Like many other trade unionists, our members voted overwhelmingly for industrial action against the pension levy. We thought that the trade union movement was serious about standing up for the interests of its membership. We did not think that the ICTU leaders could be so foolish as to throw away the energy and enthusiasm that was on display on the huge march on February 21st. But they did - for a promise of a ‘social pact’ with a government that is imposing wage cuts.

Related Links:
National Public Service Alliance Meeting | Belfast Rallies Against Job Cuts | Deflation's End | Workers Pay for Government and Speculators' Failed Policies | The Rescue

I want to argue that Fianna Fail has essentially cooked (and I mean boil rapidly) the books - insofar as their strategy to bring the deficit under control by 2013 rests on numbers that cannot work in the material world.

This might seem a bit academic but this will show in a way that no one else has done that deflation cannot work at any level - not at the level of arresting economic decline, job losses, living standards; and not even the deficit. This is the real debate - can deflation work? Fianna Fail's own bookeeping shows it can't.

Reactions to the Emergency Budget

Connolly Youth begin a Sack the Government Campaign
People Before Profit say We Need an Alternative Government
The Workers Party Condemn Today's Emergency Budget
The Bolsheviks Call for a General Strike
The Communist Party say Dracula Budget Sucks Blood from Workers
Peter Fitzsimon says Supplementary Budget an Absolute Disgrace
Oxfam Ireland deplores today’s cut in Ireland's aid budget
Maura Harrington says the government is putting pressure on the people of Ireland
Eanna Dowling says Workers pay for Government and speculators’ failed policies category
Gregor Kerr says it's More of the Same, Only Worse

More of the Same
Michael Taft's blog - The Recession Diaries
Don't just sit there
Contact EVERY TD, Senator, and MEP about this - Contact.ie

Sometime during the second decade of the sorrowful mysteries, I had a sense we were not alone. Martin, Katrina and I were sat alone in a small East London park facing the Excel Centre where the G20 of the most powerful government leaders were gathered to rearrange deckchairs on their sinking ship. Thousands of police had been deployed around the Excel Centre keeping the few hundreds of protesters who gathered a quarter of a mile from the site. A case of overcatering evidently.

Related Links:
The personal blog of Ciaron O'Reilly.
Previous writings of Ciaron O'Reilly on Indymedia.ie.
The website of London Catholic Worker.
G20 Summit Special from The Guardian.

For the third time this week nets at Glengad have been put up by Shell and taken down by local residents. The purpose of the net is to stop sand-martins from nesting in the cliff-face.

What was once thought to be a specially protected priority habitat for birds and wildlife has actually, in effect, become a priority habitat for Shell.

All sorts of chats, communications and rumours abound about the permission for this and the consent for that, the legality of one thing and the illegality of another. But as Kevin Moore, An Bord Pleanala Senior Planning Inspector predicted in 2002, everything about this project is wrong. And it’s the right thing to do to disallow it and to stop it whatever the law says.

Related Links from Indymedia.ie:
Previous Indymedia feature: Scuffles At Mountjoy As Maura Harrington Is Jailed
Indymedia.ie stories about Shell in Mayo from the Indymedia.ie Archives
Other articles by Niall Harnett on Indymedia.ie

Related Links outside of Indymedia.ie
The website of Shell-to-Sea - CorribSOS.com
Feel like doing something? Contact all politicians about this - Contact.ie

The purpose of this article is to challenge the assumption that it is the 'leaders' who sell out rank and file members, and to highlight that 'leaders' reflect the median moderate worker within Trade Unions. It therefore favours a more bottom-up grassroots focused analysis of Trade Union activity over a top down hierarchical 'leadership' focused analysis. It is my argument that constantly talking about the ICTU 'leaders' is disempowering and a more actor-worker-centered focus is better suited to Libertarian politics.

Related Links:
An article by Andrew F. concerning how the Governement attacks workers through hiring freeze in public sector | A second article by Andrew F. telling us Employers retreat but ICTU talks are not a victory| Sean Matthews argues that the "outburst of condemnation" against the bankers is legitimate class anger | Pat C reports on a call for the resignation of David Begg by a teachers' union. | Paddy Hackett does not like the bad leadership at IMPACT

According to many amongst the left In Ireland it is the 'leaders' of ICTU in Ireland that enter national socio-economic pacts, and that this is at odds with what their rank and file members want. However, most evidence indicates the complete opposite. Most empirical research (Bacarro, 2002, Geary, Roche 2005) concludes that rank and file members tend to be more conservative than their Trade Union leaders, and overwhelmingly support 'partnership' or 'dialogue' over militant industrial action. Furthermore, detailed research has found that greater internal trade union democracy actually favours the moderate over the radical. In countries where Trade Unions support national social-pacts (in wage bargaining and other socio-economic policies) there tends to be more democracy within Unions i.e. Ireland and Netherlands. In countries where Unions have been more militant and opposed to social pacts there tends to be less internal democracy within Unions i.e. Korea.