Browsing Tag

belfast

19 posts
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Belfast Rental Crisis: Homes for people, not profit!

Amidst record levels of homelessness, sky-high rents and endless waitlists for housing - the construction industry and landlords are boasting about record profits. Why is it that we have more vacant properties than homeless in Northern Ireland? Róise McCann analyses the multiple crises that the housing crisis feeds into, and puts forward demands for a movement to challenge dodgy construction barons and landlords alike.
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Review: Belfast directed by Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Branagh's biopic, Belfast, released in January 2022 to much applause. But for many Belfast natives, it fell flat. The film opens like an on-screen city break brochure, with all the modern visual icons, before fading to black and white and scenes of a typical Belfast street in 1969. Here we are introduced to a nine year-old Kenneth Branagh, "Buddy", as he naively navigates Belfast at the outbreak of the 30-year conflict which became known as "the Troubles".
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BLM activists vindicated: Drop the fines now!

The Socialist Party welcomes the announcement from the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) that all charges related to last summer's Black Lives Matter protests in Belfast and Derry are to be dropped. The PPS recognised that the events were organised in a responsible manner, aimed at minimising the risk of Covid, and that they related to a matter of "important social concern". All fines against those who took part in these protests - and a similar protest against gender violence in Belfast, organised by ROSA in the wake of Sarah Everard's killing - must be immediately rescinded and reimbursed.

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Lessons of the Hovis strike: when we fight, we can win!

In May, Hovis workers in Belfast won an 8% pay increase over two years through a determined, all-out strike that lasted for 11 days. The actions of this workforce are an inspiration to others in the sector and beyond, as employers across the private and public sectors are trying to use the economic crisis sparked by Covid to attack wages, terms and conditions, or as an excuse for miserly pay-offers.

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“Universities must not become the care homes of a Covid second wave”

Queen's University now joins Glasgow and Manchester in locking down halls of residence due to Covid-19 outbreaks. Within the first week of the university term, 30 students in Elms Village in south Belfast have tested positive for the virus. Fears of rising infection rates and the limitations of health and safety measures have been ignored by management in favour of forcing lecturers, support staff and students to participate in in-person classes without a uniform policy of sanitisation, mask-wearing and social distancing.