Pat Lawlor to Fight for Assembly Seat in West Belfast!

antrim | politics / elections | press release Tuesday January 18, 2011 14:02 by West Belfast Socialist Party socialistpartyni at btconnect dot com

Elect a socialist to fight cuts, not implement them

The Socialist Party is to stand Pat Lawlor for West Belfast in the Assembly elections on May 5th. He has already been selected as the Party's candidate for Lower Falls in the local election.

Pat Lawlor: A socialist fighter against cuts

The Socialist Party is to stand Pat Lawlor for West Belfast in the Assembly elections on May 5th. He has already been selected as the Party's candidate for Lower Falls in the local election. Pat is a neo-natal nurse and trade union representative in the Royal Victoria Hospital, playing a leading role in exposing and campaigning against attacks on the health service in the Belfast Trust.

Pat is the Secretary of the We Won't Pay Campaign which built support for mass non-payment of water charges, preventing both direct rule ministers and the Assembly parties from introducing the double tax. He is also an organiser for the Stop the Cuts Alliance, which brings together community campaigns, trade unionists and political groups who are committed to fighting all attacks on jobs and services.

Announcing his candidature, Pat said:-

"In the draft budget, the Assembly Executive parties have declared war on public services, jobs and the living standards of working-class people. Their £4 billion cuts will throw tens of thousands more onto the dole queue, when real unemployment already stands at 14%. Education and health will be devastated, leaving a whole generation of young people without a future. While maintaining huge subsidies to big business and the super-rich, the main parties plan to massively increase the tax burden on ordinary workers."

"The bankers and speculators responsible for this crisis must be made to pay, not workers and young people. Instead, they are again sharing bonuses of over £7 billion. While the main parties prepare to implement huge cuts on behalf of the Tory government, working people need a voice in Stormont- an anti-sectarian representative who will fight the cuts in the Assembly and give support to those who fight them on the streets. That is why I am standing in the election. If elected, I will live on the average worker's wage and donate the rest of my salary to the socialist movement, workers' struggles and community campaigns."