Ireland, WSM.ie: leaflet: After Croke Park - Winning the Fight - Organising Together

The massive vote by union members to reject the 'Croke Park Extension' proposals was a 
clear and unambiguous rejection of government attempts to impose yet another 1billion of 
austerity cuts on public service workers. It was also a clear statement of opposition to 
the trade union leadership's decision to enter talks on the basis of these cuts in the 
first place. ---- For many workers and for many trade unionists this is the first time 
that they have said No to any aspect of the austerity agenda. As such it represents a 
huge step forward in terms of building the confidence of union members and the wider 
public. It also represents a shift in the power base within many public service unions. 
Leaderships who supported the deal or who, under pressure, were forced to at least 
nominally remain neutral find themselves somewhat on the back foot and members who 
organised for and won the No vote have a renewed sense of confidence.

That confidence can and must be built on. Union members need to organise as quickly as 
possible in our own unions and across unions to support each other in delivering the 
message that NO means NO, that there is no room for 'tweaking' and that there is no 
mandate for anyone to enter any talks about paycuts.

The decision by the 3 teacher unions to call a ballot for strike action is welcome. A 
strong Yes vote for industrial action will deliver a message to the government that any 
legislated paycut will be met by determined resistance. Obviously the strength of any 
proposed legislation will be determined by the expected response.

A strong vote for industrial action will also give the union leadership the message that 
they must listen to and follow the wishes of the members. It would be a mistake for 
union members to trust that officials who gladly went into talks a couple of months ago to 
?negotiate? a paycut for us are now ready to lead a fight against those same cuts. We 
must take ownership of the fight and must build the sort of structures and campaigns in 
our own unions, across unions and with our allies in the private sector - both unionised 
and non-unionised - that can build a fight to win.

The fight against threatened paycuts is a fight that should unite all workers - public and 
private sector. If the government is successful in driving down wages in the public 
service even further, private employers will be rubbing their hands in glee and will be 
eagerly waiting to pass on those paycuts to their employees.

This is also a battle that should concern all of us who use public services - schools, 
hospitals, dole offices.... The agenda at play is to both cut the wages of public 
servants and run down the services available to us as citizens. It is in all our 
interests to oppose such an agenda.

To do so need to build for sustained strike action that will shut down the entire public 
service and bring the country to a halt. For this to be successful it will need the 
active involvement of other groups targeted by austerity and of all workers - 
complementing and supporting the strike action by acts of mass civil disobedience. In 
such a scenario, everyone has a role to play.

It is for this reason that Workers Solidarity Movement is hosting an open discussion 
entitled 'After Croke Park - Winning the Fight - Organising Together' in the Teachers 
Club, 36 Parnell Square, Dublin 1 on Wednesday 8th May. We want to bring together people 
from all unions and none to discuss with each other how each of us can contribute to the 
building of such a movement.

Please come along and join in the discussion - RSVP & promote this event on Facebook