Pat Cox is not an outsider: he is central to the establishment

The Communist Party of Ireland today called on Pat Cox to come clean on
his relationship with powerful corporate interests on whose behalf he
lobbies at the EU level. It is farcical that he continues to present
himself as an outsider and above the fray, as some objective voice in
relation to EU matters in general and in particular to the debate on the
Lisbon Treaty.

It is clear to any objective observer that Pat Cox is not outside the
establishment but in fact is part and parcel of it and that his
interests lie with corporate Europe—the driving force behind the
drafting of the Lisbon Treaty. With his red and yellow cards he wants to
be both a referee and a player at the same time. He will decide who is
telling the truth. This is an Alice in Wonderland type argument: that
the contents of the treaty are what he wants them to be.

It is clear that the Yes side will discuss everything but the content of
the treaty itself. Statement ends

The mask is beginning to slip

The Communist Party of Ireland, asked workers to take note of the forces
now gathering to push for a Yes vote on the Lisbon Treaty.


Intel Corporation and previously the American Chamber of Commerce in
Ireland—the mouthpiece of American corporations in Ireland—have called
for a Yes vote. These are the same people who actively block workers
from joining a trade union, who refuse their workers the right to be
represented by a trade union of their democratic choice.


Intel’s announcement that it may spend up to €200,000 in promoting a Yes
vote - possibly more than the combined total being spend by the various
no campaigns - should send a clear message to all workers that big
corporations, those that deny workers the right to join a trade union,
are the driving force behind the Lisbon Treaty, both here in Ireland and
throughout the European Union.


Based on the provisions of previous treaties, institutions such as the
EU Court of Justice have already delivered rulings in the Laval, Rüffert
and Luxembourg cases against workers’ rights, making them subservient to
the rights of corporate Europe.


The Communist Party of Ireland went on to state that the Charter of
Fundamental Rights would not give workers any additional rights, workers
rights are in fact conditional on what the “market” requires. This is
the real reason that USA corporations and big business support the
Lisbon Treaty as it copper fastens this central approach at the very
heart of ever deeper EU integration.

Communist Party of Ireland

*A failed strategy by a bankrupt Government and a failed system*

The growing ranks of the unemployed are clear testimony to the failure of this Government and its economic strategy.

Their only hope is that they can once again get the emigration boats and planes going to disperse the growing surplus population to the four corners of the globe.

Unemployment is now at 1995 levels, standing at 423,400 or 12 per cent, an increase of 10,500 over the previous month and 87 per cent over that of July last year. The number is being swelled as unemployment spreads far beyond those employed in the building industry.

This Government have no clear strategy for job creation other than some vague talk about a “green economy.” They clearly believe that the people are green and will believe and accept what this Government peddles and spins.

The numbers of unemployed will only grow as this Government, like its counterparts throughout the developed capitalist world, have clearly only a strategy for bailing out banks and financial institutions.

They are prepared to squander billions to bail out their financial backers in property and construction in the form of NAMA.

It is time for a new direction for our country and our people.

It is time to harness the natural resources and the intellectual talents of our people and to concentrate capital under our own control and focus on building a sustainable economy for the common good.

CPI Statement on Thomas Cook workers

The Communist Party of Ireland condemns the arrest and detention of about twenty former employees of Thomas Cook Ltd, along with a number of officials of their union, the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, in a dawn raid raid on the premises that the workers had been occupying since Friday 31 July.

These detentions mark a new low in the Irish legal and court system and expose once again the true nature of those institutions. There is clearly one law for the rich, for employers and corporate interests and one for workers, their trade unions, their families, and their communities.

We are living in a society in which people at the very top have been engaged in various dubious and illegal activities. We have banks and property speculators, who in the eyes of many workers should be in jail, walking the streets, appearing in the mass media, lecturing workers about having to take cuts in wages and terms of conditions, telling us that we have “priced ourselves” out of jobs. Yet nothing is done to bring these people before the courts.

The Communist Party calls on the whole of the trade union movement to stand up and defend the rights of these workers and the TSSA. It is symptomatic of how far out of touch elements of the ICTU and the leadership of the Labour Party are with working people that they have yet to speak out on this outrageous attack on a group of workers.