‘Protect Child Benefit: Vote Labour’. This was the slogan that Labour used in the last election. They argued that Labour was needed in government to soften the right wing policies of Fine Gael.

Budget 2013 shows what a lie they told. In a savage move, child benefit for 600,000 families will be cut by €10 a month for the first two children, €18 for the third child and €20 for all subsequent children.

This is the third cut in child benefit since 2008. A family of two children, for example, will be down €864 in cuts to child benefit alone.

Another savage budget was presented by Fine Gael and Labour today which sees the burden of the crisis once again placed in the shoulders of working class people, both white and blue collar, and on the poor. So how can we build resistance to this budget? Can we get a General Strike?

In Spain the working class there have union leaders tied into the Labour Party and trying to hold struggle back. Yet the Spanish people took part in the Europe wide strikes on Nov 14th. Public sector workers blocked roads as the entire nation was shut down by strike action.

Guest editorial by Panos Garganos in Athens. Panos is a leading member of the Greek Socialist Workers Party. Panos Garganas is also the editor of 'Workers Solidarity', Socialist Worker’s sister paper in Greece

The new bailout agreement with Greece amounts to looting.

It has been made conditional on a new “haircut” on government bonds that will mean further cuts to people’s pensions.

These were already cut back with the last agreement in March. One estimate says they could have dropped in value from £19 billion to just £5 billion in ten months.

Amid the chaos and ruin of an economic and social landscape swamped with epidemic levels of poverty, unemployment, emigration and even hunger, FG/Labour are about to ram through yet another vicious austerity budget, the eight of its kind in the last five years.

Since the crash of 2008, successive budgets has slashed public spending and raised taxes, removing 24.5 billion directly from the economy in order to pay for private bank debt.

The myth that the Irish do not protest has been shattered in the past few weeks. 15,000 marched in Waterford against a downgrade of a local hospital; 20,000 people joined a protest against Ireland’s archaic laws on abortion; and 20,000 marched in Dublin on 24 November against austerity.

85,000 in November alone.

This scale of mobilisation is as high as many other countries. It indicates that that the population could be reaching a ‘tipping point’ which opens a new period of resistance.

Over twenty thousand people turned up to a magnificent anti-austerity demonstration in Dublin. They were called out by a coalition of resistance initiated by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions. Key elements included the official union movement, the Campaign Against Household and Water Charges and the Spectacle of Defiance and Hope.

The demonstration was lively, militant and confident. The biggest contingent marched behind the anti-household charges banner but there were also significant formations behind the unions and community groups.

Brid Smith, one of the main organisers of the pre-budget anti-austerity protest has condemned ‘the divisive attack’ of the SIPTU leader Jack O Connor on a section of the crowd.

O Connor had claimed that heckling of an ICTU speaker, Eugne McClone represented a ‘fascist’ tactic and was orchestrated by Sinn Fein and the ULA.

Savita Halappanavar died after she was told that ‘this was a Catholic country’ and so doctors could not terminate her foetus.

Michelle Harte had a malignant melanoma and knew that her pregnancy would endanger her health. But she too was denied an abortion and forced to travel to Britain.

The Irish government subsequently made a ‘substantial settlement’ with her because of a denial of her human rights.

These terrible cases should have pushed a government into legislative and constitutional action to remedy the situation.

November 24th should be a turning point in the Irish movement against cuts and austerity. For the past four years, the union movement has stayed quiet and kept a lid on protests. But now tens of thousands are saying Enough is Enough.

The Fine Gael/Labour government are planning another slash and burn budget, taking €3.5 billion out of the economy. But in March, they will hand over €3 billion on a ‘promissory note’ for Anglo Irish Bank.

It could not be clearer- nearly all the cutbacks in the budget are paying for the gambling debts of bankers.

People in Gaza faced another night of terror as Israel amassed troops on the border and threatened a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.

At least 24 Palestinians have been killed since Israeli air strikes on Gaza started on Wednesday, including seven children. The Israeli army has called up 16,000 reservists to prepare for possible invasion.