Working Class Militancy On The Rise
One of the key factors that keeps the status quo in place in both the national and socio-economic fields in today’s Ireland is the notion that normality reigns, conflict and hardship are items of the past and things as they are will continue in perpetuity.
Those who point out uncomfortable realities or strive to build a different reality are portrayed as wanting the return of the conflict and the hardship, of being hopelessly maladjusted to the now indefinite normality.
Those who paint this portrayal are the currently all powerful; the two governments and the one pseudo-government the people of Ireland have the misfortune to live under, the political parties who make up these governments, the corporate media, the captains of industry and more besides.
However, this portrayal of a society (or should that be two) at peace with itself and basking in a now permanent prosperity can, despite the amount of money and energy invested in developing it, only hold weight for so long. It has a limited life span because economic hardship and conflict are direct products of the system the people in positions of influence want to publicly protect.
The politicians and press gurus can only stifle any expression of the realities the majority of Irish citizens are living for so long.
This can be seen most acutely in the industrial disputes of the last week.
In the Six Counties, thousands of classroom assistants have renewed strike action after bosses failed to provide a reasonable offer in drawn out negotiations over the payment of money owed and the protection of their contracts.
The NIPSA trade unionists will now take two days of industrial action every week up until the Christmas holidays if the dispute is not resolved in a just manner.
NIPSA deputy general secretary Brian Campfield expressed the determination of the educational workers concerned.
“It is very clear that the classroom assistants represented by NIPSA are not going to back down in this dispute.
“It is also important to remind everyone what this dispute is all about. Classroom assistants have been forced to take 12 days of strike action already for the first time in their lives to defend their current contractual rights.”
In Dublin, bus drivers angry at the suspension of a colleague in a dispute over the introduction of new routes also took strike action in what looks like a prelude to a major struggle over the privatisation of the Dublin Bus company.
The strike has since been called off after the Labour Court clarified issues around the new routes to the satisfaction of the drivers.
Meanwhile, the services union SIPTU has reacted angrily to threats made by Aer Lingus management to their employees about the consequences of taking industrial action.
Action is due to take place at the recently-privatised company in an effort to prevent pay cuts and changes to conditions of employment but this has now been deferred for two weeks.
Last week, Aer Lingus chief executive Dermot Mannion wrote to employees to inform them that their intention to take part in legitimate strike action “may constitute a very serious breach of participants obligations as employees”.
SIPTU’s national industrial secretary Michael Halpenny said, “The letter is inflammatory and extremely unhelpful in the current atmosphere... Aer Lingus would be better served concentrating on a resolution of the dispute that does not involve pay cuts or intimidation of staff, many of whom have long service.”
As the impact of the unjust and unequal economy that exists in both states in this country begins to be felt on a large scale – the recent loss of nearly 1,000 jobs in Limavady, County Derry being the most notorious example – it looks increasingly likely that the already rich are gearing themselves up for a renewed assault on the living standards of working people.
The fact that organised workers and their trade unions are not taking this assault lying down is to be both expected and welcomed.
The social partnership scam in the Twenty-Six Counties and the delusion created across the island that multinational companies could create sustainable and worthwhile employment for our people are proving to be poor alternatives to an economy run for the benefit of the nation’s citizens.
Out of increasing disenchantment and militancy will hopefully come an eagerness to build a better and more enduring economic reality – a reality that will cherish all who contribute to the life of the nation equally.