Building Cross-Community Campaigns after the election

I would like to use this opportunity to thank all those who supported my recent and unsuccessful election campaign to Fermanagh District Council for the Enniskillen Ward. It was a great effort which brought together activists from across the county with support from Socialists from across Northern Ireland and as far away as Limerick and Dublin.

The mainstream parties were successful in preventing this election being fought on the issues and obscured the extent and seriousness of the coming cuts public services; an onslaught that will be deeper than anything experienced since 1924. Instead, they chose to fight this election on the same-old grounds of sectarian identity politics leading to an increased polarisation in the vote which resulted in more support for the DUP and Sinn Fein across the county with a loss of support for the UUP and SDLP.

Indeed, this campaign was fought against the backdrop of the 'tribal' headcount that characterised the previous Westminster run-off between Michelle Gildernew (Sinn Féin) and Rodney Connor (United Unionist). The tensions boiled over at the Assembly count in Omagh in the behaviour of unionists and republicans culminating in Tom Elliott, the leader of the UUP, calling heckling members of Sinn Féin 'scum' from the podium and referring to the tricolour as a 'foreign flag'.

Fighting for Every Vote

In that cauldron of sectarian hatred, it was never going to be easy to offer a radical, anti-sectarian alternative. We were fighting the campaign without a social base and without any immediate connection with local communities.

Despite and possibly because of this we fought the hardest campaign of any party in Enniskillen - a fact remarked upon by many of our opponents (both the DUP and Sinn Féin 'upped' their game in response to our campaign).

We knocked thousands of doors across Enniskillen and unlike any election campaign for the past 40 years we canvassed every estate in the town and all the outlying village centres. We canvassed in every area regardless of whether a union flag or a tricolour was hanging from the lamp-post and for the most part we were met with an open, honest engagement and received a positive response.

Unlike every other party who campaigned on the basis of 'maximising OUR representation', at every door we brought an inherently political message. We engaged people on what was happening. We discussed how we could challenge the right-wing agenda that will see local public services devastated in our County at a time when the private sector economy here is on life-support.

At times, it was not easy as we were bringing a very different message to that propounded by all the other parties. We stood openly and unashamedly as socialists and spoke to people about the possibility of democratising the ownership and control of the economy as a way to pay for public services.

On many doors we struggled to gain a hearing from households who were simply sick of the lies of politicians who 'tell you anything' to get a vote every four years. On one memorable door one of our canvassers was told that if he was a 'Banker or a Politician' he should go away - this was not the only occasion but reflected many people's understanding of the empty promises of a political class who were implementing cuts to pay for the banking crisis.

We also struggled through our perceived novelty and our lack of a base in the town. We don't run constituency services and were relying on people grasping the seriousness of the crisis facing us and agreeing with our position of 'fighting back' on a cross-community basis at a time when our political opponents tell us that there is 'no alternative' to the Tory-Stormont cuts.

Results and Prospects

Turnout in Enniskillen was poor as usual with turnout in the more deprived areas falling to below 50%. As such, the 248 who gave us a number one preference vote was a respectable beginning to our work in the county. After the votes of other candidates such as the Green Party Alliance and another independent were redistributed we stood at 280 votes but this was not enough to catch up with the lowest polling Sinn Féin candidate (on 375) and we lost out.

In addition to this vote, we have built the rudiments of a party branch in Enniskillen and this will be critical in developing grassroots and cross-community politics in the County. We have made many contacts with nurses and workers in many estates around the town.

We look forward to further engaging with these contacts we made over the course of the campaign. The Socialist Party will increase our activity in Fermanagh as we grow stronger. The campaign  for the next council election starts here.

We remain steadfast and committed to the building of cross-community opposition to defend public services and demand a scheme of public works which will create local employment and develop the productive capacity of our society (in public ownership).

Given the sectarian divisions, there is massive alienation of a large section of people from the political process and politicians, in particular. We recognise that we have work to do to make the case for people to get registered and vote for a fighting alternative. We also need to build the Stop the Cuts Alliance locally involving the layer of advanced workers we have encountered in our campaign. That is the task facing the Socialist Party in Fermanagh in the months and years to come.

Socialist Party Launch in Enniskillen

I launched my campaign at an event attended by supporters in the Westville Hotel on Thursday 14^thApril. The event was chaired by Ciaran Mulholland, treasurer of the Socialist Party NI, and speaking was newly elected Dublin North Socialist Party TD, Clare Daly.

Clare spoke about the economic crisis in the Republic of Ireland and how ordinary people had suffered as a result of the decision to bailout bankers, speculators and bondholders. She pointed to the need for working people to campaign against these cuts and the need for social solidarity.

The following is a snippet from my speech at the event:

"There is already a threat hanging over services at the new hospital which hasn’t even been built yet; we lost obstetrics and gynaecology services for more than a month last year because they couldn’t find doctors to provide cover; half of our schools are under threat of closure and that was before the 15% cut to running costs and the 30% cut to capital budgets; classroom assistants are facing the axe leaving special needs children abandoned;  32,500 hours of home help has been slashed in Fermanagh this year alone; unemployment in Enniskillen has doubled in the last three years; our young people are having to emigrate, universities are becoming the preserve of the rich and we are threatened with even more public sector job losses. And all the mainstream political parties can do is focus on the need to reduce corporation at a cost of further job losses and public sector cuts!

"Our politicians are agreed on implementing the most severe cuts to public services since 1924; worse than anything Thatcher did. The parties are playing the same old divisive games ahead of these elections but once they are elected they will be joined at the hip implementing these cuts. Instead of implementing cuts, we need to build campaigns alongside the trade unions and communities to fight the cuts!

"They tell us that there is no alternative but it is estimated that the super rich get off with £120 billion in tax avoidance every year and they put £1 trillion into the banks in 2008 to bail them out. Yet there is not the money to employ much needed, newly qualified nurses in Northern Ireland and they have to emigrate to find work!

"The mainstream parties tell us that they have no choice that they must implement these cuts. But if our parties can only implement Westminster cuts, what is the point of the Stormont circus?

"If I am elected I will stand with every community to oppose these cuts and to demand a public works programme to create the jobs we need. We must build cross-community campaigns to stand for all public services so that they cannot implement austerity while playing one against the other as they have so many times before.



Canvassing Derrychara



"We are the only party who will be canvassing for votes in every estate in this town. Our campaign is already getting a good response. I believe we can achieve a great result in this election and I would ask you all to get involved in building opposition to these Tory-Stormont cuts!

Donal O’Cofaigh to run for Socialist Party in Enniskillen

In September 2009, I resigned my council seat and left Sinn Féin to join the Socialist Party in protest at what I described as their ‘overseeing the long-term administration of senior civil servants and their right-wing agenda’.

At the time I said that:

“Change can only come about if working, unemployed and young people themselves organise to challenge the status quo. We have seen the power of effective local campaigns in fighting against health cutbacks and against the imposition of water charges. The sad truth is if we are waiting for change to come at the hands of any of the mainstream parties, then we will wait a long time indeed. Working people must organise themselves against cuts and to defend jobs.”

I remain convinced of that as much today as I did then. We must build cross-community campaigns to defeat the cuts and have no illusions about any of the parties. This council election is important in building an effective opposition to the cuts tsunami. History teaches us that the extent and depth of the cuts imposed will be determined by the strength of our campaigns against them.

Defending Public Services

All of the mainstream parties are keen that people do not find out the just how bad the cuts will be before the election so that they can implement them all the more effectively in the four years before the next elections - but people can see through that.

If I am elected I will be 100% committed to supporting grassroots campaigns and working with the local Trades Council, community and voluntary groups to fight the cuts affecting our communities, public sector workers; to reverse the cuts to benefits, the imposition of stealth taxes such as water rates; and demanding a much-needed public works programme for the county that would create jobs for the unemployed and yield improvements to our social, economic and environmental infrastructure.

Vote to Fight the Cuts!

Assembly Cuts Agenda will Devastate Fermanagh

This is a full, unedited version of the letter that was submitted to both the Fermanagh Herald and Impartial Reporter (and which has been published in both).

Northern Ireland Ministers - Agreed on Need for Devastating Cuts

The cuts outlined in the draft Executive Budget and agreed by all the Assembly Parties will devastate Fermanagh and have particularly severe consequences for deprived communities, those who have lost their jobs or forced to work part-time. Yet the same politicians who have signed off on these cuts will feel no qualms about canvassing the communities that these cuts target in the weeks to come.

The Assembly parties realise that their cuts are simply unjustifiable and that is why this draft budget fails to identify what specific actions will be necessary to deliver it. They are trying to get through these elections before people know what is happening.

There is an alternative to these cuts. The Assembly could agree a ‘needs-based’ budget and work with the Stop the Cuts Campaign, local communities and the trade union movement to build opposition to the neo-Thatcherite agenda. There is plenty of wealth in society – it is estimated that £120 billion escapes the tax net through avoidance, evasion and loopholes. Billions are wasted year on year on nuclear deterrents and invading countries like Iraq and Afghanistan; billions more have been paid to bankers, bondholders and property speculators. Yet when it comes to basic services for ordinary people they tell us that the money is not there.

Martin McGuinness shares a joke with David Camerson

A QUB Professor has estimated that these cuts will result in 38,000 job losses across the north. How is this supposed to help improve our economy and improve fiscal receipts? They will undermine not just the public sector but suck the lifeblood from small businesses and the private sector. These cuts only benefit the financial speculators and spivs of the stock-market.

These cuts will devastate the economy of Fermanagh which is already on the precipice. Across Fermanagh, communities face mass youth emigration, those who remain face a stagnant labour market and ever decreasing benefits. The viability of our schools will be ‘reviewed’ once again and more young students will be excluded from higher education. Our elderly will face even greater hardships as they struggle to obtain care services, being pushed to expensive private sector provision. Despite the denials of the Health Trust, these cuts are a sword of Damocles hanging over the public-sector status of the new Southwest Hospital. All our politicians can offer is verbal opposition to cuts while they administrate them in reality regardless of the cost.

Instead of implementing Tory cuts, our politicians should be building opposition to them alongside the community. We need to unite all those affected by these cuts not fall back to the politics of sectarian division. If history teaches us anything it is that only when people are united and campaign effectively that real change can be achieved. One has only to look at the inspirational protests in Egypt to see what real democracy looks like.

Irish Workers Protesting Cuts

We can fight and win against these cuts. Part of that is working to build a wider opposition bringing together trade unionists, community activists and those directly affected by the cuts; another part is to use these elections to elect genuine campaigners to fight the Assembly parties’ cuts, not implement them.

Fighting the ConDem Cuts!

The ConDem government’s comprehensive spending review represented a clear attack on working people of all colours and creeds. On the back of a collapse caused by the greed of bankers, speculators and financial spivs, working people are the only ones being forced to take the pain. Our services, our wages and our jobs are under threat. The impact in Fermanagh where small businesses are already balancing on a knife-edge is likely to be severe. These cuts could push the local economy past a critical point and wreak structural damage that may never be reversed.

At the very least, these cuts will devastate working people pushing many onto lengthening dole queues as the job losses mount where they will be faced with slashed benefits. In a world where we are told education is critical to building a ‘knowledge-based’ economy, young people from working class backgrounds have effectively been shut out of universities through moves to increase fees and the interest they pay on student loans.

At the same time, the Government is supportive of moves to start the printing presses rolling to ensure the profits of the banks and super-rich continue to grow. The consequence of such monetary policy will be imported inflation on household essentials at a time when workers’ wages are being pushed down.

From every conceivable angle workers (those who through their labour create all the wealth in society) are being squeezed ever harder to safeguard the profits of big business. There is a global race to the bottom which will continue until collective action puts a stop to it.

Unfortunately, we cannot rely on our local politicians who even before the economic crisis implemented harsh 3% year-on-year cuts for the last three years. As they implement the new wave of cuts despite their choreographed words of ‘anger’ no doubt their slick PR machines will ensure that they are photographed by the local press at the front row of all the protests.

Instead, what’s needed is to build a grassroots opposition to the current wave of cuts and those that will inevitably follow them. Any politician from the mainstream parties who is genuine about opposing the cuts should resign their party membership and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the communities against them; that is the only honourable position. Building a cross-community opposition involving workers, communities and the youth is the only appropriate answer to the cuts.

Statement confirming my candidacy for local elections in Enniskillen

The Socialist Party will be fighting both council and assembly elections next year and the party has agreed that I should stand in the next council elections in Enniskillen.

In doing this our aim is to provide an uncompromising voice on behalf of local working class people in the chambers of power. The current political representation in Fermanagh is weak, ineffectual and often is simply absent. There’s a need for change, many people see today that government represents the interests of an international class of financial speculators at the expense of our own working class. But no-one appears to be fighting for this county and there’s certainly not anyone representing the working class areas of Enniskillen. Fermanagh is at the back of every queue for every decision and that was before the latest onslaught of cuts.

There’s a cosy-consensus at the heart of local government and our MLAs feel under no pressure to deliver. Every election it is the same thing, all the parties play at divisive politics but when they are elected they are as one in agreeing the cuts. Although that won’t stop them from making sure that they have their photos taken at the front-row of every protest against the same cuts.

Take the new Southwest Hospital. Such was the lack of political oversight that local doctors and businessmen had to come out to publicise what was happening; there was not a word from the local council. The reality is that as they do nothing, core services are being run down so that the new hospital will struggle to maintain its acute level status. We need to build a wider campaign for the hospital services we deserve and to safeguard local jobs and working conditions.

There is a jobs crisis in this county. Our unemployment is almost 12% higher than it was last year yet no-one is doing anything about it. Our politicians seem content to wring their hands and hope that ASDA and TESCO solve the problem. We need to be pressing for an emergency scheme of public works to provide meaningful and productive employment for local people rather than forcing them onto the dole. It’s not as if our schools don’t need leaking roofs fixed, pensioners’ houses don’t need insulation or our roads don’t need resurfaced – yet construction workers languish on the dole while those who caused the crisis reward themselves with bonuses of approximately £7 billion for this year alone. As one of the worst affected areas, Fermanagh should be leading a campaign to demand such a scheme.

A recently reported in the Impartial Reporter a leaked Department of Education report indicated that 47% (that’s just under one in every two) of primary schools and 81% of secondary schools in this county are on a secret ‘closure list’ yet our politicians have done nothing about it. We need to link campaigns together across the sectarian divide to save all our schools not allow them to be picked off one by one.

If I am elected I will use this position to expose what is really happening and the cosy-consensus that exists in the townhall, the decisions are made in private; all that needs brought into the light of day and opened to public scrutiny.

I guarantee my total support to all community campaigns against the closures, sell-offs and privatisations. We need to build a mass, cross-community opposition involving trade unions, local communities, the young and the old. History teaches us that only when workers get organised and make their campaigns political that change happens – we need to build that in Fermanagh.”

I am asking all those who agree with this alternative agenda to get involved in my campaign.

If you have an issue to raise or want to help our please contact me on my mobile at 07889087906.

The Socialist Alternative to the Cuts!

By Cllr Mick Barry, Cork

The capitalist media say that there is no alternative to the thrust of the economic policies being advanced by the government, the EU and the IMF.  This is completely untrue. There is an alternative - a socialist alternative. Here socialistparty.net puts it forward in the form of a ten-point programme.

 

Shut down Anglo Irish Bank

The bailout of Anglo Irish Bank is set to cost the taxpayer between €29.3 billion and €34.3 billion according to the Government and up to €40 billion according to some economists. The bank should be closed down immediately and the losses should be taken by bondholders, private banks who lent to Anglo and wealthy depositors.  The same applies to the Irish Nationwide Building Society.

 

Nationalise the banks under the democratic control of working people

AIB, Bank of Ireland and other banks should be nationalised.  The banks should be amalgamated into one state bank with jobs guaranteed and employment provided for Anglo and INBS staff.  The boards should be sacked.  A new board under the democratic control of working people should be established including elected representatives from the workplace and representatives elected from society as a whole.

End the bank bailouts which could end up costing as much as €90 billion -  redirect this investment to job creation and protecting social services.    Bondholders and private lenders from the banking world should be given no guarantee of repayment.  The bank should gear its resources and future profits towards reducing mortgages (all mortgages should be brought in line with current house valuations), defending jobs and providing cheap credit to small business and individuals.

 

For an emergency programme of socially useful public works

Under capitalism schools are unbuilt, communities are left without centres, health, sport and youth facilities and masses of homes are uninsulated at the same time as huge numbers of construction workers languish on the dole.  End this contradiction by launching a socially useful programme of public works to employ construction workers at trade union rates of pay.

 

For a 35 hour week without loss of pay

It makes no sense to have people working 39 hours a week plus overtime at the same time that 450,000 people are on the dole.  Cut the working week to 35 hours without loss in pay and share out the work among the unemployed.  This would create 165,000 jobs.  It costs an average of €20,000 per annum in dole payments and lost income tax revenue to keep a person unemployed for a year.  Measures which take a quarter of a million people off the dole could save the taxpayer up to €5 billion and this money should be used to finance the emergency programme of socially useful public works.

 

For a progressive tax system

33,000 Irish millionaires own €133 billion wealth.  The taxation system should be changed, not by bringing the lowest paid into the tax net, but by forcing this elite to pay their fair share.  A hefty wealth tax should be introduced; tax loopholes for the rich abolished and corporation tax significantly increased.  No to property tax on the family home and to water charges.

 

Abolish sky-high pay rates

The Taoiseach is paid €228,000 per annum. A government minister is paid €191,000 per annum. A Supreme Court judge is paid €257,872 per annum.  These sky-high wages and others should be abolished along with perks such as the ministerial car fleet.  This should be done, not to “set an example” to encourage ordinary people to accept austerity, but to strike a blow at a viciously unequal capitalist society.

 

Reverse the cuts

Not only are massive cutbacks an assault on the “social wage”, striking hardest at working people and the poor, they are also severely deflationary with the potential to cripple the economy as pointed out recently by the ESRI.   Every €1 billion in cuts is estimated to shave €500 million off economic growth for the following year.  Use the new tax revenues accruing from the introduction of a progressive tax system to stop the flow of cutbacks and reverse all the cuts of recent years.

 

No to privatisation

The author of the An Bord Snip Nua report, right-wing economist Colm McCarthy, has been put in charge of a review of state assets and this is, no doubt, a prelude to proposals for privatisation on a massive scale.  It makes no sense whatsoever to privatise when the private sector is responsible for the crisis in the first place. We need more nurses, teachers, doctors andsocial workers. Public sector employment should be increased not cut!

 

End the rule of the market

Capitalism has failed spectacularly - 450,000 on the dole, a banking disaster and €15 billion in cuts on the way.  If capitalism cannot afford to provide jobs, decent living standards, decent social services and a future then the working class cannot afford capitalism.  This system needs to be ended.  Nationalise the banks, the building industry and all the major companies which dominate the economy under the democratic control of working people and use their profits to meet the needs of the people.

 

For a socialist plan of production, in Ireland and internationally

Gear the economy towards meeting the needs of ordinary people not the superprofits of the capitalist elite.  Match unused resources with social need  -  e.g. finishing “ghost estates” to tackle massive social housing waiting lists.  Instead of bailing out banks use state funding and state industry to end unemployment.

End the rule of capitalism internationally and the power of unelected financial “markets” to bully millions of people, and entire countries.  For a socialist Europe instead of a capitalist European Union.  Instead of the anarchy of the market with its catastrophic rollercoaster of boom and slump, plan the world economy rationally to end poverty, starvation, mass unemployment and vicious social inequality.

Carried from http://socialistparty.net/theory/547-the-socialist-alternative

Sinn Féin’s ‘Alternative’

Sinn Féin recently published its plan for the cuts which offered a few populist measures as window-dressing e.g. a marginal pay-cut for MLAs, reduced use of business consultants and slashing bonuses to hospital consultants but aside from these few positive policies, the document masked the party’s 180˚ u-turn on its previous opposition to the cuts:

 “We fundamentally disagree with the Tory government’s slash and burn approach to the economic crisis, but we are nevertheless forced to deal with the consequences of its approach.”

Sinn Féin plans to quietly administrate the cuts, safeguard business interests and slash workers wages hoping that big businesses will eventually be attracted to set up here and exploit local workers. Meanwhile, they will make a big play of their ‘opposition’ locally and hope to prevent any political fallout.

Regressive Taxes

The document proposes a number of regressive taxes e.g. on plastic bags (raising £4 million) and on mobile phone masts. The latter will simply result in phone companies ‘passing on’ the costs to consumers and in rural areas masts may be removed altogether as they will not be ‘profitable’.

Instead of shilly-shallying around the telecoms giants, the industry should be nationalised and democratised to ensure all profits are either reinvested in improving local infrastructure or to supporting other public services.

A Financial Services Mentality

The party has adopted the mindset of financial capitalism, their vision is for “financial engineering instruments...to help regions and cities meet their investment needs"!

They propose a bank bond to pay for private sector investment. This policy will guarantee massive profits for the bankers at the very time when working people are demanding that they be nationalised and run in the interests of the people.

The party also proposes the privatisation of future Housing Executive rent payments through creating a ‘special financial vehicle’ to ‘take advantage’ of accounting rules that allow a ‘body outside government to borrow’. The party appears to have forgotten that this was precisely why the 1990s Tory government implemented this ‘off-balance sheet’ accounting rule in the first place. Since then it has been instrumental in driving the widespread use of PFI with the aim of creating lucrative returns for speculators – something Sinn Féin appear to have no problem with.

But the speculators who lend money to the Executive will require annual payments for inflation, interest, so-called risk, as well as their profits. Surely a better deal would be secured if new social housing was simply paid for with increased taxation?

Lower Taxes for Big Business

Sinn Fein’s talks up their demand for ‘fiscal powers...to tackle the fiscal crisis. Without the necessary tools we are simply reduced to redistributing a smaller pot of money’. But before you assume that the party is seeking to increase the burden of tax to help protect public services you might notice this hidden sentence:

“The Tory party has articulated a public position around designating the north as an enterprise zone with the ability to vary [read lower] corporation tax rates. Sinn Fein believes that the British government should implement these proposals as part of a Budget Settlement.”

Far from using fiscal powers to protect the public services and workers from the devastation of the cuts, Sinn Féin seeks to lower business taxes even further!! The cost: £500 million a year to be paid for by further cuts and more stealth taxes.

It is an irony of history that after 30 years of divisive and fruitless struggle, Sinn Féin in government content themselves to implementing cuts that Margaret Thatcher could only have dreamed about.

Socialists must seek to build a cross-community opposition to the cuts involving workers and those affected in the wider community – that’s the only real alternative to the Tories in Westminster and in Stormont.

Protest against right-wing mag Agenda NI

The ICTU have called a protest outside the AGENDA NI conference being held in Belfast tomorrow morning. Agenda NI is the magazine of the rich and business leaders in Northern Ireland who claim that the public sector is too big and that there has to be cutbacks. 

Protest: 26th October, Grosvenor House Conference Centre, 5 Glengall Street, Belfast 8.30am

Public Meeting on how to fight the cuts - Belfast

PUBLIC MEETING

 

HOW WE CAN FIGHT THE CUTS

 

8pm Thursday 28 October

 

Speakers:

CARMEL GATES Nipsa General Council (personal capacity)

PAT LAWLOR Unite Royal Victoria Hospital (personal capacity) 

GARY MULCAHY Socialist Party

 

ALL WELCOME

Local Politicians: The Self Preservation Society

This blog is taken from a letter I've just submitted to the local papers. The video is a bit of fun.

The ConDem government’s comprehensive spending review represented a clear attack on working people of all colours and creeds. On the back of a collapse caused by the bankers, speculators and spivs of the city financial centres, working people are the only ones being forced to take the pain. Our services, our wages and our jobs are under threat. The impact on Fermanagh where the private sector is already balancing on a knife-edge is likely to be severe. These cuts could push the local economy past a critical point and wreak structural damage which will not be rebuilt easily.

At the very least, these cuts will devastate working people many of whom will have no option but to join the lengthening dole queues as the job losses mount and their benefits are slashed. In a world where we are told education is critical to building a ‘knowledge-based’ economy, young people from working class backgrounds have effectively been shut out of universities through moves to increase fees and the interest they pay on student loans.

At the same time, the Government is supportive of moves to start the printing presses rolling to ensure the profits of the banks and super-rich continue to grow. The consequence of such monetary policy will be inflation on imported foodstuffs at a time when workers’ wages are being pushed down.

From every conceivable angle working people (those who create all the wealth in society) are being squeezed to safeguard the profits of big business. There is a global race to the bottom which will continue until we put a stop to it.

Unfortunately, we cannot rely on our local politicians who even before the economic crisis implemented neo-Thatcherite 3% cuts year-on-year for the last three years - threatening care services for elderly in the county and forcing a moratorium on the recruitment of new nurses and hospital staff. They will implement the cuts despite their choreographed words of ‘anger’ but no doubt their slick PR machines will ensure that they are photographed by the local press at the front row of all the protests.

Instead, what’s needed is to build a grassroots opposition to the current wave of cuts and those will inevitably follow it. Any politician from the mainstream parties who is genuine about opposing the cuts should resign their party membership and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the communities against them; that is the only honourable position. Building a cross-community opposition involving workers, communities and the youth is the only appropriate answer to the cuts.

Fermanagh Trades Council Meeting Against the Cuts Tonight!

I hope to see some of the readers of this blog at tonight's meeting on the Cuts in Enniskillen Library at 7pm; hopefully a chance to discuss these issues and build a campaign against the Tory cuts and those who will administrate them from Stormont.

Fighting the Cuts - Article by Gary Mulcahy

The savage cuts to be announced by the Tory / Lib Dem coalition government in the Comprehensive Spending Review on 20th October have dominated the media and conversations in workplaces, communities and homes. For socialists and trade union activists, the question of how to fight the cuts is of upmost importance.

The scale of the cuts will be devastating for public sector workers, for communities who need these services and for workers in the private sector which relies heavily on public sector spending in Northern Ireland. The overall impact of the cuts will be to plunge the economy in the North deeper into recession, representing a general assault on the working class and also the middle class.

Full story at:
http://socialistpartyni.net/campaigns/fight-the-cuts/462-how-to-fight-the-cuts



Stop WELB cuts to our Children's Education!

Like most other Governmental bodies, the WELB have placed a moratorium on the recruitment of staff as a means to met the stringent efficiency gains agreed by the Stormont parties in their three-year comprehensive spending review (May 2008- April 2011). The impact of this has been to place an ever greater burden on those staff remaining on to provide front-line services.

The WELB’s ban on recruitment has now impacted on music tuition for children attending local primary schools across Fermanagh. Following on from two tutors taking maternity leave, a third tutor in the county has been made redundant in a decision which clearly is geared towards running down this service in the future. As a result there is now no tutor to provide lessons to children anywhere in the county – this decision has undermined a longstanding commitment to musical education at primary school level.