People Before Profit - Lurgan

🧁☕️COFFEE MORNING FUNDRAISER! ☕️🧁

One of our first events for Lurgan Pride! We'll be holding a coffee morning at the Building Bridges Studio on Carnegie Street, Lurgan on the 31st August from 10am-12pm! 😍

Come on down, meet the team and grab a cuppa along with some sweet treats, all for the price of a small donation. We hope to see you there! All proceeds will go towards the running of the first Lurgan Pride! 🍪

In a shameful display of pandering to those who would stoke up US-style “culture war” tensions, the Stormont Executive have announced that they intend to ban puberty blockers in the north.

In a rarely seen ‘cross-community’ phenomenon, one which only seems to occur when legislation is to be introduced which punishes certain elements in our society - the UUP, DUP and Sinn Fein have reached across the sectarian divide to attack our transgender community.

Attacking trans healthcare is an agenda currently being pushed by reactionary politicians (both here in the north and in the UK), and cites deeply flawed research, such as the widely discredited CASS Report.

The reality is that puberty blockers are a life-saving treatment for both trans and cis young people in many different circumstances, and which are only prescribed after a thorough process of medical analysis. To ban them on ideological reasons is nothing short of targeted cruelty.

While we expect this reactionary posturing from the DUP and UUP, who have long been on the wrong side of any progressive struggle - be it the struggle for reproductive rights, marriage equality, same s*x adoption, gay men donating blood, etc - it is extremely worrying to see yet another sharp turn to the right from Sinn Fein.

Barely a month has passed since Sinn Fein’s Carál Ní Chuilín addressed LGBTQ+ communities during Belfast Pride, assuring the crowd that prescriptions for puberty blockers would be available for people of any age - so long as a doctor advised that they are medically necessary.

What has occurred over the last 4 weeks for Sinn Fein to decide to U-Turn on their promises, and instead to attack one of the most marginalised groups in our society?

This is yet another hard tack to the right from a party which has seemingly forgotten all memory of its revolutionary roots, and are now speed-running their transformation from a revolutionary movement for freedom and social justice, into a neoliberal, socially conservative, status quo political party.

We cannot allow LGBTQ+ communities to fall victim to Sinn Fein and the Stormont Executive playing political games. Lives are on the line.

Trans healthcare NOW!

PBP activists took part in a mass intervention at Moy Park - serial polluters with a turnover of 1.8 billion last year - drawing attention to the role that factory farming and big agri-food corporations play in the murder of Lough Neagh.

While Moy Park makes obscene profits from the exploitation of a mostly migrant workforce, causing untold suffering to millions of animals in the process, they leave a swathe of ecological devastation in their wake.

The government must hold to account these brazen polluters and make them pay reparations for the ecocide they have contributed to. Our Lough is dying, some say it is already dead - we need to take corporations to task for the role they have played

Andrew Muir - step up to the plate!

PBP activists and elected representatives joined the trade union movement's anti-racist demonstration below the steps of Stormont today

As Stormont returns, the people of the north must assert that mealy mouthed criticisms of the fascist violence are not enough. Without urgent investment in housing and the public sector, the economic deprivation which underlies far right agitation will only continue. Neoliberalism and austerity have brought us here. Capitalism, the root cause.

Fascism is but capitalism in decay, and while the capitalist state is happy to overlook or encourage fascist violence and the targeting of minority groups, socialists must come together to counter this and build community driven campaigns for a better society.

Get out to counter-demos, get out to the United Against Racism demonstration on Saturday. Keep our streets safe by keeping fascists off them.

ALL OUT ON SATURDAY

We need mass mobilisations against the rearing of fascism's ugly head in our communities

A small minority of far right grifters are misdirecting working class anger over lack of housing and healthcare and are scapegoating some of the most vulnerable and marginalised in our society.

Migrants are not to blame for decades of neoliberal capitalism that has gutted our public services and left working people poorer while the rich get ever richer. The far right do not have answers for these problems, they only seek to punch down on those that have very little to begin with.

Anyone who lives here belongs here - all out on Saturday to support our migrant and minority ethnic communities and smash the racists and fascists off our streets

Our branch activists made an intervention in Belfast Pride with banners, placards and chants drawing attention to the ever-increasing corporatisation of Pride by companies with terrible human rights records, the pinkwashing of genocide in Gaza, and the urgent need for increased rights, protections and healthcare for trans people

The first ever Pride was a protest, and although we have come a long way since then, the increasing discrimination and harassment that LGBTQ+ communities face today is testament to the fact that Pride should remain a protest at its heart

There is no pride in Israeli apartheid!

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

🌈✨ SAVE THE DATE FOR LURGAN PRIDE! ✨🌈

We're thrilled to announce the first-ever Lurgan Pride, happening on 5th October 2024! 🎉 Although we're still in the early planning stages, we have a fantastic team behind us and we're aiming for a huge pride festival featuring workshops, craft stalls, talks, and evening entertainment showcasing the best of the LGBTQIA+ community. A day that will truly have something for everyone!🫶

To make this celebration truly unforgettable, we need your support! Please consider donating to our GoFundMe to help bring Lurgan Pride to life. Every contribution, big or small, makes a difference. Let's come together to create a vibrant and inclusive event for everyone!

https://gofund.me/d873c7b2

Stay tuned for more updates and ways to get involved. Let's make this a celebration to remember! 💖

With pride and love,
The Lurgan Pride Team
🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

IPSC Lurgan are hosting an educational film screening this Friday in Clann Éireann GAC

The situation on the ground in Palestine is still escalating, despite global horror and condemnation for the terror state. The highly infectious disease Polio is now present in Gaza, where the masses of displaced people are deprived of food, water and shelter.

Join us for this screening of Palestine Is Still The Issue by the late John Pilger - let's continue to educate ourselves so we can better sustain the solidarity struggle for Palestinian liberation

🌈✨ LURGAN PRIDE IS COMING - WATCH THIS SPACE! ✨🌈

We are thrilled to announce the launch of Lurgan Pride, a celebration of diversity, inclusivity, and pride in our wonderful community! This vibrant event is dedicated to honouring and uplifting our LGBTQIA+ friends, family, and neighbours, placing their experiences, voices, and joy at the heart of our festivities🌈

Stay tuned for more updates, including event details, volunteer opportunities, and ways you can get involved. Follow us on social media, share our posts, and help spread the word! ✨

With pride and love,
The Lurgan Pride Team
🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Our members played an instrumental role in helping the community of Maghery reverse plans for an extended landfill site on the Lough shore.

Shame on ABC Council for approving these plans at a time when Lough Neagh is already suffering ecological collapse. How they thought that dumping more waste along the shores was a good idea truly beggars belief.

This victory is testament to what our communities can achieve when we collectively take the fight to the powers that be. We need to keep fighting on all fronts to save Lough Neagh from the profiteers, the polluters, and the negligent politicians.

Planet Before Profit!

Photography from the incredible at the Save Lough Neagh demo on Sunday

Protests like Sunday's are quite special. They really make us appreciate the Lough, and serve to light a fire in our bellies as we continue the struggle to save it from pollution, extraction and biological collapse.

PBP members gave speeches and played music at the Save Lough Neagh campaign's demonstration 'The Loughshore Stands Up'

We spoke about the factory farming techniques leading to horrendous levels of pollution ending up in the catchment, about sewage dumping, about political negligence and mismanagement - and, of course, about the ownership.

People Before Profit welcome the news that the Earl of Shaftesbury is now indicating he wants to transfer ownership of Lough Neagh back to the people of the north.

Previously, Shaftesbury was willing to extort our taxpayers to the tune of millions to relinquish his ownership. That he has been forced to change his tune is testament to the massive power of grassroots campaigning and the people-power movement that has emerged since last summer.

Now it is up to all of us to hold his feet to the fire and ensure that he follows through. Our Lough is one of the last remaining spoils of the Shaftesbury family's colonial plunder and theft, it's time we take it back from them once and for all

Give it back, thief!

Good day in the town centre giving out leaflets and talking to people about the crisis at Lough Neagh, helping to build for tomorrow's Loughshore Stands Up rally at Oxford Island 🌍✊

As partners in the Save Lough Neagh Coalition, PBP Lurgan are helping to organise the latest in a series of protests called The Loughshore Stands Up

Milquetoast assurances and photo-ops from the Executive and DAERA aren't going to undo decades of pollution, exploitation and profiteering

We need urgent action on the key campaign demands set forward by Save Lough Neagh; starting with an end to the Earls private ownership, establishing an independent Environmental Protection Agency, and bringing an end to the destructive practice of commercial sand extraction.

People power has already forced Andrew Muir into one U-Turn, let's force him and the rest of the suits on the hill to treat this situation with the severity it deserves.

Lough Neagh is truly priceless, we can't let it be killed by capitalist extractivism and the negligence of our political class.

Join us Monday 24th June 6pm Craigavon Civic Centre 👇

📢 Protest Announcement 📢

The Save Lough Neagh campaigns next protest 'The Loughshore Stands Up' will be held at Oxford Island Discovery Centre on Sunday June 23rd

As we nosedive towards the return of the blue-green algae, the Stormont Executive and DAERA Minister Andrew Muir have spent more time posing for photo ops than taking any meaningful action

We need Loughshore people to turn out in droves to put pressure on those who would play at politics while our Lough is on the verge of total ecological collapse. None of our 5 campaign demands have been addressed after 4 months of Stormont inaction!

Come join us and hear local voices speak out in protest and listen to music of resistance played by local artists - as we collectively take a stand to save the most precious environmental treasure on the island of Ireland

Save Our Shores, Protect Lough Neagh and our inland Waterways.

Musicians:
Andy McGibbon
Summer McGibbon
Laura Kerr
Joe Toman

Two PBP Lurgan activists made speeches at yesterday's IPSC demo in the town centre. Our members called for sustained pressure to be brought to bear on the political establishment, to play our part in mounting international pressure on Israel. For the people of Lurgan to continue to protest, to boycott, to agitate and organise ourselves.

Israel is a rogue state, propped up by the long arm of US imperialism. It will never be reined in by the same rotten ideology that helped to birth it. We can't beg capitalist client states to do the right thing, 9 months of genocide have shown us this doesn't work - we need system change. We need to fight for socialism in our communities and across Ireland. That is how we can play our part for Palestinian liberation and in the international struggle against capitalist exploitation and oppression.

✊✊✊

📢📢 ALL OUT FOR RAFAH 📢📢

Horrendous scenes coming out of Rafah as the terrorist state enacts the latest stage in its ongoing genocide.

76 years of occupation, dispossession, oppression and apartheid have led to this moment. If the Zionists get their way, they will slaughter every living Palestinian and build settlements over their mass graves.

We are asking everyone to get out for this demonstration on Sunday the 9th, bring your family, bring your friends. Reach out to anyone who shared the "All Eyes On Rafah" graphic and ask them to take a stand for Palestine.

We will have speakers from Gaels Against Genocide, Mothers Against Genocide and others.

Keep the pressure on Westminster, Stormont and the Dail to push for sanctions on the terror state!

Honoured to be selected to represent People Before Profit in West Belfast.
I'm determined to fight for public services, for working class people, and for Palestine. We'll stand for all failed by the Tories and their functionaries at Stormont.
If you'd like to get involved then get in touch ✊