As Celtic Tiger Threatens Collapse... Axed to Save Profits
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AUGUST 15TH— AUGUST 29TH VOL:2 NUMBER 156 inside AFTER GENOA: Socialist INTERVIEW: Jailed Irish protestor Joe Moffat PLUS Italy in revolt – page 10 Italy: The strategy of tension Worker – pages 6&7 For a Workers’ Republic and International Socialism 50p Solidarity price £1 As Celtic Tiger threatens collapse... Axed to save profits Gateway: 900 jobs Resist Hewlett- Packard: 6,000 jobs worldwide Compaq Computers: 3,400 layoffs in the jobEVERY major computer firm in Europe the Ireland has started to slash jobs. It is a sign that the Celtic Tiger is coming to a dead end. Lucent: In the boom years US companies made huge profits. They claimed that they got a 25 percent rate of return on their invest- 20,000 jobs ment in Ireland.. That was supposed to be double the rate of Portugal and five times the rate of Britain. worldwide The figures were exaggerated for tax pur- poses — but still the profits were huge. Now at the first sign of recession they want Intel: us to pay — with wrecked lives and longer dole queues. Our answer must be resistance. We need a Cuts staff major campaign to unionise workers in multi- national plants. We need to occupy plants to force the bosses to cough up. We need to force by 5% cuts them to cut their profits — not our jobs. SOCIALIST WORKER PAGE 2 COFFEE ★chains are now charging nearly £1.50 for EPA cover-up for multinational every cup of coffee. Yet farmers in many People in west is close to Aughinish Alumina plant was not and Veterinarian Toxi- International. because it defends developing countries Limerick are out- Alumina plant in even included in the cology found that sick Glencore are an their mining interests are facing disaster raged that the Askeaton. investigation. animals in the area enormous multina- in the country. tional with a turnover As well as minerals, because prices are Environmental In the same area I The Mid Western had unusually high levels of aluminum in of US$ 48.0 billion and Glencore are one of falling. Protection Agency the Cappagh Farm Health Board ‘lost’ The price of the cof- their tissues. assets of $10.2 billion. the leading exporters (EPA) is attempting Support Group have blood samples of sick fee beans has reached people in the area so Some 43.3 tonnes of They are key cam- of genetically modified a 35 year low as a to blame local farm- found at least 45 paigners against con- soya. they weren’t included. sulphur dioxide were direct result of the poli- ers for the unex- occurrences of can- trolling global warm- At one hearing an released by Aughinish cies promoted by the cer in the area. The investigation ing because of their EPA scientist said plained deaths of Alumina per day. International Monetary has attempted to huge coal mining ‘someone must defend Fund and the World large numbers of It claims that: blame farmers for bad Bank,. livestock. I interests in Indonesia. industry...’ The EPA investiga- practices to explain the Owners They are support- When it comes to They pushed tion is a whitewash. deaths of a large Vietnam to double its The area where ers of Plan Colombia people’s lives and the production of coffee in hundreds of live- The area most like- amount of livestock. The owners of — the US backed protecting the environ- the past five years. stock have died ly to be affected by Yet a study by the Aughinish Alumina scheme to crush left ment the EPA have 120,000 acres of without explanation emissions from the US Journal of Human are Glencore wing guerrillas — done just that. woodland was des- troyed and indigenous people were driven off the land to make way for new coffee produc- tion. Multi-nationals like Nestle then played the new Vietnamese pro- FF bribes to deport ducers off against growers in Brazil and elsewhere to drive down the price. But instead of cut- ting the prices in the new coffee shops, they pocketed huge profits. Meanwhile coffee refugees growers are being dri- ven into ever deeper THE IRISH govern- the oil companies. first. poverty. ment is stepping Last year police ‘The police come to Just one more example of what ‘glob- up plans to deport burnt down homes in your house, give you alisation’ really means hundreds of ref- the village of K Dere few hours to pack and today. ugees. and killed one person then you’re taken to In a sinister after local people prison.’ move it is giving a protested against road A McDonald’s bribe of £8.8 mil- building by Shell. restaurant in Visas ★ lion to Nigeria to In the town of the UK has been fined more than fast track the re- Olugbobini, eight A ruling by £12,000 for employ- moval of asylum youths were shot dead Supreme Court judge, ing schoolchildren. seekers from Ireland. after similar protests. A franchise of the Adrian Hardiman, will US fast food giant The deal is sup- According to also help to speed up was found guilty of posed to be about an Amnesty International the process of depor- working teenagers ‘enhancement of aid 1,000 people have tations. late into the night on to Nigeria’. also been killed in eth- Hardiman is a for- school days, often nic violence recently. Thousands of people took to the streets in Germany to without rest breaks. mer Progressive fight against Fortress Europe’s treatment of refugees One 15-year-old Regime The violence Democrat support. had worked 16 hours occurred mainly in the Meanwhile after one Saturday, seven Northern provinces hours over the legal But a spokesperson the Gateway closure limit. Another 16- for the Nigerian and arose from clash- Mary Harney gave a Coca- Cola’s link year-old had worked embassy admitted that es between Muslims broad hint that immi- from 5 p.m. until 2 the aid is being given and Christians. grant visas can be can- a.m. on a school day. in return for co-opera- The agreement has celled quickly if the tion in sending asylum given rise to huge Celtic Tiger starts to to death squads level of fear in the go down. Despite the seekers back to Nigeria. African community. The stage is being COCA-COLA Those murdered The Colombian gov- ★rejection of the stands accused of include Oscar Polo, a ernment, backed by Nice Treaty the The Nigerian Gabriel Ohkenla from set for a state spon- using right wing union activist at the bodies like the IMF and Irish government con- regime has a terrible the Pan-African sored campaign to Monertia bottling plant. the US government, is tinues its commitment history of working Community centre in scapegoat immigrants death squads to He was shot by a pursuing neo-liberal to increased military closely with the multi- Moore Street said that and asylum seeker for assassinate trade right wing death squad policies—privatising spending. nationals and perse- ‘People are wondering the ills of the Irish unionists in while walking in the public services and They are buying cuting opponents of who’s going to go economy. Colombia. street with his young opening up the country four helicopters: two US United Steel- daughter in June. to multinationals. are for air sea rescue workers of America —which is reasonable union is suing the com- —but two are for the pany on behalf of ... and profiting Irish contingent of the Colombian union Sinal- trainal for the “systemat- Rapid Reaction Force. Fantasy illness... ic intimidation, kidnap- from the Intifada The cost is to be ping, detention and mur- around £80 million. GIANT DRUGS firms have lic relations agency to promote der” of workers in the THE Palestinian “It is expected of One of the two main awareness of this “common dis- South American country. people have faced us to lead the way a new scam — make up a during this difficult contenders is US firm disease and then sell a order”. Sinaltrainal says that 53 years of home- Sikorsky, which had The agency promoted Paxil as five of its members lessness, poverty time, to inject some secret meetings with “cure”. the “first and only approved working in Coca-Cola and oppression, energy into the Mary Harney at the Social anxiety disorder, an medication” to treat social anxi- bottling plants have economy,” says and now months Farouk Fannoush, recent Paris air show. acute form of shyness, has ety disorder. been killed by right wing of economic block- Sikorsky also gained paramilitary groups. the general manag- become a popular disease Paxil was made by ade because of er of National the backing of the over the last few years in the SmithKlineBeecham. Israel’s response Sunday Business Post Controls Beverage which after buying expensive US. to the new intifada. imports Coca-Cola Magazines, newspapers and But they can still into the Occupied full page ads in the Experts The union’s lawyers paper. TV programmes repeated the get Coca-Cola. Territories. argue that the company An article in the “We are running The other contender “fact” that it is the US’s third Some of the medical experts closely controls the is Atron Electronics. pro-market promotional cam- most common mental disorder, on TV talking up the wonders of activities of contractors Business Week This firm has the dis- which run bottling paigns. At local with ten million sufferers. Paxil were paid consultants for magazine reports exhibitions I put the tinct advantage of Except it doesn’t exist. the drugs company. plants, and was well aware of the brutal on how Coke will Coke label in one being run by Fianna The drugs firm Sales of Paxil, an anti-depres- improve the lives of corner with a Fail ‘supporter’ Nick intimidation of workers SmithKlineBeecham, before its sant, rose by 18 percent last in the factories.