Time to stop the discrimination against new teachers. We need fighting unions to win. Ruairi Quinn, the Labour Party Minister for Education, says it hurts him to bring in cuts – but he just has to do it. Yet his opposition to a tiny tax on financial speculation shows that he is a hypocrite.

The EU Commission recently proposed a Financial Transaction Tax of 0.1 percent on speculation on shares and bonds and an even tinier one of 0.01 percent on other financial activity. It would have raised between €500 million and €700 million for the Irish Exchequer.

But this government refused to impose it. They PREFER to hit public sector workers and public services to make us pay for the economic crisis.

Attacks on new teachers

Their particular target is newer and younger employees and they are using outright forms of discrimination. Newer teachers entering the profession will receive about 30 percent less in income than those who entered before the crash.

They will also being doing the SAME work for LOWER Pay than their colleagues. This is government sponsored discrimination – and unions should have nothing to do with it.

Croke Park Deal- the treaty of surrender

The question that everyone asks is: why are the Irish not protesting like the Greeks and the Spaniards.? THEY are staging general strikes and holding mass street protests but the Irish unions are just TALKING.

The key reason is the Croke Park agreement. This accepted pay cuts and contained a clause promising no further cuts to ‘serving’ employees. In other words, it left the door open to discrimination against new employees.

The Irish Independent and much of the media attack the Croke Park agreement from the Right. They say that you can either have cuts in pay or cuts in services.

But there is a far stronger case for rejecting Croke Park for left wing reasons. It has led our unions to sit back and allow 30,000 jobs be cut from the public sector. The more the message of defeatism is spread by the union leaders, the more the right wing become emboldened and demand even more.

WE NEED FIGHTING UNIONS

• November 24th has been named as a day of mass protests. Thousands will come onto the streets to show their willingness to fight cuts and property taxes. Spread the word: Assemble 1pm Garden of Remembrance.
• Change our unions. We need a new union leadership that stands up to the government – not one that rolls over. The ICTU is dominated by Labour Party supporters who collude with Gilmore and Quinn. These people should be replaced.
• Join the Socialists. Irish capitalism has proved a failure and offers no future. We need radical change and socialists are organising to achieve it. The Socialist Workers Party are part of the People Before Profit Alliance and our spokesperson in the Dail is Richard Boyd Barrett TD.

You can join us by texting ‘JOIN’ to 0863074060 or fill in the online form on this website!

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