Oct

Unlocking the potential of trade unions for working people

Overcoming common misunderstandings about trade unions There are some common misunderstandings about unions that fall wide of the mark and lead to a lot of confusion; and some of this comes from within the movement itself and is given life by some unions’ language and actions. For example, a union is an insurance policy for workers when something goes wrong at work; it’s a professional representative body; it’s an interest group . . . These are all common answers to the question “What are trade unions?” but none are right. Trade unions are the collective and pooled effort and resources of working […]

October 22nd, 2016 by TU Left Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News Tags: capital, Class Consciousness, Congress, ICTU, irish union, ITGWU, labour, political unions, SIPTU, socialism, Solidarity, Trade Union Left Forum, Trade Unions, TULF, union organising, worker power Comments are off for this post

Aug

United Action is Key to Way Forward

By Eoin Ó Murchú When the Labour Party was established in 1912, it was in order to give political effect to the trade union movement, and it was in that context that James Connolly, Jim Larkin and William O’Brien presented their proposal in Clonmel that year. It is obvious that that is no longer the party’s view of itself. At the recent Magill summer school, party leader Brendan Howlin argued that “the Labour Party must dare to imagine a better form of capitalism – one that serves the many, and not just the few.” And the key former adviser to […]

August 2nd, 2016 by TU Left Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News Tags: class conscious trade unionism, Class Consciousness, class relations ireland, ICTU, TULF, unions and politics, unions and the labour party Comments are off for this post

Jul

A Trade Union Strategy to Win for Working People

Speech at the Mother Jones Festival, Cork by SIPTU General President, Jack O’Connor, on Thursday, 28th July, 2016 Comrades and friends, This year’s Mother Jones Festival takes place against the background of the continuing trauma of the most serious crisis in global capitalism since the 1930s. It is important to say from the outset that this is a demand side crisis largely attributable to exponentially growing inequality in what we know as the “developed world”. The phenomenon manifests itself in the world of work or the “labour market” in the form of mass unemployment, increasing precariousness and social insecurity on […]

July 29th, 2016 by TU Left Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News Tags: Class Consciousness, mother jones, organising, SIPTU, Unions, working class Comments are off for this post

Jan

It’s time for a radically new Congress

Ireland: the greatest small country in the world to do business in. Unfortunately, it’s not the greatest small country in the world to live or work in. Ultimately that’s the success of the business class (the actual capitalist class of owners and speculators, the big farmer class and the layer of ‘management’ that run capitalism here for their masters) and the failure of the trade union and workers’ movement. Low corporation tax, low income tax for high earners, tax avoidance schemes that are ultimately compensated for by workers, indirect taxes that go to bondholders, low investment in public infrastructure, public […]

January 18th, 2015 by TU Left Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News Tags: class, Class Consciousness, Congress, ICTU, trade union renewal, TULF Comments are off for this post

Dec

Class-consciousness is increasing

The Right2Water campaign and communities from all over the country last week held their third massive national mobilisation within a few months, and the message was clear: people won’t be bullied or bribed, and they see through government lies and propaganda. The recent retreat by the government is not enough, and is not accepted by the people. The government has lost the Irish Water issue and has no popular mandate. The view of hundreds of thousands of people and families is irrefutable; the government does not have our support to govern. Last week’s protest followed an intensification of violence, supervision […]

December 16th, 2014 by TU Left Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News Tags: Class Consciousness, class power, communities against water charges, organising, resistance, right2water, Unions, water charges Comments are off for this post

Apr

Raising Our Expectations

Jane McAlevey challenges the Left to stop lamenting its disappointments in the working class and address our own failures. Taken from Portside Labor Sam Gindin Looking back to the defeat of the labor movement since the early 1980s, three lessons seem especially important. First, any gains made under capitalism are temporary; they can be reversed. Second, the kind of unionism we developed in that earlier period of gains was inherently limited; it left us in a poor position to respond to the subsequent attacks. Third, absent new forms of working class organization and practices, fatalism takes over and worker expectations […]

April 22nd, 2014 by TU Left Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News Tags: Class Consciousness, class struggle, organising model, SEIU, Trade Unions, union organising, union strategy, workers Comments are off for this post

Jan

Building Class Consciousness in 2014

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 […]

January 2nd, 2014 by TU Left Forum Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News Tags: 2014, Class Consciousness Comments are off for this post