A crystal clear message was sent to Bertie Ahern and Mary Harney on election day by working class people – we are sick of your antiworking class agenda.

And the government are reeling from that "smack in the ballot box!". Within hours divisions opened up between Fianna Fail and the PDs. Fianna Fail back benchers and even cabinet ministers, desperate to reconnect with working class voters, queued up before the cameras expecting us to believe that the PDs were solely responsible for the cuts, the stealth taxes, the privatisation agenda, the lies and broken promises.

But have they changed? 460 million euro worth of health service facilities are lying idle at a time when the government’s coffers are overflowing with extra taxes and hundreds of millions of euro in funds from tax evaders. They are still going to break up Aer Rianta and CIE and get them ready to be sold off to their rich multinational associates. They are still going to introduce water charge s. In the new "social partnership" deal they really show their "caring" side – low paid workers are to get an extra €1.75 a week before tax!

You voted against this anti-working class agenda now we need to organize to stop their attacks. The election defeat has divided the government and we weakened them. Now workers need to drive home their advantage.

Workers in Aer Rianta and CIE should organize and take co-ordinated unofficial industrial action if the SIPTU and NBRU leaders won’t do it to halt Brennan’s plans

When the government issues its plans to re-introduce the water charges then communities all over the country should immediately organise a campaign of non - payment to repel yet another stealth tax. If we had decent union leaders they would get off their backsides and break from their cosy coalition with Fianna Fail and the PDs and seize on the government’s disorientation as an opportunity to derail their anti worker agenda .The potential will only be realized with determined action.

The Socialist Party sees the workplace and the communities and not elections as the main arena of struggle. However the question of a political voice for the millions and not the millionaires is as pressing as
ever.

The Socialist Party, which has made an important step forward in this election, and is striving to be that voice. Join us in the struggle to build a real alternative to this rotten right wing government.