In a statement today (Tuesday 20th December), Richard Boyd Barrett TD and Finance spokesperson for the United Left Alliance has pledged support for today’s strike by 300 EBS workers, who are demanding the re-instatement of their annual “13th month” payment.
Deputy Boyd Barrett who first raised the issue in the Dail last week will visit the picket lines of the EBS workers this morning to show his support for the strikers.

This is a mean and cruel budget. Once again, it is those on low to middle incomes, and the poor who will take the biggest hit, people who bear no responsibility for the economic crisis caused by the greed of a wealthy elite. Writes Joan Collins TD, People Before Profit/United Left Alliance

People Before Profit Clondalkin Councillor Gino Kenny has called on Dublin Bus to review its new revived routes the 13 and 40 to and from Clondalkin.

Both routes were changed recently as part of Network Direct.The new 13 bus service has a cross city connection between Ballymum and Clondalkin. The 40 route which was the old 78A has also a cross city connection between Finglas and North Clondalkin.

PBP Councillor Gino Kenny who campaigned earlier on in the year to save local bus services said "Both services were changed recently as part of Network Direct. This was meant to be a more improved service for its users. Unfortunately this hasn't been the case. What we said to Dublin Bus earlier this year that longer routes which have to cross the city will lead to delays and longer waiting times for passengers. Dublin Bus needs to urgently review the services that have been changed. Both services have to cross the city so this will inevitably lead to backlog of buses stuck in the city centre. Members of the public have contacted me in relation to the non show of timed buses and waiting times. As a user of both services I have found that at times the bus either doesn't shown or two arrive at the same time. I'm now calling on Dublin Bus to now review both services and make passengers have confidence in the service to the public."

A colourful and lively Spectacle of Defiance and Hope carnival protest took place today with youth and community groups from across the city from Ballyfermot to O'Devaney Gardens and Ballymun represented.

Austerity Is Not Working: Tax The Rich, Invest In Jobs
Next weeks budget will see further drastic cuts in the living standards of workers, the unemployed and the poor. Since the onset of the crisis in 2008 government policy has focused on bailing out banks and speculators and making the working class pick up the bill.

Hardly a cent has been taken from those who have the real wealth in society. The effect of this policy has been lengthening dole queues and impoverishment with rising inequality in a society that was already deeply unequal. The wealth of the super-rich has increased throughout the crises. Despite promising otherwise the Labour party in government is continuing with the programme of austerity at
the behest of the EU, the IMF and the ECB. While govelling to the super-rich tax-exiles, by inviting them to the Farmleigh Conference, Labour Ministers are imposing hardship on pensioners and the poor by removing heating units and cutting benefits. Labour has caved in to the demands of the markets.
The only way out of the current crises is to generate real economic activity and create jobs. The policy of austerity has been a disaster for ordinary people and has been a total failure.

Read more- click on the attachment below

Choice Ireland held a protest today to demand that the government act to bring in legislation in line with the ABC rulings of the European Court of Human Rights. The court ruled that the human rights of a woman (C) had been breached because the state has not introduced legislation which permits abortion in circumstances where a woman's life may be at risk. The ruling required that the government should act by last June. Fine Gael and Labour pushed the matter back into another 'expert group', despite the fact that there have been Supreme Court rulings, referendums, and three Dáil Committee Reports supporting this provision.

In June, the government said that the latest 'expert group' was to be put in place by the end of November. But Minister Reilly has refused to say what the remit of this group will be, who will be on it and when it will report. Indeed in a letter today he says all of this information will be published ... in another six months' time.

This is an insult to Irish women – and a further denial of their human rights. People Before Profit and the ULA are working with Choice Ireland to bring pressure for action upon Fine Gael and especially Labour – who supposedly support legislation for the X Case ruling but evidently won't do anything about it. We will be working with Choice Ireland and others to launch a campaign for legislation early next year.

STOP TEARING THE HEART OUT OF OUR COMMUNITIES

Organised by a range of Community & Youth Organisations and supported by IMPACT, SIPTU and UNITE

Please support!

Defend Child Benefit

Patricia Keogan is so incensed at the prospect of cuts to Child Benefit, and Eamonn Gilmore's refusal to rule out a cut, that she came to protest outside the Dáil. “You promised not to touch Child Benefit, Mr. Gilmore. So please keep your promise and do not cut Child Benefit in the proposed Budget, as it is essential for most people for shoes and clothes. It might be loose change for TD's, but for most people it provides things their children need to go to school.”

Patricia is urging people to go to the Spectacle of Defiance and Hope next Saturday: assemble in Castle St (beside Dublin Castle) at 1.30pm.

At a press conference today TDs from the United Left Alliance, Independents and Sinn Féin joined trade unionists calling for support for a pre-budget anti-austerity march this Saturday in Dublin.

The march called by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions, and supported by ICTU, SIPTU, Unite, Mandate, the United Left Alliance, Sinn Féin, Independent TDs and a wide range of community and campaign groups, will assemble at 12pm, this Saturday November 26th in Parnell Square Dublin.

The recently established Alliance Against Austerity, who hosted the press conference, will also hold a mass public assembly directly following Saturday’s march, following the example of similar assemblies taking place as part of the Global Occupy movement and the mass protest movements in Egypt, Greece and Spain.

The new Alliance believes that austerity policies being implemented in Europe, the US and elsewhere in response to the Global economic and financial crisis are grossly unfair and are deepening the current economic crisis, and may lead to a further world-wide economic slump.

The Alliance and participants in the press conference are calling on the Irish government to abandon austerity policies aimed at low and middle income workers, and vulnerable sectors of society, and instead place the burden of the current economic crisis on the private financial sector and the wealthy in society.

The alliance is also calling for major direct state investment in job creation and the protection of the welfare state and public services.

This march will not be once-off event but will be a step towards a sustained campaign of popular mobilisation – demanding policies which put jobs creation, public services and the protection of the vulnerable ahead the profits of bank and financial elites.

Last week’s statement by Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin in which he attacked the decision of the Irish National Teachers Organisation not to cooperate with the exploitative JobBridge scheme is nothing short of scandalous.
At a time when the Labour/Fine Gael government have stood by as €700 million was gifted to unsecured Anglo bondholders, while the Government implement cuts to special education in the form of SNA cuts and slash the wages and pensions of new entrant teachers, it beggars belief that Deputy O' Riodain would shed crocodile tears for young teachers in this way. JobBridge seeks to exploit young teachers seeking employment by taking them on 6 or 9 month contracts for their dole plus an additional €50. If the welfare of young teachers is the principle concern of Deputy O’Riordain and the Labour Party, they would immediately reverse the previous government's cut in special class teachers, resource teaching allocation and shelve the planned class size increase rumoured to be part of the upcoming budget, which could see a cut of up to 1,500 primary school posts.
People Before Profit have been contacted by a number of INTO members in the constituency who are angry at the attack by Deputy O’Riordain. The INTO’s decision took place after a long debate within the organisation and was taken in consultation with young, newly graduated teachers. For Deputy O’Riordain to claim that “in effect, what they INTO have done today is to rob these people of their dream of teaching in an Irish classroom” is disgraceful. The fact remains that JobBridge does not address the issue of unemployment for primary school teachers and in fact decisions made by this current government in terms of class size and special education have worsened the employment prospects of the very teachers that Deputy O’Riordain claims to be concerned for.