ONE DAY NATIONAL STOPPAGE

Get rid of this government

French workers can do it. The people of Iceland did it and got rid of a government of speculators and fraudsters. Why can’t it happen here?

Everyone knows that the government is protecting its rich friends.

Despite Lenehan’s denial, senior officials were aware of the scams at Anglo-Irish Bank. Yet they rushed through legislation to guarantee its holdings and embarked on a costly form of nationalisation to protect its bad debts. According to UCD economist, Morgan Kelly, this will cost each household €20,000.

In the coming months, we will see the same story unfold at Bank of Ireland and AIB.

The government should have created one state bank from the ashes of bankrupt firms and used its credit facilities to launch a massive public works programme.

Instead of doing this, the government has embarked on a war against workers. Pay cuts of €43 a week have been imposed on public sector workers who receive an average salary of €35,000 a year. Those on middle income will loose a staggering €60 plus a week.

The employers’ organisation, IBEC, were the main instigators of these pay cuts. Over the past few months, they used the corporate media to demonise public sector workers and prepare the ground for the attack.

But their wider aim is to reduce the wages of ALL workers by about 20%. This is what lies behind their mantra about ‘restoring competitiveness’ No sooner was the pension levy imposed, than politicians began calling for reducing the minimum wage.

These attacks on workers must to be met by strong, effective action that drives the government out of office. Cowen and Gormley have no democratic mandate to carry out their policies.

We need a one-day national stoppage as the start of a massive campaign to bring real change.

The leaders of the ICTU, however, are doing to everything to stop a momentum building up. Despite benefiting from working class anger in the polls, Labour leader Eamonn Gilmore is singing the same tune.

The union leaders called a huge Saturday demonstration – but they have not yet called a national stoppage. They also offered to re-enter the ‘social partnership’ talks, even though the pension levy has not been withdrawn and IBEC is imposing wage cuts.

Socialist Worker urges all its readers to

* Call emergency union meetings in your job. If your union official will not call it, do it yourself.

* Build the momentum for a one day stoppage. If the ICTU does not act, grassroots trade unionists should build it from below

* Start by giving full support to the stoppage organised by the CPSU on February 26th.

* Set as your goal an Iceland style demonstration that drives this government from office.