IT’S been a busy couple of months on the picket lines for West Belfast MLA Gerry Carroll, showing solidarity with the legions of workers who have taken industrial action over poor pay, working conditions and underfunding of services.

The People Before Profit MLA has been on the frontlines with striking workers, listening to their concerns and joining them in their campaigns as the cost-of -iving crisis eats into every aspect of people's lives.

“It's affecting everyone," he says."It is affecting people – working people in both the public and private sectors. Workers have been facing a ten-year pay freeze. Politics in Westminster and Stormont haven’t paid workers a fair wage for the last ten years, and in some cases for longer than that.”

He said that because of inflation, people’s wages are being reduced in real terms.

"Last week we spoke with the RCN nurses, and they said their pay is down 20 per cent. Their current demands are for an 18 or 19 per cent. The government and a lot of the media are currently saying that’s too much, and it isn’t affordable but what they are asking isn’t even breaking even for them, it’s below what they’ve actually lost with pay freezes in the last ten years.

“Workers are now being forced to say, ‘we can’t take this anymore’. Workers have operated for years on goodwill, and even more so during the pandemic, and now they’re in a position where they feel they’ve been taken advantage of and are now taking strike action.”

The West Belfast MLA has been on the picket line with striking nurses – as have other West Belfast MLAs – and said there is huge concern among health staff members about the ruination of the health service.

“In terms of the NHS, I was at the picket with workers outside the RVH, and they said while their strike was partly about pay, they were also very, very concerned about the state of the health service. They’re seeing people waiting on trolleys, and not getting the access to the care they need so people who see the crisis on the frontline are now saying enough is enough.”

STRIKES: People Before Profit's Councillor Matt Collins and Gerry Carroll on the picket line with striking health workers
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STRIKES: People Before Profit's Councillor Matt Collins and Gerry Carroll on the picket line with striking health workers

He said the DUP’s current boycott at Stormont "wasn’t about protecting the Union but their own political hides". "They believed in sea borders when it came to abortion and LGBTQ+ rights," he said.  

“The DUP’s boycott isn’t doing any favours for any working class people, no matter what community they come from. We’ve been very vocal that the DUP are acting out of self-interest, they’re worried about their seats and their votes. They were worried about losing votes to the TUV in May, of a far-right Unionist party taking votes from them instead of thinking about the long-term future of the Union which is fracturing and is being called into question by loads of people who traditionally wouldn’t have.

“We also have been saying that resurrecting Stormont isn’t a silver bullet. There are a lot of issues facing people in the cost-of-living crisis and last year before Christmas we tried to recall Stormont but were told that it was a stunt. The DUP need to be challenged and called out, but other parties need to remember what Stormont didn’t do, such as when they refused to implement a pay rise for Housing Executive workers, and they endorsed a pay reduction for health workers.”

With elections, both council and possibly for Stormont coming again next year, the People Before Profit man said the party would be fighting for seats and was looking forward to talking socialist politics with people on the doorstep.

“It’s likely there will be one sometime in 2023 and we’re always half expecting an election because of the instability here anyway, so we will be contesting the election. It’s not always easy for smaller parties, as you don’t have the same access to resources or media, so I thought we did well to hold our seat in the May elections, which saw a lot of other smaller parties such as the Greens losing both seats.

“We’ll be contesting to keep the seat in the West and also elsewhere across the North. We are hoping to pick up some seats, given the cost of living crisis and there is a lot of disillusionment and anger, and I think we’ve done a decent job in supporting striking workers and organising cost of living protests with hundreds of people, so we’ll be contesting both Stormont and Council elections, and in as many areas as we can."

Mr Carroll believes more people were becoming disillusioned with capitalism, and were looking for alternatives.

“I think people are becoming more open to left-wing ideas because of the crisis. I think more and more people are drawing the conclusion that the current economic order is unable and unwilling to meet their demands, which are decent wages, decent housing, not having crazy rents and being able to afford to live, and that’s coming up against the logic of capitalism, and I think more and more people are looking for a change.”