The Trade Union Left Forum (TULF) was set up in late 2011 by class and politically conscious trade unionists from across both public and private sector unions. The aim of the TULF is to provide a space for left trade unionists to freely discuss the position of the movement today and how to build a militant class conscious union movement that is so clearly needed.
Privatisation is a huge class issue today as the policies of the Troika and our own ruling elite continue to hand over public wealth to private business as risk and debt are socialised and profits and wealth privatised. This is a political strategy to enrich the few at the direct expense of working people and prop-up ailing profits. It is not merely technical economic sense as it is often presented. It is simply class robbery.
The trade union movement needs to fight back and defend public wealth in material ways. We must defend Bord Gais, ESB, bus routes, our health service and various other pieces of public wealth but also fight back at an ideological level and defend the right and benefit of public wealth and ownership. To date our movement has failed to do this or to implement the NIPSA motion passed at Conference that said:
Conference rejects the view that there are no alternatives to the sell off and privatisation of public services and calls upon the Executive Council to oppose what is effectively a form of economic blackmail dressed up as initiatives to stimulate growth and employment. This destructive approach is unsustainable as with further economic and financial crisis inevitable, what else will be sacrificed to appease the large corporations and financial institutions that brought the world economy to the brink of collapse?
Conference condemns any attempt to use the financial and economic crisis as leverage to force the sell-off of public utilities, land and other publicly owned resources.
This Forum published ‘Privatisation – Robbing The People’s Wealth’, click here to download, to highlight the dangers of privatization and the class forces behind it identifying those who win and those who lose from it.
To further this the TULF plans to hold a meeting on Thursday, January 16th at 6pm in the TEEU hall on the subject of ‘Union opposition to privatisation’. Further details on this will be communicated to all signed up to the TULF network. So if you haven’t already done so make sure you do at www.tuleftforum.com/newsletter.
Here’s to a class conscious and militant 2014!
