Category: Front Page Featured

Northern Ireland’s abortion laws have once again been exposed as outdated and barbaric. A young woman has pleaded guilty to charges brought under legislation that is 150 years old. She has now received a three month suspended sentence. This comes after a High Court ruling which said that our abortion laws are incompatible with human rights. Courtney Robinson, Cross Community Labour Alternative spokesperson and candidate for East Belfast said: “This case has highlighted the situation faced by women in Northern Ireland. Every year over 1000 women travel to England to have a termination. Many more order abortion pills online. These tablets are on the WHO list of essential medicines but are illegal here if taken to have a miscarriage. It is only due to the backwardness of our politicians that…

Larne student Conor Sheridan (24) has announced that he is to contest the upcoming Assembly election in East Antrim for Labour Alternative – a new cross-community, left-wing party. Labour Alternative summarises its aims as: - To fight against austerity, for workers' rights and a better life for all - To fight for equality and against discrimination - To advocate compromise rather than conflict on the issues which divide our communities - To build a new kind of politics against the sectarian agenda of the past. The party has already announced that it is standing two teenagers from across the sectarian divide in South and East Belfast. Conor explained: “I planned to stand as an independent because I felt none of the established parties were for me. I want to provide…

On April 1st, George Osborne's so-called 'living wage' of £7.20/hour for workers aged 25 and over comes into force. Labour Alternative welcomes every pay increase for workers, but this measure falls far short of the Living Wage Foundation's call for £8.25/hour, never mind the £10/hour minimum wage correctly demanded by the Trades Union Congress. Workers under 25, like all of our candidates, will be exempt from the ‘living wage’, falling further behind and become a reserve of super-exploited, cheap labour. Our work is no less valuable. We don’t get discounts on our rent or our bills because we’re young. Youth exemptions must be scrapped. There is no lack of wealth in society. Since 2008, the wealth of the UK's billionaires has quadrupled. Around £120 billion goes unpaid in tax by…

Fees hike would make higher education "preserve of the rich" Labour Alternative demand "free education, not handouts for the fat cats" Threat shows Alliance supports "right-wing austerity agenda" Today we called a picket of Minister for Employment & Learning Stephen Farry's constituency office in Bangor over his threat to increase tuition fees to as much as £9,000 per year. The protest has been backed by the President of Belfast Met Students' Union. Louise Meek (18) - Belfast Met SU President who supported today's protest said: "Unfortunately, a degree no longer guarantees a secure job with decent pay. With thousands of public sector jobs being wiped out by Stormont cuts, many graduates will face unemployment or poverty pay. Increasing tuition fees will freeze many from low and middle-income backgrounds out of third-level education, fearing…

Courtney, born in the year of the Good Friday Agreement, condemns attack Courtney Robinson, East Belfast Labour Alternative spokesperson, today said: “I am saddened to hear of the tragic death of Adrian Ismay. The dissident republicans responsible for this disgusting attack have nothing to offer the people of Northern Ireland. They are intentionally stoking the flames of sectarian division. It is vital that we send a strong message of condemnation of this attack and let those behind it know we will not be dragged back into conflict. No groups or individuals should carry out 'retaliation' for this heinous act. Instead, ordinary people - Protestant and Catholic - must stand together against attempts to drag our communities back to the days of tit-for-tat killings." “I was born in the year the Good…

We are told that Arlene Foster and Martin McGuiness’s St. Patrick ’s Day junket  will create new jobs for NI. In reality it is more about selling off the future of my generation. The key purpose is to promote the DUP and Sinn Fein’s plans to cut corporation tax by 2018. This will have the effect of taking £300 million out of our public services- meaning less money for public sector jobs. In effect what the assembly parties are doing is out-torying the tories by pushing for these extra cuts. Nor has plans to cut corporation tax stopped multinationals like Gallagher’s and Michelin from closing their factories here. Any jobs that they will get will be low paid, anti-union jobs which will not replace the public sector and manufacturing jobs we…

DUP and Sinn Féin offer workers spare change not real change! Labour Alternative candidate in South Belfast, Seán Burns stated “Simon Hamilton's imposition of a 1% pay increase is an insult to health workers. In reality, this amounts to a pay cut when the increased cost of living, changes to national insurance and pension contributions are factored in.” “The Health Minister writing in the Belfast Telegraph said that health workers deserve this pay increase. This is patronising in the extreme. Why is it that workers in health only “deserve” a 1% pay rise when MLAs got an 11% increase last year?" “From the DUP to Sinn Féin, the politicians are congratulating themselves for giving our health workers this measly increase. Yet these same politicians agreed to slash thousands of public…