The Socialist Party today announced two candidates for the Assembly election.
Prominent local trade unionist, Jim Barbour, who is the local leader of the Fire Brigades Union, will be standing in South Belfast.
Tommy Black, a local community and education trade union activist, will be standing in East Belfast.
Both candidates are leading members of the We Won’t Pay campaign and will make the building of support for non-payment of water charges a key plank of their election campaigns.
Tommy Black commented: “If the Assembly does get up and running the local parties will go ahead and implement water charges. No-one should be fooled by any promises to the contrary they make now in order to win votes. “Our message – to an Assembly as to Westminster – is simple: we won’t pay!. Working class people can’t afford these charges and if we stick together behind the We Won’t Pay Campaign we will defeat them.”
The Socialist Party election manifesto also focuses on the need to defend public services from cuts and privatisation.
Jim Barbour said: “The current policy of selling off public services to the private sector makes no sense whatsoever. It leads to job cuts and a worsening of services and in the end costs us far more. Yet all the main parties here implemented cuts, privatisation and part privatisation when they did hold office. We need a voice in the Assembly that will resist the destruction of our public services.”
Launching the Socialist Party manifesto, Party secretary, Peter Hadden said:
“We are going into the election unsure whether the Assembly will be set up or whether we are just electing politicians onto another gravy train of high Assembly salaries.
“An Executive of the four main parties will be another sectarian bear pit that will deliver nothing for working class people and will probably collapse just like its predecessor.
“It is time that we changed the face of politics here by building a party to represent the united interests of working class people. A good first step would be to elect Jim Barbour and Tommy Black so that the Assembly has an opposition voice to challenge the politicians on issues like water charges”