"The workers united will never be defeated"- The Thomas Cook Lock In.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Commerzbank AG and BayernLB speak for 43.9 percent of the Thomas Cook company, Arcandor (a german retailer) handed over that chunk of the profitable holiday chain in return for loans to cover it’s bad debts which amounted to 1.5 Billion. Royal Bank of Scotland, by the way, was the recipient of a bailout from the UK taxpayer. These international deals set the back drop for an inspiring show of worker’s initiative, solidarity, bravery and defiance.

On Friday 31st of July managers flew in from Britain with the intention of dismissing the workers from the two shops without notice, these managers had booked return flights for later that afternoon and so believed they would have no trouble firing the dublin workforce.They were in for a shock. Antoinette Shevlin, a worker there, describes the first day

”The lockin began because senior management from Thomas Cook arrived to the Dublin retail shops last Friday and called the staff together to say that the shops were being closed early due to staff demonstrating for a better redundancy package on the previous Wednesday. They requested that the staff leave in an orderly fashion and that they would receive their redundancy in due course. Thomas Cook had ended the negotiations by telephone on the 23rd July without the redundancy package being agreed on. Also, thay gave a closing date of the 6th September but if the staff protested they would close the shops earlier on the 7th August and the staff would only receive statutory redundancy. The offer they had made was for 5 weeks per year of service but bearing in mind that Thomas Cook are predicting profits of over 400 million this is a derisory offer.

When the lockin began I received a phone call from James asking if there was anything the SWP could do to help. They offered to place a picket outside the shop and stayed for the duration of the lockin. The response we got from the public was overwhelming. Also, the support from the SWP and other unions was very much appreciated as it helped to highlight our plight.”

The workers locked themselves in the upstairs office and left the shocked managers downstairs in the shop. Kieron Shorthall, thomas cook worker, led chants out the windows until an hour or two later the press arrived. The press photographer wanted a picture of Avril, an eight and a half month pregnant worker, and the workers came downstairs with management scowling, the press officer for thomas cook and the managers attempted to push the photographer out the door but were themselves evicted from the premises. Two of the managers left in tears, but these weren’t tears of emotion they were tears of frustration that these workers had dared to make a stand. Antoinette describes the elation in the shop-

”The mood inside the shop was very upbeat as we felt we had the publics vote for what we were doing. Also, the help that was given to us by way of donations and food greatly encouraged us.”

The support stall outside the store collected thousands of signatures a day with donations pouring in, groups of workers praised the bravery of the workers.On Aug 1st Direct Holidays, a sister shop to Thomas Cooks, on dublin’s Talbot St occupied. Workers felt that suspicious behaviour by security gaurds meant that their shop was threatened by immenent closure. This meant that staff from 3 stores were now in occupation.

”As everyone knows it all ended in the early hours of the morning of the 4th August. It was an experience I hope I will never have to go through again. It was very frightening and the show that was put on by the Gardai was very excessive and a complete waste of tax payers money. We were not dangerous criminals just ordinary working class people fighting for our rights. Having said that, the Gardai treated us very well when we arrived in the Bridewell Station. Thankfully in court the judge saw us for what we really were and we were set free. At least someone in authority had some sense.

We will always be grateful for the support shown to us in our hour of need.”
Antoinette describing the last day. The High Court had sat specially on a Bank Holiday to declare the workers in contempt for not appearing before a previous session of the court. The High Court is being used again and again to limit and break worker’s struggles, from the MTL port workers to injunctions against the Electricians and the Caroll’s Joinery workers from Kilkenny. If workers dont start breaking the law the law will break the worker’s movement.

The police waited until 5am to end the occupation, the streets were completely empty by that stage and the support protests outside had dwindled to about 13 or so activists (9 from the Socialist Workers Party, 1 from the Socialist Party and a few others). A taxi came speeding around the corner and stopped in front of the store, ”i dont know what you’ve done”, he said ” but there’s about 50 cops coming out of the station”. We straight away saw two columns of gaurds marching around the corner, we shouted into the occupation ”they’re here!”. Some of those inside who were awake began phoning the Press, while others, who had been sleeping, began to wake up.

We linked arms and sat in front of the door shouting ”this is a peaceful protest” but the gaurds threw us from in front of the door and then, after securing the street with barricades, used a metal ram to smash in the glass. It was at this point that Avril went into labour. An ambulance was called but her partner was held back and not allowed to accompany her as he was under arrest. The police read the Court Order to those inside and began to take them out one by one.

The workers were taken to the Bridewell over night and to court the next day, protesters began to gather over the course of the day ouside the Four Courts chanting loud enough for those inside to hear the level of support they had from family, friends and other workers.

”I’m proud of what i’ve done” Kieron Shorthall told assemled reporters. And he should be, because the Thomas Cook workers have shown how to fight back against redundancy, they occupied, they were released without charge by the High Court, and they forced the company back to the negotiating table, but not only that, they forced and entire nation to question the relationship between the Courts, The State and the multi millionaires who run companies like Arcandor, Thomas Cooks and Royal Bank of Scotland.

The Thomas Cook occupation and Worker's Protests across the city and country show a beginning of a revival of workers' militancy
We're beginning to see a recovery of strike figures in this country with protests, strikes and occupations bubbling up.
In response,the bosses and the State are using everything at their disposal to silence and break dissent.
They are determined to break wage agreements and break with the idea of a right to redundancy payments.

The breaking of the occupation by the State on behalf of Thomas Cook is the latest in a series of actions taken by the High Court against workers, from the workers at MTL in Dublin Port to the Electricians.
If the High Court is used as a weapon to break worker's struggles then an order to defend our wages, to protect employment agreements, it is in our interest to take actions that break the laws that destroy our struggles. Laws that jail protestors, break worker's occupations and limit and render strikes ineffective.
We also need support from the organised working class for these struggles. We have massive power and strength in our numbers and ability to shut this economy down.
It’s about time that we used it.

world crisis

The world in crisis

The world ruling classes are in a state of complete panic with Germany’s Angela Merkel remarking that bankruptcy for entire states is now not so far fetched.
Job losses, bank collapses and manufacturing slowdowns are appearing in all major sectors of the world economy.
Obama’s stimulus package of 787 billion dollars was soon followed by the threatened collapse of insurance giant, AIG, which has now to be bailed out as they can’t let what’s described as a ’cornerstone’ of the US economy go down.
The last few months have seen the sharpest contraction in US growth since the crisis of 1973 with GDP in the last few months of 2008 declining by 6.2%. The data for 2009 seems to be much worse with figures constantly being marked down. With record lows expected in consumer spending figures the US is also facing a huge haemorrhaging of jobs – unemployment rose by 2.6 million since 2008 with 1.9million of those jobs lost in the last 4 months alone. This represents the greatest decline in employment since 1945. With 12 million now jobless, half a million a month now and increasing, more and more americans are having to subsist on foodstamps.
The world’s 2nd biggest economy, Japan, is declaring it’s worst results for 35 years. Japan’s industrial output dropping by 20% this quarter alone while exports have fallen by a shocking 40% and unemployment reaching an all time high of over 6%. The Japanese government have just signed a new freetrade agreement with other ASEAN countries but that hasn’t stopped the accusations of protectionism going back and forth between various asian countries.
Australia’s economic prospects are hugely dependent on Japan as the Japanese market is the biggest destination for Australian exports. One of Japan’s largest companies, Toyota, has announced their first operating losses since the 1930’s.
The collapse of the USA and Japan is having an effect on the Chinese economy. It’s expected that unemployment across south east asia will reach 97 million this year, which is an obscene figure. 600,000 firms closed in the last year in China. The government has responded like many others with a stimulus package totalling 586 billion. China is a net exporter but faces a 17.5% drop in demand for it’s products with figures for this quarter expected to be much worse. Indonesia has put tariffs on Chinese goods which hugely increases tensions in the region. These tensions are playing out on a wider scale too with the US and China throwing similar accusations at each other.
The 3rd largest economy in Asia is the Indian which is still, like China, declaring growth. Although the predicted 8% growth has been revised downwards to 5% by some commentators who also expect that these figures will fall even more in 2009. There are calls from sections of the Indian ruling class for measures to stimulate growth but the Indian economy is limited to mainly domestic demand.
If we take a brief look at Brazil their industry figures just released show a 12.4% drop since december alone with exports down by a massive 29%. Governments across South America, like elsewhere, are slashing interest rates massively.
In the EU and the region from the EU heart to Russia there are massive problems. The World Bank, The European Development Bank and the EU bank for reconstruction have given a 24 billion loan to Hungary and others but the Hungarian government has announced that they need at least ten times as much. Even the Russian economy which is a huge exported of Oil and Gas now believes that even a rise of Oil prices to 55 dollars a barrell won’t keep their economy out of danger.
From Ireland through the UK all the way over to the Baltic states and down to Spain, Portugal and Greece the bankruptcy of states has ruling classes in a state of absolute fear.
We can’t allow ourselves though to be overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis and give in to the fear that has infected the whole world ruling class and the majority of working class people worldwide who are fearful of losing jobs and homes. The ruling classes are getting away with cuts in places like Ireland, not because of their strength, but because of the weakness of the opposition forces. People want to fight back and their fear can easily, as we have seen here in Ireland, translate into militant actions. Socialists need to give a lead and show that we have answers to the questions people are asking, we have an alternative vision of society that everyday matches the conclusions that more and more people are reaching for.
Capitalism won’t collapse, it needs to be pushed over. The crisis is an opportunity. We have a chance to escape once and for all from this madness. The world economy is set to contract for the 1st time since 1945. The ruling class has to increase the rate of exploitation of workers in order to get profit rates up again and start the entire ridiculous process going again.
We can and must stand up give voice to the massive anger that’s out there. It’s time to say no more!