PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT TD CALLS FOR MASS POPULAR RESISTANCE AGAINST PLAN TO SELL STATE ASSETS
Richard Boyd Barrett, TD said in a statement today that the plan recommended by McCarthy is “the mugging of Ireland by the corporate vultures in Europe backed up by the Irish political establishment”.
The plan to handover vital state assets to the same corporate vultures that helped to crash the financial system is scandalous and irresponsible.
Selling off our public assets is, in fact, robbing the country of precisely the assets we need to get out of this economic mess. If we invested properly in these assets we could provide much-needed jobs, fuel economic growth and ensure continued revenue for the country. Selling them off will provide a once-off payment and is in no way a solution to the problem.
It makes no sense to give away, in many cases, highly profitable state assets that have the capability to get profit, revenue and employment going which is precisely what is needed for sustained economic growth.
Richard Boyd Barrett said “ The EU/IMF will insist that the money will be spent paying back the bankers and speculators while further cuts will be imposed on the population”.
“This is yet another example of the majority suffering for the gain of the elites.”
Remember Eircom. The privatisation of Telecom Eireann shows exactly what happens when venture capitalists get their hands on public assets. Like the ESB and Bord Gais, it was a profitable net contributor to the Irish exchequer, before the then Fianna Fáil led government sold us what we already owned.
These commercial semi-state companies and others which have gone the way of Eircom are assets that were built up with public investment to a position where they are seen as ripe for asset striping by private interests.
Our public enterprises should not be privatised but strengthened and developed further.
Richard Boyd Barrett said today “we are pledging to build resistance to these moves by the government to asset strip the country”
“We have launched the Enough! Campaign that is calling for a referendum on the EU/IMF deal and meetings have already been held in towns and cities across the country”.
Over the coming weeks we will also be extending a campaign of people power to restore bus services across Dublin and resisting any attempts to privatise our public transport system.
Richard Boyd Barrett said “ we are determined to mobilise mass resistance to any sell off of our assets and we will fight the government tooth and nail”.