Tuesday, Mar 16th 2010
The following recordings are from the final session in the dayschool organised by Irish Socialist Network and Fourthwrite.
The session was held today, Saturday 7 November 2009, in the Central Hotel, Dublin.
The title of the session was: Building a 21st Century Left
Chair: Mick O’Reilly
Speakers: Murray Smith (New Anti-Capitalist Party, France), Ciaran Perry (independent councillor [...]
Ah, the low-paid - if words were money they’d be living on easy street. Everybody wants to help the low-paid. Certainly, Fianna Fail was determined to. Shortly before becoming Taoiseach, Brian Cowen had this to say:
‘In terms of those families whose income earners would be classified as low paid or who are dependent on social [...]
As of this writing, the full text of the draft pay deal is still not readily available but the broad outlines are clear. The pay element contains real wage cuts, the provision for the low-paid is minimal, there is no acceptance of the right to collective bargaining and as for mandatory pensions (one of ICTU’s [...]
The new union UNITE (the merged ATGWU and AMICUS unions) has just published a report on Irish wages that is sure to prove controversial. It flatly contradicts the prevailing consensus that Irish wages are somehow ‘high’, that Irish wage growth is high relative to our EU trading partners, and that these ‘high’ wages are [...]