Anarchist organisation welcomes public sector strike and calls for further action

Anarchist organisation Workers Solidarity Movement has congratulated public sector workers who took part in today’s 24-hour work stoppage and called for further stoppages “in order to force a change of direction from the government”.

“Today’s stoppage was a brave step by public sector workers,” said Gregor Kerr, WSM PRO. “At last, after months and months of being scapegoated for a financial crisis we didn’t have any part in creating, workers have found a bit of dignity and begun to stand up for ourselves.”

“The Irish Congress of Trade Unions made a major mistake when it called off the planned national stoppage on March 31^st,” Kerr continued. “This simply gave the government the green light for further attacks on workers’ pay packets. Now we’ve begun to turn that tide.”

“We know of course that the government is not going to back down after one day’s strike action,” said Mr. Kerr. “That’s why workers need to get organised and build for further strike action. We need to unite public and private sector workers and shut the country down in order to demonstrate that there has to be another way. The wealthy, those who benefited from the Celtic Tiger, must be made to pay for the crisis they created.”

“We also know that we cannot rely on the leadership of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to lead the fight against the government. Union leaders have made it clear they are willing to support cuts in services, allowances, working conditions and even the lengthening of the working week. They are simply interested in getting back into so-called ‘social partnership’,” Kerr concluded. “What we need is a fightback controlled by workers on the ground, we need shop stewards and activists inside our unions to begin the work of convincing our colleagues to back an alternative based on making the rich ‘share the pain’”.