Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The public sector workers in this country, who have been battered with pay cuts over the past five years, finally said "No" in the past few weeks. They defied threats and bullying, stood together, showed solidarity and said "No". Positively, the Government threats to legislate immediately and impose 7% pay cuts did not happen. It shows positively that when workers stand together they can achieve results.

Another good news story is Cyprus, where the troika, with the collusion of the Cypriot Government, attempted to raid savings under €100,000 of ordinary people. The people of Cyprus took to the streets, surrounded their Parliament, stuck together, showed solidarity and manifested people power. Lo and behold, they forced the troika to reverse its plans and to do something that, until that point, had been considered completely unthinkable, namely, to burn the bondholders. It was an extraordinary victory for people power. What is even more amazing is that it produced a fundamental shift in European policy, away from the one that said we cannot burn bondholders to one that says we can. The new banking resolution regime proposed by the European Union now says we should distinguish between ordinary savers and professional speculators and investors. It is a major victory for people power on a European scale.

Another fantastic thing is the co-ordinated series of general strikes that happened across southern European countries in November last year. It was a true demonstration of international solidarity and people power when workers in Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal went on strike on the same day to say they had enough of austerity. Positively, this produced a shift in rhetoric, if not in policy, from the European leaders. They are now saying we have reached the limits of austerity and we must rethink. The interesting thing about these positive good news stories is that they come from below, from people themselves taking action. This is something governments and politicians often do not like because it takes the focus away from their importance and begins to point to the fact that real change comes from ordinary people organising themselves, taking to the streets and showing solidarity. This can force policy changes from the mighty troika and from governments trying to ram solidarity down their throats.

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