Strike one against the government

Most of Ireland’s public sector organisations, from schools to the National Gallery, ground to a halt today but the government-led whinge fest about ‘mollycoddled’ public servants make little sense.

Today’s ‘day of action’ which saw 250,000 strikers is just the latest protest directed at the government since it began instituting swingeing cuts, tax hikes and other austerity measures. Teachers marched on the department of education while Sinn Féin TDs boycotted Dáil in support of the striking workers, but the divide between public and private sector workers continues. The fact that some pickets only ran from 8.30 AM until 10 AM has become an unlikely talking point. The suggestion is that if the strikers were more committed they would man the pickets all day. It’s a fair point, especially as a single day is a weak enough strike to begin with, but it is questionable whether anti-union voices would suddenly become more supportive of strikers if they went out for more than a few hours. If anything, though, this should at least indicate that more sustained strike action is something the wider public is willing to contemplate.

As it currently stands the strike feels very much like a set-piece battle between union leaderships that have forgotten how to engage in industrial action and a government that, quite simply, has no intention of listening to its workers. Caught in the middle is the public, those who work in the public and private sectors alike.

Amid all of anti-union rhetoric in the media today, a report from insurance company Friends First is being glossed over, but it reveals the thinking of the Irish establishment. Friends First claims Ireland is facing bankruptcy and that the government must immediately push through savage cuts not only in public sector pay but also social welfare and child benefit payments. The report also suggests hitting working people in the pocket with the introduction of a carbon tax – something that has, until now, always been described as ‘revenue neutral’ – and increased consumption taxes on fuel, alcohol and tobacco.

Ireland’s economy is clearly in bad way, one might be tempted to describe it as consumptive, but the fact that the only idea government and industry can come up with is the contradictory demand for people to spend more money while cutting their very ability to do so shows the Irish establishment is already intellectually bankrupt. Ireland’s inability to develop a genuinely productive economy is laid bare by the endless focus on consumption. Wide-scale investment in new technology and industry has barely been mentioned since the recession kicked-in, instead the entire debate has been focussed on how and where to cut back.

Today’s strike achieved nothing and it is difficult to believe that the planned future one will be any more successful, but it does at least show that union members, if not leaders, are willing to fight the government’s ‘share the pain’ rhetoric. There’s not much hope out there at the moment but sending a message to the government that we don’t believe them is not something to be dismissed.

Previously on forth: Jason Walsh said said neither Keynesian nor free-market economics were the solution to Ireland’s problems, our leader column asked what’s so hard about shafting ordinary people and Jonathan Fallon defended Irish politicians from forth‘s sniping