Press statement

4 March 2011

At a press conference to launch a pamphlet calling for repudiation of the debt, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Ireland, Eugene McCartan, stated that people must be allowed to have a vote on this central question. It is not that we can’t pay but that we won’t pay.As working people are being forced to pay this illegitimate, perpetual and unpayable debt, they must be allowed to vote on it in a referendum. 
     He stated that the CPI views the forced payment of this debt as a massive transfer of wealth from the working people of this state to foreign bankers, in Germany, France, Britain, and elsewhere. This is the socialisation of private and corporate debt. He called on the trade union movement to lead a campaign for a referendum, to give the people hope and leadership. 
     The CPI calls on all those forces in the new Dáil—Sinn Féin, United Left Alliance, and those independent TDs who are in favour of a referendum—to present a united front and to bring forward in a united manner a private members’ bill to facilitate the holding of a referendum. 
     The main parties in the Dáil have constantly lectured the people to the effect that we live in a democracy, yet they will not allow the people a voice and have effectually turned this generation and future generations of the citizens of this state into indentured labour.