Tuesday 7th December will see the imposition of yet another vicious budget to protect the wealthy 1% and make the rest of us pay for the crisis. The WSM will be joining the 1% network which will be meeting up at the Wolfe Tone statue at 5.30pm to join the left bloc protest at the Dail at 6.

07 December · 17:30 - 20:30

Wolfe Tone statue, Stephens Green opposite Shelbourne Hotel

Stephens Green North

Dublin, Ireland

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In 2007, the richest 1% of the population owned 34% of the wealth. This October researcher Tom O’Connor showed that the total ‘net worth’ of the 33,000 Irish millionaires... is still a whopping €121billion.

It is both wrong and immoral that this 1% should hold onto such vast wealth while the rest of us face savage attacks on our living standards and on our public services. More importantly, this concentration of wealth in a tiny number of hands means that political power is also concentrated in the hands of this elite. If we wish to re-shape society and to build a new society based on equality and real democracy, we need to find a way to take political power away from the wealthy elite.

If you haven't done so already be sure to join the 1% Networks group on Facebook.

Details of left bloc rally

The left bloc * has called a protest rally at the Dail (7th Dec) under the slogan You can’t afford not to Fight Back - The time for action is overdue!

Government policy is to protect the interests of bankers, developers and the wealthy elite. It has already savaged the living standards of private and public sector workers, pensioners and those forced to live on social welfare. It has resulted in huge attacks on our public services such as health and education.

Unless these policies are stopped they will result in even further devastation in the upcoming budget and over coming months and years. All the main political parties have bought into the cuts agenda. Whichever of them is in government, these policies will need to be opposed. They can only be opposed if ordinary workers like yourself get involved in organising the opposition to them.

Empty Words

The leadership of the ICTU see today’s demonstration as being a one-off opportunity to ‘let off steam’. They will no doubt deliver stirring speeches against the government. But they have shown by their actions that these speeches are no more than empty words. The ICTU leadership have in fact also signed up to the cuts agenda. They just want the cuts to be spread out over a longer period of time to ‘spread out the pain’. If a real opposition to the government’s agenda is to be built we cannot depend on the ICTU leadership to build it. We must take that initiative ourselves. In our workplaces and in our communities, with our neighbours and with our workmates each of us must take on the responsibility of building the opposition.

Sustained Campaign Needed

If these policies are going to be stopped, it is going to involve a sustained campaign of marches, protests and strikes. This can start with a huge protest on Budget Night on 7th December from 6pm at the Dáil. In our individual unions and workplaces we need to begin to build to force the ICTU to call a 24 hour general strike. Such a strike would provide the springboard for the construction of a real and genuine campaign of people power designed to force on to the political agenda our demands to make the wealthy pay for their crisis. The building of such a campaign needs the involvement of each one of us. We cannot sit back and wait for trade union leaders or anyone else to do it for us. But the good news is that today you are marching beside like-minded people. Today can be the opportunity for us to make links and begin the process of building the campaign.

* The left bloc is an ah hoc grouping foamed to organize a united left presence for the ICTU demonstration and budget day protests. Those at meetings have included the CPSU activist group, Socialist Democracy, Workers Solidarity Movement, éirigi,, Socialist Party, Workers Party, Cllr. Cieran Perry and other independent socialists.