CYM Statement

An Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, yesterday wrote to David Begg, General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. In this letter Cowen wrote:

…having regard to the potential for further severe impact on jobs and living standards, there is an overwhelming case for …an integrated national response to the complex interplay of domestic and global forces which must be confronted, and for this response to be effective by commanding wide societal ownership.

The key phrase here being ‘wide societal ownership’.
Workers, student, the elderly, and the more vulnerable in society are being forced to pay for this crisis.

We are being forced to take ownership of a crisis made by a few, including those currently in Government, who in making it accumulated billions of personal profits off our labour.
The Bank guarantee, part nationalisations and recapitalisations, are part of this strategy. That is, they have socialised the debt of these financial institutions while there profits and profit making capacities remain in private hands. We will pay the costs but not receive the reward.

The Connolly Youth Movement do not accept all of society should bear the responsibility or cost of this crisis.
The Connolly Youth Movement believe this crisis is in built in the very framework and structures of the capitalist system.

The Connolly Youth Movement also recognise that the crisis has been further exasperated by successive Governments that have mismanaged the economy and prioritised short term profits for the few over longer term sustainable growth.
It is time we sack Chief Executives and this Government. It is time they bear the cost of this crisis they created. It is time they loose their jobs.

Statement Ends

National Executive Committee
Connolly Youth Movement