The weekend saw yet more protests against the cost of living crisis, the cost of fuel,gas and electric price hikes and the obscene and unjustifiable profits being extorted by the major energy companies.

The Workers Party was, once more, on the streets, demanding change and focussing attention on the causes of financial hardship, poverty in our society. This time at Belfast City Hall.

The major political parties at Stormont , Westminster and Dublin, supported by many mainstream media platforms, deliberately misrepresent the source of the crisis, which is anything but current.

Long before the war in Ukraine, long before the current wave of inflation and long before Brexit, families were going hungry, homes were going unheated and queues were lengthening at food banks. People with jobs were relying on top up benefits to help them make ends meet and the ‘working poor’ had become an accepted part of everyday life.

We are witnessing, and living with the consequences of, a capitalist economic system yet again in crisis.

Over a third of the population of Northern Ireland are living on or below the breadline. Child poverty tops 40% in several areas and fuel poverty is a reality for thousands of local families. Low pay, precarious employment and zero hours contracts contribute to mental and physical ill health. That has been the situation for many years.

Poverty is not inevitable and it is not a recent phenomenon. It is the direct result of an economic system that values profit more than people. 

Only a socialist society will consign poverty, deprivation and despair to history. That is a message the Workers Party will continue to send.