Workers Solidarity Movement

The reality behind the new beginning to policing was once again revealed on the streets of the North yesterday when children returning from a bus trip to Dublin where terrorised by heavily armed PSNI members for up two hours. The bus trip organised by the Republican Network for Unity contained 13 children and 6 adults were returning from a trip to Kilmainham Gaol was stopped and searched allegedly for explosives just outside Banbridge by up to 60-70 PSNI officers with a forensic lab and helicopters.

 A 19 year old who died by suicide at Hydebank Wood young offenders centre in south Belfast last year had been locked in his cell for around 22 hours a day because of short-staffing. Allyn Baxter took his own life after disgracefully spending three days on remand for not paying his TV license.

Despite the rest of us struggling to pay off the bills, poverty wages and coping with increased living costs or being flung on the dole the so-called great and good in our society the wealthiest have never had it so good. Top of the list in the wee north is Eddie Haughey who has a combined wealth of 340 million.

This week Belfast City Council approved a homecoming parade for the Royal Irish Regiment and Irish Guards from Afghanistan. The motion was backed by the DUP, UUP and Alliance parties, but opposed by the SDLP and Sinn Fein. The final vote was 26 to 20. Smaller parades will also take place in Lisburn and Enniskillen.

When “dissident” republicans killed policeman Ronan Kerr with a booby-trap car bomb on Saturday, they were pursuing what they believed was a strategy that would eventually lead to the defeat of British imperialism in Ireland, firstly by destroying the policy of normalisation, "ulsterisation" and the co-option of  republicans into the political system, and ultimately in breaking the will of the British ruling class to maintain their hold in Ireland.

Over 10 years on from the signing on the Good Friday Agreement and working-class communities in the North have failed to reap the rewards from the ‘peace dividend’ according to a new study conducted by the assembly’s Research and Library Service. The report which examined deprivation and social disadvantage since the 1998 agreement found that the proportion of people claiming benefits and unable to heat their homes had ‘increased’, poverty had remained ‘broadly unchanged’ and unemployment levels had began to ‘rise’.

On Friday 4th February, Alternative Community Cinema will launch their 2011 series of educational and awareness film evenings in Annagry, County Donegal. The first event which is entitled “The IMF, The Truth!” will be held in Annagry Hall and will show the film 'The Shock Doctrine'. The film is based on Naomi Klein's book of the same name and is a look at how “free market” policies have come to dominate the world through exploitation.

DUE TO WEATHER CONDITIONS THIS MEETING HAS BEEN POSTPONED TILL THE NEW YEAR

The population of the south have just been subjected to the toughest austerity budget that western Europe has seen in 30 years. Yet the tax hikes that targeted the low paid and those on average income actually saw the richest 1% gain! Someone earning only 15,000 euro could be paying nearly 6% more tax but someone whose income is a million will be paying 6% less tax.

A new report has revealed that workers in the North are twice as likely to die as their counterparts in the UK because of a high accident rate. However, Northern Ireland does have a higher proportion of tradespeople. Work-related ill health and accidents costs around £250 million a year with seven people losing their lives in work-related accidents in 2009, which is a 60% reduction on the previous year's figure.

This summer’s Belfast riots must have been the most anticipated for some time, being widely predicted throughout politics and the media. The August rioting in Ardoyne (and Short Strand, the Markets, Lower Ormeau, New Lodge, Broadway; and Lurgan, Derry & Armagh) saw three days of trouble, shots fired at police and a landmine attack in South Armagh.