Deep and devastating cuts are being demanded from Westminster and Stormont which will destroy thousands of jobs and vital services which working class communities rely on. These cuts will hit the poorest in society. Despite the mantra from the Tories and the parties in Stormont that ‘we’re all in this together’, the reality is the super-rich and the bankers who caused the economic crisis are being rewarded with massive bailouts while working class people are made suffer.
Ordinary people didn’t cause this crisis and they shouldn’t pay for it. Thursday’s protest, part of a European-wide week of action, can be the start of a campaign to defend jobs and services. The week of action, initiated by Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins, will bring workers from Greece to Spain and across Europe onto the streets in opposition to these austerity measures. I am calling on workers in Belfast to show their opposition and join the protest this Thursday.
Thursday protest is supported by Fire Brigades Union, PCS, I.N.T.O. (Northern Region), Association of Teachers and Lecturers, Socialist Party, Workers Party, Communist Party, Socialist Workers Party, Organise, Cliftonville Regeneration Community Forum, Lower Castlereagh Community Group, Save Mid-Ulster Hospital, We Won’t Pay Campaign, Youth Against Racism, plus many individual trade union activists.
South Yorkshire Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has called a strike for 24/25 January and another from 27 January to 4 February. This is against bullying management's threat once again to sack firefighters if they don't agree to detrimental and imposed shift changes.
Is the worst over?