GSG 10-19 Raise the Roof Campaign – Petition
09/May/2019
Description
As already outlined in detail in GS Circular 09-19, the Raise the Roof coalition consists of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, all the main homeless charities, the Union of Students in Ireland and a broad range of political activists.
In addition to the National Rally being held on the 18th May at 1:00 p.m. in Parnell Square, Dublin, it has been agreed to organise a national petition on this issue in order to put more pressure on government. At present, it is an online petition, and I would ask that each Branch and Section Officer encourage all of their members to sign the petition via the following web address: www.ictu.ie/raisetheroofpetition
It would also be a great help if each member encouraged family members and friends to sign the same petition.
This easy online petition will only take a minute to complete and with a significant number of signatures gathered, it will put additional pressure on the government to deal with this crisis by doing a number of simple things. Our demands are as follows:
- A major Local Authority led investment in public housing
- The building of affordable homes
- The cessation of evictions into homelessness
- The creation of a legal right to housing
- Security of Tenure and Rent Control for Renters
These measures are being vehemently opposed by the current government with the tacit support of some Independents and Fianna Fáil.
I have already requested on behalf of your Union, that you make every effort to attend the demonstration on May 18th. In addition, I believe the small effort of signing the petition will also support that demonstration.
Therefore, I would again encourage Branch and Section Officers to make the extra effort in convincing members to support both the petition and the demonstration, to help us tackle the biggest social crisis that the country has faced in many years. There will also, be an opportunity to raise these issues with candidates in the upcoming Local and European Elections.