“The last significant act of the Assembly was to pass a vicious budget of cuts which will lead to huge job losses in both the public and private sector and will destroy vital services.”
“Youth unemployment officially hit 21.5% this month. The next Assembly Executive looks set to cut the Education Maintenance Allowance and raise tuition fees to £5,750 a year.
“It is fitting that on the last day of the Assembly hundreds of lecturers in the North joined their colleagues across England, Scotland and Wales in strike action against attacks on pensions. Hundreds of thousands are expected to march on Saturday at trade union protests against the cuts. There is no support for the austerity agenda of the main Assembly parties. It is time for a real alternative to represent working class people.
“The Stop the Cuts Campaign is organising people across Northern Ireland to resist the cuts which all the main parties will attempt to carry out after the election. People should send a clear message to the politicians when they appear on the doorsteps that we will not pay for the crisis caused by the super-rich and the banks. Indeed it is a disgrace that all the main parties support a cut in tax for banks and big business at the expense of public services in the form of a cut in corporation tax. The Socialist Party is opposing this handout to the banks and demanding that the rich pay for their crisis, not ordinary people.
Up to 1,000 firefighters poured into the conference room of TUC headquarters for a mass meeting of the London Fire Brigades Union (FBU) on Tuesday night (24 August).
This operation represents a further development in US imperialism’s foreign policy of targeted assassinations of its opponents. This strategy is enthusiastically backed by the former commander of US troops in Afghanistan and current CIA chief, General Patreus, dubbed a policy of “hot pursuit”. It follows recent attempts to assassinate Gaddaffi in Libya. They imagine that by the removal of one man they will resolve the problem.
Socialist Societies in both Queens University and Ulster University made a good start to the academic year with Fresher’s stalls on all campuses.