The Planned Privatisation of Bin Services by Dublin City Council

Most of Monday night’s council meeting was taken up with arguments around the future of Temple Bar Cultural Trust
But by far the more interesting discussion for the rest of the meeting was around an emergency motion submitted by People Before Profit Councillors Pat Dunne, myself Brid Smith and Independent Councillor Ciaran Perry.

The motion, calling on management not to proceed with the sale of the bin collection service to private companies, was put before the council because on Friday last bin workers received a letter from Dublin City Council informing them they would be re-deployed, giving them one month to chose an option of where to and finally thanking them for their years of hard work.

I met an old friend on my way into the council meeting who has given 31 years of service to DCC waste management, most of it driving bin lorries. He was so offended by the one line of thanks and wishing him the best for the future contained in that letter. Perfectly understandable when his life’s labour can be written off so easily and sold to the highest bidder to make vast profits.

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October 6, 2011

Enough! Protest September 14th

Protest – Weds Sept 14th as the Dail re-opens

Enough is enough! The Fine Gael/Labour government came to power promising change from the disastrous policies of Fianna Fail and the Greens.

They have betrayed those promises and are continuing the failed policy of bailing out banks, while crushing ordinary people with cut-backs and austerity.

 
Their brutal policies so far include:

  • Caps on the numbers of Special Needs Assistants and Resource Hours in Schools.
  • Cuts to Fuel, Gas, Electricity and Telephone allowance for the most vulnerable
  • Privatisation of social housing.
  • Raids on the pension reserve fund and personal pension savings
  • Abolition of the JLC’s and REA’s, agreements which protect the pay and conditions of the lowest paid.
  • The Universal Social Charge that Labour promised to change.
  • The introduction of a Household Charge and the coming Water Tax
  • The sell-off of state assets
  • Plans to shut 24 hour A&E’s in nine hospitals across the country.

Here in Ireland and across Europe, it is absolutely clear that these polices are not working. Our government has been forced to borrow more than €100 billion at over 5% interest, to pay off the gambling debts of bankers and speculators.

This means that billions that should be invested in jobs, schools, hospitals, vital infrastructure and enterprise is going down a black-hole.

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September 12, 2011
People sitting on O'Connell Street Dublin

Enough Campaign EU/IMF Protest

Around 1,000 people took part in the Enough Campaign‘s protest against EU/IMF austerity programme.

The Campaign is supported by People Before Profit Alliance TD’s Richard Boyd Barrett and Joan Collins, Unite Trade Union, Waterford Trades Council, Spectacle of Defiance, Socialist Workers Party, People’s Movement, Afri and a number of Independent TDs. Speakers on the day included Special Needs parents, bus cuts campaigners, trade unionists, community activists, representative of Rachel Peavoy Campaign and more.
Richard with a mike.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett, an organiser of the march, said the campaign was about mobilising mass opposition to the austerity programme and bringing the spirit of Greek, Spanish and Egyptian-style resistance to Ireland. “This day, it’s not just going to be about speeches – we have had too much of that stuff where it is a few speeches and everybody goes home and that’s the end of it,” he told protesters. “This has to be the beginning of building a movement.” Richard Boyd Barrett encouraged those in attendance to rally support for what he hope will be a much larger demonstration on September 14th, when the Dáil resumes after summer recess.

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July 18, 2011

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Eamonn Casey:  Hypocrisy And Rape

Revelations about Eamonn Casey point yet again to the gross hypocrisy of the Bishops.These are mostly elderly males who think they have every right to

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