On Saturday 27 January the Still Waiting Campaign held a major conference in Liberty Hall in Dublin. The Campaign aims to increase hospital beds, restore lost services, and work towards a single-tier health system.
Attended by over eighty delegates the conference heard from a number of campaign groups, political organisations and trade unions including Enough is Enough, the Irish Patients’ Association, People Before Profit and SIPTU and other unions
Stephen McMahon of the Irish Patients' Association said that 300 people a year were dying due to overcrowding.
Socialist Worker interviewed the Still Waiting Campaign Coordinator, Cyril Brennan
SW: What inspired you to get involved in a health campaign? As a health care worker I always had an interest in health and caring for people, and when you see what has become of the health service during the years of austerity and the move towards private health care, and the effects it is […]
Father Peter McVerry has said what everyone knows, but the Government refuses to acknowledge,, that ‘the housing crisis is out of control’.
It’s not just the record number of street sleepers, 184 at the last count, deeply shocking as it is. It is not just the 8,500 plus in emergency accommodation including more than 3000 children, appalling as that is. It is also the knock on effects of the shortage in affordable houses and the soaring rents […]
At last! After decades of campaigning, years of mass mobilisations, the careful deliberations of the Citizens Assembly and the recommendations of the Oireachtas Committee, we have our chance.
Now, finally, the people of Ireland and especially the women of Ireland have a historic opportunity to break with the dark past and take a major step towards choice and real equality. But to do this the referendum in the Summer has to be won. Socialist Worker would have preferred a simple vote on Repeal, […]
Access to housing was a key demand of the civil rights movement in the North during the 1960s leading to the creation of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive in 1971. Prior to the founding of the NIHE, housing provision was decided upon by local councils. This resulted in widespread discrimation of Catholics in housing allocation, […]
Homelessness is not normal. Living under the constant threat of eviction is not normal either. It should not be normal to pay rent for substandard accommodation, either in the private or the public sector.
Written and collated by Cllr Tina MacVeigh, People Before Profit. Councillor for Crumlin-Kimmage Nor should it be normal for the responsibility of housing provision to be left to the market when we know the market cannot provide this most basic of human needs and this most fundamental right. But this is what is happening. Instead of managing a housing system the government is trying to manage […]
Leo Varadkar is meant to be the ‘cool’ and ‘modern’ Taoiseach, the master of spin and PR. Fine Gael pride themselves on being the ‘liberal’ and ‘enlightened’ wing of the Irish establishment.
Leo Varadkar is meant to be the ‘cool’ and ‘modern’ Taoiseach, the master of spin and PR. Fine Gael pride themselves on being the ‘liberal’ and ‘enlightened’ wing of the Irish establishment. Now over housing and homelessness this liberal mask has slipped. In a series of tweets and comments their old Blueshirt class prejudice and […]
Armando Iannucci’s new feature The Death of Stalin plays Soviet terror for laughs while laying bare the cowardice, self-interest and vanity that characterises every ruling class.
Reviewed by Sean Egan Eliciting audience laughter from inside a secret police torture chamber is no easy task but Iannucci manages to find moments of dark humour in otherwise stomach-churning circumstances. The veteran political satirist who skewered the shallow spectacle of modern politics in his tv gems: Veep and The Thick of It portrays the […]
Dublin City People Before Profit Cllr Tina MacVeigh has twice recently visisted Catalonia. Here she inteviews Aina Tela, a activist with the left wing anti-capitalist party, CUP on the the situation in Catalonia.
Pic: CUP activist, Anna Gabriel, speaking in Catalan parliament. Q. On October 1st, the day of the Independence Referendum in Catalonia, we witnessed terrible scenes as the Spanish police attacked unarmed citizens who had come out peacefully to vote. The Spanish state justified this by saying that the referendum was illegal, that Catalans wanted all the […]
The
headline
news
from
Sinn
Féin’s
recent
Ard
Fheis
was,
of
course,
Gerry
Adams’
announcement
of
his
plan
to
stand
down.
But
more
important
in
reality
was
the
passing
of
a
motion
in
favour
of
Sinn
Féin
being
able
to
enter
government,
in
the
Republic,
as
a
junior
partner
i.e.
with
Fianna
Fáil
or
Fine
Gael.
This
is
a
change
from
the
party’s
previous
position
which
was
only
to
go
into
coalition
as
the
majority
partner.
It
is
therefore
an
important
shift
rightwards.
People
Before
Profit
responded
to
this
development
by
issuing
an
Open
Letter
to
Sinn
Féin
members
urging
resistance
to
the
rightward
drift
and
calling
for
dialogue
on
the
major
issues
facing
the
Irish
people
North
and
South.
We
reproduce
it
here:
Sinn Féin and People Before Profit have been on the same side many times. We have fought against water charges; we both oppose the partition of Ireland; we want regime across the whole of this island. We also disagree on key issues – and there is no hiding that. But in this open letter, […]
