Northern SIPTU activists join 100,000 Strong March against Cuts in Dublin

Workers, Students, Pensioners, and people struggling to get a job came from across Ireland on Saturday to the streets of Dublin.

SIPTU activists from the north joined with over 100,000 people marching against the 'devastating cuts' being proposed in the Dublin government's 4 year plan, and the 'disastrous financial package' negotiated with the IMF/ECB.

Among those who addressed the thronged rally in Dublin, was SIPTU President Jack O'Connor.

SIPTU Organiser Martin O'Rourke speaking on the march, said,

"These devastating cuts and disastrous financial package contained in the 4 year plan will do nothing but lay further waste to the Irish economy, which will have a detrimental impact on the north already facing huge strain from proposed cuts by the Tory government. It is everyone's business to make a stand and prevent these measures from being introduced which if allowed to proceed will create further mass unemployment, see emigration figures soar, obliterate local business and investment, and create wide scale poverty and deprivation."
"We in SIPTU have constantly said there is a better fairer way, and that is to invest in our economy, to create a job stimulus package. Not to pour tax payers money down the drain by bailing out the bankers and selling the Irish economy out to International Loan Sharks."

"Just as many workers from across Ireland joined the Belfast rallies against cuts, so too workers from the north joined the Dublin march. Highlighting the solidarity that exists across the Trade Union movement in Ireland, and the great sense of collective responsibility in resisting and preventing cuts whether they come from Dublin or London."

"We all have a stake in preventing these cuts from being implemented; they will impact on all our futures. We all need to make a stand on the streets and when election time comes punish the parties and politicians proposing and supporting these crazy measures."