With the added support this time, in a personal capacity, of Brian Caton, the general secretary of the Prison Officers Association (POA), and leading national officers of the PCS civil servants’ union – and with other union figures likely to come on board – the basis exists for a much needed electoral challenge to the right-wing cuts agenda of the main parties.
Millions of working class people feel betrayed by Labour. There’s no fundamental difference anymore between Labour and the Tories. No matter who is in power after the general election, it is certain that workers will face more job losses, privatisation, savage cuts to services and attacks on their living standards.
The coalition aims to bring home the urgent need for “mass resistance to the ruling class offensive and for an alternative programme of left-wing policies to help inspire and direct such resistance”.
The new “Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition” is an important step in the direction of building a new political party that represents the interest of working class people.
A similar initiative is needed in Northern Ireland to give a voice to workers and young people who are opposed to the policies of the political parties in the Assembly. It could be an important first step to the building of a new party of the working class capable of drawing mass support from both Protestant and Catholic communities.
An IPSOS/MRBI poll published in June in the Irish Tines showed Labour as themost popular party in the Irish Republic with 32% support. This had never happened before in the history of elections or opinion polling in this state.
Angela Merkel and the major EU governments are taking an interest in making sure Irish working class people pay up for the economic crisis. They are going to check Brian Lenihan’s budgets from now on, just to make sure they contain enough cuts. And to pacify their “European partners”, Brian Cowen has ordered his Ministers to come up with €3 billion in cuts by the end of the month.