Don’t be surprised if unemployment remains high if the Government pursues job-cutting measures. By Michael Taft.
It’s official. The Government’s employment policy is failing. This finding comes from the Government itself, in the form of projections contained in yesterday’s Medium Term Fiscal Framework. The projections are chilling and depressing. Let’s first turn to employment.
Together with other civil society organisations – the Spectacle of Defiance and Hope, the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes, and the Communities Campaign Against the Cuts – the Dublin Council of Trade Unions is organising an Anti-Austerity March on 24 November. In a ’30 day countdown’ to the event, we have been publishing daily ‘Reasons to March’ – short fact-sheets illustrating what austerity is doing to individuals, society and the economy.
Street battles broke out and large parts of Europe were paralysed yesterday as millions of workers walked off their jobs in the biggest coordinated EU strike ever. By Jerome Roos.
In Ireland, the 'right to choose' only applies where death is on the horizon. It is refused, denied, withheld even at the cost of women’s lives. By Máiréad Enright
Yesterday, (14 November 2012) the Irish Times reported on the case of Savita Halappanavar, who died last month at University College Galway, Ireland. It was, we are told, a case of “sudden maternal death”. The Irish Times sets out the facts of the case as follows:
Above: Plaza del Sol, Madrid (via Izquierda Undia).
Approximately 40 trade union organisations from 23 countries are staging a European day of action and solidarity today (14 November) with the aim of calling on Europe's leaders "to demonstrate their determination to really get to grips with the deterioration in employment and to respond to the growing social anxiety felt by Europe’s citizens".
Savita Halappanavar was a 31-year-old Indian dentist based in Galway, Ireland. She was married to Praveen Halappanavar who is a 34-year-old engineer. Savita was pregnant. On Sunday 21 October 2012, she presented to University Hospital Galway with back pains while in her 17th week of pregnancy.
Sadly, hospital staff told her she was miscarrying her pregnancy but there was still a foetal heartbeat present.
The death of Savita Halappanavar is an outrage which demands immediate action, according to a statement issued this morning by ULA TDs Clare Daly and Joan Collins.
If, as we are told, everything is on the budgetary table, why is there no place for an increase in the corporate tax rate? By Michael Taft.
Profits for non-financial firms operating in Ireland have risen from their low-point of just over €39bn in 2009 to €46.3bn in 2011, close to the peak in 2007. At the same time the level of investment has fallen by €9.4bn. These firms are producing profits but not forming any new capital. By Michael Burke.
John F. Kennedy brought the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust over the placement of missiles in Cuba which, he acknowledged privately, made no difference to American security. By Vincent Browne.
Today, I want to overlook the great issues of our time: the forthcoming austerity budget; the jailing of one of our foremost business icons; the bank debt that is not ours; the shame of Angela Merkel's commendation that our austerity makes Europe stronger.