Voters in East Belfast will have the opportunity to vote for at least one Robinson in May, although the politics on offer will be very different from those of the DUP. Courtney Robinson is an 21 year-old call centre worker, born and bred in the East and has been a socialist activist since she was 14.
Explaining why she is standing, Courtney said:
Across the globe, there is a growing appetite for change, especially among young people. It was reflected in the stunning election of Jeremy Corbyn to the Labour leadership and the ongoing surge behind Bernie Sanders in the US. In the South, the Anti-Austerity Alliance and the radical left are set to make a historic breakthrough in the upcoming general election. The same desire for an alternative exists here. Young people are sick and tired of the dinosaurs up at Stormont. We’re fed up with the endless sectarian bickering. It seems all the politicians can agree upon is that jobs and education must be cut to the bone and that women must be denied the right to control our own bodies. It’s time for a new kind of politics. I’m standing to provide a radical voice for young people, women, LGBT rights and the working class.
Courtney’s Record
- In 2014, Courtney took part in the Abortion Pill Train, which saw the medicines openly transported from Belfast to Dublin and taken publicly in defiance of the law.
- Led the protest outside the last DUP conference, calling on them to stop blocking same-sex marriage.
- In the wake of a racist arson attack on a business in East Belfast in April last year, Courtney was central to a community protest which mobilised hundreds onto the streets.
- A call centre worker and trade unionist, she helped organise the 2012 March for a Future which crossed the Shankill-Falls peaceline in opposition to education cuts and youth unemployment.
- Courtney has previously served as Students’ Union President at Belfast Met, the largest further education college in Northern Ireland.
