PCS: Build a strategy to win on pensions

The Irish government, as part of its crippling deal with the troika will soon introduce a new “household charge”, another financial burden on working families after an onslaught of austerity attacks linked to the IMF/EU plan.

The cynical posturing of the Green Party in calling for a January General Election for the “good of the country” will not save it from annihilation when the Irish people go to vote. In three and a half years in government, the Greens have shown themselves to be no more than a clutch of arch opportunists who were quite happy to assist Fianna Fáil make working class people pay for the consequences of the economic and political crimes of that party who carry full responsibility for the disaster which has been viswited on society.

December's school student walkouts and protests to defend EMA and oppose the hike in tuition fees were an excellent example of young people standing up to fight for their rights. Thousands of school, university and tech students took to the streets, along with tens of thousands more in England and Wales. Unsurprisingly, the Tories and LibDems voted through the hike in tuition fees.

In recent weeks capitalist commentators have announced the end of the recession. It is predicted that the UK economy will grow by 0.5% in the third quarter of 2009 after shrinking by 0.8% in the second quarter of the year. There has already been weak growth in France, Germany and Japan in the last quarter.

By Ciaran Mulholland