In the South, nurses and midwives have secured significant concessions on pay from the Fine Gael government, following three days of strike action. They took the action against a miserly pay deal which failed to keep up with rising living costs. For example, housing costs in the South are increasing at 11% per year! This has pushed many to seek work abroad and contributed to increasing workloads on staff.
In late February, the long predicted Blairite split from the Labour Party – or at least its first wave – finally emerged, with the resignation of seven MPs to launch the so-called Independent Group. They were soon joined by one other from the Labour benches and three pro-EU Tories, including Anna Soubry.
The supposed economic recovery and growing wealth inequality have made workers in all sectors more confident in demanding ‘their share’. International movements on issues of oppression, such as the #MeToo movement, have also given workers confidence to speak out against widespread sexual harassment, such as those leading the historic strike in McDonald’s in the US on the issue.
In the South, the Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO) has planned a 24-hour strike on 30 January with a further 5 dates in early February. This strike has been a long time coming and would be only the second national strike in the hundred year history of the INMO.
Socialists today must understand the lessons of this period, and battle for a bold, fighting, cross-community labour movement which will not make the critical errors of the past.
Rosa Luxemburg was a leader of the German working class and revolutionary movement. Together with her comrade Karl Liebknecht, she was murdered 100 years ago in Berlin following their betrayal by the German Social Democratic leadership. Her contribution to the socialist movement was vast and far-reaching as a writer, speaker […]
The scale of the defeat in Westminster of Theresa May’s UK/EU withdrawal deal, by 432 votes to 202, was devastating. According to the Daily Telegraph it was a “complete humiliation”. The Guardian referred to it as a “historic defeat”, while the Mirror summed it up with “No deal; no hope; […]
On March 29th 2019 the United Kingdom is scheduled to leave the European Union. For seventeen months the British government and the EU negotiators have been struggling to reach a legally binding “withdrawal agreement” to govern the terms of UK withdrawal, including the “divorce bill” or the sum the UK pays to settle its obligations to the EU, and a “political declaration” outlining the basic shape of a final deal after further negotiations.
