Congress Sell Out??

Ever since the last National Wage Agreement came into effect workers have experienced a drastic decline in the purchasing power of the wage packet. The Research Department of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union Union estimated the fall in workers’ purchasing power as high as 30%.

Next September negotiations on a new National Wage Agreement will begin. Trade union leaders are already making militant noises in anticipation of battle with the employers and the government. They are demanding full compensation for the past fall in wages and a sizeable percentage increase linked to the rate of inflation.

UNION LEADERS This is exactly what workers need as a minimum. But can the trade union leaders be trusted to fight for it? Before the last agreement the leaders of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions demanded all kinds of radical concessions: a 20% wage rise, an extra week’s holidays and a 35 hour week - all to be implemented over a 12 month period. However, they settled for 18 month two phase package which gave only a 15% rise in the first phase and 7% in the second. No concessions were won on holidays and working hours. The lesson from tnis is clear. The task of getting a decent wage deal cannot be left to the so-called ‘leaders’ of the trade union movement. This is all the more obvious since the attitude of the employers has hardened over the past year. This time round the Federated Union of Employers is demanding a total wage freeze for six months after which only wage increases linked to productivity increases would be permitted.

MOBILISED STRENGTH It will take a lot more than polite bargaining at the Employer-Labour Conference to get the kind of realistic wage packet that will keep workers off the poverty line. The whole trade union movement must be mobilised to show its strength.

Despite all their militant talk the trade union top brass are not prepared to initiate mass action to back up their demands. Trade union activists wil] have to organise a movement based on the trades councils, trade union branches and shop floor committees which will ensure that the trade union leaders won't be able to sell out, MASS ACTION The first demand of such a militant movement must be for trade union withdrawal from the Employer-Labour Conference and a rejection of National Wage Agreements as a framework for pay negotiations. In addition, the need for wage increases to be linked on a one-to-one basis with the rate of inflation must be considered. Unlike the trade union leaders, a movement of militant trade unions will have to be prepared to back up its demands with co-ordinated mass action - marches, rallies and strikes. August the 9th, the tenth surrection in the 6 counties.

solidated its repressive apparatus the road to a mass movement. anniversary of the introduction of Internment, sees the continuing resistence of the minority against the sectarian Northern state. Ten years ago the resistence movement faced the threat of imprisonment without trial as a means of quelling the near inToday British imperialism has conbehind the Diplock Courts and the H Blocks and Armagh. Today the minority population is fighting to defend the legitimacy of the struggle. The anti-imperialist movement hsa has begun to take the steps along We have to ensure that it is a movement which involves and is built on new layers in struggle today, the youth, the youth, the women and the workers to the H Block sacrifice. With so many of our prisoners dead and Thatcher still intransigent it is inevitable that the voices of despair and capitulation will be raised. Peoples Democracy would emphasise that the prisoners are the ones to come to the final decision — we will be guided by THEIR wishes. Mass sympathy still exists for the prisoners. With this solid foundation the National H Block Armagh Committee can still turn the situation around The by election in Fermanagh/South Tyrone and the possibility of one in the South must be used to show that mass support still exists for the prisoners. Active supporters who are prepared to create uproar in Westminister and Leinster House should be put forward. They must be prepared to take their seats in order to use them as a platform for the pfisoners’ case and as a weapon attacks on the Provos.

We must increase - with the most fundamental weapon we can use independent mass political action by workers in support of the prisoners.

We can start this rolling with a propaganda offensive against the pro - imperialists in the labour and trade union movements -and also through the groundwork for a Southern By-election. Secondly, the H-Block campaign must extend the scope of its influence by waging a systematic campaign in the mass organisations, such as the GAA.

DEMOCRACY Thirdly, in order to take these initiatives, effectively the HBlock/Armagh campaign must

----- pull-quotes -----

wear M0 convicts ynform Nor meekly serve my time That Britain. might make. lrelands |