The loss of this essential service is a direct result of the cuts being agreed in Stormont by all the Executive parties and it is the most vulnerable in society who are paying the price. The expertise of the five workers currently in the refuge must be preserved and a campaign to save the refuge must be launched.
Action needed to save service
Local politicians have done nothing to defend the refuge. Immediate action must be taken to keep Sydenham Women’s Refuge open. The local community together with women’s rights groups and the trade unions should unite to demand that victims of domestic violence are protected.
When the politicians in Stormont speak about implementing cuts to protect ‘frontline services’, they are lying. The cuts the Executive has been implementing are directly leading to vital services being destroyed. Workers and local communities affected must organise to resist these cuts. The Socialist Party will not silently watch our services cut to extinction while the greedy bankers and fat cats who caused this recession continue to receive bonuses and major profits.”
On 26 June, a gay couple were violently assaulted in Shipquay Street, Derry. Just a month previously, two men were found guilty of the homophobic murder of Shaun Fitzpatrick in Dungannon in 2008. These brutal attacks must be met with a firm response from the LGBT community and by workers and young people everywhere.
Fight to stop dictatorship cannot be postponed
Defend higher education