ABOUT 500 people participated in the annual May Day march through central Dublin yesterday. Unemployment and drug abuse were the themes of this year's march. Speakers also addressed the need to maintain wage levels so that the State would not become a "low wage economy".
The marchers were led by trade union leaders including the ICTU assistant general secretary, Ms Patricia O'Donovan, and Mr Niall Irwin, president of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions. Also marching were Mr Tony Gregory TD and Mr Joe Higgins, the Militant Labour candidate who almost won the Dublin West by election last month.
The march ended at the GPO, where Ms O'Donovan told the crowd it had taken place at the end of "one of the worst weeks for jobs", with unemployment up and 800 people losing their jobs at the Packard plant in Tallaght.
Ms O'Donovan argued against the suggestion that Irish employers should pay lower wages to compete for international business. "There are those who say lower wages are needed," she said. "Those who advocate low pay do so from a position of comfort from a secure job and usually a very well paid job."
She said even if lower wages were introduced in other countries, we should not participate in "a race to the bottom".
Mr Sam Nolan, of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions, said when May Day demonstrations started in 1890 the demand then was for an eight hour working day. Employers predicted, wrongly, that "the economy of the world would collapse" if the shorter day was introduced. Now they were saying lower wages were needed to keep their companies competitive. "The employers and capitalists of the world are now more ruthless and efficient than ever they were.
Mr Mike Allen, of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, argued for the organisation to be involved in the next talks on a national wage agreement. "If the country's wealth is going to be divided up then the unemployed must be at the table when that happens."
Other speakers included Mr Luis Maron, a Cuban trade union leader, who said his country had survived and prospered despite decades during which the US had sought to destabilise its economy.
The final speaker was Mr Fergus McCabe of the Inner City Organisations Network, an umbrella body for Dublin community groups. He said the State agencies' efforts to tackle the drugs problem had failed.
What was needed, he said, was a more determined effort to trace and confiscate the assets of wealthy dealers.