Working Class Action

Newsletter - October 2002

FIANNA FRAUD

In our leaflet before the last election we warned of the economic and personal perils of re-electing the corrupt politicians of Fianna Fail. We called on voters not to vote Fianna Fail, or not to transfer their votes between their two candidates. We called them a party of the rich. While the initial vote for Fitzpatrick was derisory and Ahern’s vote was down, including transfer levels as low as 15% in working class areas where we are active, they still managed to scrape a second seat.

Now - within 4 months of the election - our communities are beginning to suffer through Fianna Fail’s hidden strategy of cutbacks to shore up their years of mismanagement and corruption.

Should we be shocked by Fianna Fail’s level of deceit? Hardly. After all, Bertie Ahern has never had a problem having learnt his trade in the company of Haughey, Burke and Lawlor, etc.. Haughey’s and Lawlor’s crimes we all know, Burke’s receipt of over £1 million from a single builder alone is common knowledge - but how long will we have to wait before Bertie’s scams surface?

His recent attempt to rezone vast tracts of public land, for the benefit of greedy speculators, under the guise of a national sports stadium may have collapsed but the taxpayer will still have to fork out millions as a result.

The decline of the economy, the so-called ‘Celtic Tiger’, which really only benefited the wealthy, will cause untold suffering among ordinary people. The massive cuts in health will see waiting lists extend even further and hospital wards will once again be closed.

Already we have the disgraceful scenario of pensioners being told to wait until at least 2004 for treatment - a wait of almost 2 years - while private clinics will treat people within days of payment. Incredibly, most of these private hospitals receive substantial grants from the state. And for those who feel forced to chose private health care, the increase of over 18% recently has affected their family healthcare.

There are over 8,000 adults and 2,500 children on the waiting lists for over a year. In August the government withdrew 15 million from their pre-election pledge to cut waiting lists.

The 36 million reduction in education funding will directly affect the most disadvantaged. Cuts in early school leaving programmes, schemes to promote working class youth into third level education and adult education courses are the first to be implemented.



Unemployment is once again rising. 325 people per day have lost their jobs since the election last May. According to recent leaked memos, the Government has now accepted a return to high unemployment and involuntary emigration is a serious possibility.

Inflation is on an upward spiral. Basic household commodities are increasing in price while incomes are lagging behind. The budget will see further price increases and with the expected decision to tax childrens’ allowance money creating hardship for the thousands of people who depend on it, the only people unaffected will be the wealthy and the crooked.

While senior citizens see their pensions buying less, crooked ex-politicians like Fianna Fail’s Ray Burke receive 1,350 euro per week in pensions.

This is what Bertie’s team, that is, Bertie, Maurice, Dermot the invisible man, Royston and Cyprian, have delivered to the people of Dublin Central.

Corruption • Incompetence • Failure

Cutbacks for 2003 - 2005 include;
NO to Nice

When a collection of right wingers and parasites like Fianna Fail, the PDs, big farmers, trade union lackeys and IBEC - who’s aim is to keep our wages down - tell you that you must vote ‘Yes’ to Nice, it is quite obvious that a ‘No’ vote is the only option which will truly benefit ordinary people.

Further EU control of Irish affairs will only suit the rich. EU rules will outlaw protection of state run services. Article 133 of the Nice Treaty lays the basis for the wholesale obligatory privatisation of public services including water, electricity, transport and even the post office, a policy which will lead to wholesale job losses. And we all know that privatisation results in higher prices too.

Rest assured, these people have only their own greedy interests at heart and no claims about being good Europeans or caring about the candidate states should convince you otherwise.

Before the introduction of the euro, we were assured that there would be no price hikes. The Government and social partners would monitor the euro and everything would be rosy. What happened? Every big business used the period before and during the euro changeover to increase their prices, sometimes twice.

And the same people preaching about Nice benefiting Ireland did nothing. If fact, many of the same people were involved in the price increases.

Currently Ireland is not a land of equals, so how can they claim to want a Europe of equals!

When the people of Ireland voted ‘No’ to Nice last time, their democratic wishes should have been accepted. Instead, we are being forced to re-run the whole episode again just so Bertie can pretend to be a good European.

Was he a good European when Fianna Fail’s friend Larry Goodman was ripping off millions of EU funding?, money which the ordinary Irish taxpayer had to eventually repay. Was he a good European when Fianna Fail and Ray Burke sold Irish passports to international fraudsters for massive amounts of cash?

The EU has already stated that European expansion will continue without another Irish vote.

Bertie’s current spokesman on Nice, Dick Roche, speaking after the last vote stated "it is arrogance for any politician, to ignore the fundamental fact that the Irish people have spoken with some clarity on the matter" and went on to say "to attempt to re-run a referendum as a means of reversing a democratic decision taken by the people would be rightly seen as an affront."

Yet here we are again with the same Dick Roche, Bertie’s lackey, singing another tune. We have P.J. Mara, Fianna Fail’s chief strategist on Nice, exposed by the Flood Tribunal as an evasive liar.

This vote is about Bertie’s ego. Where is Bertie’s ‘Europe of Equals’ when we cannot get anything done about the huge risk from Sellafield. Britain is big, Ireland is small, therefore we don’t count. In fact, many of the citizens of the Candidate states are unsure themselves about joining the EU.

The voters of Dublin Central have rejected every referendum Bertie has imposed on us. Lets make sure this one is the same.

The current government of Fianna Fail and the PDs have slashed the overseas aid budget. This is money promised to the poorest and most needy people in the world, yet the same government will have us believe they are concerned for the workers in the Candidate countries.

On 19th October, wipe the smiles off the faces of these liars.

VOTE NO TO NICE
Don’t leave it to others to do. Come out and vote No.
Drugs - has anything changed?

Despite the spending of millions of pounds, despite the creation of hundreds of cushy jobs and despite the claims of crackdowns, the drug crisis now worse than ever.

The only fear drug dealers ever felt in Dublin was the threat of community action against them. The march on the door, the public humiliation, the isolation, were all decisive factors in expelling many drug dealers from our community and possibly prevented many more from becoming involved. And the response from the state, most politicians and the media was to call local people who cared for their kids "vigilantes".

The war on drugs has not been won because the people in power refuse to fight it. The founding statement of the community based anti-drugs movement was "isolate the pushers, treat our addicts and educate our kids." Six years on and over sixteen years on from the eighties heroin crisis and our communities are still waiting for this three pronged strategy to be implemented.

In the inner city, addicts are still dying almost every week. In Cabra, cocaine is being used by 12 and 13 year olds. In East Wall there is open drug dealing. In the North Inner City heroin is still freely available and all the major drug pushers in the area continue to do business untouched. Also, because of the widespread availability of heroin and cocaine in our city, many parents are willing to accept their kids using alcohol or cannabis as better alternatives to the harder stuff. Yet those in power refuse to act.

Tackling the drug problem will require action on a number of fronts:- Target the existing pushers by imposing the existing but unused mandatory 10 year jail policy for anybody caught in possession of 10,000 worth of drugs. Cut down on demand by tackling some of the root causes of addiction like low self esteem, early school leaving and by improving the environment in which our children grow up. That is, schooling to suit potential early school leavers or meaningful jobs and schemes to keep their interest. Investment in local sports and recreational facilities and clubs which provide positive alternatives. The treatment of our addicts must consist of alternatives to continual methadone prescriptions. Everybody has the right to proper treatment.

Unfortunately, while thousands of genuine people took to the streets to defend their children and demand action, the very people who called us "vigos" were lining up cushy jobs for themselves in the new "drugs industry". Jobs and junkets, task forces about task forces and millions of pounds spent on huge salaries while the crisis continues to take its toll.

The most important requirement for a serious attempt to confront the drug problem is for the Gardai do their job. The Gardai have enough resources and powers to seriously impact on the drug trade, but the political will is simply not there.

The Garda authorities can afford to waste the valuable time of 500 Gardai to arrest 8 unfortunate asylum seekers, while open heroin dealing takes place 5 minutes from O Connell Street. They can afford to have 12 gardai raid the house of an anti-drug activist, while a major drug dealer lives two streets away.

Investment in community facilities, clubs and volunteers, a genuine crackdown on drug dealers - and not on anti-drug activists - as well as a shake up of the Education and Health departments’ response to drugs is the starting point to beating the crisis.

Until the government is willing to fight a real war against drugs, it will continue to fall on working class communities to defend themselves.
Bin Charges: The battle lines are drawn

In recent weeks the Council has started to bring people to court for refusing to pay their Bin Tax. Legal support has been provided by Anti-Bin Tax campaigners, and has successfully stalled three test cases.

If you, like thousands across the city, have said NO to the charges, then you need to know that this support is there for you also. Anti-Bin Tax groups, and some community and residents associations, are actively campaigning on this issue – try and hook up with these, or at least know who to contact if you need assistance. There are active campaigns in Ballybough, Cabra, East Wall, North Inner City and Stoneybatter.

As predicted, it would seem that the charges are expected to rise this year. In Sligo the charges are nearing 500 euro. That is what we can expect here if we give in. If we lose this battle we will ultimately see the privatisation of this service. There will be no waivers from a private company, everybody will have to pay.

As Fianna Fail haunt our doorsteps in the coming weeks tackle them on the Bin Charges – F.F. are responsible for their introduction and support the council’s legal attacks 100%.

Tell them to tax their friends in big business, the ones responsible for over 98% of waste material. Households account for only 1.5% of waste produced. Make the real polluters pay.

If the government were really concerned about the environment they wouldn’t have let Irish Glass Bottle close down, the only glass recycling factory in the country. The arrogant dismissal of ordinary peoples concerns by Fianna Fail and the PD’s deserves a response.
How safe are our kids?

With the recent tragedy of Holly and Jessica in England, and the spate of similar attempted abductions here, many families have been once again asking, how safe are our kids?

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an answer. Parents and families are never informed when a paedophile or rapist is released into their community. Nor are they warned about any perceived dangers these menaces may inflict.

While it must be borne in mind that most offences occur within the family and that this situation must be tackled, by the authorities and by other family members, we should none the less be protected from the further dangers of unknown offenders.

And recent cases have not helped. Several relatives of drug addicts in Cabra were concerned about the attention a middle aged man was giving their kids, especially as he admitted giving them money and involving them in petty crime. The lack of response to their concerns by the Gardai led many to suspect that this man’s sleazy advances were tolerated because of his willingness to pass on information about the local crime scene. In another instance in Dublin 7, local residents approached Gardai about their concerns regarding a convicted paedophile renting locally. Amazingly, the Gardai reported back that they had been unaware of his presence and then proceeded to warn locals not to take any action against this man.

The rehabilitation of all offenders while in custody is essential, and upon release a follow up programme may be required. None of this should take away from a community’s right to protect their children from beastly attacks.

Local parents must be informed of any potential danger to their kids. If we cannot cherish our children, then what sort of society have we become?
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