Once again the Workers Party will be proud to support the LGBT community at the PRIDE parade on Saturday 6th August.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual people are full citizens of Northern Ireland, contributors to this community and have every right to expect the same level of protection, support and legal safeguards as everyone else.

Throughout the year Party members have participated in rallies and demonstrations in support of marriage equality, marched against attacks on the LGBT community, participated in the Foyle PRIDE parade and presented a ‘Petition of Concern’ at DUP headquarters in protest against that party’s persistent blocking of an Assembly vote on marriage equality

Education is an investment in young people

As Queen’s University Belfast proposes increases in tuition fees Workers Party representative Lily Kerr has re-affirmed the Party’s call for an education system which is publicly funded and free at the point of access

“There is no shortage of models, variations or proposals for how third level education should be funded and there is no shortage of people, many of whom benefited from a debt free education themselves, who now wish to pull the ladder up behind them and turn education into a commodity”, Lily said.

“The Workers Party stands for a publicly funded education system, free at the point of access, free of tuition fees and free of future debt”, she said

“We see further and higher education as an investment in young people, the economy and society: not as a commodity or as a means to reclaim the public money used to bail out banks and financial institutions”, Lily concluded.

Workers Party representative Gemma Weir has told East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson to withdraw his remarks about breastfeeding being ‘voyeuristic and exhibitionist’ and to publicly apologise for his comments.

‘Breastfeeding is the most natural way to feed your baby and nothing to be ashamed of. With breastfeeding rates in the UK among the lowest in the world  Mr Wilson’s comments are offensive, and ill-informed and  do nothing to promote and highlight the benefits for both mum and baby,’ Gemma said’

‘Sammy Wilson and others who hold similar views can be dismissed as outdated and prudish, but their underlying agenda is one which seeks to tell women what they can do, how they can do it and of course where they can do it’, Gemma added.

‘The choice of how to feed your baby is for each mother to decide but if that choice is to breastfed their baby then they should be supported and encouraged as all the research shows’, she said.

‘Sammy Wilson must withdraw his remarks, publicly apologise and understand the effect these kinds of remarks have on breastfeeding mums and mums to be’, Gemma concluded.

The UK has some of the lowest rates of breastfeeding:

Rates of breastfeeding in the UK are amongst the lowest in the world

More information on the benefits of breastfeeding from NHS Choices:

NHS Choices_Benefits of breastfeeding

John Pilger

The media reaction and analysis of the successful leave vote in the EU referendum has been interesting. Apparently to whole point of having a referendum is to have another one if you don’t like the result.

Leave voters have been accused of being responsibility for an increase in racist attacks, for being small minded and of being anti European.

Local political reaction has been similarly alarming. Both the SDLP and Sinn Fein  have blamed ‘English nationalists’ for the Leave result. Seems that nationalism is OK as long as it’s Irish.

There is of course another and more grounded reason why the leave vote won: millions of ordinary people simply rejected the political and economic direction of the European Union.

The European Union serves the interests of big business, multinational corporations and the financial institutions. Its policies have made the rich richer and the poor poorer.

Journalist John Pilger’s article sheds some light on the real issues and the real reasons why the majority of people voted leave.

The majority vote by Britons to leave the European Union was an act of raw democracy