In Ireland unemployment is rising at the fastest rate since the records began in 1967. It's now standing at 295,000, having grown by 120,987 in the last year.
Reports that Waterford Crystal and the Wedgwood China Company were to go into administration will add yet more gloom to the outlook for the Irish economy. [Since this article was written the factory has been occupied]
The Irish economy is facing a serious downturn, with bank after bank facing crisis and unemployment shooting up. The government insists on bailing out the banks with public money desperately trying to stave off a recession. But they cannot escape the inescapable.
We reproduce willingly this article that first appeared on the éirígí website. Faced with the current financial meltdown the author poses the choice bluntly: “Every person in Ireland has a choice to make. Do they support a ‘free’ market or do they support a free people? And if they choose a free people they need to make one more choice – to become politically active and join the struggle for a free, socialist Ireland.”
Ireland has been hit hard by the credit crunch. The country has gone from one of the highest rates of growth to bust. The government is being forced to intervene with guarantees, but as could be expected they are aimed at sustaining the rich not the ordinary working people.