"They're all in this together" Fight their cutbacks

The massive spending cuts the new “Con-Dem” government will announce in June’s emergency budget will be the first stage of an unrelenting attack on working class people, sustained over years. Despite the veneer of opposition from some MLA’s, the local politicians are fully committed to implementing this Thatcherite agenda.

This will amount to a colossal re-distribution of wealth away from workers to bail-out the banks and big business and will “Con-Dem” us to a future of attacks on vital public services, job losses, pay cuts, reductions in state benefits and increases in the retirement age, amongst other attacks.

Anti-racist campaigner blasts draft legislation

New bill would have criminalised residents protesting against racist attacks on Romanian families last June

The draft ‘Public Assemblies’ Bill under discussion by the Assembly Executive has been branded a ‘disgrace’ by local anti-racist campaigner and South Belfast Socialist Party spokesperson Paddy Meehan.

NI General Election - Fall of the Robinson Dynasty

Socialist alternative needed

The general election results in Northern Ireland will be mostly remembered for the punishment the voters of East Belfast meted out to DUP leader and Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson who spectacularly lost the seat he had held for 31 years.

Mistaken occupation of British Airways talks

The defeat of Willie Walsh and the brutish British Airways (BA) management is the most important aspect to this dispute.

It is therefore unfortunate that the reported decision of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) members at the end of the Right to Work Conference to invade talks between British Airways management and Unite has partially obscured this issue.

Mid-Ulster A&E: Mass demonstration Friday 28 May

It was fantastic to see so many local people come out onto the streets of the town on Friday night to demonstrate their anger at the threat to Mid-Ulster A&E services. But it is crucial that this is the start and not the end of a campaign. Today, the Health Minister and Trust management to close A&E services, but the fight is not over. It is a purely administrative decision which can be overturned if there is enough pressure applied by ordinary people.

Magherafelt says: "Don't close our A&E"

Over 800 people attended a protest against the closure of the Mid-Ulster A&E in Magherafelt. Politicians from Sinn Fein, DUP and SDLP spoke at the protest despite the fact that they voted 3 times in the last 18 months for these cuts.

A Socialist Party leaflet stated:
"The four main parties in the Assembly Executive agreed the recent budget and ‘efficiency savings’ which included huge cuts in health. Politicians from all the parties also sit on the Health Trusts, rubber stamping cuts. If they were really opposed to the cuts, they should resign from the bodies and call on their parties not to implement the attacks. In reality, the main parties all accept the logic that ordinary people must pay for the economic crisis of the bosses and bankers, through attacks on jobs, conditions and public services."

More to follow

BA strike - An industrial dictatorship

“The strictest law often causes the most serious wrong.”
Cicero

Earlier this evening British Airways was granted an injunction against a proposed 20 day strike by cabin crew. The decision was based on a technicality regarding the method UNITE used to inform cabin crew of the result of the ballot. This judgement has enormous implications for the whole of the trade union movement. For all practical purpose effective strike action that seriously damages the financial interests of the employer is now illegal. It was Tony Blair who once boasted that Britain had the most restrictive anti-trade union laws in the Western World. This judgement now relegates Britain below many neo-colonial countries in terms of trade union rights.

Visit airSTRIKE for up to date reports of the strike