31 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.
Gerry Cullen was formerly a Workers’ Party and then Democratic Left councillor in Dungannon. He launched his campaign at a fringe meeting of the party held at this week’s NIPSA trade union conference in the Killyhelvin hotel, Enniskillen. In a powerful speech to the well-attended meeting, Mr Cullen said,
“We need a politics that extends the unity in struggle of workers on the picket lines into the corridors of power. The dominance of communitarian politics in Fermanagh and South Tyrone has allowed disinvestment and public service collapse to devastate this rural constituency.
“We have seen total inaction from politicians whether it is the collapse of emergency and acute services in both Enniskillen and Dungannon, the crisis in our schools, the shortage of public housing and a Victorian era water system that has led to pollution events in both Lough Neagh and Lough Erne which could be seen from space. They have completely failed to enact legislation for workers’ rights and done nothing in the face of the large-scale job losses, most recently at BT in Enniskillen.
“Large swathes of Dungannon have been left a post-industrial wasteland, the main street of Enniskillen is now dominated by charity shops and rural villages across the constituency have been left to slowly wither.
Are we content to leave future generations face a future in a divided, low-wage, exploitative and polluted backwater where poverty and reliance on food banks is endemic – no, we stand for and fight for a socialist politics offering hope and class unity.”
Tanya Killen, NIPSA President, who was speaking in a personal capacity offered her endorsement of Mr Cullen:
“Gerry Cullen is someone with a firm and lifelong commitment to the cause of workers’ unity, peace and socialism. He is well-known presence on picket lines especially in his home town of Dungannon where he always stands on the side of workers in struggle. I urge workers and trade unionists to come out and vote for hope and a better future, vote for Cross-community Labour Alternative, vote Gerry Cullen X.”