Ireland
The lessons of the bin tax struggle
The opening years of the century saw a mass community based struggle against the shifting of taxation further onto the working class in Dublin. Thousands of households were paid up members of the campaign and tens of thousands refused to pay this new tax over a period of years despite prosecutions, media hysteria and the jailing of over 20 activists.
0400-2000: Northern Ireland - Is it a religious conflict?
Author's note; this is
an expanded version of a talk given to the Brecon Political and Theological
Discussion Group on Thursday 28th October, 2004. Alternatively it may
be read as a greatly condensed version of my book, Ulster Presbyterianism.
Shell to Sea: the struggle against the gas pipeline and refinery in Ireland - background and updates
In Erris, a remote area on Ireland’s Western Atlantic coast a consortium of multinationals: Shell, Statoil and Marathon, supported by the Irish State, is proposing to build a dangerous, experimental raw gas pipeline and gas refinery. But they are being stopped...
This libcom.org news feature contains background information and updates on the struggle and related developments.
Background information
Pipeline and refinery
Anarchist Youth leaflet the Alliance Francaise Cultural Institute
The Irish group Anarchist Youth leafleted the Alliance Francaise Cultural Institute in Kildare Street Dublin,on Thursday 23rd March. Source: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74964
Ireland: Hospital security workers wildcat against job losses
One of the main hospitals in the south of the country was disrupted yesterday as security workers went on strike in protest at being replaced by lower-paid staff.
Ireland online reported that the picket outside the Waterford Regional Hospital affected admissions and resulted in planned procedures being cancelled.
The union, SIPTU, said the security workers at the hospital were picketing because their employer, a private company, Sentry Security, lost its contract at the facility.
Irish Ferries dispute roundup
The Irish Ferries dispute is over but the threat of summary sackings and casualisation remains.
Dozens of workers occupied two ferries for more than three weeks in appalling conditions, locking themselves in engine and control rooms below the water line, with little food and the lights on twenty-four hours a day.
Ireland: Wildcat strike by DART drivers
Drivers on Dublin's DART rail network were on wildcat strike yesterday over the imposition of new rosters.
Claims were made that the action was due to an inter-union row between SIPTU and the NBRU. However the National Bus and Rail Workers' Union has strongly denied this.
NBRU General Secretary Liam Tobin said the row was about changes to rosters which were introduced without consultation as promised by the company.
Ireland: Toy workers' picket over pay
Workers at Hasbro, the toy manufacturer, mounted a lunchtime unofficial picket at the gates of their Waterford plant last week.
On Tuesday 21 February seventy workers, members of the SIPTU union, picketed the facility to demand a pay rise promised in the ' Sustaining Progress' talks in July 2004. Hasbro bosses have since reneged on the deal, insisting that staff must relinquish their seniority before receiving the rises.
Union steward sacked for wearing a union badge
Retail outlet Dunnes has achieved a new low in union-bashing by sacking shop steward Joanne Delaney in November 2005 for wearing a union badge.
Many trade unionists around the world will remember the Dunnes Stores Strike against Apartheid which ran for almost three years from June 1984 to April 1987. In the face of an intransigent employer, the union eventually persuaded the Irish government of the day to implement economic sanctions against the old Apartheid regime in South Africa.
Labour Party and union leaders play race card against migrant workers
Following the Irish Ferries dispute Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte and union leader Jack O’Connor have decided to place the blame for driving down wages in Ireland on the migrant workers themselves and not on the bosses.
Both called for work permits to regulate migrant workers in Ireland .
Alan MacSimoin, of the Workers Solidarity Movement, disagreed:
