Young people demand – FREE EDUCATION FOR ALL

Belfast SY Public Meeting on why you should fight for socialism

Thousands of secondary school students awaited A-level and GCSE results anxiously last month. Again it was another record-breaking year for Northern Ireland students who again improved on the previous years results. But even pupils who have achieved top grades will be forced to compete for the miniscule amount of university places on offer. This, and the fact that the education budget faces cuts of 25% this year, leaves tens of thousands of young people in the North without any access to education or a decent job.

By Patrick McGeown, Socialist Youth Lurgan

Socialist Debates the Tea Party on the Radio

Socialist Alternative representative Ramy Khalil debated Tea Party leader Keli Carender on Pacifica-affiliated 91.3 FM KBCS Voices of Diversity program on July 21, 2010. Listen to the recording here:
Debate

Make sure your at this year’s SY Summer Festival

Capitalism in crisis
The continuing crisis of capitalism is destroying all options for young people. With 430,000 on the dole, the idea of finding a halfway decent job is all but gone.

Friday 20th August – Saturday 22nd August
Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow
Food, Travel, Accomodation – €60/£50

Download the leaflet here.

Love Parade catastrophe was preventable

Did the organizers stop at nothing for profits?

20 people died in the horrific stampede at the July 24 Love Parade festival in the German city of Duisburg, 500 were injured and, for a time, over 1 000 people were officially listed as missing. The revellers panicked at a tunnel entrance. But, already in the build up to the parade many thought there was a risk of mass panic developing.

By Jan Röder and Sebastian Förster, CWI Germany

Oil spill shows hazards of the profit system

It is still difficult to assess the scale of the disaster that followed the explosion on the BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico on 22 April, which killed eleven workers. BP claims that ‘only’ 210,000 gallons a day of crude oil have been released so far, but others calculate the figure could be as high as 4.2 million gallons a day.

By Pete Dickenson

The human cost of an iPad

By John Sharpe, Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales)

Twelve workers have committed suicide so far this year at the factory that makes Apple iPads. Four others survived, gravely injured, and 20 were stopped from killing themselves by the company. All the dead were between 18 and 24 years old.

YOUNG PEOPLE UNITE AND FIGHT

No to Racism and Division

Yes to jobs and education for all

The horrific killing of a 15 year old Nigerian,Toyosi Shitta-bey in West Dublin has highlighted the issue of racism as well as the central role that young people in particular must play in combating it. After the tragic death of Toyosi Shitta-bey, it’s time to draw a line in the sand and ensure such a senseless incident never happens again. Black and white school student friends and peers of Toyosi helped to organise and participated in a 3,000 strong demonstration in memory of the deceased school student, illustrating the sense of friendship, camaraderie and solidarity that the majority of working class young people who go to school in racially diverse and integrated schools, feel.

Gradploitation

IBEC and the government, as part of their ongoing campaign to undermine the wages and conditions of workers in Ireland, have teamed up to create the Gradlink scheme.

By Richard O’Hara

This scheme allows social welfare recipients, who have recently graduated from college, to work on placement schemes for private firms and multinational corporations, while maintaining their dole payments. Its apparent aim is to provide participants with work experience and to improve their employment potential. However, the real experience these highly skilled young workers will get, is that of capitalist exploitation as they work for sub-minimum wages and are used as part of the relentless attack to drive down wages in Ireland.

Belfast YFfJ tells Minister, “We demand jobs not excuses!”

Minister for UNemployment - Reg Empey

Representatives from the Youth Fight for Jobs campaign met Minister for Employment & Learning, Reg Empey, on 18 February to challenge him on the Executive’s failure to create jobs. Youth Fight for Jobs put to the Minister, concrete initiatives which could immediately be implemented to create jobs. We showed how a programme for building social housing, a publicly owned IT sector and how an expansion of the NHS could immediately create thousands of jobs, while at the same time provide much needed services.

By Paddy Meehan

Bill Cullen wants you to work for free!

Viewers throughout the country were outraged with Bill Cullen’s attack on young unemployed workers on RTE’s Frontline hosted by Pat Kenny. Owner of CityGate Motor Group and numerous hotels and properties, Cullen achieved infamy with statements to contestants on his show The Apprentice, such as, “Now that you work for me, I own you.”

 By James McCabe