We look back at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week in 1979
Falls Taxi Association speak out on jobs
THE Falls Taxi Association have this week hit out at the Government and some business interests for trying to frustrate their efforts to help eleviate the massive unemployment problem in West Belast.
The imminent closure of Peter Pan Bakeries and the subsequent loss of hundreds of jobs, has prompted the Taxi Association to higlight the difference between their success story and the failure of heavily subsidised firms such as Strathearn Audio, DC Products etc which have thrown hundreds on to the dole in West Belfast.
The Falls Taxis have provided constant employment for more than 400 men for years, without one penny of Government assistance, yet they are still awaiting the outcome of a court decision, pending for almost 18 months, on whether their insurance is acceptable or not.
Each taxi driver pays £550 per year for insurance. This uncertainty is preventing the further expansion of the FTA and the provision of additional badly needed jobs. The FTA suspect that there is a definite conspiracy by government and other vested interests to stifle their progress. This suspicion was highlighted recently when Belfast City Council prevented the Beechmount Leisure Centre from running a ‘Black Taxi’ competition as part of the Belfast Civic Festival. The decision to preclude this competition from the programme of events was taken by councillors representing all parties, including the Republican Clubs and Alliance, as well as extreme unionists.
The FTA are sure that they will have no difficulty in meeting whatever new requirements are brought out, and the only thing new legislation will do, will be to force a lot of small transport undertakings in England out of business.
An FTA spokesman could not confirm that a decision had been made to increase the taxi fares when the pending legal judgement is given, But, he did state that this had been under discussion for some time, and with diesel fuel now costing £1 per gallon, and other costs escalating, an increase in fares would be inevitable. Another contributing factor in the fares increase would be the proposed reduction in passengers from eight to six per vehicle.
Girls Ulster Minor champions – Rathmore Grammar School cross-country runners – Una Carlin, Eileen Branigan, Teresa Walsh, Ursula McKee, Denise Catney, Paula Ferris
EDITORIAL
GERRY Fitt was elected to the British Parliament in 1974; so was Frank Maguire.
Since that time we have lost Strathearn Audio, Peter Pan, Collin Glen etc. We have seen the Poleglass housing scheme (which hasn’t yet started, by the way) halved, and the original plans for industrial development there, scrapped. We have seen a further capitulation by the British Government to Loyalist unreason and intransigence, the price for a lull in the campaign of assassination of Catholics (a campaign approved at the highest Loyalist level).
We now have H-Blocks, more SAS murder squads, increased RUC brutality and partiality, continued internment by the Diplock Courts etc.
What have Gerry Fitt and Frank Maguire done in Westminster besides at times, keep a British Government in power and give this British institution an appearance of respectability and reason? Have the Nationalist people gained anything at all by having representatives in Westminster? We think not.
Britain has continued to follow whatever policy seemed expedient in regard to this country; and it didn’t matter whether Fitt or Maguire were there or not, that much must be obvious to even the meanest intelligence.
We shouldn’t vote – it’s as simple as that. Abstention is the only sensible, realistic policy – don’t support a system which is working against you, especially when there are no fringe benefits, or crumbs, filtering back. Such a policy is often attacked as being negative, but it is not. It is positive political action, a legitimate exercise of the franchise.
It is a refusal to chose when you are not being offered a choice, which has been the lot of the Nationalist people ever since the Six County State was founded. The one time abstention has really been given a chance, it did work – during the 1973 ‘Border’ poll, the results of which nailed forever the lie that Unionists are a vast majority in these Six Counties – perhaps that’s why they don’t like to talk about it. Abstention worked then and the SDLP supported it. It could work again, and if the SDLP don’t realise that, they’re even more stupid than they look.
By mass abstention in this forthcoming British election, we could show Britain what we think of her and of her cynical disregard for us; and we could show yet again that we are a force to be reckoned with. And there would be this added advantage – a solid (or thick if you wish) block of twelve Unionist politicians in Westminster would show such Britons as are interested, just what ‘Ulster’ Unionism is all about.
St John the Baptist Boys seven-a-side soccer champions, including Martin Quinn (teacher), Peter McCaffery, Pat Conlon, Joseph Compston, John Hagan, Conal Heatley (Captain), and Danny Boyd
Is Whiterock depot next on the list?
THE Falls Community Council claimed recently that they had received reports regarding the Whiterock Cleansing Depot which indicated that it was coming under the same pressure that the Whiterock Training Centre had been submitted to over the past year or more.
The Council listed these similar pressures.
1. A lack of commitment from the Government Department concerned, coupled with broken promises that both centres would be built as permanent structures.
2. A reluctance to provide adequate 14 hour security on the premises; and
3. A concerted effort by both vandals and thieves to damage and rundown both centres.
“The tragic thing about both these centres and the threats to their future, the Falls Council said, “is that both are providing a service to the community. The cleansing depot services 8,000 houses and many schools in the area and the training centre has, before it was wrecked, almost 90 young people in it, either as trainess or apprentices.
“There is no doubt,” said a spokesperson, “that the government is not committed to dealing with the economic and social problems of the area; in fact they give the impression that they want to encourage the vandals and thieves – why else do they provide wooden huts without security instead of permanent structure? Not only do they create frustration among our youth, but they then turn the destruction caused by that frustration against the whole community.”
St Paul's, winners of the Spring 5-a-side soccer tournament in Beechmount Leisure Centre, sponsored by Falls Community Council: Jim McGurk, Adrian Slavin, Johnny McGrogan, Gerry McHugh, Dominic Bell and Hugh Kennedy
