Video of the 24th March 2010 PCS strike in Belfast. The strike co-incided with Alistair Darling’s pre-election budget. Socialist Party members visiting the picket lines spoke to Barney Lawn and Gayle Matthews, members of the PCS.
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Housing bosses on + £100,000 salary
Housing maintenance grant budgets are being cut. Major investment in social housing is urgently needed to meet the housing needs of ordinary people. We are told there is not enough dough to go round. Well, if you happen to be a boss of housing associations, there is plenty to go round.
Education under attack!
For a one day school and college strike - for real jobs and training
Seven campuses of the Northern Regional College are set to close as a result of the Assembly Executives cuts. They are located at Portrush, Ballymoney, Ballymena, Larne, Antrim and Newtownabbey. This is a serious attack on the people of the North East, especially for young people who will be deprived of local access to education. It will mean only four campuses stretching from Coleraine, Magherafelt, Ballymena and Newtownabbey will remain to cater for 15,000 students, with fewer staff as a result of job cuts.
Debate – Sinn Fein, cuts and the unions
The following letter was printed in The Irish News on 28th November 2009.
Dear editor,
Jim Gibney criticises union leaders in the North for giving Sinn Fein their fair share of the blame for the austerity cuts of the Assembly, arguing that Sinn Fein have opposed cuts in public services and privatisation, as well as water charges (Irish News, 12/11/09).
Jim would do well to remember that it was Catriona Ruane who forced classroom assistants to take strike action in order to defend their pay, conditions and the front-line service they deliver. She now presides over a department which is closing and slashing funding to schools. All new builds on school grounds in Belfast are now done on the basis of PFI/PPP, thanks to Minister Ruane.
The “Kony 2012” phenomena: How to end a nightmare?
Seldom before has an idea spread so quickly across the world. Within days tens of millions watched Invisible Children’s “KONY 2012” video as it went viral across the internet and social media. Shocked at the story of killing, rape and child soldiers, demands multiplied that “something must be done” against Joseph Kony and the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) he leads in eastern and central Africa.