Friday, September 7, 2012

Reality must dawn then our day will come

Friday, September 07, 2012  AM  3 comments

Guest writer Sean Doyle of Wicklow branch independent workers union and Clann Eirigi with a critique of SIPTU.

“From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs”. These were my thoughts and the long road we still must travel to eradicate gross injustice, inequality, exploitation and the appalling treatment of the most vulnerable, the elderly and the constraints on their carers.

When I saw the gathering at the Grand Hotel car park on 23/8/2012, Wicklow Town for the home help rally organised by Siptu I considered it to be extremely disingenuous. We attended to support the home helps legitimate concerns of cuts in hours and pay and the devastating impact on people in their care and have built relationships while caring, listening and comforting the most vulnerable in our society the elderly, disabled and infirmed.

No section of our society is excluded from the ravenous of greed to pay the debts of the banks, bondholders and speculators by this coalition government of Fine Gael and Labour. Morality, social justice and duty of care are mercilessly discarded in their quest. Lies and deception attendance at rallies preaching social justice out of one side of their mouths and in the council, Dail  and union executive chambers agreeing and supporting the next phase of wage and social cuts.

We need to get real between them. It is a done deal otherwise Siptu would at least stop giving donations to the Labour Party. I appeal to the ordinary members to break this cycle. James Connolly warned: “of the union executive being more concerned with their balance sheet rather than the welfare of their membership”. I’m sure many members will concur with this.

The Siptu leadership and the Labour Party are obviously compatible giving substantial financial support high levels of dual membership and a long history of trade unionists becoming executive members of the Labour Party.

Reality is a bitter pill to swallow but only reality can help us identify the true extent of betrayal and sell out to privatisation of the public sector, and our semi state companies in the giveaway of our national resources. We together in unity of purpose must not allow people to become desensitised and accept grave injustice as the norm.

As a people we must all speak no longer be spoken for no longer be silenced in defence of our rights. “From the seashore to the shop floor” on the streets council chambers, union meetings, media, TV and eventually Leinster House the people’s rightful parliament. But remember no party no one singularly or individuals has the power. It belongs the collective will of the people to exercise for our day to come.

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3 comments:

Good post Sean ,reminds me of Animal Farm and when the other animals looked into the farm house they could not tell the difference in pig or man,we have come to that stage with the hierarchy of the Irish labour movement,no point in talking about the many faces of qsf...

The only things the Unions can debate in every sector is, how many redundancies, 6 hour day ,3 or 4 day week.
Connolly was correct, and, still is to this very day, The heads of the Unions sit in there mighty fine offices thinking of were to invest the members dues, The problem is, they have gotten so corrupt and big headed the forget one thing, its the members who keep them in those high places, and, those same members keep the TD's in there high places, and all they can do is sell of everything which belongs to the people, cut unemployment and sickness benefit , Raise taxes, add additional payments by each household as a property tax, vote on a pay increase for themselves, That's also called corruption. Remember this, If you are not satisfied with your Union and what it is doing with your subscriptions, JUST STOP YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS, I did. These people will eventually have to come down and let there feet touch the real ground, they , like others, forget were they came from and how they got to where they are now, The ordinary working class people put them there, and, they have the power to remove them.

“of the union executive being more concerned with their balance sheet rather than the welfare of their membership”.

How many times have we seen this? Unions RC church..etc etc. The trade unions in Belfast when i was a 'shop-stupid'in the ITGWU were a joke in the early 80s. I decline membership if it's not a closed shop these days. Transport house had a fleet of rovers for the union reps. Ours came to the factory, met the director and went for lucnh in his jaguar before even meeting the workers. Jobs for the boys, they did fuck all.

I read comments online under articles about austerity and government dirty doings against the needy. People are totally clued in about the austerity and the poor being screwed to replenish German banks. BUT!! Come the next election the same people will vote for 'their' local TD. And there is the problem.

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