on the protest outside the dail vanessa has a message for Cowen & Lenihan (message not directed at her dad!)
Thousands of teachers, parents and students have taken to the streets of Dublin, Tullamore, Galway and Cork in opposition to the Government’s education cuts. These cuts represent the biggest attack on education in over 20 years. More than 2000 teachers are being taken out of the system at a time when more young people are coming into it.
In Fingal, it now means we have the worst pupil: teacher ratio in Europe as we already have the highest class sizes in Ireland. Prior to the cuts over 37% of children in Fingal were in classes over 30. Scandalously, this is likely to rise to over 50%! It is no accident that the highest class sizes are occurring in an area like Fingal, where the greatest level of development took place, and the maximum gains were achieved by the banks and the builders. The same individuals, who fuelled the economic crisis and escaped scot free in the budget. Profits on land speculation were reduced from 40% to 20% under the last government. Restoring it back to 40% would go a long way to meet the targets. The government didn’t have to attack education. They chose to do so. They cynically calculated that they could include so many cuts and charges across so many headings that they would leave people confused and divided – that no one issue would galvanise people.
FOR A NATIONAL HALF DAY WORK STOPPAGE
- The Budget was only the start. The economic crisis is escalating. A second Budget in the springtime is now a real possibility with massive new spending cuts.
- The pensioners protests showed how to fight the cuts. That should now be followed up with big protests against the education cuts.
- The Socialist Party believes that pressure should be put on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to organise a half-day work stoppage against the education cuts and all other Budget cuts.
- This could send a clear message to the Government: “We will not accept your plans to make school children, the elderly and the working class pay for the crisis. Further attacks will result in an escalation of our campaign.”
- The Socialist party believes that the banks should be nationalised under democratic workers’ control and their resources used to create jobs, fund education and provide universal healthcare based on need. A progressive tax system whereby the rich pay their fair share of taxes and an increase in corporation tax on the billions in profit that are made in this country every year would raise enough money to cancel all the cutbacks being faced by ordinary people.
Greens sell out
- The Green Party set out their stall in last year’s General Election as the party that would champion education.Eighteen months on they have joined hands with Fianna Fail to butcher it. No doubt the people will remember this when next years elections roll around.
No to student fees
- The Budget increased third level student registration fees from €950 a year to €1500 a year. The government’s threat to re-introduce student fees is still very much alive and could well be acted on in 2009.
- Far from being a measure to “make the rich pay” the re-introduction of student fees of potentially €5,000 a year will place a huge burden on working class families excluding many thousands from third level education. The Socialist Party supports the student-led campaign against the fees and the attempts by the Free Education for Everyone (FEE) campaign to build a national campaign on this issue.
What the Socialist Party Stand For
- Reject the Government’s attempts to increase class sizes: for a campaign involving the teachers unions to bring the pupil/teacher ration down to 15:1 in all schools
- Stop the cuts in substitute teaching cover
- For adequate English language teaching resources to be provided in all schools with pupils for whom English is not a first language
- State funded secular education provided free for all from early childhood to university For a half-day work stoppage organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions against all the