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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Brendan Hughes

People Before Profit urges voters to 'strike back' as party launches NI council election manifesto

People Before Profit has urged voters to "strike back at the ballot box" as the party launched its manifesto for Northern Ireland's council election.

It called for increased workers' wages amid the cost-of-living crisis, reform of the rates system and an overhaul of the "neoliberal" running of councils.

Other policies include an expansion of street cleaning and recycling services, bringing all council services back into public control, and an end to "wasteful" spending on private consultants.

Read more: Alliance candidate withdraws weeks away from council election

People Before Profit, which won five seats in the last council election in 2019, is running 15 candidates for the upcoming poll on May 18.

Fiona Ferguson, who is seeking re-election in Belfast, said the party has "consistently fought for working-class communities".

Launching the party's 16-page manifesto, she said: "We are fighting for a radically different kind of politics than dead-end dysfunction and division.

"We want to see local councils organised for the needs of our workers and communities, not big corporations and developers.

"If re-elected, we will continue to use our council platforms to raise the demands of striking nurses, teachers, council workers and more.

"So we are asking people to strike back at the ballot box with People Before Profit."

Its manifesto includes proposals to end the "communal carve-up" of council funding and ensure resources are allocated primarily based on need.

The party said it has challenged "unjust" rate hikes and called for a reformed rates system based on earnings and profits.

Other policies include more free, public water fountains "to help end dependence on bottled water".

Shaun Harkin, who is seeking re-election in Derry, hit out at the DUP blocking Stormont power-sharing in protest against Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol.

He said: "The DUP's disgraceful obstructionism continues as poverty rises - people desperately need an alternative.

"In stark contrast to the DUP, tens of thousands of workers on pickets are striking for fair pay and better services.

"We are inspired by the movement of workers who refuse to wait on Stormont, who know that working people deserve better, and are taking the fight to the pickets.

"We want to be the political embodiment of those strikes in council chambers, tackling communal carve-ups and inequality."

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