GUEST SPEAKER:SOCIAL COHESION in Ireland had been sacrificed on the altar of appeasing the financial markets, president of Siptu and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Jack O'Connor told the Sinn Féin Ardfheis in the RDS at the weekend.
Whereas 1916 leader James Connolly had said, “the cause of Ireland is the cause of labour”, Mr O’Connor said that now, “the cause of Ireland has become the cause of the bankers”.
“Indeed, in many ways we have exchanged subservience to British rule for subservience to the financial markets,” said Mr O’Connor, a guest speaker at the ardfheis.
Thanking Sinn Féin for the invitation, he said: “It is our policy to engage with every democratic party and with all who are committed to bringing about a better life for all the people who live in Ireland.
“I would also like to take this opportunity to personally, and on behalf of the wider trade union movement, congratulate all those involved in the recent political breakthrough which will hopefully, next Tuesday, deliver the devolution of policing and justice to the powersharing Executive in the North.
“It is a tribute to your political leadership and skills and to those of the other party and government leaders involved that this vital part of the architecture of the Good Friday and St Andrews agreements is close to completion.
“It is also necessary because it is critical to ensure that there will be no return to the atrocities and violence which have so marred the past and which, fortunately, only a misguided few appear determined to repeat.
“We in the trade union movement are steadfastly opposed to any course of action that threatens the lives and welfare of citizens and those tasked with their protection.
“Instead, we must dedicate our energies and resources to organising for fairness at work and justice in society.”
He added: “In this jurisdiction we are living through the truly awful experience of policies which are aggravating, rather than addressing, the current economic, fiscal and banking crises.
“And while the Pension Reserve Fund built up by the citizens of this jurisdiction during the boom years is plundered to appease the insatiable appetites of the zombie banks, our Government is pursuing a deliberate policy of cutting pay and allowing unemployment to soar upwards in order to drive down wages in the private sector with all the attendant human misery this involves.
“Social cohesion has been sacrificed on the altar of appeasing the financial markets in the interests of rebuilding what they call ‘bondholder confidence’.
“To paraphrase James Connolly, the cause of Ireland has become the cause of the bankers. Indeed, in many ways we seem to have exchanged subservience to British rule for a new kind of subservience to the ‘financial markets’.”
He said that, as a consequence, the trade union movement was faced with embarking on “an intensive campaign of industrial action to leverage a fair agreement”.
“This regrettably will inevitably have consequences for our fellow citizens. This is the very, very last thing we want.”