“There are real issues of deprivation in the Holylands area, such as growing unemployment but especially so in the extremely poor housing people are expected to live in. Slum landlords are responsible for massive overcrowding, which can cause resentment. These conditions are being exploited by racists to whip up hatred against ethnic minorities. The entire community needs to stand firmly against any attempt to whip up racist division and demand jobs and proper housing for all in South Belfast.
There is a sense of crisis across the Health Service in Northern Ireland. In the last few weeks the Belfast Trust has announced plans to close 152 beds at the City Hospital and Royal Group of Hospitals from November. The Northern Trust has halted more complex surgery at the Mid-Ulster Hospital in Magherafelt and Whiteabbey Hospital in Newtownabbey. All such surgery will now be concentrated at the Antrim and Causeway Hospitals. Parking charges are to be introduced at the Antrim and Causeway sites. There is a clear threat to the future of Accident and Emergency services at the Mid-Ulster and Whiteabbey.
By Ciaran Mulholland, AMICUS (Unite) Health Services Branch (personal capacity)
The Greek trade unions have started their first 48 hour general strike since 1992. The movement of the ‘enraged’ and the activists of the workers’ movement demanded this step, against the vote in the Greek parliament on the second memorandum - a new package of austerity imposed by the troika (EU, IMF and European Central Bank). This vote is planned to take place in various stages over the next days.
Sectarian attacks have once again hit the headlines in Lurgan after bloody clashes broke out in January between Catholic and Protestant young people aged between 14 and 18 years old.
Tommy Black of the Stop the Cuts Campaign today stated:
“The recent trouble on the Lower Newtownards Road demonstrates that the issue of sectarianism has not gone away. The policies of the Assembly parties will in fact fuel sectarianism. Their cuts will mean less jobs and services and more deprivation and despair.
