The Guardian UK reported Nov. 27 that over 100,000 Irish workers poured into the streets of Dublin that day to protest the €85 billion ($112 billion) International Monetary Fund and European Union bailout of the Irish banks at the cost of four years of brutal job losses and slashed wages and social services. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions organized the march, which was one of the largest in Ireland’s history.
 Massive anti-austerity protest in Ireland |
Jimmy Purdy, 77, told the press, “I’m here because I’m angry that the EU is telling us to cut euros off the minimum wage and boss Irish workers around while the people that caused this crisis get off scot-free.” (The Guardian, Nov. 27)
This handout to the banks is being pushed through quickly, with IMF and EU officials hoping release of the details will calm nervous financial markets. Prime Minister Brian Cowen told reporters that the standard of living for the population of Ireland is certain to plummet, but the proposed measures are “necessary.”
The planned austerity program in Ireland will be harder on workers compared to similar programs in other European countries. Roughly 25,000 public-sector jobs, 10 percent of the entire government work force, will be cut. The government aims to raise $20 billion to service its mounting debt by slashing social services and raising taxes on workers. Welfare programs will be cut, along with pensions, and there will be a €1 cut to the minimum wage.
The global capitalist economic crisis has hit Ireland the hardest of all the European countries, pushing the government’s deficit to 32 percent of Ireland’s gross domestic product. In the past two years, Ireland’s economy has shrunk by 15 percent.
The government is taking out a €50 billion loan for itself and an additional €35 billion to stuff into the pockets of Irish bankers. The loans will be coming from a combination of the IMF, EU and a so called “European-wide stability mechanism,” along with direct lines of credit from Sweden and Britain.
In bed with the banks
The interest rate charged to the Irish government will be at an inflated 6.7 percent for nine years. While bankers all over Europe are reaping massive profits from interest, people are being thrown to the curb. In 2014, the payments on that interest will skyrocket from €2.5 billion a year to €8.4 billion, roughly one-fifth of all tax revenue. It is beyond evident that the Irish capitalist government headed by Cowen is in bed with the banks and willing to put the boot to the neck of the Irish working class while the capitalists rob them blind.
Ireland struggled for centuries against British colonialism, and now these loans further rob the Irish of independence and self-determination. But the workers in Ireland have not taken it sitting down.
The recent march stretched a mile long, proceeding up the bank of the River Liffey in the center of Dublin and converging into a rally in front of Dublin’s General Post Office, where the heroic Easter Uprising of 1916 made its stand. Enduring freezing weather, the marchers waved flags, held banners and chanted. There were confrontations between demonstrators and police outside the Dail (parliament), but no arrests were reported.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has pledged to continue the fight in the streets. General Secretary Davis Begg told reporters, “We’ll oppose them in every way we can.” (CTV Toronto Nov. 27)
It is important that socialist and progressive organizations oppose these criminal actions by the capitalist class in Ireland and elsewhere. With united struggle, workers can show that we are not in fact entering an “age of austerity” but rather an age of socialist revolution and international solidarity.
