Gerry Cullen Election Leaflet, General Election, 2024
Author: Ciaran Mulholland (Page 2 of 7)
Ciaran Mulholland has been active on the left since 1980. Until 2019 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of Ireland and an alternate member of the International Executive Committee of the Committee for a Workers International. Today, he works with others to build an anti-sectarian left alternative to the main political parties in Northern Ireland-parties which are based on sectarian division and capitalist politics. He works with other comrades in the Internationalist Standpoint initiative in the necessary task of building a mass world party of revolution.
Support Our Campaign in Fermanagh and South Tyrone
Cross-Community Labour brings together trade union, labour and socialist activists, and environmental and community campaigners.
We believe that it is only through uniting working-class people that can we defend our public services and our living standards. Cross-Community Labour stands alongside every community campaign and every group of workers on strike.
We believe in fighting for every gain today. However, we will always face the same problems unless there is major change. This means the reorganisation of society under democratic socialist principles. The multinational corporations and big business which control most of the economy should be brought into public ownership and decisions should be made democratically to provide for a better life for all.
We are in favour of mutual respect and compromise on divisive issues. We support and work with trade unionists and campaigners North and South, and in Scotland, England and Wales. We are internationalists and support and link up with activists across the world. Together we can forge a better, shared future where the democratic rights of every individual and all communities will be guaranteed.
The Anti-Sectarian Left Tradition
We are part of the strong anti-sectarian left tradition which exists everywhere including Fermanagh and Tyrone. Cross-community socialists have previously won council seats in both Enniskillen and Dungannon, the two main towns in the constituency.
Davy Kettyles held a council seat in Enniskillen in the 1980s and 1990s standing first for the Workers Party and later as a Progressive Socialist. More recently Donal O’Cofaigh won a seat in the 2019 election for Cross-Community Labour.
Jack Hassard, a Protestant working-class activist was the voice of opposition to both unionism and nationalism on Dungannon Urban Council in the 1960’s and the 1970s as a Northern Ireland Labour Party councillor.
Continue reading31 May 2024
Gerry Cullen is standing to offer Fermanagh-South Tyrone electorate an alternative of socialist politics and class unity
Cullen launches his Westminster election campaign at a fringe meeting held at the annual NIPSA conference in Enniskillen
Cross-community Labour Alternative (CCLA) candidate for the upcoming Westminster election in Fermanagh-South Tyrone constituency, Gerry Cullen, wants to offer a radical socialist alternative to the failed and divisive politics offered by green and orange establishment parties.
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A Voice for Labour
On May Day we celebrate the unity of working people in our unions.
On January 18th we stood together when 150,000 workers took strike action for improved wages, better working conditions, and in defence of public services.
The strike illustrated better than any words the power of the trade union and labour movement which organises a quarter of a million people. Trade union members, their families and their supporters represent the majority of the population.
January 18th is just one of many examples of campaigns which unite working people:
On many occasions trade union members have taken action to protest against threats and violence- most recently when bus drivers stopped work after attacks on their buses in 2019.
Campaigners against cuts have united local communities time and again, for example, the vibrant campaign opposing the downgrading of the Southwest Acute Hospital outside Enniskillen.
Young people have come together for action on climate change, for the rights of women, refugees and asylum seekers, and all minorities.
Whilst workers and young people are united in our unions and campaigns there is no broad political movement which represents our shared views.
We do not have a united, anti-sectarian voice at the ballot box.
“A Voice for Labour” has brought together activists who believe that this must change. The time is now.
Join the Conversation
We need a new political movement which unites working class and young people from all backgrounds.
We are committed to a process of discussion and organisation to ensure that in elections to the Local Councils, the Assembly, and to Westminster, there is a united, anti-sectarian left alternative on the ballot paper.
We believe that the time is now to begin the process of creating such a movement based on agreed principles:
- We stand against division and base our politics on the proud tradition of the labour, socialist and trade union movement.
- We are opposed to all cuts in health, education, and other public services, and oppose privatisation.
- We support working class people in their struggles for better wages and conditions.
- We are in favour of green policies to protect our environment, with alternative employment for those whose job would be under threat as a result.
- We support the right of everyone to live a life free from discrimination, harassment, and violence.
If you agree with us join the conversation.
Contact A Voice for Labour and become part of the solution: email secretary@voiceforlabour.org
A future of sectarianism and poverty: Working class needs its own party
First published by Socialist Party 27th July 2010
Working class people in Northern Ireland face a future of sectarian conflict, unemployment and poverty. The North has now been in recession since November 2007, almost three years. The anaemic economic upturn in Britain has entirely passed us by.
Officially, unemployment in Northern Ireland rose to 56,100 in June, an increase of 600 on the previous month, and of 6,700 on a year ago. The rate of “economic inactivity” (the real measure of unemployment) is higher than in England, Scotland or Wales. The projected £1.5 billion of public expenditure cuts planned for the next four years will put thousands more on the dole. It is predicted that 14,000 more jobs will go in the next two years, meaning that unemployment will treble over the five years between 2007 and 2012. The unemployment rate for 18–24 year olds is already 17.4%.
None of the Assembly parties represent the interests of working class people. At times, these parties voice their opposition to public spending cuts — but this is nothing more than a cheap confidence trick. The sectarian parties consistently unite in the Assembly by supporting a programme of draconian cuts. This is one area they all agree on — that the working class must pay for the economic crisis.
Workers on strike, communities campaigning against the cuts, people opposed to water charges, public sector workers facing a Tsunami of attacks, anyone who rejects sectarianism — none of these people have a major political party that truly represents their interests.
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This article was originally written for discussion at the Socialist Party Conference in March 2018, as “Notes on the National Question Today”
On May 3rd, 2021, Northern Ireland will be 100 years old. Partition was an historic defeat for the working-class movement in Ireland and we continue to live with its consequences today.
The workers movement could have prevented partition, and today the workers movement remains the only force in society which can overcome division and point the way to a better future for all.
In order to meet this historic challenge, it is essential that the ideas of Marxism reach the widest possible audience and that we build a politically strong a mass Marxist party in Ireland.
Reaching wide layers of workers, both Catholic and Protestant by background, will only be possible if we apply the ideas of Marxism to the burning issues of the moment. This is particularly the case with regards to the difficult issues which divide working class people along sectarian lines. What can come across as abstract appeals for working class unity, or as correct but vague generalisations, are not enough.
Instead, we must both seek to fully analyse and understand the consciousness and mood of different sections of the working class and engage in detail with each issue around which division crystallises.
Continue readingIrish Referendum, Greek language version: from Ξεκίνημα
Στις 8/3 η ιρλανδική κυβέρνηση προχώρησε σε δημοψήφισμα για την αναθεώρηση δύο άρθρων του Συντάγματος. Το ένα άρθρο σχετίζεται με την Οικογένεια και το δεύτερο με τη Φροντίδα των παιδιών, των ηλικιωμένων, των ατόμων με αναπηρία, κλπ. Σε φραστικό επίπεδο, οι αλλαγές που πρότεινε η κυβέρνηση έδειχναν να έχουν προοδευτικό χαρακτήρα, καθώς αναιρούνταν απαρχαιωμένες διατυπώσεις σχετικά με τον ρόλο της γυναίκας στην οικογένεια, αναγνωρίζονταν ως οικογένειες σχέσεις που δεν βασίζονταν στον γάμο, κλπ. Την ίδια ώρα όμως, οι διατυπώσεις που πρότεινε η κυβέρνηση επιχειρούσαν να μετατρέψουν τη φροντίδα σε υπόθεση των μελών της οικογένειας, αφαιρώντας ουσιαστικά τις σχετικές υποχρεώσεις του κράτους από το Σύνταγμα.
Τα παραπάνω, σε συνδυασμό με τη συνολική αντικυβερνητική διάθεση σε σημαντικά στρώματα της κοινωνίας, αλλά και με τη συνειδητή προσπάθεια της ακροδεξιάς και της εκκλησίας να επενδύσουν στα αντανακλαστικά των πιο συντηρητικών στρωμάτων, οδήγησαν το κυβερνητικό σχέδιο σε παταγώδη αποτυχία. Διαβάστε παρακάτω διασκευή του σχετικού άρθρου του Κίραν Μαλχόλαντ.
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On Friday 8th of March, voters delivered the largest defeat in history for a referendum put forward by the Irish government. They voted to reject proposed changes to the “Family” clause in the Constitution by 68% to 32% and the “Care” clause by a record 74% to 26%. Turnout was 44%, a sharp drop from the last referendum in 2018 of 64%.
The scale of the defeat was a humiliation for the government parties-Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, and the Green Party-but also the opposition parties and so-called “civil society” advocacy groups who had united to support a “Yes-Yes” vote.
Right and far right individuals and groups, and conservative Catholics, have sought to claim credit for the outcome. The result has been contrasted to the 2015 same-sex marriage referendum and the 2018 abortion rights referendum which resulted in progressive change and seemed to mark Ireland’s arrival as a modern secular, liberal state. Some on the right are claiming that the referendum marks an end to the onward march of the “woke” agenda with former Fianna Fáil Minister, Willie O’Dea proclaiming it’s time “to stop playing to the woke gallery”,
But the truth is much more complex, as Hugh Linehan, Deputy Editor of the Irish Times (March 16th) argues: “….the result remains hard to read. The amendments were ultimately defeated by a patchwork coalition of wildly disparate parts that are unlikely ever to come together again. Gender-critical feminists stood alongside anti-abortion activists. Rural social conservatives voted the same way as urban Trotskyists”.
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Introduction
Schoolboy Michael was punched, kicked, and beaten with a baseball bat in an alleyway in Ballymena in May 2006. The 15-year-old died hours later in hospital. Four people were given minimum terms ranging from 13 years to 10 years at Antrim Crown Court for killing the teenager three years later, Another man convicted of manslaughter was given a three-year suspended sentence. Two others were also sentenced-one was given 10 months for affray and criminal damage, and the other a conditional discharge for criminal damage.
The Socialist Party and Socialist Youth intervened in Ballymena, seeking to build a united, anti-sectarian movement amongst young people in the town. This is one example of many when of the conscious efforts of comrades to influence events.
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Social decay causes alienation and conditions for conflict
First published July 27th 2010 by Socialist Party
Fierce rioting erupted in Ardoyne after an Orange Order parade on 12 July and continued for three days. The period before, over and after this year’s Twelfth was also marked by rioting in other areas and a number of gun and bomb attacks. There was trouble across Belfast — including the New Lodge, Broadway, the Markets, Short Strand, Ormeau Road-and in Derry, Armagh, and Lurgan.
Three PSNI officers were shot in the New Lodge and shots were also fired at the PSNI in Ardoyne and in the Bogside area of Derry. A landmine exploded in South Armagh and there were a number of blast bomb attacks. In total, 88 PSNI members were injured. The PSNI used potentially lethal baton rounds on a number of occasions but fortunately no-one was killed. The police claimed that the trouble in Derry was the worst in a decade.
For a few days, the atmosphere in Northern Ireland was thrown back to a darker, more violent past. In the days after the Twelfth, mainstream politicians and the media conducted a post-mortem on the events in very strident and inaccurate terms. Rioting on this scale is not part of the script of the “peace process” and has to be explained away. It is important that socialists do not exaggerate recent events but soberly estimate where we are at this time.
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