Statement by the Communist Party of Ireland
15 February 2015
The Communist Party of Ireland welcomes the announcement by the five trade unions involved in the Right2Water campaign that they will be convening a special May Day conference on Friday 1 May and Saturday 2 May.
The unions involved—the CPSU, CWU, Mandate, OPATSI, and Unite—will be putting this platform forward in the interests of their members but also of the wider working class, their families and communities, who have borne the brunt of the attacks and cuts, and of our country as a whole.
This is an important initiative, as it aims to put the demands of working people on centre stage in the period coming up to the general election. It is an opportunity for all those opposed to water charges, the socialised odious debt imposed on the people by the European Union and the Irish establishment and the savage cuts in health, education and other necessary public services to come together and formulate a united stand.
Irish communists will do whatever is necessary to make this conference the broadest and most representative gathering of working people from the north, south, east and west of our country. It is time for working people to assert themselves and to demand that their voice be heard. It is time to break free of the straitjacket of austerity imposed on us and of the structures that impose it. It is time to challenge the structures that create inequality and poverty in our country.
