🇮🇪 Next week, we're hosting a meeting on the need to protect Irish neutrality. It takes place on Wednesday, 3rd June, at 7.30pm in the Palmerstown Community Council building on Manor Road. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have made clear their intentions to dismantle the Triple Lock in their bid to push Ireland closer to NATO. If they succeed, Irishmen and Irishwomen will find themselves fighting and dying abroad to serve the interests of Washington and Brussels. Working people must stand firmly against that. Speakers at the meeting include Gerry Rooney, former General Secretary of the Permanent Defence Forces Representative Association, as well as Padraig Mannion, Chairperson of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance. Bígí linn! @DavidGardinerWP

⚛️ 🏭 This evening, we held a meeting in Belfast on nuclear power. Our Garrett Greene and Brian Molloy from @18for0 made up the panel, which was chaired by Ard Comhairle member Padraig Mannion; discussing energy security, affordability, and the future role that different energy sources must play. 🔗 Find out more on our pro-nuclear energy policy, entitled "Let's Get Real: A Plan For Nuclear Power In Ireland," at workersparty.ie/nuclear-powe…

⚛️ 🏭 Even if we shut down every data centre in the country, to decarbonise the economy we need to double, if not triple, electricity generation over the next 25 years. If we want decarbonisation to have popular support, electricity needs to be cheap and reliable. Nuclear power is the best and possibly the only option that can achieve that, argues our Garrett Greene. aontachtmedia.ie/why-the-lef…

⚛️🏭 We're hosting a public meeting on the need for nuclear power in Ireland on Tuesday, 19th May, at 7pm in the Connolly Centre on the Falls Road. The discussion will explore our pro-nuclear energy policy, as well as energy security, affordability, environmental impact, climate targets, and the future role that different energy sources must play. Bígí linn!

🏭 ⚛️ The Workers’ Party welcomes the news that the Dáil is set to debate reversing the ban on nuclear energy. It is a safe, reliable, cheap, and efficient way to provide energy for working people and industry, and offers an alternative to sky-high energy costs and the climate crisis. The ongoing crisis makes it clear that the current approach; of reducing energy demand in the name of decarbonisation by making it unaffordable, is not a runner for working people. If the government does not consider technologies like nuclear energy that could provide a clean and reliable energy supply, working people will continue to be subjected to energy austerity while companies continue to profit. It is our view that in order to be positively effective from the standpoint of working people, this process must be state-led. Nuclear energy is the safest large-scale energy technology, and the evidence shows that it is responsible for fewer deaths than even wind power. As it is significantly more predictable and reliable than any other low-carbon technology available, nuclear energy can be scaled up to meet increasing electricity demand, meaning that we can grow our energy supply while simultaneously eliminating carbon emissions and allowing for the development of an industrial economy. Furthermore, nuclear energy has the smallest ecological footprint of any energy source, helping to mitigate environmental harm and tackle the growing biodiversity crisis. 🔗 Our nuclear energy policy paper, launched back in 2023 and entitled "Let's Get Real: A Plan For Nuclear Power In Ireland", can be read at the link in the post below.

🗳 Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the so-called independents have survived a vote of confidence this evening despite the ongoing fuel crisis. The day did not pass without some losses for the government; having lost the support of Michael Healy-Rae in the process. The package that the government has come up with lacks teeth; offering up temporary half-measures that will see workers continue to struggle when they go to pay at the pumps or heat their homes. Things were far from rosy with regards to the cost-of-living before this latest crisis emerged, and any benefit from this package will soon dissipate as the cost-of-living continues to rise. Increases to the carbon tax, for example, have only been temporarily delayed. These recent increases are, of course, the result of U.S. imperialist aggression on Iran. While this conflict isn’t directly the fault of the Irish government, it is their responsibility to secure the energy independence and security of this state. Only publicly-owned energy infrastructure can reduce prices for working people and secure Ireland's future. Ireland must break its dependence on the fossil fuel markets that imperialist wars are repeatedly destabilizing. That requires investment in public transport, a genuine right to remote working enshrined in law, and a serious conversation about all low-carbon generation options, such as nuclear power. This measly package had to be pried from the hands of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, only coming after widespread protest. Even after everything that took place over the last week, the government offers pocket change back to the working class.

Say no to sportswashing genocide. #StopTheGame

✊🏻🚩🇮🇪 At the weekend, Workers' Party members held a stall on Dublin's O'Connell Street to discuss sky-high fuel costs. ⛽️ The crisis is a result of U.S. attacks on Iran. Although Ireland didn't start that war, working people here are still paying the price at the pumps and in heating their homes thanks to the shambolic set-up that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have built. ✅️ Ireland needs a sovereign and publicly-owned energy system to provide fuel at prices that workers can afford.

🪖🇺🇲 A man has been arrested in Shannon Airport after allegedly striking a U.S. warplane. Any offence allegedly committed by protesters at Shannon pales in comparison to the crimes committed by the United States around the world, with Ireland being regularly used as a stop-off point in the process. The recent fuel crisis, a direct result of U.S. attacks on Iran, should make it clear that Ireland is not free from the impact of the American Empire. This was, of course, already the case; evidenced by the subservience of the state to a handful of American multinational corporations. The Irish government, like their counterparts in Britain and Europe, may shed some crocodile tears from time to time, but ultimately they are happy to row in behind American imperialism. In fact, they want to step up their complicity by abandoning Irish neutrality and moving closer to NATO, putting the Irish working class in the firing line. In order to build a better Ireland and a better world for working people, we must break the connection with imperialism.

⛽️ The fuel crisis did not come from nowhere. Ireland is a price taker: we had no hand in starting the war on Iran, yet Irish workers are paying the price for it at the pump every day. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the broader imperialist campaign waged by the United States and its allies against Iranian sovereignty have sent global oil prices soaring. This is the cost of wars that Ireland is not directly party to but whose consequences we cannot escape, as successive governments have left us without energy sovereignty. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have built an economy that requires the permission of Washington and the compliance of Brussels in order to function. That dependence is not an accident — it is a political choice, made consistently over decades, and working people are now paying for it when they go to fill up their car or heat their home. The government has offered spin, sympathy, and a €250 million package that amounts to a fraction of the increased tax take it took in as prices rose. What ever happened to the rainy day fund that the government told us about? Is it still not enough of a rainy day to use these funds to seriously tackle a crisis? How bad must things get? Carbon taxes and energy levies, as currently structured, are regressive and anti-worker. They fall hardest on those least able to pay — workers who cannot cycle to work, families who were pushed to the edges of commuter towns by the housing crisis; people with no choice but to take the car. The answer to energy dependency is the public ownership of renewable infrastructure. Ireland must break its dependence on the fossil fuel markets that imperialist wars repeatedly destabilise. That requires investment in public transport, a genuine right to remote working enshrined in law, and a serious conversation about all low-carbon generation options, such as nuclear power. It does not require working people to be bled dry while the government does nothing. The broad labelling of the fuel protesters as far-right by some is a lame cop out. Although opportunist and reactionary elements have attempted to attach themselves to these protests — and those characters should be seen for what they are — concern over the cost of fuel is obviously not a position exclusive to the far-right. Additionally, the deployment of the military against citizens exercising the right to protest sets a dangerous precedent. The right to protest is not contingent on government approval; it is an inalienable right of the Irish citizen. The government must remove the regressive burden of carbon and excise levies from working people, and begin the work of building a publicly-owned and genuinely sovereign energy system.