Month: March 2014

In 21st century Ireland women have yet to achieve meaningful gender equality. Women’s reproductive rights are under attack, violence against women is on the increase, casual sexism is rife and there is no marriage equality for LGBT people. Just last summer we endured the obscene spectacle of our (mainly male) politicians debating the pros and cons of giving women access to life-saving abortion.

Irish women are at the sharp end of the government’s economic and social austerity policies. As women’s unemployment rises, wages fall, the pay gap widens, benefits are cut and household and living costs rise, women face a daily struggle to keep themselves and their families from slipping deeper into poverty.

However there are signs of resistance. In workplaces, communities and in the day-to-day battles against poverty, discrimination, racism, attacks on disabled people women are fighting back and playing a leading role in the movement against austerity. Thousands of people, men and women, have marched in support of greater access to abortion.

Yet our protests continue to fall on deaf ears as we are treated to empty words from politicians paying lip service to equality. But no more! We need to stand up to Labour and Fine Gael and tell them loud and clear that they need to put Ireland’s resources to work for the interests of the majority of the people, not the minority of bankers and property developers. The time has come for us to decide how our wealth is used and what values underpin our society. International Women’s Day celebrates the social, political and economic achievements of women and their struggles to fight for a better world. People Before Profit stands in this tradition and fights for real liberation. We stand for:

• Real wage equality between men & women.
• An end to violence against women (Reverse the cuts to Women’s support services)
• Full reproductive rights, including free, safe and legal abortion
• Full marriage equality for LGBT people
• No Cuts to Health, Education & Welfare services (Reverse cuts to lone parents & maternity benefits)

People Before Profit are one of the sponsors of the protst to oppose the presence of the European People’s Party in Dublin. In a statement, People Before Profit Euro candidate for Dublin, Cllr. Brid Smith, said:

“A year ago, the government were saying that a deal was on the table to write off a considerable proportion of Ireland ‘s national debt.  Yet a year later not the slightest relief has been given. Kenny,however, wines and dines with his political ally, Angela Merkel, and does not utter a word of criticism.

“As a result we are paying over €9 billion in interest payments to unnamed bondholders – (the government won’t even reveal their names) –  instead of looking after people here? There are homes in this country which have no heat because their owners cannot afford it; there are food banks and soup kitchens; there is despair amongst youth who are being pressurised to emigrate. Yet we pay over billions to rich bloodsuckers!

‘Merkel and her right wing cronies in the European People’s Party told this government  – and the Fianna Fail- Green one before – that their duty is to rescue the European banking system. The huge banks in Germany, France and Britain pumped billions into the Irish banking system which then pushed loans on all and sundry to make fabulous profits. It was like a gigantic pyramid selling scam but the difference is that these gamblers had the backing of the political elite.

‘If a working class person lost a few hundred euro in a betting shop and asked for a state subsidy to bail out their losses, they would be laughed at. But when wealthy bondholders and bankers gamble billions – and lecture us that we live in a ‘risk society’ – they go to the taxpayer to bail out their losses.”