The night of Monday April 4 saw the launch in Derry for Eamonn McCann’s Assembly Campaign. It was a bit surreal in the City Hotel as the local Tech was holding its annual Fashion Show, so students dressed in outlandish costumes and outlandish haircuts rubbed shoulders in the corridors with paper-sellers in even more outlandish costumes and haircuts.
Between 80 and 90 people came to the meeting which was very ably chaired by Connor Kelly, our candidate for the Derry City Council Cityside ward. He began by reading out messages of support from Jim Barbour of the Fire Brigades Union and others, and then introduced the three speakers.
First up was Diane Greer of the Happy Enchallidas and Council candidate for Waterside Rural. She spoke about her childhood, her work with Women’s groups, and her gradual attraction to the People Before Profit Alliance.
Most memorably she spoke of her father’s belief that "no-one should have two coats when some people had none", and of how that principle had guided her in work and politics. She ended by arguing the need to use elections such as this one as a way of bringing the battle right into the arenas where the currently powerful make their decisions.
Next was Richard Boyd Barrett, recently elected People Before Profit TD for Dún Laoghaire.
Richard began by pointing out that all the other parties, and the Establishment in general, always try to keep the issue of the Bankers’ responsibility for the current financial crisis separate from the question of Cuts. But, he insisted, both issues are linked: the Bankers and the rich caused this crisis so they should pay for it, not pensioners, not schoolchildren, not the sick, not students, and not the unemployed.