Workers Day: remember the past, fight for the future!

The ICTU decision to pull their ‘Raise The Roof’ housing demonstration is demoralising for low paid workers and tenants facing eviction.

We desperately need them to mobilise on housing and use the power of our class.

You could be forgiven for wanting to jump into the Tardis and teleport back to the Miners Strike that brought the Heath Tory Government down in the early 1970s.

Teleport back to the Russian Revolution of 1917 led by militant Bolshevik workers that defeated the dictatorial Tsar and ended World War 1.

Or teleport back to 1889 when the International Socialist Congress set up an International Workers Day to take place on May 1st every year.

The aims were for eight hours shifts and for the working classes to associate with strong trade unions to agitate against the employer class who wanted to beat down workers into working long, cruel conditions and to support imperialist wars.

Workers don’t just play vital roles in industrial action but in stopping arms from supporting wars and genocide around the world.

India’s trade unions have backed workers in stopping arms getting sent to Israel and the CWU that represents An Post/Communications workers here in Ireland passed a motion to support the workers call to refuse to handle Israeli correspondence whilst the 33K and counting pile of skulls build up in Gaza and Rafah.

Ireland through BDS has a long history of supporting workers from Dunnes workers who refused to handle and sell Apartheid South Africa and successfully pressurising the then Haughey and Fitzgerald governments.

But socialists today have a big social catastrophe to deal with, that being the housing crisis. We need to fight for a state construction company building not-for-profit housing and where does trade unions play in this?

The simple and short answer is getting the unions to shut down the economy to get what we workers want.

That means ICTU recognizing that poorly paid workers need housing and listening to their grassroots membership.

It raises a challenge for working class trade union activists, to build grassroots trade union movements in all the unions.

Lastly with the attacks on workers by far right thugs becoming a regular feature in Irish and international life. Do we want to build stronger unions so we can run the fascist black & brown shirts like the people of Cable St did to fascist Oswald Mosley?

History is important and learning from the lessons of history is important, but at some point it’s best to teleport and redirect Dr. Who’s Tardis back to building here and abroad right now.