is this for real? What a self publicist! What do Mayomen find funny? Outsourcing Public Sector jobs?

by Pointer Wed Apr 05, 2006 19:01

Are you serious!?

I don't think this guy or his party are in favour of outsourcing jobs.

The great thing about the sites like this is the great availability of information and the ability of anyone to post information of interest to the general public.

His posting is of interest to me and others. Your's isn't!

by pat c Wed Apr 05, 2006 19:03

glad to know that i;m boring you. driving testers recently succeeded in preventing the outsourcing of their work to a private firm, they want more testers appointed. rabbitte condemned this victory by the workers. check your facts before you mouth off.

by Pointer Wed Apr 05, 2006 19:58

Rabbitte said
"Labour supports social partnership. Change in the workplace and the modernisation of our public services should be negotiated, but no interest group has the right to veto changes which are necessary for the public good"

Hardly a cry for outsourcing!

Check the Facts before you mouth off!

by Tom Joad Wed Apr 05, 2006 20:24

"Labour supports social partnership. Change in the workplace and the modernisation of our public services should be negotiated, but no interest group has the right to veto changes which are necessary for the public good. When 130,000 young people can’t get a driving test, Labour will not shrug its shoulders and walk away. The rights of those young people and the imperative of road safety overrides any other consideration."

The interest group he is referring to is quite obviously driving test instructors and is obviously implying Labour would out-source to deal with the backlog. If Rabbitte didn't support outsourcing, he would have called for the immediate hiring and training of new instructors, employed by the state, on the existing terms and conditions to help deal with the backlog rather than bringing in yellow pack for a quick fix solution and thereby opening the door to privatisation. Whats your position pointer?

by Cllr Keith Martin - Labour Wed Apr 05, 2006 22:24

Driver Testing delays need to be cut drastically.

FF/PD have not done it.

Labour will.

We need more driver testing staff and we need a more effiecent system to deal with no shows and wasted time slots. No one is suggesting reducing the number of driver testers or of compromising on workers rights.

To suggest that the Labour Party is anti union flies in the face of 90 years of evidence to the contrary. Social partnership is the way forward with compromises on both sides if not then ultimately it is the citizen who loses out.

Thanks for the interest in the party!

by pat c Thu Apr 06, 2006 11:43

rabbitte quite clearly attacked the driving testers. the FF/PD coalition wished to out-source driving testing work, they failed to achieve this. rabbittes answer was to attack the testers. now the testers case succeeded because the last pay-deal had a clause which prevented out-sourcing. do labour believe that deals can be torn up when it suits them? will labour in government ignore any clauses of agreements whgich protects workers rights?

by pat c Thu Apr 06, 2006 12:00

"We need more driver testing staff and we need a more effiecent system to deal with no shows and wasted time slots."

good to here you say that re the staff. on the no-shows i reckon anyone who is a no-show should be banned from taking a test for 12 months. something for the LP to do in govt.

"No one is suggesting reducing the number of driver testers or of compromising on workers rights."

just make sure the cwazy wabbitte agrees with you on that.

"To suggest that the Labour Party is anti union flies in the face of 90 years of evidence to the contrary. "

thats not my experience, either as a trade unionist or political activist. do you really want me to list the attacks on workers carried out buy coalition govts which included labour? i'll just mention Irish Shipping (company closed down, workers on the street), with-holding pay rises due in the public sector, yellow pack jobs in the civil service - temporary clerical trainees, hospital wards closed down.

which is not to say that labour havent done good things. they have: in particular mervyn taylor in equality and law reform and michael d. higgins in arts& culture.

"Social partnership is the way forward with compromises on both sides if not then ultimately it is the citizen who loses out."

well if thats the case then why is rabbitte attacking partnership? the driving testers won their case under a clause of the last partnership deal. it looks as if rabbitte wants to tear up any clauses which he doesnt like.

keith, i have no grudge against you or labour (i dont know you). i will criticise labour whenever it need imho to be criticised. but i have often supported labour, especially Labour Youth when they come under unfair attack here. i am not sectarian and participate in protests organised by labour youth. (photographic evidence on this site!)

by mac diarmada Fri Apr 07, 2006 16:20

& I admit, I did think he would join a national political party sooner or later, & I admit I thought it would probably be Labour. & I reflect if I, so far away in Barcelona thought as much, then many others did too.... & I wonder was the timing in Labour or Keith's favour, & I conclude that Mayo still needs an independent councillor and candidates, & so I rue in a small way the passing of Keith from one box file "the independent candidates" to another "the Labour party". But that's because I'm interested in regime change. There are easy and difficult ways to be a politician. Keith may have chosen an easier way, let's see where it will bring him. Meanwhile we may judge him as we have judged him so far -
a sense of humour and willingness to engage with indymedia and the internet, if not always as well or impressively as he seemed to think, that arrogance being undercut by his status as "an independent" but now with the resources of Labour at his disposal, he will probably be cut less slack.

bottom line being -
"Don't change too much Keith, Mayo is one of the most deprived counties in Ireland which together with the UK and Italy boasts the highest levels of income disparity and inequality in Europe. Those problems need real local and national solutions, ones which require such tenacity and passion and consistent opposition to the selfish centralised "prosperity" of Dublin and Dubliners that they never seems to slip past the Ely Place Labour PR machine as presenting something akin to "class politics".

You never in your few thousands words as in independent spoke much class politics. But now perhaps you may........

by spindoctor Fri Apr 07, 2006 20:00

especially when the other person weighs half your mass. It can come over very badly. For sadly we do live in times of body fascism. Someday you'll get to the Dail, watch how the Mammy Harney deals with these questions.

by pat on the back Tue May 09, 2006 22:18

Cllr Keith Martin (Labour party) (elected by indepence voters) has a long way to go to be a "caudillo".
But I'd like to openly wonder, would the chances of nationalisation of the Irish people's hydro-carbon resources some May day in the future been higher with Cllr Keith as an "independent" or as a "Labour" public servant. Though of course I'm a Dubliner, the other side of the island - at its stoutest. beware the pat on the back. Cllr Martin, I'd try & get on cable TV and do a sliothar routine if I were you.