Message of Solidarity to Socialist Party from SWP

dublin | bin tax / household tax / water tax | opinion/analysis Wednesday October 22, 2003 13:02 by E - SWP

Congratulations to Joe and Clare

Issued at SP Dublin welcome back meeting at the Gresham Hotel last weekend..

Joe Higgins and Clare Daly should be thanked by every worker and trade unionist in the country. They have shown tremendous courage in standing up against the bin tax.

For this they have been attacked by the right wing media and their Party has been witch hunted on the radio and in the papers

By standing by the workers who elected them and refusing to cow tow to the courts they have shown an alternative way to fight for justice and working class peoples rights

In the past, when workers voted for parties like Labour, they always sold them out. They promise to fight for us but end up in coalitions with right wing parties like Fianna Fail or Fine Gael. Once in power they attack the very workers that put them there.

In our unions the same type of people who are in the leadership have pushed partnership deals that have seen the benefits of the boom go to the rich and the business community while the services that workers rely on are been attacked and lined up for privatization.

By facing down the council threats and going to jail Joe and Clare have proven that they are made of very different stuff.

Joe and Clare have reminded us that it is possible to have leadership that will stand by workers and not sell out to get a ministerial Merc. They have shown that we can return to the ideals that inspired Larkin and Connelly and the founders of the Irish Labour movement

One of the Socialist Workers Party's own leading members Brid Smith from the Ballyfermot Anti Bin tax campaign is now facing into her second week in prison, along with 11 other men and women. Another of our members in Tallaght is facing charges in court next week, while others have been injuncted and are to face the High Court. Like the Socialist Party members, our members will stand with the workers and communities all the way.

These events show that more than ever we need those on the left to work together in the interest of the workers movement.

The anti bin tax campaign shows that we can do it. For the future of the movement we believe that it is essential that we continue and extend this co- operation.

Recently both parties members have worked in the anti capitalist movement such as in organizations like Globalise Resistance.

The Socialist Workers Party and others built up the Irish Anti War movement by working alongside anybody that opposed the obscenity of Bush's war for oil. When those of us who opposed the war mongers worked together we built the biggest political demonstration in decades, with 100,000 people marching in Dublin.

We believe that the sort of co operation over the bin' tax should be spread across other issues that affect workers lives; in our unions, in supporting the fight against privatisation, in defense of our health system. above all in showing that there is an alternative to capitalism and the Free Market.

In the next elections both the Socialist Workers Party and Socialist Party should agree a joint list of candidates to contest every area in Dublin on a clear socialist platform.

Like the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers Party believes in fighting for end to the obscene inequality and injustice we see in the world. We believe that working people can change the world and that this generation is seeing the beginnings of that change.

We appeal to all of those who want to play a part in the fight for Socialism to work together with us.