PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT ALLIANCE
Election Manifesto 2010
We are told that the credit crunch means we have to tighten our belts. But the bankers who brought on the crisis are pocketing billions in bonuses. If these resources were properly used there’d be no need for cut-backs and closures. We’re up for a fight to make this happen.
This view of the world is behind our radical vision for the development of Derry. We challenge the consensus that basing everything on attracting private investment is the only way forward.
We stand for the interests of the working class, the marginalised and oppressed. We believe that it is through organising in communities, workplaces and colleges that we can best advance. We will use the platform of a Westminster seat to support and speak up for grass-roots organisation.
We go beyond Orange versus Green to speak for the common interests of all who have been left behind by the peace process. We are united with People Before Profit in the South. Campaigning for progressive change across the island is the all-Ireland dimension we believe in.
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If elected, I will use the position of MP to:
* campaign to transform Derry into a vibrant city that is focussed on its people and on public services.
* help organise united action by communities to solve common problems, instead of competition between communities which can flare up at any time.
* encourage grass-roots resistance to the spending cuts imposed by Stormont and Westminster which hit hardest at the most vulnerable. And expose parties which vote for the budgets behind the cuts and then protest against the cuts when they come.
* help build a mass campaign of non-payment if there is another attempt to impose water charges;
* defend the public sector and oppose the Stormont programme of privatisation;
* campaign for repeal of Thatcher’a anti-union laws – now maintained by the Stormont administration;
* union rights for all workers;
* make migrant workers welcome;
* support major investment in sustainable energy, public transport and recycling;
* work for a fair tax system in which the rich pay their share to help fund the services we depend on;
* back an activist campaign for the repeal of Section 44 of the 2000 Terrorism Act allowing the police to stop and search without establishing suspicion of wrong-doing;
* opposition to dependence on the police or vigilante groups to solve problems such as drugs which mainly arise from social deprivation. A community mobilised to fight for its rights and with a proper voice for young people will be better able to confront all of its problems.
* campaign for integrated all-ability schools; support life-long learning; a massive expansion of child care; an end to fees and student loans.
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Eamonn McCann has been campaigning for civil rights and social justice in Derry for more than 40 years.
A life-long trades unionist and socialist, he is vice-chairman of Derry Trades Council and the Northern Ireland representative on the Executive of the National Union of Journalists.
He chairs the Bloody Sunday Trust.
He is a member of the Socialist Workers’ Party, of the rail lobby Into The West and of Amnesty International.
He is a long-time opponent of militarism and paramilitarism and was among members of the Derry Anti War Coalition which took non-violent direct action against the bomb-makers, Raytheon.
He is father of Kitty, Luke and Matty and grandfather of Rosie and Alfie. He lives in Derry with his partner Goretti Horgan.