Ireland, WSM Report back from Dublin meeting on Croke Park - your opinions?

On the 8th of May the WSM held a meeting in Dublin on the Croke Park No Vote. A 3rd 
'deal' has since been announced and we will be arguing for a No vote on that deal but we 
want to invite our readers to look at the notes below and to post comments on what they 
think is the way to defeat the attempts by the union leaders and government to impose 
these cuts in one way or the other. The meeting was divided into discussion tables with 
the people attending moving between the discussions at these tables and a WSM member 
taking notes of the discussion, these are the notes below. ---- Notes from 'How do public 
service cuts effect you' table ---- Some people were public service workers, they said 
they are seeing increased workload and demoralisation as well as the more obvious cuts to 
pay that have happened and the loss of sick pay.

It was pointed out that for new teachers they had a additional 20% cut in their starting

We also heard stories about how the public service wages cuts and job losses had knock on 
effects elsewhere.

- in one 3rd sector think tank where there was a high turn over of workers on short 
contracts those starting now were only getting 60% of the starting pay of three years ago.
- in private sector TEFL schools there is now much more competition for jobs because of 
qualified secondary teachers who can't fid other work

Health services were mentioned by several people, in particular stories of sick relatives 
who were facing long treatment delays. Also mentioned was the impact of cuts in support 
services which had made it much harder to access Meals on Wheels. Some people had seen 
their Home Help cut to 15 minutes per week.

Connected to this was that some public service workers who are home helps and have seen 
contact time cut from an hour to 15 minutes per week are still continuing to work the old 
times unpaid because they are unwilling to walk away from the obvious needs to the people 
they care for. Also mentioned was a college lecturer whose area was is social service for 
marginalised people who now did the workload of what were 3 jobs in order to keep those 
programs going.

A general theme was the way more marginalised sections were being hardest hits by public 
service cuts, in particular Irish Travellers, migrants and disadvantaged communities. 
This is particularly visible in education where the loss of special needs teachers and a 
load of other cuts have had major impacts.

Several people mentioned infrastructure decay including
- damaged road surfaces that were leading to accidents and were not repaired even weeks 
after being reported to council presumably because of lack of resources
- Ballymun theatre
- accumulation of street rubbish in the inner city

A final area of discussion was the impact that austerity was having on people's social 
lives. the mass emigration of people in the 20-30 year age group in particular is widely 
known but less considered is the impact it has when for example people discover that their 
circle of 20 or so friends have been reduced to 5.

2. Why are the cuts happening?

Economic climate ? bank bailout and Troika ?The state has no money? - BUT these are just 
excuses
Theft
Ideology -Neoliberalism ? never waste a good crisis - run down public services in order to 
privatise them
Crisis of capitalism
Cyclical crisis? In a downturn, employer class looks to restore competitiveness by cutting 
taxes, services and pay

OR Final crisis? Major systemic problems in world capitalism unlike previous crises ? 
evidenced by extent of non-investment/hoarding by capitalist class in offshore tax havens.

Class War
Austerity is political ? evidence to suggest it will ?work? is flawed or false (e.g. 
Rheinhart/Rogoff controversy) ? instead, class waging war to head off possible wider revolt

3. Why should we resist these cuts? What do we want?

General discussion

Trade Unions

Leadership ? defeatist/corrupt/self-interested ? some union leaders linked to government 
parties are a block on action/other leaders more susceptible to pushes from members
Negotiations ? accepting logic of Troika programme before entering talks is self-defeating
Society/Workers/Union members

Passivity ? accepting austerity cuts/talks as the best we can have ? accepting that some 
losses are necessary then negotiating whether those cuts are to pay or working conditions 
or services
Fearful
Atomised ? often do not meet regularly to discuss issues ? left instead to officials and 
bureaucracy to fix problems or to define problems
We should resist these cuts because...

Austerity/Troika programme is theft and unjust
It is undemocratic.
Privatisation is more expensive for society
We?ve seen what happens when we don?t resist ? cuts to pay and cuts to public services ? a 
lower standard of living
It is an opportunity to transform trade unions ? get rid of ?Fr. Ted? union leadership 
(?the [social partnership] money was only resting in my account?) ? and form unions that 
will fight for workers? interests
We Want...

To stand up for ourselves
To have a wide fight back against the government/state/Troika from the unions to community 
and property tax campaigns
To repudiate the debt and reject the Troika programme
Workers to take responsibility for their unions ? created worker-centred trade unions that 
fight for their interests
People to feel powerful ? to connect with other groups
To share new ideas
To list and identify specific issues at particular workplaces and to build a list that we 
can share with other workers/wider public
To start and encourage self-organisation ? share examples of successful actions