Workers' Party Dublin Bay North

✊🏻🚩🇮🇪 Our Dublin 1916 Easter Rising commemoration takes place this Sunday, April 23rd at 12pm in Arbour Hill. Come along to remember the men and women of 1916 and hear our vision for a 32-county socialist republic.

ℹ️ More info at the link below.
facebook.com/events/157312943873994

✊🏻🚩🇮🇪 We were out in Cabra yesterday with a leaflet covering dumping, waste collection and the lifting of the eviction ban. If you have any issues in the area that we could help out with, don't hesitate to get in touch.

Thanks to our Workers' Party comrades who came from across Dublin, Meath, Belfast and Cork to help us out.

✊🏻🚩🇮🇪 Cathal Goulding was a major figure in 20th century Irish political life, and a lifelong revolutionary and political agitator. As Chief of Staff of the Republican Movement from the early 1960s onwards, he played a key role in the development of the civil rights movement in the north of Ireland, the response of the Republican Movement to the outbreak of the Troubles, and ultimately the development of the Workers’ Party of Ireland into a class conscious party of the Working class.

To mark 100 years since his birth, we are holding an event on 11th February 2023 at the Academy Plaza Hotel, Dublin. As part of this event, we will have discussion and music around Cathal’s life, his work and his dedication and achievements to Republican Socialism.

The event will also include a lecture with an international theme to mark the 20th anniversary of the untimely death of Comrade Seán O’Connaith who also played a pivotal role in the advancement of the Workers’ Party. The event will begin at 6pm and there will be a social event afterwards.

🏠 Following a Freedom of Information request made to Dublin City Council by the Workers’ Party, it has been revealed that between 2016 and 2021 the council spent €221,787,160 buying back housing units that they had originally built.

Garrett Greene - Workers' Party Cabra Glasnevin said:
“It makes very little financial sense for the council to be spending such a large amount of money on the private market. These houses would have been sold by the council at a fraction of the price they were worth even at the time they were originally sold.

“They should never have sold off these houses in the first place. That policy left the state with very little in the way of housing stock and it is a major factor in why we are in a housing crisis today. Now, in order to try and rectify that, the council are spending hundreds of millions buying back at a loss what they built.”

The Freedom of Information Request also revealed that of the 1,530 houses purchased by the council between 2012 and 2022, 570 were originally built by the council.

Greene said:
“From these figures, it is clear that even if the council is not building houses in the same way that it used to, we are still relying on houses that they built in that era. If that’s the case, why don’t Dublin City Council cut out the middleman and build more housing now?

“The current approach of letting the private market take the lead, with the state receiving a small proportion of social and so-called affordable housing, is failing to provide housing that people can afford, leaving the state in a situation where it has to panic buy on the private market for hundreds of millions. It simply doesn’t make financial sense.”

“Mixed-income public housing, on the other hand, could provide the state with ample housing stock and provide tenants with affordable rent rates tied to their income. It is a no-brainer when you consider how badly the current situation works out.”

Tomorrow, Micheál Martin steps down as Taoiseach. His time in power has been a disaster for working people. Since June 2020, Martin has overseen:
• 50%+ increases in energy costs as the cost of living crisis hits working families
• Record homeless figures of over 11,000 people including almost 4,000 children
• 100,000+ people stuck on hospital trolleys in 2022 alone

The figures don't lie. Despite the spin that you might hear from the Dáil and in the media, this is the true legacy of Micheál Martin for working people.

He has also overseen a determined push to undermine Ireland’s longstanding position of neutrality, cravenly moving us closer to NATO.

His replacement as Taoiseach is Leo Varadkar. Once portrayed as the poster boy for liberal Ireland, the sheen has long worn off and Varadkar now appears as he always was - another posh neo-liberal elitist with a penchant for handing out favours to his friends, tainted by allegations of corrupt behaviour.

Varadkar will deliver business as usual for Ireland. Business as usual means that the interests of landlords, developers and multinational corporations will continue to be prioritised by the government, while the needs of working people get lip service and a few crumbs from the table.

Our most prominent Thatcherite, Varadkar is a true believer that the private market holds the answers to all of Ireland's problems.

Instead of building actually-affordable public housing, his solution to the housing crisis is to funnel taxpayer money into the pockets of landlords and developers.

Instead of leading the way economically by building up state-owned industries, he wants Ireland to rely on a small number of multinational corporations, which could pack up and leave us at the slightest inconvenience, taking our precious corporation tax with them.

Varadkar is happy to run the state down and leave people at the mercy of the market.

This is a recipe for disaster. It's a set-up that is failing and will continue to fail working people and our families. 100 years on from the civil war, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael finally united to ensure a safe pair of hands for the Irish elite and to oversee continued misery for a vast section of our population.

The Irish working class deserves better than Martin, Varadkar, and Ryan.

If you want to see an Ireland that can provide for working people, fight back with the Workers' Party.

***TAKE OUR SURVEY ON ILLEGAL DUMPING AND WASTE COLLECTION***

Sick of illegal dumping and being ripped-off for bin charges? Have your say on illegal dumping and poor quality, overpriced waste collection companies.

Fill in the survey here: https://tinyurl.com/dumpingandbincharges

We marked the anniversary of the death of the Socialist Republican George Gilmore at his graveside in Howth yesterday.

George, along with his brothers Charlie and Harry, was active in the IRA in Dublin during the War of Independence and the Civil War.

Gilmore had joined na Fianna as a teenager and played a minor part during the Easter Rising. By 1920 he had graduated to intelligence work for the IRA in south Dublin. He took the Anti-Treaty side in the Civil War but was very much a rank and file figure. However after his release from prison in 1923 he began to become more prominent as the IRA reorganised itself in Dublin.

In 1925, Gilmore came to prominence after he engineered the escape of 19 Republican prisoners from Mountjoy. He led a number of other daring rescue and escape attempts and was injured after being shot by Gardai in Clare after Republicans intervened to support striking workers.

Throughout the late 1920s and early 30s, he was arrested and jailed repeatedly in Arbour Hill prison for his activities with the Republican Movement.
On the national leadership of the Republican Movement by the late 1920s, he was a key figure in the attempt to push the Republican Movement to embrace class politics at this time, and visited the USSR, spending time there on behalf of the movement.

In the mid 30's Gilmore saw the threat that Eoin O'Duffy's blueshirts posed to the working class and grew frustrated at the lack of an aggressive response to the fascists from the IRA. This frustration paired with the IRA’s non-political attitude and its refusal to establish a party that would actively pursue radical social aims, convinced Gilmore along with Frank Ryan, Peadar O’Donnell and many other left republicans to establish the Republican Congress.

A few months later Gilmore was involved in a clash that broke out at Bodenstown after elements in the IRA attempted to remove an anti-capitalist banner held by Protestant members of the Republican Congress from Shankill. Following the failure of the Congress, Gilmore played an important role in organising and recruiting volunteers from Ireland to fight fascism in Spain.

In the 1960s he re-engaged with the Republican Movement as it embraced class politics, writing for the United Irishman, the monthly paper of the movement, and lecturing on the importance of connecting the working class and the Republican Movement.

We remember George Gilmore for his bravery, his contribution to the struggle for an independent Irish republic, and for his commitment to the politics of Tone and Connolly - of working class unity and socialist republicanism.

I'll be speaking at our Easter Commemoration on Sunday 24th April, our first in-person commemoration in Dublin since 2019.

Join us to remember the heroic sacrifice of the men and women of Easter 1916 and to hear our vision for a socialist republic. All welcome.

facebook.com/events/4561619827277321/

🙄 The government seems to think that the solution to the cost of living crisis is for working people to just try and get by on even less. What world are they living in?

The Workers' Party wants to:
💡 Bring our energy companies back into public ownership.
🏠 Build mixed-income public housing, available to all, with secure tenancies and affordable rents.
🚍 Invest in major public transport projects - to be made free at the point of use.
❌ Scrap the carbon tax - workers cannot pay for the corporate-made climate crisis.
💶 Fight for wage increases - we support the call by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions for large wage increases for workers to match and exceed inflation.

Fight back with us for a better future for working people.
👉🏻 workersparty.ie/join

🏠 The private market won't solve the housing crisis; it is the housing crisis. A universally-accessible system of mixed income public housing offers something positive for working people.

Read more about proposals for public housing online.
👉🏻 workersparty.ie/housing

The Workers’ Party has called for proper integration of school and community mental health services for children.

David Gardiner, Workers’ Party Palmerstown-Fonthill said:
“We welcome the call for the establishment of school-based mental health supports for primary school children by the National Parents Council Primary and St Patrick’s Mental Health Services at a recent conference.”

“Parents and teachers have for years been trying to draw attention to the lack of support and resources and in particular the lack of clinical support, available to primary school age children with social, emotional and behavioural needs. Over the past two years it has been well documented how the mental health needs of children have seriously intensified during the pandemic.”

He continued:
“Services which are available to schools at present are way too thin on the ground and the link between schools and community health agencies has become even more dangerously stretched since the pandemic because of staffing shortages exacerbated by covid absences. This deterioration in the level of service available is resulting in a dangerous lack of support for schools in managing the needs of very vulnerable children.”

He concluded:
“It is well recognised, that if the social-emotional, behavioural and mental health needs of children are not met in a timely and appropriate manner, this will have far-reaching consequences not only for children’s school engagement and academic progress but will also impact negatively on their future well-being.”

“The Workers’ Party are calling for:
📍an immediate improvement in the integration of school and community mental health services for children
📍the putting in place of clear and definite pathways where supports are readily accessible to schools seeking advice and referral in relation to children with significant social, behavioural and emotional needs
📍the putting in place, without delay, of a school-based clinical support system which is adequately staffed and properly resourced
📍adequate staffing of all agencies working in the area of community mental health for children
📍appropriate training and continuous professional development to be made available immediately for school staff to help them support children with challenging emotional and behavioural needs.”

Remembering the victims and the families of the Stardust disco fire, which occurred in the early hours of Valentine’s Day, 1981. The fire exits at the event in Artane had been chained closed by the organisers, leaving the victims trapped inside. 48 people died as a result.

Since then, attempts have been made to demonise this working class community that had been subject to such a great injustice, including allegations of arson in the initial report, which effectively attempted to shift the blame onto the patrons of the disco. As a result, the organisers were awarded £580,000 by the courts. A 2009 report found that there was no evidence to suggest the fire was caused by arson.

41 years later, the families continue to campaign for justice. Most recently, they have called for new inquests into the deaths of their relatives to be held. The Workers' Party echoes these calls for the inquests to be held as soon as possible, as justice delayed is justice denied.

We'll never forget the tragic fire at the nightclub in the early hours of 1981. The families, friends, survivors and community are foremost at this sad time of remembrance.

Today, District Officers and firefighters from North Strand fire station joined the candlelight vigil to remember those that passed away that night. A 48 second silence was held, ended by the sirens of a fire engine

We were canvassing in Edenmore today with our waste collection and bins petition. Lots of anger from residents about private bin companies profiteering at the expense of working people. The privatisation of our public services has been a disaster and is directly responsible for the increasing cost of living for the majority.

''This great fight of ours is not simply a question of shorter hours or better wages. It is a great fight for human liberty of action, liberty to live as human beings should live.''

Marking the 75th anniversary of Jim Larkin's death today; we take inspiration from the heroic struggles he led for working people as we continue to fight for a better world.

On behalf of the Workers’ Party, the Ard Comhairle and Uachtarán Michael McCorry would like to extend New Year’s greetings to all Party members, their families and to our friends and supporters both at home and abroad.

We would also like to take this opportunity to offer our condolences and sympathies to the families and friends of Comrades who died this year as well as to all our Comrades and friends who lost loved ones.

As always, this is a time both to reflect on events and occurrences of the year gone by and to plan for the year that lies ahead.

The past two years have been unprecedented, the pandemic has brought with it many difficulties and hardships for workers and their families not only in terms of health but also economically.

Our members have responded to the Covid-19 crisis in their communities by providing vital protective equipment to frontline staff, showing solidarity with workers on strike, and donating to food banks and local charities with both food and money.

Housing, energy bills, poverty, low wages, health care all continue to be issues that seriously affect workers. The leading parties continue to turn a blind eye to slum landlordism, austerity and benefits cuts. Our essential services head towards privatisation as they endure continued cuts at the hands of the governments. Our health and social care services, education services and workers continue to be ground down.

The gap between rich and poor has widened during the pandemic. Poverty and inequality are deeply embedded in our society both north and south.

The number of workers and families reliant on food banks has increased, homelessness has increased, families struggling to pay excessively high rents has increased, these are all the direct consequence of the deep structural factors that are part and parcel of a system that privileges private capital over the public good.

The recent increases in energy prices, north and south, have had a detrimental effect on many households, with large numbers of people forced to choose between heating their homes or feeding their families this winter. We continue to see growing numbers of workers in food poverty, dependent on charity and food banks. The desperate need for public housing continues to be a major issue with so many struggling to afford extortionate rent, living in temporary accommodation or on the brink of homelessness while both governments, north and south, show no real desire to tackle these issues other than give hollow gestures or mealy-mouthed half promises and excuses.

The lines of people waiting outside food banks and/or charities for support with the very basic need of food brings shame on the governments of both jurisdictions.

Our healthcare workers are overworked and burned out and our healthcare systems are on the brink of collapse from underfunding. The pandemic has exposed how the partition of our nation has hindered attempts to effectively combat the virus and instead of using it as an opportunity to work together in the interests of all the people on this island some have instead used it as an opportunity to put lives at risk in order to further their sectarian agenda.

In the north the NHS is under attack from the Tory government and there are no sincere attempts by Stormont to address this or to fight for this hallowed institution, which despite its faults, provides workers and their families with free healthcare treatment whatever their background or salary. In fact they seem content to allow our NHS to be beaten down through continued underfunding and a lack of any real workforce strategy for the future. We are haemorrhaging staff due to poor pay, poor conditions and extreme over work. Yet the NI Executive continues to ignore the problems, always content with deflecting from the real issues to disguise the fact they simply do the Tory governments bidding. Sinn Féin talk a big game but they lack any real substance when it comes to doing what is needed.

In the south the two tiered system of healthcare continues to be a shameful indictment on our society. It is clear at this stage that Sláintecare has failed and that there is no real desire from the government to implement a fair and free healthcare system for all citizens. The Workers’ Party are committed to campaigning and working towards an all Ireland NHS in the coming year.

This year we were finally able to hold our Ard Fheis in person. It was incredibly encouraging to see so many young people in attendance and to listen to lively, healthy and respectful debate between members on a variety of issues and we look forward to future events throughout the coming year, guidelines and restrictions allowing.

There remains a huge amount of work needed and the year that lies ahead will bring with it even greater challenges to the Party as it seeks to give guidance and clear leadership to the everyday working people, the people who have suffered the most hardship under the reign of the current Fine Gael-Fianna Fail-Green coalition government in the Republic and the complete failure of both Sinn Fein and the DUP to offer anything in the way of either credible government or credible policies in the north. The sectarian politics of Stormont have been laid bare during the pandemic for all to see and as a result all workers have suffered.

As calls for a border poll increase the Workers’ Party remain committed to the establishment of a citizens assembly which will enable free and honest dialogue. We also remain committed to ensuring that workers rights, a free healthcare system, public housing and free and integrated education, among other issues, are at the forefront of the debate on a United Ireland.

This year, despite the difficulties of the pandemic we have continued to develop and recruit new members, both North and South. We have organised activity delivering leaflets, canvassing, organising events, protests and commemorations, issuing statements to the media, having a strong presence on social media, launching a new podcast and engaging with our communities on local issues. In the north members have been at the forefront of tackling the rise in sectarian disturbances at interfaces and also been vocal in their support of workers who have been subjected to sectarian attacks. Our longstanding strategy of fighting for the unity of our class across ethnic and religious lines remains a critical focus of our political orientation.

Internationally we continue to work with and engage fully with our comrades abroad. Our International Secretary has attended meetings of the Communist Initiative and the International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties, and met with several socialist and communist parties worldwide in efforts to strengthen fraternal relationships. We have continued to show our support to the Cuban people as well as showing our continued support for Nicaragua, Venezuela and Palestine. We also take this opportunity to send our continued support and solidarity to Julian Assange in his fight for freedom. We must in this coming year redouble our efforts to end the decade long persecution of Julian Assange at the hands of United States imperialism and ensure that he becomes a free man in 2022, once again able to restart the important work he began many years ago.

We have the policies, the vision, and the ideology. But we are seriously constrained by our very limited resources. We must direct those energies and those resources in a singular, concentrated and disciplined collective fashion to maximise our impact. It will only be through united and disciplined collective actions that we will be successful. This will take a sincere commitment from all members to play their part in building the Party over the next year and we ask all members to fully participate and commit to this task.

The year that lies ahead then will, undoubtedly, be an important one both for the Party and for the people we represent. We must redouble our efforts to present a real alternative to workers both north and south.

Our central and historically defined task remains as it always was – to lead a unified Irish working class to victory in the class struggle.

Happy Birthday, Black Communist Jesus.

🇮🇪 ✊🏻🚩Catch up on all our episodes - download and listen 🎧 to the 📻 Irish People podcasts👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1854179

The Irish People The Irish People is a monthly podcast on topical political issues produced by the Workers' Party of Ireland.

✊🏻🚩 Make sure to get your copy of our limited edition 2022 revolutionaries calendar here 👇🏻

https://workersparty.ie/2022-revolutionaries-calendar/

2022 Revolutionaries Calendar 2022 Revolutionaries Calendar €/£10 plus postage. 2022 Calendar produced by The Irish People featuring Irish and international revolutionary figures.

✊🏻🚩🇮🇪 On the third anniversary of his death, the Workers’ Party remember with pride Comrade Seán Garland, pictured below with Dominic and Kathleen Behan.

“As the vanguard party we must continually act as the vanguard. It is not enough as Lenin has said, to attach revolutionary sounding names or labels to ourselves. We must be with the people in every area of struggle.

In these difficult times when the ruling classes of these islands are making concerted and vicious attacks on the working class, it is essential that the ties between the Party and the working class expand and strengthen. It is vital in this struggle to develop class consciousness and unity, that we centralise and direct all local struggles into one national struggle between classes.

Again and again the lesson of revolutionary struggle is that only a united disciplined class-conscious party of the working class, organised on the principles of democratic centralism can organise and lead the working class to victory.”

🇮🇪✊🏻🚩

Read his speech in full here:

👇🏻👇🏻
https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=workerpmat

The lads.

Dublin Bay North on tour....

Impasse over Anthony Flynn's council seat may leave it vacant until local elections in 2024 Dublin city councillors have again deferred a decision on who should take the seat vacated by the death of homeless campaigner Anthony Flynn.

8 December 1922 we remember Liam Mellows, Rory O'Connor, Joseph McKelvey and Richard Barrett who were executed by Free State Forces. All four men fought in the War of Independence against British forces and were executed by the Irish Free State Government during the Civil War.

On 14th April 1922, 200 Anti-Treaty rebels led by Rory O’Connor seized the Four Courts. Their plan had been to encourage the British army, still based in Dublin, to attack them, in so doing restart the war of independence and somehow, perhaps misguidedly, heal the split within the republican movement.

Arthur Griffith, then President of Dáil Éireann, demanded swift action against the rebels in the Four Courts.

On 22 June 1922 a retired British Army Officer, Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, was assassinated by the IRA in London. The British placed the blame on Anti-Treaty forces in the Four Courts. Michael Collins was told that if he did not dislodge them the British Army would. The rebels abducted Free State General JJ O’Connell and held him in the Four Courts. Collins then issued a final ultimatum, ordering the garrison to release O’Connell and surrender or he would attack his own Countrymen.

On 28 June 1922 the Free State troops opened fire on the Four Courts. They used artillery “loaned” to them by the British. Of the 200 Anti-Treaty men in the garrison 12 were members of the Army Executive, these included Joe McKelvey and Quarter Master Liam Mellows. The men were armed only with small fi****ms, mainly shot guns and some machine guns. They had also placed mines around the perimeter and barricaded the doors and windows.

On 29th the Free State troops stormed the east end of the Four Courts building. Three were killed, 14 wounded and 33 prisoners taken. The next day the Four Courts was on fire. Ernie O’Malley had taken command from Paddy O’Brien, who was injured, realised that they faced overwhelming odds and was forced to surrender to the Free State on 30 June.

Ultimately Collins took the decision to attack the Four Courts and his fellow countrymen rather than leave it to the British, an act that is understandably unforgivable to many.

Hours after the rebels surrendered, the Public Records Office, in the Four Courts, exploded. Forty Free State troops who had been advancing on the position were injured in the explosion.

Following the deaths of Collins and Griffith in August 1922, O’Higgins and Cosgrave became the most prominent figures in the cabinet. There began a horrific era of revenge killings by the Free State Government against Anti-Treaty republicans. Cosgrave and O’Higgins instigated martial law and authorised military courts.

On the evening of 7 December, in Mounjoy Gaol, Liam Mellows, Rory O’Connor, Joe McKelvey and Richard Barrett, received notice of their impending executions the following morning.

‘You are hereby notified that, being a person taken in arms against the Government, you will be executed at 8 a.m. on Friday 8th December as a reprisal for the assassination of Brigadier Sean Hales T.D. in Dublin on the 7th December, on his way to a meeting of Dáil Éireann and as a solemn warning to those associated (with) you who are engaged in a conspiracy of assassination against the representatives of the Irish people.’

The men had nothing to do with the killing of Hales having been held in custody for the past five months. The executions were met with horror even among many Pro-Treaty TDs who felt that the four were purely prisoners of war.

This was neither the beginning nor the end of the murder of republicans by the Free State Government. 99 years after their murder we remember these men with pride.

‘It is a fallacy to believe that a Republic of any kind can be won through the shackled Free State. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The Free State is British created and serves British Imperialist interests. It is the buffer erected between British Capitalism and the Irish Republic.’ Liam Mellows

Rory O’Connor 28 Nov 1883 – 08 Dec 1922
Richard Barrett 17 Dec 1889 – 08 Dec 1922
Liam Mellows 25 May 1892 – 08 Dec 1922
Joe McKelvey 17 June 1898 – 08 Dec 1922

Sinn Féin might talk a big game in the south, but if you want to see what they'd really be like in power all you have to do is look to the north.

While they were speaking out against austerity in the south, they were implementing it in the north. Most recently, they've voted against a ban on foxhunting in the north after their leader Mary Lou McDonald said that they are opposed to the cruel practice.

Is foxhunting somehow okay in the north but not in the south, or is this just more hypocrisy from Sinn Féin? Can voters really trust them not to do another u-turn if they're elected?

Unlike Sinn Féin, our politics stay the same both north and south, and we won't compromise our principles for power.
✊🏻🚩🇮🇪