Belfast Public Meeting

Written by Bertolt Brecht

It has been a long time since the people of Belfast, has had the opportunity to enjoy ‘Left Wing Theatre’.  This opportunity recently took the form in the presentation of Bertolt Brecht’s most notable and potent play ‘The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui’.

EU ‘rescue’ comes with ruthless “stringent conditions – workers’ mass resistance must continue!

Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers took strike action in Greece, on Wednesday 10 February, in an impressive show of strength against the social democratic PASOK government’s draconian social cuts package.

An estimated 75% of public sector workers took part, rising to 90% amongst bigger concentrations of workers in the state sector. Two demonstrations by trade unionists and workers were also held in Athens, despite heavy rain, with a total of around 15,000, which are big demonstrations compared to similar protests in recent years, particularly given the bad weather conditions.

 The Socialist can reveal plans by the Assembly to privatise public services leading to billions of taxpayers money being given away to private companies, cuts to services and attacks on workers rights and conditions.

By Owen McCracken

In its first 10 years of existence, the Assembly has handed over a staggering £1.3 billion of Public Private Partnership (PPP) contracts to private companies. If the Assembly gets its way the role of PPP in Northern Ireland is set to grow significantly, with Professor Allyson Pollock of the Centre for International Health Policy predicting a massive future bill in excess of £10 billion after contracts currently in the pipeline are signed. Since this February alone, more than £90 million has been spent on outsourcing contracts, mostly to private consultancy firms - a massive waste of public funds. (See below).