The Socialist Party has begun to distribute thousands of leaflets naming and shaming local councillors who voted for a 2.95% rise in domestic rates in the Pottinger area of East Belfast.
Tommy Black, the Socialist Party’s candidate for Pottinger and East Belfast in the upcoming elections, today said: –
“With rising food and fuel prices and wages under pressure, it is clear that working people cannot afford any more hikes in bills. Pottinger’s councillors disagree- not one of them voted against the rise in rates! We believe people have the right to know how their ‘representatives’ voted, especially when councillors like May Campbell tell the electorate they are ‘committed to a low rates policy in the City Hall.'”
“All Pottinger councillors in attendance voted for this rate rise, including the party colleagues of the two absent- the DUP’s Margaret McKenzie and the PUP’s John Kyle. This rates hike will squeeze the incomes of ordinary people even further, and they will be getting less for their money as Belfast City Council is launching a programme of cuts to jobs and services. This demonstrates that working people have no voice on the Council.”
To their disgrace, the parties in the Assembly Executive are attempting to bully householders into accepting water charges with the threat of even further cuts to public services. It is being peddled that the cuts to public services are because householders are not paying water charges. This is a lie and the facts speak for themselves.
The G20 meeting in Toronto of the leaders of the main capitalist governments of the world demonstrated a complete incapacity to solve the huge problems that confront us, particularly those hardest-hit - the poor and the working class - by the economic crisis.