Eamonn McCann
  • Home
  • Statement
  • Biography
  • What We Stand For
  • Media
  • Get Involved
  • Register To Vote
  • Links
People Before Profit Derry

PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT

Follow the issues, campaigns and election with People Before Profit and our Foyle candidate Eamonn McCann

Poisonous legacy of SF/SDLP indifference to Campsie dump scandal

3/3/2016

 
Picture

One of People Before Profit’s first priorities at Stormont will be to force the SDLP and
Sinn Fein to deliver on their pledge to hold a public inquiry into illegal dumping in the North West.

The pledge from the two parties came at Stormont after a BBC Spotlight programme two years ago exposing the scandal of illegal dumping around Campsie. Derry now has one of the biggest illegal dumps in Europe on our doorstep.

It is alarming that that the route of the proposed upgrade of the A6 will run over a vast mound of unidentified rubbish.

Gas from the buried rubbish can be seen bubbling to the surface of “lagoons” on the site.
At one point, potentially toxic rubbish is buried within ten metres of a tributary to the Faughan – from which most of Derry’s water is drawn. We accept Department of the Environment assurances that the water coming through our taps poses no immediate risk. But literally nobody knows the level of threat which might emerge in the future.
In the immediate aftermath of the Spotlight programme, promises were made that the site would be cleared up. Various estimates of the cost were discussed. Since the, there's been silence. on the subject.

As well as People Before Profit, community and campaigning groups – Enagh Youth Forum, Zero Waste NW, Faughan Anglers Association and Friends of the Earth among them - have consistently been calling for an inquiry to put the full truth before the people. What do the Executive parties have to fear from the facts being made public?

In March 2014, the Assembly unanimously backed a motion stating that: “This Assembly recognises the issues raised in the recently broadcast BBC 'Spotlight' investigation into illegal waste disposal and other irregularities; and calls on the Minister of the Environment to establish an independent public inquiry into waste disposal in the north-west and the rest of Northern Ireland..."

Both the SDLP and Sinn Fein supported this call. But two years on, no such inquiry has been set up. And neither party has come under any sustained pressure in the Assembly to do what they promised.

That will change when People Before Profit MLAs walk into Stormont. We won’t allow environmental issues of this sort to be long-fingered any further.

​The people of Foyle and elsewhere in the North will have a voice on the matter.

We will derail the Stormont gravy train -             People Before Profit

3/3/2016

 
Picture

​The most ominous aspect of the latest Stormont expenses scandal is that none of the Executive parties seems to think there was anything wrong going on.

Unionist and Nationalists have stood shoulder-to-shoulder defending the indefensible.

Hundreds of thousands of public money was paid out for non-existent “research” - even after the official regulator had told the parties to stop it. Not a penny has been paid back.

An individual who treated the benefits system like this would be denounced as a scrounger and hauled into court and would have to return every farthing.

It’s different strokes for different folks, with the folks on the hill sitting pretty.

The Assembly has become a cosy club for parties which think they are entitled to everything, accountable for nothing. It needs a blast of fresh air from MLAs with different, radical politics. People Before Profit speaks not for any one community but for the interests of all working-class people. We will change the atmosphere and the political dynamic at Stormont.

We will derail the gravy train.

Eamonn McCann

People Before Profit

The main parties are taking the rest of us for fools

3/3/2016

 
Picture


The latest scandal over MLAs’ misuse of public money shows the need for different people with different politics in the Assembly.

MLAs billed the State for hundreds of thousands of pounds for “research” which had never been carried out. If a small voluntary group did that, it would be wound up and the police called in.

Ordinary citizens found to have over-claimed in welfare payments are named and shamed, fined and ordered to pay the money back. If they don’t, they can go to jail.

But to some MLAs, honesty in claiming money from the State is for the little people. They have rigged the system to ensure that big wheels like themselves get off. This is part of a Stormont culture of “anything goes”, generated by the NIO along with parties which regard themselves as untouchable because Stormont would supposedly collapse if they weren't sustained in office.

The main parties are taking the rest of us for fools. The people should give them a short, sharp shock on May 5th.

They should send in a team from People Before Profit to shine a light into the murkv corners where the dodgy deals are done.

All claim-forms and other documentation relating to the hundreds of thousands in public money paid out to Research Services Ireland should be published alongside the names of the MLAs involved.


We represent real change - We believe there are thousands in Foyle who want the same thing

3/3/2016

 
Picture

All of the other parties standing in Foyle merely offer more of the same. The two largest parties are mainly concerned about which one takes three seats, which one takes two. But what does that matter to families in constant anxiety about cut-backs, joblessness, rock-bottom wages and fear that their children will never make a decent living in Derry.

The SDLP and Sinn Fein should be told that the seats are not theirs to divvy up between themselves.

People Before Profit welcomes the upsurge in radicalism represented by Jeremy Corby in England and Bernie Sanders in the US. These are the contemporary political movements we relate to.

We have been at the cutting edge of the great movement against water charges and austerity in the South. We will bring that spirit of people power into the Assembly and blow away the dusty ideas which have smothered progress for too long. We will give a voice to a new generation not trapped in the past.

We are not hidebound by Orange or Green designation. We stand on the Left. We will fight on every issue - women’s rights, the environment, State involvement in crime and collusion, etc. - on the basis of what serves the interests of all working-class people.
Gerry Carroll in West Belfast, Fiona Ferguson in North Belfast and myself in Foyle are confident of making a breakthrough on May 7th. A team of People Before Profit MLAs would immediately change the dynamic of politics across the North.

We represent real change. We believe there are thousands in Foyle who want the same thing

Stormont debate on abortion

3/3/2016

 
Picture
The Stormont debate on abortion shows how far Northern Ireland still has to go before women’s rights are recognised.

Justice Minister David Ford says he accepts abortion should be available in cases of fatal foetal abnormality. But he rules out abortion for women pregnant as a result of incest or rape.

The main questions being posed in the Assembly debate are: What indications of fatal foetal abnormality must there be before a woman is allowed a legal termination? And, how can we be sure that a pregnant woman who says she has been raped or violated by incest isn’t making it up just to get an abortion?

These are insulting questions. They rule out any notion that women might have a right to choose for themselves. The consultation paper which Ford put before the Assembly declared that: "It is relatively easy to say that we need to address cases where pregnancy has been the result of rape or incest, but there are other situations which need to be considered in order to cover all possible circumstances ...The situations in which women and girls may become pregnant as a result of criminal offending behaviour extend beyond the scope of the offence of rape, or incestuous sexual activity." What he's saying is that making rape or incest a reason for allowing abortion might leave out other relevant situations. So let's ditch rape and incest altogether as reasons for allowing abortion.This is not just deeply reactionary, it doesn't even make sense.

The main result of this approach is that women in the North pregnant as a result of rape will be told that, irrespective of their own convictions or wishes, they must carry the rapist’s child to full term. What gives David Ford or any other politician a right to say that to any woman? Candidates for the Assembly who are against legal abortion in cases of rape or incest should explain why they think this is reasonable and why they believe women should accept it.

People Before Profit says that when a woman finds herself with an unwanted pregnancy and considers the implications for her own life and consults her own conscience, then she should be supported in whatever decision she makes. It is the woman who must decide what to do. This is what is meant by “the right to choose.” To deny this right is to say that women can't be trusted. Politicians, churchmen, "pro-lifers" etc, all have a right to their opinion. They don't have a right to impose their opinion on women.

People Before Profit MLAs would support the reforms put forward in the Assembly. But we think the debate between the main parties is too shallow and too narrow. We argue for a deeper examination not just of the legal position but of how women’s rights are to be vindicated in this society.

This issue has long been bogged down in Stormont procedures. We believe that the best way of ensuring real change is through the mobilisation of the pro-choice majority against the political and religious backwoods elements who have been held the rest of us back for far too long. This is why we are involved in Alliance for Choice and in the pro-choice movement generally.

This is the view we will be putting to the electorates of Foyle, West Belfast and North Belfast


Thank You

6/5/2011

 
Picture
The election is now over. Everything has now moved into the verification and counting process. There should be a result from Foyle sometime this evening.

Whatever happens in the count today, we can be proud of the work we have done and of the way we have helped PBP become one of the main players in the political life of Derry.

In the meantime, we would like to thank everyone who has helped out in any way during the campaign:

with canvassing, driving, office work, and postering;

with leafletting, labelling, attending polling stations, and making banners and signs;

with donating, and making tea and coffee and sandwiches and stew;

with performing at and organising the various events and fundraisers;

and with the help in the counting areas.

Thank you.

<<Previous
Forward>>

    People Before Profit
    Foyle Candidate
    Eamonn McCann


    Archives

    March 2016
    May 2011
    April 2011

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Statement
  • Biography
  • What We Stand For
  • Media
  • Get Involved
  • Register To Vote
  • Links