Jail the Bankers: Sack the Government
Join ICTU National Demonstration
Saturday 21st 2pm Parnell Sq
WE NEED A NATIONAL WORK STOPPAGE
On Saturday 21st of February the Irish Congress of Trade Unions is calling all workers to protest because we are being made to carry the can for the economic crisis. The protest will start at 2pm in Parnell Square, Dublin.
The bankers and the super-rich caused the economic crisis by gambling the fruits of our labour in a global casino. In an economic system driven by the greed for profit –not human need – this is inevitable. Brian Cowen and his government are more interested in saving the bankers than in supporting people who have lost jobs. Instead of pumping billions into the banks, we should create one state bank and use its credit facilities to launch a massive public works programme to give work to the unemployed.
PENSION LEVY AND PAY CUTS
IBEC and the government have launched an all-out war against public sector workers. Someone on a moderate wage of €35,000 a year, for example, will end up loosing €43 a week because of a pension levy. It is just another name for a wage cut. The trade union movement should respond with a huge mobilisation. Yet the union leaders have been extremely weak. Instead of demanding the withdrawal of the levy, they are asking for a ‘ ‘solidarity pact’ with the government and the employers. But these are the very people who are robbing our wage packets! The calls to ‘patriotism’ that are coming from both Brian Cowen and the union leaders are just a cover to dampen down our anger.
Instead of this fake patriotism we need a one-day national strike to sweep this rotten government from office. The people of Iceland have just done that – and we should do the same. Remember: Cowen has no mandate to cut our wages in order to subsidise the bankers.
BRING YOUR OWN PLACARDS ON THE DEMO
Socialists urge you to come on the demonstration on Saturday with your own placards calling for a one-day strike. We urge you to call an emergency meeting in your job and to vote on whether you want a national strike. If you do, then make up your own placards to get this message across. There is a wind of change sweeping this country and it is coming from the grassroots. Let’s turn it into a storm that blows away the corrupt politicians who are ruining this country.
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